Does that graph really mean that those that least wish the UK to remain in the EU also like us the least?
Delighted to see we are number 4 on the list of countries wanting you to stay. Surprised we are not number one and that only 70% of us want you lads to stay. I wonder why so many Cypriots want you to leave? Aren't they a commonwealth country or one time commonwealth members?
There's trillions of euro derivatives and repos traded and cleared through London, despite not being in the eurozone because we are still in the EU. this has to go for a start once we leave their jurisdiction, banks will follow the business and there is no benefit for withdrawing from the European market compared to what we can do today.
This is mostly dream world bollocks and for people to describe it as a great post etc is quite depressing.
Obama in Hiroshima. Complicated stuff, grateful that I didn't have to make that decision. I found this very moving. (It was on the main news site, I only watch CBBC a couple of hours a day).
Tony Blair ensures that Corbyn's leadership is unassailable.... http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-36401105 At least he feels humble about Iraq. That's alright then.
Looked on the BBC news website this morning in the anticipation of seeing something new and was greeted by Blair spouting on about how dangerous it would be to elect Corbyn as PM. Would Blair himself have allowed someone in his party to go to the BBC and give such an interview ? - effectively telling people to vote for the opposition. I very much doubt it. He says that the reason some people hate him (Blair that is), is because he won 3 elections for Labour - could the reason for this hate not be that he had 3 electoral terms yet left Britain in a situation which was indistinguishable to that if the Conservatives had been in power ? The man belongs before a war crimes tribunal, not giving interviews of this type to the BBC. I wonder why so much criticism of Corbyn concentrates on the general issue of 'unelectability' without explaining why ? - or concentrating on the actual issues which Corbyn believes in.
Thing is, no matter how much you despise him, he is still a far more substantial figure than any current politician. And his ideology - the market democracy/'we will force you to be free' mantra - was just as radical as any old style Corbyn socialism. And just as doomed to fail. Blair did have a vision, unlike Cameron who is a purely reactive politician.
Blair's 'Third Way' wasn't really anything new, it was a justification for abandoning any remnants of socialism and a means of persuading some Tories to vote Labour. It was market capitalism with a smiley face, and it won votes - and power. What it brought though, was more deregulation, PFI, academies, faith schools and so on. Not for me, thanks. Corbyn has a massive mandate to take the Labour party back to where it belongs and he is gaining popularity in the wider population. Blair should butt out.
I've been reading a lot about the course of politics from the Cold War on recently. The "Third Way" was just a sound bite. Blair was very consciously following in the footsteps of Thatcher, Reagan and Clinton in believing that the market was a better reflection of 'individual freedom' than politics (though Clinton was forced into this when he was told exactly how dire the US finances were shortly before taking office, dropping is reform programme instantly). His job was to continue their work in making the public sector play by the market rules, dressed up as attacking the power of elites and bureaucracies. But he couldn't be explicit about it, given the Labour constituency. And I suspect his adoption of Isiah Berlin's 'negative liberty' (freedom from coercion, the individual paramount, rules to prevent us interfering with each other's Liberty only, politics is about letting individuals get what they want, and the market is better at it) versus 'positive liberty' (freedom to fulfill your potential and transform yourself and society - often ending up being coerced to do so cf revolutionary France, Soviet Russia, China) did not sit comfortably with him given his 'transformative' religious beliefs. He even wrote to Berlin about it, but unfortunately the great man was dying and did not respond. Unfortunate because Blair fell into the trap that Berlin predicted for negative Liberty - it adopts the totalitarian tactics of 'positive Liberty' to protect itself and expand its influence -the ends justify the means- hence the 'we will force you to be free' approach in Iraq, dismantling all the institutions of the state, getting rid of all the people who ran them and letting the market run free. Just the same as we and the Americans encouraged the Russians to do in the 90s, resulting in the President (Yeltsin) closing parliament (and shelling the building with MPs inside), oligarchs buying the country's infrastructure at 2% of its value and the rise of Putin and nationalism. What we need to do is figure out how we can have positive Liberty without coercion. Sadly, it's beyond me at the moment, but I'm afraid Jeremy does not offer me much hope. Have a look at those documentaries, made in 2007, I posted links to in a response to Chaz earlier in this thread.
Not a bad return for £12.5k. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/football...tion-to-the-conservative-party-raises-seriou/
There is no doubt that big business etc has far too much influence on everything. However, you have an unrealistic ideological view of sovereignty imo. Try telling Americans that their sovereign Nation is a Myth, or the Aussies etc etc. Be part of a trading agreement; defence agreement or a Commonwealth if your people want to have our Monach as their figurehead, but retain independence. You must be a big fan of how the old Soviet Union was run.....keep Nations in line and dictate to them how they should do things. It didn't work for them and collapsed. It will never work. A one World Nation is a lovely, airy-fairy desire, as is the Green Party's desire to turn all our air bases etc into fields of wild flowers. Neither will happen and both are examples of not living in the real World.
Very odd, as someone whose father was Cypriot and visits the island regularly I find that unrealistic. Perhaps they interviewed a large number of the East Europeans now resident on the island. Then again, if the source is anything to do with Lord Ashcroft I wouldn't take it too seriously...
Still waiting for an example of how your life will change for the better with more UK sovereignty Col. Soviet Union comment, nah, I'd much preferred to be a native resident of say Armritsar in 1919. Or then again......
Fair enough, it may not be about 'liking' at all, but perhaps it's something to do with the behaviour of some of the tourists or the squaddies. Presumably only covers the Greek bit of the island. Ashcroft doesn't care about how accurate this stuff is, he's always got his private country, Belize, to fall back on.
