Government Watch - 2

Not that simple, Petra. You obviously didn't read all the article.
It requires a parliamentary vote, and the agreement of all the other 27 member states.

May's speech seems to be her riposte to JC's comment that "there is a crisis of legitimacy in capitalism". I have put a bit from the DP on the Jeremy Corbyn the political equivalent of buying a Harley Davidson? thread. She seems to be having to prove that what they have been doing has been the right thing (at last).

They had a Tory MP on DP and Martyn Lewis really put him in his place - very politely - when the MP chimed out that "Austerity wasn't a choice". He pointed out that it was a choice, it might not have been the wrong choice, but it certainly was a choice. He said that only under the Tories economic belief it may not have been a choice.

It really is time that we stop believing that there is only one way of looking at economics.

What is really interesting and shows how unstable this government is, is the fact that May felt she had to give the speech she did.

"May called capitalism the “greatest agent of collective human progress ever created” and said prosperity required a tough approach to ensure budgets are balanced.

“To abandon that balanced approach with unfunded borrowing and significantly higher levels of taxation would damage our economy, threaten jobs, and hurt working people,” she said, adding that “ultimately, that would mean less money for the public services we all rely on.” "

She's really lost the plot.
Doesn't she realise what her brand of economics has done to the public services "we" all rely on?
Love to know who she means by we.

"Living standards have fallen since May’s Conservatives came to power in 2010, due to years of meagre wage growth and bouts of high inflation - including a slowdown caused by last year’s vote to leave the European Union.

BoE Governor Mark Carney, speaking at the same event, told May that the central bank’s ultra-low interest rates and other stimulus programmes would be unable to offset the likely hit to the economy from Brexit.

“The biggest determinants of the UK’s medium-term prosperity will be the country’s new relationship with the EU and the reforms it catalyses,” he said, repeating comments he has made previously on Brexit.

“Most of the necessary adjustments are real in nature and therefore not in the gift of central bankers.” "

From Reuters. No joy for her there, then.

People believe it Jen - you have to remember that. The same as they believe that austerity was a necessity - Tories have repeated it so often.

You can see that May is a child of the vicarage - what an over the top speech. As people say so often - put two economists in a room and you get three opinions. None of them are right or wrong as such. The choice of way forward is based on the ethos of the party in government. Austerity, of the type we have been force to undergo, was a political judgement by a Conservative party farther to the right than we have seen in decades; not an economic necessity.

Verhofstadt gave a speech at LSE this evening - he thinks he understands why TM gave the speech about Brexit in Florence.

"She chose Florence because Florentine politics in the 15th century made her feel at home I think - backstabbing, betrayal, noble families fighting for power and so on. So, I think it is an environment that she recognised very well."

He also said
48% is not a minority you can ignore because doing politics, in my point of view, is trying to take all big opinions on board and to find compromises not to broker [difficult to here that word] differences. I think it was John Stuart Mill who teaches us that democracy is not the dictatorship of the majority.

The commentator then said that the dictatorship of the majority, as he calls it, is something that bothers people in Europe much more than it bothers people actually in the country where it matters here in Britain, but that's something that you hear over and over again whether you are in Brussels, Berlin or Paris. They don't think that the minority - the 48% - have been given the right voice in this whole process, let alone the 3.2 million EU citizens living in this country.

Isn't it great that the EU worries more about the large minority but our country doesn't They are storing up trouble for the future in my opinion.

I am not sure that came from tonight's speech.

What brexiteers haven't realised is that if the EU citizens living in this country had been given the vote, the result would have been the reverse.

The EU - and Verhofstadt in particular - has been canvassing the opinions of UK citizens living in the EU to see if they would like some form of EU membership for themselves - I think he had a huge number who said they would. It is not yet clear if this is a possibility - or if it would be available to UK citizens still living in UK.

Both my sons are applying for EU passports, one Danish and one Spanish as they are married to women of those nationalities. Their children are going to have both passports, too.
It makes sense to me.

I assume they are applying to Spain and Denmark Jen for, in effect, dual citizenship. I think Verhofstadt and the EU are looking at a different one entirely but I think it will be difficult to do - we may find it turns out to be more of a Visa type thing.

I think Denmark has only just decided to accept dual citizenship last year, as otherwise it's population would be considerably reduced.

This is interesting. The Lords is fighting back.

www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-09-28/may-s-brexit-bill-faces-new-obstacle-after-lords-demand-changes

Well the panel of lawmakers seems like a very good idea Jen. It will be interesting to see where this goes.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nt9VMCT9JRc&t=0s

An interesting take on economics and what we're not being told about it.

www.theguardian.com/politics/2017/sep/28/boris-johnson-charged-with-breaching-ministerial-code-over-thinktank-launch

Boris lost his chance of being PM?

Boris lost his chance of being PM?

Oh, I was going to post a comment by one of his ardent admirers from Dr Richard North's Leave EU blog. But between my reading it earlier this morning and finding it again now to copy it's been deleted by Richard North! Who sets out his reasons for deleting it very clearly:

I'm sick to the back teeth of your mindless paeans of praise for that sociopath. You are just the sort of stupid Englishman who in the 1930s would have lined up behind the Daily Mail and supported Adolf Hitler, thinking him a "jolly good chap" who's really sorting out Germany's problems.

Incidentally, Leave EU is a blog that's really worth reading, the North's are Leavers who are absolutely appalled at the mess the tories are making of Brexit. Some civilised BTL comments, too. Both from Leavers and Remainers.

eureferendum.com/blogview.aspx?blogno=86621#disqus_thread

Oops, errant apostrophe in 'Norths'

That's good, Maizie.

Mrs May's school report from all her teachers; not sufficient progress.

Backing up to Jen's link re what we are not being told about economics, all I can say is how true. Sadly, just as cults can take a lot of people with them when their predictions turn out to be untrue. so can parties with their economic predictions. His comparison with the cult of economic theories is frightening because you can see it with the Tory 'TINA' brainwashing.

Just as cults do, they first deprive you and then appear to give you love. When their predictions prove to be untrue you are blamed for not believing long enough and hard enough in what they have proselytised.

Luckily, they found in the 80s that deprogramming is rarely necessary as the effects of brainwashing is temporary at its best, and completely ineffective at its worst so we must hope that when shown what the right-wing of the Tory party are doing - for the same reason as cult leaders - skimming the cream off for themselves and being held in esteem by others, then they will turn on these self-servers and never let them back into power again.

Maizie an article in the New Statesman of last week began:

Boris Johnson is a liar, a charlatan and a narcissist. and then goes on to show why. I cannot believe that May, who I do not believe to be a bad person, is not saying "this may be my downfall but I cannot look at myself in the mirror if I do not sack this man".

David Henke has indicated that the Tories are heading towards oblivion as a political party. 40000 left this summer and they are down to their last 100k.

Everyone's joining labour

Did you see Johnson began to recite The Road to Mandalay in a sacred Buddhist temple?!!!!! It was only the British ambassador that stopped him.

He really ought to be got rid of

That was appalling, whitewave. He didn't understand, either even after he'd been told to shut up. He has no idea of appropriate behaviour.
May needs to get rid of him. She could even give the job to Jacob. That would keep him close, and I am sure he'd have more sense than Boris in that situation.

Everyone has more sense than Johnson.