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Post by Old Badger on Dec 7, 2019 0:19:09 GMT -5
"The British diplomat in charge of explaining Brexit to the US government, Congress and public, has resigned, saying she was no longer prepared to “peddle half-truths on behalf of a government I do not trust...I have been increasingly dismayed by the way in which our political leaders have tried to deliver Brexit, with reluctance to address honestly, even with our own citizens, the challenges and trade-offs which Brexit involves; the use of misleading or disingenuous arguments about the implications of the various options before us; and some behaviour towards our institutions, which, were it happening in another country, we would almost certainly as diplomats have received instructions to register our concern...It makes our job to promote democracy and the rule of law that much harder, if we are not seen to be upholding these core values at home." linkIn short, Johnson and his Cabinet are lying to the UK public about Brexit, and in the process undermining democracy at home and abroad. This is basically the same case being made against Trump on this side of the Atlantic. For reasons not fully understandable, the right wing of Western politics has become increasingly detached from truth and democratic values over the past few decades. Without doubt part of the explanation lies with Rupert Murdoch's malevolent intrusion into first the UK and then US media space with a frankly ideological "news" business that intentionally lies (there's no nice way to describe what they do), which has normalized lying to such a degree that millions of people no longer believe there are any such things as "facts". Ironically, it was this kind of "fact-free relativism" that genuine conservatives used to accuse the left of promoting. But there's clearly more to it than just Murdoch's empire, important as it has been in incubating and magnifying dishonesty as truth. There had to be a receptive audience for this. I suspect that once this fever of disinformation leads to a real political catastrophe, and assuming we recover from that to something more normal, there will be dissertations galore exploring why people across the West became so susceptible to the crazy xenophobia, conspiracy-mongering, and racism openly pushed by the Murdochs of the world. And my guess is that they'll find answers not all that different from what an earlier generation found when they looked at how Europeans became enamored of strong-man fascism in the 1920s-30s.
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Post by Old Badger on Dec 10, 2019 12:23:44 GMT -5
Boris Johnson is a serial liar, much like our own Donald Trump, particularly when it comes to Brexit. The latest: "Simon Coveney, Ireland’s foreign minister, has challenged Boris Johnson’s claim that under his Brexit deal there would be no checks or controls on goods moving between Northern Ireland and Britain...'It was very clear when the deal was done,' he said in Brussels on Monday. 'The EU has made it clear they want to minimise the impact on goods coming from Great Britain to Northern Ireland, but at the same time goods coming from Great Britain to Northern Ireland will need to have some checks to ensure that the EU knows what is potentially coming into their market through Northern Ireland.' The comments contradicted Johnson’s claims, repeated last Sunday, that there would be no checks on goods moving from Northern Ireland to Great Britain." linkOf course there are going to be border checks in Ireland. That's what it means to have the island split between the EU and the UK, if the UK's outside the EU. Duh! Even Boris's one-time allies, the DUP, get that: "Coveney’s tacit rebuke followed sharper censure on Monday from Arlene Foster, the Democratic Unionist party leader, who accused the prime minister of misrepresenting the Brexit deal and breaking his word to Northern Ireland." The whole Brexit campaign was built on a bedrock of lies, but by the time that becomes apparent to most UK voters it will be too late.
