There has been remarkably little media commentary on the effect of the UK leaving the EU Common Foreign Policy, even though this is a major aim of Johnson, Gove and the Tory Brexiteers. The media appear not to have noticed the existence of the Common Foreign Policy. We saw perhaps the first public glimpse of the UK’s new foreign policy yesterday when Boris Johnson breached the EU Common Foreign Policy to join Donald Trump in denouncing the Iran nuclear treaty. As the UK has not actually left the EU yet, that was bad faith and an illegal act against an EU treaty obligation, but following the law is evidently of no concern whatsoever to Johnson.
There could not have been a more apt symbolism than the fact that on the day of the Supreme Court judgement that he had acted unlawfully in proroguing parliament, Boris Johnson’s major public engagement was a press conference sitting alongside Donald Trump. That is the future of the Tory version of Brexit. Other Lexit options are theoretically available, but this is what the UK’s current government intends you to get.
Of recent years EU foreign policy has been fairly characterised as neo-con, though it has rowed back somewhat from the high water mark of endorsement of the destruction of Libya. But freed from common positions on Iran, Russia, Syria and issues such as climate change, we are going to see a much more full-on neo-con approach from the UK – and one which, as now over Iran, is openly allied with the USA and against Europe. Some of the things Johnson said about the Iran nuclear deal on Monday in New York were jaw-dropping even by Johnson’s standards. “I think there’s one guy who can do a better deal and one guy who understands how to get a difficult partner like Iran over the line and that is the president of the United States,” is but one example.
My reading of Trump is that he is as contemptuous of brown-nosers as he is of opponents, but let that play out. What is plain is that, if Johnson survives as PM and Brexit goes through, Trump is going to have an unquestioning acolyte in Johnson. As I have previously reported, this is crucially going to extend to UK support for Trump’s Israel policy. It will very probably lead to UK support for Israeli annexations in the Jordan Valley – which EU Common Foreign Policy would not allow – and Johnson plans an announcement before Christmas on the moving of the UK Embassy to Jerusalem.
Johnson also blamed Iran for direct involvement in the attacks on the Saudi oil facilities at Khurais and Abqaiq. This is far from proven, and I am utterly confused by the narrative the western government and media complex has been pumping out on the event. We have been treated to an update of the Singapore Gun Myth. My generation and older were brought up to believe that Singapore had fallen in World War 2 because the guns were all fixed pointing out to sea and the attack came by land. In fact this was largely untrue and in any event not the main problem, which was appalling generalship and resulting rock-bottom morale. We are now nonsensically told that all of Saudi Arabia’s air defences only point South towards Yemen and therefore missiles from Iran crept in the side.
This is absolutely untrue. Saudi Arabia’s entire weapons capacity is massively focused on Iran, as are the manifold detection devices of the numerous US bases. Besides modern air defence systems are omnidirectional. The Patriot missile defence system is not the best in the world, though it is the most expensive; however you cannot just creep up behind it and shout “boo!” Not even the Saudis would pay billions of dollars for that.
Nor is it true that the Patriot system cannot detect cruise missiles. While it may have been designed with long range ballistic missiles in mind, it was only ever intended to intercept them in the last phase of their approach and cannot detect at more than 70km away. Saudi Arabia spent $1.57 billion dollars on PAC3 missiles: “A new Patriot advanced capability (PAC-3) missile has increased effectiveness against tactical ballistic and cruise missiles through the use of advanced hit-to-kill technology. Lockheed Martin is the prime contractor, with Raytheon the systems integrator. The PAC-3 has a Ka-band millimetre wave seeker developed by Boeing.”
That drones evaded the defences seems possible. That is a fascinating demonstration of the new possibilities in assymetric warfare. As we witnessed in Gatwick, even entirely non-existent drones can be very effective. That cruise missiles were involved seems unlikely unless a very large number were launched – there has been no claim of any intercepts. The cruise missile claim is of course the grounds for the claim of Iranian involvement. That any substantial number of cruise missiles were launched from Iran into Saudi Arabia and none of them were picked up by the defences of the numerous warships in the Gulf, by the US military bases or by the Saudi air defences is so improbable as to be utter nonsense.
Any event which leads to a massive but very temporary spike in the oil price will have potential beneficiaries aside from where we are being told to look. On present public knowledge, however, a Houthi attack with drones seems the most probable explanation, as indeed the Houthis have claimed. Given the appalling bombardment from the air of Houthi civilians, I would regard such an attack as entirely justified. The addition of cruise missiles from Iran to the story seems to me wildly improbable but an entirely predictable propaganda ploy. It does however give us a glimpse of what the future of Trump/Johnson foreign policy could hold for the UK.
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Why can’t the countries, not middle eastern, stop getting involved there. It’s nothing to do to help, it’s all to do with money.
I suspect it is because the most powerful countries seem to have leaders and/or advisors with psychopathic tendencies.
perhaps ‘cunteries’ would be a better spelling ?
The psychopathy is a necessary qualification for those jobs. But the main motive for the wars consists of the politicians’ masters’ desire for even more money and power.
It has been remarked as long ago as Plato’s “Politeia” (“Republic”) that money and power are the only things for which the human appetite does not become satiated, but continually grows.
William
yes, All the recent Turmoil in the M.E is caused by the west.. And dose not the U.K U.S have the audacity to try to blame Iran for the Abqaiq facility attacks ? ..Because they say Iranian weapons were used.. So that’s that then, The sheer hypocrisy is Staggering.. What about the U.K . U.S. weapons Found in Libya, Syria, Yemen, Palestine, And Money as a weapon too..like Nuland’s $ 5 Billion to cause Murder and upheaval in Ukraine.
President Hassan Rouhani asks the same question you, and many of us do, Today at The UNGA –
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OpibxAg5Erk&t=4s
Come to that, virtually all of Saudi Arabia’s hundreds of billions of dollars’ worth of weapons came from the USA. Plus a few from its European catamites.
The major powers are interested in the Middle East because it has a lot of oil – oil that is made available to the west at competitive prices in US$’s
Oil backs the US$, the US$ backs western US client states and the US military backs the Middle Eastern regimes with the most oil. All of this combines (for the moment) to back government unfunded liabilities which currently stand north of $120 trillion for the US alone. Unfunded liabilities support an ever growing welfare state which today is pretty much all encompassing. Welfare for the poor sufficient for them to buy iphones, drugs and alcohol and welfare for the rich sufficient for them to buy entire countries and their own system of justice.
The interlocking complexity of this situation cannot be unwound, rather to keep it all from falling apart ever more complexity is added to the system. Overlaying this growing complexity is the simplicity of publicly acceptable explanations”Orange man bad” “everyone that disagrees with me is a racist or a fascist”
It all ends with full spectrum collapse – we just don’t know the precise form that collapse will take or when it will occur.
I agree with Most that Loony..
A full Collapse could be coming Soon.. a war with Iran, Iran aint No Soft Victim..And will Russia be able to stay out of it.. Who will use nukes first.? The wind knows no Borders.
Oil Will run out, Few countries are working hard on Renewable energy.. Many are doing the Exact opposite
‘Many are doing exactly the opposite’ and they will one day realise that there is only one boat, one environment and all our future at stake, Brian, then they find out that their unpreparedness and steadfast communerism ueber alles, and sod our children future, has failed them.
There is one boat and whether we find the paddles to get upstream, depends on some selfserving psychos without borders.
Depressing…
I do believe you are Free Church of Scotland minister in disguise. Oh, you can hardly wait for the doom you love prophesising. You should get a column in the Sunday Post. Welfare for iPhones – haha, love it. Keep ’em coming. Franke Boyle you ain’t.
Over 38 million iphones have been sold in the UK in the past 7 years. So either the general population is getting wealthier and are buying these phones by spending earned income or they are not getting wealthier and some other method must have been available.
