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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why does the BBC director reach for the CIA’s cover-ass-phrase for their misdemeanors when he’s suddenly noticed that Johnson’s anointment ‘might cause us problems’
BBC’s director general has expressed his exasperation with “conspiracy theories” about the broadcaster’s election news coverage, although some of its journalists privately fear that errors during the campaign may have hit public trust in the corporation.
I am a Conspiracy Researcher, not a conspiracy theorist. Your recent utter weeks of propaganda output , dear Anthony William Hall, Baron Hall of Birkenhead, was not simply partial to one side, but completely scientifically measurable. It is not a ‘theory’. Exasperate away….
It’s not even a theory, there is empirical evidence collected by various professors.
Quite right, the blatant right wing bias of some news presenters is not some weird conspiracy, it is measurable. I took the opportunity to look up the former manager of the up-market karaoke hall that styles itself the Royal Opera House. It turns out Antony Hall followed the traditional path of conservative hangers on in that he studied politics, philosophy and economics at Oxford before finding himself head of the BBC. A true man of the people, just the person we need to guard our liberties.
I have made two complaints to the BBC complaints online reporting this year. I’m sure that I could have made many more if, one I watched their news programmes more, and two if I could be bothered.
On both occasions I have received a standard, ‘your complaint is being considered and you will hear more soon’ and then nothing.
Am I being naive in expecting a response or is this every ones experience.
You are definitely not being naive.
I complained to the BBC over the Panorama hatchet job on Corbyn: “Is Labour Anti-Semitic?”
I asked them two simple questions:
1.”Why did you not interview people with alternative views like those of the JVL?.
2. “Why was their no attempt by BBC’s John Ware to probe into very worrying allegations of Israeli Embassy interference with UK political affairs?
They did reply but they failed to even address the questions!
They simply banged on about John Ware’s “impeccable” credentials. LOL -(Funny how they failed to mention he has been a right wing hack for the Sun and is a known Israel supporter!)
You mean different views to those of JLM.
Probably naive to expect any sort of satisfactory response, but then what would be satisfactory? Not seen them openly engage with criticism in a meaningful…maybe they do but haven’t seen it. The basic BBC structure is compromised (BBC board etc) and therefore it would seem atm…rotten Only realistic option is to stop funding them and stop watching their dire output. This does mean no television watching though, but it’s quite a painless transition especially with the internet etc.
The truth of it is that there was a contract on Corbyn, put in place years ago; “The contract was taken out a long time ago, and it was clear that the closer Corbyn came to being elected prime minister, the harsher the conflict would get…” https://www.haaretz.com/opinion/.premium-the-contract-on-corbyn-1.8192769
People should read that article and think about it carefully. It’s written by a highly respected Jew and published on a mainstream Jewish news website.
Then they should look at the role of people like the BBC’s Emma Barnett, someone who describes herself as a “Jew in disguise” (Barnett, Emma (9 June 2016). “I operate as a Jew in disguise”. The Jewish Chronicle. Retrieved 30 May 2017.) , and how she and others Jews in the media, particularly the BBC, viciously attacked Corbyn on the antisemitism lie at every opportunity, intensifying the attacks every time his ratings improved.
The conspiracy was right in our faces. It was as painful to watch and effective as the Kennedy assassination. Discrediting someone with accusations that they are antisemitic is up there with accusing them of child abuse and it was on every channel and on every front page nearly every day for weeks. You simply can’t recover from that; nobody accused of that so systematically and emphatically could ever be PM.
At the root of it all was a simple crime — anyone that attributes human rights to Palestinians is basically a criminal, or an antisemite (take your pick). Palestinian lives don’t matter and Israel can bomb and torture them as it pleases, and it does. Get used to it.
See also this article by the journalist and author Matt Kennard.
How the UK military and intelligence establishment is working to stop Jeremy Corbyn becoming prime minister
https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2019-12-04-how-the-uk-military-and-intelligence-establishment-is-working-to-stop-jeremy-corbyn-from-becoming-prime-minister/
And here:
Mike Pompeo’s Plans to Interfere with British Elections
https://www.fairobserver.com/region/europe/mike-pompeo-jeremy-corbyn-labour-party-leader-british-elections-politics-89490/
Interesting reading. We can assume with views like that in the military and intelligence communities, they would have stopped at nothing to prevent Corbyn becoming PM.
There’s no way you could rule out election fraud in Britain today.
Completely agree. I was actually expecting an invasion or other incursion if Labour had won. So were ‘They’, probably. But the smears worked. Hardly surprised considering the greatest propaganda campaign since Goebbels.
It is MI6 who are the danger to National Security.
They falsify evidence to justify 1 million people in Iraq, a war which has increased danger to UK citizens, cost billions and achieved less than zero.
They support ridiculous US policies on Russia, a policy for which both Sir Richard Dearlove and Andrew Parker should simply be put to death. It is a policy of criminal malevolence and evil intent, since anyone who says Putin under Russia is not an infinite improvement to Russia under Yeltsin needs locking up as mentally insane.
I have lost all patience in any rights for the Security Services, who are an unaccountable set of militias and death squads, who fill our MSM with lies, smears and calculated distortions yet never have their own evil views put up for damnation, condemnation nor criminal prosecution.
They are the true dangers and nothing their puppet figureheads can say will change that.
They live parallel lives of utter racism and far right fascism without any scrutiny whatever.
Boris is part of the UK security apparatus as was Cameron. The BREXIT plot conjured by the security services and executed by Cameron was a ludicrous diversion to create chaos and divide UK citizens. ThIs was recognised by some including me on the online blog ‘WebCameron’ later sent down a memory hole as Steve Hilton’s vision was deleted from public view in an attempt to detoxify the Establishment’s brand and prevent subversion.
Brexit has served it’s purpose and I now await the inescapable cop out.
Mark
“” I await the inescapable cop out ”
I assume that diplomats serve an apprenticeship of 40 years from aged 25 to 65 doing sfa for the 65 to 85 year old superiors who make up the deep state.Then the old farts die or retire.
So the new farts if my generation are not lodged in WW2 and the cold war like their superiors , but in ,Thatcherism and Blair. We are seeing a revival of Tory dogma from the new batch of new farts and in about 10 years we will see a revival if Blairism too.
