Resolution 1156


It is very difficult to collect my thoughts into something coherent after four hours sleep in the last 48 hours, but these are heads of key issues to be developed later.

I have no doubt that the Johnson government will very quickly become the most unpopular in UK political history. The ultra-hard Brexit he is pushing will not be the panacea which the deluded anticipate. It will have a negative economic impact felt most keenly in the remaining industry of the Midlands and North East of England. Deregulation will worsen conditions for those fortunate enough to have employment, as will further benefits squeezes. Immigration will not in practice reduce; what will reduce are the rights and conditions for the immigrants.

Decaying, left-behind towns will moulder further. The fishing industry will very quickly be sold down the river in trade negotiations with the EU – access to fishing (and most of the UK fishing grounds are Scottish) is one of the few decent offers Boris has to make to the EU in seeking market access. His Brexit deal will take years and be overwhelmingly fashioned to benefit the City of London.

There is zero chance the Conservatives will employ a sizeable number of extra nurses: they just will not be prepared to put in the money. They will employ more policemen. In a couple of years time they will need them for widespread riots. They will not build any significant portion of the hospitals or other infrastructure they promised. They most certainly will do nothing effective about climate change. These were simply dishonest promises. The NHS will continue to crumble with more and more of its service provision contracted out, and more and more of its money going into private shareholders’ pockets (including many Tory MPs).

The disillusionment will be on the same scale as Johnson’s bombastic promises. The Establishment are not stupid and realise there will be an anti-Tory reaction. Their major effort will therefore be to change Labour back into a party supporting neo-liberal economic policy and neo-conservative foreign (or rather war) policy. They will want to be quite certain that, having seen off the Labour Party’s popular European style social democratic programme with Brexit anti-immigrant fervour, the electorate have no effective non-right wing choice at the next election, just like in the Blair years.

To that end, every Blairite horror has been resurrected already by the BBC to tell us that the Labour Party must now move right – McNicol, McTernan, Campbell, Hazarayika and many more, not to mention the platforms given to Caroline Flint, Ruth Smeeth and John Mann. The most important immediate fight for radicals in England is to maintain Labour as a mainstream European social democratic party and resist its reversion to a Clinton style right wing ultra capitalist party. Whether that is possible depends how many of the Momentum generation lose heart and quit.

Northern Ireland is perhaps the most important story of this election, with a seismic shift in a net gain of two seats in Belfast from the Unionists, plus the replacement of a unionist independent by the Alliance Party. Irish reunification is now very much on the agenda. The largesse to the DUP will be cut off now Boris does not need them.

For me personally, Scotland is the most important development of all. A stunning result for the SNP. The SNP result gave them a bigger voter share in Scotland than the Tories got in the UK. So if Johnson got a “stonking mandate for Brexit”, as he just claimed in his private school idiom, the SNP got a “stonking mandate” for Independence.

I hope the SNP learnt the lesson that by being much more upfront about Independence than in the disastrous “don’t mention Independence” election of 2017, the SNP got spectacularly better results.

I refrained from criticising the SNP leadership during the campaign, even to the extent of not supporting my friend Stu Campbell when he was criticised for doing so (and I did advise him to wait until after election day). But I can say now that the election events, which are perfect for promoting Independence, are not necessarily welcome to the gradualists in the SNP. A “stonking mandate” for Independence and a brutal Johnson government treating Scotland with total disrespect leaves no room for hedge or haver. The SNP needs to strike now, within weeks not months, to organise a new Independence referendum with or without Westminster agreement.

If we truly believe Westminster has no right to block Scottish democracy, we need urgently to act to that effect and not just pretend to believe it. Now the election is over, I will state my genuine belief there is a political class in the SNP, Including a minority but significant portion of elected politicians, office holders and staff, who are very happy with their fat living from the devolution settlement and who view any striking out for Independence as a potential threat to their personal income.

You will hear from these people we should wait for EU trade negotiations, for a decision on a section 30, for lengthy and complicated court cases, or any other excuse to maintain the status quo, rather than move their well=paid arses for Independence. But the emergency of the empowered Johnson government, and the new mandate from the Scottish electorate, require immediate and resolute action. We need to organise an Independence referendum with or without Westminster permission, and if successful go straight for UDI. If the referendum is blocked, straight UDI it is, based on the four successive election victory mandates.

With this large Tory majority, there is nothing the SNP MPs can in practice achieve against Westminster. We should now withdraw our MPs from the Westminster Parliament and take all actions to paralyse the union. This is how the Irish achieved Independence. We will never get Independence by asking Boris Johnson nicely. Anyone who claims to believe otherwise is a fool or a charlatan.

