BS: Brexit & other UK political topics - 3

Subject: RE: BS: Brexit & other UK political topics - 3
From: Backwoodsman
Date: 03 Oct 23 - 06:37 AM

HS2 - I wonder what the government are using it to distract us from? The vast majority of UK citizens will never travel on it and won’t be affected by it no matter where it runs to.
Birmingham? Manchester? Frankly, my dear, I don’t give a damn (and I’d stake my pension that most UK residents don’t either)!

Subject: RE: BS: Brexit & other UK political topics - 3
From: Backwoodsman
Date: 05 Oct 23 - 02:27 PM

Mrs. Backwoodsperson and I had exactly that conversation, and we both wondered if it’s the first step towards ID Cards?

Subject: RE: BS: Brexit & other UK political topics - 3
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 27 Sep 23 - 11:03 AM

Well still no planes full of refugees to Rwanda and still no asylum seekers on the barge. So Cruella goes to the US, gives a speech to a right-wing think-tank in which she disses the 70-year-old UN refugee convention and does a nice bit of dog-whistling to her disreputable fellow-travellers about women and gay people seeking refuge too lightly. Cruella for PM! (which is clearly what she's after).

Now Fishi Rishi has sanctioned drilling for oil in Rosebank, the biggest undeveloped oilfield in the North Sea - and stodgy Starmer has said he won't revoke the licence when he gets in. A disastrous Sunak decision, coming on top of his rowing back of other environmental policies last week, and one which Starmer could have stopped in its tracks. In the words of Corporal Fraser, we're all doomed...

Subject: RE: BS: Brexit & other UK political topics - 3
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 02 Oct 23 - 09:36 AM

Labour can't "regain power." The Tories will lose power and Labour will carry on with all the current Tory policies. Labour's motto seems to be "drop a pledge a week." Starmer is what we used to call the despicable LibDems, i.e., Tory-lite. In his case, very lite-weight, no courage, no charisma, no vision, no principles.

Saw a great slogan last night, can't remember where now, might have been in the comments section below the Spurs-Liverpool match (aka fiasco) report. It said (and pardon my French) "Fuck VAR and the Tories."

Subject: RE: BS: Brexit & other UK political topics - 3
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 04 Oct 23 - 09:04 AM

If you're 14 today you'll never legally be able to buy fags. Spot the hidden caveat in that sentence. And the Tories have overseen a cynical industry grooming kids to go vape-crazy. Never mind. All that saved HS2 money ("every penny of it") will be used to improve little bits of railways all over the place instead. Yeah, right, along with those 40 new hospitals.

If HS2 had gone ahead, Labour would have carried on with it. Now that it's gone, Labour won't carry on with it. Be prepared for a massive Tory defeat, then nothing changes, then Cruella for PM in five years' time. Weeee!

Subject: RE: BS: Brexit & other UK political topics - 3
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 04 Oct 23 - 10:25 AM

That indeed was it, Nigel. Underage kids have never had real issues getting their hands on fags or booze. I did both with gay abandon in my misspent yoof. I bought my first pint in a pub at 16 and I was wearing my full school uniform! It cost me 1s 11d by the way. In those days you could get 20 Players No 10 for half a crown. We'd buy a Watney's Party Four, take it down the park and bust the can open with a screwdriver. It was bloody 'orrible, flat as a witch's t*t.   Pour it straight down the lav and cut out the middle man...

The Tory cigarette thing and the ban-phones-in-schools thing are "good things" but they are deliberate petty sideshows. Typical Tory conference bullshit. I'm sure we'll see the same next week.

Subject: RE: BS: Brexit & other UK political topics - 3
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 06 Oct 23 - 06:16 PM

This SNP/Labour thang. Good win, very impressive, etc. But...

Is this a classic case of incumbents losing and challengers indulging in hubris?

Tories: imploded for years, laughing stock, etc: lose their deposit.

SNP: scandal over MP that had held the seat, broke covid law big-time, etc. Finance scandal over Nicola Sturgeon. No progress regarding independence push. Low turnout. Etc.

