Last night the BBC was reporting on the Conservative manifesto. This is a document whose most striking pledge is to fill in some of the potholes in roads that have proliferated due to massive cuts in local authority funding, and to give free hospital car parking to those visiting a terminally ill relative. Just think of the last one. How do you prove your relative is terminally ill? What if there is a chance they might get better? The administration of this system is going to require people to have some form of certificate or token that all hope is now lost. For the car park. The Tories are all heart.
As the News continued, Laura Kuenssberg told us that the battle lines between the parties are now clearly drawn, and the major division is over how much the government “should interfere in the economy”.
Interfere. Not intervene. Not regulate. Interfere. It is a very deliberate choice of word. Let me turn to the Oxford English Dictionary:
Interfere
1) Prevent from continuing or being carried out properly
2) Handle or adjust without permission
3) Become involved in something without being asked
4) Sexually molest
Words matter. Kuenssberg chose a word with powerful negative connotations and no possible positive meaning, to describe the alternative to the Tories. Kuenssberg talking of government interfering in, rather than intervening in, the economy is in itself a very strong and explicit declaration of Kuenssberg’s belief in an Ayn Rand, “Britannia unchained”, free market, ultra neo-liberal world view. To explicitly frame the choice in the election as between the Tories and “interfering” is just another example of the way the BBC slants their election coverage, permanently.
Now I started to draft an article three days ago, before that particular Kuenssberg propaganda masterclass.
Here is what I wrote as a draft three days ago:
“Maybe I am just unlucky. I have had television news bulletins transport me to hear vox-pops featuring former Labour voters in Dudley who now want to vote Conservative to GET BREXIT DONE. I have seen vox pops in fishing wharves in Peterhead and Grimsby, in dismal cafes in Hartlepool, in bingo halls in Yarmouth, in pubs back in Dudley, on high streets in Wakefield, in a shopping mall in Thurrock, in hardware stores back in bloody Dudley again. The country is full of people who want to GET BREXIT DONE, and who will NEVER VOTE LABOUR AGAIN.
The strange thing is that I have not seen a single vox pop from Richmond, featuring an educated woman who is switching from a lifetime of Tory voting because they have become a far right party and are going to crash the economy with hard Brexit. But there are many people like that in Richmond, and indeed all over London, and throughout much of southern England. They exist but are not worth vox-popping, apparently. Because they are not the broadcasters’ chosen “narrative”.
The BBC, ITN and Sky will doubtless defend the very obviously targeted demographic and destination of their “vox-pops” on the grounds that this is the “narrative” of the election. But that is a self-reinforcing prophecy. The public are relentlessly being told that what ordinary people want is to “GET BREXIT DONE” and to vote Tory. But that is actually only what about 40% of the people want. We just aren’t being shown the other 60% as the broadcasters focus relentlessly on areas with the highest leave vote, and on vox pop subjects with the least possible education.”
While that passage was atill on the stocks, last night, alongside the Kuenssberg analysis, the BBC gave us a vox pop from the Rother Valley that fitted perfectly the above description. It came from a Yorkshire Labour seat that voted Leave. It featured Labour voters who will now vote Conservative. The ladies interviewed were perfectly primed with precisely the main Tory slogans. A lady told us she wanted Boris so we could “get Brexit done and get on with domestic reforms”. Another ex-Labour voter told us she would vote for Boris because “he may not be trustworthy, but I like him”. Trust and likeability are two factors the pollsters regularly measure. It is important for the Tories that voters prioritise likeability over trust, because Johnson’s Trust numbers are appalling. How fortunate that the BBC happened to find a little old lady in the Rother Valley who could express this so succinctly!
Or maybe it is not so surprising. With the mainstream media as such a reliable echo chamber of public slogans, perhaps it is not surprising to find the public just echo them too, as they do in North Korea. The state media in the UK is of course not the only propaganda outlet. Billionaires control 87% of print news media by circulation, and are aggressively Tory for obvious reasons of self-interest.
This leads to the incredible circularity of the “Newspaper Reviews” that take up such a high proportion of broadcast news output. The broadcasters “review” the overwhelmingly right wing print media. And who do they invite to do the reviewing? Why the billionaire employed journalists of the overwhelmingly right wing print media, of course! So we have the surreal experience of watching journalists from the Times and the Spectator telling us how great an article in the Daily Mail is, about how Corbyn is a Russian spy and Scotland not really a country at all.
If that was not bad enough, we then get deluged by “commentators” from “think tanks” which are again billionaire funded, like the Institute of Economic Affairs and scores of others, sometimes with money thrown in from the security services, like the Quilliam Foundation and scores of others. It is a never-ending closed circular loop of propaganda.
The truth is that it largely works. Social media is overwhelmingly sceptical of the government narrative, but we still live in a society where the power of mass broadcasting and even print retains a remarkable amount of influence, particularly on the old and the poorly educated. It is no coincidence that it is precisely the old and the poorly educated that are the targets of Cummings’ “Brexit election” strategy. If it comes off, Kuenssberg and her fellow hacks will have proven that the power of the mainstream media is as yet unbroken.
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Its becoming clear that the BBC believes that Corbyn is in with a chance, why else would this barrage of fake news hit our airwaves. Soon this country will be a friend to all nations.
This has all been planned and if I was anywhere near Corbyns circle, he would now get the best protection possible, but not from our own security services who made it clear through Dearlove’s sick attack that they are unfit to protect the new leader of this country.
It has to to be said, if this hate campaign by the BBC and pro zionist straw men fails, they will have tro consider the ‘final option’ to stop him getting anywhere.
Momentum mailings I receive are so full of confidence. And what I have been hearing on the doorstep confirms this – though I have not knocked any big rural estates. The key is to find the marginals, find out who the opposition candidate is to the Tory candidate, usually Labour, and campaign with them.
There are so many young people working for Labour candidates it is heartening. I got a grant for my first degree (1980-3). Now students are coming out of university up to their ears in debt. Corbyn has promised to stop this ridiculous situation and provide many more apprenticeships in meaningful industries.
The Guardian has sunk to new depths tonight. The opinion section has two articles about how Jews are on the edge of leaving the U.K. because of the Corbyn threat. One argues they might not leave immediately but if there were an anti-Semitic attack even on a small scale this would tip them over the edge “even if a Labour government had no responsibility for it.”
We have reached the point where the Guardian thinks it is ok to suggest that a Corbyn government might start an anti-Semitic program in Britain. I can’t find the words for the outrage this sort of comment ought to set off.
And as ever the msm makes these assertions “evidence free”. No evidence at all. God only knows what the next 2 weeks will bring.
It is desperate CliveP, I have gone long past being disgusted by that paper.
I feel very sorry for the handful of figleaf journos left on it.
It is encouraging in a way because they are so scared Jeremy Corbyn will get into Number 10, and what might happen to their bonuses.
Come on Jeremy Corbyn. Your country needs you!
Has somebody else done that one?
Clive, nobody in the real world takes any of this junk seriously. I guess there are a few bewildered pensioners somewhere that think it’s real but everybody else knows it’s just a form of bullying and the bullies know that better than anybody.
The people who should be most concerned about this bullying are Jewish people themselves. They’re making targets of themselves because it’s unsustainable crap to suggest a man as harmless and well-meaning as Corbyn is anti Semitic. If real antisemitism comes along, who is going to believe these boys that crying wolf?
