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Brexit

Westminstenders: On An Election Footing

966 replies

RedToothBrush · 25/07/2019 16:22

Boris Johnson has set out his strategy.

He is challenging remain Tories to put their money where their mouth is, or to shut up.

His majority, soon to be just 1, is fragile but he intends to tough it out.

His Cabinet, is to all intents and purposes an ERG take over of the Tory Party, not unlike the Momentum take over of the Labour Party. And Johnson is looking to purge the party of its liberal wing, whilst pretending that he is liberal to make it acceptable to long term loyal Tories who might still waiver and merely vote for the rosette or like the veneer of respectability.

It has been made clear to Tory MPs that they will have to sign up to a No Deal Strategy should a snap election be called - or face the prospect of deselection. Disloyality will not be tolerated as Hunt's Cabinet backers all found out when they were sacked rather than be allowed to resign as Grayling was.

Instead Johnson reaped his revenge bringing back quitters and disgraced MPs as a deliberate 'fuck you' to moderates and remainers.

His message is clear and made all the clearer by the appointment of Dominic Cummings.

Today the Treasurery opened the piggie bank and told all departments to prepare for no deal. That is what is going to happen.

Parliament can not stop no deal. Johnson will drive it through regardless, even if its technically illegal. The default of no deal makes it an impossible juggernaught to stop without triggering a GE before the 31st October.

Technically speaking there are just 3 parliamentary days left this can be done.

And a GE is no guarentee of stopping no deal anyway. Cummings coming on board spells it out. Its a campaign strategy to reinvigourate the Leave Campaign and make all the promises that were made before. Of course there is no way of implimenting any of these before 31st October, so they just sound nice and people will believe them because they want to believe them. They want to trust and have hope for the future.

Yet with no trade deals and third party status, and crippling gridlock at ports and extra red tape for exporters and importers to deal with, it is inevitable that the economy will take a big hit. And Johnson's promises are expensive. His £39 billion he wants to withhold, is peanuts in the scheme of things and given what he is proposing.

The plan might sound nice, but it doesn't actually add up.

If we want a deal we will STILL have to sign up to conditions that Brussels sets out EVEN IF we no deal.

Meanwhile the US is ready and waiting to fleece us, because we aren't prepared to admit this and are too proud to see that this is a better option than have corporate American feast on the bones of the British economy.

Human Rights and Workers Rights are very much in the cross hairs with this. Health and Safety standards that have been set by London and then imposed on the EU will be burnt.

All the while the EU will be blamed for our own folly.

The worst thing is, people will actually buy it too.

Things are going to get a hell of a lot worse in this country, not because we lack optimism and hope, but because our egos are too big and we have been too idealist rather than recognising very real obstacles and finding ways to overcome than rather than just trying to ignore them. We will find out all those Paragraph Cs in good time the hard way because of the lack of attention to detail.

PFI and outsourcing will look like minor hiccups when the shit hits the fan.

I do hope that the puritians of the Labour Party and the Liberal Democrats and the Remain Referendum Campaign are happy. This is also their mess. They have spent 3 years naval gazing and still don't understand nor know how to respond. This is where a General Election becomes a very real danger because they are clueless as to how to combat a reunited Leave campaign.

Be careful what you wish for going forward.

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DGRossetti · 27/07/2019 12:49

Complete shift of gear Grin but did anyone catch "The Tez O'clock show" on Thursday (Ch4). Sadly a bit too obviously hurriedly commissioned in the wake of "The Mash Report" and "The Ranganation". That said, it wasn't too bad for a first programme (good to see Guz Khan and Sinhu Vee).

Anyway, there was a tiniest microcosm in there of how society could - and should be. They played a clip of the English Cricket team celebrating their World Cup Win and no matter how you view it, it is quite funny seeing two of the Muslim members of team suddenly diving out of the line up as the Champagne is sprayed (which incidentally seems a terribly un-crickety thing to do Hmm ?).

And it is funny Grin.

However one of the guests - John Bishop - asked Tez Ilyas (self proclaimed Muslim) why that was - professing ignorance and curiosity at the same time. Whereupon he received an answer with a touch of "back at you" humour.

It's sad it caught my eye because it was atypical. Seems there is precious little dialogue between people these days Sad.