Which answer do you think is most likely?
Cheap and easily accessible credit is the answer to your question.
I see no reason why Goldman Sachs would have purchased over 38 million iphones.
Rather I suspect that these devices have been bought by the general population – a general population that is faced with average credit card interest rates of 19.94% Other types of unsecured credit is available at substantially higher interest rates.
So unless you think that 19.94% represents “cheap” credit in an environment of zero interest rates for the rich then you are unlikely to have provided an accurate answer.
The vast majority of iphones are sold with a 24 month or more contract that more than covers the purchase price of the phone. Paying £60 or 60 a month seems more affordable than buying a phone for £600-900 or whatever, even though the latter is cheaper in the long run.
Which answer do you think is more likely?
Well watch out when you play on your phone, or you might walk into the van that is polluting your child.
Funny that.
Iran was always part of the Grand Plan in the M.E..
As General Wesley Clark said –
” I said, “Are we still going to war with Iraq?” And he said, “Oh, it’s worse than that.” He reached over on his desk. He picked up a piece of paper. And he said, “I just got this down from upstairs” — meaning the Secretary of Defense’s office — “today.” And he said, “This is a memo that describes how we’re going to take out seven countries in five years, starting with Iraq, and then Syria, Lebanon, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and, finishing off, Iran.”
And if you think Any war.. or fear, of is Funny ??
Oden Yinon Brian. The Plan for a Greater Israel.
Introduction
The following document pertaining to the formation of “Greater Israel” constitutes the cornerstone of powerful Zionist factions within the current Netanyahu government, the Likud party, as well as within the Israeli military and intelligence establishment.
President Donald Trump has confirmed in no uncertain terms, his support of Israel’s illegal settlements (including his opposition to UN Security Council Resolution 2334, pertaining to the illegality of the Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank). In recent developments, the Trump administration has expressed its recognition of Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights.
“Greater Israel” is de facto part of the election campaign. Netanyahu has pledged to annex large parts of the occupied West Bank if he wins in the forthcoming September 17 elections.’
https://www.globalresearch.ca/greater-israel-the-zionist-plan-for-the-middle-east/5324815
Loony
Absent from your calculations are the trillions spent on arms. But of course like all neoconservative you concentrate on social security and demonise it by saying it is used for unnecessary or nefarious purposes. The function of social welfare In the hyper capitalist society is to keep the many just above starvation in case the pitchforks come out. As for your great orange idol, he is not only part of the system of hyper inequality but is the epitome of it and of all its self entitlement privileges.
It’s all for oil it always is
“A new Patriot advanced capability (PAC-3) missile has increased effectiveness against tactical ballistic and cruise missiles through the use of advanced hit-to-kill technology. ”
In general, an unattributed citation has low probatory value. And even if we have an attribution to a credible source, one has to be aware of small print. Suppose that PAC-2 would dispatch one cruise missile out of 100, and PAC-3, one out of 10. That would be a huge increase in effectiveness, but still short of being effective.
——-
On the other note, I recall current PM providing the most memorable speech about Sripals and Novichok, back in his FM days, so it is hard to be surprised. I was wondering why, by the name of Jove, one of the first things that happened when he took PM office was releasing the pirated Iranian tanker. Now Stena Imperi was released and Johnson changes his tune. I would strongly advise all Swedish ship owner (or, all civilian ship owners) to change flags from British to something else.
“A new Patriot advanced capability (PAC-3) missile has increased effectiveness against tactical ballistic and cruise missiles through the use of advanced hit-to-kill technology”.
When dealing with snake-oil salesmen, a close reading is always vital.
In the quoted sentence, the only significant words are “increased effectiveness”.
The older version had effectiveness of, let us say, 3%.
Whereas te new version has effectiveness of 4%.
They don’t lie… not quite.
“There could not have been a more apt symbolism than the fact that on the day of the Supreme Court judgement that he had acted unlawfully in proroguing parliament…” The pro Remain justices, appointed by the Parasite, didn’t even provide legal reasoning for their decision, which, therefore, was political. Their written decision was unusually brief and, after all is said and done, an act of judicial activism. Well, Yes. On the other hand, that’s sort of not the point. That’s just the establishment (pro Remain judges, Mercouris believes) taking steps to ensure that what those who own and run the world want, they get. If the people happened to choose what the Corporatocracy wanted, we would have seen no judicial activism there, I would speculate. (In other words, Are those judges judicial activists if they are only activists when they need to be?) Alexander Mercouris, a Conservative (I’m ‘not’ Conservative), argues that Johnson’s prorogue, while failing to accomplish anything, was legal and not unusual. I’m just saying. The UK Supremes (ten as I recall) are establishment as Mercouris points out. I’m trying to understand how a Conservative can bemoan the dismantling, piece by piece (over a period of decades) of the British system by the establishment, when it’s being done by the establishment.
Mercouris says almost nothing about the working class. I already agreed, basically, with the WSWS position that all of this Brexit stuff, as well as the Scotland independence movement, is neither here nor there – for the working class. I’m beginning to feel even more strongly that that’s the way to view all of this “Look! Over there!” chaos.
“The pro Remain justices, appointed by the Parasite, didn’t even provide legal reasoning for their decision”
Have you actually read the ruling, or are you relying on the Daily Mail?
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-49810680
What on earth is your point? I don’t read the Daily Mail. And I was clear. Spit it out, not that I’m interested at this point. I’ll learn nothing from you.
The point is that you started your incoherent diatribe with a false statement.
Actually, I made clear that Alexander Mercouris made the statement. That’s how I learn. I get my information from others who do know. And that’s why I come here. I assume that, while Mercouris is Conservative, I’ll get info from him with that slant. And others will give me info from other angles. WHY are you mouthing off? Did I not say that I’m trying to understand all of this? Give me a link to the all-important ruling and I’ll read it. I don’t know what I’d do with however. I have not read other US Supreme Court decisions and couldn’t compare. Try being helpful instead instead of aggressive.
“WHY are you mouthing off?”
Who’s mouthing off? How can you describe two lines of comment as “mouthing off”?
“Give me a link to the all-important ruling and I’ll read it.”
My first post was exactly that. What’s wrong with you?
If you want a debate to become more informed then you’re going to have to raise your game a bit instead of huffing and puffing, not reading comments, and taking umbrage at the merest sleight.
“(ten as I recall)”
You recall incorrectly (and you could have checked if you had cared). There are 12 justices; 11 participated in this ruling, so that there would be an odd number (to avoid deadlock).
Jimmeh: I will not remember every detail of everything I hear. If it’s in writing somewhere, I’ll double check before posting. I have a crap short term memory. Trying living till 63 and enduring a small stroke and see how you memory is. What’s with the hostility from people here. It’s not very becoming.
WSWS is always worth a quick swatch. Gathering of data is thorough and scientifically disciplined. Their work on the number of ex-military personnel standing in the 2018 US mid-term election must have taken a substantial resource to pull together. Unfortunately, their analysis of data is hobbled by ideological blinkers.
Side note, when the Fourth International US franchise went from the SWP to the Socialist Equality Party, they drank deeply from the indentity politics KoolAid.
“I’m trying to understand how a Conservative can bemoan the dismantling, piece by piece (over a period of decades) of the British system by the establishment, when it’s being done by the establishment”.
That’s very simple.
A true conservative (small “c”) wishes to preserve institutions. (S)he doesn’t care much who does what to whom, as long as it conforms with the established institutions and principles.
There have been no conservatives in British politics since, perhaps, the 1960s.
I too away a lot from this excellent report, even if I happen to getting ‘some’ contrary views from others who also seem quite informed. The more I read about Brexit, the less I understand. But little by little I’m learning. I’ll never unravel it completely, but I’m okay with that.
There’s nothing to unravel. It’s simply a stupid idea. It’s not even clear how it suits the rich crackpots who funded it. I guess they’re worried about having to pay tax or come clean on their offshore wealth.
