Thursday 9th May 2019

[HindleA]

Morning.

https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/to ... ssion=true" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;



Think torture only happens overseas? Just look at the degrading treatment of disabled people in Britain

[HindleA]

https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/politics/ ... ssion=true" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[PaulfromYorkshire]

Apparently the Lib Dems Euro elections manifesto is called "Bollocks to Brexit".

Really.

[gilsey]

It really is.



Pochettino spoke up about Brexit as well as Klopp.
https://www.independent.co.uk/sport/foo ... Z7Zl5pb61w" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

“For me, it’s all about applying common sense. If the politicians now realise it [Brexit] will be tough and it will be bad for England, why not go back and explain, ‘This is what is going to happen to us............................I feel so sorry because it’s a situation that should be dealt with by people who have all the information, who know the reality. If people are for or against Brexit, they manipulate everything.”

[RogerOThornhill]

Wolfie.
@Tpopularfront
·
2h
What has this country come to when an absolute bell-end like Nigel Farage is hailed as a serious politician?

Worse still, a beacon for the working class?

The man is an ex public school boy, ex banker, expenses fiddling, quasi-racist elitist.

UK. Get a fucking grip.

[AnatolyKasparov]

A low point was a recent Brexit Party rally in Fylde being hailed as a "working class uprising".

For a start, people under 60 were very much the minority there.......

[PaulfromYorkshire]

Outrageously drab Kenyan is sacked by BBC (5,5).

[Not sure this is quite politics but it's a slow day]

[AnatolyKasparov]

BBC really are so cringing towards the royals aren't they?

And that at least isn't a recent thing, it has been part of their mindset from the beginning.

EDIT: having said that, the tweet in question was pretty outrageous.

[adam]

The Brexit Party's candidate in Peterborough is a local entrepreneur. Amongst other things, he has been the 'entrepreneur in residence' for a local business service called Allia Serious Impact. Here is a picture of their header from his page on their website, just for fun.

Screen Shot 2019-05-09 at 12.50.28.png (52.62 KiB) Viewed 4097 times

[PaulfromYorkshire]

Catastrophic Mersey vetch "throws her hat in the ring" for the Tory leadership (6,5).

[Yes I know we've had this one before but I like it ]

[AnatolyKasparov]

Another one who has absolutely no idea what the "working class" actually is. I'm starting to detect a pattern here......

[citizenJA]

Good-afternoon, everyone

[gilsey]

I try to stay neutral on JC but I'm really struggling with their approach to the EP elections.

Corbyn will seek to make the Euro elections about social justice, not Brexit. This is what the party says in its news release about the Labour manifesto.
The manifesto – ‘Transforming Britain and Europe: for the many not the few’ – sets out Labour’s plans to work across borders to take on the tax dodgers, the polluters and the migrant baiters of the far right.

They want us to turn out to vote for people who, according to Labour policy, aren't going to be able to take those issues forward in Europe? How's that going to work?

[AnatolyKasparov]

But given that "Labour policy" holds open the possibility of another referendum, its not quite that straightforward?

[gilsey]

I think that's my point, that it's not straightforward at all.
How can you campaign saying, elect these people, they'll do good things, but actually if we get our way they won't be doing anything at all?
IMO this is the point at which trying to bring leave and remain together hits the wall. Either you want continued representation in the EU or you don't.

[Willow904]

All the things Corbyn mentions are more achievable when European countries adopt the same approach - on tax, on environmental regulations and immigration. The EU is the optimal vehicle to do that as it creates a bloc big enough to resist the deregulatory pressures of the US and China.

It really is a misnomer to say Labour want to achieve these things when they are currently advocating a policy that undermines them. And they are advocating Brexit. I don't think they can hide behind implementing the referendum result any more. If they oppose the Tory Brexit as not in the interests of the country, they are already putting their political opinion before the choice of the people. The same people who, narrowly, elected the Tories to deliver Brexit in 2017. And they have every right to do so in a representative democracy. With a new election, Labour can try to create a new mandate if they wish, by offering a referendum or soft Brexit or anything they want. If they choose to pitch to leavers with a "respect the referendum" line, they can do that too but they can't then complain if people who want to remain via a fresh referendum choose to vote for a party that puts that option first instead of at the bottom of a very long list.

[citizenJA]

Tories lost their majority in the 2017 GE and lost their mandate for Tory Brexit. People didn't return any government.

[Willow904]

Tories lost their majority in the 2017 GE and lost their mandate for Tory Brexit. People didn't return any government.

The leave victory in the referendum wasn't exactly overwhelmingly decisive either.

My point is that just because Labour didn't win either the referendum or the GE, it doesn't mean they have to change their mind to agree with those who did. I thought we established this after the 2015 election. Just because austerity won on that occasion, it doesn't mean the opposition has to suddenly give up opposing it and trying to change voter's minds. If you say what you would prefer and get a majority of people to vote for you, what people voted for before no longer has primacy. That's how democracy works. If Labour are still supporting Brexit in the first instance, it's because they have chosen to. The Tories have failed to deliver on the referendum result. In any new election, there is no requirement for Labour to promise to do what the Tories could not - unless they actually want to.

