Emrys
Emrys's JournalJohn Major's incendiary speech branding Brexit a 'historic mistake' in full
...
In Scotland, I believe a hard Brexit will encourage a second referendum on independence. This may seem improbable at the moment, but it would be reckless to ignore the risk.
... Many years of painstaking effort went into the Irish Peace Process which, even apart from Brexit, is at a fragile moment. Uncertainties over border restrictions between Ulster and the Republic are a serious threat – to the UK, to the peace process, and for Ireland, North and South. A special deal will be necessary.
... I can’t ignore what I learned in Government. Nor can I forget the people who voted to leave Europe in the belief it might improve their lives. If events go badly, their expectations will not be met, and whole communities will be worse off. The particular fear I have is that those most likely to be hurt will be those least able to protect themselves.
...
Freedom of speech is absolute in our country. It’s not “arrogant” or “brazen” or “elitist”, or remotely “delusional” to express concern about our future after Brexit . Nor, by doing so, is this group undermining the will of the people: they are the people. Shouting down their legitimate comment is against all our traditions of tolerance. It does nothing to inform and everything to demean – and it is time it stopped.
...
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/politics/john-majors-incendiary-speech-branding-9929258
A sober, rather than incendiary, IMO, look at the uncertainties ahead and the inadequacy of preparations.
Major also echoes what some of us here have said about May's desperate hunger for a hurried trade deal with Trump, pointing out the obvious: that the UK is very much a junior partner in the "special relationship", that ironically, we're of less use to America out of the EU than within it, and that goodwill from the Trump administration is likely to depend on our willingness to fall into line with its agendas, so it's a funny sort of "independence" the Brexiters think they've won.
Tapper burns Spicer on Twitter
https://twitter.com/jaketapper/status/835610361252413440https://twitter.com/seanspicer/status/835583586602532864
I imagine it must be really annoying when someone puts out false info about where you were born. Must really bother you!!
cc @BarackObama https://twitter.com/seanspicer/status/835583586602532864 …
For the record @nytimes @grynbaum can't even get where I was born right and failed to ask https://twitter.com/michikokakutani/status/835568432808660992 …
Then it should hold an internal party election.
The mechanisms for doing so are clear.
And this time, instead of the lame stalking horses who ran last time, let one or more of the "big hitters" show some guts and stand for the leadership against Corbyn (if he even chooses to run again) rather than carping from the sidelines like spoilt brats.
And this time, let the NEC not disenfranchise and smear a vast swath of the party membership and ban constituency branches from meeting on wafer-thin pretexts.
Don't get me wrong - I piped up at length over the anti-democratic way Corbyn was challenged last time, but he's stretched my patience. His "brand" over the years has been principled stands. I see nothing principled in the accommodations over the last few months, especially to do with Brexit and the frantic chase for supposed "lost" Labour voters to UKIP. Here's John Curtice on this:
...
Labour’s share of the vote has now dropped in every single byelection since the Brexit referendum. From leafy Richmond to windswept Copeland the message has been the same: the party is struggling to hang on to the already diminished band of supporters who backed it in 2015.
The party’s problems were, of course, in evidence long before 23 June last year. But the vote to leave the EU has exacerbated them.
Labour seems to have decided in recent weeks that its first priority is to stave off the threat from Ukip to its traditional working-class vote, much of which supposedly voted to leave in the EU referendum.
But in so doing it seems to have forgotten (or not realised) that most of those who voted Labour in 2015 – including those living in Labour seats in the North and the Midlands – backed remain. The party is thus at greater risk of losing votes to the pro-remain Liberal Democrats than to pro-Brexit Ukip.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/feb/24/stoke-copeland-labour-remain-richmond-copeland-ukip
Curtice conflates "supporters" with "voters" there, but anybody who imagines that Labour's problems would be solved merely by appointing a new leader is in for a rude awakening. The rot runs a lot deeper than that.
If you can get to the stage where the right wing of the Labour Party has fixated so much on demonizing Corbyn as the root of all evil and successfully sold that far and wide through the eager media, it's no surprise that you end up with situations like this, reported from last night's Copeland by-election:
When it came to voting, however, many said they believed lifelong Labour voters turned blue in the hope it would trigger Corbyn’s removal and save the party from perceived electoral oblivion.
“This week I’ve spoken to a lot of people, lifelong Labour voters who I’ve known for a very long time, who voted Conservative because they want Jeremy Corbyn out,” said Mike Starkey, the independent mayor of Copeland.
Starkey said he believed the Labour revolt would claim further scalps in the party’s heartlands if Corbyn remained in charge.
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2017/feb/24/the-view-from-copeland-lifelong-labour-voters-want-corbyn-out
Read it. By all accounts, there's not an ill some people won't now pin on Corbyn, no matter how outlandish (and bear in mind that the MP who resigned, triggering the by-election, was a very vociferous Corbyn critic, as was no doubt widely reported in the local media over the last couple of years).