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1,156 thoughts on “Resolution

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  • Wikikettle

    The decline and fall will be confirmed if our Judiciary allows Julian to be taken. Just as I dared to imagine Jeremy in No 10, now I imagine Julian set free.

  • Carol

    Maybe the non-Tories who voted tory should watch this before they have their Xmas meal:

    https://dorseteye.com/i-dont-care-whether-you-like-jeremy-corbyn-just-vote-labour-on-december-12-and-get-rid-of-this-horror-show/

    Tory scum: “The typical user of a food bank is not someone languishing in porverty, it’s someone who has a cashflow problem espisodically.”

    Child 1: “Sometimes we don’t have lunch.”
    Child 2: “Mum always says ‘My money doesn’t grow on trees.'”
    Child 3: “We try not to eat a lot in one day, even though most of us are really hungry.”

    PS Don’t forget to practise the Heimlich maneuver before you tuck in:

    https://www.healthline.com/health/heimlich-maneuver

  • .Geoffrey

    Arch remainer economist of the Sunday Times David Smith writes in today’s Times (no idea how to link to it) that Scotland has missed it’s opportunity from an economic viewpoint for independence.

    • iain

      Can you imagine what he would written about the viability of independence for colonies in Africa, Asia and the Caribbean?

      • OnlyHalfALooney

        Or indeed of the 13 little colonies that declared independence in 1776 and became the United States.

  • mike

    If Tony Blair had devoted serious investment in the north of England to repair some of the carnage caused by the Tories, the region might not have voted Leave in the 2016 referendum.

    But Blair believes in neoliberalism, which rules out that kind of investment.

    Brexit is his fault.

    • Carol

      In what way is leaving the EU going to fix that. There are deprived areas all over the England and Wales, due to right wing politics. They hate the poor, elderly, sick, disabled and children of the poor. Sounds familitar? Not sure how leaving the EU will make any difference to that type of ideaology. The Tory win means no NHS – it’s going, going, gone. That’s what this election was really about.

    • Rhys Jaggar

      What ignorance you display. I was working in the North from 2000 to 2009 and there was huge infrastructural investments made in the North by Blair et al. Maybe too much was in the cities, but you go look at the investments in new science infrastructure in Liverpool, Manchester, Sheffield, Leeds, York, Newcastle in particular. You look at MediaCity in Salford, look at Manchester railway stations etc etc. New hospitals etc etc.

      You can argue about what money was spent on, but look at the RDAs, the Northern Way and try to tell me that Blair et al did not invest in the North….

      • Ken Kenn

        No doubt what you say is true.

        What I will say is that if not for Gordon Brown, Blair would not have invested a carrot in the regions.

        Brown invented Working tax Credits and Pensioner Credits which if not in place ( at the moment of course) would leave many people even worse off than they already are.

        Ditto with PFI Projects.

        Think about this: If not for Brown’s ‘ investment ‘ via PFI – what state do you think schools and hospitals would be in now?

        They have become bad now but imagine the state of them if not for that flawed PFI Investment?

        As Social Democrats ( I am much more left than that ) I always had a bit of a soft spot for Brown as I had for Charles Kennedy and even if both were totally pissed they would make more sense than Tony Blair and his acolytes sober.

        Brown helped to keep the well offs asset prices up and even the home owning democrats investments/assets up so kudos to him.

        But that went un appreciated and he scored 29% of the vote in 2010.

        Brown was an economically unlucky PM.

        Here’s the thing: The economy ‘ grew ‘ by 0% in November and it ‘aint going anywhere anytime soon and for all the Tory voting media are obsessed with the Labour party’s problems the focus should be on what the Tories are going to do in order to ” Get Brexit Done”?

        The Daily Politics Show today spent nearly an hour of discussing the woes of the Labour Party and about 30 seconds on exactly how is Johnson and his mates going to “Do” Brexit?.

        There was a caption below which asked a question that should have been asked before the election:

        How are we going to do Brexit?

        With a majority of 80 the Tories can ‘ do ‘ whatever they like.

        So, for all the Tory invitees today on the Politics Show – particularly the three guests who voted Tory ( JoCo -you know who I mean because you did ) how is the UK going to do Brexit?

        Blair and even Johnson are discussing last weeks battle.

        Brexit is on and going to be enshrined in Law.

        Verhofstadt and his friend think otherwise.

        Hmmmmmmmmmmmm…………..I hope he’s right.

        I have no love for the EU but utterly less love for the US.

        Maybe but maybe this Brexit could be stalled at best and scuppered at worst.

        Scotland should plan but hold its fire for now.