Pundits are saying that this means Labour could get 40 Scottish seats. My arse. Not a chance. This was a by-election, a low-turnout protest vote. Blew the doors off, eh? More like found the wrong car key and had to go back in the house to look for the right one.

Never a truer word was spoken: governments lose elections, oppositions don't win them. There's a lot of work to do. I'm still a Labour Party member, by the way. And there's a whole bunch of antisemitism inconvenience coming up that will hardly make the party top-dogs look good...

Subject: RE: BS: Brexit & other UK political topics - 3
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 07 Oct 23 - 02:23 PM

Agreed.

Subject: RE: BS: Brexit & other UK political topics - 3
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 16 Oct 23 - 08:12 PM

We have a prime minister and a leader of the opposition who are both one hundred percent blinkered about the Israel/Hamas conflict. I have heard barely a single word of sympathy for the wretched and desperate people of Gaza from either of them. It's all the fault of Hamas, Israel has the right to defend itself, blah blah. It's not Hamas that has cut off water, food and fuel to the outdoor prison which is Gaza. It's not Hamas that has bombed hospitals and schools. It's not Hamas that has killed many hundreds of children and it's not Hamas that has created a million refugees. You don't need to do any of those things to unarmed civilians in order to "defend yourself." Sunak and Starmer are in the pockets of the pro-Israel lobby and they are frightened to death of saying anything that sounds even remotely like a glimmer of criticism of the Israeli regime. Starmer wouldn't even say that it's OK to sport a Palestinian flag in the street, a straight lift from the Suella Braverman near-fascist creed. That was in Starmer's interview with Nick Ferrari on LBC and I could hardly believe the pusillanimous self-deception I was hearing from the bloke who's probably going to be the next PM. Pathetic and totally unfair.

Subject: RE: BS: Brexit & other UK political topics - 3
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 18 Oct 23 - 08:50 AM

Starmer's pusillanimous and unconditional support for Israel and his apparent lack of sympathy or at least his silence, for the plight of millions in Gaza is too much for me. The failure of western leaders to condemn and sanction the Israeli regime will give Netanyahu succour and they will be complicit in the future slaughter of civilians in Gaza. It's the last straw and I'm leaving the Labour Party.

Subject: RE: BS: Brexit & other UK political topics - 3
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 18 Oct 23 - 12:00 PM

I didn't manage to read all that as it wouldn't format for me, but I got the drift. Again, the platitudes flow freely but there is no condemnation of the horrors inflicted by Israel, just that by Hamas. Inexcusable.

Subject: RE: BS: Brexit & other UK political topics - 3
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 20 Oct 23 - 05:19 PM

He wouldn't let his ministers stand on health workers' picket lines, he told them that they mustn't join pro-Palestine demonstrations, he refused to back the nurses' and junior doctors' fight for fair pay. Now he refuses to criticise even the most egregious of Israel's outrages and he says they have every right to deny food and water to two million civilians, a war crime. That's not Labour and it's definitely not me. I've held my nose over several other of his swerves to the right, but I've had enough now.

Subject: RE: BS: Brexit & other UK political topics - 3
From: peteglasgow
Date: 16 Oct 23 - 10:10 AM

i was a corbyn supporter but it was horrible canvassing for him in the last election in workington. i voted for starmer as leader - same policies (up the '19 manifesto!) plus electability. i've left the party (again - 3rd time. or maybe 4th) i;m now reduced to longing to see tory tears on election night and a hope for some decent policies. looks like we won't have a strong snp government as an inspiration either .all depressing

Subject: RE: BS: Brexit & other UK political topics - 3
From: SPB-Cooperator
Date: 02 Oct 23 - 07:25 AM

DtG the problem has been that for the last 13 years there has been a movement of the centre ground of politics increasingly to the right. We would all love to have radical socialist policies in place, but what was eft of centre 13 years ago are far left to where the political centre is now.

Labour cannot regain power until it has reclaimed the centre-ground, and then, and only then, it can start to move the pendulum back towards the left.

Subject: RE: BS: Brexit & other UK political topics - 3
From: MaJoC the Filk
Date: 30 Sep 23 - 08:30 AM

Short quote from this week's New European, from Tanit Koch's "Germanspaining" column:

With the far-right AfD polling well above 20%, the public discourse has changed drastically. So former Bundenpräsident Joachim Gauck took the lead. He doesn't want to leave it to the extremists, who never solve problems because they live off them.