It's a grim irony that the drive to oust Corbyn may lose many of the plotters' own seats because they've been so successful. And once lost, it's hard to see how Labour claws its way back to credibility - as I've witnessed myself here in Scotland, where they're a joke and haemorrhaging voters, and that's been a continuing process that began well before Corbyn took over the leadership.
These Couples Are About To Find Out If They Can Live Together In Britain After Five Years Of Waiting
Satbir Singh eats his breakfast every morning with his wife Gitanjali even though she lives more than 4,000 miles away. Propping up his iPad, he tucks into his porridge in his house in northwest London and talks on FaceTime to Gitanjali while she eats lunch at her desk in Delhi. Most days, this is the closest they come to normal married life.
For the last five years the couple have been trying to live together in Britain and failing, thanks to strict earning requirements that were introduced to spouse visas in 2012, when Theresa May was home secretary. On Wednesday morning at 10am the Supreme Court will announce a decision in a test case that could change their lives – and thousands of others – forever.
The 2012 rule change means British citizens must earn at least £18,600 a year to bring in a non-EU spouse. It has taken the Supreme Court more than a year to reach a decision on whether this is unlawful.
https://www.buzzfeed.com/emilydugan/these-couples-are-about-to-find-out-if-they-can-live-togethe?bftwnews&utm_term=.gcQ4aeZM4p#.mnwjB0Lkjz
Yup. But as I said, beware.
Here's Mensch on Twitter in a more ... er ... lively phase not so long ago:
— Louise Mensch (@LouiseMensch) December 10, 2016
— Louise Mensch (@LouiseMensch) January 5, 2017
She's since deleted those tweets for some reason, but they live on in Google's cache.
ETA: DOH! DU messes up any URL that includes a tweet URL nowadays, even if it's embedded. Just Google any phrases from those two tweets and the cached version comes up in the top four or five results.
And then there was the time ...
Former Conservative MP Louise Mensch has faced widespread ridicule after accusing Jeremy Corbyn supporters of anti-Semitism - over Twitter searches that turned out be her own.
Ms Mensch posted a series of screenshots showing what she said were autocompleted twitter searches alongside the name of Mr Corbyn’s fellow Labour leadership contender, Liz Kendall.
The supposedly autocompleted phrases alongside the @lizforleader handle included “nazi” and “Zionist”, which Mensch implied was the work to Corbyn’s supporters.
However, twitter users were quick to point out that Twitter doesn’t quite work that way and that, in fact, Mensch must have searched the phrases herself.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/louise-mensch-blames-corbyn-supporters-for-anti-semitism-turns-out-its-her-own-offensive-search-10466928.html
I could go on.
She's built up a decent reputation recently on the back of one particular scoop thanks to informants. But she could go off the rails again at any point, and nobody here should go with her.
"Secure" Trump website defaced by hacker claiming to be from Iraq
Source: Ars Technica
Someone calling themselves "Pro_Mast3r" managed to deface a server associated with President Donald Trump's presidential campaign fundraising on Sunday, The server, secure2.donaldjtrump.com, is behind Cloudflare's content management and security platform, and does not appear to be directly linked from the Trump Pence campaign's home page. But it does appear to be an actual Trump campaign serverits certificate is legitimate, but a reference to an image on another site is insecure, prompting a warning on Chrome and Firefox that the connection is not secure.
The page, now displaying an image of a man in a fedora, displays the following text:
Hacked By Pro_Mast3r
Attacker Gov
Nothing Is Impossible
Peace From Iraq
The source code contains a link to javascript on a now-nonexistent Google Code account, masterendi, previously associated with the hacking of at least three other websites. As Italian IT journalist Paolo Attivissimo pointed out, an archive of the script shows it to be a snow animation script, not malware.
Read more: https://arstechnica.com/security/2017/02/secure-trump-website-defaced-by-hacker-claiming-to-be-from-iraq/
Image of the hack:
The server - http://secure2.donaldjtrump.com/ -was still offline at time of posting. Trump's other servers are still operational.
Which all goes to prove that bragging about your yuuuge abilities to counter hackers is just waving a red rag at a bull.
http://www.politico.com/tipsheets/morning-cybersecurity/2017/02/trump-claims-credit-for-rnc-computer-security-218809
Meanwhile, Trump is still using his old, unsecured phone for some communications, possibly the one he was using when his Twitter account was hacked in 2013, his "cyber tsar" Giuliani was one of 14 Trump staffers who had their passwords leaked during 2012-2016, and Giuliani's own commercial website is rumored to be far from secure ...
Japan's interpreters struggle to make sense of 'Trumpese'
“He rarely speaks logically, and he only emphasizes one side of things as if it were the absolute truth. There are lots of moments when I suspected his assertions were factually dubious,” said Chikako Tsuruta, who routinely covers Trump-related news as an interpreter for CNN, ABC and CBS.