That all said, there’s no getting out of it. Brexit must go ahead. It’s like one of those dumb American horror movies wherein a group of idiotic rich kids conjure up a demon with a ouija board. There’s no getting rid of this thing.
Britain is finished. If there’s a silver lining, that’s it.
I don’t care if a Britain that doesn’t work for everyone while selling bombs to genocidal Saudis is finished.
“The more I read about Brexit, the less I understand”.
There’s not very much to misunderstand. Look back to the Britain of the 1960s and earlier, and reflect that – whatever its shortcomings – it was at least an independent sovereign nation.
Those of us who support Brexit just want to get that independence and sovereignty back.
You think Brexit will produce independence from massive multinational corporations, who’s paid representatives currently govern us, and sovereignty from America?
It will very probably lead to UK support for Israeli annexations in the Jordan Valley – which EU Common Foreign Policy would not allow
The EU are disingenuous about such matters. They say al the right words but stil sell weapons to Israel invite them to US Foreign Legion (NATO) exercises and suppress and even criminalise BDS. Contrast their response to the Israeli annexation of the Golan Heights with their response to the annexation of Crimea.
No. The EU talks the talk but otherwise supports the Israeli positions 100%. The Brits will at least be honest about this nonsense.
In Blackpool 67.5% of voters voted to leave the EU.
Three possibilities exist:
Blackpool is full of rabid pro zionists
Blackpool is not rabidly pro zionist but the people of Blackpool are too stupid to realize that the EU referendum was really all about Israel
The EU referendum had absolutely nothing whatsoever to do with Israel, Jews or Zionists
Which answer do you think is the most likely answer?
Most leave voters were not aching for disaster capitalism either. But that is what the Britannia Unchained mob have lined up for them.
If you got out more you’d notice that Disaster Capitalism arrived years ago. All the policies involving austerity and a general lowering of both living standards and social security, in the broadest sense, were and are justified on the basis that they are necessary responses to disaster.
Nothing that Johnson is promising to do was not started by Cameron and Clegg and much of it was anticipated by Blair and Brown.
And the same is true of the EU as a whole: Greece, Ireland, Portugal being but three examples of states subjected to disaster capitalist policies.
bevin,
The EU is there to impose austerity on everyone – it is called “trickle up” economics. There are many countries in the EU where people are less than happy with the EU itself.
Andyoldlabour
“There are many countries in the EU where people are less than happy with the EU itself.”
It’s not particularly true, but the important point is that, except UK, there is no strong desire anywhere to leave. Brexiters like to conjure up such movements, but they’re all small minorities that somehow Brexiters believe are majority. They aren’t, Not even Greece wanted to leave when they had the chance.
Well most voters have been subjected to disaster capitalism since at least 2007 – so it is unlikely that they could be successfully threatened with this prospect.
Of course if you happen to be a pensioner on government provided final salary pension, or if you own a house in the SE of England together with a holiday home in Tuscany then you remain to be introduced to the effects of disaster capitalism. For such people it is entirely rational that they be fully committed to the status quo.
It is beyond insulting that such people feign concern for the citizens of Blackpool.
“most voters have been subjected to disaster capitalism since at least 2007 – so it is unlikely that they could be successfully threatened with this prospect”
That’s interesting, because I recall you insisting Britain has not experienced austerity .Do you recall it?
Yes I recall the comment you refer to. Austerity and disaster capitalism are not synonymous.
Disaster capitalism is best understood as the removal of skilled work and the consequent inability of workers to earn an income sufficient to support themselves in a high cost, advanced and complex economy. There are 2 main factors at play: The offshoring of all types of work and the replacement of skilled workers with computer technology.
Austerity would necessarily imply a realignment of all forms of public expenditure such that it matched income. That this has not occurred is beyond obvious – all you have to do is to look at escalating debt levels, and the suppression of interest rates.
Greece has suffered austerity and consequently pensions have been cut in both real and nominal terms, there is an absolute shortage of various types of medicines, the death rate has increased as have emigration levels. Many other indicators can be examined and all are consistent with austerity.
None of this applies to the UK. Unless you believe that negative interest rates are capable of persisting forever then there will come a time when austerity hits the UK – most likely a more severe form of austerity than has been inflicted on Greece. Not only will this make people much poorer it is also likely to result in material social unrest. Social unrest is likely to be fuelled by the rapid stripping away of general delusions such as the belief that to date the UK has experienced any form of austerity.
What a pantload. Disaster capitalism is nowhere “best understood as the removal of skilled jobs”. That is called deindustrialisation, standard neoliberal policy since the 1980s. It is dramatic Tory cuts to public spending since 2010 – imposed most savagely on councils in poor areas – that saw towns like Blackpool reject Cameron and Osborne in 2016.
What you write is simply not true.
In 2010 total UK public spending was £673 billion. In 2018 total UK public spending was £805 billion.
Those are the numbers and no-one with even basic numeracy skills could possibly interpret these numbers as constituting “dramatic Tory cuts to public spending since 2010”
Why do you do this? Ignorance is not a virtue
Nobody annexed Crimea the population chose to return to the motherland.
“Nobody annexed Crimea the population chose to return to the motherland”.
With one of the highest referendum percentages ever, anywhere.
Although the referendum was not strictly necessary, as Crimea has always been legally part of Russia. Since 1783, anyway.
Not the Fatherland, then. Wot a relief.
One of the hostilities felt by Iran is the fact they do not welcome being bullied by ignorant upstarts,
they do not want NATO patrolling the Gulf of Persia, in case anyone had not known, the Gulf of Persia is not near the Atlantic Ocean.
Iran do not want to help America by selling their oil in U.S.A. dollars.
Iran possibly has one of the very biggest reserves of Methane, it does not need to be fracked,
this cheap Iranian/Qatari/Russian/Ex-Soviet Central Asian Methane could supply Europe for more than a hundred years.
This is against the interest of America who wishes to sell fracked U.S.A. Methane to the World.
Michael, did you mean “freedom gas” 🙂
indeedydoody
Press release from department said increasing export capacity is “critical to spreading American freedom gas throughout the world”
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2019/may/29/energy-department-molecules-freedom-fossil-fuel-rebranding
Quote
Mark W Menezes, the US undersecretary of energy, bestowed a peculiar honorific on our continent’s natural resources, dubbing it “freedom gas” in a release touting the DoE’s approval of increased exports of natural gas produced by a Freeport LNG terminal off the coast of Texas.
“Increasing export capacity from the Freeport LNG project is critical to spreading freedom gas throughout the world by giving America’s allies a diverse and affordable source of clean energy,” he said.
However, if there is virtually unlimited Oil and Methane in the World ( which there is, at least for the next half century)
the Economics will not favour freedom gas, if too much comes to town too quickly.
Hence nord stream 2 – BAD
‘“Increasing export capacity from the Freeport LNG project is critical to spreading freedom gas throughout the world by giving America’s allies a diverse and affordable source of clean energy,” he said’.
“Diverse”? When it comes from only one country – which has shown continuous and strenuous inclination to blackmail everyone it possibly can?
Maybe it’s “diverse” because it has its own set of preferred pronouns. Or just because it’s black(ish)?
The neocon project is so vast and so old that any risk of exposure MUST be contained.
The simple accession of a non-neocon to power anywhere in the world would be sufficient to expose one hundred years of malignancy by USUKIS Jeremy Corbyn in no 10 would be nuclear, not Guy Fawkes , for this corrupt , mean, decaying world order. You have only to look at the bellowing of Geoffrey Cox and the screeching from remainers in the EU to understand the appalling horror the neocons view their sins being exposed.
40 years of continual war against Islam.
70 years of brutal Zionist expansion in the middle east and Iran and Syria still not destroyed.
