556 Responses to Midweek Open Thread 20 February 2019

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  1. theisland says:
    February 22, 2019 at 3:46 pm

    More sneaky tricks – UK’s electricity supply is under threat from EU, even if UK leaves on 29 March under PM’s “deal”

    “If the Withdrawal Agreement agreed between the EU and the UK government, but not yet ratified, will enter into force, EU law will continue to apply to and in the United Kingdom after 29 March 2019, until the end of the transition period foreseen in the Withdrawal Agreement.”
    …
    For MPs who clearly have very little knowledge of the EU which they hold so dear, we suggest they start educating themselves.

    Labour MPs should wake up to the EU’s control over state aid – which lies at the heart of this – and Tory MPs should wake up to the fact that Mrs May’s ‘deal’ is not Brexit in any way, shape or form. The UK really will become a vassal state under her plans.

       22 likes

  2. fakenewswatcher says:
    February 22, 2019 at 4:36 pm

    Is it just me or is ‘The Times’ moving ever closer to Gruniad/beeb territory in every way. (Are there really that many people out there desprate for a diet of PC garbage?) If ‘yes’, what is the reason? Anyone know/any ideas?
    Any MSM paper anyone thinks is still worth reading?

       20 likes

    • smoogie7 says:
      February 22, 2019 at 4:42 pm

      Was this the one that the left hated thanks to the expose they did on Corbyn last week?

      If it goes left wing then the left won’t read it

         8 likes

    • Fedup2 says:
      February 22, 2019 at 4:46 pm

      Fake
      It’s the whole MSM . There is no Pro Brexit Press – just the occasional glimpse of public feeling failing to be suppressed on QT because Dimbly PLC no longer corrupts the truth .

      I feel like advising everyone here to turn the radio and TV off for the next 37 days and hope to god when it’s turned on again we re burning ReichEU flags ….

         20 likes

      • Doublethinker says:
        February 22, 2019 at 5:02 pm

        I have my doubts about Brexit because I worry that it will generate increased third world immigration into the UK. That is my only concern but it is a big one for me. In every other respect I am a passionate Leaver . One thing Leavers should make sure that everyone in the country plus everyone in Brussels knows , is that if Brexit isn’t honoured then we will do everything that we can to disrupt the EU and we will be passionate populists at every EU election. FPTP may hinder the rise of populists parties in the UK but the PR European elections allows us to pick candidates who will do as we want them to . If we stay in Brussels we are going to cause you one really big headache.

           17 likes

        • Fedup2 says:
          February 22, 2019 at 5:35 pm

          FPTP = First PastThe Post right ? I’m slow today so the achronyms are doing me a bit …

             3 likes

    • imaynotalwaysloveyou says:
      February 22, 2019 at 5:55 pm

      Re any MSM paper worth reading..
      The short answer is no. From what I see there a few journalists who aren’t bonkers (eg Littlejohn, Quentin Letts). I can’t be bothered with papers behind paywalls, I get my news from blogs generally.

      If only we had a mainstream newspaper or TV station akin to Fox News that would be something..but I just get the feeling they aren’t allowed, or would nowadays be considered beyond the pale in snowflake Britain.

         14 likes

  3. smoogie7 says:
    February 22, 2019 at 4:39 pm

    Lets see the videos at the side of the BBC’s politics page on the website aqd how long the videos are:

    ‘Austin: Extremism and intolerance in Labour’ 0.20
    ‘Dorries: ERG Tories ‘desperate for right deal’ 2.00
    ‘No-deal Brexit might see Greening quit’ 1.41
    ‘Why Tory MPs quit party’ 1.30
    ‘PM has a problem with immigration – Soubry’ 1.39
    ‘Right wing now running Conservative Party’ 3.13

    Did Ian Austin only get 20 seconds?

    Interesting…

       16 likes

  4. Emmanuel Goldstein says:
    February 22, 2019 at 4:56 pm

    Just a thought.

    When we crash out, over the cliff edge, into the catastrophe of a no deal, all the remoaners will tell you the eu will not have a trading deal with us.

    As we have an £80 billion annual trade deficit with the eu it means we will have to spend (most of) it at home.

    As well as saving £39 billion and about £12 billion a year until freedom we can spend upwards of £60 billion a year on our home made products.
    Year 1 savings upwards of £100 billion, all spent in our own shops on products grown or made in Britain.
    Year 2 savings upwards of £70 billion staying in Britain, same for each year after.

    Also,we will not end up paying huge amounts trying to bail out the eu as it decends into chaos and bankruptcy in the near future. No responsibility to pay to prop the failing eu up.

       21 likes

  5. StewGreen says:
    February 22, 2019 at 5:06 pm

    Juncker’s face plaster
    ..has he fallen down drunk again ?

       16 likes

    • TrueToo says:
      February 22, 2019 at 5:18 pm

      StewGreen,

      Juncker? Must be quite a responsibility leading Europe to chaos and destruction while trying to convince everyone that the European Project still has a shred of credibility and at the same time trying to keep the money flowing in so he and his fellow collaborators can keep lining their pockets.

      Poor guy. No wonder he gets so plastered.

