"Jeremy Corbyn will stand down as Labour leader before the next election after losing dozens of seats across the country, with Boris Johnson's Conservatives being the main beneficiary. Meanwhile, the SNP made large gains and dominate Scotland once again. In a poor night for the Lib Dems, the Remain party stayed static and their leader Jo Swinson lost her seat." Telegraph
—————
My congratulations to our British cousins on this defeat of the forces of weirdness. Corbyn was a close approximation of the Sanders/Warren – "squad" side of the Democratic Party. May he rest in peace. The maps and charts in this Telegraph article are impressive. Alas, there is a paywall.
I assume that the SNP will launch an ultimately, probably, successful campaign for independence after Brexit is done, but, what does it matter? Scottish soldiers are no longer needed to defend the limes of the empire. Those are Jacobite tribesmen at the top. Some of my ancestors were such as they.
BJ is going to inhabit or maybe continue to inhabit Number 10 with a paramour? (using Trey Gowdy's phrase) Oh well, "the caravan marches on" even as the dogs (like me) bemoan the past. She looks nice.
Once again – Bravo! pl
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/general-election-results-2019-maps-breakdown-constituency/
Sir
This was a stunning election result for Boris. Constituencies that have always voted Labor for more than 50 years went to the Conservatives. I speculate that it was a repudiation of those that fought the Brexit referendum results for years. I assume many voted to “get Brexit done”, which was Boris’s mantra during the campaign.
Let’s see what kind of Brexit he achieves. In any case all the fearmongers have been proven wrong as the pound strengthened as the exit polls came out. The fx markets are clearly acting bullish, which is a huge negative for the Brussels crew. I can see Merkel wanting to do a deal for the sake of German industry.
The geographic maps of recent Western elections, look remarkably similar across the world.
Brexit, Kurz, Trump, Bolsonaro, Duterte, Khan, Salvini & Di Maio as well as the rise of the AfD in Germany all evidence a strikingly similar pattern.
Urban centers are trying to hold on to the status quo for dear life.
The rest of the country that could be defined as the (usually) silent majority, has had enough.
This vote was no surprise.
We have reached one of those historical junctures that are brought about by the same old political tactics.
A centralized monetary system that is coopted for political power.
Fiscal deficits have a very well defined, if not understood, life cycle. The end of the cycle has been the same across the ages.
Many more “surprising” political outcomes to come in the following months.
It will be interesting to watch Ireland.
Will Northern Ireland and the Republic join and stay in the EU? Northern Ireland had strong pro-EU support.
Or could the prospects of a hard border improve the 44% of Irish that were pro-Irexit allowing some accommodation with the United Kingdom.
Perhaps the United Kingdom offers to support a united Ireland within a framework of Ireland rejoining the United Kingdom. Worse case is the hard border and the return of the “troubles”
Seems like an ideal situation for dealmaker Trump and his great trade deal offer to the UK.
Careful what you wish for, the Gods might grant it. Deep down inside there is a familial feeling towards your cousins similar to the Lend-Lease deal that ruined their empire, one has to fear the close ones, not the distant ones. The result might be the end of the UK and a rash of separatist movements in the rest of Europe, something that might be beneficial to you but not to us. And yes, a sign of the times, paramouring does not rime with empire, no matter how old is the beholder.
Colonel
I know the Brits are a scorbutic lot but didn’t realize they sent out men in skirts to protect their supply.
Charlie
Bring back a new, improved and enhanced Hanseatic League: UK, Nordics, Canada, US, Germany and Netherlands.
Jack,
re Let’s see what kind of Brexit he achieves.
I don’t expect much. Johnson’s bold assertations that he’ll “get the Brexit done” eventually, and easily, with a brexit post EU rules being “oven or whatever else ready” is simply
bullshitunconvincing.There are many many and complicated negotiations requiring an attention span longer than 2 minutes necessary for that and since Johnson replaced May about exactly none of such negotiations happened.
UK diplomats were really really busy and needed in London and Johnson really really busy watching a mirror.
