Scrutable

I have never had a blue British passport.

I had a black one in the 1980s-1990s

I had to look through those tweets to check it wasn't a piss-take; but no, Colin had indeed been incredibly pro-Brexit, telling remoaners to suck it up and jubilant when the big day arrived.* His speedy tweeting of his disappointment is then a bonus helping of schadenfreude.

*although it may be an incredibly long game Colin is playing before revealing actually he wasn't a Brexit supporter and the joke's on us...

FlammableFlower wrote: Sat Feb 15, 2020 11:21 pm I had to look through those tweets to check it wasn't a piss-take; but no, Colin had indeed been incredibly pro-Brexit, telling remoaners to suck it up and jubilant when the big day arrived.* His speedy tweeting of his disappointment is then a bonus helping of schadenfreude.

*although it may be an incredibly long game Colin is playing before revealing actually he wasn't a Brexit supporter and the joke's on us...

I did the same for the same reasons and came to the same conclusion. He's the archetypal Brexit warrior

jimbob wrote: Sat Feb 15, 2020 11:23 pmI did the same for the same reasons and came to the same conclusion. He's the archetypal Brexit warrior

I thought it was a spoof account because I can't imagine anyone writing "This isn't the Brexit I voted for" when complaining about what another country has done (if they had indeed changed anything). It sounds exactly like an ironic comment lampooning Brexiteers. Oh well.

I think that "This isn't the Brexit I voted for," and its various variants are what youngsters call a "meme". In the absence of any other information I'd be inclined to think that Colin is meming and that we can't infer anything about his attitude to Brexit. If you people were hip to the beat like me, you would know that.

Mentally adding "This isn't the Brexit I voted against" to my tee shirt list.

Martin Y wrote: Mon Feb 17, 2020 12:34 pm Mentally adding "This isn't the Brexit I voted against" to my tee shirt list.

Mine would be "This is very much the Brexit I voted against

snoozeofreason wrote: Mon Feb 17, 2020 9:08 am I think that "This isn't the Brexit I voted for," and its various variants are what youngsters call a "meme". In the absence of any other information I'd be inclined to think that Colin is meming and that we can't infer anything about his attitude to Brexit. If you people were hip to the beat like me, you would know that.

There isn't an absence of other information, though. He's either very earnestly stupid or very cleverly ironic. And the evidence points most starkly to the former. Occam's shaver and all that.

Hmm dunno. He's obviously a leaver, but leavers use that meme as well as remainers, and you don't have to be particularly clever to use a meme.

Either way, since we are still in transition, I would guess his problems are because we are outside Schengen, rather than outside the EU, which is something nobody voted for or against.

If there were any evidence to suggest that he's shown any cleverness thus far in any other arguments, it might be fair to assume any level of cleverness in this reply, but unfortunately I think you'll be disappointed in that search.

Obviously, the ultimate stupidity is that waiting in a queue in an airport in the EU is currently pretty much entirely unaffected by Brexit. It's a double-edged sword of foolishness, again, not really helping the whole "oh but he could be havin a larf" argument.

Btw, the Schiphol queue was due to them training new staff, not because the procedure for British people entering Schengen had changed.

El Pollo Diablo wrote: Mon Feb 17, 2020 3:10 pm If there were any evidence to suggest that he's shown any cleverness thus far in any other arguments, it might be fair to assume any level of cleverness in this reply, but unfortunately I think you'll be disappointed in that search.

I can't see much evidence of cleverness either but, as I said, you don't have to be clever to use a meme. Anyway, I am sure he's changed his views now. There's nothing quite so effective at changing people's views as a Twitter dogpile.

looked like a f.ckwit to me.

El Pollo Diablo wrote: Mon Feb 17, 2020 1:10 pm

snoozeofreason wrote: Mon Feb 17, 2020 9:08 am I think that "This isn't the Brexit I voted for," and its various variants are what youngsters call a "meme". In the absence of any other information I'd be inclined to think that Colin is meming and that we can't infer anything about his attitude to Brexit. If you people were hip to the beat like me, you would know that.

There isn't an absence of other information, though. He's either very earnestly stupid or very cleverly ironic. And the evidence points most starkly to the former. Occam's shaver and all that.

And playing the very long game - which is why, when I posted the link to the initial tweet I said that it didn't seem to be a parody.

Wondering what to make of this new* visa points system.

Whilst is no cap on numbers, the scoring for low paid workers essentially excludes them - unless HMG declares a shortage - and that seems unlikely as current patter is more about service industries and farming increasing salaries to be attractive to locals - industries that are not famed for fat margins - meaning prices for hotels, eating out and such, including food prices generally, are going to rise.

At least one party (but possibly both) is likely going to be disappointed. If the xenophobes are happy then business are taking a hit. If business is good with this then the xenophobes are going to be pissed. If prices rise too far everyone is going to be pissed.

2021 is going to be a highly interesting year.

*well, not that new - I'm sure I had to do something similar last time I hired outside the EU.

It's upside down.

We should recruit immigrants to do the tedious low paid jobs. We should reserve interesting high paid jobs for British people.

