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

but so long as it gets the home office numbers down, who gives a shit amirite?

Would've thought that there are already a lot of unreported crimes because of this as a prospect, contemptible as it is either way.

maybe give p**i bashers some free nectar points if a victim is found to have irregular immigration status

Jeremy Newmark‏ @Jeremy_Newmark

I understand Shadow AG Chakrabarti believes Ken's post NCC remarks & lack of contrition are possible grounds for new investigation

now pretty much just resigned to everything the Labour party does being a complete farce tbh

Its all a farce. This is David Runciman, expert in Politics, expressing a wish to wind the clock back to 2010

One thing I don't like about that article is, it seems to repeat the wisdom that George Osborne speaks for 'liberal Britain'.

the strange rebirth of etc

runciman isn't generally a fool but that's a very odd piece: i didn't think "going back to 2010", i thought "going back to 1981 and the LIMEHOUSE DECLARATION" (i actually looked up his wikipedia to see if he was a whiskered old SDP trooper, but he's much too young, he was only born in 1967) (it's possible that earlier generations of runcimans were SDP enthusiasts, of course)

the osborne/hunt paragraph is i think is primarily a clever flourish that fails to come off: he's identifying "liberal britain" with remain and then saying this tendence has no obvious leaders on left or right (which is true), and demonstrating the claim by noting that two of the leading pretenders -- osborne and hunt -- have quit the game entirely (which is also true, but i think the rhetorical balance is more bullshit than insight)

basically the piece is arguing that labour should dissolve itself for the good of country, constitution and everything else -- which is just magical thinking, since labour is not going to dissolve itself

not so much "pretenders" as "kings-over-the-water" (and he's dispelling the fantasy, except he's then replacing it with a bigger and more bizarre fantasy)

weren't you talking about private-schoolers trying to be spokespeople of the left? runciman's good but he and i share the unsecret unmeek unshame

well, i don't think runciman IS presenting himself as a spokesman for the left here, he's trying to imagine a space in which the sensible centre can once again lead us to the sunny uplands of something or other

(one of the maddening things abt the SDP in its pomp was that it was PURE CATNIP to political scientists and psephologists -- i guess bcz of the chance to watch an Historical Political Realignment in real time -- so as well as observing and predicting they all became uncritical drooling fans and members and excitedly announced labour's demise every week for six years, until David Steel finally did the decent thing and stabbed David Owen viciously in the back… a sustained realignment has continued to remain elusive, blairism notwithstanding)

Osborne hasn't really left the game, really..

It seems utterly ludicrous to say to someone "well just leave" in almost any situation, but especially here when what that someone has NOT been doing for the past two years is shifting one little from the leader's seat -- and Corbyn is all tenacity and staying put. Runciman sounds utterly clueless here.

A feature of UK and Euro politics in the last 5-10 years are those little parties that shift the ground. They don't gain outright power (in Europe bcz so much politics is done by coalition and other parties won't work with them) but they don't need to, as centre ground parties adopt some of their policies and much of the rhetoric already. UKIP are a very successful pressure group.

So in that sense I don't see why these centrist parties shouldn't just keep plugging away -- they may produce policians that could get more votes, if not seats -- and they should try and shift the conversation and policy their way. The instability of the current climate seems permanent so there should be all sorts of openings.

'Sensible Labour' twitter journalists/commentators scrambling to condemn free school meals is quite something.

well, i don't think runciman IS presenting himself as a spokesman for the left here, he's trying to imagine a space in which the sensible centre can once again lead us to the sunny uplands of something or other

The Sensible Centre represented by George Osborne and Ruth Davidson. Nice.

xp you have to remember that these people love means testing more than a smile on the face of their new-born children

Kind of curious how long Steve Bell will keep bashing us over the heads with his rapier wit about how people are being awfully mean to Ken Livingstone.

it's probably some kind of conspiracy

Mike Buchanan, chair of the The Headmasters' and Headmistresses' Conference, representing leading private schools, said the proposals on fees would hurt "hard working, dual income families who are working very hard".