There is not much left that the UK has to offer the EU what wasn’t negotiated already by May, except for Johnson stepping ‘outside of himself’ and trying to not to be an an
assholeunpleasant nuisance for a change.One more guy who
thinksfeels that unpredictability and unrealiability are a strength and an advange (it is neither) … while he hasn’t discovered the penal taxxery tweet game yet … just wait.Dominic Raab (who stabbed May in the back by resigning) is back under Johnson and involuntary amused me by saying that only while negotiating and sort of thinking about Brexit he noticed that the channel as a border between the EU and the UK actually is sort of, say, important in the Brexittery.
Congrats! Didn’t they teach that to him in the primary school or, say, Cambridge or later at Linklaters?
Ignoring the point of Johnson (whose honesty can somewhat be doubted given the fact that as a journalist he was fired three times for lying, eh, freely inventing articles) then there is Dominic Cummings, his so called “master mind”.
Cummings once said that Brexit to him is the crowbar to finally wreck Westminster and who uses ‘reign of terror’ to get critics kicked out of the party, removed (at times illegally, in terms of administrative employment law from gvt jobs – the idea being apparently to … express ‘I can get you!’) or to obey Johnson.
It wouldn’t surprise me if these types end up quiet with a yellow hammer in their head (or, say, body crest).
I can see Merkel wanting to do a deal for the sake of German industry.
She would be insane if she didn’t want to do a deal for German industry since North Rhine-Westphalia, the state I live in, is iirc for the UK’s one of the three or seven largest “import from, collaborate with and export to” entities in the world (iirc before China) that the UK does business with.
It is already so that people from the UK applying for a job in the EU are being rejected since Johnson’s/Farage’s/Cumming’s/Rees-Mogg’s etc pp Brexitery is seen having very practical risks – mobility, reliability, availability – will the brits be able to travel without having to plan for a travel a month in advance or being flewn in by the RAF?
Johnson is on his ego tour en passant wrecking UK economy IMO.
Example #1 “Big Money”:
Airbus wings are built by iirc BAe. After the “Brexit Or Die-ry” there would be some 25% tax on these wings so that Airbus aircraft would get more expensive (or the profit lower). Neither is acceptable or likely to be accepted.
It would take for Airbus just as long time to say bye bye as it takes to build a new factory and train the new employees elsewhere, probably preferrably with EU benefits and subsidies. That’ll also mean a lot of highly skilled brits out of job, factories closed and areas economically harmed. Less taxes would come in too.
Example #2 “Small Money”:
Brexit also will have consequences for the … meals in the UK. Take Cheddar – most of the
Holy British National Traditioncheddar eaten in the UK iirc comes from … Ireland, which, for me fortunately, is in the EU. Add the 25% taxes then Brexit will also mean more expensive basic cheese.Obviously, Ireland will adjust to that by changing their export areas. Bad for the brits, but I’ll be able to buy cheddar 25% cheaper than a brit in the UK.
etc. pp.
Johnson’s “MAGBGA” (MAke Great Britain Great Again” may end up … making the UK in fact smaller.
What about a theoretical potential irish unification? On easter I saw IRA folks demonstrating in Dublin with all green Ireland flags. Will the troubles be revived by Johnson’s … incomparable skill and charm?
The welsh farmers will certainly miss the
unreplacedEU subsidies (which even Cummings happily took – good enough for him but too good for the rest of the UK).And the SNP currently want a somewhat late new ‘Independence/ Anti-Brexit/ Let’s Stay In The EU’ referendum. That was already and almost naturally immediately opposed by Johnson. Enjoy the likely continuation in court.
It has to be expected that Johnson will let the dogs – Cummings, Farage and perhaps Bannon – loose in Scotland and on Scots. In the meanwhile, banks are running away from Edinburgh to places like Frankfurt, Berlin or Paris.
Brexit will be ugly for and in the UK. One can read the already published Yellowhammer document PDF if keen on vomiting.
Massive win, Colonel, that as far as I know nobody predicted. Not the polls, not the political blogs. But I didn’t follow it that closely so that’s just a general impression.
My man, Nigel Farage, got squeezed mercilessly. I was looking around the BBC site to find out how mercilessly when I came across a picture of the bete noir of my father’s time, Harold Wilson. Wilson was convinced that MI something was out to get him – bugged his office, spread smear stories about him around the press, even a possible coup.
