Westministenders: Conference Cult

[RedToothBrush]

Is it over yet?

The Tory Party Conference is in full swing in the Manchester Rain, and is proving to be its usual fun.

Johnson is caught up in all sorts of allegations of abuses of power - the non-declaration of his "friendship" to a busty blonde whom was getting a large tax payer grant, and then there the Odey question after his sister said he was under the control of the Hedge Funders.

And thats before we talk about the 40 hospitals, his provocative language and how many times he can say the word surrender.

There is lots of distancing from Lyton Crosby. And accusations that Johnson has gone 'rogue' only listening to the wisdom of Cummings and Symonds.

The Queen apparently has asked for advice as to under what circumstance she can dismiss a PM.

AND NO ONE IS EVEN TALKING ABOUT A DEAL.

The UK belief all along has been that Germany will force the others to agree to cake, because cars ....

and ever since the NI border became an issue, Brexiters have been trying to bully out Ireland,
e.g. by threatening to starve them of food & meds via the landbridge

and also assuming that Germany would bully Ireland, because cars ....

Brexiters really had no strategy for a deal other than this;
even those who didn't originally want No Deal, now feel they can't back down and admit how bad it would be.

So Boris Johnson, as we suspected, wants No Deal, because he's got to keep his Hedge Fund managers sweet, but WILL blame the EU.

How in heaven, do we get out of this mess? Even ordinary Leavers are fed up with it all, never mind Remainers, and if there was a real attempt to sort out the UK's problems, most would quite happily forget about the EU again.

I know I had to read it twice and check it wasn’t a spoof.

Has anyone got a subscription to the long version much as I enjoy and appreciate Peter Foster I refuse to get a Telegraph subscription.

Indeed Peregrina. All this comes from blaming the EU for the UK's internal strategies of making the rich richer and destroying the state.

Hint: You can't destroy society without destroying society. You can't destroy the economy (i.e. remove the public infrastructure backbone) without destroying the economy. And, unfortunately: you cannot destroy the state without destroying the state.

On the subject of which:

Ivan Rogers: the realities of a no-deal Brexit

https://blogs.spectator.co.uk/2019/09/ivan-rogers-the-realities-of-a-no-deal-brexit/

If ‘no deal’ happens, the day to day consequences – malign or benign – will inevitably drown out all else in the news for months.

No developed country will have done anything analogous in several generations, let alone by choice.

But this ought, nevertheless, to be secondary. The primary issue is our medium-long term destination.
....
well-run businesses will, inevitably and correctly, (and rapidly, because the expected transition period would have disintegrated) conclude that they have no option but to plan on the assumption that there might be no preferential deal for the foreseeable future.

Companies have fiduciary duties to their shareholders.
‘No deal’ would force and expedite radical decisions on business models and locations.
By the time, several years later, any preferential trade deal might be struck, it would be far too late to reverse the bulk of those decisions.

This would be the worst possible outcome for the UK economy and for the public finances.
The tax take implications would dwarf the sums politicians obsess about on the UK’s EU budget contribution.

Brexiteers really didn't expect to have their bluff called. Well, some perhaps did - the Rees-Moggs of the world who want to crash out, but want to blame someone else.

Rory Stewart's theory is that it's all about image management, to shore up Johnson's continued appeal after an extension.

He's interesting on the subject. To paraphrase:

His fans know it's all nonsense but are happy to go along with the lie - a sort of ideology/propaganda 'willing suspension of disbelief'. Just as when you see a play, you know you're watching a play, you know it's not real, but you willingly immerse yourself in it.

Of course, the bleaker analogy is with those who actively colluded in a kind of self-deception, or rather chose the pretences they were offered as a fig leaf to ignore what they could very well see was wrong in pre-war Germany. 🤷‍♀️

It's an odd sort of pantomime. And incredibly frustrating when it's a charade with such devastating consequences.

Understand Dominic Cummings told meeting of top advisers last Friday that UK "won't be hanging around to negotiate"

One interpretation of this is that they’re going to pull us out early, before the 31st. That would certainly prevent BJ from having to request an extension. Please tell me that this isn’t possible?

Wouldn't pulling us out early with No Deal be breaking the law? Not that Johnson thinks he needs to obey the law, but a nice prison sentence would make him change his mind sharpish, I would think.

