I simply love the irony of it all IGM.

I didn’t think anything would be more debased than the Indy debate. But then we had Brexshit and Trump etc

The rise of populist bullshit is itself a fascinating subject it’s also a very sad one, given that large numbers of people who are struggling to come to terms with the modern world are sold snake oil be a series of deceitful opportunists – Salmond, Trump, Farrage, Corbyn, Bojo, McD etc

were it not for the suffering that this entails it would be amusing. As it is it’s depressing and intriguing at the same time

of course the major elephant remains seated in the middle of the room – WTF is Europe going to look like in 5-10 years anyway. It’s sure as hell is not going to be what it is now.

Anyway back to Brexshit – no one intrigued by the huge slowdown in Ez GDP yet?!?

too busy worrying about ours, and aware they just recorded their best growth in a decade but hey you spin it how you like fella and good luck selling your snake oil distraction attempt

I liked your list BTW a less astute eye would see it as a political list written by a tory wet.

That’s a short and somwhat one eyed list THM.

How about this bunch of incompetents,snake oil salesmen and fraudsters. Abby Cohen, David Cameron, Mervyn King,, Maurice Greenberg, Alan Greenspan, Gordon Brown, Chuck Prince, Adam Applegarth and letsl not forget good old Fred the shred and Philip Green

Corbyn is a deceitful opportunist, I agree with that.

Did I mention irony somewhere ?

Liam fox on BBC news a few seconds ago..

The Chinese have agreed to sell us 2 billion quids worth of goods.

Errm.. Okay, so…??

How do people so utterly stupid get into such jobs?

yeah more poundland tat

<span style=”color: #444444; font-size: 12px;”>Locally I do know companies that only employ immigrants [ mainly because the employers flout employment law and immigrants tolerate it – reduced red tape essentially] What I never understand is why no one blames the employer for this.</span>

Having witnessed exploitation first hand in the Manchester area and seen where business owners (tax dodgers) house these people, sub standard (I’m being polite) rental accommodation (20 blokes to a room), in shit hole areas. Many get away with it, absentee landlords blame agents and unauthorised sub-letting with little more than a bollocking/hands slapped.

The irony was the exploiters were from immigrant families themselves and predominantly from former British colonial interests. I can only speak for what I have witnessed in Manchester but am aware it is common in the largest British cites.

There was no racial angle i was aware of and I am in the north west but cannot speak for manchester

the companies were not run or owned by immigrants nor were the employees living like that – though it was multiple occupancy – student type accommodation.

yeah more poundland tat

Oh, child… Do you really belive that the only things we import from China are cheap low quality pound shop stock?  Will you ever learn?

Don’t worry, we can still import lots more from China… even if the idea of a UK customs union agreement with the EU (and other CU countries) wins out in the Conservative Party… they’re not all Mogg/BoJo attention seekers… many do understand how business works outside the financial services… who knows what sense might prevail when the decision is finally made as to what “we” are seeking to replace EU membership with…

Meanwhile, whilst the country tears itself apart the The Express does a stunning expose of Corbyn.

He got a lift in a diesel car AND it was parked on double yellow lines. Monster! !

They estimate that this action directly caused the deaths of 10 baby robins.

Also in the above pic I see that May is going to bring in a new law to protect Mogg from having people with a regional accent (affiliated with Labour leader’s obvs) from talking too loudly near his delicate ears.

Obviously having a member of the far Right murder a female Labour MP wasn’t enough to trigger action…

“Gas-guzzling diesel”, er only if you choose the wrong pump! They need to sort out their outrage, it’s a pollution belching child killer FFS.

<span style=”background-color: #eeeeee; color: #444444; font-size: 12px;”>Obviously having a member of the far Right murder a female Labour MP wasn’t enough to trigger action…</span>

Or that the arsehole who carried out the attack in Finsbury Park said that he originally wanted to target Corbyn.

Its good to see they have a clear audience though. Right wing loons who are too cheap to buy the hate.

Be interesting to see what happens if the mirror does it take it over. Will the staff leave or will they just flip their positions or will they be allowed to keep the current line?

Would that not be Corbyn’s official car, provided for him by the Government Car Service and driven by a Department of Transport employee?

They one he has to use for security reasons, due to threats on his life?