The odd rumour of all this had spread to my corner of the English provinces and I’d always wondered if there was anything in it. So I clicked on the BBC article –
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/stories-49939123
– and came across this –
” .. A 1987 inquiry concluded the allegations of a security service plot against Wilson were untrue. However, an inquiry by cabinet secretary Lord Hunt in 1996 concluded that “a few, a very few, malcontents in MI5” had “spread damaging malicious stories”.
Well, if a cabinet secretary says that it must be true. MI5, not MI6 – I think MI5’s the heavy mob – but I just wondered if our spooks had passed these tricks on to the lads who put the Steele dossier about.
On another security matter I note with concern above – “Those are Jacobite tribesmen at the top. Some of my ancestors were such as they.” I thought so. ’15 and ’45 caused us a lot of trouble and just in case the tradition remained in your family I’m opening a file. We’re very happy with our present Queen, thank you, and we don’t want you replacing her with some Stuart relic you might happen to have dug up.
Though I suppose it would only be poetic justice. We’ve just had a go at toppling your President so why shouldn’t you return the compliment and topple Her Majesty.
EO
Is there a Stuart pretender? My Scots ancestors left the west highlands in the last decade of the 17th Century . they did not want to take oath of allegiance to King William and they were a sept of Macdonald of Glencoe. with other Catholic Scots families they went to Meath where they lived a hundred+ years, not intermarrying with the Green Irish. In 1828 they went to America with the same group of familie. Stubborn.
Charlie Wilson
“The ladies from hell…”
EO
Maybe this fellow – “Jacobo Hernando Fitz-James Stuart, 16th Duke of Peñaranda de Duero”
I voted Corbyn but to no avail. He, like Tulsi Gabbard in the States, was the only ones who seem willing to take on the Borg and advocate a reassessment of our relationship with the US/KSA/Israeli bloc and with the currently persona non grata Shias. I also voted remain which ruled out the Tories (even if I could have considered them – no chance).
My late sister-in-law was a Stuart. She liked to tout her lineage from the Stuart royalty. She smoked herself to death. Her son is a nice, hard-working young man. However, having been raised by my brother, he is more likely to be an adherent of “the Squad of AOC.”
Your arguments are exactly what the Remainers have used, yet Boris’s landslide victory shows the British people have rejected this fearmongering. The fx markets also don’t seem to be buying your arguments. In fact the minority view that a hard Brexit would benefit Britain more could be proven more accurate. Britain could have the flexibility to become significantly more competitive than the heavily bureaucratic EU just by lowering taxes substantially.
German industry is already weakening with industrial production down for over a year and continuing its downward slope. Britain imports more from Germany than it exports especially from the German auto industry which is already on the ropes. And now the Chinese threatening to stop buying a million German cars unless their Huawei spy gear is allowed in German 5G networks. What do you think a politically weak Merkel is gonna do? Boris clearly has the upper hand as he now has the majority to do a hard Brexit.
The problem for Brussels is that if Britain starts to do well because it becomes more competitive other countries with large eurosceptic movements will get emboldened.
Plus Russia and Greenland? The Arctic League.
Terry,
re Seems like an ideal situation for dealmaker Trump and his great trade deal offer to the UK.
I have my doubts about Trump being the Grand Dealmaker he calls himself.
Looking at seven bankruptcies as a proof of that … mythical skill I don’t find much.
Trump’s “great trade deal” offer will be what Johnson gets. What that is depends on what he has to offer, which isn’t much.
I recall Trump suing the Deutsche Bank after the bank wanted a credit back. His lawyers in court referred to the bank crisis, called the Deutsche Bank as a bank responsible for that and said that thus they don’t deserve repayment.
Impertinent, brazen, ridiculous
and jackass dumb. For very obvious reasons Trump lost that case and did pay back. The point is: You get a reputation for trying stunts like thatand likely also places in an asylum.When Trunmp recently went on searching lawyers to work and sue for him he didn’t find any. A big corp lawyer anonymously briefly explained why: “Doesn’t pay. Doesn’t listen.‘
It’s not that lawyers are exactly … picky … with clients – even Charles Manson or Harvey Weinstein found a lawyer.
