Monthly Archives: March 2019

Jeremy Hunt warns that there’s “wind in the sails” of people trying to stop Brexit

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Stop Brexit process could be in place within weeks, Jeremy Hunt declares

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Speaking after Labour said it was still poised to back a ‘People’s Vote’, despite not pushing for one this week, Mr Hunt said “the wind is in the sails” of referendum backers and they were almost two-thirds of the way there.

He told the BBC’s Andrew Marr Show: “We have an opportunity now to leave on March 29 or shortly thereafter.

“It’s very important we grasp that opportunity because there is wind in the sails of people trying to stop Brexit.”

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[I quite liked that;)

Following Mr Hunt’s comments, Hard Brexit-backing Tory MP Steve Baker issued a thinly-veiled threat to those pushing for a second referendum.

He said: “The people who would stop Brexit should know just this: what you do, you’ll have do in public now.

“And everyone will know just what you have done.

“Stopping Brexit will be on you, not Brexiteers. Don’t kid yourselves otherwise.”

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Comment by dizzy: Those opposed to Brexit, including myself, are participating in the democratic process. It is the strength of argument that is defeating Brexit. Making personal threats shows this Brexiteer to be inadequate as an MP.

Maintaining anonymity on this blog costs in the region of £10 a year and it’s due about December. I decided that I couldn’t afford it one year and my name appeared briefly on the domain name registration. I assumed that GCHQ, MI5 or some similar organisation was paying for it. I am very proud of my name – it’s a very good mostly Welsh name although lately I quite like Simples.

11/3/19 Done some research on Steve Baker now. He’s number two.

12/3/19 Simples is a reference to Theresa May’s response when asked essentially what happened to Brexit. It has a deeper meaning and has since been spun as something different

I am reconsidering my endorsement.

16/3/19 The endorsement persists.

Continue ReadingJeremy Hunt warns that there’s “wind in the sails” of people trying to stop Brexit

Brexit referendum result turned on its head

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The Brexit referendum result would be reversed if rerun today.

Has There Been a Shift in Support for Brexit?

Posted on 8 February 2019 by John Curtice

Unsurprisingly, protagonists on all sides in the Brexit debate are keen to claim that their views reflect the will of a majority of voters. After all, the decision to leave the EU was made by the public in the first place, so being able to argue that what should happen now is backed by voters is a potentially valuable currency in the political debate. Thus, the Prime Minister, for example, insists that in pursuing Brexit she is delivering ‘the Brexit people voted for‘, a vote that, she argues, should not be questioned by asking voters their view a second time. Opponents of Brexit, in contrast, often take the view that voters were misinformed – even misled –  during the EU referendum, and now that they are more aware of the supposed downsides of leaving the EU they should be given the chance to register their second thoughts in a second ballot.

The intensity of this argument reflects, in part at least, the narrowness of the outcome of the referendum in June 2016. Against the backdrop of a 52% vote for Leave and 48% for Remain, not many voters would have to change their minds for the balance of opinion to be tilted in the opposite direction. So, with March 29 – the date when the UK is currently scheduled to leave the EU –  rapidly approaching, where does the balance of opinion now lie on the principle of leaving the EU?

Regular users of our site will be aware that polls that have asked people how they would vote in another EU referendum have for some time been pointing to a small lead for Remain. For much of last year our poll of polls, a running average of the last half dozen readings of second referendum vote intentions, put Remain on 52% and Leave 48%, the mirror image of the outcome in 2016. However, given all the potential pitfalls of polling, such a lead was too narrow for anyone to be sure what the outcome would be if a second ballot were to be held.

In recent months, though, the Remain lead has grown somewhat in our poll of polls. By the beginning of October, it had crept up to Remain 53%, Leave 47%. Now, since the turn of the year it has increased further to Remain 54%, Leave 46%. This movement has also been replicated in the pattern of responses to the question that YouGov regularly ask, ‘In hindsight, do you think Britain was right or wrong to vote to leave the EU?’. Until the 2017 general election typically more people said that the decision to leave the EU was right than stated it was wrong. Since then, however, the oppose has been the case. Even so, by the spring of 2018, on average the proportion who said that the decision was wrong (45%) was still only three points higher than the proportion who said it was right (42%). However, in the readings that YouGov has taken in the last three months, that lead has grown on average to as much as eight points, with as many as 48% saying the decision was wrong, and only 40% that it was right.

