Meanwhile in the UK: same shit different location

[unsafetydancer]

I was wondering what sort of news about the UK you guys accross the pond are getting. It might be interesting to know, given that over here we've all been watching what's going on with the mouldy wotsit that is Trump but we're also trying to deal with our esteemed leaders' plan to turn us into a tax haven for their super rich buddies. I'm interested to know how the American news reports on the UK and what people think, for instance, of the horrible fact that Theresa May seems to be cosying up to Trump. Any thoughts guys?

[GreyhoundFan]

Sadly, the vast majority of the media's attention has been taken by the Orange Toddler and his sycophants. I've only read a few things, mostly what you've said about Theresa May seeming to be in Drumpf's corner. I hadn't read anything about a change in tax rules. That's interesting, is it just for foreigners/immigrants, or for everyone?

Oh, an article I read recently was about one of Agent Orange's golf courses on the coast in Ireland (not sure if it is in Northern Ireland or the Republic of Ireland) and how he was upset because he couldn't get a massive wall approved to separate the course from the beach.

[Cartmann99]

2 hours ago, unsafetydancer said:

I was wondering what sort of news about the UK you guys accross the pond are getting. It might be interesting to know, given that over here we've all been watching what's going on with the mouldy wotsit that is Trump but we're also trying to deal with our esteemed leaders' plan to turn us into a tax haven for their super rich buddies. I'm interested to know how the American news reports on the UK and what people think, for instance, of the horrible fact that Theresa May seems to be cosying up to Trump. Any thoughts guys?

I know what mouldy is, but can you explain what a wotsit is in this context? I did a search and found that there is cheese-flavored snack that appears similar to our Cheetos called Wotsits, so is he a moldy cheese-flavored snack or is there another meaning? One thing about Trump being elected, is that my vocabulary of insults is growing! 

 If I ever use a term that you guys don't understand, please feel free to ask. I can get off in the weeds with my Texas/Southern US/Rural expressions, and I realize they may be quite incomprehensible to others.

As to your question about how Americans are feeling about the changes going on in the UK, many Americans don't pay attention to anything that happens outside of the US. Our press did cover Theresa May's visit to meet with Trump, but from what I saw regarding her visit, most people were talking about how some English lady was holding his hand because of his fear of stairs. Only political junkies in the US consistently know her name at this point or what she stands for.

Because of our media's focus on US issues, Americans have to largely rely on UK news sources if we want to try and keep up with what is happening there. Now, if Theresa May gets caught up in a sex scandal or appears on a silly reality show, our press will cover every detail. 

 I have not been following the news from the UK as closely as I should, as my brain is overloaded with all of the Trump drama. I do know that Theresa May is a conservative politician, which means that government services like the NHS will be negatively affected. UK conservatives are not usually as crazy as ours are, so I'm really hoping that the damage will not be as severe as what our nutters would try to do in their place.

Granted my experience with the NHS is solely through British television and movies, but for the good of the people, I've always hoped that solutions could be found to its problems, instead of scrapping it and going to a private insurance system.

[unsafetydancer]

@Cartmann99 yes a Wotsit is a cheesey puff that you guys probably call a Cheeto. Yes, Trump is a Mouldy, foostie, out of date Wotsit. Sorry for the unintelligible insults, I come from Dundee and we have our own language.

The thing about she of horrid tartan trousers (look it up, bring brain bleach) wanting to ruin the NHS is a very, very real thing unfortunately. Yes it has it's problems, I've been ill for 5 weeks now and still have not been given blood work or anything to indicate why but at the same time these guys do save lives every single day without checking anyone's wallet first! We need the NHS otherwise folks like my younger sis with type 1 diabetes would be in a tight spot trying to afford their meds.

Our conservatives are for sure as crazy as America's, go google Boris Johnson, Nigel Farage, Nadine Dorries and Nick Griffin to name a few! Right now the thing with Brexit is looking very scary. Basically, the "plan" seems to be to withdraw from our main source of trade and investment, offend the countries we used to trade with in the EU, try and get those countries to trade with us independently with bribery then cosy up to utter wankholes like Trump to try and snatch a few crumbs of their dirty money too. Meanwhile our universities will suffer as will the NHS; and all the foreign professionals who made a life here for themselves will be deported to placate the stupid section of our country's racist tendencies. Because the City of London will suffer as a result of no longer having access to the EU then the plan to raise revenue is to lower corporation tax to a rock bottom rate to encourage foreign businesses to use us as a tax haven much like the Cayman Islands. Did I mention how all this became a problem because of power struggle within the Conservative Party and as an attempt to keep David Cameron in power.

