EU referendum, brexit and the aftermath

One of my Italian colleagues was confronted this morning in Belsize Park and told he should be sent home. Troubling times.

I didn't see any of the pretenders to his crown doing the same though, did you?

Johnson and Gove had view of an obvious, massive upside if it turned out their gamble and the ground work would pay off.

Labour pretenders...much less so

Excellent spoof but so real.
I work with someone like this .
A Sun reader who is doesn't appear to realise that no one else in the office 'gets the Sun'. She can't engage in general topical conversation and office banter.
Doesn't like 'alternative' comedy or any intelligent socio/political ideas/unions ( the BBC license fee is 'too much') but there is a glimmer of recognition that she is out of her depth here - so keeps silent.
Until yesterday when after voting out , felt confident enough to expose all sorts of opinions on immigration / giving all that money to Scotland / allowing them other countries wanting to join the EU (Turkey and Syria and whatever ) ...
We all went silent as we soon realised the pointlessness of any reasonable dialogue here and drifted off to do some work.
She is allowed to vote.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w7yaEEccDJc

We'll ask how you voted.

.

Quite clearly? There's like ten tweets a day - I've scrolled through quite a bit and so far found he campaigned in Aberdeen and Birmingham.

Ha, it may involve some trawling, but it's clear that he was out there hitting the pavement and giving talks. If you want to recreate an itinerary I'm sure it's possible (so, in that sense, it's clear), but it will be work (in that sense, less clear).

This was in an email from a German friend just now (academic, political theorist, moderate). Some insight into what feelings are like over there.

the greatest danger now is the desire for "revenge" and "punishment" among some politicians in Berlin and Paris. The Brits should get out fast, some have said, and we'll make sure they won't get the status of Norway or Switzerland, but rather that of Turkey. Merkel, once again, is a voice of reason and moderation. A lot of schadenfreude also on the increasingly likely secession of Scotland.

The Merkel point is what I found most interesting.

More importantly though, now that we're "independent," can we have our own word for schadenfreude?

miro_o in reply to @clubman

it can hardly be worse.
^ good until this bit.

Thanks for that 'good', Miro_o.

I didn't mean that the Labour Party is inherently bad; for most of its existence it's been a worthy institution.

However, to use a modern expression (rare for me) I think it's a 'damaged brand'.

Apart from Blairism as a whole - which would have pretty much destroyed the party on its own - just one example of their recent crassness was the way they asked the Scots to vote to stay in the UK in 2014 because they feared losing the Scottish Labour MPs at Westminster (it's very unlikely Labour could ever form a government without their Scottish contingent). This was blatant self interest and backfired on the party. There are plenty of other examples.

With Labour still in existence, it's inevitable they will take some of the left vote through the inertia of many of their supporters. With the old party scrapped there would be a better chance of something like Podemos or the 5 Star Movement uniting the anti Tory vote.

P.S. The Liberals (or whatever they call themselves now) should follow the same example.

More importantly though, now that we're "independent," can we have our own word for schadenfreude?

Well, it does seem to be part of the zeitgeist.

Think the EU are doing itself no favours at the moment rattling their sabre insisting that we get a PM and pack up and leave.

Just because for good or for worse (only time will tell) a vote for leave, legally we're in no hurry to trigger article 50 and exit plans can only start when that's been done.

With supporters like you, I can't think how the Labour party ever found itself mired in multi-year in-party fighting and a succession of lame duck leaders.

Tiswas, I strongly advise you to stay very very far from me, in the same way that I do with you.

I bet in the end they call him racist too.

Belfast PO today

Yeah, troubling pics from Newcastle of NF supporters on the streets with banners today.

anyone got a link to the petition ?

The 'Stop Immigration, Start Repatriation' petition?

This is worrying...

no - the 2nd referendum

https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/131215/

Don't waste your time.

A better use of all Remain voters time would be to spend £25 to join the Conservative Party, then ensure that the next leader is a pro-European and not Johnson or Gove.

This

You can do both.

I can rationalize the legitimacy of a second referendum to myself, but I know all I'm doing is rationalizing the legitimacy of something which isn't really all that legit...

I signed it and am a tad embarrassed. Zero hopes for impact. But the only thing that's at least felt like something.

What are the options if a General Election is called for a party to run with a manifesto to stay in the EU and nullify the Referendum?

Would they be able to over rule the Referendum if elected in?

To have that petition with a high number of signature can be an emergency exit used by the Tories if their plan or turning England in a elite land only can't be pursued any longer. Which I hope.

Referendum has no status except as advice.