Blairite wipeout in Scotland teaches us an important lesson about them. They have no particular beliefs other than in their own careers. Progress was always more about career progress than societal progress. When politics stops being a nice little earner, the Blairites will very easily give it up.
If they had strongly held principles and beliefs, they would continue fighting for them even if they made nothing from it and it actually cost them money, like, umm, me. But you don’t see any Blairite ex-MPs who have spent the last couple of years on wholehearted political campaigning or working for their party. They have gone where the money is – many accepting their remunerative reward from the corporations they so loyally served while in office. Many with banks and financé companies; Brian Wilson never stopped working for the nuclear industry whether in parliament or out. Some have joined the laughably called modern charities sector with its high six figure salaries. The only professional Scottish Blairite (though not MP) who has prominently remained loosely connected to politics, John McTernan, has done so as the lowest kind of journalistic prostitute, damning Labour for anyone who will pay him.
When I read that Tory lickspittle right winger Blair McDougall is to be the Labour candidate in East Renfrewshire, my first thought was “Oh great, that’ll split the Tory vote, SNP hold.” My second was “where is Jim Murphy?”. The far right Henry Jackson Society member Murphy was so dedicated to the cause, he carried his own soapbox and braved eggs. Surely he hasn’t given up? Surely he’s fighting again? But no, none of them are. As soon as the Blairites found politics stopped giving them large wodges of cash, they all lost interest in it, completely. You will search this election in vain for the dulcet tones of wee Dougie Alexander.
It was not ever thus. Gladstone and Churchill are but two examples that spring instantly to mind of politicians who lost constituency elections after they were MPs, but kept fighting and made comebacks. But whatever you can say about Gladstone and Churchill, they were not just in it for the money.
I do not think Labour face a wipeout in England of the same scale they did in Scotland. In fact, I do not think this will be a comfortable election for the Tories, as even the media cannot prevent the electorate from twigging May avoids people, avoids scrutiny, and is programmed with only three lines. But if Labour do suffer large losses in England, then Corbyn should look to Scotland for an example and take heart. Any defeated Blairites will not come back. They go away if you stop paying them. That should embolden him to carry on as leader. Politics is in an era of unprecedented volatility, and assuming May is re-elected, within two years she will be massively unpopular as the effects of Brexit hit.
This is so bizarre it’s unbelievable.
We have the blog owner, ‘a human rights activist’, who seems to constantly promote war against Russia, and is now getting on the bandwagon for war against North Korea. We have a bunch of psychos and loons who the blog owner allows free reign in the comment section (yes, Craig, I do know that you’re terrified of them), and we’re all marching off to World War Three.
Great.
But let me tell you that sanity is still out there.
And when the dust settles people will be held to account.
You do realise you’re entitled to fuck off whenever you want, right?
You do know you’re not duty bound to hang around here dissing us, and threatening us with execution all the time – right?
Do you carry on like this in your local bar? I imagine not, or you’d have been given the bums-rush long since.
glenn, you have absolutely no understanding of the world you actually live in.
That’s the sad thing about people like you.
Tell me about North Korea and South Korea. I’m sure that you know a lot about that.
Huh, got deleted. I’ll say it again.
—
Try adding something to the general discourse. Not vague doom-mongering or threats, just some information. Please.
I’m tired of your BS, Rob. You seem a good fellow at heart, but rather lacking in the logic department – particularly as the night wears on :/
Here’s a last shot – it’s a brilliant song, and I love the artist. But there’s a message for you in it too.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EUV2GPas4aY
Glenn
On a point of order Glenn, are you the renowned CM troll glenn-underscore-uk re=branded for this election. Nothing of RobG’s work is what your re-branded self describes as BS. It all makes Beautiful Sense to me.
RobG
Craig is hampered here
1/ It’s his blog so he can shape it how he chooses
2/ He has undoubtedly been nobbled by Mrs May’s age-old threats to censor blog opinion
3/ That’s not his fault
4/ Craig has neither sold out nor quit after realising the full extent of the UK’s recidivist colonial and domestic criminality. He has redirected his energy to removing Scotland from the colonial- and domestic-violence of the Tory, in the broadest sense, oppressor.
5/ A refuge from violence , which this blog is, from the extreme suppression of their extreme oppression, is necessarily a refuge from all violence. It’s no good banning the angry husband from the refuge but letting the angry brother in. N’est-ce pas, mon vieux?
