Job Support Scheme Meets Universal Credit Problems.
New Scheme Hits Problems.
Last week the Mirror pointed this out:
The coronavirus Job Support Scheme has been updated so workers whose venues are shut down will no longer be high and dry. But millions will still fall through the cracks.
1. It won’t help curfew-hit pubs – or theatres, cinemas and wedding venues
2. There’s no new help for the self-employed
3. Some workers in local lockdowns will get nothing for weeks
4. Shielding workers could fall through the cracks
5. And workers will be stuck on 67% of usual pay
On Wednesday, the gaffe-prone PM said ‘whatever happens’ government schemes will mean ‘nobody gets less than 93% of their current income’ in Tier 3 lockdowns – but that isn’t true
Boris Johnson has quietly corrected a a false claim he made about the level of support people could receive during a Tier 3 lockdown.
On Wednesday, the gaffe-prone PM said “whatever happens”, government schemes will mean “nobody gets less than 93% of their current income” if their bar or pub is shut.
But it quickly emerged that that was untrue, because while many workers can get this sum, not all of them can.
The Tory leader said the 93% could be reached by taking the Job Support Scheme, which pays 67% of wages, and topping it up with Universal Credit.
Today appearing at a Downing Street press conference where he was quizzed about the Government’s response he didn’t repeat the error – although he has yet to correct the record in the House of Commons
They continue,
In reality, Universal Credit is not paid to anyone who has £16,000 or more of savings, or if their partner has more than £16,000 of savings.
It is also paid on the basis of household income, so if a husband has their income cut to 67% and a wife is on 100%, the husband may not be able to top up to 93%.
What’s more, some people will get less than 67% of their wage under the Job Support Scheme, because it is capped at £2,100 a month.
The Job Support Scheme is only open to workers whose businesses are forced to shut completely by government, not those that can stay open but are hit by restrictions.
Then there is this:
n
Ipswich Unemployed Action. 
Elderly woman on state pension of £11 a week receives almost £19k after our probe: DWP slammed for fobbing off women who question it over errors
https://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/pensions/article-8835777/Elderly-woman-11-WEEK-state-pension-receives-19k.html
superted
October 16, 2020 at 7:25 pm
That’s not superted’s avatar, clearly an impostor.
trev
October 16, 2020 at 7:29 pm
I obviously didn’t post that comment.
trev
October 16, 2020 at 7:27 pm
it is me but wont let me post logged in to word press ? coats?
superted
October 16, 2020 at 7:31 pm
if you stop feeding them they will soon give up 😉
superted
October 16, 2020 at 7:33 pm
DWP TORY GENOCIDE
My only post.
Stepping Razor Sound Plate System
October 16, 2020 at 7:34 pm
I have got the Scooby Gang involved: one click from me and the Trolls turn to dust.
Andrew Coates
October 16, 2020 at 7:40 pm
coats why cant i post logged in to word press ?
superted
October 16, 2020 at 7:42 pm
No idea, but it says gravatar.
Andrew Coates
October 16, 2020 at 8:07 pm
I don’t earn dollars as I don’t live in America, but I consider it a privilege and a great honour to be mistaken for a Working Class Black man.
trev
October 16, 2020 at 7:47 pm
@ Helen Highwater
Sorry, it was a miss-timed response to a photograph posted by a Far Right psycho who posted it in my name and said it was me, but he got deleted as I was posting my response. I should have just ignored the wanker.
trev
October 16, 2020 at 8:07 pm
yep 😉
superted
October 16, 2020 at 8:19 pm
still not working?
superted
October 16, 2020 at 8:18 pm
nope
superted
October 16, 2020 at 8:38 pm
test 35 lol
superted
October 16, 2020 at 9:56 pm
i removed the pic but still dont work ?
superted
October 16, 2020 at 8:40 pm
i have your avatar psml 😉
SuperLager
October 16, 2020 at 8:58 pm
i removed the pic but still not working for some reason
superted
October 16, 2020 at 8:41 pm
DWP GENOCIDE
DWP admits Coffey and Duncan Smith both snubbed Disability Confident
By John Pring on 8th October 2020
Work and pensions secretary Therese Coffey has failed to sign up to her own much-criticised disability employment scheme, Disability Confident, her department has admitted.
The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) has also admitted that Sir Iain Duncan Smith, who launched the scheme in 2013, when he was work and pensions secretary, has never become a member.
A DWP freedom of information response also shows other current and former work and pensions ministers apparently scrabbling to sign up after Disability News Service (DNS) first began asking questions about whether they were members of the scheme in the first week of March this year.
Like all MPs, Coffey (pictured, left) employs staff to assist with her parliamentary and constituency duties, which are separate to her role as secretary of state.
In an article she wrote last November, Coffey stressed the importance of Disability Confident, which she said “encourages employers to think differently about disability and to take action to improve how they attract, recruit, retain and develop disabled employees”.
But DWP has no record of either Coffey or Duncan Smith ever having signed up to the scheme.
DWP claims that, even though Coffey’s duties as an MP are separate to those she has as a minister, she is included in DWP’s own membership of the scheme and that DWP ministers are considered to be “signed up to the principles” of Disability Confident.
This is despite the fact that other DWP ministers, including current minister for disabled people Justin Tomlinson, employment minister Mims Davies and pensions minister Guy Opperman – along with scores of other cross-party MPs – had all signed up to the scheme before DNS began asking questions in March.
The freedom of information response also reveals that Duncan Smith has never signed up to the scheme, even though he helped launch it as work and pensions secretary in 2013 and, like other ministers, he employs staff to help with his duties as an MP.
In 2015, two years after the scheme’s launch, he praised employers who had signed up to Disability Confident and said its success was “clear to see”.
DNS has confirmed that neither Coffey nor Duncan Smith (pictured, right) has ever been listed by DWP as a member of Disability Confident.
DWP claims it only holds records showing when current and former ministers “most recently registered for, or renewed their registration”.
Four current and former ministers have registration or renewal dates in March this year, days after DNS began asking questions on 3 March.
Will Quince, the minister for welfare delivery, signed up two days later, on 5 March.
Esther McVey, who claims to have created the Disability Confident scheme herself in 2013 – when she was minister for disabled people, under Duncan Smith – and has repeatedly called on employers to sign up, finally signed up herself on 10 March 2020.
Two other former ministers for disabled people, Mark Harper and Maria Miller, also signed up for the first time in March this year, Harper on 20 March and Miller seven days later.
None of the four were previously members of the scheme.
In its freedom of information response, DWP says: “As DWP is a Disability Confident Leader, all Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) Ministers are considered to be signed up to the principles of Disability Confident by virtue of being a current DWP Minister.
“Some also sign up individually in their capacity as Members of Parliament who employ staff.”
The discredited scheme aims to encourage employers to “think differently about disability and take action to improve how they recruit, retain and develop disabled people”.
Coffey had not responded to a request to comment by noon today (Thursday).
Duncan Smith sent a statement claiming that “as a founder member” he was “very proud” of the scheme and would “continue to support it in every way I can”.
But after DNS asked his spokesperson how he could have been a “founder member” when he had never joined the scheme, he failed to comment further.
David Gillon, a prominent disabled critic of Disability Confident since its launch in July 2013, said: “Given Disability Confident’s astoundingly lacklustre performance, it is sadly predictable that Therese Coffey still hasn’t signed up to Disability Confident in her role as an employer of constituency staff.
“And equally predictable that DWP would try and claim she is covered by their own registration.
“There is a basic principle of leadership: lead by example. And Coffey is giving a very telling example of how important she considers Disability Confident to be to DWP’s campaign to drive down the disability employment gap, and by implication how important she considers the employment gap itself.
“Not only can’t she be bothered to sign up to it, she can’t even be bothered to sign up to it when she knows journalists are watching to see what she does.”
He added: “DWP was deeply problematical even before the Tories came to power, but under IDS the rhetoric of disabled people as lazy fakers was enshrined as departmental policy and no secretary of state since him has seen fit to change that.
“It’s no surprise that IDS is another senior Tory who sees no reason to sign up to support his own party’s disability policy.”
Three years ago, DWP declared itself a gold-standard employer of disabled people under the scheme – securing the status of “Disability Confident Leader” – just days before being found guilty of “grave and systematic violations” of the UN disability convention.
Earlier this year, a BBC Panorama investigation revealed that DWP lost more disability discrimination cases at employment tribunal than any other employer in Britain in the three years since 2016.
Asked why he had only signed up to Disability Confident after DNS began asking questions in March this year, Quince declined to comment.
Harper, Miller and McVey had all failed to comment by noon today (Thursday).
Stepping Razor Sound Plate System
October 16, 2020 at 8:47 pm
DWP TORY GENOCIDE
‘Heartless’ Coffey’s duty of care claim ‘sticks fingers up to benefit death families’
DNS – By John Pring on 1st October 2020
Therese Coffey has been accused of “sticking her fingers up” at every family whose relative has died because of the failings of the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP), after she claimed that her department has no “duty of care” to benefit claimants.
The work and pensions secretary told MPs yesterday (Wednesday) that it was not DWP’s responsibility to have a statutory duty of care to the people who rely on it for support through the benefits system.
Instead, she said, that duty should be left to “the local councils, the social services, the doctors and other people”.
She was responding to Labour MP Debbie Abrahams about written answers she had sent to the Commons work and pensions committee the previous day, following her appearance before the committee on 22 July.
In one of her written answers, Coffey (pictured) had told the committee that DWP did not have a statutory duty of care or a safeguarding duty.
Abrahams, who has led efforts in parliament to hold DWP to account for the countless deaths of benefit claimants caused by its failings, suggested the government had a “moral obligation” to have such a duty of care to benefit claimants in vulnerable situations and that it was “simply not good enough” to leave that to local authorities.
Coffey said she had tried to “accelerate the amount of support” provided to claimants, and that DWP was working with local safeguarding teams and safeguarding boards “in order to provide the outcome… which is about how can we help more”.
After being told of Coffey’s comments, disabled campaigner Alison Turner accused the work and pensions secretary of being “heartless” and “sticking her fingers up to all the families who have lost someone” because of DWP’s actions.
Turner’s partner is the son of Errol Graham, who starved to death after his out-of-work disability benefits were wrongly removed by DWP as a result of flaws in the work capability assessment process.
She told Disability News Service: “It’s only right and caring that you make sure of a person’s safety before you do anything that could kill them. It’s common sense.”
She said Coffey’s message to families whose relatives have died because of DWP’s failings was: “I don’t have a duty of care and I don’t need one and that’s why your loved ones died.”
She added: “That’s her problem: she’s heartless.”
Turner said Coffey’s comments were “absolutely disgusting” but they did explain how Errol Graham and so many other disabled benefit claimants had died over the last decade, and why this “continues to happen to other people”.
She said: “People like Errol have died because of it, because of the department’s lack of care, its lack of concern for people’s safety.”
She said that disabled people’s financial support from DWP was often their “lifeline” and she did not understand how “a department as big as DWP, responsible for millions of disabled people” can argue that it does not have a duty of care.
Coffey also told the work and pensions committee yesterday that DWP was discussing how it could “safely reintroduce a limited number” of face-to-face assessments for disability benefit claims.
Face-to-face assessments have been suspended since March because of the coronavirus pandemic.
John Paul Marks, the department’s director general of work and health services, said the number of new claims for personal independence payment (PIP) had now returned to a level that was “close to what it was this time last year”, after falling sharply in the early months of the pandemic.
Coffey also said that Atos*, one of the two DWP contractors that carries out PIP assessments, had last week started to record telephone assessments, although the other contractor, Capita, had not yet begun to do so.
Marks said that another contractor, CHDA (a subsidiary of the US firm Maximus), had started to trial online video assessments of “fitness for work”, while DWP was carrying out a trial of about 500 online video PIP assessments.
*Atos delivers its PIP assessment contracts through Independent Assessment Services, a trading name of Atos IT Services UK
Stepping Razor Sound Plate System
October 16, 2020 at 9:01 pm
Reblogged this on Tory Britain!.
A6er
October 16, 2020 at 9:04 pm
DWP TORY GENOCIDE
Hundreds dying every year after PIP rejections, and number may even be rising
DNS – By John Pring on 1st October 2020
Hundreds of disabled people are continuing to die every year after having their claims for disability benefits rejected, new Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) figures have revealed.
The figures show that, in just two years, 1,700 disabled people died within three months of having their claim for personal independence payment (PIP) rejected.
The figures do not prove that the rejections of the PIP claims caused the deaths – although it is possible that wrongful decisions may contribute to or cause some deaths – but instead suggest that hundreds of disabled people every year appear to be dying without the financial support they need and deserve, after having their claims wrongly rejected by DWP.
All 1,700 disabled people who died had their claims turned down between April 2018 and January this year, and died between April 2018 and 30 April 2020.
Comparing them with figures released in early 2019 also suggest that the likelihood of someone having their PIP claim rejected and dying soon afterwards may even have increased in the last two years.
The findings on the increase are tentative because the two sets of figures were not calculated in the same way by DWP.
But other figures have showed a deteriorating performance across a similar time period by DWP contractors Atos and Capita, which carry out the assessments on the government’s behalf.
When taken as a proportion of about 1.461 million PIP registrations between April 2018 and January 2020, about 0.12 per cent of claimants went on to die within three months of having their claim rejected.
The earlier figures, released in February 2019, showed 3,680 PIP claimants died within three months of their initial PIP application being rejected between April 2013 and April 2018, out of about 3.6 million registrations, a rate of about 0.10 per cent.
These comparative rates are only approximate figures, and they have been calculated by Disability News Service (DNS) and not DWP, while there may be unknown factors that explain the apparent increase in the likelihood of someone dying soon after having a PIP claim rejected.
But they do raise further questions about the PIP assessment system, and they could add to mounting calls for major reform.
The new figures were released to Labour MP Jessica Morden by the minister for disabled people, Justin Tomlinson.
He insisted that the figures showed no links between the reason the person had submitted a PIP application and their subsequent death.
Tomlinson told Morden: “There is no evidence in this data to suggest someone’s reason for claiming Personal Independence Payments was the cause of their death and it would be misleading to suggest otherwise.”
He also claimed that DWP “treats the tragic death of any claimant sympathetically”.