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Three-quarters of newly eligible voters would back remain in second poll

Inigo Alexander 9 Mar 2019

Some 87% of people who were too young to cast a ballot in the 2016 Brexit referendum but have since reached voting age would “definitely” take part if a second public vote were called, according to a new poll. And of the estimated 2 million new young voters, 74% would back remain.

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Separately, constituency-by-constituency analysis by YouGov of more than 25,000 voters shows that in only two out of 632 constituencies do a majority of voters want their MP to back Theresa May’s Brexit deal.

Commenting, Peter Kellner, a past president of YouGov, stated: “The coalition that produced a narrow majority for Brexit three years ago is falling apart. It brought together traditionalists in Conservative Britain who saw the EU as a threat to British values and sovereignty, with families in Labour’s heartlands who felt that ‘Brussels’ threatened their living standards and their children’s job prospects.

“The prime minister’s plan is unpopular essentially because few people in either group think it tackles the threat they face. The fact that only two constituencies in the entire country – not including her own – want their MP to support her deal shows just how risky it would be for the prime minister to force this deal on the people now.”

Continue ReadingBrexit referendum result turned on its head

No-deal Brexit would plunge UK economy into recession – OECD

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https://www.theguardian.com/business/2019/mar/06/no-deal-brexit-would-plunge-uk-economy-into-recession-oecd

A no-deal Brexit would plunge the UK economy into recession and annual growth will slip below 1% this year for this first time since the financial crisis even if a deal is secured, the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) has warned.

The thinktank, which advises 34 of the world’s richest countries, said that even with a smooth Brexit, the UK economy would slump to 0.8% growth in 2019 from 1.4% in 2018 as Brexit uncertainty and Donald Trump’s trade war with China harmed the UK’s economic prospects. In November it was forecasting 1.4% growth for the UK this year.

The last time annual growth in the UK was below 1% was in the depths of the financial crisis, when the economy contracted by 4.2%.

The OECD said a steep fall in investment over the past year by UK-based firms had left the economy in a weak position to boost its poor productivity rates and increase wages growth.

The economic health check comes as a string of major manufacturing firms have made clear that their future in the UK is in doubt should the government fail to secure a transition arrangement that allows them to trade freely inside a customs union with the EU.

Toyota’s European boss, Johan van Zyl, said he could not promise British employees’ jobs were safe until the outcome of Brexit was decided.

Meanwhile, the BMW board member Peter Schwarzenbauer, who oversees the Mini and Rolls-Royce brands, said the firm might be forced to stop making the Mini at its Cowley plant near Oxford.

The OECD chief economist, Laurence Boone, said the UK had missed out on 0.7% of growth compared with the OECD’s previous projections and 1.7% of growth compared with the US, France and Germany.

“There is no better trade agreement for the UK than the EU single market. Every step back from this arrangement makes it more difficult for the private sector,” she said.

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Continue ReadingNo-deal Brexit would plunge UK economy into recession – OECD

Dizzy Deep’s rough guide to factions in contemporary UK politics

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A rough guide to factions in UK politics. Comments are welcome.

This is my own work looking at the influences behind various UK politicians. You are welcome to disagree with any point. It should be recognised and accepted that some politicians will not have any philosophical or ideological basis at all – many people simply unquestionably accept the politics and world-view of their parents. Some of them may also be mad or simply whores to power or financial gain.

