General British politics discussion thread

Sam Russell

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119222680#Comment_119222680

Those same circles would include those in poverty as being extreme left.

Perhaps, even those who went to a comprehensive school would also be extreme left. Only those who went to Eton are OK in those circles. [Other such schools might be OK as well.]

Unions do a lot more than just look for endless pay rises and threaten strikes if their demands are not met.

The leaders of industries, on the other hand, just have a quiet word. in private, with their friends in Gov, and achieve exactly what they want.

PopePalpatine

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119220900#Comment_119220900

Don't forget those dastardly middle class activists.

breezy1985

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119224660#Comment_119224660

The inner London elite that the City of London investment banker with the EU wife Farage warned us about.

Headshot

The UK are really hitting the bottom of the barrel

No 10 to set out sweeping plans to override power of Europe’s human rights court

https://www.theguardian.com/law/2022/jun/21/uks-new-bill-of-rights-will-curtail-power-of-european-human-rights-court

breezy1985

We are really in silly childish "start our own court with blackjack and hookers" territory now.

ancapailldorcha

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119233633#Comment_119233633

It's worse than that. They're doing real and lasting damage to the British constitution and all to compensate for their own corruption, greed and incompetence.

breezy1985

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119233714#Comment_119233714

What British constitution ?

Surely that's been the real glaring problem since Johnson took over. Magna Carta + some gentlemens agreements + historic best practice was always open to abuse from someone dodgy enough

pixelburp

Let's call a spade a spade here: The Tory government is trying to slow-walk the country into a quasi-authoritarian regime. And what's the justification?

The abolition of the Human Rights Act (HRA), including reducing the influence of the European court of human rights (ECHR), will be introduced before parliament on Wednesday in what the government described as a restatement of Britain’s sovereignty

But of course it's "sovereignty". Translation: we want the right to bypass Human Rights when it suits us; and if you don't like it, you can protest peacefully. Oh sorry, my assistant tells me we're trying to remove that right as well. Well. There's always Twitter. For now.

I wonder how many steps a government like this has to go until, for the public's safety, consistency of governance etc etc, the term of a government is slowly increased.

ancapailldorcha

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119233738#Comment_119233738

The British, ie the English constitution which is a patchwork of laws, Acts of Parliament, royal decrees and conventions which have accumulated over centuries. The term "Constitution" doesn't exclusively refer to a specific document such as the Irish constitution.

Sam Russell

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119233562#Comment_119233562

Raab is one of the thickest planks in this Gov platform. He is the one who never read the GFA when it was central to his brief as Brexit Secretary. - all 34 pages of it.

I wonder if he knows the history of the ECtHR and its founding by British lawyers after WW II - and its intention to prevent authoritarian rule returning to Europe - of course not.

pixelburp

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119233864#Comment_119233864

I'd say he may well be aware of Britain's role in the ECHR - I just don't think he cares. Oh, there'd be something about it being 80 years ago, times having changed - all that kind of hand-waving guff. What it comes down to, as always, is power & the preservation of it for you and your friends. Give it another few years of this lot and the EU will be buttressed by two so-called Potemkin democracies with Russia and the UK.

I know some might be rolling their eyes at my hyperbole - I can think of one or two specific users n' all - but I do genuinely believe this crop of Tories want to harden everything into nothing more than a facade of democracy.

Sam Russell

The voting system, already rigged in favour of the Tories, is being further moved to favour them further with Wales losing MPs in favour of England. FPTP is already undemocratic, given the preponderance of safe seats.

So democracy is already under threat, before any of these moves.

ancapailldorcha

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119233864#Comment_119233864

Raab is a former human rights lawyer and the son of a Jewish Czech refugee. He's not cut from the same old Etonian cloth as most Tories which makes his dedication and venality somewhat surprising. Perhaps it's as banal as having no principles beyond material and political gain.

Sam Russell

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119233929#Comment_119233929

Every law case has lawyers on both sides of the argument - one proposing and one denying.