But there have been repeated warnings of substandard assessments carried out by Atos and Capita.
DWP figures released last year showed the percentage of substandard PIP assessment reports carried out by Atos rose from about 25 per cent in 2016-17 to reach more than 36 per cent in 2018-19.
The proportion of substandard PIP reports completed by Capita reached 37 per cent in the 2018 calendar year, from less than 33 per cent in 2016.
DNS spent months investigating allegations of dishonesty by PIP assessors in late 2016 and throughout 2017, hearing eventually from more than 250 disabled people in less than a year about how they had been unfairly deprived of their benefits, with such cases still continuing to come in nearly four years after that investigation began.
A DWP spokesperson said: “These figures do not show causality and any claim to suggest otherwise is misleading.
“People claim PIP for various reasons, the majority of which are non-life threatening.”
Stepping Razor Sound Plate System
October 16, 2020 at 9:16 pm
Andrew Coates
October 16, 2020 at 9:24 pm
i think 100% they will cut the extra £20 a week on uc next year
superted
October 16, 2020 at 10:30 pm
why did you remove my post lol i can not log in to word press and post anything ?
superted
October 16, 2020 at 10:55 pm
its no use superted. he is a fake coat. trev also. both of them gather info for the DWP.
Stepping Razor Plate Sound System
October 16, 2020 at 11:29 pm
Think you could be onto something, Stepping 😉
Honey Pot
October 17, 2020 at 10:32 am
And those read this site and especially comment on here wonder why they are always having problems with the dole office? 😀
Wanda
October 17, 2020 at 8:09 pm
DWP TORY GENOCIDE
DWP Tory genocide Is not a political issue, it is a Human Rights Issue. A Human Rights Issue is not a political issue, Not is a Human Rights Issue.
Stepping Razor Sound Plate System
October 16, 2020 at 9:40 pm
fake news fake coat
Stepping Razor Plate Sound System
October 16, 2020 at 11:53 pm
@ Tom Hunt
All it says is that the turkeys voted for Christmas. The British electorate cut off their nose to spite their face.
trev
October 16, 2020 at 9:50 pm
Jon Lansman
October 16, 2020 at 11:44 pm
superted
October 16, 2020 at 11:47 pm
What happened to your avatar superted ?
Jasper
October 16, 2020 at 11:52 pm
cant post when logged in to word press i changed the avatar but still does not work ?
superted
October 17, 2020 at 12:00 am
try it using Tor. It worked for me before.
Jasper
October 17, 2020 at 12:14 am
Something is up with this blog.
Warner
October 17, 2020 at 6:53 am
Even comments regarding Tesco’s outrageous ‘clubcard price only’ scheme are being deleted. Schemes like this punish the poor and should be made illegal. Everywhere is turning into a Costco. It is like Amazon pushing their ‘Prime’ crap all the time. The poor always get the worst deals. And idiots like that so-called ‘money saving expert’ actually think that Tesco’s two tier prices are a good idea. Exactly whose pocket is whoever runs this blog in?
Struggling Single Parent
October 17, 2020 at 10:09 am
Couldn’t get any weetabix for the kids brekkie last week cos the bastards had put one of them clubcard offers on it. They know damn fine that the weetabix was stripped bare back in march so why are they encouraging it? Ended up having to buy some expensive granola but the kids finished it off when I wasn’t looking and they had to go hungry for a few days. Disgusting! Shame on you tesco.
Samantha
October 17, 2020 at 10:19 am
pmsl
superted
October 17, 2020 at 10:21 am
Back to the actual topic, none of these job/welfare schemes will work in terms of providing proper support for everyone who needs it because the Tories have already wrecked the Social Security system and shredded the safety net, and have done so quite deliberately according to their own ideology. Universal Credit is unnecessarily complicated and punitive, unfit for purpose and should be scrapped. The entire DWP is unfit for purpose and should be dismantled. Above all, incompetent egotistical maniac Iain Duncan Smith should never be allowed anywhere near Social Security ever again.
trev
October 17, 2020 at 7:56 am
Instead of trying to apply sticking plasters to a broken system, just replace it with an Unconditional Basic Income. Keir Starmer expressed the view that now would not be the right time to do so, but now is certainly not the time for a second wave of Welfare reform headed by IDS, in the middle of a pandemic with mass unemployment looming. This is a National Emergency and it calls for emergency action, such as the implementation of a Basic Income. There has never been a better time to do so.
trev
October 17, 2020 at 8:09 am
[…] Job Support Scheme Meets Universal Credit Problems. […]
Job Support Scheme Meets Universal Credit Problems. | sdbast
October 17, 2020 at 8:15 am
To the real Trev, sadly a couple of the copycat Trevs found their way to my WordPress blog and left some drivel, which I declined to authorise publication of. ….
Kat Rehman
October 17, 2020 at 8:26 am
Oh for God’s sake. I’m sorry to hear that Kat, I was completely unaware and I hope you didn’t think it was me! This person or persons, is actually breaking the Law, Trolling is illegal under the Malicious communications Act. Block them if you can.
trev
October 17, 2020 at 8:31 am
@trev- Andrew seems to have been targeted by someone intent on disrupting this blog. I suppose they think that if they fill up the comments with stupidity and spite, no-one else will bother posting. And that somehow they will have gained some sort of weird ‘victory’ by spoiling things for everyone else. But I shouldn’t worry Trev, your posts are always clearly recognisable, useful comment and common-sense.
Not immature stupidity and name calling against other people posting.
Alan Turner
October 17, 2020 at 11:20 am
You’re right, it’s a definite concerted attempt at disruption, probably by the Far Right (or some ‘lone gunman’ Rightwing psycho), probably to drive everyone away and silence us.
trev
October 17, 2020 at 11:25 am
DWP TORY GENOCIDE
So you know its the real one – My double can’t say DWP Tory Genocide & spell it correctly.
trev is the most sensible one on the blog, the voice of reason. Great discussions & points being brought up each time by our voice of reason the real trev.
Stepping Razor Sound Plate System
October 17, 2020 at 11:32 am
Trev it’s fine I know it’s not u!! Hopefully they’ll get bored because I’ll NEVER publish them and crawl away under their stones…….
Kat Rehman
October 17, 2020 at 12:37 pm
That’s awful 😦 It just shows you how low these scum trolls will sink 😦 Did you contact the Police, kat?
Concerned
October 17, 2020 at 10:35 am
No Concerned! I ignored them! But thanks anyway. ….
Kat Rehman
October 17, 2020 at 12:38 pm
Your Blog and your comments here are valued Kat.
You talk about real life, work, politics, and things we can all relate to.
I’m sure you have good friends already.
Now you have some more!
Andrew Coates
October 17, 2020 at 5:31 pm
Thank you so much, Mr Coates, means a lot! I’m proud to call you , Trev, and others, friends, your continued support means a lot!
Kat Rehman
October 17, 2020 at 5:33 pm
TROLL ALERT ! Not posted by me.
trev
October 17, 2020 at 8:30 pm
DWP TORY GENOCIDE
The UK is heading for a melt down, added with a No Deal Brexit to put the nail in the coffin.
The DWP are wrecking the economy with £ billions supporting well off people like child benefits.
What did we learn from the last banking crash & recession in 2008 greed more greed & selfish & rob from the poor to fed your greed. The tax payer can’t bail you out this time.
Stepping Razor Sound Plate System
October 17, 2020 at 9:04 am
Yep, we’re up the creek without a paddle, and with the Tories in charge you can guarantee that it will be those at the bottom who will bear the brunt; the most vulnerable, the sick, the disabled, the poor, the unemployed, the Working Class. It’s Class War phase 3. Austerity, Pandemic, Brexit. I’ve been trying to sign an online petition (on Change) against giving MPs a further pay rise, but their server keeps timing out, must be thousands trying to sign it.
trev
October 17, 2020 at 9:11 am
These Tories will be out on their ear without politics for being criminals & Human Rights Abuses. No need for politicians for that just keep being Tory Criminals thinking they are above the law.
Stepping Razor Sound Plate System
October 17, 2020 at 9:13 am
Stepping, you might be interested in this:
the international struggle for universal healthcare
https://neweconomics.org/2020/10/patients-not-passports
trev
October 17, 2020 at 9:17 am
Privatise the NHS – Privatise Windrush – Privatise Grenfell Tower – Privatise disabled people – Privatise a failed dictatorship – Privatise Boris’s fucks & kids – Privatise the food banks.
Tories you have run out of money privatise farting.
Stepping Razor Sound Plate System
October 17, 2020 at 9:33 am
The Tory Government have run out of lawyers because the lawyers are dropping out like flies. These lawyers say we are not criminal lawyers Boris & Matt & they leave. Jacob Rees Moog was a lawyer lets use him Boris goes. But Jacob lied on his CV he was a lawyer. How about Iain Duncan Smith being the stand in Government lawyer.
Stepping Razor Sound Plate System
October 17, 2020 at 9:36 am
Trouble with your posts Razor is that you can’t tell what is true and what’s made up. For example as far as I know Jacob Rees-Mogg has never falsified his CV, although Iain Duncan Smith and Jeffrey Archer definitely did so in spades. Not many who come here like the Tories but fibbing about them doesn’t help get rid of them. Honesty really is the best policy.
Martin
October 18, 2020 at 5:35 am
Stepping is only doing what the media and especially conspiracy media do. They mix the truth with lies. Often times it is as high as 90% truth:10% lie, but the whole point is that the lie gets through. Most of us, and because, we already know that Duncan Smith and convicted criminal Archer faked their CV ticked it off but took on board the lie about Rees-Mogg. That’s the way it works. Admittedly, Stepping is not very good at it, a bit hit and miss, but enough lies get through never the less.
PR Agent
October 18, 2020 at 7:21 am
How do you know Jacob Rees Moog did not lie on his CV about being a lawyer.!!! Jacob Rees Moog is not going to admit he lied on his CV.
Stepping Razor Sound Plate System
October 19, 2020 at 7:39 pm
A lot of working people in this country are now discovering just how inadequate the Benefits system is. One might hope that this would forcibly necessitate some positive change, but the usual suspect (IDS) now wants to extend his madness to the most vulnerable and hardest to reach, such as people with addictions and mental health issues. The attempt to do so at a time of mass unemployment and fewer jobs is perhaps an indication that it is IDS himself who needs to attend rehabilitation – Political Rehab for the Politically Insane. The Centre for Sociopathic Justice could dream-up a special scheme just for him.
trev
October 17, 2020 at 11:40 am
@trev – He still sees himself as the great welfare reformer, but chooses to ignore the harsh reality of Universal Credit. And a system based on compulsion and sanctions.
Jeff Smith
October 17, 2020 at 11:59 am
He still, and always will, think that he is right. This ability to shrug off all criticism and plough ahead regardless is probably indicative of at least Narcissistic Personality Disorder if not full blown Psychopath. Official condemnation by the UN is water off a duck’s back to IDS, as are all the reports that have found Sanctions to be ineffective, damaging, and counterproductive. IDS knows in his own head that he is right, he is the man for the job, and only he alone can whip the workers into place. Nudge theory knows no criticism and knows no bounds. Sure, people will die along the way but that’s as a result of their weakness, the theory can never be wrong. Arbeit Macht Frei all over again.
trev
October 17, 2020 at 12:15 pm
test 103
superted
October 17, 2020 at 1:18 pm
I’ve just seen a job advertised by an agency on Indeed, and it says:
“•£8.21 per hour while training (first 12 weeks) then rising to £8.62 on days”
That’s not even Minimum Wage! Effectively they are using the pay rate to advertise for younger workers aged under 24.
trev
October 17, 2020 at 2:19 pm
us lot have not got a hope in hell while the 18-24 job scam is running
superted
October 17, 2020 at 2:33 pm
System working as intended then. Neoliberals in charge
ghost whistler
October 17, 2020 at 2:43 pm
TROLL ALERT!
trev
October 17, 2020 at 3:01 pm
TROLL ALERT! ABOVE COMMENT NOT POSTED BY ME.
trev
October 17, 2020 at 8:48 pm
superted
October 17, 2020 at 9:12 pm
Far Right cranks shit-stirring. What happened to Boris’ water cannon?
trev
October 17, 2020 at 9:19 pm
Boris Johnson’s unused water cannon sold for scrap at £300,000 loss
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2018/nov/19/boris-johnson-unused-water-cannon-sold-for-scrap-at-300000-loss
id have bought one of those for 200 quid enit lol
superted
October 17, 2020 at 9:22 pm
They were sold for £11,025 to Nottinghamshire-based Reclamations (Ollerton) Ltd who will dismantle them and export the parts.
Current Mayor Sadiq Khan said “we have managed to finally get rid of them”.
what about ebay? these ppl are thick as shit!
superted
October 17, 2020 at 9:29 pm
No good if you’re on a Water meter!
trev
October 17, 2020 at 9:41 pm
Far Right activists join Leeds anti-Lockdown protesters
https://www.leeds-live.co.uk/news/leeds-news/police-officer-punched-far-right-19128752
trev
October 19, 2020 at 3:35 pm
superted
October 17, 2020 at 9:20 pm
https://nationalcareers.service.gov.uk/skills-assessment
give it a go trev and post the result 😉
superted
October 17, 2020 at 9:38 pm
It takes too long, 10 assessments @ 30 mins. each
trev
October 17, 2020 at 9:45 pm
Your results
What you told us
Your answers show that:
We could not recommend any careers based on your responses. You might want to go through the assessment again to check that your responses were accurate.
well im fucked then pmsl
superted
October 17, 2020 at 9:59 pm
You mean the one that begins with ‘Personal Skills’ ? I had a quick look but wasn’t able to get past the first question as none of the multiple choice answers apply to me. I don’t “spend a lot of time making plans” and I don’t “find change exciting”. You have to choose one of them to continue but neither are applicable.
trev
October 17, 2020 at 10:00 pm
I did the one for”Your Interests”, 84 questions, had to stop halfway thru for a fag, took ages, I selected “Not at all interested” for nearly every question, got to last one question 84 and the site fucked up, won’t display the submit button, refreshed it several times still same ffs
I did something similar at some Provider shit hole years ago and it worked out that I was suited to being a canalboatman or a horse groom!
trev
October 17, 2020 at 10:35 pm
I did something similar at some Provider shit hole years ago and it worked out that I was suited to being a canalboatman or a horse groom!
same here which i answered every question with strongly disagree as the test is flawed and will not receive any training that would help in any new career as it is all bollocks as there is none!
bar the 3rd party provider crap of course.
yay look at my bit of paper im sure that will help me getting a job as a mp doctor or ceo of a company 😉
superted
October 17, 2020 at 10:57 pm
Say cheeeeeeeeeese 😀 cheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeese 😀
Wallace & Gromit
October 20, 2020 at 12:34 pm
Coronavirus: Police get access to NHS Test and Trace self-isolation data
Forces will have access on a “case-by-case basis” to data on whether a person has been told to self-isolate
People who have been told to self-isolate through NHS Test and Trace could have their details shared with the police on a “case-by-case basis”.