“He is so overconfident and yet so logically unconvincing that my interpreter friends and I often joke that if we translated his words as they are, we would end up making ourselves sound stupid,” Tsuruta, who is also a professor of interpreting and translation studies at the Tokyo University of Foreign Studies, said in a recent interview.
Like Tsuruta, English-Japanese interpreters recall being dumbstruck by Trump’s disregard for logic and facts as well as his unabashed use of a litany of sexist and racist remarks during the election campaign.
http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2017/02/17/national/japans-interpreters-struggle-to-make-sense-of-trump-speeches
I have no idea either, but
I've posted this before here. There are similarities in the MO:
Donald Trump 'paid students £20' to protest against wind farm near his Scottish Golf course
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/donald-trump-paid-students-20-9274811
And in 2013, this notice appeared on Craigslist and Job Hustler before an anti-wind farm demo Trump planned in New York:
Wednesday December 31st, 1969
Our firm needs 100 volunteers to attend and participate in a rally in front of the British Consulate/Embassy in Midtown Manhattan on the East Side on Wednesday, January 30, 2013 at 12 noon. The event is being held in order to protest wind turbines that are being built in Scotland and England. Your participation will be to ONLY stand next to or behind the speakers and elected officials/celebrities that will be speaking at the rally.
It is a really simple job and easy money for anyone who is around Manhattan at the time. We need all of our volunteers to RSVP for this event. It is VERY important that you RSVP because we have had people confirm spots and fill spots on the first day of the advertisement in the past. If you have participated in one of our events in the past (Ovation) please make a note of that in your RSVP email and we will email EVERYONE back to confirm your attendance.
We look forward to hearing from you all and again, the money is quick, the job is easy and we pay in CASH at the end of the event.
Looking forward to seeing you next Wednesday!
http://grist.org/news/cool-job-posting-earn-20-pretending-to-hate-wind-energy/
Trump and Japan's Abe plotted their North Korea missile response on a crowded dining terrace
Source: The Week
When President Trump learned that North Korea had fired a midrange ballistic missile into the Sea of Japan on Sunday morning, Saturday night's dinner was being served on the terrace at Mar-a-Lago, his private club in Florida. This is how he dealt with the first national security emergency of his administration, according to CNN:
Sitting alongside Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, with whom he'd spent most of the day golfing, Trump took the call on a mobile phone at his table, which was set squarely in the middle of the private club's dining area. As Mar-a-Lago's wealthy members looked on from their tables, and with a keyboard player crooning in the background, Trump and Abe's evening meal quickly morphed into a strategy session, the decision-making on full view to fellow diners, who described it in detail to CNN.
Trump's National Security Adviser Michael Flynn and chief strategist Steve Bannon left their seats to huddle closer to Trump as documents were produced and phone calls were placed to officials in Washington and Tokyo. The patio was lit only with candles and moonlight, so aides used the camera lights on their phones to help the stone-faced Trump and Abe read through the documents.... Waiters cleared the wedge salads and brought along the main course as Trump and Abe continued consulting with aides. {CNN}
Read more: http://theweek.com/speedreads/679763/trump-japans-abe-plotted-north-korea-missile-response-crowded-dining-terrace
Trump's team discussed response to North Korea missile test in front of diners at Mar-a-Lago
(CNN)The iceberg wedge salads, dripping with blue cheese dressing, had just been served on the terrace of Mar-a-Lago Saturday when the call to President Donald Trump came in: North Korea had launched an intermediate-range ballistic missile, its first challenge to international rules since Trump was sworn in three weeks ago.
The launch, which wasn't expected, presented Trump with one of the first breaking national security incidents of his presidency. It also noisily disrupted what was meant to be an easygoing weekend of high-level male bonding with the more sobering aspects of global diplomacy.
Sitting alongside Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, with whom he'd spent most of the day golfing, Trump took the call on a mobile phone at his table, which was set squarely in the middle of the private club's dining area.
As Mar-a-Lago's wealthy members looked on from their tables, and with a keyboard player crooning in the background, Trump and Abe's evening meal quickly morphed into a strategy session, the decision-making on full view to fellow diners, who described it in detail to CNN.
http://edition.cnn.com/2017/02/12/politics/trump-shinzo-abe-mar-a-lago-north-korea/index.html
Aside from this revelation that if you want to know how the president handles an international crisis, you just need to book dinner at Mar-a-Lago when he's visiting and hope you're lucky, the article also explains Trump's advisers' decision that he would not make the formal statement prepared for him to follow Abe's speech.
Profile Information
Gender: Do not displayCurrent location: Scotland
Member since: Mon Sep 7, 2009, 12:57 AM
Number of posts: 7,227
