“XR” – London, April 2019

 

Yesterday certainly was interesting – not because of what happened but because of what didn’t. Also interesting: how the MSM reported on the main subjects of the day: the Scottish Court Case, the Remain Cabal in the HoC, Brexit, and that “XR”, a.k.a. “Extinction Rebellion”: the broadsheets, i.e. the reading fodder of the middle classes, are full of reports and opinion pieces on that “XR” theatre production with hardly a nod to Brexit, while the red tops have a number of Brexit-related reports with just some few reports on ‘XR’.

Firstly, let’s look at the Brexit-related events, the Scottish Court Case and the HoC Remain cabal:

“Yesterday in Edinburgh the outer house of the Court of Session rejected a request by campaigners opposed to a no-deal Brexit to issue a pre-emptive order that Mr Johnson must comply with a law known as the Benn act, […] Lord Pentland ruled that an order was “neither necessary nor appropriate” because “there can be no doubt” that the government had promised the court that it would obey the law.” (link, paywalled)

A non-paywalled report is here, another paywalled one is here. Of course the ‘plaintiffs’ – one of them a Scottish MP – will appeal today, probably in the hope that the Scottish equivalent of the Supreme Court will uphold their complaint, just as they did in regard to the Prorogation.

Then there were the prospective shenanigans by the Remain Cabal in the HoC yesterday. Well, that turned out quite nicely – for Leavers: 

“The Remainer alliance yet again failed to agree on who should be the caretaker PM to stave off No Deal Brexit. The latest round of talks in Westminster ended in a stalemate as Jeremy Corbyn insisted he should get the keys to Downing Street if Boris Johnson is ousted in a confidence vote. […] The opposition groups were also unable to settle on any new tactics to bind Mr Johnson’s hands more tightly over Brexit.” (link)

These are the MPs who want to govern the fate of our Nation! These are the MPs who believe they can negotiate with the EU! These are the MPs who believe that they will be re-elected in the coming GE!

According to this report in The Express this failure was down to the ‘Tory Rebels’ who thwarted the Corbyn aspirations. Perhaps they were given a sneak preview of a ComRes poll undertaken for the DT:

“The survey found both Leavers and Remainers blamed Parliament ahead of anyone else for the Brexit impasse, on 94 per cent and 79 per cent respectively.” (paywalled link)

In the same report we read that the government will allow the Civil Service to brief Corbyn, meaning that a GE is imminent. However, the poll also found:

“Yet in a sign of the growing confusion over Labour’s EU stance, the poll found that two thirds of voters (66 per cent) said that the party’s Brexit policy remains a mystery to them.” (paywalled link)

You can read a non-paywalled summary of that poll here. RemainCentral reports on another poll which claims that Labour Leave voters are not that interested in Brexit:

“Many Labour Leave voters who will be targeted by the Brexit Party and the Conservatives at the next election do not view Brexit as a priority, a poll suggests. The survey of 10,000 people on low incomes found that the cost of living, health, crime and housing were higher than Brexit on their list of priorities.” (link, paywalled)

Whistling in the dark, is it? That article is accompanied by a report on a survey by the IFS and Citibank. You really have to read this to grasp the idiocy (excuse my French) of so-called experts who want one thing only, to kill off Brexit:

“The economy is about £60 billion smaller than if the country had voted to stay in the EU and a no-deal Brexit could mean zero growth for two years, say the Institute of Fiscal Studies (IFS) and Citibank. Economic growth has lagged behind other G7 economies since 2016, with business investment suffering its most sustained period of contraction outside a recession they said. […] A no-deal Brexit, even with fiscal stimulus and an interest rate cut, would harm consumer spending and business investment and lead to two years of zero growth, rising to 1.1 per cent in 2022.” (link, paywalled)

So far so ‘Project Fear’, undiluted by any real data which have filled the business pages elsewhere. This next bit is disturbing:

“Economists at Citi said that revoking Brexit would create the best prospects for the economy. This would probably involve a Labour-led coalition, which could increase tax and spending and tighten labour market regulations, increasing growth to as high as 2 per cent.” (link, paywalled)

Do these experts live in cloud-cuckoo-land? Are they not aware of the recession already having started in Germany and France? And do they really think that a Labour Government, with the Marxist McDonnell as chancellor, will boost their business? File this under “you couldn’t make it up”! 

