POLITICS CORNER

[Big Kev]

Are there not 'council' facilities in the Civic Centre on Station Road?

[Stanley]

Leaving aside our eager anticipation of Der Tag in 23 days......
Universal condemnation of May's statement about police funding. The issue of knife crime is raising all sorts of other areas where underfunding is destroying social services as well as effective policing.
The inquiry into Undercover policing is throwing up some interesting facts. See THIS BBC report about the revelation that police files were used in the infamous blacklists used by employers.

[plaques]

Last week I was asked to participate in a telephone survey on voting identification by You Gov type surveyor. I felt the whole survey was biased towards introducing more proof of voting identity. Leaving aside the fact that polls on major issued have got it wrong, introducing a trial before a full survey has been completed looks to pre judge the result. I know that some people have voiced concerns that some areas in Pendle may have been cheating but at the moment these only remain suspicions. The American experience shows that the more controls you introduce the less likely poor people are likely to vote. I think we have to tread very carefully on this one.

[PanBiker]

Are there not 'council' facilities in the Civic Centre on Station Road?

The details of how the voter ID card and photographic requirement will be produced have not been released yet (imminent) according to PBC. There is an indication that you will be able to have your photo taken at the Council facilities whether this extends to our Civic Hall remains to be seen. If you find you have to provide your own photo for whatever reason you effectively will be being charged to vote.

An LCC Bus Pass is a compliant document.

This may be handy for a lot of older folk, there will be many more who don't have any photo ID which encourages obtaining a postal vote. Apparently the need for ID is seen as a challenge to postal vote fraud, how the y work that one out I don't know.

Turnouts will be very interesting in May.

[Stanley]

"I think we have to tread very carefully on this one.
I agree P. I get the impression that voter fraud is being used as an excuse to make voting more complicated.
Have a look at these, courtesy of Private Eye...

[Stanley]

Later.... The news is that after 'a robust discussion' (Code for a flaming row) Geoffrey Cox has come away from Brussels talks which have broken down, Michelle Barnier commenting that he was trying to find a legal answer to a political problem. He has been told that he must come up with different and better ideas by tomorrow. This of course is impossible.
This has put the cat amongst the pigeons in Downing Street. It is evident that May's cynical ploy of running the clock down and scattering bribes and concessions round on the rebels is failing and the vote is going to be lost again on Tuesday. May has said she will continue to try to get it passed but time has run out and the Tories now are doing a new campaign of fear amongst their own MPs. If the deal isn't passed on Tuesday they expect to lose control of the Brexit negotiations.
After that all bets are off and this is why Corbyn has been consulting with people like Nick Boles and Oliver Letwin and it would seem that some sort of customs union, a softer Brexit, is on the cards.
What a bloody mess......

[Tizer]

They're still calling for a `Norway solution' but don't mention that Norway has to accept a lot of control from the EU. I remember a Norwegian minister interviewed on a radio programme at about the time of the referendum explaining how they received their faxed instructions every day from the EU. I can't see the Brexiteers liking that!

[Stanley]

Quite..... Was it Abe Lincoln that said "You can please some of the people all of the time and all of them some of the time but you can't please all of them all of the time".
[I had a furtle and found this: You can please some of the people all of the time, you can please all of the people some of the time, but you can't …” … please all the people all of the time” (Poet John Lydgate as made famous by Abraham Lincoln).



A little treat for Tripps from Private Eye.....

[chinatyke]

Out means out!
Why would you want to stay in an organisation that is considering applications from Albania, Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia, and Turkey who would contribute nothing to the EU budget? UK leaving will only be the first step of their downfall. I'm sure they have a reason to be worried about losing the UK. Get out now and preserve the UK currency and strengths.

[Stanley]

I suggest you move back here and campaign for Brexit.
Meanwhile, we are told that T May is going to make a speech here today imploring for help from the EU. Things are getting desperate at No. 10.
Jeremy Hunt lays the blame squarely on the EU being obstructive. I seem to remember Richard forecasting this two years ago..... You ain't seen nothing yet! Wait until she loses the vote on Tuesday.
What a bloody mess.......

[Stanley]

What can anyone say? May talks about not exiting the EU being political failure. My version is that manufacturing an artificial crisis like this is the failure. Between them, Cameron, Osborne and May have ensured their legacy will live forever, for all the wrong reasons! This is an artificial crisis, no wonder the EU has lost patience with us.....
Later.... more criticism of Barnier for 're-running old arguments' when all he was doing was stating the obvious. The denigration of the EU starts even now, the Tories have given up any hope of success on Tuesday and are going into recrimination mode, this will include turf wars inside the party. It begins to look like a break-up.....

[plaques]

Away from Brexit for a moment. Chelsea Manning of Wikileaks fame has been sent to gaol for not giving evidence at a Grand Jury hearing. Manning. These Grand Juries are basically secret trials usually of a very hostile nature. Manning has stated that all that she has to say is already written down at her court marshal and she has nothing further to add. The reasoning behind this trial is that if someone hands over information to a third party without them encouraging or being involved in the original act then that party is innocent of any crime. In this case Manning freely gave Julian Assange the data. The lawyers are trying to get some words or phrasing from Manning where they can bend the law to implicate Assange. Although this looks like a simple vendetta against Assange the same logic could be used in any other 'leaks' concerning military, government or politicians disclosures.

[Stanley]

More away from Brexit. Read THIS and reflect that what looked at the time like a good populist move by the Home Secretary can so soon go sour.....

[Tizer]

Out means out! Why would you want to stay in an organisation that is considering applications from Albania, Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia, and Turkey who would contribute nothing to the EU budget?...

