Tag Archives: Politics

No bregrets?

02 Friday Feb 2018

Posted by in Brexit, Local elections, Politics, UKIP

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , ,

As the shambles that is Brexit stumbles on from one train crash to another, more and more evidence is emerging that the British people are starting to wake up to the fact that the promised Brexit unicorns don’t actually exist – and never will.

The latest evidence may come from the result of a local council election in Sunderland’s Pallion ward yesterday, where the Liberal Democrats took the seat from Labour with a very sizeable swing.

bregret

Pallion is on the South bank of the River Wear and used to be known for its shipbuilding but the last yard closed in 1988. There’s still one yard which carries out ship repairs, but that’s all. Nowadays the Pallion’s a mixture of industrial estates and residential, bounded by a road ironically named European Way. It’s known as a very deprived ward with high unemployment. You can learn more about the ward from the ‘Britain Elects’ website.

Of course nowaday’s Sunderland’s known for its Nissan car plant rather than shipbuilding.

In the Brexit referendum Sunderland voted to leave the EU by 61% to 39% remain. UKIP had a strong presence in the area, even if they had no Councillors. In the 2014 local elections UKIP made their first appearance, putting up candidates in almost every ward. The election results left them in 2nd place in the vote after the Labour party  – including in Pallion. UKIP played on Sunderland’s shipbuilding past, pretending that they could somehow recreate those days.

pallion

UKIP also came second in 2015 and 2016. But that was then. This is now…

The fact that the ‘will of the people’ was swinging against Brexit was picked up by the local paper as long ago as December 2016 when they ran a poll that demonstrated people had changed their minds (link). Of course, newspaper polls are notorious for their inaccuracy, most are little better than clickbait. But that’s what makes the Pallion ward vote so interesting as it’s a genuine expression of the democratic vote.  Pallion had the same Labour member since 1997, so for the Lib-Dems to go from last in 2014 , leapfrogging UKIP to snatch the seat is amazing. That UKIP are a car-crash nowadays doesn’t account for the massive swing to the Lib-Dems, as Labour and the Tories have lost vote share too. Could a factor be Brexit? Why did both former UKIP and Tory voters switch to the Lib-Dems?

Is anyone in Conservative Central Office or Labour headquarters listening? Both parties are seemingly hell-bent on pursuing Brexit, whatever the cost, but they would be foolish in the extreme to ignore results like this. This is the Brexit heartlands remember, so where’s their support gone? To the one party that’s made it absolutely clear it opposes Brexit!

I wonder how many more results like this we’ll be seeing as the Brexit shambles continues and the consequences can no longer be ignored or denied?

 

 

UKIP. Schadenfreude’s such a lovely word!

21 Sunday Jan 2018

Posted by in Politics, StopHs2, The Green Party, UKIP

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , ,

I can’t help but look upon the imminent demise of UKIP without a certain frisson of pleasure. A party that’s done more to ruin the UK’s reputation abroad and helped deliver the shambles that is Brexit is about to get its come-uppance – as blogger Tim Fenton mentioned today.

Ukip’s most recent accounts show it was £380,630 in debt before the 2017 election which weakened the party’s finances even further. The party’s so skint it can’t even put up candidates in local elections. The parlous state of the party’s finance have been the subject of infighting in the past and an open secret amongst members (link).

Now UKIP can’t afford another leadership election, which might save the skin of the latest temprorary Leader (the 4th in 15 months), Henry Boulton, despite the revelations about his openly racist girlfriend – Jo Marney. Jo’s provided social media with an open goal, so I make no apologies for sharing this pic of the couple caught together on the London Underground after their supposed ‘split’. Oh, and the Twitter commentary from Scott Ballantyne is inspired!

human

Meanwhile, former UKIP leader Nigel Farage has got himself embroiled in the murky world of American politics, Trump, Assange and Russia…(link). There’s no chance of him riding to UKIPs rescue as there no money in it for him anymore which leaves the party stuffed. Even MEPs and some of the remaining local Councillors are jumping ship. John Arnott, the MEP  for the North East of England, said he had lost confidence in Mr Bolton but thought no better of those “jockeying” to replace him.