The youthful (just 82 years old) Wilbur Ross, moniker “King of Bankruptcy” (which may explain Trump choosing him) said that Brexit is … awesome … and offers plenty opportunity (to get UK companies cheaply).
Boeing has some recent quality problems with the 737 MAX. They’ll probably just love to buy BAe cheaply.
And if, whatever Johnson says or denies about that, the NHS in the UK is for offer or to be privatised … wait for US companies taking the “low invest high profit” approach.
Being sick is to become much more expensive in Great Britain anyway. The UK needs to import a lot of medication, in the hard way Brexit with the 25% WHO tarrif “bonus”. That would be Example #1b “Big Money”.
Naturally the Grand Dealmaker presumably has a most simple solution for that – destroy the WHO by not paying US bills (as the US does right now) or quit the treaty right away – and then go play some more golf.
Oh dear. We’re not falling for that one. “Is there a Stuart pretender” indeed!
I’ve been reading your site long enough, Colonel, to know a little about maskirovka. That innocent enquiry conceals the fact that you’ve fetched him over from Bavaria and have him holed up in Virginia waiting for the moment. Probably when it’s time for Prince Charles to take over. It shall be so entered on the file.
We shall fight, you know. Charlie may be the Green Prince but he’s our Green Prince. We haven’t escaped Angie’s clutches merely to be subject to some BMW driving Bavarian. Give me Saxe-Coburg or give me death!
EO
The fellow I mentioned is rumored to be running a Portugee restaurant in Fall Rivver, Massacghusetts, one of Emeril’s cousin. reminds me of the old novel “Pepin” in which the French are forced to find the Merovingian pretender somewhere out in Burgundy.
confusedponderer
In the US business bankruptcies for re-organization are merely a tactic.
After a shaky start they did pretty well here –
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/79th_New_York_Volunteer_Infantry
They do pretty well everywhere. Tough lot.
Well, I do like the sound of that one, Colonel. Running a restaurant is a rough tough business so he’ll do. He can stiffen Johnson’s spine, Johnson already showing a tendency to crumble whenever Brussels says “Boo!”
Perhaps we could take him on approval. If he fails to find a spine to stiffen we can send him back.
Yes, my sarc was too light and should have included the /sarc tag. 🙂
And now I’ve this whole science fiction plot in my head … A greening north, the Arctic League and a war with the global south.
I feel your pain. Know all about it, in fact – the Outsider family is pretty well all remainers except me, so I got the job of advising them which way to vote to further their evil intent.
I did my best for them. Envied them rather. They wanted to vote remain and were able to do so. I wanted to vote leave but had no one to vote for, the Conservatives, as you know, probably only giving us a PR Brexit.
I was really keen on Corbyn once, for the same reasons as you. A rampant prog, of course, and an absolute dud on the economy, but with a rooted aversion to bombing foreigners that’s rare at Westminster.
My Brexit guru, Richard North, says Johnson didn’t win the election. Corbyn lost it. Serve him right. Three years sitting on the fence was three years too long.
The same everywhere I would guess. An elegent way to avoid paying your debth or as little as possible.
It can be and is used quite creatively by a lot of economic fund re-organizers, no doubt.
Breitbart News has footage of London leftists brawling with police; looks like
the beginning of an English Antifa. A few days ago someone on CNN said, “The EU
is afraid England will become Hong Kong on the Thames.” I’m glad BoJo won but it
won’t be easy going forward I suspect if he can’t get a grip on out of control
immigration & crime.
As for Scottish independence, it long rang a sweet bell in my heart, shades of “Brave Heart” but then I started listening to Nicola Sturgeon & she just reminds me of the silly Swedish leftists gals who don’t appear to value their indigenous
population, just a bunch of naive globalists hell bent on cultural suicide.
The British realised that Brussels is the exact EU equivalent of the Washington “Swamp”. I salute the British for cutting themselves free from the bureaucratic cancer that is the EU. They correctly decided that Sovereignty was worth more than the gifts of the EU benevolent dictatorship.