In other words policy runs about 40 years behind the times. Craig would have been just entering the deep state ( of reactionary ideas ) about now if he had not so disgracefully tut tut stepped out of line during his apprenticeship period and spoken out about torture.
The new farts might try and push a close working relationship with the EU after Brexit on the Thatcher Blair models.
But being 40 years out of date in their ideas the are completely incapable of coping with climate change or the rise of China.
It’s just a bad way to run a country to employ the ossified minds of obedient slaves of octogenarian diplomats when radical reform is required.
Tortoises come to mind.
Hatuey –
” At the root of it all was a simple crime — anyone that attributes human rights to Palestinians is basically a criminal, or an antisemite (take your pick). Palestinian lives don’t matter and Israel can bomb and torture them as it pleases, and it does. Get used to it.”
Hard Facts.. And Israel have been Bombing in Syria too.. Total Impunity… They said Gaza will be Unlivable by 2020.. A mere few weeks away.
P.s ‘ All Under One Banner ‘ are expecting 100.000 on the ‘ Independence March ‘ on 11th January
Make that 100,001
Imagine there’s no countries – It isn’t hard to do – Nothing to kill or die for – And no religion, too. Now 21st century Bunkum – It ain’t gonna happen because the bottom line is assassination and yes the ‘hit’ squad in true British façade is CIA shit-head ‘liaison officers’ -this being the ‘final solution’ if vilification somehow failed to get Corbyn done.
As predicted here ‘Boris the poisonous spider’ stepped through the portal door of No. 10 to re-spin the neo-con neo-liberal web that a nurtured development and cultivation completely put in his head.
If you sit on your anus and do nothing except appease THEN YES, ‘get used to it..
It is all out in there In the open also foreign interference from US not even hidden:
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2019/jun/09/mike-pompeo-leaked-recording-corbyn-labour-jewish-leaders
And Trumps open endorsement of Corbyn. I think this was a regime preemptive change from the usual suspects otherwise known as election fiddling.
Jonathan Cook wrote an excellent piece about the election result. Well worth the read.
https://www.jonathan-cook.net/blog/2019-12-13/corbyns-defeat-slayed-the-lefts-last-illusion/
thanks! i agree… i quote from it here – “We on the left didn’t lose this election. We lost our last illusions. The system is rigged – as it always has been – to benefit those in power. It will never willingly allow a real socialist, or any politician deeply committed to the health of society and the planet, to take power away from the corporate class. That, after all, is the very definition of power. That is what the corporate media is there to uphold.”
I think it would be fair to say that the oligarchs and their minions have been conspiring against the interests of the mass of people.
That’s why they and their minions have been getting richer and richer, whilst the mass of people have been getting poorer and poorer, despite the latter’s much greater numbers at the ballor box.
Hardly rocket science.
Prior to Modernity, the only way to rise in the world was to be of service to some rich cnut.
It’s little different today.
This time, it was not just the usual suspects, the tabloids and corporate-controlled press, the worst were the BBC and “liberal” newspapers like the Guardian. All telling voters they must not vote for Corbyn, because he is a dangerous pacifist, a friend of the terrorists, old-fashioned Marxist and to top it all an “anti-Semite”, who “poses a danger to the Jewish community and British values as a whole”.
This time, big money and tax dodging billionaires didn’t need secretive targeted social media manipulation and propaganda. The BBC and did their work for them. Why there wasn’t greater protest at the obvious propaganda-mongering by Laura Kuensberg is a mystery to me.
There may have been some vote rigging. It seems that the postal vote system in the UK is completely unauditable and thus untrustworthy. But the true rigging was the constant propaganda portraying an honest, soft-spoken and decent man as a dangerous villain.
To suggest, as “I could be prime minister” Jo Swinson did that Corbyn must not become PM because he “wouldn’t press the nuclear button” is simply insane beyond words.
The strange thing is that Brexit would, at first appearance, be against the interests of the UK’s financial sector and other economic interests. What skeletons in their closets do they have to so deperately want to avoid oversight and investigation by EU authorities?
I don’t get it. I just don’t get it. What did the Brexit crowd think they were voting for?
Brexit will solve all our problems? How does that work then? Will it stop the immigration they apparently blame for everything? Will it resurrect the industries destroyed by Thatcher? Will it stop supporting the endless wars of Thatcher and the Blairites? Will it get the UK’s nose out of the USA’s arsehole? Will it stop the Tories’ destruction of the social compact? Will it govern the UK on merit and facts instead of breeding, money and lies? Will it kill the Security State? Will it bring back prosperity and civility and refute austerity and public discourtesy? Will it inculcate respect for other people’s religions, or lack thereof? Will it push back the Zionist apartheid state? Will it make Britain great again and affirm the Union? Will it preserve the NHS? Will it reduce defence spending to a rational minimum? Will it ensure good relations with the EU, Russia, and China? Will it stop the demonization of the poor, the sick, the disabled? Will it revitalize the decrepit education system? Will it return the UK to a rational transport policy? Will it develop a rational approach to drugs? Will it elevate facts above bullshit and propaganda? Will it curb the absurd power of the City and abolish the perfidious and insidious Cityof London Corporation?
Just what did the Brexiteers think they were voting for?
Sovereignty, apparently. It’s an abomination, of course, but I think everything is shaping up nicely. Brexit will destroy the living standards of those who voted for it and it’s fitting and right that Boris and his band of twisted crooks should be at the helm when the ship goes down.
It’s out of our hands now. Enjoy it.
Hatley I agree with ur sentiments. Under the radar economic forecast and figures have been released. They are dire really dire. Brexit will compound the direNess threefold. The only good thing is that Johnson will as u said be at the helm when the ship finally sinks (give it 6mths). There won’t b a Jeremy Corbyn to raise the ship though. This country is in an atrocious state and it will only get worse.
Their identity as English Nationalists. Which is by definition white and nativist. There are no excuses for what they did. They knew that the welfare state was on the table and they could not have cared less. Just remember, though. Only 13 million people voted Tory. There are decent people out there, however hard to find they will now be as they keep their heads down to avoid the militant racists.
‘Will it’ indeed pasha; but the ‘riots’ in a couple of years will, as Craig predicts, will end this madness.. . get it?
I believe the whole election outcome was faked.
In my town, traditionally Libdem voting, the only signs and posters in people’s houses were for Labour, a smaller number for the Libdems.
