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politicalbetting.com » Blog Archive » Why I’ve backed Diane Abbott to be next Labour leader

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  • Options
    MarqueeMarkMarqueeMark Posts: 50,144
    kyf_100 said:

    I stuck the princely sum of £2 on Abbott last week at 129/1 after thinking about her path to power. My fevered imagination goes something like this:

    It's 2019. Corbyn knows he's not going to win. He stands down, citing his age (also the fact his egotistical streak won't *let* him be remembered as the man who led Labour to it's worst ever defeat).

    Who takes over? Unless something drastic changes between now and 2020, a Tory victory is a dead cert. McDonnell doesn't want it, because he knows he's so linked to the Corbyn project failure in 2020 will mean he has to stand down - and a McDonnell loss in 2020 would still discredit the Corbyn project.

    Enter Abbott. Shadow home sec. Close to the Corbyn project. And the optics! Black, female, right on...

    She will allow the Labour party to lose in 2020 while feeling good about itself.

    The left can then tut at the country on twitter for "not being ready for it's first black female PM etc" without the need to disavow the hard left policies the Corbyn project stands for, allowing a more plausible candidate from the left to become leader after 2020 and fight a ropey and disunited dog-days-of-the-Major-years Tory party to become PM in 2025.

    Abbott is the best candidate the left can put up in 2020 because it will allow them to lose without drifting back to the centre. For those reasons, she's still worth a punt.

    You make a fair case. But why should Abbot be in any different place to McDonnell? Her loss in 2020 also means she has to stand down - and would still discredit the Corbyn Project.
  • Options
    PlatoSaidPlatoSaid Posts: 10,383
    This is rather awesome

    Arrows Sniper https://t.co/U8Pv0tme83
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    HYUFDHYUFD Posts: 117,164
    Dromedary said:

    Transition arrangements for immigrants were available to Blair/Brown but deliberately chose not to use them thinking the immigrants would eventually become British Labour voters.

    That is not the reason. A high level of immigration has been supported by all major political parties since the 1950s and 1960s for the simple reason that employers want it because it helps keep labour costs down. Blair and Brown would not have been so stupid as to believe that the immigrants would mostly eventually become Labour voters. I doubt they cared a hoot what Labour's voteshare would be 20 or more years after they left politics.

    Labour costs down and wages
  • Options
    TOPPINGTOPPING Posts: 41,403

    isam said:

    "She’s a polished television performer"

    When I read this, I just had to laugh out loud - since in my opinion she is anything but. For one thing, she is singularly inept at thinking on her feet, an absolute prerequisite for anyone with serious ambitions of achieving senior political office. This is exemplified by her trademark not to mention highly irritating and so transparent habit of looking skywards whilst blinking at a rate of knots whenever she is struggling for an answer to a question, which is often.
    If TSE is really serious in suggesting such a fanciful proposition then, as a Tory, all I can say with gleeful hope is Yeah, bring it on!

    Talking of 'polished performers'

    https://youtu.be/zZ-r7iJZiBM
    The thread header certainly made me laugh out loud. So utterly, inconceivably bonkers that the Labour party is probably going to go right ahead and do it.
    And to think the stick I got the other day when I ventured that McDonnell was electable.
  • Options
    rottenboroughrottenborough Posts: 58,426
    kyf_100 said:

    I stuck the princely sum of £2 on Abbott last week at 129/1 after thinking about her path to power. My fevered imagination goes something like this:

    It's 2019. Corbyn knows he's not going to win. He stands down, citing his age (also the fact his egotistical streak won't *let* him be remembered as the man who led Labour to it's worst ever defeat).

    Who takes over? Unless something drastic changes between now and 2020, a Tory victory is a dead cert. McDonnell doesn't want it, because he knows he's so linked to the Corbyn project failure in 2020 will mean he has to stand down - and a McDonnell loss in 2020 would still discredit the Corbyn project.

    Enter Abbott. Shadow home sec. Close to the Corbyn project. And the optics! Black, female, right on...

    She will allow the Labour party to lose in 2020 while feeling good about itself.

    The left can then tut at the country on twitter for "not being ready for it's first black female PM etc" without the need to disavow the hard left policies the Corbyn project stands for, allowing a more plausible candidate from the left to become leader after 2020 and fight a ropey and disunited dog-days-of-the-Major-years Tory party to become PM in 2025.

    Abbott is the best candidate the left can put up in 2020 because it will allow them to lose without drifting back to the centre. For those reasons, she's still worth a punt.

    Hmm. Interesting. I have stuck £2 on BF on Abbot based on this mornings debates. My aim is to be green on as many of the Labour party leading figures as possible given the huge uncertainty.
  • Options
    OldKingColeOldKingCole Posts: 32,058
    HYUFD said:

    Dromedary said:

    Transition arrangements for immigrants were available to Blair/Brown but deliberately chose not to use them thinking the immigrants would eventually become British Labour voters.

    That is not the reason. A high level of immigration has been supported by all major political parties since the 1950s and 1960s for the simple reason that employers want it because it helps keep labour costs down. Blair and Brown would not have been so stupid as to believe that the immigrants would mostly eventually become Labour voters. I doubt they cared a hoot what Labour's voteshare would be 20 or more years after they left politics.

    Labour costs down and wages
    The 50’s and early 60’s reason for immigration was simply that there were more jobs than local workers. Consequently the ‘worse’ vacancies couldn’t be filled. That’s why, for example, Powell recruited West Indian nurses (etc.).
  • Options
    SandpitSandpit Posts: 49,941
    PlatoSaid said:

    This is rather awesome

    Arrows Sniper https://t.co/U8Pv0tme83

    LOL, that beats sitting around in a boat all day!
  • Options
    MrsBMrsB Posts: 574
    FPT if we are at any point going to see peak SeanT, can someone please provide some advance warning so we can all get out of the way and avoid having to clear up the mess afterwards?
  • Options
    rottenboroughrottenborough Posts: 58,426

    Dromedary said:

    I had to laugh at this bit:

    "She’s an educated lady, she read History under Professor Simon Schama at the finest university in the world, The University of Cambridge."

    It's an institution that's so fine that its capitalisation spreads even to a preceding definite article that doesn't start a sentence! And the message is so strong, so pure, so elevated, that even a run-on sentence can convey it!

    Seriously, TSE, a person doesn't gain intellect or sense just by going to Cambridge, nor by being lectured by a royalist twat like Simon Schama, who's always known what side his bread is buttered on.

    Being one of her lecturers and perhaps also a sometime supervisor for a course or two was Schama's maximum involvement in her education at Cambridge anyway. She probably had 20 or more academics who had a similar or greater level of involvement with her. What does it even mean to say that she studied "under" him? She was at Newnham and he was a fellow at Christ's, so he wouldn't have been her director of studies.

    I strongly doubt that she got a first. She may have a history degree from Cambridge - in other words, she didn't fail or drop out - but she still seems to be crap at that subject. Here's something she wrote long after she left:

    "From the days when the Norman French invaded Anglo-Saxon Britain, we have been a culturally diverse nation. But because the different nationalities shared a common skin colour, it was possible to ignore the racial diversity which always existed in the British Isles. And even if you take race to mean what it is often commonly meant to imply - skin colour- there have been black people in Britain for centuries. The earliest blacks in Britain were probably black Roman centurions that came over hundreds of years before Christ."

    That is spectacularly embarrassing!

    *Professor Simon Schama starts deleting bits of his CV...starting with ever being at Cambridge.*
    According to BBC website she once played Lady MacDuff alongside Michael Portillo as MacDuff (as in the Scottish play).
    Abott and Portillo went to the same comprehensive school at the same time.
    If I recall the Scottish play correctly, these two would not have appeared on stage at the same time. Probably a good idea.
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    GallowgateGallowgate Posts: 19,094
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    JonathanJonathan Posts: 20,907
    Abbott is not popular in the party, even with the left.

    Can't see it.
  • Options
    rottenboroughrottenborough Posts: 58,426
    TOPPING said:

    isam said:

    "She’s a polished television performer"

    When I read this, I just had to laugh out loud - since in my opinion she is anything but. For one thing, she is singularly inept at thinking on her feet, an absolute prerequisite for anyone with serious ambitions of achieving senior political office. This is exemplified by her trademark not to mention highly irritating and so transparent habit of looking skywards whilst blinking at a rate of knots whenever she is struggling for an answer to a question, which is often.
    If TSE is really serious in suggesting such a fanciful proposition then, as a Tory, all I can say with gleeful hope is Yeah, bring it on!

    Talking of 'polished performers'

    https://youtu.be/zZ-r7iJZiBM
    The thread header certainly made me laugh out loud. So utterly, inconceivably bonkers that the Labour party is probably going to go right ahead and do it.
    And to think the stick I got the other day when I ventured that McDonnell was electable.
    Not from me I think. He is a very dangerous man.
  • Options
    malcolmgmalcolmg Posts: 42,067

    kyf_100 said:

    I stuck the princely sum of £2 on Abbott last week at 129/1 after thinking about her path to power. My fevered imagination goes something like this:

    It's 2019. Corbyn knows he's not going to win. He stands down, citing his age (also the fact his egotistical streak won't *let* him be remembered as the man who led Labour to it's worst ever defeat).

    Who takes over? Unless something drastic changes between now and 2020, a Tory victory is a dead cert. McDonnell doesn't want it, because he knows he's so linked to the Corbyn project failure in 2020 will mean he has to stand down - and a McDonnell loss in 2020 would still discredit the Corbyn project.

    Enter Abbott. Shadow home sec. Close to the Corbyn project. And the optics! Black, female, right on...

    She will allow the Labour party to lose in 2020 while feeling good about itself.

    The left can then tut at the country on twitter for "not being ready for it's first black female PM etc" without the need to disavow the hard left policies the Corbyn project stands for, allowing a more plausible candidate from the left to become leader after 2020 and fight a ropey and disunited dog-days-of-the-Major-years Tory party to become PM in 2025.

    Abbott is the best candidate the left can put up in 2020 because it will allow them to lose without drifting back to the centre. For those reasons, she's still worth a punt.

