General Chat

Corbyn and his acolytes did untold damage to the Labour perty ( which is the LABOUR party not the UK Socialist Workers party ) which is why we are where we are including the corvid disaster. Starmer shows promise and Cooper tries hard but there is far to go.

And what of the Tories ? Whatever the nasty smell in the kitchen they have generally delivered a basic competence when in power (often) . Now and then they were even very good (Macmillan) and Thatcher was probably the most effective PM in a century. She was brought down by exactly the sort of people who now think they are running the country which is more of a macabre Barnum & Bailey's circus than a country.

Yes, the outgoing Tory administration had plenty of youth, talent and fresh ideas. Unfortunately May made sure they were kept penned in on the back benches or if in cabinet soon silenced. Johnson simply kicked them all out of the party so far as they had not left already.

It is unlikely that a party financed by offshore carpet baggers and with a membership mostly of pensioners in the shires will of itself regenerate.
sauve qui peut

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nwcP3NOCeiE

I
We are the hollow men
We are the stuffed men

Leaning together
Headpiece filled with straw. Alas!
Our dried voices, when
We whisper together
Are quiet and meaningless
As wind in dry grass
Or rats' feet over broken glass
In our dry cellar

Shape without form, shade without colour,
Paralysed force, gesture without motion;

Those who have crossed
With direct eyes, to death's other Kingdom
Remember us—if at all—not as lost
Violent souls, but only
As the hollow men
The stuffed men.

II
Eyes I dare not meet in dreams
In death's dream kingdom
These do not appear:
There, the eyes are
Sunlight on a broken column
There, is a tree swinging
And voices are
In the wind's singing
More distant and more solemn
Than a fading star.

Let me be no nearer
In death's dream kingdom
Let me also wear
Such deliberate disguises
Rat's coat, crowskin, crossed staves
In a field
Behaving as the wind behaves
No nearer
Not that final meeting
In the twilight kingdom

III
This is the dead land
This is cactus land
Here the stone images
Are raised, here they receive
The supplication of a dead man's hand
Under the twinkle of a fading star.

Is it like this
In death's other kingdom
Waking alone
At the hour when we are
Trembling with tenderness
Lips that would kiss
Form prayers to broken stone.

IV
The eyes are not here
There are no eyes here
In this valley of dying stars
In this hollow valley
This broken jaw of our lost kingdoms

In this last of meeting places
We grope together
And avoid speech
Gathered on this beach of the tumid river

Sightless, unless
The eyes reappear
As the perpetual star
Multifoliate rose
Of death's twilight kingdom
The hope only
Of empty men.

V
Here we go round the prickly pear
Prickly pear prickly pear
Here we go round the prickly pear

At five o'clock in the morning.

Between the idea
And the reality
Between the motion
And the act
Falls the Shadow
For Thine is the Kingdom

Between the conception
And the creation
Between the emotion
And the response
Falls the Shadow
Life is very long

Between the desire
And the spasm
Between the potency
And the existence
Between the essence

And the descent
Falls the Shadow
For Thine is the Kingdom

For Thine is
Life is
For Thine is the

This is the way the world ends
This is the way the world ends
This is the way the world ends
Not with a bang but a whimper.

Rollo! Get your manners into gear!

Gove, Cummings and Raab see themselves as young guns, do they? Well, I've got news for them. I think there are plenty from teens to 40s and 50s who can see right through them. Personally, I have always seen them as ancient heads because that is the way they talk and behave, as far as I can see.

By the way, Gove was ever so funny when he was cornered the other day .... He seemed quite gaga as he searched for a response.

Is it too much to hope that at least one bright spark from each party is compiling a list of twenty-to-thirty year olds who could prove to be competent politicians of the future? That's the bright thing to do - a bit like football scouts, looking a little further ahead than the next match.

It will be difficult for younger ones to get through the vitriol of some such as Cummings and others who were given an easy ride by too many who fell at the first hurdle - but anyone who took the likes of them on and succeeded would, in my eyes, be worthy of a seat no matter their political persuasion.

