Westminstenders: Long live liberalism

[RedToothBrush]

Talk of its demise are premature.

(Sorry up to eyeballs this weekend)

How can the POTUS not know the ambassador?

Newsnight covered this and had a former ambassador on and he said that it was rare for the ambassador to meet the president - they usually dealt with other officials.

I do see Trump's intervention as an affront to our sovereignity though.

Newsnight covered this and had a former ambassador on and he said that it was rare for the ambassador to meet the president

Fair enough, but who knows, as Trump will say whatever suits him in the moment. I bet if there had been a leak where the ambassador praised Trump (which would be even more embarrassing than criticising him ), Trump would be telling the world what a great guy the ambassador is, that he speaks to him all the time...

I do see Trump's intervention as an affront to our sovereignity though.

So where are our Leaver friends, who want Brexit to have sovereignty? Why is it only the EU they object to and Democrat Presidents, but right wing Republicans can say what they like?

Leak worked:
BJ now has the excuse to bring in a Brexiter ambassador, as Trump cuts off the old

The Times describes Donald Trump's severing of relations with Britain's ambassador to Washington as "unprecedented".
Lead story in several papers:

.

Convenient fallguy / bogeyman ?
Protecting the unknown Brexiter Cabinet minister and/or SPAD imo

Isabel Oakeshott, who is close to the Brexit Party, broke the story
Hoofbeats - horses not zebras .....


Tom Newton Dunn@tnewtondunn

A cyber attack is now an official line of inquiry in the Cabinet Office probe.

Some senior FCO figures now even believe it's the most likely explanation.

Hunt: “It would be massively concerning if it was the act of a hostile state. That’s something that will be considered”.
...
Dominic Waghornn@DominicWaghorn*

There’s something about dropping this on July 4th weekend that would very much appeal to Putins sense of humour

Cyber attack getting 2 years of stored ambassadorial reports

Well, apparently new tech for boarder control is nigh, surely we can stop cyber attacks by now Smells like bull to me.

The way these messages are stored/distributed means you don't need to have been collecting them for 2 years - a single access could pull them, but much more likely to be a politico leaking than a cyber attack. (latter would be problematic on so many levels) am sure cyber rumours are desperate diversion - the list of people with access to this level of telegram is quite small.

The leak shows how much the civil service (and this bloke who was only doing his job but probably can no longer do it effectively thanks to this leak) are seen as the enemy now by the right wing of the Tory party.

Yes indeed.

There is a very strong whiff of a conspiracy to Brexit now.

How long before senior people like the former head of MI6 decide to judiciously use whatever material they have on the Brexit cabal (it is inconceivable that there is none) as they fight back.

Hunt: “It would be massively concerning if it was the act of a hostile state. That’s something that will be considered”.

It must be obvious at this point that Russia provides a very convenient fall guy for a great many shadowy figures in the UK and US.

The suggestion of a cyber attack smacks of rounding up the usual suspects.

I suspect there are a few high powered men shitting themselves today

Doubt it.

People like that don't shit themselves.

They shit on the rest of society from a great height.

Wouldn't sending Farage to Washington mean that the Brexit Party would almost certainly collapse? So, if the rumours are true, Johnson would be wise to send him sooner rather than wait for a GE.

The Brexit party has only one function - to keep the Tories way right of centre and pro-Brexit. After Brexit they will disband. The Tories will absorb them as they once absorbed the (treasonous) Unionists.

Once Brexit happens, it will be necessary for someone to act as facilitator for the takeover of the UK by US business. General Elections won't matter from then on. Farage could be Britain's Pierre Laval. More of a clown than Laval was, certainly. A very useful idiot..

I keep being surprised that a NI poll on the backstop hasn't had more traction as a way out to get the withdrawal agreement through.

There can't be a NI poll on the backstop because it would be an unconstitutional poll on the future of the GFA. There has to be a backstop as long as the GFA exists.

So where are our Leaver friends, who want Brexit to have sovereignty? Why is it only the EU they object to and Democrat Presidents, but right wing Republicans can say what they like?

This ^

Imagine if Merkel or Macron were refusing to deal with a U.K. ambassador.

It's the sound of another root of our safety systems being hacked off. How easily our checks and balances fall, one by one.

I'm really quite concerned about the direction we're being dragged in as a country. What could halt this process? Is it purely a Tory evil, or would another party be so willing to sacrifice so much as well?

We need a bloody opposition which opposes and a GE to bring in change. The populace as a whole seems relatively oblivious (or apathetic) to the whole thing, so I can't see revolts happening on a large scale, but hopefully something would give at a GE.

I hate the lack of control over my own life (and while I appreciate that it's always been so, nobody's been trying to fuck it up in so many ways before!).

Mathanxiety, so the options presented would have to be remain/status quo, and withdrawal agreement with back stop? I suppose that wouldn't now placate the Brexit nutjobs.

The problem is that they're beyond being placated. Nothing will suit the most fervent leavers (not even leaving); whatever happens will be wrong and not what they wanted. Even if they didn't really know what they wanted to start with and still don't really have a defined, concrete, idea of what they do want.

