The Tory's Deal With The Devil

Submitted by gjohnsit on Fri, 06/09/2017 - 11:56pm

The day after the U.K. election Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn was caught relaxing outside a pub in Islington.

“We’re going to do it all again in a few months. I’ve got my train ticket,” he said. “We’re nearly there.”

How could he be so confident?
Technically he had just lost. The Conservatives set up a coalition within hours.
Oh, sure. The coalition is razor-thin and could fall apart if it lost just a special election or two. But "months"?
The reason Corbyn is so sure of himself is because of the little-known, minority coalition partner - the Democratic Unionist Party, or D.U.P.
Just look at what these wackos believe.

The DUP are the reason Northern Ireland hasn’t legalised same-sex marriage, and it’s the only place on the British Isles that hasn’t yet done so.
They’ve used what are known as ‘petitions of concern’ to block all progress on the matter, and earlier this year, they said they’d rather block the formation of a government than let same-sex marriage be legalised in Northern Ireland, calling it a “red line” in negotiations with Sinn Féin.
...
Arlene Foster, the head of the DUP, said in 2016: “I would not want abortion to be as freely available here as it is in England and don’t support the extension of the 1967 act.”
In Northern Ireland, the maximum penalty for the ‘crime’ of drug-induced miscarriage under the Offences Against the Person Act 1861 is life imprisonment.
...
Their former environment minister Sammy Wilson was a climate change denier. In 2014 he called it a “con”. The Guardian also reports it has a number of creationists among its senior members.

The DUP is the political wing of the 18th century, a bunch of homophobic bigots, and now they have the Tories over a barrel.

— Owen Jones (@OwenJones84) June 9, 2017

That alone is embarrassing, but when you look at who they run with, it gets worse.

The D.U.P. also has a history of ties to loyalist paramilitary gangs responsible for past terrorist atrocities.
The party’s leader, Arlene Foster, even met last week with the head of the Ulster Defence Association, a paramilitary group that was supposed to have disbanded after a peace accord was signed in 1998, but continues to exist and was implicated in a gangland-style killing just days earlier.

Terrorist organisations literally did a mail drop last week telling people they had to vote for them.

— Stuart Gibson (@stuartgibson) June 9, 2017

Good morning, Britain. Here’s some old photos of the DUP, in case you haven’t met them before. pic.twitter.com/3ZQGBCy2qM

— Colin Graham (@19acres) June 9, 2017

This will likely be the most unpopular coalition partner since the Black and Tans. How long before a picture of Theresa May shaking hands with someone connected to terrorism makes it to social media?
How long before a financial scandal gets examined?
An online petition against this coalition already has 300k signatures, and it isn't a day old yet.

When this coalition falls apart, it'll only be after a significant amount of time and political embarrassment.
The Lib Dems aren't interested in a coalition with the Tories. Nor is SNP or the Greens.
It's either DUP or no one.

That means Corbyn's prediction of another election will come true, but Conservatives will look weaker by then.

Tags:

Democratic Unionist Party

Tories

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Comments

Submitted by gjohnsit on Sat, 06/10/2017 - 12:08am

Politico jumps the shark

OMG! Russia!

Submitted by Raggedy Ann on Sat, 06/10/2017 - 12:23am

It's devolved to

@gjohnsit
what I consider a mental illness. It is no longer bordering on the ridiculous, we have enter the twilight zone of ridiculousness. I hope the British folks have their X-ray glasses on.

—

"The “jumpers” reminded us that one day we will all face only one choice and that is how we will die, not how we will live." Chris Hedges on 9/11

Submitted by HenryAWallace on Sat, 06/10/2017 - 9:35am

The name of the illness is

@Raggedy Ann

soul-less greed.

Submitted by Raggedy Ann on Sat, 06/10/2017 - 2:19pm

You are absolutely correct, HW.

@HenryAWallace
Soulless greed. Unmistakable. It was somewhere in my brain. Thank you for wiggling it out of that file drawer.

—

"The “jumpers” reminded us that one day we will all face only one choice and that is how we will die, not how we will live." Chris Hedges on 9/11

Submitted by peachcreek on Sat, 06/10/2017 - 1:14am

Ah Rubin, fuck

@gjohnsit a 2008 Hillary supporter. M. Albright mouthpiece. And he's fucking quaking in his boots at the thought of Corbyn. Really?
This is the type of neoliberal blairite shits that I despise. He is obviously more comfortable with the conservative party than with labour. He would rather have the Tories "muddle along" than have labour. And, in all of the piece there is nothing to back up his statements. No examples, no evidence. NATO and US foreign policy are unquestionable. Always and ever. Really. They're just morally swell. SMDH.

Submitted by Dr. John Carpenter on Sat, 06/10/2017 - 6:59am

Hey! It applies in America too!

@peachcreek

He is obviously more comfortable with the conservative party than with labour.

That's neo-liberalism in a nutshell, regardless of if we're talking Labour or labor.

—

Idolizing a politician is like believing the stripper really likes you.

Submitted by HenryAWallace on Sat, 06/10/2017 - 9:32am

Today's neoliberals are

@Dr. John Carpenter

indistinguishable from neocons.

Submitted by gulfgal98 on Sat, 06/10/2017 - 11:51am

They are two sides of the same coin

@HenryAWallace @HenryAWallace Neoliberalism is the economic ideology and neoconservatism promotes interventionism. Many politicians are both. Hillary Clinton being a prime example of both a neoliberal and a neocon.

—

Do I hear the sound of guillotines being constructed?

“Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." ~ President John F. Kennedy

Submitted by HenryAWallace on Mon, 06/12/2017 - 9:59am

Technically, theoretically, academically, yes. As a matter

@gulfgal98

of practical reality, I don't think so.

I was careful to say "today" because I don't think that, today, there is a distinction, no matter what may once have been the case. For example, no matter what kind of foreign intervention Sanders might ever call for, no one will ever say he is a liberal and a neocon or a socialist and a neocon. I think, in actions, you could swap out McCain and Hillary, but no one says McCain ks a neocon and a neoliberal, or a neocon and a fiscal conservative. Only when a Democrat is at issue do we make the academic distinctions, When talking about Republicans, just "neocon" conveys the whole package, foreign policy, social policy and fiscal policy. No one needs to ask, "But is he fiscally liberal?"

You have Kristol preferring Hillary to Trump and Bubba praising Goldwater and both of them crapping on Sanders--for his fiscal policies, not his foreign policy. To them, if you advocate economic justice, you're automatically pro-Putin, even though these things are severable and Putin seems fine with wealth inequality. I am not saying that makes sense or is correct academically. I am saying that is the way it is now.

