Westminstenders: Charge!!!!

[RedToothBrush]

Half a league, half a league,
Half a league onward,
All in the valley of Death
Rode the six hundred.
“Forward, the Light Brigade!
Charge for the guns!” he said.
Into the valley of Death
Rode the six hundred.

“Forward, the Light Brigade!”
Was there a man dismayed?
Not though the soldier knew
Someone had blundered.
Theirs not to make reply,
Theirs not to reason why,
Theirs but to do and die.
Into the valley of Death
Rode the six hundred.

Cannon to right of them,
Cannon to left of them,
Cannon in front of them
Volleyed and thundered;
Stormed at with shot and shell,
Boldly they rode and well,
Into the jaws of Death,
Into the mouth of hell
Rode the six hundred.

Flashed all their sabres bare,
Flashed as they turned in air
Sabring the gunners there,
Charging an army, while
All the world wondered.
Plunged in the battery-smoke
Right through the line they broke;
Cossack and Russian
Reeled from the sabre stroke
Shattered and sundered.
Then they rode back, but not
Not the six hundred.

Cannon to right of them,
Cannon to left of them,
Cannon behind them
Volleyed and thundered;
Stormed at with shot and shell,
While horse and hero fell.
They that had fought so well
Came through the jaws of Death,
Back from the mouth of hell,
All that was left of them,
Left of six hundred.

When can their glory fade?
O the wild charge they made!
All the world wondered.
Honour the charge they made!
Honour the Light Brigade,
Noble six hundred!

Michael Spicer on L I Z T R U S sss

twitter.com/MrMichaelSpicer/status/1158299023981387776

That was for the question of Proroguing Parliament btw.

So we are on Hong Kong's side
I give it till Friday.

Cheerer upper from the Ian Dunt.
tldr
'Methinks the brexistry do protest too much.'
Dunt could be wrong; he could be right.
The psy ops bit has more than a grain of truth though.
(including fake polls with deliberately mis leading grammar errors)
Heads up Westminstenders.
ttps://www.politics.co.uk/blogs/2019/08/13/psychological-warfare-over-no-deal-masks-a-strategic-vulnera

she must work with Corbyn
New idea for a magic grandpa tribute band.
Plotless Trots and the Sexist Imperatives

Agree that Hong Kong looks terrible, I wonder if we'll go along with Trump seeing as Johnson seems to be rapidly getting even closer to him and side with HK against the Chinese?

Big decision, but we know that Johnson is easily led by the 'big boys'

@Frankiestein402 thanks for that.

You would have hoped research briefings such as that should have been carried out prior to referendum.

I'm not sure us being seen to "side" with anyone re: HK is helpful. We gave up any right to pontificate about the status of HK at handover IMO.

"One Country Two Systems" was supposed to last from 1997 - 2047, the idea that this was credible is laughable and the more fool the UK government for falling for it back then.

Sorry, just to clarify, what I think I meant was the idea that HK would go from 1997 to 2047 without seeing increased influence from China and a change in its status was laughable, that "One Country, 2 systems" would just endure 'til 2047 with no change.

Also, just seen this absolute pearl of a line in a John Denman article about Englishness! I usually don't care for his boilerplate stuff about Englishness but this line stood out a mile for me. Among "English" identifying voters,

"Nine out of 10 think it is important that a political party stands up for English interests, but nearly half can’t identify one that does."

www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/aug/13/english-nationalism-brexit-remain-and-reform

Our new borders...

20% of the population are over 55.

41% of the population voting BXP or Con is about right.
84% of the UK population live in England so thats not far off either

What its showing is the Don't Knows are in the younger age groups and in the regions. And they are very unlikely to vote BXP or Con.

Doesn't bode well for the future....

I'm not sure us being seen to "side" with anyone re: HK is helpful. We gave up any right to pontificate about the status of HK at handover IMO.

I think when we say 'sides' its refering to whether you think its ok to slaughter your civilians to regain authority.

Personally I am not on that side, and do think that we are allowed to be critical of violence by the state or the threat of violence by the state against its civilians.

