Kemi Badenoch proves again she really doesn’t understand Northern Ireland – politicalbetting.com
Kemi Badenoch proves again she really doesn’t understand Northern Ireland – politicalbetting.com
Kemi Badenoch: On herself, Sep. 2024: “I don’t have gaffes. I never have to clarify, because I think very carefully about what I say.” On Brexit, Oct. 2025: “The last time I checked, Northern Ireland did vote to leave” pic.twitter.com/qjKcdo3c3E
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https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c24rmdngrrjo
Labour in government habit of going all authorian showing through again. It's only 2 mins since the Tories attempt to curtail JSO blocking all the roads on a daily basis was met with outrage by Labour.
Also whatever happened to the tradition of not announcing things during party conferences. They are all at these these days shouting over on another when each other conferences are on.
I await her details on this subject which apparently follows a review by David Wolfson who is a barrister
What has become increasingly obvious the powers of the ECHR are seen as a problem, and not just with Farage declaration to leave, and now Badenoch's, but also Starmer is wanting changes
Support from them is a mix of the pragmatic (what replaces them if anything to control the power of the state) and the quasi religious (belief in the system regardless of the logic).
And isn't the JD for a barrister to come up with the best argument for the conclusion that the client wants?
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2025/10/04/embattled-mayor-paris-drags-city-into-gutter/
At least in the UK we get rich donors to pay for these things. Although I hear house removals for your boyfriend can be done by strapping young security detail on the taxpayer if required.
Early last month, Powell, the national security adviser, convened a top secret meeting of mandarins from across the government. He used the gathering to discuss the potential diplomatic and security consequences of the trial, but also raised the evidence that Collins, the government’s key witness, was due to put forward.
According to Whitehall sources, Powell said that Collins would draw upon National Security Strategy 2025, which was published in June. It refers to China as a “geostrategic challenge” whose actions have “the potential to have a significant effect on the lives of British people”. It does not describe the People’s Republic as an enemy.
Instead, it says the government seeks a “trade and investment relationship” with China, coupled with a “threat-driven” approach to issues such as espionage, interference in democracy and economic security. Robbins was also present and used the meeting to raise concerns about the implications of any conviction.
https://www.thetimes.com/uk/politics/article/how-chinese-spy-case-collapsed-5p5txh6h3
One of the things that has led to this crisis of confidence in the West is the idea that there are untouchable policies, institutions, truths, ways of doing things that the electorate cannot disturb.
Now? No need. No point.
On here we all seem pretty aligned that cosplay will only drag the party further into the depths, and that a future new leader will have to forge a sane Conservative position on all these issues. The question is will there be a party left by then? They can't go on like this, its cruelty.
The biggest issue is people being radicalised online .
The ECHR is probably not best equipped to deal with the current immigration situation based on rules set up after the war. However had Kemi been in Government recently she would probably be aware that most of the opposition to the Rwanda scheme was from home grown international human rights lawyers.
In terms of the polling implications of leaving the ECHR, most Conservative voters back Kemi proposing that as do most Reform voters and she will hope to win back a few voters from Farage as a result. Nearly a quarter of Tory voters oppose ECHR withdrawal though and if they start going LD and Reform voters stay Reform, Cleverly would be likely to replace Kemi as Conservative leader within a year
Ultimately it will cause more harm than good.
It is, however, a law change that could easily be exploited by bad regimes.
As for your last paragraph: remember how Starmer and Labour lambasted Conservative governments for announcing things outside parliament? Now they're in power, they're doing exactly the same thing.
I'd want to vote for the party most likely to implement it. Reform more likely to win power. Reform more likely to do as they say with a small majority rather than hamstrung by their wets.
I'd blame the Tories for not addressing it earlier.
I'd suspect the Tories are just saying "whatever I want to hear" and don't believe what they say.
I'll be amazed if this gets Refukker voters back to the Tories.
I can’t think of any other event that causes so much split and trouble in the Uk. We don’t see weekly marches in favour of free school meals, increasing tax on the wealthiest, there weren’t weekly marches about Northern Ireland during the troubles.
Yet with Gaza/Israel we see protest, violence, hatred, laws being changed. It’s possibly the subject on here that causes the most rancour and unpleasantness on here that I can think of.
And yet it has absolutely zero real role in British life. It’s not a neighbour, neither Gaza nor Israel are a potential military threat, they are not great economic powers where the outcome majorly affects our country. The foundations of the argument are in religions that are minorities in our country.
I don’t know where I meant to go with this post but I just find it deeply depressing how the situation has dug so deep into British life and discourse, there are plenty of other stories with such hellish death and destruction that get nothing as we have mentioned here. The polarisation and anger here though is crazy though and I am not even certain the weekly marches and protests will stop even if there is a peace deal when all they do is entrench division and cost this country a fortune in policing etc.
Anyway, ramble/rant over. I blame my meds.