Submitted by thanatokephaloides on Sat, 06/10/2017 - 12:55pm

real Labour

@peachcreek

Ah Rubin, fuck a 2008 Hillary supporter. M. Albright mouthpiece. And he's fucking quaking in his boots at the thought of Corbyn. Really?
This is the type of neoliberal blairite shits that I despise. He is obviously more comfortable with the conservative party than with labour. He would rather have the Tories "muddle along" than have labour.

Especially real Labour, which is what Corbyn represents.

And why Britain and the rest of the world alike needs him in power.

—

"US govt/military = bad. Russian govt/military = bad. Any politician wanting power = bad. Anyone wielding power = bad." --Shahryar

"All power corrupts absolutely!" -- thanatokephaloides

Submitted by Alligator Ed on Sat, 06/10/2017 - 2:44am

Race to the bottom

@gjohnsit Politico is now aspiring to sink to the level of the NYT and by FSM, I think they just might do it.

Submitted by Amanda Matthews on Sat, 06/10/2017 - 9:22am

Politico has ALWAYS been in the 'news'

@Alligator Ed @Alligator Ed
business like Breitbart and Drudge. Half or more of what they is garbage only meant to generate clicks.

EDIT: mews/ news

—

I'm tired of this back-slapping "Isn't humanity neat?" bullshit. We're a virus with shoes, okay? That's all we are. - Bill Hicks

Politics is the entertainment branch of industry. - Frank Zappa

Submitted by Alligator Ed on Sat, 06/10/2017 - 2:27pm

Mews was alright. If Politico is also in print it would make

@Amanda Matthews If Politico is also in print it would make good kitty litter. Meow.

Submitted by FuturePassed on Sat, 06/10/2017 - 8:51pm

There are laws

@Alligator Ed
against cruelty to animals. You'd force a cat to dirty its paws and butt in Politico?

Submitted by thanatokephaloides on Sat, 06/10/2017 - 10:46pm

Politico

@FuturePassed

..... is what's new in the kitty litter after it's been used by the cat!

—

"US govt/military = bad. Russian govt/military = bad. Any politician wanting power = bad. Anyone wielding power = bad." --Shahryar

"All power corrupts absolutely!" -- thanatokephaloides

Submitted by DonMidwest on Sat, 06/10/2017 - 10:09am

Glenn G called political out right from the start

@Alligator Ed Greenwald pointed out that this was a beltway backer right from the start

the original people had experience, for example, promoting invasion of Iraq

nuclear weapons!!!

horrors

Submitted by Mark from Queens on Sat, 06/10/2017 - 9:41am

Corbyn's surge was red alert for forthcoming Neolib meltdown

@gjohnsit
once Corbyn popped their centrist bubble by blowing the election out of the water with staunch, unwavering Socialist policies that had massive support, especially (again, as in here) with the youth.

I've been reading all morning the meltdown going on, thanks to some links and commentary at The Way of the Bern.

Check out this vicious RW fear-mongering hit piece that was given ink space for an Op-Ed in the NY Times, apparently written by some frothing ultra-Zionist named Ben Stephens "The Year of Voting Recklessly." Though he calls May a humiliated politician, "who squandered a huge lead in a lousy campaign" he tars Corbyn as a "vile" opponent. Vile? Oh, this should be good, you POS RW Neoliberal apologist.

He has done as much to shove the Labour Party to the nasty left as Donald Trump has shoved the Republican Party to the ugly right.

I have long noted the ways in which Trump has done this. Conservatives who failed to call him out — most of them, I’m sorry to say — have become accomplices in this project of their own intellectual and moral debasement.

What about Corbyn? The Labour leader “has created what some have referred to as a ‘safe space’ for those with vile attitudes toward Jewish people” — that’s according to a report from a U.K. Parliamentary Committee published last year. One of his closest advisers, Seumas Milne, is among Vladimir Putin’s most prominent apologists in the U.K. Corbyn himself has called NATO a “danger to world peace.” (Bolding and emphasis mine)

The whole piece is a pathetically transparent attempt to malign what is a the clarion call. Crobyn's major advances, which are proof that sound, fundamental Socialism is a gathering worldwide, even scared him into saying France's new elected Neoliberal banker had brought a "gravity, energy, excitement and even sexiness" to the political "center."

Proof that these Neoliberal propagandist, fear-mongering scumbags are running scared. Real scared. The Daily Beast is also following suit, and I'm sure many more. The gears of the "think tanks" are sure to be spinning overtime, pushing out into all the channels of the MSM, anti-Corbyn propaganda. Watch out.

Now to worry. As usual whenever given a voice, the People (in this case readers, or commenters, at the NY Times) weighed in and handed the ass of such a malignant, red-baiting, fascist blowhard back to him.

As a digression, it's a curious thing, isn't it? Highly-regarded (or not so, at our place) institutions give a platform to a POS like this and it is deigned as if from the voice of god. We've been so conditioned as readers/the great unwashed masses/the little people who do all the work, that we must hand over their thinking/worldview/allegiance to the knowledge and prestige of those writing in these "papers of record."

Maybe we're finally on the cusp of the day of reckoning in which people have suddenly woken up that their "news" is primarily a web of manufacturing consent through fear-mongering and distraction to keep the status quo for the people, including in the MSM, making all the money and living comfortably, given Corbyn's surprise populist surge and the comments of everyday people who are rising up to call bullshit.

Here's a sample of the comments:

Many if not most British pundits and pollsters, and more than a handful of his fellow party members, who mistakenly wrote off Jeremy Corbyn's leadership of the Labour party because he was too far left are swallowing humble pie and admitting they were wrong. To the extent that he is in today's political spectrum far left, Corbyn managed to capture many disillusioned voters, by reawakening the Labour Party's long-lost values, in much the same way that Bernie Sanders reminded people what the Democrats stood for within many of our lifetimes.

Bret, far from accepting that there is something positive to Corbyn's appeal, you double down on the idea of the "nasty left", which actually strives for a more equitable and just society. This goal used to be accepted even by the center-right; those of us who lived through that part of the past saw that it was working - right until Margaret Thatcher, soon to be aided and abetted by Ronald Reagan, came along and declared "there's no such thing as society".

220 Recommend

Matthew Carnicelli is a trusted commenter Brooklyn, NY 10 hours ago

Bret, when I was heading up the elevator in the building in which I work the other day, an interesting factoid appeared on the mini-TV screen inside.

"The UK had the lowest GDP growth rate in the European Union in the first quarter of 2017, according to the European statistics agency Eurostat."

Brett, would you agree that this anemic growth rate likely has a little bit to do with the strong showing of Corbyn?

Would you further agree that seven years of austerity has British workers losing patience with neo-liberal economics?

When George Washington was in the grip of the throat infection that led to his death, his doctors bled him, purged him, and generally made the last hours of his life a living hell. Isn't that pretty much the same general approach that British conservatives have pursued in the aftermath of the World Financial Crisis?

