EU referendum, brexit and the aftermath

Nothing much new here, but interesting nonetheless.

https://www.economist.com/news/britain/21724395-country-has-not-cut-such-pathetic-figure-global-stage-suez-britains-decline?fsrc=scn/tw/te/bl/ed/britainsdeclineandfall

They need us more than, oh, hang on.

Greece is kicking our arse, must be the global trade deals they are free to strike:

I watched question time last night.
Fucking hell.

Fucking RABID aren't they?

That woman who was like 'a hundred years ago we were on our own and we were the best at everything and now we've joined up with everyone we're in debt and everything is awful'.

Like, does she know that a hundred years ago we had a fucking EMPIRE?

And that's why we were great.

It was the four young Tory tits in a line that did me in.

Did she propose we start invading countries to re-establish the empire?

We could start with Germany, they don't have much of an army.

Bleaker still was the person who said "she knows money, she writes for the Economist, I believe her".
Thereby explaining how we all think and defer to experts.

after 4 days of negotiating may is ready to do her first dramatic walk out over the exit fees

you can only cry wolf so many times theresa, just remember that

It's pathetic.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-40471466

"UK to withdraw from international fishing arrangement" sure let's annoy the EU even more and cause even more problems for other EU countries. For all the fish that the UK doesn't seem to eat anyway as a lot of it goes to...the EU. [fishing is a complex issue to get right, it doesn't deserve simplism like this]

Did is somewhat funny though... UKIP's fisheries spokesman Mike Hookem also said he feared another "wholesale betrayal" without assurances about the 200-mile zone.

Moderately interesting (via David Allen Green)

http://jackofkent.com/2017/07/in-some-possible-branches-of-the-future-leaving-will-be-an-error-an-exchange-about-brexit-with-dominic-cummings/

Perhaps if Dominic would have written a detailed plan with risk / rewards spelled out we wouldn't be in this mess.

Did he really not see this shit storm coming? Surely he worked with the people tasked to implement it?

Some background/opinion on the recent fishing 'announcement'

http://www.politics.co.uk/blogs/2017/07/04/hard-brexit-of-the-fishes-gove-s-first-move-raises-alarm-ove

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2­017/may/07/the-great-british-brexit-robb­ery-hijacked-democracy

A very long dense read, no time atm to evaluate if laws have been broken, or if it's just a bunch of scummy rich people coming together.

What doesn't help is that there's no map of Remain cash, for reference.

Sry not sry for the dredge.

Most of this isn't new (some of the personal connections highlighted are new to me). Analysts in washington are trying to reverse engineer how the Trump campaign targetted content to selective groups of black voters but it will take time. There is no doubt it was sophisticated (mis)use of data.

I think it's worth considering that these techniques are becoming known marketing tools and if the Hillary or the UK Better Together campaigns (both with significantly better funding than their opposition) weren't using these techniques then why not? I don't presume they rejected the idea based on principle. Maybe complacency?

Well that's the snag for me: Was this sophisticated marketing or a breach of UK electoral law (outside cash / influence)

The jury us still out on that. If course everyone is free to use the same legal (though obtrusive perhaps) marketing techniques.

With the Leave campaign funding it seems like the law certainly wasn't sufficient. Loopholes were utilised 'not in the spirit' and possibly with massive effect.

I totally think UK politics is vulnerable to manipulation. Our laws are pretty quaint.

In the US it is quite normal for individual politicians to take private funding. That corruption is absolute cancer, it produces on-message but totally disingenuous puppets and then anti-puppet muppets like Trump. All the campaign 'products' are going to be developed for this political culture (the largest market).

:-(

Dominic Cummings always comes across as if he has a fairly chaotic mind:

http://www.standard.co.uk/news/politics/man-behind-350m-a-week-brexit-bus-lie-admits-leaving-eu-could-be-an-error-a3579676.html

I think it's worth considering that these techniques are becoming known marketing tools and if the Hillary or the UK Better Together campaigns (both with significantly better funding than their opposition) weren't using these techniques then why not?

First I would say these where not well known prior to this election cycle, but are sure to make the world a worse place in the future. Secondly, this type of strategy does not work with a traditional political campaign as it essentially relies alternative facts and complete fabrications targeted at conspiracy minded voters. EX: Global elites, euro cabals, Taking our country back

Jack of Kent article above covers this better than the Evening Standard. It least because Cummings eviscerated Osborne.

I quite admire Dominic Cummings. He is absolutely right about the sclerotic nature of the British state, and he is not tribalistic.

Maybe if the Remain campaign hadn't been run by a second-rate mediocrity like Will Straw we wouldn't be in this mess.

This is such a depressing way to run a country

Under the most common plan articulated by Conservative MPs, the first
aim is to get the prime minister through to the safety of the summer
recess on July 20. Then, if all goes well, Mrs May would stay long
enough to oversee Brexit in March 2019, taking the blame if it goes
wrong. Then, her political use exhausted, she would hand over to a new
leader to take the party into the next election in 2022.

From: https://www.ft.com/content/02f15952-6099-11e7-8814-0ac7eb84e5f1 (paywall obvs)

First I would say these where not well known prior to this election cycle,

Yeah. I agree.

...but are sure to make the world a worse place in the future.

Not sure I agree overall. The new carriers of journalism (AMP/Google, Facebook) have been free of manipulation relative to traditional media so far. Yeah that will change, I guess it depends on how transparent and how monopolised power is. AMP doesn't help because it re-skins content.

Secondly, this type of strategy does not work with a traditional political campaign as it essentially relies alternative facts and complete fabrications targeted at conspiracy minded voters. EX: Global elites, euro cabals, Taking our country back

That's not true. The medium doesn't dictate the content. The targetted campaign in the US was negative, but that's not the only option.

An FT letter

This is very good
http://www.newstatesman.com/politics/uk/2017/07/brexiteers-fear-they-are-losing-argument