Letter from Great Britain – 10-24-20

“The Financial Jigsaw” has been serialised here and now is replaced by this weekly “Letter from Great Britain.”

NOTEIf anyone would like an electronic copy of the complete book, I should be pleased to email a free PDF on request to: [email protected]. Also a hardcopy of the book, “The Financial Jigsaw” is available priced at £25 GBP plus P&P in A4, workbook format, bound with clear plastic covers, printed locally on demand.

Britain continues down the slippery path of a police state as witnessed by the next move of the government published last Sunday.  With his massive majority in parliament, Boris has all the power to further corrupt our institutions to his and his mates’ advantage as the rest of the country burns and collapses.  This is despicable behaviour and no good can come from it:

“The Department of Health and Social Care has agreed a memorandum of understanding with the National Police Chiefs’ Council to enable police forces to have access on a case-by-case basis to information that enables them to know if a specific individual has been notified to self-isolate.

                        A National Police Chiefs’ Council spokesperson said: “Policing continues to play its part in helping limit the spread of coronavirus.  “We will continue to encourage voluntary compliance but will enforce regulations and issue FPNs [fixed penalty notices of £10,000] where appropriate and necessary. Where people fail to self-isolate and refuse to comply, officers can issue FPNs and direct people to return to self-isolation.”

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/oct/17/police-get-access-to-people-told-of-self-isolate-by-nhs-test-and-trace

This week sees the Battle of Manchester continuing as Boris threatens to invoke the law to force Manchester and Newcastle to lockdown under his new rules published last week.  And our younger generations are experiencing the full force of these ridiculous lockdowns as their job prospects disappear down the black hole of this invisible, and likely, non-existent threat.  This is an unfolding tragedy the like of which we have never experienced before.  Our economy is in tatters and yet our unconnected elites see nothing wrong viewing the scene, as they do, from their ivory towers in Westminster. Read more:

The new study, to be published on Monday, finds that [at] the end of furlough, the scarcity of new positions and the arrival of school and college leavers in the job market will present young people with bleak prospects unless more support is offered. It warns that the prime minister’s “opportunity guarantee” to young people of an apprenticeship or an in-work placement falls “significantly short of what is needed”.

            On Sunday, the mayor of Greater Manchester, Andy Burnham, who is resisting calls for his region to be placed in the new tier 3 restrictions, will call for parliament to intervene to break the deadlock with regions by creating a fair system of support for people whose employers have to close their businesses as a result of anti-infection measures.”

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/oct/17/coronavirus-1-million-young-britons-face-jobs-crisis-within-weeks

UPDATE:  Looks like Andy Burnham, the mayor of Greater Manchester, has lost his fight with Boris.  It is notable that the difference between the parties is a mere £5 million when they should be battling to avoid a lockdown altogether.  Even the opposition has lost its way as it goes along with the general policy of the elites in their objective of destroying the UK economy and imposing destitution of our people.  Labour is stepping up the pressure to impose an England-wide “circuit-breaker”, claiming the economy will be billions of pounds worse off if the government fails to act.

Keir Starmer, the Labour leader, last week endorsed calls by the government’s scientific advisers for a two- to three-week shutdown. Rishi Sunak, the chancellor, has opposed the plan, calling it a “blunt instrument” and warning about the damaging economic impact of shuttering many sectors.” They have won in Wales as a full lockdown has been implemented here from today for (they say) 17 days – but who knows when this crazy diktat will last (see article below)

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/oct/20/failure-to-act-on-covid-circuit-breaker-will-cost-billions

LATEST UPDATE: Friday saw the launch of yet another new government scheme to replace the recent one which was challenged by local authorities across the country. “Rishi Sunak has responded to growing pressure over the level of government support for parts of the country facing tough new coronavirus restrictions with a last-minute expansion of the new furlough scheme.”  Here are the winners and losers:

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2020/oct/22/furlough-replacement-scheme-who-are-the-winners-and-losers

We should all resist these evil rulers in every way we can; Manchester must hold the line: “After a chaotic day of negotiations, the 10-day standoff between Downing Street and Greater Manchester’s leaders came to an acrimonious end despite the two sides being just £5million apart, or the equivalent of £1.78 for each resident.

In a televised statement, Burnham warned that local people faced “a winter of real hardship”. He accused ministers of bullying the region into accepting less than their £65m final request for support for businesses and said that walking away from the talks amounted to a “deliberate act of levelling down”.