The one solitary light at the end of the tunnel (short of my plan to emigrate) is that they will probably have another vote on Scotland leaving the UK. We voted by a large margin to stay in the EU and countries like Germany have shown support for the idea of Scottish independence over the past wee while. If this happens I really, really hope we win. The UK parliament has made it quite clear that they see the other three countries in the union as the last colonies of the English Empire. We vote overwhelmingly against the Conservatives but get stuck with the bastards in power anyway, putting their nukes up here with us so that the explosion caused will only knock out the North where all the savages live. It makes me so angry to think that whatever we vote for it will be blatantly ignored and yet our resources are sold at knock down prices so that a few wealthy friends of those in power benefit. Or how about when they voted to close the world-class renewable energy testing site in the Orkneys that was the best situated site of it's kind with top research going into clean energy.

I realise now that I meant for this to be a sort of light hearted let's compare psycho leaders thread and I've turned it into a bit of a rant. I guess that my usual tactic of dealing with doom with humour is wearing thin these days. Probably why everything seems so damned depressing. But this has been a (somewhat angry) rundown of the UK right now. For whatever it's worth we LOATHE Trump here in these parts ever since he terrorised some farmers and retired people in Aberdeenshire all for his stupid golf course. I'm off to go look at pictures of cats now because I think I probably need it

[Audrey2]

@unsafetydancer, please don't hesitate to rant away. For your sake, I'm concerned about the similarities between you and the US now. I also hope the vote goes well or you plan your own Britxit. 

[unsafetydancer]

@Audrey2 part of the Brexit vote problem is that they have denied the assemblies in Scotland, Wales and N Ireland any real say. Honestly the only real hope is that the UK breaks up then maybe the folks in the other three countries can get a government they actually vote for.

[GreyhoundFan]

The things I've seen about Boris Johnson make him seem just as insane as Agent Orange. I remember John Oliver did a good piece on Brexit and had some very unflattering things to say about Nigel Farage. He seemed like a bad combination of several crazy right-wingers here. I'm sorry it's been rough there.

You mentioned another vote for Scotland to leave the U.K., has a date been set for said vote? From the things I read about overwhelming Scottish desire to remain in the EU, I could see this vote going differently than the previous one.

I hope things improve for you.

[unsafetydancer]

@GreyhoundFan Boris is a twat of the highest order right enough. Good question, they've not set a date for it yet but to be honest it seems to be the inevitable conclusion of this current debacle. There are probably some scots on here who disagree with me but I really believe the only sensible choice for us has been independance for quite some time now. Certainly since the 2010 general election that put Sausageface Cameron into power. Because we're a smallish place we get shafted just on pure numbers with the current voting system. Even if every single scot voted the same way it still wouldn't guarantee that we don't get a government none of us voted for in London.

I volunteered during the 2014 referendum on the Yes stall. Would you believe we got crazy stuff like death threats? It was pretty insane last time round, at the very last minute they threatened not to pay the pensions of people in Scotland once they retired, which is fraud and if you move away to any other country your pension is payed automatically to you over there. That swung a lot of older folks, it was a very calculated move since I think that a lot of older people aren't as confident about fact checking stuff for themselves as people my age who grew up with the internet. I dunno how much it changed the result but I was raging that they got away with such a blatantly dirty move! Like you said hopefully we can change things but I still have my emergency bug out plan ready to go.

[GreyhoundFan]

8 minutes ago, unsafetydancer said:

@GreyhoundFan Boris is a twat of the highest order right enough. Good question, they've not set a date for it yet but to be honest it seems to be the inevitable conclusion of this current debacle. There are probably some scots on here who disagree with me but I really believe the only sensible choice for us has been independance for quite some time now. Certainly since the 2010 general election that put Sausageface Cameron into power. Because we're a smallish place we get shafted just on pure numbers with the current voting system. Even if every single scot voted the same way it still wouldn't guarantee that we don't get a government none of us voted for in London.

I volunteered during the 2014 referendum on the Yes stall. Would you believe we got crazy stuff like death threats? It was pretty insane last time round, at the very last minute they threatened not to pay the pensions of people in Scotland once they retired, which is fraud and if you move away to any other country your pension is payed automatically to you over there. That swung a lot of older folks, it was a very calculated move since I think that a lot of older people aren't as confident about fact checking stuff for themselves as people my age who grew up with the internet. I dunno how much it changed the result but I was raging that they got away with such a blatantly dirty move! Like you said hopefully we can change things but I still have my emergency bug out plan ready to go.

Sadly, yes, I would believe it about the death threats. There are far too many crazed people out there. It seems like fake news is a problem there as well, with the threats about pensions.

I hope things work out for you. It's smart to have an emergency plan.

[unsafetydancer]

I also want to point out, the only death threat to me personally was from an 80 year old who said if they hadn't taken her husband's service revolver away after we banned guns she would have shot me with it.

[Cartmann99]

58 minutes ago, unsafetydancer said:

Our conservatives are for sure as crazy as America's, go google Boris Johnson, Nigel Farage, Nadine Dorries and Nick Griffin to name a few!