If so, can you perhaps understand why even a problematic Labor leader might appear sympathetic to a people who have been bled, purged, and otherwise abused ever since the fiscal excesses of neo-liberal sleazeballs made their lives a living hell?

Is the science behind austerity economics any more credible than the science behind the medicine that killed George Washington?

192 Recommend

Susan Anderson is a trusted commenter Boston 10 hours ago
"vile"? "nasty left"? Nonsense! Sounds awfully personal ...

Corbyn tried to bring back some proper societal concerns and stop the looting of the UK's common property and services on behalf of those who already had more than their share. Selling off everything of value for short-term profit (those lovely tax cuts for the rich that solve nothing and create a demand for phony overpriced luxury goods) does not bode well for the future.

"Socialism" is not a supreme evil. Caring for each other is good for everyone. The gross exaggerations of Corbyn's positions are caricatures at best, lies at worst. What has happened to us all that we lie instead of looking at the record.

Republican "hero" Hayek, for example, is for universal health care and a guaranteed minimum income. Ayn Rand would not impress him.

188 Recommend

Meredith NYC 6 hours ago
The NYT hired WSJ’s Stephens to increase its roster of conservative columnists. Why? He calls Corbyn worse than left, he’s nasty left.

Columnist Gary Younge in the Guardian, U K, says: “The economic crash and the austerity that followed caused a tectonic shift in our political culture …..the conventional wisdom is that elections are won in the center. But the center can move.”

The center in US politics had moved rightward for decades, so now our Dem leaders and candidates are more like moderate Gop of the past.

The young in US and Britain show they don't want Trump types but they don't want the centrist status quo either. No to Clinton Democrats and no to Teresa May Tories. Good show! as they say.

It’s said that Teresa's Tories aim to privatized their National Health Service. That’s hardly a ‘conservative’ policy. It is a radical break from a respected tradition, first achieved in 1948---health care for all----that even arch conservative Margaret Thatcher said she was proud of. Imagine.

In this sense it’s the Tories who are the radicals. Maybe Corbyn/Labour are the real ‘conservatives’ aiming to preserve single payer health care for all---what’s worth saving and what citizens want.

Like Bernie Sanders was actually a conservative -- aiming to restore low cost college tuition of past generations, restore needed bank regulations. To revitalize FDR’s New Deal and LBJ’s Great Society. Restore the middle class, using what was once more 'centrist' USA 'socialism'.

114 Recommend

lainnj New Jersey 3 hours ago
The sins of the far left? Anti-semitism posing as anti-Zionism? Anti-Americanism posting as pacifism? I suspect the writer is not in favor of anti-Zionism or pacifism either. And where is the evidence that Corbyn ran an anti-Semitic or anti-American campaign? Nowhere, as far as I know. It's just planted here as a vague suggestion that the writer hopes will somehow stick.

The sins of the far right, such as eliminating health care for all and redistributing wealth from the poorest to the richest, are well documented and conveniently left unsaid here.

Let's hope that the "far left," which stands for universal health care, increased access to education, a return to a fair tax structure, environmental stewardship, respect for diversity, and peace, can take root elsewhere as well. There was a time when these basic ideas were not painted as radical. Corbyn's success is hopeful.

41 Recommend

—

"If I should ever die, God forbid, let this be my epitaph:

THE ONLY PROOF HE NEEDED
FOR THE EXISTENCE OF GOD
WAS MUSIC"

- Kurt Vonnegut

Submitted by gjohnsit on Sat, 06/10/2017 - 10:33am

'Reckless voters'

@Mark from Queens
People can't be trusted unless they do as told.

#1
once Corbyn popped their centrist bubble by blowing the election out of the water with staunch, unwavering Socialist policies that had massive support, especially (again, as in here) with the youth.

I've been reading all morning the meltdown going on, thanks to some links and commentary at The Way of the Bern.

Check out this vicious RW fear-mongering hit piece that was given ink space for an Op-Ed in the NY Times, apparently written by some frothing ultra-Zionist named Ben Stephens "The Year of Voting Recklessly." Though he calls May a humiliated politician, "who squandered a huge lead in a lousy campaign" he tars Corbyn as a "vile" opponent. Vile? Oh, this should be good, you POS RW Neoliberal apologist.

He has done as much to shove the Labour Party to the nasty left as Donald Trump has shoved the Republican Party to the ugly right.

I have long noted the ways in which Trump has done this. Conservatives who failed to call him out — most of them, I’m sorry to say — have become accomplices in this project of their own intellectual and moral debasement.

What about Corbyn? The Labour leader “has created what some have referred to as a ‘safe space’ for those with vile attitudes toward Jewish people” — that’s according to a report from a U.K. Parliamentary Committee published last year. One of his closest advisers, Seumas Milne, is among Vladimir Putin’s most prominent apologists in the U.K. Corbyn himself has called NATO a “danger to world peace.” (Bolding and emphasis mine)

The whole piece is a pathetically transparent attempt to malign what is a the clarion call. Crobyn's major advances, which are proof that sound, fundamental Socialism is a gathering worldwide, even scared him into saying France's new elected Neoliberal banker had brought a "gravity, energy, excitement and even sexiness" to the political "center."

Proof that these Neoliberal propagandist, fear-mongering scumbags are running scared. Real scared. The Daily Beast is also following suit, and I'm sure many more. The gears of the "think tanks" are sure to be spinning overtime, pushing out into all the channels of the MSM, anti-Corbyn propaganda. Watch out.

Now to worry. As usual whenever given a voice, the People (in this case readers, or commenters, at the NY Times) weighed in and handed the ass of such a malignant, red-baiting, fascist blowhard back to him.

As a digression, it's a curious thing, isn't it? Highly-regarded (or not so, at our place) institutions give a platform to a POS like this and it is deigned as if from the voice of god. We've been so conditioned as readers/the great unwashed masses/the little people who do all the work, that we must hand over their thinking/worldview/allegiance to the knowledge and prestige of those writing in these "papers of record."

Maybe we're finally on the cusp of the day of reckoning in which people have suddenly woken up that their "news" is primarily a web of manufacturing consent through fear-mongering and distraction to keep the status quo for the people, including in the MSM, making all the money and living comfortably, given Corbyn's surprise populist surge and the comments of everyday people who are rising up to call bullshit.

Here's a sample of the comments:

Many if not most British pundits and pollsters, and more than a handful of his fellow party members, who mistakenly wrote off Jeremy Corbyn's leadership of the Labour party because he was too far left are swallowing humble pie and admitting they were wrong. To the extent that he is in today's political spectrum far left, Corbyn managed to capture many disillusioned voters, by reawakening the Labour Party's long-lost values, in much the same way that Bernie Sanders reminded people what the Democrats stood for within many of our lifetimes.

