Cookie Notice

WE LOVE THE NATIONS OF EUROPE
However, this blog is a US service and this site uses cookies from Google to deliver its services and analyze traffic. Your IP address and user-agent are shared with Google along with performance and security metrics to ensure quality of service, generate usage statistics, and to detect and address abuse.

Saturday 24 November 2018

Putting lipstick on a pig

Mrs May is now engaged for the next two weeks in, as our American cousins would put it, putting lipstick on a pig. Rather than heavyweight media interviews, she will be going for Mumsnet, Radio 5Live, Take-a-Break, pap TV sort of shows to try to win over in particular women voters, perhaps in the hope that her ratings will increase. She will repeat endlessly that the Robbins Treaty is the best deal for Britain, despite the CBI, the serious media, all intelligent commentators, Parliament, economists and assorted wise persons having decided conclusively that the opposite is true. The Parliamentary vote is expected in two to three weeks, and during this time May's cabal will use extraordinary methods to push her nationally destructive deal through.  

She is unfortunately a stubborn woman who will not listen. This doesn't help her. Even after having been told many times that sovereignty, freedom, independence and democratic control were the key drivers of Brexit, she continues to focus on the most prominent symptom - limiting the numbers of EU workers in the UK. It really isn't that big an issue for most people. With the £ at €1.12 it isn't even an issue, as coming to the UK to work is scarcely financially attractive to minimum-pay EU workers. Indeed as the numbers of EU workers in the UK have dropped dramatically and shortages bite, wages have increased - quelle surprise! - and employers are even offering permanent jobs in place of zero hours contracts. 

In the face of this, May proposes bringing in wholly pointless additional controls on EU carers, catering workers, fruit pickers and veg packers. I can hear the howls of frustration from 'Farming Today' already, with forty minutes still to the programme going on-air. Astonishing.  

The comments de jour are from Andrea Hosso in the Telegraph (£).
This “Great Game” seems to have been leading us here all along, to this impasse characterised by the Italian business paper Il Sole 24 Ore as “a deal which… represents a resounding victory of the EU over the subjects of Her Majesty”.
He writes. The EU's aims, he says, are not to conclude a Brexit agreement, but to tie the UK in an unworkable, impossible tangle of stasis, inaction and imprisonment, with neither the ability to free ourselves or to change the terms. And because
A weakened UK in the permanent limbo of an undefined transitional period would be susceptible to the impact of eurozone-centred regulation and policies.
Sterling and our financial strength won't be able to prevent us being dragged down in the imminent collapse of the Eurozone - like a latter-day Götterdämmerung, they are determined to drag all around them into the maelstrom of flames and destruction. 

The most effective action we can take right now is writing, talking and countering May's relentless media onslaught - social media warriors. Unfortunately, the planned UKIP event in London on (I think) 9th December is unhelpful. It will attract few non-member followers, and given the attendees, many UKIP members will decline to come. The press will present the tiny huddle of 'swivel-eyed' 'kippers in the freezing wet weather as being the nation's voice in support of Brexit. It really does 'Leave' no favours. If it comes before the Commons vote on May's deal, it will help her. If it comes after, it will bring nothing but derision on UKIP. Ladies and gentlemen of UKIP, I urge you to lobby your party leaders to cancel it.  

22 comments:

jack ketch said...

UKIP are planning an event in London next month? I have just checked their website and all I could find was Batten is speaking in the Forest Of Dean in Feb.

Raedwald said...

jack

https://voiceofeurope.com/2018/11/tommy-robinson-and-ukip-team-up-for-march-against-brexit-betrayal/

DeeDee99 said...

I won't be going to the UKIP/Robinson event on 9 Dec. Farage appears to be on the case - calling for the NEC to hold a No Confidence vote in Batten.

I've already emailed my MP against Treason May's Surrender Document, but he's a pro-EU LibCon and will support her. Apart from my usual daily commentating across the media, I don't know what else I can do.

We're relying on a cowardly bunch of self-serving career politicians to put the long-term interests of the country first....and their record isn't good.

Raedwald said...

DeeDee - I'm in the same position. All I can do is write to my MP - a Corbynista - and keep posting and commenting. You're right - we're in the hands of the Commons on this one.

Jack the dog said...

I wrote to my mp a member of the ERG and even he replied saying he hadn't made his mind up mind you he was hopefully being political. He is generally sound.

jack ketch said...

Thanks for the linky Raed. A 'massive' march...."Gerard Batten said that it is important “thousands and thousands” protest against Treason May."...we shall see but if its only thousands and thousands then it will do their cause more harm than good,one feels, and of course TR's presence ensures it will be reported on in the EU MSM (and probably in the yUK MSM) as a 'right wing march' Actually I'm somewhat surprised that any march with TR has gotten permission in Kahn's Londonstan.

Span Ows said...

I do not see how it can pass the Commons, barring some turncoat miracle. My MP is a firm Brexiteer, he knows down here that he's toast if he were anything else!

Stephen J said...