Mrs Thatcher bought the individuals who were Britain’s Left wing, one by one, with extremely well paid jobs.
That is why Jeremy Corbyn is exceptional, he survived the Tory’s Lefties scrappage scheme. I remember when Liberal Headmaster of Westminster School accepted a post at the Portman Group which lobbied for the Alcohol industry. Roy Hattersley, having been parasitized by the wasp of Thatcherism in the ’90s continues to undermine Corbyn to now:
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/live/2017/apr/25/general-election-2017-labour-pledge-to-wipe-brexit-slate-clean-politics-live
I never voted for Blair or Brown, To my mind the problem with Blairites is not that they sold out, but they never bought in, to Labour thinking. They are Tories in everything but name.
Hattersley, the proverbial lump of lard. still around? Unbelievable. 85 now and remarried in 2013 to his literary agent, Maggie Pearlstine. Life in the old dog yet. He was made a peer in but is not listed.
He was always in the background, jockeying for position.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roy_Hattersley
It is a mistake to underestimate the importance of Fukushima, which poses a much more real threat to the world than US nuclear weapons, let alone north Korea’s. This is because the situation at Fukushima is completely out of control-every promise to contain it has been broken, every attempt to get to the source of the problem has failed. The crisis there is, by several orders of magnitude, worse than anything that occurred at Chernobyl.
If anyone can show the contrary-that the situation is under control and the danger diminishing-nothing would be more pleasurable than to read their evidence that this is so.
So far as the EU is concerned, the mass movements against it, to which Rob refers, tend to be localised in Southern Europe. This chart helps explain why:
http://theduran.com/the-european-unions-stunning-unemployment-rates-in-one-chart/
The reality is that in places like Greece, Italy, Spain and Portugal there is a clear understanding that the EU is the root of the problem of unemployment and falling living standards. And offers them no way out unless they are ready to become colonies of the economically powerful north.
In France it is quite realistic to regard Macron, not as a saviour from fascism- anyone who faced Le Pen in the run off would be that, and Macron is the weakest of the candidates who might have faced her- but as a dangerous man, manipulated into the position by Hollande and his French Blairite cabal, pledged to attack the living standards of the French working class. Liberals, are asking the workers to sacrifice themselves to save France from ‘fascism’.
No doubt Syriza did sell out its supporters but it did so under compulsion by the EU and its allies in the Troika.
Craig insists upon blaming racism for opposition to the EU. He forgets that the opposition now being evidenced has been there since the beginning- it is not opposition to a European project involving unity or federalism or open markets or free movement but to the provisions, rejected wherever voters saw them, of the EU constitution which were incorporated into the Treaty of Lisbon.
It can be argued that all that Brexit signifies is that it was the only chance voters had had in the UK to express their views on a matter that both the Dutch and French had rejected, in effect and which the Irish voters also rejected, though they were later browbeaten into reversing themselves.
Beneath all this talk of English racism, there is the reality that the SNP has, for perfectly understandable short term tactical reasons, decided to argue that Brexit amounts to a declaration that to remain in the EU, and continue ‘to reap its economic benefits’ Scottish Independence is, whether electors like it or not, necessary. It is a shallow and dishonest argument, the equivalent of the unionists’ Project Fear.
bevin
The SNP were campaigning in the 1980s with the slogan ‘Independence in Europe’. They haven’t just recently become pro-Europe for the sake of tactical expediency as you seem to think. SNP MEPs have been well respected in the European Parliament for decades for their contributions. The standing ovation there for Alyn Smith was genuine.
As for your charge that independence supporters are creating a project fear over brexit. Well good. Not all propaganda is based on lies. Sometimes it can be anchored in truth. Hard brexit will be disastrous for Scotland economically, socially and environmentally.
@glenn, easy to see why you have been called a thug, both directly & indirectly, by an ever growing number of Posters; try engaging with the arguments instead of the fascistic-like smearing of people, that you often tend to indulge in.
Oh come on, Bevin knows a joke when he sees one. Even if you don’t.
“The reality is that in places like Greece, Italy, Spain and Portugal there is a clear understanding that the EU is the root of the problem of unemployment and falling living standards.”
Well, in the case of Greece, if it’s all the EU’s fault (and not mismanagement by Greek governments), then they are free to leave the EU, and the EZ. Funnily enough there still isn’t a majority for that in Greece, as far as I know, and certainly wasn’t at the time of the crisis.