            The prime minister confirmed that tier 3 measures would be imposed on 2.8 million people in the region from midnight on Thursday, closing pubs and a swathe of the hospitality sector. It means one in 10 people in England – nearly 6 million – will be under the strictest measures. These are the first curbs to be imposed unilaterally, however.”

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/oct/20/burnham-says-government-playing-with-peoples-lives-as-tier-3-covid-rules-imposed

“A record number of shops disappeared from high streets across the country in the first half of 2020 as the Covid-19 lockdowns hammered the retail sector.  A total of 11,120 chain store outlets closed between January and June, while 5,119 opened. The 6,001 net store closures were a record high and compared with 3,509 in the first half of last year.

            Analysts predict there will be many more closures to come as the data does not include outlets that were temporarily closed under lockdown rules when analysts visited and which might end up permanently shuttered.  The figures, published by the Local Data Company and advisory firm PwC, show that on average more than 60 stores closed per day while 28 opened. The research covers high streets, shopping centres and retail parks in England, Scotland and Wales.”

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2020/oct/18/huge-rise-in-uk-shop-closures-with-worse-yet-to-come-covid-19    From a look at the graph in this article, there have been shops closing for many years as people shift their buying habits; the dreaded virus has merely accelerated this trend.

The pandemic has slashed up to 34% from private rents in London, while other cities led by Edinburgh have also reported a decline, as the move to home working prompts people to move out of cities into the suburbs, smaller towns and rural areas where they can have a bigger home for less money surrounded by more green space.

Official figures show one in three households have experienced income cuts, with young adults and BAME people worst hit. The Financial Conduct Authority said 12 million adults were struggling to pay their bills, up by two million since coronavirus struck in February. France has surpassed a million cases since the pandemic began while Germany has for the first time recorded 10,000 cases in a day.

AND – the unprecedented reaction to Covid-19 is killing retail business en masse as tenants fail to pay their rents on the September quarter day; Wolf Richter has the details:

“At the end of September, when rents for the final quarter of 2020 came due, retail tenants paid only 13% of rent due for the fourth quarter, worse than at the shortfall on rent-due date at the end of June, according to the UK’s National Law Review. This added £2 billion to the pile of unpaid rents.

Foot traffic remains down almost a third compared to a year ago, with large cities hit hardest. And it keeps on falling, as the government’s hospitality curfew, work-from-home policies and online shopping batter the high street. Many shops have already hit the wall. In the first nine months of this year, 13,900 high street stores were forced to shutter indefinitely, up one quarter from the same period in 2019, which itself was a record year, reports the Centre For Retail Research.”

https://wolfstreet.com/2020/10/19/amid-eviction-moratorium-wiggle-room-tightens-for-retail-landlords-tenants-in-the-uk/

Our ruler’s overreaction to the virus has struck again, this time in Wales, who have put in place a short, full lockdown as opposed to Tier 3; here are the details:  “Tourism businesses in Wales are spending Monday cancelling customers’ holidays after the first minister Mark Drakeford announced a two-week national lockdown designed to be a “short, sharp shock to the virus to slow down its spread”.  Under the new restrictions no one will be allowed to travel into [and out of] Wales and all hospitality businesses will have to close.

The measures come into effect on Friday 23 October and run until Monday 9 November, putting paid to thousands of half-term holiday plans and leaving many tourism businesses under severe financial strain. Those forced to close will receive up to £5,000 in compensation from the Welsh government, but tourism bosses say it is nowhere near enough to cover losses incurred during the pandemic.”

https://www.theguardian.com/travel/2020/oct/19/tourism-sector-in-wales-desperate-as-holidays-cancelled-covid-coronavirus-lockdown

his report from a South African newspaper, known for its trustiness, highlights what a ‘New Normal’ might look like:

“Buckingham [a researcher] says leaders should not downplay the reality of challenges in the workplace and should instead be direct about the real-world changes that their workers will have to make in life. 

“Show us in practice what our ‘new normal’ is and why, and then trust us to figure out how to live happily and healthily inside this new normal.”  Looking forward, the survey found that the changes respondents predicted could become permanent features post-Covid-19 included:

  • Wearing masks and gloves in the workplace
  • Physical distancing measures
  • Temperature readings
  • Different work hours
  • Remaining as a virtual employee
  • Physical office spaces closed
  • Limited business travel
  • Mandatory quarantine periods after business or personal travel
  • No shared desks
  • Physical barriers between desks and cubicles
  • Work shift arrangements

These changes highlight how different the “new normal” is likely to be than the old normal. 

