It is very difficult to collect my thoughts into something coherent after four hours sleep in the last 48 hours, but these are heads of key issues to be developed later.
I have no doubt that the Johnson government will very quickly become the most unpopular in UK political history. The ultra-hard Brexit he is pushing will not be the panacea which the deluded anticipate. It will have a negative economic impact felt most keenly in the remaining industry of the Midlands and North East of England. Deregulation will worsen conditions for those fortunate enough to have employment, as will further benefits squeezes. Immigration will not in practice reduce; what will reduce are the rights and conditions for the immigrants.
Decaying, left-behind towns will moulder further. The fishing industry will very quickly be sold down the river in trade negotiations with the EU – access to fishing (and most of the UK fishing grounds are Scottish) is one of the few decent offers Boris has to make to the EU in seeking market access. His Brexit deal will take years and be overwhelmingly fashioned to benefit the City of London.
There is zero chance the Conservatives will employ a sizeable number of extra nurses: they just will not be prepared to put in the money. They will employ more policemen. In a couple of years time they will need them for widespread riots. They will not build any significant portion of the hospitals or other infrastructure they promised. They most certainly will do nothing effective about climate change. These were simply dishonest promises. The NHS will continue to crumble with more and more of its service provision contracted out, and more and more of its money going into private shareholders’ pockets (including many Tory MPs).
The disillusionment will be on the same scale as Johnson’s bombastic promises. The Establishment are not stupid and realise there will be an anti-Tory reaction. Their major effort will therefore be to change Labour back into a party supporting neo-liberal economic policy and neo-conservative foreign (or rather war) policy. They will want to be quite certain that, having seen off the Labour Party’s popular European style social democratic programme with Brexit anti-immigrant fervour, the electorate have no effective non-right wing choice at the next election, just like in the Blair years.
To that end, every Blairite horror has been resurrected already by the BBC to tell us that the Labour Party must now move right – McNicol, McTernan, Campbell, Hazarayika and many more, not to mention the platforms given to Caroline Flint, Ruth Smeeth and John Mann. The most important immediate fight for radicals in England is to maintain Labour as a mainstream European social democratic party and resist its reversion to a Clinton style right wing ultra capitalist party. Whether that is possible depends how many of the Momentum generation lose heart and quit.
Northern Ireland is perhaps the most important story of this election, with a seismic shift in a net gain of two seats in Belfast from the Unionists, plus the replacement of a unionist independent by the Alliance Party. Irish reunification is now very much on the agenda. The largesse to the DUP will be cut off now Boris does not need them.
For me personally, Scotland is the most important development of all. A stunning result for the SNP. The SNP result gave them a bigger voter share in Scotland than the Tories got in the UK. So if Johnson got a “stonking mandate for Brexit”, as he just claimed in his private school idiom, the SNP got a “stonking mandate” for Independence.
I hope the SNP learnt the lesson that by being much more upfront about Independence than in the disastrous “don’t mention Independence” election of 2017, the SNP got spectacularly better results.
I refrained from criticising the SNP leadership during the campaign, even to the extent of not supporting my friend Stu Campbell when he was criticised for doing so (and I did advise him to wait until after election day). But I can say now that the election events, which are perfect for promoting Independence, are not necessarily welcome to the gradualists in the SNP. A “stonking mandate” for Independence and a brutal Johnson government treating Scotland with total disrespect leaves no room for hedge or haver. The SNP needs to strike now, within weeks not months, to organise a new Independence referendum with or without Westminster agreement.
If we truly believe Westminster has no right to block Scottish democracy, we need urgently to act to that effect and not just pretend to believe it. Now the election is over, I will state my genuine belief there is a political class in the SNP, Including a minority but significant portion of elected politicians, office holders and staff, who are very happy with their fat living from the devolution settlement and who view any striking out for Independence as a potential threat to their personal income.
You will hear from these people we should wait for EU trade negotiations, for a decision on a section 30, for lengthy and complicated court cases, or any other excuse to maintain the status quo, rather than move their well=paid arses for Independence. But the emergency of the empowered Johnson government, and the new mandate from the Scottish electorate, require immediate and resolute action. We need to organise an Independence referendum with or without Westminster permission, and if successful go straight for UDI. If the referendum is blocked, straight UDI it is, based on the four successive election victory mandates.
With this large Tory majority, there is nothing the SNP MPs can in practice achieve against Westminster. We should now withdraw our MPs from the Westminster Parliament and take all actions to paralyse the union. This is how the Irish achieved Independence. We will never get Independence by asking Boris Johnson nicely. Anyone who claims to believe otherwise is a fool or a charlatan.
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Current UK and US regimes trying to establish a legal precedent to end freedom of the press:
Julian Assange denied access to lawyers and vital evidence in US extradition case — 14 December 2019
https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2019/12/14/assa-d14.html
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, some months ago:
“It could be that Mr Corbyn manages to run the gauntlet and get elected. It’s possible. You should know, we won’t wait for him to do those things to begin to push back. We will do our level best. It’s too risky and too important and too hard once it’s already happened.”
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2019/jun/09/mike-pompeo-leaked-recording-corbyn-labour-jewish-leaders
Laura Keunssberg has broken the law. It is not a question of “she may have”. She HAS. The Representation Of the People Act 1983 is crystal clear. Here are the relevant Sub Sections of Section 66 of the Act:
(2)Every person attending at the counting of the votes shall maintain and aid in maintaining the secrecy of voting and shall not—
(a)ascertain or attempt to ascertain at the counting of the votes the number on the back of any ballot paper;
(b)communicate any information obtained at the counting of the votes as to the candidate for whom any vote is given on any particular ballot paper.
(3)No person shall—
(a)interfere with or attempt to interfere with a voter when recording his vote;
(b)otherwise obtain or attempt to obtain in a polling station information as to the candidate for whom a voter in that station is about to vote or has voted;
(c)communicate at any time to any person any information obtained in a polling station as to the candidate for whom a voter in that station is about to vote or has voted, or as to the number on the back of the ballot paper given to a voter at that station;
(d)directly or indirectly induce a voter to display his ballot paper after he has marked it so as to make known to any person the name of the candidate for whom he has or has not voted.
(4)Every person attending the proceedings in connection with the issue or the receipt of ballot papers for persons voting by post shall maintain and aid in maintaining the secrecy of the voting and shall not—
(a)Except for some purpose authorised by law, communicate, before the poll is closed, to any person any information obtained at those proceedings as to the official mark; or
(b)except for some purpose authorised by law, communicate to any person at any time any information obtained at those proceedings as to the number on the back of the ballot paper sent to any person; or
(c)except for some purpose authorised by law, attempt to ascertain at the proceedings in connection with the receipt of ballot papers the number on the back of any ballot paper; or
(d)attempt to ascertain at the proceedings in connection with the receipt of the ballot papers the candidate for whom any vote is given in any particular ballot paper or communicate any information with respect thereto obtained at those proceedings.
There is no material difference between Postal Votes and Ordinary Votes. Secrecy should be maintained until after all polling stations are shut. The only people permitted to inspect or even know about postal votes are the officials presiding, and to a limited extent official agents. None of these people are permitted to upturn a postal voting form to see the result, until the election is over. Therefore the anonymous sources Keunssburg quoted have also broken the law.
Some may say this probably had no or little effect on the outcome. But that does not excuse the offence, especially by a correspondent whose job it is to know the law about elections.
There needs to be a Legal Challenge to force a re-run of the Election and to enumerate the incidents which occurred. The Election was not Free and Fair. Opinion was manipulated by false, illegal and misleading information reported by the State Broadcaster who was required by Law to be impartial.
Pertinent information on previous Election interference was unreasonably withheld by a party who directly benefited from both the original interference and from the Suppression of the report and the inferences and opinions which would have be impacted by its disclosure.
See my earlier post above.
Lol.
You may sneer, but the times they are a changing. I saw three men dressed as sans coulettes on the train today.
Is that sans culottes or sans couilles?
Laura Keunssberg has broken the law.
It’ll never go to court. The police have ruled that it’s OK to break this law as long as it’s for the benefit of the Conservative party.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-scotland-politics-29569585
Ruth Davidson didn’t even get a slap on the wrist.
A crowd funded private prosecution?
It is not for the police to rule on this or for that matter any other related event. It is the duty of the CPS to decide to prosecute, and of course it should because the breach of clear rules – not “guidelines” is evident. Of course the CPS will not do anything, but the BBC is entirely wrong to say she did not commit an offence. She most certainly did.
Yes… and the CPS works for the Conservative Party.
Facts of life are that the establishment has total contempt for the law.
The law is to be broken or disregarded upon how it suits the agenda. Financial crime, insider share dealing, fraudulent company accounts, pension black holes are all there as the great and the good fill their boots.
Or what about Julian Asante. Banged up in the most inhuman way possible on the flimsiest of allegations, the system has all but hung drawn and quartered his broken corpse. And that is the problem. The little folk don’t care. They can defraud their pensions, take away their jobs, reduce all reasonable social support and like beaten animals the little folks just roll over and take their beatings.
Or in England, the little people in the economically deprived areas look to beat someone or something they think further down the scapegoat chain. Brexit let us be clear is all about the filthy bastarding foreigners who have come to reduce all our standards.
Might be the Asians today, but it’s also the Poles, the paddy’s and could well be us next because there is a filthy resentment against Scots.
Don’t expect the law to operate unless you think of the law of the jungle – because the English state will do as it wishes under animals like Johnson.