They're so whipped up in a fury of 'but, democracy!' and 'you're ignoring what the people want!' that they're totally beyond reason. Like when a small child gets so het up about something that there's no helping them (my then-18 month old DD and a broken chocolate button springs to mind; that was a total disaster!).

This referendum has brought so much hate and resentment to the surface (much of which was nothing to do with the EU, as we've discussed many times). Brexit is now the poster boy for apparently solving all perceived ills, when in actual fact it's created way more issues and the country is crumbling before our eyes. But some people can't / don't want to see or believe that, hence the blind faith and fury of the most rabid leavers.

If I was watching from the outside, at a safe distance, it would be a fascinating study in society's behaviour. But I'm not, and it's actually rather terrifying how people refuse to see what's in front of them.

I'm really quite concerned about the direction we're being dragged in as a country.

This is how I feel. I feel as though many Germans must have done in the late 20s as the Nazis began to gain power - they couldn't have liked the way the country was going, but what practically could they do to stop it. Reason doesn't work with Leavers - they have become a cult.

I don't like the dirty tricks of MI5 or MI6 but I do hope they dish the dirt on Farage and Johnson. Both of whom seem Teflon coated at present. Tony Blair though was once Teflon Tony, but he scraped his coating off himself.

Did anyone see Davis Allen Green’s Tweets yesterday?

David Allen Green @davidallengreen:

”Taking back control" and the trashing of domestic institutions

A thread.

1.

If the Brexiters were sincere about "taking back control" then they would be doing everything they could to strengthen the domestic institutions which would have to take the strain.

2.

But what have they done in practice?

Let's look at Parliament.

They wanted to bypass it for the notification.

They - literally - held it in contempt.

They now casually talk of proroguing parliament.

Could status of Parliament be any lower to them?

Taking back control?

3.

Let's look at the courts?

"Enemies of the People"

Look at the independent civil service?

Trashing of Rogers, Robbins, now Darroch.

Look everywhere.

See what I mean?

Brexiters are trashing domestic institutions more than "Brussels Bureaucrats" have ever done.

4.

This is not about "taking back control".

Brexiters are trashing domestic institutions as much as they trash the EU.

This is not "fake news" - the examples are too numerous.

This is something far more sinister.

5.

This is aggressive nationalistic destructive populism.

Any entity - in EU or UK - is to be trashed in the name of "the people".

Any opposition is treacherous.

6.

What mad fools our political and media classes were to allow the referendum to become this grand wrecking device.

Taking back control?

There will be nothing left with the authority and legitimacy to take control.

All must be trashed, in the name of "the people".

7.

Nothing good will come of this.

8 & ends.

The Brexit Party is the 'shit in the corner* of the room and run away' party. No real policies except cause a disturbance.

*Or nearer the middle of the room if possible.

Don't we have pictures of Farage and Trump being 'mates'?

So DAG finally recognises this as fascism.

Better late than never I guess.

Farage has apparently ruled himself out of the ambassadors job now.

As for the 'cyber attack', that's utter bullshit. Most security breeches occur through much easier routes than through a sophisticated cyber attack. Indeed, even when there has been a breech through technology it is very rarely through a 'hack' as most people would understand it. The 'path of least resistance' is what security experts look for when investigating a breach. And from what newsnight said last night, the suggest was that up to 100 people had access to these memos.

The idea that its a cyber attack is a way to prevent looking in house at who is responsible. And that to me screams more 'cover up' than investigation.

The other concerning news was the YouGov poll commissioned by hope not hate that was published yesterday.

Alex Wickham @alexwickham
YouGov/HopeNotHate poll on the people deciding the next PM

60% of Tory members believe "Islam is generally a threat to Western civilisation"

54% think "Islam is generally a threat to the British way of life"

Predictable silence from both Tory leadership candidates on yet another poll showing a systemic Tory racism problem... it is close to impossible to get anyone in the Tory party to talk about this

YouGov completely standing by the accuracy of this poll – they say they have an 18 year track record at polling Tory members, insist their methodology is reliable, accurate and subject to checks and procedures. They refute the idea they told HnH the poll had any accuracy issues

Tory twitter reaction to this fascinating... apparently either the poll is fake / can't be trusted cos Hope Not Hate are a bunch of lefties... or alternatively, "Islam is not a race" / 60% of Tory members are right. Almost identical to early Labour twitter response to AS stories

Also take a look at this:

Mark Di Stefano @markdistef
It’s July 2019 — months from the Christchurch massacre — and the BBC is giving Martin Sellner length to explain his racist views and here’s how he’s introduced. Come on!

Also today

Johnson v Hunt TV debate 8pm itv

They are conveniently missing a vote on abortion and equal marriage rights in NI to do the debate.

Which avoids a DUP problem for them both.

"Nothing good will come of this."
Hard to be hopeful, isn't it? My dh couldn't watch the Panorama programme last night and is pretty much despairing of what we have turned into.
I tried to say - there are bright, fantastic, friendly people left in the country and that is what will prevail. Harder and harder to make that case, though.