At the root of all this is pure desperation. Corbyn’s message and policies have traction on the ground in England and it scares the life out of the Tories and the whole British establishment who, when you get into the nuts and bones of their way of life, have their cash stashed offshore. Even the queen is in on the scam.
It’s the biggest gravy train robbery in British history; zero tax, scams galore, and lording it at the expense of working class living standards. Every penny these blood-sucking bastards stash in their offshore accounts, is a penny robbed from the wage packets of ordinary people.
Offshore is growing massively too. Small to medium sized businesses are now being seduced into it — you can fill in a form online and set it up in ten minutes for about £1000. Remember, the more people that do this, the less money there is in the pot for hospitals, schools, roads, etc., which in turn means you need to tax people more to make up the shortfall or cut spending.
People including myself talk about their goal of introducing the Shanghai model. The truth is, informally at least, it’s more or less here already. Brexit will allow them to formalise Shanghai and dismantle the public sector, selling the parts that are profitable to themselves, but in terms of tax avoidance they’re already there.
@ hatuey
Unfortunately you are right
Listened to pink floyds “animals” album in its entireity after reading your post
For the first time Waters lyrics depressed me.
“One argues they might not leave immediately but if there were an anti-Semitic attack even on a small scale this would tip them over the edge “even if a Labour government had no responsibility for it.””
That sounds like a cue for “an anti-Semitic attack … on a small scale”. I am sure that someone can be found to oblige.
Events in Malta could possibly impact this general election. I haven’t got time to post a good summary of why, but here is Boris Johnson meeting Joseph Mifsud in 2017. Mifsud was a link man between Donald Trump and Russian money and his current whereabouts are unclear. US Attorney General William Barr was in Rome in September in connection with investigating him.
Many billionaires have established a foot in Malta, the sovereign country with a population of 0.5 million and an area smaller than Andorra that is widely known for being owned by organised crime. It was murdered Maltese journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia who exposed the “Panama Papers”. Last week, billionaire Yorgen Fenech was arrested off the coast of Malta by military and police.
Today several members of the government have resigned in connection with the Caruana Galizia murder case, and many expect prime minister Joseph Muscat will be out of office within a few hours. Given the international financial angle and the Trump connection this is surely going to be on the front page of the Financial Times. There are also widespread power cuts in the country. People are throwing coins at government ministers in the street – always a sign of rising consciousness and confidence in the population. (I should add, not to cause them physical injury but to say this is all you’re interested in, you filthy bunch of crooks.)
I should correct that from “rising consciousness and confidence” to “rising confidence”. Everyone in a country such as Malta knows the government are a bunch of crooks.
“Events in Malta could possibly impact this general election…”
How?
Brexit
|
Joseph Mifsud – Boris Johnson
|
Russiagate
Johnson denied having met Mifsud until the photo came out of them together. Article in the Business Insider, 25 November 2019.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-43488581
https://theferret.scot/academic-implicated-fbi-probe-told-stirling-university-met-putin/
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/jan/20/why-has-britain-given-such-a-warm-welcome-to-this-shadowy-professor
Nick Cohen is trying to paint Mifsud as a Walter Mitty which he isn’t.
Right, well, I still don’t think you’ve explained how that stuff could impact the election. I never asked about and am not asking about that stuff. I’m asking how it could make its way into the election with about 2 weeks to go.
Never mind.
No show without Higgins.
‘According to media reports Mifsud was in Rome as of April 2019. On October 1, 2019, the Italian newspaper il Foglio published a photo of Mifsud in Switzerland with a copy of the Swiss newspaper Zürichsee-Zeitung dated May 21, 2018, as proof that he was still alive.
Corriere della Sera, Italy’s newspaper of record, said on November 11th, 2019, that it received a recording of someone who claimed to be Mr. Mifsud. Voice recognition experts with the U.K.-based investigative journalism group Bellingcat said that, based on tone and pronunciation, the recording matched verified recordings of the 59-year-old part-time professor.’
From the Wikipedia entry on Mifsud. There is a note saying that the latter paragraph comes from an unreliable source.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Mifsud
…and the strange death of a man in custody.
(a blood thinner or rat poison)
https://www.independent.com.mt/articles/2019-11-26/local-news/Inmate-who-died-in-prison-was-one-of-original-suspects-in-Daphne-murder-6736216704
What is the evidence for a link between Donald Trump and Russian money?
What is the evidence for a link between Donald Trump and Russian money?
Hillary has a vagina and boo hoo hoo and HE SAID GRAB A PUSSY and we hates it! We hates it forever my precious…
This may not include absoutely all the evidence but I think it’s pretty close to a comprehensive list.
Lol
To be interviewed by Mr Neil.. All one has to do is.. Wait for the Opening Question, Reply with just One word.. then sit back in silence, For a half hour.
I hope Nicola Never agrees to be interviewed by that Dick again..Not because she’s not capable..there’s just no point…Complete waste of time..
Ps.. When are Labour going to take the bbC to court for the lies.
He’s a master of what’s known as the “gish gallop”.
It would be impressive if it wasn’t for the massive sheaf of notes he uses.
A technique based on the inherent asymmetry which exists between adversarial interviewer, and the interviewee. Making an allegation takes seconds, robustly refuting it takes much longer. It’s a shoddy and disreputable praxis, but sadly, egotist like Neil have so popularised it, the public believes the pugilistic style is the gold standard.
If the Labour Party can’t deal with these false claims of anti-Semitism maybethe electorate can end this nonsense by making ridicule of the claims in the same way we ridiculed the claims about Putin controlling every election. “Corbyn ate my homework. He’d already eaten the dog.” etc. If we start replying btl with these responses maybe we can sweep it aside, because then their only real response to that is to accuse millions of Britons of being anti-Semites–including those who don’t support Corbyn but are sick of the lies. We’d be taking their argument to the absurd for them. It’s worth trying and I shall do it where I can reply.
If we start replying btl with these responses maybe we can sweep it aside, because then their only real response to that is to accuse millions of Britons of being anti-Semites …
But that IS the response of some. There are 50 million adults in the UK. This bloke reckons that 15 million of them are antisemitic :
Adding these figures together brings the total prevalence of antisemitic attitudes, at different intensities, to 30% of the adult British population.
Quote from page 4 of “Antisemitism in contemporary Great Britain” – A study of attitudes towards Jews and Israel by Daniel Staetsky
https://cst.org.uk/public/data/file/7/4/JPR.2017.Antisemitism%20in%20contemporary%20Great%20Britain.pdf
Never
N_ commented earlier, in regard to the anti- Semitism accusation against Corbyn, “It’s a crude trick – by demanding that someone “apologises” for something, the assumption is conveyed under the table that they did it.”
Of course, just like giving someone the challenge, “Are you going to stop beating your wife? Yes or no please.”
I’m reminded of a Republican campaign manager, many years back, who threw a question at the Democratic candidate at a rally.
While the Dem was working the crowd, the Republican stooge shouted out, “If you win, will you quit having sex with farm animals?”
The Dem’s campaign manager interjected – rather shocked – “What… what makes you think you have any basis for that sort of accusation?”, to which the Republican gave a dog-like grin and said, “Aww shucks, nuthin’ … I just wanted to hear him deny it.”
I’ve heard that story put far more crudely that that. see: https://www.democraticunderground.com/1002579626
Johnson was not a pleasant president, like most of them.