As for the others, do you remember what southern Europe was like before the EU regional grants led to large-scale investment there? Apparently you have forgotten the extensive poverty and underdevelopment that existed in non-tourist areas. I would be surprised if people there really want to return to what they had before. People there have a much better idea of their no. 1 interest than the Welsh do.
How will the Tories spin the drop in GDP?
UK GDP: Britain’s growth expected to weaken; France’s economy slows – business live
Huge day for economic news, with growth reports from the United Kingdom, the United States, France and Spain
Why today’s UK GDP report matters
French GDP grows by only 0.3%
Weak consumer spending and trade hit French growth
Coming up: UK expected to slow to 0.4-0.5%
https://www.theguardian.com/business/live/2017/apr/28/uk-gdp-britain-economic-growth-france-us-spain-business-live
‘Going down’ as the lift attendants used to say.
On behalf of the blog, may I congratulate the Metropolitan Police and our intelligence services for thwarting numerous terrorist attacks in recent days.
As Craig rightly points out, you are, thankfully, very unlikely to die in a terrorist attack in the UK. Thanks to the work of our police and intelligence services.
Anon1 is happy and cheerful as Rob G has had his feathers ruffled by Craig, our blog dompteur.
No congratulations in my name, political polici9ng does not need my gratitude, so please speak for yourself, slave.
What has “political policing” got to do with apprehending a guy wandering around with several knives in his backpack at the scene of a recent fatal stabbing and several other deaths of innocent passers by?
I was about to ask the same, Habbabkuk. It seems that Nevermind is genuinely angry with the police and security services apprehending would-be terrorists. I will now exclude him from the congratulations I have offered on behalf of the blog to the Metropolitan Police and intelligence services for their excellent work in preventing terrorist attacks.
And it is not just the suspect with the backpack full of knives. Yesterday tennage jihadist Haroon Syed admitted planning to carry out terrorist attacks against Buckingham Palace and an Elton John concert in Hyde Park. And last night an active terror plot was prevented after a police raid on a house full of Somalis in North London.
If you put that remark under the microscope, Habby, it is the very essence of insanity. Which, despite your best efforts over time, is what seems to be proliferating here.
I unequivocally thank the collective security services across the UK for their good work in maintaining law and order. Incidents have been few and far between surely as a direct result.
But with all the bile and venom that people have and is brought and dumped here, what chance is there for a sane society? I think they just want hand outs from the state so that they can continue to indulge themselves in their insanity unfettered. I think it would be a good idea for Craig to shut down his comments for awhile and give his moderators a rest too.
its pathetic enough to be mentioned by you Habby, at any one time there are hundreds of people walking round with a blade, shank or shiv, whichever you prefer.
QAdd to this the increasing problems with mental health issues unseen and unchecked and you can expect such incidents almost on a daily basis, that is not terrorism, that’s crime.
But there is an election and the shady Government wants to look good, so anyone going shopping for a bread knife will be a suspect allright, well in the eyes of the Met.
Was it right that in a country with a legal system in which you are innocent until proved guilty, the Met allowed this photo to go out? Posed almost. I say it was prejudicial and therefore illegal.
The first time the photo appeared it was at the top of the Sky News page and the caption was:
”Officers arrest a man said to be preparing to carry out a terror attack – just yards from the scene of last month’s tragedy.’
Then it was changed to :
‘A man is led away by police after the arrest in Whitehall’
http://news.sky.com/story/armed-police-close-road-on-whitehall-near-government-departments-10853114
My guess it was taken by a passer-by, genie out of the bottle before the police could do anything – even if they legally could, I don’t know.
Yes, after all it is so unusual for tourists and press photographers to be walking around with their mobile phones and cameras around Westminster. Perhaps they should be banned.
They are Met Police photos.
I concur with the patriotic anonymous one, but let’s not forget that context of intelligence agency ASSISTED terrorism in the early part of these graphs:
http://www.datagraver.com/case/people-killed-by-terrorism-per-year-in-western-europe-1970-2015
Back on the Blairites, FT mentions that EU may be offering an east/west German reunification for Norn’Irn, post-exit, with the referendum foreseen in the Blairish Anglo-Irish agreement, all allegedly.
Anon1: “As Craig rightly points out, you are, thankfully, very unlikely to die in a terrorist attack in the UK. Thanks to the work of our police and intelligence services.”