[Willow904]

BTW I'm not saying that adopting a pro-EU position would necessarily be electorally sensible for Labour. I'm saying that the democratic and principled position to take is always the one you believe in rather than the one you believe gives you the best chance of power. And I feel that Labour have now hit the point that they can't use the "respecting the referendum" line in a genuine sense anymore. Far too much has come out about the illegitimacy of the leave campaigns, about the emptiness of the promises, the very real dangers and potential damage to the island of Ireland, the economic costs and the dwindling support to just plough on regardless. So, you either plough on with Brexit because you cynically think its your best route to power or because you genuinely believe in it. I honestly don't know which Corbyn falls under, but neither is especially conducive to my enthusiastic support. People will vote for Labour in the EU elections, and I'll be one of them, but it's impossible to ignore the fact that Brexit has tarnished Corbyn and the ebullient tide of support that catapulted him into the leadership is very much starting to ebb.

[HindleA]

Maximum sanction reduced to six months.Of course if you deem them necessary and "work"there is absolutely no logic involved .Equally of course they don't.

[AnatolyKasparov]

So after all the excitement, it appears that Galloway isn't standing in Peterborough. Nor is Farage. Nor is Gina Miller.

It should still be interesting enough without them, mind.......

[RogerOThornhill]

Turnout will be interesting - may depend on whether people go for the "It's a way of telling the EU we want out!" or "Actually this is just a waste of time since our MEPs will be doing bugger all"

I doubt our nursery parents are best pleased at having it closed all day.

[AnatolyKasparov]

The byelection is on June 6, two weeks after the Euro elections - and just 5 after the locals!

[Willow904]

https://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/news/no ... n=sharebar" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Single young people 'living on a knife-edge' and facing homelessness due to Universal Credited

Although not especially surprising given all the other cuts that happened at the time, I'm not sure that I was ever specifically aware of this particular cut. It does help make my point about UBI of the other day, though, about how pledges around meeting basic needs such as shelter are more important and to the point than pledges around money. One is about achieving an outcome, the other about providing a possible but not guaranteed means to an outcome. Focusing on the first doesn't rule out making use of the latter but focusing on the later runs the risk of losing sight of the first, especially in the hands of a right wing party.

Those who are single and under 35 receive the lowest rate of LHA, known as the shared accommodation rate.

However, since 2011 there have been cuts to LHA – meaning it has stopped keeping up with rising rents – and in 2016 it was frozen altogether.

Figures from the charity show that as a result, fewer and fewer homes have been affordable to those receiving the benefit as rents across the region continued to rise.


Previously, LHA rates were set to ensure that recipients could afford at least 30% of properties in their area, giving households more opportunity to find safe and stable homes.

[Willow904]

https://www.standard.co.uk/news/politic ... 37381.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Andrew Adonis: We must spell it out now, Labour is a Remain party

Adonis makes a good point here, I think, for anyone wanting to send a "remain" message in the EU elections:

His message is that only a big Labour vote can stop Nigel Farage’s movement coming first.

He's right, of course. The Brexit Party coming first would be a huge boost for leave and only Labour are in a position to beat them and bury that angle.
Any attempts to suggest a Labour victory is also an endorsement for leave would stumble somewhat over the overwhelmingly pro-EU stance of the majority of their candidates. Corbyn might be able to dictate the contents of the manifesto but he can't dictate the natural sympathies of the majority of Labour representatives.

[Sky'sGoneOut]

Well there we have it. There's one rule for Farage on the BBC and another for everyone else.

On Question Time tonight he was allowed to rant and rave, interrupt and talk over everyone else, rabble rouse and essentially turn the whole thing into a sinister pantomine while any panellist trying to take him to task was quickly slapped down by Fiona Bruce. The BBC made him and now the BBC treat him like a star.

On the day they sacked Danny Baker for making a daft joke that was clearly not intended to be racist and invite people on the radio to tear him to shreds they allow an actual, demonstrable racist to spout whatever he likes on their flagship political programme and make him untouchable.

What the fuck is going on?

[Sky'sGoneOut]

And just a few words on the Labour donor and Brexiteer John Mills who was also on the panel.

Everything he said was fantastical bollocks. He was going on about renegotiating the withdrawal agreement and getting rid of a couple of 'little things' like the backstop and us paying our 39 billion 'divorce bill'. He sounded as deluded as Farage and the ERG. In fact he spent most of the evening agreeing with Farage. He even inspired a lexiter in the audience to show his face in public and ask why Corbyn wasn't making the case for a left wing brexit.

Hmmm...let me just think about that for about 5 zeptoseconds.

Because there is no such thing?

I mean lexit, not a zeptosecond. They exist, Jim Al-Khalili told me. A trillionth of a billionth of a second​.

Which is how long it would take for the Labour party to become an irrelevance if it followed the advice of John Mills.

Don't believe me? Just look at Scotland as an example of what happens when the Labour party takes people for granted and for fools.