I asked that a few threads back and was told it wouldn't happen.

The trouble now is that we don't know what will happen, because the laws of unintended consequences could easily kick in. As for example, we discussed earlier today, where Nazi Germany really didn't expect the UK to declare war on them......

I do remember asking that months ago when BoZo kept saying by 31st Oct...

I would say, however, that attacking the infrastructure and power structure the way Cummings and Johnson are doing is going to get pushback at some point.

I keep thinking about Gramsci's idea of hegemony, & the hegemony of power.

Cumming's is, indeed, attacking an 'elite' , & he is proposing s kind of revolution. What Brexit is doing is fracturing an existing power order - the old hegemony. No wonder everything is in fre-fall - a pre-existing hegemony is rupturing before our eyes.

Of course, Brexit, Johnson & Cummings are seeming to bring it about that a certain fraction of the hegemony gain power (more power) & a new hegemony is instituted - one founded on off-shore money & state-less capital.

But I do wonder at what point elements of the old-style hegemony will fight back. 🤷‍♀️ what Johnson and Cummings are doing is far more radical than I think many interests supposed was possible.

I felt sick, reading the Telegraph article. I know that the government are putting this forward in full knowledge that it will be rejected. But it is still a stark reminder of the fact that they don’t give a fuck about the people of the north of Ireland. Beyond labelling us all British and then marooning us between two borders.

These nonsensical proposals are a slap in the face and will stoke up even more UI sentiment for the people of the north.

This is quite alarming:

It is terrifying, Somerville.

And, I'm afraid, we are still witnessing positioning in the Opposition Parties as they try and discuss organising around a VONC, a GE and/or a GNU.

It's really not good enough.

Well, if Bozo and Cummings expect the last two weeks to be spent in the Courts, I hope the judges can find some way of imprisoning the pair of them. I hope for example that BJ Cummings are daft enough to perjure themselves.

We can only hope the Opposition comes up with a cunning plan that is totally unexpected.

Yep, Somerville The proposal would be a horrific botched abortion for Ireland
Only complete sociopaths would propose this

I expect Varadkar would tell the other 26 that No Deal would be better, as at least Ireland would have just 1 border

All bluff & bluster? Tom Kibasi in the Guardian.

Fine Gael are the political descendants (and probably literally in some cases) of the party that signed the treaty (or The Treaty, as it's known) accepting partition and abandoning our citizens in NI, leading to a dirty Civil War. And they've just about recovered (mostly because the political descendants of the other side were blamed for the economic crash in this century).

Fine Gael are (not very affectionately) known as Free Staters (the Free State formed by The Treaty as opposed to the Republic), blueshirts (from their brief flirtation with fascism) and West Brits. I mean no offence to anyone here - but a West Brit would be someone Irish who would like to be British, I suppose. An Anglophile? But it's meant as an insult.

Concessions to the UK would go down like a lead balloon at the polls I'd imagine.

Yep, thecat That is what keeps infuriating me

We're facing the UK falling off a cliff and Ireland maybe reigniting,
our democracy in more danger than it has been in peacetime for as long as we've had a democracy,
but the Rebel Alliance is still FUCKING around because they can't WON'T decide on a PM

BJ and Cummings are dangerous sociopaths and it is total dereliction of duty to leave them in power, to do fuck knows what next

A UK PM has too many statutory powers
There is a hell of a lot of destruction & chaosthey can cause, not just Brexit

I was just looking at the Parliamentary arithmetic - Labour 281, SNP 35 and PC 4, which means that without the LD's there aren't enough to support a Corbyn Government. Pity Sinn Fein don't take their seats - that would push them over the line. Hmm - can't see many of the various Independent groups backing Corbyn.

BTW I am glad that Meghan and Harry are suing the MoS. It might just make the Press buck up their ideas. Harry has every right to be angry, the way the Press used his mother to sell newspapers and then hounded her.

The Tom Kinasi piece Lark has linked to is fascinating, though.

Suggests it is, indeed, all positioning for a GE, & an attempt to get someone else to take the fall for an extension.

....

I'm so, so angry about all of this.
I'm furious that we, the electorate, are effectively being held hostage and terrorised by our own government - who are doing this effectively because they want to hold on to s shallow power.

We - all of us - need to be so, so much angrier about this.

We deserve so much better.