Westminstenders: Long live liberalism

[RedToothBrush]

Talk of its demise are premature.

(Sorry up to eyeballs this weekend)

I agree pretty. However I do think it is the natural consequence of constant media reinterpretation and obfuscation to fit an agenda. Sophie Ridge was a classic example yesterday. Boris could have explained neo-Keynesian economic theory in response to her constant "but how can we afford it and is there really headroom" but she would have simply talked all over him and looked disparaging. Someone with an economics background and an interest in current affairs is well aware that Eeyore has fiscal headroom of £20 bn + and also that you have to "speculate to accumulate". However this does not fit the SkyNews Right Wing Remain narrative and even Boris has to be circumspect in his disparaging of Osbornomics. The average SkyNews Remain viewer would take Ridge's quizzical eyebrow over rational explanation of economic policy every time. That is how propaganda works and why politicians have had to develop counter measures.

For balance this happens absolutely all the time whenever any Labour politician or vaguely Left wing thinker appears. Corbyn and co frustrate the media in a way RedEd didn't because they limit media exposure and have a counter strategy (which generally leads to a lot of pointless interviews where in any event the interviewer refuses to ask relevant questions).

It's not the "right wing Remain" economics that are the problem

atm it is the right wing Brexit fantasies about GATT 24 and forcing a partial Irexit

The fanatical willingness to sacrifice small businesses and farmers to force through Brexit, whatever the cost

If they are really banking on fantasy, then their problem will be the govt having far less income than it expected
while at the same time far more expenditure on the bankrupt, unemployed, creating facilities & agencies not needed within the SM

It is interesting that the sums discussed to cope with Brexit are similar to those for the Great Financial Crisis

We should be able to afford invest in the future and helping the vulnerable rather than giving tax cuts to the better off

.... but it depends how much of a mess we're in say 6 months or a year after No Deal

A major No Deal problem will be trying to ramp up Yellowhammer very quickly, after it was basically shut down:

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/jun/28/civil-servant-boris-johnson-no-deal-brexit?CMP=sharebtnn_tw

The task of standing Yellowhammer back up – sending thousands of worker bees like me back to operational centres to implement no-deal contingency plans – is formidable.

As the IfG’s Joe Owen noted, it will all need to be
“resurrected and restaffed, and earlier rounds of staff training will need to be repeated”.

The Financial Times, among others, has concludedd^ that this is a sign we’ve already run out of time.

Our former boss Bob Kerslake was more on point when he compared Johnson too*

an escapologistt* who’d “put on the straitjacket, padlocked the door and started the tap running”

Bigchoc always worth remembering which side Cameron / Osborne are on before putting your fingers in your ears.

It really does feel like we are through the looking-glass now. Tories have always prided themselves on being the party of business, so now having Hunt stand up and say "I will cause deliberate bankruptacies" as part of his platform is....stunning.

In a masochistic way, I can't wait to see how Boris will top this.

I suspect BigChoc's ears are quite free of fingers. Being aware of the political leanings of the 'cabinet players' and reading through the piles of money they talk about to establish the true situation is what some people do.
The oft quoted '5/6th largest economy' is one thing, but in that case why is there such inequality, running down of the NHS and so on when it is easy to show that EU payments are around 0.7%. Even say quadrupling that, is still not a massive dent in the UK's GDP, which can only mean that the UK gov (of all flavours) do not have the real interests of the UK citizens in mind.

{ I can't wait to see how Boris will top this.}
Well his inadvertent 'admission' a couple of years back is an indication, all we need to know is the 'technique' and although condoms are quite flexible, I am not sure they cover this situation.

howabout There are 2 kinds of rightwing bastards:

• Those like Osbourne & Cameron who maintain some connection to reality

• The fantasists like ERG Brexiters

Neither give a shit about the less well off,
but the second kind will cause far more damage

5/6/7 th largest economy in the world matters when negotiating trade deals

..... and would matter much more if the No Dealers weren't delivering the UK naked and helpless into negotiations with all the other countries in the world that hadn't cut off all their existing trade deals

What matters when it comes to standard of living is GDP / head, where the UK is about #30 in the world

Brexit is a crisis for the UK, created by the Tory party to solve an internal Tory party problem

Brexit is a Tory project
Tory members are so fanatical about Brexit that they would sacrifice the economy, the UK, their own party for it

Brexit is a hard right project
Pushed by far right oligarchs in the US, for their own financial and national interests

The official Leave and Remain ref campaigns were both largely controlled by Tories

• which is why both were such a bloody mess and gave such poor info.