Not one poster or sign for the Tories. Not one, anywhere I went.
I know, it proves nothing, but that the Tory did no effective canvassing yet overturned the incumbent party who had occupied the seat for two decades by a four figure landslide.
If so many were ‘up for the Tory’, where were all the placards, banners and posters in people’s houses to prove that support?
I got just one Tory leaflet, but many from both Labour and Libdems. Leafletting is not canvassing, it is just a simple mail shot.
In how many other constituencies did a similar thing happen – what about the ‘red wall’, for instance?
If this had happened in Russia, the MSM would have been all over it here.
Here in Blackburn Lancs with a large Labour majority, the Tories couldn’t even field a local candidate. Their nominee was a woman, no one had ever heard of, whose abode was described as North Yorkshire.
“ If so many were ‘up for the Tory’, where were all the placards, banners and posters in people’s houses to prove that support?”
They weren’t needed.
Ubiquitous and unceasing character assassination of Jeremy Corbyn in the print media and on TV for the past four years, together with a strategic and highly targeted social media campaign leading up to the GE, rendered the pathetic impact of a few dozen posters in windows outdated and irrelevant as persuaders.
The Tories lack the mass membership to campaign at local level, but with the massive influence they have in the media, together with the enormous financial backing they receive, the old fashioned ways of fighting campaigns on the ground are, clearly, no longer required, or effective.
Mr. S.
You’ve missed the point completely.
If ordinary members of the public are showing Labour support in droves, then it clearly proved the Tory MSM message was no longer working. You seem to be saying there is a vast, unseen, MSM brainwashed Tory majority in my constituency. As I said, I saw no evidence of it’s existence, at all – just the opposite, in fact.
Or, look at it from another perspective, imagine all the placards in people’s houses were in support of the Tories and Libdems, and then, out of the blue, in a solid Libdem constituency, that had been for as long as people could remember, and without any effective canvassing at all, Jeremy Corbyn’s candidate got in with a landslide majority.
You’d be reading ‘Russian interference’ all over the MSM – recount demanded! fraud is suspected! result cannot stand! etc.
Now we shall see again what a bozo Boris Johnson is.
We shall indeed.
The fawning BBC Producers/Directors and those that read this stuff out (aka News Presenters) will find that BJ will quite happily throe them under the Fox News bus.
Whatever the US does today the UK will follow.
There are many presenter who think they have dodged a bullet.
That is: Many of the presenters are self -employed and have declared themselves as such.
Consequently they pay themselves in the form of a loan.
HMRC are gunning for them and they owe an awful lot of past tax.
Because they think they are big people (i.e. influential l ) they think that the election of Johnson will save them from their fate.
They are utterly wrong.
They are not big ( Russian Oligarchs and many others are) and they will be caught and be taxed accordingly.
The fate of the BBC is that they will be ‘Foxed ‘ under this government despite the grovelling.
Now that Johnson has a big majority he will increase the lies due to being under no scrutiny at all by the MSM.
They will repeat his lies such as the idea that Johnson is out and about amongst the working class voters.
No he isn’t – he is out and about amongst the Tory Part y members only.
Laura eta l will not’ just say ‘ that on pain of losing her job.
It won’t work – she will be ‘ Foxed ‘ and her acolytes will be Foxed if Johnson goes for the full Clean Break Brexit.
Expect some white toothed tanned lady furnishing ‘ The Truth ‘ down your airwaves anytime soon.
thank goodness for the ‘Conspiracyy Driven ‘ alternative media – otherwise we would get to know nothing.
That may end too – once the ‘Truthtellers ‘ of The Atlantic Council and Integrity Initiative get their way.
Ken Kenn spot on. BoJos will shaft the BBC relentlessly. It is a well known fact Murdoch wants to take it over and he will.
“ It is a well known fact Murdoch wants to take it over and he will.”
The one advantage of that outcome would be that no-one will ever again be able to claim that the BBC is impartial.
Murdoch cannot have too many years left to go….
Thanks Ken Kenn That’s why the Queen wanted to fire bozo because she didn’t like the way he talked to her, and tried to claim that she had the right to do so.
Possibly BoJo is incompetent and other people are actually going to pull the strings.
S
I agree entirely. He couldn’t even convincingly express his thoughts and reaction in his victory speech without referring to a written script. My belief is that now that the Establishment (by which I mean the US in collusion with UK Security services) has got what it wants, Boris will actually disappear into the background but be wound up like a clockwork toy as and when a vacuous speech needs to be given to convince the masses that all is well and under control. Even the Establishment would have fears of letting Johnson loose without his strings attached. (With apologies for the various mixed metaphors 😀 )
It’s rare that I will do one post or more on her but a thought has just struck me.
I like a bet and understand odds to a certain extent.
So: what are the odds that an increase of just 1.2% in the overall Tory vote could land so precisely in so many ex Labour voting Constituencies that the Tories won by less that two thousand votes?
Distribute 78 (the Tory Majority ) into 650 seats and that equals 12% of all seats.
I wish I could get an accumulator up on that probability.
The Brexit Part y heped but by crikey – the chips fell against Labour alright – to a phenomenal degree.
Any good psephologists out there to put us right about distribution?
That was one hell of a strange distribution of luck on 1.2 % of an increase.
It could have gone anywhere.
When you think about it.
We all know they manipulate democracy through lies and media and so on.
Why not go a step further and manipulate it in more direct ways.
You see the same thing in the US.
The key in both cases is to have some narrative to explain what would otherwise seem impossible.
Northern Labour constituencies turning Tory after decades of Tory blight.
In the UK case the explicative narrative is Brexit in Northern Labour constituencies.
What if the whole Brexit adventure was itself a complete fraud to this purpose.
Nothing ever really smelled right about Brexit.
Worth adding that the other narrative to explain northern Labour constituencies turning Tory after decades of Tory blight.
Was of course.
Corbyn is everything from Stalin to Hitler.
That was easy to create through media
Much easier than the whole Brexit gig.
That was something.
Take a bow, guys.
Well done.
