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Original poster

Westminstenders: Blue Passports

980 replies

RedToothBrush · 22/12/2017 14:57

Yay for the blue passports.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to you all

May next year bring us £350 million for the NHS, cake, unicorns, financial passporting, access to the single market, Irish love and of course control to the people.

(Apologies been up to my eyeballs. Normal service will resume after Christmas).

OP posts:
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OnTheDarkSideOfTheSpoon · 02/01/2018 14:40

Theresa May could lose half of London councils in Spring elections, reveals Tory election expert
EXCLUSIVE: Tories face 'fight of their lives' in local elections, warns party's poll expert

www.standard.co.uk/news/politics/theresa-may-could-lose-half-of-london-councils-in-spring-elections-reveals-tory-election-expert-a3729901.html?amp&__twitter_impression=true

DGRossetti · 02/01/2018 15:03

Oooh, local elections ! (Interesting that I can't find the date for ours anywhere. Not even the fact they are being held this year).

Could this be where ignored Remainers have their cold revenge ?

lalalonglegs · 02/01/2018 15:07

Local elections are on 3 May, Rossetti, but generally only if you live in London and some other large metropolitan authorities. The areas not included this time had their elections in May 2015 - same day as the GE, iirc.

DGRossetti · 02/01/2018 15:08

but generally only if you live in London and some other large metropolitan authorities

Which I do Smile.

lalalonglegs · 02/01/2018 15:10

Or were they last year? I seem to remember some more in May 2017 - and everyone thought that if TM was to call an election, she would coincide it with those...

lalalonglegs · 02/01/2018 15:12

x-post - well, prepare for a tsunami of bumf if you live in anywhere that could be considered a marginal (I live in true-blue Wandsworth and, according to the Standard article, the Tories may even lose here Shock).

woman11017 · 02/01/2018 15:19

Could this be where ignored Remainers have their cold revenge
It's an idea. Alongside US midterms. Smile

DGRossetti · 02/01/2018 15:24

well, prepare for a tsunami of bumf if you live in anywhere that could be considered a marginal

Just seen on Wiki that 2018 has all the seats (120) up for grabs.

Will be a fun election. Currently we have a Labour council ... but will I vote Labour ?

woman11017 · 02/01/2018 15:57

Peter Kirkham, former @MetPoliceUK investigator on safety.

On recent knife crime deaths:

"There is institutional racism at the heart of this Government and that I think is the source of the problem"

"The control of public space has been lost. .......RTA......shoplifting.......Entirely down to May.........
She has the blood of these young people on her hands.....It is criminal"

twitter.com/peter_kirkham?lang=en

@Andrew_Adonis
Why is Chris Grayling in Qatar rather than explaining his £2bn bailout of Stagecoach/Virgin?

DGRossetti · 02/01/2018 16:08

Peter Kirkham, former @MetPoliceUK investigator on safety.

former ...

so what was he doing when he had the chance ?

Nothing infuriates me more than people who were in a position do do something piping up after they have their pension.

(See also "war on drugs").

In 5 years time, how many "former" ministers and MPs will we have telling us that "Brexit was a bad idea".

BiglyBadgers · 02/01/2018 16:24

Nothing infuriates me more than people who were in a position do do something piping up after they have their pension.

Admittedly I don't know all that much about him, but I believe he now works for a policing advice consultancy, so not sure is he is on his pension. Crime had been going down I think, but has started rising in some areas again, so I think it's reasonable for those who were working in the met when it was going down to comment now their work seems like it is being reversed.

woman11017 · 02/01/2018 16:27

DGRossetti
He's an experienced stoic and polite retired police officer who's pointing out that when you cut 20 000 police officers, young black men will be murdered in the not posh areas.

He's an expert in his field and convincing if you watch the film.

We are not in a good place at all wrt to the safety of public spaces, as he points out, and it's not 'terrorism' that is the danger.

Crime was at an all time low, alongside child poverty by the end of the last labour government and now look.

BigChocFrenzy · 02/01/2018 16:36

If Tories lose a lot of local council seats on 3 May, they will be very worried and the govt will face further cruticism from members.

In 2014, the last time the same seats were fought, Labour won 1,060 seats and control of 20 councils to the Tories’ 615 seats and nine councils.
After such a performance, even the main opposition party would do well to hold those gains and make just a few more
BUT
Nationally, dissatisfaction with Tory performance has given Labour only a narrow lead - concern over Corbyn ?
FPTP more important than in local elections ?

woman11017 · 02/01/2018 16:45

^Brexit: Starmer to force vote on UK's adoption of EU charter of rights
Shadow Brexit secretary says the Tories have failed to prove essential rights will be protected by UK law after Brexit^

www.theguardian.com/politics/2018/jan/02/brexit-keir-starmer-to-force-vote-on-uks-adoption-of-eu-charter-of-rights?CMP=share_btn_tw

Hope we can finally get down to business.