Have we done dolchstoss yet? 🙋🏼‍♀️

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2018/feb/03/brexit-civil-service-1930s-germany

Brilliant isn’t it – moggster and his mates know their extravagant promises cannot add up so they decide to shoot the messenger.

Unfortunately it’ll probably work.

A bit rubbish that piece … oddly, exactly the same points are made in this far better commentary from the same “outlet”…

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/feb/04/when-brexit-fails-it-wont-be-fault-of-tory-right-jacob-rees-mogg

Aye Kelvin but ‘my’ piece was written a day earlier…. 😛

it was more the concept (than the article) I was trying to highlight…

It’s always telling when a group is setting up other people for the failure, before it happens, isn’t it? “I insist we do this stupid thing and when it fails it’ll be the fault of Carthage or something”

So Rudd is on the telly saying the cabinet are united then within hours 2 different ministers state totally incompatible versions of what they want.  May still will not say what she is aiming for.

Then this morning any sort of customs union is ruled out by no 10

Farcical

May is just resembling that character on The Fast Show where Paul Whitehouse agrees with whatever the previous speaker said.

May is just resembling that character on The Fast Show where Paul Whitehouse agrees with whatever the previous speaker said.

Actually, she’s more like Jesse: “This week our brexit policy has mostly been….”

Just noticed a small straw floating past in the wind.

Of course, one solution to the need for a “Northern Irish” border after Brexit causing all the local problems that are such a worry, is for there not to be a “Northern Ireland”.

Sinn Fein have always referred to the land mass as being “The Island Of Ireland”. Largely, one supposes, as a means of driving home their stance on the matter.

Yesterday on the Andrew Marr show, for the first time at least in my hearing, a non-Sinn Fein politician used the phrase.The Home Secretary, Amber Rudd.

Then this morning any sort of customs union is ruled out by no 10

All the while, parlimentarians are wasting their time scrutinising a government bill which would enable it to set up a new customs union with the EU. I’d rather have them concentrating on whatever it is the PM and her enemies really want instead (no, they haven’t “made it clear”).

Tick… tock…

even if the idea of a UK customs union agreement with the EU (and other CU countries) wins out in the Conservative Party… they’re not all Mogg/BoJo attention seekers… many do understand how business works outside the financial services…

Which idiot wrote that? Idiot.

So the fantasy island Brexit continues, with policy made up on the hoof to placate whichever faction of the Tory party is shouting loudest this week?

We won’t be part of any customs union, but there also won’t be a border in Ireland? Hmmmmm…. how’s that going to work then?

oh, yeah…. it isn’t. The two things are mutually incompatible.

Have we surely not reached the point where the 2 wings of the Tory party needs to have the open war it’s been threatening for decades, so we can finally stop all this ‘have cake and eat it’ nonsense and address the world as it actually is, and not how the Brexit headbangers would like it to be?

This government seems to like arguing over the colour of the Dulux they are using to paint themselves into a corner.

It’s red by the way.  Fades to pink under pressure.

Yesterday on the Andrew Marr show, for the first time at least in my hearing, a non-Sinn Fein politician used the phrase.The Home Secretary, Amber Rudd.

I can’t even begin to imagine what Arlene’s face must have looked like when she heard that!

We won’t be part of any customs union, but there also won’t be a border in Ireland? Hmmmmm…. how’s that going to work then?
oh, yeah…. it isn’t. The two things are mutually incompatible.

Unless we make Northern Ireland part of ‘Europe’ and put the border between the island of Ireland and the rest of the UK. Ah……

It’s like a big game of scissors paper stone, pick any two options and there’s some incompatibility. Shame no-one thought of it before going down this idiot path.

Well I suppose as long as Labour keep supporting the tories by voting with them or abstaining, it doesn’t really matter what the DUP think.

<span style=”color: #444444; font-size: 12px; background-color: #eeeeee;”>Unless we make Northern Ireland part of ‘Europe’ and put the border between the island of Ireland and the rest of the UK. Ah……</span>

At which point the government falls anyway as it’s goodbye DUP.

It’s like trying to fit a sofa into a mini. Whichever way you approach it, you will fail.

It’s like trying to fit a sofa into a mini. Whichever way you approach it, you will fail.

You could chop it into tiny pieces with an axe, douse it in petrol and then set fire to it. Collect what remains of the ashes, and that probably would fit.

