Westminstenders: The Imperial March

[RedToothBrush]

There are many ways to enforce power indirectly using privilege. Jacob Rees Mogg knows every trick in the book and dresses it up as respectability rather than a subtle form or intimidation and deliberate exclusion.

It's not the stuff 'of the people'.

Meanwhile the newly crowned PM, is making rather a bug deal of how he is the man 'of the people', here to serve them and to deliver their will.

There's a big theme here about presenting as 'of the people' whilst simultaneously serving the interests of the elite and reestablishing its power over the people.

It's a theme that is set to run for some time, and is entrenched in Trumpism too.

This shift in power is particularly harmful to women it must be noted.

'Strong and stable' was 'weak and wobbly' and we should be mindful that in the era of reversed spin, what 'of the people' signifies.

We've long known about the authoritarianism at the heart of leaving thinking. It's only now that it's finally going to start stomping it's feet all over our freedoms and power.

The road back will be a long and hard one because we failed to spot the threat and the dangers of it.

[Peregrina]

There's a recent book out, "Travellers in the Third Reich" by Julia Boyd, and some of the stories in there are extreme.

I can recommend this as being a thoroughly readable book. It's something of an eye opener how people went along with what was happening in Nazi Germany. Not all, it must be said. There are some heartening stories of people who didn't.

[bellinisurge]

One of my fave books of last year @Peregrina

[BigChocFrenzy]

frumpety BJ is likely to lose his majority by EOY

Whether he lets No Deal happen or Revokes, I don't see his govt surviving long

That would require Labour to allow him to do so, for some reason
Hoey might support him, but difficult to think of another Labour MP who would

Either he calls a GE with Corbyn's agreement
at what he thinks is the best time for the Tories

• and it's difficult politically for any Opposition to refuse a GE without looking chicken
  
  or Corbyn calls and wins a VoNC,
  after which the HoC either chooses a new PP within 14 days,
  or there is a GE at a date the PM chooses - within reason, because he can't delay it very long

[tobee]

Thanks again for the meds answers!

Me too, @CrunchyCarrot! High five 🖐 for having a fucked thyroid!

I was asking because my local pharmacist told me back in March that my meds (including blood pressure lowering ones) were common so would be fine.

But kidney transplanted dh's immunosuppressants are probably less common but, I imagine more crucial.

And then I wondered about the wider question.

[woodpigeons]

What was being said about epilepsy drugs Hazard?
Also does anyone know anything about drugs for adhd like Ritalin. With them dgs has a chance of passing some GCSEs. Without them it will be difficult to even keep him in the classroom.
I don’t like talking about this as there’s so much talk about badly brought up kids being sedated, which they aren’t as it’s actually like speed to make neurotransmitters work better, and it was a very difficult decision to start him on them.
His paediatrician said he had the most clear cut case he’d ever seen. Could have had something to do with him escaping from the office and being pursued round the car park by me, DH, nurse and paediatrician.

[Lisette1940]

Also have a wonky thyroid here but not on meds at present.

Politics is so depressing atm.

[BigChocFrenzy]

Louise Ever since the USSR collapsed, Europe has seen that the US is much less interested in NATO as an organisation purely to protect its members

and instead keeps demanding that it support US interests outside the NATO area, in return for US defence in Europe

e.g. we saw this at the start of the Iraq war, when the US was furious that most EU countries (wisely) wouldn't join in that War For Oil & Profit

The move to a EU army has been super-charged by the behaviour of Trump,
who openly wants to destroy the EU, for trade reasons

Obviously unwise to depend on someone like this, basically an enemy

• he might block NATO being used, even in an emergency,
  unless the EU first surrender to his extreme demands on trade or joins action against Iran
  
  The proposed EU army is not an army in the conventional sense, replacing member armies
  
  The vast part of the member armies would stay as they are, not part of an EU army.
  
  It would have some brigades from the member countries and would be intended to deal with urgent military threats to EU interests, that might not be covered by NATO / the US
  
  e.g. a sudden war in the Balkans, where last time the US took months to get involved
  
• the US at the time said that Europe needed to organise itself to deal with "internal" threats

[frumpety]

Sorry BigChoc what's EOY ?

We keep getting told that the Parliament is mainly made up of Remain leaning MP's by Leavers , if that is the case then why would the opposition get rid of him if he revoked, unless they are mainly Brexiteers ?

[BigChocFrenzy]

"Could have had something to do with him escaping from the office and being pursued round the car park by me, DH, nurse and paediatrician."

Sorry, woodpigeon
it couldn't have been funny for you at all at the time, even if it proved your case

[BigChocFrenzy]

frumpety EOY = End of the year

"why would the opposition get rid of him if he revoked ?"