.... I've never heard the problem with extremists stated so concisely before.

Subject: RE: BS: Brexit & other UK political topics - 3
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 29 Oct 23 - 03:57 PM

I see that Bozzer has joined GB news

Need I say more?

Subject: RE: BS: Brexit & other UK political topics - 3
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 11 Nov 23 - 04:39 PM

Yes, DMcG. It seems most arrests were of right wing anti-protesters!

Subject: RE: BS: Brexit & other UK political topics - 3
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 12 Nov 23 - 12:51 PM

I was about to make the same point. This government has gone beyond despicable and sadly taken the opposition down to their level

Ah well. Just think how much worse things would have been with Corbyn in charge... :-S

Subject: RE: BS: Brexit & other UK political topics - 3
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 12 Nov 23 - 03:37 PM

Nice to know that the land of my Fathers (Well, Mother's Mother) hasn't succumbed to the downward slide!

Subject: RE: BS: Brexit & other UK political topics - 3
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 12 Nov 23 - 05:10 PM

I see that Cruella has praised the police for "their professionalism in the face of violence and aggression from protesters and counter-protesters".

She really is a piece of work isn't she. There are no words strong enough to describe the disdain I have for the shower of shits that are supposed to be running the country. How anyone can continue to support them is beyond me.

Subject: RE: BS: Brexit & other UK political topics - 3
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 13 Nov 23 - 02:44 AM

Exactly. And now praising the police because she realised that slagging them off was a bad career move.

Subject: RE: BS: Brexit & other UK political topics - 3
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 13 Nov 23 - 04:16 AM

Ding dong the witch is dead... :-)

Mind you, we cannot celebrate yet as we don't yet know who will replace her. Cameron, the man who screwed up over Brexit, has been seen entering number 10!

Subject: RE: BS: Brexit & other UK political topics - 3
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 13 Nov 23 - 04:18 AM

Source BBC news BTW.

Subject: RE: BS: Brexit & other UK political topics - 3
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 13 Nov 23 - 09:45 AM

Conservative with a big C is different to conservative with a little c Don.

Subject: RE: BS: Brexit & other UK political topics - 3
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 15 Nov 23 - 09:41 AM

I poste dthis yesterday but it seems to have been lost in the latest cat litter cleanup. Apologies if it does appear twice

Cruella is now telling Fishy that his policies are not working

Funny. I'm sure she supported them until she was binned. Why on earth would she support something that she knew was not working? Not a career move surely ;-)

Subject: RE: BS: Brexit & other UK political topics - 3
From: robomatic
Date: 11 Nov 23 - 03:06 PM

Steve: Back to your lane.

Subject: RE: BS: Brexit & other UK political topics - 3
From: Donuel
Date: 13 Nov 23 - 06:44 AM

Cameron is back in Government. It bodes ill for conservatives in the future.

Subject: RE: BS: Brexit & other UK political topics - 3
From: Donuel
Date: 13 Nov 23 - 09:30 AM

Cameron's post is minor but it reflects poorly to his opponents.
Perhaps your conservatives are smarter than ours but I doubt it.
What you call the wrong side of the Atlantic, over here the conservatives went too far and have splintered their base.

Subject: RE: BS: Brexit & other UK political topics - 3
From: Donuel
Date: 13 Nov 23 - 10:01 AM

I reckon ah jus reflects the opinion of MSNBC. Jus sayin.

Subject: RE: BS: Brexit & other UK political topics - 3
From: Donuel
Date: 13 Nov 23 - 10:08 AM

Over here we have a big D and a little d.

Subject: RE: BS: Brexit & other UK political topics - 3
From: Donuel
Date: 13 Nov 23 - 10:35 AM

Thanks, I thought the Prime Minister was the only 'big boss'.

Subject: RE: BS: Brexit & other UK political topics - 3
From: Donuel
Date: 13 Nov 23 - 07:02 PM

We have what is now called an Imperial President.
"Beware the demon pomposity".
Bob Woodward.