Here’s a list of recent desertions, with links. Arnott

All 3 Plymouth Cllrs quit

All 5 Hartlepool Cllrs quit

Will the last one to leave please turn out the lights?

Of course, UKIPs collapse spells even more trouble for another bête noire of mine, the Stop Hs2 campaign!

I’ve not seen any evidence that UKIP helped the campaign financially or practically, other then lending it support via social media & having members who had a foot in both camps. But UKIP did help draw attention to the campaign. Their opposition to Hs2 was nothing more than a cynical ploy to attract votes from disaffected Tories who lived on the HS2 route. The problem was that the Stop Hs2 campaign had always exaggerated how much support it had, so the avalanche of votes UKIP hoped for never materialised – even in the Chilterns, which was the ‘hotbed’ of anti Hs2 activity. They gained (and then lost) a couple of Council seats but never seriously threatened to unseat any MPs.

UKIPs demise will leave the Greens as the only party opposing Hs2 – and they’ve got their own problems as their standing in the polls and share of the vote in recent local elections has fallen dramatically. As an illustration of both parties troubles, here’s three local election results from Thursday.

green results

We live in interesting times…

Update: 22 Jan.

UKIPs National Executive Committee met yesterday and passed a motion of no-confidence in Bolton. Bolton refuses to resign, so now a ballot of the (remaining)members will take place. Meanwhile, social media has been kept amused by today’s antics as a series of UKIP ‘Front Benchers’ no-one’s ever heard of have resigned. Ds anyone even *know* UKIP had a spokesperson on Culture? Or Intelligence?  But the biggest ‘pot calling kettle black’ moment came from Neil Hamilton, disgraced former Tory MP, ex-jailbird & now UKIPs leader in Wales, who told the BBC;

“He’s made himself into a ludicrous figure by his own poor judgement and he should get out of the way and allow us to get on with rebuilding the party.”

They’re beyond parody!

The winter blues…

06 Saturday Jan 2018

Posted by in Donald Trump, Doomed, Politics

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, ,

“I woke up this morning” – is the opening line of many a blues song – only in my case this morning was more like being wrenched into wakefulness by a paroxysm of coughing and spluttering. Like many people, Dawn and I have gone down with the traditional post-Christmas bug so it’s been a much more laid back Saturday then I intended. The pair of us have been coughing and hacking so much anyone walking past the house would be forgiven for mistaking it for a TB clinic.

The winter blues are one of the reasons I normally go abroad this time of the year. Everything seems subdued and miserable after the festive season, many people rein their horns in and count the pennies they haven’t got after overspending on Christmas so towns and pubs seem quiet. Even the weather has done it’s best to contribute to the general air of doom and gloom by pissing down for most of the 2018 we’ve had so far. A brief break in London helped lift my spirits but I’ll be glad when this damned cold’s buggered off – for both of us.

Meanwhile, in the spirit of a surreal age, when an American President takes to Twitter to assure everyone he’s not nuts but one of the smartest people on the planet – I’m heading for the drinks cabinet – whilst it and I still exist. Because, when this is the infantile level of the President of the United States – and supposedly the leader of the free world, we are all, deeply, deeply f****d.

trump 1trump 2

 

Welcome to 2018 and my first blog on an old subject – Hs2

01 Monday Jan 2018

Posted by in Hs2, Railways, StopHs2

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

, , ,

I’m kick-starting the new year with a bit of number-crunching and a look at the stophs2 campaign, which hasn’t had a great 2017 and which is set to have an even lousier 2018! their last remaining umbrella group (Stophs2) is hanging on by the skin of it’s teeth but if it survives the year in anything but name it’ll be a minor miracle. There’s really nothing going on.

The political campaign has skidded to a stop and apart from a few ineffectual protesters shuffling around the pavement at the Harvil Rd protest there’s very little happening on the ground. A few local action groups are trying to keep up local pressure, but as the number of signatures on the latest Stophs2 petition show, there’s not much support for them outside the small number of people directly affected by the Hs2 routes.