      • Sue Jones

        Actually a lot of the urban regeneration projects in the North East were EU funded, or part EU funded. Hospitals were built using PFI which of course cost us further down the line.

      • J

        Nothing you’re talking about impacts the lives of most people favourably, not one jot. Speaking as someone who’s lived in Salford, Newcastle, Dundee, Warrington and Chester and seen it all first hand. Media City for example is a stronghold of neoliberal opinion makers, a blight upon Salford and a huge pain in the arse.

  • Kim Sanders-Fisher

    If you actually believe that all those vulnerable people in deprived area voted for the monster who will perpetuate their misery you are far too gullible. Nationwide Stockholm Syndrome? I sincerely doubt it; industrial scale theft of postal votes and a rigged election facilitated by the Boris Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) and Mainstream Media highly likely We cannot let this slide as we have far too much to lose. Do not be fooled by the wall to wall propaganda or this will be our last election for a very long time.

    • Carol

      I’m glad you’re here. I’ve just been reading this:

      https://politicsandinsights.org/2018/03/20/the-revelations-about-cambridge-analytica-indicate-clearly-that-western-governments-are-subverting-democracy/

      about all the various nefarious propaganda firms the Tories employ to get over their message (eg anti-semitism, terrorist, Brexit means Brexit). It’s staggering the number of companies involved and the amount of money.

      I think you’re right about postal vote fraud but quite frankly, I don’t trust the on-line system either..

      I think a lot of people in the north have been duped if they really have voted Tory. It’s like leaving the EU has been sold as some sort of panacea but I can’t see anything changing for all the deprived areas outside London, even inside London. Life will be just the same except for GM foods and chlorinated chicken. The biggest impact will be when you arrive at hospital, instead of asking for your name, they’ll want your insurance details then your credit card details,

      Here’s another one:

      “Conservative Party figures offered seats in the House of Lords to Brexit Party election candidates to persuade them to stand down.”

      https://edition.cnn.com/2019/11/16/uk/uk-police-election-ge19-gbr-intl/index.html

    • Jo Dominich

      Kim Good sense as always. I agree but how can enough national support be gathered to get some momentum going to pursue this. I would gladly play my part.

      • Kim Sanders-Fisher

        If yours was a postal vote opt out now; a significantly large number of people abandoning the postal vote system due to lack of confidence would at least send a message. Today I signed the paperwork to opt out of postal voting in future elections. This was symbolic more than anything else as I think that vote rigging in my safe Labour constituency would have aroused a high level of suspicion and would have made it not worth the risk. Can we start a trend of abandoning postal votes until they are proven trustworthy?

        I also discovered that our votes locally are not outsourced to IDOX – cross that one off the list. The city council person that I spoke to today took the time to reassure me that at least locally the process is safe and I appreciated her patience dealing with someone who she probably thought was a conspiracy theory nut case.

        Step one for everyone who really cares about the integrity of the election process in their area is don’t be afraid to ask questions of your local council. You have every right to know and if you ask politely they will probably try to reassure you that their protocols are safe by taking the time to explain the process. If you are told that voting in your area is handled by IDOX or another vote handling company, the council person you speak to, even if they contributed to the decision to outsource, probably did so in good faith as a consequence of budget cuts.

        We need to determine which councils use IDOX, that was one of my the Electoral Commission. I have to say, credit where credit is due, I am genuinely impressed with how rapidly public information staff at the Electoral Commission have responded to my emails. They remain cooperative and their answers to my questions have been reasonably well detailed, not just cursory gobbledegook; this too is very reassuring. They have already supplied some information and I feel confident they will answer all of my questions within days. Inevitably, I and many other voters in this country, just want to feel reassured that our votes count and are safe from tampering.

        Certain disquieting facts should rightfully arouse a high degree of suspicion and a demand for dramatically increased scrutiny; they include the fact that:
        1. A significant proportion of the vote handling throughout the UK has been outsourced to one company: IDOX.
        2. A major cause for concern remains that the vote handling company IDOX is a subsidiary of a powerful Oil and Gas Corporation that would very likely be negatively impacted by progressive climate crisis policies.
        3. A second perceived strong conflict of interest pertains to the involvement of former Tory MP Peter Lilley at the top executive management level.

        * Peter Lilley: “When appointed as a director, during the infancy of the firm, executives told shareholders he “brings with him a wealth of experience of central and local government, which we believe will be of considerable benefit to the group, especially as it seeks to achieve an increasingly strategic role with both local and central government”.”

