Snap General Election called

[Which Tyler]

Indian child poverty charity offers free school meals in England

Akshaya Patra, which feeds millions in India, opens first of three planned kitchens

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2 ... eals-in-uk?


A charity that feeds millions of poor children in India has joined the drive to end holiday hunger in England and distributed its first meals from a new kitchen in Watford.

Hot vegetarian dishes cooked for less than £2 each using a model developed to feed the hungry in cities such as Mumbai and Ahmedabad were dispatched to a school in north London on Tuesday amid growing pressure on the government to reverse its decision not to fund free school meals this half-term.

[Digby]

From t'FT:

It always seems to be too soon. It was too soon for the UK to lock down in early March, when other European countries had already done so. It was too soon for Boris Johnson to reimpose national restrictions in September, when scientific advisers privately called for them.

Now the UK prime minister’s allies tell us it is too soon to judge his government’s performance. They may be right. We don’t know how the pandemic will end — and other countries, including France, Italy, Spain and Scotland, which manages its own health service, have suffered similar peaks and troughs to England. If the UK government has erred, others have too, in different ways.

Yet it is not too early to judge the performance of Mr Johnson himself because we have already seen the pattern. His missteps over coronavirus have closely followed those he made over Brexit. In both cases, he insisted on seeing what he wanted to see. He saw a world where the British economy would blossom by shunning its largest trading partner, and where a virus would disappear while he shook hands with its victims. That world did not exist.

Mr Johnson went beyond patriotism to embrace British exceptionalism. As coronavirus spread in early February, he mocked the idea that it would affect the global economy, insisting that the UK was “ready to take off its Clark Kent spectacles”, and act “as the supercharged champion” of free trade.

If you are not Superman, taking off your spectacles just leaves you blindly optimistic. With Brexit, Mr Johnson insisted “Global Britain” would defy the laws of trade gravity; with coronavirus, it would build a “world-beating” test-and-trace system. Mr Johnson is not one for details. There was no sense of how these goals could be achieved — and they have not been. His global rhetoric only exposed his parochialism.

Futile promises are a hallmark of Mr Johnson’s leadership. During the campaign for Brexit he said the Irish border would be “absolutely unchanged”. Running for the Conservative party leadership he said the UK would leave the EU on October 31 of last year, “do or die”. With Covid-19, his pledges were less cynical, but still beyond his control. He suggested that the UK would turn the tide by June and, in July, said there would be a “significant return to normality” by Christmas. Some people are born to mislead.

Mr Johnson has been most at ease attacking the proposals of others, then stealing them. When his predecessor Theresa May came up with a Brexit deal that avoided a hard border on the island of Ireland, he likened it to a “suicide vest”. When Labour leader Keir Starmer proposed a two-week “circuit breaker” lockdown last month, Mr Johnson dismissed it as offering endless “misery”. In both cases, he ended up adopting the bulk of the proposals that he had lambasted.

His favoured tactic has been to wait until the last moment before U-turning. Whatever the political merits of this strategy, its real-world effects are likely to be disastrous. As Brexit talks drag on, businesses do not know what trading arrangements with the EU will be in two months. Thousands more Britons are now forecast to die of Covid-19 than would have been the case had lockdown been implemented in September.

Mr Johnson has his strengths. This time a year ago, he began an election campaign that made even some Remainers believe Brexit could be swiftly solved. After leaving intensive care in April, he gave an inspiring tribute to the medical team who had treated him for Covid-19. He is an ideal salesman of ideas, which is why his interest in climate change is so welcome.

The problem is that he does not stick to an idea. His signature on any topic is incoherence. He is pro-individual liberty and pro-public health. He likes low taxes and a big state. He wants to boost business, while refusing to listen to it. He does not want a culture war, but he doesn’t stop his government from fighting one. He wants to be the hero and expects everyone else to do the work.

Democratic accountability is an art, not a science — and not a very sophisticated one. Some leaders are punished for events on their watch for which they bear no blame. Some escape the blame for their misdeeds.

Mr Johnson may get lucky with Brexit: while voters now think voting to leave the EU was a bad idea, their minds are elsewhere. But he can have no complaint about being held responsible for the UK’s pandemic failings. He has made the same mistakes at least twice and now looks unlikely to remain in office beyond 2024. Whatever challenge faces him before then, he will probably make the same mistakes again.

[Sandydragon]

Good article. Boris is a showman with no real ability to translate his pie in the sky ambitions into reality. It’s been a suspicion for a while, but people like Boris (the front men/women) need a good supporting team. I suspect his team was much more competent whilst he was Mayor of London, allowing him to be the chairman of the board whilst someone else did the executive hard graft.