Ken Kenn,
The odds get even more astronomical when you consider that those votes fell, not only exactly where they needed them, but concomitantly in seats with low voter turnout. One thing is very clear, the whole Brexit party (actually a limited company) was a project created solely to create a political entity, not tainted with the Tory brand, which could attract Labour voters, with the goal of creating a Conservative majority. I think the bit of theatre where Farage unilaterally pulled candidates from seats won by the Tories in the last election, seemingly seeking a quid pro quo, was all scripted. The precise configuration of seats in which the Brexit Party would stand, had been wargamed long before it existed as a pseudo political entity; which is why they stood in fewer seats than they actually should have on the basis of the initial claim. It’s why they stood against Labour candidates who were staunchly pro Brexit.
This whole election smells like a state run operation, with corruption and malfeasance both overt and covert, used to deliver the only result it was prepared to accept. So much of what went on makes sense when you take on board the reality that this outcome was rigged.
A smattering of crazy polls putting the Tories 20 points ahead, with the media peddling the narrative that Johnson could get a 200 seat majority. Softening the public up for accepting a much lower, but functionally identical, outcome.
Laura K, is so full of ardour for Johnson and the Tories, I think she gave the game away, when that giddy enthusiasm led her to state that the ‘postal votes aren’t looking good for Labour’. There are some telling things here
1. You couldn’t form any kind of determination to that fact without being privy to a broad sampling of postal votes from a wide range of constituencies.
2. She knows postal votes are predominantly used by elderly voters, and they break by a considerably majority for the Tories. So, again, to make that determination, you’d need to have had rather more than a peek, you would need to have someone going through the data in a fairly methodical way.
Her brief for this election was clearly to sell the inevitability of a Conservative majority, and her postal vote misstep was a perfect example of the kind of thing you see in police interrogations, where in trying to push their narrative, the person being interrogated reveals information they could not possibly have. She was so zoned in to her propagandising, perhaps tired and groggy after a long campaign of shilling for Boris, she let something slip. This view is reinforced by the response from the BBC, which has gone on an extraordinary tirade against anyone who dares to question the integrity of its coverage or the reportage of its ‘journalist’. Not an ounce of contrition, not even a crumb.
Coming back to the start of this post, gaining 47 seats on a 1.2 point increases in your vote is unprecedented. You can say it was a single issue campaign all you want, by way of explanation, but this ignores another issue. This is the party whose two previous leaders, and the incumbent, vowed to ‘get Brexit done’, swore up and down they would deliver it for the people, and then failed to do so. It seems unlikely that for those who Brexit is the be all and end all of political endeavour, would feel compelled, to vote in such large numbers, for a party that has thrice failed to do as it promised. Far more likely would be a surge in the UKIP vote in the seats they stood, masses of spoilt ballot papers with some Brexit related slogan scrawled across them. The complete absence of these things is another oddity, in fact from what I recall of the declarations there seems to have been an unusually low number of spoilt ballots. Very odd, given the political climate, and the festering dissatisfaction on both the left and the right.
Could the Tories (with the help of the state, corporate media, and other forces) rig an election: YES
Would they do it: YES
I mean, that’s another narrative that was so expertly sewn by the MSM, that it is somehow obvious that the Brexit vote would be out in force for the Tories. Not once was this idea challenged, not once was it framed as I have just framed it, as a ludicrous surmise on the basis of their repeated failures to deliver it.
Ross-excellent post. Includes all my suspicions about this ‘Election’ and more. I have already spoken to family members about Brexit as a very well planned psyop. Naturally a wind blew, and a lot of tumbleweed rolled by!
KK, have you ruled out the possibility that the fix was possible through the postal votes alone? In the Scottish 2014 referendum, it was the postal votes that swung it.
Many people have questioned those postal votes in areas where a very high support for independence was recorded only to find the postal votes showed more than 90% support for the union in some cases.
Postal vote so called ‘security’ is done electronically by comparing the signature supplied with the ballot paper to that scanned in when the application for a postal vote was received. The software to do this is flawed and can easily be over-ridden, in a ploy to increase throughput. I am familiar with the scanning equipment.
Especially if the whole system is in the hands of an ex Tory and rabid right wing friend — i.e. Peter Lilley and Idox.
I have a saying that grew out of my inborn cynicism. ‘Not that much happens by accident in politics’. Thus Franklin D. Roosevelt. ‘In politics, nothing happens by accident. If it happens, you can bet it was planned that way.’
Craig,
Some of your suggestions are not appropriate for Scotland at this time. You yourself point to “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 cannot go down a civil disobedience or non-engagement route unless the effective totality “of elected politicians, office holders and staff” are on board – these people need to be replaced first. You need leadership you can trust before demanding independence; otherwise you are doomed to be betrayed.
Comparing Scotland to Northern Ireland is not appropriate. Before the free state the vast majority (at least 90% plus) supported Irish independence. Sin Fein effectively represents a similar percentage of the Nationalist community within Northern Ireland. Sin Fein does not and is not expected to represent the Unionist community. Sin Fein’s policy of not taking up their seats is historically based and widely accepted and understood by the Nationalist community. The SNP cannot refuse to take up their seats in Westminster because they are required and expected to represent (even by SNP voters) the whole of their community. SNP withdrawing from Westminster will be met with incredulity – effectively, the SNP have years of work to do before they could achieve support for withdrawing from Westminster. If civil disobedience is encouraged (at this moment in time) all that will happen is that people will needlessly end up in prison and the SNP will lose political power.
Johnson and the Conservative government will refuse the SNP an independence vote. The SNP need to bide their time and continue to press for an independence vote every single day and at every single opportunity in Westminster. Johnson and the Conservatives will continue to refuse Scotland it’s independence. And then…some time soon (probably during 2000 or 2001) Sin Fein will demand a border poll and Johnson and the Conservative Government will be compelled to agree (they will have no choice) – and at that moment, pointing to a litany of UK Government refusals, the SNP will be able to ask “Why not Scotland?” and this will be understood by the whole of Scotland (and the rest of the UK) and Johnson will find a Scottish independence tote impossible to resist.
I realise this offends the sensibilities of proud Scots who find it difficult to accept that they have no choice but to wait on Northern Ireland but moving to Civil disobedience, advocating UDI, withdrawing from Westminster, etc. is not something that should be embarked on unless the vast majority of the Scottish population (90+) will understand and support such action.
Sin Fein has been waiting patiently for 22 years for the right time to request a border poll; Scotland needs patience.