It's racist, but in a reverse racist way. Imagine you had a bunch of people milling about, waiting to be assigned jobs, and you started giving all the better paid and more enjoyable jobs to brown people, and gave the sh.tty monotonous jobs to the whites. The racist whites would rise up and lynch you. Yet the racist whites are praising their beloved Boris for doing just that.

Odd.

It's going to be great for anyone British who (in the words of someone I've forgotten the name of on the News Quiz), "wants to stand in a cold field wrestling broccoli."...

FlammableFlower wrote: Wed Feb 19, 2020 1:43 pm It's going to be great for anyone British who (in the words of someone I've forgotten the name of on the News Quiz), "wants to stand in a cold field wrestling broccoli."...

Agreed - as a farmer friend said "It's not so much the money, but the local kids don't want to stand in a field at 4am, in the rain and snow, putting straw on top of carrot plants"

eta Oh, and as someone on the news commented, neither Priti Patel's or Sajid Javid's parents would have got into this country under these new rules

On the one hand, they are going to quadruple the numbers of seasonal agricultural workers to 10,000.
On the other, given that the following suggests that about agriculture needs about 100K seasonal workers, and that the previous 2,500 plan only covered those from outside the EU, it looks as though we could still have a shortffall of 90K workers

https://www.euronews.com/2019/06/12/uk- ... his-summer

All the people who support this better hope their jobs are secure - because they'll find their benefit claim declined when they refuse to doss in a caravan in East Anglia while picking cabbages.

Gentleman Jim wrote: Wed Feb 19, 2020 1:58 pm

FlammableFlower wrote: Wed Feb 19, 2020 1:43 pm It's going to be great for anyone British who (in the words of someone I've forgotten the name of on the News Quiz), "wants to stand in a cold field wrestling broccoli."...

Agreed - as a farmer friend said "It's not so much the money, but the local kids don't want to stand in a field at 4am, in the rain and snow, putting straw on top of carrot plants"

eta Oh, and as someone on the news commented, neither Priti Patel's or Sajid Javid's parents would have got into this country under these new rules

It's funny how these "ethnic" tories are very quick to pull the ladder up after them.

They are tories so therefore relatively evil to start off with though.

Gentleman Jim wrote: Wed Feb 19, 2020 1:58 pm … as a farmer friend said "It's not so much the money, but the local kids don't want to stand in a field at 4am, in the rain and snow, putting straw on top of carrot plants"

Yebbut it kinda is the money. Some of them would do it for a few weeks in some imagined super-rich country, earning super-rich minimum wage, because although you'd be living in student-like squalor while you were there, the money you'd come back with would be pretty appealing compared to the cost of living here. Nobody wants to do a miserable job in dismal conditions when they'll have f.ck all to show for it at the end.

Martin Y wrote: Wed Feb 19, 2020 2:46 pm

Gentleman Jim wrote: Wed Feb 19, 2020 1:58 pm … as a farmer friend said "It's not so much the money, but the local kids don't want to stand in a field at 4am, in the rain and snow, putting straw on top of carrot plants"

Yebbut it kinda is the money. Some of them would do it for a few weeks in some imagined super-rich country, earning super-rich minimum wage, because although you'd be living in student-like squalor while you were there, the money you'd come back with would be pretty appealing compared to the cost of living here. Nobody wants to do a miserable job in dismal conditions when they'll have f.ck all to show for it at the end.

That's definitely where the "local" bit is important.

In my teens I had various not very well paid jobs, generally they were worth it but I found my limit. The kitchen "porter" job (washer up mainly) in the nearby posh public school didn't pay that well, but it was not horrendous work and you got free meals and a half-pay "retainer" for doing nothing during the holidays (bonus); the marquee job was physically hard work, but fun (I was the only one without a criminal record and there was a lot of illicit substances abounding); whereas in the meat factory job I lasted all of 2.5 days - freezing cold, mind-numbingly repetitive and ridiculously low paid (pre-minimum wage, the "agency" that you went through to get the job took almost everything).

El Pollo Diablo wrote: Fri Feb 14, 2020 8:20 am

Bird on a Fire wrote: Thu Feb 13, 2020 10:42 pm

jdc wrote: Thu Feb 13, 2020 8:56 pm

Nope, he left because he was being oppressed by unfair moderator actions.

Can confirm. It was shortly after some other posters threatened to leave because they thought we moderated him unfairly - in the opposite direction.

Indeed. Like Shroedinger's mods*, we are simultaneously too lax and too overbearing. In a genuinely successful community**, obviously, everyone would agree and everything would be perfect.


*I use this analogy precisely because it's slightly wrong and will annoy some people

lmao i've only just noticed this conversation

yeah, he said we were wasting his time and f.cked off. i blame tom p for not having insulted him earlier, we could have avoided the whole pit argument

JQH wrote: Wed Feb 19, 2020 2:31 pm All the people who support this better hope their jobs are secure - because they'll find their benefit claim declined when they refuse to doss in a caravan in East Anglia while picking cabbages.

That thought crossed my mind too... local job centres are going to have a bumper crop of sh.tty paid menial jobs. They won't have to doss on site though, I'd expect our lovely caring Tories to discourage that sort of thing so the underpaid can spend what little they get on petrol/travel and continue to be poor, cold and starving.

The Tories should have a slogan for this... something to do with work and being set free... which for some reason seems familiar...