Bret, far from accepting that there is something positive to Corbyn's appeal, you double down on the idea of the "nasty left", which actually strives for a more equitable and just society. This goal used to be accepted even by the center-right; those of us who lived through that part of the past saw that it was working - right until Margaret Thatcher, soon to be aided and abetted by Ronald Reagan, came along and declared "there's no such thing as society".

220 Recommend

Matthew Carnicelli is a trusted commenter Brooklyn, NY 10 hours ago

Bret, when I was heading up the elevator in the building in which I work the other day, an interesting factoid appeared on the mini-TV screen inside.

"The UK had the lowest GDP growth rate in the European Union in the first quarter of 2017, according to the European statistics agency Eurostat."

Brett, would you agree that this anemic growth rate likely has a little bit to do with the strong showing of Corbyn?

Would you further agree that seven years of austerity has British workers losing patience with neo-liberal economics?

When George Washington was in the grip of the throat infection that led to his death, his doctors bled him, purged him, and generally made the last hours of his life a living hell. Isn't that pretty much the same general approach that British conservatives have pursued in the aftermath of the World Financial Crisis?

If so, can you perhaps understand why even a problematic Labor leader might appear sympathetic to a people who have been bled, purged, and otherwise abused ever since the fiscal excesses of neo-liberal sleazeballs made their lives a living hell?

Is the science behind austerity economics any more credible than the science behind the medicine that killed George Washington?

192 Recommend

Susan Anderson is a trusted commenter Boston 10 hours ago
"vile"? "nasty left"? Nonsense! Sounds awfully personal ...

Corbyn tried to bring back some proper societal concerns and stop the looting of the UK's common property and services on behalf of those who already had more than their share. Selling off everything of value for short-term profit (those lovely tax cuts for the rich that solve nothing and create a demand for phony overpriced luxury goods) does not bode well for the future.

"Socialism" is not a supreme evil. Caring for each other is good for everyone. The gross exaggerations of Corbyn's positions are caricatures at best, lies at worst. What has happened to us all that we lie instead of looking at the record.

Republican "hero" Hayek, for example, is for universal health care and a guaranteed minimum income. Ayn Rand would not impress him.

188 Recommend

Meredith NYC 6 hours ago
The NYT hired WSJ’s Stephens to increase its roster of conservative columnists. Why? He calls Corbyn worse than left, he’s nasty left.

Columnist Gary Younge in the Guardian, U K, says: “The economic crash and the austerity that followed caused a tectonic shift in our political culture …..the conventional wisdom is that elections are won in the center. But the center can move.”

The center in US politics had moved rightward for decades, so now our Dem leaders and candidates are more like moderate Gop of the past.

The young in US and Britain show they don't want Trump types but they don't want the centrist status quo either. No to Clinton Democrats and no to Teresa May Tories. Good show! as they say.

It’s said that Teresa's Tories aim to privatized their National Health Service. That’s hardly a ‘conservative’ policy. It is a radical break from a respected tradition, first achieved in 1948---health care for all----that even arch conservative Margaret Thatcher said she was proud of. Imagine.

In this sense it’s the Tories who are the radicals. Maybe Corbyn/Labour are the real ‘conservatives’ aiming to preserve single payer health care for all---what’s worth saving and what citizens want.

Like Bernie Sanders was actually a conservative -- aiming to restore low cost college tuition of past generations, restore needed bank regulations. To revitalize FDR’s New Deal and LBJ’s Great Society. Restore the middle class, using what was once more 'centrist' USA 'socialism'.

114 Recommend

lainnj New Jersey 3 hours ago
The sins of the far left? Anti-semitism posing as anti-Zionism? Anti-Americanism posting as pacifism? I suspect the writer is not in favor of anti-Zionism or pacifism either. And where is the evidence that Corbyn ran an anti-Semitic or anti-American campaign? Nowhere, as far as I know. It's just planted here as a vague suggestion that the writer hopes will somehow stick.

The sins of the far right, such as eliminating health care for all and redistributing wealth from the poorest to the richest, are well documented and conveniently left unsaid here.

Let's hope that the "far left," which stands for universal health care, increased access to education, a return to a fair tax structure, environmental stewardship, respect for diversity, and peace, can take root elsewhere as well. There was a time when these basic ideas were not painted as radical. Corbyn's success is hopeful.

41 Recommend

Submitted by Steven D on Sat, 06/10/2017 - 11:06am

Well aren't we lucky the NYT

@Mark from Queens @Mark from Queens deigns to let the little people comment on the same platform from which they offer us the word as handed down to them from God itself.

#1
once Corbyn popped their centrist bubble by blowing the election out of the water with staunch, unwavering Socialist policies that had massive support, especially (again, as in here) with the youth.

I've been reading all morning the meltdown going on, thanks to some links and commentary at The Way of the Bern.

Check out this vicious RW fear-mongering hit piece that was given ink space for an Op-Ed in the NY Times, apparently written by some frothing ultra-Zionist named Ben Stephens "The Year of Voting Recklessly." Though he calls May a humiliated politician, "who squandered a huge lead in a lousy campaign" he tars Corbyn as a "vile" opponent. Vile? Oh, this should be good, you POS RW Neoliberal apologist.

He has done as much to shove the Labour Party to the nasty left as Donald Trump has shoved the Republican Party to the ugly right.

I have long noted the ways in which Trump has done this. Conservatives who failed to call him out — most of them, I’m sorry to say — have become accomplices in this project of their own intellectual and moral debasement.

What about Corbyn? The Labour leader “has created what some have referred to as a ‘safe space’ for those with vile attitudes toward Jewish people” — that’s according to a report from a U.K. Parliamentary Committee published last year. One of his closest advisers, Seumas Milne, is among Vladimir Putin’s most prominent apologists in the U.K. Corbyn himself has called NATO a “danger to world peace.” (Bolding and emphasis mine)

The whole piece is a pathetically transparent attempt to malign what is a the clarion call. Crobyn's major advances, which are proof that sound, fundamental Socialism is a gathering worldwide, even scared him into saying France's new elected Neoliberal banker had brought a "gravity, energy, excitement and even sexiness" to the political "center."

Proof that these Neoliberal propagandist, fear-mongering scumbags are running scared. Real scared. The Daily Beast is also following suit, and I'm sure many more. The gears of the "think tanks" are sure to be spinning overtime, pushing out into all the channels of the MSM, anti-Corbyn propaganda. Watch out.

Now to worry. As usual whenever given a voice, the People (in this case readers, or commenters, at the NY Times) weighed in and handed the ass of such a malignant, red-baiting, fascist blowhard back to him.