Just to add to this, I think solid data demonstrating that this outcome was rigged, will be found in betting and financial markets. The people who involve themselves in such conspiracies, can never manage to stop themselves from seeking to profit from their inside knowledge. The conspirators always agree collectively to not do it, because it would be so risky, but individually, they always assume that as it’s only going to be them doing it, well, that won’t move the needle too much.
It’s possible. Some late night questions:
How would you get all the data? Is it public domain? Are there any other forms of betting which might yield public domain data? The stock market for example, but anything else?
I would have thought rigging more likely to show up through irregularities in the vote itself. Unusual voting patterns? Anyone aware of close statistical analysis of the result? Any noticeable inconsistencies and anomalies beyond the obvious and glaring result? Such things would emerge if the right questions were asked.
Some of the various exit polls I’ve seen appear to me implausibly far apart from others. 40+ seats apart in one poll.
Who performed them and where? Which were accurate? Which were not? How and where exactly were they accurate? Where exactly did they deviate?
Where exit polls published at ten o’clock happen to agree with a recorded result, is this plausible given late queues and after hours voting? Where exit polls deviate from the actual vote, were there more postal or proxy votes?
Where exit polls agree with the recorded vote, how closely? Which agree? Which don’t agree? Were some particular polls accurate in one region but off in others?
Who were the people turning away selected voters at some polling stations with spurious excuses or demands? Does anyone have footage of any of these anecdotes?
How might the system be vulnerable to insider tampering?
Who handled the postal votes? What proportion of the 1.4 million votes were cast, where and how many?
We’ve heard much about what was supposed to happen during the process but almost nothing about what actually did happen. Presumably these things are logged and auditable? Can we see the records or data? If not, why not?
Where are the actual postal votes now? How are either regular, postal or proxy votes able to be verified against tampering at a later date? Are they destroyed or stored? What actual provision is in place for investigation of tampering? Is there any independent verification possible after the fact? Is there an independently verifiable vote audit?
How were proxy votes carried out? Where? How many? What effect if any did they have upon the election?
Also numerous anecdotal accounts emerging of people deeply surprised by the results in their areas based on local knowledge. And on that note, as one illustrious maverick often quips, the plural of anecdote is data.
From the other end, the bias of various media has been documented exhaustively and there are some very good studies, but has it all been brought together into a single manageable public database covering the entire four years? It would be a useful research tool to have. Also, generating graphs and graphics from such data would be much easier and reveal the scale of bias at a glance.
And what other possibly better questions am I missing?
J can I suggest Cambridge Analytica, the Atlantic Council, Integrity Initiative and The Foreign office as organisations known to have harvested, collected and misused millions of data for political gain?
Must confess to be a little puzzled there appeared to be more people registered to vote and voting yet turnout was lower than in 2017 election.
That is odd.
Worth a read
https://off-guardian.org/2019/12/13/boris-johnsons-incredible-landslide/
from day one all sections of the british state framed ‘jeremy corbyn in downing street’ as something unthinkable. an unimaginable horror. nothing would surprise me less than learning they had rigged the ballot after the fright of 2017.
zoot,
That’s the conclusion I’ve come to. In 2017 they relied on ‘conventional measures’, MSM smears, bias and so on. In 2019, having seen Corbyn get too high a share of the vote for comfort, and having seen the Tories have to go cap in hand to the DUP, the decided to make sure they got the result they wanted
Has anyone seen the Rabb video recently? Do you have a working link?
J
https://twitter.com/TheProleStar/status/1203348879397281794
Same as Laura K, seemingly so pleased with the fiddled they are perpetrating, his innate egotism sees him make a very telling remark. He told the electoral commission that his remarks merely pertained to feedback on the doorstep from people who had made their postal vote, but there is a big problem with that explanation. He says…
“Have a look at the postal votes…the postal votes coming in”
Crick then says “you’re not supposed to give that away’
To which Rabb replies.. “I’m not giving too much away…I’m not giving too much away”
You can’t ‘look’ at postal votes that have been cast.
Thanks. Did you have it bookmarked or did you search for it? Some of the links I have no longer work, but while searching for the video (using many of the key words in the tweet) did not yield a single one. It isn’t gone, but it is hard to find.
Yes, I know the postal vote procedures by now, and the comments we heard from rabb and L K are not at all compatible with them, neither is the election commission statement plausible or even relevant. We can hear what they said, the fact of saying and broadcasting it are illegal enough.
James Corbett on The Corbett Report on You Tube #PropagandaWatch, has a piece ‘Sacha Baron Cohen is Wrong About Everything’. Cohen (not in his comic Borat guise) gave the key note speech at The Anti Defamation League 2019 summit ‘Never is Now’ on on Anti Semitism and hate, calling for monitoring and censorship of our alternative media ! I wonder in whose interest ?
If someone could post the link please
Wikikettle
This One –
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PP4TUARDa4A
Thanks Brian
“Defamation”? Sacha Baron Cohen is best known precisely for defaming and mocking ethnic groups such as Black British people and Kazakhs. Whoever doesn’t recognise what he does as racist ought to do a job on themselves.
The ADL already monitors everyone – do they want tax to help them with their bills now?
should he follow the advice of that daily express headline on friday and ‘rejoice!’ ?
This article explained everything for me:
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2019/dec/14/lib-dems-warned-not-to-back-december-election-vince-cable-tim-farron
I thought at the time that it was foolish for the LibDems and then Labour to agree to a December election. Now it seems that wiser heads than Swinson were councilling to keep Johnson hanging. But the majority feeling was for all go.
It was a catastrophic mistake, fuelled by Swinson’s delusional ego. They had Johnson cornered, but she was so consumed by her hatred of Corbyn that she refused a common front against him with a no confidence vote. They had time, they had the numbers, and they blew it.
We hear on the Marr programme that CCHQ were singing praise to Isaac Levido when the majority was confirmed.
‘Just after 10pm on Thursday when the UK election exit poll was published, the mood inside Conservative headquarters erupted.
Staffers hugged and sang Queen’s We are the Champions and chanted the name of Australian political strategist, Isaac Levido, to the tune of the White Stripes’ Seven Nation Army.’
https://www.news.com.au/finance/work/leaders/australian-election-strategist-isaac-levido-hailed-for-conservative-victory/news-story/553d3fdd5f4228b90b8deb3946dafd56
If like me, you are not familiar with the White Stripes, here it is. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0J2QdDbelmY Seems tuneless.