        This statement alone is deeply disturbing to anyone who values free and fair democracy. Added to these legitimate concerns are the volatile circumstances of this most recent election and the incomprehensible result blurred by weeks of intensely targeted negative propaganda to discredit Jeremy Corbyn. Did the downright lies of the propaganda campaign persuade hoards of extremely vulnerable people to vote not just against their own best interests, but to put their own survival at serious risk? If you have relatives or friends living in these tightly contested areas try to find out if there is a logical reason the vote went the way it did.

        To me the result was so radical that it suggests a form of collective, nationwide Stockholm syndrome! But, what we should not do is assign a reason on their behalf to conveniently fit our narrative; on too many occasions that has proven deeply insulting. Given the incredulity that so many of us feel regarding the rational governing this extraordinary elective choice in addition to the facts outlined above it is totally logical to question the validity of the result. The huge anomalies that were evident this time in addition to the biased reporting produced a result that completely defies logic. That is not conspiracy theory hype; it represents serious and legitimate concerns that demands further investigation of the facts.

        a) How was Corbyn able to draw such massive adoring crowds, as captured numerous times on video, if as the media claim he was so universally despised throughout the entire country?
        b) Why was it necessary to confine Boris to well controlled silo appearances, in front of tightly vetted small groups, if he was allegedly so popular?
        c) Why was Boris jeered, heckled, confronted and insulted multiple times, even forced to run and hide from the public and the press in well documented incidents, if as the media claim he was such a well respected leader?
        d) Why did Boris win after countless exposed whopping lies as well as avoiding critical interviews and debates to arrogantly insult the public as if scrutiny was entirely below him?
        e) Why did Boris’s multiple bigoted, sexist and discriminatory insults targeting ethnic groups, women and the working class supposedly not matter to the people he demonized, victimized and degraded?
        f) Why did vague, unsubstantiated and frequently discredited vilification propagated by our biased BBC and print media have more impact than a decade of severe unnecessary Tory cruelty and deprivation?
        g) Why after pictures showing historically long lines of young people waiting in the rain to vote did authorities claim that the turnout was lower than in 2017?
        h) Why did Boris feel there was no necessity to vote in his own constituency of Uxbridge despite the strong risk of losing his seat?
        i) Why was the exit pole announcing such an emphatic and extremely accurate Tory landslide victory right after voting ended at 10:00PM?

        For Boris to defy these odds to win by a landslide victory is simply not at all logical or really believable. Factor in the strong vested interests in supporting a Tory majority vote delivered by a private company controlling most of the vote handling across the entire country and you would be insane not to consider this result fraudulent.

        If you stood with many other young people in the rain in an exceptionally long line in order to cast your vote in an ultra marginal seat that inexplicably switched from Labour to Tory, you have every right to question the result. If despite documenting on your phone your own experience of unprecedented turnout while waiting in a long line in the freezing cold there are official reports that fewer people voted that in 2017, question the reporting not the hard evidence. The fake news is coming from the BBC just as it did throughout the election campaign.

        Boris has hit the ground running with toxic destructive policies that will harm our environment, everyone living in this country and those we continue to support the persecution of overseas. It is a sad day for our country, but we must not give in to his tyranny. I would like to see a nationwide strike organized while we still have the ability to wield this power. Determining if this vote really was a stolen election is an urgent priority.

        • J

          The bottom line is that Electoral Commission should release all the available 2019 election data immediately as a matter of urgency. I’m not aware of any legitimate argument for not doing so. If anyone on the inside can leak the data, they have a moral duty to do so.

          • Ken Kenn

            Very interesting opinion.

            But evidence is required and the question would be – how could this be proven?

            I have to say that the odds of all those seats landing perfectly ( with the exception of Putney ) into Conservative laps despite having very few canvassers on the ground is similar to Frankie Dettori’s Seven time winners at Ascot.

            You would expect at least afew setbacks for the Tories but non occurred.

            As I say though – if this is true – how do we prove it?

          • J

            It’s public information. We own it. Why is it held incommunicado by a completely unaccountable quango? Why is there virtually no information available through the EC? This is an intolerable situation. How can withholding the election data for years after an election be described as democratic?

        • Tom74

          The counter-part to all your great points, Kim, is how did all three of the national opposition parties – not just the Labour Party – all manage to do so poorly?
          Even if it’s true that Labour lost so much of the Leave vote in the Northern constituencies, what happened to the Remain vote in the South and other areas that Labour and the Lib Dems could have been expected capitalise on, at least to some extent?
          Why was it that even liberal Tory MPs were moved to defect and yet apparently there was no drop-off among such Tory voters?
          What about people disillusioned who simply wanted a change of government after three years of chaotic rule and broken promises? And let’s not forget too that the purist Brexit Party support collapsed for no rational reason, unless we are to believe that Conservative propaganda is 100% effective.
          So we’re expected to believe what is, essentially, a coincidence – that Labour, the Lib Dems and the Brexit Party/UKIP all did historically badly.
          The more I think about it, the more the whole elections stinks. It all feels like a desperate fix to force Brexit through and keep Labour out.
          What is deeply disapointing – although not surprising – is that opposition politicians, seem to be playing their roles as fall guys to perfection, giving cover for this possible stitch-up. It is interesting and perhaps significant that even the scapegoating of Corbyn looks choreographed.

