Peter Hitchens: Britain Is No Longer a Great Power

Jan 15, 2024 | “British politicians seem to think that we’re still the great power, when we’re not.” Peter Hitchens discusses UK strikes on Houthi rebels in Yemen and the Conservative Party’s electoral prospects on TimesRadio.

The Brexit Scandal | Corruption in the UK | Documentary | British Political System

Aug 7, 2023 | The Brexit Scandal - What if Brexit was ultimately not about the “will of the people” at all, but about the interests of a small British elite?

The Brexit Scandal (2021) Director: Tom Costello
Genre: Documentary
Country: Germany
Language: English
Also Known As: Power, Profit and Populism: The Battle for Hard Brexit
Release Date: 2021 Germany (Raindance Film Festival)

Synopsis: Brexit was presented as a populist revolution against the elite. But in the years since the referendum, a group of men deep in the heart of the British establishment have been carrying out a coup of a different kind – using Brexit to try and turn Britain into a low-tax, low regulation, high finance utopia. This revolution is funded by dark money – cash from unknown sources – which has been flooding into the British political system through mysterious front groups, opaque offshore firms, clandestine digital campaigns and corporate lobbyists in disguise.

Today dark money and shadowy influence operations continue to push an agenda that is anything but popular, and is deeply undemocratic.

In this film, we follow the dark money trails to find out: who are the men who bought Brexit, and what is their vision for Britain’s future?

Michael Lambert: The Chaotic State of British Politics under Boris Johnson

Mar 26, 2022 • The chaotic state of British politics under Boris Johnson is set to get worse. A government of incompetent second-rate ministers led by a self-obsessed clown is no way to run a country.

We are told that Johnson ‘Got Brexit Done’ and yet it is far from done and has so far caused a 15% drop in exports to the EU and an overall fall of 4% of GDP according to the Office for Budget Responibility (OBR).

We are told about the 'fastest booster rollout' whilst the having the highest number of Covid deaths in Europe, which is never mentioned.

At a time when personalities and slick catchphrases such as 'Take Back Control' persuade voters, we have a parliament which has no power. The prime minister is in total command of his party which, thanks to ‘First Past the Post’ has a huge majority. Without any effective opposition from withing his own party or from the official opposition the prime minister can act as a dictator. Parliament has become powerless and useless.

Proportional representation would help to resolve many of the problems by ensuring that all voters were fairly represented in parliament. Above al,l it is time for our antiquated system of government to be modernised by automating much of the decision-making using super computers with far more power and intelligence than any politicians.

The Ultimate Guide to Tory Corruption

Open Democracy

UK Elections: New Era for British Politics?

Tony Blair: Time to Return to British Politics? – BBC Newsnight

His office has denied reports in the media, but Tony Blair's inner circle say they would not be surprised to see the former prime minister make a return to British politics. Would he be welcomed? Or is he seen as being too toxic? Emily Maitlis speaks to Caroline Lucas, joint leader of the Greens, and John McTernan, former adviser to Tony Blair.

‪Inside Story - Has Politics in the UK Become Too Divisive and Toxic?‬

Lost Youth: UK Voters Back Away from Ballot Box, Losing Faith in Mainstream Politics

Brits just can't get themselves fired up about voting anymore with turnout on elections in recent years on a downward slide. And it's young people in particular who are backing away from the ballot box, only 10% say they'll definitely take part in next year general election.

What an Idiot ! Simon Hughes MP Addresses Muslims at a Conference in London

HT: marcus_leeds »

WIKI: Simon Hughes »

Tories Heading in the Wrong Direction, Says Lord Ashcroft

THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: The Conservative party “is heading in the wrong direction” and does not know where it is going, party donor Lord Ashcroft has said.

The Tory peer said that the Government had so had its “most difficult month so far, and the voters have noticed”.

In an article on the Conservativehome website, Lord Ashcroft suggested that part of the problem was that the Government had lost its grip on events.

He said that if the drift was allowed to continue then the Tories would be punished at the next general election, expected in 2015.

He said: “The main problem is not so much that people think the Conservative Party is heading in the wrong direction, it is that they are not sure where it is heading. And that includes me.” » | Christopher Hope, Senior Political Correspondent | Thursday, April 19, 2012

Galloway: Our Politicians Need to Start Listening to the People

YAHOO!: Slowly and reluctantly, more and more commentators have had to acknowledge that the sensational Bradford West by-election result cannot be trivialised or put down to accidental factors.

If more had bothered to visit Bradford during the campaign, they would have been less taken aback by the result and not left floundering for an explanation.

Bradford has revealed the yawning gap between the cast-iron consensus shared by the old three parties over so many fundamental issues on the one hand, and the alienation of millions of people in Britain on the other. The leitmotif of the Bradford Spring was above all the cry for change, rather than the same old, same old. It was for a change in economic policy - not to the Labour frontbench's alternatives of savage cuts for tea rather than for breakfast, but to a strategy for growth, investment and jobs rather than forever putting the interests of the banks and bond markets first. It was for a reversal of over a decade of war and the threat of more war.

Those who claimed that calling for withdrawal from Afghanistan was somehow disreputable in an area where high unemployment has driven many into the armed forces and which has lost all too many in combat over the last few years clearly failed to appreciate the public mood. This war is unpopular - not only among those whose coreligionists are being killed in even greater numbers than British personnel, but among the public as a whole. And the succession of wars - Iraq, Afghanistan, the threat of war with Iran - has come to symbolise something deeper: that the political class, and sitting in the same echo chamber so much of the media, simply do not represent the feelings of most people over most things.