That’s not a bad analogy for what we’re doing actually. We may yet end up with our sofa in our mini, but the sofa will be **** all use, and the mini will stink of ash and petrol for years to come.  Err…. is that what’s meant by win-win?

<span style=”color: #444444; font-size: 12px;”>Well I suppose as long as Labour keep supporting the tories by voting with them or abstaining,

</span>It all makes you wonder what is the actual point of the labour party at the moment? It certainly wouldn’t appear to be to provide an effective opposition. The Tory party is busy tearing itself apart of Europe (as per….), and instead of capitalising on that, Corbyn and chums refuse to even bring up the subject of Brexit.

Lets be honest… it wouldn’t be difficult to articulate a more cohesive vision of where Brexit should be going, than the present ‘make it up as you go along’ shambles that is the government ‘position’

The present car crash that May has presided over, summed up by Matthew D’ancona (hardly a rabid lefty) in the Guardian this morning

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/feb/04/brexit-mess-theresa-may-tories

Labour have just sat there and observed the dumpster fire that is this Conservative government for long enough. It’s one thing allowing your opponents to destroy themselves, which they are doing just fine, another to allow them to utterly poison the well in the process.

Corbyn’s ambiguous stance is both frustrating and understandable in equal measure. While those media sources close to him gleefully report that he’s had something of an epiphany in private and secretly back remaining (even though he both voted remain, canvassed as a remainer and subsequently said in a TV interview that he would remain if he got to vote again), he steadfastly sticks to the line that Labour respects the referendum result. Meanwhile, Remainers such as myself count for the majority of Labour’s supporters and Corbyn would be mad to throw that support away. Meanwhile, both Keir Starmer and Hillary Benn (both of whom have been quick to respond to my emails on the topic of Brexit) are openly backing a Customs Union and Single Market approach.

But the Labour Party stands to benefit hugely by standing back and allowing the Conservatives to self-immolate. Although some newspapers are reporting the Johnson, Gove and Rhys-Mogg represent a “dream team”, there’s little support amongst the Tory rank and file for Extreme Brexit. Moreover, Johnson and Gove have been permanently tainted by their conduct during the Referendum campaign itself and will remain divisive figures for some time to come. Gove has quietly got on with the Environment brief and it must be said that he’s made some encouraging noises. Johnson is making a hash of his Foreign Secretary brief, he’s clearly backed himself into an ideological corner and if you read the foreign news outlets, he’s not taken particularly seriously on the world stage. Rhys-Mogg is something of an enigma, his 1950s upper class schtick is just that – it’s not authentic and his favoured policies on capital punishment, taxation and civil liberties reek of regressive authoritarianism. Arguably, the throw back appeal is the mirror image of Corbynism and appeals to those who would wish to return to a different age. Rhys-Mogg’s accusations that the Treasury have been fiddling figures is a clear statement of intent that he has his eye on Phil Hammond’s job.

In the scenario whereby we have Johnson, Gove and Rhys-Mogg leading government, there is likely to be a significant pushback from the Tory moderates – Grieve, Soubry et al. So, in order to get Hard Brexit to stick, an authoritarian stance will have to be adopted, especially so given the lack of a clear majority – withdrawing the party whip from rebels is a non-starter, so they will have to double down on dissent, or deliberately undermine the role of parliament itself.

You get the impression that Johnson and Gove enjoy the smoke-filled rooms, the plotting and the knifing more than they do the responsibilities of actually having to enact policy. You only had to look at Bojo’s panicked face when the referendum result came through.

Rees-Mogg would be an excellent Chancellor. In 1877.

“Rees-Mogg would be an excellent Chancellor. In 1877.”

For many, their working conditions are rather 1877-esque.

<span style=”font-size: 12.8px;”>https://www.theguardian.com/business/2018/feb/05/courier-who-was-fined-for-day-off-to-see-doctor-dies-from-diabetes</span&gt;

It’s interesting that May seems intent on hanging on until Brexit has been delivered in whatever form. There are the competing demands of time – the timing of 2017’s General Election was no accident in that May wanted to give five years to deliver Brexit, plan for succession and to try to stabilise the economy. There would be two scenarios in 2022, either a new Conservative leader reenergises the party and deals with the inevitable economic rough patch, or Labour win and subsequently take the flak for any economic difficulties along the way.