          • Kim Sanders-Fisher

            Tom74 – “It is enough that the people know there was an election. The people who cast votes decide nothing. The people who count the votes decide everything.” (Joseph Stalin) ixQuotes.

            The determination of who would be allowed to take which seat had to at least have a modicum of believability solidified by the warped Tory media; that is this time around. Boundary changes, voter ID restrictions and absolute control of propaganda will secure the final push to remove all opposition. We must act now to have any chance of derailing this fascist juggernaut.

    • Ken Kenn

      Like John Mann.

      More Vermin in Ermine.

      Somebody today described a Tory as having all the intellectual acuity of a tin of spam.

      Well said that woman.

      Mike Hancock possibly?

      A Case odf Spam would describe the Cabinet.

      Years ago most fellow Tories would have swerved this lo as complete loons but now they are feted.

      My – how things change.

      I will repeat this again though.

      Despite the past grovelling and current grovelling BBC News is utterly-utterly doomed.

  • N_

    The BBC in its Radio 4 news bulletin today broadcast, first, an article on the Labour party, suggesting that the half million-strong membership will elect a “Corbynist” leader to ensure that”Corbynism” outlives Jeremy Corbyn; and, immediately following, an item about “IRA man” John Downey who was today found civilly liable for participation in an armed attack on a military target in London’s Hyde Park nearly 40 years ago, in 1982. The state broadcaster’s message was obviously “we gonna get you” mixed with “the Labour party are traitors and always will be”.

    As if daring listeners to think for themselves and face a damned good thrashing if they do, the BBC mentioned that Downey was one of many IRA volunteers who had received a “so-called comfort letter” (as the BBC called it) from the British authorities, or, as it is known when you are posh like Anthony Blunt, immunity from prosecution.

    So – note that this was a military target and the only human beings killed were serving members of the armed forces. Therefore it was not a terrorist attack. Further note that the Northern Ireland conflict is supposed to have been followed with “peace and reconciliation”, and as part of that the victors (Britain), in coming to terms with the IRA, gave specific assurances of non-prosecution to their former enemy. You can of course argue the toss that the assurance doesn’t cover civil suits, but hey, you can always argue the toss.

    Personally I feel for the horses, who were not volunteers and who did not choose to risk ending their lives horribly. The use of non-volunteers in warfare should be criminalised.

  • Corneilius Crowley

    ethical realiity check.

    1. The Invasion of Iraq signalled the death of democracy in the uk.

    a) it was an international War Crime, clear as the Law outlines, committed by Parliament, as a body and MPs as individuals.

    b) the electorate did not pursue War Crimes investigations and indictments.

    c) Chilcot was toothless.

    d) the laws to indict British War Criminalls are embedded in the 2001 International Criminal Court. It means investigations and indictments can occur here, with final trial and judgements at The Hague. They have not been used. Why?

    e) the deliberate and studied use of deifital platform micro-targeting emotional trigger material and refining, in real time, goading different demographics with ‘content’ to exacerbate and exploit emotional reactions of the targeted vulnerable group disrupts democratic discourse, more so when it is part of co-ordinated operations across mainstream news media.

    It is a fundamental abuse. it is grooming, straight up.

    f) News media allows proven lies to slide all the time. That is it’s job. Iraq. Orgreaves. Hillsborough, and a mountain of other less well known events. We are fools to expect otherwise. Worshipful Company of Stationers and The Star Chamber. There is a repeated historical pattern of weaponising what people are given to read in the public domain. I would argue the Bible fits into that pattern.

    Reward/Sanction Indoctrination.

    g) any political movement seeking just Governance must tackle this – head on. it must make the movement and the wider grass roots immune to that degree of emotional manipulation. This will be a long term operation. It starts with honesty in history – as you know, all too well. Honesty is resisted by the bullies.

    Corbyn demonstrated how potent honesty is. Without doing anything in particular. Just by being.

    That’s huge, when it comes to mentoring a global youth emergence movement.

    We old men need to nurture that.