So that's creme fraiche, grated ementel, fine green beans, mainly continental ham, scallops and duck. Sourdough bread, brioche and baguettes.

Hmm, I've bought most of those items from Tesco's, apart from creme fraiche - Tesco's sell it, but I don't like it, and duck - again, Tesco sell it, but after growing and eating my own ducks - Gressingham just doesn't come up to standard!

I am well aware that the whole thing is an invention by some sort of journalist.

why not ?

can you not get it through your thick head that the thread is essentially about the effects of the corvid lockdown on people's jobs or lack of them and the future of the Tory party of lack of such as it splits in a manner reminiscent of Robert Peel and the Corn Laws ? The moniker "Waitrose Tories" has been applied by those in the Tory party who see themselves as the young guns - Gove, Cummings and Raab. The moniker has been used by the Spectator for some time and it is not about shopping.

Thought Rollo did hid shopping at the Co Op. how awful to have to admit they shop at Waitrose as well.

Well he's not very far trom Liverpool Rd Islington though I have never seen him there only Laura.

My OH being French relies on them for all the stuff that the co-op don't have - creme Isigny Sainte-Mère, grated President cheese, French bakery when she doesn't have time to make her own croissants, fine green beans, charcuterie, scallops, poussin etc. If you stay alert they have some good bargains.

In any case Gove has announced that there won't be any further extension on 1 Jan 2021. The Tory Party including the Waitrose tendency will create their longed for Götterdämmerung from which renewal will spring.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nZ_zNUmr8fM

She's not trying to tell us that Jeremy Corbyn ain't a Waitrose shopper, surely! :-0

Nametags - are they really one size fits all?

The evidence of collapse, corruption and incompetence is all around.
Those that have ears let them hear.
Those that have eyes let them see.
Those that have tongues let them speak out.


https://tinyurl.com/y7jjjad9

I usually shop wherever I am near at the time. Sainsburys, Coop, Lidl, Tesco, Asda, Morrisons, Aldi, M & S and Waitrose have all been on my rounds in the past year or so.

I usually ignore nametags fastened on to people through the whim of a beholder and I can say I am no Tory - but neither am I of any other persuasion as I have never been anything other than a swinging voter and sometimes not even a voter but I have to say it was Waitrose who contacted me offering me delivery slots immediately upon lockdown because of my age. Although there is a nearer small store and we lost the one in our town several years ago, they deliver to me from a huge store 33 to 34 miles away so I was pleasantly surprised. That is service for you - and always with a smile!

I am still waiting for one of the other stores to contact me because of my age but I doubt that any will do so now and anyway Aldi, M & S and Lidl do not deliver your choice of groceries - useless if one in the household has a special diet.

I have, however, managed to get a couple of deliveries from Sainsburys but it was three or four weeks after lockdown before I got a delivery slot and I am still waiting for them to realise my age.

???

Oh, so sorry RTR, I thought this was a genealogical site - admittedly this thread is voicing views on how the PM is doing - but it's not delving politically into the whys and wherefores.
As for my alleged fixed ideas (that's English - just fixed it for you) I'm not on a political site - I save my political jargon and rants for there.
That's also where I suggest, rather than insist (SEE 'The Spectator') people may want to read more about the politics of the subject.

There's a funny website called 'Overheard in Waitrose' which isn't so much a take down of people who shop there - more a mickey take of 'Very British Problems' , because, if you 'overheard it in Waitrose' - it suggests you were shopping there!
:-D :-D

Nothing wrong with what Maggie said.
I shop at the little coop if they sell what I need. My nearest larger supermarket is Waitrose, so I shop there too. Somethings I need only Tesco’s sell, so I shop there.
Before lockdown I used to do a big shop at the huge Sainsbury as I was over that way once a week. On that day I might go a different way and pop into Aldi or Lidl beforehand. If I go to B&q or curry’s I may go into Morrisons.

So there must be a handy derogatory name for me too.