The only types that will be at that UKIP event will be Robinson types, ritually opposed by Hate not Hope types, along with the dickhead who is smugly suggesting that he has saved UKIP.

I wrote one of my steaming emails to Ms. Herriot the UKIP chairman in response to Thursday's email from Mr. Batten... I asked her whether she knew who the unelected Batten was REALLY working for, because he is delivering media opprobrium in fucking spades.

Someone is pulling his strings. I have met him many times, indeed he has been in my home for coffee, and he is not the most warm creature, but his current trajectory is tragic and obscene.

The trouble is that I have tried to point out on various blogs that he is taking the party in the wrong direction, and there is always a Robinson type ready to be really abusive at the other end. Because I do not want him or his type in UKIP, I support muslims raping little girls... that kind of thing.

I have abandoned quite a number of my old haunts (UKIP Daily, Breitbart) as a result. Indeed it was the main reason that I was so affronted by Raedwald's assertion that I was from the "far right"...

Apart from the oft made point that "the far right" is in fact just another version of socialism with historical context, and nothing to do with the right, I have actually been going out of my way, to call out the very type that he is accusing me of being.

I hope that Nigel is successful in his move, he like many of us have not actually left UKIP but are very sad at where it seems to be going.

He had grown it from the days when he used to be sitting in my dad's front room drinking tea, to a nationally recognised antidote to the two socialist behemoths that are the CONservative and Labour parties, despite repeated attempts by them and the whole of the media to destroy the party and Nigel...

And the way it is currently going, Batten is doing the job for them.

NOT IMPRESSED!

jack ketch said...

because he is delivering media opprobrium in fucking spades.right writes

I may be wrong but ,according to my mental whose-who of commentators here, you are one of those who very rarely swear, so I'm taking that sentence as an indication of the amount of anger you, and others, in Ukip feel towards Batten's latest wheezes.

dustybloke said...

Someone should point out to MPs that a colony - I previously referred to us as a State, but a State of a Union has more rights than Britain will have - does not need political representatives.

So bye-bye Lords and Commons and get a German or Frenchman over here if May's deal goes through.

Charles said...

I have written to my MP on many occasions and asked sensible questions, not just ranting in green ink. He has never responded. He has a 25,000 odd majority in Somerset, ironically just next door to JRM. He has never answered. Given that this area was strongly pro leave I hope he gets a rude shock at the next election. I will try again but I do not hold out much hope.

UKIP have gone mad, they always were a one man band and Farage for all his good points made sure that there was no one with any talent to threaten him. You can see it plainly in the quality of their MEPs and their leadership. That leaves either labour or abstaining.

I do not like the idea of not voting, people fought for me to have the right to vote, but when the choices are this bad it’s difficult to know what to do.

I see from Guido that May is handing out nighthoods to keep people loyal. I think that a knighthood from May could well be the modern equivalent of the mark of Cain...

Tony Harrison said...

I am dismayed by the apparent UKIP split, since for a long time I've regarded that Party as the only game in town for those of my political persuasion: small-c conservative at the libertarian end, with a dose of English nationalist sentiment (no, I don't hate the Celts, indeed I'm part Welsh). But if Batten's leadership really is "delivering media opprobrium in fucking spades" it says far more about the media than it does about Batten, or UKIP - or a great many English folk who have objected for a very long time to successive governments' introduction of huge numbers of non-Europeans, and the subsequent dramatic alterations to urban England.
I’d expect many of those currently inveighing against Mr Batten to join in the routine villification of Enoch Powell – a great man who stood head & shoulders (intellectually and otherwise) above today’s political pygmies. The Guardian and the BBC refer to that Powell speech as “infamous”: far from being infamous, subsequent polls suggested a large majority (I’ve seen figures from 67% to 82%) of ordinary citizens agreed with him; there were strikes and marches in his support. One would certainly expect anyone adhering to conservative, patriotic principles to support Powell – and surely very many of those now support UKIP. Polling over the past half-century plus has confirmed absolutely consistently a majority opposed to mass immigration, and in favour of stringent immigration & border controls. No government has shown any sign of taking this opinion seriously, indeed Blair & Brown did the exact opposite and opened the floodgates... May’s latest words on curbing unskilled immigration may be dismissed: her motives are exactly the same as those of the Spanish PM in resurrecting Gibraltar, a transparent attempt at distraction from other matters.
In the end, who are you going to vote for: the established Parties who’ve let us down so very, very badly and shat on us from a great height? If you dislike Mr Batten, I suggest you swallow your distaste and vote UKIP for the greater good. Anyway, Nigel might come back – he’s no King Arthur waking from his long sleep to save us, but he’s a damn good bloke with a very high standing.

Dave_G said...


Wasn't it 'media opprobrium' that painted TR as the person he is currently portrayed? Are his motives not (generally) honorable?

How sad that we must temper our voting practices because of media manipulation and character assassination. In other words must we allow ourselves to be manipulated by the very people that are manipulating the issues we protest against i.e. Brexit.

I suppose we should vote for liars, cheats and thieves instead? Yeah, that'll give me a sense of achievement.......

