Westminstenders: What hangs in the balance?

[RedToothBrush]

Yellow Hammer (and Black Swan if it exists) and other documents the government itself has produced are our truths and our evidence.

I look to Thomas Jefferson quotes in trying to defend liberal democracy.

His most famous of quotes is

Thomas Jefferson was the principal author of the Declaration of Independence. The Declaration states, “We hold these Truths to be self-evident, that all Men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness….”

Self evident truths. These are the bedrock of democracy.

There are many more quotes from Jefferson which talk about the shining beacon of truth and the threats to liberty from falsehoods and those who tell them.

He argued that when the power of the state is used to avoid scrutiny we should be worried and afraid. As a leader he should never be afraid of the truth, because the truth always exists and you can only merely hide it before it makes itself apparent anyway.

“The care of human life and happiness, and not their destruction, is the first and only object of good government.”

Today I feel the need to dust off old Jefferson for my own sanity and to remind myself of what matters. Jefferson helps me focus on dangers and how you fight back. It always comes back to exposure to the truth - how do you work to expose this (and the role of journalism in this)

Seek the truth. Talk the truth. Even if that means being self critical and humble in admitting your mistakes and errors.

It is not your identity as Leaver, Remainer, Tory, Labour, LDer, SNPer, woman, man, English, Northern Irish, Scottish, Welsh or European right now.

These identities are harming us, by making us look at the wrong thing rather than see the real danger facing us. They divide us whilst they conquer us.

What you should be focusing on NOW is your commitment to democracy in the face of someone in power actively and explicity saying the rule of law does not matter and the courts are wrong. That is advocating mob rule.

Johnson stood and said threats to MPs were humbug. And refused to moderate his language despite so many (mainly female) MPs saying the threats they received were extremely serious (remembering we've even had a prosecution for a plot to kill Rosie Cooper as well as other successful prosecutions for threats to MPs)

This is where we are at.

Focus on it.

No Deal Brexit and the future of liberal democracy in this country are indivisible and inseparable. They are entwined by the rule of law.

Brexit is NOT in of itself a threat to liberal democracy. It is HOW we leave that is.

I wish this was being said and emphasised concisely and cleanly.

Thinking about Dominic Cummings maybe one of his disadvantages is that he is unelected. Therefore hasn't learnt from personal experience of the rough and tumble of trying to be elected himself. It's one thing working it all out by computer modelling. Just because he was successful with the Leave campaign.

When BoZo was running for PM - my husband and I were discussing. He had read an article where one of his siblings (it was an old article) was quoted as saying that Bozo made their childhoods a misery. Unfortunately my husband for the life of him can't remember where he read it.
But you can see it in his behaviour as an adult , no regard for anyone but himself, lies to get himself out of trouble, is spiteful and vindictive.....

I don't think you not know what self aware means Cendrillon.

Re Tory party buyers regret. The amount of callers to Any Answers on the BBC would suggest no matter what BJ does Corbyn would be worse in their minds.

Best to hope for is that they don’t vote. Just because they don’t like him won’t stop them voting Tory in some cases.

Bit of Mike Glasworthy, in case anyones been getting withdrawal symptoms ....

www.facebook.com/scientistsforeu/videos/3111952288877302/?notif_id=1569505844277927&notif_t=live_video

* obvious unintended "not" in my above post

@CendrillonSings
I am a remainer - have voted Tory in the past( probably right if center). I am just as scared of the far right as the far left .
I don't believe anything excuses our current PM's behaviour....... but maybe because he's not mine? Your argument reminds me of mums in the playground who will victimise a child who makes one, but endlessly excuse their child's appalling behaviour as "it's just what boys do", "it's high spirits", and many other tropes I have had trotted out to me...... yes I know your type.... take responsibility for your shit

I don't think you not know what self aware means Cendrillon.

This is getting a bit too meta for my tastes, tobeeornottobee!

I know a fair few Tory remain voters, none of them would consider voting for Corbyn.
Some will vote Lib Dem, some are so concerned about Corbyn they will probably still vote Tory.

My MP replied.

He gets death threats too...so there.

Daily Fail reporting Survation survey putting Cons only 3% above Lab, not enough for a majority.
BJ hardass tactics may well solidify the base, but the base won’t win an election.
He is using Trump tactics, but UK electorate v different from US.
I don’t think it will work, but we shall see.

Thinking about Dominic Cummings maybe one of his disadvantages is that he is unelected.