That was the most salient truth revealed in Bradford. No amount of promises to listen (while carrying on in the same old way) will bridge that gulf. It's not just that people want politicians to sound like they actually believe what they are saying - whether the audience fully agrees or not - it's also the message. » | George Galloway MP | Guest writer | Thursday, April 19, 2012

Don’t These Politicians Talk BS?*

*I’m not advocating AV here. But I am sick to death of the empty talk we hear from politicians, right across the spectrum. They are playing us for fools! – © Mark

TUC: Unions Warn of Strikes Over 'Reckless' Cuts
THE TELEGRAPH: Unions put the Government on notice today that workers will launch strikes against spending cuts as the Coalition came under furious attack for its "reckless" axing of public services.



The TUC agreed to co-ordinate campaigns and industrial action amid warnings that some unions have already started preparing to launch stoppages.

Millions of workers are now on a collision course with the Government which could lead to a wave of strikes in the coming months as the scale of the austerity measures unfolds.

Leaders of the country's biggest unions lined up at the TUC conference in Manchester to lambast the Coalition for its spending cuts, which they said had already led to over 200,000 job losses or threats of redundancies among public sector workers.

Dave Prentis, general secretary of Unison, said it was a "lie" that the country could not afford decent public services, arguing that the Government was making cuts because it wanted to promote privatisation.

"If there's money available to bail out banks and bonuses, if there's money for war and Trident, there's money for our public services.

"If money is tight, never mind a pay freeze for our members, how about a pay freeze for bankers? We've seen enough of what they've done, we've had enough of their greed and arrogance. It's them, not our members, who should be doing more for less." >>> | Monday, September 13, 2010

Welcome to Britain in 2010 Where Money + Class = Power
THE OBSERVER: The establishment is back at the heart of government. It's as if the last 100 years had never happened

As exhausted Labour ministers embraced opposition with an emotion close to relief, the party's equally exhausted staff assumed they could relax. Instead of being allowed to recuperate, however, they were overwhelmed by thousands of angry men and women clamouring to join. The sight of Nick Clegg and David Cameron joshing in the grounds of Downing Street had rammed home a truth about Britain that all the talk of "inclusion" and "diversity" obscures. We live in the most class-ridden society in western Europe, and it is becoming more sclerotic and more hierarchical by the year.

Despite the admirable attempts to combat sexism, racism and homophobia, the life-defining issue for children is not their skin colour, gender or sexuality, still less their intrinsic talent, but how much their parents are prepared to spend on their education, and what friendships they can exploit and contacts they can manipulate on their little darlings' behalf thereafter.

Look at our new government. Satirists caricature Liberals – and I think we can now stop calling them "Liberal Democrats" as their alliance with the right has sundered their links with the social democratic tradition – as muesli-munching, Observer-reading, real-ale-drinking members of the progressive middle class. The events of last week have smashed that caricature into 1,000 pieces. Instead of going with Labour, the leaders of middle-class liberalism went into David Cameron's coalition. Far from adding grit to an administration dominated by the children of the rich, they toffed it up and raised the average cabinet member's net worth by tens of thousands of pounds.

As so often, foreign journalists see Britain more clearly than we do. During the campaign, a puzzled Susanne Gelhard, London correspondent for German radio station ZDF, noticed that the British media talked incessantly about Cameron's privileged background, but never added that Clegg's was no different. "How does he do it?" she asked. "I think he must have very good PR management."

So he does. When you look at his history, you discover that his parents, who now live in some style in a chateau in the south of France, sent him to Westminster, a private school that has never seen itself as second best to Eton. On leaving Cambridge, he behaved in a manner any young Tory on the make would recognise by accepting the patronage of Lord Carrington and Lord Brittan. He married well. His Spanish wife Miriam is not only a successful lawyer bringing in a six-figure salary, but is also a Catholic. Her belief in the supernatural has the advantage of allowing the atheist Clegg to avoid the worst of the state education system and send his children to a faith school. >>> Nick Cohen | Sunday, May 16, 2010

Cameron’s Daring Will Change Politics For Ever
TIMES ONLINE: A Tory partnership with the Liberal Democrats has wiped out the anti-Conservative majority at a stroke Read on (+video) >>> Daniel Finkelstein | Wednesday, May 12, 2010

Britain’s Power Shift

New Style of Politics in Britain

U.K. Hung Parliament Explained

The New Star of British Politics: Nick Clegg
Nick Clegg. Photo: The Globe and Mail
THE GLOBE AND MAIL: From fringe candidate to the most popular politician in Britain, it’s been quite a week for Liberal Democrats Leader Nick Clegg

week ago this morning, it was still possible to refer to Nick Clegg as a fringe candidate, the nerdy leader of a third-place British party who could walk down city streets without being recognized.

What has happened to him in the past seven days has no precedent in British politics, and few in elections anywhere. You probably have to reach to the world of reality television, where fellow Briton Susan Boyle rose, in similar one-night fashion, from spinsterdom to celebrity.

As of Thursday, Mr. Clegg, leader of the centrist Liberal Democrats, is the most popular politician in Britain, with his party either leading or tied with the Tories throughout the week. An Ipsos MORI poll Wednesday showed his party tied with the Conservatives at 32 per cent, with Labour at 28 per cent – a doubling of the Liberal Democrat standing last week. Other polls had his party ahead.

“We have never seen anything like this sort of an instant rise before in the history of British elections, and it means that the entire system has changed, quite literally overnight,” said Bobby Duffy of the London office of polling firm Ipsos MORI. “What had been a fairly staid election to choose between Gordon Brown and David Cameron has suddenly sparked into life, and nobody knows where things will go now.” >>> Doug Sanders | Wednesday, April 22, 2010

Highlights From U.K.'s Great Debate