DGRossetti · 02/01/2018 16:51

Admittedly I don't know all that much about him

To be fair neither do I ... he might be the rule-proving exception.

Crime was at an all time low, alongside child poverty by the end of the last labour government and now look.

"Crime" is a man made constuct, whatever that adds to the party.

If Tories lose a lot of local council seats on 3 May, they will be very worried and the govt will face further cruticism from members.

If so, I predict there will be a very vocal element claiming that they lost because they weren't Tory enough

Brexit: Starmer to force vote on UK's adoption of EU charter of rights

watches with interest

OnTheDarkSideOfTheSpoon · 02/01/2018 16:56

More on parliamentary scrutiny, this time by nick clegg

Playing with process on Brexit offers May diminishing returns
Government claims about the effect of a no vote in parliament are built on sand

amp.ft.com/content/a2a45356-ef9f-11e7-bb7d-c3edfe974e9f?__twitter_impression=true

woman11017 · 02/01/2018 17:07

Hope he's right there pain. Nick Clegg reminds me of a Christopher Robin in amongst a bunch of brexist hardened mafia bosses. It would be nice to have a Christopher Robins back!

Original poster
RedToothBrush · 02/01/2018 17:27

Nothing infuriates me more than people who were in a position do do something piping up after they have their pension.

I very much disagree with this.

People in power have limits to that power. Thank goodness.

We should not expect them always to be able to do something whilst in office. The point is that they may have tried but it might not have been visible to the public and they may not be able to do so publically because doing so would be deemed incompatible with their role as a public servant as it is overtly political.

The fact they do speak out afterwards should be valued not merely dismissed. It would be easy for them to remain silent whilst they draw their pension and not be willing to admit to their failure to do something whilst in office.

OP posts:
annandale · 02/01/2018 17:41

Can I recommend that nobody in Ireland underestimate the forces that Farage represents. It won't be him that gets elected in Ireland but someone Irish who talks an Irish specific version of his shtick. He is a virus and he was elected by my fellow south easteners for years until he managed to leverage that into national prominence. Resist now.

lalalonglegs · 02/01/2018 18:05

I was discussing this with someone in Dublin this summer who said that although the non-Irish and BAME population of Ireland - and Dublin in particular - had really soared in recent years, Ireland was the only country he could think of that didn't have some sort of right-wing, anti-immigration party spring up in response. The gist of the conversation was that while things aren't perfect in Ireland, he didn't foresee any political backlash against newcomers. I hope he's right.

Original poster
RedToothBrush · 02/01/2018 18:12

Ireland has a new immigration problem.

An influx of new Irish citizens who formerly lived in the UK and voted remain.

I wonder how many of those will vote in a referendum and which way they would vote...

...also does the vote allow EU nationals to participate or just Irish ones?

OP posts:
mrsreynolds · 02/01/2018 18:28

Between the new hsbc ad with Richard ayoade

Interesting....

BigChocFrenzy · 02/01/2018 18:54

The RoI hasn't had decades of rightwing media spouting hate and demonisation of the EU and immigrants

Most importantly, unlike England in particular, the RoI doesn't look back to being the #1 superpower, ruling much of the world, or have delusions that it can return to Great Power status.

The English anger at the EU is because the UK isn't the 600-lb gorilla there and other countries won't do as they are told.
The RoI has learned to skilfully leverage its power, but has no ambitions to dominate others.

Much of the English / Tory ruling class still look back nostalgically to lording it over much of the world, instead of just lording it over the UK.
Most of the public don't share this, but there have been too few generations for the ruling class to have accepted the crash from #1 superpower to 2nd rank / medium power.

BigChocFrenzy · 02/01/2018 18:56

The press / media in the RoI makes the effort to be far better informed about the EU and Brexit than the shameful performance of the UK media.

usuallydormant · 02/01/2018 19:54

Apart from our v positive opinion to the EU generally, immigration is also a bit difficult in Ireland as every family will probably have a least one economic migrant if not lots more...I think anyone who starting touting the concept of removing FOM would be laughed out of town.

However, annandale is right: Farage and his lot will use whatever they can to sow distrust and division to disrupt regulation, and the abortion referendum is right up their streets to get the ball rolling. There are lots of others with Irish credentials and dodgy financial dealings that will probably be wheeled out. I think Mathanxiety has mentioned Declan Ganley before for one.... campaigned against the Lisbon Treaty, anti abortion, strong US links, lots of ranting about biased meejay. Not sure of his current standing at home these day though.

An Irish passport doesn't give you the right to vote: you need to be resident in the country as well as being Irish. British people living in Ireland have the right to vote in general elections -(as Irish do in the UK), but not in referenda I believe. As an emigrant, I'm absolutely fine with that and would be against allowing anyone with an Irish passport abroad a vote, unless it was only for an overseas TD constituency.