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.

To get an extension, either a GE or second referendum already has to be definitely happening. The EU27 will not take Johnson's word for it. So how will this work, logistically, given that Parliament has legislated that it must be sitting on 31 Oct, but it is prorogued for a GE?

Can we ask for an extension really early?

Don't forget to keep looking after our own mental health in all of this. It's important that we take breaks from the worry and planning, so that whatever storms are coming we are as robust mentally and physically as we can be.

That means getting out in nature, taking walks, watching daft netflix, meeting friends and having fun. When I think about my grandparents who lived in nazi occupied Europe and who survived horrendous experiences, one thing that helped them through it, to retain a sense of who they were was to enjoy the little things, to laugh, to have fun.

Easier said than done, but we need to be resilient.

He wants one before no deal and ideally one that gives him a working majority that allows him to put two fingers up to the DUP and the hardest ERG hardliners. Hence the huge campaign spending using public funds and with no electoral commission supervision (because we're not having an election - yet).

This makes a lot of sense. Would he be likely to get that majority? What is the soonest a GE can be scheduled for?

Sometimes I love twitter lol

I wonder how long it will be before public servants are required to take an oath to Brexit (as Farage "suggested" a while back).

www.theneweuropean.co.uk/top-stories/nigel-farage-on-the-civil-service-and-military-1-6154703

I guess it makes sense (and as we're being told constantly, Boris is no fool) to roll it into the oath schoolchildren could be required to recite at the start of school (one of the Trumpsters initiatives for "territory UK") ?

Trivially easy to roll in to the UK citizenship process. And presumably, as passports are renewed, easy to add a paragraph to the form - probably incorporated into the statutory declaration.

Refusing to recognise dual nationality will probably feature after October - after all, who needs anything other than UK citizenship anyway ?

While benefits are available (because they're going, believe you me) it's also a simple form to sign to back Boris' Brexit.

All sound a bit far fetched ? Can anyone honestly say it's any more far fetched than if someone had outlined where we are today back in 2016 ????? Because I can't.

Will all the talk of money from Boris, he's building up a narrative of how wonderful life will be now we're getting out of the EU. And he is relying on the Great British Public to become Damascene converts to Brexit - his Brexit - when reality creeps in and all that lovely lolly looks like it's being denied thanks to the wicked EU.

Boris ? Revoke ? What idiot even spelled that ? He is doing the exact opposite. He's building a hell-for-leather environment that can't fail to swing behind no deal. While what's left of the Remain side - still clinging to yesterdays politics - argue over fonts and spelling.

Has anyone seen the new design of stamps and notes yet ? What picture of Boris did they work from ?

ohyoubadbadkitten yes. I half wrote something simular sentiment this morning but got distracted so didn't finish it - you put it better anyway!

Yay! Glad I came to catch up on this thread this morning. Good way to start the week.

Humankind cannot bear very much reality.

The only thing remain has got going for it is the Tory lack of majority.

Trivially easy to roll in to the UK citizenship process. And presumably, as passports are renewed, easy to add a paragraph to the form - probably incorporated into the statutory declaration.

As far as NI is concerned, that breaks the GFA. However, they might try. May's Government tried advertising some NI jobs for British Citizens only - this was quickly spotted and the job adverts had to be pulled.

Thanks Red

I'm another one concerned about supplies of diabetic and thyroid meds. Also high-dose Vit D.

And I'm horrified at the implications of Dorries in Health and Social Care. Her brief nursing career ended in 1981.

As far as NI is concerned, that breaks the GFA

How ? It's just a sentence that the signatory agrees to abide by the laws and decisions of the United Kingdom and it's elected government. No deal Brexit being one of those decisions, and therefore something you are required to abide by.

What specific clause or term would it break.

Don't think normally. Think abnormally. Things start making sense.

My understanding of the GFA is that people in NI are entitled to both Irish and British citizenship. To say that only British Citizenship is recognised would break this.

Don't forget, whatever happens will magically be What Leavers Knew They Were Voting For. Rolling back of citizens' rights, restrictions on women's reproductive rights, ripping up of environmental standards, (job losses, failing businesses, the collapsed £ already old news), you name it, they knew they were voting for it because What Price Sovereignty and Something BlitzSpirit.

Whilst, simultaneously, it's all Project Fear Fake News and hasn't happened. And, simultaneously, it's all stuff that would be happening anyway and not because of Brexit.

All sound a bit far fetched ?

