Westminstenders: "He's in trouble". No he's not.

[RedToothBrush]

All day I've seen nothing but comments and tweets about he Johnson is in trouble and he's losing it.

They are wrong. He's far from done.

Take a step through the Looking Glass and the world looks different.

Those tweeting and reporting all care about events and are following closely. They are unrepresentative of the population as a whole who don't give two shiny shits.

And so we have the Trump dynamic.

The Liberal elite of broadcasters and journalists who are only seeing through the lens of their own judgement, not from the repackaged marketing.

Instead they are unwittingly publishing the images and slogans in the format Johnson wants and enter the minds of the public as planned.

The media are out of step with perceptions. And that's worrying. They don't see what's coming.

Johnson will have an election at some point. With the Tory party cleansed of moderates it is the Brexit Party one way or another, whether it be by takeover or coalition. And its riding high in the polling.

Even though even his brother has abandoned him, the future looks positive for Johnson as his opponents have a complete lack of self awareness and no understanding of the opposition they are taking on; they are campaigning in a way that plays into the hands of Johnson.

Despite his lack of majority and apparently absence of plan or speech notes, the biggest mistake you can make now is to write off Johnson.

You do so at your own peril.

Pay close attention to how authoritarians work and what's already happened in the US. We are on course to repeat it.

Boris Johnsons's article on the use of burkas – it wasn't racist, it was a nuanced defence of liberalism

No it wasn't. It was dog-whistle racism dressed up in phony erudition, just like Enoch Powell.

Tim Bell died recently. He was the wizard of the dark arts who transformed our politics. His heirs don't hae a clue. So far we've had chickens, girls blouses, 'he must be Caracas,' and een accusations of being a 'Bennite.' (Invoking the spectre f the 80s didn't work for May. Dragging up the 70s is hardly a better strategy.)

Polls no longer work. I'll predict a shift in the usual demographic. The young are become more and more politically engaged, and the old are increasingly like Brenda from Bristol and fed up with the whole thing.

The election result will be a mess. What it won't be is a Tory majority.

The above is contingent on Labour + close alignment with the EU (doesn't apply if no deal)

I sort of agree with the more optimistic posts: BJ-Cummings et al are not invincible.

But it's really important that we're highly realistic about what their game is, and what their endgoals are, and where people in the country are at. Otherwise we've not only lost before turning up but, as RTB said, we're doing their work for them.

A big thanks to Red & Co for keeping these threads going - I read but don't post much.

1st why is there no focus on B Johnson's other advisor, Sir Edward Lister. Is it because Cummins is not of their type & therefore expendable? Cummings is the attack dog with Sir Edward as the leash holder.

Second - The ideas mooted around Labours RTB seem to be more like the Right To Acquire extension. Where the tenant is able to get a tax payer subsidy to buy a property - not necessarily the property they are currently living in. The devil will be in the detail.

www.heraldscotland.com/news/17884524.nicola-sturgeon-wins-award-brexit-crucial-voice-reason/

NICOLA Sturgeon has won an award from a group of 100 European print media editors for her “responsible and ethical stance against Brexit and for being “a crucial voice of reason” in the debate over Britain’s exit from the EU.

(contd)

Songsofexperience : I'd rather be poorer in a prosperous fairer country than marginally better off in a hell hole.

Hear, hear. This 100%

I wrote something similar but much less eruditely in the last thread (or was it the one before or the one before that, they're moving so fast ? ).

Sad that the point has to be made: what sort of society have we become

*@Basilpots- that’s dreadful- just shows how dangerous it is for members of the general public to shit themselves off from the news.

Mind you it’s what BJ and his cronies are banking on.

What America is promising ...

www.theguardian.com/politics/2019/sep/05/uk-advised-to-recruit-former-drug-dealers-if-marijuana-is-legalised

Former drug dealers should be recruited and trained to produce safe, legal cannabis if the UK decides to legalise marijuana, the head of an American programme overseeing the sale of the narcotic has urged.

(contd).

Considering the Mails stance on anything to do with the "C" word, you'd think they'd be all over this. Never was hypocrisy so naked.

PMK. Have to work, will catch up later.

US Vice President, Mike Pence: “The President told me today that when Brexit is complete we will begin negotiations for a free-trade agreement, right-away. Our message is clear: the minute the UK is out, the US is in.”
www.wsj.com/articles/the-trade-wars-winners-dont-include-us-11567636887
The US agriculture sector is struggling their exports are down. They need a new market and fast. Trump has an election looming.

