Rolling Brexit Links/UK politics in the neo-Weimar era

yeah in the wake of the trump news i just noticed that headline sitting below it all like "hey i'm also horrifying news"

British Values - always be closing

Wasn't Turkey the example brexiteers always used when trying to scare people about immigration from potential EU countries?

yes

the "Turkish problem" has been sorted now, any Turks who wanted to come here have been purged or killed.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-38788388

"populist gestures" different from "the will of the people" apparently

chuka umunna:

"But they need to understand, just as they will put America first, we will put British values first."

ffs

nice that the government are rejecting the petition out of hand without the debate it guarantees, too

Obviously these concerns are not bigoted legitimate enough.

We should wait until we see how many signatures the "let him in" petition gets

The more votes this gets, the worse they will look - also for those like me, resident but with no referendum or election vote, it's important to sign.

I would love to see every Remain voter, EU and non-EU resident (all of whom pay taxes) sign this.

chuka umunna:

"But they need to understand, just as they will put America first, we will put British values first."

ffs

In terms of how Britain should respond to "America First", this speech Tom Watson made on Saturday seems to have been overshadowed somewhat, which is a shame considering how bad it is

In a controversial speech, Mr Watson said the UK could experience a “Brexit bounce” when it leaves the EU and questioned the prevailing belief that free trade was always a good thing.

As politicians and the media rush to condemn Mr Trump, Mr Watson suggested people should “keep an open mind” about the new President’s policies.

Speaking at the Co-operative Party Economic Conference in London, Mr Watson said: “If Trump says ‘buy American’, our rational response is ‘buy British’.

“Yet to say ‘buy British’ these days risks sneering derision from much of Britain’s commentariat and chattering classes, few of whom have been on a factory floor lately. When did you last hear Theresa May say it?”

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/tom-watson-buy-british-brexit-donald-trump-labour-a7550661.html

Not many factories ergo not many factory floors, Tommy boy.

the message is clear: uk citizens have a duty to support plucky british startups like bae systems by buying our own jet airliners and missile arrays

as a true blue Brummie Tom was clearly thinking about British-owned mega-giants like Jaguar and Cadbury's

https://mobile.twitter.com/jonwalker121/status/824921025066500096

so trump's likely ambassador to the eu thinks the european union is equivalent to the soviet union? that's, um, troubling

I suppose he means the european union will perish like the soviet union did. Which sadly is quite possible.

That's not what he means.

He would like to help the european union to go down the water toilet of history. That's what he says.

Tom Watson is the slimiest cunt.

What he says is "well I had, in a previous career, a diplomatic post where I helped to bring down the Soviet Union so maybe there's another union that needs a little taming"

What does Chuka Umunna, a child of (at least one) immigrant representing a solidly Remain constituency, expect to gain from this shit? Does he really expect a load of racists to rally to his cause in two years time?

...yes?

http://cdn.static-economist.com/sites/default/files/imagecache/original-size/images/2017/01/blogs/bagehots-notebook/20170204_woc719.png

Is that surprising? The big cities have the most people and were the strongest remain, so even if everyone had signed evenly across the country the graph would look like that, no?

I did like that heat map that showed signatures from across the entire country, though.

Parliamentary constituencies are roughly level though (hence why some of them are enormous) - I'd rather see it by % on both axes, agreed.

this map shows you the % of the population of each parliamentary constituency who have signed the petition, there does seem to be a definite correlation between remain voting areas even factoring in differences in population

http://petitionmap.unboxedconsulting.com/?petition=171928

Pretty sure plenty of people who voted Brexit find Trump repulsive too.

xp e.g. 8.85% in Corbyn's Islington North vs 1.01 % in Hartlepool

tbf there's prob something to Stephen Bush's tweets y/day (https://twitter.com/stephenkb/status/826167402056601601) which said m/l that Remain-leaning areas are just more likely to sign gov.uk petitions in general

(I can't define exactly why, but it seems plausible: lol chattering classes media types; Leave voters skew older and perhaps less web-savvy, tho obv plenty of Leave voters on twitter and news site comments sections; less disengaged from govt processes, even slightly modernised ones like web petitions; less wary of putting their name on a govt list?)

but, still not looking good for my hope that Trump will tap into Leave voters' anti-Americanism and they'll think "we've got to be with the US or with Europe, maybe Europe is a better idea after all"

admittedly there were already plenty of signs that was never going to happen; people either delighted by any amount of right-wing nuttery or still convinced that we're still a globe-spanning empire that needs no alliances

"How long before the Yanks want back in?"

