Westminstenders: Long live liberalism

[RedToothBrush]

Talk of its demise are premature.

(Sorry up to eyeballs this weekend)

I thought Corby was a trouser press, most often seen in hotels.
Is there a difference?

Sounds like Farage is preparing the ground for Brexit Party to stand aside in Brecon after the new Tory Leader comes in?

Also he’s used by Tory voters to justify their vote. They feel they have to vote Tory or we’ll get a Corbyn government. The phrase "any excuse" springs to mind - Blair wasn't really Labour, Brown broke the banks, Ed couldn't eat a bacon sandwich etc etc etc.

I cannot believe that the Tory party would stoop so low as to enter into a confidence and supply with the twat's party

But would Johnson do it? Would his MPs let him?

Rory Stewart is rather scathing about Johnson:

Stewart, a foreign office minister during Johnson’s foreign secretaryship, also had a scathing assessment of his former boss’s leadership skills, saying: “He likes to be popular. I remember I had been pushing our ambassadors to be much more brutally honest about failure and the the weakness of British positions in their countries and he said: ‘Rory, I used to captain rugby teams and that is not how you do it. You say to them: “It is great, we can do this. We are great.”’ It’s the only time he told me off.”

Stewart continued: “I had said I did not want to receive any more telegrams saying ‘Another win for global Britain’ and he told me off: ‘No, you have got to build their morale and make them feel pumped up and feeling it’s going to be great. The more they say it is going to be great, the greater it is going to be.’”

Stewart commented: “My disagreement would be that international trade negotiations are not like a rugby match. It might work in 80 minutes and pump people up, but you cannot do tariff schedules on the basis of a rugby match.” Trade negotiations cannot be won on the playing fields of Eton, he said.

www.theguardian.com/politics/2019/jul/07/rory-stewart-outlines-alternative-parliament-to-stop-no-deal-brexit

I think it is interesting Rory is still being followed by the media - clearly the favourite amongst the people.

I know we rely on diplomatic relations but the "leak" is hardly a shock script, is it? The whole world knows what Trump is. Why would a sane government sacrifice a man for being honest about that and doing his job? Yes he clearly has a rat but flushing out and shaming the rat for breaching national secrets should be the direction, surely?

I can believe they would entertain a confidence and supply - you only have to see how far Bxp/Kippers have infiltrated the Tories to see how they get rid of Tories they don't like;votes of No Confidence. It doesn't always work admittedly but with Rudd and those on dwindling seats...the threat is from 'inside' if they don't collaborate.

I cannot believe that the Tory party would stoop so low as to enter into a confidence and supply with the twat's party, I am no fan of them but I reckon there are still a number of sensible thinking tories who would not take that.

I cannot believe is the key phrase here. What you mean is I do not what to believe it is possible.

You have been paying attention for the last 3 years haven't you?

With all the liberal Johnson hating MPs who have suddenly decided to support him for leader going against everything they've said for months? And all the times they've all voted happily to support the whips line. And all the times they've turned a blind eye to all the other shit that's gone down for the last 3 years.

Of course they would stoop that low.

Ask the question what really makes you think they wouldn't stoop that low?

On that note, if you have not read Nick Cohen's piece for the Observer yesterday, you should:

amp.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/jul/06/far-right-invited-conservatives-boris-johnson?__twitter_impression=true
When ‘respectable’ conservatives bow to the far right it’s always disastrous

Nick Cohen @ nickcohen4
For instance, George Osborne, the Times, the European People’s Party, the wreck that was once Matt Hancock, Bim Afolami, Oliver Dowden, Rishi Sunak, Tracey Crouch. every US Republican, with the possible exception of Mitt Romney, Manfred Weber ...oh I’m running out of space

I exempt @davidfrum, @MaxBoot and, maybe @AmberRuddHR but that’s about it to be frank

This is relevant to my argument. Because Conservatives have stopped thinking about economis, because neo-liberalism has failed, the populist right is the only place left for them (h/t @bexin2d)

medium.com/@stianwestlake_74683/the-strange-death-of-tory-economic-thinking-2339433aed00
The strange death of Tory economic thinking

Personally I think this is a slight misreading of the economic thing. Neo-liberalism is far from dead. In fact its about wanting even more deregulation. The shift is in economy for the country's interest to economy for personal interest. The human element and value of life is what has shifted. The post war era valued life and social responsibility. That's been burnt on the fires of Brexit and the idea of the undeserving which middle England has feasted on. Its the product of popularism.

I And I am still hopeful that the twat's party won't get more than a handful of MPs leaving us in much the same position as we are with the DUP i.e. nowhere^

My desperate hope is that there’s no joint working between the Tories and Brex. And they split the leave vote.

My dh normally unthinkingly votes Tory (the shame). I normally sort out his postal vote, he marks his X and signs it and I post it. If he votes Tory this time round I’m not helping him. He can post his own (which means he’ll never get round to it.

Therewillbe sorry about your husband! I have many issues with mine, but at least he's a remainy active anti Tory voter.

My oldest DD just went on holiday with her boyfriend's family. She said she had to bite her lip majorly one evening - the parents are both long term paid up leadership voting devotee Tories. Apparently they were contemplating a Johnson vote and were able to discuss his positives for over an hour?

Thanks lonely he does have his good points, it helps that he’s an unthinking Tory voter. I’m hopeful he’ll vote Lib Dem next election, he did for the local elections and the EU ones.

