Westminster: Brexit is the hard right's weapon of mass distraction

[BigChocFrenzy]

The fervour and divisions over Brexit have suspended normal party politics.

The staggering incompetence & unsuitability of Corbyn as a leader, together with the resulting impotence of Labour has removed the normal checks & balances in UK politics.
There is a vaccum where the Official Opposition should be, so Theresa May is under pressure only from her right.

I fear Thereas May and the Tory rightwing are taking advantage of Brexit to complete the destruction of the post-WW2 social contract and the welfare state.

Meanwhile, the constraints of civilised discourse have been loosened and those with racist or social Darwinist views now feel free to spout their poison openly.

Putin is pouring petrol on all the fires and Arron Banks is lurking < sinister emoticons required >

Zoe Williams:
"Behind a smokescreen of bogus patriotism, ideologically driven cuts to the NHS and all our public services are unpicking the bonds of nationhood"

www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/mar/05/brexit-theresa-may-falklands-war-nhs-cuts

"We should be marching against the crisis in adult social care, the closure of care homes, the systematic exploitation of carers, the £4.6bn cut from social care budgets this decade.
We should be .... asking:

“What exactly is the plan, if we’ve decided we can no longer afford to care for the elderly and the disabled?
What do we do with them instead?”

"We should be marching against cuts in education funding"

"Every morning we wake up to someone on the radio explaining, despairingly, that you can’t fix the hospital bed crisis until social care is fixed, and you can’t fix that until council tax brings in more, and it can’t bring in more because wages are too low."

"But when everything breaks at the same time, that is not a coincidence: it is a plan.

As surely as Margaret Thatcher had an economic plan on employment, rights, industry and wages,
this century’s Conservatives have a plan on public services, which is to smash them beyond all recognition."

If NI were ever to separate from the UK I think that'd get rid of the acceptance of dual nationality here.

Brexit is at its most clusterfucky in NI.

For absolute sure ghost, and talk of a hard border at English ports?

can't wait for May to break that to the unionists

I thought all NI citizens were entitled to an Irish (and, therefore, an EU post Brexit) passport? What will be their status and what about non-NI UK citizens who move to live in NI?

one of the biggest Brexit headaches IMO and why the union is now at severe risk.

The process by which people get appointed to the Lords is somewhat lacking in transparency, shall we say, but it's very difficult to come up with something better. There is no point in having a second chamber that is constituted in the same way as the first, since then the advantages of the Lords being able to take the broader, longer term view than the Commons are lost.

If we had a PR system for MPs, then the second choices (or a suitable subset thereof) could go to a second chamber with less power, but more oversight.

The uncertainty as to which chamber a candidate might find themselves in may also act to moderate policies.

Of course that's if we want to perpetuate the fiction people vote for local representatives, rather than by rosette ?

Yes hate breeds more hate.

Badders123

mimishimmi Grand Union Canal was built with Irish labour,
Are there still the famine cottages are still in ROI? So the lack of funding for the language school by Foster, was a particularly bad move?

However, it's very dangerous for anyone to think they can channel racism towards a particular group they dislike

Farage does have a slightly Gallic ring, now you come to mention it ?

can't wait for May to break that to the unionists

Does that bring you joy... excited by the prospect perhaps.

I thought he was a frenchman

Now that's an idea LH, I quite like that one.

But she was only asking a question Ghost!!!
Poor lamb got very upset when taken to task over that (soon deleted) tweet!
Such fragile egos these people have....

It doesn't surprise me, however.
My pils are very religious (Methodist so you can imagine how thrilled they were that their son was marrying an Irish Catholic!! 😁) and their views are straight from the daily fail.
Aids is punishment from God.
Gay people are evil.
Yadda yadda.
It's one of my chief joys in life that I am raising two feminist sons who call them out on this crap every time 🙌
They tried the immigrant line on me once....it was Sunday lunch.
I pointed out - quietly and politely - that they were talking to the daughter of an immigrant and their beloved grandsons were the grandchildren of an immigrant.
Not a conversation I've had with them since.
But it does demonstrate I think the view of "oh we don't mean YOU. youre alright !"
I think that's always been quite prevalent Tbh.

I think many people - including unfortunately some in the cabinet - totally understimated the complexity of Brexit.

May was a remainer now drunk on power.

Johnson was a leaver because it enabled him to knife Cameron. Bojo will be the fall guy for Brexit when the unicorns don't turn up.

Hammond is somewhat a pragmatist. The careers of chancellors end in failure - Brown, Osborne. He probably knows this but fuck it, its a pay cheque.

IDS, Fox and Davis are the ones to watch for all the wrong reasons.

www.ft.com/content/45a2d24a-0319-11e7-ace0-1ce02ef0def9
Northern Ireland shows the risks of a hard Brexit
Murdoch's organ dislikes brexit, if you know what I mean.

Does that bring you joy... excited by the prospect perhaps.

I didn't vote for it but then one of the great paradoxes was that Brexit was the patriotic vote....that will lead to the break up of the union.

Badders123 your MIL, fortunately mine was an immigrant, so glad she doesn't have to witness what's happening now. She loved this country more than me, and I was born here. Kudos to feminist sons everywhere!

Well done for choosing the Union... TM needs to prove her worth now by showING NI that she values and respects all 4 nations. That will come with delivering the good deal she has promised us all.

If she doesn't I'll personally kick her butt.

Ds1 is quite left wing and it drives her insane

Now this post was absolutely nothing to do with racistm, but it is social darwinist, which imo would be just as damaging for the country:

"If I had my thinking it would be an American version of the health system- You get exactly what you pay for.
As per usual its the burden of needing more has to fall on honest Joe taxpayer, normally by those who put nothing in."

Many people not on "benefits" still take out more in services than they pay over a lifetime. Childhood & old age being the loss-leaders. So that poster may end up an overall "taker"

As a longtime higher rate taxpayer, no kids, 30 years private health insurance .... I've always thought it right that I and those like me should pay far more than we take, because we have far more available.

Otherwise, what are your plans for the poor, the longterm sick, disabled, unemployed ?
Soylent Green ?

Sinn fein have walked out of talks with the UK govt just now....

So I'm going to go ahead and say it doesn't bode well

badders can I see your MIL and raise you my PGPs and most of my paternal British family? Though they were only christian when it meant being able to look down on someone else. in combined sympathy though

TM needs to prove her worth now by showING NI that she values and respects all 4 nations. That will come with delivering the good deal she has promised us all.

along with the unicorns and 350 mil a week for the NHS. Keep the faith.

twitter.com/Independent/status/839213697973256193

"If I had my thinking it would be an American version of the health system- You get exactly what you pay for.
As per usual its the burden of needing more has to fall on honest Joe taxpayer, normally by those who put nothing in."

I also disagree with this

If May wins a decent majority in a GE then I think she would be quite happy to sacrifice the DUP. But, I don't think she wants to be the PM who oversaw the destruction of the union of GB and NI.

So I'm going to go ahead and say it doesn't bode well

Nope the Tories have bitten off more than they can chew.

I forsee more a Logan's run scenario bigchoc!!

I might start training my dc for the hunger games 😱