Brexit since the ref has been dominated by the Tory right,
while Remain is in disarray because Labour continue to ignore the 70-80% of its voters who are Remain

In the country, Tory & Faragists voters are overwhelmingly Leave,
while Labour, Ldem, Green and Scottish / Welsh / NI Nationlists are overwhelmingly Remain

Even most Lexiters are against No Deal,
which is a batshit hard right project that suddenly sprang into the open after the ref result

The few Lexiters we see who do support it, keep having to support those hard right Tories who should be their most bitter enemies

They can't even quote Corbyn for support

• even he's not dim enough to want No Deal,

or for Labour to try for decades to cope with the aftermath, expensive damage control for the country, instead of investing in the future

@BigChocFrenzy, I broadly agree with you.

Just what are Labour for? With the exception of a GE, does anyone know?

If either Hunt or BJ were proposing genuine Keynesian economics, with infrastructure projects that benefitted all of the UK and not just the South Eastern corner , were advocating proper controls of the banks (so that they weren't driven by gambling which is what so much of their business now is, even if they don't call it that), were proposing a proper minimum wage that you can live on and not have to rely on tax credits/housing benefit/UC to survive (and effectively subsidising the profits of those companies that only pay the NMW ), getting said companies to pay the tax that they should be paying and not sheltering it in tax avoidance schemes, rather than proposing tax cuts for the wealthiest, increases in NI (a regressive tax that hits the poorest hardest), decreases in corporation tax, a continued belief in "trickle down" economics despite all the evidence that it doesn't work, then I might be less concerned about one of them becoming leader.

.....and breeeeaaaaathe

Sorry...I have to share an absolute diamond from one of the Tory FB groups.

"It was widely reported over the weekend that upon ascention to Prime Minister, Boris will form a “Brexit war cabinet”, an elite force of ministers whose task will be to force through Brexit. The idea is intriguing and it will be interesting to see who makes the team. I hope John Redwood, Mark Francois, Steve Baker, IDS, Bernard Jenkins and Bill Cash are all called up!"

...and when people have called this out as a terrible idea the same person has said...I quote...

"They're all from the ERG which is a CENTRE OF EXCELLENCE in the party"

Capitals are my own.

Oh lord....how I have laughed and then cried and laughed since that was posted.

@1tislLeClerc. Thanks for the condoms image. Boris is the gift that keeps on giving.

Whatever kind of economics Brexit politicians follow,

it will end badly if their Step 1 = wreck many businesses, trade, the economy

I wouldn't be impressed if a bloke gave me money I should have had years ago, but only after he beat me up first

"war" cabinet

Tory Brexiters very much see Brexit as a war against those evil EU foreigners and the UK left & centre

I've been wondering how they are going to restart operation yellowhammer especially given the No Deal emails have pretty much dried up from the .gov.uk

It seems absolutely beyond hypocrisy that Hunt is talking about cancelling all related civil servant leave if they aren't up to speed (paraphrased) and yet they are about to swan off for their break.

Given the shambles that happened over the No Deal ferries and no sign of an appetite to risk such a farce again, just how are we going to get our goods over here?

Also, no one seems to have noticed that while Boris has been touting the no tariffs line Hunt is basically implying that he will cover the costs of farming tariffs. Why is no one in the Tories saying hang on a minute....?

/and breathe

I've not had my voting papers yet for the Lib Dem leadership.

Operation yellowhammer has turned into operation turkey. The kind that vote for Christmas.

{Hunt is basically implying that he will cover the costs of farming tariffs.}

It will be interesting (not) to see how many times that inadequate £6 Billion is 'spent' trying to shore up each of the many aspects of the UK that will get buggered. So farming, small businesses, will it be 'bribes' to larger industries next, what about the health service, does UC get a look in?

It's like my dd's money box. Apparently she can buy everything she wants with its contents and absolutely doesn't have to compromise on anything.

He's only the Chancellor, so what does he know ?

Philip Hammondd@PhilipHammondUK*

The “fiscal firepower” we have built up in case of a No-Deal Brexit will only be available for extra spending if we leave with an orderly transition.

If not, it will all be needed to plug the hole a No Deal Brexit will make in the public finances.

Jeremy Hunt;
"We have built up headroom, about 26 billion pounds of headroom^

uk.reuters.com/article/uk-britain-eu-leader-hunt-spending/pm-hopeful-hunt-says-britain-has-money-to-spend-in-case-of-no-deal-brexit-idUKKCN1TW2AL