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Post by Old Badger on Dec 13, 2019 15:29:02 GMT -5
EU leaders are ecstatic at the election results in the UK: "The counterintuitive celebration stemmed from Europe's resignation that Britain's split from the European Union was inevitable, and from E.U. frustrations with more than three years of dealing with British leaders who were barely in control of their own Parliament." Yep, they were sick and tired of dealing with May and Boris and can't wait to get them out the door. That won't happen, really, until the end of next year, but at least there's light at the end of the tunnel. Ah, but there's a catch: a trade deal that the UK needs with its (by far) biggest trading partner. The size of his majority ironically may make negotiating one easier because he'll have a cushion against the hardest of hard-liners, such as the insufferable Jacob Riis-Mogg. linkAngela Merkel put it this way: “We will have a competitor on our doorstep now, a country that is no longer a member of the single market. Great Britain will have to carefully weight the advantages and disadvantages [of diverging from E.U. regulations]." Emmanuel Macron was more blunt: “My message to the British is that the more loyal we are to each other, the more our relationship will be close. But don’t think you can have an extensive trading relationship, a maximal access to the European market, with substantial differences on sanitary, climate, economic and social regulations. This is not true. [If Johnson wants] a very ambitious trade deal, then the regulatory convergence must be very ambitious. It is easy. Be my guest.” In other words, you want a lot of trade with us, you have to adopt our rules--which you no longer have any voice in making. Heads we win, tails you lose. ;-)
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Post by Old Badger on Dec 19, 2019 12:45:26 GMT -5
"MPs are expecting to vote on the EU withdrawal agreement bill for the first time in this parliament on Friday, as Johnson aims to rush it through its first stage before Christmas. The new bill scraps or waters down a number of key protections that were in the last one published in October, when Johnson was trying to get the support of some backbench Labour MPs to get it through parliament. It removes an entire schedule that promised to protect workers’ rights, with the government suggesting this will now be dealt with in separate legislation. Ministers will no longer be bound by the legislation to provide updates on the future trading relationship or to make sure parliament approves the government’s negotiating objectives. In a third change, a commitment to take unaccompanied refugee children from Europe, known as the Dubs amendment, is watered down. The legislation acknowledges this is still an aim but does not make a legal promise to take them....The bill overall hands much greater power to Johnson’s government to shape a harder Brexit without the checks and balances of parliament." linkSo, the failure of the anti-Brexit forces to either bring down the Government earlier this year (although they had the votes to do so) or to unite against the Tories in this month's elections have resulted in this: now that a majority of voters have turned against Brexit (by about 9 points in current polling) and voted for anti-Brexit candidates and parties, the minority who elected a Tory majority will make a radical change to the UK's economic and political life without much role for anyone outside No. 10. Jeremy Corbyn and Jo Swinson, as the leaders of Labour and the Lib-Dems, deserve the lion's share of blame for this fiasco, though others certainly contributed. Swinson's refusal to back a majority coalition led by Corbyn, and Corbyn's refusal to back a coalition led by anyone else (even a fellow Labourite) forced this disaster. As happened here in 2016, when thousands of "progressives" in closely-fought states decided that, since Hillary was going to win anyway, they could "send a message" by voting for Putinist Stein and the Green Party, a minority is now about to run roughshod over the majority, even if it imperils the unity of the country. Go figure.
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Post by Old Badger on Dec 21, 2019 14:33:15 GMT -5
Well, the House finally passed a Brexit bill, 358 to 234, with nearly 40 MPs abstaining. How'd they do it? "Johnson has hailed his Brexit deal as his own creation. After Friday’s vote, inside the House of Commons chamber, the prime minister appeared to sign copies. But it is approximately 95 percent his predecessor’s deal — with the exception that Johnson caved to European demands to find a way to protect at all cost a peace accord in Ireland. Johnson did what May swore no British prime minister would do, which was to allow for a regulatory and customs border within the United Kingdom. In Johnson’s deal, that new border runs down the Irish Sea." linkYep, Johnson had claimed that if the Tories won the UK would be in a stronger position to challenge the EU. In actuality, all he did was to cut a deal that May refused, effectively leaving Northern Ireland within the EU while taking England, Wales, and Scotland out. Kind of as if Trump had re-negotiated NAFTA by leaving Alaska inside it and taking the other 49 states out: "Sorry Alaska, but you'll have to follow rules set down by Canada and Mexico without any representation from you." The Democratic Unionist Party, naturally,"complained the prime minister tossed them under the bus and that this deal endangers the union." There's a growing movement within NI to re-unite with the Republic, and the DUP correctly sees this deal as helping that movement. Scotland almost certainly is going to hold a new referendum on leaving the UK so it can re-enter the EU as an independent country. In the end, the Brexiteers could wind up with England and a tenuous hold on Wales--which is exactly what many of them--Little Englanders to the core--actually want. Johnson's bill leaves only until the end of 2020 to complete a trade agreement with the EU. That's unlikely to happen; more likely they'll get a partial agreement with negotiations continuing for much more time over the thorniest issues. Meanwhile, the EU already has set its marker: "Britain needs to be willing to adhere closely to European regulations, known as the 'level playing field,' to reach a trade deal with the 27-nation bloc. Johnson has vowed to break free from E.U. rules, a step Europeans say would force them to throw up barriers to British business that want to sell to the continent. 'A level playing field remains a must for any future relationship,' [EU chief negotiator Charles] Michel wrote in his tweet." In other words, the UK has to adhere closely to EU rules, which it no longer has a say in setting. What a deal!
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Post by bigapplebucky on Jan 8, 2020 22:26:00 GMT -5
Scotland almost certainly is going to hold a new referendum on leaving the UK so it can re-enter the EU as an independent country. Oh, I hope so. I suspect most Torries will be horrified about that.
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