    Hmm. Interesting. I have stuck £2 on BF on Abbot based on this mornings debates. My aim is to be green on as many of the Labour party leading figures as possible given the huge uncertainty.
    You would have been as well throwing it out the window
  • Options
    PlatoSaidPlatoSaid Posts: 10,383
    Sandpit said:

    PlatoSaid said:

    This is rather awesome

    Arrows Sniper https://t.co/U8Pv0tme83

    LOL, that beats sitting around in a boat all day!
    I wondered if Mythbusters ever tried a similar experiment to the water shooting :smiley:
  • Options
    malcolmgmalcolmg Posts: 42,067

    HYUFD said:

    Dromedary said:

    Transition arrangements for immigrants were available to Blair/Brown but deliberately chose not to use them thinking the immigrants would eventually become British Labour voters.

    That is not the reason. A high level of immigration has been supported by all major political parties since the 1950s and 1960s for the simple reason that employers want it because it helps keep labour costs down. Blair and Brown would not have been so stupid as to believe that the immigrants would mostly eventually become Labour voters. I doubt they cared a hoot what Labour's voteshare would be 20 or more years after they left politics.

    Labour costs down and wages
    The 50’s and early 60’s reason for immigration was simply that there were more jobs than local workers. Consequently the ‘worse’ vacancies couldn’t be filled. That’s why, for example, Powell recruited West Indian nurses (etc.).
    Exactly , now it is just to allow locals to lounge on the sofa
  • Options
    HYUFDHYUFD Posts: 117,164

    Dromedary said:

    I had to laugh at this bit:

    "She’s an educated lady, she read History under Professor Simon Schama at the finest university in the world, The University of Cambridge."

    It's an institution that's so fine that its capitalisation spreads even to a preceding definite article that doesn't start a sentence! And the message is so strong, so pure, so elevated, that even a run-on sentence can convey it!

    Seriously, TSE, a person doesn't gain intellect or sense just by going to Cambridge, nor by being lectured by a royalist twat like Simon Schama, who's always known what side his bread is buttered on.

    Being one of her lecturers and perhaps also a sometime supervisor for a course or two was Schama's maximum involvement in her education at Cambridge anyway. She probably had 20 or more academics who had a similar or greater level of involvement with her. What does it even mean to say that she studied "under" him? She was at Newnham and he was a fellow at Christ's, so he wouldn't have been her director of studies.

    I strongly doubt that she got a first. She may have a history degree from Cambridge - in other words, she didn't fail or drop out - but she still seems to be crap at that subject. Here's something she wrote long after she left:

    "From the days when the Norman French invaded Anglo-Saxon Britain, we have been a culturally diverse nation. But because the different nationalities shared a common skin colour, it was possible to ignore the racial diversity which always existed in the British Isles. And even if you take race to mean what it is often commonly meant to imply - skin colour- there have been black people in Britain for centuries. The earliest blacks in Britain were probably black Roman centurions that came over hundreds of years before Christ."

    That is spectacularly embarrassing!

    *Professor Simon Schama starts deleting bits of his CV...starting with ever being at Cambridge.*
    According to BBC website she once played Lady MacDuff alongside Michael Portillo as MacDuff (as in the Scottish play).
    Abott and Portillo went to the same comprehensive school at the same time.
    Same grammar school
  • Options
    Morris_DancerMorris_Dancer Posts: 61,005
    Mr. G, or buying a reasonably priced e-book ;)
  • Options
    mattmatt Posts: 3,789
    Dromedary said:

    I had to laugh at this bit:

    "She’s an educated lady, she read History under Professor Simon Schama at the finest university in the world, The University of Cambridge."

    It's an institution that's so fine that its capitalisation spreads even to a preceding definite article that doesn't start a sentence! And the message is so strong, so pure, so elevated, that even a run-on sentence can convey it!

    Seriously, TSE, a person doesn't gain intellect or sense just by going to Cambridge, nor by being lectured by a royalist twat like Simon Schama, who's always known what side his bread is buttered on.

    Being one of her lecturers and perhaps also a sometime supervisor for a course or two was Schama's maximum involvement in her education at Cambridge anyway. She probably had 20 or more academics who had a similar or greater level of involvement with her. What does it even mean to say that she studied "under" him? She was at Newnham and he was a fellow at Christ's, so he wouldn't have been her director of studies.

    I strongly doubt that she got a first. She may have a history degree from Cambridge - in other words, she didn't fail or drop out - but she still seems to be crap at that subject. Here's something she wrote long after she left:

    "From the days when the Norman French invaded Anglo-Saxon Britain, we have been a culturally diverse nation. But because the different nationalities shared a common skin colour, it was possible to ignore the racial diversity which always existed in the British Isles. And even if you take race to mean what it is often commonly meant to imply - skin colour- there have been black people in Britain for centuries. The earliest blacks in Britain were probably black Roman centurions that came over hundreds of years before Christ."

    The final sentence is special.
  • Options
    HYUFDHYUFD Posts: 117,164

    HYUFD said:

    Dromedary said:

    Transition arrangements for immigrants were available to Blair/Brown but deliberately chose not to use them thinking the immigrants would eventually become British Labour voters.

    That is not the reason. A high level of immigration has been supported by all major political parties since the 1950s and 1960s for the simple reason that employers want it because it helps keep labour costs down. Blair and Brown would not have been so stupid as to believe that the immigrants would mostly eventually become Labour voters. I doubt they cared a hoot what Labour's voteshare would be 20 or more years after they left politics.

    Labour costs down and wages
    The 50’s and early 60’s reason for immigration was simply that there were more jobs than local workers. Consequently the ‘worse’ vacancies couldn’t be filled. That’s why, for example, Powell recruited West Indian nurses (etc.).
    Yes it is different today
  • Options
    malcolmgmalcolmg Posts: 42,067

    Mr. G, or buying a reasonably priced e-book ;)

    LOL , very true MD
  • Options
    rottenboroughrottenborough Posts: 58,426
    malcolmg said:

    kyf_100 said:

    I stuck the princely sum of £2 on Abbott last week at 129/1 after thinking about her path to power. My fevered imagination goes something like this:

    It's 2019. Corbyn knows he's not going to win. He stands down, citing his age (also the fact his egotistical streak won't *let* him be remembered as the man who led Labour to it's worst ever defeat).

    Who takes over? Unless something drastic changes between now and 2020, a Tory victory is a dead cert. McDonnell doesn't want it, because he knows he's so linked to the Corbyn project failure in 2020 will mean he has to stand down - and a McDonnell loss in 2020 would still discredit the Corbyn project.

    Enter Abbott. Shadow home sec. Close to the Corbyn project. And the optics! Black, female, right on...

    She will allow the Labour party to lose in 2020 while feeling good about itself.

    The left can then tut at the country on twitter for "not being ready for it's first black female PM etc" without the need to disavow the hard left policies the Corbyn project stands for, allowing a more plausible candidate from the left to become leader after 2020 and fight a ropey and disunited dog-days-of-the-Major-years Tory party to become PM in 2025.

    Abbott is the best candidate the left can put up in 2020 because it will allow them to lose without drifting back to the centre. For those reasons, she's still worth a punt.

    Hmm. Interesting. I have stuck £2 on BF on Abbot based on this mornings debates. My aim is to be green on as many of the Labour party leading figures as possible given the huge uncertainty.
    You would have been as well throwing it out the window
    You have rumbled my basic betting strategy.
  • Options
    kyf_100kyf_100 Posts: 3,963



    You make a fair case. But why should Abbot be in any different place to McDonnell? Her loss in 2020 also means she has to stand down - and would still discredit the Corbyn Project.

    To rational people, yes. To the snowflakes in the Momentum crowd, it will be a case of "our policies were fine, the country just wasn't ready for our candidate". Look at the kind of people saying Hillary lost because she was a woman, not because she was a rotten candidate.

    If the left needs a fall guy to lose in 2020 then stand aside with as little damage to the project as possible, I can't think of a better candidate for them than Abbott.
  • Options
    daodaodaodao Posts: 821
    surbiton said:

    surbiton said:

    And we got good economic growth out of it. Also, our pensions "problem" has been all but mitigated by adding almost a million new [young] taxpayers.

    Germany will also get the same benefit soon.

    Rather more than a million, I'd wager. In any event, it's a Ponzi scheme: what happens when the imported workers get old?

    And a prediction: many or most of the flood of unchecked migrants that Germany took in will be poorly educated and struggle to find jobs. And what happens when young Middle Eastern men become disillusioned, frustrated, bored and start to resent the society that won't give them everything they dreamt of? Hmmm, I wonder...?
    You mean like the 3m Turks already there ? They are German ! Their children are becoming world cup winners.

    You have understandable difficulty to understand this. To you, a foreigner is always a foreigner including their children.

    Get it straight. Many of the Britons today are sons and daughters of immigrants.
    There is a big difference in nationality laws between Germany and the UK. The Turks and other migrants will forever be Gastarbeiter and can never become citizens, because German nationality is dependent on blood ties, i.e. at least one parent must be an ethnic German; this law dates back to the pre-WW1 German Reich.