100 years of rebellion against Islam and its Caliphate representing a bitter intent to extinguish the light of truth from this world.
So when Craig sarcastically calls johnson’s terror, hiding under mummy Trump Trump’s manifold layers of black out Tweed,
Heaven, I can be sure he actually means excoriation and sentencing to Hell.
Indeed the arrival of a man of principle in Western politics will be a gnashing of teeth for the criminal neocons.
https://waitingfortax.com/ makes interesting reading.
Watching yesterday’s Commons live tv channel was disturbing. When I was at secondary school sitting in History lessons I was fascinated by trying to understand how a civilised nations such as Germany delivered itself into such a mess of the 3rd Reich and the wreckage + long-term shame it brought on a proud country.
Now, after all these years, I am reliving how the 3rd Reich came to power – at first hand. Johnson’s rhetoric at the despatch box was straight out of the 1930’s, only in a modern 21st century setting. The duplicity and am-dram performance skills of the Attorney General serve to define his suitability to serve Johnson in his ambitions. The bawling from government benches only needed a chorus of “Sieg Heil” to complete the scenario.
Very scary. How we avoid the rest of the story of a right-wing dictatorship bringing our proud country to ruin is certainly a riddle when one is dealing with a cabal notorious for deviousness and duplicity. We need to be so vigilant.
Milton Mayer Tony12.
‘An excerpt from
They Thought They Were Free
The Germans, 1933-45
But Then It Was Too Late
“What no one seemed to notice,” said a colleague of mine, a philologist, “was the ever widening gap, after 1933, between the government and the people. Just think how very wide this gap was to begin with, here in Germany. And it became always wider. You know, it doesn’t make people close to their government to be told that this is a people’s government, a true democracy, or to be enrolled in civilian defense, or even to vote. All this has little, really nothing, to do with knowing one is governing.
“What happened here was the gradual habituation of the people, little by little, to being governed by surprise; to receiving decisions deliberated in secret; to believing that the situation was so complicated that the government had to act on information which the people could not understand, or so dangerous that, even if the people could not understand it, it could not be released because of national security. And their sense of identification with Hitler, their trust in him, made it easier to widen this gap and reassured those who would otherwise have worried about it.
“This separation of government from people, this widening of the gap, took place so gradually and so insensibly, each step disguised (perhaps not even intentionally) as a temporary emergency measure or associated with true patriotic allegiance or with real social purposes. And all the crises and reforms (real reforms, too) so occupied the people that they did not see the slow motion underneath, of the whole process of government growing remoter and remoter.’
https://www.press.uchicago.edu/Misc/Chicago/511928.html
So true nearly a century later.
I thought Boris’ behaviour last night was disgraceful. But I think he will get what’s coming to him within a month, and indeed be forced to bring it on himself. I think he will fail to agree a deal that would satisfy the EU or Parliament (since any that would couldn’t be much different from May’s in essence), and I think that he will not have the courage to face the possibility of either a cold prison cell for breaking the Benn Act, or the humiliation of asking for an extension after all his ‘do or die’ speeches, and so he will resign. He will be out of office within a month, and schemes from America to take over the NHS will be in tatters. Let’s see.
Or, Joanna Cherry’s hairbrained, Nobile Officium plan will come to Johnson’s rescue. An extension to A50 is granted by the EU (vanishingly unlikely) enabling a GE where Johnson is free to claim “I didn’t extend Brexit beyond the 31st October, it was the treacherous elite wot dun it.” In the subsequent GE, the Tories “cleansed” of their Europhile faction will carve England & Wales between themselves and the Brexit Party leading to a “Patriotic Front” landslide and a slide into dictatorship by executive fiat.
On the one hand I am inclined to think: let the Brexiteers have their hard Brexit orgasm. (I use “orgasm” deliberately because Brexit seems to have become a sort of fetish for many.) Let the voters find out that their lives will not be better after a hard Brexit. For most, life will be slightly to significantly worse. Let Johnson face the voters then, when there are no more excuses and the focus can be on the self-enrichment of the few at the cost of the many.
On the other,I am afraid that the Tories might just be mad enough to take all sorts of rights away when they are no longer restrained by EU rules and courts. I am also afraid that the UK’s “deep state” will never permit Corbyn to be PM and will do almost anything to prevent that.
In the meantime, Der Spiegel reports that Ireland is quietly making serious preparations to implement border controls.
https://www.spiegel.de/politik/ausland/brexit-irland-bereitet-kontrollen-an-nordirland-grenze-vor-a-1288608.html
The Peoples News
The BBC tries to Strike Back with The Peoples News. (@Tern TV )
https://mobile.twitter.com/PeoplesNewsScot/status/1172546731982098432
Are there Peoples News for the other parts of UK?
Steve Wright’s afternoon slot on Radio2 has started playing clips where the participants claim to be “Real People”
Someone must’ve told them that people aint listenning no more.
recently in russian social media we discussed half-jokingly / half-serious:
“For us, the losers, there’s Forbes magazine, where we can find out how the rich are doing. Is there a magazine for the rich to find out how the poor are doing? Titled “5/2″, with articles about a person who wants to buy sneakers, but he lacks $3”
—
the BBC is trying to get the views of ordinary people. It is not bad, I believe 🙂
The views of ordinary people used as a bait to attract an audience for BBC propaganda. Remember it’s for a Scottish audience.
Did you read any of the comments thereon? Excoriating stuff mostly. Whose initiative was it?
Why the use of terns? Do you perhaps have a surfeit of them in Scotland? I had to learn this by heart at school – Tennyson
‘I come from haunts of coot and tern.
I make a sudden sally,
And sparkle out among the fern,
To bicker down a valley………’
These days, chucking rocks at innocent birds is frowned upon but, when I was a lad, we left no tern unstoned.
Very droll. LOL
‘droll’ is another word (besides ‘asinine’) that I learned from you. Thanks 🙂
Some have talked of Boris Johnson sending a Piggyback letter to The European Union Elite.
They imagine he would say, Dear E.U. Elite please ignore the other letter, Jeremy Corbyn and that horrible Swinson Creature made me write it but you know my heart is not in it, just let us slip away, you know we will cause unrelenting trouble for the E.U. if we are to remain shackled to your drowning corpse.
However, I do not think Boris needs to send a second letter, for the E.U. Elite to get the picture.
That, in part, is what yesterdays horrible Parliamentary Demonstration
was for.
The E.U. Elite will have been watching the Horror unfold, while they sip their riesling,
“Who will rid me of this troublesome priest”
Watching and listening to urgent questions on Brexit this morning, it is awkward listening to the same volley of question today fired at Exiting the EU Minister James Duddridge.
In doing so Duddridge has easily batted away those questions today, presumably based on Geoffrey Cox’s decisive performance yesterday.
The one question that really matters to remainers (Will the government comply and seek and extension from the EU post 19th of October.) Has again easily been negated by Duddridge claiming the government will always obey the law.
I’m not so sure the government will obey the law when the time comes, nor that they are actively seeking a deal with the EU, as some MP’s have asked but no details were forthcoming.
I would venture that Johnson is staking everything on trying to force a GE.
Surprising to see that supporters of the EU continue to be entirely silent on the EU itself, preferring instead to focus entirely on domestic British internecine squabbling.
Surely an explanation as to the benefits of the EU would be one way to persuade Brexiteers to change their minds.
For example I would appreciate an explanation as to why it is appropriate to have a convicted criminal as the head of the ECB. Speaking of the ECB I would be interested to know why it is appropriate that in 2019 the Head of the Bundesbank will only be allowed a vote in 3 of the ECB meetings but the Head of the Maltese Central Bank will be voting i every meeting bar one.
Of course it may be that any inquiry into the criminal past of the new President of the ECB will be diverted by social justice fanatics raging about feminism, misogyny and the patriarchy. How then to explain the sudden resignation of Sabine Lautenschlaeger.