Forces will have access to information telling them if an individual has been told to self-isolate, the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) said.
But the British Medical Association said it was worried police involvement might put people off being tested.
In England there is a legal requirement to isolate after a positive test.
The DHSC updated its guidance about how testing data will be handled on Friday.
A memorandum of understanding was issued between the DHSC and National Police Chiefs’ Council to allow forces to access information that tells them if a “specific individual” has been told to self-isolate, as first reported by the Health Service Journal.
Those who fail to do so face fines starting at £1,000, which can increase to £10,000 for serial offenders or serious breaches.
A DHSC spokesman said it was a legal requirement for people who had tested positive and their close contacts to self-isolate when formally notified to do so.
“The memorandum of understanding ensures that information is shared with appropriate safeguards and in accordance with the law. No testing or health data is shared in this process,” he said.
A spokesman for the British Medical Association, which represents doctors in the UK, said the test-and-trace system needed “the full confidence of the public” to be effective.
He said: “We are already concerned that some people are deterred from being tested because they are anxious about loss of income should they need to self-isolate – and we are worried should police involvement add to this.
“Therefore, the government’s emphasis should be on providing support to people – financial and otherwise – if they need to self-isolate, so that no-one is deterred from coming forward for a test.”
A National Police Chiefs’ Council spokesperson said forces would continue to encourage “voluntary compliance” but would enforce regulations and issue fines where appropriate.
“Officers will engage with individuals to establish their circumstances, using their discretion wherever it is reasonable to do so,” they said.
Sir Ed Davey, leader of the Liberal Democrats, said ministers should “reverse the policy urgently”.
“Anything that further undermines the public’s dwindling trust in this government’s handling of the pandemic is damaging, and few things could have been better designed to do that, than this,” he said.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-54586897
Naga
October 17, 2020 at 10:02 pm
HS1, the line running between St Pancras International and the Channel Tunnel, was completed at a total cost of £7.3bn a full 16 years after its announcement in 1991.
https://www.railtechnologymagazine.com/Rail-News/looking-back-over-hs1-10-years-on#:~:text=HS1%2C%20the%20line%20running%20between,after%20its%20announcement%20in%201991.
Coronavirus Test and Trace system has cost £10billion and still isn’t fully working
https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/politics/coronavirus-test-trace-system-cost-22325952
so they can piss that amount of money down the drain on something that will never work yet cant give ppl on jsa the extra £20 a week.
it does not compute!
superted
October 17, 2020 at 10:25 pm
superted
October 17, 2020 at 10:39 pm
@superted – This is still the sixth richest country in the world. Our capital reserves are huge. This is not some impoverished third-world country like Sierra Leone or Eritrea. The money has always been there, but the political will has not. Billions can somehow always be found for these projects, you have mentioned, and many more. If we were anything like as impoverished as the government pretends, that simply wouldn’t be the case. And as far as the extra £20 uplift for the legacy claimants goes, they can easily afford to do it, and not even notice the expense. But they won’t do it, because they don’t want to make things too easy, or too comfortable for people on benefits.They can’t admit this simple truth, so they try to present the whole issue as a financial one instead.
Jeff Smith
October 17, 2020 at 11:21 pm
Being the seventh richest country in the world – the United States, China, Japan, Germany, India and France have greater GDPs now than the UK – doesn’t mean what it used to because the gap between North America and countries below it is astronomic: the United States of America’s GDP is more than that of the 27 countries in the European Union put together, Germany and France being forth and sixth on the list of countries ranked by GDP. We might be seventh on the list but the gulf between the UK and the top listed is so enormous we shouldn’t be fooled into believing that means we are wealthy or prosperous, because we’re not.
Tim
October 18, 2020 at 3:13 pm
@ Tim
And the situation is about to get a whole lot worse thanks to the US Trade Deal that will not only lower the standards of the food we eat (and animal welfare) but will result in the UK being like a satellite of America, run by big Agriculture. Boris’ alternative to the EU.
trev
October 18, 2020 at 5:06 pm
There are also the biggest divides between rich & poor in richer countries like the UK. The rich & poor gap is getting bigger & the % of minority rule leads to dictatorships in a so called democracy. The share of wealth & control is so important to politicians because politics is their 2nd job.
Stepping Razor Sound Plate System
October 18, 2020 at 3:29 pm
My 24 year old daughter took this government on line test, the skills assessment and job suggestions. She is actually employed in Ad Ops in a large Insurance company. It couldn’t suggest or find anything for her either and she’s been working 5 years now in the same industry!
Kat Rehman
October 18, 2020 at 8:07 am
wow thats amazing how fantastic thanks for sharing super duper
thank you so much
Quid Pro Joe
October 18, 2020 at 8:15 am
fake coat
Fake Coat
October 18, 2020 at 8:08 am
Quid pro Joe you’re most welcome ! Always happy to help and share when I can! You have a nice day now
Kat Rehman
October 18, 2020 at 9:25 am
fake coat
Fake Coat
October 18, 2020 at 8:08 am
Is fake coat the new catchphrase? I’ll try to remember for the future!
Kat Rehman
October 18, 2020 at 9:24 am
Coronavirus: 1 million young Britons ‘face jobs crisis within weeks’
Sixteen to 24-year-olds who are not in full-time education or employment could face significant barriers to work.
A jobs crisis is poised to hit up to a million young people within weeks, creating a new “Covid generation” that will struggle to find work, according to alarming new analysis of the pandemic’s likely economic effects.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/oct/17/coronavirus-1-million-young-britons-face-jobs-crisis-within-weeks
Andrew Coates
October 18, 2020 at 10:41 am
The Great Reset planned on the back of C-19
http://tapnewswire.com/2020/10/the-great-reset-planned-on-the-back-of-covid/
Cloverleaf
October 18, 2020 at 11:58 am
Individual countries have done various “re-sets” to their economies in the past. In UK the government devalued the currency in 1971, and overnight your money was worth less than half as much, instead of there being 240 Pennies to a Pound there was/is just 100. They called it “Decimalisation” at the time but it is now referred to as “Devaluation”. Your money went a lot further in the old coinage as I remember as a young child. A ‘ten bob’ note was thought of as a considerable amount, enough to buy fish & chips for a family, now the equivalent of just 50p but realistically had the same spending power of £20 today.
trev
October 18, 2020 at 12:26 pm
Cloverleaf
October 18, 2020 at 12:48 pm
Greater equality and sustainability doesn’t sound like a bad thing, but how do you get the Billionaires and Millionaires to put their hands in their pockets and share the wealth?
trev
October 18, 2020 at 1:07 pm
Intersecting crises
https://socialistresistance.org/intersecting-crises/20978
trev
October 18, 2020 at 9:36 pm
Don’t think there’s any chance of that happening any time soon, greedy parasites will never part with their wealth.
Cloverleaf
October 18, 2020 at 1:34 pm
Then nothing will change. Poverty exists because wealth exists. People are poor because others are rich. Property is theft.
trev
October 18, 2020 at 1:42 pm
@trev- Remember at the start of this pandemic, how so many people thought that it would re-set society ?
And that we would move towards a fairer, more caring way of living ? Seems ironic now.
Jeff Smith
October 18, 2020 at 1:48 pm
Yes, and I still believe that Coronavirus can be the catalyst for change but if positive change is to come it will inevitably mean sharing the wealth, otherwise there’s little point in talking about greater equality in some Capitalist-led utopia. Same with sustainability, it’s not only about responsible and sustainable use of resources, and using tech to those ends, but also building sustainable societies. When the balance of wealth is so massively unequal as today it is an unsustainable situation with a dysfunctional society. But somehow I can’t imagine people like Boris Johnson & his cronies, and Donald Trump, ever doing anything to redress the imbalance.
trev
October 18, 2020 at 2:00 pm
Why doesn’t everybody just fish in their own territorial waters, and we’ll stay in ours ? End of problem
British Cod
October 18, 2020 at 1:55 pm
Isolationism is retrograde. And in the case of fishing, best to stop eating fish altogether. Veganism is the way forward.
trev
October 18, 2020 at 2:02 pm
@trev: How many people can honestly stand being vegan ? Not many I’ll bet.
Black Pudding
October 18, 2020 at 2:10 pm
As yet comparatively few, but numbers are growing, same goes for vegetarianism, which is a step along the way. When I was a child/teenager it was quite difficult being a vegetarian, very few outlets selling vegetarian meals apart from just vegetables themselves. Now every supermarket has a Vegan/Vegetarian range, practically every restaurant or takeaway has Vegetarian options, so we’re getting there. It’s not something to be seen as an imposition, or a difficult person transition (like quitting smoking), it’s a lifestyle made by choice as a more enlightened way of being, so comes naturally to those who are progressing further along the path. Of course, there are also those who decide to follow a vegan or vegetarian diet purely for reasons of physical health rather than from the point of view of personal ethics and compassion (which also can accord with Spiritual/Religious beliefs).
trev
October 18, 2020 at 2:35 pm
The fishing industry represents 0.1% of the UK’s GDP and the car industry 4%. If we leave the EU without a deal is it really worth losing our car industry, which employs tens of thousands, in order to keep an unimportant fishing industry forty times smaller? And where will British fishermen sell their fish considering that currently 75% of their catch gets sold to EU countries? Most of the fish that the British eat come from waters around other countries, e.g., Iceland, anyway so if we can sell our fish to the EU what good would a fishing industry be with no market for its catch?
Cardrew
October 18, 2020 at 3:35 pm
Are we finally going to see a British Prime Minister stand up to the French, and say ”Non, Monsieur ! Not another British cod, or a haddock, or a plaice for you. Allez-vous ! and let us have no more of your trawlers in our precious British seas ? ”
Hornblower
October 18, 2020 at 4:18 pm
Are we finally going to see a French President stand up to the British and say: “Merde alors! Tit for tat, mon ami, an eye for an eye. We will slap tariffs on the 40% of exports, goos and service, which you sell to the EU like banking, legal services, insurance, food, drink, cars… you name it… which will stall your sales of your exports to European markets leaving you dead calmed at sea. I hope you enjoy eating fish, mon brave, because when we stop taking 75% of your catches that you used to sell to us will rot unless you live off it.”
Samuel Mathers
October 18, 2020 at 5:33 pm
When is Boris Johnson & Matt Hancock coming back off their 6 day holiday. They only so called work one day a week.
Stepping Razor Sound Plate System
October 18, 2020 at 2:56 pm
Make a difference – become a jobcentre Work Coach
Work Coach roles – new vacancies coming soon!
DWP and local jobcentres have launched a nationwide Work Coach recruitment drive with roles available in different cities and regions across the country.
Having completed the first wave of advertised vacancies, from November 9th you’ll see new vacancies go live in different locations, so if you’re passionate about customer service and want a rewarding career that makes a difference to people’s lives, then we want to hear from you.
Being a jobcentre Work Coach is more than a job
As a Work Coach you will get the chance to play your part in helping customers to find work. You’ll be part of a key network of nationwide Jobcentre Plus staff where no two days are the same. You can join a team that will support you as well as our customers, forge new friendships with DWP colleagues and have the chance to shine in a role that really can make a difference to the community.
DWP is a flexible employer adapting at pace to the restrictions presented through COVID-19. We help our staff balance work, home life and support their wellbeing. The role of a Work Coach is adapting to this new world; we’re balancing the need to see customers face to face in a jobcentre, working in our partner’s premises and operating virtually.
We are a fair and inclusive employer and welcome applications for our Work Coach roles to help us reflect the citizens we serve.
Stepping Razor Sound Plate System
October 18, 2020 at 3:07 pm
“””so if you’re passionate about customer service “””
Stepping Razor Sound Plate System
October 18, 2020 at 3:08 pm
“””You can join a team that will support you as well as our customers, forge new friendships with DWP colleagues and have the chance to shine in a role that really can make a difference to the community.””””
Stepping Razor Sound Plate System
October 18, 2020 at 3:09 pm
I would like that job. Is it open to people with disabilities Justin Tomlinson or does bipolar not count as a disability !!!
Stepping Razor Sound Plate System
October 18, 2020 at 3:11 pm
Seven month nearly now since the first lockdown and still no contact from the Jobcentre and with a second wave of coronavirus in the offing I doubt now that I will be troubled by the Jobcentre now before next year. Which is great but weird because before the Covid-19 contagion they were on my arse whenever an opportunity presented itself. It’s incredible that I haven’t had an email, text, phone call or message in my universal credit journal for seven months, but I haven’t, although my monthly payments have continued regular as clockwork. I mean how do they know that I’m even still alive and haven’t passed away between last March and now? Long may it continue as far as I am concerned but considering how zealous, even over zealous, work coaches have been previously I really am finding this experience the strangest thing.