According to “Electoral Reform Society”, all votes are not equal in UK:
Across Britain, it took…
🗳️864,743 votes to elect 1 Green MP
🗳️642,303 votes to elect 0 Brexit Party MPs
🗳️334,122 votes to elect a Lib Dem
🗳️50,817 votes for a Labour MP
🗳️38,316 votes for a Plaid Cymru MP
🗳️38,300 votes for a Con. MP
🗳️25,882 votes for a SNP MP
But then again, who said Britain with its monarchy, is a democracy?
The problem is that in a disunited kingdom, Conservatives with Tories only represent the English and the Northern Ireland Oranje (through Unionists). Corbyn’s problem was that he didn’t rid of his Rightwing faction, including “Friends of Israel” in Leadership positions. He grew Labor more than the Neo-Liberal Blair did.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/jeremy-corbyn-election-result-vote-share-increased-1945-clement-attlee-a7781706.html%3famp
Best for Europe to get rid of England and create a “Two Velocities E.U.”, allowing Eastern Europeans to have their own path to wherever.
Amir
You make the same mistake that Democrats did after 2016. It is not about the total number of votes. Britain has a parliamentary system. It is about winning each parliamentary seat. Just as in the US, it is about winning the electoral votes in each state. Boris won a landslide according to the electoral rules that was the same for each party contesting the election.
The question that Labor needs to ask is why did they lose seats that Labor has held for 50 or more years? Not whining about the rules of the election.
https://twitter.com/lhfang/status/1205659095753089024
From a Red Wall constituency, an actually existing Geordie’s view (spoiler: Rotherham):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mSY0WGKSD6Q&feature=emb_logo
Benevolent!!! They’re just about to pinch our fishing grounds!
And Johnson will pay them handsomely for the favour. Hey, Walrus, do you want us to make you a present of Norfolk? Seems to be everything must go time. Have to be quick, mind you. Get in before Angie does.
Unrestrained third world migration, legal and illegal, has been extremely unsettling to the old order.
Bankruptcy is part of the art of doing business in the US. All parties know this is a possibility up front. Just stating the facts; not defending the consequences. The art of due diligence is the best defense, but even that is not 100% protective.
Greenland is already part of the Nordics.
What will Russia bring to the table to make them a co-equal partner. Northern route ice free passage between Asian and NA/UK/EU markets? Pencil this out.
Arctic League war with the south’s long history of indolence – not a fair match.
Since this is the name of the game here, mine left low-land Scotland mid 17th century too and took over the Hudson River Valley as their political launching pad. Seems they also picked the wrong side when they sided with Mary, Queen of Scots and needed to beat a hasty retreat.
EU is bound to fail in three generations. Just like the Soviet Union and Mao’s China. Can’t fight family or tribalism.
English Outsider
It seems you don’t believe that Mr. Johnson will deliver you Brexit. I don’t blame you. I’m sure he’ll try to con you folks into believing he delivered, while nothing much changes. That’s how the big mainstream parties work. All kinds of platitudes during the election campaign and then back to business as usual.
Who will hold his feet to the fire? Farage with not a single seat?
Reflection is not a quality that mainstream politicians have. Got to blame someone else. Surprised they haven’t blamed Putin or Ukraine yet 🙂
That tweet thread was very instructive. Amazing that areas that were solid Labor for so long deserted them this election. Something they should really think hard about.
There is a real case for Ireland to be next out of the EU, joining a British Isles trading zone, perhaps with an independent Scotland in it as well. In this situation no need for a united Ireland.
If the UK gets a decent deal with the US this could become a real option instead of an ideal.
JJackson
Heard that comely Protestant Danish sailors are on their way to Golfo di Persicos to confront the Shia Republicans. Can the all female
Swedish paratroopers, equally Protestant, be that far behind?
Things are getting better and better.
On a “two tier” or “multi tier” EU, that is a possibility sometimes mentioned. I recollect it was mentioned by the German Ambassador at a talk he gave a while ago, and there is sometimes press reference to the idea. It would get over the Target 2 problem and also make the problem of fiscal transfer less urgent.
