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

otm get the fernet in i’ll bring the typewriter.

branc page

aside from ASTB i have been interested in reading this https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Restraint_of_Beasts

seems germane here

Funny thing is, I spent about four months not eating (well, not paying for it) thanks to being in hosp in 1987, and when I came out, I'd saved enough to put down on a flat.

But, that's just me.

hey Mark, if it's just you and not a different economic situation 31 years down the line - if I keep track of all the money I spend on food in the next four months, will you put in the difference towards a deposit on a flat in 2018?

"I got Bobby by the pound, Whitney by the key · DJ Screw by the gallon, bitch the game belong to me"

that me when I broke my ankle and was living on statutory sick pay for 4 months!

LAB: 2,350, diff. +78
CON: 1,332, diff. −33
LIB DEM: 536, diff. +75
UKIP: 3, diff. −122

"Analysis suggested the two main parties were neck and neck overall in terms of national vote share - on 35% each. Last year Labour's vote share was estimated to be narrowly ahead of the Tories."

did someone misinform the BBC that we have adopted PR?

Coffee and avocado fuck's sake

They've jumped on that phrasing because if you said 'Maybe young people would be able to afford a house quickly if they were careful with money' that could be taken up and proven wrong but if you say 'Eee it's cause they're having coffees and avocados all the time' the reaction is just a middle finger

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/amp/uk-scotland-scotland-politics-44035177

The SNP try to avoid a court case by pointing out they hadn't actually banned fracking, they had just used language that made everyone think they had.

This is what their website currently says about fracking:

https://www.snp.org/pb_what_is_the_snp_policy_on_fracking

"What is the SNP policy on fracking?
The Scottish Government has put in place a ban on fracking in Scotland - meaning fracking cannot and will not take place in Scotland."

BREAKING: Brexit Britain looks to 73 year old David Trimble for @BorderIrish solution involving something called "technacology" and apparently a "cross between a sat nav and a mobile phone". #r4today https://t.co/VFAEM1QHdD

— Aidan McG - #FBPE (@aidanjmcg) May 9, 2018

look it's cool that we're nearly two years out from the brexit vote and 10 months from leaving the eu and we still don't have a fucking clue what's gonna happen with the irish border it's just fine everything's fine it's fine

just read the phrase "leading Tory backbenchers Anna Soubry and Dominic Grieve"

i mean

centrists that persist with this myth that Soubry and her cuddly One Nation Tories are really really lovely people, even after they just voted down a Windrush enquiry to protect their poor beleaguered Maybot, really do piss me off.

https://newsocialist.org.uk/a-revolution-of-souls/

interesting article on the past & present local and cultural activities of the labour party and the possibilities for the community organising unit

"Playing to a gallery of puce-faced social reactionaries"

good to see twitter commentariat moving away from played out "Gammon" laziness!

*beams with pride* pic.twitter.com/vI5yQ3Dk7e

— Revolting-Subject (@UnRoyalReporter) May 8, 2018

2011 mind

Yes, that's before they all started voting Tory in Scotland.

ffs!

was just listening to R4 media show and New Statesman are launching a Nicky Woolf edited N American web edition soon, they want a slice of that Trump action perhaps!

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/may/10/disabled-people-internment-care?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

As vast budget cuts see people with disabilities and older people lose their support to eat, wash, and leave the house, the care sector is “in crisis” because of severe staff shortages. Low pay, zero-hours contracts and poor conditions means staff are leaving while councils and care homes struggle to hire and retain qualified carers. The drive for outsourcing public services in recent years, championed by Conservative and New Labour governments alike, only exacerbates this.

This will only worsen after Brexit as the care sector faces a future without the contribution of its largely European migrant workforce. With no carers found, Edith’s social worker has come up with increasingly desperate solutions, including asking Edith’s bosses to alter her working day around her care call hours. “This isn’t shift work. I’m an accountant,” she says. Edith tells me she cried as soon as she heard the latest plan: putting her into a care home. If no agency can be found in time, she has been told she’ll have to leave her own flat and move into an unnamed residential institution. “I feel like I’m being threatened into accepting a care package which will strip me of my life and just leave me surviving,” she says.

This is what austerity, outsourcing and a decaying social care system is doing to actual human beings, and it isn't just on Blue Tories is this outrage.

I think this devastating Dr F Ryan piece should be posted to Kate Andrews, I'd love to hear how her take on how the private sector pisses all over the NHS matches up to this.

i know disabled young people chained into a prolonged childhood because this country refuses to offer them the reasonably basic level of personal support they'd need to develop independence away from relying on their families for everything. and in some respects they're probably lucky to have families who care enough to do that. you're damn right it's an all-party issue.

IT'S ALL BEEN LEADING TO THIS pic.twitter.com/2tNsWaIv4Y

— Paul Stollery (@PaulStollery) May 11, 2018

Just perfect 👌

Outstanding work from @MarkCarruthers7 and @bbctheview pic.twitter.com/4BtakjfqGd

— Good Friday Agreement (@BelfastAgmt) May 10, 2018

JRM crumbling to pieces under some rare scrutiny from a BBC interviewer.