    Even the children of mixed marriages can find it difficult. I once had a colleague whose father was Muslim and mother ethnic German and who had German nationality. He found life much better in the UK than his "motherland", because attitudes are much less prejudiced here.
  • Options
    isamisam Posts: 41,002
    Diane Abbot may become next Labour leader, but the idea that she is a polished media performer with no skeletons is ridiculous.
  • Options
    SandpitSandpit Posts: 49,941
    PlatoSaid said:

    Sandpit said:

    PlatoSaid said:

    This is rather awesome

    Arrows Sniper https://t.co/U8Pv0tme83

    LOL, that beats sitting around in a boat all day!
    I wondered if Mythbusters ever tried a similar experiment to the water shooting :smiley:
    It's the sort of thing they might have done in the later series, as they took inspiration from online videos. They'd have had to do it with fake fish though, just testing the bow, arrow and line system. Definitely plausible.
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    nielhnielh Posts: 1,307
    Abbot is very unlikely to be the next labour leader but those odds are ok as a possible trading bet.
    Rogers departure from the civil service is interesting. If I was in the foreign office I would be looking at other employment options right now. They all think we are stuffed diplomatically and marks the swift decline of the UK as a credible world power. They are probably right. There will probably be a putin backed argentine invasion of the falklands or something which we will do nothing about.
    Been in finland these past 2 weeks. Used to talk about politics a lot but now it brings up an awkward silence. Brexit is seen as a national humiliation for us. Two quiet comments stand out 1 that in finland they have no desire to leave the eu because they were never "great", 2 that we shouldnt feel bad as brexit is part of a wider change in.opinion against open borders and immigration globalisation etc
    None of this changes my view that the brexiteers need to implement the decision and be given a free run at brexit, only then can they be held to account politically. If it is a disaster as I believe it will be we can join the eu again in the future minus our arrogance and delusions of grandeur. If we make a success of it then great ill be happy to be proved wrong
  • Options
    DecrepitJohnLDecrepitJohnL Posts: 13,300
    HYUFD said:

    Dromedary said:

    I had to laugh at this bit:

    "She’s an educated lady, she read History under Professor Simon Schama at the finest university in the world, The University of Cambridge."

    It's an institution that's so fine that its capitalisation spreads even to a preceding definite article that doesn't start a sentence! And the message is so strong, so pure, so elevated, that even a run-on sentence can convey it!

    Seriously, TSE, a person doesn't gain intellect or sense just by going to Cambridge, nor by being lectured by a royalist twat like Simon Schama, who's always known what side his bread is buttered on.

    Being one of her lecturers and perhaps also a sometime supervisor for a course or two was Schama's maximum involvement in her education at Cambridge anyway. She probably had 20 or more academics who had a similar or greater level of involvement with her. What does it even mean to say that she studied "under" him? She was at Newnham and he was a fellow at Christ's, so he wouldn't have been her director of studies.

    I strongly doubt that she got a first. She may have a history degree from Cambridge - in other words, she didn't fail or drop out - but she still seems to be crap at that subject. Here's something she wrote long after she left:

    "From the days when the Norman French invaded Anglo-Saxon Britain, we have been a culturally diverse nation. But because the different nationalities shared a common skin colour, it was possible to ignore the racial diversity which always existed in the British Isles. And even if you take race to mean what it is often commonly meant to imply - skin colour- there have been black people in Britain for centuries. The earliest blacks in Britain were probably black Roman centurions that came over hundreds of years before Christ."

    That is spectacularly embarrassing!

    *Professor Simon Schama starts deleting bits of his CV...starting with ever being at Cambridge.*
    According to BBC website she once played Lady MacDuff alongside Michael Portillo as MacDuff (as in the Scottish play).
    Abott and Portillo went to the same comprehensive school at the same time.
    Same grammar school
    Were Portillo and Abbott at the same school or was it more complicated than that and they were at neighbouring single-sex schools that had some joint activity or possibly amalgamated? I vaguely recall them talking about it once with Andrew Neil but can't remember the details.
  • Options
    Ishmael_ZIshmael_Z Posts: 8,981
    surbiton said:

    Ishmael_Z said:

    surbiton said:

    surbiton said:

    And we got good economic growth out of it. Also, our pensions "problem" has been all but mitigated by adding almost a million new [young] taxpayers.

    Germany will also get the same benefit soon.

    Rather more than a million, I'd wager. In any event, it's a Ponzi scheme: what happens when the imported workers get old?

    And a prediction: many or most of the flood of unchecked migrants that Germany took in will be poorly educated and struggle to find jobs. And what happens when young Middle Eastern men become disillusioned, frustrated, bored and start to resent the society that won't give them everything they dreamt of? Hmmm, I wonder...?
    You mean like the 3m Turks already there ? They are German ! Their children are becoming world cup winners.

    You have understandable difficulty to understand this. To you, a foreigner is always a foreigner including their children.

    Get it straight. Many of the Britons today are sons and daughters of immigrants.
    And many of those sons and daughters of immigrants want to see tighter checks on immigration. And voted leave for that reason. Inconvenient facts which you have to ignore because you want to cling to your delusion that racism underlies concern about immigration.
    Isn't it a good thing that immigrants start behaving like any other people ? So why not have some more ? Despite all these immigrants, our unemployment kept on falling.

    Maybe, they were adding to the economy , not taking anything away.
    I don't know. Does "behaving like any other people" include voting Leave? I'm happy with that. Are you?
  • Options
    malcolmgmalcolmg Posts: 42,067

    malcolmg said:

    kyf_100 said:

    I stuck the princely sum of £2 on Abbott last week at 129/1 after thinking about her path to power. My fevered imagination goes something like this:

    It's 2019. Corbyn knows he's not going to win. He stands down, citing his age (also the fact his egotistical streak won't *let* him be remembered as the man who led Labour to it's worst ever defeat).

    Who takes over? Unless something drastic changes between now and 2020, a Tory victory is a dead cert. McDonnell doesn't want it, because he knows he's so linked to the Corbyn project failure in 2020 will mean he has to stand down - and a McDonnell loss in 2020 would still discredit the Corbyn project.

    Enter Abbott. Shadow home sec. Close to the Corbyn project. And the optics! Black, female, right on...

    She will allow the Labour party to lose in 2020 while feeling good about itself.

    The left can then tut at the country on twitter for "not being ready for it's first black female PM etc" without the need to disavow the hard left policies the Corbyn project stands for, allowing a more plausible candidate from the left to become leader after 2020 and fight a ropey and disunited dog-days-of-the-Major-years Tory party to become PM in 2025.

    Abbott is the best candidate the left can put up in 2020 because it will allow them to lose without drifting back to the centre. For those reasons, she's still worth a punt.

    Hmm. Interesting. I have stuck £2 on BF on Abbot based on this mornings debates. My aim is to be green on as many of the Labour party leading figures as possible given the huge uncertainty.
    You would have been as well throwing it out the window
    You have rumbled my basic betting strategy.
    LOL, Did you like the name
  • Options
    OldKingColeOldKingCole Posts: 32,058

    HYUFD said:

    Dromedary said:

    I had to laugh at this bit:

    "She’s an educated lady, she read History under Professor Simon Schama at the finest university in the world, The University of Cambridge."

    It's an institution that's so fine that its capitalisation spreads even to a preceding definite article that doesn't start a sentence! And the message is so strong, so pure, so elevated, that even a run-on sentence can convey it!

    Seriously, TSE, a person doesn't gain intellect or sense just by going to Cambridge, nor by being lectured by a royalist twat like Simon Schama, who's always known what side his bread is buttered on.

    Being one of her lecturers and perhaps also a sometime supervisor for a course or two was Schama's maximum involvement in her education at Cambridge anyway. She probably had 20 or more academics who had a similar or greater level of involvement with her. What does it even mean to say that she studied "under" him? She was at Newnham and he was a fellow at Christ's, so he wouldn't have been her director of studies.

    I strongly doubt that she got a first. She may have a history degree from Cambridge - in other words, she didn't fail or drop out - but she still seems to be crap at that subject. Here's something she wrote long after she left:

    "From the days when the Norman French invaded Anglo-Saxon Britain, we have been a culturally diverse nation. But because the different nationalities shared a common skin colour, it was possible to ignore the racial diversity which always existed in the British Isles. And even if you take race to mean what it is often commonly meant to imply - skin colour- there have been black people in Britain for centuries. The earliest blacks in Britain were probably black Roman centurions that came over hundreds of years before Christ."

    That is spectacularly embarrassing!

    *Professor Simon Schama starts deleting bits of his CV...starting with ever being at Cambridge.*
    According to BBC website she once played Lady MacDuff alongside Michael Portillo as MacDuff (as in the Scottish play).
    Abott and Portillo went to the same comprehensive school at the same time.
    Same grammar school
    Were Portillo and Abbott at the same school or was it more complicated than that and they were at neighbouring single-sex schools that had some joint activity or possibly amalgamated? I vaguely recall them talking about it once with Andrew Neil but can't remember the details.
    Neighbouring single sex schools, according to wikipedia.
  • Options
    foxinsoxukfoxinsoxuk Posts: 23,548
    edited January 2017
    surbiton said:

    HYUFD said:

    If we'd not had out-of-control population growth since 2004...

    Look at the huge spike in non-EU migration from 1997 onwards. At no point has EU migration been higher than non-EU. If we're laying the blame at New Labour's door, the problems started well before 2004.
    Actually in 2016 Poland overtook India as the main source of migrants to the UK
    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-37183733
    Why do we have so many Indians coming here ? What was T May doing when she was at the Home Office ?
    Those stats are by country of birth, not duration of residence, some would have been here for half a century or more, including both Indians and Poles.

    It is really the annual net flow we should be lolking at when interpreting the figures. A further point is that many ethnic Brits were born in Germany and Cyprus and count in the figures, and many Indian Brits were born in East or Central Africa.
  • Options
    MarqueeMarkMarqueeMark Posts: 50,144
    PlatoSaid said:

    This is rather awesome

    Arrows Sniper https://t.co/U8Pv0tme83

    They edited out the previous 8,903 times he hit nothing.....
  • Options
    david_herdsondavid_herdson Posts: 17,422
    "I can’t quite believe I placed this bet".

    Nor can I. Labour would never do something like elect a woman.
  • Options
    foxinsoxukfoxinsoxuk Posts: 23,548
    HYUFD said:

    HYUFD said:

    Dromedary said:

    Transition arrangements for immigrants were available to Blair/Brown but deliberately chose not to use them thinking the immigrants would eventually become British Labour voters.

    That is not the reason. A high level of immigration has been supported by all major political parties since the 1950s and 1960s for the simple reason that employers want it because it helps keep labour costs down. Blair and Brown would not have been so stupid as to believe that the immigrants would mostly eventually become Labour voters. I doubt they cared a hoot what Labour's voteshare would be 20 or more years after they left politics.