         14 likes

  6. StewGreen says:
    February 22, 2019 at 5:12 pm

    The Twaites Brewery blackmail gypsies jailed
    all same surname
    4.3 years, 3.9 years

       9 likes

  7. pugnazious says:
    February 22, 2019 at 5:21 pm

    Is Jon Sopel a racist? He seems almost entirely unconcerned about any news story relating to African-Americans….

    Here’s his somewhat limited reaction to the bombshell that gay, black actor Jussie Smollett may have made it all up…’Wow!!’

    Where’s any sharp comment about the targeting of Trump and his supporters and the calling of them as racists?

    Later we have another Tweet which at first you might think was suggesting Trump was right to make his comment but, this is Sopel after all, doesn’t Sopel actually equate Trump’s tweet with the premature and wrong, not to mention biased, comments that trashed Trump when Smollett first made his claims that he had been attacked by Trump supporters? Isn’t Sopel actually saying Trump is jumping to conclusions….despite Smollett being charged and ‘all the evidence’ pointing to him being guilty?

    Note no actually condemnation of Smollett by Sopel himself.

    Sopel is more concerned with the weather than such issues it seems…just wants a day off from work….

    What else gets no mention? How about Black History Month and Trump’s meeting at the White House?..

    Not a mention from Sopel…odd as we’re always being reminded ‘what a racist Trump is’…surely this might be of interest?

    Anything else Sopel hasn’t bothered to explore fully…such as the fact that most people think Mueller will produce nothing to indict Trump and there will be no ‘Russian collusion’..here’s a very non-committal retweet from Sopel..none of his own comments note…

    It links to Zurcher’s piece on the Mueller investigation and it possibly wrapping up next week. It looks like Zurcher has sniffed which way the wind is blowing [ie no evidence] and is spinning it to make it look like there is evidence but we may not be allowed to see it…sure! Trump colludes with the Russians, there’s a huge investigation…it finds there is evidence and…nothing happens…really? Zurcher is just muck spreading, trying to sow doubt and to suggest Trump is guilty whatever…odd that there is no comment that Trump could actually be innocent….Trump himself is not so shy….[again no Sopel tweet of this..usually quick to sneer at a Trump tweet]…

    Zurcher…

    ‘Just because the Mueller investigation is drawing to a close, however, doesn’t mean we’ll know all the details immediately – or ever. The notoriously tight-lipped former FBI director could simply announce that his work is done, pack his bags and go back to a private life of golf clubs, corporate boards, academic speaking engagements and trips to the Apple store Genius Bar.

    The special counsel’s obligations at the conclusion of his work are to provide a “confidential report” to Attorney General Bill Barr explaining his prosecutorial decisions. It is up to the attorney general to decide whether it would be in the “public interest” to make any of these reports or communications accessible to the rest of us.

    It would be ironic, to say the least, if the resulting political fallout from Mr Comey’s decision – which grievously wounded Ms Clinton’s presidential campaign – is cited by Justice Department officials to defend a decision to keep confidential damaging details of the Mueller investigation involving Donald Trump.’

    Note that last bit….’damaging details…involving Trump’…..so if nothing comes out it’s only because it’s being kept from the Public…Trump is guilty!

    But never mind…They’ll get Trump some other way…..

    ‘That’s it, then?

    Hardly. Even if the Mueller investigation closes up shop and there is no “report”, there are no new indictments and the attorney general’s public pronouncements provide few details, it’s not the end of the story.

    Mr Mueller may exit the stage, but the drama will continue.’

       18 likes

    • Fedup2 says:
      February 22, 2019 at 5:38 pm

      I got hold of the NewYork Times today – hard copy – it is totally hostile to President Trump – seems to allow little other news . Obama gets a mention on every other page as well as potential candidates to defeat President Trump . They can dream.

         19 likes

    • Square-Eyed says:
      February 22, 2019 at 5:48 pm

      It’s good to hear courtesy of Bill Still that House Republicans will soon be sending nine criminal referrals to the Attorney General. Maybe one will relate to Hillary Clinton and her multiple felonies.

         11 likes

    • TrueToo says:
      February 22, 2019 at 6:00 pm

      pugnazious,

      Thanks for the chuckle. Sopel wants to take a day off “work” to watch the snow? He regards the rubbish he pumps out as work?!

         15 likes

      • Guest Who says:
        February 22, 2019 at 6:12 pm

        Looking above, he seems to have found a word he feels serves in lieu of actually reporting.

        American lovely.

        Katty of course has OMG as befits the prom queen schtick.

        Here Emily appears to have dibs on ‘Boom’.

           9 likes

      • Fedup2 says:
        February 22, 2019 at 6:12 pm

        Makes one wonder about his immigration status in the USA . Be terrible if he got banged up and then deported …

           8 likes

  8. G.W.F. says:
    February 22, 2019 at 6:08 pm

    I do hope Sajid Javid, peace be upon him, watches this vid before telling us he has done his best but the law says the Jihadi must return

       23 likes

  9. pugnazious says:
    February 22, 2019 at 6:19 pm

    Another Labour MP jumps ship and accuses Corbyn of serious crimes….what does the BBC tell us?…

    ‘Ian Austin has become the ninth MP to quit Labour this week, blaming leader Jeremy Corbyn for “creating a culture of extremism and intolerance”.