Your point might make sense IF Corbyn had not already apologised for the lack of action against anti semitic comments by some (a very small number) in his party.
Apologising does nobody any harm and can be couched in language that makes it clear you are not admitting personal guilt.
The Tories seem to know how to do it, as Johnson was on record today ‘apologising’ for Islamophobia in his party. We know it is about as sincere as Satan apologising to God for getting a bit rebellious about Heaven, but in politics, it tends to work.
Stubbornly refusing to apologise because Neil has made you rather pissed is just an own goal that makes people jump to the wrong conclusion.
Fell for it though did Cummings though didn’t he – as i allude in a comment later on – it is a Muhammed Ali technique for dealing with a powerful but dumb opponent.
I’ve heard it all now – hung parliament; Labour/SNP coalition – No, No, No, the dice are loaded and buffoon Boris has already signed the contract and given the British people a ‘done’ Brexit and a place in history. The postal vote algorithm has been tuned to a Conservative majority – it is done with fewer than a 41% turnout.
The next eight years are dark – live with it…
They’ve won if you give up before a ballot is cast. Chin up.
Yes, the postal vote trick as devised by John Prescott.
I know panicking when I see it and the Tories are panicking. A hung parliament is the worst case scenario for them. Control of public opinion and expressions of that opinion are at D-Notice levels right now. As Craig points out, the Vox pops are very carefully selected.
Meanwhile, in the real world, voter registration is breaking records. Something like 3 million people above and beyond those already on the voter’s roll have signed up to vote. I think we can safely assume most of them are doing that because Boris and Brexit scares them — with Boris leading in the polls by so much, those that are normally relaxed about politics would be less inclined to register if they wanted Boris to win because it looks like he is going to do so anyway.
And if they’re not showing real public opinion and are instead sticking to highly selective sound bites from members of the public, what does that tell you about real views on the ground? They must be at odds with the desired outcome. The antisemitism stuff is the same — if their victory depends on convincing us that Corbyn is some sort of Nazi, they’re actually screwed.
Be in no doubt; their nightmare scenario of a hung parliament with a bolstered SNP and the possibility of an alliance is the most likely outcome and nothing anyone says about Jews or getting Brexit done is going to change that.
The polls are still bullshit. Makes it easier to rig the vote as well as demoralising the opposition and energising those who will vote Tory. It’s a psyche out. Dissappointing how many fall for it.
The polls are there to manage your expectations. There’s a fiddle factor in the ‘science’.
https://twitter.com/NuPopulism/status/1195845942240514049
Hatuey
You echo our hope that that is what will happen. The Tories are not discussing policies anymore because they have none to sell.
It really is a no brainer if you consider how principled and disciplined Labour and SNP have conducted themselves contrasted with the unprincipled Tories and Lib Dems.
Great blog, but please put a relevant photo in it, so that when we share it on Facebook it looks more readable and is therefore more widely read.
Laura Kuenssberg is the tip of a media iceberg intent on preventing a non-uni former long-standing back bencher from becoming PM.
Her side-kick Norman Smith is another poison pusher aided and abetted by closet pals on Today like Mishal Hussain, the dreaded Justin (I like constantly interrupting and putting forward my own views) Webb. Add to that the nasty, vitriolic and crude interviewing of Andrew “Brillo” Neil and the pot pourri of poison just flows and flows. The boring cliche question “will you now apologise?” (for something you haven’t done) demeans the interviewer more than JC but that is little comfort when we know the printed media will be overflowing with JC’s “refusal to apologise. Fake news abounds. Not only in social media.
Jeremy Vine, on his Radio 2 show yesterday, had a discussion about the Rabbi’s comments. I wasn’t concentrating fully on it so didn’t get names but there appeared to be a pro-Corbyn Labour MP and an anti-Corbyn jewish ex-Labour MP giving their respective views. The latter commented that you only had to look at the Rabbi’s Twitter feed to see the amount of unacceptable anti-Semitic vitriol being directed at him following his pronouncements. To his credit (and I don’t often say that!) a couple of minutes later Jeremy Vine said that he was just looking at the Twitter exchanges and had read the latest 30 or so but had found nothing anti-Semitic; what he saw were outspoken and forceful words voicing disagreement with the Rabbi. He (Vine) added that it wasn’t an offence to express disagreement with a point of view. Vine then (understandably) felt obliged to say that maybe some of the earlier comments had been anti-Semitic but he hadn’t got to them. He also rightly added that there was no evidence that those making comments were necessarily Labour supporters.
I mention this as another example of publicly made statements regarding ‘evidence’ of anti-Semitism which actually appear to have no foundation, and it was only Jeremy Vine’s intervention which would serve to cast doubt on what was being said.
No doubt Jeremy’s P45 is in the post.
Indeed! It did strike me that someone has at the very least had words with him. 🙂
@Borncynical
Yes, I regularly watch Jeremy Vine on the Channel Five’s ‘Jeremy Vine Show’.
I think he genuinely tries to be unbiased and generally does a pretty good job of being impartial. (he’s also a polite gent).
The problem is that he has too many right leaning regular guests on the panel – gobby people like Carole Malone and Corbyn hater, Angela Epstein, James Max and Mike Parry. Radical left wingers are very rarely featured on the show.
I think all these high profile TV presenters like Jeremy Vine are paid too much (though I’m sure their job is quite demanding) but Vine at least allows his guests to speak – whereas other presenters don’t allow their interviewee to finish a sentence before rudely interrupting them. These same presenters keep asking Labour politicians or various opinion leaders puerile and impossible to answer, hypothetical questions.
Garth
Your last sentence reminds me of the entertaining confrontation in the street between a juvenile, male mainstream journalist and, I think it was, Bashar Jaafari (Syria’s Permanent Representative to the UN) about the “Syrian ‘regime’ programme of chemical attacks and air strikes on civilians”. The journalist asked why Syria was killing its own innocent civilians. Jaafari curtly but politely replied that the Syrian government was not targeting innocent civilians. The journalist responded that there was evidence…to which Jaafari curtly but politely replied that the Syrian government was not targeting innocent civilians. The journalist then asked how the Syrian ‘regime’ could justify killing innocent women and children…to which Jaafari curtly but politely replied that the Syrian government was not targeting innocent civilians. The journalist then in desperation said “But we’re talking about innocent women and children” …. to which (and I think you’ll see where I’m going with this!] Jaafari curtly but politely replied….. This exchange continued in a similar vein but did nothing but leave the journalist looking stupid. Although I imagine he regaled his acquaintances about how his questions were so well phrased that Jaafari was unable to give a meaningful answer.
Corbyn and others facing similar media manipulation should take a leaf out of Jaafari’s book.
The Mail has churned out Michael Foster’s annual article: he is not backing Corbyn. He managed to avoid the Nazi photos this year, which is an improvement.
I know that the future under the world president called climate change makes for an uncomfortable read to Johnson supporters and denialists here.
It is distopian, as the aircrash in the Andes and what happened afterwards was called survival, but was that really so wrong that it has to be censored?
They’re getting desperate everyone! They need to make you low now to stop you voting and believe all hope is lost and ultimately believe whatever result they think they can get away with rigging without damaging or revealing their weapons or risking full on revolt. (Revolt may seem tempting, but we would lose as the vacuum left in the rubble would be filled by the malign. I’m sure the US would be first in line to ‘restore democracy’ on our Isles.) This is our revolution! We are winning, and we must win.
