"oh you don't get me I'm the end of the union": lol brexit is how we're all gonna die

i have gotten that "I am disappointed that..." email so many times at work. and usually from similarly atrocious managers.

David Coburn? Knew he had to be Scottish from the initial tweet and without having to google him.

how can you be an mp in 2019 and struggle to you kneau ocshully teaulk

Who are you talking about deems?

This reminds me of how the lobby always scorns his leaden delivery but personally I hate how every time Corbs says “is-yoos”.

whatley on behalf of tories on politics live

is andrew neil always this daily mail

i... thought blair was a decent interviewee....

Andrew Neil is a Tory cunt, despite coming from Glenburn.

Andrew Neil chairs the spectator which publishes Taki and a range of other head-measurers.

i am now informed

I've only just switched on QT and first thing I saw was a wall of gammon applauding No Deal.

watching new format QT

what the hell is going on in that country's head

EXCLUSIVE: Civil Service told to prepare for General Election: https://t.co/I1IeUdWyEl

— John Stevens (@johnestevens) January 17, 2019

does this mean anything?

it's from the mail, so probably not

diane abbott is a hard bastard. I definitely could not go to derby, sit and listen to all the gammons try to tear strips off me, watch rory stewart's homunculus-like grinning rictus, listen to isobel oakeshott's disingenuous nonsense... and still give back as good as I'm getting

Who melted Rory Stewart’s face?

(xp) She's well used to being attacked by cretins by now.

Apparently it’s worse than that: several audience members saying that the warmup person and Fiona Bruce both made several appalling jokes at Diane Abbott’s expense before the taping of Question Time, and that’s before we get to the misogynoir on show during the programme.

I used to think QT couldn't get any worse, but F Bruce is now officially worse than Dimbers at containing blatant racism/toryism in the audience + panel.

Isabel Oakeshott telling notional Remainers “we” are going to ‘tell you again’ was just begging for ‘who? You and Lord Ashcroft?’ but bless Diane Abbott for trying to mention Leave illegalities and damn the Bruce/Oakeshott poverty movement to shit that discussion right down.

*shut obvs, LOL

For once a front page piece in The Guardian that acknowledges the realities of the situation:

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2019/jan/17/corbyn-could-face-string-of-resignations-if-he-backs-peoples-vote

does this mean anything?

― resident hack (Simon H.), Thursday, 17 January 2019 Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Not really. There is a chance (as we talked about, a small one) of a GE happening at some point this year. Incidentally the bits I saw around Amber Rudd's smallest concessions on the benefits side of things is the only pointer of someone in government accepting we could be facing one.

Yeah but on Tuesday DWP snuck out some horrible grab from pensioners with younger partners so swings and roundabouts...

I’d be really interested in hearing diane abbott’s private thoughts on a second referendum- I know she is supposed to be privately more supportive than some in the leader’s office. I’d like to understand her rationale

Behind paywall but you get the gist:

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/brexit-dup-edges-towards-customs-union-5vkfkgfhm DUP edges towards customs union

Behind paywall but you get the gist:

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/brexit-dup-edges-towards-customs-union-5vkfkgfhm🕸 DUP edges towards customs union

Personally dread the prospect of a second referendum, but found this convincing https://www.opendemocracy.net/uk/brexitinc/ten-reasons-i-came-round-to-peoples-vote

My guess is that this is not a shift as much as the media remembering that the DUP is not the Conservative party and doesn't share their interests - 'separates NI from GB' was always going to be the clause in any agreement that they cared the most about.

good bit in stephen bush’s morning call this am about how the ~optics~ of labour’s ‘intransigence’ could be pretty toxic

can’t find it online to C&P

I’d be really interested in hearing diane abbott’s private thoughts on a second referendum- I know she is supposed to be privately more supportive than some in the leader’s office. I’d like to understand her rationale

are Corbyn and McD not in favour of immigration?

One interesting bit on that Guardian report is how little private thoughts matter. Many of the 71 MPs that were backing people's vote at the photo op are in leave constituencies and would be facing challenges were a leader to back it. Corbyn's public position allows them to indulge and have it both ways.

I have intermittently thought that a "People's Vote" (ugh) is the only way out of this impasse other than crashing out, or possibly still a slim chance of accepting May's deal that nobody wants anyway which doesn't solve much in the long-term as 1. it's only a withdrawal agreement, future status still to be argued over; 2. nobody wants it so everyone keeps on bickering and shouting "betrayal"

however, not only am I scared of the result being much the same, or even if for Remain v unlikely to have a convincing margin of victory (funny how that isn't important now but will be if the tables turn), and the debate being just as dishonest and rancorous, but also setting the question seems impossible

not just in terms of getting Parliament to agree on it, but also fundamentally: if you don't put "No Deal" on the ballot Leavers claim it's rigged because that's now apparently the One True Leave (and, as noted, nobody likes May's deal), but what the hell kind of govt would put to the public a ticky box which is a very euphemistic code for "food shortages, economic chaos, citizens likely to die, and we unilaterally renege on two international agreements"?

