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

Lots of people are highlighting the Cameron / Farage debate as a key error - Farage having little to lose and having his credibility boosted as 'the official face of the opposition'.

I see The Sun is going with "Brexit rocket boost to shares" on the front page, after four days in which shares fell by £98bn.

Lots of people are highlighting the Cameron / Farage debate as a key error - Farage having little to lose and having his credibility boosted as 'the official face of the opposition'.

That's interesting. The way I see it, anything the Remain campaign can do to bring Farage into the limelight is a good idea – he's so unpopular with the moderate majority that anything that can be done to associate Brexit with him is a good idea IMO.

I think Farage is more popular than you suspect. He's selling the "let's take back control" very well.

Assuming a brexit win, I think a lot of the little-Englander Leave voters are going to be disappointed when the realise that what they've actually voted for is the neoliberal policies of people like Grayling and Gove, who are rather keener on cheap migrant labour than them.

If the referendum is close but in Leave's favour, does the decision still have to pass the House Of Commons before we are out?

About time the Queen earned her money.

If the referendum is close but in Leave's favour, does the decision still have to pass the House Of Commons before we are out?

Absolutely. The result of the referendum is a 'recommendation', and nothing more. Close or otherwise, Parliament has the final say, and then they still have to invoke 'Article 50' to formally initiate the exit process.

I can't see them trying to ignore a leave vote unless it was very close and turnout was very low

I think Farage is more popular than you suspect. He's selling the "let's take back control" very well.

Latest favorability ratings I can immediately see (Feb) are more depressing than I thought, but I'd still say he's toxic to a lot of waverers.

http://www2.politicalbetting.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/113201617588.jpg

Meanwhile, Bob Geldof is on a boat with Rachel Johnson threatening to intercept Farage's flotilla.

https://twitter.com/mikeysmith/status/743006829408575488

Yes, still has to go through the Commons.

I don't think Farage will get a permanent boost to his viability but in a single issue debate where he can throw out all sorts of nonsense, backed by large sections of the press, safe I the knowledge that he will never have to be accountable for it, there is no reason to think he can't have an impact. Giving him equal billing with the PM adds credibility to his platform.

I still think annihilation of the Tory right is the most effective way forward but Cameron's queasiness about 'blue on blue' attacks has taken that off the table. The 57 MPs who have signalled they will vote down a post exit budget don't have the same qualms.

I'd forgotten about Nigel's flotilla! The mad bastard!!

Someone going through and itemising the 57 as 'this is the one who still has a nanny', 'this is the one who wrote an open letter to Twitter demanding they upgrade their security after accidentally favouriting a BDSM porn tweet and claiming to have been hacked', etc might lessen the impact.

About time the Queen earned her money.

does the queen like the eu

there's a fearmongering/defeatist tone in the guardian that's really feeling damaging in this campaign.

A land without Polish plumbers, the end of the Calais booze trip and no more need to learn tricky foreign languages … Welcome to post-EU Britain

http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2016/jun/15/brexit-survival-guide-freeze-cheese-holidays-albania

it really feels like it's getting into "don't bother voting" territory.

Meanwhile, lots of entertainment to be had watching "Sir" Philip Green having a stand up fight with allcomers on the Select Committee.

He just broke off an answer to ask Richard Fuller MP to “stop staring” at him, as it’s making him uncomfortable.

Fuller insists he doesn’t want to make Green uncomfortable, as everyone stares at Green in disbelief.

Given the UK will effectively be in the EU for some time even if Leave wins, the short term effect would presumably be a lot of people trying to get into the country while they still can? ie it could actually increase migration in the short term?

could be balanced out by the people trying to escape this nuthouse?

Independent Scotland will welcome them with open arms.

I was thinking of moving to Dublin.

Need your passport for that.

I know we're not in the habit of quoting Guardian commenters with approval, but silkmonkey here mirrors my own state of anxiety at the moment:

https://discussion.theguardian.com/comment-permalink/76427843

peter_brentiskew
15 June 2016 12:48pm
I am getting increasingly happy and upbeat as the polls awing towards Brexit.

It's a great time to be British. About to lead the way to a better future for Europe by shattering the misguided EU.

I just can't imagine how someone's perception could be scrambled enough to believe this is a great time to be British.

when is it ever a great time to be British?

Who is ever "british"?

Apart from yknow the orangemen

was just thinking on the way to work what a difference 4 years make, how it DID feel good in 2012 with the olympics and all.

Still, though, Boris and the zip-line.

(xxp) deems about as otm as it's possible to be.

Farrage and Geldoff are literally fighting on boats in the Thames, right? wtf

What a time to be alive!

The 17th century!

end times, yeah

I want to shoot the whole day down.

spent the morning intermittently praying for them to all sink or be washed away in a deluge

https://scontent-lhr3-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/13445600_10153510820561644_8352904423666611749_n.jpg?oh=6eaa097e205b164c4f24ffe20f5aceac&oe=5805226F

^^^ Was just about to post that myself. Glorious.

:)))))

lol

"A trawler once involved in Britain's biggest fishing fraud and now owned by a Sunday Times Rich List millionaire is an unfortunate choice to lead a flotilla supposed to represent a fishing industry on its last leg because of Brussels. But it's also an unwitting clue to where the real problem lies. It's not the EU but the grossly unfair division of fish quota rubber stamped by successive UK governments that's threatening the livelihoods of thousands of small-scale fishers."

http://www.greenpeace.org.uk/media/press-releases/brexit-flotilla%E2%80%99s-star-trawler-was-involved-%C2%A363m-fishing-fraud-20160615

Facebook and geldof have both been pointing out that Nigel himself was our mep in charge of fishing quotas and he went to exactly 1 meeting in his time. I wonder how true this is.

Also fishing quotas, like taxes, are there for a reason

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-06-15/yellen-says-brexit-vote-influenced-fed-call-to-hold-rates-steady

DON'T
SWALLOW
DAVE'S
PORK
PIES

Leave have taken to flyposting the above around the place, probably to get the cockney vote. took me a while to work out what they were for (it does say VOTE LEAVE underneath but in smaller font)

"FACK ME, THIS GEEZER SPEAKS MY LANGUAGE, 'E'S DEFINITELY GOT MY VOTE"

maybe not

there is some subliminal pig fucking imagery in there, genius!

Are the Anarchists saying "Vote Leave", because then there'd be, um, you know, anarchy and suchlike?

It's only just sinking in that we could be about to enter the final week of David Cameron's Premiership, and no matter how much of a destructive and divisive failure it was, what's probably coming is going to be much worse.

stoked 4 da madness

Also trying to work out which of Osborne's tax and cuts threat or Farage's literal horde of brown people is going to backfire the worst.

Osborne's "punishment budget" was probably his stupidest move yet.
https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/76ae1de38b2bb6b0892012e1636b9de73517a693/0_0_650_444/master/650.jpg?w=700&q=55&auto=format&usm=12&fit=max&s=3ce1690839d7ee8eebae09a2e8c6af7c

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vxXsEFajtrI

every time I see alasdair darling these days he's on stage with some odious tories