Oh dear, please forgive my mistake! I honestly thought most of your conservatives were better than ours. I have heard of Boris and Nigel, but I was under the impression that they were outliers. 

 

1 hour ago, unsafetydancer said:

Yes it has it's problems, I've been ill for 5 weeks now and still have not been given blood work or anything to indicate why but at the same time these guys do save lives every single day without checking anyone's wallet first! We need the NHS otherwise folks like my younger sis with type 1 diabetes would be in a tight spot trying to afford their meds

Most definitely! 

1 hour ago, unsafetydancer said:

Because the City of London will suffer as a result of no longer having access to the EU then the plan to raise revenue is to lower corporation tax to a rock bottom rate to encourage foreign businesses to use us as a tax haven much like the Cayman Islands

Yikes!

49 minutes ago, GreyhoundFan said:

You mentioned another vote for Scotland to leave the U.K., has a date been set for said vote? From the things I read about overwhelming Scottish desire to remain in the EU, I could see this vote going differently than the previous one

Agreed.

43 minutes ago, unsafetydancer said:

I volunteered during the 2014 referendum on the Yes stall. Would you believe we got crazy stuff like death threats? It was pretty insane last time round, at the very last minute they threatened not to pay the pensions of people in Scotland once they retired, which is fraud and if you move away to any other country your pension is payed automatically to you over there. That swung a lot of older folks, it was a very calculated move since I think that a lot of older people aren't as confident about fact checking stuff for themselves as people my age who grew up with the internet

They pull the same kind of stunts here, relying on the fact that a lot of people will believe whatever they hear from right-wing media. There's a whole industry here in the US devoted to keeping those people angry and looking for scapegoats to blame for their problems. 

I love the term moldy wotsits! 

[Audrey2]

1 hour ago, unsafetydancer said:

@Audrey2 part of the Brexit vote problem is that they have denied the assemblies in Scotland, Wales and N Ireland any real say. Honestly the only real hope is that the UK breaks up then maybe the folks in the other three countries can get a government they actually vote for.

I'll confess, I was trying to play off the Brexit (Great Britain leaving the European Union) with the Britxit- as in leaving Great Britain. I do understand and agree with what you said regarding denying the assemblies of Scotland, Wales, and N Ireland any real say. Seems like that was also an issue with America about 240 years ago...

[unsafetydancer]

@Audrey2 exactly. The Union is basically the final few colonies on the English Empire. You guys accross the pond were way ahead of the curve on getting out of that.

[unsafetydancer]

Apparently now the shitty way that the UK government has treated everyone else in EU is coming back to bite us, Spain want us to give up Gibraltar air port or they will block out access to every air port in Europe. If anyone needs me I will be working away furiously on my bug out plan.

[sawasdee]

@unsafetydancer The Brexit mob really thought this through, didn't they?

[unsafetydancer]

@sawasdee the depressing thing is sometimes I wonder if this is EXACTLY what they planned. They've basically set the groundwork for a completely isolated UK where the rights of citizens have been all but obliterated and people are kept in a state pf poverty and fear.

[sawasdee]

@unsafetydancer I keep being told by expats here - Brexit to a man - that I don't know what the UK is like now, because I haven't lived there for 15 years - the thing is, most of them haven't either! But I at least read British press other than the Daily Fail........and part of me is glad I am not there to see the clusterfuck, and part of me wishes I was there to fight back.

You have my sincere sympathies in coping with the manipulations of an entitled few who have no qualms about lying through their teeth to get their own way.

Did you read that Boris, on being asked at the beginning of Brexit to write an article about it, mentally tossed a coin as to which side he would take? He said he could argue equally on both sides.

[unsafetydancer]

Sadly a lot of the people who emigrate abroad are hardly our most exemplary people. @sawasdee seems to be an exception, where are you from in the UK?

[sawasdee]

@unsafetydancer I'm from the East End of London, from an emigrant irish Catholic family, with 5 uncles who were card carrying communists, and heavy union involvement in the entire family for three generations! I was a founder member of the union for my industry  - tour guides/tour managers - not easy to unionise as all self employed. But we managed, and the union is going strong.

[unsafetydancer]

That sounds amazing! I agree that unionizing is important but yes it can be hard to convince self employed folks, over here the problem is 0 hours contracts that make people wary of being seen to join unions. What a small world this is though, there's more people on here from my neck of the woods than I thought

[sawasdee]

We were often employed by the day - so unionising was hard. We managed to convince enough people that collective bargaining was beneficial that we got the union off the ground - but I was lampooned as 'the red under the bed' by those who saw any union as too lefty! We were helped by the fact that most London sites - the Tower, Westminster Abbey, St Paul's - and those close to London - Windsor, Hampton Court - would not permit unqualified guides - so employers HAD to use us.