Brexit and the waning days of the United Kingdom

[Barrister]

I do not get it. From Twitter it looks like the same happened in Germany and the Netherlands when they re-opened shops (again at, say, the Primrk on Alexanderplatz). I suppose I just don't understand how much people love Primark.

Although I wonder how much is just optics because of social distancing/number requirements in store. So I know my local Co-op always has a huge queue outside but they only allow about 10-15 people in store at any time.

Yeah - a lot of stores here always have lines, sometimes long, because they monitor how many people are in the store.  In some ways it's good, as it makes the shopping inside much more relaxed.

[Sheilbh]

It is awesome how Liverpool has managed to keep the fascists out while they've broke through in other traditionally left wing cities. I do wonder to what extent keeping the sun out helps.

I think it's a huge part of it.

I swear someone did a study that showed Liverpool being something like 10% more Remain, after adjusting for poverty, income, age, demographics etc. And it feels like a large part of that may be down to 35 years of not buying the Sun.

Even at the weekend there was no "protect the statues" protest in Liverpool, just a BLM protest. And it's somewhere that feels very proud of its diversity and probably with London, when I go up it's one of the places in the country that feels keen for immigration (part of this is because the city still feels quite empty/depopulated). I think it's also because it still sort of sees itself as a big bustling, port/global city that just happens to be done on its luck, and kind of wants that back.

[Sheilbh]

I do not get it. From Twitter it looks like the same happened in Germany and the Netherlands when they re-opened shops (again at, say, the Primrk on Alexanderplatz). I suppose I just don't understand how much people love Primark.

Although I wonder how much is just optics because of social distancing/number requirements in store. So I know my local Co-op always has a huge queue outside but they only allow about 10-15 people in store at any time.

Yeah - a lot of stores here always have lines, sometimes long, because they monitor how many people are in the store.  In some ways it's good, as it makes the shopping inside much more relaxed.

Don't you feel a pressure to HURRY UP? 

[garbon]

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/jun/15/dismay-over-adviser-chosen-set-up-uk-race-inequality-commission-munira-mirza

Dismay as No 10 adviser is chosen to set up UK race inequality commission

The new government commission on racial inequalities is being set up by a No 10 adviser who has cast doubt on the existence of institutional racism and condemned previous inquiries for fostering a "culture of grievance", it has emerged.

Munira Mirza, the head of the No 10 policy unit, is leading much of the work to form the commission on race and ethnic disparities announced by Boris Johnson on Sunday after the global wave of Black Lives Matter protests, the Guardian has been told.

It is understood that Mirza has said she hopes to recruit Trevor Phillips as part of the commission. Phillips, a former chair of the Equalities and Human Rights Commission, would be a controversial choice, having previously referred to UK Muslims as being "a nation within a nation".

When Phillips was named as playing a role in a Public Health England inquiry into the disproportionate impact of Covid-19 on people from black, Asian and minority ethnic backgrounds, it prompted condemnation from campaigners.

The revelation of Mirza's role was met with dismay from experts and MPs. The shadow justice secretary, David Lammy, whose own review on inequalities in the judicial system was criticised by Mirza, tweeted on Monday evening that the appointment "further undermines" Johnson's race commission.

The Labour MP added: "My review was welcomed by all parties: Corbyn, Cameron and May. But Munira Mirza went out of her way to attack it. Johnson isn't listening to #BlackLivesMatter. He's trying to wage a culture war."

The Institute of Race Relations thinktank said it would be hard to have confidence in the commission's outcomes.

"Any enquiry into inequality has to acknowledge structural and systemic factors. Munira Mirza's previous comments describe a 'grievance culture' within the anti-racist field and she has previously argued that institutional racism is 'a perception more than a reality'," a spokesperson said. "It is difficult to have any confidence in policy recommendations from someone who denies the existence of the very structures that produce the social inequalities experienced by black communities."

The Labour MP Diane Abbott, a former shadow home secretary, said: "A new race equalities commission led by Munira Mirza is dead on arrival. She has never believed in institutional racism."

The government commission, which was revealed in a Daily Telegraph column by Johnson, was also condemned by Labour as overly vague, "written on the back of a fag packet" and adding delay rather than urgency.

Mirza, who is also understood to be leading efforts to recruit commission members, has been an outspoken critic of previous government attempts to tackle structural factors behind racial inequality.

She condemned an audit of racial inequalities in public services commissioned by Theresa May, which No 10 say will form part of the basis of the new commission. Writing for the Spectator in 2017, Mirza said the audit showed how "anti-racism is becoming weaponised across the political spectrum".