Independent street traders - that would mean a long car ride plus car parking fees.

it is not anything to do with "snobs"
the Tory hard liners (not me) are openly calling the traditionalists "Waitrose Tories" because they think the countryside, emvironment and real chicken are something worth conserving. SEE "The Spectator"
please MW try and post without all your usual idees fixees.

IMHO the whole lot of them are a a bunch of mostly-not-bames but that is for another day. Soon hopefully.

fwiw we mostly shop in the co-op and independent street traders in normal times.

Oh - a reference to Supermarket snobs!
Well, I buy my small tomatoes from Tesco's - because they sell the variety I like.
I've tried them from M&S, Waitrose, Lidl etc etc. but none are as good as those from Tesco's.
Morrisons do really tasty pies - If I go in there, I'll buy a few and freeze them.
Basically, if a supermarket sells something I like, and I can get to that supermarket - that's where I'll buy it from!

So what handy derogatory name can I be called???

Sheiks, I think that is whoever has the audacity to shop in Waitrose ;-)

Never mind that it might be your nearest supermarket.

It's a weird world.

I volunteer for a local organisation that is a charity. I'm still 'working', my choice of course but I deal with one of the bits that brings money in, plus it gives me something to do! However my (paid) manager has been furloughed.

I ken John Peel, but not sure what a 'Waitrose Tory' is :-D

Things have changed utterly. I shall wait and see but there is zero chance of many firms reopening until PP daft quarantine regime is over.

For employers it has been a tricky bet largely resting on how far you feel that Johnson's junta can be trusted and how far cash liquidity will support not only the 20% cost of furloughed staff but also other overheads.

Moreover many employers are thinking of the opportunities to get better people in what will be very much a buyer's market. Young graduates with shiny new degrees driven hard could be a good bet - certainly Google and Amazon think so. It is their mums and dads 40+ who are heading into the unkown unknowns at pace.

We own our somewhat decrepit office building so no rent to worry about. The insurance claim for loss of business has been accepted albeit only after some legal showing of teeth by Great White Sharks & Partners. We have of course introduced our tenants to GWS & Co. in case they had ideas about not paying the rent.

In any event we closed the offices well before the PlaySkool Kids got into the act preferring alertness to staying safe on the sofa. A core now work from home inc y.t. The rest were laid off no furlough and I sleep ok at night.

I am very bored and increasingly paranoid. I keep watching "Years and Years" ...

A great many firms of all shapes and sizes are going to go to the wall. That includes some public sector orgs. Those that survive will be scrapping around for business forcing wages sharply down. Landlords are going to take a bath and then some. There will be disaster sales of assets and stock. Even before corvid there was a steady flow of SMEs looking at moving all or part of their business to the EU. That has accelerated driven by a likely no deal brexit.

Even where there is a job many people will be unable to take it if the schools issues are not sorted out. The possibility of an autumn virus second wave is not a business encouragement. It will be a good year for carpet baggers though.

The media & tourist industry - which earns more money for the country in normal times than all mfg. - if flat on its back.

If Johnson wants to survive without a meltdown then he should accept a year extension for brexit and stop following the diktats of the scorched earthers. As it is the Waitrose Tories are in a majority and might be tempted into making common cause with Keir Starmer rather than Dominic Cummings.

We have been here before of course. Quite likely it is all too late. The game is up.

From the drag to the chase, from the chase to the view
From a view to the death in the morning
For the sound of his horn brought me from my bed,
And the cry of his hounds which he oft time led,
Peel's "View, Halloo!" could awaken the dead,
Or the fox from his lair in the morning.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZRoBCQ_F3Ho

I hope she's successful, Maggie, in both endeavours.

A level results are being judged on a mix of mocks and coursework, I believe.

My older grandson awaits his results in August too. He does not seem perturbed so I am guessing (hoping) his work method was different from that of his dad and aunt, and that he worked steadily throughout his A level years rather than leave it all to exam time to do any work.

My eldest grand daughter was due to take her 'A' levels :-(
The irony is, she wants to work for the NHS.