The more we understand what it might look like, and what workers will require — other than employment at the very least — the more likely the new normal will be an improvement on the past.”  https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2020-10-06-south-africa-is-one-of-the-few-economies-where-workers-are-highly-resilient

Now that UK has left EUROPE I will comment on relevant EU – UK events as they arise

Britain is always going to have a problem with security across the EU because the European Court of Justice is expected to rule in all cases of dispute with UK – Britain can’t and won’t accept this.  Theresa May questioned Gove on this:

“Will [Gove] confirm that if the UK walks away with no deal then our police and law enforcement agencies will no longer have the necessary access to databases, such as PNR (passenger name records), in order to continue to identify and catch criminals and potential terrorists in order to keep us safe?”

Gove said “significant progress” has been made over security cooperation, but added that in the case of a second tool at the disposal of police – the Schengen Information System 2 (SIS2) – the EU was demanding a role for the European court of justice in the event of disputes, which the UK “cannot accept”.

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2020/oct/19/utter-rubbish-theresa-may-incredulous-at-michael-goves-brexit-claims

The Brexiteer faithful claim a no-deal is best for the country, but that’s largely bravado. A deal is always a better option – but not at any cost. The rumours say there is still time for the last minute stroke-of-midnight agreement.  A deal would be pragmatic – but no one can afford to look weak.  Not Boris, not Macron and not the faceless nomenclature of Brussels. Someone is going to have to give ground if an agreement is to be achieved.  We will have to wait a few more weeks for a resolution of this very important issue.

Boris has a new plan to tackle homeless if a No-deal Brexit occurs.  Rough sleepers better pray for a deal or else.  Foreign rough sleepers face being deported from Britain under an immigration crackdown when the Brexit transition period ends.  Rough sleeping will become grounds for refusal of, or cancellation of, permission to be in the UK.

Charities described the move as a “huge step backwards” that would prevent vulnerable people from asking for help. The Home Office said the rule would be used sparingly, for example where rough sleepers declined offers of support – but clearing homeless people from the streets is said to be a priority of Boris Johnson and his ministers. The policy is expected to be highly divisive: in 2017 a Home Office policy to deport rough sleepers from countries in the European Economic Area was ruled unlawful by the high court.

To be continued next week.

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Author: Austrian Peter

Peter J. Underwood is a retired international accountant and qualified humanistic counsellor living in Bruton, UK, with his wife, Yvonne. He pursued a career as an entrepreneur and business consultant, having founded several successful businesses in the UK and South Africa His latest Substack blog describes the African concept of Ubuntu - a system of localised community support using a gift economy model.

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Jack Russell
Jack Russell

Conservative is an oxymoron in the UK and most western countries. In the 60s and early 70s, these parties would be considered very left of centre. They are slow motion socialists.

ordo ab chao
ordo ab chao

“….. yet our unconnected elites see nothing wrong viewing the scene, ..”

The unconnected elites know exactly what they have done, and if anything, they would view the scene as progressing slower than ideal. The survey results further down the article would include the anticipation of vaccines, digital verification of them, and a need to go cashless.

These two links go along with what you’ve posted:

https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/13006099/wales-lockdown-shops-covering-up-non-essential-items/?utm_medium=browser_notifications&utm_source=pushly

Wales in the grip of communist agenda – dressed up as sustainability goals.

annuit coeptis novus ordo seclorum <<——-====

"……from the depths of rural England where we are protected from the evils of technocracy by our very isolation and independence."

I sense it's more of a delay for the small rural community here, short lived at that. I found the information in this video fascinating. It comes from the same guy that precisely predicted the resignation of Benedict:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YXNulnO11GM&feature=emb_logo

Michael D
Michael D

Now that UK has left EUROPE? Forgive me for being pedantic but UK has (allegedly) left EU, not Europe. There is a difference.

BL
BL

AP- The usual suspects are in the process as I write to install the New Bretton Woods economic system moving into a new benchmark . We are seriously screwed and the public has lass than a clue. Waiting to see what effect this has on consumer credit contracts.

Do you have a crypto currency ready to roll out first quarter of 2021 there in the UK?

yahsure
yahsure

It should all make for an interesting winter.

Depressed Aussie
Depressed Aussie

Lets hope Nigel Farage can expand his political activism to anti lockdown campaigning. If he can beat the elites to push forward Brexit surely he can help fight these scamdemic restrictions

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