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

It's immigrants in general and EU migrants in particular. The two can't be separated. If you believe immigrants are to blame for pressure on services rather than underfunding and austerity, all are implicated in that.

He may be odious but he is not stupid.

And this line applies as equally to Tony Blair as to Nigel Farage.

The referendum could have been about cup cake recipes.

It was exploited for reasons of political and economic expediency. The alleged topic(of the EU and racism) is irrelevant. The repercussions for British people are not. The moral and constitutional imperative to question what is happening is an British right which dates back to the Magna Carta.

How many would openly admit to being racist? From personal experience of Leavers I know, many have racist views (or rather Daily Mail views) but like to think they aren't racist. Especially the older Leavers who have this rose tinted view of what we will look like post Brexit. So they use other excuses such as taking back control etc, which I suspect is what happened in the focus groups and polls.

a British right

Discussions about alleged racism are as irrelevant as the alleged duplicity of the media, in US.

They are not the point.

Who is in charge and how they exercise that privilege is the point.

We have the right to speak out.

Compare and contrast the adjectives used against Hillary and Tony.

Wonder if Trump and May use the same data trawling company and bots to save money?

Agreed Headful

I think EU migration is the acceptable face of xenophobia as it doesn't appear to be racist. They're white after all.

How many would openly admit to being racist?

A lot more than a year ago. Just count the number of "buts" in peoples speech and writing ...

He may be odious but he is not stupid.
And this line applies as equally to Tony Blair as to Nigel Farage.

I am not aware of Blair standing in front of a poster appealing to the racist vote.

If there had been a referendum on whether or not there should be a commonwealth which allowed the levels of migration from commonwealth countries which took place from the 1950s onwards, how many people would have opposed creating the commonwealth.

I'd expect it to be more than 52%.

I am not aware of Blair standing in front of a poster appealing to the racist vote.

Me neither, but I am very aware of his lies & weaselry.
And his actions and words directly led to the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people.

And his actions and words directly led to the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people.

I happen to agree, and I don't know whether he was naive or what being Bush's poodle, but I don't think he is deliberately racist. Farage was and still is. He wasn't allowed to be part of the official Leave campaign but for many that distinction was lost on them.

I am not aware of Blair standing in front of a poster appealing to the racist vote

Agreed Peregrina. This is yet another example of false moral equivalence.

The reality is that Tony Blair is better than Theresa Ma,y who in turn is vastly better than Nigel Farage.

I don't know whether he was naive or was being Bush's poodle

I don't think he came to office in 1997 with that as a game plan. But when 9/11 hit, he felt it was incumbent on him to play Clegg to Bushes Cameron.

I think he acted from what he felt were higher motives at the time. But for everything there is a saying, and in this case:

the road to hell is paved with good intentions

Long after we are gone, 1997-2001 will be seen alongside 1215 and 1688.

Whereas May definitely came to office being anti-immigration as her Home Office record testifies, and she has now decided that it's the one issue which must define Brexit.

Blair wants Junckers job in 2019, and needs to be seen to keep the UK in to get it. Don't be fooled by him yet again.

Scary...
You may be right and he may want the job
But he has always been pro remain
And pro Europe
That's not a "role"

I'm trying to understand the logic here.

The special relationship between Bush and Blair was bad because of Iraq, that I understand.

However the special relationship between May and Trump is fine despite the latter's policies likely to cause global instability? Oh, and is the ink dry on the UK's arms deal with Turkey? And then there's Saudi.

We are appalled by the invasion of Iraq and the subsequent deaths but apathetic (at best) about child refugees?

Dodgy dossiers, big red buses the cycle continues..

Woman look up Cambridge analytics - you are more right than you know

Leavers?
Logic?
Um.....

CeciledeVolanges I do know! BCF posted about CA, they're based in Shoreditch: Cambridge Analytica Software Company, 55 New Oxford St, London WC1A 1BS Phone:020 3828 7529 and they've been helpful!

Wish we could afford them

The reality is that Tony Blair is better than Theresa Ma,y who in turn is vastly better than Nigel Farage

It depends what you mean by better, because all of them have done things and held views that I find morally repugnant. Blair is a good deal more intelligent and pragmatic than either of the others though. May isn't stupid, but she's inflexible and blinkered. Farage is a cunning man, but not a clever one. If I had to vote for one of those to lead my country it would be Blair, but I'd be voting with my fingers crossed and my eyes closed.

But it's possible to separate someone's personal qualities from their opinions. Just because Blair is odious, doesn't mean he's wrong.

Meanwhile in France a personable, non partisan and relatively easy on the eye maverick is 25 points ahead of a racist anti semitic fascist

Sadly this is wrong on every level. Macron has almost no hope of beating Le Pen in the first round unless one of the other candidates pulls out (and maybe not even then), though if he makes the second round he should beat her handily. And he's hardly non-partisan since he is an ex senior minister in the Hollande administration (him running as an independent is a bit like Hammond going solo at the next GE). Still, given the other candidates, I'm praying for a Macron win, but no one should be counting their chickens at this stage.