Ro
October 18, 2020 at 3:27 pm
The library is down to 15 minutes’ and the Jobcentre doesn’t appear to be open if theres no internet then someones jobsearch is in trouble through no fault of their own even if somethings seen out its apply online .Its the same here seven months just keep a record of whats being done in jobsearch.It seems everything’s needed and expected these days’.
ken
October 18, 2020 at 4:36 pm
In my opinion the only good thing about this coronavirus pandemic is that those on legacy benefits,JSA, etc.have very little, if any, contact with the Jobcentre. When this started I expected that the effects of the pandemic would extend into Spring 2020 at least and it looks as if I may be right. The unemployment crisis will probably cause the DWP to ignore us, so long as they keep up the automatic payments, for a considerable time, though I’m sure they’ll get round to us eventually. If we’re lucky, since a large number of us will probably be approaching retirement age, they might think us too much of a hassle to deal with especially many of us have had considerable of dealing with them and are not going to take any of their crap lying down. The main thing that I find frustrating is that all libraries, museums, archives,etc. are either closed or have severely restricted opening hours since they are at the centre of my social life. I had no personal computer access before so I had to pay a hefty bus fare at least three times a week just to get to the nearest library from where I live out in the country. Now I make only one journey into town a week since there are some good shops in my village and it makes me better off since I don’t have to pay 2 large bus fares. I eventually managed to get a BT router for my standalone laptop so I can now access the Internet but I won’t tell the DWP. In addition phone reception is unreliable where I live even with a digital answerphone so I don’t use a mobile just a landline and the DWP know about this so I don’t get much hassle from them.
ben
October 20, 2020 at 3:35 pm
https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/gadgets-and-tech/news/investigatory-powers-bill-act-snoopers-charter-browsing-history-what-does-it-mean-a7436251.html
The Snoopers Charter
You do know that the DWP can access your internet records ?
Sneaky Pete
October 20, 2020 at 3:44 pm
If the Job Centers are not implementing the Universal Credit rules because of the virus then the whole Universal Credit system is a failure relying on legacy benefit tactics to run Universal Credit.
Does the corona Virus have a closing date !! Then why do all benefits aka furlough – New Style ESA – New Style JSA – Disability Grants & so on have closing dates !!! That means Universal Credit has a closing date to shut down for good & be scrapped.
Stepping Razor Sound Plate System
October 18, 2020 at 3:35 pm
Yes you are right Jeff, this country still has considerable wealth and capital reserves. At least relative to many others. We could have a very different society than we do. But as Trev has said, the wealthy want the status quo to stay as it is. They have always been opposed to structural change. It is not in the interest of established wealth to have their assets reduced, and power diminished by greater equality,
Edward Martling
October 18, 2020 at 4:10 pm
Thing it’s not only the wealthy who vote in elections and Corbynite Labour was comprehensively rejected in the recent general election by the people not the rich: the British people themselves gave Jezza and his brand of socialist Labour the second worst defeat in a general election in the party’s history. It isn’t the wealthy that are stalling societal evolution, extension of social justice, enhancing equality and effecting change but the common people themselves. It’s naive to the point of stupidity to blame the rich every fault and injustice in society when it’s the common man who elects governments and calls the shots periodically, every four or five years in elections.
Robins
October 18, 2020 at 4:39 pm
The Dec 2019 Election was about Brexit.
Stepping Razor Sound Plate System
October 18, 2020 at 4:46 pm
@ Robins
Ordinarily though it’s Hobson’s choice between the Tories and Faux Labour. The British public had their one and only chance to change things for the better by electing Jeremy Corbyn and they blew it. They rejected the once in a lifetime opportunity of having a Socialist Government and instead cut off their nose to spite their face by voting Tory, and all because of Brexit xenophobia.
trev
October 18, 2020 at 5:15 pm
It was the common man that wanted Brexit not the wealthy.
Robins
October 18, 2020 at 5:25 pm
@ Robins
“not the wealthy”
Crispin Odey? Jacob Rees Mogg? Boris Johnson? Nigel Farrage?
The common man was duped into voting Leave by the lies of rich men who stand to become even richer.
trev
October 18, 2020 at 5:34 pm
The voting franchise only allows men and women who have reached their majority to vote. It’s up to the politicians to set out their tables, pick their leaders, and offer their policies and themselves as candidates for election to the House of Commons to implement those policies. Every single poll showed that Jeremy Corbyn was not acceptable to the vast majority of voters to be their next Prime Minister and that voters did not believe that Labour’s Utopian manifesto could be implemented in reality. Even if Labour had not been at war with itself and held a confused ambiguous position as per to Brexit the Labour party had no chance whatsoever of winning power with Corbyn as its leader and the Shadow Cabinet which he selected to surround him.
No hope, no chance, not in a million years.
Blaming the electorate for not electing a party to power won’t help that party win enough support to win power and I, for one, really don’t believe that the citizens of this country are as easily led, naive and stupid as you do. In fact it seems quite likely to me that Labour’s misstep when it rolled the dice with Corbyn, might well be to blame for Labour not being elected to office for another 25 years.
Robins
October 18, 2020 at 5:56 pm
@ Robins
Brexit was definitely Labour’s undoing, they fudged it and misjudged the feelings of the electorate and failed to recognize just how racist, xenophobic and misinformed the electorate really are. It was inevitably thus, Labour were stuck between a rock and a hard place, damned if they did and damned if they didn’t. Brexit aside, Corbyn and McDonnell were offering the Government that I and many others have waited for all our lives. If Labour fail to recover now and in the near future it won’t be any of Corbyn’s doing, blame the Rightwingers and Blairites within the party who have now got what they wanted.
trev
October 18, 2020 at 7:09 pm
33% of the nation voted Brexit. 32% of the nation voted against Brexit. 35% of the nation did not vote.
Stepping Razor Sound Plate System
October 18, 2020 at 6:03 pm
So how come all the Tories voters are moaning about Boris Johnson & how useless he his as Prime minister & Brexit !!!
Stepping Razor Sound Plate System
October 18, 2020 at 6:07 pm
Deep in the stormy waters,
That surround this Blessed Isle,
British fish are swimming,
And swimming with a smile.
The sturdy cod, the clever plaice,
The silver mackerel too,
Let them be served as British fish,
With golden chips and peas.
And sprinkled with salt and vinegar,
These heroes from the seas.
Not in some foreign restaurant,
Served up in a garlic stew,
For these are British fish,
And that’s not the thing to do.
Random Poet
October 18, 2020 at 5:07 pm
On the bright side when we can’t sell the fish we catch to the EU most of the fishing fleet will go bust. After that, undisturbed, fish stocks and ecology of the sea will hopefully, over time, improve and recover.
Aleister
October 18, 2020 at 5:38 pm
@ Aleister
I’d like to think you’re right but then there’s this:
Supertrawlers
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/aug/13/supertrawlers-ramp-up-activity-uk-protected-waters-during-lockdown
trev
October 18, 2020 at 5:45 pm
Well at least it looks as if Trump is toast which means that America might return to the fold of countries committed to try to slow or even turn back climate change due to mankind’s industry. I have to hope that human beings will have enough sense and reason to act to stem the pollution of the seas and atmosphere for the sake of all life, not least the future of my children. When Trump falls, as now looks likely, hope will swell.
Aleister
October 18, 2020 at 9:41 pm
biden is toast
Burisma Joe
October 18, 2020 at 11:14 pm
@ Burisma Joe
That was shown to be fake news. Trump and his confederates are getting desperate and suffering the consequences, e.g., Kayleigh McEnany being suspended by Twitter.
https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/12935203/twitter-suspects-trump-press-kayleigh-mcenany/
And Trump tweeting fake news because he can’t tell the truth from a lie:
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8847903/Trump-tweets-satire-websites-claim-Twitter-shut-slow-spread-negative-Biden-news.html
Biden is well ahead of Trump in all polls, including important swing states which helped wangle the presidency for Trump last time, even though Hillary Clinton garnered three million more votes than him countrywide. In a couple of week Trump will be in the last few months of is presidency before leaving the White House and returning to private life, confidence trickery and swindling. Not only are the Democrats going to hold the House of Representatives but gain the Senate too thanks to the tireless efforts of The Donald to destroy the Republican party single-handed. The next time we hear about him will be when he’s put on trial for tax evasion. Worse than that how will such a bullshitter, boaster and egoist ever be able to recover from having his arse whipped in an election by Joe Biden? It couldn’t happen to a nastier guy.
Aleister
October 19, 2020 at 6:46 am
Better to stop eating fish altogether.
trev
October 18, 2020 at 7:11 pm
I hope there’s an exemption for Fish Fingers. trev.
Captain Birdseye
October 18, 2020 at 7:51 pm
You must let your own conscience decide.
trev
October 18, 2020 at 8:02 pm
You are not going to convince me for a start.
Farm animals are reared to provide meat, and other products like wool, eggs and milk. They would not be brought into existence without human farming. Without that they would not there in the first place. Mass veganism would result in the mass elimination of animals.
The same applies to fish farms.
Fish caught in the sea should be taken from managed resources, but lacking central nervous systems most vegetarian arguments do not apply to them in the first place.
The biggest threat to wild animal life is the human population, which continues to grow.
Mass veganism would increase the area under cultivation and would further eliminate both bio-diversity (end of farmed animals) and erode natural habitat.
For these ethical reasons, as well as cultural heritage from eating a mixed animal and plant diet, veganism should be rejected.
Andrew Coates
October 18, 2020 at 8:14 pm
“You are not going to convince me…”
It is not up to me to convince you or anyone else. Your own conscience will ultimately convince you, eventually, either in this lifetime or in a future incarnation.
trev
October 18, 2020 at 8:25 pm
Captain Boris Eye Fish Fingers.
Stepping Razor Sound Plate System
October 18, 2020 at 8:11 pm
Erm.
“All meats have a higher climate, land and water footprint than the same quantity of plant-based foods. In the worst case (meat from ruminants, like beef and lamb), this can be 10–100 times greater than plant-based foods.
“Chicken and pork have a lower climate footprint than ruminant meat, as they do not produce methane like the ruminants do, but the downside is that they are not able to eat grass, so compete with humans for plant-based foods.
“The best foods by far, from an environmental perspective, are plant-based.”
Professor Peter Smith, Chair in Plant and Soil Science at the University of Aberdeen and Convening Lead Author for the United Nations’ body: Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)
https://www.bbc.co.uk/food/articles/meat_environment#:~:text=“All%20meats%20have%20a%20higher%20climate%2C%20land%20and,can%20be%2010–100%20times%20greater%20than%20plant-based%20foods.
Greta
October 18, 2020 at 9:45 pm
trev wasn’t A. Hitler a Vegetarian ?
Shiva
October 18, 2020 at 11:23 pm
@ Shiva
Yes, he had a bowel disorder that meant he had problems digesting meat. You surely don’t think a person such as he would have been vegetarian for ethical or compassionate reasons! On the contrary, purely selfish reasons.
trev
October 18, 2020 at 11:30 pm
trev Is it true that the Nazis were the forerunner to the modern day Ecology/Environmentalist/Green movement ?
Twinkle Toes
October 18, 2020 at 11:47 pm
@Quite right Random, you are a true patriot and I salute you !
Colonel Mustard
October 18, 2020 at 11:08 pm
The country is lost, still waiting for leadership & can’t wait any longer with civil unrest with what seems the Brexiteers complaining about the Corona Virus rules. If a full lockdown is imposed the police can’t cope & the Tory Government will have to bring in the British Army to impose Martial Law & help with the floods.
Stepping Razor Sound Plate System
October 18, 2020 at 8:15 pm
Fake Coat. The EU and Owen Jones are responsible for the floods.
Michel Barnier
October 18, 2020 at 8:56 pm
Boris is still waiting for the Brexit sand bags that are Made In China to arrive.
Stepping Razor Sound Plate System
October 18, 2020 at 9:18 pm
An interesting article:
Covid-19 resurgence – a glimpse of the apocalypse
https://socialistresistance.org/covid-19-resurgence-a-glimpse-of-the-apocalypse/20872
trev
October 18, 2020 at 9:23 pm
@trev don’t scare people with reality they can’t take it. Which leads me onto showing up societies fears about everything, people getting worked up on social media for some sort of comfort from reality, masses not knowing what to think. Boris as we know is useless. The very serious sad thing about it all is that so much was predictable & preventable but out leader Boris thinks different than the rest of us.
Stepping Razor Sound Plate System
October 18, 2020 at 9:32 pm
I am a writer & am writing the new Ken Loach script for the Part 3 of I Daniel Blake.
The Ending Of A Regime
Stepping Razor Sound Plate System
October 18, 2020 at 9:37 pm
trev – superted – Andrew & more actors will have a job.
Stepping Razor Sound Plate System
October 18, 2020 at 9:40 pm
Working with me you don’t pay income tax because it is disability & disability does not pay tax for working.
Stepping Razor Sound Plate System
October 18, 2020 at 9:42 pm
id want to be paid in gold bars 😉
superted
October 18, 2020 at 9:59 pm
Trevor Eve was good as Eddie Shoestring.
Alan Turner
October 18, 2020 at 10:14 pm
watch the last dispatches on c4 they clean the meat with liquid shite! my main food supply is pot noodles lol
superted
October 18, 2020 at 9:37 pm
The Great British Disabled Kill Off DWP Bake Off.
Part 4.
Cleansing of disabled people because they are not able bodied is the wish of society that disabled people caused the last recession by poncing off the DWP & they did to be taught a lesson not to scrounge off the state. The answer is to work to cure all disabilities & be able bodied to fit in with the rest of society. Sounding like Welfare Reform. The Tory Disabled killing machine DWP Tory Genocide Pre Meditated State Sponsored Murder by the British Government making ££ Billion in doing so helping disabled people die.
Stepping Razor Sound Plate System
October 18, 2020 at 9:49 pm
Make £ Billions out DWP Assisted Suicide Policy with the Disability Unit Government White & Green Paper showing how much the Tories make by caring.
Stepping Razor Sound Plate System
October 18, 2020 at 9:52 pm
We told you before Justin Tomlinson when you had your first go at being the failed Disability Minister.
Stepping Razor Sound Plate System
October 18, 2020 at 9:53 pm
Silent Lockdown Night, Silent Curfew Night STOP THAT CAROL SINGING
We Three Kings From PPE.
Jingle Face Mask Bells.
On The 1st Day Of Christmas Lockdown The Martial Law Said To Me.
Stepping Razor Sound Plate System
October 18, 2020 at 9:59 pm
had a letter from plod yesterday after there visit a few months ago.
mr/miss scribble also works at the plod shop as do not want accountability for there actions!
at lest they never cut my front door in half with a chain saw like they did last time pmsl as they had to pay for a new one cos was taking the piss no charges and had to fix there fuck up pmsl.
superted
October 18, 2020 at 10:19 pm
What were you accused of ?
