version

Well-known member
The whole thing would be much more amusing were it not for the rank hypocrisy of a government that routinely jails mostly poor and/or dark-skinned young men for selling small amounts of the drugs these cunts are now piously pretending not to have enjoyed.

Totally.

Lib Dem Press Office
‏Verified account @LibDemPress

As drugs seem to be the topic of the day...worth saying we are the only party offering a solution to the criminal and health implications of currently illegal substances. Let’s legislate to regulate!
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Mr. Tea

Let's Talk About Ceps
A glance at the headlines from the last couple of days shows the Sun, DM etc. joining in the Gove pile-on. All perfectly fair do's in itself, of course, although I guess it's increasing Johnson's odds of becoming Tory leader and therefore PM. Fucking hell, what a situation.

I think I actually read that Gove was advocating a minimum seven-year sentence for using class A's a couple of years back - anyone else seen this/got a link? Wouldn't surprise me in the least.
 

Leo

Well-known member
A glance at the headlines from the last couple of days shows the Sun, DM etc. joining in the Gove pile-on. All perfectly fair do's in itself, of course, although I guess it's increasing Johnson's odds of becoming Tory leader and therefore PM.

not following the situation that closely but just assumed Boris was already a sure shot for PM. does anyone else actually have a chance?
 

Mr. Tea

Let's Talk About Ceps
not following the situation that closely but just assumed Boris was already a sure shot for PM. does anyone else actually have a chance?

He's wildly unpopular with most Tory MPs but you're right, he's unfortunately the firm favourite among the wider party membership. Realistically I think the best we can hope for is: Johnson elected party leader and ergo PM -> he spends the entire summer and autumn fucking about, deliberately running down the clock on Brexit -> October comes and a cross-party majority of MPs revoke Article 50; Farage goes into "Brexit betrayal!!!" overdrive -> successful Labour leadership challenge against Corbyn -> general election called -> hopefully a non-Brexiteer Labour leader can reclaim enough support from voters who switched to Green/Lib Dem/PC/SNP in the recent EU elections to see off the challenge from The Brexit "Party" (plc.), which will by then be the main opposition, following Chernobyl-style core meltdown of Tory party.

But really, fuck knows.
 
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version

Well-known member
There's nothing particularly surprising here, but it's maddening nonetheless:

Big tobacco, the new politics, and the threat to public health - https://www.bmj.com/content/365/bmj.l2164

With several Tory leadership contenders sympathetic to its ideology, the Institute of Economic Affairs is closer to power than it has been for decades. In an exclusive investigation, Jonathan Gornall reveals how the organisation is funded by British American Tobacco and has links with senior conservative ministers. After orchestrating a series of attacks on public health initiatives, the IEA may now hold the key to No 10

Whatever the eventual consequences of Brexit for the NHS,12 an article published in the Daily Telegraph in March made it clear that an even greater threat to public health in the UK may emerge from the battle for control of the Conservative Party.

In an essay published on 31 March, titled “The next Tory leader must be a bullish libertarian,” the director general of the free market think tank the Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA) set out what amounted to a manifesto for the new party leader.

The leadership election, wrote Mark Littlewood, was a chance “to rediscover an agenda supportive of . . . free markets and a smaller state.” Theresa May’s successor should ensure that “the plethora of censorious and hectoring measures over what British adults choose to eat, drink and smoke must come to an end.”3

What the IEA says matters. Credited by Margaret Thatcher in 1979 for having “created the climate of opinion which made our victory possible,”4 its free market fundamentalism is now back in vogue. “Bullish libertarianism” appeals to a significant faction of the Conservative Party, and, as the showcasing of Littlewood’s prescription in the Telegraph attests, any prospective leader is likely to emerge from the ranks of those who subscribe to the IEA’s ideology.

The institute has a longstanding commitment to dismissing public health initiatives as “nanny state” interventions.56 Its recent research publications have challenged the childhood obesity strategy,7 dismissed “sin taxes” as regressive,8 and ridiculed the link910 between fast food outlets and obesity.11 In the past year alone it has issued more than a dozen statements criticising everything from alcohol controls to sugar taxes as “pointless,” “absurd,” and “draconian” (see box B).

All of this might not be quite so worrying were it not for two facts: the IEA is or has been funded by some of the very industries that stand to gain commercially from its attacks on public health initiatives, and it is connected—ideologically, financially, or both—to no fewer than 25 serving Conservative MPs, including several candidates for May’s job (see box A).

