Brexit Arms: the discussion continues....

[XingMing]

I'm not promising to be the resident landlady, and I can't even hope to moderate the discussion or offer up great memes etc because I don't know how, but here's opening the next iteration....

First drink is on the house.

I noticed the hand thing too. Imagine the time in front of a mirror trying to perfect it, asking Carrie if she thinks it makes him look manly, not too manly, decisive, not to the point of pushy, etc. And to think this is what we are taken in by when the format is that poor.

twitter.com/lewis_goodall/status/1196887637266718729?s=20

Kick cuppa for me.
Had written off the Debate as pointless but all the news and chat seems to be about CCHQ FactChecking.

Given everyone is criticising the format for not giving adequate time to present or critique policies and they used the account to do just that I don't really get the controversy. Labour should have done it too.

Copied the Lewis Goodall tweet because I find myself scratching my head at him and Emily and even AF Neil.

I can read @CCHQ as the twitter handle and the strapline "Fact checking Labour from CCHQ". I don't really get the faux outrage? If you don't check the source of your twitter "facts" you shouldn't really let yourself out and about on twitter.

Also LOL at the notion the BBC Fact check is a bastion of impartiality (as opposed to cherry picking to suit the agenda) and FullFact and INFacts come with overt agendas (although you would need to do a background check to know this).

Also #classicDom. I wouldn't have even seen any of their tweets if the journos hadn't got so outraged they felt the need to retweet them all over the shop and spend half the News publicising them.

The NonLibNonDems are reprising Farrongate this morning. Liberality apparently no longer extends to tolerance of religious beliefs and "votes of conscience" are not allowed. It is disturbing that the LibDems, of all people, are purging divergence of thought in this way.

www.thetablet.co.uk/news/12218/lib-dems-deselect-catholic-as-election-candidate

pulling apart the labour £500m a week pharma bill to the NHS

Yes Andrew Neil did a really good job on this. He pointed out it was scaremongering and the Labour Shadow Health secretary couldn't explain why they were trotting out this figure, why any government would enter any agreement to raise prices, that US currently only supplies 10% of our drugs at present (so why would the 90% coming from elsewhere also go up in price).
It's on the answers to proper questioning that voters can decide for themselves whether they can trust the claim.
Personally I think people are tired of the NHS being bashed. Yes service improvements are needed but throwing more money indiscriminately at it will not result in change. I think both Tories and Labour fail on this point. We need to see where the money will be spent specifically and what result we see (e.g. the success criteria).
Oh and Labour are only promising to spend a tad more than the Tories on the NHS, so why will the NHS improve so much more under Labour? Again, Andrew Neil couldnt get a straight answer on this.

Couldn't agree more Holly. I want to see some prober fact checking discussions about this type of thing. I also want to see much more discussion about this politics of envy JC and JM are adopting as their narrative. They are trying to stir up a sort of class war as far as I'm concerned which has nothing at all to do with the 'good of the poor and disadvantaged' they proport to represent. The idea that all the Tory party's friends are billionaires and that the Tories only do things that help the rich is just increasing prejudice in my opinion.
We really don't need any more prejudice in this country, that's for sure.

So his voting record according to his religious beliefs came as complete surprise to them? Alrighty then
I don’t think they’ve got as much of the WokeVote as they appear to be counting on. But go ahead, LibDems, piss off Catholic voters with your actions, not your beliefs, see where that gets you.

This is quite a balanced piece on billionaires and the politics of envy.
I would footnote it by saying

1. Mandelson being "intensely relaxed about the filthy rich" was swinging the pendulum too far the other way and
2. as with my comments on reparations yesterday billionaire "philanthropy" often has severe negative consequences - state to state / citizen with democratic oversight, despite its inadequacies, feels philosophically better to me.
3. I think relative as well as absolute wealth disparity matters to avoid 2 tier societies. The odd billionaire is somewhat irrelevant to this but a concentration of millionaires (357,000) in London where over 20% of school pupils are on free school meals is corrosive.

unherd.com/2019/11/labours-billionaire-bashing-will-backfire/?tl_inbound=1&tl_groups[0]=18743&tl_period_type=3

Howabout - Yes an interesting read. The author questioned the ability of JC, JM at al to pull off such an economic shift successfully. All I will say to that is JC got 2 Es in his A levels even with his 'privileged' education and background and JM was sacked by Ken Livingston because he produced an illegal budget and tried to hide it!! So they couldn't be much worse qualified in my opinion.
I really think their whole plan is to stir up a class war. They are constantly reminding people of the 'elite up bringing and education of some of the front bench'. They constantly suggest that the Tories only have rich friend and that is all they care about.