He's also a little bit too obsessed with the shiny. No problem in itself, we all need to keep abreast of the modern world (your honour ). The problem is it can lead you to tunnel vision and to ignore the wider - and older picture. I can't help but feel the complete ignorance of the implications of the FTPA falls into that category. Specifically the way it's been used against Boris in a novel and unprecedented (because it's a novel and unprecedented piece of law) to deny him the election he was banking on.

I can see Cummings being totally up to speed on every experimental Facebook feature and how to use multiple Tweetdecks whilst Instagramming his Whatsapp, and not knowing where the HoC loos are.

Hopefully you saw my correction of my typo in my next post Cendrillon

Trump tactics aren't working that well in the USA either.
His base still love him but wealthier suburban mums in traditionally red areas in particular are getting steadily more put off.
The Dems if they pick a centrist candidate would have a good chance in those areas and it was enough for congress.

McDonnells comments about Liz Truss were way out of order
BUT
She's had to admit AGAIN that her department enables the murder of Yemeni civilians
against UK law
www.theguardian.com/politics/2019/sep/26/truss-admits-uk-breached-court-order-banning-arm-sales-to-saudis-again

I live with an erstwhile Tory voter who intends spoiling his paper in the next GE. After voting blue for 44 years, he can’t contemplate voting any other way, equally he says he won’t vote for Johnson as long as there’s a hole in his arse.

The Brexiter No Dealers won't have weakened an iota in their support for him
To be exact: not for him personally, but for him as a tool to get what they want
(If he caved in meekly to the extension, they would turn on him savagely)

I suspect he is losing support from those of the moderate left & centre who previously fell for the bumbling idiot charm,
e.g. must have been quite a number of those in London

Then there are some Tories who are disgusted
..... but some of them will still vote for him. Because. Bogeyman Corbyn. Or whoever else became Labour leader & hence became the bogeyman.

BUT
listening There are no acceptable buts with violent language, particularly when directed against women.
Both sides just need to apologize and stop it.

equally he says he won’t vote for Johnson as long as there’s a hole in his arse.

That seems an unreasonable reason to take objection to a politician!

This is in my general field, by one of the most respected statistical genetics research groups in the world - caveat, it's not peer reviewed yet. It's been around for about a year, surprised it hasn't made waves outside the field.

www.biorxiv.org/content/biorxiv/early/2018/10/30/457515.full.pdf

Abstract:
Human DNA varies across geographic regions, with most variation observed so far reflecting distant ancestry differences. Here, we investigate the geographic clustering of genetic variants that influence complex traits and disease risk in a sample of ~450,000 individuals from Great Britain. Out of 30 traits analyzed, 16 show significant geographic clustering at the genetic level after controlling for ancestry, likely reflecting recent migration driven by socio-economic status (SES). Alleles associated with educational attainment (EA) show most clustering, with EA-decreasing alleles clustering in lower SES areas such as coal mining areas. Individuals that leave coal mining areas carry more EA-increasing alleles on average than the rest of Great Britain. In addition, we leveraged the geographic clustering of complex trait variation to further disentangle regional differences in socio-economic and cultural outcomes through genome-wide association studies on publicly available regional measures, namely coal mining, religiousness, 1970/2015 general election outcomes, and Brexit referendum results.

He is using Trump tactics, but UK electorate v different from US.

Also the constituency system can throw up some oddities ...

I do hope everyone has returned their electoral registration forms - online, by SMS or by post ....

You have to be alert to how things change, how one danger collapses and is replaces by another

Back in the 1960s and 1970s, I thought the hard left a greater danger than the hard right
Now it is by far the hard right

Since the USSR fell, there is very little outside support for the hard left in the UK
Russia supports the hard right, as do the same US oligarchs who transformed the GOP to hard / far right

The communist magazine Marxism Today is an illustration of this change:
bought up by the far right and now spewing out far right propoganda instead of far left

It is the UK hard right that now declare openly that they want to tear down entire British institutions, to destroy everything

They are nihilists
And it still staggers me that a Conservative party, of all things, could be talen over by nihilists

So what happened with the 1922 committee? Why did Johnson meet with them? Just to go "huzzah!"?

And it still staggers me that a Conservative party, of all things, could be talen over by nihilists

I suspect a little dig into newspaper/media archives will return at least two prominent Tories asserting that could never happen to the Tory party. At which point it was probably inevitable.

Remember the Titanic was unsinkable.