How many times do I have to tell you that the UK (and every other EU member country) has the right to veto the accession of any other nation to the EU? Once we are out we can't prevent their accession. Pay attention at the back!

[chinatyke]

Once we are out we can't prevent their accession.

When we are out we won't care less about the accession of these dead-beat states as we won't be bearing the cost of them. Out means out!

[Stanley]

Sorry to have to say China that you shouting at us from China is less than helpful. When you say 'we' are you telling us that you regard yourself as being here? Tiz is quite right, and one further point, the majority of voters want to remain and the problem isn't the EU, we can handle that, it's a minority failed government who have completely ignored democracy and the other Parties. (Except when they needed to bribe them to get their conditional support.) Brexit started as a cat fight in the Tory Party and has remained like that ever since. Got it?

[Tizer]

When we are out we won't care less about the accession of these dead-beat states as we won't be bearing the cost of them.

We aren't `bearing the cost of them' now and we have the benefit of keeping them way from our front door by virtue of the veto.

[chinatyke]

When you say 'we' are you telling us that you regard yourself as being here?

HMRC consider me as being there as I still pay income tax. But they don't give me increases in my state pension because I'm not there!

As I see it: 2016 Parliament asked the people to decide after PM Cameron renegotiated and presented his deal. The people voted to leave. Like it or lump it, that was what the people who bothered to vote decided.

In a subsequent General Election 80% of the votes were for parties that promised to implement Brexit.
Parliament voted overwhelmingly for Article 50 and for the European Repeal Act.

MPs now have a choice. They can respect democracy, respect the decisions of Parliament, or they can cause a constitutional crisis by reneging on their promises and trying to overturn the democratic decisions of the British public.

I'm not shouting, just observing the shambles.

[PanBiker]

Brexit has got to be the most divisive and corrosive process ever cobbled together. It even has the power to cause argument from folk who have nowt to do with it and will not directly suffer any of the effects of the split. Must be grand on the outside of the melting pot with a big wooden spoon.

[plaques]

I'm not shouting, just observing the shambles.

I totally agree with that statement. I try to read as much as I can on Brexit, 90% of which appears to be misinformation, downright lies and at the best some extreme opinion from someone you've never heard of. The Governments pronouncements usually involve the promise of some new breakthrough that disappears into the ether on Mrs May's return. This is usually followed by another initiative which requires a trip to Brussels and another 10 days of 'can' kicking. Here we are two days away from a meaningful Parliamentary vote and we don't know what they are voting on. I think you were being generous with the word 'Shambles'.

[chinatyke]

Must be grand on the outside of the melting pot with a big wooden spoon.

It is!

[plaques]

This review from CNN is probably as near as you're going to get on the ongoing shambles. Shambles A quote from it "As some companies jump ship, retailers stockpile products and fears of medicine shortages run high, one thing is becoming clear: The utopia that many of the 17.4 million Brexit voters dreamed of may be undeliverable." The only thing I can say is that instead of the usual 5 years lapse before we see the true affect of major changes I think we should only have to wait one year.

[Stanley]

If that P. We are seeing the effects now in areas like business confidence and investment. Every time the Tories have held power in adverse economic circumstances they have failed in their assertion that they, and not Labour 'Understand money'. They simply do not understand how business and investment works. Every time they get a warning from the market on the consequences of their actions they tell us that once we are 'free' we will enter the broad sunlit uplands of growth and prosperity and anyway the EU economy is failing. Go figure....
Meanwhile we are reassured by the fact that 'The RAF has a jet on standby to take the PM to Brussels if needed'. Does that make you feel better? Brussels tells us that the deal is agreed and in the absence of any meaningful proposals from the UK there will be no movement in their position. Can I point out that the EU have been saying this for almost a year. They agreed terms and all May has done since then is try to keep on 'negotiating' (her words) when in fact all she is doing is asking for further concessions.
On an historical note, Here's what Cardinal Wolsey, our top foreign negotiator, said at the height of his powers under Henry VIII in about 1520.... "The making of a treaty is the treaty.It doesn't matter what the terms are, just that there are terms. It's the goodwill that matters and when that runs out the treaty is broken, no matter what the terms say".
Later.... Downing Street has announced that Brexit talks are deadlocked so she won't be needing the jet!

[Stanley]

Later still.... I think Richard would say that THIS was entirely predictable. Boris Johnson venting his spleen on the EU for the failure of the negotiations. (Have you noticed his Prime Ministerial haircut?)
The Tories keep telling us that if May's deal isn't passed it will be a political disaster. For whom I wonder? True there is a political disaster here but what they can't admit is that it is the failure of the talks. Easy to allocate blame because they have made sure all along that it was purely an internal Tory matter. This will now bite them in the bum!
Despite the promise from May speculation includes her withdrawing the vote yet again. If she does (and she has form) you can expect a parliamentary explosion.
I listened this morning to a Tory MP called Marcus Fysh, a former investment banker and member of the ERG. He was on Today to reassure us that all is well with the process. If you can find the interview it's worth listening to as an example of stonewalling, avoiding direct questions and trying to pass of a lot of Brexit speak about customs and borders as hot and reassuring news. It was so bad I had to sit down and hear him out. If this is the best they can do we are stuffed!

[Stanley]

I must be getting paranoid..... I heard about the surprise trip to Strasbourg (The RAF came in handy after all.) and I smell a rat. Suppose she announces that a new avenue of negotiations has opened at the last minute and uses that to kick the can a bit further down the road. (I know! This lot is getting to me!!)