The vast majority at these protests aren't anti Jewish, they are anti genocide, my friend's mother was arrested yesterday for the first time in her life at 80, which amused her son, given she's over the last 40 years protested against inter alia South Africa/apartheid, China/Tibet, Sudan, Russia, and Yugoslavia.
From what I gather her crime, holding a Palestine flag, which according to others, will see no further action in a few weeks time.
Just ask those Reform councils when their DOGE-style savings will translate to lower council tax demands!
Indeed conflating protesting Israels actions with Jew hatred is in fact in itself Anti-Semitism (textbook definition).
I'm on the fence as to whether we should leave the ECHR or not. On the one hand I don't see any reason to be members, plenty of democracies around the world aren't members. On the other I don’t especially care.
However what is absolutely true is that no Parliament can bind its successors and all agreements are subject to change.
Democracy is more important than the GFA. If we vote to leave the ECHR, or if Ireland did, the GFA would just have to change like it or lump it. It does not end our democracy.
People can also try Judicial Reviews and you can pick up template JR's to send to whatever government department you have a beef about. A template JR can in better than challenging court decisions. Try it. It's fun and you can get a 'I kissed a lefty lawyer T-shirt to wear'
But the more serious point is that Kemi doesn't really understand our legal system. It's foreign to her and it shows.
I would not like it if you called me a "pro genocide/pro Tommy Robinson shill". I would also be rather confused and amused, as I'm uncertain *how* you would make that connection. Especially as I was criticising Netanyahu *before* October 3rd, and you will not find me sharing anything other than contempt for Tommeh.
However, here's why I call those who protested last night "anti-Jewish". Three days ago, there was a terrorist attack on a synagogue. These protests have been spreading fear in the Jewish community. At a time they are grieving, at a time they are fearful, these lovely people protest and spread more fear. And, in my view, hatred.
It's similar to what I said about Tommeh's protest: if you attended you were amplifying his voice, not yours if you disagreed with him. In this case, the attendees amplified the fear many Jews in this country feel.
And I find that appalling.
I think the key difference is how the UK Government is responding to such public opinion. The protests are as much against our government as the Israeli one - and the sense that we are abdicating our responsbilities under the Genocide Convention. People often ask why there aren't such protests against what Russia is doing in Ukraine. Well, we are actually funding and arming the Ukrainians...
It’s painful to watch .
The UK and France had former colonies which grew bananas and had policies which favoured banana imports from those countries as it helped UK/French companies (first independently then via the EU), American companies grew bananas in other countries and felt discriminated against.
By the way who keeps liking some of your more outrageous posts?
If she was pleasing you she really would have a problem
The Israelis are the ones attacked by Hamas.
We should be actually funding and arming the Israelis until Hamas surrenders unconditionally.
The prescription for winning next time is simple. Stay roughly in the centre and be your own person and don't be afraid to go against the grain. As my first boss-an emminent photographer- said to me; "if you want to get to the top when everyone else zigs-zag".
Both Tory teams are Reform Cosplay.
The most amusing thing is that it will win no votes back from
Reform and will lose traditional voters so it's a totally inept strategy as well as being morally bankrupt.
A good proportion of those people on those marches, including Jewish protestors, are not anti-semitic, and a fair proportion are.
A good proportion of the criticism of moderm Israel is absolutely and entirely justified, and some of it elates to broader and older prejudices. It's true that the Israeli government clearly weaponises the issue of anti-semitidm to stifle coverage of war crimes, and it's also true that many middle-eastetn nations weaponise anti-zionisn as a cover for religious hatred.
We could go and on with this. because it seems that one of our key modern problems is going beyond binary thinking.
Mind you pretending they weren't in Government during the Boriswave is possibly a tactic of outright genius.
Opponents of leaving try to say “this is impossible l, you can’t leave ECHR because to w GFA is like collapse and all the northern Irish people would start killing each other and bombing the mainland”
The reality is that the Irish government values the GFA so would work to find a solution.
But given Starmer’s traditional approach perhaps we could just give them the 6 counties without asking the locals?
The UK can do something worthwhile, in relation to Ukraine. There is very little worthwhile that we can do, in relation to Gaza, however.
To the protestors, the blame lies wholly with Israel, a stance which no British government will endorse.
NATO is our main defence against Russia
at least and kept most of the
redwall Conservative even if the bluewall went Labour or LD, which it still did with Rishi anyway
As you say, if the status quo stops being the status quo then international agreements will be updated.
The Israel-Gaza conflict dynamics remind me most of the Russian wars in Chechnya. Which of course Russia eventually won.
It will take time and on some policies they will be near to Reform but with softer edges
I listen to the view the conservative party is irrelevant and in terminal decline, but if that does materialise than it will be PM Farage and neither of us want that under any circumstances
The majority are seeing genocide take place in front of their eyes and they want to stop that happening.
