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

anti-rojava bigotry itt

Fucking Blair pontificating about knife crime now somebody really needs to drive a stske thru him

Petition rounding on 5.5 million signatures, that's quite something

what is the previous highest?

167

the famous benediction of hitler petition?

ah, I was wondering "Marley or Dylan?"

"Holl' you! Huv ye fuckin' forgoatten aboot fuckin' yours truly? Don't tell me ah went oan that fuckin' This Week tae get the fuckin' push ripped oot me by yon Andrew Neil for nu'hin'!"

worstbobby.gif

The constituency breakdown is an unexpected aspect of it. More than a few “my constituents would never let me Betray Brexit” MPs are looking at large percentages of those constituents signing and are getting itchy as a result - cf Mark Field.

In South Belfast more people have signed than the total number who elected their DUP MP. Not that this will soften her line obv

wandering thru norwich to sort out details for a book event 2moro and also to get my stupid iphone fixed, thinking abt scott walker obv: turn a corner to be ambushed by a raggedy man playing mournful trad irish flute in a little square and just hit by a huge wave of sadness and i don't even know what: there are so many rough beasts slouching in our* direction that have absolutely been invoked and conjured and are long deserved: https://www.bfi.org.uk/news-opinion/sight-sound-magazine/reviews-recommendations/film-week-silence

*and not even an uncontentious "we" to take delivery, this i also know (the subtext of the book is probably how badly one of these "we"s dropped thr fkn ball)

The one thing I do say to everyone though

This is classic Tony Blair chewing-up-time-at-debate-club language. Begins everything he's going to say to you with "what I would say to you is... " and tries to make himself sound considered instead of rehearsed.

I’ve been taking the piss outta Blair’s ‘and I say to you today’ thing for 20+ years and it’s a ~career highlight~ that I explained my ire to Green Gartside (who totally understood why it was the most lawyer-y thing ever) and he started mimicking it for me, complete with Blairy hand gestures.

scripti politici

fully speechless at this one pic.twitter.com/a0Gl3TOi7a

— joe (@cillanoir) March 25, 2019

jesus fucking wept!

That picture is from the last match, but yeah, it’s incredibly tasteless & was criticised a lot at the time.

I’d say that Boris headline in the telegraph takes the cake for the worst appropriation today, though.

for someone who tries so hard to invoke so-called great orators from the tory past, he is such a thick fucking hack with words.

he's like a drunkenly-conceived piece of cottage-industry kitchen-wall tat crossed with the belch of a racist

"I explained my ire to Green Gartside, and my ire did end..."

xposts obv.

some news sources saying that meaningful vote #3 will be tomorrow (perhaps)

fuckin' leadership, how does it work

*shocked face*

No shift in DUP position after the call between Foster and May

— Laura Kuenssberg (@bbclaurak) March 25, 2019

Ehhhhh you might want to have a look at some of the peripheral EU states (& Italy) and see what they have to say about that?

I will say this, as someone who gets very angry at the way some UK remainers I've met boil the EU down to these cuddly generalities and ignore the imposed austerity: at least with the EU austerity individual governments could and did push back. What the Troika did in Portugal was fucking shameful but it could never have happened if we hadn't had a centre-right stooge government enabling it. So UK austerity does strike me as worse.

On a similar note, if the EU was terrible handling the refugee crisis it does have to be said that this was down to the selfishness of individual governments, and surely without the EU this would have been worse, not better.

The thing about both situations though is that the EU continues to mean radically different things for different member-states and there's no real unified project for ppl to get behind, which is why I'm very pessimistic about its future.

I get that but there was push back in Greece and yet the Government there was pushed into the EU's plan..

With refugees once there was push back on Merkel there did seem to me to be a lack of leadership with no one standing up for migrants against racist press coverage.

They may not, but they certainly bring it up enough that people can’t be blamed for thinking this.

No, I get that, but I file it under what I was saying (which has been a thing forever of course): people are harder on politicians closer to them.

This seems like a reach? Also, he tweeted about the Morecambe bay cockle pickers deaths yesterday & had a huge amount of people piling on him for caring about that and not the march. Feel it would be better all around if people stopped trying to project, but aware this is futile.

Yeah I mean I would rather he was on the march, but I also know that was never going to happen (and am willing to write it off as a difference of political instincts), but again I can't get mad at people getting mad about that - cross with:

They very much do? Unless you want to pretend people who are aggressive every time labour talk about austerity or poverty aren’t a thing.

The distinction here is "Are they mad because they don't think anything else needs to be done, or that work on this isn't as pressing as on Brexit?" If it's the latter then see above (and I don't agree with them, for the record - both on the priority and on the assumption that the LOTO should only have one main priority) - if it's the former then absolutely fuck them, but I have genuinely never seen anyone express that view. But then I don't follow Corbyn's replies.

Oh come on, this is shite. They are still polling a solid 35-40% even after two years of nonstop bad press and May didn’t get that fucking majority, did she?

No that's fair, I was expressing myself very poorly there - I meant that the press were already in full attack mode, not that they were massively effective.

xp to Daniel: UK austerity was also, as per Fizzles's post, clearly a social rather than a economic project on the part of the Tories who were actually implementing it.