Now the role is huge (even without covid and Brexit) and I don’t think he has the same level of support around him.Cummings is an intelligent bloke who wants to ram through reforms, but he struggles to get the buy in required to effect that change efficiently.And the cabinet are almost universally crap. Love him or hate him, but Gove is no mug. The rest however are a liability. But because of his own inadequacies (and his need to have a Brexit supporting cabinet) he resists the requirement to have a strong second who can support him.

[Donny osmond]

The not feeding children thing is just the plain weirdest thing to have happened in politics for a long time.

Even if you accept that there's a conversation to be had about personal responsibility versus state aid.... using hungry children at Christmas during a pandemic as an opening to that conversation is just... weird?

Nasty, yes, blind to reality, certainly, but even allowing for those things, what do they seriously think anyone is going to make of it?

I can usually see where the Tories are coming from, and on the odd occasion might even have some sympathy with whatever it is they are saying at the time, but how in the holy hell can they think anyone is going to look at how they've started this and think it's a rationale to get on board with?

It's just terrible politics, and I think signifies a deeper malaise in politics that is giving us too many who think politics is just about getting elected and don't give any mind to the on going administration of society.

Sent from my CPH1951 using Tapatalk

They're coming over all Dickensian and it's not even Christmas yet.

Assuming the morality of it is not a problem for them, it's still hard to see how they can think this is a good look. But then I haven't read the Daily Mail's take on it.

Hahahahaha and now the useless fecker has thrown all his MPs who voted against it under the bus by doing it anyway. The Most Stupid Politics You've Ever Seen just got severely more stupid.

Sent from my CPH1951 using Tapatalk

[Digby]

Marcus is now the new Joanna Lumley forcing HMG to make a change from a weird and clearly unsustainable position that almost no one thinks they should have tried to hold the line on in the first place

[Son of Mathonwy]

The not feeding children thing is just the plain weirdest thing to have happened in politics for a long time.

Even if you accept that there's a conversation to be had about personal responsibility versus state aid.... using hungry children at Christmas during a pandemic as an opening to that conversation is just... weird?

Nasty, yes, blind to reality, certainly, but even allowing for those things, what do they seriously think anyone is going to make of it?

I can usually see where the Tories are coming from, and on the odd occasion might even have some sympathy with whatever it is they are saying at the time, but how in the holy hell can they think anyone is going to look at how they've started this and think it's a rationale to get on board with?

It's just terrible politics, and I think signifies a deeper malaise in politics that is giving us too many who think politics is just about getting elected and don't give any mind to the on going administration of society.

Sent from my CPH1951 using Tapatalk

They're coming over all Dickensian and it's not even Christmas yet.

Assuming the morality of it is not a problem for them, it's still hard to see how they can think this is a good look. But then I haven't read the Daily Mail's take on it.

Hahahahaha and now the useless fecker has thrown all his MPs who voted against it under the bus by doing it anyway. The Most Stupid Politics You've Ever Seen just got severely more stupid.

Sent from my CPH1951 using Tapatalk

Feeling his own political mortality after his buddy in the States went down. And maybe he also noticed that Labour is ahead in the polls.

[Puja]

Marcus is now the new Joanna Lumley forcing HMG to make a change from a weird and clearly unsustainable position that almost no one thinks they should have tried to hold the line on in the first place

What I like best is that they haven't twigged that he's a) not just interested in this one immediate issue, but very interested in child poverty in general having experienced it himself, and b) not going away. So twice now they've caved to his immediate demands with the expectation that he will fuck off and go back to football (with an MBE), and have been completely blindsided by the fact that he's still interested the next time the issue comes up. "But we fed the children once already! What do you mean you want them to continue being fed?! How many meals do children eat, anyway!?"

It is nice that "we should aim to eradicate child poverty in this incredibly rich country" is slowly becoming a mainstream opinion rather than whacky crazy liberal shit, although I wish the populace didn't have to have a footballer lead them there, rather than it just being considered moral.

Puja

[Digby]

Marcus is now the new Joanna Lumley forcing HMG to make a change from a weird and clearly unsustainable position that almost no one thinks they should have tried to hold the line on in the first place

What I like best is that they haven't twigged that he's a) not just interested in this one immediate issue, but very interested in child poverty in general having experienced it himself, and b) not going away. So twice now they've caved to his immediate demands with the expectation that he will fuck off and go back to football (with an MBE), and have been completely blindsided by the fact that he's still interested the next time the issue comes up. "But we fed the children once already! What do you mean you want them to continue being fed?! How many meals do children eat, anyway!?"