“There is a filthy resentment against the Scots…” who in turn hold the English in highest esteem and show no sign of resenting them…..
Ouch…..very true tho’…
Pity, more than resentment.
Doesn’t matter. If independence is the objective here, why bother putting time and energy into a massively corrupt and intrinsically hostile system?
Opening line in a piece in the Scottish Telegraph, partly penned by Alan Cochrane. “Boris Johnson is to embark on a major charm offensive in Scotland after accepting his unpopularity north of the Border contributed to the SNP’s general election landslide yesterday.”
Cochrane is an über Unionist. He has been playing up the existential threat to the Union posed by Johnson for days now on Twitter. Johnson’s (faux) persona is toxic in Scotland. “Charm offensive”, Viv O’Bliv says come ahead.
Johnson will not want to be the PM that witnessed a united Ireland and an independent Scotland on his watch. That wouldn’t be a good look in the history books and for Johnson, ego is all.
Will a majority of 80 allow Johnson to strike a conciliatory tone? Put the ERG back in the box? Or has purging the “old, one nation Tories” made a rod for his own back?
Johnson has ridden the English nationalist tiger to reach this point. A majority of 80 should in theory allow him to get off, but still, it’s a hell of a dangerous dismount.
Cochrane is worried. Younger, Unionist scribes like Massie and Rifkind appear to be Indy curious.
Cochrane has been attacking the SNP and idea of independence for years. This is actually the first time I’ve encountered anyone that took him seriously.
If Boris comes to Scotland, he’ll be given the same sort of reception is Nigel. Of course, we aren’t as tolerant and liberal as the English; and Scotland remains a racist pig free zone.
Great to see the independence movement talk about civil disobedience and disruption. We should assume it’s going to be necessary to shut the whole country down, which would be easy, and plan accordingly.
The important thing is that Johnson appears to be respecting Democracy where a minority in Scotland are not.
In 2014 Scotland voted resoundingly to remain in the UK with nearly 25% more wanting to remain than leave.
Two years later In 2016 the UK voted to leave the EU
The argument now that because a majority of voters in Scotland voted remain in the EU (62%) that renders the 2014 referendum worthless, is utter nonsense.
Johnson represents a constituency within Greater London, Greater London voted to remain in the EU (60%) but with far more votes than the total in Scotland: Remain Votes Greater London 2,263,519, Remain Votes Scotland 1,661,191
The people of Greater London whom voted remain in the EU are likely as disappointed as the people of Scotland whom voted remain in the EU.
But the majority decided in both referenda, that’s how democracy works, if you don’t respect that in politics you end up like Corbyn and Swinson.
There might be a crank or two in Greater London calling for separation from the UK on the back of the result of the 2016 referendum combined with this general election but no reasonable person is going to entertain such silliness.
But anyone calling for blood to be spilt in pursuit of their antidemocratic obsession should be treated with the contempt and caution that they deserve.
@PB – Look too at the results of this week’s election: another majority in Scotland for parties supporting the Union, and a majority in Britain as a whole for parties that oppose proceeding to Brexit without a people’s vote – in other words, a majority against “Getting Brexit Done”. Whatever your politics, you should recognise those two facts.
If there had been a majority in Scotland this week for parties proposing another indyref, I would be in favour of another indyref. Indeed, I would be in favour of one even if there were just a majority in a Holyrood election for such parties, despite the turnout being lower at Holyrood and therefore those elections being a worse gauge. But there hasn’t been such a majority ever in either kind of election. Scotland opposes another indyref.
Britain as a whole, meanwhile, opposes getting Brexit done.
N
I’ll say again to you dumbo it was not a referendum.
80% of seats won in Scotland by the SNP. What percentage did Johnson get of UK seats to go ahead with Brexit – get your calculator out.
PB
I’ll say again dumbo it was not a referendum. It was a general election. If Johnson has a mandate for Brexit the Scots have a mandate for Indyref2. Just how many elections in Scotland does the SNP have to win before Britnats accept the fact they have a mandate for Indyref2.
They won the 2015 GE, they won the 2017 GE they won the 2019 GE.
They won the 2016 Scot parliament election.
They won the 2019 EU election.
As someone said the Britnats only respect democracy when it keeps Scotland a prisoner in the UK.
The abuse flows when their argument (and referendum) are lost.
You may have forgotten, there was a referendum in Scotland in 2014 and the result was overwhelmingly for Scotland to remain in the UK. Nearly 25% more voted to remain in the union than go independent.
In 2016 the UK had a referendum and voted to leave the EU.
What is so hard to understand about that?
Corbyn and Swinson couldn’t understand that with regards to the EU referendum, 2016 wasn’t a best out of 3 and nor was 2014, that is why they lost. If you don’t understand the basics you will lose.
If you are antidemocratic then sobeit but the majority are not and it’s their votes what decides the outcome not the petulant losers who resort to abuse when they don’t get their own way. You lost get used to it, the people of Greater London have to and they outnumber the population of Scotland hugely.
PB
You really are a dumbo. Scotland is a country London is not and it matters not at all what the population of a city is compared to a country’s right to self determination.
It’s Britnats like you that do not respect democracy or basic rights or Scots law. You have a colonial mindset.
45% voting for Scotland to become an independent country was not a resounding endorsement of Scotland wanting to remain.
Mor so when Project Fear threatened every conceivable pitfall and unworkability. Jeepers we were even told that we needed to remain in the U.K. was required for us to stay in the EU.
Just shite PB and you know it fine. Scotland will decide where it wants to go. Let no man or thing stand in the way of a nation. But hey PB, methinks you are just a silly stupid bastard running off at the mouth.
Silly me, I thought the Scottish independence referendum and the later election were about two different things, remaining in the union with England while it was part of the EU on the one side and a vote to decide who runs the UK on the other. Once the decision to leave the EU had been made, and now looking much closer, due to the most recent election, the need to leave the union in order to remain part of the EU emerges again. You would think that such a fundamental right to administer your own separate government was pretty basic, even if it is within the framework of the EU. At the moment Scotland is entirely subservient to the whims of Whitehall which in turn is under the sway of a gang of banksters. It is less free to do what it wishes to do if it remains in the union with England.
Now you can debate the merits or lack of them in keeping in the EU all you like but the fundamental problem is the union with England that prevents a meaningful administrative regime in the Scottish parliament. If Scotland want this then they must break free and have their own independent media outlets free from the bloated, plutocratic, monopolistic, malign influence of the South.
PB
Give us your maths working for your 25% figure . The vote was 45 % Yes 55 No. doesnt seem to me to be “resoundingly”
The vote was won by others from the UK living in Scotland and the EU citizens who voted no because they were told that a yes vote was leaving the EU by the lying Britnats. Oh and of course the lying vow that broke the Edinburgh Agreement.
Indeed PB, but you’re wasting your time here, logic and reason are concepts anti English bigoted zealots cannot deal with.
Fredi
Where would they be located. The potential is all over the world. Anywhere in particular you have in mind.
Indeed the British have many to answer to regarding foreign policy. As many in the ranks of the SNP do regarding their hatred of the ‘English’.
There is an assumption by many Scottish nationalists that any politician who happens to be ethnically English and in favour of the union must be an “English nationalist”, just as many things British such as the major newspapers are called “English” in Scotland, although for some reason (not hard to guess why) that doesn’t apply to the monarchy or the armed forces.
There is nothing to suggest this about Boris Johnson. He will basically see Scotland as part of Britain where people speak with funny accents, as some strange far-flung place that is on the same list as Liverpool, the West Country, Geordieland, Wales, and Tyneside, and oh yes, they are a country, aren’t they, and I had good pissup last time I was in Edinburgh with the local Conservative association, just as good as in Liverpool, but wasn’t there a bit of trouble in Birmingham? That’s the real outlook of such people. Accent figures large. He doesn’t think in terms of England versus Scotland all the time. No English person does.
As for riding the tiger, I don’t know whether that is a deliberate reference to Julius Evola but I see Johnson as more smash and grab rather than having some “theory of history” even if he might make out to himself that he does. I say that having recently watched his films “The Dream of Rome”. His assumption regarding a basis for comparison between the Roman Empire and the EU is paper-thin and comes across as propagandistic, but in any case he doesn’t promote an Evolist notion of decadence unless it’s very well hidden and I missed it, in which case I’d be grateful if someone could point it out to me.
N
You sound like a British Nationalist to me.
“He doesn’t think in terms of England versus Scotland all the time. No English person does…”
Nah, you just ignore us and sit back and enjoy being subsidised. Wanker.
The BBC are at it again. This time on the ‘News’ Channel, on Dateline London, chaired by Carrie Gracie, late of the BBC’s China bureau until she left and sued them for gender discrimination in salaries. So they kept her on and gave her this job.
The panel are discussing the fallout from the election, Brexit and the sequelae, the effect on UK politics and the likely approach of Johnson and Corbyn.
The talking head are:
Steve Richards who was a journalist on the Independent, now an author. Latest book – Prime Ministers from Wilson to May.
Maria Margaronis @@ The Nation https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maria_Margaronis
Janet Daley @ Sunday Torygraph Enough said.
