Westminstenders: Constitutional History

[RedToothBrush]

The Supreme Court case continues
(ruling possible Friday but likely Monday)

The new NI proposal is bollocks and Johnson didn't get why until it was discussed in Europe.

There was a press conference in Luxembourg which looks good for Johnson.

Johnsons approval ratings are up.

And we are making no obvious progress to anything but no deal...

But people just don't see what is in front of their eyes. Or they come up with an excuse / reason for it. All of the media should've drummed it home to show he's a liar. Not tried to get people to pile on to a man with a sick newborn. That's reprehensible.

I'm not sure it's war, to be fair.

It's a strong disagreement.

I'm in favour of Labour adopting an unambiguous Remain position but there are arguments in favour of that 'neutral until later' position - as has been debated to bits here.

It's genuinely a tough call.

I actually wish a mainstream paper would take the heat out of it, drop catchy headlines like 'War!!' & be honest.

It's a hard decision, with positives and negatives on all sides & no one easy solution.

Sorry , that last post was in response to the newspaper headline.

Honestly, we so deserve a press that de-pressurises politics where appropriate, doesn't add petrol to the flames in search of clicks, & takes the time to spell things out factually - assuming the reader is literate & interested enough to assimilate facts.
☹️

he IS a labour activist

And that's irrelevant.

Aren't Labour activists allowed to speak out.

What would have been news would have been if it was a Conservative activist.

Labour activist complains to PM about state of NHS is not news.
Conservative activist complains to PM about state of NHS is news. Because that would have been really unusual.

PM blatantly lying should be news. Unless it's what is normal now

Amy Siskind does a list of what's not normal in the USA since Trump became President. Maybe we should start the same here?

He is the parent of a very ill baby
all else is irrelevant

or do you drop the sins of the parents on the babies

The press (and other media) will always be hamstrung between emphasising what's the (moral) news story and selling papers. It should be possible to do both.

Similarly MPs have to decide what's representing their constituents and what's follow the party line. Listening to MPs who've recently defected or become independent know that it's likely to mean they will lose their jobs next election. I definitely don't think MPs shouldn't be paid but it can easily be a conflict with your duty if you're not scrupulous.

I'm so fed up with Brexit.

It has corroded everything.

It's been like an acid on our public life, our discourse & communication, on our interactions - and then you look at the economic harm. Already.

3 years.

It's too much. It really is.

tobee
My MP is a moderate in a marginal constituency
but their party want to replace them with a person truer to the party line
which will lose them the seat

the world has gone mad

I agree, thecat.

Oh, forgot to post this earlier, it's a non-reply (like the last non-reply) from my MP. He might as well have written 'blah, blah, blah.'

It's like people have thought "look at Trump! He's done what he likes/outrageous stuff/huge damage! We should do the same!" A race to the bottom of governments. Rather than "for god's sake let's not be anything like that!"

BJ knows better - he certainly wasn't a fan of Trump before the US elections
He savagely criticised Trump in 2015:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?feature=youtu.be&v=p4EAc0QFubs

"The only reason I wouldn't visit some parts of New York is the real risk of meeting Donald Trump."
.....
"I am genuinely worried that he could become president"

Anyone can have a brain fart / off day

The problem with LauraK is that the hospital incident was only one of a long string of occasions
on which she not only didn't do her job of holding the PM / govt to account, she actually helped them

She fawns on them, probably in order to get an "in" and advance her career, because she is then the one they choose for close access & interviews

e.g. her soft focus interview with BJ in Luxemburg after he ran away from a few dozen cross but peaceful UK expats

Bozo is like The Donald
neither is capable of hanging onto a thought once a new one has arrived
neither has any moral compass
neither has any loyalty to other than themselves

the UK has a tabloid press which fawns over such things
the USA has a tabloid press which looks no further than the state line

responsibility and hope now lie with the web companies
we are all doomed

I'm not convinced she's a Tory or Leaver:

If Corbyn passed a miracle and ended up PM, I expect she'd fawn over him - if he could get past the fact she helped his predecessor.

She's a suckup to whoever will advance her career and she thinks, like most of us, the Tories have a much better chance of being in office for the next few years

And in other great news, as Labour open their conference:

Opinium poll for The Observer:

CON-ECR: 37%
LAB-S&D: 22% (-3)
LDEM-RE: 17% (+1)
BREXIT-NI: 12% (-1)

+/- vs. 13 September 2019

Fieldwork: 19-20 September 2019
Sample size: 2,004
twitter.com/EuropeElects/status/1175497234735161344

Oooooooooh Jeremy Corbyn,
Wiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiind your neck in!

BigChoc
Laura is a Tory - her pre BBC track record shows that, and TBH its no real odds
I'm pretty sure she's not a leaver
BUT
she is enamoured with Bozo and has fallen into the "balance" mindset which is destroying the BBC newsroom

her job is to be critically central
and evidence based impartial
on that she has failed

I was thinking earlier about Boris Johnson (god help me) that as well as possibly being a narcissist he fits in with being ADHD. Having looked into ADHD recently, diagnosed people are often overweight because they are impulsive (about eating for eg) and the lack of attention to detail etc etc.

By the way, I myself score highly on ADHD inattentive type for what it's worth.

From tobee, entirely unqualified armchair psychiatrist.

OFGS.

If it had been Jeremy Corbyn himself that Johnson was stood in front of when Johnson said "There is no press here", it should STILL be front page news that Johnson felt that confident at gaslighting the entire world.

It's not even like a diary room moment, with Johnson having a brain fart where there was an illusion of privacy. The whole point of the hospital tour was it was a photo opportunity, same as getting his pic taken with police and army.

It is hugely newsworthy that our Prime Minister has (long?) passed the point of flat out lying to people's faces, when they and the whole world can see he's lying.

My daughter is not a baby nor was her life in danger but that gentleman’s reaction, labour activist or not, was measured and tactful compared to mine if Bozo had turned up with cameras after 6 days of her being on an orthopaedic ward with seven octogenarians of varying degrees of continence, wailing and shouting through the night, and even taking their clothes off. I had to see her in horrific pain because the staff were constantly battling just to meet the basic needs of patients with dementia as well as the message not having got from the operating theatre to the ward staff that this was a painful complex fracture and after 5 hours of surgery, countless pins and two plates so painful she was given Ketamine in recovery. The doctor on the ward prescribed only codeine. It was only my own experience of Cancer and that of friends I met on the Tamoxigang Cancer threads here that gave me the knowledge of the levels of pain relief they had available to advocate for adequate pain relief in the face of them trying to fob me off, but then she never actually got it until it was an hour overdue because they were so busy.

I am having fantasies of breaking his leg and making him stay on that ward for 6 days.....

This is no criticism of the staff, she had amazing treatment when heroism was needed, it is just that there are not enough of them, and you constantly have to stay on top of all the organisational processes to make sure you get the treatment you need. I was constantly wondering what would / could happen to someone who didn’t have someone who could advocate for them or was not able to advocate for themselves....

And his cameras would stay......

It could be on live feed ont’internet like Big Brother, except he wouldn’t get to be in charge of the propaganda machine for a change.....

emily having watched my mother die in extreme pain from an unsecured, unstable should/upper arm fracture which eventually resulted in dementia followed by pneumonia over 5 months of hospitalisation and NHS 'care'... I ABSOLUTELY hear you. I hope your little one is doing ok now.