It's also worth reminding ourselves that it was one Boris Johnson who suggested we asked our Muslim neighbours about Ramadan and Eid in order to broaden our understanding; when Mayor of London.

Mistigri · 27/07/2019 12:54

I had no idea what I wanted to do at 14 nor 16.

I was very good at maths and physics but wanted to be a journalist. I ended up doing a fine art degree Grin. Did more qualifications later.

Tbh my job now isn't that different from economic journalism: primary research, lots of public-facing writing, although I also do a lot of programming and modelling which I enjoy and am good at.

It is much harder for kids now though because it's so much harder to get in at the bottom and work your way up (I got my job via a temping stint, was recruited as a junior analyst in strategic planning and went from there).

DGRossetti · 27/07/2019 13:00

Je parle Francais come un africain

Le meilleur français que j'ai jamais entendu parler était un acteur ivoirien (Le meilleur français que j'ai jamais entendu parler était un acteur ivoirien dans "Night on Earth" de Jim Jarmusch. Un peu comme Trevor McDonald ayant une voix anglaise si merveilleuse) dans "Night on Earth" de Jim Jarmusch. (Un peu comme Trevor McDonald ayant une voix anglaise si merveilleuse). Dans le même film, Béatrice Dalle est beaucoup plus difficile à comprendre

(Va regarder "37°2 le matin" ... de nouveau )

woodpigeons · 27/07/2019 13:04

I’ve got from being off grid lonely planet pootling about on a canal. I was being Mole I think.
Just about caught up from my supposedly media free holiday although I did sneakily download a few newspapers onto my kindle.
Doesn’t Manchester have a very good tram network ?
I did O level French and later lived in Francophone African countries. Several people in France have told me that my African accent is very difficult to understand and apparently gets stronger the more I drink.
I think I am speaking normal French.

QueenOfThorns · 27/07/2019 13:04

I applied to 6th form to study English Lit, French and History, then did a massive U turn and ended up doing Biology, Chemistry and Physics Grin

As an academic all-rounder, I would have loved to have done something similar to Scottish Highers. I contemplated doing International Baccalaureate, but bottled it because it was relatively unknown and I was concerned about university applications. As it is, I took a History A level later in life - I’m a scientist, but I have a real passion for history.

I assume that PM fatberg will be fucking off back down south soon? Hopefully he has got thoroughly rained on while he’s here, it’s a miserable day!

BlackeyedGruesome · 27/07/2019 13:11

Is it too late to place mark? I could not find s cat so bring an ocelot. They scare off creepers so may be useful. Wink

Westminstenders: On An Election Footing
LoonvanBoon · 27/07/2019 13:13

PigeonofDoom, I totally agree about local government funding. I don't know why Opposition parties weren't making more of this during the Tory leadership race, with all the crazy spending pledges being made.

If the Tories have suddenly discovered their own magic money tree after 9 years of being in power (and when economic forecasts are hardly rosy Hmm ), then restoring the 16 billion / 40% they've cut from local govt would make more difference to peoples' day to day lives than most of these headline grabbing schemes.

I wish someone would fucking hold them to account.

BigChocFrenzy · 27/07/2019 13:15

"Labour are going to campaign on a remain and reform ticket "

Has Corbyn actually said this ?

BigChocFrenzy · 27/07/2019 13:22

All those Tories criticising Labour in the 2010, 2015 and 2017 GEs for Magic Money Trees .....

All of them saying in the 2010 and 2015 how essential living within our means is, how we must have austerity to reduce the deficit and stop increasing the national debt .....

So BJ is now saying the Tories - including the ERG - were talking a lot of shite then and needlessly inflcited several years austerity on the country

Does a party really get rewarded by voters for hurting people and then promising to stop hurting them ? Confused

DGRossetti · 27/07/2019 13:23

écoute - et apprécie Grin

RedToothBrush · 27/07/2019 13:24

www.bbc.co.uk/news/amp/education-49131685?__twitter_impression=true
Child poverty cash handed back to Europe unspent

More than £3.5m intended to alleviate child poverty and homelessness is at risk of being wasted because the government has failed to spend it, says a House of Lords committee.

