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

Surely the sinking ship must be getting dangerously low on rats by now? Jeremy Corbyn's Campaigns Director quits

There will only be the Brexit message looking wobbly.

According to Ian Dunt "Blair is the one prepared to face the abuse it entails. Like it or not, he just became the most important person in British politics again."

I suspect there is a good measure of truth in that - hence the reaction from IDS, who was ineffective as a Tory leader, and Johnson who bottled it (or was astute enough to realise that it was a poisoned chalice.)

Truly rattled everyone, Channel 4 news which has been very odd recently, Caroline Lucas, and usual suspects, including Boris 'pickaninny' Johnson.

Well, you can fool some of the people etc.

If he's winding up all of 'em, it's looking good.

As he has said before, his shoulders are broad. And so are ours

I'm sorry. I'm moved to write. Blasted IDS on C4 news saying about Tony Blair talking to all sorts of strange despots around the world. That may be so, but get the plank out of your own eye. A gov't giving training to the Saudis. So they can murder civilians in Yemen with the expensive killing tools they sell them.

Yuck.

IDS on Channel 4 news:
" Blair as the voice of moderation and decency...........I find that bizarre...... Why do you feel so small that you need Tony Blair? .....Keep on regurgitating Project Fear?"

How many bedroom tax and 'jobseekers' allowance deaths" on your watch Ian?

And racist deaths on your Teresa?

It is interesting how IDS (or his other chums) doesn't see himself as toxic. Or Boris Johnson. It is unbelievable how he came out with 'picaninny' and 'ancestral dislike'. Very strange stuff to be throwing around in this day and age.

The more I see of IDS, Bojo, Gove & the poisonous toad Liam Fox, the more I realise their failings dwarf those of Blair.

Mind you, Trump / Bannon make me seriously nostalgic for Nixon / Kissinger ....

Whenever I see May, IDS or the 3 Dunces, this phrase keeps running thorugh my mind:

“malevolence tempered by incompetence”

I know lots of people are talking about this atm but the Dunning Kruger effect is so applicable to IDS, in particular.

Bliar hasn't got me rattled. I am delighted he has come out of his chess pit. He is probably the most loathed man in Britain.
If he is for Remain, then many more people will now be for Leave.
He's just job hunting again. He wanted the EU Presidency, remember.
Bring him on.

Interesting how rattled they are with Blair. Says a lot that they make Blair and Osborne seem reasonable and measured.

Bloody Tony Blair, coming over here, out of his chess pit, (sic), with his 3 election wins etc:

MPs challenge Blair:
www.theguardian.com/politics/2017/feb/17/labour-mps-challenge-tony-blair-over-brexit-comments

Mazeltov as they don't say now at party HQ.

A good point here I've just seen tweeted for those with short memories:

Some MPs who voted for the Iraq war: David Davis, Iain Duncan-Smith, Liam Fox, Boris Johnson, Theresa May, John Redwood, Gisela Stuart.

What's a chess pit?

I think it must be where liberals go to hang out with dissident grandmasters like Garry Kasparov and plot how to stop the rise of authoritarianism.

Many other MPs voted for it too Kaija.

I wonder though if they were privy to what Tony Blair was?
The all important issue of just how reliable his 'facts' were?

There were no facts. It was every bit as disgracefully dishonest as Brexit.

But he did get out of his chess pit, to vote, along with the rest of the snob army.

www.buzzfeed.com/jimwaterson/the-false-hillsborough-claim-on-paul-nuttalls-website-is-cos?utm_term=.wkglPWq6O#.ik4jQya1r
The False Hillsborough Claim On Paul Nuttall’s Website Is Costing Him Votes In The Stoke By-Election

DH read this and his reaction is, 'They've fucked it. Everyone in Bentilee knows each other and talks to each other'.

Re: France - I'm getting the impression that Macron is liable to be like De Gualle, in his attitude to the UK? I don't know much about the subject, can anyone enlighten.

Also, this article was written in 2013 and mentioned on another thread more recently and I meant to mention it here.

It splits British society into 7 modern classes, rather than the tradition three.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-22007058
Huge survey reveals seven social classes in UK

In the context of Cambridge Analytica, its worth reflecting on in hindsight.

Re - Trump and the National Guard. Fucking hell. AND Fucking hell what a great way to get everyone to forget about Russia for the weekend.

www.mirror.co.uk/news/business/alan-sugar-theo-paphitis-mary-9841794
Alan Sugar, Theo Paphitis and Mary Portas warn high street could be killed off as Theresa May faces revolt over
Sir Alan Sugar led the chorus of anger over the PM’s decision to link the rise to current property values that could end with soaring costs for stores in city centres and thriving towns

Good luck with that Mrs May.

Theresa May risks killing off many high street shops and plunging the economy into meltdown with her crippling hikes in business rates, retail chiefs have warned.

Cos Brexit isn't bad enough on its own.

Tragic scenes on tonight's Channel 4 news as the ukips wept over their lost son Paul's untimely political demise.

www.theatlantic.com/news/archive/2017/02/macron-economics/515919/
De Gaulle sounds like a capitalist pragmatist, as opposed to capitalist idiots, which is what the current English administration seems to be. I know what my attitude to the English would be if I was French
But I am interested to learn more

Like old snob-army Bliar said, we got stuff here to sort out, unless the NHS and social care mortality crises have suddenly been resolved today. I've heard of these delayed business rate rises, forcing high street businesses out. I think they were delayed for a year so the add on rates are extortionate.

Whodda thunk it, when the poll tax was so fair. What could be fairer than charging people to vote, Donald?

PLP included in take down of Bliar, which can only be a good thing, with regard to their previous performance. Funny how spell check doesn't change bliar, why would that be CA?

Almost all Tories support the US in their various wars for oil & power in Muslim countries.
The Tory party supported the war in Iraq and although they've hammered Blair for sexing up his dossier, continued to do so.
They'll support US wars to the end - to the end of the last surviving British soldier.

Particularly fierce support came from Liam Fox's Atlantic Bridge org that linked top Tories - e.g. Gove, Hague, Grayling, Osbourne etc - to the US right and their military-industrial complex that profits from war.

Fox's ominous US speech to Atlantic Bridge members explains his hostility to the EU:

"the natural desire to avoid conflict has been reinforced by an innate pacificism in many sections of western society, especially in continental Europe".

So the idea is to kill off the small high street shops, so the retail giants and online empires have no rivals ?

That BBC link re the 7 UK classes:
Did they really find that the "traditional working class" had an average age of 66 ?
If so, it's dead
Also helps explains Labour's electoral problems.