Thomas Zielinger ex Die Welt https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Kielinger He has the OBE, the seal of approval from the UK state.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000chyk
On the iPlayer for which you have to sign in with your name and e-mail address. Why? Is it a licence fee information gathering set up or is it some of the ‘we know who you are’ stuff?
both the iPlayer sign-up and the widely touted BBC “Sounds” app sign-up are certainly to facilitate Alexander James Ashburner Nix style data harvesting from the whole population. the hard-data ID of the sign-up, added with just a few ‘likes’ or ‘listens’ will allow psychosocial bucketing, potentially “the Consulting Association” type blacklisting for your future employment – based upon which podcast you peruse…
—I keep well away
Just create another email address for this kind of activity and your favourite pseudo name for the ID. If you really are a tin-foil hatter then a virtual private network connection VPN could be considered.
Today’s No 10 handout from the state broadcaster, announces Johnson’s charm offensive today. When is he going to start knuckling down?
General election 2019: PM to visit north after Labour heartland gains
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/election-2019-50790445
Trust that there is no availability of large fridges in which he can hide and JCBs for him to play on and definitely no photos of little children lying on hospital floors, for lack of beds, to be shown to him..
Good to see Sturgeon apologise on Sky for her somewhat over the top celebration of Jo Swinson losing her seat, however it was a fantastic night for the SNP winning 45% of the vote and 81% of the seats in Scotland.
Across the UK the Tories managed 43.6% of the vote and 56.1% of the seats, and kind of puts their win into context.
The relentless Tory media are the ones pushing for the removal of Corbyn with immediate effect. All, the channels are creating the news instead of reporting it by name dropping Labour MP’s and doorstepping them on their opinions on who should replace Corbyn, even now after Labours defeat the media are hounding him out of the job, his socialist policies, which much of have already been implemented in Scotland still frightens them.
Corbyns predicament soon to be relieved once he steps down, is that, will he still have enough clout within the party to help get appointed someone of a similar social conscience. Or will a neoliberal Blairite take up the mantle, and plunge England into an even deeper far right abyss, one that socialism in any form may never see the light of day again.
I think it will be a Blairite. Am coming to the view that the whole fiasco was a Blairite strategy to get rid of Corbyn. The idiotic Brexit policy – obviously not Corbyn’s own – was probably shoe-horned into the manifesto by the Blairites to guarantee defeat in the Labour heartlands. Corbyn tried to distance himself from it but that didn’t look good either.
I can say quite clearly now that the GE is over that if I lived in England or Wales I wouldve without hesitation voted for Corbyns progressive policies.
The media demonised Corbyn from day one afraid of his progressive social policies. They branded him anti-Semitic, or at least his party, they classed him as a terrorist frateniser, and a threat to national security because he wouldn’t press the nuclear button and kill millions in the process.
I cannot think of a more concerted campaign against a leader of the Labour party by the media, the opposition and some within Labour in recent times, to cap it all though Brexit helped seal his fate as the Tories held the upper ground on leaving, and many voters had been brainwashed into voting leave, by the same media and opposition, even though Corbyn offed options on leave or stay.
Is there any reason whatsover to assume that those brainwashed into voting leave were not more than adequately counterbalanced by those brainwashed into voting remain?
Not really listening to leavers it was all about taking back control, less immigrantion and blaming immigrants for their woes in the process. There wasn’t one iota of cohesive and informing information that eminated from the leave side as to what would happen if we continued down the Brexit road.
Infact the leave side preferred to focus on demonising Corbyn, to mask the real and serious consequences of Brexit, and it worked, mining towns who saw Thatcher dessimate their livelihoods and who always voted Labour, voted Tory on this occasion.
Needless to say they’ve vote in haste and no they’ll have plenty of time, at least five years of the Tories to repent that decision. The last ten years of Tory austerity shouldve been a wake up call, alas they bought the leave propaganda hook, line and sinker.
Although he was smeared in the MSM and that didn’t help him, I think it is within his own party that the real divisions lie and what caused Labour’s downfall. By not recognising that many people who have suffered under the previous ten years through austerity in working class areas, did vote to leave the EU and then felt that they had been disregarded by an elite North-London intelligentsia, he had it coming. Rule number one – don’t take your customers for granted, there’s always another supplier ready to take your business.
“did vote to leave the EU and then felt that they had been disregarded by an elite North-London intelligentsia, ”
Yes London has and will continue to ignore Northern England, though Corbyn wasn’t the PM when false promises were made of a future Northern Powerhouse, that promise was made under Tory rule but never really followed up on. I certainly can’t blame Corbyn for that.
I genuinely believe that Corbyn if he’d managed to become PM wouldve made a significant move to encompass Northern England into his plans, but power resides in London, and Corbyn couldn’t manage to overcome his political detractors, of which they had to be defeated first before any real investment could be made in Northern England.
The Tories have been in power since 2010, and haven’t invested in Northern England to any great extent. Now that they have a substantial majority, I certainly don’t see them investing any where near as once promised.
Billy Brexit. The North London so called intelligentsia are vastly outnumbered by
by poor working folk in said North London who voted for Jeremy. Its the job of the Media Elite to portray this to people like you. Its called divide and rule. You are mistaken if you think your born to rule Boris cares a shit about you and he and his Bullingdon mates have played you. You are also mistaken if your Boris is going to do a real hard Brexit Billy.
Brainwashing, false consciousness*, call it what you will, is one explanation to account for the phenomena of the working class Tory, otherwise you are left with the reaction of the marginalised poor accepting the explanation that the cause of their misery is the influx of cheap labour from the continent, rather than more plausible notions, such as the failure to invest in social housing programs and the doctrinaire acceptance by various governments of austerity measures to cope with the bailing out of the banks.
*See One Dimensional Man: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/One-Dimensional_Man
I suspect the same, it was a plan by the Blairites to strong-arm Corbyn into supporting a 2nd referendum they knew would finish him. Thing is, when the economy collapses as it must it will be the rich who call first and loudest for government intervention. Socialism. That’s what bailing out the banks was in 2008. Socialism for the rich, paid for by cruel capitalism thrust upon the rest of us.
If the next leader is a Blarite, then the left needs to split away and form a new party. One of the saddest things when the pro-US “New Labour” Blairites took over in 1994 was that the left did nothing. I am not talking only about activists, but the many ordinary members of the party who had some knowledge of history, for whom memories of the General Strike, the poverty in the Welsh Valleys and the Gorbals, the Attlee Government, the struggle to establish the NHS against Tory opposition, etc. etc., and in some cases the Spanish Civil War, were real. They mainly withered away, admitted defeat, didn’t try to keep their act together, or in the case of activists (such as Jeremy Corbyn himself) concentrated on campaigning work.
Political parties share too much of their DNA with cults. The tiny, Trot. parties are pure cult. The large, Westminster parties contain competing cults vying for control. So yes, Progress would see Labour burn to the ground before they surrendered long term control to Momentum. On the other benches, the ERG would see the Tories burn to the ground before ceding control to the Europhile wing.
From the perspective of the cult, parties lose elections all the time, no biggie, but the cult must prevail.
“her somewhat over the top celebration of Jo Swinson losing her seat”
Especially when she turned ’round double fist-pumping to an empty hall as if she thought there was a crowd of supporters behind her.
“A fantastic night for the SNP”… well apart from the 80 seat Tory majority… 5 years of a Tory government who don’t want another independence referendum… and Brexit on a right wing Tory government’s terms. Everything the SNP didn’t want they’re now going to get.
Yeah they got a few more seats… the bigger picture is no victory at all. It was the SNP and Liberal Democrats who gave Johnson his election – I don’t hear Sturgeon apologising…
Nope not at all. It was disgruntled shortsighted former Labour supporters who insisted on their Brexit win handing their trust over to a known liar Johnson rather than to Corbyn as they didn’t like him but could not explain why that swung the election
There wouldn’t have been an election called if the SNP and Liberal Democrats didn’t break ranks with the other parties resisting the government and agree to one.
I have a son living and working in Scotland, and I also have a grandson at university in Scotland (not the same family)
They both voted SNP, when I asked why they both gave the same response; to keep the Tories out. Talking about it further they both claimed it was part of a strong tactical vote movement to keep the Tories out. My grandson was explicit as to why he voted that way……..”grandad, the Labour Party here are weird”
How widespread this voting pattern was I don’t know. They are in the Aberdeen and Edinburgh ares…_
Lets not forget the wonderful social policy put in place in Scotland that Corbyn wanted for the people of the rUK of free university education.
I don’t know if your grandson pays for his university tuition or not, but surely you must agree that any young person leaving university on say a four year course with a debt of £36,000+ is unacceptable and can cause depression and even suicide amongst those bright young folk embarking on their careers, only to be weighed down in debt.
On a brighter note its good to see your family members work, learn and live in Scotland, and see through the Scottish Labour branch office for what they are, just an offshoot of London Labour.
Still now that we know the result of the GE, its time to welcome and try and persuade soft no voters be it Labour LibDem and even Tory to vote for independence, in a ever increasingly progressive Scotland.
“Branch office” and “offshoot of London Labour” indeed – what an insult to the workers’ movement in Scotland.
That said, unfortunately when the Blairites took over in 1994 no Labour branch in Scotland matched the great Labour branch in Ebbw Vale, renamed “Blaenau Gwent”, who told the Blairite scum where to get off. When London HQ tried to impose their own candidate, the good Labour people of Ebbw Vale told them “We chose Nye Bevan as our candidate, and we chose Michael Foot, so we think we can be relied on to choose a good candidate, don’t you?” That was totally meaningless to the public relations scum etc. in Labour HQ, who didn’t realise that it meant a very great deal to the people who were saying it, whose idea of the Labour party wasn’t the same as “the advertising account we happen to be handling at the moment”. (It’s easy to imagine a coked-up public relations wally asking “Who on earth is Nye Bevan?”) So they put up their own candidate AND THEY WON.