  • Jo Dominich

    Ken Kenn I think u will find that within the Civil Service there is a very strong feeling that Boris won’t be able to deliver Brexit – at least not with a deal. Phillip Hammond also wrote an article indicating the WAB and subsquent Brexit is actually a No Deal Brexit. Also there is strong opinion in the Civil Service that he not only won’t be able to deliver Brexit but he won’t even be able to deliver on the promises he has made. One week into this Government that’s all proven to b true so far. He’s renegued on all the key ones.

    Meanwhile I am watching in quiet horror as Fascism is taking hold with legal and parliamentary and other scrutiny functions starting to be eroded, political land grab constituency boundary changes designed to axe c50 Labour MPs and so on and so forth.

    I can’t bear to think about the state of this country, the imminent deep recession and the related loss of hundreds and thousands of jobs. The MSM has a lot to answer for. I don’t buy all this Brexit or Labour policies costing Labour the election. It was the sustained vitriolic malicious vicious campaign against Jeremy Corbyn that swung the vote no more no less.

    • OnlyHalfALooney

      I think the ERM and Cummings never wanted a trade deal. I think their plan is to plunge the UK economy into chaos. People with lots of money will be able to buy up property and companies at a low price. (It’s no mystery why Mogg told recommended moving money from GBP to other currencies.) Eventually, the UK’s economy will stabilise prices will regain some of their value and they will have made a financial killing. Just look at how the oligarchs emerged after the collapse of the USSR and how wealthy Germans became even wealthier after the “Stunde Null” and currency reform after WW2. (Peoples’ bank accounts and savings were wiped out, but owners of property and equity kept their wealth.)

      In the long term – and they’ve been very open about this – their plan seems to be to turn the UK into a sort of Singapore. Of course, this is a delusion: what works for Singapore will almost certainly not work for the UK.

      These people despise citizens’ and workers’ rights. All they believe in is money and self-enrichment. Their “nationalism” is fake too.

      You can thank “I can be Prime Minister” Jo Swinson for all this…

    • Ken Kenn

      The ‘Plan ‘ in my opinion is pretty straight forward.

      Only a Clean Break from the EU will enable a Trade deal with a future President Trump.

      Johnson and his merry men and women and the media are warbling on about ” divergence ” so how can the EU make a deal if the two parties are diverging?

      What pleases the EU makes the US non pleased.

      Classic Tory cake and eat it stuff.

      One of them will win and it’s a question of which side Johnson and his hard Brexit friends take.

      Then once a side is taken ( the side of the US in my view ) you have to work out how to accommodate the side you have chosen.

      This means falling out of the EU with no Trade deal and landing onto WTO rules.

      Being as Trump is re-arranging the furniture of the WTO there may not be any seats left to sit on by the time the UK leaves the EU Trading Bloc.

      The UK will then be out in the cold big wide world on its own.

      Even a chump like Trump knows this.

      There are still many No dealers in the Tory Party and their is a slight possibility that some may baulk at the prospect of a No Deal ( the past ‘rebels’ never rebelled) but I hear that by the end of June next year the UK will have to ask for a further extension to the Trade talks or the EU will take it as read that on December the 31st 2020 the transitional period will be over and the UK will be out of the EU for legal purposes and out of the EU Trade Bloc for economic purposes.

      They may have signed the pledge but it only needs around 36 of them to cause trouble for Johnson.

      If they rebel of course.

      They are going to have to make their minds up quickly.

      It is a long shot though.

      Meanwhile Johnson is still in campaign mode and isn’t getting on with his Brexit just grandstanding so far and Blair looks like he is willing a let’s get back into the EU campaign.

      I hope that both aspirations fail.

      Five years is a long time in politics

  • OnlyHalfALooney

    What has it come to in the UK?

    BBC Director-General Calls for Media Critics to Be Purged From Social Media
    https://www.mintpressnews.com/bbc-calls-media-critics-banned-social-media/263588/

    This is just crazy. Worthy of a regime like those in Zimbabwe, Egypt or China.

    It reminds me a bit of Graham Chapman’s role in Monty Python in which he appears in a military uniform to say “It just isn’t funny”

    All I can say to those despairing in the UK: don’t despair. Remember that Thatcher’s poll tax was defeated by public protest and this was also the beginning of her demise..

  • mike

    Dear Rhys, Did the big cities in the north not stay predominantly red last week?

    Ate the towns are a different matter re Blair’s investment?

  • jmg

    Julian Assange is appearing at the Westminster Magistrates’ Court in London today Friday, December 20:

    > Belmarsh did not bring Julian to Westminster Magistrates’ Court as scheduled due to a Belmarsh mixup.
    So it is postponed to this afternoon.