They can specifically target you and manage your mood in inconceivably subtle, machine learned ways, even though most of their tactics are glaringly obvious and ludicrous. Remain immune, though you’re not fully, and spread the resistance. Operation Mood Swing is now in full effect.
Public opinion rigs the ballot without a vote even cast. So if you are feeling low, smile! They are doing this because we are winning, otherwise why would they bother at all! If it were so obvious that Boris is soooo prime-ministerial, sooooo popular, has such a lead it will be a Tory landslide, and Corbyn is a raving racist, terrorist loving Russian agent not to mention poor leader, if all this is so obvious, then why the hard sell, weaponised media, desperate dirty corrupt tactics.
Everyone get out and vote. Safe seat or not and for whoever. Make it so overwhelming their dirty rigging mechanisms cannot manipulate the vote enough to stop the impending Labour landslide and the end to their filthy racket.
We are public opinion. We know the truth. Shout positive. Get everyone out to vote, it’s time to end this for good and bring about real change and do it right.
Away from the Westminster bubble-Portland place-establishment pollster Circle Jerk, there are reasons for optimism.
660,000 people registered to vote yesterday. Over 1 million in the final two days alone. Mostly young, disproportionately in marginal seats.
Neither Boris Johnson or Jo Swinson has once called for people to register to vote (nor I’d guess the BBC.) With very good reason.
Yes, I’ll go along with that AKAaka. Stay positive. There could be a big surprise! It has to be this time or never.
For once there is an opportunity to establish real socialist values (gradually eroded from the late fifties onwards. The time is right. The time is now. Campaign and vote. Students leaving university in debt should know it was never like that in my generation. It need not be like that. Evening classes were free. Prescriptions were free for everybody. Make people on the doorstep understand it need not be like this. There is always a better way.
I want independent oversight and observers for postal votes.
Get the international monitoring body in. NOW.
The more I look at Britain, the more I think it’s heading for ‘fall of the Berlin Wall’ type of event. Cheap cladding isn’t going to work in this case; one way or another it’s coming down..
Politics through Corbyn and the SNP is offering Britain a controlled demolition — deconstruct, invest massively, and build something new. That might not appeal to a lot of people but if you think that’s bad look st the alternative.
The greedy and rich who have had everything their way for so long in Britain can’t go any further without destroying it. Brexit and asset stripping the public sector isn’t so much an option as a necessary step. And it’s made necessary by greed.
If we go down that road, life for most in this country is going to be miserable on a scale not seen since the 19th century.
Brexit was a cry for help, an expression of hopelessness and anger. I dare you to imagine the sort of expressions of anger we will see when it becomes clear that brexit was an asset-stripping scam and the whole public sector is stolen from us.
And that’s the necessary next step for the rich; they’ve maxed out on bombing Arabs, arms dealing, avoiding tax, stripping back pay and workers’ rights. They’ve gone as far as they can go. They’ve got all the golden eggs. Now it’s time to kill and cook the goose itself.
Insightive post Hatuey where happiness, health, and hopefulness have vanished somewhere down the artery that feeds capitalism. With Brexit in place and America holding the empire baton, poodle Britain will be looking for containment bones in the public sector as the panacea to keep the filthy wealthy, well, filthy wealthy.
Let me be clear, the Health and Social Care Act 2012 remains as is and future trade agreements will mean UK companies will be forced to contribute towards health care. Denationalisation is in the small print as is reducing the power of the public sector so that investment in it is de rigeur – this a Tory mandate. Wages will be kept stagnant.
Take note the Lib Dems abstained from amending the 2012 Act and ‘get done’ BREXIT has displaced everything except a ‘motion of regret’ – ingenious work by ‘iron chancellor’ Cummings whose secret agenda is sickness insurance, accident insurance, disability insurance, and a retirement pension ponied up by employers.
Thus having outed the Tory hush-hush manifesto the voiceless will be stunned when the neo-snobs have it.
Yes, the process is well underway. But the system we have now constrains and puts limits on how far they can go. They’ve stripped back everything they can, pensions, welfare, living standards, worker rights, even prisons have been semi-privatised along with many aspects of the NHS in England. It isn’t enough.
Brexit is more about Shanghai, not Europe per se. It’s about making sure the booty is safe (in offshore banks) and it’s about completely dismantling the public sector. Everything that makes a penny is going to be sold (to themselves), road cleaning, emptying bins, painting roads, education, health, you name it. The mixed economy as we know it is history.
Anything they don’t want, stuff that isn’t profitable, will be left to the taxpayer with a tax base that will be a fraction of what it is now. And, as they see it, they shouldn’t need to hide their money offshore; they wouldn’t need to if Britain itself was thrown back into the economic stone-age. To them this is Downton Abbey; for the rest of us Apocalypse Now.
I’m not sure the media is honestly representing feelings on the ground though and I can’t see those who voted for brexit as a way of improving their lives being very happy about this. Half of the workforce as it is is dependent on food banks. It’s official that 130 thousand have died because of austerity since 2012.
These are sort of numbers you see during a war and no amount of lies and spin can disguise the fact that life is extremely shit for millions of people. For them the big decisions revolve around daily choices between electricity cards or bread and milk.
Of course, we must hope for a controlled demolition of this corrupt and failing system. If Boris wins and gets his way, it’s all going to go anyway, one way or another.
Either way suits Scotland. We are watching the English electorate being fooled by all this in disbelief and if anyone in Scotland wished ill towards the English people they’d be cheering Boris on rather than praying that the people there — surely to God — can’t won’t be stupid enough to vote for him.
“I’m not sure the media is honestly representing feelings on the ground though”
Lol. You win understatement of the day H!
If anybody wants proof just look at LauraKofthe CIA’s responses on her tweet feed today – from early morn, to ambush … to spin.
The people know about media (dis) honesty and they are calling it out!
I call it the Corbyn Paradox. we are constantly told “He’s unelectable”, “he’s not popular outside the momentum cult”, “he’s got to appeal to the voters not just party members” and any number of accusations that Corbyn is on a hiding to nothing because most of the population don’t like or trust him. Yet, every time I see video of the man he’s got an huge audience, with people unable to get in to hear him because the venue is full. He has people applauding his policies and singing his praises.
what to believe, my own eyes and ears or the paragons of virtue like Guido Fawkes, the BBC, Mail, Telegraph, etc.
Hmmm. tough choice
The “Corbyn is anti-Semitic” message must continue to be pushed no matter how preposterous the contortions required to support it.
This morning, the Glasgow Jewish Representative Council opines that the SNP would be “doing a deal with the devil” if it facilitated Corbyn entering No.10.
The Glasgow Jewish Representative Council has a website “under construction”. It has a Facebook page with 519 likes.
On a pro rata basis (2011 Census has 1 in 200 people identifying as Jewish), the Jewish population of greater Glasgow would be around 500. So in the stupendously improbable case that the GJRC represents those of Jewish faith in unanimity, they speak for 500 souls and yet they seek to dictate SNP policy.
Given that Labour want to borrow £150 billion to blow on ‘infrastructure upgrades’ and other Blairite ‘build it and they will come’ type policies, there is literally no one to vote for in this election. None of the major parties are being honest. None of them will admit that:
1) This country is overpopulated
2) The economy hasn’t grown (in real terms) for over a decade, and cannot grow much beyond where it is now.