“what an insult to the workers’ movement in Scotland.”
Would you still feel the same way if I told you that Labour in Scotland took working women for the Glasgow city council to court for 12 years to stop them getting the same wages as men doing the exact same job, and the Labour affiliated union representing the women knew fine well what was going on.
Only when the SNP took control of GCC did the union rep advise the women to demonstrate and strike. The SNP controlled council decided to pay the women what Labour and the union hadn’t fought for for 12 years, a whopping half a billion pounds in compensation, and £3 million pounds in lawyers/ court fees.
Well said Mr Republic.
British Labour in Scotland are for London. They only care about themselves ( House of Lords for MacConnell after sending over a £billion back to Gordon Brown the britnastiestst of all Britnst Labour), followed by the party and then London.
They have been rumbled by the people of Scotland other than the dimmest of dim.
Yes Cubby Lord McConnells antics are well known in Scotland. However putting the Labour hierarchy aside for one moment who’ll probably never support Scottish independence, being part of the union is far too lucrative for them to give up, Henry McLeish, whose spoken affectionately and I would suggest he would vote for Scottish independence, is probably the exception.
We must now turn our attention to trying to persuade soft unionist no voters, (politely) who’ve become disillusioned with the direction the union is moving in. There are plenty of them out there, who just need a little persuasion to set them on the path of independence.
People that are voluntarily getting into £10’s of thousands of debt are, in the main, not likely to be “bright young folk” Rather they are naive and immature and falling victim to one of the great modern day cons.
There are alternatives available. If you are really bright there are plenty of places in the US that will provide full scholarships. If you are not world class bright then you can go to mainland Europe where fees are nominal. A lot of the people getting themselves into what will prove to be un-repayable debt are also the same people most keen on the EU. And yet they actively choose to hurt themselves rather than take advantage of the opportunities available overseas. Not exactly the actions of “bright” people.
These people are being conned on a gargantuan scale – and they need to wise up. The only way they are going to do that is if people older than them and with more experience of life tells it as it is. The system is a con and if you fall for the con then you are a fool.
Young people with aspirations of going to university shouldn’t have to be put of doing so having to accure vast debts to achieve their goals. Other countries around the globe provide free or almost completely free university education such as Slovenia. Just because someone doesn’t have access to funds to go to university doesn’t mean they can’t be bright.
I agree with Corbyn on that, and although he was eclipsed by his party in supporting the renewal of Trident, at a staggering £200 billion+ I’m confident that Corbyn privately opposed the renewal of those obscene and useless missiles.
“These people are being conned on a gargantuan scale – and they need to wise up. The only way they are going to do that is if people older than them and with more experience of life tells it as it is. The system is a con and if you fall for the con then you are a fool.”
This is a self-contradiction. If the only way these young people are going to wise up is if older people instruct them then the unfortunate lack of such instruction doesn’t make the young ones “fools” – especially when there are other older people who are eager to lure all into the con.
Fool someone once shame on you, Fool someone twice shame on them….I like how you are blaming the victim here
@ROS, my grandson is on a masters sponsored by his employer. And he scrounged £50 of me, well he didn’t scrounge, didn’t even ask, I just sent it……what a silly grandad I am.
The point of my post was to make the argument that the SNP landslide was probably not a blank cheque for independence.
My son isn’t bothered either way, and my grandson says he would give his vote for independence if Indyref2 happens…_
Thank you for your reply, and no you’re not a silly grandpa, just a thoughtful one.
I’m “Pappa D” now………I think he’s been up there too long…_
Nicola Sturgeon knows not everyone who voted SNP supports independence . I know of 3 unionists in Aberdeen who lent the SNP their votes; an SNP party member friend of one of th tells me she could be persuaded . As for the other two , Labour’s rout and uncertain future will give them plenty of food for thought about creating the socially democratic inclusive outward looking society we all want . SNP is doing its best with the limited powers it has .
But people like these 3 friends will have to mourn the death of their party (Labour) first .
A genuine lefty writes: They can always sing The Red Flag (or the “funeral march of a fried eel” as George Bernard Shaw described it.)
To believe that Jeremy Corbyn and Jo Swinson were trying to defeat Johnson requires that you believe they were unable to see the inevitability of defeat due to:
Developing absolutely no right wing media containment strategy of any kind
Hitting the “oh Jeremy Corbyn” phase & then immediately alienating all your supporters with a destructive brexit position
The Tories and Brexit Party uniting
Splitting the remain vote to the highest possible degree
Mixing a general election with the toxic topic of brexit
Being determined to continue with the least popular leader since records began
Being twenty points behind in the opinion polls
Having given faux antisemitism a free, barely challenged, wrecking ball run for two whole years
That’s an awful lot of believing.
Too much for me and it’s far more likely this has much more to do with trade competition & the EU/NATO relationship.
Not everyone is what they say they are.
On the two or three occasions I have visited the BBC ‘News’ Channel today, there has been the twisted face of Dame Margaret Hodge spouting the anti-semitism smears against Corbyn. Why is the muck still being carried? Don’t they know he’s gone? Reinforcing their message?
PS Look up Enver Hodge. Corruption in Islington when she was in charge there. Of course that is the constituency Corbyn represents.
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2003/jul/04/uk.schools
PPS Hodge’s daughter by her first marriage is Lizzie Watson who is ‘deputy editor of BBC News at 6 & 10?? h/t
@SocialistVoice’.
https://twitter.com/nw_nicholas/status/1031215260039094273
Dame Margaret is best (worst) remembered in Islington for her appalling attempts to cover up the organised child sexual abuse in the council’s children’s homes:
https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/comment/with-a-past-like-hers-margaret-hodge-might-show-a-bit-more-humility-10098871.html
Yes, Corbyn was the MP for North Islington, but he didn’t collude with Hodge. She claimed that the allegations were all lies, invented by Trots and other hard leftists to try to discredit Hodge and the Labour council, and Corbyn’s refusal to support her is widely believed to have caused her implacable hatred for him ever since. Still, her good friend Tony Blair consoled her by appointing her as Children’s Minister in 2003, apparently hoping that everyone would have forgotten all about it by then.
There’s a tenacious survivors network which still hasn’t forgotten:
https://www.islingtongazette.co.uk/news/crime-court/isn-members-confront-margaret-hodge-at-ucl-1-6335482
They may not have been very reassured to hear that Hodge supports the approach of the national inquiry into historic child abuse, as that long running inquiry still has no plans to investigate the Islington scandal.
This is interesting.
“Article 18 of the Smith Commission Report, to which all UK parties agreed, is below.
There was, so far as I recall, no Article 18(a) stating, “Of course, we won’t allow them to choose.”
https://mobile.twitter.com/alanferrier/status/1133817658586075137
Ha, you couldn’t make it up. Oh, you did …
R̶e̶s̶o̶l̶u̶t̶i̶o̶n̶
Can we have an article on Revolution please ?
Oh dear, John McDonnell seems to be proposing that the Labour left “greens up”.
It was already clear from the manifesto promise of “a million climate change jobs” (seriously – that is what they said) that the kooks have a lot of clout. It’s as if there’s a pincer movement to destroy the Labour movement, effected by Ziofascists and climate kooks.
He is talking total sense. Shame he is stepping down, one of the very few Labour front bench to come out the fiasco with some dignity and credibility.
John McDonnell’s insistence on a 2nd referendum makes him one of the main architects of Labour’s election defeat. If they’d honoured the referendum result as their 2017 manifesto promised they would they’d have routed the Tories. The Remainers risked a democratic result in order to get their anti-democratic result and now they’ve got neither. I voted for Brexit but also for Corbyn.
I think the deaths of 130,000 disabled people without a hint of remorse shows just how deadly neo-liberalism is. This campaign proved how authoritarian it is and it accepts no challenge. Soon it will have total control of all news, national institutions and international bodies. Then it will be totalitarian and the only chance to defeat it is in the streets. But Hitler said in his political will written in the Berlin Bunker, “You could only stop my movement once.” Never mind five years, we may have entered a thousand year Reich of this shit.
uh dear marxist what climate kooks? the only people i have heard or seen refer to “climate kooks” are right wing nutjobs dutifully spouting fossil fuel propaganda. you know, bought and paid for by big corporations. since when did marxists go corporate?
Don’t confuse Marxists with those who wear a Che Guevara tee-shirt.
One if the Britnat media news channels actually punted the opinion that Boris Johnsons gov would be a left wing gov. Yep that is not a typo or anything – the media in the UK are a disgrace. No wonder they are so low in the international trust rating for media. Something of course the Britnat media never report.
Everything is logic and logic is everything.