Uk deviating from EU food regulation rules will mean EU will have to enforce a hard border to protect the single market. Hence Johnson’s visit to Ireland to try and encourage an all Ireland food zone.

Do we know who has the stronger voice in Congress those who will protect the farmers or those who will protect the GFA.

I wanted to ask...is the “dead in a ditch” a common figure of speech in English? I never heard it before but English is not my native language. I’m afraid it sticks very well, as a slogan, it has all the traits of a sentence that impress (good alliteration!) and it is also the only sentence in the speech that he said with a convinced tone. Firm voice, no blabbering, right body language. Everything else was an epic fail but most people might never see it :-(

Weary pmk

Sudden jump in visitors. Wonder why? I thought that too, Prettybird.

I wanted to ask...is the “dead in a ditch” a common figure of speech in English?

it's Boris showing off how clever he is, and deliberately channelling Churchill, who know how to use English to maximum effect ... if you listen to Churchills most famous (and evocative) speeches, you'll see he used almost exclusively Anglo-Saxon words from the English palette.

"Dead in a Ditch" has the same structure, rhythm and base simplicity.

Arguably it's linguistic discrimination - almost like "tuning in" to a certain demographic.

I think Shakespeare also used a similar mechanism - switching between full-fat English, and "English-lite" for impact.

None of which will mean anything to 90% of the country, thanks to our pisspoor teaching of our own language.

I wonder if it's something that would work in the US so easily ?

Our message is clear: the minute the UK is out, the US is in.”

It's becoming clearer everyday. The UK is the scene of a proxy trade war between the US and the EU... AND WE'LL BE THE TURKEYS THAT GET STUFFED FOR XMAS.
(Sorry if my posts are a bit crude this morning 😁 I'm slightly fed up)

It’s also fair to mention propaganda is not just been targeted through Facebook.

Have I noticed lots of questions on YouGov asking about my media preferences. Yes.

Have I noticed the sudden influx of ‘soft’ Tory ex aides on the podcasts I listen to trying to albeit subtly persuade me that the Tory Party needs to remain a ‘broadchurch’ . Yes. Am I convinced. No.

Depressed PMK. Red as usual no doubt hits the nail on the head with that op. It's alarming how many people just don't want to listen to reason. It's far too late for that now.

I'd rather be poorer in a prosperous fairer country than marginally better off in a hell hole.

Abso-fucking-lutely. The proposed transfer of ownership from landlord to tenant is just a suggestion I think, not likely ever to work and certainly never going to get passed when wealth equals power. Odd how the sheer outrage - and the public acknowledgement at that outrage - at the suggestion was not matched by similar outrage whenever public ownership is offered to private buyers for sale. At some point private landlords have to start looking at themselves and recognising that the person who is paying for something - and that is the tenant, not the landlord - should have the right to own it. I'm fed up with all the excuses landlords have to justify their leverage of wealth over poorer groups.

Meanwhile ...

I'd rather be poorer in a prosperous fairer country than marginally better off in a hell hole.

Better to rule in hell than serve in heaven.

@Basilpots ... Brexitcast?

@cherin I'm English and this song is the only place I remember hearing the expression.

At the moment, Johnson's pitch seems to be very much to a working class potential Brexit Party demographic who might perhaps vote Tory. He does need to remember that many middle class people vote Tory, and I really would like to see how throwing out Ken Clarke and Nicholas Soames plays in those areas which haven't been infested with ex-UKIPers.

cherin, yes, it's a very common figure of speech. But I fear you're right that it was carefully chosen.

It's particularly horrible because there was indeed an MP who died, Jo Cox: she was murdered by an anti-immigrant, far-right extremist at the height of the Brexit campaign's "swamped by immigrants" rhetoric.

I really hope Johnson's use was in no way a reference to that.

I value other things more (see leavers, it's not all about the money for remainers either!). I'd lose out personally under a Corbyn government BUT to me it boils down to this:
I'd rather be poorer in a prosperous fairer country than marginally better off in a hell hole.

Living in a non-caucasian family of lib dem members, with considerable amounts to lose under JC/labour policy, I would still vote labour if it meant we remain or WA...as we are in a lib dem enclave, I won't be called upon to prove it but I have moved that far.