    Labour costs down and wages
    The 50’s and early 60’s reason for immigration was simply that there were more jobs than local workers. Consequently the ‘worse’ vacancies couldn’t be filled. That’s why, for example, Powell recruited West Indian nurses (etc.).
    Yes it is different today
    Is it? try recruiting British Nurses or Doctors now...
  • Options
    HYUFDHYUFD Posts: 117,164
    edited January 2017
    nielh said:

    Abbot is very unlikely to be the next labour leader but those odds are ok as a possible trading bet.
    Rogers departure from the civil service is interesting. If I was in the foreign office I would be looking at other employment options right now. They all think we are stuffed diplomatically and marks the swift decline of the UK as a credible world power. They are probably right. There will probably be a putin backed argentine invasion of the falklands or something which we will do nothing about.
    Been in finland these past 2 weeks. Used to talk about politics a lot but now it brings up an awkward silence. Brexit is seen as a national humiliation for us. Two quiet comments stand out 1 that in finland they have no desire to leave the eu because they were never "great", 2 that we shouldnt feel bad as brexit is part of a wider change in.opinion against open borders and immigration globalisation etc
    None of this changes my view that the brexiteers need to implement the decision and be given a free run at brexit, only then can they be held to account politically. If it is a disaster as I believe it will be we can join the eu again in the future minus our arrogance and delusions of grandeur. If we make a success of it then great ill be happy to be proved wrong

    Brexit makes next to zero impact on our position as a world power, we have not been a superpower since India gained independence and we would still be a medium sized power in or outside the EU. Putin has zero interest in the Falklands and indeed the new Argentine President is far more reasonable and less bellicose over the islands than Kirchner is, that is a million miles from the Fascist junta which invaded them in 1982 (plus they are better garrisoned). Once migrants from Eastern Europe and the Balkans start to move elsewhere in Europe to states still in the EEA if the UK implements border control then you are likely to see an increase in demands for border control there too
  • Options
    SandpitSandpit Posts: 49,941
    edited January 2017

    surbiton said:

    HYUFD said:

    If we'd not had out-of-control population growth since 2004...

    Look at the huge spike in non-EU migration from 1997 onwards. At no point has EU migration been higher than non-EU. If we're laying the blame at New Labour's door, the problems started well before 2004.
    Actually in 2016 Poland overtook India as the main source of migrants to the UK
    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-37183733
    Why do we have so many Indians coming here ? What was T May doing when she was at the Home Office ?
    Those stats are by country of birth, not duration of residence, some would have been here for half a century or more, including both Indians and Poles.

    It is really the annual net flow we should be lolking at when interpreting the figures. A further point is that many ethnic Brits were born in Germany and Cyprus and count in the figures, and many Indian Brits were born in East or Central Africa.
    Yes, the statistics on origins of people have always had a large number of anomalies, and in the future this will only get to be more of a problem. My two nephews were born in Dubai but they will definitely never be Emirati, I have friends and children of friends born all over Asia, the Middle East and Africa who are all very much British. A lot of these countries are very strict on whom they will allow their nationality to be given.
  • Options
    SandpitSandpit Posts: 49,941

    PlatoSaid said:

    This is rather awesome

    Arrows Sniper https://t.co/U8Pv0tme83

    They edited out the previous 8,903 times he hit nothing.....
    Of course. Reminds me of Derren Brown becoming the first man to get a coin tossed heads ten times in a row on video. It took him ten hours and we saw only the last 30 seconds of the tape!
  • Options
    Ishmael_ZIshmael_Z Posts: 8,981

    Dromedary said:

    I had to laugh at this bit:

    "She’s an educated lady, she read History under Professor Simon Schama at the finest university in the world, The University of Cambridge."

    It's an institution that's so fine that its capitalisation spreads even to a preceding definite article that doesn't start a sentence! And the message is so strong, so pure, so elevated, that even a run-on sentence can convey it!

    Seriously, TSE, a person doesn't gain intellect or sense just by going to Cambridge, nor by being lectured by a royalist twat like Simon Schama, who's always known what side his bread is buttered on.

    Being one of her lecturers and perhaps also a sometime supervisor for a course or two was Schama's maximum involvement in her education at Cambridge anyway. She probably had 20 or more academics who had a similar or greater level of involvement with her. What does it even mean to say that she studied "under" him? She was at Newnham and he was a fellow at Christ's, so he wouldn't have been her director of studies.

    I strongly doubt that she got a first. She may have a history degree from Cambridge - in other words, she didn't fail or drop out - but she still seems to be crap at that subject. Here's something she wrote long after she left:

    "From the days when the Norman French invaded Anglo-Saxon Britain, we have been a culturally diverse nation. But because the different nationalities shared a common skin colour, it was possible to ignore the racial diversity which always existed in the British Isles. And even if you take race to mean what it is often commonly meant to imply - skin colour- there have been black people in Britain for centuries. The earliest blacks in Britain were probably black Roman centurions that came over hundreds of years before Christ."

    That is spectacularly embarrassing!

    *Professor Simon Schama starts deleting bits of his CV...starting with ever being at Cambridge.*
    Ignoring the AD - BC screwup....

    Honest question - would the Roman army have ever had a black Centurion? They were very racist - the.... Latin word word for those of African origin.... was used as an extreme insult (see a speech by Cicero) in the ugliest sense. But then again, the Romans, in the end, made just about anyone a citizen and the army contained every nationality they included in the Empire
    Septimius Severus (imp. 193-211 AD) came from Leptis Magna in Libya and may have been the Roman Obama. Incidentally and horribly, Leptis Magna grew rich on the trade in exotic beast to be slaughtered in Rome.
  • Options
    Morris_DancerMorris_Dancer Posts: 61,005
    Mr. Z, possible, but (from memory of his biography) he may have been of senatorial stock. If he was Punic, then his ethnicity would be more Liby-Phoenician than black African (could perhaps have been mixed race, part-Roman, part-Liby-Phoenician).
  • Options
    Ishmael_ZIshmael_Z Posts: 8,981
    The University of Cambridge: not even the best university in Cambridge.
  • Options
    SandpitSandpit Posts: 49,941
    Ishmael_Z said:

    The University of Cambridge: not even the best university in Cambridge.

    Don't let @TheScreamingEagles let you hear you say that!
  • Options
    DecrepitJohnLDecrepitJohnL Posts: 13,300
    Ishmael_Z said:

    The University of Cambridge: not even the best university in Cambridge.

    I see they are opening a medical school next year.
  • Options
    Polly Toynbee on Sky inferring that Theresa May avoided the BBC for Sky because of Rupert Murdoch's growing interest in Sky.

    The left are possessed by Rupert Murdoch
  • Options

    Polly Toynbee on Sky inferring that Theresa May avoided the BBC for Sky because of Rupert Murdoch's growing interest in Sky.

    The left are possessed by Rupert Murdoch

    And by the way full marks to Sophy Ridge who passed her first real test with flying colours.

    The dinosaurs of Marr, Peston, and others need to watch out
  • Options
    DecrepitJohnLDecrepitJohnL Posts: 13,300

    Polly Toynbee on Sky inferring that Theresa May avoided the BBC for Sky because of Rupert Murdoch's growing interest in Sky.

    The left are possessed by Rupert Murdoch

    To be fair, Murdoch has influenced British politics going back decades on a scale Vladimir Putin can only dream of.
  • Options
    rottenboroughrottenborough Posts: 58,426

    Mr. Z, possible, but (from memory of his biography) he may have been of senatorial stock. If he was Punic, then his ethnicity would be more Liby-Phoenician than black African (could perhaps have been mixed race, part-Roman, part-Liby-Phoenician).

    Wikipedia says Punic on father's side, although may be also be some Libyan stock.
  • Options
    Big_G_NorthWalesBig_G_NorthWales Posts: 60,369
    edited January 2017

    Polly Toynbee on Sky inferring that Theresa May avoided the BBC for Sky because of Rupert Murdoch's growing interest in Sky.

    The left are possessed by Rupert Murdoch

    To be fair, Murdoch has influenced British politics going back decades on a scale Vladimir Putin can only dream of.
    Agreed but you have to be cynical beyond belief to think that Theresa May did this to impress him.

    The big story is the success of Sophy Ridge and such a welcome change from Marr etc
  • Options
    rottenboroughrottenborough Posts: 58,426

    Polly Toynbee on Sky inferring that Theresa May avoided the BBC for Sky because of Rupert Murdoch's growing interest in Sky.

    The left are possessed by Rupert Murdoch

    To be fair, Murdoch has influenced British politics going back decades on a scale Vladimir Putin can only dream of.
    Agreed but you have to be cynical beyond belief to think that Theresa May did this to impress him.

    The big story is the success of Sophy Ridge and such a welcome change from Marr etc
    Perhaps May did it because a woman was the principal interviewer and show presenter?
  • Options
    MalmesburyMalmesbury Posts: 44,582

    Mr. Z, possible, but (from memory of his biography) he may have been of senatorial stock. If he was Punic, then his ethnicity would be more Liby-Phoenician than black African (could perhaps have been mixed race, part-Roman, part-Liby-Phoenician).

    Yes - he was half Roman, half Punic. The Punic side might have had local Libyan inter-marriages....
  • Options
    rottenboroughrottenborough Posts: 58,426
    HYUFD said:

    nielh said:

    Abbot is very unlikely to be the next labour leader but those odds are ok as a possible trading bet.
    Rogers departure from the civil service is interesting. If I was in the foreign office I would be looking at other employment options right now. They all think we are stuffed diplomatically and marks the swift decline of the UK as a credible world power. They are probably right. There will probably be a putin backed argentine invasion of the falklands or something which we will do nothing about.
    Been in finland these past 2 weeks. Used to talk about politics a lot but now it brings up an awkward silence. Brexit is seen as a national humiliation for us. Two quiet comments stand out 1 that in finland they have no desire to leave the eu because they were never "great", 2 that we shouldnt feel bad as brexit is part of a wider change in.opinion against open borders and immigration globalisation etc
    None of this changes my view that the brexiteers need to implement the decision and be given a free run at brexit, only then can they be held to account politically. If it is a disaster as I believe it will be we can join the eu again in the future minus our arrogance and delusions of grandeur. If we make a success of it then great ill be happy to be proved wrong

    Brexit makes next to zero impact on our position as a world power, we have not been a superpower since India gained independence and we would still be a medium sized power in or outside the EU. Putin has zero interest in the Falklands and indeed the new Argentine President is far more reasonable and less bellicose over the islands than Kirchner is, that is a million miles from the Fascist junta which invaded them in 1982 (plus they are better garrisoned). Once migrants from Eastern Europe and the Balkans start to move elsewhere in Europe to states still in the EEA if the UK implements border control then you are likely to see an increase in demands for border control there too
    Interestingly, Finland will hold the EU council presidency in the (potentially) crucial period July-Dec 2019.
  • Options
    malcolmgmalcolmg Posts: 42,067

    "I can’t quite believe I placed this bet".

