Corpsey

bandz ahoy
Is that a relatively recent thing or do you think it's always been there?

Probably always been the case, especially as more and more money pours into London and less and less of it gets anywhere else.

Plus the internet megaphoning stuff about migrant workers and "Londonistan" and all that compounds matters.
 

DannyL

Wild Horses
It's evident even if you live in London. How many of you lived and worked in London who moved here? Every middle class kid with a pulse moves here for a few years (then fucks off again, usually)
 

droid

Well-known member
As just head of a caretaker government?

I think why this is so worrying is it's the first (of no doubt many more) deliberate and calculated flouting of conventions. It feels like the beginnings of autocratic rule.

Yeah, caretaker PM...

And autocracy is exactly what this is - if he's let get away with it. The Tories have gone full GOP.
 

droid

Well-known member
Mass civil disobedience and protest? It would bring down the government.

What's the alternative when faced with a kleptocratic coup attempt?
 

luka

Well-known member
It certainly would not, not at this stage. As I say there is a 50/50 split you are being hopelessly naive. It would lead to street fighting on a crazed scale and make the miniscule chance of a tolerable compromise yet more remote. may well come to that anyway but for the time being, no. Which is why none of us are throwing molotov cocktails this afternoon.
 

DannyL

Wild Horses
Street fighting and so on only occurs when you have blocs of protestors who've already been brutalised and have confrontational relationships with the filth - it's normally a direct response to injustice. That's not really the case with Remainers. Others have commented on how polite and middle class Remain protests have been. I absolutely think people should get out there and protest, I just don't see it "going off" in that way. Even mild civil disobedience hasn't been a tactic from the Remain side so far but I guess it could emerge now.
 

Mr. Tea

Let's Talk About Ceps
I'll be heading down to the protest organised by the local Labour party on Saturday, for what it's worth.

Still can't quite believe it's got to the stage it has. Reminds me of Varys's line in GoT about how "power resides where men believe it resides" - so Johnson is getting away with this because he and his supporters believe he can, while his opponents are too divided among themselves to do anything about it.
 

DannyL

Wild Horses
It's the global trend, violation of democratic norms, just weird to see it happening here (the Mark Blyth talk I posted above is very good on all this - explaining the economics underlying populism, even if he's a bit too pleased with himself).
 

luka

Well-known member
Street fighting occurs when you have two or more opposed factions eg two opposed football firms, or antifa and Trumps brownshirts.
 

luka

Well-known member
Poll tax riots are one thing but half the country was not rabidly committed to paying poll tax as far as I can remember.
 

droid

Well-known member
There's been next to no 'street fighting' about brexit, which is no surprise considering that apart from the EDL mob the vast majority of its supporters aren't really cut out for it. The danger would come from the police.

A Hong Kong style protest would be quite effective, I think.
 

luka

Well-known member
We'll see. Perhaps Mr Teas demonstration will bring down the government then I will have egg on my face. Good luck Tea throw a cobble stone at a copper for me.
 

luka

Well-known member
There's been next to no 'street fighting' about brexit, which is no surprise considering that apart from the EDL mob the vast majority of its supporters aren't really cut out for it. The danger would come from the police.

A Hong Kong style protest would be quite effective, I think.

I've been enormously impressed with Hong Kong and I'd love to see it happen here.
 

droid

Well-known member
The purpose if not to overthrow the government in violent revolution (unfortunately). The purpose is to show the political opposition that they have mass popular support.
 

Leo

Well-known member
might street protests be more likely to occur when citizens actually feel the pain of Brexit personally, after it happens? right now it's still an anticipated thing, an amorphous debate in pariiment. perhaps that changes if people start to find their grocery store shelves becoming bare, food prices rising, medicines being rationed, businesses falling into bankruptcy, unemployment rising...when in starts to impact their lives directly.
 
Last edited:

Mr. Tea

Let's Talk About Ceps
We'll see. Perhaps Mr Teas demonstration will bring down the government then I will have egg on my face. Good luck Tea throw a cobble stone at a copper for me.

Oh, it'll be a molotov at the very least, don't you worry m8.
 
Top