Off Topic Politics Thread

It was Nick Clegg's idea back in 2008. He put forward an amendment (that was denied) that a referendum should be on membership and not just on the Lisbon Treaty.

 

I have no idea and don't think there should be. I can understand the reasoning behind a head of state being "immune" for the length of their term due to "stability" but still don't agree with it. If a crime has been committed then tough. I assume that it is more to stop political reasons for stitch ups or frames removing politicians for the term.

I think it should apply to the head of state only for their term and then the prosecution take place. For all others politicians or diplomats it should be a normal cases of prosecution.

In this case I am not sure what he is suspected of having done but the idea of diplomatic immunity is that the US embassy is part of the US but on foreign territory and if the country they are diplomat don;t like "x" person they could in theory get rid of diplomats until they get ones they like. At the end of the day it is the US (or the embassy country) choice who they appoint to each embassy and not the host country.

At the end of the day the person can be taken to court in his absence anyway and the they can talk about extradition should a verdict warrant that.

Can you imagine not having immunity if you were a diplomat in China or Russia? At any point you could be removed because of an allegation whether it happened or not. Similar to Assange here. We can't touch him because legally he is in Equador not London.

 

Article 50 to be invoked 29th March 2017.

 

Though it could still take up to 18 months for the pound to achieve full parity with the Argentinian Peso.

 

I was thinking parity with the Indian Rupee might be more likely eventually.

 

They're our new trading partners apparently. A huge market for spare parts for all the Morris Minors we sold them in the 1950s.

Pity Cameron caused such rancour over visa requirements for Indians coming to study in the UK. I hope May's got someone on the case trying to mend a few bridges there (preferably not Boris).

 

Meanwhile the Labour party are being taken over by the hard left according to Tom Watson. Yeah that worked well last time they did it. Momentum is looking to get backing from the unions.

http://news.sky.com/story/tom-watson-warns-of-momentum-unite-labour-takeover-plot-10808790

 

Tom Watson is panicking because he is the union man and the bridge between the Blairites and Corbynites. Watson's "power" is slipping away. I doubt the unions would back the Blairites again anyway. Still waiting for something more "Labour" to come through the middle.

 

Always funny to see Tom Watson called a Blairite.

 

Tom Watson is being wasted at Labour deputy leader. No I wouldn't call him a Blairite either. More of a Brownite, if one is going to name a political leader from the previous Labour government.

 

There aren't any Blairites, there never were. Only people who allied themselves with Tony Blair because he was good at winning elections. Some of those people are now tainted by association due to Tony Blair's disastrous Iraq legacy, but he wasn't Stalin and he was never the figurehead of any movement other than the broad church that is the Labour Party. The label "Blairite" is just a convenient slur, most often used by the right wing press to try to discredit any Labour MP who shows any sign of having the credentials needed to lead the party to an election victory in the, probably distant, future.

 

He isn't. He is the bridge...or has someone like McDonnell called him a Blairite? He's an opportunistic nasty piece of work. What "ite" could he be? A sh...

 

No. Blair won a landslide remember and his inner circle did what Cameron did and put up candidates from shortlists. A Landslide lets you bring lots of your "own people" and all those that are touted as future leaders like Umunna, Rachel Reeves, Cooper, Burnham, Milliband. They are all Blairites. The Beeb and other media may have attempted to tone them down by calling them "moderates" but they aren't Labour people.

 

I know that. You know that. But it has become the shorthand. Tbf, I would say that Tom Watson is probably more traditionalist centre Labour Party though. As a leader I suspect he'd make Labour electable.

 

We'll have to disagree then. Certainly both Milibands and Andy Burnham, are profoundly, tribal Labour to their daisy roots. To say they "aren't Labour people" is a slur without foundation.

 

Burnham is a flip flopper to the bone. flips policy to whatever gets him the job. The Millibands are full on Blairites. Centrist, progressive, globalist obsessives.

In other news:

Budget U-turn fails to damage Tories as poll suggests their lead over Labour up to 19 points
The latest Guardian/ICM polling figures are out. And Theresa Maymight be regretting her decision to rule out an early general election because the poll suggests the Tories have a 19-point lead over Labour. That is their highest lead under ICM since the 2015 election.

Here are the figures.

Conservatives: 45% (up 1 from Guardian/ICM two weeks ago)

Labour: 26% (down 2)

Ukip: 10% (down 1)

Lib Dems: 9% (up 1)

Greens: 4% (down 1)

Conservative lead: 19 points (up 3)

Martin Boon, director of ICM, says that, as well as being the highest Tory lead since the general election, a 19-point Conservative lead has only been beaten by three polls in the Guardian/ICM series going back to 1983: in two polls giving them a 20-point lead, in 1983 and 2008, and in one giving them a 21-point lead, in June 1983.

Boon says the Electoral Calculus website suggests these figures would translate into a Conservative majority of 140. And he says the detailed figures are also gruesome for Labour.

Meanwhile, youngsters are also deserting Labour in their droves: the Tories now hold a 13 point lead over Labour among 18-to-24 year olds.

 

I don't. I wouldn't even slightly trust him to run the country.

 

There's been some sort of incident/attack outside parliament. Sounds like a police man has been stabbed and his attacker was then shot.

 

Seems the person ran down some people on the bridge, got out of the car at the Houses of Parliament, was confronted by a policeman who he stabbed and was then shot by other police.

 

Just to step outside this tragic incident for a split second, I predict Trump having a field-day with this. Just a feeling.