800 years of democracy is unravelling before our very eyes
- Thread starter Blackleaf
- Start date
I reread Starkey's opinion and its an impressive summing up of the forces that are in play in Brexit. The opposition is led by a group of elites centred around the culturally liberal, post-national, free market model of Tony Blair, and now in Europe around Emmanuel Macron.
It seems now the plan is to totally neuter Brexit into a Norway style 'Soft Brexit' that completely capitulates on British sovereignty with respect of trade and immigration. It essentially hands the control of its borders to the EU without any representation in the EU Parliament. It's total sellout.
The UK should go ahead and accept a No Deal Brexit as that giving it the most flexibility in the process. It can work out its relationship with Northern Ireland in the aftermath. It should forget this mania about Free Trade Agreements with the realization that Free Trade has NEVER worked EXCEPT for trading and banking interests and to the detriment of working people and especially those employed in industry.
Britain needs tariffs and it needs control over its immigration to rebuild and sovereign, national, industrial economy.
It seems now the plan is to totally neuter Brexit into a Norway style 'Soft Brexit' that completely capitulates on British sovereignty with respect of trade and immigration. It essentially hands the control of its borders to the EU without any representation in the EU Parliament. It's total sellout.
The UK should go ahead and accept a No Deal Brexit as that giving it the most flexibility in the process. It can work out its relationship with Northern Ireland in the aftermath. It should forget this mania about Free Trade Agreements with the realization that Free Trade has NEVER worked EXCEPT for trading and banking interests and to the detriment of working people and especially those employed in industry.
Britain needs tariffs and it needs control over its immigration to rebuild and sovereign, national, industrial economy.
Britain should stop trying to pretend that its empire was benevolent
he recent debacle of David Cameron’s filmed condemnation of Nigerian and Afghan corruption and the Queen’s remark on Chinese officials’ rudeness highlights the persistence of imperial thinking in Britain. There seems to be a continuing assumption within the British establishment that it sets an example for others to follow and that the British are owed deference by others. Ever since evangelical antislavery activists campaigned for Britain to abolish the transatlantic slave trade, Britons have assured themselves that imperial overrule is compatible with the “benign tutelage” of other races and nations. Unlike the other European empires, Britons tell themselves, theirs was an empire founded on humanitarian compassion for colonised subjects.
The argument runs like this: while the Spanish, Portuguese, French, Belgians and Germans exploited and abused, the British empire brought ideas of protection for lesser races and fostered their incremental development. With British tutelage colonised peoples could become, eventually, as competent, as knowledgeable, as “civilised” as Britain itself. These platitudes have been repeated time and again – they are still at the heart of most popular representations of the British Empire.
Even when we are encouraged to pay attention to empire’s costs as well as its benefits, these costs are imagined solely in terms of specific incidents of violence such as the Amritsar Massacre in India or the suppression of the Mau Mau rebellion in Kenya. Britain has excused itself from that most structural injustice of empire – the slave trade itself – by the fact that it was Britain that pioneered its abolition.
More: https://theconversation.com/britain...-pretend-that-its-empire-was-benevolent-59298
he recent debacle of David Cameron’s filmed condemnation of Nigerian and Afghan corruption and the Queen’s remark on Chinese officials’ rudeness highlights the persistence of imperial thinking in Britain. There seems to be a continuing assumption within the British establishment that it sets an example for others to follow and that the British are owed deference by others. Ever since evangelical antislavery activists campaigned for Britain to abolish the transatlantic slave trade, Britons have assured themselves that imperial overrule is compatible with the “benign tutelage” of other races and nations. Unlike the other European empires, Britons tell themselves, theirs was an empire founded on humanitarian compassion for colonised subjects.
The argument runs like this: while the Spanish, Portuguese, French, Belgians and Germans exploited and abused, the British empire brought ideas of protection for lesser races and fostered their incremental development. With British tutelage colonised peoples could become, eventually, as competent, as knowledgeable, as “civilised” as Britain itself. These platitudes have been repeated time and again – they are still at the heart of most popular representations of the British Empire.
Even when we are encouraged to pay attention to empire’s costs as well as its benefits, these costs are imagined solely in terms of specific incidents of violence such as the Amritsar Massacre in India or the suppression of the Mau Mau rebellion in Kenya. Britain has excused itself from that most structural injustice of empire – the slave trade itself – by the fact that it was Britain that pioneered its abolition.
More: https://theconversation.com/britain...-pretend-that-its-empire-was-benevolent-59298
Wrong! They are a saintly people who have cannonized more human beings than anyone else on Earth!
Well, we're part of the UN and I would say it's a failed organization that Canadians didn't vote to be a part of.....
We're also part of the Rec Cross and everyone knows what kind of people THEY are!
It's dizgoostin, I tell ya.
The British Empire was the most benevolent in history.
Compare the British Empire with the French Empire. And even to this day the French still think they have an empire in Africa. Or are trying to revive it.
The British Empire gave the world Canada and New Zealand. The French Empire Empire gave the world Chad and Niger.
And the Commonwealth seems a much nicer thing to be part of than the Francophone.
The British Empire was the most benevolent in history.
...sez the Brit. "You will be assimilated and you will be greatful!!"
...sez the Brit. "You will be assimilated and you will be greatful!!"
There wouldn't be a Canada were it not for the British Empire. No more needs to be said on the matter.
Local government elections here next month. Paul Seddon at work told me a Labour politician came up to him on his driveway asking for his vote.
It went something like this:
Politician: "Can I speak to you for a moment?"
Paul: "Are you going to get us out of the EU?"
Politician: "Erm... aaah... well... erm."
Paul: "Well you can f#ck off, then"
And according to today's Sun newspaper, that's the sort of reaction politicians are receiving around the country in these elections.
It went something like this:
Politician: "Can I speak to you for a moment?"
Paul: "Are you going to get us out of the EU?"
Politician: "Erm... aaah... well... erm."
Paul: "Well you can f#ck off, then"
And according to today's Sun newspaper, that's the sort of reaction politicians are receiving around the country in these elections.
Complains about the British Empire.
Lives in a country which ones its very existence to that empire.
Seems like Article 50 has been further extended until 31st October.
Pisses me right off that we should have left the EU on 29th March; then we were told to wait until 12th April or 30th June. Now we're told to wait even further until 31st October. With local government and EU elections next month, it'll be fun to see our pathetic, useless and undemocratic MPs and MEPs face their reckoning.
Pisses me right off that we should have left the EU on 29th March; then we were told to wait until 12th April or 30th June. Now we're told to wait even further until 31st October. With local government and EU elections next month, it'll be fun to see our pathetic, useless and undemocratic MPs and MEPs face their reckoning.