This week’s column covers yet another massive scandal, with horrendous implications: this time involving warehousing for post-Brexit food supplies. It’s likely to affect us all
With apologies for my ongoing contribution to national average blood pressure theguardian.com/commentisfree/…
Warehouse capacity in the UK might not sound like the most thrilling topic for a column. But you *really* need to know about it. Please read and share the article. Time is running out, and we urgently need action to avert what could be a total disaster.
Thanks.
Food traders will have to build reserves, now and in December, to cover the likely shortfall in January. This means warehouse capacity. One minor hitch: there isn’t any. “The situation will quickly become critical.”
A question: given the government's total failure to discharge its duty of care, what should our response be? Would stockpiling food at home now help take the pressure off supplies in January? Or would it cause further problems? Thoughts please.
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Having come to the party 6 months late, @BBCNews now claims to have "revealed" the PPE scandal. No acknowledgement of those (@GoodLawProject, @openDemocracy, @BylineTimes, some of us at @guardian) who've spent all this time banging our heads against the wall of media indifference
In reality, the PPE scandal reveals a massive failure of journalism, by the BBC and other mainstream outlets. They ignored it until it became unignorable.
And they STILL aren't covering a equally outrageous (and probably more lethal) parallel scandal: the replacement of trained clinicians with call centre workers, and the wastage of £12bn, caused by the government's outsourcing of contact tracing. theguardian.com/commentisfree/…
This statement is bone-chilling.
The government “is not responsible for the supply of food and drink to the population in an emergency”.
What the hell is government for, if not for this? theguardian.com/commentisfree/…
The Tories have always had a thing about food. It brings out their most punitive instincts. Food is closely linked to their Malthusian mindset. If the poor starve, they have no one to blame but themselves, even if they’re paid starvation wages. monbiot.com/2015/06/23/cur…
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After all, they can just go and forage in a bin. Or grow their own food on all the land they don’t have. Or hunt a deer in one of the places they’re not allowed into. Why *can’t* they fend for themselves?
Cummings will leave No 10 at the end of the year, just like he always said he would.
Media: "Oh my God, Cummings is leaving No 10!!! What does this mean???"
The state of these court stenographers.
Yesterday, I explained that Cummings's job will be done by the end of the year: the Brexit transition period will be over, ideally - from his point of view - with no deal, and his deregulatory dystopia will be locked in place.
All the rest is gossip.
You can watch my very rare outing on the BBC today, here. You can see why they keep me off: bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episod…
I'm grateful to have been allowed on air by @BBCPolitics, for the second time this year.
But it drives me mad that Farage and the dark money thinktanks are on every day, while it's an event to see anyone to the left of Keir Starmer.
We're considered extremists. They aren't.
I'm sorry to deflate the mood, but I think it's now time to face some cold realities. 1. It's brilliant that Trump lost, but Biden epitomises the reasons why Trump came to power: the neoliberal consensus that killed people's faith in politics. theguardian.com/books/2016/apr…
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2. As parties of the right and former left adopted similar neoliberal policies, disempowerment turned to disenfranchisement. Large numbers of people were drawn to the anti-politics that Trump seemed to represent.
3. Biden will take the reins just as the pandemic and accompanying economic crisis come to a head. Though he didn’t cause them, he will be blamed. He’s in danger of becoming the 21st Century’s Herbert Hoover.
New and exciting:
We're planning what we believe is the world's first live investigative documentary, @rivercide_live
It will investigate a massive and neglected issue: river pollution.
It's low-budget and entirely crowdfunded.
Please help: kickstarter.com/projects/frann…
Thank you!
Mainstream broadcasters have terribly neglected these issues, with the result that neither the polluters nor the UK's 4 governments are feeling any pressure to stop the death of our beautiful rivers. Bypassing the broadcasters, we'll use a new technique to focus public attention.
We have a great team of experienced film makers and investigators: @frannyarmstrong@nicolacutcher@nicky_nicholls, Peter Armstrong.
We're going to shake things up.
But we need your help.
💚