We Loves EU
April 20
Thursday, April 20, 2017
This election is about two things: avoiding by-elections due to Tory electoral fraud and securing a bigger majority before brexit pain becomes obvious

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April 19
Thursday, April 20, 2017
The customs union, single market, all the ways in which the EU makes life easier, and safer for us are good. But the most important is the vision, the vision of a continent at peace and working for mutual good, after centuries of war and conflict. On the 8th of June you can vote for that vision, or you can vote to return Britain to an insecure place on the margins of Europe, and History. Your choice.
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April 21
Sunday, April 23, 2017
Polling and pundits, the perils of. They have us believe the election is a foregone conclusion, and that voting will make no difference.
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April 22
Sunday, April 23, 2017
Yo-Yo taxes?
Retail sales they are a'falling. A pound 'bounce' is actually a sign of the kind of volatility that is a negative for manufacturing, key to a successful post Brexit export sector (so, we will not be ready for this). The FTSE is falling.
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April 23
Tuesday, April 25, 2017
A vote for the tories is not just a vote for the harshest of tory bitter pills. It is a vote for lower pensions, higher taxes, a slowing economy, stagnant wages, falling living standards, a less efficient and less comprehensive and possibly privatised NHS, falling standards of social care, lower standards of welfare for the disabled, and a return of open racism and discrimination. A vote for reduced global influence.
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April 24
Tuesday, April 25, 2017
Burqa bans….more (UKIP) millionaires in parliament (or not)….more bank holidays….energy price caps….the return of the Tory Party's Lynton Crosby led project fear...

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April 25
Wednesday, April 26, 2017
Tory MPs walk out of Open Britain, putting party before country, and parliamentary salary before personal principle.
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April 26
Wednesday, April 26, 2017
Vote for Hubris. David Davis repeats tired old mantras of Britain as a global nation, with the bravest armed forces. Blah, blah, blah.
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April 27
Sunday, April 30, 2017
Strong and stable leadership. Isn't this what was offered at the end of the Roman Republic, leading to chaos, war and revolt? Not to mention murder. Which Tory is due to play which role? Ceasar? Brutus? Pompey? Marc Antony? May would of course like to mutate her Octavian into Augustus, an unchallenged strong ruler with subservient institutions.
But strong leaders? May having said she won't take part in any leaders debates, has now been joined by Corbyn. We have the measure of both of them, and it is small in the extreme.
This may be our chance to hear more from leaders who have shown their mettle but suffer from less airtime: Farron and Sturgeon in particular. Corbyn could have used the absence of May to play PM in waiting, instead, he may have to retire and lead another kind of PM, a post mortem on the subject of the death of the Labour Party.
Meanwhile Boris Johnson has assured us we are entering a new era of free trade deals (ignoring the 50+ and growing we are about to lose with harsh tory brexit), which will see us sell Haggis to the US and more whisky to India. Whoopee-do! That will make up nicely for the big chunk of lost GDP and falling disposable incomes, the brain drain and lost research opportunities, and the shrinking of the City of London, won't it? And we thought innovative jam and biscuits was already good.
But we should be worried about a government that is basing its election on the bullshit bingo trick of repeated keywords: 'strong' and 'stable'. Where is the plan?
Instead, the tories have resorted to waving their Johnson around, with cheap insults instead of facts, all rather reminiscent of the empty promises on the side of a little red bus, as much use in the end as a little red book, and as dangerous. So deluded is Johnson he continues to say we do send £350 Million a week, which even the BBC is reporting as wrong.
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April 28
Sunday, April 30, 2017
Angela Merkel is clear. If some in Britain still have illusions that they can have the same status as when they were EU members, they should think again. In other words, when you divorce, you lose conjugal rights. You also lose some material possessions. The departure of the European Medicines Agency is going to provide a 1 billion Euro boost to whichever country is the new host. Presumably that is what the UK is going to lose. Perhaps more, as the pharmaceutical industry may also see relocations to the new HQ.