As a digression, it's a curious thing, isn't it? Highly-regarded (or not so, at our place) institutions give a platform to a POS like this and it is deigned as if from the voice of god. We've been so conditioned as readers/the great unwashed masses/the little people who do all the work, that we must hand over their thinking/worldview/allegiance to the knowledge and prestige of those writing in these "papers of record."

Maybe we're finally on the cusp of the day of reckoning in which people have suddenly woken up that their "news" is primarily a web of manufacturing consent through fear-mongering and distraction to keep the status quo for the people, including in the MSM, making all the money and living comfortably, given Corbyn's surprise populist surge and the comments of everyday people who are rising up to call bullshit.

Here's a sample of the comments:

Many if not most British pundits and pollsters, and more than a handful of his fellow party members, who mistakenly wrote off Jeremy Corbyn's leadership of the Labour party because he was too far left are swallowing humble pie and admitting they were wrong. To the extent that he is in today's political spectrum far left, Corbyn managed to capture many disillusioned voters, by reawakening the Labour Party's long-lost values, in much the same way that Bernie Sanders reminded people what the Democrats stood for within many of our lifetimes.

Bret, far from accepting that there is something positive to Corbyn's appeal, you double down on the idea of the "nasty left", which actually strives for a more equitable and just society. This goal used to be accepted even by the center-right; those of us who lived through that part of the past saw that it was working - right until Margaret Thatcher, soon to be aided and abetted by Ronald Reagan, came along and declared "there's no such thing as society".

220 Recommend

Matthew Carnicelli is a trusted commenter Brooklyn, NY 10 hours ago

Bret, when I was heading up the elevator in the building in which I work the other day, an interesting factoid appeared on the mini-TV screen inside.

"The UK had the lowest GDP growth rate in the European Union in the first quarter of 2017, according to the European statistics agency Eurostat."

Brett, would you agree that this anemic growth rate likely has a little bit to do with the strong showing of Corbyn?

Would you further agree that seven years of austerity has British workers losing patience with neo-liberal economics?

When George Washington was in the grip of the throat infection that led to his death, his doctors bled him, purged him, and generally made the last hours of his life a living hell. Isn't that pretty much the same general approach that British conservatives have pursued in the aftermath of the World Financial Crisis?

If so, can you perhaps understand why even a problematic Labor leader might appear sympathetic to a people who have been bled, purged, and otherwise abused ever since the fiscal excesses of neo-liberal sleazeballs made their lives a living hell?

Is the science behind austerity economics any more credible than the science behind the medicine that killed George Washington?

192 Recommend

Susan Anderson is a trusted commenter Boston 10 hours ago
"vile"? "nasty left"? Nonsense! Sounds awfully personal ...

Corbyn tried to bring back some proper societal concerns and stop the looting of the UK's common property and services on behalf of those who already had more than their share. Selling off everything of value for short-term profit (those lovely tax cuts for the rich that solve nothing and create a demand for phony overpriced luxury goods) does not bode well for the future.

"Socialism" is not a supreme evil. Caring for each other is good for everyone. The gross exaggerations of Corbyn's positions are caricatures at best, lies at worst. What has happened to us all that we lie instead of looking at the record.

Republican "hero" Hayek, for example, is for universal health care and a guaranteed minimum income. Ayn Rand would not impress him.

188 Recommend

Meredith NYC 6 hours ago
The NYT hired WSJ’s Stephens to increase its roster of conservative columnists. Why? He calls Corbyn worse than left, he’s nasty left.

Columnist Gary Younge in the Guardian, U K, says: “The economic crash and the austerity that followed caused a tectonic shift in our political culture …..the conventional wisdom is that elections are won in the center. But the center can move.”

The center in US politics had moved rightward for decades, so now our Dem leaders and candidates are more like moderate Gop of the past.

The young in US and Britain show they don't want Trump types but they don't want the centrist status quo either. No to Clinton Democrats and no to Teresa May Tories. Good show! as they say.

It’s said that Teresa's Tories aim to privatized their National Health Service. That’s hardly a ‘conservative’ policy. It is a radical break from a respected tradition, first achieved in 1948---health care for all----that even arch conservative Margaret Thatcher said she was proud of. Imagine.

In this sense it’s the Tories who are the radicals. Maybe Corbyn/Labour are the real ‘conservatives’ aiming to preserve single payer health care for all---what’s worth saving and what citizens want.

Like Bernie Sanders was actually a conservative -- aiming to restore low cost college tuition of past generations, restore needed bank regulations. To revitalize FDR’s New Deal and LBJ’s Great Society. Restore the middle class, using what was once more 'centrist' USA 'socialism'.

114 Recommend

lainnj New Jersey 3 hours ago
The sins of the far left? Anti-semitism posing as anti-Zionism? Anti-Americanism posting as pacifism? I suspect the writer is not in favor of anti-Zionism or pacifism either. And where is the evidence that Corbyn ran an anti-Semitic or anti-American campaign? Nowhere, as far as I know. It's just planted here as a vague suggestion that the writer hopes will somehow stick.

The sins of the far right, such as eliminating health care for all and redistributing wealth from the poorest to the richest, are well documented and conveniently left unsaid here.

Let's hope that the "far left," which stands for universal health care, increased access to education, a return to a fair tax structure, environmental stewardship, respect for diversity, and peace, can take root elsewhere as well. There was a time when these basic ideas were not painted as radical. Corbyn's success is hopeful.

41 Recommend

—

"You can't just leave those who created the problem in charge of the solution."---Tyree Scott

Submitted by gulfgal98 on Sat, 06/10/2017 - 12:01pm

I have been chuckling at a Twitter meme

@Mark from Queens Watching all the neolibs melt down, particularly Joan Walsh, Bernie and Corbyn supporters have been using the hashtag #Bernie Would Have Won on their responses. The neolibs are even more pissed at that hashtag and are truly melting down.

I am hoping that Corbyn's "win" represents a watershed moment in the history of the world and is a harbinger of the future everywhere.

I think that neoliberalism is on its last legs but it will not go down quietly.

#1
once Corbyn popped their centrist bubble by blowing the election out of the water with staunch, unwavering Socialist policies that had massive support, especially (again, as in here) with the youth.

I've been reading all morning the meltdown going on, thanks to some links and commentary at The Way of the Bern.

Check out this vicious RW fear-mongering hit piece that was given ink space for an Op-Ed in the NY Times, apparently written by some frothing ultra-Zionist named Ben Stephens "The Year of Voting Recklessly." Though he calls May a humiliated politician, "who squandered a huge lead in a lousy campaign" he tars Corbyn as a "vile" opponent. Vile? Oh, this should be good, you POS RW Neoliberal apologist.