Will no one acknowledge that the result of this election defies all logic? Beyond my utter shock and devastation over a so called “Tory landslide victory” and the terrifying ramifications this will enable, I cannot accept that this vote was anything but a massive nationwide fraudulent exercise. After the electoral process was privatised and placed in the hands of Idox, a company owned and run by a Tory, what did the public really expect would happen? The validity of postal votes cast in Copeland in their 2017 by-election was an exposure of the critical flaw that was manipulated into our failing democratic process. This major fraud was highlighted by Skwawkbox:
https://skwawkbox.org/2017/02/26/exclusive-electoral-expert-copeland-by-election-unlawful-count-suspect/
https://skwawkbox.org/2017/03/01/new-information-deepens-doubts-over-copeland-by-election/
https://skwawkbox.org/2017/02/26/does-this-bbc-video-support-copeland-suspect-count-allegations/
https://skwawkbox.org/2017/03/08/copeland-15yr-ballot-count-veteran-echoes-concerns-over-irregularities/
Electoral fraud has been strongly suspected with regard to postal votes in the past, but it is the sheer scale of this truly unfathomable anomaly that has increased my suspicion on this occasion. While I can imagine that some deluded voters might be so obsessed with Brexit that they were prepared to vote against their own self interest the scale of such a harsh reaction is simply not believable. All of those working class voters who are claimed to have switched allegiance will know of multiple friends and direct relatives who have suffered under Tory austerity. To believe that the election result was valid we are forced to accept that this vulnerable sector of our population voted in favour of:
• A continuation of the devastating Universal Credit policy.
• A dramatic increase in child poverty and kids going to school hungry in crumbling underfunded schools.
• More homeless people abandoned to die on our streets.
• The full privatization of our NHS.
• The disabled and minority groups being persecuted by a ruthless state and so much more…
Even if the electorate genuinely suspected that many of the lucrative enticement of the Labour manifesto would never be fulfilled they must still have realized that a Corbyn led socialist government would reverse the majority of the worst excesses of Tory austerity. I cannot believe that Brexit was so vitally important to them that they were prepared to put their lives and the lives of their own children in such serious jeopardy. Getting Brexit done was really the solitary offering in the Tory manifesto; everything else came down to empty pledges to reverse the appalling damage their ruthless party inflicted on the British public over the past nine years in government.
However, there are more significant discrepancies that challenge the authenticity of the result. Despite the herculean efforts of the BBC and most main stream media outlets to hide the overwhelmingly positive attitude towards Jeremy Corbyn, there is ample video and photographic evidence documenting his unprecedented rock star popularity. All over the UK literally thousands of ordinary people attended huge rallies even waiting in the cold and rain to whop and cheer for Corbyn, greeting him with a now familiar chant. At the same time no silo proved to be secluded or safe enough to protect Boris from the public’s utter disgust and this too was very well documented. The numbers simply do not equate to a landslide victory where hoards of adoring fans lend their vote to a universally reviled, dishonest pariah!
In addition there is documentation of the historically long lines of people waiting patiently to cast their vote despite the harsh winter weather on election day. Are we expected to believe that this massive showing of voters, many among them young people, some severely impacted by Tory cuts, were all single-mindedly obsessed by the need to eradicate anti-Semitism? That is the line being aggressively peddled by the media following this unbelievable result. Sure, they wanted life-long debt, perpetual job and housing insecurity plus the decimation of the NHS and every aspect of what rudimentary protection is now offered by a social safety net denuded by Tory cuts. To actually believe such utter tripe is totally irrational; it manifestly defies basic logic.
To get away with a significantly irrational stolen election the right wing media and our biased broadcasting service have been preparing us for this deception for months. The “Push Poles” heavily weighted to justify a Tory majority have helped to warp expectation and elude suspicion. The constant stream of vile anti-Corbyn propaganda to distract us from hearing about, let alone understanding the Labour manifesto. The total lack of scrutiny and blatantly obvious support for the Tories by the BBC in clear violation of electoral regulations on equal and fair presentations: the Tories don’t care because scrutiny and accountability will soon be a thing of the past.
I think that even the Laura Kuennsberg on air gaff was a deliberate tactic to distract from the potential reporting of the most egregious vote fraud in UK history however, this might offer a way to force a more thorough investigation of how she appeared to know what she stated on air. The Kuennsberg story and a couple of insignificant pieces on voter personating incidents top the Google search list; they know that few busy people will check beyond the first page. The lack of effort put into the whole Tory election campaign, including the fact that Boris did not even bother to vote in his own constituency, demonstrates that they knew something that we didn’t: this election was totally in the bag because the Tories wilfully put it there! We cannot let them get away with this crime.
The laser focus on the so called “Red Wall” of Leave voting constituencies was built into the plan so that the combined reasoning behind the astonishing victory could be blamed on Brexit and the confected loathing of Jeremy Corbyn. The hard right Brexiteers will now claim an unstoppable mandate despite Boris’s lies, bigotry, incompetence and well deserved unpopularity. Even Skwawkbox has fallen into the trap of accepting the result as an authentic consequence of ignoring those who voted Leave. No matter how passionately all those Leave voters might have despised the EU the instinct for self-preservation would have been an incredibly powerful motivating force compelling them to vote Labour. Impoverished, exploited and starving people do not vote for an extension to their misery; mothers do not want their children to starve. Even those who are not directly impacted by austerity right now will know many friends and family members who are still suffering with no end to austerity in the foreseeable future. Boris has consistently lied so many times that they cannot possibly believe that a man who has written about how much he hates the working class will not let them down again.
If this vote stands it will herald the end of democracy in the UK. Future “Elections” will be purely cosmetic after the boundaries are redrawn and voter ID is introduced. Page 48 of the Tory manifesto paints a chilling picture of what lies ahead as our human rights are neutered, our peaceful protests are met with a brutal crackdown under emergency powers. UK judges will be selectively chosen and our unwritten constitution altered beyond recognition while the most vulnerable are systematically victimized. The UN has already called out this toxic Tory government for the unnecessary hardship inflicted on the poor and disabled, but this has been comprehensively ignored; soon we will cease to have any recourse to the EU Court. The unfettered manipulation of our laws to benefit corporate greed is a frightening enough prospect as we march towards full on dictatorship just as Germany did under Hitler. Please reassure me that I am not the only one to recognize the reality of this dystopian scenario?
This alleged crime cannot go unchallenged; it is not too late to investigate the potential high probability that the outsourced handling of our postal votes by Idox, a Tory owned company, stuffed the ballots in favour of a Tory landslide majority. There must be a way to verify the authenticity of postal votes, even fingerprints or DNA on the ballots might offer a clue. This issue is far too important for us to complacently accept the MSM hype and let this go unchallenged. Earlier this year the EU voted to strengthen the protections for whistleblowers; we are still a member of the EU for now. Could an Idox employee or someone else in the know please come forward to reveal the truth before it is too late?
I have to admit I was surprised how accurate the Exit Poll was but also how much confidence was put in it immediately it was released.
If there data publicly available that shows the postal vote / proxy and ballot box votes a separate figures per constituency?
Anybody know?
Kim wow. A brilliant analysis and shockingly true about the postal votes. I too believe the result defied all logic. You are right of course we are on the 3rd rung of a Fascist Dictatorship. Totalitarianism is just a hop skip and a jump away. The Tory manifesto will all but eradicate the rule of law. It also shows how the Tories are going to implement USA style politics i.e the selection of Judges etc. People who bleated on about ‘taking back control’ with regard to the EU r now going to find themselves totally subsumed by Fascist America and its aggressive warmongering. We need to set up the equivalent of the Black Bloc in France. People need, en masse, to boycot buying MSM newspapers and take other action. Friends of Israel need to be booted out of our Government – rhe Israeli Government is heavily influencing the governance of our country. However, we are not known as the British Sheeples for nothing.
The British state is well capable of rigging an election. And it’d be easy to find ex intelligence and army types to carry it out — the alarm call had been well and truly sounded; Corbyn was a communist terrorist-sympathiser, etc., and that’s all the justification they needed.
Many in Scotland believe the 2014 vote was rigged too. When we get our next Indy referendum, we will be making sure the process is handled in Scotland by us, ideally with international observers.
An excellent analysis Kim and one I’m inclined to accept. The real difficulty facing us is that your analysis is put down as a “conspiriacy theory” and as such, dismissed without any further scrutiny. Several of my friends with whom I discuss matters degrade my views as purely conspiracy theories. As if all you need to do is to state something is a conspiracy theory and no search for evidence in support needs to be undertaken. Further, you get compared with loonies who argue that the earth is flat or that no one has been to the moon.
It is very convenient for the authorities like the CPS, the police, the electoral commission who can sit back and say bring us the evidence. They should be looking themselves.
“We need to organise an Independence referendum with or without Westminster permission, and if successful go straight for UDI.”
Instead of devoting the rest of your life to such schemes, why not put the time and energy instead into helping Cameron Murray to become a brilliant scholar like his father and make a distinguished career in Her Majesty’s Diplomatic Service. 🙂
Thanks for repeating my argument, you will eventually see the sense of it, walking away is all the rage here in England and there is no need for Scotland to go through the 3.5 years of dithering.
Going by the charm by which the law abidibg Tories walk all over the peoples representation act, you would be best advised to do it now, rather than wait until this bbc elected Goverment turns up the heat on you and abolishes Holyrood as they shut down Stormont.
Go for the Gaelic Alliance and join NI and Ireland.
As for young Cameron, he has enough brawn to make his way in society, although I will always be available to help, he’ s a great thinker and a lovely boy.
I’m sure we agree in wishing Murray junior all the best. As for the Gaelic Alliance: shouldn’t you be including Cornwall? And what about Brittany? ‘Verow Trelawny bras…!’
Lisa Nandy was mentioned by Kinnock on BBQT – any views?
No, not curous at all about another Blair babe using Labour to attract fickle neocons and do it all over again. And before you say it, nobody who has displayed split loyalties to this country by being friends to one rogue state, rather than being afriend to all nations, should ever be allowed to run the Labour party, nevermind the country.
