Category Archives: Politics

So, they wanted to hit Uber. Gig economy workers need more protection etc.

Anyone who writes more than 35 pieces a year for a newspaper/magazine has to be an employee, not a freelance. I would thus be an employee of the ASI, CapX, Seeking Alpha and the Washington Examiner. At least.

Thus this on a freelance job offer board:

Additional Note – Due to Assembly Bill No. 5, we are no longer accepting writers from California unless they can provide their LLC and business license.

Artic Systems anyone?

Labour must not ignore BAME base in rush to rebuild red wall, activists warn
Constituencies once considered safe Labour seats. Bolsover and Bishop Auckland are now Conservative. Illustration:
Focus is on white working-class north and Midlands, but Newham and Hackney ‘are heartlands too’

by Frances Perraudin

It’s possible to argue that interests are aligned between that white northern working class and the ethnic urban one. Certainly it’s possible to argue that economic ones are.

No, that doesn’t mean I believe the contention but it’s not an absurd argument that they are.

But people don’t vote purely along economic lines. All sorts of other things matter to people- after all, it’s utility that is maximised, not cash income. And those things which along this axis interest that BAME electorate may not be those which interest that northern one.

Which is what the problem is, isn’t it?

Jan 21, 2020:

“He was in Congress for years. He had one senator support him. Nobody likes him, nobody wants to work with him, he got nothing done,” Clinton says in the film, according to The Hollywood Reporter. “He was a career politician. It’s all just baloney and I feel so bad that people got sucked into it.”

Jan 22 2020:

Sanders surges in new nationwide CNN poll

Hillary Clinton blasts Sen. Bernie Sanders in a new documentary, saying “nobody likes him” and declining in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter to say whether she would endorse and campaign for him if he’s the Democratic 2020 nominee.

“He was in Congress for years. He had one senator support him. Nobody likes him, nobody wants to work with him, he got nothing done,” Clinton says in the film, according to The Hollywood Reporter. “He was a career politician. It’s all just baloney and I feel so bad that people got sucked into it.”

It is of course possible to wonder what Hills herself did get done. Sure, she got elected to the Senate. She raised a lot of money in politics and through the Foundation. But actually getting done? Her health care reform didn’t do anywhere. I think it’s right that there was one single – and minor – bill she got through the Senate. Anyone recall grand victories as Sec State? The foundation enabled Bill to do something in Haiti, didn’t it? Something or other.

And how much did all this cost? Couple of billion, easy.

Y’know, might have been better of that remained elsewhere and did something interesting. Possibly. You know, designed a better diaper or something?

No, obviously not about everything. But about one specific thing:

A senior police officer admitted that his force ignored the sexual abuse of girls by Pakistani grooming gangs for decades because it was afraid of increasing “racial tensions”, a watchdog has ruled.

After a five-year investigation, the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) upheld a complaint that the Rotherham officer told a missing child’s distraught father that the town “would erupt” if it was known that Asian men were routinely having sex with under-age white girls.

The chief inspector is said to have described the abuse as “P*** shagging” and to have said it had been “going on” for 30 years: “With it being Asians, we can’t afford for this to be coming out.”

Memory is not what it could be, but didn’t Griffin say this on TV once – Question Time? – and get roundly slagged off for having done so? I’ve even some vague thought that they were talking about this back in 2004/5.

The fun thing is that’s not even unfair.

The government has distanced itself from Dominic Cummings’ call for job applications as he was accused of “subverting due process”.

On Thursday the Prime Minister’s chief adviser posted a 3,000-word job advert on his blog, inviting “true wild cards” and “weirdos and misfits” to work for Downing Street and the civil service.

Last night senior cross-party MPs, trade unions and employment industry bodies raised concerns about potential breaches of equality and data protection laws.

Can’t have someone just gaily employing who they want to now, can we?

What does it mean to be “too far left” — and why are conservatives not scolded about centrism?

From our ever popular series headlines we can answer.

In more detail, the “political centre” is further left than anything which can be called conservative. Thus it’s not possible to be conservative and centrist.

Of course, there are other names for those who try – RINO being only one of the polite ones.

Well, for myself:

The alleged attacks took place over the last six months at three London hospitals, the Homerton Hospital in Hackney, the Royal Free in Hampstead and Mile End Hospital in Tower Hamlets.