So, lets have a look at that petition. I’ve broken it down into phase 1 and the two legs to Manchester and Leeds. Here’s phase 1.

petition phase 1 1 Jan

The numbers that are most significant are the percentages of all constituents who’ve signed. As you can see, they’re tiny, even in the campaign’s ‘heartlands’. Only two constituencies have more than 1%. What’s also significant is the numbers who’ve signed in December. None are in triple figures.

Of course, this petitions pretty pointless on phase 1 anyway as Hs2’s a done-deal here and it’s being built. Now let’s have a look at The leg to Manchester.

petition phase 2 M'cr 1 Jan

The figures here are appalling. 7 constituencies had no-one signing in December and the one’s that did get them never got into double figures! What this betrays is the lack of organised stophs2 ‘action’ groups on this stretch of Hs2. Apart from on in Mid-Cheshire and another around Stone, there’s bugger-all going on. No groups exist in Manchester at all. As the phase 2a Hybrid Bill is due to start its passage through Parliament this month it will be interesting to see how the lack of any organised opposition affects its progress.

Next up – the route to Leeds.

Petition phase 2 Leeds. 1 jan

The numbers are little better here. Only 3 constituencies have got into double figures and the percentages are tiny. Only one stands out – Rother valley. But even here the percentage signing is still under 1.5% of constituents. Clearly, there are more ‘action’ groups here, but they’re not achieving much and they’re having no impact on a national scale.

Here’s some more number-crunching. This is the numbers of people signing the petition by month.

signs

As you can see, the monthly average is dropping like a stone. The petition’s clearly doomed. It’s already more than 35,500 behind target. Put simply, they’re running out of Nimbys or those folks allied to groups opposed to Hs2 like the Green party of right-wing organisations like the TPA, IEA or what’s left of UKIP. In other words, they’re stuffed as they have no political clout.

There’s another interesting number too. Stophs2 claim 5901 followers on Twitter, so how many of those followers have retweeted and spread the petition? Just 94 in 96 days. So much for their social media campaign!

stophs2 31 dec

Notice the hollow boast about the number of people signing? Today (96 days later) they’re on 22,882! The story of apathy and inaction is the same on their Facebook page and website. They’ve run out of steam and support everywhere.

I can’t see The Dept of Transport or Government  being too worried about their campaign nowadays as it’s pretty much ceased to exist. Rent-a-quote Joe Rukin, their ‘grandly titled ‘Campaign Manager’ has been looking for a proper job for some time. If and when he goes the game’s up as Stophs2 is pretty much a one man & his dog operation. The group’s Chair, Penny Gaines, decamped to the South-West some years ago. In November 2017 Stophs2 lost two out of its five Directors, including Roger Waller who’d allowed his home address in Dunsmore, Aylesbury to be used as the groups registered office. The registered address has now moved to Rukin’s in Caesar Rd, Kenilworth (although Rukin resigned as a Director as long ago as January 2011). The remaining Directors are Gaines, Rae Sloan and Richard Lloyd – although how long they’ll hang on is anyone’s guess.

Somehow, I doubt I’ll be spending much time blogging about Stophs2 in future.

 

 

Is it any wonder the Green party are bombing in the polls?

27 Wednesday Dec 2017

Posted by in Anti Hs2 mob, Green Party, Hs2, Mark Keir, Politics

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , ,

I’ve just come across this load of nonsense about Hs2 from the Green Party’s Mark Kier in Hillingdon, North London. It’s been posted on YouTube by ‘Occupy News Network’, a ragbag of leftists and anarchists. It’s straight from the ‘make it up as you go along’ school of political commentary.

These are the people who’re backing the futile protest in Harvil Rd, which is hardly ‘Swampy’ or Twyford Down! Apart from occupying a stretch of pavement they appear to have been unable to even delay the HS2 preparation work in the area, never mind actually stop anything!

In his YouTube diatribe, Kier claims (amongst other things) that Hs2 costs £110bn (it doesn’t), it’s funded by Chinese loans (it isn’t) and that it’s “wiped out democracy” (that’ll be why Parliament passed the Hs2 bill by a vote of 452 MPS to 41 then!). He also trots out some tired old canards such as the ‘fact’ Hs2 will be wider than a motorway (it won’t) and that the time saving between London-Birmingham is 20 minutes (it isn’t).

