Westministenders: Boris and God Knows what next. (I'm all out of ideas!)

[RedToothBrush]

Still a week until Stoke and Copeland. (Labour Hold/Con Gain unless something strange happens) QT is from Stoke next week.

A50 hits the Lords next week. Melania is being lined up to do something for the women. (God help us all).

Will UKIP survive? Will Nuttall survive? Will Labour survive? Will Trump survive? Will CNN survive? Will the Lords survive? Will Theresa May survive a class room of children?

All these questions and more

Again bigchoc he didn't convince me that he was PM material, but enough people fell for it.

I wouldn't call myself a hardcore Tory, but I have never been attracted by either Labour, the SDP, (or when they morphed into the Lib Dems), and so rather than spoil my ballot paper, I have voted for the local Tory if they have been a good candidate. We had a LibDem MP for many years who seemed like a good egg, but I didn't like his party's policies, so didn't vote for him.

Meant to add that if you've read Malcolm Gladwell's 'Blink' (I think it was that one), that we have instinctive reactions to people. Blair gave me the 'off' vibe every time I saw him on TV or heard him, much the same as Nick Clegg and David Cameron. They all make my teeth itch (as does Guy Verhofstadt).

Respect remain, to be continued:
www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/brexit-northern-ireland-border-checkpoints-eu-protesters-block-road-republic-of-ireland-protest-a7587031.html

On how being told to leave your home destroys mental health:

I bring joyful Brexit-related news! Look, Control and Sovereignty!

www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/02/17/return-pounds-ounces-britain-might-allow-firms-use-imperial/

food manufacturers could be allowed to use teaspoons to demonstrate how much sugar is in food products.

I despair.

scary The old theories of Physiognomy didn't work well in identifying wrong'uns.
There have been more recent studies into how much we can judge from faces, but the only reasonably reliable visual characteristic is that wide faces are indicative of high testosterone in men and a higher likelihood of agression.

However, what is crucial in your case is that you knew that Blair and those others you disliked on sight had political views or belonged to organisations, to which you are strongly opposed.
Had you thought they were rightwing conservatives with strongly nationalist views, it might have been love at first sight or at least admiration.

People with strong political or religious views can have an instinctive antipathy to those with opposing views, even claiming to detect serious character flaws in a leading figure of the "other" team.

Just as some on the left claim to immediately detect cruelty in the eyes & mouth of the most prominent conservatives, or a DUP voter may glimpse hellfire in the pope's eyes

woman Can we buy in pecks and bushels too ?
I had to learn hundredweights and furlongs at school
We had threepenny bits, sixpences, shillings and half-crowns until I was a teen.
I don't miss that old crap
The Decimal system is far simpler and more logical than Imperial measures (which is what British measures are officially called)
Some traders would grab the chance to con customers who aren't good at maths

Ages back, red wrote something about the method in the apparent madness, in US and here. I suspected as much from Trump's 'performance' last Thursday, and here's the resistance's take on Bannon's scripting. ( just like " a citizen from nowhere" didn't just magically appear in that May's speech)
pbs.twimg.com/media/C400ZBwXUAEKS5m.jpg

Well, surely Miss Big Choc, I imagine we'll be handmaids in bonnets, fined for not attending chapel and counting in farthings. (paid in them too, if women are allowed to work ) We'll be able to watch traitor punishments as a special sabbath treat, I imagine too.

Don't forget, Blair's Catholic now too, and the alt right aren't. But being a successful Labour PM is probably enough for those who dislike him, and who think we have the luxury of personal preferences atm.

Mother perhaps you saw him on drop a fiver info NHS collection box somewhere.... He brought those country to its knees

Care to elaborate?

Unicorns on the rise of machines/robots, I know of one legislature which is debating robots and legislating to regulate them (apart from Japan and North Korea) - the European Parliament

Have we had anything about the Brexit border protests in NI?

You're not on your own, Mother. I am astonished by the venom he attracts. We can all agree that the Iraq War was a terrible enterprise but domestically there was a lot to praise. Now it seems as if people are competing to see who hates him the most. When you compare him and many of his cabinet members to the clowns and swivel-eyeds we have now, I feel really sad too. As many people have conceded on this thread (and others) his message is spot on.