The Hanging Judge
October 18, 2020 at 10:40 pm
i cant say as they may want to take civil action but it will not go anywhere and cost them a fortune if they want to try it on.
superted
October 18, 2020 at 10:50 pm
A capital crime, no less.
Isaac Charles Parker
October 18, 2020 at 11:06 pm
A capital crime, no less.
Judge Isaac Charles Parker
October 18, 2020 at 11:07 pm
@hanging judge: Superted was accused of the elimination by satellite laser-beam, of two DWP Special Operations teams. Hacking into the secret satellite control centre. Plus damaging two buildings in Gloucester City centre.
Prospero
October 18, 2020 at 11:34 pm
@superted: You should never have gone around in that yellow jumpsuit, carrying a samurai sword.
Benson
October 18, 2020 at 11:40 pm
Better watch they don’t enter your back door without your consent.
The Village People
October 18, 2020 at 11:02 pm
Shut that door! It’s a gay day, today!
Larry Grayson
October 18, 2020 at 11:10 pm
I did not post that comment, must be trev trying his hand at trolling.
Larry Grayson
October 18, 2020 at 11:19 pm
I can’t abide veganism, it’s not only the menu, but the sense of moral superiority,
Tom Sutton
October 18, 2020 at 11:10 pm
What about vegetarianism? It’s not quite as strict but is at least a step along the way to being a more responsible and compassionate person.
trev
October 18, 2020 at 11:23 pm
…if entered into for the right reasons I might add.
trev
October 18, 2020 at 11:24 pm
https://www.politico.eu/article/germany-bio-nazis-go-green-natural-farming-right-wing-extremism/
Bio-Nazis’ go green in Germany
‘Clean’ eating and organic farming is once again becoming the purview of the right
Richard Walther Darré
October 19, 2020 at 4:16 am
I’m vegan and don’t dislike anybody really, to each his own I say.
Smiler
October 19, 2020 at 9:40 am
@Andrew Coates – I must agree with you there Andrew, there are a number of important points that vegans always refuse to accept. As you mention, the environmental damage that would be caused by mass cultivation of the vegetables. The sheer amount of water required, this will be key in the future. Plus many other things, such as the simple biological fact that humans are omnivores. Like our chimpanzee cousins, with whom we share 98% DNA. We were never designed to eat a plant-based diet, nor was our single-stomach digestive system. Unlike the ruminants, such as cows, who were, and have a very different digestive system. Even our human teeth, designed for a mixed diet. Not pure carnivore, but not vegetarian either.
Some people always want to go to extremes. Like the body-builders who go beyond any normal physique. by taking mass doses of steroids. Vegans are for the most part of the same mind. A lack of balance, and also an excessive spirituality, which becomes fixated on a supposed pure food. Just eat a normal, balanced diet.
Jeff Smith
October 18, 2020 at 11:25 pm
The description of human biology is better put that my arguments Jeff, and I agree entirely.
Many people find Vegans fixated. It’s as if there is some kind of virtue in their diet and that the food they eat has some spiritual value.
They are not just odd but there are lots of distasteful things about their ideas about what we should eat.
One of the simplest joys in life is cheese, real cheese not substitute stuff.
Gouda, Cheddar, Roquefort, Caerphilly, Brie, Red Leicester, and – the big cheese Citizen Camembert.
You can stuff your soja substitute!
Not everybody has our ethical standards of course, and I suppose they can live off oat-milk Youghurt and tofu.
Andrew Coates
October 19, 2020 at 6:25 am
That’s why I’m not a Vegan Andrew, because I do like cheese, but I don’t eat meat, fish, eggs, I use soya milk on my cereals, and I try to keep my purchases of new leather items to a minimum where possible, preferring to either buy old second hand leather items or man-made materials. It’s just a lifestyle choice, like doing your recycling properly, we can all make a difference in small ways.
trev
October 19, 2020 at 10:13 am
I hear that, Andrew. I have found vegans not just to be fixated, but also downright creepy. I also find their sanctimonious holier-than-thou attitude distasteful as well. I do, however, respect their right not to eat meat and dairy products. I just wish they would reciprocate and respect my right to eat meat and dairy products. They display the worst kind of intolerant attitude imaginable. If you don’t agree with them, you are some how a lesser form of life. Like most fanatics, you either agree with them – or else!
jj joop
October 19, 2020 at 10:34 am
Not true.
Producing meat is uses MORE natural resources than equivalent quantities of plant based food and costs MUCH more to produce pound for pound.
https://www.wri.org/resources/charts-graphs/animal-based-foods-are-more-resource-intensive-plant-based-foods
Livestock pollutes more, not least by emitting vast amounts of methane which exacerbate global warming.
Humans were NOT designed to eat meat as our teeth and anatomy clearly shows – no fangs, sharp claws and flesh-ripping incisors or beaks – nor is meat necessary in human diets order to be healthy.
https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/320047
In fact meat is carcinogenic and responsible for huge numbers of premature deaths:
https://www.cancer.org/latest-news/world-health-organization-says-processed-meat-causes-cancer.html#:~:text=And%20it%20has%20classified%20red%20meat%20as%20a,in%20some%20way%20to%20preserve%20or%20flavor%20it.
Humans do NOT need meat and continue to to consume it purely because they enjoy its taste even though the less meat you eat the more likely you are to live a long and healthy life. Fact. And it is indisputable that if you want to address the greenhouse effect, food shortages and starvation globally you are much better off farming cereals, vegetables, fruit and fungi than meat because, acre for acre, you can harvest far more food, use fewer resources and cause much less pollution farming plants than livestock. FACT.
That is what the impartial science.
Carry on eating meat if you want to but don’t deceive yourselves into believing that you have to.
End of.
Jem
October 19, 2020 at 7:10 am
There is no global warming the earth is getting cooler, ever heard of the grand solar minimum? It began last year!
Cloverleaf
October 19, 2020 at 7:18 am
“September breaks global and European records for hottest ever”
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/oct/07/september-saw-hottest-temperatures-on-record-globally-and-in-europe
Robins
October 19, 2020 at 7:45 am
Though the man-apes often fought and wrestled each other, their disputes very seldom resulted in serious injuries. Having no claws or fighting canines, and being well protected by hair, they could not inflict much harm on one another. In any event, they had little surplus energy for such unproductive behaviour; snarling and threatening was a much more efficient way of asserting their points of view.
The confrontation lasted about five minutes; then the display died out as quickly as it had begun, and everyone drank his fill of the muddy water. Honour had been satisfied; each group had staked its claim to its own territory. This important business being settled they moved off along its side of the river. The
nearest worthwhile grazing was now more than a mile from the caves, and they had to share it with a herd of
large antelope beasts who barely tolerated their presence. They could not be driven away, for they were armed with ferocious daggers on their foreheads – the natural weapons which the man-apes did not possess.
So Moon-Watcher and his companions chewed berries and fruit and leaves and fought off the pangs of hunger – while all around them, competing for the same fodder, was a potential source of more food than they could ever hope to eat. Yet the thousands of tons of succulent meat roaming over the savannah and through the bush was not only beyond their reach; it was beyond their imagination. In the midst of plenty they were slowly starving to death.
Extract from Primeval Night, 2001: A Space Odyssey by Arthur C. Clarke ©
Arthur C. Clarke
October 19, 2020 at 8:53 am
2001: A Space Odyssey was a work of science fiction not anthropology?
Stormgren
October 19, 2020 at 9:46 am
Only up to a certain point. The beginning the book (Primeval Night) [The Dawn of Man] in the film is an accurate chronicle of man’s beginning. It describes how alien influence gave ape-man the leap from a a hovering-on-the-brink-of-extinction vegan forager to meat-eating carnivore. Unfortunately, like everything else given to man the same ‘technology’ – a large bone – was repurposed and used for bad; the first man-ape on man-ape murder. Aliens saved man’s bacon butty – literally. The remainder of the book is a projection into the future, much of which has uncannily already came true: spaceships, satellites, videophones (at $20 a minute), smartphones, VDUs (video display units), ATM machines.,, Anyway, you have to read the book to understand the film.
Stanley Kubrick.
October 19, 2020 at 10:15 am
It is true to say that most of 2001:A Space Odyssey is now science fact
Stanley Kubrick
October 19, 2020 at 10:17 am
The killer ape theory of Raymond Dart and his successors was debunked ages ago, Stanley, and if you hadn’t come to a halt in spring of ’99, when you died, you would have known this. Consider for example:
https://source.wustl.edu/2006/02/man-the-hunter-theory-is-debunked-in-new-book/
If Clarke was writing that novel now, with a different title of course, it probably would be quite different.
Darwin Wallace
October 19, 2020 at 11:05 am
I’m ever so sorry. I didn’t realise that I had passed on. I obviously wasn’t paying attention and my demise had escaped my notice. I do apologise most sincerely.
Stanley Kubrick (deceased)
October 19, 2020 at 11:29 am
“The reports of my death are greatly exaggerated”. (Mark Twain)
trev
October 19, 2020 at 11:49 am
Me too! As dead as a dodo.
Arthur C. Clarke (deceased)
October 19, 2020 at 11:40 am
Nonsense. Jeff Smith & Andrew Coates are quite right. Humans were never designed for a plant-based diet.
And your comment just shows the fixated behaviour they discuss. ‘End Of ?’ I don’t think so. Only in your restricted little world.
Tom Sutton
October 19, 2020 at 1:23 pm
@jem: See what we mean ? You are just showing the true intolerant side of a vegan. Like a cult based on what you put in your stomach. Humans are omnivores, it’s a fact. And if you want to join the politically correct 19 year-olds waving their banners and being ‘woke’ that’s up to you. But don’t try and push your dogma onto ordinary people, who just want to eat a normal diet.
Frank Taylor
October 19, 2020 at 1:29 pm
@ Frank Taylor
Jem stated scientific facts not opinions. Would she/he be expressing intolerance if she/he stated that if you jumped off a cliff gravity would bring you back to earth in a potentially fatal way? And it wouldn’t matter what you personally believed, one way or another, that would make any difference to you sustaining injury or death because of the fall? Or if you stuck you fingers in a naked flame would believing that you were inflammable and fireproof stop you from burning yourself despite all your personal views to the contrary? You sound like Donald Trump with his alternative facts agenda where both truth and untruth are equally valid and if you challenge untruth you are unfair or intolerant. The truth should always be spoken publicly and nobody should allow false beliefs, fictions or lies to go unchallenged because THAT is the way that true intolerance rears it’s head and divides people as is happening now in America under Trump, happened in Germany under the Nazis, and Afghanistan under the Taliban.
Jem didn’t say that you shouldn’t stop eating meat only that it was more costly to produce than plant-based foods, pollutes the environment more during its production, causes more disease than plant-based foods and was not necessary to human beings to maintain their health and welfare, all of which modern science confirms. That really is the unvarnished truth whether you like it or not and it is honest not intolerant to state it. If anything it’s people like you, who disregard the valid opinions of others, disliking whole categories of men and women as if all of them are the same and different than you, maybe not as good as you, who are the ones guilty of prejudice and discrimination.
I am surprised to find people on this blog, many benefit claimants or individuals requiring support who are often disapproved of and often are discriminated against by others in society, so eager to band together to curl the lip at citizens advocating a valid lifestyle that reverences life and is so harmless and inoffensive.
I expected more plurality and tolerance on a forum like this.
John
October 19, 2020 at 3:15 pm
FUN FACT
DID YOU KNOW?
Eating a high-protein diet can cause dehydration if you don’t drink a lot of water.
Your body can use only so much protein each day. Any surplus must be converted into
urea and excreted in the urine. The conversion requires a surprising amount of water
seven times what you’d need to metabolize the same number of calories in
carbohydrates. That’s why high-protein diets always call for extra fluids. It also explains
why athletes on high-protein regimens are especially prone to water loss: they not only
sweat a lot, but also give up water for protein extraction.
Fun Fact
October 19, 2020 at 5:04 pm
@ Jeff
I’m not yet a Vegan myself, but am not far off. And as I’ve said I don’t seek to impose it on anyone, I just believe that it is a natural progression that we arrive at by choice. But yes, I do personally also attach some Spiritual views towards the eating of meat, from what I have learned from studying some esoteric Spiritual teachings, Mystic Christianity, Rosicrucianism, White Eagle, and the ancient Mystery School, etc. but again I don’t expect anyone else to subscribe to those beliefs.
trev
October 19, 2020 at 10:22 am
Talking of food, my local foodbank has just done their annual report and in the last 12 months has provided enough food for 280,437 meals. That’s just one foodbank in one town. Welcome to Tory Britain.
trev
October 19, 2020 at 12:00 pm
Seems like Jeff Smith is passively aggressively having a go at trev whilst maintaining a facade of reasonableness.
Epping Forest
October 18, 2020 at 11:34 pm
I didn’t read it like that myself.
trev
October 19, 2020 at 11:51 am
@trev- My comments were only a genuine expression of my opinion, and not in any way a direct attack on your right to hold contrary beliefs. But of course I am sure you realised that.
Jeff Smith
October 19, 2020 at 12:11 pm
Of course Jeff, and you are entitled to your opinion. I just wonder though, when talking about specific ‘groups’, if there’s a danger of stereotyping. In the case of vegans, some may come across as ‘food fascists’, over zealous and dictatorial, but there are probably many others quietly doing their own thing, humbly following their own life philosophy. We can’t tar everyone with the same brush. Like I said, I’m vegetarian not quite vegan so I certainly don’t think of myself as being perfect by a long chalk, in that regard or anything else! I do believe we are all on a path of progression though, spiritually speaking in terms of multiple life experiences and Soul growth, slowly making our way towards Perfection, and that includes all our thoughts and deeds, not just diet, but everything from personality traits to lifestyle and everything in between.
trev
October 19, 2020 at 12:38 pm
After all, I’m sure none of us want to end up like the character ‘Keith’ in Leigh’s ‘Nuts in May’, bossing poor Candice-Marie into chewing her peanuts 240 times! Haha 😆
trev
October 19, 2020 at 12:51 pm
MPs demand extra financial support during 5 week wait for Universal Credit
https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/politics/mps-demand-extra-financial-support-22865120
xclausx
October 19, 2020 at 9:11 am
SNP MP calls for Universal Credit loans to be turned into grants as scathing benefits report issued
Glasgow South West MP Chris Stephens said a cross-party report on the failures of Universal Credit vindicated the case for turning advance loans into simpler grant payments.
https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/politics/snp-mp-calls-universal-credit-22866135
ken
October 19, 2020 at 5:04 pm
ken
October 19, 2020 at 5:08 pm
It makes perfect sense that UC should be payable from day one of the claim, and/or backdated to day one. Why on earth would it be otherwise? IDS has already admitted that there was/is no valid reason for the current rule, that it was simply a “Policy decision”, in other words just for the hell of it.