    Nor can I. Labour would never do something like elect a woman.

    They have trialled it in Scotland with dire results, hard to believe but they were equally as bad as the previous male donkeys.
  • Options
    PaulyPauly Posts: 897
    This thread made me less intelligent.
    The most worrying part for Labour is most of their craziest far-left MPs are in very very safe seats with no prospect of removal. It could get a lot worse with Sadiq departed. Andy B. and Steve R. both departing - whoever gets parachuted into those safe seats could define the direction of the party post-Corbyn.
  • Options
    MarqueeMarkMarqueeMark Posts: 50,144

    Polly Toynbee on Sky inferring that Theresa May avoided the BBC for Sky because of Rupert Murdoch's growing interest in Sky.

    The left are possessed by Rupert Murdoch

    And by the way full marks to Sophy Ridge who passed her first real test with flying colours.

    The dinosaurs of Marr, Peston, and others need to watch out
    Andrew Neil looks to be the only dinosaur not under immediate threat from the rise of the mammals.

    It's gonna take an asteroid to shift him.
  • Options
    HYUFDHYUFD Posts: 117,164

    HYUFD said:

    HYUFD said:

    Dromedary said:

    Transition arrangements for immigrants were available to Blair/Brown but deliberately chose not to use them thinking the immigrants would eventually become British Labour voters.

    That is not the reason. A high level of immigration has been supported by all major political parties since the 1950s and 1960s for the simple reason that employers want it because it helps keep labour costs down. Blair and Brown would not have been so stupid as to believe that the immigrants would mostly eventually become Labour voters. I doubt they cared a hoot what Labour's voteshare would be 20 or more years after they left politics.

    Labour costs down and wages
    The 50’s and early 60’s reason for immigration was simply that there were more jobs than local workers. Consequently the ‘worse’ vacancies couldn’t be filled. That’s why, for example, Powell recruited West Indian nurses (etc.).
    Yes it is different today
    Is it? try recruiting British Nurses or Doctors now...
    Part of the problem there is Osborne's scrapping of the bursary for nurse training places and plenty of nurses and doctors are recruited outside the EU
  • Options
    You can gauge Abbott's popularity within the Labour party by the success she enjoyed when running for the party's mayoral nomination.
  • Options
    malcolmgmalcolmg Posts: 42,067

    Polly Toynbee on Sky inferring that Theresa May avoided the BBC for Sky because of Rupert Murdoch's growing interest in Sky.

    The left are possessed by Rupert Murdoch

    And by the way full marks to Sophy Ridge who passed her first real test with flying colours.

    The dinosaurs of Marr, Peston, and others need to watch out
    Andrew Neil looks to be the only dinosaur not under immediate threat from the rise of the mammals.

    It's gonna take an asteroid to shift him.
    I would prefer it was hemorrhoids
  • Options
    HYUFDHYUFD Posts: 117,164

    HYUFD said:

    nielh said:

    Abbot is very unlikely to be the next labour leader but those odds are ok as a possible trading bet.
    Rogers departure from the civil service is interesting. If I was in the foreign office I would be looking at other employment options right now. They all think we are stuffed diplomatically and marks the swift decline of the UK as a credible world power. They are probably right. There will probably be a putin backed argentine invasion of the falklands or something which we will do nothing about.
    Been in finland these past 2 weeks. Used to talk about politics a lot but now it brings up an awkward silence. Brexit is seen as a national humiliation for us. Two quiet comments stand out 1 that in finland they have no desire to leave the eu because they were never "great", 2 that we shouldnt feel bad as brexit is part of a wider change in.opinion against open borders and immigration globalisation etc
    None of this changes my view that the brexiteers need to implement the decision and be given a free run at brexit, only then can they be held to account politically. If it is a disaster as I believe it will be we can join the eu again in the future minus our arrogance and delusions of grandeur. If we make a success of it then great ill be happy to be proved wrong

    Brexit makes next to zero impact on our position as a world power, we have not been a superpower since India gained independence and we would still be a medium sized power in or outside the EU. Putin has zero interest in the Falklands and indeed the new Argentine President is far more reasonable and less bellicose over the islands than Kirchner is, that is a million miles from the Fascist junta which invaded them in 1982 (plus they are better garrisoned). Once migrants from Eastern Europe and the Balkans start to move elsewhere in Europe to states still in the EEA if the UK implements border control then you are likely to see an increase in demands for border control there too
    Interestingly, Finland will hold the EU council presidency in the (potentially) crucial period July-Dec 2019.
    The nationalist True Finns are in a coalition government in Finland
  • Options
    rottenboroughrottenborough Posts: 58,426
    HYUFD said:

    HYUFD said:

    nielh said:

    Abbot is very unlikely to be the next labour leader but those odds are ok as a possible trading bet.
    Rogers departure from the civil service is interesting. If I was in the foreign office I would be looking at other employment options right now. They all think we are stuffed diplomatically and marks the swift decline of the UK as a credible world power. They are probably right. There will probably be a putin backed argentine invasion of the falklands or something which we will do nothing about.
    Been in finland these past 2 weeks. Used to talk about politics a lot but now it brings up an awkward silence. Brexit is seen as a national humiliation for us. Two quiet comments stand out 1 that in finland they have no desire to leave the eu because they were never "great", 2 that we shouldnt feel bad as brexit is part of a wider change in.opinion against open borders and immigration globalisation etc
    None of this changes my view that the brexiteers need to implement the decision and be given a free run at brexit, only then can they be held to account politically. If it is a disaster as I believe it will be we can join the eu again in the future minus our arrogance and delusions of grandeur. If we make a success of it then great ill be happy to be proved wrong

    Brexit makes next to zero impact on our position as a world power, we have not been a superpower since India gained independence and we would still be a medium sized power in or outside the EU. Putin has zero interest in the Falklands and indeed the new Argentine President is far more reasonable and less bellicose over the islands than Kirchner is, that is a million miles from the Fascist junta which invaded them in 1982 (plus they are better garrisoned). Once migrants from Eastern Europe and the Balkans start to move elsewhere in Europe to states still in the EEA if the UK implements border control then you are likely to see an increase in demands for border control there too
    Interestingly, Finland will hold the EU council presidency in the (potentially) crucial period July-Dec 2019.
    The nationalist True Finns are in a coalition government in Finland
    ...and their foreign minister is a True Finn party member. Could be interesting.
  • Options

    Polly Toynbee on Sky inferring that Theresa May avoided the BBC for Sky because of Rupert Murdoch's growing interest in Sky.

    The left are possessed by Rupert Murdoch

    And by the way full marks to Sophy Ridge who passed her first real test with flying colours.

    The dinosaurs of Marr, Peston, and others need to watch out
    Andrew Neil looks to be the only dinosaur not under immediate threat from the rise of the mammals.

    It's gonna take an asteroid to shift him.

    Pauly said:

    This thread made me less intelligent.
    The most worrying part for Labour is most of their craziest far-left MPs are in very very safe seats with no prospect of removal. It could get a lot worse with Sadiq departed. Andy B. and Steve R. both departing - whoever gets parachuted into those safe seats could define the direction of the party post-Corbyn.

    There are actually very few crazy left-wing Labour MPs, which is why Corbyn only made it onto the ballot with nominations from non-crazies (who actually turned out to be the stupidest Labour MPs there have ever been - and there is a long list).

  • Options
    AlanbrookeAlanbrooke Posts: 23,763

    Polly Toynbee on Sky inferring that Theresa May avoided the BBC for Sky because of Rupert Murdoch's growing interest in Sky.

    The left are possessed by Rupert Murdoch

    And by the way full marks to Sophy Ridge who passed her first real test with flying colours.

    The dinosaurs of Marr, Peston, and others need to watch out
    Andrew Neil looks to be the only dinosaur not under immediate threat from the rise of the mammals.

    It's gonna take an asteroid to shift him.

    Pauly said:

    This thread made me less intelligent.
    The most worrying part for Labour is most of their craziest far-left MPs are in very very safe seats with no prospect of removal. It could get a lot worse with Sadiq departed. Andy B. and Steve R. both departing - whoever gets parachuted into those safe seats could define the direction of the party post-Corbyn.

    There are actually very few crazy left-wing Labour MPs, which is why Corbyn only made it onto the ballot with nominations from non-crazies (who actually turned out to be the stupidest Labour MPs there have ever been - and there is a long list).

    You should nominate Margaret Beckett for the Top Turnip award
  • Options
    AlastairMeeksAlastairMeeks Posts: 30,340

    "I can’t quite believe I placed this bet".

    Nor can I. Labour would never do something like elect a woman.

    Conservative party members have never elected a woman leader either.
  • Options
    isamisam Posts: 41,002

    You can gauge Abbott's popularity within the Labour party by the success she enjoyed when running for the party's mayoral nomination.

    All the bad bits of Corbyn with the added extra of seeing everything through the prism of black vs white!

    I'd say the reason she is asked on tv so much is because she is such a n unpolished performer... there are youtube compilations of her gaffes!
  • Options
    williamglennwilliamglenn Posts: 48,146

    Polly Toynbee on Sky inferring that Theresa May avoided the BBC for Sky because of Rupert Murdoch's growing interest in Sky.