The pointless Harvil Rd protest has attracted several Green Party leaders, who’ve trotted along to grandstand and have their photos taken in ‘solidarity’ with the protesters. They’ve all parroted similar nonsense to Kier, which shows that the problems with the party being both dishonest and ill-informed is systemic. It also suggest that the Green party has retreated back to its protest/pressure group roots rather than trying to maintain the fiction that it has any credibility as a serious political party.

None of this rubbish will stop Hs2 in the slightest of course, but it does help to show why the Green Party has slumped in the polls in recent years. I wouldn’t trust this lot to run a whelk stall, far less a Council or, God forbid – a country.

Decision day.

08 Thursday Jun 2017

Posted by in 2017 General election, Politics

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

,

I have to say, I’ve never known a general election like this. So many people are expressing their confusion and angst over who to vote for. Comment after comment on Facebook is from friends who are clearly torn over which box to put their cross in. “A pox on both your houses” seems to be a common sentiment as the choice between Labour and Tories is seen by many as being between the devil and the deep blue sea.

I went to the dentists this morning. Whilst I was having my teeth checked the hygenist and her assistant started discussing the election. The young assistant admitted she probably wouldn’t vote as she didn’t know who to vote for and didn’t really understand the issues. The hygenist mentioned that she had a Labour MP whom she liked, but may back the Tories as (although she didn’t like Brexit) she wanted it to be sorted out.

I was asked for my opinion, so I pointed out the emptiness in May’s rhetoric and her suicidal willingness to countenance a hard Brexit. I wasn’t much kinder about Labour, but I did mention they may make less of a mess of Brexit. The conversation wasn’t untypical of ones I’ve had elsewhere.

Frankly, it’s terrifying that on such a crucial issue as Brexit, the main parties have colluded in keeping voters in the dark about the reality of what we’re facing. It’s clear to me that many more enlightened and educated voters are seeing this, hence their quandry over who to vote for. Equally terrifying is the way the right-wing press are pushing for the Tories and a hard Brexit. It really does feel like the country is rushing headlong over a cliff, egged on by the billionaires and others who will benefit.

Could the election yet throw up a surprise? I believe it might, although I’m pessimistic. I’ve never known so many people willing to ditch old allegiences (including myself). I suspect we’re going to see voter mobility and tactical voting on an unprecedented scale, but I’ve no idea where it will take us.

It’s going to be a long night…

The starting gun’s been fired for a general election

18 Tuesday Apr 2017

Posted by in 2017 General election, Politics

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

,

I was going to blog about something entirely different today. However, the immortal words of Harold McMillan (“events dear boy, events”) have got in the way with Prime Minister Teresa May calling a snap general election for June 8th.

Over Easter, May was claiming that the country was ‘coming together’ after the Brexit referendum. The general election is about to prove how hollow that claim was.

If I was a Labour MP, right now I’d be updating my CV, because there’s little doubt the party is facing a bloodbath on June 8th. I can’t help thinking that recent polls showing that support for Labour has reached record lows have had an influence on the Prime Minister’s decision – as well as the way many people treat her ‘coming together’ claims with such derision.

 

There’s no doubt that the Conservatives will win on June 8th, but will this bring the ‘unity’ May talks about? Of course not.

Brexit is the fly in the ointment. Every day that passes it becomes clearer what an utter disaster it is for the UK – and how the country is throwing away much of its influence because of it. One only has to look at the way other nations (including the Europeans) are talking about us – or rebuffing our political and economic overtures.

Whatever way you look at it, I can’t see much good coming out of the election. It will hasten the destruction of the Labour party and see the back of Jeremy Corbyn, but I’m not sure the party is strong enough to rebuild and return to the centre ground. I’ve a nasty feeling the hard-left grip is too strong and they’ll ensure Corbyn’s successor is cut from the same cloth. May’s position may well be strengthened, but a weakened Labour party will be an even more feeble opposition than it is now. This election is like the Brexit referendum. It’s not about the good of the country, it’s about the internal politics of the Conservative party.

