Westministenders: I can't believe it's not butter

[RedToothBrush]

Nigel Farage @ Nigel_Farage
Cannot believe we're seeing Nazi salutes in 21st century America.

Yeah, that's what we said on 16th June 2016, when some dickhead stood in front of a poster.

The thing is, what Farage says with faux surprise isn't unusual or isolated to him. It's widespread. It's perhaps the norm rather than the exception in many circles.

It's represents a total lack of self awareness. It represents the disconnect that what comes out of your mouth tends to have an effect on the people around you, whether intentioned that way or not when you talk about 'others' or 'not belonging'.

It's a direct effect of nationalism.

Patriotism seems to be something that people have totally lost the plot with and don't understand. It's used as a defence for nationalism. It is the last defence of the scoundrel. Patriotism and being pro-EU or not being a racist dick are not mutually exclusive, though you'd be forgiven for thinking differently these days.

I think a lot of people will sit and go, "Look at America, that is awful. I'm glad we are not like that".

Except we are far more than we realise. Grenfell says much about that.

There's an phrase and Southern Wolves and Northern Wolves when it comes to racism in America. The UK is like the Northern Wolf. Sly and silver tongued to justify and hide racism because 'Look they are worse than us. We are the good guys'.

A bit like saying, you talked to an EU citizen and they were just as racist as me, so Brexit is ok.

It's the twisted desperation to justify the othering rather than take responsibility for enabling and emboldening racism. Then dressing it up as some legitimate political cause which actually you have zero understanding or comprehension of the consequences of.

Brexit has some deep roots in Nazi type fantasies. You can not separate the idea that Britain is superior and Brits are better than Europeans from too much Brexit logic. The Empire was not a pretty thing for much of the world. It's worrying.

Not to mention we've had a right wing attack on a group of people outside a mosque in this fashion before the US had that attack yesterday.

Let's not think that because we haven't had blokes with tiki torches providing a photographic opportunity and theatre for the TV producer that we are somehow 'better'. Or not as bad as America.

The only real difference between them and us is the brash openness about it and the fact they have a bunch of guns.

This was predictable. Indeed I expected and I expect more. There will be more and it will get far, far worse in the US. Yesterday was just the start. Trump wants it. He will fuel it. He will capitalise from it. Yes your mate Donald loves a bit of bigotry, Nig.

There no guarantees it won't happen here for various reasons. It just is characterised in a slightly different way because we are British and don't really do brash in anything as it's not our way.

It's too easy for Farage. Or Johnson. Or May. Or whoever to just walk away and innocently say they are shocked and bear no responsibility because they don't wave Nazi flags about.

You don't have to do that, to share the same values or believe the same thing. Salutes and flags are just branding. A repackaged version for the 21st century is even more dangerous.

We won't forget who Farage hangs out with or courts for publicity and attention. Farage only says and does what he thinks he can get away with. That's part of the ugly truth.

We still have not even started to confront the relationship between racism and Brexit. Indeed, much seems to be happening to suggest that after blaming EU, that there are a Brexit opportunities for scapegoating opening up.

For me yesterday was depressing not because it happened, but because we saw it coming and because our country is in denial about being the same.

Farage is the very personification of it.

www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/law-crime/article/2107482/diplomats-call-end-illegal-work-orders-hong-kong-domestic

www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/education-community/article/2106984/always-duty-foreign-domestic-helpers-around-world

Of course, it's not just Brexit we have to worry about.
www.theguardian.com/business/2017/aug/20/robots-are-not-destroying-jobs-but-they-are-hollow-out-the-middle-class

Headline: Robots will not lead to fewer jobs – but the hollowing out of the middle class

A snippet:
"In the modern economy, the jobs that are prized tend to be the ones that involve skills such as logic. Those that are less well-rewarded tend to involve mobility and perception. Robots find logic easy but mobility and perception difficult.

“It follows,” says Joshi [economist at BCA research], “that the jobs that AI can easily replicate and replace are those that require recently evolved skills like logic and algebra. They tend to be middle-income jobs. Conversely, the jobs that AI cannot easily replicate are those that rely on the deeply evolved skills like mobility and perception. They tend to be lower-income jobs. Hence, the current wave of technological progress is following scenario 2. AI is hollowing out middle-income jobs and creating lots of lower-income jobs.”

Recent developments in the labour market suggest this process is already well under way. In both Britain and the US, economists have been trying to explain why it has been possible for jobs to be created without wage inflation picking up. Britain has an unemployment rate of 4.4% but average earnings are rising by just 2.1%. Something similar has happened in the US. The relationship between unemployment and pay – the Phillips curve – appears to have broken down.

But things become a bit easier to understand if the former analysts and machine operators are now being employed as dog walkers and waiting staff. Employment in total might be going up, but with higher-paid jobs being replaced by lower-paid jobs."

Of the 3 main reasons for job losses and low wages:

1. Automation
2. Globalisation - outsourcing to developing countries
3. Immigration

popular anger usually focuses on 3) whereas the first 2 have made the most profound changes.

Automation has abolished whole swathes of jobs, millions in a country the size of the UK and this will continue, e.g. driverless cars & lorries.