It is nice that "we should aim to eradicate child poverty in this incredibly rich country" is slowly becoming a mainstream opinion rather than whacky crazy liberal shit, although I wish the populace didn't have to have a footballer lead them there, rather than it just being considered moral.

Puja

You do wonder if they thought the MBE was enough, because it did look like the sort of bribe that gets made with the gongs

[Son of Mathonwy]

Marcus is now the new Joanna Lumley forcing HMG to make a change from a weird and clearly unsustainable position that almost no one thinks they should have tried to hold the line on in the first place

What I like best is that they haven't twigged that he's a) not just interested in this one immediate issue, but very interested in child poverty in general having experienced it himself, and b) not going away. So twice now they've caved to his immediate demands with the expectation that he will fuck off and go back to football (with an MBE), and have been completely blindsided by the fact that he's still interested the next time the issue comes up. "But we fed the children once already! What do you mean you want them to continue being fed?! How many meals do children eat, anyway!?"

It is nice that "we should aim to eradicate child poverty in this incredibly rich country" is slowly becoming a mainstream opinion rather than whacky crazy liberal shit, although I wish the populace didn't have to have a footballer lead them there, rather than it just being considered moral.

Puja

You do wonder if they thought the MBE was enough, because it did look like the sort of bribe that gets made with the gongs

In their world, getting on the track of picking up honours is huge. Maybe they think it was a childhood dream of his, too. They really do struggle to imagine themselves in anyone else's position.

[canta_brian]

It's not as if borrowing money is actually a problem at the moment.

Heard a good piece on the BBC (I know right) the other day. It was one of those wordy late night pieces that nobody ever hears. But the idea they were putting forwards was that because the cost of borrowing is so low it might actually be a way of making money for the government. Basically, issue a load of 20 year bonds at !.5%/annum. Watch the inflation rate make the total amount payable have the spending power of around half that it did when you borrowed it. They gave the example of having £1000. After 1 year with that money in the bank at 1.5% you have circa £1015. Unfortunately the bike you were going to spend £1000 on has gone up in price and is now £1030. You used to have the money to buy it but now you don't. The government is in the position to take advantage of the reverse of this, buy their bike today and pay back an amount that won't buy one in the future.

[Puja]

It's not as if borrowing money is actually a problem at the moment.

Heard a good piece on the BBC (I know right) the other day. It was one of those wordy late night pieces that nobody ever hears. But the idea they were putting forwards was that because the cost of borrowing is so low it might actually be a way of making money for the government. Basically, issue a load of 20 year bonds at !.5%/annum. Watch the inflation rate make the total amount payable have the spending power of around half that it did when you borrowed it. They gave the example of having £1000. After 1 year with that money in the bank at 1.5% you have circa £1015. Unfortunately the bike you were going to spend £1000 on has gone up in price and is now £1030. You used to have the money to buy it but now you don't. The government is in the position to take advantage of the reverse of this, buy their bike today and pay back an amount that won't buy one in the future.

Of course that depends on if the money is going towards something useful, rather than just being funnelled to consultants who just happen to be friends with ministers.

Puja

[morepork]

I just had a good old read of this thread.

It's pretty grim.

[Digby]

Luckily our politics is making a change for the better, witness Lord Kilclooney querying on twitter:

"What happens if Biden moves on and the Indian becomes President. Who then becomes Vice President?"

Having been rebuked for this he's getting cross people are querying his good character, noting in response to the Speaker saying he should retract that the Speaker was misinformed. Which is clearly bollocks, the Speaker like anyone else can read exactly what he wrote and conclude the fat old wanker lacks basic civility

[morepork]

He went one better:

""I had never heard of her nor knew her name is Harris. India is quite rightly celebrating that an Indian, who has USA citizenship, has been appointed Vice President elect"


Why does he have a job?

[Digby]

Northern Ireland is our Florida, or at least it is as soon as someone does something stupid like mention Ireland or Britain, otherwise it's a very nice place.

[canta_brian]

It's not as if borrowing money is actually a problem at the moment.