Peers have written to the Home Office saying it is "extraordinary" that the EU funding has not been used.

They warn that some of the cash has already been forfeited and are worried about the rest being handed back.

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JustAnotherPoster00 · 27/07/2019 13:25

Has Corbyn actually said this ?

Thats the rumour we've heard in our local CMP, its from a good source,(yay I finally got to say that phrase lol), but tbh BCF who knows if they'll do it in enough time to be effective is another question

JustAnotherPoster00 · 27/07/2019 13:25

CLP*

DGRossetti · 27/07/2019 13:27

And speaking of railways, here's some insight from Mr. Pie.

HS2 is going to be the longest fucking runway in the world ...

Alsohuman · 27/07/2019 13:27

Fat lot of good writing to the Home Office will do with its present incumbent. That really is beyond scandalous.

BigChocFrenzy · 27/07/2019 13:28

He's promising tax cuts too^

when Thatcher bought millions of votes rather like this,
she financed it by selling off public assets - "selling the family silver" as former Tory PM Harald McMillan put it

She sold off most of it, so what will BJ sell - the NHS ?

LonelyTiredandLow · 27/07/2019 13:32

I'm interested in why the busses have been a focus. Reading Invisible Women it was clear that women use busses for family visits/chores/work on a more regular basis than men. It also went into detail about the routes not being user friendly with this in mind (grid pattern routes vs 'spider web'). I am wondering if these will be taken into consideration if there is a 'revamp' and if, in turn, this is a sly target for women votes... Will be interesting to see how this goes.

howabout · 27/07/2019 13:33

wood I get that all the time when speaking English in London, even when not drinking - worst of it is when I first came back to Glasgow the locals were convinced I was English or, worse yet, from posh Edinburgh Grin

The North is Labour Leave / Brexit Party country. Doesn't matter how many Southern Remain seats Boris loses if he garners even a fraction of these votes. Going after them also makes a lot of the Londoncentric Remain Labour "empathy" sound a bit hollow. If the LibDems help split the Southern Remain centre vote then, from Boris' pov, so much the better. Saw some analysis this week, can't remember where to link, showing that actually monopolising all the Leave vote even in areas of London might actually win seats - the 40% Leave is concentrated as is the 60% Remain (similar argument to Majority of Labour seats voted Brexit but not necessarily Labour voters in those seats).

BigChocFrenzy · 27/07/2019 13:35

Poster Pardon my cynicism, but I won't believe that until Corbyn says so publicly and puts it in the manifesto

He is a lifelong Lexiter
and he knows his best chance of becoming PM is after the Tories send the economy over the cliff in a No Deal Brexit

LouiseCollins28 · 27/07/2019 13:36

Pretty obvious that a government can only start spraying the money around after it has regained some control of the public finances. To begin doing that is a choice, probably the right choice under a Keynesian style economic programme (save when economy strong, spend when economy weak) Not necessarily the choice I’d make But a significant signal of a new policy direction under an essentiallly new government

DGRossetti · 27/07/2019 13:37

I'm interested in why the busses have been a focus

Railway lines take time to build. Buses can be deployed overnight.

(Guess who pointed that out years ago ? One Ken Livingstone - "Fare's Fair" anyone ?)

SwedishEdith · 27/07/2019 13:39

Nothing would make me use the bus.

LonelyTiredandLow · 27/07/2019 13:39

BoJo would be better of distancing himself from austerity loudly IMO - announce an apology and reboot on behalf of the party. People are fickle; as soon as the coffers are full again they will forget it was the same party who caused it. This is all a rather splendid distraction from the impending doom of Brexit, so it should all only have to be a short lived financial burst before we have to reign it all in again after No Deal. By then of course I suspect BoJo will be nowhere to be seen, much like after the ref.

LonelyTiredandLow · 27/07/2019 13:41

DGR yes, that makes sense. The main thing I have always been aware of with Leave is the factor that it is a mainly male vote. I have been wondering for some time how they will bring women on side to increase their share.

Mistigri · 27/07/2019 13:42

Buses are a much better way of quickly improving transport to the most deprived communities, as long as fares are not priced on a commercial basis.

Investment in train infrastructure is more of a long term economic (and climate change) strategy.