Naturally this will all be ignored as to do otherwise would require the British based EU fanatics to actually do some work so as to understand exactly what the EU really is
Boris Johnson – worse than Hitler, fascist blah blah, racist blah blah, rich, blah bah
Sabine Lautenschlaeger – never heard of her. What has she got to do with my prejudices?
“Surprising to see that supporters of the EU continue to be entirely silent on the EU itself”
Well the ball is in Johnson’s court, and it’s up to him and his government to go to Brussels to hammer out a deal, of which he make very clear that he’d rather die in a ditch first, than go and sort out some sort of deal with the EU.
I fail to see how appointments of personnel within the EU structure has any bearing whatsoever on that.
Many times you have affirmed your commitment to Scotland being both independent and a member of the EU. It therefore follows that in order for your desire to be a member of the EU to be based on reason then you must know exactly why the EU is an organization that it is beneficial to its members.
A useful start would be to explain why it is appropriate for the head of the ECB to be a convicted criminal. In the event that Scotland were to become independent with its own central bank would you be agitating for a convicted criminal to be placed at the head of that bank?
These are simple questions that have nothing at all to do with Boris Johnson.
Oh please Loony give it a break, the IMF and the World bank are controlled by the biggest warmongering nation on the planet the US.
The 2008 crash saw no bankers (except in Iceland) go to prison for their reckless criminal activities that affected the world. Yet here you are singling out the EU, as some sort of special nasty case.
Of course there’s corruption in the EU, but why does that make it particularly bad in your eyes I don’t know. I myself want Scotland out of this unfit union, and to remain in the EU in some form or another EFTA full membership etc.
No-one is being asked whether they want to be a member of the World Bank or the IMF. Conversely UK membership of the EU is the single most important topic under discussion in British public life.
It therefore seems eminently reasonable that those who propose continued membership of the EU explain why they believe the EU to be beneficial and how the benefits of the EU are enhanced by the appointment of a convicted criminal to one of the most important roles in the EU administrative superstructure.
Clearly there are serious divisions in the UK, and the most likely way of healing those divisions is via dialogue whereby people explain the reasoning underpinning their ideological convictions. Thus it appears reasonable that supporters of the EU set out their reasoning for wishing to appoint convicted criminals into positions of high office.
It is not reasonable to avoid the question and to make erroneous comparisons with other supra-national bodies. Should a referendum ever be proposed with regard to the future of the IMF or the World Bank then I stand ready with arguments in favor of abolishing both organizations.
Lets cut to the chase Loony.
Here’s a few good reasons to stay in the EU.
You tell me why we shouldnt.
500 million consumers, representing 23% of global GDP
US, Russia and China
allies are France, Germany and our other West European neighbours
administrative rules etc.) among members
Canada as an EU member
services
services
of the rules governing its trade with its European partners
to the EU
gaps (translators, doctors, plumbers)
unskilled workers (fruit picking, catering)
footballers to the Premier League
Direct Investment (FDI), worth over $1.2 trillion
investment into the UK from outside the EU
single market
transactions across the Eurozone
of the EU Single Market
€7.3bn, or 0.4% of GDP (less than an eighth of the UK’s defence spending)
in the UK)
a bridge between foreign business and the EU
operate freely across the EU
Social Fund (ESF)
decline (South Wales, Yorkshire)
Fund for Regional Development (EAFRD)
£122 million for the “Midlands engine” project
medium enterprises (SMEs) in the UK
apprenticeships, tennis and rugby league
European capitals of culture, stimulating their local economies
monopolistic business practices
Corporations (MNCs) in the EU
Rights
incompatible with EU membership
and protected under EU law
immigration restrictions
facilitated the free movement of engineers, teachers and doctors across the EU
(CEFR) has standardized assessment of language proficiency across the EU
teach courses in English and charge lower fees than in the UK)
16000 UK students a year)
elections if resident in any member state
on the continent
state (EHIC card)
warming (Paris 2015 climate change conference)
from 1990 to 2015)
sulphur dioxide and nitrogen oxides) as a result of EU legislation
toxic waste
in urban areas
2000 network)
monitors the quality and safety of medicines (until recently located in London)
innovation
research
member of Euratom
Directive)
since 1957
overtime
women
birth
sexual orientation
membership are enshrined in EU employment law
maintains full control of its borders as a non-member of the Schengen area
to 66% of its net contribution to the EU budget
from terrorists, pedophiles, people traffickers and cyber-crime
product guarantees of quality and safety
consumer choice and lowered prices
Agreement
Gibraltar
Portugal and Greece from the 1970s and these countries have become major
destinations for British tourists
“Membership of the world’s largest trading bloc with over
500 million consumers, representing 23% of global GDP”.
Hmmm. Less than half the number of consumers in China – a single nation, which also has considerably higher GDP when measured by PPP.
Thank you for such an extensive reply.
Perhaps you may consider revisiting your exhaustive (or near exhaustive) list of the benefits of the EU and explain how each of these benefits are enhanced by the appointment of a convicted criminal to the role of the President of the ECB.
Personally I am not really interested in learning about the benefits or dis-benefits of eating meat from Jeffrey Dahmer.
“Geoffrey Cox’s decisive performance yesterday.”
Decisive performance? I thought he was auditioning for The Pirates Of Penzance.
“I thought he was auditioning for The Pirates Of Penzance”.
“But you don’t go”.
As is being said widely with respect to Greta Thunberg and the children’s climate change strikes – when our children become our leaders, and our leaders become children, something is very wrong.
The Bullingdon, Bannonite, Baby-Trump, Bully’s disgraceful performance yesterday demonstrated Johnson’s complete lack of statesmanship and his total inappropriateness to be PM.
Johnson will get his election and should then get his just deserts.
Let’s hope what goes around comes around more quickly than usual in this case, indeed, where possible, let’s work to make it so.
Ps.
Brothers, sisters, we don’t need this fascist groove thang:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lV5dbcOmw6I
It’s just the 21st century edition of the Children’s Crusade (qv). Which turned out badly for the children, and indeed for everyone except the slavers.
I have come to the conclusion that the only way to lance this boil is to let no deal happen.
Then when the full horror emerges, the debate at last will be over, we will re-enter into full-blooded membership, including Shengen and the Euro. Otherwise it will continue for decades.
Discuss.
“The full horror…”
Your views mystify me. How much is, say, Russia suffering from not being subject to the whims of Brussels?
China?
Japan? (And, if being part of a continental entity is so vital for the prosperity of a neighbouring set of islands, when is Japan going to become a province of China?)
South Korea?
Canada?
The USA?
etc. etc. ad nauseam.
Interesting scenario you pose. Of course that would have to include not having a GE immediately after 31 October and letting this current lot on the Government benches deal with a UK trading under WTO rules. I wonder if the bumbling Uncle Boris would resign within a couple of months, claiming to have “done it”, cashing in his post-PM pension and writing his memoirs “I got it done!”. Splendid title for a book, don’t you think – would sell well in the US.
@Tom Welsh – those countries you list were never EU member-states as the UK has been for decades.
Does nobody in the Commons realise that the clock’s ticking? Every day they spend whining about Boris Johnson is another day wasted in trying to fix Brexit. Actually, maybe they are aware of that? Maybe they do want a no deal but are too chicken to stand up and say it?
If I were a Labour strategist, I might think that the best way to pop Johnson’s balloon is to let no deal happen. At the same time, of course, putting on a whole act that Labour is desperately trying to prevent it.
All is not lost by letting no deal happen. Labour could make an agreement with the EU to be in a customs union etc. quite easily. After all, this fuss is all only about the Withdrawal Agreement, not the actual treaty on future relations.
I’m not sure it would be a good strategy, but it would be one I’d think about carefully.