(by which I mean GFA and the outstanding payments to the EU which we already agreed to - though I gather there is some debate about whether we'd actually be breaking the GFA or just showing enormous bad faith in a letter-of-the-law kind of way, which I'm sure everyone will read up on in detail before voting, like what I have not done before posting this waffle)

We are rapidly approaching the end of "have it both ways" as a strategy.

I have yet to meet or hear from a single black person who is pro-Brexit*, they know full well what this shit is enabling. And Abbott represents one of the most Remain constituencies in the country.

*There could be regional variations here admittedly but I doubt it. Difficult to tell and no one in the media ever bothers to ask.

are Corbyn and McD not in favour of immigration?
Their views are more in line with those of unions, which is that employers exploiting foreign labour threaten working conditions here. It’s opposing the employers who exploit, but it’s less open than you’d think. However the rhetoric is pretty different for the most part and they’re still significantly to the left of much of the PLP.

Looking at his voting record, he opposes stricter asylum laws and things that make the lives of immigrants and refugees more difficult.

xxp other than the few reported cases of ppl who voted brexit on the understanding that leaving the EU wld make it easier for ppl to immigrate from commonwealth countries I haven't either, it's p striking

xxp other than the few reported cases of ppl who voted brexit on the understanding that leaving the EU wld make it easier for ppl to immigrate from commonwealth countries I haven't either, it's p striking

I worked with a guy, from a Bangladeshi background, who voted Leave for that very reason - I'm not saying that happened a lot but it certainly happened, in the South Asian community.

Their views are more in line with those of unions, which is that employers exploiting foreign labour threaten working conditions here. It’s opposing the employers who exploit, but it’s less open than you’d think.

In what sense is that less open? I know it has been read different ways - but Corbyn/McD insisting on worker's rights (which they also emphasize in their "negotiate a better Brexit" position) seems reasonable to me?

xp knowing plenty of Chinese people in the UK, many are quietly anti-immigrant, generally on a "I came to this place because I love British culture and I don't like it being changed" basis, which I find v. frustrating to argue with.

Well, the ability for it it to be seen as pandering to anti-immigration types with some of the language. I think the labour position is much better, but my feeling is that they should be doing more to move the Overton window.

Yeah remember now the language at the time was ambiguous..

They might have judged that:
-the upsides of leaving outweigh the downsides of staying/No Deal disruption
-it’s only when #nodealisbetter than a bad deal” is believed by the EU that we’ll maximise our chance of a deal
-not honouring the result of the referendum would be appalling https://t.co/hjZuoA81Vz

— Penny Mordaunt MP (@PennyMordaunt) January 18, 2019

I want to hear more about what these Chinese immigrants love so much abt british culture

.@Nigel_Farage said on Sky News with @adamboultonSKY that he will start a new party if we have to fight European elections.

He KNOWS this will split the pro-Brexit vote. The question is this: who is Nigel Farage working for? pic.twitter.com/KQQz9SNPE7

— UKIP (@UKIP) January 18, 2019

Also loled at this.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but there's a certain anti-globalist school of thought on the left according to which late capitalism has impelled a race to the bottom that ultimately benefits no one other than the international, eminently mobile (I'm tempted to say migratory) ruling class: neither the workers in developing countries who slave away for a pittance nor those in developed countries who are now unemployed. Hence there's a tendency – especially in recent years, perhaps in response to the far right's gains – to espouse a localized, borderline nationalist discourse as a corrective to these ills, even on the left.

i chime with APS's rumination on things except that i think its p vital that "total, hard, brexit" be on the poll so that yknow ppl can actually vote for that if they want, and when they don't and its clear that a muddled brexit or no clear outcome is the actual result then the faceless bureaucrats actually be let get on with it

think may's nodding-dog act to the will of the people as if anyone voted for hard brexit is shithousery of the highest and she's almost completely getting away with it

100% agree re May escaping scrutiny but putting no deal on a bill is asking a country to vote for food and medicine shortages...

let them

here's the ballot imo

- Remain

- Leave Norway

- Leave No Customs Union

- Leave Hard

all three Leaves added together and then if they exceed Remain, the largest share chosen as strategy

you'd think this makes Hard Brexit likelier and it does, but imo it actually makes Remain a total shoo-in

darragh OTM