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politicalbetting.com » Blog Archive » Cameron can do to the Eurosceptic right in the EURef what

SystemSystem Posts: 11,691
edited April 2016 in General

imagepoliticalbetting.com » Blog Archive » Cameron can do to the Eurosceptic right in the EURef what he did to Miliband’s LAB and Clegg’s Lib Dems

The reason OUT is so on the defensive at the moment is simply because of the force of the major initiatives from the Cameron team in week one. We have had the Treasury document and the £4,300 claim and then the Obama visit and press conference.

Read the full story here


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    IndigoIndigo Posts: 9,966
    edited April 2016
    First ?

    I think the polling for the result yesterday in Austria shows us how much faith we can put in the polling at the moment, the EU ref on that sort of level of reliability could be anything from 40/60 to 60/40, we have no idea what is making progress with the public and what is being ignored. Interesting times.

    Hofer got 36%. All the recent polls had him in the low twenties, slightly behind Van Der Bellen in the higher twenties. If polls are 10-12% out then we are fumbling in the dark trying to make sense of political events and their impact on the public, might as well roll dice.
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    Leave ie 2nd
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    SouthamObserverSouthamObserver Posts: 38,937
    There's a long way to go. Voters are generally Eurosceptic. Leave have two linked, very strong, easy to understand arguments in their favour: sovereignty and immigration. They should start making them. They are not going to win on economics. However, Boris and Farage's comments on Obama essentially being an uppity African may have made the immigration card harder to play dispassionately.

    On a related note, what this first week has shown is just how unsuited to major office Boris is. The Tories would be mad to choose him as Dave's replacement. But they are going through a sustained period of madness right now.
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    CarlottaVanceCarlottaVance Posts: 59,777
    At the risk of repeating myself.....It's not as though Obama has never intervened in a UK referendum before - he did, under two years ago. And Salmond delivered a master class in 'shutting it down as an issue'.

    'Thank you for your perspective Mr President, but fear not, if (Scotland becomes independent/Britain leaves the EU) the US will still have a reliable friend and ally in (Scotland / the UK). What this illustrates is the panic in the (Better Together/Remain Campaign) and their failure to persuade the voters.

    Of course Salmond had a pop at Cameron too, which LEAVE could get a Labour LEAVEr to do, if Boris is only happy attacking 'half-Kenyans'.....

    Instead we've had the invective aimed at Obama.......'lame duck, blackmail, irrelevant, meaningless, weird.....heck, when Nigel says you've gone too far, surely its time to listen?
  • Options
    IndigoIndigo Posts: 9,966

    There's a long way to go. Voters are generally Eurosceptic. Leave have two linked, very strong, easy to understand arguments in their favour: sovereignty and immigration. They should start making them. They are not going to win on economics. However, Boris and Farage's comments on Obama essentially being an uppity African may have made the immigration card harder to play dispassionately

    True, although playing those two cards for eight weeks is probably going to do more harm than good. There is a feeling in some circles that Remain have played their strongest cards too early when not enough people are listening, and risk some of their better points becoming old hat before the day. With only a few arguments, even if strong ones, Leave are going to be keen not to do that.
  • Options
    SouthamObserverSouthamObserver Posts: 38,937

    At the risk of repeating myself.....It's not as though Obama has never intervened in a UK referendum before - he did, under two years ago. And Salmond delivered a master class in 'shutting it down as an issue'.

    'Thank you for your perspective Mr President, but fear not, if (Scotland becomes independent/Britain leaves the EU) the US will still have a reliable friend and ally in (Scotland / the UK). What this illustrates is the panic in the (Better Together/Remain Campaign) and their failure to persuade the voters.

    Of course Salmond had a pop at Cameron too, which LEAVE could get a Labour LEAVEr to do, if Boris is only happy attacking 'half-Kenyans'.....

    Instead we've had the invective aimed at Obama.......'lame duck, blackmail, irrelevant, meaningless, weird.....heck, when Nigel says you've gone too far, surely its time to listen?