As for making the £80 per month increase a permanent one, again hard to argue otherwise, and of course no valid reason to exclude it from JSA/ESA either. It’s just deliberate Tory meanness from the Nasty Party, pure and simple, or yet more evidence if any were needed of the ongoing Class War being waged against us.
trev
October 19, 2020 at 5:20 pm
@ It is very cruel. But that’s what they are like, and they couldn’t care less. But if they don’t keep the £20 extra there is going to be real trouble next April. Too many people on it now to mess about like this.
Pete
October 19, 2020 at 6:00 pm
Update from the world of work : in between wringing my hands and being an idiot, I was told there had been ” an incident” and the whole of year 3 had gone home, to return on 3 November. I clean the 3 classes at night, but as I don’t exist and cleaners are at no risk as we don’t meet the kids, it’s business as usual for me! My boss later said the bubble had been contaminated, all I can say is it must of been serious as it’s not standard now to send an entire year group home. I’ll try to find out more tomorrow, I’m feeling crap, my 4th lot of antibiotics now for a sinus infection that won’t shift! I swear it’s the cloth mask we have now, I told my boss, whos my member and he immediately told me to try a medical one, of course the seniors aren’t pleased as they cost more!! Oh what fun! Watch this space…..
Kat Rehman
October 19, 2020 at 5:50 pm
@kat rehman – So really, you could have been working in an even more contaminated environment, without any extra protective measures in place ? It is very wrong to take this cavalier attitude to other people’s safety.
Alan Turner
October 19, 2020 at 5:57 pm
Alan exactly, I don’t buy the we aren’t at risk because we don’t meet the kids crap, we meet their dirty tissues and their wee and poo, and if they cough all over a desk……
We are provided with a clean overall every shift, they wash it , a cloth mask with our own names on it, again they wash it, I had to fight to get us our rubber thick gloves, we wear a pair of thin latex over the top. Most schools in our area close early one day each week, they pay overtime to their cleaners to come early and deep clean, ours won’t spend the money. The seniors aren’t happy I was in a medical mask today, my boss takes the attitude he’d rather I was in and working comfortably than off sick with my sinus, and to be fair he does everything he can to help us.
I’ll try to find out more tomorrow to update. The seniors do not discuss anything as we “don’t need to know”!
Kat Rehman
October 19, 2020 at 6:30 pm
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/coronavirus-children-transmission-adults-french-study-a9582976.html
Coronavirus: School children don’t appear to spread disease, study finds
ken
October 19, 2020 at 6:33 pm
@ Kat
What a situation to be in. Do be careful Kat, don’t want you catching the bloody virus. The medical type masks are available in multi packs that work out at 50p each, I know because the lady who runs my local laundrette bought a pack. Take care.
trev
October 19, 2020 at 6:32 pm
Thanks Trev, I may well try to source my own supply of medical masks for a quiet life!
Kat Rehman
October 19, 2020 at 6:40 pm
It was 11 tissues actually, and I’m saying the mask could be affecting my long standing sinus issues. However I continue to wear one to protect myself. I have done lots of training and am aware of the need for PPE. My boss says the issue could be the cloth masks are only meant to be washed so many times and could have worn out now, and the fumes from the disinfectant could be irritating, or it could be I would do better in a medical mask. And Caiwu would you like to pick up 11 used tissues from the floor? When I was a primary kid we were taught to pick our litter up, now they get away with dropping tissues and even used plasters on the floor. We aren’t told if these kids have hepatitis or HIV, it isn’t a question of us moaning, it’s basic safety and respect!
Kat Rehman
October 19, 2020 at 6:39 pm
Its a case of having to live with coronavirus in day to day life,its on surfaces not just air.Its school children who dont take the school service bus and get on the the non s bus that fill up the spaces getting on the exit door in some areas.
ken
October 20, 2020 at 6:26 pm
People can’t just start work with nothing. If they’ve been unemployed long-term, they might well have no savings or anything to fall back on. Because they have been living week to week.
George M.
October 19, 2020 at 6:04 pm
@ Benazir Bhutto
Can you provide any further details of the context in which Gandhi allegedly said that, IF he ever said it, where and when and to whom? And he did he provide any explanation of that bizarre viewpoint ? Any references would be appreciated.
trev
October 19, 2020 at 6:58 pm
http://gandhimedia.org/
Saffron
October 19, 2020 at 7:16 pm
Thanks for the reference. Yes it does seem that Gandhi was opposed to vaccination, though he was chiefly talking about small pox, preferring instead the application of a mud poultice, his main objection (as an Hindu) being that the vaccine contained cows blood.
http://www.gutenberg.org/files/40373/40373-h/40373-h.htm#Page_104
trev
October 19, 2020 at 7:24 pm
This is corona virus conspiracy theory, once again. Children can carry 50 times the viral load of an adult, with no apparent symptoms at all.
Frank Taylor
October 19, 2020 at 6:59 pm
The independent fact checkers at fullfact.org disagree your conspiracy theory Frank Taylor.
https://fullfact.org/health/children-silent-super-spreaders-coronavirus/
Alan Turner
October 19, 2020 at 7:09 pm
@frank taylor: Very true , these clowns are just conspiracy theorists trying it on. Young children are virtually immune to the virus, and can act as strong potential carriers. Hence the complete isolation of grandparents from their grandchildren that we saw in the first lockdown. One affectionate hug of a grandparent from a grandchild, if infected, could be fatal.
Gordon H.
October 19, 2020 at 9:44 pm
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/coronavirus-children-transmission-adults-french-study-a9582976.html
Gordon H. Are you saying The Independent newspaper and the authors of this study are engaging in conspiracy theories ?
“School children don’t appear to pass Covid-19 onto their teachers and classmates, a study has found.”
“Researchers say the study also suggests that children are largely asymptomatic and appear less contagious than adults. It also showed that adults appeared to be infecting children rather than the other way around.”
“A separate French study published earlier this month also suggested that children are both less likely to catch the novel disease and transmit it to adults.”
“In the UK, health officials have said the virus poses a “minuscule” risk to children’s health.”
Flash Gordon
October 19, 2020 at 9:55 pm
The schools, Colleges and Universities shouldn’t have reopened whilst all this is still going on. Pubs too. We need another full lockdown or we’ll never stop this bloody virus.
trev
October 19, 2020 at 9:59 pm
While your at it close down all Food Banks for good
trev
October 19, 2020 at 10:03 pm
You can link to conspiracy sites and fake scientists all you like. The internet is full of them. It is still all conspiracy theory and utter nonsense.
Frank Taylor
October 19, 2020 at 9:53 pm
The Real Sane Trev, the prats and trolls are posting in your name because they can’t remember their own.?!,
Kat Rehman
October 20, 2020 at 6:46 pm
I think it’s a cry for help.
I see myself as a therapist, harsh but fair.
I’m trying to get them back to talking to themselves, having a wee greet, and get tucking into a healthy diet of Quorn burgers and oat milk substitute while they read copies of Health and Efficiency.
Andrew Coates
October 20, 2020 at 7:39 pm
Mr Coates you have more patience and understanding than me lol! Hope they listen to you and grow to ……?
Kat Rehman
October 20, 2020 at 7:46 pm
I see the trolls are back again, determined to disrupt this blog. Somehow Andrew seems to have really annoyed these people. That isn’t me posting above about ‘independent fact checkers’ . And they are back imitating the regular commentators on this site. Being abusive and making-up rude nicknames for people.
Alan Turner
October 19, 2020 at 9:33 pm
A combination of Rightwingnuts, Covid deniers, anti-lockdown, anti-vax conspiracy types. Why some of them feel the need to impersonate others is a mystery, if you’ve got an opinion to express why not post under your own name?
trev
October 19, 2020 at 9:52 pm
If you’ve got something to say post it under your own name. No one is going to listen to anything you say if you persist with your childish antics.
trev
October 19, 2020 at 10:03 pm
@trev: You know there is something about these trolls that makes me think it’s the same person. Using different names. It’s got a sort of obsessive quality that keeps repeating. Putting up conspiracy theories, then when someone argues with them, they get nasty, and resort to childish name-calling and rude nicknames.
Then there are the rather stupid names they use. Like some frustrated adolescent trying to impress.
The way they post, and then 3 minutes later answer themselves, under a different name. It’s laughable and pathetic. I get the impression of someone uneducated, with poor english grammar, trying to put long words and phrases they have taken from Wikipedia into their posts. In order to seem more educated than they are.
Someone immature, with a strong sense of personal inferiority. Not that intelligent, once again the childish device of imitating other people who are posting. And always one step away from an angry tantrum, and another furious burst of name-calling. Sad and stupid in equal parts.
Jeff Smith
October 19, 2020 at 11:36 pm
That’s a very good self analysis of yourself Jeff. It could also apply to trev.
Jeff Smith
October 19, 2020 at 11:46 pm
trev if you reply to every one called trev it will never stop.
there trying to drive you up the wall like in the vid.
tho he does remind me of a few work coaches in the past where they near lost there shit as could not antagonise me in to a angry response and sat there and smiled and said no to every request for my personnel data and access to my ujm account.
they are civil servants not fkn god pmsl 😉
superted
October 19, 2020 at 11:57 pm
@ Jeff
It’s someone with the mentality of a 12 year old.
trev
October 20, 2020 at 1:54 pm
Covid: Midday deadline for Greater Manchester coronavirus deal
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-54609165
i think it is now time for tier 4 active use of nuclear weapons it has been proven 100% to kill everything they land on cov 19 has no chance.
and in the news anyone cares about there building a burger king over the road from mc Donald’s YAY 🙂
superted
October 19, 2020 at 10:15 pm
@superted: You know they’ve got a new Breakfast Roll ? With cheese, bacon, sausage and egg and a choice of sauces for £2.79
George M.
October 19, 2020 at 11:16 pm
bk burgers smash mc ds but the coke and fries suck so ill load those up at mc ds and cross over the road for me burger and down load it in there.
im sure they will be pissed but will get the message 😉
superted
October 19, 2020 at 11:28 pm
You can’t get vinegar in either of them. What happened to traditional British Salt & Vinegar ?
John Bull
October 19, 2020 at 11:48 pm
Covid: Midday deadline for Greater Manchester coronavirus deal
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-54609165
i think it is now time for tier 4 active use of nuclear weapons it has been proven 100% to kill everything they land on cov 19 has no chance.
and in the news anyone cares about there building a burger king over the road from mc Donald’s YAY 🙂 .
superted
October 19, 2020 at 10:17 pm
bad ass rc plane with built in crowd control SONICBOOM control 😉
superted
October 20, 2020 at 12:13 am
Is Jeff Smith the Jeffrey Toobin of this blog ? It sure seems so.
https://www.theguardian.com/media/2020/oct/19/jeffrey-toobin-zoom-call-new-yorker-suspended
Fat Larrys Band
October 19, 2020 at 11:52 pm
https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/12970184/cnn-jeffrey-toobin-suspended-penis-masturbating-zoom-call/
NEWS FLASH Anti-Trump CNN pundit Jeffrey Toobin ‘masturbated on Zoom call with colleagues’ as he says ‘I thought no one could see’
Seems little Jeffy is also a Conspiracy Theorist.
https://jeffreytoobin.com/books/a-vast-conspiracy-tr/a-vast-conspiracy-el
Jeffy Toobin Smith
October 20, 2020 at 12:08 am
In a way the Covid-deniers, anti-facemask, anti-vax, anti-lockdown morons are like people who play on rail lines, it’s Natural Selection, but unfortunately they will not only risk their own lives, which is fine, but they are likely to infect others too, which is the height of selfish irresponsibility, hence they must be dealt with by the appropriate authorities whether that’s the Police or the Military. Something needs to be done, as a matter of urgency, to remove these idiots from society. Perhaps a concentration camp in isolation on a remote island in the Outer Hebrides.
trev
October 20, 2020 at 10:53 am
A person who puts their needs and freedoms ahead of the needs and safety of society dwells and speaks from a shadowy place indeed. Such an individual has no conscience, sense of solidarity with others, sense of responsibility towards others and nothing whatsoever worth listening to as a consequence. Pay no attention to their ranting, raving and move on; don’t waste the most fleeting of fleeting moments lost in the darkness in which such lost souls dwell.
Rosenkreutz
October 20, 2020 at 11:09 am
@trev – I can only agree Trev, once again you seem to be the voice of reason on this blog. My concern is that if nothing is done to prevent these trolls, then the remaining sensible contributors will simply decide they don’t want to waste their time on here, and go elsewhere.
Alan Turner
October 20, 2020 at 12:27 pm
https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/12971072/matt-hancock-mask-flouting-car/
The leader of trevs Mask Cult FLOUTING the “RULES”
MATT MASK ROW Matt Hancock slammed for ‘putting his chauffeur at risk’ by not wearing a mask
Govinda
October 20, 2020 at 11:44 am
@Gillian: Perhaps it’s not suprising that there are so few women posting on here. It’s like a boys own club for trolls.
Susan
October 20, 2020 at 12:31 pm
Crimes against humanity.
Cloverleaf
October 20, 2020 at 12:36 pm
Circuit Breaker Breaker 1 to Circuit Breaker 2 – Boris are you there it’s Matt, Matt Hancock.
Circuit Code Breaker Breaker 1 to Circuit Code Breaker 2 – Boris are you there it’s Matt, Matt Hancock.