3) More boomer generation running up debt for Gen X/millenials to pay off is going to end pretty badly, i.e. with a choice between letting pensioners starve or freeze to death or actually spending taxpayers money on them, not on their profligate and selfish parents.
4) Environmentally, our system is totally unsustainable and borrowing more money to use up more resources in order to create a short-term employment boom is fucking suicidal.
Until there’s a party that’s actually willing to be honest about the world, rather than promise a bunch of crap they’ll never be able to deliver in order to fool dumb people into voting for them, it makes little difference whether we get Tories or Labour or some coalition of ‘nuke the Russians’ parties including the SNP and LibDemons. Brexit is a fucking irrelevance compared to the very real economic and ecological crises we’re facing, and I don’t see a single party being even close to honest about the situation, let alone coming up with good policies to deal with it.
Shouting ‘how STUPID are BREXIT supporters??!1?!?!’ over and over again is just boring at this point. Find something else to say.
The only cogent aspect of what you’ve said here is the overarching sense of angered bewilderment.
It contains a few factual errors, in particular the idea that the SNP is part of “some coalition of ‘nuke the Russians’ parties”; the SNP couldn’t be clearer on trident and nuclear weapons.
Also, your fishwife grasp of macro economics, government finance, and borrowing leaves a lot to be desired. Nobody is leaving any debt for next generations that they wouldn’t be able to service with the usual borrowing, just as we did.
Do you think those that fought in World War Two and built the whole postwar welfare state, all those hospitals and schools, etc., did so with money they had under the bed? No. So, stop being stupid. They paid for it with borrowing and generations who came along after them have been servicing the debts associated with that ever since. We are still paying and we do so willingly.
How stupid would you need to be to think that austerity and misery in this age is going to somehow benefit generations to come? Moreover, it’s completely needless since sterling like most others is a fiat currency and there’s no limit on what we can borrow, lend to, and owe to ourselves. That isn’t controversial, btw, it’s the foundation keystone of government expenditure and has been since about 1692.
Instead of reading crap newspapers, go and read some like Richard Murphy. He’s an expert on this stuff and he will confirm all of the above and that your focus should be elsewhere — on those who reap all the benefits of living here without paying tax, for example, a conservative estimate of which he puts at £25 billion or so per year. Don’t your future generations worry their little imaginary hearts out about that?
Hatuey, thanks for your lengthy and perceptive comments. As you point out (Nov 27, 11.38), the UK, a state which issues and controls its own currency (or delegates the task to the state-owned Bank of England) can borrow unlimited amounts from itself at close-to-zero interest rates and pay itself back over any time scale it chooses. The problem is not finding the money, it’s finding the will to spend it wisely.
Coldish,
Each household in Britain pays an average of £2000 per year just to service the existing debt. If we borrow more, taxes have to go up to service it, ergo people get poorer.
It’s truly amazing the extent of people’s economic ignorance on this blog’s comment section. Do any of you even know what a gilt is or who owns them?
You’re working on the neo-liberal economic model when Corbyn will introduce a socio-economic model. It was a socio-economic model which built up society and the publicly-owned assets the Tories sold off. Which by the way they were the guardians of only, not the owners, so they had no right to sell them off; no more than the babysitter who looks after your kids and house one night has the right to sell your telly and anything else worth hawking, leaving you with nothing.
‘The only cogent aspect of what you’ve said here is the overarching sense of angered bewilderment.’
– I’m neither angry nor bewildered. The infinite growth model is fucked, Keynesianism is no longer relevant (or effective).
‘It contains a few factual errors, in particular the idea that the SNP is part of “some coalition of ‘nuke the Russians’ parties”; the SNP couldn’t be clearer on trident and nuclear weapons.’
– The connections between the Integrity Initiative and various SNP figures is clear. And go back to the 2015 BBC debate, listen to the (obviously planted) question about ‘increasing threats’ from ISIS, Russia etc. and how Nicola ‘Hitlery with a Scottish accent’ Sturgeon responds to it. Total politics of fear, like everyone else on the stage that night.
‘Also, your fishwife grasp of macro economics, government finance, and borrowing leaves a lot to be desired. Nobody is leaving any debt for next generations that they wouldn’t be able to service with the usual borrowing, just as we did.’
– This only works if your economy is still growing. Debt is spending future growth, always has been. There’s no growth left in the system, anyone who tells you otherwise is an idiot or a liar.
‘Do you think those that fought in World War Two and built the whole postwar welfare state, all those hospitals and schools, etc., did so with money they had under the bed? No. So, stop being stupid. They paid for it with borrowing and generations who came along after them have been servicing the debts associated with that ever since. We are still paying and we do so willingly.’
– The people who fought in WW2 didn’t set up the welfare state. That’s just a tabloid style WW2 reference to try to rally emotion. That is to say, what a load of crap.
Meanwhile, there was plenty of growth left in the system in the 1940s and 50s. There isn’t now. And we don’t service that debt willingly, we have no choice in the matter because earlier generations made that decision for us. We only paid off the postwar loans from the US in the 1990s for christ’s sake. Stop pretending like borrowing money isn’t a burden for current and future people.
‘How stupid would you need to be to think that austerity and misery in this age is going to somehow benefit generations to come? Moreover, it’s completely needless since sterling like most others is a fiat currency and there’s no limit on what we can borrow, lend to, and owe to ourselves. That isn’t controversial, btw, it’s the foundation keystone of government expenditure and has been since about 1692.’
– There is a limit to how much debt we can sell, i.e. how much others will buy. Do you not understand what a government bond is?
Not borrowing money now will benefit generations to come. There’s no growth left for them to be able to service or repay that debt. Unless you are stupid you think an unpayable debt isn’t a burden, of course…
‘Instead of reading crap newspapers, go and read some like Richard Murphy. He’s an expert on this stuff and he will confirm all of the above and that your focus should be elsewhere — on those who reap all the benefits of living here without paying tax, for example, a conservative estimate of which he puts at £25 billion or so per year. Don’t your future generations worry their little imaginary hearts out about that?’
– ‘He’s an expert on this stuff’. But if he’s saying there’s growth left in the system and that we can just keep poisoning the planet ad infinitum without consequence, he’s an idiot or a liar. Taxing the rich more does nothing to change those facts. You’re just as deluded as everyone else who thinks we can somehow bring back the mid-20th century days of constant economic growth.
I suggest you read and try to understand Modern Monetary Theory. Britain has its own currency so can never go bust from debt.
John,
That’s just retarded and untrue. Of course we could go bust from debt. Do you think if we borrowed 10,000% of our annual government revenues in just one year that people would see that as a good investment? Who would buy gilts from such an irresponsible government?
Calm down. Dont exaggerate. Read it properly and if you take off your blinkers you might learn something of value.
Tom, I’m sorry, but you’re getting increasingly hysterical over nothing.
The UK government doesn’t even need to issue Gilts. The main reason it does is simply to target a positive interest rate.
Deficit spending creates increased reserves at the BoE. Banks do not receive interest on excess reserves beyond those which balance their liabilities, so they lend them overnight to other banks, who may be short of them. However, when there is an excess of reserves in the system, and therefore no bidders, this tends to push the overnight rate to zero, because no one wants the money.