The question is, how would one get to two tier? Last time I looked the Target 2 balances were around a trillion and represented one half of Germany’s foreign assets. The Southern countries couldn’t pay that back and the German public would not accept, I think, half their foreign assets being written off.
This is the problem with the EU. It’s not a single unified country. Nor is it merely a loose trading association. It’s half way between the two and it is forced to keep moving towards further unification simply because remaining as it is is untenable.
But moving either way is difficult too. There are the populist movements that either threaten the integrity of the EU or at least hold it back from further unification. There are the structural problems of the EZ that could only be resolved by further unification. And that resolution would require the taxpayers in the richer countries to pay far more to the poorer countries. Certainly in Germany that would prove politically difficult.
Brussels has committed itself to fast track further unification. It looks to me like someone on ice having to run faster and faster to keep his balance. That view might be coloured by the fact that I like neither the political side of the EU nor its effect on the peripheral countries, but it’s important to recognise that in addition to the financial bubble problems all Western countries or entities face, the EU/EZ has deep structural problems that will not be easy to resolve.
Yes, but with large populations, rising heat and rising waters.
So he who questioned the Skripal affair is seen off with hoots of laughter, while he who vigorously endorsed it is celebrated. Strange times.
So true, elaine. The SNP is a total fraud. It’s run by a bunch of pro-EU globalists masquerading as Scottish ‘nationalists’. Unz ran a fantastic take-down of them by Tobias Langdon last year: https://www.unz.com/article/a-tartan-tyranny/
Maybe sooner, as they lack an army with which to crush popular revolts.
Well, Corbyn grew Labour between in 2015-2017, before outing himself as a closet-Remainer. After that, he lost it all between 2017-2019.
On the second point, you are quite correct: far from ridding Labour of its “Friends of Israel” wing, he actually allowed them to force him to rid Labour of his own pro-Palestinian allies!
Any way you slice it, Corbyn was just weak and pathetic.
https://www.rt.com/op-ed/475891-corbyn-general-election-destroyed/
Dead right. Neither Mr Jackson nor I are breaking out the Lagavulin.
Men who send women to war have no honor.
The polls mostly predicted a big Conservative win. Not really surprised, there was real anger at the attempts to thwart Brexit, but there is the larger trend of the white working class leaving the parties of the left for reasons we all know.
Scotland won’t become independent, their only chance was whilst we were a member of the EU, so independence in name only, hence their desperation now. That will die a death like the Quebec movement.
Corbyn gave the Israel lobby an inch and they took a mile, a weak man. On foreign policy he was oft correct, albeit for the wrong reasons.
LondonBob
Corbyn is a communist like Sanders. He would have destroyed England much as Sanders would destroy the US. Warren is different. She is just a power hungry fraud, much like HC.
Babak
The US Army and USMC do not want women in their combat ranks, but the women demand it seeing it as a jobs program.
Somme.
USSR, Yugoslavia, US, EU, and the Indian Union are predicared on the ideas of the Enlightenment Tradition. So far, USSR and FRY have disintegrated. If EU fails, could US and IU be too far behind. In US, we have the political ascendancy of folkish Protestanism, in India that of Hindu masses. Can any states, predicated on secularism of the Enlightenment Tradition survive the rise of religious politics?
Babak
“Somme?” Means what? The Battle of the Somme?
You’re quite right. Some polls predicted a decisive win for the Conservatives. However, the Guardian poll of polls showed it tight or hung and there were predictions that the Farage vote would let Labour in more than expected. Dr North just before the vote –
“Even though the polls are showing that the Tories are still in the lead, therefore, this dynamic could still be enough to rob Johnson of his expected victory, especially as the Telegraph is reporting the results of a Savanta ComRes survey that puts the Conservatives on 41 percent and Labour on 36 percent – a mere five percent lead, the smallest since mid-October.
“Then, although no-one wants to talk about it in this latter stage of the election, there is the ethnic vote, and particularly the effect of the South Asian vote to take into account.