Craig said nothing of the kind, you sneaky fibber.
Glenn_UK
Craig said exactly what appears in the first sentence. The second sentence is Anon1 adding his own explanation for that (an explanation with which I agree).
I daresay you agree, but that is an entirely different explanation from the one Craig actually gave.
It’s thoroughly dishonest to present it as if Anon1 and Craig were in agreement on the matter.
But dishonesty and mischief-making are standard procedure for state apologists. If you had right on your side, there would be no need for it.
Craig has often pointed out that you are very unlikely to die on a terrorist attack in the UK. I have added (new sentence) that it thanks to the work of our police and intelligence services.
Yup, and you made no distinction between what Craig said, and what you added.
Very sneaky, but quite typical of low-integrity posters like yourself.
On behalf of this blog, may I condemn Israeli state violence against Palestinians which includes shooting children in recent days.
As Craig rightly points out, these atrocities are an outrage to human decency. Thanks to the BDS movement for their work to fight this genocide.
On behalf of this blog, may I deplore Venezuelan state violence against people exercising what should be their democratic right of peaceful protest on the streets of Caracas and elsewhere.
These are atrocities against the citizens of Venezuela and demonstrate – if further demonstration were required – that the govt of President Nicolas Maduro Moron is unfit for office.
Thanks to foreign TV reporters and scores of ordinary Venezuelans for their work in bringing these atrocities to the world’s attention.
‘Dozens of people have sustained injuries when clashes broke out between Palestinians demonstrating in solidarity with prisoners on an open-ended hunger strike in Israeli jails and Israeli military forces across the occupied West Bank.
Local sources, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Palestinians staged rallies in front of the Israeli-run Ofer prison in the West Bank city of Betunia, Qalandiya checkpoint north of Jerusalem al-Quds, the towns of Silwad and Sinjil, as well as the small village of Nabi Salih on Friday, Arabic-language Palestine al-Yawm news agency reported.
Violent confrontations also erupted in the towns of Beita, Naqurah, Beit Furik, Beit Ummar, New Askar refugee camp on the outskirts of Nablus as well as Arrub refugee camp in the southern West Bank.
Israeli soldiers used tear gas and fired live and rubber-coated steel bullets to disperse the crowd.
The Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) said at least 60 people were injured after being struck with either live or rubber bullets, or inhaling excessive amounts of tear gas.
Since April 17, over 1,500 Palestinian prisoners have gone on a mass hunger strike in protest at the conditions of Israeli prisons. ‘
[..]
‘The occupied Palestinian territories have witnessed new tensions ever since Israeli forces imposed restrictions on the entry of Palestinian worshipers into the al-Aqsa Mosque compound in East Jerusalem al-Quds in August 2015.
More than 300 Palestinians have lost their lives at the hands of Israeli forces in the tensions since the beginning of October 2015. ‘
http://www.presstv.ir/Detail/2017/04/28/519804/Palestinians-injured-demonstrations-solidarity-hunger-strikers-West-Bank
“As Craig rightly points out, you are, thankfully, very unlikely to die in a terrorist attack in the UK. Thanks to the work of our police and intelligence services.”
That brings to mind the old story of the policeman who was reprimanded by a senior officer for letting an old retired colonel keep an elephant gun. The policemen pointed out that it was necessary for Col X to have an elephant gun, in case there were any rogue elephants in the vicinity that needed shooting. The senior officer responded that there were no rogue elephants in that part of the world, to which the policemen replied, “thanks to Col X, sir”.
Funniest thing in the election campaign so far. You can find it at Wings Over Scotland.
Labour’s Ian Murray has sent out an election letter to the voters in Edinburgh South. He says in the letter that there is a list of his achievements as their MP on the reverse side. And of course the reverse side is completely blank!
Wonder how that reverse side will go down in Morningside where Ian got most of his necessary tactical votes from in the 2015 election.
It gets worse. Ian has now tweeted the info that should have been on the letter.
Among the rather extravagant claims about his industriousness is the standout one which says he has made
10 000 (yes, ten thousand) visits to households in the constituency since 2015.
I’d say a good constituency MP who sounds too good to be true.
OFF TOPIC
Be careful.
A Facebook group called International Friends of Russia has been hacked by Liridon Kaqiu on March 30 who made himself admin and added another admin Milot Kaciu. The real admin was Dr Chris Doyle. None of the former members of this group can post anymore with comments going for approval by these FB thieves.