Was he a Human Rights Lawyer opposed to Human Right, by any chance?

Anyway, he is astonishingly thick.

ancapailldorcha

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119233949#Comment_119233949

I'm not praising him. I just think it's worth taking a moment to note his background. He's also co-author of the odious Britannia Unchained which claimed that British workers are lazy. Truss and Patel are also co-authors.

ArmaniJeanss

Lindsay Hoyle is so poor as speaker.

Just watching 90 seconds of PMQ there - a direct question is asked (did you try to get Carrie a job, Yes/No?), Johnson replies with some tangential spiel about creating 620K new jobs. Speaker lets it go and moves onto the next question. Surely Hoyle can intervene and say that the question hasn't been answered?

It's just pointless.

Hermy

I seem to recall John Major in an interview some years ago saying that PMQ's is all about answering a question you weren't asked.

pixelburp

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119234346#Comment_119234346

It says a lot about the position UK politics finds itself in when one looks back at the likes of John Major with a degree of fondness. Christ, Maggie Thatcher feels like a better time.

VinLieger

Tories really being kicked around by the Mick Lynch from the train union today even though every major outlet seemed to be gunning for him.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h9ZQLI500hA

Also dont forget the tory backbencher who posted this....

https://twitter.com/markjenkinsonmp/status/1539136883678412800

breezy1985

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119235530#Comment_119235530

Is that a current Tory MP blaming Labour for the strike ?

ancapailldorcha

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119235577#Comment_119235577

Yep. Completely tone deaf.

I think we've entered the age of Schrodinger's Labour party which is all powerful and tyrannical while being too feeble to run the country.

VinLieger

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119235577#Comment_119235577

It absolutely is, irony and satire no longer exist when it comes to the tory party.

breezy1985

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119235587#Comment_119235587

Sometimes in politics 2+2=5

VinLieger

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119235666#Comment_119235666

I doubt its even that, far more likey its simply "hurr durr unions striking = labour bad"

serfboard

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119233929#Comment_119233929

The Banality of Evil, as Hannah Arendt described it.

pixelburp

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119235577#Comment_119235577

Seems to be the tactic being applied by the Tories at the moment. The big question will be if it's working. You'd hope not.

Hermy

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119234367#Comment_119234367

It's come back to me now. What he said was more along the lines of you try every way possible to avoid answering a question and when all else fails you answer a question you weren't asked. And that appears to be what Armani described above re Lindsay Hoyle.

Podge_irl

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119235577#Comment_119235577

It is the talking point that has been given to Tory MPs. It is the strategy that CCHQ/Government has adopted.

I think it reflects accurately their general competence.

Ancapailldorcha mentioned Brittanica Unchained and it's been on my mind. When you think of where the authors have ended up in Cabinet, along with Brexit itself, the unwillingness to sign up to regulations, and now the human rights stuff. It's all very ugly.

It's galling that the right to protest a doctor's Do Not Resuscitate order is being removed. Did they see how effective it was during Covid and see it as a useful tool when the NHS becomes more private?

If I put on my conspiracy hat, I'd be forgiven for thinking the Rwanda flights were the perfect fight to pick with the ECHR. It's hard to go against a human rights court, but if you know your base is for these types of flights, then it works.

"The book is written by Kwasi Kwarteng, Priti Patel, Dominic Raab, Chris Skidmore and Elizabeth Truss."

"The British are among the worst idlers in the world. We work among the lowest hours, we retire early and our productivity is poor. Whereas Indian children aspire to be doctors or businessmen, the British are more interested in football and pop music."

Do their supporters know what it is they're actually supporting?

PommieBast

@[Deleted User]

If I put on my conspiracy hat, I'd be forgiven for thinking the Rwanda flights were the perfect fight to pick with the ECHR. It's hard to go against a human rights court, but if you know your base is for these types of flights, then it works.

The FT quite nicely summed it all up as vice-signalling. And it ain't new.