The Afterword

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Expat v Immigrant

by 71 Comments

Apologies, bit of politics. But I’ve seen a lot recently on Twatter about Brexit regrets (good). But one of the things I most hate about the current British exceptionalism/Brexit malarkey is how Brits abroad are endlessly described as expats while other foreigners are immigrants (these days generally illegal in the UK).

I’ve lived in Spain 20 years and am very definitely an immigrant, not an expat. I know there are people from all parts here so how do others feel?

FWIW Spain have treated me very fairly (as a white and middle class bloke lets be frank) both pre and post Brexit, though it hurts being a common or garden resident these days rather than a European.

How will Corbyn go down?

by 168 Comments

With another party leader looking like getting the shove, one wonders how Corbyn might go down in history (compared to BJ, that is). This long interview might be one way. (If this is not suitable content, my apologies, but I do notice that political threads turn out to be quite popular here!)

https://declassifieduk.org/exclusive-jeremy-corbyn-on-the-establishment-campaign-to-stop-him-becoming-pm/

Tractor Websites

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I understand as much as the next person how easy it can be to confuse the Massey Ferguson website with the Massive Fergie portal, but surely this, added to the many ‘base’ political oversights of the last weeks and months will truly have done for this wretched government?

Mid-term malaise or bye bye Boris?

by 84 Comments

Shropshire. Surely the place envisaged by Del Amitri when they wrote the song “Nothing Ever Happens” But no, the by-election result there last night — turning a 23,000 Con lead into a 6,000 Lib Dem one — was the big story this morning.

So, is it just a vote against Owen Paterson’s greed and enttitlement, or a wider message to Boris and co and the first brick in the Yellow Wall?

Keir Starmer

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Exciting new broom to fight a Tory government that has had it too easy with the opposition, or dismal and uninspiring, and about to lose the movement that was bringing back Labour’s true values?

A little bit of politics

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Corbyn has shown himself utterly out of touch with public sensibilities in his dated handwaving and wrong headedness about terrorism. As well as blaming the victim (didn’t know leftists were allowed to do that), the Coptic Christians murdered in Egypt today were not knowingly involved in a war against Islam. Apocalyptic death cults don’t need parody socialists encouraging them. My family (some of whom were from that way a few generations ago) tell me that the Middle East used to be able to rub along with each other reasonably well for centuries until then rise of militant Islam. It is not my impression that the British working man is prejudiced. In fact the opposite: they work with anyone who mucks in and grafts. But they definitely lack sympathy for terrorism of the kind done by Islamists and the IRA. They also have an enviable short tolerance for middle-class lefty do-gooders preaching at them. they get enough of that at school, work, and on the news. I suspect he has jumped the shark just as he might have been moving on up. OOAA.

Sturgeon – masterstroke or big mistake?

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I don’t know enough about public opinion in Scotland to know if Nicola Sturgeon’s commitment to a second independence referendum is a brilliant political move or a major error. People could very easily turn against her call, seeing it (as May has tried to present it) as putting political opportunism above the national interest. But if the majority of Scots are pro EU they may well see it as a smart move to apply more pressure on the government to step back from a hard Brexit and to win concessions for Scotland.

One thing has become clear in the last week – the interventions most likely to cause real problems for the government in the next couple of years are going to come from the SNP, or the Tory’s own ranks but not from Her Majesty’s official Opposition.

Referendums. In or out?

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I shall be on leave in late June, so today I have applied for my postal vote. If there’s a vote to be had, I shall exercise my democratic right, as fought for by our predecessors.

I shall vote. But truth be told, on this occasion, I don’t think I should have a vote. Referendums just ain’t the way to do things. Every few years. the electorate gets the chance to vote for a parliament that should pull together a coherent plan that integrates policies in all those areas where a government exercises power. Once they have elected that government, they should leave them to it and should not have the chance to vote on one particular decision or policy. An electorate’s decision on one issue may be completely at odds with all other policies, with all the dysfunction that that implies. Put it this way, if you had a referendum on the base rate of tax, and then a referendum on free tertiary education provision on the same day, you can bet that the outcome would a mandate for a low tax rate that could not support the mandate for tertiary education free at the point of provision.

So, » Continue Reading.

Politics, eh?

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I caught a bit of Tim Farron and Nick Clegg on the radio. It sounds like they have both decided that what the populace wants is more of the policies that lead them to the edge of extinction last time (cozying up to the Tories whilst tutting loudly). Given that the Labour Party has decided that the major problem with Ed Miliband is that he wasn’t left wing enough, that the SNP thinks the answer to everything is Independence, and UKIP see the refugee crisis as proof that they are right… the only party flirting with change is (amazingly) the Tories. Who are busy trying to steal old New Labour policies and UKIP ones at the same time, which is tricky but at least a recognition that they need more voters.

Be Afraid

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David Cameron is to address the National Security Council. He will open with this statement:

“For too long, we have been a passively tolerant society, saying to our citizens: as long as you obey the law, we will leave you alone.”

All this under the guise of protecting “British Values”, whatever that means. See the link for more info.

http://www.politics.co.uk/blogs/2015/05/13/theresa-may-s-plans-are-a-threat-to-british-values

Politics playlist

by 8 Comments

What with the election coming up I think we should create a list of (not really) politics based songs.

I will start us off with

Gordon Brown by The Stranglers Tory Of My Life by One Direction Cameron The Road Again by Willie Nelson UKIP Me Hanging On by The Supremes

Any more to add?

How Was The Budget For You?

by 60 Comments

A nice steady-as-she-goes budget with no real surprises. It fits the Tory narrative (and the Lib Dem one, I suppose) of a well-managed economy. The UK grew 2.6% in 2014, faster than any other advanced economy, there is record employment in the UK, with jobless rate to fall to 5.3% this year, trade deficit figures “the best for 15 years” and living standards “higher” than in May 2010, according to OBR data, with households better off by an average of £900 in last five years. Who would have thought, compared to ‘the mess’ the coalition inherited when they came to power, that the UK economy would look so rosy?

So, a few little tax giveaways, including the raising of income tax thresholds and, despite the fall in oil prices, a freeze on fuel duty. Richer pensioners, global multi-national companies and bankers are being squeezed but the Tories know that these groups fear a Labour government would do worse.

Osbourne must be very pleased with himself. Labour won’t be able to lay a glove on him for economic mismanagement. When the polls are close and a voter is in the booth about to place an ‘x’ in a box, the economy » Continue Reading.

Debate

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“Yer mum.”

“No, your mum.”

“No, yours.”

“Yours.”

“Chicken.”

“No, you’re chicken.”

“No, you are.”

Take a look at the row over the TV debate during PMQs, it’s on the BBC website. Good lord, Cameron is an arrogant and obfusticating c**t. I’d love to see BFJ Prescott smack him in his mealy mouth. I’m beginning to think that’s what it might take to put this country right again. It’s going to take more than poor weedy little Ed, that’s for sure.

Comrades….

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This popped up as a reply to one of my tweets. Don’t know if its’s legit, a hoax or wishful thinking, but oh….if only.

http://enoughitendshere.com/2015/02/24/a-warning-to-the-conservative-government-and-all-uk-politicians/