In the same article, Mirza criticised two other reports which Johnson's government has promised to act on: the one written by Lammy when he was a backbencher, and another on unequal pay among ethnic groups. Mirza said both showed "wrongheaded thinking about race".

Dawn Butler, a Labour MP and former equalities minister, said Mirza's role "undermines its credibility from the very outset by appointing someone who stands by Johnson's racist comments, rejected the Lammy review, saying 'institutional racism' is 'a perception more than a reality', and opposed Theresa May's very own racial disparities audit.

"I am tired of fighting the government on this issue. The only review needed is a review into all the past consultations and reviews as well as their failure to implement over 200 prior recommendations."

Zubaida Haque, the interim director of the Runnymede Trust, a leading race equality thinktank, said the prime minister bore ultimate responsibility for the commission, however. "There are several members in this government who were not strong supporters of Theresa May's race disparity audit including Munira Mirza, Boris Johnson's own adviser in No 10. But we must remember that it's the prime minister who's in charge here and it's the prime minister who needs to be held accountable for his words and actions, not his advisers."

Johnson announced the commission in two lines of an article for Monday's Telegraph otherwise devoted to arguing against the removal of historical statues and condemning protesters, and in brief TV comments that referenced a desire to end "the sense of victimisation", which were described by critics as unhelpful.

No 10 said later it would "look at wider inequalities, including issues faced by working-class white boys in schools, for example". Its remit and members will be announced in due course, a spokesman said. The report, which will also examine some non-racial inequalities, will be completed by the end of the year.

Speaking to the BBC on Monday morning, Lammy condemned the plan as overly vague, and a way to delay implementing recommendations from his and other reports. "It's because this was written on the back of a fag packet yesterday, to assuage the BLM protests," he said. "Get on with the action. Legislate. Move. You're in government – do something."

Simon Woolley, the director of Operation Black Vote and chair of the government's Race Disparity Unit advisory group, also warned the commission must implement existing recommendations rather than going over old ground.

"This should not be a fact-finding inquiry," said the crossbench peer. "This should be framing a comprehensive action plan to reform those key areas that Boris Johnson has acknowledged that have systemic racism."

Mirza, a one-time supporter of the Revolutionary Communist party, who spent eight years as Johnson's deputy mayor for culture in London, has been an outspoken critic of anti-racism and what she called "its culture of grievance".

In the Spectator article, she took issue with Lammy's review into the justice system by saying that in some ways, people from BAME backgrounds have "more favourable treatment compared with whites".

In a blogpost from 2018, Mirza argued that injustices were only treated seriously if there was "a social justice angle that can be divined (or manufactured)".

These views chime to an extent with Johnson's attempts to reframe the debate about the mass protests after the killing of George Floyd by police in Minneapolis in terms of opposition to removing statues, and his view that more should be done to talk up positive experiences about race.

"What I feel most strongly is that there are so many positive stories that are not being heard," he told reporters in Downing Street on Monday. "Things really are changing. You're seeing young black kids now doing better in some of the most difficult subjects in school than they were ever before, more going to top universities."
...

Cool...

[celedhring]

It is awesome how Liverpool has managed to keep the fascists out while they've broke through in other traditionally left wing cities. I do wonder to what extent keeping the sun out helps.

I think it's a huge part of it.

I swear someone did a study that showed Liverpool being something like 10% more Remain, after adjusting for poverty, income, age, demographics etc. And it feels like a large part of that may be down to 35 years of not buying the Sun.

Even at the weekend there was no "protect the statues" protest in Liverpool, just a BLM protest. And it's somewhere that feels very proud of its diversity and probably with London, when I go up it's one of the places in the country that feels keen for immigration (part of this is because the city still feels quite empty/depopulated). I think it's also because it still sort of sees itself as a big bustling, port/global city that just happens to be done on its luck, and kind of wants that back.

The Sun boycott still going strong after all these years?

Good on you.

[celedhring]

Over here the statue controversy has coalesced around calls to remove the Columbus statue in Barcelona. The statue is an icon of the city but the plint certainly has some controversial material. For now the mayor has proposed "contextualizing" the statue instead.

I think we really really really should change the name of the pogrom street first, though. 

EDIT: Oh, looks like they already did that and I had missed it. About time.

[Syt]

BLM activist carrying a right wing protester to safety.

[Sheilbh]

Interview with him:
https://twitter.com/Channel4News/status/1272188213705297920?s=20

[The Larch]

It is awesome how Liverpool has managed to keep the fascists out while they've broke through in other traditionally left wing cities. I do wonder to what extent keeping the sun out helps.