The last assault on a hospital worker is said to have taken place just two days before Christmas.

He also faces one count of exposure on a hospital ward.

The laddie’s having problems rather than being one perhaps. There but for the Grace of etc. Hope he gets better soon is really the only worthwhile comment here.

Hard-left candidates like the Corbyn allies Rebecca Long-Bailey and Clive Lewis are amassing support already. Both are also senior officials in Corbyn’s leadership team.

Lewis? Hard left?

Lizzie’s not asking for the big money.

‘Bamie’s doing it for her.

Former President Barack Obama has privately defended and praised Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., to wealthy Democratic donors reluctant to support her after she swore off big-dollar fundraisers, The Hill reports.

Purity and cash, now how about that?

George Osborne says Boris Johnson is a ‘contradiction’ who used Brexit to ‘get himself to the top’

Seriously, it’s in the definition of politician – using the issues of the day to advance a career.

Of course, they shouldn’t either, they’re different languages.

But this:

In just the last few weeks, Buttigieg—a mild-mannered Midwesterner who has been tucking in his shirt since grade school—has sparked blinding, irrational hatred from the online left.

Buttigieg is gay – not exactly a revelation at this stage – and one of the English slang words for gay is “shirtlifter”.

It’s only worth a “tee hee” not even a “snigger” but there is a mild amusement at that US description of how square and cornbread the guy is…..

Lammy hints at bid to be Labour’s first BAME leader

No, it’s not the BAME bit. It’s the Lammy bit. It would cement the Tory dominance for a generation….Jeez the lad’s bad. Ed Miliband without the brains, charm or charisma.

The billionaire founder of the Phones4U retail chain handed £500,000 to the Conservatives three days after clashing with shadow Chancellor John McDonnell in a well-publicised row on BBC Radio.

John Caudwell said he gave the donation because he had never before felt so “never felt so paranoid about the destruction of Great Britain” which he believed would have happened under a Labour government.

Just mere minutes of conversation convinces the punter to support the other guy.

Way to go John!

Labour’s defeat was a calamity for the party and those it exists to represent. Corbyn’s leadership was partly destroyed by Brexit, by the remorseless attacks of its internal and external opponents, and by its own severe mistakes. Any new left project must learn from all of this. But from public ownership to tax justice to investment, it was not its signature policies that condemned it – and those ideas must remain at the core of whatever comes next.

Possibly the voters didn’t like those things tho’?

I certainly haven’t been, I was always more “Please, not Hillary”. And it’s true that watching American politics has been most amusing these past few years as the cultural divide opens out into a chasm. Perhaps not quite the ruling oligarchy but certainly prevailing political fashion has found that some half the country just doesn’t agree. And that in a democracy they do indeed have a voice.

But this seems to be missing part of the point:

Donald Trump has been impeached by the House of Representatives, becoming only the third US president to suffer the ignominy and bringing him a step closer to being removed from office.

Two articles of impeachment were passed over his behaviour in the Ukraine scandal – one for abuse of power and the other for obstruction of Congress.

Not a single Republican voted for either article – a fact the White House seized on to portray the Democrats’ impeachment drive as motivated by political bias.

Yes, OK, Trump, whatever.

But does anyone really think that it’s not political bias driving this? Not particularly D such either, but the establishment being pissed at that apple cart being rocked?

Et Tu, U.K.?
Labour’s wipeout in yesterday’s British election highlights the transnational defection of the white working class and deepens the global crisis of the social democratic left.

BY HAROLD MEYERSON DECEMBER 13, 2019

So, although more than 17 million people voted for parties that wanted a second referendum compared with fewer than 15 million who did not, on 31 January Britain will leave the EU on Boris Johnson’s terrible deal

But that’s not the problem she faces:

One of the MPs tipped to replace Jeremy Corbyn as Labour leader has been accused of calling northern voters “stupid” in a row over who was to blame for the party’s election defeat.

Emily Thornberry, who represents a Remain-voting constituency next to Mr Corbyn’s in north London, is alleged to have told a fellow MP in a Leave-voting seat: “I’m glad my constituents aren’t as stupid as yours”.

Absolutely everyone thinks she could have said it so it will stick. More, everyone thinks she believes it even if she didn’t say it.