    The left are possessed by Rupert Murdoch

    And by the way full marks to Sophy Ridge who passed her first real test with flying colours.

    The dinosaurs of Marr, Peston, and others need to watch out
    Andrew Neil looks to be the only dinosaur not under immediate threat from the rise of the mammals.

    It's gonna take an asteroid to shift him.

    Pauly said:

    This thread made me less intelligent.
    The most worrying part for Labour is most of their craziest far-left MPs are in very very safe seats with no prospect of removal. It could get a lot worse with Sadiq departed. Andy B. and Steve R. both departing - whoever gets parachuted into those safe seats could define the direction of the party post-Corbyn.

    There are actually very few crazy left-wing Labour MPs, which is why Corbyn only made it onto the ballot with nominations from non-crazies (who actually turned out to be the stupidest Labour MPs there have ever been - and there is a long list).

    You should nominate Margaret Beckett for the Top Turnip award
    Just the woman to negotiate with Trump...

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aHl3F5doPkw
  • Options
    PaulyPauly Posts: 897

    Polly Toynbee on Sky inferring that Theresa May avoided the BBC for Sky because of Rupert Murdoch's growing interest in Sky.

    The left are possessed by Rupert Murdoch

    And by the way full marks to Sophy Ridge who passed her first real test with flying colours.

    The dinosaurs of Marr, Peston, and others need to watch out
    Andrew Neil looks to be the only dinosaur not under immediate threat from the rise of the mammals.

    It's gonna take an asteroid to shift him.

    Pauly said:

    This thread made me less intelligent.
    The most worrying part for Labour is most of their craziest far-left MPs are in very very safe seats with no prospect of removal. It could get a lot worse with Sadiq departed. Andy B. and Steve R. both departing - whoever gets parachuted into those safe seats could define the direction of the party post-Corbyn.

    There are actually very few crazy left-wing Labour MPs, which is why Corbyn only made it onto the ballot with nominations from non-crazies (who actually turned out to be the stupidest Labour MPs there have ever been - and there is a long list).

    There are more than 50 I would say, just a minority understand the electorate are more right-wing than they are.
    Not being able to dislodge this awkward squad could cause a future sensible leader some big problems over the long term.
  • Options
    justin124justin124 Posts: 11,527

    Polly Toynbee on Sky inferring that Theresa May avoided the BBC for Sky because of Rupert Murdoch's growing interest in Sky.

    The left are possessed by Rupert Murdoch

    And by the way full marks to Sophy Ridge who passed her first real test with flying colours.

    The dinosaurs of Marr, Peston, and others need to watch out
    Andrew Neil looks to be the only dinosaur not under immediate threat from the rise of the mammals.

    It's gonna take an asteroid to shift him.

    Pauly said:

    This thread made me less intelligent.
    The most worrying part for Labour is most of their craziest far-left MPs are in very very safe seats with no prospect of removal. It could get a lot worse with Sadiq departed. Andy B. and Steve R. both departing - whoever gets parachuted into those safe seats could define the direction of the party post-Corbyn.

    There are actually very few crazy left-wing Labour MPs, which is why Corbyn only made it onto the ballot with nominations from non-crazies (who actually turned out to be the stupidest Labour MPs there have ever been - and there is a long list).

    You should nominate Margaret Beckett for the Top Turnip award
    No - that award should go to Harriet Harman. Her decision to abstain on Osborne's welfare proposals - announced in his July 2015 Budget - gifted Corbyn the Leadership election.
  • Options
    HYUFDHYUFD Posts: 117,164

    HYUFD said:

    HYUFD said:

    nielh said:

    Abbot is very unlikely to be the next labour leader but those odds are ok as a possible trading bet.
    Rogers departure from the civil service is interesting. If I was in the foreign office I would be looking at other employment options right now. They all think we are stuffed diplomatically and marks the swift decline of the UK as a credible world power. They are probably right. There will probably be a putin backed argentine invasion of the falklands or something which we will do nothing about.
    Been in finland these past 2 weeks. Used to talk about politics a lot but now it brings up an awkward silence. Brexit is seen as a national humiliation for us. Two quiet comments stand out 1 that in finland they have no desire to leave the eu because they were never "great", 2 that we shouldnt feel bad as brexit is part of a wider change in.opinion against open borders and immigration globalisation etc
    None of this changes my view that the brexiteers need to implement the decision and be given a free run at brexit, only then can they be held to account politically. If it is a disaster as I believe it will be we can join the eu again in the future minus our arrogance and delusions of grandeur. If we make a success of it then great ill be happy to be proved wrong

    Brexit makes next to zero impact on our position as a world power, we have not been a superpower since India gained independence and we would still be a medium sized power in or outside the EU. Putin has zero interest in the Falklands and indeed the new Argentine President is far more reasonable and less bellicose over the islands than Kirchner is, that is a million miles from the Fascist junta which invaded them in 1982 (plus they are better garrisoned). Once migrants from Eastern Europe and the Balkans start to move elsewhere in Europe to states still in the EEA if the UK implements border control then you are likely to see an increase in demands for border control there too
    Interestingly, Finland will hold the EU council presidency in the (potentially) crucial period July-Dec 2019.
    The nationalist True Finns are in a coalition government in Finland
    ...and their foreign minister is a True Finn party member. Could be interesting.
    Especially if 5* have won the Italian election the previous May
  • Options
    PlatoSaidPlatoSaid Posts: 10,383
    isam said:

    You can gauge Abbott's popularity within the Labour party by the success she enjoyed when running for the party's mayoral nomination.

    All the bad bits of Corbyn with the added extra of seeing everything through the prism of black vs white!

    I'd say the reason she is asked on tv so much is because she is such a n unpolished performer... there are youtube compilations of her gaffes!
    I'm shocked.

    Who isn't mesmerised by her eye-rolling, sighing, patronising primary school teacher manner.

    It's in the How To Do Guide for politicians.
  • Options
    isam said:

    Did I really read that Diane Abbot is 'a polished tv performer'?

    https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=LxRqMJHG56A

    Could never see the appeal myself - Abbott squealing 'Ooo Tony said .... Ooo Gordon will' alongside the oleaginous Portillo with his octopus arms.
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    Polly Toynbee on Sky inferring that Theresa May avoided the BBC for Sky because of Rupert Murdoch's growing interest in Sky.

    The left are possessed by Rupert Murdoch

    And by the way full marks to Sophy Ridge who passed her first real test with flying colours.

    The dinosaurs of Marr, Peston, and others need to watch out
    Andrew Neil looks to be the only dinosaur not under immediate threat from the rise of the mammals.

    It's gonna take an asteroid to shift him.
    He is very good
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    DecrepitJohnLDecrepitJohnL Posts: 13,300

    Polly Toynbee on Sky inferring that Theresa May avoided the BBC for Sky because of Rupert Murdoch's growing interest in Sky.

    The left are possessed by Rupert Murdoch

    To be fair, Murdoch has influenced British politics going back decades on a scale Vladimir Putin can only dream of.
    Agreed but you have to be cynical beyond belief to think that Theresa May did this to impress him.

    The big story is the success of Sophy Ridge and such a welcome change from Marr etc
    Cynical beyond belief or old enough to remember Tony Blair flying to Australia to kowtow to Murdoch.
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    rottenboroughrottenborough Posts: 58,426
    PlatoSaid said:

    isam said:

    You can gauge Abbott's popularity within the Labour party by the success she enjoyed when running for the party's mayoral nomination.

    All the bad bits of Corbyn with the added extra of seeing everything through the prism of black vs white!

    I'd say the reason she is asked on tv so much is because she is such a n unpolished performer... there are youtube compilations of her gaffes!
    I'm shocked.

    Who isn't mesmerised by her eye-rolling, sighing, patronising primary school teacher manner.

    It's in the How To Do Guide for politicians.
    The loonies who are repeatedly voting in Corbyn don't care about any of that New Labour-style froth and PR media nonsense. Purity and authenticity are all.

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    rottenboroughrottenborough Posts: 58,426
    Although the cultists would have to overlook Abbot's child schooling issue?
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    nielhnielh Posts: 1,307
    HYUFD said:

    HYUFD said:

    nielh said:

    Abbot is very unlikely to be the next labour leader but those odds are ok as a possible trading bet.
    Rogers departure from the civil service is interesting. If I was in the foreign office I would be looking at other employment options right now. They all think we are stuffed diplomatically and marks the swift decline of the UK as a credible world power. They are probably right. There will probably be a putin backed argentine invasion of the falklands or something which we will do nothing about.
    Been in finland these we shouldnt feel bad as brexit is part of a wider change in.opinion against open borders and immigration globalisation etc
    None of this changes my view that the brexiteers need to implement the decision and be given a free run at brexit, only then can they be held to account politically. If it is a disaster as I believe it will be we can join the eu again in the future minus our arrogance and delusions of grandeur. If we make a success of it then great ill be happy to be proved wrong

    Brexit makes next to zero impact on our position as a world power, we have not been a superpower since India gained independence and we would still be a medium sized power in or outside the EU. Putin has zero interest in the Falklands and indeed the new Argentine President is far more reasonable and less bellicose over the islands than Kirchner is, that is a million miles from the Fascist junta which invaded them in 1982 (plus they are better garrisoned). Once migrants from Eastern Europe and the Balkans start to move elsewhere in Europe to states still in the EEA if the UK implements border control then you are likely to see an increase in demands for border control there too
    Interestingly, Finland will hold the EU council presidency in the (potentially) crucial period July-Dec 2019.
    The nationalist True Finns are in a coalition government in Finland
    True finns are in power but there is no desire to leave the EU.
    Even the freedom party in austria and the FN in france have no desire to quit the EU. Even Afd dont want to quit the EU. With brexit these populist parties are annoyed with us as we were a force.against integration, now we are no use to them at all.