Subject: RE: BS: Brexit & other UK political topics - 3
From: Donuel
Date: 15 Nov 23 - 03:32 PM

I can also say we are allowed just one US political thread so keep your politics out of it please but I agree with free speech with all its curses and benefits. Let's keep your personal animosities out of it.
Comparing US reports to UK reports is sometimes different.

Subject: RE: BS: Brexit & other UK political topics - 3
From: Donuel
Date: 19 Nov 23 - 08:16 AM

Thank you Steve, I do have far more questions than opinion.
I am monitoring British history from the Tudors to the Stuarts and as always listen to BBC. American history is a cinch compared to a thousand years of British history.

Subject: RE: BS: Brexit & other UK political topics - 3
From: DMcG
Date: 05 Nov 23 - 11:46 AM

DIves and Lazarus
“Thou are none of mine, brother Lazarus,
Lying begging at my door,
No meat, no drink, will I give thee,
Nor bestow upon the poor.”


Some things don't change much.

Subject: RE: BS: Brexit & other UK political topics - 3
From: DMcG
Date: 07 Nov 23 - 12:48 PM


I have no idea who Mark Park is, but if this is accurate it suggests that, despite all the claims Labour is tearing itself apart over the IreIsrael-Palestine, it has little or no effect on their lead. These surveys seem to have taken place before Cummings and co were questioned by the covid enquiry.

Subject: RE: BS: Brexit & other UK political topics - 3
From: DMcG
Date: 07 Nov 23 - 12:50 PM

Damn! Forgot to close the link, and it seems to bring up adverts anyway. Try searching for the latest opinion polls and Mark Park had a table of about 8 of them.

Subject: RE: BS: Brexit & other UK political topics - 3
From: DMcG
Date: 11 Nov 23 - 11:54 AM

It is looking like the pro-Palestine march in London has been very peaceful, despite the efforts of some anti-march protestors.

Now the remaining risk is what happens as people try to leave the march and head home.

Subject: RE: BS: Brexit & other UK political topics - 3
From: DMcG
Date: 15 Nov 23 - 01:00 PM

I have posted this elsewhere, but it bears repeating:

So the new brilliant scheme is to get Parliament to say Rwanda is safe. Not to address the Supreme Court's judgement it is not, nor to ensure it is, nor to press Rwanda to be safer, but simply to call it so.

Very Humpty Dumpty.

Subject: RE: BS: Brexit & other UK political topics - 3
From: DMcG
Date: 18 Nov 23 - 04:14 AM

BBC Four recently transmitted a programme made in 1998 called The Fifty Years War: Israel and the Arabs. It is well worth watching for the background to these events.

Subject: RE: BS: Brexit & other UK political topics - 3
From: Doug Chadwick
Date: 13 Nov 23 - 10:20 AM

Cameron's post is minor

The Foreign Secretary is a senior position in the UK government. Along with the Prime Minister, the Chancellor of the Exchequer and the Home Secretary, it is one of the four Great Offices of State.
DC

Subject: RE: BS: Brexit & other UK political topics - 3
From: Nigel Parsons
Date: 05 Nov 23 - 08:30 PM

"The daily newsletter from Labour List, not exactly known for being leftie,"

The title alone would suggest that it is 'leftie', although possibly not sufficiently so for those with more extreme views.

Subject: RE: BS: Brexit & other UK political topics - 3
From: Nigel Parsons
Date: 07 Nov 23 - 08:25 AM

I'm sure that if I read 'Labour List' I would find it leftie even if not extremely so.

Subject: RE: BS: Brexit & other UK political topics - 3
From: Nigel Parsons
Date: 12 Nov 23 - 01:07 PM

"Both he (the Prime Minister) and Starmer are refusing to call for a ceasefire"

Meanwhile, in other news in Wales: The (Labour led) Senedd has called for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza and Israel.
The motion tabled in the Welsh parliament by Plaid Cymru urged for an end to "the appalling attacks on innocent civilians".
Welsh government ministers abstained from the vote - but Labour backbenchers were given a free vote on the motion and on an amendment tabled by the Conservatives.