Does anybody know how they can be reported to Facebook? I’ve tried in the past but nobody answers. Perhaps Clark might know but I don’t think he uses Facebook. Anybody?
Do you mean Chris Doyle of CAABU Mark?
Sorry I meant you John Goes.
No, he’s older than your Chris Doyle, and was a lecturer in Sheffield, now retired.
Alycone
” I think it would be a good idea for Craig to shut down his comments for awhile and give his moderators a rest too.”
___ ___________________
That is an interesting suggestion but perhaps a tad cruel.
If you look at this blog over the last couple of years, you will notice a constant : the longer the interval between Craig posting threads, the wilder the comments get over time and the process ends with a few people literally begging him for a new thread.
The following must be true : Craig does not live for this blog but a good number of contributors do. Take away the comments facility and they would be lost.
A less harsh and perhaps more effective of dealing with these people, Alycone, would be
– firstly, to arrange matters in such a way as to ensure that commenters use their real names. Commenters on Brian Barder’s blog appear to have no difficulty in doing this. As an analogy, one could recall that masked participants in demonstrations are more likely to foment violence at those demonstrations than unmasked ones; furthermore, commenter’s true identities should be known to Craig;
– to set up a really rigorous moderation policy which should insist much more on the topicality of comments; that would imply that they should be much less forgiving of comments which piggy-back onto the theme of the thread (it might be helpful in this respect if Craig’s posts were somewhat more focussed). I do not think that this would impose an undue extra burden on the moderators beyond the short term because the wreckers, obsessives and off-topicers would soon get the message; the volume of comments the Mods would have to deal with would diminish sharply quite rapidly.
What do you think, Alycone (and others, of course)?
Why are you so keen to get the real names of posters?
Since you’ve pushing at this for a while now, perhaps you could set a shining example, by putting down your own real name. Surely if it’s got to be good enough for everyone else, you would be eager to do the same?
I’m not so keen to get them for myself. No need! It’s just that having to use your real name would, in my opinion, have a wonderfully calming effect on the extremists and obsessives. Let’s be honest, there’s an awful lot said on here which I suspect the people concerned would not dare say to their family, friends colleagues or in their pub or from a soapbox. Ie, publicly.
Surely you’d agree with that?
More wishful thinking.
Many here at one time or other did post under their name, until some trolls made fun of them. Some still post here under their real names and many regulars know it.
But they are much more concerned about the gatekeepers and wannabe mods, then about the questionable contend and false news sometimes posted here from BBC, Breitbart and various other mainstream sites who have been gotten to.
I have no need to see Habbakuks real name his pseudonym is horrid enough.
I’ve said several times, Glenn, that I’d happy to do so provided the Eminences (happy to supply the list) will do the same at the same time.
It could be done in practice using Craig’s good offices : we all send him our details (together with proof) by post and once he has the lot he can post them all on a discrete thread.
Does that sound fair and acceptable to you and if not, please suggest a better way.
You should surely set the example. Nothing to hide, and all that….
“Nothing to hide” applies to all of us as I’m sure you’d agree, Glenn 🙂
S how about it – we’ll all send our details to Craig who, after having assured himself that all have acted and verified the information, will publish them all together at the same time.
So how about it, Glenn – are you in? 🙂
You lead by example. You kept demanding the real names of others, for reasons best known to yourself (intimidating them away from here not least, of course).
If you’re a fan of real names, put yours down. Nothing simpler. If you refuse to do so, and just go off listing preconditions which you know will never be fulfilled, it’s clear that you are just making mischief, and have no honesty or principle in this matter.
If, as I suspect, it’s an office, and not a single person, who uses that screen name, he/they can’t do that.
You’re included in my suggestion, Lysias. Are you in? 🙂
If the trolls would only depart, there would be no problem.
If only the cuckoos would depart this blog would be a better, more rational forum for debate and discussion.
The cuckoos should join other organisations or start up their own blog. As Craig said the other day, the internet is vast.
I mean, you did it for a while, didn’t yiu, so it’s possible.
@ 13.33 Were you speaking for yourself or on behalf of the others? 😉
I have always seen habbabkuk as a troll. He certainly posts a lot and seems to pick fights. There are others and my eyes just glaze over when I see they have posted, with the result I hardly ever read what they have posted. My loss. Perhaps.