    Don’t Extradite Assange — @DEAcampaign — Twitter — Dec 20, 2019
    https://twitter.com/DEAcampaign/status/1207976836560572416

    > LIVE: Assange testifies on being recorded during exile in embassy: stakeout

    > WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange is appearing at the Westminster Magistrates’ Court in London on Friday, December 20 to testify on espionage claims during his exile at the Ecuadorian Embassy. Assange is expected to testify remotely before Spanish Judge Jose de la Mata, who is overseeing an investigation into surveillance activities of UC Global, a Spanish security firm accused of recording the WikiLeaks founder during his exile and passing the material on to the United States’ intelligence services. Director of UC Global David Morales had been detained in August and has since been released on bail. Assange’s defense team filed a criminal complaint against Morales, accusing his company of privacy offences as well as violation of attorney-client privilege.

    LIVE: Assange testifies on being recorded during exile in embassy: stakeout — Ruptly — YouTube — Dec 20, 2019
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vckP-vd-AF8

  • Carol

    This is what life was really like in Libya before the UK, US and NATO destroyed it, free health care, free education, free food if you had no money, money towards a home when they got married, petrol 44 cents a gallon. Why would the whole nation rise up when they were living in a better society than in the UK? This is an excerpt:

    http://libyanwarthetruth.com/who-are-james-and-joanne-moriarty-our-story-intro

    “Libya shared ½ of all the its oil revenue with its 5.5 million population. All medical care was free, if you could not get the care you needed in Libya then you could travel wherever you needed with a family member and all costs and expenses were fully paid. Education was free and if you wanted to go outside to another University that was paid in full with a stipend. When a Libyan couple got married they received a $46,000 gift from the government to start their lives. Their first home, a 2500 sq foot condominium cost 10% of their salary for 20 years and then it was theirs. Gasoline was 44 cents a gallon, all utilities were free. If you were hungry and had no money they had huge stores of food where you could get rice, milk, cheese, flour and money to buy meat. The average salary in Libya was the highest in Africa, higher than China or India at $15,800 a year. If you had a college education and could not find a job you received that money until you found a job.

    The Libyan people were happy, there was no tax, only businesses had some tax but it was minimal. The government shared the wealth of Libya with its people, there was no taxing of the people to support the state. There was no reason for a revolution,”

  • Carol

    This is what our government spends our money on:

    This was a factsheet on the FCO website entitled Foreign and Commonwealth Office Statistics updated 1 December 2015:

    https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/factsheet-the-uks-non-humanitarian-aid-response-to-the-syria-crisis–2/providing-non-humanitarian-assistance-in-Syria

    Search and Rescue: £15m
    Security and Justice: £8.2m
    ****Chemical Weapons: £3.1m****
    Moderate voices, Civil Society and Human Rights: £12m
    Media activists: £5.3m
    Assistance Coordination Unit: £5.6m
    Governance and service delivery: £15.1m
    Syrian National Coalition: £3.8m
    Moderate armed opposition: £4.4m
    Impact on the wider Region: £29.3m
    Conflict and Stability Fund: £2.4m (private contractors working from Istanbul to deliver “strategic communications and media operations support to the Syrian armed opposition)

    Total £104.2 million pounds of tax payers money

    When I contacted the FCO to ask why they were sending £3.1m of chemical weapons to Syrian opposition against international law, they removed it from their website.

    • Carol

      Also this:

      https://www.activistpost.com/2017/12/uk-govt-exposed-for-funding-terrorist-councils-police-and-white-helmets.html

      The CSSF’s own website states that it has been allocated 1.163 billion British pounds for 2017-2018 alone by the British government. That is 1.163 billion pounds of British taxpayer money allocated for terrorists in Syria while Britain sinks even further into economic depression, third world living standards, and cultural collapse. Still, despite the public admission of CSSF regarding the amount of money it has been allocated by the government, the organization has been rather secretive when it comes to Syria. A recent Parliamentary Question from Baroness Caroline Cox has revealed that the UK FCO has financed terrorists in Syria for at least three years through the CSSF.

      Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon, FCO stated, “The value of the CSSF for Syria is £69 million in the current financial year, was £64 million in 2016-17, and £66 million in 2015-16.”

  • Carol

    It’s already started ‘legislation that effectively bans strike action’

    The Queen’s Speech confirms that the mantra of “Getting Brexit Done” is intimately bound up with escalating the offensive against the working class. The speech includes, for the first time ever in the UK, legislation that effectively bans strike action.

