The People Have Not Spoken

Looking like an injured smurf We have heard plenty of lies before the election and now we're hearing that biggest of lies we hear after every election: that the 'people' have spoken. This is plainly bullshit of the highest order. As a Liberal/LibDem voter in a safe Conservative seat all my life I'm well aware that my voice has never been...

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The No Deal Argument

One of Nick Robinson's 10 things that stopped Brexit happening was "No deal was an empty threat". I wrote about that article here, but I am extracting the No Deal argument from that blog here. The idea prominent among Brexiteers is that unless the UK shows the EU that it is serious about leaving without any deal at all then the UK's...

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Britain's Brexit Crisis

Nick Robinson made a reasonable program on the disastrous post-Brexit period that has delivered the UK a constitutional crisis like no other. What it showed was a catalogue of errors by the Tories and others, which Robinson helpfully documented here. For convenience I repeat the list here, with brief notes from me: 1. The UK had no plan...

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3rd Message to Jeremy Quin

Dear Jeremy Parliament is in paralysis and as such a no deal Brexit appears to be the most likely outcome on 29th March. This would be very damaging to the UK economy, according to most economists and the Government's own forecasts. If Mrs May's deal cannot be agreed by parliament and no extension is forthcoming from the EU, I ask you to vote for a revocation of Article 50 rather than let the UK destroy what little credibility...

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The Law, the Weather, and the Climate

The excellent film On the Basis of Sex is now in cinemas, and covers the trials of Ruth Bader Ginsburg (what a woman) fighting for sexual equality through the courts of the United States. It included an excellent quote from, she says, jurist Paul Freund: A Court ought not be affected by the weather of the day, but will be by the...

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A Little Bit of Bread and No Cheese

Operation Yellowhammer is the codename given to the UK government's no deal preparations. Sam Coates of The Times has leaked details of the plan. Some extracts from his tweets: - “Operation is potentially enormous” - “Impacts ... could grow exponentially as issues impact upon each other and capabilities of responders at all levels decrease...

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Brexiteers: The New North Sentinelese

A Leave Demonstration Sometimes I think that some ultra-Brexiteers want to turn the United Kingdom into something like the North Sentinel island; cut off from the rest of the world because our culture and wellbeing cannot stand engagement with the outside world. See this: 😳 Ooof, bit of a Brexit ding-dong pic.twitter.com/oZQ4qY6Uw8 —...

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The BBC and its Continuing False Balance Problem

http://www.shchambers.com/ "'Freedom for the pike is death for the minnows" - Isaiah Berlin "What I'm asking of the world's oldest public broadcaster is an understanding of the difference between impartiality and balance. What I mean is your nonsense bloody quota of giving equal coverage no matter what...we put up a Nobel prize winning...

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