Westminstenders: Drain The Swamp

[RedToothBrush]

Johnson lost his first vote by 27.

The Commons take control again, and Johnson is now, with his majority gone, is seeking an election.

Whilst the feeling might be one of victory there is a definite sting in the tail.

Johnson has purged the party of 'trouble makers', meaning any replacements after an election are hard liners. And they will be in safe seats. Possibly many of which will be careerists parachuted in.

The party has split. The civil war is over.

Parliament has just lost some of its very best minds in the process. That bodes ill for us all in the long term. The polarisation has just jacked up a level. The centre has fallen even more.

There are no more moderates.

Polling suggests that Johnson won't be blamed for any of this and that's significant.

Take note of this tweet

Douglas Carswell @Douglascarswell
Boris Vs the political Parasites. Guess who wins across suburban Britain?

The optics are not about what you or I are seeing. Nor about what any of the politicial pundits are seeing.

The Democrats and the Media failed to see Trump coming... And this is what now concerns me. His optics are not bad with his core and targets.

Will Johnson be able to have his election?

If yes, I fear the polls look good for Johnson. People want 'Brexit over with' and don't want another extension. They may or may not understand the ramifications of that.

If no, then what? Johnson can do anything with his numbers. Does that mean potentially two governments and the Queen stuck in the middle? Or does he limp on, with no intention of doing anything but take us over the cliff by counting down the clock?

Or something else?

The Brexit Party and Conservatives now seem to have formally united one way or another. They have aligned with current politics alike the divided Opposition parties.

Tonight the penny might have dropped with a few Labour MPs too. They want May's deal to return. Its the only deal there is, in the absence of a Johnson plan and a Labour / Opposition plan. Too little too late...

This isn't going away as an issue either. Stoking up anger against the rebel alliance is a long term project for the fascist right.

Is tonight’s result a victory? Yes, but my fear is its potential to be a Pyrrhic Victory.

The battle today may have been won, but Johnson still looks set to win...

As usual, the UK may copy a mix of US, white Commonwealth & European ideas & strategies
Unfortunately, the absolute worst ones from each

Thats more or less what I'm expecting tbh.

And YOU get a budget increase! And YOU get a budget increase! EVERYONE gets a budget increase!!*

*Terms and exclusions apply. New government may not be bound by the statements of the old

"Compendium of meaningless platitudes" John McDonnell

I knew people working on Big Brother at the time.

Not enough is made of MC racism.

A lot of the MC people working on that programme didn't recognise racism/see it as a big deal.

Slightly off the point - but it bugs me.

They really didn't. And they were shell-shocked by the public reaction.

Johnson just claimed that Scotland has the highest taxes in Europe.

Just illustrates his priorities and perceptions . The very lowest earners pay less in Scotland than in England. It's the higher rate tax payers who pay more than in England (although when it came into force, the BBC was hard pushed to find even higher rate tax payers who were prepared to complain about it as they understood it paid for services ). So for example, someone earning £33,000 would pay a whole c£60 extra and someone earning £200k (which BlowJobCum probably thinks of as the minimum required to live on ) would indeed pay a c£3,200 more unless they'd worked out tax avoidance measures )

But he doesn't really care that it's a lie. It's the well-trodden Trumpian technique of stating a big lie that most people swallow unthinkingly and don't check.

Yep, Myriade we see the same bubble on completely different MN threads

• no idea of real deprovation and lack of hope or possibilities:

"everyone should have 3 / 6 months savings, sell some things to raise 2,000 quid, retrain to get a better job, get a 2nd job, count only half the childcare costs from your pay ....."

Includes telling skint people that they should be happy to pay for a licence to finance BBC programs that the educated mc want to watch.

Screenshot from then Parliament website. Looks here as though any bills waiting royal assent get given it as part of the prorogation process?

plucky underdog fighting the snobby smug elite

How the hell does Jacob Rees Mogg EVER end up in the ‘plucky underdog’ camp here? He epitomises snobby smug elite!

@EleanorScott - no problem

BJ is of course talking about those on high 6-figure incomes when he talks about the suffering taxpayer.

He & JRM don't know anyone poorer than that - except their servants

DarkatEnd The point is that these attitudes in the rest of the country have only developed as a result of the feelings generated by the media. These are people who were educated and worked alongside immigrants and taught and cared for them and indeed are from families who were part of successive waves of immigration, from Ireland, Eastern Europe as well as Asia, and never showed any sign of those attitudes in the past. I have stopped bothering now but every time one of these stories gets trotted out courtesy of the Daily Mail I have gone and researched it, not least because I really would like to find some evidence for the leaver narrative. The story about the doctors surgeries in Lincolnshire? Too many GPs retiring, problem of supply not a change in demand. The number of immigrants in prison? Can’t recall the exact figures but a fraction of what they perceived (and that was one of the ones where the Mail printed a tiny retraction) We can get back our fisheries was another one - it was the U.K. government who sold the quotas of to the big companies, including a high proportion to the Dutch, the EU made quotas the responsibility of individual countries precisely so they could protect their fishing communities. As you rightly say the media have not been called out for exploiting issues like these.