Stepping Razor Sound Plate System
October 20, 2020 at 3:08 pm
https://www.thelancet.com/journals/eclinm/article/PIIS2589-5370(20)30208-X/fulltext#seccesectitle0013
A country level exploratory analysis was conducted to assess the impact of timing and type of national health policy/actions undertaken towards COVID-19 mortality and related health outcomes.
“However, in our analysis, full lockdowns and wide-spread COVID-19 testing were not associated with reductions in the number of critical cases or overall mortality.”
The Lancet is a weekly peer-reviewed general medical journal. It is among the world’s oldest and best-known general medical journals. (not a conspiracy theory, not fake science, not Russian disinformation, not David Icke mumbo jumbo.)
Left Wing Sceptic
October 20, 2020 at 3:35 pm
@Left Wing Sceptic – It also says ‘However, full lockdowns (RR=2.47: 95%CI: 1.085.64) and reduced country vulnerability to biological threats (i.e. high scores on the global health security scale for risk environment) (RR=1.55; 95%CI: 1.132.12)were significantly associated with increased patient recovery rates.’
Stop trying to twist the survey results for your own stupid ends you covid-denying arsehole.
Frank Taylor
October 20, 2020 at 4:02 pm
You can’t simply compare one country with another as far as coronavirus is concerned as if there is a one to one correspondence because countries are not all the same size or have the same numbers of citizens all living in the same way with identical population densities. Somebody stupidly mentioned Latvia above as if it can be compared to the UK which it can’t. Latvia is 3.8 times smaller than the UK but only has 1.5 million citizens compared to the UKs population of 66 million, meaning that Latvia has a population density of 78 people per square mile whereas the UK has a population density of 705 people per square mile. The UK is massively more populous than Latvia and what works in Latvia, as far as Covid-19 is concerned, could not possibly work as well in the UK with it much greater population.
It’s dishonest and exceptionally dumb to try to draw parallels between very different countries.
Another factor that is crucial is national culture and the behaviour of a country’s population. The Swedes have been scrupulously obedient insofar as social distancing and hygiene are concerned in a way that few other countries have which prevented the virus from propagating exponentially as it has in most other western countries. Track and trace is not working properly in the UK precisely because it is voluntary and not enforced allowing people who have been infected and told to isolate themselves to ignore that instruction without penalty.
Because people ignore sensible and moderate rules which would reduce transmission of the virus and because it is difficult to enforce individual instructions to self-isolate potentially infected persons the only sure fire way to control and reduce the spread of the virus is to lockdown a large area, even the whole country, to prevent the infected from spreading the contagion to uninfected others: after locking down the country last march the incidence of Covid-19 fell over a three month period to a very low level as predicted.
Lockdowns do work.
Until a vaccine and effective therapeutics are developed, assuming this is possible, the only way to tackle coronavirus is by personal conduct (social distancing, wearing masks, hygiene and obeying rules regarding travel and contact with others) and, if the foregoing is ignored, a lockdown to force the foregoing on the population whether they like it or not.
Tim
October 20, 2020 at 4:47 pm
@ Tim nice but dim
https://www.thelancet.com/journals/eclinm/article/PIIS2589-5370(20)30208-X/fulltext#seccesectitle0013
“Data was collected from the top 50 countries ranked by number of cases.”
“Lastly, government actions such as border closures, full LOCKDOWNS, and a high rate of COVID-19 testing were NOT associated with statistically significant reductions in the number of critical cases or overall mortality.”
Alan Turner
October 20, 2020 at 5:07 pm
Lockdowns don’t work
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-8808609/DR-JOHN-LEE-Test-Trace-doesnt-work-local-lockdowns-dont-make-sense.html
An epidemic of failure: Test and Trace that doesn’t work, local lockdowns that don’t make sense, flu deaths counted as Covid-19… and an economy on the brink. We somehow made a crisis worse, writes Dr JOHN LEE
Alan Turner
October 20, 2020 at 5:11 pm
Lockdowns do work.
https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2020/03/why-lockdowns-work-epidemics-coronavirus-covid19/
Ta-da.
Tim
October 20, 2020 at 5:46 pm
LOCKDOWN & stop moaning.
Stepping Razor Sound Plate System
October 20, 2020 at 5:48 pm
@ “Alan Turner”
Why are you impersonating the real Alan Turner? Why don’t you post comments under your own name?
trev
October 20, 2020 at 7:11 pm
You can tell their on furlough because they know all the daytime TV programmes.
Stepping Razor Sound Plate System
October 20, 2020 at 7:27 pm
@ Frank Arsehole Taylor
“These findings suggest that more restrictive public health practices MAY indeed be associated with less
transmission and better outcomes. However, in our analysis, full lockdowns and wide-spread COVID-19 testing were not associated with reductions in the number of critical cases or overall mortality.”
I’m not twisting anything. The authors own conclusion states “full lockdowns and wide-spread COVID-19 testing were not associated with reductions in the number of critical cases or overall mortality.”
Not my words,their words.
Left Wing Sceptic
October 20, 2020 at 4:19 pm
As said before those posting under others names prob ably don’t remember their own
Kat Rehman
October 20, 2020 at 7:31 pm
@Kat Rehman – If Andrew doesn’t do something about these trolls, people are not going to bother to post any comments. They are not going to want to wade through a load of troll stupidity, every time they visit the site. This is what happened to Johnny Void, his blog ended up with more trolls than serious commentators. Then the whole blog just died out.
Richard M.
October 21, 2020 at 12:36 am
Johnny Void is/was an anarchist, a great blog, a really great blog, but anarchists would not stop trolls because that would be authoritarian.
On this Blog this tolerance does not exist:<em> Red Terror reigns.
Andrew Coates
October 21, 2020 at 6:20 am
Andrew Coates
October 21, 2020 at 6:27 am
@left Wing Sceptic – You are taking the meaning out of context, as Frank has said. Lockdowns do work, that is also admitted. No-one is interested in your stupid Covid-denial theories. It’s people like you who get other people killed with your selfish stupidity. Just like those mask refusing morons that we see being dragged off aeroplanes by security guards.
George M.
October 21, 2020 at 12:26 am
Proud scab, I’m just a cleaner! Ive had no training and I don’t know how to pick tissues up, could you show me please? It’s 4am, I’ve been awake since 3am and have just emailed my latest concerns to my union branch. As yet my fellow cleaners haven’t even been informed there was another covid case in the school and I was actually in that year groups rooms cleaning them when I was told but there was no risk to myself apparently, I wasn’t issued any extra PPE, nothing.
Kat Rehman
October 21, 2020 at 3:04 am
And proud scab may I say I find nothing evenue remotely funny about your comment, pick the tissues up, I actually do, and find it disgusting anyone could even joke about it in the current climate!
Kat Rehman
October 21, 2020 at 4:01 am
…also Wanky Franky;
“but there was no observed association between public health policies and the number of critical cases or mortality. ”
“Importantly, low levels of national preparedness in early detection and reporting, limited health care capacity, and population characteristics such as advanced age, obesity and higher unemployment rates were key factors associated with increased viral spread and overall mortality.”
Left Wing Sceptic
October 20, 2020 at 4:27 pm
Safety Dispute
20 Oct 2020
DWP withdraws update that confirmed 6.30pm from 30 November 2020
Members Bulletin, DWP/137/20, provided an update on discussions with senior DWP managers on their decision to extend operating hours at 270 Jobcentres and 21 Universal Credit Service Centres from 30 November 2020 and increase footfall across Jobcentres. The bulletin also advised members that following constructive talks with senior DWP managers, PCS achieved concessions aimed at settling our safety dispute.
The Group Executive Committee (GEC) met on Monday 5 October 2020 to discuss the offer from DWP. Whilst acknowledging the initial positive feedback from members and local reps regarding the “empowerment” of Work Coaches, there has been widespread disappointment at the decision not to remove the extension of operating hours on Saturday’s from 30 November 2020, while the country is still in the grip of this pandemic.
The GEC are clear that the union negotiators robust pursuit of our demands, coupled with the strong consultative ballot result and anger shown by members in response to the increase in face to face appointments were responsible for the concessions offered by DWP and unanimously agreed that PCS should continue to pursue our demand to delay the extension of operating hours on a Saturday until it is safe to do so, and explore further DWP’s commitment to consider working from home as an option on a Saturday.
DWP correct 6.30pm message in staff comms
The GEC was extremely disappointed that an Implementation Update was issued on 6 October 2020 advising staff at those sites who were initially planning to operate extended hours from 30 November 2020 that they would still be expected to work until 6.30pm weekdays instead of 8pm. The update stated that, “Anyone who had agreed to work until 8pm on specific days will now be required to work until 6.30pm on those days. Sites will need to adjust their staffing working patterns to enable the individuals effected to make up the remaining 90 minutes within their working week.”
PCS immediately raised this with DWP and made clear our strong objection to this proposal. We highlighted that at no point in negotiations or in the DWP’s letter to the union did they mention that staff at the 270 Jobcentres and 21 UC Service Centres would now be expected to work until 6.30pm on weekdays instead of 8pm. GEC negotiators met with senior DWP managers on 6 October 2020 at which we robustly made the position that as far as working hours is concerned, the status quo must remain. This would mean that staff continue working the hours that they are currently working, not those notified from April 2020 if it had not been for the pandemic.
PCS is pleased to confirm that at a further meeting with DWP on 9 October, the employer confirmed the message in the original Implementation Update was an error and agreed to correct the message, issuing a revised document categorically reiterating that the sites affected will; “now pause the movement to 8pm extended opening hours on weekdays, maintain the current relaxations introduced as part of the COVID response, and for members who had agreed a working pattern that included 8pm finishes, those arrangements will no longer be implemented. Instead, they will continue to work to their patterns currently in operation, taking into account their commitment to work Saturday.”
The employer also stated that there would be quarterly reviews of operating hours that will be conducted in consultation with PCS, the first of which would be in January 2021 at the earliest. The revised Update also confirms that Jobcentres will not open beyond 5pm at least until the need to extend hours is reviewed in the New Year.
Ensuring concessions are implemented
The GEC welcome the decision of DWP to correct the implementation messages and will continue to ensure that this issue and the concessions achieved are implemented fully. Worryingly, the GEC have been contacted by a number of branches over the past week advising that the “empowerment” of Work Coaches has not been implemented successfully. The GEC have provided DWP with the name of every Jobcentre where we have been informed DWP have not implemented Work Coach autonomy and will continue to do so. The department has responded to each example we had escalated and sought to resolve any local implementation issues. If branches believe any of the concessions agreed by the employer are not being adhered to they should raise these immediately with local management and email leeds@pcs.org.uk so we can escalate to senior DWP management.
https://www.pcs.org.uk/department-for-work-and-pensions/news/safety-dispute
superted
October 20, 2020 at 5:00 pm
By the DWP’s own admission Universal Credit is a failure & it’s the corona Virus’s fault !!!
Stepping Razor Sound Plate System
October 20, 2020 at 5:34 pm
Seems so. But as no mention of whether you will be allowed to watch Homes Under the Hammer. The PCS union is “seeking clarification on this as a matter of urgency”.
Beni
October 20, 2020 at 5:44 pm
The DWP are facing loads of legal action. The disability Unit is facing legal action as well as Justin Tomlinson of the treatment of disabled people added with the Corona Virus help that is Disability Unit fraud as well as criminal. Now that it’s criminal it is not political.
Stepping Razor Sound Plate System
October 20, 2020 at 5:26 pm
Tory Criminal Charges.
Stepping Razor Sound Plate System
October 20, 2020 at 5:26 pm
Go 7 see your lawyers yet again. Oh dear the Government have no Government Lawyers left. Well then Tories you need to get a criminal lawyer.
Stepping Razor Sound Plate System
October 20, 2020 at 5:28 pm
Strung Up Like A Kipper Again Tories.
Stepping Razor Sound Plate System
October 20, 2020 at 5:28 pm
The DWP are so fake with their automated chat bots.
Stepping Razor Sound Plate System
October 20, 2020 at 5:36 pm
Tory disaster.
Stepping Razor Sound Plate System
October 20, 2020 at 5:36 pm
PCS: No to DWP management’s plans – Yes to action
https://m.socialistparty.org.uk/issue/1103/31405
trev
October 20, 2020 at 5:35 pm
Yet you can’t post a comment under your own name.
trev
October 20, 2020 at 6:15 pm
Fuck the Tories
trev
October 20, 2020 at 9:59 pm
All dragging your feet to death rather than saving lives you greedy lazy baskets.
Stepping Razor Sound Plate System
October 20, 2020 at 5:35 pm
This blog has once again been infected by trolls, or, actually, a troll playing silly buggers with multiple comments under various monkiers. What happened to Buffy? I thought a means had been discovered to exclude this scamps from the site. Apparently not. Personally I don’t mind this blog feeding its pet troll but am finding having to wade through masses of troll shit in order to get to interesting comments which I do want to read increasingly wearisome.
Ozzy
October 20, 2020 at 5:56 pm
Don’t fed the trolls we have them under control.
Stepping Razor Sound Plate System
October 20, 2020 at 5:58 pm
Jog on then, The Socialist Party formerly Militant are looking for new recruits.
Degsy H.
October 20, 2020 at 6:02 pm
Boris needs a PM test. 1st off Boris can you boil an egg without fucking it up like posh totty. 2nd Boris can you make a hot milky drink without burning the hot milk. Oh no i burnt the hot milk again, I always burn the hot milk making a hot milky drink. So Boris shall we just stick with trying to boil an egg.
Stepping Razor Sound Plate System
October 20, 2020 at 6:02 pm
Stepping Boris Johnson couldn’t run an egg and spoon race even with the egg glued to the spoon, being pushed in a wheelchair with 187 aides to help him and one of those raring the spoon too, never mind run the country, as to cooking or egg boiling or even getting an egg out the box, isn’t that what servants are for, only he can’t afford them can he, not on 150k a year…….
Sorry, I’m an insomniac and in a stressed mood already today…..
Kat Rehman
October 21, 2020 at 4:07 am
It’s actually Martin Kemp the saxophone player from Spandau Ballet.
T. Hadley
October 20, 2020 at 6:04 pm
Stop posting comments in my name.
trev
October 20, 2020 at 6:21 pm
You can’t even get that right. It’s. Ancient Aliens, Ancient X-Files, and UFO Hunters.
trev
October 20, 2020 at 6:25 pm
Hi guys! Is this Man2Man the gay dating site for mature homosexuals?