    Curtailing the right to strike has long been an aim of the Tories and their supporters in the right-wing media, since the Thatcher and Major governments first pushed through a raft of anti-strike laws during their 1979-97 period in office.

    https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2019/12/20/quee-d20.html

  • N_

    Boris Johnson is taking the p*ss with his proposal to “introduce foreign agent registration”, making it illegal to “work for a foreign power” without being registered. Will Marks and Spencer have to register? How about the Zionist Federation, B’nai B’rith, the Shomrim police force, or for that matter the Board of Deputies of British Jews, an affiliate of the WJC which openly supports Israel? How about the Conservative Friends, Labour Friends, Liberal Democrat Friends, and the Brexit Party Friends of the aforementioned foreign power? Rather than forcing any of these groups to register, the current Parliament is more likely to make it illegal to SAY that they work for a foreign power. We could run a competition for what such a new crime might be called. Obviously they won’t want to make it illegal for the Scum and the Heil to say that labour leaders are working for Russia and the PLO.

    • OnlyHalfALooney

      He/they really are trying to copy the US even in details like this. Also in banning organisations receive any government funding from supporting a boycott of Israel.

      UK residents, welcome to your new home: Puerto Rico on the North Sea (and without the sunshine)!

      • N_

        Agreed, “Foreign Agent Registration” sounds a lot like the US. So do “Supreme Court” and “National Security Council”. JFK was pushing to compel Zionist bodies to register under the FAR Act in the normal way, but…whoopsadaisy!

        It may be a lot more than state bodies that are banned from supporting BDS against Israel. It may be all organisations and every person.

        Russia Today are bound to feature in this story too. What will happen to Nigel Farage?

  • Dungroanin

    The postal vote percentages are coming out soon but will be skewed as its bu YouGove.

    What is the proportion of pv’s at which people say WTF?
    20% ? 25? 30? More…?

    And what does that do to turnout?
    Is a figure above 73% in a constituency likely?
    Above 75%? 80? More…?

    Will any official body be? Why is the electoral commission not releasing the data?

    It is very likely that both the Scottish and Brexit referendums were FIXED and likely that the 2015 and 2017 elections were too – though it is harder to fix a general election than a referendum.

    This time the deepstate orchestrating the fix has had to get extra heavy to get their result and it is now just a matter of hours and days before the full extent becomes evident.

    Some excellent work by various commentators going on – the question is WHAT TO DO?

    Parliament and Downing Street may be getting a few visitors over the 12 days – maybe a few millions as we object to our election fix as many peoples do across the world when they know they have been robbed – by the same western operators.

    • J

      There’s only one conclusion to be drawn from the limited data available and it’s burning me up that Craig and others won’t touch this.

    • Kim Sanders-Fisher

      Dungroanin – J – Ross and others following this thread. I just discovered that the Electoral Commission is a late publisher of the data on the General Election. The data and analysis of the 2019 General Election result was posted on the House of Commons Website on the 19th. of December.

      House of Commons Data for General Election 2019: https://researchbriefings.parliament.uk/ResearchBriefing/Summary/CBP-8749 Full Data Breakdown
      This paper will be updated with further analysis in 2020. Further election articles are available on the
      Commons Library website. This includes a dashboard showing election results by constituency.
      Download the full report General Election 2019: results and analysis ( PDF, 17.62 MB)
      Supporting documents HoC-GE2019-results-by-candidate (Excel Spreadsheet, 512.18 KB)
      HoC-GE2019-by-constituency (Excel Spreadsheet, 125.79 KB)

      For comparison of relevant data results for the 2017 General Election:
      https://researchbriefings.parliament.uk/ResearchBriefing/Summary/CBP-7979
      Download the full report General Election 2017: full results and analysis ( PDF, 15.19 MB)
      Supporting documents Data file: detailed results by constituency (Excel Spreadsheet, 112.75 KB)
      Data file: detailed results by candidate (Excel Spreadsheet, 519.81 KB)

      I will keep on top of this by posting further information and comments on the Discussion Forum entitled “Elections Aftermath.”

  • N_

    (I’m posting here because this is relevant to “resolution” and not to Scottish independence, transvestite politics, or Central Asia.)

    Summary of position:

    1. The idea that Brexit will be “got done” on 31 Jan 2020 is for morons. Test your neighbours!
    2. What will happen on that date is Paper Brexit.
    3. Real Brexit is set for 31 Dec 2020.
    4. The idea that the date of Real Brexit is enshrined in unchangeable law is for morons.
    5. Real Brexit will be hard.
    6. The key from certain people’s point of view is nothing to do with “sovereignty” (another phrase for morons); it’s to make a fortune in the markets, especially the derivatives and foreign exchange markets.
    7. The nicer the cliffedge the more money they stuff in their pockets. They don’t want this to be “smooth”, and in any case, the world economy will soon crash. There really will be an apocalypse.
    8. Morons may not simply shut their faces when they realise Britain is no longer in the EU but there are still black people, Pakistanis and Poles here.

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