The Express has a significant report about another threat to Johnson’s plan:

“Boris Johnson was last night facing a revolt by Tory MPs over fears that British troops could be dragooned into an EU defence force after Brexit. Members of the European Research Group of backbenchers will today meet senior figures from the Veterans for Britain pressure group that is campaigning against close military ties with Brussels.” (link)

Finally someone noticed! Many of you have been posting links to the Veteran’s paper and video, so the Spartans’ intervention is good news. You can read the non-paywalled report here. The speech by the prospective EU “Foreign Secretary” shows that this threat is serious indeed:

“Josep Borrell, who is nominated to be the EU’s next chief diplomat, said that Europe could not allow itself to become “irrelevant” on a world stage dominated by superpowers such as the US and China.  “We have the instruments to play power politics,” he said at a European Parliament hearing into his candidacy to head up the EU foreign affairs service, “The EU has to learn to use the language of power. We should reinforce the EU’s international role and further our military capacity to act. […] We should pool our national sovereignties together to multiply the power of individual member states,” Mr Borrell said, “I am convinced that if we don’t act together Europe will become irrelevant.” (paywalled link)

Do I detect a whiff of warmongering? Raising the number of “EU soldiers” to 60,000 will certainly make China and Russia quake in their boots! Forgive me though when I believe that a ‘socialist’ won’t exactly go to war with ‘socialist’ countries … perhaps he’s dreaming of invading the USA though … And what the heck does ‘pooling our national sovereignties’ mean in real life? Dictatorship by Brussels, that’s what!

Meanwhile the stonewalling by the EU is ongoing – see here and here. Now Johnson is allegedly turning the screws, saying that he will abort the talks and leave without a deal should there be no compromise coming from the EU (here). I cannot be alone in my fervent wish that the EU will keep on nay-saying!

The DT and the Times are full of mostly uncritical reports about those ‘XR’ demos, describing how wonderfully middle-class they are – see e.g. this headline in The Times:

“Extinction Rebellion: Call centre worker joins lawyer, vicar and ex‑deputy head to fight for the planet”

Here’s a BoJo-quote which made the headline in the DM (link):

“Boris Johnson slams Extinction Rebellion’s ‘nose-ringed crusties in hemp-smelling bivouacs”

Oh yes! Spot on, BoJo! This whole ‘XR’ thing is nothing but street theatre, with no consequences for the ‘actors’ – sorry: ‘concerned activists’. Just look at the images and videos littering the MSM. That the same MSM don’t ask who pays for this – well, what did you expect? Investigative journalism?

Those ‘actors’ are blatant attention-seekers, craving their 15 minutes of fame – just look at those red-clad, white-faced ‘demonstratoresses’! Surely, ‘white-facing’ must be some sort of racism? And what about defacing one of the famous White Horses (link) in Wiltshire? Oh – they only used ‘black cloth’ – so gentle! 

I’ll leave you with this comparison by Benedict Spence in the DT:

“For wealthy amateurs, then, to blockade streets and prevent ambulances reaching their destinations, and to actually come out and suggest people may die, but imply that is the cost that needs to be born, is hardly likely to sit well – especially when juxtaposed with footage of crowds in Hong Kong parting specifically to let ambulances through. […] Where one [movement] is outraged at having its liberties imposed upon, the other is outraged that it is not being given free rein to impose upon others. That is the divide in the age of outrage.” (paywalled link)

Let’s ponder what the reaction of the police and the MSM might be if Leavers were to organise such demo should Brexit be killed off. Somehow I can’t imagine we’d see the same ‘gentle’ policing.

 

KBO!

 

Photo by Alexander Savin

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