Plus he’s really good in bed, I guess Tories are used to screwing people

{Plus he’s really good in bed, I guess Tories are used to screwing people}

TMI!!

Apparently they were contemplating a Johnson vote and were able to discuss his positives for over an hour?

Er... Er... He's Er...

... Struggling to think of anything. Can anyone help me out with a good word about the virtues of Boris Johnson?

So, anyone fancy coming on and telling us all about that wonderful technical solution to the NI border we can have up and running in months ?

No, I thought not ....

www.theregister.co.uk/2019/07/08/hmrcs_online_vat_filing_wobble/

Businesses and accountants are struggling to sign up to HMRC's new online VAT filing system, raising concerns that the systems will be unable to cope with the quarterly deadline next month.

(contd)

{Can anyone help me out with a good word about the virtues of Boris Johnson?}
He's not having any sort of relationship with most on Westminsterenders.

Yes. I can come up with a plan.

This might not be too popular but it's doable and seems to be one being actively considered.

Rip up the GFA. Suck up to Trump and hope he becomes a dictator and fucks any influence over trade that Congress has. Become 51st state. Tell Europe to put up or shut up cos NATO and Russia and Turkey and you really don't want a really big war now do you? Just take the little civil war instead.

Meanwhile NI gets scragged but Ireland is fairly OK due to new trade deal with Germany.

We didn't care about NI now did we? The IRA weren't as bad as that ISIS lot (mainly cos they are white not for any other reason) so we can just pretend that part of our history doesn't matter. And we can crush Belfast and Londonderry with tanks if we need to, in a post human rights era.

Sorted.

Now we can Brexit no problem.

DH keeps asking me what women see in Johnson. The only thing I can think of requires a healthy dose of brain bleach

RTB
Have you been bugging BoJo's phone?

... Struggling to think of anything. Can anyone help me out with a good word about the virtues of Boris Johnson?

Um..... Er.... I’m struggling too.

The IRA weren't as bad as that ISIS lot (mainly cos they are white not for any other reason)

I'd argue the IRA were probably one of the more - if not most - effective irregular fighting units in the world. Proof being they advanced the political dimension of their cause to deliver some progress in the shape of the GFA. I have no truck with any organisations that use violence against innocent civilians. But we have to balance that with the fact that successive governments that were supposed to protect us were also quite happy to allow innocent civilians to be killed as long as it "sent a message". There's innocent blood on both sides hands, and they don't get to wash each other.

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/johnson-may-live-to-regret-becoming-pm-qskjgkxwn

The Duc de Vendôme was too important for manners.
Legend has it that the 17th-century French aristocrat liked to receive visiting dignitaries while sitting on the toilet.

One morning, while receiving Giulio Alberoni, a lesser mortal, he rose, turned and wiped his noble bottom.

Alberoni’s response? He rushed to kiss the Duke’s behind while exclaiming “O culo di angelo!” (“O arse of an angel!”). 💩

It was a show of sycophancy unparalleled in history — until this Conservative leadership contest.

The rush from various MPs and commentators to proclaim the Greatness of Boris 🤮

DGR I don't think I'd disagree terribly with that. There is no 'good' side in NI.

And the IRA were tactically good at what they were trying to achieve.

Re other irregular fighting forces: ISIS tactics are different and their aims are different. It's less about a political goal which has more defined parameters though. Its about a different type of disruption and challenge to society. ISIS and Al Quada before them have been very successful in what they initially sort to do, though the attempt to build a state out of it was an unmitigated disaster. That doesn't mean that long term its a dead duck as an idea though. Far from it. Its going to manifest in different ways in the future though. The whole premise of a religious war is still very much there.

My point being that 'success' is something that is very fuzzy to measure and quantify when it comes to irregular fighting forces.

NI stands out because it was more tangible and quantifable, perhaps because it is closer to a regular army in tactic and nature and the psyops side of things wasnt so dominant.

It does feel like the IRA are almost 'an acceptable terrorist organisation' now, where you knew what they wanted, how they operated and they have almost the veneer of respectability because they 'gave warnings and didn't target civilians' (obviously bullshit but this is how revisionism frames things). And race is now the unspoken fear - with Ireland perceived as culturally and ethnically part of the UK by Tory muppets.

There is certainly a great deal of effort going on to almost forget the troubles of NI and minimise them as being minor or irrelevant.

And the IRA were tactically good at what they were trying to achieve

They also realised that they could kill ten - a hundred - times as many civilians and the pigshit thick English would be allowed to give way by their masters in parliament. That's when they hit on the wheeze of targeting the financial institutions and discovered that a few million pounds was worth any number of dead kids. Look how quickly we went from Canary Wharf to negotiating table, compared to how long from Birmingham/Guildford to fuck-all.

I'm safe writing this, as to try and prosecute would be to admit it's true, but if there are any terrorists out there that want to get what they want from the British government, don't waste explosives on people - find something the government does care about. Money is probably a good starting point.

I agree with Red : economic neo-liberalism is far from dead

Instead, they have realised that because it hasn't worked because trickle down economics doesn't work - that in order for it to work for them , ie those at the top, with the money, then the only way to make it work is if they can truly exploit those below them. Fuck workers' rights. Fuck regulations. Fuck the climate. Fuck the world. Who cares about the future, as long as I'm ok, Jack

Ouroboros ...