    If you promise a quick, beneficial trade deal with the US post-Brexit, don't be surprised if the President of the US gives a view on how likely that is. The Leave side invited Obama's intervention. It's that simple.

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    CarlottaVanceCarlottaVance Posts: 59,777
    I see the BBC has taken up Air Accident Investigation......who needs the Dutch Safety Board when a documentary maker and journalist are to hand?

    http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/mh17-been-downed-ukrainian-fighter-7826518

    http://www.onderzoeksraad.nl/en/onderzoek/2049/investigation-crash-mh17-17-july-2014

    It will be fascinating to learn how a Ukrainian fighter could have shredded the bodies of the Pilot, Co-Pilot and Chief Steward with BUK Shrapnel.....
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    IndigoIndigo Posts: 9,966

    At the risk of repeating myself.....It's not as though Obama has never intervened in a UK referendum before - he did, under two years ago. And Salmond delivered a master class in 'shutting it down as an issue'.

    'Thank you for your perspective Mr President, but fear not, if (Scotland becomes independent/Britain leaves the EU) the US will still have a reliable friend and ally in (Scotland / the UK). What this illustrates is the panic in the (Better Together/Remain Campaign) and their failure to persuade the voters.

    Of course Salmond had a pop at Cameron too, which LEAVE could get a Labour LEAVEr to do, if Boris is only happy attacking 'half-Kenyans'.....

    Instead we've had the invective aimed at Obama.......'lame duck, blackmail, irrelevant, meaningless, weird.....heck, when Nigel says you've gone too far, surely its time to listen?

    If you promise a quick, beneficial trade deal with the US post-Brexit, don't be surprised if the President of the US gives a view on how likely that is. The Leave side invited Obama's intervention. It's that simple.

    Whilst glossing over that trade deal done with Australia in 13 months.

    Any we don't need one. We already are one of the US's biggest trading partners without one, there are much higher priorities.
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    SandpitSandpit Posts: 49,914
    Morning all, a good article (as was the last, by Alistair). Leave need to get on top of the narrative, and probably need to change the faces around this week. More of Gove and Hannan at this stage would be welcome, rather than the blustery Boris. Hannan in particular has a very well reasoned line on democracy and accountability, how we can't control the various European courts and can't kick out politicians we don't like - he even welcomes his own P45 as he's an MEP.
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    foxinsoxukfoxinsoxuk Posts: 23,548
    Is the Boris banging the drum today about immigration the same Boris who wanted an amnesty for illegal immigrants last year?

    http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3264239/Let-long-term-illegals-stay-UK-says-Boris-London-mayor-believes-immigrants-12-years-granted-amnesty.html

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    Plato_SaysPlato_Says Posts: 11,822
    Excellent piece by Boris in Telegraph - it reads like a speech, I hope he delivers it.

    http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/04/24/do-bremainers-really-think-voters-will-be-cowed-by-the-likes-of/

    Regarding the Kenyan thing a few are so keen to fusspot over - Brendan O'Neill doesn't agree. https://www.facebook.com/brendan.oneill.79?fref=nf
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    SandpitSandpit Posts: 49,914
    edited April 2016

    I see the BBC has taken up Air Accident Investigation......who needs the Dutch Safety Board when a documentary maker and journalist are to hand?

    http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/mh17-been-downed-ukrainian-fighter-7826518

    http://www.onderzoeksraad.nl/en/onderzoek/2049/investigation-crash-mh17-17-july-2014

    It will be fascinating to learn how a Ukrainian fighter could have shredded the bodies of the Pilot, Co-Pilot and Chief Steward with BUK Shrapnel.....

    Why on Earth are the BBC pushing Putin's widely discredited line on this accident?