The Treasury therefore offers Gilts at a certain interest rate (“Yield”) as a way to drain these excess reserves, so that the positive target interest rate is maintained – and that’s about it.
An alternative to Gilt issuance would be for the BoE to simply pay interest on excess reserves.
But one of the benefit of Gilts (aka UK Govt Bonds) is that they provide an ultra-safe way to save sterling in amounts higher than the £85K govt backed bank guarantee, and although the yield is generally low, nevertheless, as the liability of a government which issues its own sovereign, fiat, non-convertible currency, there is never any risk of default.
Buying Gilts rather than holding sterling currency is simply an asset swap – both are government liabilities: The Gilts are a liability at the Treasury, the cash – as expressed in bank reserves – are a liability of the (wholly government owned) Bank of England.
So it’s all government debt, as is the tenner in your pocket (“I promise to pay”, etc) – if you don’t like it, please send them all to me – I have no objection to holding as many government liabilities in my wallet as I can fit in!
By the way… got any Premium Bonds? Got a pension approaching maturity? An annuity perhaps? Then you’re holding Govt debt! What’s the big deal? It’s no more than private sector savings.
Besides which, if the market ever decides it doesn’t fancy holding Gilts any more, the BoE can buy them up instead – it already holds 25% or so of all govt debt already, via QE.
And if the Treasury ever ran continual balanced budgets or, god forbid, surpluses, and stopped issuing Gilts the markets would soon be clamouring for them to be issued again – exactly what happened when Australia stopped bond issuance and ran surpluses in around 2000.
try and eat some money John, you soon realise that it won’t feed you, when commodities become sparse.
I tend to switch off when people use advertising terms such as “boomer” and “Gen X/millennial”, but…
“Environmentally, our system is totally unsustainable”. Well you haven’t got much to worry about then. Just do nothing and your system will end – that’s what “unsustainable” means.
Except just letting everything go to shit and watching over half the earth’s population die doesn’t seem like ‘not much to worry about’. Jesus people on here are living in fantasy land. Possibly because Craig seems to think it’s still the middle of the 20th century, we can just borrow infinite amounts of money with no consequence and that there’s nothing wrong with how we treat the environment. Hence his comment section attracts people who are equally in denial about reality…
“we can just borrow infinite amounts of money”
Seriously, where do you think the excess Sterling that the private sector uses to invest in Gilts actually comes from?
It comes from previous deficits that haven’t yet been taxed away – because if it had been taxed away, there would be no Sterling left in circulation for the private sector to net save!
But those investments are the savings of the private sector – people’s pensions, a proportion of banks’ equity, foreign exporters’ sterling earnings, etc.
There is no biblical “day of reckoning” where all debts will be paid off! And with what? Currency is also govt debt!
The system can circulate quite nicely the way it does – unless you want to steal away private sector savings of course; that’ll go down well!
“It comes from previous deficits that haven’t yet been taxed away – because if it had been taxed away, there would be no Sterling left in circulation for the private sector to net save!”
At last, someone that understands. Money is debt and debt is money.
There is no direct connection between environmental depradation and our system of currency creation – but instead of hand-wringing, be honest – if you are advocating that the entire earth’s population lives like the Navajo or the Masai (because that’s what we would need to do) then just say so, and see how many people are prepared to support that catastrophic decline in their living standards.
In the meantime, the best that can be hoped for is that governments can fund environmentally vital measures along the lines of a Green New Deal, which lead to replacing fossil fuels and the worst offending current practices and behaviours. It will also need to fund protective infrastructure, including flood defences, and energy-efficient housing and transport.
But this will require public spending on a large scale – and Thatcherite economic narratives do not, and will not, provide that.
You are promoting Schäuble economics and eco dictatorship using fearmongering tactics and pretend panic paranoia.
What’s your game, other than cheering for the next phase of complete neoliberalcon takeover? You are serious about the environment and chaotic climate? Stop listening to confused drug abusing eso-populists and go protest here instead:
https://annual.ametsoc.org/index.cfm/2020/programs/conferences-and-symposia/22nd-conference-on-planned-and-inadvertent-weather-modification/
“planned and inadvertent”, ey? Wtf does that mean exactly? Well, go and listen to the presenting Raytheon scientists and see if their approach and explanations satisfy you. They’ve been at it for over 40 years by the way, as this innocent little conference takes place every two years. And fyi, fascist militarists like Schäuble, Von der Leyen or Johnson looove Raytheon and how their stocks develop..
So much for dying bees and freak weather..
PANIC!!!!
Nicola on RT: Stop Johnson!
https://www.facebook.com/RTUKnews/videos/423560805246344/?v=423560805246344¬if_id=1574849733433466¬if_t=live_video
Laura now reassuring the credulous that Johnson would never do a deal with the yanks which would make medicine prices rocket . . . because that would likely be deeply unpopular.
https://mobile.twitter.com/bbclaurak/status/1199638353903312896
Since when has that prevented Tories from enacting a policy?
“Deeply unpopular” with the population. But hugely popular with big Pharma and the City. When it happens, the lying bastard Tories will rationalise it by saying but if Pharma doesn’t make super profits, pension funds will suffer. Yes, the bulk of the population have really good pension funds (not). Talk about naked self interest.
personally I wouldn’t interfere with Laura Kuenssberg for £100 million.
Laura visit number ten
https://twitter.com/bbclaurak/status/909797224837779456?lang=he
She has been hanging out with a dodgy spaffy clown
https://mobile.twitter.com/StevenW69808657/status/1196823843677122565
La Kuenssberg sounds so cocky as if she knows ALL the answers. Here she is rabbiting away on Electioncast. Recorded yesterday I think but replayed this morning on BBC radio.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/p07w56r0
She has her own blog too.
General election 2019: Labour may struggle to move on from anti-Semitism row
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/election-2019-50567564
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/correspondents/laurakuenssberg
“Labour may struggle to move on from anti-Semitism row.” Haha. Is this all the Tories have got? Today they were even using it in response to Labour’s line that voting Tory is voting to sell off the NHS. They accused Labour of only trying to distract from anti-Semitism.
I wonder whether Boris Johnson has ever used the NHS. Anyone who says “don’t personalise” is clueless. As the great Saul Alinsky knew well, ALWAYS personalise.
So the lovely Laura has her own blog. Didn’t think they worked with big wax crayons. All the political insight and analysis of hippos fucking in a mud pond.
If anyone wants to see the underacted documents that Corbyn spoke about, they can be found here.
https://openload.cc/M8MbD08fn7/OFFICIAL-SENSITIVE_UK-US_TIWG_READOUT_zip
Nicola Sturgeon’s interview with Andrew Neil: amusing, really, especially the way she said she wouldn’t promise a monetary union with Rump Britain because Rump Britain had a “veto”. Imagine being so arrogant that you think a foreign country that doesn’t want to give you what you want in a treaty is “vetoing” you from getting what you want!
And these are just ‘posing’ £££’s. The tories must not be expecting any conflicts… does war end when the budget runs out?
‘Continuing to exceed the Nato target of spending two per cent of GDP on defence and increasing the budget by at least 0.5 per cent above inflation every year of the new Parliament, modernising equipment and improving capability, maintaining the Trident nuclear deterrent.
Spending pledges: An extra £2.2 billion for the Armed Forces.’
