Westminstenders: Throwing Boomerangs

[RedToothBrush]

British politics and media in a nutshell.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boomerang_effect_(psychology)#Political_beliefs

No EU progress, no discussion. Just this. Keep everyone in line by bouncing boomerangs.

Disaster capitalism looms, they just have to get us to the edge of the cliff before the centre reforms. That's it.

If the legal roads to stop Brexit are closed as David Allen Green says, then how do you force the political flood gates to open, especially with both the far left and the far right using micro-aggression against the public to keep the centre ground weak?

Answers on a ballot paper on 3rd May.

Russian state tv told people to stock up on supplies and prepare for war it was being reported. I think it was Newsweek or something yesterday I saw it on. Will try and find link.

As predicted, Brexit starting to cause other projects to rust ...

www.theregister.co.uk/2018/04/13/hmrc_looks_to_delay_digital_tax_plans_in_favour_of_pressing_customs_it/

HMRC appears to be putting its flagship "making tax digital" (MTD) project on hold, as the department flings all hands on deck to handle its customs IT replacement system post Brexit .

Putin won the recent election

Putin certainly does have to sell his policies to an internal audience, but you sound incredibly naive about the realities of Russian politics here.

Putin does not really have to worry about his electorate, except insofar as to keep a lid on any political opposition using standard populist tactics and occasionally imprisoning (or worse) an opponent pour encourager les autres.

More Jaguar Land Rover/Brexit fallout
www.reuters.com/article/us-britain-eu-jaguar/jaguar-land-rover-to-cut-output-and-jobs-due-to-brexit-diesel-slump-source-idUSKBN1HK1MB

Vote Leave broke spending limits on industrial scale, says former staffer

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2018/apr/13/vote-leave-campaign-overspent-on-industrial-scale-says-ex-employee-mark-gettleson

In written evidence to the Electoral Commission … claims two of Theresa May’s political advisers were among the senior directors at Vote Leave involved in assisting the activities of a youth group, BeLeave, which was ostensibly a separate organisation.
…
The evidence forms part of the basis of a legal opinion submitted to the digital, culture, media and sport committee that argues that a series of electoral offences may have been committed by Vote Leave.
…
Matrix Chambers …have said there was “powerful evidence including contemporaneous correspondence” that Vote Leave and BeLeave were “intimately linked”
and a “prima facie case that electoral offences were committed by Vote Leave in the EU referendum campaign and that these require urgent investigation”.

Hounding Commonwealth citizens is no accident. It’s cruelty by design

While playing up ties with ex-colonies, Britain also encourages the harassment of people who have spent their lives here

Maybe one reason why Commonwealth 2.0 trade deals are not the slam-dunk that DD, Fox & co expected.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/apr/13/commonwealth-citizens-harassment-british-immigration-policy
…
But our administrative borders are invisible and omnipresent, dividing communities and generations at whim and will.

These borders represent not a physical space but a political one that can be reproduced without warning in places of learning and healing.
At any moment almost anyone, your boss, doctor, child’s headmaster or landlord, can become a border guard
– indeed they may be legally obliged to do so –
and on the basis of their judgment you may be denied livelihood, family, home and health.

Incredibly, this is not a glitch in the system.
It is the system.
… WEB Du Bois:
“A system cannot fail those it was never meant to protect.”

Jeremy Hunt has been deemed not to have breached the ministerial code despite failing to declare a significant interest in a property development company.

He and his accountant were forgiven for their “administrative oversight”

For those of Commonwealth origin - and a furrin skin colour - their administrative oversight has meant becoming homeless, unemployed, unable to obtain NHS cancer treatment, deportation.

Bureaucracy benefits only those who can bypass it.

Trump signalling that he will give Presidential pardons to his cohorts if they stay loyal - and don't make a deal with Mueller ?

www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-43747229

US President Donald Trump has pardoned former Vice-President Dick Cheney's chief of staff, who was convicted of lying about leaks to the media.

Lewis Libby, known as Scooter, was found guilty in 2007 following an investigation into the unauthorised disclosure of a CIA agent's identity.

Last year May went walking on holiday in Wales and came back to announce a general election.

This year after doing walking and thinking she is going to....

...announce air strikes?

I don't really think that.