Although new jobs have been created, the wellpaid ones are too few and require qualifications & abilities that many do not have.

For decades, the pace of technological change has been much faster than the pace of the social & political changes required to cope.

The latest "position" paper is out - "Continuity in the
availability of goods for the EU and the UK" www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/638958/Continuity_in_the_availability_of_goods_for_the_EU_and_the_UK_Position_Paper.pdf

A quick scan makes me think it contains yet more cake-and-eat-it demands.

Let's take para 19:
"As the agreement will cover goods already available on the UK and the EU markets, it is important to provide certainty that no changes will be needed to any requirements to ensure the continued supply of products. This includes, but is not necessarily limited to:
a. ensuring there are no requirements to change labelling for these products;
b. recognising the validity of approvals, registrations and authorisations issued for these products; and
c. where there is a requirement to have a person responsible for compliance with particular product regulations (for example, Responsible Person for cosmetics, or Authorised Representatives for medical devices) based in the EU, that person should be able to continue carrying out that responsibility for products placed on the
market prior to exit whether they are based in the EU or in the UK, and there should be no requirement to relocate."

The last bit, point c - do we think the EU will wear this?

That's the Government trying to circumvent the need for the EMA (amongst others) to re-locate

They just don't get it, do they? (and and )

The Authorised Representatives for medical devices have an association, whose members are listed here
www.eaarmed.org/members/

There's an explanation of the background on the same site
www.eaarmed.org/regulatory-background/

That is ridiculous Patty! I would interpret that as the government wanting the EU to agree that all regulations are frozen as at the date of Brexit so we have to comply with those regulations we have to comply with at the moment, but nothing else, so no more regulations, no changes to regulations to address research which is being done or may be in the future. It is totally moronic.

Even a really basic contract has provisions for what happens when laws and regulations change - it always has to be dealt with.

Of the 3 main reasons for job losses and low wages:

I completely agree on automation and globalisation (although globalisation has also led to lower prices, particularly for toys, electronics and domestic appliances, which has disproportionately benefitted middle- and lower-income households), but there is little evidence to show that immigration has led to lower wages / fewer jobs. This is because immigration causes an increase in both supply and demand.

(sorry, posted too soon) supply and demand for labour.

"Theresa May is to offer free movement to Irish citizens in and out of Britain after the UK leaves the European Union, the Sunday Telegraph can reveal"

This is an interesting development. The Common Travel Area and the rights of people in the UK and Ireland to travel freely is a separate agreement. Predating the EU and "don't be silly Nibbles" said the Brexiteers, "it remains unaffected".

The fact that they are now 'determined' to keep this is an implied threat to the Irish gov. "Play ball, Jimmy or else". Meaning quite the opposite to what they are determined to do. It is now another card. They are raging about the 'Kenny Declaration'. The Con's do so love having threats stored up.

Divide and conquer ?

No idea if this is true, but James Chapman has apparently reappeared on Twitter, he was arrested by the Greek police: mobile.twitter.com/James08209590

Oh goodness, missmoon what do you think?

I don't know what to think! Guido Fawkes did say that he had been arrested. And it is him in the photos...

We'll have to wait and see whether that new Chapman account is reliable - I suspect that if he had been arrested by Greek police, various people would have known and alerted media outlets about it.

I missed the original Minford babblings but the Guardian has allowed him to publish a short precis of how Brexit will enrich the country along with a blistering take-down of a piece by the Green party's economics spokesperson. A fun read.

Patrick Minford’s projection of a £135bn economic boost from a hard Brexit is an example of the worst sort of voodoo economics... Minford’s self-styled “Liverpool model” has no credibility with the vast majority of economists. His view of the EU as a costly protectionist club reflects this debunked position. In reality, the single market eases internal trade and reduces costs.

Minford bases part of his £135bn boost on saving "the cost to the taxpayer of the subsidy paid to unskilled EU immigrants, which we estimate at £3,500 per adult". I've never heard even the most rabid Brexiteer claim this before.

missmoon

There was talk that he'd been silenced with a superinjunction (very believable) but this is just bizarre. Really hard to know whether the new account is real, and if so, what to make of it. Horrible and worrying if this really happened. It says a lot about the political climate that his claims of being assaulted and silenced are difficult to dismiss out of hand.

Could there be a super-injunction? Everything went quiet so suddenly last week.

And it is him in the photos and what he says has happened to him. has anyone seen it reported in MSM?

Yes, Misti, it's very strange.

super-injunction That's what they're talking about in the thread.

order-order.com/2017/08/21/james-chapman-arrested-greek-police/

^Sadly James Chapman was arrested by Greek Police on Friday.
He has since been released from police custody.
His family are doing everything to get him the help he needs. Guido wishes him and them well^.

He's tweeting from this account at the moment

@James08209590

.

from : www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-40997985

A second paper calling for a reciprocal agreement to ensure continued confidentiality for official documents shared by Britain with its EU partners while it was a member state has also been published on Monday.

Is the EU happy to keep things secret ? Or will the UK have to accept that the EUs commitment to transparency might override their wishes ?