“Here, there is a possibly significant article in the Leicestershire press, headlined, “Labour Leicester East councillors accuse Jeremy Corbyn of being ‘anti-Indian’ and ‘anti-Hindu'”.”
http://www.eureferendum.com/blogview.aspx?blogno=87453
Other sites and newspapers were sometimes gloomy – were they trying to scare Farage supporters back into the fold? Wouldn’t put it past them.
Must confess I didn’t follow it all as closely as I imagine you did. After Johnson and his merry men sold NI out his Brexit became a little squalid. I didn’t buy Corbyn the Red Peril – his Blairites would have held him back from anything extreme. So it was a choice between two progs, neither of whom came anywhere near the root and branch reconstruction of the economy such as looked to be on offer from Trump 2016. Not an exciting choice.
Far as I’m concerned Scotland must do what Scotland wants. I didn’t like the triumphalist tone that came from some of the continentals – “We’ll get Scotland and Northern Ireland off you, see if we don’t.” Some of our remainers joined in the fun on that one and I liked that even less. As if those two constituent parts of the UK were little more than pawns to be grabbed by one side or the other.
Yes, how would women bear it?
Don’t get too worked up, that Dictator did more for Spain than any Spaniard since Olivares. Yes, I know, Republicans were unalloyed good (Gary Cooper, Neruda, Hemingway et al) and the Loyalists personifications of Evil.
They were both a bunch of thugs and murderers, from which Franco created the Spain in which you are living. Reminds me of the First Qajar King, who restored Safavids old holdings, yet no memorial marks his existence or passage, too painful for Iranians to admit that they are living in a country forged but the brutal, ruthless, violent and capable man.
babak
No one knows if they could bear it.
You are making a mistake. Corbyn grew the Labor party MORE than Blair, Kinnock,…
The flair you described in British electoral system is by design to ensure the rule of the crown, neo-feudal minions, nobility & “novo-nobility” with an appearance of consent. The “redistricting” in Britain is similar to US & different in the sense that is permanent (contradiction in terms) due to the the immigration- & social mobility differences.
Also, Scotland, one of Labor’s main bastions, is sick & tired of the waiting to reform the Albion and understandably just wants to separate their ways. I observe, but do not judge, the fact of the matter being that the vote of the majority of Britain’s doesn’t count towards determining the rule of the land. Similar to a LOT of countries but dissimilar in the sense that their ruling class uses the “voting spectacle” as a public patch to lecture the others about democracy (electoral college) & human rights (Assange torture).
You are right in the sense that Corbyn was not firm enough to get ride of the Trojan Blairites. He needed to be less compromising and at least “market” (whether to deliver or not, is another matter) a more radical solution as Boarish Johnson did: E.g. a terrorist act happens on London bridge, by a Jihadist – on parole (??) during election time – under Israel-Firster Priti Patel & Corbyn gets the blame!? Conservatives were in power and run the prisons and the judiciary. Corbyn missed the necessary viciousness and was weak, considering he did not make a HUGE scandal out of this with Johnson being weak on terrorism (which is true, as we all know that MI-5/6 exports Jihadists to Syria and runs NGO’s to the benefit of Jihadis).
The first person who brought the Russians in to this discussion is Blue Peacock, except the CONSERVATIVES who convicted the Skripal Affair. Indeed, reflection IS rear
“We’ll get Scotland and Northern Ireland off you, see if we don’t.”
If Boris manages an exit on 31. January, Scotland is out too. Just as Catalonia they aren’t a member of the European Union automatically. Thus another independence vote does not immediately change the context.
So it was a choice between two progs …
Well yes, just as Blair’s New Labor, Boris has to move left if he wants to be reelected.
Farage, I understand is not a friend of NHS. How would he handle it? Privatize it completely?
*********
Yes, continental voices on Brexit are curious sometimes. Just as British ones. Please, please let’s get it over with, getting ready for a hard Brexit post Jan. 31*, as far as I am concerned.
* Boris and his men could simply prepare for a hard Brexit at the end of the transition period. … He has the votes to do so. And wasn’t he next to Farage the main Brexiteer?
Ah. Scurvy to limes the fruit to limes the boundary taking in “Limey” along the way. Ashamed to say it was two days before I got it.