We are also going to hear about the government's track record on dealing with air pollution according to those pesky EU rules before the General Election. The government have lost a legal bid to keep those hidden until after June 8. We can only surmise it is not going to be good reading for them.
Theresa May has said people need to vote in this election for the national interest. I take it she will be voting for anyone but her party and other KIP parties, such as UKIP and Redkip. She must have meant it when she talked about the Liberal Democratic values of Europe. She will be voting Liberal Democrat on June 8.
Better believe that than her appeal to people to back her because the EU is ganging up on Britain. They're not, they're using collective power to get the best deal for the EU, something the UK as a member benefited from and is now rejecting – and something we remainers warned of. The British people need to gang up on the quitters who led us into this valley of death, and the turncoats like May working hard to take us even further into the abyss.
Don't hand her free votes and an even bigger blank cheque. Lending her your votes, as she is asking people to do to strengthen her negotiation hand is a ploy, one that will be used as a mandate for more cuts, more austerity, less investment, more public debt, and more privatisations of services, especially the NHS. And your vote will not strengthen May's Brexit hand one jot.
What it will do, if the Tories have a big majority, is encourage them to take the easy way out every time. EU playing hardball? Scrap some bank controls and cut taxes to make it a bigger tax haven. US wanting some concessions over a trade deal? Sure, we'll scrap workers rights and buy your chlorine washed chickens. Parliament will need a strong opposition to keep the UK a half-decent country for the majority of its people and not just May's chosen few. Even more importantly, only a strong opposition can mobilise any Tory rebels and reject a bad deal. Best still would be to ditch the Tories altogether, of course.
They are not able. They have only just realised that sanctions are currently imposed by the EU, not the UK. However, apparently, the UK intends to match EU sanctions, because it is afraid that not doing so will weaken its position. Yes, people, project fact strikes again. The UK on its own is a supplicant vis a vis larger countries and blocs. This is of course is just one of many areas where the UK will now have to find the resources to act alone rather than as a member of a Union, and it will not be the most complicated.
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May 1
Wednesday, May 03, 2017
Last week we say that economic growth is slowing, and crime is up, more evidence that the impacts of Brexit are making themselves felt. We learnt from reports on a summit of the EU with Britain that May is unbriefed and unprepared. That we are not taking back control so much as taking leave of our senses.
Britain deserves better than soundbites and spin, and a government that constantly tries to hide and bury or delay bad news, and that stage manages public appearances by keeping the public out, and getting party members to pretend to be the public.
And tells us it would be hard to say no to the US. Yes, of course it will be if we become supplicants, going it alone…
May is living in a dangerous bubble populated by fantasies dreamt up by hard brexiters. But she is keeping the country in the dark even as she seeks an increased mandate. A mandate for what? We do not know. This is not being put to the people.
And voting for her in Scotland won't strengthen the Union. Only policies can do that, and Tory policies on the NHS and other questions, and Tory harsh brexit are inimical to the Union and to the way Scotland votes.
The tory party are of course a coalition of chaos, with their extreme right, Blukip wings versus more liberal, pro-Europe wings. The current takeover by nationalist, authoritarian little englanders is not good for the country. Remember that the Tories may be good at feigning unity at election time, but civil war is never far away, with the country seen as acceptable collateral damage.
May wants her cake before we've even got the ingredients together, let alone baked (or half-baked) it. Let's give her some hard shoulder instead.
Will the tory manifesto be clear? It might appear so, but Britain's position is at such odds with the EUs that it will not be worth the paper it is written on.
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May 2
Wednesday, May 03, 2017
May's government says it is refusing to engage in a briefing war. But is it a war? The EU supposed leaks are nothing that has not been known for months about their position. Much of what they are saying was known before the referendum, including that there is no trade deal that can be better than membership. The exit bill based on agreed contributions and actions is also not new.
The government's claim to be above briefing (which is briefing in itself) is nothing more than an indication that their negotiating cupboard is bare. They have nothing to bargain with, except a hope that they can somehow make the EU look like a bully, which they are attempting to do with their friends in the media.
The government have had months to prepare. That they have not is no indication of a strong and stable government; it rather resembles a drunk trying to balance on a one-legged stool.