He has done as much to shove the Labour Party to the nasty left as Donald Trump has shoved the Republican Party to the ugly right.

I have long noted the ways in which Trump has done this. Conservatives who failed to call him out — most of them, I’m sorry to say — have become accomplices in this project of their own intellectual and moral debasement.

What about Corbyn? The Labour leader “has created what some have referred to as a ‘safe space’ for those with vile attitudes toward Jewish people” — that’s according to a report from a U.K. Parliamentary Committee published last year. One of his closest advisers, Seumas Milne, is among Vladimir Putin’s most prominent apologists in the U.K. Corbyn himself has called NATO a “danger to world peace.” (Bolding and emphasis mine)

The whole piece is a pathetically transparent attempt to malign what is a the clarion call. Crobyn's major advances, which are proof that sound, fundamental Socialism is a gathering worldwide, even scared him into saying France's new elected Neoliberal banker had brought a "gravity, energy, excitement and even sexiness" to the political "center."

Proof that these Neoliberal propagandist, fear-mongering scumbags are running scared. Real scared. The Daily Beast is also following suit, and I'm sure many more. The gears of the "think tanks" are sure to be spinning overtime, pushing out into all the channels of the MSM, anti-Corbyn propaganda. Watch out.

Now to worry. As usual whenever given a voice, the People (in this case readers, or commenters, at the NY Times) weighed in and handed the ass of such a malignant, red-baiting, fascist blowhard back to him.

As a digression, it's a curious thing, isn't it? Highly-regarded (or not so, at our place) institutions give a platform to a POS like this and it is deigned as if from the voice of god. We've been so conditioned as readers/the great unwashed masses/the little people who do all the work, that we must hand over their thinking/worldview/allegiance to the knowledge and prestige of those writing in these "papers of record."

Maybe we're finally on the cusp of the day of reckoning in which people have suddenly woken up that their "news" is primarily a web of manufacturing consent through fear-mongering and distraction to keep the status quo for the people, including in the MSM, making all the money and living comfortably, given Corbyn's surprise populist surge and the comments of everyday people who are rising up to call bullshit.

Here's a sample of the comments:

Many if not most British pundits and pollsters, and more than a handful of his fellow party members, who mistakenly wrote off Jeremy Corbyn's leadership of the Labour party because he was too far left are swallowing humble pie and admitting they were wrong. To the extent that he is in today's political spectrum far left, Corbyn managed to capture many disillusioned voters, by reawakening the Labour Party's long-lost values, in much the same way that Bernie Sanders reminded people what the Democrats stood for within many of our lifetimes.

Bret, far from accepting that there is something positive to Corbyn's appeal, you double down on the idea of the "nasty left", which actually strives for a more equitable and just society. This goal used to be accepted even by the center-right; those of us who lived through that part of the past saw that it was working - right until Margaret Thatcher, soon to be aided and abetted by Ronald Reagan, came along and declared "there's no such thing as society".

220 Recommend

Matthew Carnicelli is a trusted commenter Brooklyn, NY 10 hours ago

Bret, when I was heading up the elevator in the building in which I work the other day, an interesting factoid appeared on the mini-TV screen inside.

"The UK had the lowest GDP growth rate in the European Union in the first quarter of 2017, according to the European statistics agency Eurostat."

Brett, would you agree that this anemic growth rate likely has a little bit to do with the strong showing of Corbyn?

Would you further agree that seven years of austerity has British workers losing patience with neo-liberal economics?

When George Washington was in the grip of the throat infection that led to his death, his doctors bled him, purged him, and generally made the last hours of his life a living hell. Isn't that pretty much the same general approach that British conservatives have pursued in the aftermath of the World Financial Crisis?

If so, can you perhaps understand why even a problematic Labor leader might appear sympathetic to a people who have been bled, purged, and otherwise abused ever since the fiscal excesses of neo-liberal sleazeballs made their lives a living hell?

Is the science behind austerity economics any more credible than the science behind the medicine that killed George Washington?

192 Recommend

Susan Anderson is a trusted commenter Boston 10 hours ago
"vile"? "nasty left"? Nonsense! Sounds awfully personal ...

Corbyn tried to bring back some proper societal concerns and stop the looting of the UK's common property and services on behalf of those who already had more than their share. Selling off everything of value for short-term profit (those lovely tax cuts for the rich that solve nothing and create a demand for phony overpriced luxury goods) does not bode well for the future.

"Socialism" is not a supreme evil. Caring for each other is good for everyone. The gross exaggerations of Corbyn's positions are caricatures at best, lies at worst. What has happened to us all that we lie instead of looking at the record.

Republican "hero" Hayek, for example, is for universal health care and a guaranteed minimum income. Ayn Rand would not impress him.

188 Recommend

Meredith NYC 6 hours ago
The NYT hired WSJ’s Stephens to increase its roster of conservative columnists. Why? He calls Corbyn worse than left, he’s nasty left.

Columnist Gary Younge in the Guardian, U K, says: “The economic crash and the austerity that followed caused a tectonic shift in our political culture …..the conventional wisdom is that elections are won in the center. But the center can move.”

The center in US politics had moved rightward for decades, so now our Dem leaders and candidates are more like moderate Gop of the past.

The young in US and Britain show they don't want Trump types but they don't want the centrist status quo either. No to Clinton Democrats and no to Teresa May Tories. Good show! as they say.

It’s said that Teresa's Tories aim to privatized their National Health Service. That’s hardly a ‘conservative’ policy. It is a radical break from a respected tradition, first achieved in 1948---health care for all----that even arch conservative Margaret Thatcher said she was proud of. Imagine.

In this sense it’s the Tories who are the radicals. Maybe Corbyn/Labour are the real ‘conservatives’ aiming to preserve single payer health care for all---what’s worth saving and what citizens want.

Like Bernie Sanders was actually a conservative -- aiming to restore low cost college tuition of past generations, restore needed bank regulations. To revitalize FDR’s New Deal and LBJ’s Great Society. Restore the middle class, using what was once more 'centrist' USA 'socialism'.

114 Recommend

lainnj New Jersey 3 hours ago
The sins of the far left? Anti-semitism posing as anti-Zionism? Anti-Americanism posting as pacifism? I suspect the writer is not in favor of anti-Zionism or pacifism either. And where is the evidence that Corbyn ran an anti-Semitic or anti-American campaign? Nowhere, as far as I know. It's just planted here as a vague suggestion that the writer hopes will somehow stick.

The sins of the far right, such as eliminating health care for all and redistributing wealth from the poorest to the richest, are well documented and conveniently left unsaid here.

Let's hope that the "far left," which stands for universal health care, increased access to education, a return to a fair tax structure, environmental stewardship, respect for diversity, and peace, can take root elsewhere as well. There was a time when these basic ideas were not painted as radical. Corbyn's success is hopeful.