It would just be politics as usual, nothing to do with Brexit

The job of an Opposition is to defeat govt policies and to try to replace the govt if the opportunity presents itself
i.e. if they have the numbers to win a VoNC

A minority govt, not in a formal coalition, is always at some risk of being brought down

[borntobequiet]

PMK.
Stood at the bus stop yesterday waiting for the airport bus nearly in tears after the very nice hotel proprietor asked “Would you like to stay with us here in France?” when I checked out saying how awful things were here.
She referred to BJ as “fils de Trump”.

[yolofish]

just ordered that book, thank you for the recc.

I came up with a brilliant idea today to solve this Brexshit but unfortunately I've forgotten it now...

[frumpety]

So if he revoked, the opposition would automatically move to get rid of him because he has done what they wanted him to do ? Or is the opposition in favour of Brexit ?

[tobee]

Yes I like to know about adhd drugs too wood. Dd has just started taking Concerta.

I daresay lots of us will want to know about lots of drugs. Pretty much everything is up in the air, and for however long!

[LouiseCollins28]

The USA ask that NATO get involved in it’s curent or recent operations to provide additional legitimacy, that’s all. If you seriously think that there is anything the US military has done within the last 30 years with partners that it could not militarily have achieved alone (at the potential cost of a few more taxpayer $Billions and a few more American lives ) then you are delusional.

What the USA does do, at vast cost to it’s own taxpayers, is provide additional protection for Europe that European citizens won’t pay for. Thousands of American service personnel have been based in the UK for the last 70 years plus, in their interests yes, but in Europe’s too.

“Outside the nato area” is a nonsense, the United States military can project American power around the globe virtually at will, but the idea of it attacking Western Europe is absurd . All that’s left for the cheapskate Europeans is to thank God that they remain willing to absorb the cost we will not. If you doubt this, even for one second, take a trip to Maddingley Military Cemetery,

[Iambuffy]

Thanks misti I can feel my panic rising again and I'm usually the optimistic stoic type. It's terrible feeling like this. So powerless.

I can't imagine how awful this must feel if you already have MH problems :(

dark yes. Sums up how I feel too.

I'm back at the dr tomorrow to get my test results so 🤞

(tmi alert!) I'm having an IUD fitted this week and switching to a different hrt patch. (I always want to say IED which is a completely different thing obv...)

Hopefully, these patches will be available going forward!

I cannot take oral hormones as I'm a stroke risk.

My sister is having difficulty getting her hrt and diabetes tablets.

Mum hasn't had any issues...so far. If her heart meds become unavailable....well...they keep her alive...so...

Ds1 has been switched to a new inhaler. Let's hope that's available for a while!

Sigh.

What is this country doing???

Such a horrific act of self harm. Baffling.

[Oakenbeach]

...so if Boris did revoke, he would get to keep the top job or some other person would get it until 2022

Hardly.... If BJ revoked Article 50, I’m pretty sure enough Brexit-Ultras would join the Brexit Party, support a VONC and his Government would fall.

[ListeningQuietly]

Imperial March

[ListeningQuietly]

Hardly.... If BJ revoked Article 50, I’m pretty sure enough Brexit-Ultras would join the Brexit Party, support a VONC and his Government would fall.
Um
REality check
the Brexit party has no MPs

[HoneysuckIejasmine]

Thousands of American service personnel have been based in the UK for the last 70 years plus, in their interests yes, but in Europe’s too.

I would suggest then, that the benefits to the US of stationing troops across Europe outweigh what it costs them. If it didn't, they wouldn't be there. In fact RAF Fairford is about to receive a new US deployment, years after they left. Local businesses are thrilled, they felt the pinch when they left last time.

[Oakenbeach]

So if he revoked, the opposition would automatically move to get rid of him because he has done what they wanted him to do ? Or is the opposition in favour of Brexit?

Not even the LDs have a policy of revoking A50 before a referendum.... though if he did, I’m sure they would be delighted, but BJ would never do that though - that would be ridiculous.

[prettybird]

I suspect that the Brexit Party may soon have an MP, without fighting a single Parliamentary election: Kate Hoey might jump ship . She's shown she has no shame.

[Oakenbeach]

Reality check the Brexit party has no MPs

It soon would do if BJ revoked Article 50! What exactly do you think the likes of Mark Francois and Steve Baker would in the face of such a betrayal?

[ListeningQuietly]

Oaken
So they would switch party without a mandate

[ListeningQuietly]

Prettybird
Kate has been deselected locally
she could jump party
but she'll never get re elected in London