What I find rather extraordinary is that there are actually people who consider themselves ‘progressives’ or ‘left’ who support the UK crashiing out of the EU and landing right in Boris Johnson’s hard-right lap. Their hatred of the EU, little more than dogma, seemingly blinds them to the dangers inherent in the rise of english nationalism, with Johnson at the head of it. They, the ‘progressives’ imagine that leaving the EU is but a first step towards their socialist paradise… the one that’s always just out of reach, instead; it’s more likely that leaving the EU moves the UK not closer to ‘socialism’, but closer to ‘facism.’
“Johnson also blamed Iran for direct involvement in the attacks on the Saudi oil facilities at Khurais and Abqaiq. This is far from proven, and I am utterly confused by the narrative the western government and media complex has been pumping out on the event.”
Apologies if this has already been highlighted:
https://www.petroleum-economist.com/articles/politics-economics/middle-east/2019/china-and-iran-flesh-out-strategic-partnership
Why on earth would Iran risk upsetting China by disrupting the existing supply of oil after entering into this huge strategic partnership.
This potentially means that China will never suffer a USD shortage again as they currently have a substantial circa $750B trade surplus (if we can believe the data) and the importing of energy will no longer be subject to the vagaries of USD “policy”.
This seems huge to me but doesn’t seem to be getting reported very much in the MSM.
Craig is right.
Johnson, Farage etc do not support ‘taking back control’ when it comes to the United States.
Liam Fox was on the radio the other day and he claimed that the Iranian nuclear deal was failing now. He did not mention US withdrawal and nor was he, if I remember correctly, challenged on it. I very much doubt that he ever supported it.
As for the fall of Singapore, I think there was a spy who helped the Japanese. I seem to remember seeing a programme about it. But I think he was well-connected and so it was covered up.
And what would a spy have told them that they didn’t know already – that the British Empire was a paper tiger or a rickety slum that just needed a good kick to come tumbling down?
Boris Johnson’s contemptuous response to Paula Sherriff was an absolute disgrace. Her speech was one of the best I’ve ever seen in the House of Commons. It’s so clear to any decent person which side is right and which is wrong in this exchange.
And look at the vile Rees-Mogg smirking in the background – what a coward and creep! – as Johnson condemns what Sherriff has said as unparalleled “humbug”. What a despicable pair Johnson and Rees-Mogg are.
Note to Seumas: use this. Play it again and again. Go for the women’s vote – and for votes from the many millions of men who are totally repelled by this kind of treatment of women. Scumbags will of course enjoy watching Johnson sneer at Sherriff in that way. But most scumbags will vote for the right or far right, if they can be bothered to go the polling station at all. This is actually a case of “They go low, we go high” being the astute thing to do. (Hillary Clinton may have gone too far in that direction. The principle isn’t universal. And in any case, I think the US still has a bigger macho scumbag vote than Britain. So “it didn’t work for Hillary” fails as a counter-argument.)
You seem to have misunderstood the meaning of the phrase “They go low, we go high”
It does not seem to fit with your description of Jacob Rees-Mogg as a “coward and a creep” or your observation that supporters of the Prime Minister are “scumbags”
Or perhaps you understand all too well and are simply reducing to writing your Cultural Marxist doctrine. This would be the same doctrine that compels the NHS to invite transgender, but biological men to attend cervical cancer screening tests. Naturally this increases demand for NHS services and results in delays to women receiving cancer screening tests. So with that fact in mind people can judge for themselves just how much you and your ilk care for women.
I am not a “Cultural Marxist”. Nor are my contributions here part of the Labour party’s general election campaign.
I would have thought mentally ill men who have had surgery in accordance with their wish to go around claiming to be women don’t actually have even artificial cervixes. They obviously don’t have real wombs because only women have them. What their risk rate for cancer is in the part of their bodies where they’ve had the surgery I haven’t a clue.
“Her speech was one of the best I’ve ever seen in the House of Commons.”
Says a lot about the dismal standard of representatives we have. And frankly, I would have thought you far too intelligent to be taken in by such a simple gambit, yet here you are advocating for it. Conflating robust debate with an opportunistic murder is an absolute gutter tactic no matter how upset and emotional you are at being called ‘traitorous’, so I’d say there’s plenty ‘scumbags’ on both sides of this debate, no matter how ‘clear’ it is to you decent people.
I can’t get my head around how there’s all these intelligent people without the self awareness to realise their crowing about the ‘rise of English nationalism’ makes the real thing inherently more likely? Not Boris being mean to a female MP, or some old biddies waving Union flags, we’re talking the jack boot wearing, seig heil-ing type. There’s a very real, visceral sense of anger in the working class right now, and our politicians should be doing their utmost to avoid some right wing demagogue being the person to light the fuse on it but all they’ve done is spend the last 3 years stoking it at every opportunity. Spend decades deriding people as ignorant, racist simpletons and then be surprised when they go do ignorant, racist things. If this spirals out of control, our political class brought it entirely upon themselves.
The addiction of the industrialised world to hydrocarbon based fuels has led to constant geopolitical conflicts. Most major conflicts since the second world war have related to control of these resources. Many of the oil rich countries such as Venezuela, KSA, Kuwait, the Gulf countries and so on are heavily dependant on the export of these to sustain their economy. It follows therefore that if we are serious about divesting ourselves from these addictions, that these countries will be less important for industrialised nations to fight over.
So here is a conundrum: why are we still supporting these countries and paying so much attention to their oil, even at the risk of a major conflagration, when we are seeking to move away to renewable energy by at the most 2050 as mooted? Why can we not start changing our policy to rely less on these countries?
All war is about resources. And the military-industrial complex is very powerful.
“Advanced western” autarchy?
Industrial production side: neither the US nor the EU are self-sufficient in iron for steel, or in bauxite for aluminium, or in many other minerals than the hydrocarbons that get talked about so much.
Consumption side: flogging stuff only in the home market? Admittedly they are pushing hard to reorganise many aspects of daily life according to what’s most profitable. (From an economic, which is to say a capitalist, point of view daily life for most of the population means the reproduction of labour-power. Marx wrote in Capital about the countervailing tendencies to the falling rate of profit.) But…well, what Rosa Luxemburg said.
SA
Greenwash.I was in Hungerford on Monday and it was awash with corduroyed gents in BMWs.
The fact that Iran is now in the sights of the Oaf on a false flag Mossad lie, repeated by other Oafs like U.S. generals, means they believe we believe the fake demos and stunts of climate extinction and they can carry on colonizing .
“why are we still supporting these countries and paying so much attention to their oil, even at the risk of a major conflagration”
Primarily the largest producer of oil the US, not only wants to have control over its own oil but control of the flow and demand of oil around the globe.
Allow the production or supply to countries that comply with you militarily and economically, and cut of and sanction those countries that do not.
Advantages of the Petrol Dollar, tith this status, the U.S. dollar enjoys what some have asserted to be an “exorbitant privilege” of perpetually financing its current account deficit by issuing dollar denominated assets at very low rates of interest as well as becoming a global economic hegemony.
The answer to your question is that there is absolutely no intention of moving away from reliance on hydrocarbons.
A more interesting question is why are people telling so many lies regarding future energy demand and the future energy mix.
A good question would be, will the Scottish “Climate Emergency” SNP Administration forbid future oil extraction in its economic area?
That’s funny, @michael ! When I point out that most of the oil that’s extracted from the ground gets used as transport fuel (around three-quarters is used either as transport fuel or for heating), supporters of Scottish independence tend to shout “You prove that!” (with a subtext of “You filthy rotter who’s trying to undermine our cause!”) or to say things like they know somebody who works in the oil sector and he says a lot of oil goes to make petrochemicals. Nationalists want to appear left wing for the left wing market, green for the green market, pro-business for the business market, and so on, but what nationalism is really about is rabies. (Think about it – selling lots of oil might mean fewer grants for the boys. Aww!)
No future SNP administration will ever seek to forbid future oil extraction.
