politicalbetting.com » Blog Archive » To add to the current incendiary political mix Bercow is coming under pressure to resign
When the report on sexual harassment in the Palace of Westminster came out yesterday I thought that Bercow was extremely lucky over the timing.
Read the full story here
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As I can work it it goes like this, 12 months ago they lost power after 9 years. In the leadership election Simon Bridges won with the support of the chief whip Ross, who was promised shadow leader of the house as payment.
He stiffed him for the job, they fell out. Later on details of Bridges expenses were leaked to media, investigation fingered Ross.
When caught Ross has gone nuclear, accusing his leader of multiple counts of electoral finance fraud, including hiding donations from Chinese businessmen. Claims he recorded conversations to prove it, and is taking to police.
Bridges has denied allegations, questioned his mental health and claimed Ross was having extra-martial affairs.
Fantastic entertainment, to be resolved in a by-election and perhaps a criminal case if the phone records stack up.
If they are proved, then the question becomes whether he is a fit and able person to look into how the culture needs to change.
I'd argue he isn't.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-45871379
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/oct/16/britain-eu-brussels-brexit
I never understood what the basis of the action was, it really made no sense.
https://twitter.com/JGForsyth/status/1051839860510793728
Plus every Communist ever spawned, of course, from Marx and Engels on.
So about 2032 then.
The National Cyber Security Centre warns that a life-threatening incident will almost inevitably strike the UK."
https://news.sky.com/story/major-life-threatening-cyber-attack-on-uk-in-little-doubt-in-near-future-warns-security-chief-11526858
What has enabled the proliferation of small countries has been the web of international institutions, from EU, UN, WTO, NATO, OAU etc. By firming up international laws and conflict resolution mechanisms the viability of smaller countries has been enhanced.
It is why Ireland is much stronger in the EU, and why the SNP is pro EU. These organisations level the playing field with overweaning hegemonic neighbours. It also explains why those hegemonic states bristle at being restrained from bullying their smaller bretheren. Here's looking at you Trump, Putin and Brexiteers.
Do we have any idea if/when Bercow will respond to the report? This was well down the order in the news last night. Should've been rather higher, I think.
Dr. Foxy, I want the UK electorate to determine who governs the UK. I have no interest in determining who governs the Republic of Ireland. Or, for that matter, Italy or Greece, where political leaders were cast aside at the behest of the EU (or the 'overweening' 'bullying' EU as you might put it).
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2010/nov/22/ireland-bailout-uk-lends-seven-billion
You're right - we shouldn't 'push them around' any more - let their EU mates help them out...
This could turn out to be a very good thing or a very bad thing only time will tell, but denying whats happening is silly
Ireland is being accused of retaining its low rate to attract large multinationals, but at the detriment to its European counterparts. That accusation has been exacerbated by a report that showed 13 of the top 100 companies in Ireland had an effective rate of less than 1% in 2015, as one Davos guest speaker pointed out.
http://www.thejournal.ie/ireland-corporate-tax-rate-davos-stealing-3817678-Jan2018/
How long do you reckon that's going to last?
http://www.lastampa.it/2018/10/16/italia/la-francia-riporta-i-migranti-in-italia-salvini-attacca-macron-ora-chiarisca-NjOAiKGvGrOpxLg8egXpnM/pagina.html
https://twitter.com/foxinsoxuk/status/1052089057168302080?s=19
So much for the fearsome DUP.
"Interesting JRT polling on what the poor expect from Brexit."
How is that different from a general wish-list?
1 more money for NHS
2 higher employment
3 real wage growth
4 reduced immigration
5 low inflation
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opinion_polling_for_the_next_New_Zealand_general_election
Eire is even more badly affected than the UK in a no-deal scenario.
No.6 Convent Place provided the update after an intense round of talks in Brussels last night.
“There are a few issues that remain to be ironed out and the overarching principle of the discussions remains that nothing is agreed until everything is agreed,” No.6 Convent Place said in a statement.
Speaking today, Spain’s Foreign Minister Josep Borrell also signalled that an agreement on Gibraltar was close.
“I don’t think Gibraltar is a problem,” he told reporters.
“There is a protocol in the draft agreement and this protocol was greed with the United Kingdom, so Gibraltar is not a rock on the way.”
http://chronicle.gi/2018/10/brexit-deal-on-gibraltar-is-almost-complete-no-6-says/
https://twitter.com/Peston/status/1052096315352641542
Any such doubts over England?
https://mobile.twitter.com/spectatorindex/status/1052096156241543168
https://mobile.twitter.com/NickBoles/status/1052100932186587136
And the failings of a team carrying out what is really a pretty low level, low tech, old school close access operation should not blind us to the broader point. In the words of Ciaran Martin ‘Russia is our most capable hostile adversary in cyberspace’. The GRU has a global and sophisticated cyber capability. Certainly, for some of their operations they make use of basic techniques like phishing or the sort of operation revealed in the Hague. But that is because those techniques continue to work, rather than because that is the most the Russians are capable of.
https://rusi.org/commentary/countering-russian-cyber-operations
PS Canada doesn't solve NI.
https://www.theguardian.com/news/2018/oct/05/the-finance-curse-how-the-outsized-power-of-the-city-of-london-makes-britain-poorer
More seriously the then Liberal Government tried to 110 years ago but the Conservatives wouldn’t let them, and indeed encouraged the Army to mutiny if necessary.
Those same games that are frankly sapping confidence in Brussels that May can get any kind of deal over the line."
Wasn't it clear yesterday afternoon that she can't get a deal through? If there is to be an alternative to no deal it won' be with her as PM