Did Johnson just throw in a no deal Brexit statement in the middle of his coronovirus briefing. I only half caught it, sneaky shit if he did.
I hate to support him in any way but he was asked a direct Brexit question by a journalist.
I donât think it was a planted journalist either as he also asked the PM when we could expect him to die in a ditch
Thatâll be it then, as I said I was only half listening to his burbling and didnât catch the question. Heâs still an opportunist twot though.
twat
I know, I was trying to be posh, obviously you know me.
1 Like
âJimmeeeeeeeey!â has long been a saying in our family
1 Like
NZ politics ftw
2 Likes
4 Likes
If Downing Street canât negotiate and cooperate with their own countrymen in England or the UK, how would they ever be succesful with negotiating with the EU or any other state?
1 Like
I see Gove is accusing Andy Burnham of political posturing over tier 3 restrictions. Kettle, pot, people who live in glass houses etc. The epitome of irony.
Thatâs the trouble with âjohnny foreignerâ (anyone from outside the Home Counties) they just donât know what is good for them.
1 Like
It is an important facet of Tory dogma to shit copiously on anywhere that isnât London and the Home Counties, especially if they have a poor track-record of voting for them.
Itâs been worse. In the early 1980s there were serious proposals by Thatcherâs government to abandon Liverpool altogether and cut it off from central government finance in what was termed âManaged Declineâ.
Manchesterâs had its fair share of Tory policy, too. The slaughter of largely-unarmed protesters calling for reform of a massively corrupt and unrepresentative parliament 201 years ago, in the so-called âPeterloo Massacreâ, took place under Tory rule, and is far from forgotten there - home of Britainâs best-known left-biased newspaper.
Ancient and irrelevant though stuff like this seems, itâs important to know that this is iconic wank-fodder for wealthy ex-public school boys like Johnson and his cronies. Their instinctive reaction to it isnât revulsion, but inspiration. They are somewhat subtler actors, but their central tenet is always Divide And Rule, and their favoured division is always economic.
1 Like
Four more years of dark times aheadâŚ
1 Like
Itâs distinctly possible that England and Wales will never have a non-Tory government again. Scotland will stay permanently in the grip of nationalists now, and independence is simply a matter of time - thatâs a significant Labour heartland gone forever.
The North East of England was also long a Labour heartland, but every last trace of unionised industry is nothing more than a dimming memory in a near-pensionable generation now, so theyâre voting to the Right - having bought into the Little Englander lies of Farage et al.
Weâre a generation or two away from the North West being bought into line, but Wales is going to remain nationalist-dominated for the foreseeable, and may eventually secede as well, as the Tory shitshow drags the 99% ever downwards, so thatâs another major Labour heartland extinct.
Itâs simply statistically impossible to form a Labour majority government with the constitutional boundaries as they are, plus the shift in overall voting patterns and demographics, and the fact that the mass media is dominated by pro-Tory owners.
tl;dr - turkeys voting for xmas
1 Like
I also have come to the conclusion that politics and media control are key factors in pursuing extreme politics. The US and UK with the FPTP system have succeeded best for moving to the right wing, as far as I can see, India aspiring to that as well.
I think the key element here is the FPTP electoral system that is in place, not coincidentally in most english speaking/(ex-)commonwealth countries. The most used argument for it: the best candidate is chosen, is IMO actually not true. It is the locally most preferred candidate. This only might be the best candidate in relative terms, but in absolute terms still incompetent.
The consequences of FPTP IMO:
- This leads to a political polarisation and tendency to only two major parties.
- By definition, more votes are âlostâ compared to PR. See the extreme case of Trump who did not even get the public vote.
- As a result of 2), there will always be more voters that are feeling not represented and therefore not satisfied. This is a root cause for extremism and/or pupularism and might eventually leading to turkeys voting for Xmas.
- FPTP carries the weights of the past more than PR (since PR tends to more moderate policies). Any new election is therefore not a new start to âbalanceâ to see how the scale is tipping. In due time, the scale tips over to one side, the counterforce to get in balance or tipping over the other way is never possible again.
You can see that in the US most easily.
Even before the Trump era, there were 2 Democratic administrations. Obama introduced the ACA (Affordable Care Act, Obamacare) and some other things. Has that led to an insight to continue a Democratic policy with the larger public? Or have we seen a substantial improvement for native, black or latino Americans at all? Or has the rich-poor gap within the country for all people been narrowed? And now we have a president that easily breaks down more, than had ever been built up by the previous government, including e.g. environment, which was bad anyway.
In the US, it finally led to the situation that you can vote right wing or extreme right wing.
It looks like this tendency is happening in the UK as well. I hope the tide can be turned in time, or elseâŚ
3 Likes
I suspect that Europe is going to be ever-more grateful for the strip of sea between usâŚ
If you havenât seen it already i would thoroughly recommend Grayson Perryâs series on TV where he toured America and looked at the cultural issues underpinning the basis of populism and and the swing toward binary politics . I certainly have a different view now than i did before i watched that programme . The issue isnât about preventing a swing to the right, that will always come and go, its about the polarisation of culture and opinion. Food for thought at least.
4 Likes
More brexit win. (Yes, coronavirus, but brexit is going to hamper any recovery)