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

an intelligent press ha ha

It's strange that some people - and sections of the media - who would be too embarassed to openly support the Tories are happy to cheer on the far right / fascists

I fear fascism is becoming "cool"

Quiz question:
Which international legal body ruled on adult perpetrated violence against children in Britain?

I had a response to a petition. The main thrust was 'no confidence in Theresa May - note how the issue has been ducked. Do note that she is seeking an EFTA type agreement, no mention of unicorns, but that is implied. Note what I interpret as being an appeal to Empire 'forge a new role in the world'. Yes, dear, that was when we manufactured things which created wealth, with gave us something to trade and enabled us to finance an army and navy to enforce deals. All gone now.

Theresa and her stooges don't appear to be students of history.
----------------------
The Government has responded to the petition you signed – “Vote of no confidence in Theresa May in her handling of Brexit & foreign policy”.

Government responded:

The UK voted to leave the European Union in a referendum and the Government will deliver on the verdict.

As set out in the Government’s recent White Paper, we will not be seeking membership of the Single Market, but will pursue instead a new strategic partnership with the EU, including an ambitious and comprehensive Free Trade Agreement and a new customs arrangement.

This agreement should allow for the freest possible trade in goods and services between the UK and the EU’s Member States and should give UK companies the maximum freedom to trade with and operate within European markets – and let European businesses do the same in the UK.

Leaving the EU offers us an opportunity to forge a new role for ourselves in the world: to negotiate our own trade agreements and to be a positive and powerful force for free trade. We are also seeking to achieve continuity in our trade and investment relationships with third countries, including those covered by EU Free Trade Agreements or other EU preferential arrangements. We are exploring with our trading partners ways to achieve this.

The UK has always been a leading voice for free trade in the EU and globally. Outside the EU we will have the complete freedom to pursue this approach and to push for more open global trade, supported by strong global institutions like the World Trade Organization.

Department for Exiting the European Union

woman there are intelligent bits of the press. All the "quality" papers have some good writers, and the FT in particular. On-line, people like Ian Dunt give journalism a good name.

bigchoc there were all sorts of weirdos and psychopaths in 1960s/70s schools. I was in a big London comprehensive back in the days when ILEA were the original tabloid loony lefties (ie teachers weren't allowed to hit kids or be openly racist) - but even so, we still had the obligatory paedophile RE teacher.

Oh sectarianism mother! I was so pleased when Glaswegian school friends seemed to be marrying 'out' more, hoping that the new Scotland was more integrated. But like the interesting posts yesterday about class and race in Britain, all these social divides are highly politicised in pretty recent British history.

Yesterday's conversations particularly got me thinking on the politics of snobbery. Weaponising snobbery, ( be it faux proletarian or the Kirsty Allsopp type) is a cracking strategy for the 'cool fascists'. BCF the current myth is that fascism is honest, and democratic socialism/ liberal capitalism is phoney.

The truth is Britain has 'worked' and been a state worth being proud of despite most people's grandparents being either or both, immigrants or very poor ( mine included).

How have we had relative peace, tax paid education and health service, which has meant subsequent generations have had better quality of life?

That would be partly due to a version democratic socialism/liberal capitalism, until Thatcher.

Re Scotland, Nationalism and what was taught in schools. I grew up in Wales and moved back to England when I was 10. In Wales history lessons featured our brave Welsh princes, as well as the usual stuff about Empire. Back in England, the history book we used at the time, had a one line mention 'Wales was conquered'. Where were the stories about our brave princes I wondered?

Coming from Wales,made me a foreigner. Anyone who came from more than 20 miles away and spoke with a different accent was suspected - so there was no hope for the Welsh, Scots or Irish.

Yes, to how social attitudes have changed. It was an absolute crime to have a baby out of wedlock. It began to change in the 80s. People were beginning to live together before marriage then, but they kept it very hush, hush, or wore a wedding ring when going out.

On-line, people like Ian Dunt give journalism a good name.

Am I wrong, didn't he vote Leave? If so, IMO it gives his comments now added credibility - it can't be dismissed as wishful thinking by a Remainer.

consistently been asserted by myriad Leave voters that it was the overwhelming influx of EU migrant workers
...........

As part of a diplomatic charm offensive across eastern Europe, Davis declared that the UK would keep its doors open for low-skilled workers in hospitality, agriculture and social care.

