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

to be honest i have avoided watching it in case my confidence in SB evaporates: i too have a low opinion of HL

What's britilx view of mcguinness

Very clever man.

mixed

There is a horrible anecdote going around from the son of the founder of NI Mencap (a music editor of 30+ years' standing) that McGuinness said some very cruel, fairly eugenecist things about his learning-disabled brother, to his father's face. :-((

i'd say he has a few skeletons in the closet alright.

for a "Marxist" I'm sure he had some unenlightened views on quite a few things

not sure the provos were marxists (tho maybe he said he was, i don't know)

the marxist orgs were the OIRA (the "stickies") and the INLA

nah I was confusing/assuming, thanks for clarification

re deems' question: serious peace negotiations never need to be conducted between friends or, well, nice people

any end to war that isn't total defeat for one side means hostile murderous arseholes sitting down together at the peace table… and some arseholes turn out to be good at getting others to do the same

(which is obviously very easy to say from where i'm sitting: i know the person suzy's referring to, we used to work together, and, well, the price of peace being a general forgiveness you have no personal control over must be very hard to swallow)

Yeah, it must be - classic case of one person's centrality being left out of the history written by the victors.

Also noticing a lot of peace process bros omitting Mo Mowlam.

who do you mean by peace process bros? northern irish politicians? it seems reasonable enough, not to take away from mo mowlam, that while they wait to bury martin mcguinness his legacy, good or bad, might dominate the news, putting aside the general awkwardness some, on the republican side or otherwise, might feel about the roles of representatives of the british state.

I could imagine when he formed his unlikely "chuckle brothers" friendship with Ian Paisley that the great benefits (to mankind of course) of the eugenics movement would have been one of the subjects that they were both in complete agreement on.

This is relatively minor in the grand scheme of things but annoying:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-39343971

May is going to announce that laptops and devices larger than phones are being cabin-banned from flights going via the Middle East - probably including the major transport hubs of Doha, Dubai and Abu Dhabi. It pretty much rules out working on any business flights to the Middle East or almost any going to Australia unless you're connecting in Singapore.

The only reason it's being done is the US is doing it. The only reason the US is doing it is to fuck over Emirates, Qatar and Etihad. It's protectionism - the US airlines can't compete on service or price but the government can inconvenience passengers of other services on their behalf.

The UK following that lead, despite BA having its main transfer hub in Qatar - is bizarre. I can't see how they could possibly justify excluding Qatar but including the other main regional hubs.

kindles (etc)? they are bigger than 'phones.

What's britilx view of mcguinness

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6fyCMffCj5c

not sure the provos were marxists (tho maybe he said he was, i don't know)

the marxist orgs were the OIRA (the "stickies") and the INLA

― mark s, Tuesday, March 21, 2017 5:31 AM (eight hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

when the adams, mcguinness et al crew got control of the army council the provos went very intentionally into branding themselves as national liberation strugglers in the left-wing tradition. quote from sinn fein policy paper of 1979:

"with James Connolly we believe that the present system of society is based upon the robbery of the working class and that capitalist property cannot exist without the plundering of labour; we desire to see capitalism abolished and a democratic system of common or public ownership erected in its stead. This democratic system, which is called socialism, will, we believe, come as a result of the continuous increase of power to the working class. Only by this means can we secure the abolition of destitution and all the misery, crime and immorality which flow from that unnecessary evil."

That is remarkable from Partridge.

"...looks like a clown without makeup" is one of the best put downs I've ever heard.

Freedland on Goodhart.

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2017/mar/22/the-road-to-somewhere-david-goodhart-populist-revolt-future-politics

The division of people into 'Anywheres' and 'Somewheres' is embarrassingly inane. Even Freedland gets at some of what's wrong with it.

a twat writing some bullshit about some bullshit a twat wrote

A terrible thing to say about ILB.

shooting at house of commons?

man attacked policeman and was shot apparently

Reports of a car mowing down several people at Westminster Bridge

Another thread for this I think?

Shooting outside Portcullis House/Houses of Parliament

the fucking nick of galloway

http://www.westmonster.com/george-galloway-enters-mother-of-all-by-elections-in-manchester-gorton/

(writing a by-election diary for arron banks' website)

love this:

https://twitter.com/GallowayExposed/status/839181831467597824

(Mac Giolla was a marxist wasn't he? so the calling the Stalin-loving Galloway a "Trotskyist" presumably a calculated insult.)

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/C7mNjZiV4AAD6Fd.jpg

idea for novel where dystopian future government interns swathes of political opponents on the pretence that they're participating in a reality show

fantastic

feel the words "novel" and "future" and "pretence" could be tidily swapped out there

Ben Elton's probably written it.

I was thinking of a good novel tho

idea for novel in which every detail of our current predicament has already appeared in a ben elton novel, along with how to escape said predicament, but no one read will ever the ben elton novel bcz by ben elton

the elton paradox

by robert ludlum

ukip back down to 0 MPs courtesy shortly-floorcross carswell

Anothere Clacton byelection?

"Difficult test for Corbyn" lol

he's going to sit as an independent rather than rejoin the tories, so I guess that means no byelection?

There wouldn't need to be one even if he rejoined the Tories.

no, but he might feel obligated based on the fact that he chose one last time he switched parties, I guess?

last time he was disobliging a political party by affecting its voting tactics in the house; this time no one of such consequence is affected

it's kind of bizarre to think that UKIP got 12.7% of the vote in a general election less than two years ago and now have zero MPs

If they could have less than zero MPs that would be even better.

Anyway, they're over-represented in the European Parliament... oops.

They're over-represented in Westminster

just checking i'm not going mad: the government thinks people shouldn't have the means to communicate privately with one another, and it's being reported like it's no big deal?