My only hope is that enough people rally around the anti-brexit banner. The local elections on May 5th will be a test of that. If the Tory majority is increased in such a way it allows the Brexit fundamentalists influence to be watered down, we may yet see an outbreak of common-sense within the Tories – something that’s been completely lacking recently.

Could we see the Lib-Dems make a political comeback as the only party that opposes Brexit? I sincerely hope so. Right now, we’re entering yet another period of political uncertainty, the ‘interesting times’ of the apocryphal Chinese curse…

Catching up…

12 Wednesday Apr 2017

Posted by in Brexit, Politics

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

,

– just not with blogging I’m afraid! I’ve had a busy month working from home. It’s left me little time to write or compose my thoughts but that should change now.

It’s not as if there’s nothing going on. As each day goes by Brexit becomes more and more of a shambles. For example, today, the Guardian highlights a survey of UK retirees who’re now less keen to spend their golden years abroad in the sun. They cite concerns about medical care after the UK leaves the EU. I have to say, this is a bit of a ‘No, shit, Sherlock!’ moment – especially when you consider the fact that it was a majority of elderly people who voted for Brexit! So, as well as crashing the value of their currency, they’ve potentially deprived themselves of access to reciprocal medical care abroad. Of course, for the UK, this is a double whammy. As well as losing economically active EU residents (who’re deserting the NHS in droves) we find they’ll be replaced by the economically inactive who’ll be putting extra strain on the NHS! – and that’s before we take into account the 100s of thousands of pensioners who’re already living abroad and who may be forced to return to the UK.

Meanwhile a House of Commons committee has been rather scathing about the referendum itself – and also alluded to foreign involvement in trying to influence the result. It’s deeply ironic about the ‘patriots’ who’ve been trying to take us out of the EU. The trouble with such ‘patriots’ is they’re so easy to manipulate. All you have to do is pander to their prejudices, wave a flag, tell them they’re patriotic, wind them up and let them go. Most are too blind to see that their ‘patriotism’ hasn’t served the UK or Europe’s interests – just the Russians…

I expect this story to keep running. No-one who was involved in the referendum campaign on the Remain side will be surprised. The huge number of foreign ‘tweetbots’ & fake profiles involved was obvious.

Away from politics, expect to see a blog to appear telling the story of my recent travels around South-East Asia, I’m writing up my trip from Singapore, through Malaysia up to Bangkok in my spare time.

 

Bonkers, truly bonkers!

04 Tuesday Apr 2017

Posted by in Easter fairy stories, Politics, Teresa May, UK

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, ,

If I didn’t know better I’d suggest someone has been spiking the Houses of Parliament’s water supply. Maybe the Russians infiltrated the pipes years ago? How else can you explain the surreal stupidity coming from some of our politicians nowadays.

As if the Gibralter debacle wasn’t enough we now have Teresa may adding to the farce. Remember that May refused to condemn Michael Howard’s threat to declare war on Spain. Instead, she’s found time in her hectic schedule of sucking up to the Saudi’s to condemn something far more important…

The National Trust’s Easter egg hunt…

Showing her usual grasp of the facts, she condemns the trust for ‘dropping’ the word ‘Easter’ from the event. There’s only one teeny-weeny problem. It’s not true – as a few minutes browsing the National Trust’s website would have demonstrated.  Amongst several pages of different events (all featuring the word ‘Easter’) There’s also this full page ad,

NT easter

This is basic level PR fact-checking. OK, OK – I know facts have fallen out of favour in this era of fake news, but come on! I can’t help but wonder how many EU countries are looking at this stuff and wetting themselves laughing at the ridiculous state of UK political posturing at the moment.

It’s bad enough that this is the annual staple of the far-right who trot the ‘Easter has been banned so as not to offend the Muslims’ every year. But this is the Prime Minister jumping on the bandwagon.

The philosopher Joseph de Maistre once said that “every nation gets the government it deserves”. So what they hell have we done that this bunch of useless incompetents is our just reward? And, yes, I’m looking at you too Corbyn…

FOOTNOTE.