Here it is again –
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PkxTfrI2680
[ YouTube: The Simpsons – “Seven Nation Army” ]
And again – for Jeremy Corbyn –
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T4_Yrwb4rh8
[ Youtube: ‘Oh, Jeremy Corbyn!’: how the Labour chant all started ]
On election night, when most ballot boxes had probably only just been opened for the count to begin, the BBC had a rolling strapline at the bottom of the screen, implying that their exit poll prediction of an 80 seat majority, was surmised from 23,780 voters at 144 Polling Stations. IMO, this in itself, appears remarkable given the accuracy of the prediction considering the sample size, about a 1/ 1000th of those who voted. Similarly with where the samples were taken. 650 constituencies will have thousands of Polling Stations, I don’t know the actual number, but 144 will be quite a small fraction of the total. Anyway, the uncanny accuracy of the calculated prediction, against the actual result, for me, raises suspicion.
Exit polls have always been very close to the actual results. Nothing sinister there. They were also accurate last time about a hung parliament.
Pyewacket makes a reasonable point. It should be possible to select 144 bellwether seats out of 650 from the results of previous elections. The problem comes with selecting individual polling stations that are representative of the mean sentiment of the constituency. Even if an “average” polling station does exist (and I doubt that supposition) it would take a great deal of local knowledge to identify it with little data to work from.
I haven’t yet heard anything about Russian ‘meddling’ in this election. How can that be? In every other vote and referendum in the UK and USA the Russians have been accused of interference.
Surely, Johnson must now appeal to UK citizens to stand outside the Russian embassy and demonstrate their gratitude for Putin’s assistance.
Nice one, indeed we may later learn, that some ballot boxes that arrived at the counts had snow on them…
“I haven’t yet heard anything about Russian ‘meddling’ in this election. How can that be? In every other vote and referendum in the UK and USA the Russians have been accused of interference.”
You won’t hearing of any Russian meddling, however if Corbyn had won so handsomely then it might have been a different matter. The media bias in the UK is complete.
I spoke too soon, the head of the Treasury on the Marr show right now, mentioned Russia, the Labour party, John McDonnell, and keeping us safe, all in the one sentence.
Marr talking to the Treasury, is in effect the state having a conversation with itself for our benefit.
Is that Mr Javid, the multi millionaire ex Deutsche Bank? The one who said he would like to live in Israel if he had to choose another country?
Labour says Sajid Javid unfit to be chancellor over claims he ‘profited from greed’ that fuelled financial crisis
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/labour-sajid-javid-boris-johnson-financial-crisis-john-mcdonnell-prime-minister-a9039321.html
‘Hasan Patel
In case you didn’t know, Sajid Javid received a £3 million bankers bonus that was transferred through a tax haven. It means he paid no tax.
Sajid Javid is our chancellor and runs the UK’s finances. We can do better.’
https://twitter.com/corbynistateen/status/1165719919507509248?lang=en
No it was Tory Treasury minister Rishi Sunak on the Marr show, as far as I know he’s the son-in-law of a billionaire.
SLABS Paul Sweeney hinted that independence might be the way forward afterall. Yesterday Neil Findlay mirrored Sweeneys image by saying the same on a radio show.
Expect Westminster to come up with some sort of temporary appeasement plan to seduce doubting SLAB members to look the other way yet again.
I think that those of you who suggest that the votes were meddled with are looking in the wrong place. While that is just about possible, it would be extraordinarily difficult to achieve.
What is being underestimated is the now massive divergence between the sophistication and all-pervasiveness of the means of propaganda, and the ability or willingness of most people to research and fathom the extent of their manipulation. This divergence, of course, greatly undermines democracy, which depends on an informed, educated and intelligent public. In a world where the media are part of the corporate powers, combined with a state that sees its function as moulding people to fit neoliberalism, ‘democracy’ is an appearance, not a reality. Industrial life now proceeds on two levels: a fantasy/media level which colonises the mind with an illusory but superficially plausible viewpoint, and a suppressed level of embodied experience and direct perception. Today, the latter is mostly submerged by the former, as illustrated by Johnson’s ‘win’ over Corbyn . . .
Indeed. This article is worth a read in that regard.
https://medium.com/@DrDanEvans/reflections-from-the-doorstep-e4337513d909
Canvassers in Bridgend (and by extension most places) found people who knew next to nothing about politics repeating verbatim the MSM’s representation of the Labour leader.
It’s bourgeois democratic representative mass-media politcs: all emotion and buzzphrases.
“Australian points system”! “Magic money tree”. “Just get on with it and leeeeeave”. Etc.
I couldn’t even face talking to my neighbours this election. They go completely gaga at that point in the cycle.
Aaron Bastani of novara media also mentioned something significant in the wake of the result:
“When Harold Wilson won 4 elections the Daily Mirror, which had a left editorial line, was the country’s most widely read paper.
In 1945 the Weekly Worker outsold the FT.
Today a Labour leader can’t be popular without kissing Murdoch/Rothermere ring.”
The Sun always backs the winner [1]; the Daily Mail always backs the Tories [2] [3].
1) Nobody now aged under 63 has ever voted in a British general election in which the Sun didn’t endorse the winning party [4].
2) Thus the Daily Mail continued to back the Tories throughout the Blair years. The only exception to the rule since 1945 was when they backed a Con-Lib coalition in Oct 1974. This despicable rag
a) supported the torture of the “suffragettes” (a term that the newspaper itself spread as a mockery, which the suffragists then adopted),
b) published the fake “Zinoviev letter”,
c) hailed Oswald Mosley’s fascists.
3) There’s a nice graphic here, showing the endorsements given by various newspapers in general elections from 1945.
4) A large majority of those aged 63+ vote for the Tories anyway, and if the Daily Mail or Sun told them to vote Labour they’d probably think it was a plot by black people who wanted to come and squat in their houses when they were out.
Yes. I’ve often wondered why professional high stakes lying should be perfectly legal. It’s the single greatest threat to national security.
Well said. Why risk any kind of behaviour that can backfire so easily when the majority of the media output has been so blatantly partisan? It was sewn up years ago anyway. Farage and co helped move the country to the right knowing that those voters would return home to the Tories, add in the anti-Corbyn guff and the get-Brexit-done mantra and there was no need to cheat. The fix was already in.