Have you considered Habbabreak, Bob? To stop that glazing over? 🙂
What a load of superior and high-handed garbage. There you are-from one of the ‘Others of course’. Have you thought of starting your own Blog? With some like-minded mates, for instance. You could call it ‘Voices of the Prophets’! Remember-Google is your friend.
How would Craig find out what commenters’ real names were? I mean, I post as Bayard. I could say my name was Frank Richards, which doesn’t sound like an alias. I could give an an email or a postal address, but that really doesn’t get us any further. Craig is not going to limit commenters only to those who have responded to a letter from him to their postal address, is he?
However, the “keeping people on topic” idea is a good one, otherwise all comment threads end up as a conversation of the deaf about Israel, nuclear things, Scottish independence, the Tory party etc etc, regardless of the topic of the post. Deletion of all ad hominem attacks without question should help keep things short and sweet, too.
Glad you partially agree with me, Bayard.
Re real identities: of course there is the risk of fraud – experience has shown that there are some tricky buggers on here and quite a few who get VERY hot under the collar whenever questions of identity crop up.
That is why there should be something similar to what you have to do if you want to open a bank account or similar: you supply Craig with acceptable proof of identity and address and the latter could be cross-checked, eg against the electoral roll. A little bit of work and of course not completely foolproof but my suggestion would, I think. be workable.
Are you a Greyfriars fan, Bayard? NB the celebrated author Frank Richards was in fact a pen-name.
J
Habbakuk, I would agree that that would be about the minimum necessary, but it sounds terribly bureaucratic for simply commenting on a blog. A bit of a sledgehammer to crack a nut. I reckon you could get rid of most of the trolls and timewasters by enforcing the no OT and no ad hominen rules.
“Are you a Greyfriars fan, Bayard?”
Ah, so that’s why the name was lurking in my subconscious.
“NB the celebrated author Frank Richards was in fact a pen-name.”
Well that makes two of us then.
“within two years she will be massively unpopular as the effects of Brexit hit.”
It won’t be the piddling effects of Brexit that hurt the UK economy but the plummeting values of all asset classes as the world wide debt mountain collapses. You’d think said debt mountain was invisible the way the mainstream media don’t talk about it but I can assure you it is real. Stocks, bonds, shares, property and even currencies will all implode in 2017-18 and it won’t have the SLIGHTEST thing to do with Brexit no matter how dearly you want that to be true.
This is something that the controlled media and prostitute “economists” never tell us. This is the most insidious fake news of all.
All those saintly economists that you trusted so dearly – who promised all the woes of Brexit – were wrong I’m afraid. Again.
Get your head out of your arse and stop whining about Brexit. Brexit is a SPECK OF DUST compared to the economic calamity that is coming to an economy near you soon. A speck of dust.
Hint – when you can manage to stop calling everyone racists and deplorables – when you finally get your head from out of your arse – google “US debt to GDP”, do the same for China, look at how much QE is taking place in the EU, and the LTRO.
Take a look at those graphs and try to imagine – just TRY – what will happen when those rising lines stop climbing and turn downwards.
I know it’s hard when all you can do is cry about Brexit and how beastly and racist everyone is but while you were being lied to by your favourite economists you missed what was REALLY happening in the world.
I think that it is likely that:
1) The Tories will win a 120-seat majority in the General Election. They will be in power for another decade.
2) Jeremy Corbyn will resign as Labour Leader.
3) If there is a second referendum on Scottish Independence, the ‘No’ vote will be increased from last time around. The SNP will lose ground.
4) We ought not to be surprised that people in Scotland are beginning again to vote Conservative. It was a major political force in Scotland until the 1980s. There were, and are again, lots of ‘working class Tories’ –
and not just the ‘Orange’ contingent. Social surveys repeatedly have shown that attitudes to most things in society are not that different – they are slightly different – from those in England. Obviously, Brexit was a major difference.
5) Propaganda works. That’s why it exists.
I hope that I am wrong.
You are wrong on #2. Close aides to Corbyn have said that he will stay on after the defeat. Communists don’t resign. The have to be deposed or lynched.
He will be backed by his cult followers, of course. Their aim is not to win elections but to cleanse the Labour Party of all “right-wing” elements.
When they have virtually no support but are satisfied that the Party is ideologically pure they will consider it a victory.