The Political Thread

[GordonR]

Today's the 80th anniversary of the Battle of Cable Street, when trade unionists, socialists, Jewish groups and anti-fascists clashed with police and the Union Of British Fascists when Oswald Mosley tried to match his blackshirts through a then predominantly Jewish area of the east end of London.

Thank goodness nothing like that could happen again today, and that suspicion and fear of immigrants, foreigners and people of different religions has been consigned to our country's cultural dustbin.

[IndigoPrime]

Quite. It's be hideous if the home secretary was stirring up nationalist bullshit by, say, suggesting migrants should be prevented doing jobs Brits could do.

[ZenArcade]

It's a hard time. Watching those asocial fucks pulverising all so many of us hold true is devestating.  Irish passport guys and gals and hope there's the will that Scottish/ Northern Irish/London feelings de rail this cluster fuck. Z

[IndigoPrime]

It's a hard time. Watching those asocial fucks pulverising all so many of us hold true is devestating.  Irish passport guys and gals and hope there's the will that Scottish/ Northern Irish/London feelings de rail this cluster fuck.

Irish passports only go so far, depending on your place on the register. So my family would be OK, since it's pretty likely I can get one (two Irish grandparents), and my wife and kid both have an EEA passport. But my cousin and his English missus couldn't do anything, not even for their kid, unless he was already on the register before she was born. So for individuals, it's an option; for Brits married to an EEA national, it's an option; for many, it still isn't.

I just hope there's some kind of row back. Have us join EFTA or have some kind of equivalent deal. Retain FoM, but with an emergency brake if we must.

[The Legendary Shark]

Spaniards, Exhausted by Politics, Warm to Life Without a Government.

[Steve Green]

UKIP leader to stand down.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-37558485

[Modern Panther]

for now things are fairly stable in part because Spain grants considerable powers to its 17 regional governments.  They have continued to provide health care, education and other pillars of daily life

[Professor Bear]

UKIP leader to stand down.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-37558485

Smart woman.  She realised that there's no point her working hard to push racism into the mainstream when the rest of the country is managing it just fine without her.

[Michael Knight]

Well said GordonR! Nice to see people remember the commemoration of this event! 

[The Legendary Shark]

for now things are fairly stable in part because Spain grants considerable powers to its 17 regional governments.  They have continued to provide health care, education and other pillars of daily life

I know, interesting, eh? While the rest of Europe scrambles to cede power to one central supergovernment, Spain functions fairly well on 17 regional microgovernments. Keeping power closer to the people, then, does not seem to result in total chaos. Who'd o' thunk it?

[TordelBack]

The counter argument might be that the local governments are able to function precisely because they operate within a supra-national framework that takes care of currency, regional development, international trade, quality regulation, environmental safeguards etc etc

Anyway, after listening to a long vacuous evasive interview with May yesterday, I'm starting to miss Cameron.

(Not really).

[The Legendary Shark]

Maybe so, but that framework can be organisational rather than authoritarian.

Of course, the Spanish situation (providing the article linked to is accurate) proves nothing in and of itself but, I think, it does serve as an indicator that Big Government isn't the only viable option.

[JayzusB.Christ]

I would have been more on board with that in the past. But if it's not Big Government in a capitalist culture, it's Big Society.  And we both know who loves that concept.

[The Legendary Shark]

A society that doesn't include immigrants isn't big. Or clever...

Not saying that's what you believe or sanction, just that "big society" is a meaningless political buzz-phrase.

[ZenArcade]

Anyway, after listening to a long vacuous evasive interview with May yesterday, I'm starting to miss Cameron.

Kuennsberg doesn't even pretend at objectivity anymore....what a cringing, facilitating POS!!

Z