I understand from the Sunday Times that that’s precisely the reason that Corbyn got rejected by ‘red wall’ constituents in the Midlands and North – Labour or not, they are firmly loyal, especially as many have connections to the armed services, and would have regarded Corbyn’s associations with terrorist and Marxist groups as well as his refusal to sing the national anthem as evidence of disloyalty. McConnell’s open confession of being a Marxist wouldn’t have helped matters.
All this, plus Labour’s manifesto promises being seen as extravagant and unbelievable, and Labour’s failure to keep its promise to implement Brexit, led to its goose in the red wall being well and truly cooked. Bye bye red wall, at least for the next few years.
Whilst I agree with most of Craig’s comments, I don’t think Labour fought an effective campaign. I never thought Corbyn was the ideal leader for the Labour Party. Sadly, I don’t think there is one around, who could do any better. He was probably the best of pretty poor bunch.
Corbyn was astonishingly passive in the face of the tidal wave of smears directed at him, especially the anti-Semitic one that succeeded in undermining his moral standing, which was high and linked to his opposition to Labour’s support for imperialist wars of aggression. It’s staggering that Corbyn or the people around him didn’t appreciate how damaging the anti-Semitic label was and how woefully inadequate their response was. The nature of the response was to actually give creedence to the original accusation, which is shockingly stupid. But then this seems to characterise Corbyn’s leadership style… passivity and a lack of understanding wrapped in a fog of indecisiveness bordering on apathy. All this led to a tremendous sense of demoralisation. The leadership at the top of Labour was almost totally lacking and what was worse, both incompetent and ineffective.
Why didn’t they forge a strong anti-Tory alliance with the Liberal Democrats, considering how damaging Brexit was? They could have made an offer the LD couldn’t refuse. For example a written document and offfer to introduce a new proportional electoral system as part of their manifesto. Or Corbyn offering to resign as PM after two years and stand aside for the leader of the Liberal Democrats. A joint manifesto agreement, drop the nationalisation rhetoric, but instead a massive reform of the entire education system and transport. Scrapping Trident and using the money to lift the poorest families and children out of grinding poverty.
There are reasons Corbyn remained a backbencher his entire career and they’re aren’t because of his ‘principles’, that’s an excuse. He just wasn’t frontbench material. He’s a man who believes resembling a punchbag is a sign of his virtue when he’s being punched. Land a punch myself, never, I’m not a boxer!
writeon – Neil Clark has written an excellent article, ‘Destroyed by appeasing his enemies: The Shakespearean tragedy of Jeremy Corbyn’ in which he expresses similar sentiments.
‘The Jeremy Corbyn project has ended in tears with an utterly demoralising general election defeat for Labour, but it could – and should – have been very different if only Corbyn had trusted his own instincts… How Shakespearean that Corbyn, a lifelong Eurosceptic, should be politically destroyed by agreeing a pivot towards Remain – which he must have known was quite crazy. How Shakespearean that Corbyn, a veteran supporter of Palestinian rights, should be so submissive in the face of what the great Israeli journalist Gideon Levy described as a ‘contract’ taken out on him by the ‘Israeli propaganda machine’.’
https://www.rt.com/op-ed/475891-corbyn-general-election-destroyed/
So who are these snp stooges? I’ll wager a guess. Blackford, M Black, Freeman, Blackman. What do this lot have in common? I’ll leave that for others to work out.
After the catastrophe…
Boris Johnson goes to the Northeast of England to “thank” people – cementing the illusion that all the votes his party received in that region were genuine. Like yeah, right. So publish the contracts with the postal vote management company. I am thinking of lines such as “You’re in the army now”, or, from Estonia etc. in 1939, “You’re in the Soviet Union now”.
The Tory party has not (unless anyone knows otherwise) announced that it has rejected Tommy Robinson’s membership application. That guy really is in the Tory party now – and he’s welcome. How long until they have men wearing military uniform attend their events?
Dominic Sandbrook writes in the Heil, “We love our country. Jeremy Corbyn never understood that. Boris Johnson did. And THAT is why he won.” Sandbrook means whitey. He means whitey stood up for his kind.
Make no mistake. This Orban. This is Salvini. This is Trump. And a huge financial crash is coming.
N_
Look at the US repo market, what was supposed to be a very short term intervention to provide some liquidity, is now a gargantuan $500 billion in ongoing liquidity; and it continues to grow. A very big crash is coming, and the efforts of the Fed to stall it are not going to be effective-or possible- for very much longer. When it hits, it’s going to make 2008 look like a bee sting.
And when it hits the richest will scream first and loudest for government intervention ie. socialism. That’s what the bank bail-outs in 2008 were. Socialism.
“Stonking” meaning “visibly very large” isn’t exclusively private school idiom, although it’s possible that was its origin. Unfortunately it’s not in the OED, at least not the edition I’ve got. (What a disgrace!)
Stonking is a military term. It refers to the artillery barrage that precedes the advance of ground forces who dispatch the shocked, bewildered and demoralised who still show signs of life or potential resistance.
so, to hasten independence, dump the notion that you’re a kingdom and tell mike pence that you’re actually a colony and the imperial one, BT, will have a word with BJ. even Churchill through a drug and alcoholic haze heard the india message and jumped to it. note also how quickly and relatively quietly and quickly the Eire border issue was so quickly (resolved/imposed/). mike met leo.
https://www.cvce.eu/en/collections/unit-content/-/unit/02bb76df-d066-4c08-a58a-d4686a3e68ff/0397bac4-10f2-4b69-8d1a-366ca4a08c34
In Northampton (bankrupt Tory council effectively ran from Whitehall) I didn’t receive a poll card and only found out on Election day that they had moved my longstanding polling station from the University to a retirement village.
me likewise Kev, had to search the local streets to find the relocated polling station sans poll card – labour constituency though.
Where does the right to self-determination or independence end? Surely, if the UK has the right to independence from the EU then it cannot deny that same right to the nations that make up the UK without appalling hypocrisy. If a second independence referendum is held in Scotland and a overall majority choose to leave the UK but a majority in, say, Edinburgh, choose to stay in the UK would the wishes of the citizenry of Edinburgh be respected or would they be coerced into an independent Scotland? Where is the line? With the exception of extreme libertarians, most people would agree, I think, that individual property owners cannot declare themselves independent nor would it be reasonable for neighbourhoods within a city to be permitted to separate as independent ‘nations’. But what about the independent city/state? Why can’t Glasgow, in which I believe a majority of the population voted for independence from the UK and against Brexit, go it alone?
Scotland is a country and it has rights in Scots law under the Treaty of Union 1707. Like any bi partite international treaty of union it can be terminated by either party.
Agreed, Cubby.
Andrew Miller wrote:
> Surely, if the UK has the right to independence from the EU then it cannot deny that same right to the nations that make up the UK
That’s called Scotexit.
It’s now becoming a popular Twitter hashtag:
#Scotexit
https://twitter.com/hashtag/scotexit
Thanks, jmg, I’ll check that feed out.
Indeed, *Brexit means Scotexit*:
> Between Brexit and ‘Scotexit’ . . .
> If Boris Johnson — who has explicitly sought a mandate to execute UK’s exit from the EU — wins, Scotland’s First Minister (premier) Nicola Sturgeon has now raised the possibility of a “Scotexit” from the UK so that the Scots can remain in the EU.
https://www.dhakatribune.com/opinion/op-ed/2019/12/14/between-brexit-and-scotexit
> Nicola Sturgeon says election has ‘strengthened’ mandate for Scottish independence vote
> Boris Johnson has ‘no right’ to take Scotland out of the EU against its will, says SNP first minister
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/general-election-result-snp-scotland-second-referendum-indyref2-a9244941.html
“But what about the independent city/state? Why can’t Glasgow, in which I believe a majority of the population voted for independence from the UK and against Brexit, go it alone?”
I think you know fine well that your argument doesn’t hold water. Seven of the ten areas of London voted to remain in the EU in 2016, should London remain in the EU? Dundee was the city that had most yes voters in 2014, should Dundee go it alone as you say? Of course not we leave the UK as a country, hopefully sooner than later.
But tell me why do you oppose Scottish independence?
Well, Republicofscotland, it was more of a question than an argument. The matter would seem to rest on the fact that countries have by their very definition an inherent separateness or independence which though it might be ceded by treaty in whole or part from time to time so as to enter into a federation or alliance of some kind it nevertheless cannot and does not ever relinquish its right to resume an independent existence. Political subdivisions of a country such as cities are really, I suppose, creations of the national government with only those rights granted to them which does not include the option of independence for themselves. So there’s the ‘line’ I was pondering in my original post.
I don’t oppose Scottish independence. Scotland outside of the UK would, I’m sure, thrive, and if a majority want it, it must be done Westminster be damned. Whether or not an independent Scotland would be wise to remain in the EU depends on how much sovereignty Scots are willing to cede to that leviathan.
“Westminster be damned. Whether or not an independent Scotland would be wise to remain in the EU depends on how much sovereignty Scots are willing to cede to that leviathan.”
Thank you, I acknowledge your point, as for your above point, would it not be wise to remain part of the largest trade bloc in the world and all the access across Europe that it provides, not to mention its subsidies, and high standards on foods and workers right etc.
Although I’m sure we’ll remain on friendly terms if Scotland votes to leave the UK, isn’t quite comforting to look across the Irish sea to Ireland and see just how supportive the EU has been with regards to Brexit and Westminsters carefree attitude towards the Good Friday Agreement, and borders.
