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Brexit

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

999 replies

BigChocFrenzy · 07/03/2017 07:21

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."

OP posts:
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5
Badders123 · 08/03/2017 17:27

I'm off to watch west wing and go to my happy place

Love and light x

whatwouldrondo · 08/03/2017 17:33

Moving on from the offensive fuckwittery

I happened to overlook the Mail Online heading a couple of hours ago and fumed at some jingoistic headline about Hammond building our great economy. What can have got up their nose enough to turn against him. Sorry I haven't caught up fully with what Hammond said when but he was well underway at 4pm, and I think increase in NI was already announced. Perhaps it took a while for the cogs to whir in terms of their readership or it was something they hadn't't cleared with Paul Dacre beforehand Hmm

Mistigri · 08/03/2017 17:34

peppers what did I say? :-/

The misogynist MEP btw is a member of the group that includes all the UKIP MEPs, all the low-lifes teamed up because your grouping needs to contain a minimum number of MEPs to get access to European funding. It's odd to bring him up, because he's a bedfellow of stalwarts of the leave campaign like Farage and Hannan.

Anyway, budget seems to have gone down like a lead balloon with all those (self-employed) journalists LOL.

prettybird · 08/03/2017 17:36

We're currently re-watching West Wing too Smile

Ds has asked to watch it too (we usually watch it in our bedroom as a night time treat): as a 16 year old he gets to vote for the first time this May. He already has strong views on politics and Trump Grin He'll be even more disappointed at the gulf between Bartlet and #scrotus Wink

He is going to do a crash Higher in Modern Studies next year as his "fun" subject in 6th year. I pity his teacher! Grin

Peregrina · 08/03/2017 17:40

If Hammond's budget hasn't gone down well, does this mean that Theresa May will ease him out?

Tanith · 08/03/2017 17:40

It's worse than that. DH was talking to a DPD driver who had been "fined" over £500 for being too sick to work. So not just no sick pay, forced to pay the company money for being off sick.

whatwouldrondo · 08/03/2017 17:41

Pretty Be careful it was the West Wing that led a friend's daughter to direct all her studies and plans to ending up in Washington employed by a think tank. It took a great deal of determination, but West Wing provided strong enough inspiration! Not sure she ever could have foreseen what it is to be working in a centrist environmentally aware think tank in the US in these strange times........

Badders123 · 08/03/2017 17:41

Prettybird...

My ds1 is 13 and has just read 1984 in English.

We have had some VERY interesting conversations 😀

He is also studying the rise of the third reich in history

It's heartening - and also heartbreaking - when a child can see the similarities between now and the 1930s across Europe and the US SadSad

Badders123 · 08/03/2017 17:42

That's being said...he is now considering history and sociology for a level 😳😀

Mistigri · 08/03/2017 17:44

as a 16 year old he gets to vote for the first time this May.

Aw good for him. My DD is 16 in May and very politically aware (her first choice for post-baccalaureat studies will probably be same course in the same institution where a certain E. Macron studied 20 years ago). I'd never really thought about reducing the voting age before the Scottish govt did it, but it seems so obvious now I have teenagers this age. DD is perfectly capable of making her own informed political decisions.

Thegruffalowswife · 08/03/2017 17:44

WineOh and let's not forget racist - special brew from a bag!?
Because all Scottish people are drunks??

Fucking hellWine

Well no... my entire family except for my husband are scottish, so I doubt racism is on the cards tbf.

None of them are drunks...

As I have a similar view of Jeremy c, who is English and a man that would kind of throw out the sexism thing.

I just don't like her as much as you do... thats all really.

lalalonglegs · 08/03/2017 17:45

Yes, the Guardian had stories earlier this week about "self-employed" delivery drivers who were made to pay up to £250 a day if they were unable to work Shock. Mind you, this is the same newspaper that refuses to give copyright to its freelances and won't "mploy" many of the people who work regularly in its offices instead forcing them to take up to six weeks unpaid leave every few months so that they don't acquire employment rights Hmm.

HashiAsLarry · 08/03/2017 17:49

Wow ron how fantastic of her, and how odd it must now be!

The gig economy is going to lead to deaths, whether by negligence or starvation Sad

Figmentofmyimagination · 08/03/2017 17:54

Haven't time to read the thread today but just popping on to say - slightly off topic - get your political teen to read Mary Beard's brilliant presentation on Women in Power, on radio 4 earlier this week - www.lrb.co.uk/v39/n06/mary-beard/women-in-power

What a great piece of writing.

Badders123 · 08/03/2017 17:55

I 💜 sam seabourne

prettybird · 08/03/2017 18:08

Whatwouldrondo Grin

Don't think there is any risk of that because a) ds hates Trump with a passion (also influenced by his favourite teacher - the head of Maths his favourite subject - who is very obviously Muslim, who has cancelled a family trip to Disneyworld, plus many of his friends are Muslim) so won't consider visiting the US for the next 4 years and b) his passion is rugby and he's got talent so he wants to stay in Scotland (although is considering a Gap Year to SA, Oz or NZ to play rugby).

To give his Maths teacher his due, he was the one who encouraged the class (the top set) to choose subjects in S6 that would widen their horizons and exploit the Scottish broad education, after they'd chosen any subjects they "needed". So ds has chosen Advanced Higher Maths and Advanced Higher Physics (which should both make his first year at Uni easier) and a crash Modern Studies Higher.

woman12345 · 08/03/2017 18:10

DM not very happy with the oligarch party.

^Phil your boots! Hammond flouts Tory manifesto as he launches brazen tax raid on MILLIONS of self-employed workers and savers to pump £2bn into social care and education in pre-Brexit Budget
But funded measures by clobbering the self-employed and savers to the tune of £4bn over next five years^

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4290056/Hammond-lays-groundwork-EU-divorce-Budget.html

Motheroffourdragons · 08/03/2017 18:30

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prettybird · 08/03/2017 18:31

Given the comments that were made earlier about International Women's Day and International Men's Day, I thought you'd be amused by what my male friend posted this afternoon on Facebook I promise I didn't say anything to him

Happy international women's day. Don't let one orange-faced, stupid-haired twat get in the way of the progress that's being made. His 'contribution' will be seen as a mere blip.

And before the dafties ask.......November 19th. But you really shouldn't ask.

He's got lots of likes. Grin

Motheroffourdragons · 08/03/2017 18:33

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HashiAsLarry · 08/03/2017 18:34

It was some pretty horrible judgements on a woman based on her looks. Perfect for International Woman's Day mother

I agree with the ignoring. Give them a chance unless they're genuine. That one proved several times what they were about.

HashiAsLarry · 08/03/2017 18:35

Give them a chance unless they're genuine

In case they're genuine FFS

GhostofFrankGrimes · 08/03/2017 18:36

The Tories have been given a free pass to do whatever they want. They can even throw their own supporters under the bus.

They won't care if Brexit fails because they will be immune to the damage. Ordinary people will be told - "its the will of the people". Throwing their rhetoric back in the faces of ordinary folk.

Oh and remember that Brexit was a protest vote against Cameron and Osborne? Well it looks like George is crying all the way to the bank...

George Osborne to be paid £650,000 for working one day a week

www.theguardian.com/politics/2017/mar/08/george-osborne-to-be-paid-650000-for-working-one-day-a-week-blackrock-salary

Motheroffourdragons · 08/03/2017 18:36

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Badders123 · 08/03/2017 18:38

Social care still down £4.5b on 2010 levels...

I am going to go ahead and say this NI change will predominantly affect leave voters? White van man?

How odd. Surely it won't bring that much to the govt coffers?

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