Jeremy Corbyn’s interview with Andrew Neil:
1. Corbyn body’s language was awful. It’s OK to slump with the lower half of your body if it’s not on camera, but not when it is. (He reminded me of a local reporter shooting an outside broadcast wearing casual trousers and shoes with a smart suit jacket because he knows he will only be filmed above the waist.)
2. At no time did Corbyn actually “take control”, actually LAY ONE on Andrew Neil. He came across as appallingly badly prepared. Could his team not have prepped him with 10 “killer moves” so that he could make sure he delivered one of them?
3. He should do some voice training. Yes I know most of the other politicians are coked up to the nines whereas Jeremy isn’t, but still.
4. “WASPI” women – Labour has a fine policy on these women and there’s no need to be coy about it.
But…there is some GOOD NEWS: Jeremy did a good VISUAL today, holding up the document revealing that the NHS is for sale! Not brilliant, because he should have used a single piece of card with no writing on it that can’t be read, but still fairly good. Black on white against a red background – you’re getting there, Jeremy!! (I repeat what I said before: learn from Netanyahu. Netanyahu is a Nazi but he is a master at this techique.)
“The Tories accused Labour of using the documents to try to divert attention from the issue of antisemitism in its ranks.”
Haha! (Why is it that the right wing are such a bunch of whingers?) That means you actually have laid one on the Tory scum this time, Jeremy. Keep it up, mate.
I know much of the document is redacted and that’s part of the message. But my advice is to take the most damaging PHRASE or CLAUSE from the document, print it in massive type, and put a very short identifier with it, such as “WASHINGTON DC, 17 AUGUST” or whenever one of the meetings took place; and if possible use a very simple graph or other visual, in red and black.
Perhaps use an “H” sign to denote a hospital, and show it turning into a “$” sign.
Perhaps here’s the right phrase: “total market access”. That sounds scary. And it means H ► $.
From the Guardian: “(Jeremy Corbyn) pointed to a passage in the documents that suggested the US would prefer a no-deal Brexit. ‘There would be all to play for in a no-deal situation but UK commitment to the customs union and single market would make a US-UK [free trade agreement] a non-starter,’ it reads.
The Conservatives said it was simply fact that it would not be possible to strike a free-trade deal with the US if the UK remained in the single market and customs union.”
Wow! The Tories are clearly on their back foot. “Free trade deal with the US” would involve selling off the NHS. “Free trade deal with the US” isn’t a vote winner as the Tory scum seem to believe because it’s got the word “free” in it. Here’s a polarising issue: are voters for or against a free trade deal with the US?
If you want a free trade deal with the US (i.e. bye bye NHS), vote Tory.
If you don’t want a free trade deal with the US (i.e. you want to keep the NHS), vote Labour.
Throw the Tories’ words back in their faces.
Agreed. But no worries. The Guardian will hide the facts. Here are the main points from the Conservative rebuttal released in response to the leaked UK-US trade talks dossier, and what Jeremy Corbyn was saying about it. (See 12.20pm.)
The Tories claim Corbyn deliberately misrepresented what the documents say about the UK being willing to consider lengthening the time during which medicine patents apply. Corbyn argued that this meant drug prices could rise for the UK under a UK-US trade deal. (See 11.37am.) But the Tories accuse Corbyn of lying. They say:
In his press conference, Jeremy Corbyn highlighted the following quote: ‘The impact of some patent issues raised on NHS access to generic drugs (i.e. cheaper drugs) will be a key consideration going forward’ (13-14 November 2017, p.51) and suggested that this meant that the Government would allow drug prices to rise. This is a lie.
Corbyn has quoted this section out of context. This was officials flagging a potential issue that the UK has to avoid in the future trade talks.
The conversation that the paper reports on was a preliminary conversation in which the ‘US focus was on explaining their legislation and approach in FTAs [free trade agreements]’.
The paper also notes that there was only a ‘limited discussion on pharmaceutical protection’. The reason this was only a limited conversation was ‘given sensitivities in this area related to the NAFTA negotiations’ (13-14 November 2017, p.44).
The BBC has NOT scheduled an Andrew Neil v’s Boris Johnson interview. BBC News Press Team, “we haven’t yet been able to arrange a date.”.
Frankly if I was running the Tory campaign I wouldn’t let Johnson in the same post code as Andrew Neil. Johnson has mair skeletons in his cupboards than the Natural History Museum. Go on Andrew, ask about Danielle Fleet.
I suppose you have to imagine that Neil would undoubtedly go a bit easier on Johnson than he did with Corbyn and Sturgeon, or am I just being my usual old cynical self.
“am I just being my usual old cynical self.”
No need to get defensive about that. I doubt if any level of cynicism could match the absolute nadir that the BBC has reached – going by last night’s 6 O’clock news. However I doubt if Neil is going to interview Boris for the very simple reason that, no matter how soft you went on him, there is no way you could make the interviewee sound intelligent.
If Boris Johnson isn’t scheduled to do an interview with Andrew Neil, then why on earth did Jeremy Corbyn agree to it?
He was always going to come out the worse; Corbyn was the truculent sheep to Neil’s wolf, and it showed.
A big mistake, Jeremy is a nice enough bloke, no doubt, but he just doesn’t, have the quick wit, charisma, or intellect to bat away Neil’s ferocious and unending aggression.
“At no time did Corbyn actually “take control”, actually LAY ONE on Andrew Neil. ”
You obviously weren’t paying attention.
His brilliant riposte to Neil on Johnson choosing Trump’s side in the Brexit debacle instead of the people of the UK’s was a pleasure to hear and see.
My highlight was the facial reaction of Corbyn when Neil said “THEY say your anti-Semitic”. Andrew Neil lumping every UK Jew into a homogeneous unit. What’ya trying to imply Andrew? “THEY’RE not really like US.” “THEY have dual loyalty to THEIR Mediteranean country.” “THEY stick together, you know, like a cabal.”
Why are the people making the anti-Semitic accusations the ones that actually harbour the anti-Semitic sentiments? Trump gets away with this in America with his “Netanyahu is YOUR Prime Minister” comment (directed at an American, Jewish audience).
Perhaps Corbyn should have went beyond the facial reaction to ask, “Who are THEY?” Ah but that would have opened up another unwinnable barrrage of allegations and innuendo.
Correct.
Let Jeremy be Jeremy.
Warts and all.
People have had enough of PR muppets and their media whores selling us snake oil.
Of course there are alternatives to the “right wing media”, but the sales just aren’t there for the most part. If The Morning Star sold as well as the Mail – or even Motor Cycle News – there would be plenty more leftwing papers looking to compete. Alas, most people find leftwing politics fairly tedious, and those who write for them sanctimonious bores. With the left now primarily concerned with cranky identity politics, i don’t see much changing.
Maybe lefties don’t go into salacious gossip for the most part, nor do they like ruining the lives of people by “outing” them as being gay, having HIV, carrying on an affair or anything else that’s their personal business.
The stock and trade of the right-wing tabloids, in other words, along with drumming up hate and fear of the EU/ Migrants / anyone but champions of a Christian conservative, straight white male-dominated society. Lefties don’t seem to “do” fear and loathing in the way of the cowardly right, who seem to be terrified of and hate just about everything. Particularly poor people.
It also takes a bit of effort to read and understand the real issues, instead of having your prejudices spoon-fed to you which the right wing press is so good at. Particularly the likes of the Mail, which indulges in great detail of saucy gossip while pretending to be offended by and quite above such things.
