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."

Maybe this is how revolutions start ?

We need to remind ourselves we live in a world where - within living memory - leaders have been toppled, hanged (badly), shot, and savaged. You don't need history books for those - just a memory.

It's funny ... no matter how many lessons there are from history, regimes which become established by panem et circii always seem to begrudge paying for the ^panem". At which point people have nothing to lose

It's only a matter of time until people start feeling that way lurking imo

Telegraph on the warpath:

Self-employed backlash could decimate tory majority in future election

Really? More so than like I dunno - Brexit?

I'm gobsmacked at the disproportionate preoccupation with this particular manifesto breach over the single market. I'm well aware the majority of journalists are self-employed, but they all benefit from the single market too and a healthy economy.

When this is full, we have a New Thread:
www.mumsnet.com/Talk/eu_referendum_2016_/2873781-Westministenders-Brexit-Britain-Gridlock-Britain

Sleight of hand?
Don't worry about brexit!!!
15% of people will pay more NIC!!

The problem with the self-employed Misti, is that there are genuinely self-employed like your DH, who bid for work and turn it down. And the pseudo self-employed of the 'gig' economy. Where they can be fined for e.g. not delivering a parcel. I don't imagine for one moment that anyone fines your DH Misti. The latter category aren't self-employed at all, and strenuous efforts should be made to crack down on firms which cut costs by using them.

I'm on Hammond's side on this one, I think.

Me too Misti.
All the economic analyses I've seen of the NI increase have said it's a sensible & progressive policy.

Unfortunately it's being clouded by the 'broken manifesto promise' angle.

Yet another example of the arrogance of Cameron et al - essentially barricading themselves into a corner with a stupid promise.

The great increase in "self-employed" over recent years is mostly just "casual labour" called something else, so we don't notice what many lower skilled workers have lost

Where they can be fined for e.g. not delivering a parcel

The ultimate wet dream for the Tories is that people should pay their bosses for the privilege of working.

Here's a prediction. Before the end of the year, we will have a news story (possibly involving Uber, but any "gig economy" outfit is free to enter) where a company tries to engineer a situation where it's "associates" (or "partners") are paid in "credits" that they can only spend .... with the company. (Made illegal a few years ago).

Badders/bidders - either is fine! 😊

Like the Irish navvies lurking?
Only able to "spend" their "wages" at the company shop!!!???

Lurking, a song about your 16.49 premise:

You load sixteen tons, what do you get
Another day older and deeper in debt
Saint Peter don't you call me 'cause I can't go
I owe my soul to the company store

I feel a verse of Ole man river coming on.....

That's it B[a/i]dders !

There's a word for it, but ICBA to dredge Google for it (something "dollars" ? Truck Pay ?)

But since everything is regressing, I look forward to their return.

Maybe Rob Newman was more prophetic than he realised when he penned "A history of the world backwards" ?

For you badders

peregrina that's my thoughts on this issue too. In theory I have no issue with it, like misti says its unfair that low paid workers have to stump out more than self employed people in taxation. But how do you effectively separate the genuinely self employed from the gig economy workers. Especially whilst little is being done to regulate this or to tax those fricking companies anyway.

God!!!
I forgot that!!!
Very prophetic indeed....

I think the secret May strategy is EFTA with an EEA transition period

I think this would allow for the immigration issue to be resolved. EEA transition period while sorting out the massive mess.

EFTA is different to the EEA and does not require freedom of movement.

It won't happen though because May is being too swayed by the hard right.

It's going to be a straight tumble out of the EU with a couple of agreements around security/terrorism intelligence because they suit the EU too. It will be such a mess nobody will know what to do about anything else. Just visiting an EU country after Brexit day will create all sorts of hassle. We're no longer a member of the EU so what passport queue do we use? Do we need a visa? Nobody knows if we need a visa. I suppose we do need a visa. But we're not on the list of countries who need a visa. So we can't even get one. So we might get let in. Or we might get sent back.

Common sense dictates a transitional EEA-lite deal is required.

The calibre of our politicians suggests otherwise, sadly.

Can this govt bring total disaster out of chaos ?
On their Brexit record so far, what do YOU think ?

No, would take some sort of Divine intervention, I think.

The problem with the self-employed Misti, is that there are genuinely self-employed like your DH, who bid for work and turn it down. And the pseudo self-employed of the 'gig' economy.

I agree, Peregrina, about this. I'm kind of in the middle – not too badly paid, 'middle-class' kind of self-employed; I'm certainly not in a position to pick and choose like 'top-flight' self-employed, but neither am I a delivery worker or minicab driver in thrall to companies dodging their responsibilities.

The changes will probably make me a little worse off, but I can't help but worry about people who ARE delivery workers, childminders etc.

To close the thread - see you on the new one.