The government wants your vote but in 10 months has done nothing to deserve it.
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May 3
Wednesday, May 03, 2017
If the suggestion that EU citizen's already here may be treated the same as non-EU citizens, will they also have to earn over £35,000 a year to earn the right to stay? Which is more than most British people earn, and fails to reflect where unfilled and unskilled jobs are needed to keep the economy going, including many staff in the NHS and in social care, as well as cleaners, restaurant and cafe staff, and so on.
Meanwhile, even the press are not allowed to know what May is really doing as she tours Britain. Can we really trust a PM afraid of meeting her own people, whose choreographed tour involves being carefully protected from meeting anyone who might disagree with her (as is said to happen with businesses wanting to meet her. It's fine, as long as they agree not to disagree or raise thorny questions on Brexit).
Diplomacy is not May's forte, and that does not bode well, as she now vows to be a 'bloody difficult woman' to the people she wants a deal from, whose economy is several times larger than ours. Beggars cannot be choosers, Mrs May. Oh, and what was that bit about not briefing again? Your Mr Johnson seems to be off message, as do you. But do you really intend to act in a way that will damage the country? Is it because you want to punish the people who voted in such a way that your dream job is turning into a nightmare?
If so, perhaps it's time for a change of job? Because trying to morph into Maggie isn't working, May.
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May 4
Friday, May 12, 2017
The Institute for Fiscal Studies is reporting that the UK is still short of tax rises or spending cuts to eliminate its budget deficit. Tory austerity has failed, yet they want not only 5 more years in power, they also want to implement a harsh Tory brexit that will reduce the governments income as business slows and some companies move. No doubt there will be tax cuts to business to help them, but ordinary people will pay either through service cuts or tax rises.
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May 5
Friday, May 12, 2017
Can a country really want to vote away wealth and health to cut immigration? Polls and council election results showing big Tory gains might suggest so. However, Britain's first past the post system and brexit backing, disintegrating labour party are conspiring to make it appear more so, as is the lack of decent information in a right wing, xenophobic media landscape.
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May 6
Friday, May 12, 2017
So the tories accuse the lib-dems and greens of 'grubby' deals over election alliances in some constituencies….without of course saying how they are grubby. This is a plain and simple smear. Greens and Lib-Dems agree on the most important question of this election – brexit. It's not grubby, it's principle. Not something the tories understand given how many of them have abandoned theirs.
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May 8
Friday, May 12, 2017
VE in Europe day. The day when Europe could start to rebuild, and to build in ways that never again would see its lands devastated by war. The roots of the European Union are here, in centuries of conflict culminating in what should have been unthinkable acts of murder. Sadly, very little mention of this today on the BBC, as there has been over the decades very little discussion of the fundamental rationale for the EU.
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May 9
Friday, May 12, 2017
The obsession with immigration targets. The obsession with including people who are here temporarily. The obsession with high earners. The lack of discussion of the implications of meeting that target for tax take, older people, the care sector, and the health sector. The implications for the economy. The complete lack of any cost-benefit analysis of these targets, let alone of the failure of both Tory and earlier Labour governments to plan for immigration and to use some of the increased tax revenue from migrants to invest in housing, transport, health and education to meet increased demand.
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May 10
Friday, May 12, 2017
The last Prime Minister wannabe who went all presidential on us? Tony Blair. That went well, didn't it? Bush poodling apart.
And this is the risk from Brexit May – so desperate to appear successful she will do whatever the Americans and the Orange One ask. Not just a hard brexit, but will we be at war soon? And with who? And why?
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May 11
Friday, May 12, 2017
We have a leaked Labour manifesto and a Tory commitment to more defence policy spending. Labour are defaulting to a 1970s/80s socialist persona, and the Tories playing to a stereotype of being the party to protect the country. The problem is that as both back leaving the single market and customs union, their piggy banks will be empty. There is no way to pay for their commitments without greatly increased public debt (which will cost more in future), tax rises or cuts elsewhere. Short term gain for long-term pain.
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