So the lack of sales of genuine news which isn’t supporting the status quo and backed by enormous financial interests isn’t really that much of a mystery. Pretending left wing politics is just boring is, frankly, rather stupid, with all due respect.
The most brilliant quote I heard today comes from Sayeeda Warsi on Radio 4
“There is no hierarchy of racism. It is not OK to mock and stereo type BAME people then condemn Anti semitism. Thats called hypocrisy so I’m afraid I won’t be relying on Stella’s judgement or taking any lessons in anti racism from her.”
If she flips, which she should, that will be a KO.
Come on Baroness, do it for the country that made you, give all the future children the same chance as you were.
I do hope she was talking if Stella Creasy, was she?
You are right. The British press is largely owned by foreign and non dom billionaires and is constantly trying to subvert democracy in this country by pumping out the billionaires’ hard right anti-human agenda.
The BBC is supposed to be a public service counterweight to the press barons’ agenda but in reality just echo and amplify it. Anybody who watches BBC News is effectively paying 140 quid a year to hear billionaires telling them what to think.
Corbyn’s seen a document that shows the NHS will pay more for its medication once we’re out of the EU as US big pharma infiltrates it. Johnson a know liar, and blowhard on many occasions, refutes this suggestion.
Hmmm….. who to believe, that’s a tough one.
Here is the document in question.
https://mobile.twitter.com/PippaCrerar/status/1199643874840453121
The full 451 pages (a total of 6 documents) are here.
Some of the documents have names in the “Properties” data. These are
Anna-Marie Lee(Department for International Trade, UK-US Trade Policy)
Rebecca Scheider (DEFRA, Cross-Cutting Negotiations),
Oliver Griffiths (Department for International Trade, Americas Negotiations and Strategic Engagement).
Rebecca Schneider is at the “Project for a United and Strong America”, an outfit that cooperates with the Atlantic Council.
“PUSA is co-chaired by Kurt Volker, who served as ambassador to NATO under George W. Bush and is now executive director of the McCain Institute for International Leadership”.
Schneider has been at PUSA since May 2012. How cosy, because she was also at the McCain Institute for three and a half years. She describes herself as having expertise in “US foreign policy/national security”. No sh*t!
Whitehall is full of US influencers. But here you go, here’s a concrete example.
“who to believe, that’s a tough one.”
Exactly. Labour are doing well with this one. The Heil is sneering that the document is a year old (so what if true?), while the BBC are trying to help CCHQ by saying there’s a “row” over Labour’s “NHS for sale” claim. Excellent. Labour are making the running. At last!
Has Boris Johnson ever used the NHS?
Also I recall him saying it’s not true that none of his children have ever been state educated. The obvious follow-up question is what about the ones he’s taken paternal responsibility for?
From a Tory poster:
“WE’RE PROTECTING OUR NHS
with an Australian style points-based immigration system”
The picture shows Boris Johnson between two NHS staff members who are (guess what) both white.
Hahaha! I thought Levido and Cummings were supposed to be brilliant propagandists!
Corbyn, in his own words. Watch the video.
https://skwawkbox.org/2019/11/27/video-corbyn-reveals-the-uk-us-nhs-deal-johnson-tried-to-hide-everything-in-the-nhs-on-the-table/
The latest of these leaked documents is dated 12 July (2019) and is an OFFICIAL – SENSITIVE
UK-US Trade and Investment Working Group
–
high level read-out:
The sixth meeting of the UK-U.S. Trade and Investment Working Group (TIWG) was held inLondon on 10-11 July, following the fourth UK-U.S. SME Dialogue in Bristol on 9 July themed around emerging technology…
The document you refer to makes certain claims. It does not show, or demonstrate anything at all.
In particular it makes no reference that even as I write President Trump is turning his attention to lowering the cost of medication in the US. Once gain he is facing down powerful interest groups – this time spearheaded by the FDA. President Trump is seeking to avoid FDA roadblocks by sourcing medicines directly from Canada.
If you believe your own arguments then now is the time to lend your full support to Trump and all those in the UK who are sympathetic to his aims and ambitions.
“The document you refer to makes certain claims. It does not show, or demonstrate anything at all.”
Yeah, let’s all trust the Tories on the NHS, lol.
“Total market acce$$”.
Gotcha! Got the trouser clips ready, @Loony?
The document was handed out at the press conference by NHS staff in uniform.
Beautiful stuff.
#Landslide.
Landslide indeed.
“Andrew Neil, when you were the editor of the Sunday Times you engaged David Irving, a well-known holocaust denier. Does this not prove categorically that you are an antisemite? Why have you not apologised?”
The best paper I have read on the subject, which sould be disseminated as widely as possible:
https://www.jewishvoiceforlabour.org.uk/article/smoke-without-fire-the-myth-of-a-labour-antisemitism-crisis/
“Andrew Neil, when you were the editor of the Sunday Times you engaged David Irving, a well-known holocaust denier. Does this not prove categorically that you are an antisemite? Why have you not apologised?”
You see, if Jeremy Corbyn had had the wit and the intellect to respond like this, he would have wiped the floor with Neil. As it was, he just looked evasive and shifty…
Whilst this discussion is mildly entertaining, I am again coming to the conclusion of both my children, when they were old enough to vote.
“Dad, please don’t vote for any of these horrible people”
Meanwhile, someone – I wonder who (I can guess) really does not like one of my favourite Web sites.
Off-Guardian has been massively attacked again.
https://off-guardian.org/cgi-sys/defaultwebpage.cgi
Good to see more people, understanding a few of the basics. Even I discovered this blog about 10 years ago.
“Bill Mitchell – Modern Monetary Theory
Macroeconomic research, teaching and advocacy”
http://bilbo.economicoutlook.net/blog/
I think Jeremy Corbyn’s chances of winning, one of the very few of any real integrity, have massively improved, mainly because of the most outrageous attacks against him. The security services will almost certainly bend the result because it is now wide open to electoral fraud, by numerous different methods, especially postal voting.
Tony
Off-G disappeared!!
Hell where will i get my fill of socialists for a hard brexit now & CJ Hopkins?
I do hope they haven’t been SPIKED permanently!
Come back Off-G. Come back!
The disappearence of Off-G gave me the willies too. But their Twitter page has this:
“FYI – http://Off-Guardian.org is experiencing a major DDoS and we have been forced to change the server IP. It will take a few hours to propagate and during this time you’ll see the message below.”
(This leads to the ominous dead end notice that has taken the place of their warm and welcoming portal page.)
So this is a malicious attack to potentially remove a source of open democratic discussion? It does seem to be the only logical conclusion. Bad times…..
new poll due out, trending toward hung parliament. “Managing expectations” as someone most eloquently put it earlier. Funny thing is, even though we are aware of the fudge factors and get all excited about a narrower margin when the fudge factors are removed, that in itself is still just them managing expectations. Of course they know someone will remove the fudge factors, and so expectations are more confident of the un-fudged result.
The whole thing is fudged, with or without fudge factors. Your expectation is key. Expect the polls are rigged and give very little useful information. Expect we are winning far beyond anything they would dare let us know. What you can deduce though is that they are thinking they can get away with less. Their made up polls are moving in the right direction, which means they are getting worried about what they can get away with come the election result.
Don’t be surprised, expect a Labour landslide. As it clearly should be.