Israel is committing said crime, their government has invited Tommy Robinson as an ally to Israel.
I work for an identifiably Jewish bank, we get regular updates from the police/intelligence services/government about protests.
so for example I knew at the start of last week that there was a pro Palestine march scheduled in Piccadilly on Thursday.
I also know a lot of these protests are planned well in advance and the organisers do not give the police advance notice so when you said the protests on Thursday night were scheduled after the attack was wrong.
The biggest threat at work is from the far right (who think we fund antifa and Muslim immigrants) and the hard left anti capitalists, not pro Palestinian protesters.
I would like to meet these far right activists wanting to know why a Jewish firm wants more Muslims in the UK.
Collisions on pavements and at zebra crossings surged nearly 60 percent in five years
...
Last year was the worst on record for casualties involving cyclists on pavements and at zebra crossings.
Police recorded 603 incidents where a pedestrian was injured in collision with a cyclist in 2024.
That’s up 19 percent from the 507 similar injuries in 2023.
Up to 321 of those collisions took place either on a pavement or a pedestrian crossing, a 9 percent surge from the 292 seen in 2023.
https://www.lbc.co.uk/article/cyclists-injured-pedestrians-record-5HjdDww_2/
Put simply, his problem is that he is not very good. He seems to have only nebulous objectives, and no plan as to how to reach them. If he does have a plan, he cannot sell it. And the team he has selected to surround him have similar flaws. He also cannot bring his party together.
Compare with Blair. For all his faults, he had clear objectives (perhaps too clear...) and plans as to how to get there (even if some did not work). And he sold that plan well, in part because he had a very effective and skilful team around him. He also managed to get his party unified, at least for his first term.
Labour - heck, the country - really need a 1997-style government, whether Conservative or Labour.
If the ECHR is seen as the obstacle to effective border control (and having read it I'm now convinced it's one of them, as with our very strong rule of law it makes almost all individual cases absolutely judiciable in British waters) then leaving it will not generate a political issue.
On topic, more or less, I fail to see why any agreement, treaty or whatever signed seventy or so years ago should not be reviewed, tweaked or whatever in the light of circumstances, and with the agreement and consent of, at least, a large majority of the signatories.
I couldn't watch all of Kemi's interview; hectoring and over-bearing. Especially unpleasant from someone who is, after all, an immigrant.
Sunak steadied the ship.
We need to look at how trump is throwing away the old rules for a new path. Do we get good value out of our trade agreements ? Do we get good value out of nato ?
EVERYTHING should be on the table.
I support this, but I cannot see labour winning any more votes, indeed I would expect a large revolt from their backbenchers
Unfortunately this is no country for young men. Or women.
If the UK Government had come out of support of Hamas in the aftermath of their terrorist attack I would have whole-heartedly supported the right of everyone on here to protest that. I'd have joined in.
"Your problem is that you are lumping the vast majority of people peacefully protesting with an extremist fringe."
And your problem (and theirs...) is that they are not chucking out the extremist fringe, but acting in concert with them.
Many Jews in this country are living in fear. And protesting this weekend, so soon after a terrorist attack on the Jewish community, amplifies that fear. Still protesting on Thursday is unbelievably crass.
Hopefully, you will know that I have zero care for the far right. I detest them, as I have made clear on many occasions.
The USSR had all kinds of human rights legislation. Tankies used to love pointing this out.
The Judges in the USSR interpreted such laws.. to the advantage of the state.
IIRC Tuesday's briefing said a protest is scheduled in Manchester but based on previous occasions we would expect similar ones in major cities.
Did we do that Google (Youtube) gave in and ponied up $24m to Trump to "settle" a frivolous lawsuit ? I missed it last week.
YouTube agrees to pay Trump $24 million to settle lawsuit over Jan. 6 suspension
YouTube will pay $24.5 million to President Trump to resolve a 2021 lawsuit that claimed he was the victim of censorship when the site suspended his account following the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol by Trump's supporters, according to federal court papers filed on Monday.
It's the latest settlement reached by a tech company sued by Trump in the wake of the Capitol riots. In January, Meta paid the president $25 million over Facebook's and Instagram's decision to suspend Trump after Jan. 6. Elon Musk's X, formerly Twitter, paid out $10 million over similar allegations.
https://www.npr.org/2025/09/29/nx-s1-5557371/youtube-trump-lawsuit-settlement
They are just a mixed bag of people with many different motivations, as many groups are. It's just very difficult for our increasingly and toxically binary public culture to assimilate facts like these, so the boosters of social media ramp it up further.
brag aboutconfess my sins then get told to say 100 Hail Marys and I would be forgiven.It’s been noticed that since the Peace Process, there has been a massive upturn.
Haters gotta hate, right?
Edit: the original version of the joke uses a Hindu neighbour. I suspect that’s because of how the word Hindu sounds in a Falls Road accent at 11/10
Things can only get better!