Psychoactive Substances: Rolling UK Politics in The Neo-Con Era

I refuse to believe I'm the only person in the sweet spot between being old enough to have read the BFG as a child and being young enough to have retained the faculties required to remember the plot.

apparently the home office has banned people in immigration detention centres from access to social media. not sure if there is any plausible explanation that isn't v shady

https://medium.com/@TheRehn/the-uk-home-office-has-just-officially-banned-access-to-social-media-and-instant-messaging-to-6f46ba798d0#.1550qmnyv

The detention system is all kinds of fucked up. Detainees are allowed phones but not if they have cameras, for instance.

If I was a conspiracy theorist I might be just beginning to think Boris is a Remain plant, sent in to sabotage the Leave campaign. I've just watched him give a speech, on the same day that Cameron and Osborne have ratcheted up the post-exit economic doom and gloom, where he actually brought up the EU Want to Straighten Our Bananas story - and it wasn't a joke or an aside. Has he lost it or what?

He never had it. But I'm fine with him fucking up the Brexit tbh.

... and his political future, yes, bring it on.

I was getting slightly concerned while looking at the voting intentions of the over 50s who are much more likely to turn out than any other demographic but the current Trump-narrated campaign against the Nefarious Turk suggests Leave are beyond desperate at this point.

Complacency on the Stay side is the enemy. I don't know what the answer is, though.

If I was a conspiracy theorist I might be just beginning to think Boris is a Remain plant, sent in to sabotage the Leave campaign. I've just watched him give a speech, on the same day that Cameron and Osborne have ratcheted up the post-exit economic doom and gloom, where he actually brought up the EU Want to Straighten Our Bananas story - and it wasn't a joke or an aside. Has he lost it or what?

it's p much all he's got isnt it? can't do immigration, as he doesn't want the campaign to lean that way and anyway he's already stated he's pro, can't do brexit policy, because er there isn't one (other than "out"), economic argument is on its last legs, not cos of crap In campaign but bcos it's rapidly running out of any support whatsoever, all you've got left are

STRATE BANANAS

and phosphorus in washing powder of course

Good choice to lead the Leave campaign.

Breaking news:

Boris Johnson: "I was wrong about bananas..."

grim lols http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2016/may/22/labour-activists-in-2015-were-like-middle-class-ryanair-passengers

In the forthcoming work, edited by the backbencher Tristram Hunt

I imagine he travels on Ryanair all the time.

Leaving aside the bigger problems with the Cruddas / Hunt campaign to patronise the working class, it is nagl to trash volunteers who gave up time to help candidates who had failed to build up their own local support base.

Pretty sure Boris has no strong feelings about the EU and is probably, at heart, in favour of remain. The only motivation he has for running the Brexit campaign is to enhance his prospects of becoming next leader of the Tory party, and those prospects won't be harmed by losing the referendum. It's pretty obvious his heart's not in this.

lol just looking up soups in my delia smith cookbook because - well, see the dentist thread and

"Since EC regulations took effect our delicious Fenland celery is not allowed to be called that, so my local greengrocer refers to it quite affectionately as 'dirty celery'..."

http://www.fenlandcelery.com/

Fenland celery is part of an exclusive club of quality British foods that have earned Protected Geographical Indication (PGI) status from the European Commission.

There will be punch-ups in the Tory party for years afterwards, whatever happens.

standard operating procedure for the Tories since at least Thatcher. if BJ anticipates an increased majority in 2020 he might well think it worthwhile to at least court the country bumpkin contingent

Yeah Boris's position in the Leave campaign is a posture I think, it's unlikely that he actually wants to leave the EU. Assuming he wins the Tory nomination and becomes PM (a big if) he just doesn't strike me as the sort of politician who would want to lead the country through a messy and uncertain EU exit.

OTOH if Remain wins and Boris does become PM, then the cries of betrayal from thwarted leavers would be so loud that it might bounce him into calling another referendum anyway.

lol r u suggesting there may be few sour grapes from the Leave campaign in Remain wins

if

Ryanair up 42% this year so tbrr theres not really any comparison btwn them and any part of uk labour

Ed Milliband was much more impressive on Question Time there than he ever was as leader, sadly. He was genuinely good there.

this sounds somewhat ominous:

The Labour leader’s inner circle has also had “tense discussions”over a decision to allow a film crew from Vice Media to follow Corbyn for several weeks. It is understood the fly-on-the-wall documentary, which will be broadcast next week, was signed off by Corbyn’s communications chief, Seumas Milne.

Some Corbynites fear they could be ridiculed in the film, while others have objected to having their faces broadcast and have asked to be edited out.

