Brexit and the waning days of the United Kingdom

[Admiral Yi]

I'll wager he'll make a bigger fist of it here, than Trump will end up doing in the US.

Tough to come up with an objective measure of fist size.

[mongers]

I'll wager he'll make a bigger fist of it here, than Trump will end up doing in the US.

Tough to come up with an objective measure of fist size.

Partial state collapse vs limited use of nuclear weapons?

[Richard Hakluyt]

Hang on, sections of the Tory press are attacking Rory Stewart for having possibly lied years ago about being an SIS agent. 


I thought spies were supposed to, you know, lie about being a spy?

I can't see that members of the tory party are going to hold seven years as an agent against him, quite the reverse. Even the tory press is losing its verve and buggering its own agenda up nowadays 

[Solmyr]

Hang on, sections of the Tory press are attacking Rory Stewart for having possibly lied years ago about being an SIS agent. 


I thought spies were supposed to, you know, lie about being a spy?

Well, the SIS does act against the British-accented Empire.

[Tamas]

Boris, for all his abundant flaws, is not in the same league as Donald.  Donald's retardation, egotism, pettiness, and disrespect for the law run circles around Boris.

I'll wager he'll make a bigger fist of it here, than Trump will end up doing in the US.

Yes I think there's a real chance for that.

Despite the best efforts of Trump and the shady people around him, the American institutions seem to continue to function and the political system as a whole is in no danger of a breakdown, or at least not yet. It so far seem to have been working as intended, both institutions and the voters reacting in the proper immune-system sort of way.


Now, eventually, Britain will be fine as well, the country has always gotten out its holes stronger and better than it entered them, but it seems like the political institutions here are much more strained by the Brexit seismic event. I think the Economist recently made a convincing argument that British politics are stuck between a rock and a hard place: there has been some codification of procedures and constitutional stuff in recent years but in a haphazard way, which  now only seem to serve to reduce flexibility without offering any stability.

Which means, that Boris's incompetence will be pushed against not a well-oiled and well-planned system of checks and balances, but an old house presently weakened by ongoing reconstruction work.

[Richard Hakluyt]

Constitutional innovations have got us into this mess but may be required to get us out of it, rather difficult. This will require people with political skills; not a mountebank or a tired old Marxist.

[Tamas]

It's a YouGov poll and they definitely have a liberal bias, but they have a rather revealing poll HERE


If this poll is correct, the Conservative Party basically no longer exists. Not as a party with actual membership that cares for it, at least.

A significant majority of their members seem to prefer delviering Brexit even if it leads to any one of these things:
-Scottish independence
-losing Northern Ireland
-significant economic damage to the country
-destruction of the Conservative Party

The only thing that would change their mind is Brexit leading to the election of Corbyn.

Also 46% of them would like Nigel Farage as their party leader.

[The Larch]

Truly stunning. Nasty party indeed.

[garbon]

I wonder what Brexit means to them to be so attached to the idea.

[Tamas]

I wonder what Brexit means to them to be so attached to the idea.

I think the wonderful thing about Brexit is how undefined it is. It can be anything, anything you want. Hard to fight against each person's personal dream scenario.

[garbon]

A personal dream of substantial damage to the UK?

[Tamas]

A personal dream of substantial damage to the UK?

No, that's the price they are willing to pay for their personal dream.

[Tamas]

It is just made especially nasty how their membership is basically upper middle-class and above white men from the South East.  Boris' promise of cutting high-end tax rates and financing it with an increase in National Insurance payments (taxt) is a blatant example of that. Pensioners don't pay NI.


Brexit is going to be the last FU of a dying breed, just like Trump was in the US.

[garbon]

Also 46% of them would like Nigel Farage as their party leader.

[Richard Hakluyt]

Have you watched that show garbon? Any good?