41 Recommend

—

Do I hear the sound of guillotines being constructed?

“Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." ~ President John F. Kennedy

Submitted by Mark from Queens on Sat, 06/10/2017 - 12:28pm

Slimeball/sleaze & smear merchant Murdoch melted down too.

@gulfgal98

Heard from very good source who was there that Rupert Murdoch stormed out of The Times Election Party after seeing the Exit Poll #Vote2017

— John Prescott (@johnprescott) June 8, 2017

When Rupert Murdoch saw the exit poll 'he stormed out of the room' https://t.co/WdUe6qgh3h

— The Independent (@Independent) June 9, 2017

Maybe because people, like this guy, have woken up to who is bringing them "the news" and what their agenda is:

Today it's Jeremy Corbyn and the people v Theresa May and her vile Tory tax avoiding Billionaire media barons pic.twitter.com/yVyfidTrUD

— ARTIST TAXI DRIVER (@chunkymark) June 8, 2017

Shouldn't that scumbag extraordinaire Murdoch have been tied up, gagged and rotting in prison a thousand ways to Sunday for all of his criminal transgressions against humanity?

Of course, he is one of the grossest examples of an international two-tiered justice system in which financial and political elites (along with cops) are immunized from the rule of law.

Thanks for the tip GG. Of course there's no sign of it trending at the moment.

Going to go have some fun looking at that now...

—

"If I should ever die, God forbid, let this be my epitaph:

THE ONLY PROOF HE NEEDED
FOR THE EXISTENCE OF GOD
WAS MUSIC"

- Kurt Vonnegut

Submitted by dkmich on Sat, 06/10/2017 - 8:46am

Listen to them whine......

The British election is a reminder of the perils of too much democracy

President Obama suggests Jeremy Corbyn's Labour Party is 'disintegrating' and has lost touch with 'fact and reality'

—

"Religion is what keeps the poor from murdering the rich."--Napoleon

Submitted by HenryAWallace on Mon, 06/12/2017 - 10:01am

Even out of office, he continues to harm the 90%.

@dkmich

Meanwhile, his words describe the US Democratic Party he headed for eight years of historic losses to Republicans. You'd think he'd be too embarrassed to show his face, much less open his yap to put down populists. Talk about clueless, delusional and narcissistic!

Submitted by irishking on Mon, 06/12/2017 - 10:25am

maybe the citigroup connection?

@HenryAWallace

“I basically couldn’t get in the hall and nobody knew my name. Four years later I’m doing the keynote speech. And it wasn’t as if I was so much smarter four years later… it speaks a little bit to the randomness of politics.

nope.
just lucky.

Submitted by Amanda Matthews on Sat, 06/10/2017 - 9:32am

the Empty Suit better hope that his lying ass

@dkmich
stays a jump or two ahead of 'facts and reality' himself.

I hats hate hate this lying sack o' shit.

—

I'm tired of this back-slapping "Isn't humanity neat?" bullshit. We're a virus with shoes, okay? That's all we are. - Bill Hicks

Politics is the entertainment branch of industry. - Frank Zappa

Submitted by irishking on Mon, 06/12/2017 - 6:44pm

got on your hi-heel sneakers ?

@Amanda Matthews

the Empty Suit better hope that his lying ass stays a jump or two ahead...

Mr. Obama might want some running shoes

Submitted by gjohnsit on Sat, 06/10/2017 - 10:21am

British people didn't fall for the propaganda

@dkmich
but Americans still might.

Submitted by gjohnsit on Sat, 06/10/2017 - 10:56am

NPR's priorities

@dkmich link

None of that, apparently, was found noteworthy by NPR London correspondent Frank Langfitt.
Corbyn’s name did come up a few times in a day-after story on NPR‘s blog The Two-Way (6/9/17). The post quoted 60 words of reaction from Corbyn—comparable to the 51 words attributed to German Deputy Foreign Minister Michael Roth.

The Two-Way showed considerably more morning-after interest in another of Theresa May’s opponents—running a 400-word post (6/9/17), complete with two photos and a video, on a joke candidate named Lord Buckethood who ran in May’s constituency, winning 249 votes.

Submitted by Mark from Queens on Sat, 06/10/2017 - 1:11pm

I love what F.A.I.R. does. Think that should our thrust too:

@gjohnsit
becoming more of a place concentrating more on becoming citizen journalists/watchdogs to expose the lapdog, pernicious MSM.

With this and Bernie's campaign more people than ever seem inclined to question who is giving them their "news."

If we can discredit the whole institution of mainstream corporate news, as they so richly deserve, that would be a first, serious, major step in getting a people's revolution of the 99% underway.

Thanks for the link, gjohn.

—

"If I should ever die, God forbid, let this be my epitaph:

THE ONLY PROOF HE NEEDED
FOR THE EXISTENCE OF GOD
WAS MUSIC"

- Kurt Vonnegut

Submitted by Steven D on Sat, 06/10/2017 - 11:05am

Hope and Change

@dkmich as in

I HOPE no one figures out I'm a pawn for the Big Corporations before my 8 years are up so I can cash in like the Clintons.

and I sure did CHANGE the balance sheets of the TBTF banks!

—

"You can't just leave those who created the problem in charge of the solution."---Tyree Scott

Submitted by thanatokephaloides on Sat, 06/10/2017 - 10:50pm

How much cheese have you got?

@dkmich

Listen to them whine......

How much cheese have you got?

I don't think Wisconsin itself could cheese over all the whines we're seeing!

And what whine goes best with Demogorgonzola, anyway? /s

—

"US govt/military = bad. Russian govt/military = bad. Any politician wanting power = bad. Anyone wielding power = bad." --Shahryar

"All power corrupts absolutely!" -- thanatokephaloides

Submitted by Mark from Queens on Sat, 06/10/2017 - 10:00am

"Clinton Super PAC Chair Ran Theresa May's Campaign...Poorly."

How's that cherry on top? Clinton and Obama flunky now adds RW Conservative extremist Theresa May to his "client" list of failures.

...report on how former Hillary Clinton Super PAC co-chair, Jim Messina, was hired by Theresa May to run her campaign... and he did not have good results in either race.

Compare that to this, "The US Bernie Sanders campaigners lending Jeremy Corbyn a hand:
Staff from US presidential candidate’s team have been helping Momentum make the most of Labour’s supporter numbers"

“I got involved in politics through the Sanders campaign. I was the national out-of-state organising director, in charge of mobilising people to go from border states to higher-priority states,” Uyterhoeven told the Guardian.

“It was a huge success, in terms of our get-out-the-vote effort: about 35-40% of the volunteers came from outside the state to help out. So it was very similar work to having these marginal constituencies in the UK.