Socialists are a diverse bunch often fighting injustice e.g. anti-racism, and campaign for human rights, universal healthcare, democracy, equality, workers’ rights, etc. There are more radical Socialists outside of parliamentary politics fragmented according to adherence to the different historical origins and aspects of Socialist Ideology. The Labour party catchphrase “For the many, not the few” catches the Socialist ethos perfectly. [17/1/22 This article is now dated and was written while Jeremy Corbyn was leader of the UK Labour Party. “For the many, not the few” was a slogan of Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour Party and the title of the 2017 Labour Party manifesto. This ethos has been abandoned by the current UK Labour Party under leader Keir Starmer which should be regarded as a return to Blairism i.e. Tories pretending to be Socialists and no mainstream political representation of Socialism in UK.]

Parliamentary Socialists are not that concerned with historical Socialist ideology. They will recognise and object to the vast inequalities in wealth and control of the media but that’s about it.

Neo-Liberals are Capitalists who believe that “the market will provide”. These are the ones who are keen on deregulation so that businesses are unhindered by “red tape” – actually laws and regulations that protect standards and ordinary people – and the privatisation of everything. Brexit is all to do with deregulation so Brexiteers are mostly Neo-Liberals.

Neo-Conservatives are Neo-Liberals with the added aspect that they are Zionists – supporters of the state of Israel. Theresa May and many of the Conservative party are Neo-Cons.

Rabid Zionists are extreme supporters of the state of Israel. These are the ones that make accusations of anti-Semitism within the Labour party. The Al Jazzera series ‘the Lobby’ shows that Israel is directing accusations of anti-Semitism and the Israeli embassy may deserve its own entry in this guide.

Appeasers to Zionism. Since Zionists are attempting to apply a veto on UK politicians there are those that appease them to gain advantage. Strangely, these are often found to be trombonists.

The DUP (Democratic Unionist Party). Theresa May’s minority government is supported by the DUP. In any abusive relationship, the party that needs the relationship least is in the position of power.

Simples

6/3/19 Apologies that I neglected the nationalists. I did intend to but was on a roll.

The Scottish Nationalist Party and Plaid Cymru (the party of Wales) are both opposed to Brexit since they recognise the damage that it will cause their communities. Assembly and Scottish Parliament in joint no-deal Brexit warning.

Sinn Fein campaigns for a united Ireland. They have 7 MPs which refuse to participate in the UK assembly at Westminster. Sinn Fein regard Brexit as an opportunity to achieve an united Ireland.

17/3/19 Revealed: How dark money split the Tories’ ruling elite by Adam Ramsay

17/1/22 This article is dated. Theresa May was replaced by haphazard alcoholic Boris Johnson as leader of the Conservative Party and UK Prime Minister.

Continue ReadingDizzy Deep’s rough guide to factions in contemporary UK politics

Brexit: It’s not only Chlorinated Chicken – they want you to eat shit

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Brexit is all about deregulation so that vast swathes of laws and regulations can be torn up and burned. It’s for the rich and powerful to become more rich and powerful at the expense of everyone else. Dirty money and psyops stole the Brexit referendum. Economists are almost unanimously agreed that it is and will be disasterous for the UK economy for many decades. Forgive me, I thought that governments were about – or at least should be about –  ensuring stability and continuity. I can see it being disasterous for the UK Conservative party for generations.

EU Food Regulations are high quality. US Food Regulations by contrast are abysmally poor. In negotiating trade deals with the US, the US are promoting/insisting on their standards.

US food standards allow a quantity of faeces in food for human consumption.

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/food-standards-brexit-uk-us-trade-deal-maggots-rat-hair-worms-insects-mould-products-a8575721.html

Insect-filled chocolates, rat hair-infested noodles, and orange juice containing maggots are just some of the “horrors” UK consumers could be forced to accept if post-Brexit Britain signs a wide-ranging trade deal with the USA.

In the US, producers adhere to a “Defects Levels Handbook,” which sets out the maximum number of foreign bodies like maggots, insect fragments and mould that can be in food products before they are put on the market.  

For example, US producers are allowed to include up to 30 insect fragments in a 100g jar of peanut butter; as well as 11 rodent hairs in a 25g container of paprika; or 3mg of mammalian excreta (typically rat or mouse excrement) per each pound of ginger.

Continue ReadingBrexit: It’s not only Chlorinated Chicken – they want you to eat shit