Is this sort of McNultyesque sentence construction accepatable at private schools or what?

evidence if we even needed it that "hard-working" as an adjective is more dogwhistle than descriptor

John Gray will criticise pretty much any political position but this contains some truth even if I don't agree with all of it (the bits about Scotland seem particularly spurious):

http://www.newstatesman.com/politics/uk/2017/04/liberal-britain-has-nothing-say

I agree with Tom D -- it is a bad sign (in a forest of bad signs) that 'progressive liberal' now includes George Osborne who spent several years being one of the major hate figures of every progressive person in the UK. And Davidson I think not much better.

much as I instinctively distrust and dislike Gray he is often otm when describing what's wrong with things

part of the problem with progressive liberalism is the vacuousness of that concept "progressive". this is why I bang on about New Labour people not being allies of socialism, because they are and always were more naturally allies of the likes of Osborne. nebulous labels bring nebulous politics, the broader you spread your coalition the more enemies you end up trying to pal up with

more hunt-fluffing i see

(from gray, not anyone here)

James Meek's essay on Cadburys in the new LRB is typically brilliant on the complications of supposedly left parties signing up to apparently prog-lib enterprises
https://www.lrb.co.uk/v39/n08/james-meek/somerdale-to-skarbimierz

They're just bourgeois people who want gay people and POC to be just happy enough not to complain about them.

Mark Reckless has defected (refected?) to the Tories.

Feckless

A former winner of the World Nominative Determinism Challenge Cup, currently held by Robby Mook

somewhere in a stormont corridor, a forgotten james brokenshire weeps

Michael Fabricant was robbed.

James BrokeNCYDE

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-39504338

there's plenty of dickery on either side of the term-time holidays debate but lol at Lady Hale telling it like it is with her measured use of the phrase "obedient parents"

I've had 2 absentee days this week due to early morning meltdowns, where I couldn't in good conscience send him onto the transport in a violent mood and scaring the bejesus out of everyone else on there. The school is 20 odd miles away and to be quite honest, what they provide isn't worth the long journey on public transport anyway - the home schooling my partner used to do was better. When the arsey letters from them about attendance arrive - I just launch them straight in the bin.

when some twat from the Department of Ed says "even a few days missed school can affect a child's results" i think to myself "maybe you should sort out your terrible fucking system then"

do they seriously think our kids don't tell us about the week at the end of every term when they watch DVDs all day while the teachers are finishing their marking?

word

p sure there were considerably greater number of days i spent at school where i learned nothing (especially post primary school) than there were days were i learned something. also whenever this subject comes up i keep hearing a teaching representative state that all the evidence shows that even a days missed schooling can have a detrimental effect on a pupil's achievement but they never seem to cite these studies.

how about the fact that you make us do YOUR job at on OUR time (i.e. homework) means we get to do a little of OUR JOB (i.e. raising our kids) on YOUR time? thx

Feel as though everyone who might want to take their kids out of school for a bit gets painted as if going to disneyland whereas in fact cf. calzino's post

For the sake of balance though parents like that do exist and imagine you had to teach their kids, or getting death threats at parent's evening because you've tried to stop their kid bullying other kids etc etc etc

as i say, dickery on both sides, some parents give zero fucks about their kids's educations. but the police state response to that is ugly as.

I had a recent arsey phone-call from the school when we took him to an autism friendly Romeo + Juliet showing at the Playhouse. It had already been discussed with his form teacher who regarded it as an educational excursion and said no probs. But for some reason it automatically sets in motion some mechanism where some arsehole has to phone me up and read me the riot act. Excellent use of resources in this austerity era of course.

I'll desist from any more of this, it should be on another thread - but just wanted to get it out!

i think there was a "what the fuck's up with the education system?" thread years back but couldn't be arsed to look for it

No need to desist, I'm getting an education here as a non-parent and it's all very relevant imo

Did youse all have good attendance records? Maybe ask in the posited separate thread if it gets goin

skived a *lot* between 13 and 17. social services etc. wd be interested in a thread.

Same except not sent as opposed to skived and uh well rural irish social services lol