From: Here

Subject: RE: BS: Brexit & other UK political topics - 3
From: Rain Dog
Date: 13 Nov 23 - 11:10 AM

Our Prime Minister is not the same as your President.

Subject: RE: BS: Brexit & other UK political topics - 3
From: Backwoodsman
Date: 05 Nov 23 - 06:10 AM

An excellent poem from Paul Cookson, on FB today. Says it all…

”Daily poem - Suella Braverman, once again the inspiration ... unfortunately

LIFESTYLE CHOICE

I could have escaped to the country
I could have lived by the sea
I could have chosen anywhere
But this is the place for me
Handy for all amenities
In that I can rejoice
This tent in a high street doorway
That’s my lifestyle choice

Yes to the freezing nights
Yes to the driving rain
And if I had to choose once more
I’d choose the same again
Yes to constant hunger
Cold and always moist
This tent in a high street doorway
That’s my lifestyle choice

I love my cardboard notice
Asking for your charity
I love the fact I can rely
On other people’s sympathy
These things you don’t understand
While stuck in your Rolls Royce
This tent in a high street doorway
That’s my lifestyle choice

This is not a style of life
That I would recommend
To my worst enemy
Never mind a friend
But you hear what you want to hear
You cannot hear my voice
This tent in a high street doorway
That’s my lifestyle choice

Your ignorance – deliberate
Like the heartless views you voiced
Indicative of where you are
And your lifestyle choice

Poem 1195
Sunday 5th November 2023”

Subject: RE: BS: Brexit & other UK political topics - 3
From: Backwoodsman
Date: 13 Nov 23 - 04:43 AM

The inappropriately-named James Cleverly also seen darkening the doorstep of No. 10 this morning. More barrel-bottom scraping, methinks.

Subject: RE: BS: Brexit & other UK political topics - 3
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 29 Oct 23 - 06:51 AM

A below-the-line comment about Starmer in the Guardian:

"If you say Israel 'has the right' to withhold power and water from Gaza then, a few days later, following a consequent outcry, say ‘it is not and never has been my view that Israel had the right to cut off water, food, fuel or medicines,’ you are revealing three things about yourself.

You have appalling judgement, you are dishonest and you are a reactive, rather than a proactive, leader."

I couldn't agree more. Starmer is the wrong leader for Labour and he'd be the wrong leader for this country.

Subject: RE: BS: Brexit & other UK political topics - 3
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 30 Oct 23 - 10:49 AM

The daily newsletter from Labour List, not exactly known for being leftie, is exceptionally critical of Starmer's stance on Gaza-Israel. I suppose the conflict could have receded into the background by the next election, but, if it hasn't, and he maintains his one-sided stance on the issue, he could lose an awful lot of Muslim votes, many of them up in northern towns which he has to win or win back. He's also at odds with the SNP and large numbers of Labour MPs as well as the mayors of London and Manchester. I note that Starmer is a member of Labour Friends of Israel, along with people such as Yvette Cooper, the disreputable Margaret Hodge, David Lammy, Wes Streeting and Emily Thornberry. And that 76% of the electorate want a ceasefire. I know it's not just about votes, but can we have at least just a bit of principle and humanity from a party that likes to think it's socialist?

Subject: RE: BS: Brexit & other UK political topics - 3
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 31 Oct 23 - 09:56 AM

The lame-duck excuse I keep hearing from people like Starmer (and lots of Israeli big-shots and western leaders) is that we shouldn't have a ceasefire because we know that bastards like Hamas wouldn't stick to it anyway. Well blow me down. No giving peace a chance round 'ere, then...

The reason Starmer and Sunak won't call for a ceasefire has nothing to do with that. They are both in the pockets of the US, and the reason the US won't call for a ceasefire is that it's in the pocket of Israel and the pro-Israel lobby.

Call a ceasefire. Release all the hostages. Call off the collective punishment. Release the 5000 Palestinians who are in jail in Israel, a thousand or more held without charge, women, children, the lot. Then sit down and talk about it. If Paisley and McGuinness could do it, anyone can do it. I'm bloody sick of seeing the same outrages on me telly every night.