Let's not forget that if we didn't have the problem people that TR protests over we wouldn't have the massive amount of abuse we're seeing. And we've got THEM because of a media reluctance to address the issues in the first place.

But regarding Treasons Deal and efforts to smirm her way across the middling media, she was on Radio 5Live and faced a listener who asked her to answer, directly and without political-speak, whether her deal was better or worse than remaining in the EU.

She did, of course, bluster her way through and fail to answer.

This particular question should be put to her at EVERY occasion of her trying to convince the public of her plans.



Stephen J said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Stephen J said...

Language is very important...

One should always remember the effects on society of the master of linguistic manipulation, a certain Mr. Goebbels.

It is wise to pay attention to this, whether one agrees with it or not. As I pointed out above, even though I do have some sympathy with Mr. Robinson's campaign, I do not think that his campaign is a valid UKIP campaign.

Which does not mean that I believe that muslims raping little girls is a marvellous and fulfilling pastime...

Quite the contrary, I am absolutely incandescent at the reaction of the media, the police and the other agents of government. As indeed is Sarah Champion who during her campaign against John Bickley cynically accused him of islamaphobia, until she knew the truth.... after she had been elected... Now that she is under threat of deselection, because she is islamaphobic, she has a different view.

Language is very important.

Tony Harrison said...

r-w: Tommy Robinson does not have any sort of UKIP campaign, "valid" or otherwise. As I understand it, he is being invited to act as a consultant on the Muslim gangs thing, by Batten. It's a subject that must concern anyone in this country.

Raedwald said...

Just a reminder to all not to wander Off Topic, please ....

Budgie said...

Raedwald, I am unlikely to take advice from Conservatives anymore. Look where it has got us: a deal based on Chequers - which was supposedly dead or we were assured would not happen - that is worse than the existing, and which is, as you intimate, clearly not Leave or leaving. The establishment has both lied to us and cheated us. Our lords and masters are corrupt.

As for Tommy Robinson, he is less of an issue in UKIP than you imagine. I am with Tony Harrison and Dave_G on this. Moreover if you look back at what was said about Nigel Farage in the recent past (eg: the 2015 European Press Commentator Award) you will see NF was subject to similar vituperative ad hominem attacks. The MSM and establishment think we will forget they used exactly the same technique on NF as they now use on TR. I won't.

As for Islam, it is not a race. The majority of Muslims in this country are from Pakistan and Bangladesh - thus the same race as the British (Caucasian). When we were subject to attacks (robberies, drugs and bombs) by the PIRA, there was no fake guilt about condemning them. We are being attacked now - not just terrorist attacks, but tens of thousands of white British early teen girls have effectively been prostituted in a concerted organised regime of exploitation and abuse. It could have been my daughters.

Of course our rotten establishment did almost nothing. Worse they seemed to cover it up. Or accuse parents of satanic abuse, presumably to deflect. And of course some of them engaged in similar criminality (Smith, Savile, etc). They only move now because of campaigners such as TR and Anne-Marie Waters. Do we want a few unsavoury characters that we must monitor closely, or child prostitution and slavery? Because that is the practical effective choice?

Raedwald said...

I'm suspending comments for a while.

Yoxley or whatever the bloke's name is and race or faith based hostility are no-go areas here.

Elby the Beserk said...

@GardenerFisher

David Warburton, you mean I assume. Our MP also, and to my mind, until Brexit an excellent one, who came late into politics having done many other things. He has a blind spot on Brexit, as I have corresponded a number of times regarding what May has proposed, and he does not see the pitfalls. I've sent him links to the various Martin Howe articles on why the backstop and withdrawal agreements are fraught with peril, but he seems hell bent on supporting May. Sadly. not voting for him at the next election will be to no avail, as Somerset does not vote Labour and the LibDems are dying.

I guess we all have to hang on and see how Project Fear gets even more ramped up when the deal is rejected in the House. No Deal for me, and if that lets Corbyn in I think I'm past caring.

Budgie said...

Elby the Beserk, Your MP (and mine - a Labour Remain) are the reasons why the most likely outcome is that Theresa May's DWA transition deal (based on Chequers) will get through Parliament.

I am baffled why otherwise sane people whose opinions I admire persist in ignoring the momentum of the establishment. This is not conspiracy theory - I did not think in 2016 our vote would be trashed - it is merely observation of Mrs May signing us up to closer integration with the EU on Defence (2017); then the Kit-Kat tapes (March 2018); then Chequers (July 2018).

Defeat follows those who rely on hope only. That's us.

Elby the Beserk said...

Budgie,

I'm hopeful that it will not. Think there is just too much opposition, and were it any good, she would not have to sell it. It's Project Fear 2.0 (3.0?) with the message from the Governess that this is as good as it gets. Frankly, the opposite is true - it couldn't be any worse than this sell off. She'll do anything to avoid the "terror" of No Deal, even if that means further division in the country. Which will be the result, and indeed, it will institutionalise the huge rift there now is in the country.

At least it's out in the open.