This whole furore is put into perspective when one remembers that the founder of Cadbury’s – Richard Cadbury was a Quaker – and Quakers didn’t celebrate Easter – or Xmas. (see link)

 

Brexit: The wheels start to come off…

03 Monday Apr 2017

Posted by in Brexit, Politics

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

,

After the our Government presented the article 50 letter to the EU, announcing the UK’s intention to leave Brexit fans were cock a hoop. It didn’t take long for cold hard reality to bite. Within a couple of days the EU’s response poured cold water on the UKs ambitions, but also contained a surprise (well, to Brexit fans anyways) which has since broken out and shown just how mad Brexit is.

The Spanish lobbied to get a mention of Gibralter in the EUs reply and managed to bushwack the Brexit camp . The inserted text reads.

Gib

As the implications of this began to dawn on Quitters, all hell broke loose in the media. Despite sovereignty not being mentioned at all in the text, some people (including many who should have known better) began to fulminate. Comparisons were immediately drawn with the Falkland Islands and former Home Secretary Michael “something of the night” Howard gave the most ridiculous interview in which he essentially threatened Spain with war. Needless to say, the other pro Brexit newspapers ramped up the rhetoric. This is how utterly bonkers (and a diplomatic disaster) Brexit has become in the space of 4 days. We’ve actually had a ‘serious’ newspaper discussing the idea that the British Navy could ‘cripple’ one of our NATO allies (whom NATO would automatically defend, so – do we fight ourselves then?) – and rabid Quitters have joined in.

Dickson falklands

Remember, this sabre-rattling is directed at one of our European partners. One in which rather a lot of British citizens have chosen to reside.  One which will have a veto over any deal with try and do with the EU, whether it’s the ‘divorce settlement’ or a new trade and access deal. This is what passes for diplomacy in Brexit Britain.

What’s so stupid about this is that Quitters are surprised at this turn of events. No-one else is. Brexit has  handed the Spanish a golden  opportunity to make Gibralter an issue – as many diplomats and other mentioned before the referendum. As usual, quitters stuck their fingers in their ears (just as they did over the border question with Ireland) and ploughed on regardless.  Now it’s come back to bite them it’s obvious they haven’t got a clue what to do – hence this ridiculous sabre-rattling. The Leave slogan ‘take back control’ looks more and more hollow as it’s painfully obvious that we’ve done exactly the opposite!

To make matters worse, one of the people who’s expected to sort all this out is the buffoon and inveterate liar, Boris Johnson. He’s also been in the news this weekend, condemning the introduction of the new Vnuk tax on off-road vehicles in the Times whilst saying that it made him “glad Britain had voted for Brexit”

boris

This is a classic example of Boris’ intelligence insulting soundbites and disinformation. For a start, we didn’t have to leave the UK to stop this. We could’ve simply voted against it. I mean, we did, didn’t we? Err, no. The UK voted FOR this law.

vote

Once again Johnson proves how duplicitous he is. These are the type of people who’re leading us into the Brexit disaster – and this is only the first week! I wonder which of our allies we’ll threaten next week? This is the madness and depths of stupidity the UK has sunk to now – and this is why we’ve got to continue to fight against it.

With Howard back in the fray Brexit more and more feels like ‘when dinosaurs roamed the earth’ and a ludicrous column from Simon Heffer in the Telegraph adds to that feeling. I won’t give the Tel anymore free links, so here’s the opening piece of Heffer’s idiotic claim.

Heffer

Brexit Britain sounds more and more like an octogenarians theme park. One where they’re desperate to turn the clock back to the ‘good old’ days of Empire. There was a very good reason we dumped imperial measures. They’re neither logical or practical (so, a perfect fit with Brexit then). Only one other country still hangs on to pounds and miles – America. Not only that, but we started to go metric way back in 1965 – long before the EU came along. In fact, we first started talking about metrication in 1818 and UK scientists developed some of the earlier electrical measurement in – metric! Here, in a nutshell, is why it’s madness to ditch metric.

Metric

Can you imagine the effect on the sciences, business and international trade if we went back. It’s utterly stupid – but it’s a classic example of the mindset we’re seeing from the Brexit fan club. The sooner these dinosaurs are extinct, the better…