Leave voters skew older

Still grateful for GIs bringing over chocolate, chewing gum and nylons during the War.

The 'revenge' petition demanding that Trump be allowed to molest the Queen or whatever is approaching 100K signatures. Ooh that'll show us.

if that was certainly going to be the outcome I'd be tempted to sign it myself (◣∀◢)ψ

Pretty sure plenty of people who voted Brexit find Trump repulsive too.

― Eats like Elvis, shits like De Niro (Tom D.), Tuesday, January 31, 2017 10:59 AM (forty-six minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

there do seem to be a lot of ppl who backed Brexit and who have dubious views on immigration + multiculturalism etc who also are appalled at Trump, and will specifically mention his racism as a reason for their disapproval. idk if this is a variation on the "I can't be racist because racist means violent skinheads with swastika tats and no-one else" way of thinking, that a grotesque ranting American leader fits their idea of what a "proper" racist looks and sound like

Trump's concerns are not legitimate you see

Parliamentary constituencies are roughly level though (hence why some of them are enormous) - I'd rather see it by % on both axes, agreed.

― Andrew Farrell, Tuesday, January 31, 2017 5:58 AM (two hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

otm. they are ~60-80k give or take. but yeah, it should be %.

most a lot of the Brexiteers I know are pretty pro-Trump pro-gentle racism tbh

Here's the other petition, suitably illiterate...

https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/178844

This morning I talked to a Brexit voter who'd signed and forwarded the petition to her entire family of Brexit voters, and only one refused to sign because 'the election was over'. I'd be pushing back on the idea that 'remain areas' are solely occupied by Remain voters.

Russia Today talking this petition up. Who'd've thought it?

I'm sure their 1000 viewers will appreciate that.

Always a good time trawling thru what petitions people start.

Close all retail on boxing day, retail isn't needed on boxing day! - 145,384 signatures
Give status to Police Dogs and Horses as 'Police Officers'- 125,530 signatures

Those are good.

I don't know it's hard enough getting human polices to observe people's human rights without trying to break that concept down for an Alsatian

Labour shadow Brexit minister (?) M. Pennycook says:

He will vote for Brexit because not doing so would be 'a gift to the Far Right'.

I see this point, and add that Brexit, which he will vote for, is also a gift to the Far Right.

He also says that if anyone votes against Brexit, there will be riots in the streets and a breakdown of social order.

It is a bit as though he is trying to give people ideas.

I think these predictions could be accurate, up to a point, but only because Farage ('the gentle people will revolt') et al have created the massive pro-Brexit attitude and the idea that this is the most important thing in the world.

c. 3 years ago, the idea of rioting about the EU, pro or anti, would not have occurred or made sense to anyone. The all-consuming anger is synthetic, something that has been pulled together and constructed relatively recently (though the anti-EU poison in general is much older).

There is something strange about a politician openly saying 'I'm not going to do this thing, because if I do, people will protest about it'.

Not an ideal lay-out for it but I put the resources list for refugees and migrants that daniel trilling crowd-sourced and storified into a slightly more readable format, to be used and shared (I'll transfer it onto its own page when I have a moment)

http://dubdobdee.co.uk/2017/01/31/resource-list-for-refugees-migrants-asylum-seekers-and-more/

Emma Hutchinson @ITVEmmaH

Clive Lewis tells me if Gvt doesn't accept Lab amndmnts to Brexit Bill then he can't support next week & will leave Shadow Cab @itvanglia

if I understand correctly the chances of the Labour amendments being accepted are slim to nil, yes? so I guess Lewis is resigning.