Re Blair and Iraq - yes, most of us agree that this was wrong. Question - would a Tory Government at the time have done differently? IMO the answer is NO.

I don't like Blair, nor did I like Thatcher, but they both must have/had something about them to win three elections apiece, with large majorities.

the venom he attracts they went after him ever since they realised how good he was at it in 1997. This could spoil their plans, and there's the march in march coming up.
Cecile on NI protest they have FB page www.facebook.com/hashtag/respectremain?source=embed

Blair is hated by much of the Labour Party because he tricked them into war.
Also because he abandoned some cherished policies of the left, in order to attract centre voters and liberal Tories - to win 3 GEs.
Labour prefer virtuous losers
Tories would have voted for war anyway. They hate Blair - because he beat them in 3 GEs.

When blaming Blair for Iraq, the extra deaths he personally caused were of British service personnel.
Bush would have gone to war with Iraq - which caused the suffering in that whole region - even if Blair had totally opposed it.

Blair, like all UK PMs, was a totally insignificant player once the US decided to take action.

Brexit: effect on top orchestras

Yes, I know it's an elitist topic and may annoy the night trolls again, but top quality professional music enriches the culture of a country and is a joy to the individuals who participate or attend.

Top orchestras, like cutting edge science, chooses the brightest & the best from all nations, especially from our closer neighbours.
Attracting them / retaining them in the UK has become much tougher

The European Baroque Orchestra
"One of Britain’s most successful orchestras is moving to Belgium amid fears that its musicians may be among the victims of a post-Brexit crackdown on immigration"

EUYO (EU Youth Orchestra) based in London, is making contingency plans to leave Britain:

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2017/feb/18/baroque-orchestra-eu-britain-brexit-immigration-free-movement

So far the COE (Chamber Orchestra of Europe) is staying, but even UK orchestras may find life tougher post-Brexit:

London Philharmonic Orchestra:
“Like any performing arts organisation we sometimes have last-minute cancellations and need to fly in conductors or soloists, often as late as the day of a concert.
If permits or visas were to be imposed, then the ability to move quickly might be jeopardised."

Association of British Orchestras:
“Imagine a large van full of instruments.
Outside the customs union every single instrument on that van would be subject to a carnet, as it is when orchestras tour to the Far East or the US.
Currently, we do not know whether a single carnet might cover all EU countries in a tour or whether separate carnets would have to be prepared for each country.
It’s a bureaucratic burden that will bring extra cost and delay.”

This adds nothing at all to the discussion, but I feel a bit close to despair with this. I'm not going to stop writing to MPs and reading, but I feel a bit crushed underneath everything

An early EU-UK deal on each others expats is expected and will be widely welcomed
BUT
The immigration system May presided over for 6 years may not be fit for purpose

Remind me how she got her reputation for quiet competence ?

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2017/feb/18/eu-citizens-right-to-stay-britain-chaos

"The EU fears millions of its nationals living in the UK will be left stranded in a legal no man’s land after the country leaves the EU because of the weaknesses of the British immigration system.

MEPs and senior European diplomats fear that chaos will ensue
as the Home Office does not have the information or systems in place to select who can stay, once the UK restricts access to nationals from the other 27 EU member states.

A leaked document, drawn up by MEPs on the European parliament’s employment committee to aid the EU’s Brexit negotiations, warns:

“The UK has no population register.
In practice it would be difficult to determine which EU27 citizens were residing legally in the UK before the Brexit would have taken effect.

“If all 3.3 million EU citizens were to initiate procedures aimed at proving the ‘exercise of treaty rights’ the administrative system would be overburdened.”

The E27 will be able to orocess application from UK expats quite quickly.
In contrast, EU nationals living in the UK may face several years delay and stress

www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/feb/19/why-some-tories-fear-blood-on-the-streets

This was the reason I used when I was trying to persuade people to vote remain pre-referendum. Why would you take on an economically risky strategy that is likely to cost billions in bureaucracy when we're still recovering from a recession.

Well bolshy... when I asked a similar question, I was rather condescendingly told on another thread that it's because some things are much more important than money and that Leave voters understood that and had proper principles, unlike the 'elites', etc etc.

It's just common sense, isn't two?

The disconnect in this country drives me nuts.