At one level the SNP want to leave the UK and at another level seek to avoid all responsibility by simply blaming the English every time things don’t go their way. They are assisted in this MO by the fact that very powerful unionist forces exist in both England and Scotland (not least a majority of the Scottish population.
However should they ever gain independence and make any serious moves at limiting the petrochemical industry then the economy will die more or less instantly. Someone somewhere (naturally not the SNP) have allowed the vast majority of downstream and midstream Scottish oil and petrochemical operations to fall into the hands of Jim Ratcliffe.
If Jim doesn’t like what you are doing then he will simply close down his operations and take his money with him. He does not care about Scotland, he does not care about shareholders, he does not care about his reputation. He cares only about money, and most of his money is a long way from Scotland.
Loony,
Thanks for mentioning Jim Ratcliffe, though I had never heard of him, despite the fact that he is the same age as me, and grew up in Failsworth, near Oldham on a council estate, 2 miles away from where I did.
Not many people go from nothing to £21 Billion in one lifetime. However there are many talented people who grew up on the North side of Manchester (the poorer part with cotton mills near Oldham)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jim_Ratcliffe
Tony
Thanks Tony
Ratcliffe is a Eurosceptic and has stated that, “As a business, INEOS supported the common market, but not a United States of Europe.” He is opposed to the “layers and layers” of European legislation which he feels is making European economies increasingly cumbersome and inefficient.
So there you have it RoS the richest person in Scotland wants out of the E.U.
Yawn, sorry to bust you Greenwas Jimmy shekel collection here.
This rich man uses copius taxpayers money to frack the hell out of North Yorkshire and Lancashires ancient shales? For the general public does not like earthquakes and offshore taxpayers who want to do nothing more than produce more PLASTICS. I know some brains are skewed by their twice weekly plstic fish and chips, but we actually can do without most of them.
Jim Ratcliffe should be chucked out of the county he was born in for his greed and fakery, dare I say strip him of his title its only due to moneygrabbing and pointscoring.
Utter Nonsense Loony..
Do you have ( Credible ) Sources for that, because I have plenty to the Contrary.. An Independent Scotland could leave the the Oil under the Sea bed, and Still be one of the TOP resource rich Nations on the Planet.
Yes Brian – as always I have evidence.
Naturally Scotland could leaved oil under the seabed and still be one of the top resource rich nations. In the English language that kind of statement is known as a tautological statement.
However leaving oil under the seabed would materially adversely impact the viability of Scottish mid stream and downstream on-shore operations. That too is tautological. However I appreciate that that may be enough for you.
As an ardent Scottish nationalist I do not expect you to have any understanding of the Scottish economy so please refer to the link which tells you quite clearly that Mr. Ratcliffe will pull the plug the moment things don’t go his way
https://www.ft.com/content/b4988ee2-399b-11e3-a3a4-00144feab7de
This article is from 2013. Naturally as someone with a deep understanding of the Scottish economy you will be well aware that since 2013 Ineos has consolidated its position in Scotland with a number of further acquisitions. Most notable being the acquisition of the Forties pipeline system and the Kinneal terminal.
Maybe you should try and think whether or not this provides Ineos with any kind of strategic leverage of Scotland.
L: “Naturally Scotland could leaved oil under the seabed and still be one of the top resource rich nations. In the English language that kind of statement is known as a tautological statement. ”
Actually, in the English language that kind of statement would even get a primary school-child a reprimand (for their poor use of grammar, if it’s still not obvious).
Is English actually your first language? I will cut you some slack if it is not. But I’d lay off peppering your statements with assertions on others’ ignorance, despite your far-right/ fascist tendency to denigrate your opponents on a personal basis. It just makes you look even more foolish even as it highlights your unpleasant personality.
Michael
I was going to also add this to my original post but at the last minute didn’t. But you are right, those calling for Scottish independence are banking on the Oil as a cornerstone of Scottish economy or am I wrong?
For once Loony I fully agree with you. My question was rhetorical.
According to the law in force, it is treason felony to “compass, imagine, invent, devise, or intend………or in order to intimidate or overawe both Houses or either House of Parliament”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High_treason_in_the_United_Kingdom
Does that make Johnson guilty of Treason?
What the opposition parties should do is this:
1. Pass a bill that forces the prime minister to write to the EU Commission by 3pm on the same day requesting an extension to Article 50 which can only be negated in the event of the ratification of a withdrawal agreement by Parliament.
2. If he hasn’t done it by 3pm, get a court order instructing him to do it by 4pm.
3. If he breaches the order, then at 4.01 pm get the court to put him in jail and to give a direct instruction to Tim Barrow, Britain’s representative to the EU, to present the letter.
That’s the master plan? Really? Using the force of a hastily written law to compel him? Sure, definitely no unintended consequences to be had there.
Like I say literally every time I post on here these days, it brings me ZERO pleasure to find myself in league with asset stripping born to rule disaster capitalists like Johnson as I’ve voted Labour my entire life. But the conversations the left are having these days are honestly so detached from objective reality that I don’t even know where to start trying to be constructive. Ordinary people are so desperate to improve their conditions but the modern left want to talk about literally anything besides class.
What the opposition parties should do is what they are currently doing – letting the UK get a good look at Johnson at the despatch box. The more the public see of him the more damage he does to the populist right-wing fantasy of no-deal Brexit. Not only is he damaging himself and the Tories but he is also, by association, undermining the support of The Brexit Party [sic]. There will always be a hardcore of people who will support the Tories and no-deal Brexit but for the majority it is becoming clear as day that Johnson is not capable of running his party, the government or the country. Because of Johnson’s short-sighted and arrogant behaviour during his short Premiership (particularly withdrawing the whip from 21 colleagues in a fit of pique) he cannot even get a recess for the Tory party conference. The Tories can bellow about a general election all they like but they know by the 31st October Johnson will be finished. I wouldn’t be at all surprised if his backbenchers make him an “offer” to resign as a Brexit martyr after the EU conference mid-October, he can then join (Churchill style) The Brexit Pary [sic] and take his loony-tunes chums with him.
Alexander Boris de Pfeffel is a monster.
It is not enough for him to be required to apologize for his Jo Cox and ‘Humbug’ comments in the HoC yesterday.
He should be required to donate something like 3 months of his undeserved parliamentary salary to the Jo Cox Memorial Fund.
@Craig/ anybody, if you agree any ideas how to set this idea in motion?
.
I can’t speak for Craig but as an anybody, might I enquire what the objects of the Jo Cox Memorial Fund are? If they include support of the White Helmets, count this anybody out.
Jo Cox and Mr.Cox were deluded if they beleive all the twaddle about
The White Helmets.
If you have any questions you could write a letter to Priti Patel, when Boris was her boss she spent some time in the Israeli held Golan, working on her brief for escape routes for White Helmets and their friends.
DId you know that on third of the £1.5m raised initially went to the White Helmets? Another third went to the RVS and another to Hope Not Hate where Ruth Smeeth (the self appointed anti-semitism champion and involved in the a-s scam performed when Chakrabarti was releasing her report) was the secretary of the limited company. It was also registered as a charity.
The sum donated to the fund approaches £2m. Money is still coming in.
Look up what Craig wrote about Brendan Cox when he was at Save the Children with Justin Forsyth, (title – Peak Kinnock et al).
This Cox brigade are having a laugh.
The latest opinion polls appear to show that Boris Johnson is still massively more popular than Jeremy Corbyn… wow, how depressing and disturbing. Is it true that Johnson is simply a better political ‘entertainer’ than Corbyn? Is it a ‘charisma’ thing? Johnson has the ‘gift’, the gift all really effective demagogues need. The ability to make the ‘unreal’ appear ‘real.’ Corbyn simply cannot ‘lie’ anywhere near a convincingly as Johnson does with such supreme ease and skill.