“People said they turned round to find a camera shoved in their face while discussing policy matters,” one source said. “There has been a lot of anger about the decision to let in a film crew at a time when we are under a lot of pressure. We could, through the editing process, be made to look like idiots. Vice are not averse to taking the piss.”

maybe we'll get a 21c version of Yesterday's Men

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RYcigddR-Hk

https://mobile.twitter.com/MichaelPDeacon/status/736834684458504192

This is going to be fun. I'd be surprised if fewer than a couple of dozen MPs tried to trigger a no confidence vote in Cameron if Remain wins, given that 25 did in 2013 with less of a reason. Could hit the 50 required.

"a live boy or a dead girl"? could be in the interest of public safety to reveal this mp's name

It's a famous quote I think?

Edwin Edwards, Governor of Louisiana, 1983:

"The only way I can lose this election is if I’m caught in bed with either a dead girl or a live boy."

I don't really get it though, if Leave wins then Cameron will have to go. His position would be untenable and he's probably privately already prepared to resign in that effect, same as with Scotland.

If Remain wins (and unless it's really narrow), then tough shit, Leavers. OTOH they might decide to tear him down anyway out of sheer spite. Maybe there's something big lurking in Cameron's past we don't know about, but hey he got away with having put his cock in a dead pig.

sheer spite is exactly why they'll try it. for all i joke about it, these cunts will never accept a referendum result that doesn't go their way.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/05/28/tory-mp-andrew-bridgen-says-david-cameron-is-finished-as-party-l/

The Tories are *eating* David Cameron... and here's why

Quite a few MPs have apparently already written to the 1922 committee with instructions to open the letter on the 24th of June. The narrative they are using is extremely clear - ok, we lost but the manner in which the PM led the remain campaign was unbecoming of a Tory leader so he has to go. I think they could well get the 50 they need to trigger the vote but I strongly doubt they will win and, unless there is a real sense it's in the balance, I suspect it will fizzle out.

How does a No Confidence work? Cameron doesn't have a big enough majority to be able to cope with 50+ Tory MPs voting against him. His only hope would be that the other parties who campaigned for Remain choose to support him, and good luck with that.

I suppose there is the possibility that he could scrape home with the support of some Unionists and enough Blairite MPs hoping to provoke all-out war in their own party, but the consequences of being helped over the line by the opposition would be so humiliating to Cameron that he would be hugely diminished for the rest of his tenure.

I think it would just be internal. No confidence as Tory leader rather than no confidence in the government. He'd need to carry a majority of Tory MPs.

He'll win then, unless they feel so unthreatened by Jeremy Corbyn that they feel they can do whatever the hell they want.

He will win. I think there are probably at least 100 MPs who want him out but unless there is real momentum behind them, with Gove leading the way, I think fairly few will come forward.

https://twitter.com/toadmeister/status/736891592552878080

ok that was easy

Look at this picture, if it makes you violent congratulations you are still alive

https://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images/652514875726364672/vLJJ5vLh.png

how about this, if it makes you smile you can personally leave

Why didn't he die, Young?

i posted the exact same thing on the fucking england flags thread at the time, used to walk past it on the way to work, before the office moved.

and it's not acton like he says, it's shepherd's bush.

http://peterjnorth.blogspot.co.uk/2016/05/rick-its-more-complicated-than-that.html

I was wondering what ppl here think of the argument put forward in this blog post from a leave supporter, that brexit would not cause any dramatic changes in the short term (as in the next decade or so), contrary to what both the leave campaign suggests?

Let's take a for instance. Erasmus, the academic cooperation programme. That is the mechanism by which we facilitate cross border exchanges and research funding. There is no renegotiating that in two years, not least because it would need to be ratified by all states (including non-EU members if I understand it correctly). But as much as we cannot renegotiate it in two years we cannot design a replacement for it either. So we keep it.

Apply that same logic to air traffic control, public health surveillance, port inspections, Europol, and all the other cooperation areas where we have ongoing projects, budgetary commitments and contracts to be upheld. The very idea that we're going to dream up an FTA that ties up the loose ends and addresses the shortfalls experienced by both parties is fanciful.

Pretty sure that most European research funding (Horizon 2020, ERC etc) has nothing to do with Erasmus. Anyway, Switzerland found out that things can change quickly when you're on the wrong side of the EU: http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2015/nov/11/whatever-you-do-dont-become-switzerland-swiss-academics-tell-uk

Yep. It might take a while for commitments around Erasmus programmes to wind down but I don't see why there could not be a fairly immediate change in status for students on full degrees - with EU students charged full fees for attending UK universities and vice versa. There will be lots of areas of shared resource and cooperation that will take years to exit from but plenty that can kick in fairly quickly. Aside from that, you'd have several years of uncertainty with nobody clear on what deals can be reached or how quickly they can be implemented. It's correct to say that withdrawal would be a process rather than an event but it would probably be a hugely destabilising one.

and it's not acton like he says, it's shepherd's bush.

Some plebs live there, that's all he knows.

it's just the other end of ravenscourt park from his school...

... which would welcome with open hours any children of residents there.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CjpqLlqWgAAn30L.jpg

cartoon posted as one of the replies to Young's tweet. is one of the welsh revelers throwing a leek in the air?