I think she'll keep quiet.Last year's thinking and walking was not a great success. 🚶‍♀️

The local Bbc news had this story earlier in the week:

amp.theguardian.com/healthcare-network/2018/apr/13/ive-been-an-nhs-doctor-for-five-years-the-home-office-wants-to-deport-me?__twitter_impression=true
I've been an NHS doctor for five years. The Home Office wants to deport me
Dr Luke Ong was five months away from becoming a GP when he made a simple error with his application to remain in the UK

The truly extraordinary thing given the gp shortage is this:

I booked an appointment and paid for it before my visa ran out. I thought that was fine. In reality, the application is made when you attend the appointment, by which time my visa had been invalid for 18 days. I was refused residency for that reason, and since then it’s been a battle to reverse the decision. An immigration judge ruled that it “would not be proportionate” to remove me; the Home Office lodged an appeal.

The home office appealled the decision that they had been heavy handed jobsworths.

The best thing about these anti - black immigrant stories is the publicity. As soon as the media get hold of them and make a splash the Home Office backs down. Usually with an excuse that it was a mistake....

When Theresa May departs from Office, this hostile environment is one thing which will stay with her.

Without trying to make this a TAAT, have others seen this:
www.mumsnet.com/Talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/3221503-to-think-this-story-cannot-be-true-Non-English-speaking-mother-did-not-know-how-to-feed-her-baby-causing-brain-damage-as-the-NHS-did-not-provide-a-translator
Essentially the fail decide to paint patient mistreatment as a forriner issue

Housing minister defends claim of immigration impact on house prices

They're still deliberately stirring it - Govt minister Raab blames immigrants for an emotive problem

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2018/apr/13/housing-minister-dominic-raab-defends-claim-of-immigration-pushing-up-house-prices

Look who Kate Hoey's retweeting.

America, UK and France have now started bombing Damascus, Syria. My thoughts and prayers are with the innocents and the world now holds its breathe as to what Russia's response will be.

Tomahawk cruise missiles.....the world a scary place....

Except that Putin won the recent election on a platform of economic development and had for a few months been locked in a struggle within the Kremlin with hawks urging a 'fortress Russia' policy which he and his platform won.

Full sentence there Mistigri.

you sound incredibly naive about the realities of Russian politics here.

Putin does not really have to worry about his electorate, except insofar as to keep a lid on any political opposition using standard populist tactics and occasionally imprisoning (or worse) an opponent pour encourager les autres.

That is a pretty hackneyed opinion that adds no insight.
Russia is far more complex than many give it credit for, and Putin is not the only actor with influence in the Kremlin.

The 1 March speech was a signal to the US that has apparently gone unheard.

The only reason the US, UK, and France have decided on the course of action we now see unfolding is the belief that this is a contained and containable engagement, and that they can win it.

Carole Cadwalladr @ carolecadwalla
BREAKING: Parliament publishes extensive new details about Vote Leave's alleged overspending scheme. Fearless @DamianCollins & @CommonsCMS publish legal opinion of QCs who say there is 'prima facie case' of breaking of UK laws in referendum

Timing is everything.

The only reason the US, UK, and France have decided on the course of action we now see unfolding is the belief that this is a contained and containable engagement, and that they can win it.

(Plus of course the grandstanding and the squirrel value.)

The only reason the US, UK, and France(?) have decided on the course of action we now see unfolding is the belief that this is a contained and containable engagement, and that they can win it.

Iraq? Afghanistan? Isn't the involvement in the latter country the US's most longstanding war now? The initial excuse to go in being dressed up as a search for Bin Laden - who was found to be holed up in Pakistan.

Libya? Wonderful job there Britain and France - get rid of a leader who hadn't done you any particular harm and now totally destabilise the country, making it a conduit for refugees. Well done! Yes, I know some will say Libya was responsible for the Lockerbie bombing, but I recall at the time that other voices said Syria was responsible - but at the time it didn't suit us to blame Syria.

At least Parliament can say that they didn't approve this time. Unlike Blair's war in Iraq, which although conveniently forgotten now, they were all for. Ah but, he presented dodgy data and they were conned. Yes, pull the other one.

peregrinations when it was first said TM wouldn't involve MPs in the decision that was my first thought to, at least they can't blame them later on. It's a bit of a shitty positive though to the whole thing