Are the British people really going to choose the upper-class charlatan and populist demagogue over the passionate teacher, Corbyn? It’s a frightening thought that millions of ‘working class’ people are ready to follow someone like Boris Johnson and swallow his zenophobic nationalist rhetoric whole.
See how Boris Johnson behaves, his contempt for the Law, his towering sense of entitlement, his arrogance, his embrace of tyranny; and that’s just a taste of what’s to come! He doesn’t have a majority in parliament, imagine what things will be like if he had a majority behind him, and shiver.
Opinion polls are to be taken with a pinch of salt. If Corbyn was in the lead you wouldn’t hear much about opinion polls from the media, except to tell the public that opinion polls should be taken with a pinch of salt.
Johnson’s poll lead will soon evaporate. In an election campaign the media are compelled to provide fair and unbiased coverage and when they do it’s policy and manifesto that matters, not cartoon characters jumping about on the TV screen screaming about surrender.
“Johnson’s poll lead will soon evaporate.”
Johnson, is keen for a GE, and in my opinion he’d win it, simply down to the fact that the majority of those who voted to leave the EU would still eagerly vote for him, whilst the remain vote would be split among the other parties.
Of course North of the border in Scotland, the prediction is that the SNP would sweep the board. However the remain parties priority before they will sanction a GE, is for an extension, and to obtain that Johnson must go to Brussells and ask for one.
Of which has vehemently stated that he won’t, yet paradoxically Johnson, Duddridge and Cox have all claimed that he will obey the law.
One senior judge has stated that the PM could go to jail if he refuses to ask the EU for an extension. The senior judge is Sir John Laws, who interestingly is an uncle of Downing street advisor Dominic Cummings said that Johnson could sent to prison for contempt of court.
In my opinion Johnson knows fine well that if he asks the EU for an extension his substantial leave voters will desert him and the Conservative party in droves, the Conservatives must muster around Johnson soon or the party will be greatly damaged.
Ot will be interesting to see if Tory ideology party before country prevails or not.
That’s interesting info about John Laws being Dominic Cummings’s uncle. Cumberland Lodge is something I’d investigate if I had the time.
If Johnson is ordered by a court to do something and he refuses, he is likely to go to jail. He may soon be up before the London Assembly too, in relation to the money paid to pole-dancing “businesswoman” Jennifer Arcuri. It looks as though he will get a lot of limelight in the next two or three weeks. I hope some of it is stripy.
Sean O’Grady argues in the Independent that jail is where Johnson wants to go. He could well be right about that. Unfortunately he seems to believe that saying “Aw, please don’t polarise” and “They’re picking on us!” is the way to defeat opponents who are seeking to polarise.
N – I can’t agree with the idea that Johnson will martyr himself for anything.
To be fair Tommy Laxley – give peace a chance – Lennon has been to jail for his opinions and ended up getting a tonking from a 70 year old lag who thought he was an idiot.
Johnson will not do that and Rees Mogg won’t do it as its’ Bridge night in the Mogg household every fourthTuesday.
Ian Duncan Smith though should become the ultimate martyr as he is the most mouthiest about this but like Bolton and his ilk he is happy to start a war as long as he doesn’t have to participate.
A bit like ‘ bad feet ‘ feet Trump.
Or perhaps Mogg will volunteer his butler on his behalf?
These are no Connellys or Larkins.
By the way in the Poll tax years there was an anti nuclear chap who ended up in Strangeways and the prisoners treated him like a virtual god.
In fact to get him out of there they had a whip round to pay his fine.
I have also met Brian Haws on a few occasions who was a cracking chap.
My thoughts? OK. Michael Gove was as pissed as a fart in the HOC today! The video footage is on the link!
The pro-Zionist physical force far right is rallying around Boris “Watermelon” Johnson as if he has raised a war flag. This includes
Tommy “Help for Heroes” Robinson,
Katie “White Genocide” Hopkins,
the English Defence League (“Back Boris”), and
Britain First.
(As far as I know, though, Nigel Farage isn’t. I always thought it was interesting that he pulled out of Question Time shortly before the Brexit referendum too, but there you go.)
The BBC is also helping Johnson to the max, including by running a vox pop (I think it may have been in Stoke) in which they taped people saying in working class accents that it’s Johnson’s pro-Remain opponents who are ill-mannered and polarising and whatever, and that poor old innocent Boris was just minding his business when organised gangs of
six-foot tall black menimmigrantsfeministswhingeing liberalsRemainers started throwing rocks at him – I can’t recall the exact words, but they were saying the kind of things that make your jaw drop when you hear them even if you’ve actually studied stupidity and read Carlo Cipolla, utterances emitted by people who’ve probably never constructed a syllogism in their lives, said with such ferocious commitment that they cannot feasibly be argued against.Do you think it would be possible for you to write something on here that wasn’t dripping with invective for us lower members of the social order? You have a very strange attitude to working people for someone who refers to themselves as a Marxist? You seem to have noticed the Tories are playing to the people versus parliament trope, but not that your attitude is contributing to it.
Craig is spot on again.
The reason I voted for Brexit was to get politics to be decided back in the UK, where at least there was an off-chance of getting a change of tack, like JC.
But I now see it would be a leap from the frying pan into the fire, to have a millionaire Tory selling off the NHS, reasonable food standards and everything else to his Yankee cronies.
“The reason I voted for Brexit was to get politics to be decided back in the UK, where at least there was an off-chance of getting a change of tack, like JC.
But I now see it would be a leap from the frying pan into the fire, to have a millionaire Tory selling off the NHS, reasonable food standards and everything else to his Yankee cronies.”
And that wasn’t too obvious three years ago? It was always the whole point of Brexit, and it’s on its way now.
If blairism hadn’t left The System basically unchanged then a Leave win might not have happened and we wouldn’t be in this shit.
Discuss.
Mike.
Yes – forty years in the making.
This is not a recent phenomenon.
Whether where we are is the epitome I don’t know and as you say requires further discussion.
The problem is that JoCo /Neil et al want certainty ( that is emotional reassurance ) that everything will work out tand want Corbyn and maybe young Greta to tell them that everything will be alright.
One thing’s for sure – there is no such thing as certainty.
Except the BBC’s entertain rather than inform mode.
Perhaps I have too much of a suspicious nature, however the performances in the HOC just lately all seem rather contrived from the Tories.
May was a disaster and you would think Bojo couldn’t do much worse and yet he can’t win a vote in the house. He lost the Supreme Court verdict and not forgetting his removal of the 21 rebels. Throw in what many consider to be a ”couldn’t give a monkey’s ” attitude and you start to wonder if maybe they would rather have someone else steering the Brexit ship when push comes to shove or a short sharp shock of what a real far right government would look and feel like and we will all be longing for the more cuddly version again which will include a referendum and see if we can all get it right next time around.
Something very odd going on, for sure. Is Johnson being set up as the scapegoat for Brexit, or as the scapegoat for destroying Brexit? Surely an experienced politician and journalist wouldn’t keep making such huge PR gaffes.
And while I don’t for a moment care for Johnson or his style of politics, the outraged reaction from the BBC, much of the print media and opposition MPs today to his performance in the Commons seemed totally out of proportion to what he actually said.
May’s government and the media fanned the flames of division from the start with the “suck it up, losers” attitude but this now seems to have gone into overdrive. It is as if the Tories want the country to be divided and angry. Then you have the interesting case of the Lib Dems on other side of Brexit purism laying it on with a trowel as ‘victims’.
I think that was always the toraidhe game plan with their bizarre policy manifesto including bringing back foxhunting and taxing pensioners. To throw the 2017 UKGE and cast the responsibility, ergo the blame for implementing an unwanted brexit onto others.
But maybe I’m being too simplistic.
Anyway, let’s get ScotIndy and Annibyniaeth i Gymru done before it’ too late!
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