And though I don’t approve of Thatcher what her policies did was to create an economic model based on expanding the Service industries that sucked people into London from all parts of the country and different backgrounds. For a while jobs and professions that were the preserve of those with contra harses were being taken up by people from working class backgrounds and families where they had been first time buyers of a university education. That included in politics, Thatcher was not from privilege. London was socially mobile. For sure there were problems created by ripping people from traditional communities and their ethical and social frameworks, a materialistic culture that could in time lead to a Grenfall cheek by jowl with some of London’s most expensive properties but the people inside them did not necessarily get there by the route of a priviledged upbringing. That has not continued and privilege has now reestablished itself but if you look at London’s social make up outside the political elite it really isn’t that different to Leeds or Manchester.

Contradictory take on Labour's GE prospects:

Nick Boles MP
@NickBoles

10:24. 4/9/19. Twitter

'
Corbyn should learn from history. If Brown had called an election in Sept 2007, he would have won. By Oct, the honeymoon dust had worn off and it was too late. If Corbyn grants Johnson an Oct election, Johnson is odds on to win. By Nov, after an extension, he will be beatable.'

It is only in the UK that I have often heard the insult
"too clever by half"

The hard right in the UK - and the US - have successfully changed the culture war so that it is no longer haves vs have-nots,
which they could never win,
but smug clever dicks vs normal folk

That's why BJ coming across as bumbling and being outwitted by cleverer opponents just reinforces his core support

Very concerned that it’s all academic anyway. Conservative lords have really got the bitt between their teeth now and are organised to filibuster (spelling?). Which is even more outrageous than pro-rogation.

That's why BJ coming across as bumbling and being outwitted by cleverer opponents just reinforces his core support

To go back to what I said just now - how does JRM fit in this narrative? He’s arrogant, smug and superior

All that matters is he gets his slogans and catchphrases in for his Facebook campaign.

Just like Farage in the Euro Parliament. I remember one of the Green MPs saying quite often Farage would break out into some monologue or other with little or no relevance to what was being discussed which would then appear as a clip on YouTube/ Facebook where it looked like he was giving the EU a jolly good talking to.

Speaking of Farage is anybody else getting videos of him as push notifications from YouTube ?

I rarely use YouTube and have certainly never watched him on there but I’m getting probably one a day now.

I’ve manage to so far resist the urge to click but if it carries on like this I’m going to delete the app.

If you are arguing about affluent people living in bubbles that protect them from knowing what life is like for the disadvantaged then you will find even more extreme examples in the north than in London. Parts of the Wirral, Copthorne, Harrogate..... Almost every affluent area of Greater London has deprivation and homelessness on its doorstep that you have to make a choice to ignore or ascribe blame for.

I agree with Boles, that - probably - the longer a GE can be delayed, the better chance Labour have of winning it.

The only issue is how successfully the Tory media machine can portray this as "defying the people's willy" or whatever

However, if there is No Deal, the Tories would find it much tougher to win after the effects become noticeable to ordinary people,
After about 6-12 months, even Brexiters will be unable to ignore the effects

We'd hope that rest of the country would punish the Tories BUT - the weakness in the Lexiters argument for this -
BUT
if BJ is allowed a 5-year term, the hard right will take control of the narrative and blame Labour
They may also, like Orban, take over all the civil institutions and successfully exclude the Opposition from power

I cannot understand why Lexiters have so much faith that hard right Tories will play fair in 5 years
- or how they can accept all the suffering & deaths during that time^

All for Brexit and apparently the hardcore Lexiters join Tories in wanting No Deal if they can't have a unicorn

Emily it’s actually worse than that they try to excuse it or refuse to believe it.

My parents live in a well heeled suburb a couple of Big Issue sellers have appeared. My parents refuse to believe they are homeless because one of them has a mobile phone. How can you be homeless if you can charge a phone ?

The bubbles are certainly not just in London; it is a privilege thing, not a London thing

As I said before the longer JC holds off GE the better. Let the shit hit the fan then go in for the kill.

If you don't want to deal with a problem, e.g. poverty or climate change, because of the cost, or the political implications (more state control)

then the first steps are to vehemently deny the problem exists and demonise those who raise the issue

So it seems that Queen’s Consent (permission needed if bill affects prerogative) is very different to Royal Assent (last technical step of bill becoming law).

LOL I misread the Boles tweet!!!!

Yes. Agree, BigChoc.

And it isn't contradictory at all!

However, I feel it in my bones that Labour are going to go for the early election.

🤦‍♀️

BCF
"defying the people's willy"
Brilliant typo...!!