    On the broader point, to me brexit marks the end of the UK as a world power and this is exacerbated by trump. Our policy was to use our influence in the eu to isolate russia inalliace with usa. Now its turned upside down. Im not an expert and may be wrong, thats the way I read the situation though. Ptin will try and destroy us ie by backing the nats in scotland and look for proxy conflicts which is why I worry about the falklands

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    MarkHopkinsMarkHopkins Posts: 5,584
    nielh said:

    True finns are in power but there is no desire to leave the EU.
    Even the freedom party in austria and the FN in france have no desire to quit the EU. Even Afd dont want to quit the EU. With brexit these populist parties are annoyed with us as we were a force.against integration, now we are no use to them at all.

    On the broader point, to me brexit marks the end of the UK as a world power and this is exacerbated by trump. Our policy was to use our influence in the eu to isolate russia inalliace with usa. Now its turned upside down. Im not an expert and may be wrong, thats the way I read the situation though. Ptin will try and destroy us ie by backing the nats in scotland and look for proxy conflicts which is why I worry about the falklands

    which is why I worry about the falklands

    I'm sure the Falklands worry about you a bit too.

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    PaulyPauly Posts: 897
    The Labour Party need a mandatory retirement age for MPs. (All parties do tbf, but Labour is particularly bad)

    Gerald Kaufman
    Dennis Skinner
    David Winnick
    Paul Flynn
    Ann Clwyd
    Geoffrey Robinson
    Barry Sheerman
    Jim Cunningham
    Kelvin Hopkins
    Frank Field
    Margaret Beckett
    Ronnie Campbell
    Margaret Hodge
    Adrian Bailey
    Kevin Barron
    Kate Hoey
    Ann Coffey
    Roger Godsiff
    David Crausby

    All over 70 - the by-election risk is just too great from an actuarial perspective. [This list may be wrong, DYOR]
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    Polly Toynbee on Sky inferring that Theresa May avoided the BBC for Sky because of Rupert Murdoch's growing interest in Sky.

    The left are possessed by Rupert Murdoch

    To be fair, Murdoch has influenced British politics going back decades on a scale Vladimir Putin can only dream of.
    Agreed but you have to be cynical beyond belief to think that Theresa May did this to impress him.

    The big story is the success of Sophy Ridge and such a welcome change from Marr etc
    Cynical beyond belief or old enough to remember Tony Blair flying to Australia to kowtow to Murdoch.
    I remember TB flying to Australia to do deals with Murdoch but Theresa May went on Sky to be interviewed by rising star Sophy Ridge and possibly to demonstrate to the BBC that they have no entitlement to always conduct the Prime Minster's first interview of the new year
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    HYUFDHYUFD Posts: 117,164
    nielh said:

    HYUFD said:

    HYUFD said:

    nielh said:

    Abbot is very unlikely to be the next labour leader but those odds are ok as a possible trading bet.
    Rogers departure from the civil service is interesting. If I was in the foreign office I would be looking at other employment options of it then great ill be happy to be proved wrong

    Brexit makes next to zero impact on our position as a world power, we have not been a superpower since India gained independence and we would still be a medium sized power in or outside the EU. Putin has zero interest in the Falklands and indeed the new Argentine President is far more reasonable and less bellicose over the islands than Kirchner is, that is a million miles from the Fascist junta which invaded them in 1982 (plus they are better garrisoned). Once migrants from Eastern Europe and the Balkans start to move elsewhere in Europe to states still in the EEA if the UK implements border control then you are likely to see an increase in demands for border control there too
    Interestingly, Finland will hold the EU council presidency in the (potentially) crucial period July-Dec 2019.
    The nationalist True Finns are in a coalition government in Finland
    True finns are in power but there is no all.

    On the broader point, to me brexit marks the end

    The AfD, the FN, 5* etc do want to leave the Euro though and that would destabilise the whole EU system.

    On the broader point as stated you are of course wrong for as previously stated the UK has not been a superpower since the independence of India and the end of the British Empire, attempts to use the EU to become a superpower would not make the UK a superpower on its own. The new US President openly supported Brexit before his election, post Brexit UK also has little need to concern itself with Russia, if anything Eastern European nations should be more concerned as along with France the UK provides most of Europe's defence. The nats would still lose any second referendum as all the polls show and as for the Falklands as also previously stated the new President of Argentina Mauricio Macri is a technocrat not a Fascist as was the case in 1982 and also has zero interest in starting a war with the UK his focus is on reviving the Argentine economy
  • Options
    Sean_FSean_F Posts: 35,967

    Dromedary said:

    I had to laugh at this bit:

    "She’s an educated lady, she read History under Professor Simon Schama at the finest university in the world, The University of Cambridge."

    It's an institution that's so fine that its capitalisation spreads even to a preceding definite article that doesn't start a sentence! And the message is so strong, so pure, so elevated, that even a run-on sentence can convey it!

    Seriously, TSE, a person doesn't gain intellect or sense just by going to Cambridge, nor by being lectured by a royalist twat like Simon Schama, who's always known what side his bread is buttered on.

    Being one of her lecturers and perhaps also a sometime supervisor for a course or two was Schama's maximum involvement in her education at Cambridge anyway. She probably had

    I strongly doubt that she got a first. She may have a history degree from Cambridge - in other words, she didn't fail or drop out - but she still seems to be crap at that subject. Here's something she wrote long after she left:

    "From the days when the Norman French invaded Anglo-Saxon Britain, we have been a culturally diverse nation. But because the different nationalities shared a common skin colour, it was possible to ignore the racial diversity which always existed in the British Isles. And even if you take race to mean what it is often commonly meant to imply - skin colour- there have been black people in Britain for centuries. The earliest blacks in Britain were probably black Roman centurions that came over hundreds of years before Christ."

    That is spectacularly embarrassing!

    *Professor Simon Schama starts deleting bits of his CV...starting with ever being at Cambridge.*
    Ignoring the AD - BC screwup....

    Honest question - would the Roman army have ever had a black Centurion? They were very racist - the.... Latin word word for those of African origin.... was used as an extreme insult (see a speech by Cicero) in the ugliest sense. But then again, the Romans, in the end, made just about anyone a citizen and the army contained every nationality they included in the Empire
    The Romans certainly considered that their Empire extended beyond the frontiers of the Provinces (basically, a region became a Province once it was deemed sufficiently civilised). There were client kings all around the Empire, and Roman soldiers, merchants, and officials spent extensive periods in these places. So, they were familiar with places like Nubia (now Sudan) and Abyssinia (now Ethiopia), and recruited some soldiers in these places. In all likelihood, some of them must have risen to be officers.

    Probably, some of them served in Britain. But, the numbers would have been tiny.
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    MarkHopkinsMarkHopkins Posts: 5,584

    Tube strike on as unions reject new offer from London Underground

    London's Mayor Sadiq Khan has described the walkout as "pointless" and has called for unions to carry on negotiating.

    http://news.sky.com/story/tube-strike-on-as-unions-reject-new-offer-from-london-underground-10722111

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    PlatoSaidPlatoSaid Posts: 10,383
    Loved this footage

    Dan Jackson
    King Christian X on one of his solo morning rides through Copenhagen. He did this throughout the Nazi occupation of Denmark. https://t.co/2ze2vlw9vZ
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    nunununu Posts: 6,024
    Pauly said:

    The Labour Party need a mandatory retirement age for MPs. (All parties do tbf, but Labour is particularly bad)

    Gerald Kaufman
    Dennis Skinner
    David Winnick
    Paul Flynn
    Ann Clwyd
    Geoffrey Robinson
    Barry Sheerman
    Jim Cunningham
    Kelvin Hopkins
    Frank Field
    Margaret Beckett
    Ronnie Campbell
    Margaret Hodge
    Adrian Bailey
    Kevin Barron
    Kate Hoey
    Ann Coffey
    Roger Godsiff
    David Crausby

    All over 70 - the by-election risk is just too great from an actuarial perspective. [This list may be wrong, DYOR]

    any marginal or semi marginal seats?
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    Tube strike on as unions reject new offer from London Underground

    London's Mayor Sadiq Khan has described the walkout as "pointless" and has called for unions to carry on negotiating.

    http://news.sky.com/story/tube-strike-on-as-unions-reject-new-offer-from-london-underground-10722111

    At what point does Sadiq Khan take on the unions directly. I assume he has responsibility for London Underground
  • Options
    PaulyPauly Posts: 897
    edited January 2017
    nunu said:

    Pauly said:

    The Labour Party need a mandatory retirement age for MPs. (All parties do tbf, but Labour is particularly bad)

    Gerald Kaufman
    Dennis Skinner
    David Winnick
    Paul Flynn
    Ann Clwyd
    Geoffrey Robinson
    Barry Sheerman
    Jim Cunningham
    Kelvin Hopkins
    Frank Field
    Margaret Beckett
    Ronnie Campbell
    Margaret Hodge
    Adrian Bailey
    Kevin Barron
    Kate Hoey
    Ann Coffey
    Roger Godsiff
    David Crausby

    All over 70 - the by-election risk is just too great from an actuarial perspective. [This list may be wrong, DYOR]

    any marginal or semi marginal seats?
    For the 4 MPs over 80...

    Gerald Kaufman
    Dennis Skinner
    David Winnick
    Paul Flynn

    Manchester Gorton and Bolsover are solidly safe. Walsall North and Newport West both look semi-marginal on Labour's current dire polling - totally avoidable if Labour had a sensible retirement age.
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    nunununu Posts: 6,024
    "The UK cannot expect to hold on to "bits" of its membership after leaving the EU, Theresa May has said."

    Damn that sounds like a very hard brexit to me.. BBC Website.
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    SandpitSandpit Posts: 49,941


    Tube strike on as unions reject new offer from London Underground

    London's Mayor Sadiq Khan has described the walkout as "pointless" and has called for unions to carry on negotiating.

    http://news.sky.com/story/tube-strike-on-as-unions-reject-new-offer-from-london-underground-10722111

    At what point does Sadiq Khan take on the unions directly. I assume he has responsibility for London Underground
    He very much does, and he'll lose his popularity very quickly indeed if he does anything except oppose transport strikes in the strongest terms possible.
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    nunu said:

    "The UK cannot expect to hold on to "bits" of its membership after leaving the EU, Theresa May has said."

    Damn that sounds like a very hard brexit to me.. BBC Website.