David Coburn a MEP for UKIP has just joined the Conservative party, this is the man who called Scotland’s Justice secretary Abu Hamza, in an Islamaphobic slur.
What wasn’t broadcast by the bias media regularly in the UK during the GE is that the Conservative party is rife with those who are Islamaphobic. The disgraceful media instead concentrated on smearing Corbyn and the Labour party on every opportunity that arose.
Coburn has been welcomed into the Conservative party after making that slur, what does that say about the Conservative party.
Plus membership of the Friends of Israel lobby group, in both of our Houses of Parliament and in all three main parties.
https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/asa-winstanley/what-britains-election-means-palestine
https://cfoi.co.uk/ There is no up to date list of members. The last one I can find in from 2014. On their website, there is only the application form to join. When you look at individual MP’s Register of Interests on They Work For You, you can see how many funded visits are made to Israel for groups of the FoIs.
Lord Nolan’s Seven Principles of Standards in Public Life – Note ‘Integrity’ and ‘Selflessness’.
The committee promotes a code of conduct for those in public life called the Seven Principles of Public Life.
Selflessness – Holders of public office should act solely in terms of the public interest.
Integrity – Holders of public office must avoid placing themselves under any obligation to people or organisations that might try
inappropriately to influence them in their work. They should not act or take decisions to gain financial or other material benefits for themselves, their family, or their friends. They must declare and resolve any interests and relationships.
Objectivity – Holders of public office must act and take decisions impartially, fairly and on merit, using the best evidence and without discrimination or bias.
Accountability – Holders of public office are accountable to the public for their decisions and actions and must submit themselves to the scrutiny necessary to ensure this.
Openness – Holders of public office should act and take decisions in an open and transparent manner. Information should not be withheld from the public unless there are clear and lawful reasons for so doing.
Honesty – Holders of public office should be truthful
Leadership – Holders of public office should exhibit these principles in their own behaviour. They should actively promote and robustly support the principles and be willing to challenge poor behaviour wherever it occurs.
These Seven Principles apply to anyone who works as a public office holder including:
those elected or appointed to public office, nationally or locally,
those appointed to work in the civil service, local government, the police, courts and probation services, Non Departmental Public Bodies, and in the health, education, social and care services, and those in the private sector delivering public services. .
Quite often there is a CFoI or LFoI member on the committee and even the odd chairman of it, ie Lord Bew, NIFriends of Israel.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Committee_on_Standards_in_Public_Life A joke.
Milo Yiannopoulos and Carl Benjamin (“Sargon of Akkad”) (who both joined UKIP) will probably join the Tories next. Possibly Paul Joseph Watson too.
What if they didn’t do widespread tampering of the postal votes in this election and the Laura K tape was a red herring. I got the impression that she was very stressed reading it out.
I have looked at a few election results sites to try and find data on votes for the Brexit Party and can only find it if you go to the constituency figures. If you look at the National results they don’t seem to exist.
Could it simply be that strong Labour seat leave voters were offered the Brexit Party as an alternative, and strong Tory seat leave voters weren’t?
For those interested in going down the rabbit hole, here’s some info about IDOX, the enabling organisation as far as mass vote fraud goes, whose director is former Tory MP, and paedophile, Peter Liley
https://wikispooks.com/wiki/Idox_Elections
The most puzzling thing to me is the way the whole establishment closed ranks and did everything possible to help Boris where previously there was quite an even division on Brexit and a lot of support for Remain, Dominic Grieve, Bercow, etc. Everybody attacked Corbyn, channel 4, the Guardian, everybody, even those who we know were vehemently opposed to Brexit.
It’s as if the whole Remain side of the argument threw in its hand and suddenly decided it would do everything it could to facilitate and help those who they were previously opposed to.
If I was a brexit supporter, I’d be very worried about that. It can only mean that they are looking at Brino and have been sold down the river.
When the Brexit vote was delivered back in 2016, I wondered how they’d contain all that anger and energy without giving them what they were demanding (Brexit, which everybody knows is a suicidal idea and isn’t really an option). I guessed that they’d have to con them somehow. It looks like they possibly did.
Election maps based on age. Sadly suggest that the longer you live in Britain (Scotland included) the stupider and more exposed to propaganda you are.
https://mobile.twitter.com/ElectionMapsUK/status/1037273833462542336
There we go – conclusive proof that it is all the fault of the electorate.
If only the electorate was intelligent enough to vote for people that openly sneer at them and deride them at every possible opportunity. After all what kind of person would not leap to vote for someone who calls them stupid.
Speaking of stupid: The analysis you refer to is based n age. It has nothing whatsoever to say about length of residence in the UK, and provides no information that would allow for logical inferences regarding the length of residence in the UK.
@Jay – Yes, this is something the left needs to address.
One person in that thread asks “Why on earth are the over 50s voting Tory, when the Tories are busy hacking lumps off the social care, that they will need in their dotage. Turkeys and Christmas springs to mind! Hello, is there anybody in there? Wake up! You are sleepwalking into your own nightmares!”
Unfortunately he doesn’t answer. Mockery and abuse aren’t an answer, richly deserved though they often are. Factors involved include racism, bitterness, and home ownership. I’m not saying these are the root explanation, but they are certainly bound up with support for the Tories among many older people. Many of them think most young people are idiots – which when you look at how they pick their smartphones all the time is an accurate observation, but that doesn’t mean the response of voting Tory is any less idiotic. If only more older people could find out what those in the ruling elite, or even millionaires far lower down the social scale, such as their GPs for example, really thought of them, they’d probably f***ing faint.
Roughly 72 hours after the GE, and already the dominoes of promise are beginning to topple.
“Tory minister admits extra nurses won’t be in place for 10 years and cannot explain how government will stop 18,500 leaving”
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/boris-johnson-general-election-nurses-nhs-tories-latest-nicky-morgan-a9216506.html
Surely no-one could explain how you can prevent staff from leaving any organization.
Maybe it is time to extend workers rights by making it illegal to leave any job that you may take. Perhaps it should be illegal for people to die for so long as they have a job that they are legally prevented from leaving. Obviously it would be illegal to imprison people for any reason in the event that they have a job that are legally prevented from leaving.
Enforcement of such a policy may be a bit of an issue – but hey where there is a will there is a way.