If even that level of mild scrutiny was applied to him on a daily basis, he'd be a nervous wreck by now or he'd had publicly wet himself at least once.

This is a fundamental point. Brexit isn't mainly about us as individuals. It's about the future of our country & its contribution to the world & world history over the long term - including those not yet borne & those not in the UK. Your next 10 years are irrelevant. https://t.co/6sAJxetm7z

— Andrew Lilico (@andrew_lilico) May 11, 2018

more just stupid, in that you could say the same about literally any political decision ever taken

The Final Solution isn't mainly about us as individuals. It's about the future of our country & its contribution to the world & world history over the long term - including those not yet borne & those not in Greater Germany. Your next 10 years are irrelevant.

Lolico was talking about the cultural/scientific brain drain loss of all the genius IQ's of European Jewry's exterminated holocaust victims the other week, he's not far off fucking insane and quite impossible to take seriously tbh!

He was just kicking some racial science with Jordan Peterson.

by Lolico's logic that shouldn't have been a problem in the long term, it was a mere 10 year blip

i mean i do understand the sweet, sweet taste of Remoany tears but these guys are so bad at it

but it’s a genuine question - is this some sort of deranged hayekian reification or even deification of The Market as supreme being to serve, which it is our duty to bring about? it doesn’t feel particularly nationalistic, more atlanticist neoliberalism?

I think in addition to the market concerns a lot of people take the (obviously real) xenophobic element of brexit to mean that it happening will lead the UK down an unstoppable road to becoming an isolationist, ultra-nationalist regime and I reckon that's partly what Lilico is handwringing about. Being part of the EU is like an identity thing for a lot of people.

could also lead us down the dark road to Carry On films and The Beatles

Good news for ILM and Julian Clary then!

Lolico was talking about the cultural/scientific brain drain loss of all the genius IQ's of European Jewry's exterminated holocaust victims the other week, he's not far off fucking insane and quite impossible to take seriously tbh!

― calzino, Saturday, 12 May 2018 09:17 (eight minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

i know! he's one of these people who seems to have no qualification to talk about what he talks about, something that's exacerbated by the extreme pissiness with which he goes about it. one of those people, like hannan and JRM who consider themselves exceptionally superior because they are experts at what's in their own head.

I was gonna give some caveat that we don't really need to leave the EU to go down that road.

xp
In common with JRM I'd bet Lolico hasn't really changed that much or had a software update since he was 12 years old, his model of clueless dickhead's inception date! Just saying this after N Robinson played a vintage bbc soundclip of 12 yr old JRM talking the other week, presumably because it was meant to be charming.

but it’s a genuine question - is this some sort of deranged hayekian reification or even deification of The Market as supreme being to serve, which it is our duty to bring about? it doesn’t feel particularly nationalistic, more atlanticist neoliberalism?

I think this article where he explains his belief in 'duty-driven imperialism' is illuminating in where he's coming from - the white man's burden, basically?

I do not believe in self-determination, at all. And I believe that the proper role of democracy is as the handmaiden of liberalism, never its master. We have democracy because (a) once we have a sufficiently secure liberal state (but only then!) democracy allows for a peaceful change of rulers; (b) once we have a sufficiently sophisticated political class (but only then!) democracy is a legitimate expression of liberty; (c) if we have a sufficiently secure liberal state (with proper limits to the exercise of democracy), and a sufficiently educated and experienced voting class (but only then!) the threat to liberalism represented by democracy (which is always present, and always dangerous) is nearly offset by an appetite and respect for liberalism amongst voters.

Thus, we have a duty to assist the oppressed of the world, even when that is not in our national interest and even when they, collectively, would not like it afterwards. We will be hated when we invade, and hated when we stay; our blood and treasure will be spent on matters that do not further our national interest; and sometimes our interventions will go wrong, causing the deaths of many. So be it. Honour and duty demand nothing less.

http://conservativehome.blogs.com/columnists/2007/11/andrew-lilico-w.html

xp
In common with JRM I'd bet Lolico hasn't really changed that much or had a software update since he was 12 years old, his model of clueless dickhead's inception date! Just saying this after N Robinson played a vintage bbc soundclip of 12 yr old JRM talking the other week, presumably because it was meant to be charming.

my god, thanks soref. i think. that is truly deranged.

... little matter of a royal wedding a week from now. (xp)

we can only hope some of ISIS's finest can step up to the plate next week, allahu akbar!

that made me laugh quite hard so the person serving in the cafe asked me what i was laughing at.

“...er nothing”

just winding up Mordy tbh!

Mordy <3 Harry + Megz

listening to dont stand me down a *lot* recently and always get a real emphatic kick out of the line “you know how the english upper classes are thick and ignorant?”. v fine.

always sing that extra loud if i hear it in the pub

Meanwhile, peering through the other end of telegraphscope...

https://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/958465/Brexit-news-Jacob-Rees-Mogg-BBC-Brexit-Northern-Ireland-border