Do you think we should sit on the fence about that Louise?

Because thats what you in effect are saying.

International condemnation of such actions - particularly from the US - had an impact on how willing authoritarian states are to actually carry out such actions. It hasn't stopped them completely, but its made states at least think twice.

China pretty much has a green light from the US this time.

China pretty much has a green light from the US this time.

Once the slaughter of civilians to regain authority is internationally accepted as the norm in China what then?

We have climate change concerns and a massive global population.

No I don't think that's OK personally, my point is whether it is helpful or otherwise for my government to say this.

I don't think we "should" just sit by, just like I don't think we should have been sat on the side lines while the "breadbasket of Africa" in Zimbabwe descended into a basket case. I'm just not sure we have much choice.

My point is that I'm not sure any intervention from the UK is helpful. The US can throw its weight around undiplomatically if it choses to because it is economically and militarily more powerful than any adversary, we cannot.

Wasn't Hunt going to send gunboats to the South China Sea before he was given the push? This is assuming we have any spare - what with them being needed in the Strait of Hormuz.

20% of the population are over 55.

2011 census shows 34.3% of adults are 55 or over. Presumably it'll be higher now.

Adjust that to take account of the normal much higher election turnout for older people and that '41.4% over 55' starts to look entirely representative of actual voters if not of the UK population.

Depressing

I wonder how many of those wanting Parliament prorogued for No Deal simply want it all to be over, so that we can go back to "normal"

Of all the possible outcomes, No Deal is the one that would prolong this Brexit misery the longest,
because it would be our Year Zero:

we would have to (try to) negotiate new trade deals with almost everyone, but from a position of weakness that everyone would know about and exploit

• Sterling crashing, business investment staying crashed (already only 3% of its pre-ref value), losing more contracts to businesses abroad, balance of payments crisis .....

Some countries won't even start negotiating until they see the outline of our future trading relationship with the EU

.... and then there are all the months of the UK refusing to accept the EU preconditions, so we won't even be able start negotiating the future deal with them

and we would have to build up our own agencies to replace the EU ones we would no longer belong to

It would probably take 10-15 years to get most of this done
All trying to catch up to the benefits we had as an EU member

There is widespread belief that No Deal is a "clean break" and a "Reset button" for talks
So wrong

I wonder how many of those wanting Parliament prorogued for No Deal simply want it all to be over, so that we can go back to "normal"

I was having this exact same thought at the time you posted, BCF. Spooky!

I think there's more than a small chunk of people thinking that. Somebody needs to be banging this drum too.

@RedToothBrush

That ComRes poll meant that in the original sample the over 55’s was 21% once the DKs were removed that went up to 41%.

65% of the DK’s were women.

It’s almost as if they were looking for a specific answer.

I also note they are not shouting from the rooftops the fact that in the same poll 68% of people are worried about an increase in the cost of living in the case of a ‘no deal’ Brexit.

belated PMKing

18.2% of the population is above age 65 and this is expected to grow to 20.7% by 2027.

www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/populationandmigration/populationestimates/articles/overviewoftheukpopulation/november2018

So the Government has to decide the following:

Spend shit loads in a no deal (including compensating companies for their no deal stance).

Spend shit loads in a second referendum (to compensate companies for their no deal stance)

No Deal = Ideology politics

It's hard to escape the conclusion the government has abandoned all sense, and is itself expecting a miracle to underwrite all it's promises.

I wonder what our grandchildren will think of us saddling them with this legacy ? At least the generations of the 50s and 60s knew their ancestors had fought a war which explained their austerity. But explaining to children that they're growing up poorer than us because we decided to (a) bail out the banks, and (b) piss economic stability away for a blue passport doesn't sound quite so grand.

PMK wearily. Thanks Red.

@DGR
I often ponder to myself if the Government would ruthlessly pursue a No Deal Brexit if it was a manifesto promise with no referendum attached, after all the ‘Dementia Tax’ got dropped pretty sharpish.