Posts by Alfie
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A see Christchurch taxi drivers have held an Uber protest outside National MP Nicky Wagner's office, objecting to Uber being allowed to operate illegally in NZ.
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Writing in the Listener, Ron Pol takes a look at various truths and lies spoken about the Panama Papers, New Zealand’s role as a tax haven and accessses the effectiveness of implementing the recommendations in the Shewan report.
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Speaker: A Disorderly Brexit, in reply to simon g,
It can be hard to pick up irony online, so I’ll have to guess that’s what you are trying here. Otherwise, I can only suggest re-reading and understanding what “building a coalition” obviously means.
If you see any irony in my statement Simon, you're probably looking too hard. You disagree with my assessment that there's a groundswell of support building for Corbyn. Fair enough. Let's just leave it at that and see what eventuates.
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Speaker: A Disorderly Brexit, in reply to simon g,
Labour have never won without that coalition, and dare I say, never will
Never? Only if you conveniently overlook 1997, 2001 and 2005. Labour won an outright majority in all three of those elections, albeit under Blair.
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Speaker: A Disorderly Brexit, in reply to simon g,
Not that simple, Alfie. Membership of what?
Grassroots Labour supporters, Simon. There are lots of them, they're not happy with the PLP coup and they're flexing their democratic options. This feels like the beginning of a revolution. Hopefully.
Can the Tories really support Gove? Ignoring his total lack of charisma for a moment, replacing a pigfucker with a backstabber doesn't seem like a winning strategy to me. "Prime Minister Judas" doesn't have much of a ring about it.
That leaves Theresa May for the Tories and she doesn't exactly inspire confidence. Not only did she support the Iraq war, but she reminds me a lot of Margaret Thatcher. While I can see that similarity appealing to some Tories -- four years of Thatcherism-on-steroids -- it scares me shitless.
My ideal scenario would involve a new general election and Corbyn sweeping into power with a revitalised and probably younger cabinet.
We live in interesting times.
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Meanwhile 10,000 people turned up in Parliament Square to support Jeremy Corbyn. And an online petition supporting Corbyn has gathered more than quarter of a million votes in just 24 hours.
Corbyn has the support of the membership is not going anywhere.
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Boris Johnson's HQ as the EU referendum result comes in.
Via The Standard
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There was a political reporter on the BBC last night who seemed to be well informed. According to him, Gove called MPs into his office Thursday morning and said, "I don't think Boris is up to it. So I'm standing instead."
He gave the impression that Boris was the last to find out about the coup, quickly changed his speech, put on his clown suit and departed the scene. It looks like Boris was played like a patsy.
And the Tory party does not play nicely with others.
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Speaker: The Government you Deserve, in reply to Rob Stowell,
I like what Corbyn says and stands up for. But after reading Enter Left in the NYer, I’ve changed my mind about whether he should lead the party. Good man, wrong job.
The New Yorker story you link to certainly provides a reasonable portrait of Corbyn but I can't see anything that disqualifies him to lead Labour. His parliamentary colleagues believe that he's not centrist enough, but then they have their own agenda. And they play dirty.
The orchestrated coup to overthrow Corbyn could have come straight out of the Carrick Graham / Jason Ede songbook. In this case it's being guided by Portland Communications -- a PR company run by Tony Blair's former advisors and his former spin doctor Alastair Campbell, best remembered for helping to draw up the "Dodgy Dossier" which invented the WMDs Blair and Bush used to justify the Iraq war.
While the idea of their leader being that far left is too much for many of the current Labour MPs, Corbyn is a good, old-fashioned Labour man who stands up for his beliefs. He was never excited about the EU, viewing them as an integral part of an IMF/ECB cartel more interested in promoting globalisation than protecting little people. When you consider the way Greece was treated by that group, it's not surprising that Yanis Varoufakis is now one of Corbyn's advisors.
The PLP finds Corbyn too socialist for their tastes and resents his huge popularity amongst their membership. But surely that very grassroots popularity is exactly what Labour needs if they intend to overthrow the Tories?
Maybe it depends on where you sit on the political spectrum. I must confess that the older I get, the more I'm leaning to the left. Yanis Varoufakis is one of my heroes, which is probably why I can relate to Corbyn's politics in the same way as I do with those of Bernie Sanders in the US.
Sure, Corbyn's not perfect. But neither is he a media-savvy, plastic construct like so many of his contemporaries. When you're stuck with a system which views inequality as a desirable outcome, you need principled politicians to provide a genuine alternative to the status quo.
And lord knows, we could all do with a touch of that.
OTHER REFERENCES
Labour MP Diane Abbott -- This is not Labour MPs vs Corbyn. They’re at war with party membersThe Standard -- Spot the Plot
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Speaker: The Government you Deserve, in reply to Russell Brown,
Very reality-based.
Cassidy has another good piece on Why Brexit Might Not Happen at All.
“When I put my cross against leave I felt a surge as though for the first time in my life my vote did count. I had power,” Kelvin MacKenzie, the former editor of the Sun, Britain’s biggest-selling newspaper, wrote on Monday. “Four days later, I don’t feel quite the same. I have buyer’s remorse. A sense of be careful what you wish for. To be truthful I am fearful of what lies ahead.”
Boris & Co not only have no plan, but they’ve effectively backed themselves into a very dark corner. Parliament could choose not to ratify the referendum result, but that would upset at least half of the population. I caught part of a BBC discussion last night which offered one possible solution involving a second referendum.
That would involve discussions with Brussels to determine the exact details of the EU’s new deal for the UK. On the strength of that, a second referendum would ask the public to either ratify the new arrangement or choose the existing terms which the UK enjoys.
The other EU nations are not amused by Brexit and Farage turning up at the European parliament to taunt and insult MEPs will have hardened their resolve. With a little goodwill from Angela Merkel, Brussels might be convinced to humour such an arrangement. At this stage it seems to be the only way forward if Britain is to avoid an economic and social catastrophe.