the day after the deadline: can the union survive brexit and other deep questions

Really this report doesn't say anything new, it only confirms some of what we already know - and they just say, when asked, that they didn't look into how and by whom this was used as its not their job. That will be left to the British Government, the British right wing tabloid press, and to Fred at ilxor dot com. xp

Thing is, though, that Russia is the only known country to have created military grade novichok. And even doing so would be a major violation of the modern treaties concerning chemical weapons.

This unambiguously confirms that modern-day Russia, which is neither a corrupt, far-right tyrannical state nor a lingering colonial power (it's not a colony if you annexed it via land, stupid!) nor a bastion of misogyny and hatred towards sexual minorities, nor an oligarchy that plunges its citizens ever deeper into extreme poverty, nor a neo-fascist attempt at resurrecting the Byzantine Empire's symphonia, nor a troll-like entity bent on extending its influence ever further (because 17.1 million km² is not enough) is our best ally in the struggle against the Western neoliberal far-right (for they are one and the same, as RT has taught us). All of these incontrovertible truths are to be espoused if you wish to stand up to the Tories – there is simply no self-consistent alternative.

There have been consistent rumours that the government has put huge pressure on Porton Down to say that it came from Russia and that Porton Down has refused - sticking to the line that it is consistent with Russian manufacture but that it couldn’t be confirmed positively.

This could be semantic in the absence of any likely alternatives but the idea that the government is leaning on civil servants for go beyond terminology they’re comfortable with in order to strengthen a political case is obviously not without precedent and reflects badly, even if on the balance of probabilities they’re right.

If the point is to avoid imperialistic warfare, then the novichok being produced in Russia is almost the best-case scenario. Almost any other conceivable producer would lead to the kind of international isolation that often leads to an opportunistic invasion down the line. Russia is big enough that peaceful measures are the likely option.

I agree that if those rumors are true, it's bad, and who here would put it past May's government?

This unambiguously confirms that modern-day Russia, which is neither a corrupt, far-right tyrannical state nor a lingering colonial power (it's not a colony if you annexed it via land, stupid!) nor a bastion of misogyny and hatred towards sexual minorities, nor an oligarchy that plunges its citizens ever deeper into extreme poverty, nor a neo-fascist attempt at resurrecting the Byzantine Empire's symphonia, nor a troll-like entity bent on extending its influence ever further (because 17.1 million km² is not enough) is our best ally in the struggle against the Western neoliberal far-right (for they are one and the same, as RT has taught us). All of these incontrovertible truths are to be espoused if you wish to stand up to the Tories – there is simply no self-consistent alternative.

Nicely put, but garbage nonetheless.

I agree that if those rumors are true, it's bad, and who here would put it past May's government?

You mean, of those who actually have to live in this country?

No, of course not

‘Imperialistic warfare’ and best case scenarios are besides the point. If you are interested in international accountability, claiming to have stronger evidence than you do and being publicly contradicted by the people you say have given you that evidence is appallingly slack. It calls all the other evidence you claim to have, most of which is going to be secret, into question and creates a sliver of room for plausible deniability where none should probably exist.

But conversely, claiming that May claimed something she didn't claim is wrong as well. When did she claim there was evidence this specific sample could be connected to Russia? Her statement said that it was 'a military grade nerve agent, of a type developed by Russia', none of which is contradicted by this new story.

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/12/world/europe/uk-russia-spy-poisoning.html

You're overplaying this, ShariVari.

Important this - even though much of HMG maintained the 'highly likely' line + did not suggest that origin of Salisbury Novichok had been traced to Russia, some overstated their case so there could now be a political price to pay https://t.co/aBUJUv9rNo

— Mark Urban (@MarkUrban01) April 3, 2018

The Foreign Secretary claimed that Porton Down confirmed Russian origin. It’s almost inconceivable that they would be making these statements had he not.

What did her Foreign Secretary have to say about it?

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/boris-johnson-putin-order-salisbury-nerve-agent-attack-russia-spy-poisoning-sergei-skripal-a8259086.html

just as well he’s unsackable or he’d probably go over this

Johnson has been characteristically appalling in all of this and should be beheaded I mean be more level headed. Also fired. Also beheaded.

Well, fuck Boris Johnson. But discussing whether or not something he said is appalling is like discussing if something Trump said is a lie. But yeah, he should totally go over this. And so much else.

Boris got peeved because the Russians were offhand and mocking, refused to approach a serious matter with any gravity or dignity and seem to be treating it all as an opportunity for jokes and sledgehammer wit - irony, anyone?

iconic pic.twitter.com/jDpC6Mzd63

— George (@gexrgem8) April 3, 2018

"No xx" is some cold female-chromosome hatred

It’s also (kiss)(kiss), obvs.

(((kiss)))(((kiss)))

A callback, ladies and gents, and others

Is the Jewdas haggadah available for purchase? I need it for next year

this news story just makes me feel
incredibly fucking hungry

lol

leadership contest now

Sources close to Jeremy Corbyn say he did not join chants of "f*** the police" at a far-left Passover celebration https://t.co/jirS60fiql

— The Times of London (@thetimes) April 4, 2018

of course he didn't join them, he led them

I've been trying not to pay too much attention to this consistently depressing story but am I right in thinking the Tories have been relatively quiet about this?

