Blocks100 wrote:

Joined the Labour Party today.  As it became increasingly obvious that Boris was going to win the nomination, I wanted to mark the day that idiot got swore in as Prime Minister, not with a resigned shrug and a tired acceptance that we now have a racist, homopphobic idiot as leader, but with an understanding that enough really is enough, and the days of these hapless Eton toffs lording it over the rest of us has to stop.

It was an easy decision for me to make; I live in a marginal constituency where Labour are in second place behind a Tory barely hanging onto a 1000 majority. So I know if I volunteer in my community as a Labour activist, my actions can make a difference. 

I also live in a town that has the highest proportion of old people per head of the population in the land.  So I look forward to knocking on doors telling them all if they vote Corbyn, you'll get your free TV license back.

If the Tories lose this next by-election, they'll be down to a majority of 1.  The DUP have also announced today that are about to review their supply and demand arrangement with the Torys.  Johnson may wish to hang on till 2022, but the likelihood of that now seems remote. A GE is imminent. 

Never been particularly politically active before, but today really was a tipping point. I implore you all to get active yourselves, whatever your allegiances, and get this ignoramus out of No. 10.

You are a good man

Glad we voted No in 2014. Wouldn't have wanted to miss out on this.

Wait until he announces the cabinet.

I think we are about to enter the lowest point the country has ever been since the OPEC crisis.

We are US stooges who seize an Iranian ship for no good reason.

We have a bunch of self interested narcissists in charge, such as the moron who leaked the diplomatic cables about Trump, making us utterly weak diplomatically with oue greatest ally

Having done that ally's bidding, we bizarrely turn down the offer of escort to UK flagged ships in Homuz.

Two of our ships having been seized in breach of international Maritime Law, WE are powerless to do anything. The US almost on the record say they wash their hands of the problem. I can't believe the destabilisation of our diplomatic lines to the US didn't play a role.

So we meekly go to our EU partners, having spent two years antagonising them, and more to the point, their electorates.

Then we elect the person who is probably the most emblematic of our manufactured and one sided Euroscepticism.

There is serious talk for the first time of a political appointee to the US embassy role, something which has not be Len done for well over a century. It'll probably be Fox because we can't appoint farage. We can kiss sober, neutral assessments goodbye - every report will have a political angle. You can kiss your NHS goodbye when that happens. Even if it survives on paper, the drugs bill and the margins on paying US companies to manage healthcare will fucking gut its services.

We are heading for a humiliating no deal brexit, with at best a delay for a general election, which will be a four way or five way race in a lot of constituencies, and with a lot of left leaning and liberal voters splitting their vote by voting lib dem. In four year's time they'll bitch and complain about what's happening to what's left of the country. By then, Scotland will have left, Ireland will be on fire and Wales will be swinging plaid.

Fuck is all.

I haven't really followed said guy, I just love the shithousery of the comms dude. Absolutely fuck clegg too, though.

afgavinstan wrote:

I haven't really followed said guy,...

If he was my local MP i'd be livid. He has a rep of being massively work-shy, misses a load of votes, and cares more about his public image than his constituency. But...you know, fuck Clegg.

This is the twitter account of the resignee he is having an evening of it.

https://mobile.twitter.com/garetharnolduk

https://twitter.com/supermathskid/status/1153661313115152389?s=12

Actually you know what, let's skip the bit where you give me a PR reason that's bullshit, I prove you wrong, you get upset etc. No one gains. 

So just read this:

https://lobelog.com/the-strange-case-of-the-grace-is-detention/

A sciences-Po lecturer and ex diplomat who came out for La France En Marche (that's Macron to most) early on, so he's almost certainly  a Russian disinformation agent.

A little googling will show you the Gibraltarian govt amended its secondary legislations three days before the exercise  of the power, just to enable it to do this. And for all the FM's bluster, the detention is based on a suspicion - doesn't have to be reasonable. It's just been renewed to 15 August.

The affair stinks, I suppose it's faintly possible with such a narrow strait that the ship strayed into Gibraltarian international waters (possible but unlikely), but we did not need to do this. There are no sanctions vs selling oil to Syria. There were no sanctions vs Iran exporting oil, as the EU official stance (and Britain's) remained that the treaty was working and should be respected.

We were stooges. I can't see any other reason why we would do it. We did it as a favour to Bolton. A way of increasing pressure on Iran. And now we are left holding our balls.

GooberTheHat wrote:

Armitage_Shankburn wrote:

GooberTheHat wrote:

There was a perfectly good reason for seizing the iranian ship. You could argue that we might not apply the reasoning consistently, but the reason itself was perfectly valid. @gonz

Ok, what was it? PS the correctness of the decision is not vital to my analysis, but this is gonna be fun, I think.

It was suspected of carrying oil to Syria. The EU have sanctions restricting the import of oil to Syria. Grace 1 was transiting British territorial waters and was detained.

Oh well, I tried to avoid this. Source please, bold bit. We won't be able to know about the territorial waters.

But fuck it let's go there, I'm in the mood.

Yeah I guessed. It's in the diplomat's blog - as ever, and annoyingly, these guys are just as good at digesting laws as any lawyer. The question basically turns on whether oil amounts to "economic resources" and was destined to a named destination (of which the Benyas or whatevs refinery is one)

But oil is mentioned specifically elsewhere, so it is in my view a genuinely open question whether "economic resource" includes oil. If it does, what else does it include? If it is "anything that is money's worth", well, what does it exclude?

But it's all in there.

The only question I have is, if Iran wants to export oil to Syria, why on earth go round the Cape? Why not go via Suez?

Fuck

Am I off the hook then or am i still going to get it?

I'm not going to get it or im not off the hook? I'm confused.