Off Topic Politics Thread

Can he be held in contempt of court, for doing that?

 

Plus he's sent a signed letter recommending that EU leaders reject the extension request.

 

Quite possibly illegal. It will be down to the courts.

 

Obviously, doing it thus is fairly clearly disregarding the spirit of the law...probably not breaking the letter of the law though. VONC sooner rather than later may be the only way to prevent No Deal by default should the EU deny an extension or having to accept this deal, pretty much as it's written.
Need a brave and principled opposition now, which I'm not massively confident exists.

 

Can’t remember the wording but I seem to recall that the Scottish Court of Session made some kind of ruling on him not doing anything to interfere with a delay. No doubt the courts will be very busy for the next few days!

 

To the list of adjectives routinely associated with Johnson’s name - dishonest, narcissistic, unprincipled etc - we can now add infantile.

 

There is a strange conundrum about Pfeffel. Can you imagine what would have happened even say thirty years ago had a mainstream politician behaved in this way? I suggest that they would instantly have been ostracised and dropped like a stone in the polls. Instead we have a PM being lauded for such infantile behaviour.

There has been a sea change in society over the past twenty years. The McDonalds generation who exist on a diet of dancing, cooking and singing shows has fully embraced bad behaviour in support extreme political positions. It has become good to get pissed, get fat and insult people.

Sadly though all this is set to continue. In the next election Labour will be reduced to 200 seats or fewer and, unless the Lib Dems manage to exceed 60 then we have a Tory majority. The only thing that could save this situation is for the Lib Dems to get a clear run in their 100 strongest seats in exchange for not fighting hard, or at all, in the rest. Interesting almost all those 100 would be Tory held so there isn't any great downside for Labour.

 

Jo Swinson is only in the second tier of hypocrite. She is no match for Mogg, Johnson, Gove, Francois, Patel. These guys are the masters and she is nowhere in their league.

 

He has always been infantile.

 

Here is your chance to vote:

Who is the worst Prime Minister this country has ever had:

a Self entitlement Johnson;
b Lies through his teeth Johnson;
c Hypocrite Johnson;
d Shagger Johnson;
e **** business Johnson;
f Trample all over the sovereignty of Parliament Johnson;
g Contempt for the rule of law Johnson;
h Look after my rich mates and **** the country Johnson;
i Hoodwink the Queen Johnson;
j Megalomaniac Johnson;
k Champion of racists, bigots and fascists Johnson;
l Best mates with the worst American President in history Johnson;
m I will push you under a bus to save my own neck Johnson;
n The would be tyrant Johnson;
m My party before my Country Johnson;
n Misogynist Johnson;
o Make financial promises you can't keep Johnson;
p I'll do anything to save my own bacon Johnson.

I know it will be a hard choice but take your pick. Vote for as many as you like if you think there is more than one candidate.
Add your own nomination if you can think of someone even worse as I may not have included everyone who qualifies.

 

I think the key to understanding Boris - and Cummings - behaviour lies much further back than 20 years. More like 2000.

This is deliberate populism - appealing to the mob on a purely emotional level - of the sort practiced by the Caesar’s at the end of Rome’s once cherished Republic. The mob, the plebs, the people, have always been susceptible to a leader whose contempt for the law can be made to look like love for them. It’s what despots have always done, from Julius Caesar to Mussolini - turn the people against the institutions that in reality protect their interests.

“The people versus Parliament” which is the narrative on which the Tories plan to fight the next election, is Boris burning the Reichstag. Nothing to do with people misbehaving in Macdonalds.

 

It's possible that Maggie might be a contender. But then she had eleven and a half years to f*** us over. If you add up all the harm she did to Britain she may still be in front. Pfeffel is coming up on the rails though, BTW Gove was just asked on Sky if he had assured John Barron MP that we would still leave without a deal. He didn't answer. Draw you own conclusions from that.

 

They’re not hypocrites, they’re completely unprincipled phonies.

A hypocrite has to have at least some concept of principles in the first place, if only to betray them.

 

You just have to acknowledge that however much you dislike them the LD's are polling around 20% and as such are in the game. Let's direct our fire where it will do the best damage. Swinson could take a whole swathe of Tory Remain voting seats.

 

Just join them mate, you know you want to.

 

So do you really think Corbyn could take Home Counties Remain voting seats?

 

We all know what my view of Brexit is. I accept that view is biased by personal events in my life time. Sorry that will never change. However despite my differences I do listen and I do understand other points of view. What we all seem to have in common is a love for our country and it’s well being. Always accepting the differing views as to what is best for the country.
It is obvious to me and I’m guessing to most of you, that the only way out of this would be for parliament to pass a bill for a concluding referendum, making the referendum legal and abiding. Accept the latest deal or come out and be done with it.
Let’s start getting this country back on its feet and stop all this posturing.
We cannot just ignore the previous referendum but that is what started this horror show so why not have another to finish it once and for all?
Do this because parliament itself can’t agree.........I can see no other fair way out......

 

The problem is that the referendum was put to the people and now the execution of it is about party politics.

As Beddy says put it back to us. Remain or leave with the deal on the table. We have more facts now.

 

I don’t really know to be honest. I know Corbyn is going to be a hard sell outside of London (where I live and where I will be campaigning). In the next GE I will do what little I can to help Catherine West retain Hornsey and Wood Green for Labour.

In large part I put that down to the relentless orchestrated smear campaign conducted against him by all sections of the media. When people - to quote Steve Coogan - listen to what JC says, rather than to what others say about him, they are often won over by a combination of common sense and decency. So we’ll see. He is the leader elected - not once but twice - by the membership of the only political party I have ever considered belonging to, so I’m happy to be a foot soldier in his GE campaign.

As for the LibDems, I can never forgive them for embracing austerity, but especially (and this is personal) for privatising Royal Mail.

Lynn Featherstone was my MP for a while btw. I respected her as an individual and still do, so Im not virulently anti Liberal; but I’m a socialist and a trade unionist, and she once openly and honestly told a group of Hornsey residents that she was neither of those things.

Finally I don’t know if Labour has any chance of winning the next election (though I’m not as pessimistic as you seem to be). But I know you don’t stop fighting for what you believe in just because you think you’ll lose.

 

Well said Beddy.

I think a Final Say vote is looking more and more likely, and will probably be the price Boris has to pay to get his shoddy deal through Parliament. When it happens, there should be some independent authority like the Electoral Commission appointed to monitor all the claims made by the leaders of both sides of the campaign so they can be independently fact-checked. Social media should also be monitored so there can’t be a repeat of the Cambridge Analytica scandal.

Somehow, during the campaign, the genuine grievances of the millions who voted Leave in 2016 have to be faced up to and addressed. If they are listened to and analysed, most of them will be down far more to Tory Austerity than anything to do with the EU, but the lies of Johnson, Farage and co. over the last 2 or more decades will take a lot of unpicking.