Classic politics of envy. Really scrapes the bottom of the barrel to slag someone off due to choices their parents made.

On a lighter note, here is a picture of one of my cats. She will be voting for the Literal Demo-Cats. And if the door's open, she wants to Remain. But if the door's closed, she wants to Leave. She changes her mind about twenty times each day

Bellini that hand thing is interesting, sort of as if they're holding an invisible stick? So it's supposed to be authoritative rather than outright aggressive, I guess.

So much body language that we just don't consciously register, but it all goes into the subconscious.

Ah, the "emphasising a point" hand thing. I mistook what Bellini described for a particularly complicated handshake.

The hand thing always puts me in mind of a cross toddler.

Limer your cat looks mighty fine.

Thanks howabout she is lovely!

LibDems wanting to legalise cannabis (with strict regulations surrounding the supply/sale) - good idea. Would get rid of gangs/trafficked slaves and collect additional tax revenue.

The rest of their manifesto's a bit hit-and-miss. Might sway a few undecideds in a few key marginals though.

They’d need to raise tax revenue from cannabis to fund all their pie-in-the-sky projects. I don’t suppose they give a fuck about the under-researched effects on mental health particularly in younger users.

Absolutely true Saucery

I've got a bit of a soft spot for the LibDems, they're always the bridesmaid. I'm hoping some of their ill-thought-out schemes will split the anti-Tory vote and increase Boris's majority

I bought into their shit Limer and that got me a wonderful coalition with all the attendant disappointments of tuition fees, Tim Farron deciding that his faith actually couldn’t be reconciled with his politics (he’s nice and cosy up in Cumbria though, bless his little woolly socks) etc.
They’re a joke party now and the more stroppy they get about not being seen as a ‘main party’ the more I laugh. They should have acted like one in the past.

Just discovered the Andrew Neil Show is not on tonight! What's going on? I'm really disappointed I was so looking forward to him interrogating someone.

Sobering that 7m tuned into the non-debate and it had wall to wall news coverage all last night and today.

Deepest sympathies Saucery the coalition was a huge step backwards for the LibDems, especially after they lost the AV referendum.

Tim Farren's faith just made me chuckle, it was Tony Blair's that scared me - he genuinely thought god had put him in charge

Double I think Andrew Neil is doing one-to-one interviews next week & after with all the leaders.

howabout Sobering indeed. Don't think many of those 7m will bother again.

On the upside the LibDems are promising to reintroduce maintenance grants. The cynic in me wants to point out this is virtually costless as the students who receive them are statistically far more likely to be in the 80% who get nowhere near servicing let alone repaying their debt.

Another bit of #classicDom. Boris "accidentally" reveals pledge to raise NI threshold on the day LibDems announce pledge to increase basic rate tax.

Double it's a mistake in the listings. Andrew Neil reckons he is not quite ready for the Antique Road Show yet.

Also next week Nippy on Monday and JC on Tuesday.

Oh good Howabout. It's on my tv and the iplayer so was really disappointed. Is he interviewing Nippy and JC?

Yes A Neil is on in an hour, I wonder why the listings are wrong? conspiracy?

Evening all - thankfully I don't watch GE set up debates, party political broadcasts, nor read leaflets pushed through my letterbox and hve never ever had a political 'doorknocker' in many decades of residing in Southern England.

I'd actually believe I live an 'easy life' if 'poltical' factors defined it all.
It doesn't natch, but excuse me if I get on with other stuff until the 12th is upon us. Meanwhile.....

Drinks for All please, this Round is on Me.

Plymouth City Council in fresh row over 'illegal' student votes ahead of General Election

Labour already trying to rig the election.