Cairo Mendes
October 20, 2020 at 7:30 pm
If Matt Hancock can throw another £500 million he might be able to get the Track & Trace system working. Matt Hancock do you think £1 billion is enough to get the Track & Trace system working or will you need more money than that Matt H. Why did you not get ATOS in to run the Track & Trace System because they are running the Civil Service Computer IT System, which the Tories are trying to get out of the ATOS contract being a French company, which does not bode well with the Brexiteers driving Audis & shopping at Aldi.
Stepping Razor Sound Plate System
October 20, 2020 at 7:37 pm
Rise of DWP welfare robots as AI helps decide if Universal Credit claims are true
https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/politics/rise-dwp-welfare-robots-ai-20586084
the way uc is planned there wont be any need for the jcp offices anymore why they are still going to close a lot of them after 2022
superted
October 20, 2020 at 7:59 pm
That just has so many potential ways of going wrong….
Andrew Coates
October 20, 2020 at 8:01 pm
superted
October 20, 2020 at 8:57 pm
watch the video and find out, its all going to go down the shit hole, it is the beginning of the end of money as we know it.
superted
October 20, 2020 at 9:30 pm
Worldwide capitalist crisis deepens – step up the fight for socialism
https://m.socialistparty.org.uk/articles/31443
trev
October 20, 2020 at 9:51 pm
digital money is backed buy nothing same as it is now so gold and silver is the best assets you can buy why the price is sky high atm.
the system is fucked now to the core printing more money every day wont solve anything and is just making it worse as it does not work!
i expect a massive crash in q1 next year is coming and then the hole system will crumble and country’s all over the world will default on there debts, ie the grate reset.
just think of all those government bonds china holds over the uk and usa ect goes poof over night and are now worthless.
all these lock downs are doing is just making it happen even faster and will not end until the damage is total.
if the uk government cared about ppl then we would get the extra £20 a week on jsa yet we are left to hopefully die from there non actions and that is totally fine.
yet if we was at war the government would be fine sending millions of us to our deaths to protect there ass sat at home and cov19 will not be a problem.
here is a machine gun all the ammo you can carry and throw my ass out of a aeroplane to kill as many ppl as possible.
superted
October 20, 2020 at 10:38 pm
The FCA (Financial Conduct Authority) is to ban the sale of crypto-derivatives in January 2021.
The FCA has published final rules banning the sale of derivatives and exchange traded notes (ETNs) that reference certain types of cryptoassets to retail consumers.
The FCA considers these products to be ill-suited for retail consumers due to the harm they pose. These products cannot be reliably valued by retail consumers because of the:
inherent nature of the underlying assets, which means they have no reliable basis for valuation
prevalence of market abuse and financial crime in the secondary market (eg cyber theft)
extreme volatility in cryptoasset price movements
inadequate understanding of cryptoassets by retail consumers
lack of legitimate investment need for retail consumers to invest in these products
These features mean retail consumers might suffer harm from sudden and unexpected losses if they invest in these products.
Unregulated transferable cryptoassets are tokens that are not ‘specified investments’ or e-money, and can be traded, which includes well-known tokens such as Bitcoin, Ether or Ripple. Specified investments are types of investment which are specified in legislation. Firms that carry out particular types of regulated activity in relation to those investments must be authorised by the FCA.
To address these harms, the FCA has made rules banning the sale, marketing and distribution to all retail consumers of any derivatives (ie contract for difference – CFDs, options and futures) and ETNs that reference unregulated transferable cryptoassets by firms acting in, or from, the UK.
The FCA estimates that retail consumers will save around £53m from the ban on these products.
Sheldon Mills, interim Executive Director of Strategy & Competition at the FCA, said: ‘This ban reflects how seriously we view the potential harm to retail consumers in these products. Consumer protection is paramount here.
‘Significant price volatility, combined with the inherent difficulties of valuing cryptoassets reliably, places retail consumers at a high risk of suffering losses from trading crypto-derivatives. We have evidence of this happening on a significant scale. The ban provides an appropriate level of protection.’
The ban will come into effect on 6 January 2021. UK consumers should continue to be alert for crypto-derivative investment scams. As the sale of derivatives and ETNs that reference certain types of cryptoassets to retail consumers is now banned, any firm offering these services to retail consumers is likely to be a scam.
For more information on these types of scams or to inform the FCA of a potential investment scam, please refer to the FCA’s ScamSmart pages.
https://www.fca.org.uk/news/press-releases/fca-bans-sale-crypto-derivatives-retail-consumers
Max & Stacy Keiser
October 21, 2020 at 6:47 am
“The price of gold is at an all time high, there has never been a better time to buy” is an oxymoron. You buy
LOW and sell HIGH. That’s what we do 🙂 Unfortunately for them (but fortunately for us 😀 ) most people’s (at least who watch our show) brains are hard-wired to do the exact opposite.
Max & Stacey Keiser
October 21, 2020 at 6:58 am
If only Gordon Brown has the sense to realise that before he sold of a shitload of Britain’s gold reserves at the bottom of the market.
Lolly
October 21, 2020 at 9:07 am
ted, you need to cut down on those burgers – they are rotting your brain 😀
Ronald McDonald
October 21, 2020 at 7:02 am
Wouldn’t China be a tad cheesed off to say the least if the USA suddenly declared the billions of dollars of US Treasury Bonds they hold worthless?
Ling Fung
October 21, 2020 at 7:10 am
Paper money is backed by nuclear weapons. Digital money is like a file-sharing torrent, once no more money can be made from it either by ‘pumping and dumping’, ‘trading’, ‘mining’ or it is superseded by another ‘tech product’ people will lose interest and it will no longer be seeded; it will die a death, and it will die a rapid death so quick and unexpected; you will find yourself locked in and won’t be able to liquidise your position and get out. That is the future on digital money. It is as written in the ancient runes.
Nostradamus
October 21, 2020 at 9:13 am
Oh, yeah, ‘exchange fees’ which are absorbent, currently £100 a transaction and a six month wait to ‘confirm’ the transaction. Imagine being asked to ‘step aside’ in Maccy D’s queue whilst your payment for your burger is being ‘confirmed’ Your burger would be stone cold after six months but still edible*
*archaeologists have unearthed fossilised Maccy D burgers from the Stone Age which have been preserved 😉
Nostramdamus
October 21, 2020 at 9:21 am
Bitcoin will have as much ‘value’ as an old Woolworths gift voucher you find when clearing out your gran’s house 😀
Steph
October 21, 2020 at 9:29 am
“The Great Reset
Taxation
Inequality and Taxation
As the wealthy pay a smaller share, the poor pay more
One of the main objectives of taxation is to reduce inequality by collecting from the rich and distributing to the poor. This is how welfare states work. However, recent research from economists at the University of California, Berkeley has cast doubt on the progressivity of the global tax system. That is, while the public transfer system is progressive, the overall system is becoming less so. The global erosion of capital taxes and the rise of consumption taxes (like sales tax and VAT) in the last 50 years implies that the tax burden has gradually shifted from the wealthiest (who own assets) to the poorest (who tend to own no assets and consume most of their income). This shift is in part a result of globalization, which has pressured capital taxation as people and corporations can move capital earnings to tax havens. On top of this, the progressivity of income and estate taxes has declined dramatically; the top marginal tax rate in the US, for example, was cut from close to 90% in the 1960’s to around 40% by 2018. The rationale for this has largely been a perceived need to lessen the incentive for tax avoidance and evasion.
The consequences of these developments are remarkable: Since 1930s, the tax rate for the bottom 50% of American earners has effectively doubled, while the effective rate for the top 0.01% has fallen by more than 50%. In 2018, for the first time on record, the richest 400 Americans paid a lower effective tax rate than everyone else. Such developments are not unique to the US – around the world, we are seeing regressive consumption taxes increase, capital taxation fall, and the overall progressivity of systems eroded. These findings have stirred debate about the fundamental fairness of the global tax system; while some economists argue that it does not need progressivity, as long as the transfer system disproportionately benefits the poor, others argue that a lack of progressivity will lead to mass accumulation of wealth among the richest – undermining the social contract. Some economists believe the corporate tax is actually partly paid by the poor, through low wages and high consumer prices – and so low corporate taxes benefit the poor. Still others argue that corporate taxes are being paid by shareholders. Almost everyone, however, agrees that documenting effective tax rates across all income levels is necessary in order to drive an informed discussion.”
The Great Reset is not what ted and his fellow conspiracy theorists make it out to be. It is kind of ironic that
dole claimants are buying bitcoin, gold and silver (the currencies of Jacob-Rees Mogg) with their dole money to avoid paying tax that would go to pay their dole money 🙂 Or we all really just Tories, Jacob Rees-Moggs at heart. Gimme, gimme when you have more than me, then when I have got it I will protect my own best interests to hold onto it (hoddle as bitcoiners say) and everyone else can to to hell. Is Torism the natural human condition, because it sure looks like it.
Rose
October 21, 2020 at 10:38 am
‘The global erosion of capital taxes and the rise of consumption taxes (like sales tax and VAT) in the last 50 years implies that the tax burden has gradually shifted from the wealthiest (who own assets) to the poorest (who tend to own no assets and consume most of their income).’
You have to laugh at the conspiracy loons who rail against INCOME tax. They want to abolish INCOME tax alright. But they also want to shift the tax burden onto VAT etc. They always use the bogus argument that “the rich spend more so they would pay more VAT”. Horseshit, the poor are FORCED to spend all of their income, the rich would have more to stash in their offshore accounts if the tax burden was place on sales tax (VAT).
Rose
October 21, 2020 at 10:47 am
On the World Economic Forum website is does mention something about “utilising retail and corporate savings and investments to power the new green economy”. i.e. wiping out pension funds, people’s savings and investments etc. And probably crash the property market too.
Wang Wong
October 21, 2020 at 9:34 am
Sounds like Marxism on steroids. At least trev will be happy 😀
treviska stanislaw the third
October 21, 2020 at 9:36 am
From the World Economic Forum
“The Great Reset – Taxation
Taxation provides the foundation of any well-functioning society, and is the potential solution to many of the weightiest issues of our time. However, globalization has pressured tax systems and caused a shift in tax burden from the richest to the poorest. Some 40% of the profits earned by multinational corporations are moved to tax havens every year, at a cost of about $200 billion to public coffers. And, one quarter of the taxes owed by the wealthiest 0.01% of people are never paid, as assets are stashed offshore. In order to deliver on the Sustainable Development Goals, sufficient and stable tax revenue is necessary. Taxing carbon emissions could meanwhile help curb global warming, and tax hikes may actually bolster inclusive growth if spent appropriately. A smartly-reformed tax system can embrace globalization, as it delivers shared and sustainable prosperity. ”
That is why Jacob Rees-Mogg and his ilk are in favour of ‘cybercurrencies’ as his old man Lord William called them in the prescient book he co-authored: The Sovereign Individual: End of the Welfare State.
It is so they can avoid paying taxes (that goes to dole money etc.) and stash their wealth out of reach.
Rose
October 21, 2020 at 10:25 am
trev’s Militant Tendency destroyed the Labour Party and helped the Tories into power for 18 years.
John Golding
October 20, 2020 at 10:40 pm
Reinstate Clause IV
trev
October 20, 2020 at 11:01 pm
https://www.socialistparty.org.uk/articles/31477
Donate to the Socialist Party
Coronavirus crisis – Finance appeal
The coronavirus crisis has laid bare the class character of society in numerous ways. It is making clear to many that it is the working class that keeps society running, not the CEOs of major corporations.
The results of austerity have been graphically demonstrated as public services strain to cope with the crisis.
The government has now ripped up its ‘austerity’ mantra and turned to policies that not long ago were denounced as socialist. But after the corona crisis, it will try to make the working class pay for it, by trying to claw back what has been given.
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When the health crisis subsides, we must be ready for the stormy events ahead and the need to arm workers’ movements with a socialist programme – one which puts the health and needs of humanity before the profits of a few.
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Champagne Socialist
October 20, 2020 at 11:41 pm
Machines to ‘do half of all work tasks by 2025’
Half of all work tasks will be handled by machines by 2025 in a shift likely to worsen inequality, a World Economic Forum report has forecast.
The think tank said a “robot revolution” would create 97 million jobs worldwide but destroy almost as many, leaving some communities at risk.
Routine or manual jobs in administration and data processing were most at threat of automation, WEF said.
But it said new jobs would emerge in care, big data and the green economy.
The Forum’s research spanned 300 of the world’s biggest companies, who between them employ eight million people around the world.
More than 50% of employers surveyed said they expected to speed up the automation of some roles in their companies, while 43% felt they were likely to cut jobs due to technology.
WEF said the pandemic had sped up the adoption of new technologies as firms looked to cut costs and adopt new ways of working. But it warned workers now faced a double threat from “accelerating automation and the fallout from the Covid-19 recession”.
“[These things have] deepened existing inequalities across labour markets and reversed gains in employment made since the global financial crisis in 2007-2008,” said Saadia Zahidi, managing director at WEF.
“It’s a double disruption scenario that presents another hurdle for workers in this difficult time. The window of opportunity for proactive management of this change is closing fast.”
‘Surge in demand’
WEF said currently around a third of all work tasks were handled by machines, with humans doing the rest, but by 2025 the balance would shift.
Roles that relied on human skills such as advising, decision-making, reasoning, communicating and interacting would rise in demand. There would also be a “surge” in demand for workers to fill green economy jobs, and new roles in areas like engineering and cloud computing.
But it said millions of routine or manual jobs would be displaced by technology, affecting the lowest paid, lowest skilled workers the most.
It said millions would need to be re-skilled to cope with the change, while governments would have to provide “stronger safety nets” for displaced workers.
Machines to ‘do half of all work tasks by 2025’
BBC
October 21, 2020 at 7:53 am
Just as income tax was introduced to collect money from business and workers, to pay for wars and such like, the solution to automation is to tax the work of machines displacing workers and redistribute it to men and women of flesh and blood. With international co-operation this would be a real possibility as a way to make automation our slave rather than our master.
Old Blackie
October 21, 2020 at 11:17 am