“Surely no-one could explain how you can prevent staff from leaving any organization.”
Their jobs are being made intolerable by the Tory government, lack of investment and those who come from abroad who shored up our NHS no longer seeing the UK as an attractive prospect has left the NHS in a very poor state.
All, it will take to tip it over the edge is a bad epidemic this Winter hospitals are already at and above their maximum capacities, targets aren’t being met and waiting times are being missed.
Of course staff are disillusioned by the whole thing, but the heroes that they are still continue to soldier on. A US trade and creeping privatisation will inevitably speed up a quicker two tier system.
In the future many will rue the day they didn’t vote for Corbyn and his progressive policies.
I suspect that just before the NHS collapses the Tories will put some money into it–money not meant for front-line services but meant to work its way through for privateers like Branson. They don’t want a skeleton, they want meat on the bones. The Tories will of course tell us they promised it money and now here it is, and a few million mugs will cheer it.
Yes I agree with that the NHS is a Golden Goose, why destroy it when there’s money to be made from it.
Of course it will be cherry picked and the lucrative arms will see privatisation, however if you need say an operation that doesn’t hold a good financial return you may wait much longer for it.
Length of time needed for a nursing qualification – ‘Depending upon your level of dedication, a nursing degree can take the following time to complete: Associate’s degree programs, which provide entry-level opportunities, usually take two years. A bachelor’s degree program takes four years. A bachelor’s degree with direct entry typically takes three years.’ https://www.allnursingschools.com/registered-nursing/degrees/
and never mind that nursing bursaries were scrapped by the Tories.
https://www.rcn.org.uk/news-and-events/news/removing-the-student-nurse-bursary-has-been-a-disaster
At my local district general hospital, the medical staff, whether professionals or not, have to pay upwards of £400palimited for a parking permit. There is limited room in the car park so the nurses have to drive to a nearby field, park their cars, and be bussed in to work. Can you imagine doing that in reverse after an 8 hour shift, especially late at night or after a night shift?
BBC are keeping this out of the news..
Liverpool is leaving the UK.
What cities and Towns are next…?
https://www.change.org/p/uk-government-independence-for-a-republic
We had a similar outcry in 2015, I for one welcome anyone who wants to escape the Tory misery set to haunt England and Wales for at least the next five years.
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/the-northerner/2015/may/14/thousands-sign-petition-calling-for-north-of-england-to-be-part-of-scotland
On this board, on December 12, 2019 at 06:33, I posted the following:
“Scotland = Vote SNP
England = Vote Labour.
And that’s it. Don’t overthink things.”
I was then told curtly by Craig Murray:
“You don’t have to think. I have done it for you..”
So, his thinking on my behalf worked out well, then.
Awa’ an’ hae a wee greet tae yirsel, hen, it’ll dae ye guid 🙂
Withdrawal of the MPs would be very effective. I guess the Labour party simply shouldn’t sit either. The situation is intolerable under any description of democracy. However I don’t think the politicians have the balls to act. Anything else just confirms the Johnson legitimacy.I expect a few craven libdems would turn out though.
Deepgreenpuddock.
I mean, with a majority of 80, frankly, it makes little difference if any other party turns up or not, on a vote by vote basis, the outcome is going to be the same.
This is the fundamental problem of a ‘democratic’ system in which it is mathematically possible to get the most votes in an election, and yet not win a single seat. At the other extreme, you could garner as little as 10% of the vote, and with optimal distribution, you could win a huge majority in parliament.
A huge story that is being ignored has been revisited again by Peter Hitchens.
Hitchens has now got solid evidence that the management of the OPCW falsified a report by surpressing evidence.
On 14th April the US, UK and France bombed Syria in response to an alleged gas attack on the 7 April.
The evidence that pointed the finger against Assad was produced by Bellingcat on the 11 April.
The first OPCW site inspection was conducted on April 21 subsequent OPCW reports confirmed Bellingcat’s findings.
Hitchens now presents unequivocal evidence that the OPCW management falsified their reporting deliberately to give the wrong conclusions.
Hitchens is now under attack
https://www.firstthings.com/web-exclusives/2019/12/in-praise-of-telling-the-truth
https://hitchensblog.mailonsunday.co.uk/2019/12/fresh-evidence-that-un-watchdog-suppressed-report-casting-doubt-on-assad-gas-attack.html
As the greatest election fix in modern western history gets it’s feet under the table the cover stories are flooding out.
Like all good lies they are mostly true! It is just further gaslighting.
The explanations of the Durham/Sedgfield vote volte face is a doozy – ‘it was down to Corbyn being a sissy because in the north they were proud to be canon fodder when they weren’t being slaves down a deadly dark hole!’ and such variants.
When discussing this weeks ago with friends and strangers, as traditional Labour voters were holding onto the AS lies about JC we settled on why?
I give you the red-wally’s Stockholm Syndrome.
——————
The victim sees the abuser as the “good guy” and those trying to win his/her release as the “bad guys”, as this is the way the abuser sees things.
The victim resents outsiders’ attempts to free him/her from the abuser.
Over a period of months or years, the victim’s entire sense of self may come to be experienced through the eyes of the abuser.
The victim denies the abuser’s violence against him/her and focuses on his positive side.
The victim may have extreme difficulty leaving the abuser, if the opportunity arises, because s/he no longer sees a reason to do so.
————–
Winning the war while losing battles is what the implaccable global robber barons and their establishment did – even as they used a ‘strategic weapon’ postal vote rigging – to guarantee it illegally.
The cover stories will continue and be repeated by the queen and the monarchy saved. She, her heirs and the aristos who long ago stole Scotlands wealth and land will NOT allow it to be returned to the Scottish people – as they didn’t before.
To you who will attempt that independence, I say learn the lessons of the evermore all powerful masters and their weapons. The Irish got freedom, India and other British Empire conquests did … it will come down to extreme localism. Know yoyr neighbours and friends and be agreed. Work with such natural cells across the voting population. Guard against agitators and waverers who take the silver and status, to turn their coats.
That will ensure that you know the vote is clear. And also allow solidarity when the thugs are sent in to break heads! As in Catalonia.
———-
The various talking heads on this site are great and regrouping from the mental anguish within hours – to you all – thankyou.
To Craig Murray and his crew the biggest thanks and long may you hold the candle for us to be guided by.