The IEA is secretive about its funding sources, but The BMJ can report that the organisation is part funded by British American Tobacco. In the past it has also taken money from the gambling, alcohol, sugar, and soft drink industries. Meanwhile, politicians with links to the IEA seem to be progressing ever closer to power. The concern is that public health policies could be put at risk under a new Tory leadership, including current plans for calorie labelling and for advertising restrictions designed to tackle childhood obesity, as well as progress towards a minimum unit price for alcohol (see box C).
 

craner

Beast of Burden
I am hoping Droid has some optimistic statistics to show us that PM Boris is an unlikely outcome.
 

Slothrop

Tight but Polite
I genuinely don't understand what his plan is at this stage. I mean, I know that he's basically an overcooked cauliflower in a suit, but he's well enough in touch with reality to know that a hard or no-deal brexit is going to fuck a lot of people over in a way that's hard to ignore or handwave away even for a Tory. And similarly I know that he's rich enough and psychopathic enough not to give a shit about that, but he also seems vain enough to want praise and validation rather than ridicule and vilification, so he presumably wants to deliver something that's a no-more-than-plausibly-deniable shitshow.

I thought he was doing alright for himself when he was basically standing on the sidelines banging on about how OBVIOUSLY he'd be handling things better, but sat in the hot seat he actually has to play his cards, and I don't really see that he's got any. He's been telling everyone that we can do a glorious hard brexit that cements Britain's place as Top Nation if we just go at it with a Positive Attitude and now he's in a position where he can actually do that and it's hard to see how he's going to wriggle out of it or blame someone else.
 

Mr. Tea

Let's Talk About Ceps
What is the likelihood parliament stopping a no-deal Brexit, though? I mean is there any precedent for anything like this in modern times? How would it work?
 

comelately

Wild Horses
What is the likelihood parliament stopping a no-deal Brexit, though? I mean is there any precedent for anything like this in modern times? How would it work?

'Stopping a No Deal Brexit' heavily implies the EU will just wave another extension through. I'm not convinced; they just see us spunking away this extension.

Unless there's a GE or 2nd Referendum then I don't think they'll let us extend again.
 

Mr. Tea

Let's Talk About Ceps
I can't imagine an extention. I meant a revocation of Article 50. Of course it would be the greatest possible propaganda coup for Farage. Then again if we do leave with no deal then he's won anyway. It's win-win for him, in a sense.
 

comelately

Wild Horses
It's one thing to vote for an extension, it's quite another to vote to effectively cancel Brexit. I'm not even sure Corbyn would want to (to be seen to) vote for that.
 

Corpsey

bandz ahoy
Politics as parody, as mere spectacle; the notion that any of them are remotely interested in, or equipped to, improve our society absolutely laughable.
 

IdleRich

IdleRich
'Stopping a No Deal Brexit' heavily implies the EU will just wave another extension through. I'm not convinced; they just see us spunking away this extension.
With some justification to be fair.
 

droid

Well-known member
D9VDBzIX4AE7ghq.jpg:large
 

IdleRich

IdleRich
I keep seeing this today... you realise that the people who are in control, or at least are picking those in control have totally fucking lost it. Brexit has broken their tiny minds.
It's pretty scary that an illegitimate and insane vote to leave the EU which no longer commands a majority is being forced through by an insane party which also no longer commands a majority. Both of these things are in such a precarious position that the vested interests clinging on to power won't go to the country and ask if they still want them (and thus gain the mandate and majority they need to do it properly) - cos they know that it doesn't. The upshot, we are led by people we don't like into doing something we don't want and that everyone who knows anything about it says will be a disaster.
 

Mr. Tea

Let's Talk About Ceps
I keep seeing this today... you realise that the people who are in control, or at least are picking those in control have totally fucking lost it. Brexit has broken their tiny minds.
It's pretty scary that an illegitimate and insane vote to leave the EU which no longer commands a majority is being forced through by an insane party which also no longer commands a majority. Both of these things are in such a precarious position that the vested interests clinging on to power won't go to the country and ask if they still want them (and thus gain the mandate and majority they need to do it properly) - cos they know that it doesn't. The upshot, we are led by people we don't like into doing something we don't want and that everyone who knows anything about it says will be a disaster.

yeah but yeah but yeah but DAMOCRASY!!!!!!!1111
 
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