Heard a good piece on the BBC (I know right) the other day. It was one of those wordy late night pieces that nobody ever hears. But the idea they were putting forwards was that because the cost of borrowing is so low it might actually be a way of making money for the government. Basically, issue a load of 20 year bonds at !.5%/annum. Watch the inflation rate make the total amount payable have the spending power of around half that it did when you borrowed it. They gave the example of having £1000. After 1 year with that money in the bank at 1.5% you have circa £1015. Unfortunately the bike you were going to spend £1000 on has gone up in price and is now £1030. You used to have the money to buy it but now you don't. The government is in the position to take advantage of the reverse of this, buy their bike today and pay back an amount that won't buy one in the future.

Of course that depends on if the money is going towards something useful, rather than just being funnelled to consultants who just happen to be friends with ministers.

Puja

indeed. I fear that they will both funnel the money to friends and claim the poor must pay it back in some way or other.

[Digby]

Boris has it seems been told Dominic is considering his position, but nobody seems to think Dom will go, even if people on all sides would merely say good riddance

[Digby]

I might almost have to apologise to Agent Cummings and Goings for doubting he'd follow his lackey out of the door. A bloody weird way to go when he's updated on all those changes warranted in society and specifically across the civil service and government and then done nothing about it, weirder still with Brexit not quite over the line in the most bat shit insane way possible, my impression was Agent Cummings and Goings would've wanted to be in the room with the insanity and indeed bringing the insanity, and weirder again when you think why on earth did Boris give up with public messaging on Covid just to have this happen

[Stom]

I might almost have to apologise to Agent Cummings and Goings for doubting he'd follow his lackey out of the door. A bloody weird way to go when he's updated on all those changes warranted in society and specifically across the civil service and government and then done nothing about it, weirder still with Brexit not quite over the line in the most bat shit insane way possible, my impression was Agent Cummings and Goings would've wanted to be in the room with the insanity and indeed bringing the insanity, and weirder again when you think why on earth did Boris give up with public messaging on Covid just to have this happen

He probably gave an ultimatum to Boris as a power play and Boris was given an ultimatum by his MPs because they're fed up with him. So Boris had to choose which ultimatum, the one that'll see Cummings go or the one that'll see him go...

Hmmm, I wonder which one a narcissist would choose?

[Son of Mathonwy]

He's not gone yet.

Having said that, I can understand why he wouldn't want to be around when Brexit becomes real.

[Digby]

People didn't want to listen to him before, now he's said he's off his position is far less tenable.

[Digby]

Also I wouldn't want to overlook the work of Moggy in barring MPs with cancer from participating in a debate on cancer, because it would seem of a 2 point plan from Jacob, that the internet wasn't in place 300 hundred years ago so why should it be used now, and the less people able to speak the less people can criticise HMG

It's like Jacob looked on in horror as he observed poor children were going to be fed and felt he needed to redress the balance by removing humanity from the equation

[Son of Mathonwy]

Also I wouldn't want to overlook the work of Moggy in barring MPs with cancer from participating in a debate on cancer, because it would seem of a 2 point plan from Jacob, that the internet wasn't in place 300 hundred years ago so why should it be used now, and the less people able to speak the less people can criticise HMG

It's like Jacob looked on in horror as he observed poor children were going to be fed and felt he needed to redress the balance by removing humanity from the equation

Rees-Mogg must get so disappointed with the end of A Christmas Carol when Scrooge, who had started out with perfectly sensible views on what to do with the surplus population, totally loses the plot and appears to become 'woke'.

[Which Tyler]

Also I wouldn't want to overlook the work of Moggy in barring MPs with cancer from participating in a debate on cancer, because it would seem of a 2 point plan from Jacob, that the internet wasn't in place 300 hundred years ago so why should it be used now, and the less people able to speak the less people can criticise HMG

It's like Jacob looked on in horror as he observed poor children were going to be fed and felt he needed to redress the balance by removing humanity from the equation

Rees-Mogg must get so disappointed with the end of A Christmas Carol when Scrooge, who had started out with perfectily sensible views on what to do with the surplus population, totally loses the plot and appears to become 'woke'.

[Son of Mathonwy]

Also I wouldn't want to overlook the work of Moggy in barring MPs with cancer from participating in a debate on cancer, because it would seem of a 2 point plan from Jacob, that the internet wasn't in place 300 hundred years ago so why should it be used now, and the less people able to speak the less people can criticise HMG

It's like Jacob looked on in horror as he observed poor children were going to be fed and felt he needed to redress the balance by removing humanity from the equation

Rees-Mogg must get so disappointed with the end of A Christmas Carol when Scrooge, who had started out with perfectily sensible views on what to do with the surplus population, totally loses the plot and appears to become 'woke'.

It was the combination of 'Jacob' and 'poor children' in one sentence that did it.