Saturday, 23 November 2019

Sasha Baron Cohen's keynote speech et the ADL Awards




Please watch this magnificent speech to the end. Cohen is an educated, intelligent and impassioned speaker. He also brings some of his characters to illustrate his arguments.

Sunday, 3 November 2019

Our tactical voting advice caused a stir, but it’s the only way to stop Brexit | Politics | The Guardian

Labour rosette


Labour may not be happy with Best for Britain’s recommendations, but they are based on solid data

Lib Dem rosette

The BBC knows it’s doing something right when both Brexiters and Remainers shout “bias” during the news. The stakes are similar when producing a tactical voting tool in a general election. Hopes and fears are running high among the different tribes and, for them, any suggestion that another party might hold the key, anywhere, to a better outcome is sacrilege...

Read the full article: Our tactical voting advice caused a stir, but it’s the only way to stop Brexit | Politics | The Guardian


You can visit the Best for Britain tactical voting site here: Get Voting!

Saturday, 2 November 2019

Claims No 10 'sitting on' Russian interference report - BBC News

There is disquiet in Parliament that a sensitive report on Russian covert actions against the UK, including allegations of electoral interference, is being sat on by No 10.

The report includes evidence from UK intelligence services concerning Russian attempts to influence the outcome of the 2016 EU referendum and 2017 general election.

Read full article: Claims No 10 'sitting on' Russian interference report - BBC News

Saturday, 28 September 2019

Thursday, 4 July 2019

Remainers: join the 6 million !


Petition now closed, with a record-breaking 6,103,058 signatures.
It made international news headlines.

Wednesday, 29 May 2019

The Brexit Blog: Interpreting the UK European Election results

The Brexit Blog: Interpreting the UK European Election results: At one level, the explanation of the UK’s European election results * is entirely simple. If you are in favour of Brexit, you see the Tories...

Sunday, 26 May 2019

Follow the 2019 EU election results

Follow the results as they are announced tonight. You can also visualise the results from previous elections.
Meanwhile, if you can still vote, get out there and do it. Low turnouts make the fascists happy. If you choose not to vote, then you chose to vote for fascism.



There are more analysis tools here: European Parliament official site.

Monday, 8 April 2019

The Brexit Blog: Parliamentary chaos holds up a mirror to the nation

Important read for anyone trying to make sense of this gawdolmighty clusterfuckalooza that's cringeworthily known as "Brexit".

Parliamentary chaos holds up a mirror to the nation

The growing confusion surrounding Brexit is partly because of the pace and scale of events. Things which would normally be big stories, dominating the news for days, are forgotten within hours as some new development occurs. But beyond that pace and scale, the confusion arises because Brexit has ceased to be a single political process and now has multiple interconnected strands, some parliamentary and some governmental, some of which are quite unusual in their form.

Moreover, there are now multiple open factional splits amongst MPs and, of course, the wider public. All of this serves to make events both fluid and shapeless. Making any sense at all of them requires unravelling the separate strands, although the constant developments mean that some of what is written here may be out of date within a few days if not hours.

Indicative Votes...

Read the full post: The Brexit Blog: Parliamentary chaos holds up a mirror to the nation

Saturday, 26 January 2019

That Irish backstop...

Seb Dance, MEP (Labour), sums up the situation nicely:


Basically, May is trying to sell a lie to MPs. She knows, because the EU27 have told her - and indeed everyone - often enough that it's non-negotiable.

They, at least, draw their red lines at hurting people and (re)starting wars.

No backstop = breaching Good Friday Agreement = hard border = physically dividing communities and families = a return to the Troubles, which is what the GFA put an end to.

We must not forget that the March 29 deadline is now barely 2 months away. Those who talk of extending it in order to re-negotiate are dishonest, as it is impossible unless May's viciously and self-destructively xenophobic 'red lines' are removed. Those who want to extend it to hold a referendum on "May's deal, no deal, or no Brexit" have a better chance, but they're kidding themselves if they think they'll be allowed a stay past 30th June, when the new European Parliament will sit for the first time.

Moreover, the suspiciously-funded No-deal Leave lobby started ramping up its Facebook and Twitter campaigns some time ago and the far-right UK tabloids continue to spread xenophobic lies unchecked, while denouncing anyone who disagrees with their perverted views as 'traitors' (I believe there's a word for that kind of attitude. Someone came up with it about 100 years ago).

Equally suspiciously, Theresa May has admitted to knowing the 2016 referendum was corrupt, while insisting on continuing with her destructive course, encouraging xenophobia and an ever-deepening split in the country. She has also blocked police investigations into known criminal activity that affected the result of the 2016 referendum. Why? Is she afraid one of the trails the police might undercover would lead to her?

Theresa May, and a number of her cronies, shouldn't be leading the country. They should almost certainly be 'helping the police with their inquiries', as the euphemism goes. Time for Toadface Farage is already running out: the FBI are after him.There is something deeply shaming about a foreign country being more willing to track down and punish criminals destroying your democracy and your country than you are.

So, there is currently no guarantee that the result of another referendum would be any less tainted with corruption.

There is only one option left, and it's the only option that can save the UK. It will annoy a small, but admittedly vocal and violent far-right thugs. It will upset the corrupt rich, who will lose money over it, as they've been betting on the £ continuing to plummet so they can asset-strip the country. It will really piss off Putin, who wants a weakened Europe for his own expansionist wet dreams. Fuck them all, and fuck them mightily.

It will require all Governments to stop using the EU as a useful scapegoat for their own misdeeds.

It will require actually educating the British (well, the English mostly, as other countries in the Union already have it) as to what Parliament does, what the EU does, what an MP does, what local authorities do, and so on. It's called civic education, and it should be obligatory everywhere.

It will require a vote of Parliament. It's feasible. The hard bit is of course getting certain MPs to understand that their job is to put their country before everything else.

Parliament must withdraw Article 50 and commit (because it's the only way to regain even a fraction of the trust lost over Brexit) to closer ties with the EU. 

Anything else is just dicking around and trying everybody's patience.


Sunday, 13 January 2019

'We are being abandoned': Britons in EU on the Brexit deal vote | Politics | The Guardian

Their problems, fears and concerns run the gamut, from the practical to the emotional and the existential to the deeply personal.

In advance of the Commons vote on Tuesday, some of the estimated 1.3 million British citizens living elsewhere in the EU worry they will lose their livelihoods because they will no longer be able to work across more than one country, or their professional qualifications may no longer be recognised... 'We are being abandoned': Britons in EU on the Brexit deal vote | Politics | The Guardian