Yes. It does. So do a lot of things you write (anticipating calls for the children of Remainers to be taken away, for example) that seem designed to terrify people and upset those who are already struggling with Brexit-related stress. Maybe I’m hiding my head in the sand about some things, but the measures you’ve outlined above seem pointless, so I don’t think any government, however authoritarian, would bother.

I'm glad it didn't look out of place Hazard.

I'd never be employed with JRM, I'm hopeless with commas.

And, simultaneously, it's all stuff that would be happening anyway and not because of Brexit.

And again that 80% of people voted for parties which supported Brexit, but that our elected HoC is made up of Remainers, who apparently lied when they stood for election.

Should I be ordering in my Vit D now?

J R-M wouldn't be able to employ himself, if the evidence of the book he wrote is a sample.

ohbad I'm considering my bad grammar, bad proof reading and shit spelling to be an act of resistance

@wheresmymojo agree 100%.

Re advertising rules and elections. Until an election is called, they can send whatever propaganda they want. Once called there is a six week purdah period for party political stuff.

The referendum was not an election so the same rules did not apply.

Yes. It does. So do a lot of things you write (anticipating calls for the children of Remainers to be taken away, for example) that seem designed to terrify people and upset those who are already struggling with Brexit-related stress. Maybe I’m hiding my head in the sand about some things, but the measures you’ve outlined above seem pointless, so I don’t think any government, however authoritarian, would bother.

Did you see the bit about Farage suggesting police, army and civil servants should purged of Remainers ? I didn't make that up, Farage hasn't disowned it, and it's entirely possible Boris might have to do a deal with Farage for the next GE that requires it.

Over the past three years, I have borne witness to two competing directions of prediction. One going back, saying "this won't happen, that won't happen, and no one is talking about the other", versus one which suggests "this will happen, that will happen, and the other is certainly on the cards". And from what I can recall, the country has almost invariably gone the worst possible way.

So rather than lighting candles and wishing the bad thoughts away with vague hopes "it could never come to that", I think trying to envisage the worst possible outcome - guided by the dead hand of history - is a valid response to current events.

Of course my entire world view has been coloured by having a DF who grew up under Mussolini, and who was told tales by his DF and DM about how it came to pass, and how they got through it.

Labours problem - which has become the countries problem - is that as a party they appear to think we're playing an old-school 1980s/1990s game of politics (which they failed miserably at then, too). They are too entrenched in the old failed system and have invested too much in it (sunken costs fallacy) to wake up and smell the coffee.

This is the Brave New World. (Neither brave, nor new). Centuries of unwritten tradition and protocol are being swept away without a murmur.

If the UK was a machine - and I suspect that's how some Tories see it - then like all pieces of industrial machinery, it will have guards and safety mechanism to protect the operators. And those guards and safety mechanisms are slowly being neutralised, removed, or ignored "because Brexit". And while you may be correct in not fearing what this government is doing with all the powers it's slowly giving itself, there is no answer to my fear of what the next government will do with them.

Re advertising rules and elections. Until an election is called, they can send whatever propaganda they want. Once called there is a six week purdah period for party political stuff.

Rules can be changed.

Not sure if this has been shared already
www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/brexit-no-deal-northern-ireland-direct-rule-dominic-raab-boris-johnson-a9024801.html?utm_medium=Social&utm_source=Facebook&fbclid=IwAR0LmBL_hOJKP81A_c7VDfD6Iza069HngD17JKM_AFVdh7hcvvWUdCliJZE#Echobox=1564386597
No-deal Brexit: Government planning for direct rule in Northern Ireland, foreign secretary admits

I wonder how long before the government is having ‘direct rule’ with no parliament over the whole of the U.K....

DG it wouldn't surprised me if BJ asks civil servant to take an oath on Brexit. He has already basically asked that form conservatives MPs.
And he has blamed civil servants many times about the failure of Brexit, on the grounds it was because they were all remainers....
So...

Of course rules can be changed. I was simply explaining the current position for those unfamiliar.

Russell T Davies anticipated dramatised how "easy" the descent into authoritarian, corrupt, populist government could be in "Years and Years". And the gran articulated painfully well in her diatribe how it was our fault. We allowed it

In "Years and Years" it does end hopefully (in the true sense of the word ) with the "people" rising up successfully against it all - but it finishes with a warning about the supposed jokers who can con us with their smiling faces as they drag us back down again to suit their agenda