    He told the BBC the leadership had failed to tackle anti-Semitism and had turned the party into a “narrow sect”.’

    Hmmm…trouble is Austin actually made a much more damning accusation in a BBC interview earlier today when he said Corbyn had spent his life supporting terrorism, extremism and anti-semites…now that would have been the stand-out quote from the interview….an absolutely damning indictment of Corbyn’s mindset and beliefs. This is a man who is possibly on the brink of being Prime MInister and yet as always the BBC shows no sign of acknowledging the full extent of Corbyn’s extremism…..his interview is in the report but you have to listen to the video to hear his most scathing comments about Corbyn….where is the actual quote of him saying Corbyn supports these people in the write up? Nowhere….the BBC instead suggests the problem is merely one of Corbyn not getting to grip with others in the Labour Party who make anti-Semitic comments rather than one of Corbyn himself being an anti-Semite or a supporter of terrorism himself.

    In no following news bulletin was that quote used and yet it is surely the only one of true note. If it had been said of a Tory potential PM, say Boris, it would have been plastered all over the BBC news.

    What we get instead is a diversion, a suggestion that his sole ‘crime’ is creating a ‘culture of extremism and intolerance’ within the Labour Party…no suggestion that the real problem is far, far deeper…indeed the BBC tells us Austin quit solely due to a failure to deal with anti-Semitism…

    ‘It shows that he felt strongly enough about the problem of anti-Semitism within Labour to quit the party he has been a member of for 45 years on that basis alone’

    Not true..he is deeply concerned about Corbyn’s support and association with terrorists of all creeds…why does the BBC not want to acknowledge that? Of course the BBC never does…it failed to raise the subject during the 2017 election even as Corbyn was posturing as the man who had always been against terrorism and was castigating May for her supposed failure to deal with it.

    Guess it is a Labour PM for the BBC whatever he his like.

       19 likes

  10. Guest Who says:
    February 22, 2019 at 7:05 pm

    Over at Sky, Adam Boulton has managed to become almost as big a laughing stock as Kay Burley claiming to be ruthlessly impartial because they have to be, then being anything but because they don’t thanks to the jokes that are OFCOM and dcms.

    Meanwhile back at Brenda’s Bootboy Camp…

    https://www.conservativewoman.co.uk/john-humphrys-has-been-seduced-into-the-war-against-truth-and-reason/

       10 likes

  11. BRISSLES says:
    February 22, 2019 at 7:11 pm

    Adam Boulton is clearly an obnoxious person to be around. He treats Beth Rigby with contempt, Faisal Islam has jumped and gone to the BBC, and woe betide if you cross him. Sadly because he’s been at Sky for a lifetime, I suspect no-one dare challenge him on his behaviour.

    I’ve come across his ‘type’ before, over-bloated, speaks without moving his lips, and because of his ‘size’ (like a lot of overweight business men – think Weinstein and Green) believe they are bomb proof.

       17 likes

  13. StewGreen says:
    February 22, 2019 at 7:20 pm

    Interesting TR on one side does not say violence is OK,
    … yet on the opposite side MikeStickbury the head Twitter warrior says violence against TR supporters is OK
    https://www.twitter.com/lucyfrown/status/1098197282091081728

       19 likes

    • StewGreen says:
      February 22, 2019 at 7:44 pm

      She references a story from Zero Hedge about a 2012 event when Panorama tried to manufacture narrative about football hooliganism.
      That shouldn’t surprise us cos that’s what media do : form a viewpoint and the construct narrative to support that.
      It is interesting that article is date January the 8th, which is well before Panorama campaign again Tommy was known.

         8 likes

  14. StewGreen says:
    February 22, 2019 at 8:43 pm

    BBC rule : ‘always elevate Global Warming to the top of the list even if a science report mentions it as one of the lower factors’
    \\ Another example today!
    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-47308235
    The UN report lists “climate change” fourth on the list of causes but on the News Channel, the BBC promoted it to first.
    Actually I would say that “climate change” is insignificant when compared to the other four.

    “So what’s causing the decline?”
    The report says that there are several significant causes or drivers of biodiversity loss. The main ones are:
    Changes in land and water use and management
    Pollution
    Overexploitation and overharvesting
    Climate change
    Population growth and urbanisation //

       7 likes

  15. taffman says:
    February 22, 2019 at 9:20 pm

    Al Beeb reports of the ‘Independent Group…………. \\They say Brexit was the catalyst for this – and that they want a “fresh way of working with no hierarchy.”//
    ‘The Independent Group’ is surely a misnomer? Its a group that is for remaining in the EU , its against our nation’s independence.

    While most Tory MPs want to remain IN the EU, most Tory Voters want OUT.

    UKIP are for Independence. The Brexit Party are for independence.
    They have a common cause – To Get Us Out of the EU.
    Both parties need to consolidate and form a coalition party.
    They would win the next GE.

       3 likes

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