Is it just me who found the juxtaposition of these two statements kind of, well, funny ?

As part of a diplomatic charm offensive across eastern Europe, Davis declared that the UK would keep its doors open for low-skilled workers in hospitality, agriculture and social care.

Who are the E Europeans going to listen to? David Davis, or returning friends who tell them that it used to be good in the UK, but now the atmosphere has turned hostile?

Yes, to how social attitudes have changed. It was an absolute crime to have a baby out of wedlock. It began to change in the 80s. People were beginning to live together before marriage then, but they kept it very hush, hush, or wore a wedding ring when going out.

Maybe even in the 1970s in London. When I worked on the radio feature I talked about above, I was astonished to discover than divorce was a stigma outside London. In my 1970s London secondary school class hardly any of the white british kids had married parents (the Black, Asian and Polish kids were much more likely be be from traditional nuclear families). Admittedly, I was from media luvvy Ealing which might explain that (for some reason all my mum's friends were Mirror journalists. They were ahead of their time in other ways too. I remember my mum - who is now 81 - confessing to me that she once tried smoking a joint at one of the journo parties )

Peregrina no I am pretty sure ian Dunt was always remain, you're probably thinking of the FT blogger David Allen Green who is a liberal eurosceptic but voted remain on the grounds of legal/practical complications.

Yes, I probably was thinking of David Allen Green.

Anyone catch this

It's a look at why there is no way on Gods green (or indeed any other) earth the UK could become self-sufficient in food.

I particularly liked this gem which hints ever so slightly at the UKs class divide:

The UK could never produce enough wine to satisfy demand, says KPMG's Paul Martin

(One suspects in pre-revolutionary France, there wasn't enough grain to make cake ?)

Another Brexiteer claim-o-shite down in flames.

I believe the idea is, LH, that we will still be importing Prosecco and Champagne and modest little Burgundies (and lettuce and courgettes and so on), as EU countries are so desperate to sell them to us.

We will be paying for them with unicorn poo.

Really interesting to see all the different perspectives on the rise of the SNP - all with a Glaswegian perspective. I am a native Glaswegian and despite having travelled a fair bit have been home since 2000. For me what did for the Labour Party was their meek acceptance of all Tony Blair's policies.

For all the throw away lines about the SNP not doing anything about education or health or housing the actual facts are very different. They rolled back the introduction of University fees and resisted the break up of comprehensive education. They have been and are progressing differential funding to close the attainment gap. They have resisted NHS privatisation by the back door and dismantled much of the TB Trust structure, they introduced free prescriptions and free personal care for the elderly. The Scottish NHS is performing better than the rUK (although far from perfect). In housing Scotland is building more despite not having a population increase and social housing is being protected and expanded. House prices are not out of control in Scotland.

If Labour had sought to do any of these things in Holyrood then they would imo still be dominant in Scotland and would have had a platform to sell their policies to rUK. There is no point to Labour if they are Tory lite and the SNP is full of pragmatists who are not ideologically in pro Independence but who see the opportunity to choose differently.

I say this as someone who did not vote for TB in 1997 because of his pro devolution policy, among other things.

BigChoc: is that fascism of the left, or the right? Each exist and each have dangers. But the term fascism is overused, misused and abused, it has become a lazy throwaway label; this normalisation I believe carries its own dangers.

What would be an example of fascism of the left?

Blame it on Mandy and Dorris if Labour gets a drubbing on Thursday.

www.theguardian.com/politics/2017/feb/21/peter-mandelson-i-try-to-undermine-jeremy-corbyn-every-day?utm_source=esp&utm_medium=Email&utm_campaign=GU+Today+main+NEW+H+categories&utm_term=214393&subid=18573163&CMP=EMCNEWEML6619I2

(it might be a positive if Mandy were actively engaged in building alliances and moving the argument forward as Johnson, Kendall, Flint, Starmer etc seem to be doing. It is quite another to be harking endlessly back to the defence of the past while undermining the Party)

Sadly, howabout, Jeremy "real fight starts now" Corbyn has proved perfectly capable of destroying the party on his own without the help of Blairites. He is enormously unpopular with every section of the population.

I fear fascism is becoming "cool"

Agreed.

The young have nothing to rebel against their parents anymore. Except to be fascist.

News/fake news?