We as small independent nation, should take these matters into consideration as well.
I hope you get a referendum, as the general election on Thursday has further emphasised to me what a truly dark place the United Kingdom as a whole is in.
Unfortunately, I fear you will be thwarted (at least initially) by the same forces that nobbled the general election – a media that is little more than the PR wing of the British state and their masters in the US; the intelligence agencies of the UK, US and Israel fearful of the loss of UK power; and, I’m afraid, the suceptibility of key politicians to be flattered and/or bought off – look at Swinson, Farage and some Labour MPs.
The SNP did exceptionally well at the general election but it must be said they were also a convenient stick for the British establishment to beat Labour and the Lib Dems with, thus, perhaps, were ‘allowed’ to do well. In the run-up to an independence referendum or unilateral declaration of indepence, it would be different, with the full force of the British state, including the media, brought to bear, just as it was against Corbyn.
So I am convinced you will somehow have to find a route to independence without Westminster, not least as I don’t see Johnson and the Tories offering a referendum, sitting as he does on a large majority. Why would he want to be the PM who ‘lost’ Scotland?
I wish you luck, though, as I would genuinely be happy for you to escape what has become of the United Kingdom.
This would be perfect under normal conditions, But we are no longer in politics as usual. Bannon now owns us and he has had practice in the US and Brazil of making the right move ever further rightwards and dragging their ‘tribe’ with them. Johnson will be popular with his own people and they will continue to set up ‘battles’ that keep the fear on edge and give them dopamine-spiking ‘wins’ – the things that are necessary to keep the cocaine-habit of political partisanship going. The people who are feeling good now, will want to continue to feel good and while Johnson gives them this, they will love him whether their town centres are ghost towns or their NHS has been sold lock, stock and barrel to the US. They will be given scapegoats, starting with the Travellers – and soon very likely the Scots – to have as the adversaries who are responsible for all their woes while Johnson is the white knight (I use the colour advisedly – apparently Tommy Robinson has already joined the Tory Party) who keeps them ‘safe’. So I think things are going to be very, very bad – at a point where we’re so close to irreversible climate tipping points that we can’t guarantee our food supply. I am still thinking of coming home to Scotland, however… If Johnson is going to put armed troops on the streets, I want to be on the right side of the barricades.
I’ll be sorry to see Scotland go its own way, as it is one of the things I like about the UK. But if it is going to go, it should do so now, so that the world sees that its independence struggle has nothing to do with petty-minded nationalism and everything to do rather with not wanting to be part of an American-owned rogue UK.
By the way, what is it with all the triumphant slogans in the press right now about ‘antiquated socialism’, ‘the end of Corbynism’, ‘the death of the left wing’, etc.. Is this some insanely desperate response by desperate hack journalists to counter a truth that is exactly opposite (the self-destruction of capitalism that is painfully slow but nevertheless happening right now)? How could authors that have presumably some education behind them not know that Marx is perhaps even more relevant now than he ever was. Someone please explain to me – coherently and intelligently please, without wasting my time – how the socialist struggle could ever go out of date?
Or is this just the usual illogical claptrap of The Independent and all those other crap-filled rags? (I pick on The Independent here because I think, unless I am wrong, it has usually sought to maintain an air of impartiality and sophistication).
THE BRITISH ELECTION – 2019
Dear Friends, BREXITERS, Opponents, and global citizens,
Please – lend me your ears.
Hello?
Ah – finally you are there.
I dispatch this missive to those who are thoughtful, intelligent ( whether from the right or the left) and who do believe that in this globalised world of ours, we actually all do need each other. In fact, even back to ol’ Ghengis Khan’s time and before – ‘globalisation’ is not, on an accurate historical assessment, a new phenomenon. It has so been packaged to serve the interests of a narrow modern day elite ( but that commentary for another day and another time). Today, dear beloved, we shall examine, in a brief way, the recent British election results.
First, let me go wide to narrow my observations.
For those of us who follow global political processes, then this becomes evident. Jo Swinson, of the Liberal Democrats, took a position which did defeat Labour remainders. She lent her support to Boris Johnson and his call for an early election. That is where it all started. Comment: Swinson lost her seat to the Scottish National Party ( SNP) – a point to which I shall return.
Put the politics aside for the moment and let me share my opinion ( for what it is worth) on the more important issue of the economics of the moment as it may impact the United Kingdom going forward.
Frist, across the wide Atlantic we find some similarities between the US and Britain:-
In the US there is a so-called ‘rust belt’.
In the UK there is the midlands and then Northern England.
With regards to both A and B these are primarily working class and blue collar people areas which traditionally are either solidly Democratic or Labour voters.
So, what happened in the UK?
I answer my question in this both practical and theoretical way.
It is not highly likely that persons faced with daily bread and butter issues are going to be raising questions in their minds about what is structurally dictated unemployment? Or, what is, as related to the first question, globally dictated structural unemployment? The first question relates to domestic shifts in investment and the latter to the global situation. But, what does all of that have to do with anything? Actually – everything.
When global capital decides that it is investing in a region, or country ‘A’ or ‘B’ or ‘C’ as the case may be, the decision is made in totally pragmatic terms. More profit relative to the level of investment.
So, when jobs move from the traditionally established Western countries to more attractive and profitable regions of the world, such as China, then there is an unemployment hole left in the former US and UK industrial belts.
What then?
Well, the unemployed, or under-employed situation and others suddenly need an economic answer. How does that come?
It comes in the US from Donald Trump making a series of anti-immigrant; anti-Muslim; anti-Semitic embraced speeches and statements ( such as that there were good people on both sides in Charlottesville Virginia where the neo-Naizs were marching) and a general anti ‘other’ set of politically motivated speeches – which help to create tensions amongst diverse people within a country. Playbook followed over in Europe too.
But what is the real problem?
Well, ‘dear leader’ Boris – may I suggest that your real challenge is as follows:-
How do you address the issues which the people in the Midlands and the North of England face – especially regarding jobs and unemployment?
If you can succeed in striking a US/UK trade deal – then on what terms and will same be proven to be mutually beneficial for both the US and UK? We already know that Donald, as with all his other ‘successful’ business ventures will be angling to do as he did with China – only to find that he has absolutely no basis of understanding of economics 101 when it comes on to trade-wars. But, be forewarned – the UK does not wield as much power as China.
You have promised more, much more investment, in education – and – you are to be commended for that.
There is the question of the future treatment of the NHS – and that remains to be seen.
The relationship with Northern Ireland and whether you prove to be a man to your word – remains to be seen.
Last, but not least, there is the SNP victory, which now necessitates an early, if not immediate second referendum on Scottish independence.
Boris, I am not your enemy, for at heart and throughout my legal career I have demonstrated and proven myself to be a humanitarian. Hate not – and – try to assist as best one can as a human being – one to the other.
I have given you a short ‘dirty dozen’. Do not despair – my hearty congratulations on your victory.
My short six( 6) points constitute just an adumbrated form of the challenges which you face going forward.
But victor Boris and vanquished Jeremy, really and truly do not despair. I am on the cusp of completing my five(5) star Villa in the Caribbean, hopefully to be operational by mid-February, 2020. When the post-election stress hits both of you, be assured that both of you shall be welcomed. As regards you Boris – you are an avowed capitalist; and you Jeremy are an avowed socialist.
Let me give bother of you a warning.
Boris – you will have to pay top dollar, for that is what the market commands and you will have to pay full price for a top retreat and your much deserved relaxation.
Jeremy – there shall be no Turks and Caicos Islands state subsidy paid out for your retirement and a justly due vacation. Full price as usual.
Based on that understanding, please book in advance.
Kind regards.
Courtenay
The successor to Jeremy Corbyn as Leader of the Labour Party must NOT come from this list of names.
https://www.lfi.org.uk/in-parliament/
I’ve an idea as to why Corbyn hasn’t resigned immediately he (Corbyn) and the NEC might be attempting to jockey Richard Burgon in to the leaders hotseat. At first glance Burgon looks to have similar political attributes to that of Corbyn.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Burgon
Burgon held up well against Andrew Neil and was the only MP I saw who had the guts to tell Neil that media bias against Corbyn was the fundamental root of anti-Labour sentiment. Of course Neil haughtily dismissed this, but Burgon stuck to his guns.
Richard Burgon:
Has never voted on investigations into the Iraq war
With the help of theyworkforyou here are the seven likely candidates voting stances on the 288,000 violent deaths that have occurred since the 2003 invasion of Iraq.
Yvette Cooper
Consistently voted for the Iraq war
Consistently voted against investigations into the Iraq war
Jess Phillips, Lisa Nandy, Emily Thornberry, Angela Rayner, Keir Starmer
Voted against investigations into the Iraq war
Rebecca Long-Bailey
Has never voted on investigations into the Iraq war
(that’s NOBODY to support then…)
Rebecca Long-Bailey and Richard Burgon only joined the Commons in 2015. There have been no votes on Iraq during their time as MPs.
No single illegal activity or media villification of Corbyn would be enough to alter an election result, but if you add up all the factors together it can be argued that the election was grossly manipulated, and most of it illegal:
The BBC led over 50% of its election run-up broadcasts with the anti-semitism trope, including one ENTIRE radio 4 World at One broadcast about the subject. Not ONE SINGLE piece of actual evidence was quoted or reported.