More eerily, conservativehome.com has been quiet on it, which is odd as they pump out 6 posts a day.

Violent crime epidemic - caused by social media.
4000 disabled children without a school place - nothing to report here.
Emaciated school children sneaking food into their pockets - a WW2 story, meh hyperbole.

May pays lip service to "burning injustice" - yay !

The Jewdas story slowly curled up and died as the day progressed and yet the BBC still had it as 2nd or 3rd item on the evening news, ahead of the Porton Down story, which didn't even make the headlines.

Don’t interrupt your opponents when they’re fucking up? Although Tories and right-wing sites aren’t exactly free of same; shire Tory dog whistles about Jewish people are Daily Mail fuel and always have been. Today’s Mail is a bit DOG KLAXON obvs.

I do feel like Theresa May’s shoe-horney citation of Labour antisemitism at PMQs the other week, before the mural comment was discovered, was a FLY, MY PRETTIES moment of sorts. In reading around the issue I was amused (read: appalled) to discover a guy who used to contribute to Edgy Style Mags in the early ‘90s is now something big at the JC. This guy used to combine writing with dealing pills and was the subject of much mirth when he lost a huge bag of pills on a staff trip; the editor of a different ESM hauled him over the coals in an editorial without naming him when he joined a tabloid and began splashing on celebs who used drugs. He was also suspected but never conclusively proven to have participated in phone hacking, but left his paper under a cloud. I saw his byline at the JC last week and did a little vom in my mouth.

The government can keep their hands clean and have obviously delegated it to friendly media in the meantime. That Guido is ‘friendly media’ is worth noting. They’re all scum.

This whole story dragging on is weird to me because I feel like the public in general don't care about this at all, and immediately switch off whenever it comes up

Would it be controversial on here to suggest that May's opportunist Stop and Search cessation (where she dressed it up as progressive, rather than part of the cuts) is the reason lots of people are dead in London? I know Stop and Search was probably executed in a very discriminatory way that violated the space of many innocent people. But if I lived in an area where fools are firing weapons with impunity, I'd want a stop and search policy.

I'm sure Corbyn will be happy that the story is having the life flogged out of it like this, now the media is just yelling NO! WRONG JEWS!

I mean, my experience is obviously anecdotal but it’s mostly passing people by who aren’t on social media/the internet. I raised it with a few dog-walker types in my neighbourhood and I don’t think it’s changed their views or voting intentions.

London’s murder rate has been basically flat for five years and is still substantially lower now than it was when stop and search was at its peak. There has been a bump in the last two months but no obvious link to over/under-policing.

Xps

cheers SV, I'm always very cynical when the cause of social ills is said to be myriad or mysterious, but perhaps sometimes it just is.

Other than the killing of Mark Duggan itself (and maybe even more than that), stop and search was pretty much what the 2011 riots were about, it incubated a gigantic amount of resentment and hatred of the police and a desire to fuck with them.

Cuts in police numbers more generally are an issue though, my understanding is that the thing that's really suffered is proactive community policing that might actually alert them to people carrying around guns before they actually kill someone.

Remember that striking clip of the ex-police guy on Sky News going ham on May that Jed posted on here? I think it was at the start of this current spree when there were multiple stabbings on new year's eve. He was insistent that the community policing cuts have been disastrous.

This is a terrific read: https://www.lrb.co.uk/v40/n07/james-meek/nhs-sos

In some ways it fills in the detail of what we know - mapping out what the crisis at both health and care services look like. The ending is very powerful, and its a culmination of the number of angles this piece covered, because it isn't just a matter of funding it properly.

― xyzzzz__, Thursday, 29 March 2018 20:04 (six days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I have finally finished this, and yeah this is terrific, thanks a lot xyzzzz_

Saw this commentator on murder rates last night.

"This is an extension of a community that has long learned to police itself .... we've not been able to get the support of the police service" @StaffordScott_ tells #newsnight pic.twitter.com/b6Mi8gHBa0

— BBC Newsnight (@BBCNewsnight) April 3, 2018

Not sure that 'police ourselves' should mean 'increasing numbers of people shooting each other dead', though.

FYI Calzino

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zENoTey8e_k

I had someone point a shotgun at me once during a bookie robbery. He shot himself dead the next day after armed police swooped on him. That fucked me up for years did that, because some of his family were blaming the bookie staff for being "police informers". Fucking guns are the worst.

I mean, my experience is obviously anecdotal but it’s mostly passing people by who aren’t on social media/the internet. I raised it with a few dog-walker types in my neighbourhood and I don’t think it’s changed their views or voting intentions.

― suzy, Wednesday, 4 April 2018 09:21 (forty-nine minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Don't you live in Bloomsbury though?

It’s come to our readers attention that @Jacob_Rees_Mogg has been masquerading as Beano character Walter Brown. A clear breach of our copyright. pic.twitter.com/voWQZ5VkPS

— Beano (@BeanoOfficial) April 4, 2018