Those Highlanders, by the way, were hardy. I can’t put my hands on the reference but there’s an eighteenth century account of Highland troops sleeping bare-chested in the open and with ice visible on their chests in the morning. And the Psalm singing Lowlanders the terror of Europe.
A fearsome crew. Be grateful for the Whisky and leave it at that, best thing to do with the Scots.
So far, USSR and FRY have disintegrated. If EU fails, could US and IU be too far behind
What’s IU?
There was some antisemitic stuff around, mostly I think from the Momentum side of Labour. One of the Conservative blogs gleefully put it all together and some of it looked bad. Corbyn took steps to clamp down on it. Many say not enough. But as you imply, it’s never enough.
For most of us it was a second Brexit referendum, would you not agree? The decision’s clear enough but as with the first referendum, we’ve really only given the politicians a blank cheque to do with the decision as they please.
CP,
Nice rant, sir.
“There are many many and complicated negotiations …”
You mean beyond the ‘we’re leaving and we aren’t paying you anything’ deal?
“There is not much left that the UK has to offer the EU what wasn’t negotiated already by May”
She negotiated abrogating the will of the electorate, as seen in the landslide win by Johnson.
” people from the UK applying for a job in the EU are being rejected since Johnson’s/Farage’s/Cumming’s/Rees-Mogg’s etc pp Brexitery is seen having very practical risks – mobility, reliability, availability ”
So even though it wasn’t done, companies in the EU have been rejecting UK citizens applications for employement? i.e. UK citizens are ‘separate but equal’ citizens of the EU. Maybe those businesses realize 1) – they can discriminate at will and get away with it and 2) Brexit is now going to happen.
“In the meanwhile, banks are running away from Edinburgh to places like Frankfurt, Berlin or Paris.”
Are they? Well, what year will that be since that statement has been around for a number of years and it hasn’t happened.
EO
I used the word in the sense of “limes” as a latin word meaning limits as in border.
Fishing, NI, defence, money .. I could go on. On present form Mr Johnson is taking us towards a Brexit so “soft” that Mrs May must be proud of him. But in addition to being one of the few civilised politicians we’ve got, they tell me he’s a lot cleverer than he looks. So he may yet surprise us and I shall hold the single malt ready just in case.
Indian Union.
That’s how I read it, Colonel, but unfortunately it took me some time before I got from border to citric fruit. Possibly because I’m slow with puns, but possibly also because as I read that passage of your article I was reflecting bitterly that in fact we do still have Scottish soldiers defending the borders of the Empire. Right this minute.
Just that it’s Verhofstadt’s empire. I see your commenters are not uniformly enthusiastic about the EU, so perhaps to redress the balance you will accept a video of Mr Verhofstadt giving us his vision of our joint imperial future –
https://www.express.co.uk/news/politics/1178125/Brexit-news-Guy-Verhofstadt-Liberal-Democrat-Party-conference-European-Empire.
So the Antifa-left in GB reacts to an election result that they do not like
just as their counterparts did in the US:
“Antifa Leftists Riot in London Following Massive Election Loss…”, CTH, 2019-12-13
Note the tactic of masking their identities,
used by the dirty little cowardly bastards,
the same tactic some on the American left used back in their protests in the 1960s.
As to the motive, and motive energy, behind the violence of these protests,
people need to take the wisdom of Kevin MacDonald seriously,
and not misrepresent what he writes,
then knock down YOUR straw-man misrepresentation,
and claim you’ve knocked down KM
(as seems to be all too common among those who criticize KM).
Specifically, the warnings he utters in his most recent book,
Individualism and the Western Liberal Tradition: Evolutionary Origins, History, and Prospects for the Future,
published 2019
For a 70 minute talk by KM about this book, watch https://youtu.be/hXJEt8TBlRQ
By the way, the above cited book contains lengthy (~70 page) chapters on
“The [Catholic] Church in [900-1700] Europe” and on Puritanism in England and America,
topics I think might be of interest to Col. Lang and others.
Also extensive discussion of the biological, social, and cultural background to Western civilization.
Looks like a January 31 Brexit.