The Tories placed prominent posters demonising Corbyn (including a blood red poster declaiming “would you trust this man with your childred”) right outside many poll stations and parked vans with huge posters with a similar theme. This, like the Keunssberg report, is strictly illegal and should carry a £5000 fine or six months in the clink for EACH individual case.
Of the BBC interviews pre-election eight out of ten were with Tory journalists or “think tanks” that it implied were neutral but all of them were right wing.
The BBC failed to declare or notify the political leanings of the vast majority of commentators it interviewed.
Nearly every single “vox-pop” street interview was with a person hostile to Corbyn.
Despite a clear independent poll indicating that between 70% and 90% of the electorate want utilities and rail brought back into public ownership, Labour was demonised by the entire media for promoting re-nationalisation, and the only people interviewed in response were corporate PR people on behalf of privatised industry. NOT ONE like-for-like interview was offered to a supporter of re-nationalisation.
On the news that Labour would make the internet free for all, the BBC invited on to TV and Radio SOLELY those who had vested interests in preventing that policy. NOT ONE INTERVIEW was conducted with anyone who supported the idea.
ALL the media reported on claims that Labour’s policies would be impossible to finance, while ignoring the fact that this Tory government, starting with George Osborne, have borrowed more cash to prop up the enormous wealth divide and continue rewarding fat cat bankers and corporate excesses than ever before.
The Guardian has published, and continues to publish, smear articles on Corbyn, now totalling more than 400 separate articles since Corbyn applied to lead the party. There have been almost ZERO articles regarding a post mortem on the disastrous LibDem performance.
There is substantial evidence that postal votes have been manipulated, interfered with, or have been fraudulent.
And so it continues. And this is largely about a person who has never fiddled a single penny on his expense forms, has never accepted a non-executive directorship, has never compromised on his beilefs for selfish reasons, has never been for sale, and has never, ever, uttered a single anti-semite statement.
I despair of people with your mindset ever learning anything.
Fewer and fewer people care about the media – and the media is largely unable to shape public opinion – for the simple reason that they do not understand what public opinion is in the first place. Kind of inevitable really when you only ever talk to people that agree with you.
It is beyond question that the media hates Trump and the media hates Brexit – but the people don’t care.
Now the people have manifested their contempt for Corbyn – but apparently that is too hard to understand. One reason they hold Corbyn and the left in contempt is a simple response to the fact that Corbyn and the left holds them in contempt. Your comment exemplifies this mindset perfectly. In your world it is not possible that the people are capable of forming their own opinions – they are far too stupid for that. So the answer must be that they have been brainwashed by a nefarious media.
The simple fact is that the Labour Party achieved its worst result since 1935 – and the responsibility for that rests exclusively with the Labour Party and its supporters. Double down on your hatred of the working classes then it is game over and Goodnight Vienna.
Who are you to say, entirely without evidence, that Corbyn “has never compromised on his beliefs” – Take a look at Corbyn’s views on the EU prior to 2016 and post 2016. See if you can spot any changes there. It is not hard millions of people managed to work it out.
Take my advice, grow up and accept responsibility for your own failings.
“Now the people have manifested their contempt for Corbyn – but apparently that is too hard to understand. One reason they hold Corbyn and the left in contempt is a simple response to the fact that Corbyn and the left holds them in contempt. ”
The people in my opinion did not hold Corbyn in contempt, nor vice versa for that matter. The bias media, political opponents and internal opposition to his progressive policies, many of which are already in use in Scotland were his undoing.
Worst of all though were the Brexiteers who felt cheated out of their Brexit dream, they voted for the Tories, this time, normally they wouldn’t have done so. Not so much as in contempt for Corbyn but contempt for the political system that tried to reverse their vote winning decision.
One that was nutured through lies and fear of immigrants, again by the media and Corbyns political opponents.
Take a look at all the many “social justice” issues embraced by Corbyn. How many public pronouncements has he made regarding attempts to keep Shamima Begum from returning to the UK. Is there any victim group that Corbyn does not lend his support to?
Well there is one obvious stand out exception. He seems remarkably quiet regarding the epidemic of organized gang rapes that have plagued largely impoverished towns throughout the UK. How about that for holding your electorate in manifest contempt
“Is there any victim group that Corbyn does not lend his support to?”
I’d have thought that lending support to victims was an admirable trait, afterall Boris Johnson only exacebated Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe predicament.
“He seems remarkably quiet regarding the epidemic of organized gang rapes that have plagued largely impoverished towns throughout the UK. How about that for holding your electorate in manifest contempt”
I cannot say whether Corbyn has or hasn’t commented on this particular matter, however not comenting on one matter doesn’t mean that he holds the British public in contempt.
Now the Prime Minster Boris Johnson lying repeatedly could be said to be holding the public in contempt, along with his racist remarks that are well documented, I’m sure you’ll agree.
Loony, revealing his ignorance again. We don’t need to guess about the extent of media bias; academics at the University of Loughborough have studied it in detail and they found massive levels of bias. https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/general-election-british-uk-media-news-bias-tories-labour-a9209026.html
To suggest the media has no influence when it comes to politics reveals stupidity on a scale that ought to have you banned from this forum.
You’re officially documentary stupid.
@Loony I won’t respond in kind to your grow up statement. There are plenty of others on this thread you could offer the same patronising advice to. Your statement “…the media is largely unable to shape public opinion” is spectacularly the opposite to reality.The Media PALPABLY shapes public opinion. Orwell recognised this when he willingly worked for the BBC between 1941 and 1943, and described his job there as promulgating “honest propaganda” in order to stop Hitler. 1984 is almost entirely about the use of the media to shape behaviour and opinion.
Corbyn has never been entirely for or against the EU. His views are nuanced in that he disapproves of NATO links, the European arrest warrant, and the EU’s sycophancy to American military and financial bullying, and its largely neo-con economic policies. I would say a lot of broadly pro Europeans feel the same way. Many EU supporters are equally skeptical about many aspects of EU nations, but their views are tipped in a positive direction culturally, socially and in the arena of consumer and human rights.
If you are hanging your hat only on Corbyn’s attitude to Europe your counter evidence is extremely thin. I indeed cannot find one example of Corbyn radically changing his mind on his fundamental values, and I don’t think you can either.
What “failings” are you referring to? You don’t know me so could not possibly know what they are, or if they exist. If this is the kind of desperate personalised post you resort to its no wonder you get short shrift from others here.
“There is substantial evidence that postal votes have been manipulated, interfered with, or have been fraudulent.”
See my earlier post on this point; everthing points to a criminal manipulation of the vote it simply defies logic to believe anything else. I totally agree with all you have written especially the above statement, but we need to expose the evidence and fast. With solid evidence we could overturn the vote and demand fair practice and tighter controls on the BBC in any future vote. Please work towards uncovering the truth and fully documenting all of the warped practices that stple this election.
Resolution.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4vfHjV3le1g
[ John Coltrane – “Resolution” (Instrumental Jazz track) ]
Thank you Mods; I should have said.
To be honest, I was never a particular fan of Corbyn. I was pleased when he was elected leader of Labour, but I never thought he was up to the job. True he was surrounded by mortal enemies among the MPs, but he wasn’t suited to the role thrust upon him. Corbyn was both weak and ineffective as a leader, especially when Boris Johnson became leader of the Tory Party. Someone born to rule and someone who craved and relished power and using it. And did Corbyn really have strong principles he was ready and willing to defend? I don’t think that’s true.
Johnson has no ‘principles’ worth talking about, accept the vital ‘principle’ of wanting power to defend the interests of his class using anything to do it that comes along. That’s why, under the British political system, so deeply corrupt and flawed, he’s a tremendous player and a success and Corbyn is a fiasco.
Corbyn should have supported Ken Livintone, and Chris Williamson, kicked all those MPs that calle him an anti-Semite at once and acted like an innocent victim of a disgusting smear campaign, showing righteous anger at such outrageous and false accusations, turning the attacks upon him to his advantage in the process. Sue the fuckers for libel as well! Instead he was hopeless, really, realy, hopeless.
And, by the way, on one of his free days, he should have visited Julian Assange too and explained why he should be released and why he would fight to stop him being handed over to show trial in Trump’s fascist USA. Occupy the fucking moral highground and make it your ground. Use Assange to your advantage and explain what’s really going on and why defending Assange is so important. Revealing warcrimes isn’t a crime, it’s an obligation. The crime is being complicit in destroying the harsh truths that Assange revealed. Show the public what principles really mean for Christ’s sake! Show some fucking bottle. Show some real principled leadership for a change. Unless those ‘principles’ aren’t really real ones at all, but simply a political disguise.
l am a ‘fan’ of Corbyn, and you’re absolutely correct in your comment;
.
“Corbyn should have supported Ken Livingtone, and Chris Williamson, kicked all those MPs that called him an anti-Semite at once and acted like an innocent victim of a disgusting smear campaign, showing righteous anger at such outrageous and false accusations, turning the attacks upon him to his advantage in the process. Sue the fuckers for libel as well! Instead he was hopeless, really, really, hopeless.
And, by the way, on one of his free days, he should have visited Julian Assange too and explained why he should be released and why he would fight to stop him being handed over to show trial in Trump’s fascist USA. Occupy the fucking moral high ground and make it your ground.”
.
He did indeed need to , “Show some fucking bottle…”
.
l was willing him on, but alas he took the ‘Zen Buddhist’ approach….not very ‘authentic’ or attractive and understandable to 99% of the people :O(