In the news

Consensus so far seems to be that it's very unlikely. Maybe we're all naive?

That’s good I guess. Not sure how people would know, maybe if there were fringe political groups on scene? From what I’ve read, NL has a very capable counter intelligence apparatus, so hopefully they’d be preventing any foreign involvement.

The Ukraine bit I found interesting but always have to view these things with caution. There’s so many levels of potential deception involved. I hope it’s just Russia aggrandising its image externally, rather than actually preparing for open war.

Strange that excess deaths. I don't quite understand how that works if covid deaths number is higher...

Covid deaths is usually calculated by every country using its own methodology. So the definition for any given place differs (did the death certificate mention covid? Did they have a positive covid test in the last 28 days? Did a postmortem blood test show show covid?). Many, therefore, argue excess deaths is a better measure as it's comparable between countries (it's also harder for governments to fiddle with, catches missed cases, and would include deaths related to covid but not directly caused by covid - e.g. suicide or deaths due to lack of access to health care resources).

Intersting point, makes sense.

So two Bullingdon Club Prime Minsters and pigs...

A bit of a reach but what the hell.

2 Attachments

heard bits of his meltdown at the cbi on the news, that's our prime minister addressing the country's big business leaders
amazing

At least David had a decent hair cut.

meltdown

Dead Cat, no?

Healthcare reform sell off slides by unnoticed
https://twitter.com/pennypitstop62/status/1462749024575016962

Posh bird moaning that because of Brexit, she can't get away with paying people fuck all any more:

https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2021/nov/22/cheap-food-drink-accommodation-hotelier-life-without-eu-workers

Although I have fairly limited sympathy for people whose businesses thrived on paying people bare minimum wage, I think that's a pretty limited reading of the article. Wages in the hospitality sector will go up; prices in hospitality will go up; businesses will go under (not hers by the look of it); sectors like care will lose staff to the hospitality industry as a result. That's a slightly broader picture than "posh bird moaning that..."

It's going to be really interesting to see how the wages/prices thing settles down. Are there going to be increases in wages in some sectors because of staff shortages, which will leave some people better able to deal with inflation or is everyone going backwards?

sectors like care will lose staff to the hospitality industry

Yup - this was the thing that leapt out at me reading that. It was kind of hidden away too, as an oh-by-the-way comment, which is very un-Grauniad on this topic.

Worrying consequences. But completely understandable ones for the workers. Last night's vote won't have helped much for the morale in that sector either.

I think it's pretty clear what she meant by this:

“My parents would talk about when European countries joined the EU they would suddenly get an influx of staff from a new country,” she says. “They remember the summer that Poland joined and the sudden influx of Polish housekeeping staff

What's your point?

is it not possible she just found other nationalities had a better work ethic than Brits?

(Which may well have something to do with the character of people who travel to other countries to work vs. Those who stay home)

My point is that she is a posh bird moaning that because of Brexit, she can’t get away with paying people fuck all anymore.

You said that was a simplistic understanding of the article, I don’t think it was.

It’s possible, but I don’t think it’s the case.

I have worked in hospitality all my life. I started in the late ‘70’s. Housekeepers haven’t got any better, they’re just paid the same now as they were 49 years ago.

I read it as the owner explaining that customers are going to have to suck up higher prices for everything rather than any complaint on having to pay more to attract more staff.

Yeah, I think you're looking at that through (let's say) a very particular lens; possibly 'I bet she voted Brexit so she can fuck off', but perhaps look at what she actually said (my bold)

"Palmer says it’s difficult to distinguish what is Brexit and what is the pandemic: “It’s just all come together in one mighty swirl of a disaster zone.”"

"“when actually no one truly knew what the outcome would be. It was a bonkers thing to go to a referendum on""

“There is no chance we would be where we are now without the skills of people coming from other countries.”

"we’re pretty hot on the work-life balance, and the life part is pretty fun, with beaches and surfing. So it’s always been attractive for hospitality team members from across Europe.”

"Workers came from all over: Spain, Italy, France, Poland, Romania, Estonia, sometimes whole families. Some came for just a summer, to practise their English; others came over and settled. They brought experience with them, says Palmer. “They have a greater understanding of what our European guests want, and a skill level you don’t always see in UK hospitality workers. In Europe, a lot of young people have part-time jobs from around the age of 16, so when they come over at 18 or 20 they have already got quite a bit of work experience. They understand that if work starts at nine, you turn up at five to nine. We end up doing quite a lot of life-skills training for people who have been brought up in the UK.”

"She thinks her business will survive, by looking hard at costs, but that some hotels won’t and that it’s going to be incredibly tough for the industry."

Yes, I think your reading of the article is pretty simplistic. 'Apparently decent business owner relates economic realities of multiple converging adverse events on her sector' seems closer to the mark. But then she's "posh" so fuck her eh?

Doesn’t this all play into Boris’ vision of Brexit where we level up to become a high wage economy. People will want to do the shittier jobs because they will be well paid in the new economy.

Apart from in the public sector, where the wage disparity could lead to people demanding more encroachment from the free market to try to bring it level.

I particularly love this one:

In Europe, a lot of young people have part-time jobs from around the age of 16, so when they come over at 18 or 20 they have already got quite a bit of work experience.

Replace 'In Europe' with 'Among the working classes,'.

That's not going to work if you include the rest

They understand that if work starts at nine, you turn up at five to nine. We end up doing quite a lot of life-skills training for people who have been brought up in the UK.”

I don’t know, my experience of working in hospitality (over a decade ago now, but 15yrs experience in different places) was that the non brits worked harder than the brits.

I am deliberately being a bit of a dickhead, but I'm just not buying into the myth that foreign workers work harder.

The yougest Janglette works in a restaurant. Yesterday, she started at 11.30am and finished at 2.00am, which is the sort of shift I used to do when I was her age.

Part of my point - if I have one - is that middle class people (such as the posh bird in the Guardian article), don't really understand what working class peole do. I can let that pass for the middle class, but the fact that the Guardian don't get it is a dissapointment.

One of the things I do is run a catering business. It’s a social enterprise and we employ people with a range of needs, people in recovery, people getting back into work. We’ve always started people on the London Living Wage and we have very low staff turnover.

Brexit hasn’t affected us at all, but I know people whose businesses are really suffering as a result. Not because they are having to pay more - they’ve always been good payers - but because they simply cannot find enough good staff and are having to operate reduced days/hours. Anecdata…