I think it's a huge part of it.

I swear someone did a study that showed Liverpool being something like 10% more Remain, after adjusting for poverty, income, age, demographics etc. And it feels like a large part of that may be down to 35 years of not buying the Sun.

Even at the weekend there was no "protect the statues" protest in Liverpool, just a BLM protest. And it's somewhere that feels very proud of its diversity and probably with London, when I go up it's one of the places in the country that feels keen for immigration (part of this is because the city still feels quite empty/depopulated). I think it's also because it still sort of sees itself as a big bustling, port/global city that just happens to be done on its luck, and kind of wants that back.

The Sun boycott still going strong after all these years?

Good on you.

I was there last December and was quite surprised to see that many shops and newsagents in the city center had posters alluding to the Sun ban, so yes, still going strong.

[Duque de Bragança]

Over here the statue controversy has coalesced around calls to remove the Columbus statue in Barcelona. The statue is an icon of the city but the plint certainly has some controversial material. For now the mayor has proposed "contextualizing" the statue instead.

I think we really really really should change the name of the pogrom street first, though. 

EDIT: Oh, looks like they already did that and I had missed it. About time.

As long as the local equivalent of Rua da Judiaria stays? 
Portuguese wikipedia says it's Call.

[Sheilbh]

The Sun boycott still going strong after all these years?

Good on you.

I was there last December and was quite surprised to see that many shops and newsagents in the city center had posters alluding to the Sun ban, so yes, still going strong.

Yeah no-one buys it. It's almost an identity point by now and part of the sort of slightly wider Scouse not English sentiment.

[The Brain]

Interview with him:
https://twitter.com/Channel4News/status/1272188213705297920?s=20

Interesting. Thanks.

[Duque de Bragança]

In other news, two De Gaulle statues got defaced. One being sprayed by yellow colour, the other with "esclavagiste" (slaver) painted on it. 
I still don't get it, obviously.



Plus Gambetta (?!) and some time ago (May) Schœlcher (!) previously. Schœlcher was the one who ended slavery for good in 1848.

https://www.huffingtonpost.fr/entry/de-gaulle-gambetta-quelles-sont-les-statues-vandalisees-en-france_fr_5ee73dedc5b69f21912131f5

According to these communal militants of Martinique:

"Nous en avons assez, nous, jeunes Martiniquais, d'être entourés de symboles qui nous insultent", expliquaient deux jeunes filles revendiquant ces actions dans une vidéo publiée sur Facebook. "Victor Schœlcher était complètement favorable à l'indemnisation des colons, il y a plusieurs textes qui le prouvent, avance l'une d'elles. S'il n'avait pas été favorable à cela, on ne sait pas quelle serait la situation économique en Martinique actuellement, par rapport à la domination économique des békés."

Pour certains opposants, les hommages rendus à Victor Schœlcher empêchent aussi la reconnaissance des héros locaux de l'abolition. La 1ère précisait à l'époque que des statues avaient déjà été taguées plusieurs fois par le passé.

Executive summary: "Schœlcher (statues and busts) are insulting symbols. Plus he was for some kind of indemnity to settlers. That indemnity paved the way for the economic dominance of former planters (békés). Plus, paying tribute to Schœlcher prevents recognizing the role of local abolitionist heroes." Article ends by noting it was not the first time those statues were vandalised.

[Sheilbh]

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/jun/15/dismay-over-adviser-chosen-set-up-uk-race-inequality-commission-munira-mirza

[...]

Cool...

I find the ongoing influence of the former Revolutionary Communist Party/Living Marxism on the right really, really weird. I don't understand how their politics moved, how they're still around, how they still have influence (Spiked, the Spectator, Brexit Party MEP, and Munira Mirza former Deputy Mayor now head of Policy).

It feels like they're maybe the most successful Trotskyist party in the UK

[garbon]

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/jun/15/dismay-over-adviser-chosen-set-up-uk-race-inequality-commission-munira-mirza

[...]

Cool...

I find the ongoing influence of the former Revolutionary Communist Party/Living Marxism on the right really, really weird. I don't understand how their politics moved, how they're still around, how they still have influence (Spiked, the Spectator, Brexit Party MEP, and Munira Mirza former Deputy Mayor now head of Policy).

It feels like they're maybe the most successful Trotskyist party in the UK

Yeah when I read that part I didn't really get how that works other than one just casts about for the most extreme political stance?