Well yeah, I'm not saying that pushback means an automatic victory, but if you look at how the Eurozine crisis played out in different Southern countries, who's in government certainly made a difference.

As for the "lack of leadership" during the refugee crisis - well, question is, where would we want this leadership to come from? Popular consensus in a lot of European countries (though not Germany, of course) is the EU is basically led by Germany and, to a lesser degree, France. So for Merkel to take up that role with the eurozone crisis so fresh in mind was strategically unwise, even though I do admire her courage.

Part of the problem is most of Europe has traditionally been as "who gives a fuck?" about EU parliament elections as the UK - though if the far right suceeds in its putsch (and I fear it will) that at least might change.

xpost Andrew I would argue EU austerity had its social project aspect too - Central European Protestant Work Ethic beating those lazy southerners into shape, this was a lens I saw austerity boosters in both Germany and Portugal adopt - but still this was tempered by a welfare state attitude that tories despise.

PM statement in the Commons at 1530

"Let me be clear, the cafeteria is now closed."

This is a total non-sequitur but I'm not a politics guy and I'm curious about some things.

Would it be fair to say that for otherwise supporters who prioritised opposing Labour's strategy (and/or Corbyn) in 2017, having made that choice we must be in a significantly better place now than if there had been a Labour government since, if it wasn't a mistake?

In other words, for a Labour supporter it's a high price and/or a big gamble to forego the chance of a left wing Labour government because Brexit / Corbyn, isn't it?

Leading up to that I find the idea that it would have been viable for Labour to take a strong pro-Remain position immediately following the vote (i.e. dismissing the result) implausible. As if it would even have been remotely settled in the best case scenario anyway. WE may get a 2nd ref and WE don't get to say we won the first one!

Of course it could have been played better in many ways but remainers were in shock and unprepared IIRC.

Does this make sense or am I off my tits? I realise that yesterday let alone two years ago is ancient history so please ignore / indulge at leasure.

*leisure

What the Troika did in Portugal was fucking shameful but it could never have happened if we hadn't had a centre-right stooge government enabling it. So UK austerity does strike me as worse.

Amused to see former Remainer Jeremy Hunt pudding gor MV3 to be delayed til the 10th to scare Labour (!) whereas George Eustice, a former hardliner, is now making noises about Norway. Honestly if revocation doesn’t happen, that’s the next least worst option.

No 3rd vote.

hell is empty

scratch a liberal, pic.twitter.com/khFjjCxa7F

— waluigi cadorna (@AliceAvizandum) March 25, 2019

lol @ yet another non-apology

in scottish politics news

Mr Dunlop reading previous tweets from Mr Campbell, including one making reference to “any sanctimonious wankhole” - “what is a wankhole?” Mr Campbell says it would be “a hole into which one might wank”

— Philip Sim (@BBCPhilipSim) March 25, 2019

SNP’s Ian Blackford keeps on telling PM “just resign” during her reply to his rather thunderous address backing a people’s vote

— Faisal Islam (@faisalislam) March 25, 2019

I think she has plumped for My Deal or No Brexit rather than the superposition of last week. Let’s see how long that lasts.

I fail to see any sense of coherency in her answers so far today.

thats a positive narrowing of options imo but de facto "hard brexit" is or isnt wavable away like that if she offers a revocation to the house?

You need 25 working days to hold an election under the 2014 Act. There aren't 25 working days between now and 11 April so an election means a long extension and European elections OR no deal happening midway through the campaign.

— Stephen Bush (@stephenkb) March 25, 2019

She is treating Long Extension and No Brexit as if they are equivalent which tbf they probably are. Or at least so soft as to make the whole exercise - yes! - self-deafeating

May suggests she would refuse plan for referendum if MPs propose it in indicative votes

Chris Leslie, the Independent Group MP, asks May if she is saying she will reject a confirmatory vote if that is what MPs vote for in indicative votes.

May says people want a confirmatory vote to have remain on the ballot paper. So it would be a second referendum, she says. And that means it would defy what people voted for in the referendum.

May suggests she would refuse to accept a plan for a referendum if MPs back it in indicative votes.

My one concern about darragh's participation in this thread is that it does limit his ability to stick his head round the door and ask if we ever sorted this out.

not at all you can set yr clock by it

My Deal Or No Brexit has always made more sense as a tactic, her one very distant hope is to unite enough of the Tories to squeak over the line with the aid of enough Labour defectors and odds and sods.

It still isn't going to happen.

Kate Hoey just told parliament she doesn't call No Deal 'No Deal' but a 'Different Type of Deal' that would take us out.

— Ciaran Jenkins (@C4Ciaran) March 25, 2019

in the sense that it's not the status quo option implied by "no deal is better than a bad deal" she's correct. however it's also a really really bad deal.

I think she has plumped for My Deal or No Brexit rather than the superposition of last week. Let’s see how long that lasts.

― stet, Monday, March 25, 2019 9:03 AM (one hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Is this a legislative maneuver available to her? Can she replace the much-bandied "MV3" with a new motion that would amount to a vote between May's Deal and Revoke? If so, is the reason she won't do it because she is a coward?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6gbV3uADw3E