    No - a different relationship. The one thing is clear we are taking back control of our borders and laws which I suspect will have majority support
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    YBarddCwscYBarddCwsc Posts: 7,172
    edited January 2017



    On the broader point, to me brexit marks the end of the UK as a world power and this is exacerbated by trump. Our policy was to use our influence in the eu to isolate russia inalliace with usa. Now its turned upside down. Im not an expert and may be wrong, thats the way I read the situation though. Ptin will try and destroy us ie by backing the nats in scotland and look for proxy conflicts which is why I worry about the falklands

    I think you are right that the policy was to isolate Russia.

    I have no idea why that makes (or even made) any sense, post Cold War.

    An Eu stretching through the Ukraine to the borders of Russia seems much more likely to engulf the whole of Eastern Europe in chaos than anything else.

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    chestnutchestnut Posts: 7,341
    nunu said:

    "The UK cannot expect to hold on to "bits" of its membership after leaving the EU, Theresa May has said."

    Damn that sounds like a very hard brexit to me.. BBC Website.

    It sounds like leaving the EU and having a new friendlier, looser relationship with them, and most critically the 7bn people and 88% of the global economy that isn't little Europe.

    Excellent.
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    nunununu Posts: 6,024
    chestnut said:

    nunu said:

    "The UK cannot expect to hold on to "bits" of its membership after leaving the EU, Theresa May has said."

    Damn that sounds like a very hard brexit to me.. BBC Website.

    It sounds like leaving the EU and having a new friendlier, looser relationship with them, and most critically the 7bn people and 88% of the global economy that isn't little Europe.

    Excellent.
    I'm happy,but it looks like we won't be staying in the single market but will have full control of the borders.
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    williamglennwilliamglenn Posts: 48,146
    chestnut said:

    nunu said:

    "The UK cannot expect to hold on to "bits" of its membership after leaving the EU, Theresa May has said."

    Damn that sounds like a very hard brexit to me.. BBC Website.

    It sounds like leaving the EU and having a new friendlier, looser relationship with them, and most critically the 7bn people and 88% of the global economy that isn't little Europe.

    Excellent.
    What was it our Canadian friend said?

    While they have always been pleasant (and notably friendly towards Canada), my view is that they remain in campaign mode.

    Were they willing to realistically discuss options for Brexit, as opposed to telling you what they intend to do in a very general sense while dismissing the obvious concerns, they may have a chance to minimise the damage from the potentially catastrophic decision to leave.


    Sounds very much like your attitude.

    https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/jan/08/trade-negotiator-shocked-at-brexiters-ignorance
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    chestnut said:

    nunu said:

    "The UK cannot expect to hold on to "bits" of its membership after leaving the EU, Theresa May has said."

    Damn that sounds like a very hard brexit to me.. BBC Website.

    It sounds like leaving the EU and having a new friendlier, looser relationship with them, and most critically the 7bn people and 88% of the global economy that isn't little Europe.

    Excellent.

    Yep - we are removing ourselves from the market 44% of our exports go to and hoping that the damage this will do will be offset by trade agreements we can finalise with other countries who will know how desperate we are. Should be fun.

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    Sandpit said:


    Tube strike on as unions reject new offer from London Underground

    London's Mayor Sadiq Khan has described the walkout as "pointless" and has called for unions to carry on negotiating.

    http://news.sky.com/story/tube-strike-on-as-unions-reject-new-offer-from-london-underground-10722111

    At what point does Sadiq Khan take on the unions directly. I assume he has responsibility for London Underground
    He very much does, and he'll lose his popularity very quickly indeed if he does anything except oppose transport strikes in the strongest terms possible.

    He has done that.

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    MarkHopkinsMarkHopkins Posts: 5,584

    chestnut said:

    nunu said:

    "The UK cannot expect to hold on to "bits" of its membership after leaving the EU, Theresa May has said."

    Damn that sounds like a very hard brexit to me.. BBC Website.

    It sounds like leaving the EU and having a new friendlier, looser relationship with them, and most critically the 7bn people and 88% of the global economy that isn't little Europe.

    Excellent.

    Yep - we are removing ourselves from the market 44% of our exports go to and hoping that the damage this will do will be offset by trade agreements we can finalise with other countries who will know how desperate we are. Should be fun.


    We have more imports than exports to the EU, so that's something that can be handled by itself.

    Other countries are a bonus.

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    HYUFDHYUFD Posts: 117,164

    chestnut said:

    nunu said:

    "The UK cannot expect to hold on to "bits" of its membership after leaving the EU, Theresa May has said."

    Damn that sounds like a very hard brexit to me.. BBC Website.

    It sounds like leaving the EU and having a new friendlier, looser relationship with them, and most critically the 7bn people and 88% of the global economy that isn't little Europe.

    Excellent.

    Yep - we are removing ourselves from the market 44% of our exports go to and hoping that the damage this will do will be offset by trade agreements we can finalise with other countries who will know how desperate we are. Should be fun.

    So 56% of our exports now go outside the EU not forgetting of course we will not cease trading with the EU regardless of what happens
  • Options
    williamglennwilliamglenn Posts: 48,146

    chestnut said:

    nunu said:

    "The UK cannot expect to hold on to "bits" of its membership after leaving the EU, Theresa May has said."

    Damn that sounds like a very hard brexit to me.. BBC Website.

    It sounds like leaving the EU and having a new friendlier, looser relationship with them, and most critically the 7bn people and 88% of the global economy that isn't little Europe.

    Excellent.

    Yep - we are removing ourselves from the market 44% of our exports go to and hoping that the damage this will do will be offset by trade agreements we can finalise with other countries who will know how desperate we are. Should be fun.
    But while we have lots of other options around the world, the EU has absolutely nowhere to go to plug any trade gap left by a departing UK. Remember that...
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    HYUFD said:

    chestnut said:

    nunu said:

    "The UK cannot expect to hold on to "bits" of its membership after leaving the EU, Theresa May has said."

    Damn that sounds like a very hard brexit to me.. BBC Website.

    It sounds like leaving the EU and having a new friendlier, looser relationship with them, and most critically the 7bn people and 88% of the global economy that isn't little Europe.

    Excellent.

    Yep - we are removing ourselves from the market 44% of our exports go to and hoping that the damage this will do will be offset by trade agreements we can finalise with other countries who will know how desperate we are. Should be fun.

    So 56% of our exports now go outside the EU not forgetting of course we will not cease trading with the EU regardless of what happens

    Yes, they are going there already. We will not cease trading with the EU, but it will become more costly and less time efficient.

  • Options

    chestnut said:

    nunu said:

    "The UK cannot expect to hold on to "bits" of its membership after leaving the EU, Theresa May has said."

    Damn that sounds like a very hard brexit to me.. BBC Website.

    It sounds like leaving the EU and having a new friendlier, looser relationship with them, and most critically the 7bn people and 88% of the global economy that isn't little Europe.

    Excellent.

    Yep - we are removing ourselves from the market 44% of our exports go to and hoping that the damage this will do will be offset by trade agreements we can finalise with other countries who will know how desperate we are. Should be fun.

    It looks like Theresa May is going to tell the EU we are leaving lock stock and barrel and is calling their bluff over trade.

    It is a clear position and will put various EU countries against each other as they begin to realise the trade they are going to lose and the unemployment they will experience.

    This is a very bold strategy and if TM pulls this off she will become one of our greatest PM's
  • Options
    chestnutchestnut Posts: 7,341

    chestnut said:

    nunu said:

    "The UK cannot expect to hold on to "bits" of its membership after leaving the EU, Theresa May has said."

    Damn that sounds like a very hard brexit to me.. BBC Website.

    It sounds like leaving the EU and having a new friendlier, looser relationship with them, and most critically the 7bn people and 88% of the global economy that isn't little Europe.

    Excellent.

    Yep - we are removing ourselves from the market 44% of our exports go to and hoping that the damage this will do will be offset by trade agreements we can finalise with other countries who will know how desperate we are. Should be fun.

    Businesses will do what's right for them, whatever the deal, whichever side of the channel they sit on.

    The vast majority of our trade and business is not with the EU - it's domestic and global.

    Life will go on. Trade will still happen. Just as it already does.

  • Options
    HYUFDHYUFD Posts: 117,164

    HYUFD said:

    chestnut said:

    nunu said:

    "The UK cannot expect to hold on to "bits" of its membership after leaving the EU, Theresa May has said."

    Damn that sounds like a very hard brexit to me.. BBC Website.

    It sounds like leaving the EU and having a new friendlier, looser relationship with them, and most critically the 7bn people and 88% of the global economy that isn't little Europe.

    Excellent.

    Yep - we are removing ourselves from the market 44% of our exports go to and hoping that the damage this will do will be offset by trade agreements we can finalise with other countries who will know how desperate we are. Should be fun.

    So 56% of our exports now go outside the EU not forgetting of course we will not cease trading with the EU regardless of what happens

    Yes, they are going there already. We will not cease trading with the EU, but it will become more costly and less time efficient.

    Well if the EU will not make any compromise on border control so be it, May has a mandate from the Leave vote and she will deliver on it
  • Options
    chestnutchestnut Posts: 7,341

    HYUFD said:

    chestnut said:

    nunu said:

    "The UK cannot expect to hold on to "bits" of its membership after leaving the EU, Theresa May has said."

    Damn that sounds like a very hard brexit to me.. BBC Website.

    It sounds like leaving the EU and having a new friendlier, looser relationship with them, and most critically the 7bn people and 88% of the global economy that isn't little Europe.

    Excellent.

    Yep - we are removing ourselves from the market 44% of our exports go to and hoping that the damage this will do will be offset by trade agreements we can finalise with other countries who will know how desperate we are. Should be fun.

    So 56% of our exports now go outside the EU not forgetting of course we will not cease trading with the EU regardless of what happens

    Yes, they are going there already. We will not cease trading with the EU, but it will become more costly and less time efficient.

    Somewhere in Europe someone is saying exactly the same thing as you -but with UK replacing the EU in the sentence.


This discussion has been closed.