“If you live in a safe constituency voting 80% one way or the other, you can go knock on doors where the vote is much closer.”

She had a straightforward summary of the Sanders approach: “The right can throw money at elections – we throw people.”

—

"If I should ever die, God forbid, let this be my epitaph:

THE ONLY PROOF HE NEEDED
FOR THE EXISTENCE OF GOD
WAS MUSIC"

- Kurt Vonnegut

Submitted by gjohnsit on Sat, 06/10/2017 - 10:59am

Join Labour

@Mark from Queens searches

From 8 June to 7pm on 9 June, searches for “join Labour” rose 72 points relative to previous searches for the topic.
The biggest jumps came at 10pm, when the exit poll predicted a hung parliament and at 8am when the scale of the Labour advance was obvious.

By contrast, the Conservatives saw a modest increase of 31 points relative to previous searches at 7am while the Liberal Democrats remained mostly static.

Submitted by The Voice In th... on Sat, 06/10/2017 - 11:31am

Laughing my ass off!

@Mark from Queens

Idiots who lost to Trump being hired by other clueless idiots.

—

I've seen lots of changes. What doesn't change is people. Same old hairless apes.

Submitted by mimi on Sat, 06/10/2017 - 11:39am

well paid, Theresa May, with this Jim Messina...

@Mark from Queens
I can't help to feel some "Schadenfreude". Such an awful way to have political campaigns.

Those 'handlers' all need a change in their professional careers. How about they all go into the bush and clear the brush to harvest some usefool food items to feed the poor... or may be they could become professional swamp drainers.

—

https://www.euronews.com/live

Submitted by IdahoDiane on Sat, 06/10/2017 - 10:12am

Welsh Friend Seems Confident in Another UK Election Soon

My mom has a 70-ish pen-friend who lives in Wales. I started emailing him about the UK election. This morning he stated very straightforwardly that Mrs. May [as he calls her] is in trouble and there will soon be another election that hopefully Labour will be able to take advantage of.

Mom's friend told me he is a Jeremy Corbin fan though he lives in one of the few Welsh-speaking counties and his county always goes for the Plaid party which is the Welsh Party.

Submitted by DonMidwest on Sat, 06/10/2017 - 10:14am

FBI good guys for a while

Hate FBI. Love FBI.

Hate CIA. Love CIA.

The establishment goes back and forth depending on the topic

And the deep state depends on the establishment for support

Here is an article of someone who worked with Comey and the sins of making a case for going into Iraq on a pack of lies

Comey in testimony praises the FBI ..... well ...
No, Robert Mueller And James Comey Aren’t Heroes The former FBI directors have acceded to numerous wrongful abuses of power in the post-9/11 era.

And the democrats who have never been concerned with voting integrity because the establishment needs voting as a cover to make them legitimate - now saying that Russian hacked the election

The republicans hacked the election and many more but dems not taking the issue seriously

And there are ways to get out of the bottom of the pack on this issue

Looks like dems would rather start another cold war, and risk even nuclear weapons, than to admit that they have to change

Submitted by native on Sat, 06/10/2017 - 1:37pm

I suspect that Robert Mueller knows

@DonMidwest
where a lot of bodies are buried, and that he's even buried a few of them himself.

—

native

Submitted by gulfgal98 on Sat, 06/10/2017 - 4:09pm

I used to think

@native "where the bodies are buried" was a figurative term. More andmore, I am beginning to believe it is as much literal as figurative.

—

Do I hear the sound of guillotines being constructed?

“Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." ~ President John F. Kennedy

Submitted by DonMidwest on Sat, 06/10/2017 - 10:15am

The UK election proves Bernie would have won

if he had not been undermined by the establishment dem party

Interesting to hear updates on the DNC lawsuit

Submitted by gendjinn on Sat, 06/10/2017 - 10:59am

Peter Robinson on the UDA

Robinson is the leader of the DUP that followed Ian Paisley and preceded Arlene Foster discussing the UDA and carrying the coffin of UDA leader McMichael's coffin (despite the report the UDA were never working for peace and were murdering people during the recent UK election.)

Another DUP MP Willie McCrea shared a public stage with the LVF leader Billy Wright during his murder spree.

Emma Little-Pengally elected in Belfast is the daughter of a man convicted of smuggling missiles and missile technology from UK weapons firm to apartheid South Africa. She was specifically endorsed by the UDA. They did get 1/3 of the weapons from that deal, Ian Paisley's Ulster Resistance got another 1/3 that have never been recovered.

And since the Assembly election earlier this year the Unionists have started trying to move the goalposts on the re-unification vote. Now that 50%+1 is visible on the horizon there all sorts of "concern trolling" about "1 million angry protestants in a re-unified Ireland". That while they, personally would never countenance violence, they are concerned that these other Unionists are certainly going to murder, kill and bomb.... *eye roll* Apparently now we actually need not only 50%+1 of the entire population of Northern Ireland, we now also need a majority of Unionists to vote for re-unification. Seriously. I remember 20 years ago after the signing of the GFA predicting that when the demographic time came we'd be seeing precisely this goal post moving. It was an easy prediction, history is littered with their behaviour, they know no other way.

Submitted by Steven D on Sat, 06/10/2017 - 11:11am

Democracy cloaked

@gendjinn in the garments of tyranny and oppression is not democracy at all.

—

"You can't just leave those who created the problem in charge of the solution."---Tyree Scott

Submitted by gendjinn on Sat, 06/10/2017 - 11:25am

Well we're talking about Britain, a democracy it is not.

@Steven D "We are proud of our unwritten constitution!"

57% of NI voted remain, there are sufficient soft Unionists that do not want a hard border to give a narrow victory in a border poll on re-unification. I really have no idea what is going to happen in the next few months because the marching season is about to kick off in the most heightened political climate since the ceasefires 25 years ago. Unionism is spooked and for the first time the entire UK will actually be paying attention to what happens.

The BBC never broadcasts northern Ireland news in England, Scotland or Wales. Never has. Now the DUP will have to publicly condemn their allies actions this summer, robustly, not mealy mouthed as usual, and across the entire UK.

A week ago this scenario of Tory/DUP was thought of as the nightmare scenario for Nationalists but as no one thought it likely we never really thought about it. Now that it is here it has been immediately perceived for the fatal pyrrhic victory for the DUP that it is. The spotlight can melt those wax wings, Icarus

Submitted by DunDealgan on Sun, 06/11/2017 - 8:52am

Voting patterns in the 2017 election in Northern Ireland

DUP is red.
Independent Unionist is pink.
Sinn Fein is green.
NI Election 2017.JPG

—

"People always have been the foolish victims of deception and self-deception in politics, and they always will be until they have learnt to seek out the interests of some class or other behind all moral, religious, political and social phrases."