    The Dutch report is very clear on what happened, identifying the type of missile used and from which direction it came.

    https://www.bellingcat.com/news/2014/11/14/russian-state-television-shares-fake-images-of-mh17-being-attacked/
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    dugarbandierdugarbandier Posts: 2,596

    Excellent piece by Boris in Telegraph - it reads like a speech, I hope he delivers it.

    http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/04/24/do-bremainers-really-think-voters-will-be-cowed-by-the-likes-of/

    Regarding the Kenyan thing a few are so keen to fusspot over - Brendan O'Neill doesn't agree. https://www.facebook.com/brendan.oneill.79?fref=nf

    tbf Brendan O'Neill's default position on any issue is to not agree
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    Plato_SaysPlato_Says Posts: 11,822
    Did you read his piece? Or is this insta-rebuttal handwaving?

    Excellent piece by Boris in Telegraph - it reads like a speech, I hope he delivers it.

    http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/04/24/do-bremainers-really-think-voters-will-be-cowed-by-the-likes-of/

    Regarding the Kenyan thing a few are so keen to fusspot over - Brendan O'Neill doesn't agree. https://www.facebook.com/brendan.oneill.79?fref=nf

    tbf Brendan O'Neill's default position on any issue is to not agree
  • Options
    david_herdsondavid_herdson Posts: 17,419

    There's a long way to go. Voters are generally Eurosceptic. Leave have two linked, very strong, easy to understand arguments in their favour: sovereignty and immigration. They should start making them. They are not going to win on economics. However, Boris and Farage's comments on Obama essentially being an uppity African may have made the immigration card harder to play dispassionately.

    On a related note, what this first week has shown is just how unsuited to major office Boris is. The Tories would be mad to choose him as Dave's replacement. But they are going through a sustained period of madness right now.

    Actually, economics is precisely where Leave should target. They have immigration and sovereignty in the bag and only need to wheel those out every now and again. If I were Leave, I'd be majoring on the annual membership fee - it's easy to understand and hard to counter.

    That would really be the link to the AV referendum. For all that Cameron gave his backing to No2AV, which campaigned in part on the Lib Dems' broken promises - an apparent price of coalition politics (though really a bed the Lib Dems made for themselves in the expectation of not having that bluff called), the real winning argument of that campaign was 'one person, one vote'. Arguably, that was not entirely justified by the facts either (AV only gives people one vote too), but there you're getting into detail and explanation and if you're there, you're losing.

    So I agree with you and Mike that Leave have messed it up mightily getting so worked up about Obama - because they're now having to explain the detail of why they're not anti-African racists, which is not the sort of detail you want to be campaigning on. On top of that, it's destroying public trust in their judgement, which in a debate where so much is assertion based on prediction, is extremely damaging.

    Leave's problem is that they've a campaign packed full of political obsessives, and obsessives are often poor judges as to what the salient points of a political campaign are, and how best to make them. It could well be a big enough problem to cost them the vote.
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    blackburn63blackburn63 Posts: 4,492

    At the risk of repeating myself.....It's not as though Obama has never intervened in a UK referendum before - he did, under two years ago. And Salmond delivered a master class in 'shutting it down as an issue'.

    'Thank you for your perspective Mr President, but fear not, if (Scotland becomes independent/Britain leaves the EU) the US will still have a reliable friend and ally in (Scotland / the UK). What this illustrates is the panic in the (Better Together/Remain Campaign) and their failure to persuade the voters.

    Of course Salmond had a pop at Cameron too, which LEAVE could get a Labour LEAVEr to do, if Boris is only happy attacking 'half-Kenyans'.....

    Instead we've had the invective aimed at Obama.......'lame duck, blackmail, irrelevant, meaningless, weird.....heck, when Nigel says you've gone too far, surely its time to listen?

    If you promise a quick, beneficial trade deal with the US post-Brexit, don't be surprised if the President of the US gives a view on how likely that is. The Leave side invited Obama's intervention. It's that simple.

    Yes he gave a view alright, he lied. He said a deal with us would take ten years when the one with Australia took ten months. It is a recurring trend and one that will extend the cynicism that the electorate has with the establishment.

    Oh stop whining, people will say, but I'm afraid I can't simply allow our PM to stand alongside Hollande and Obama while they threaten us. Anecdote but fact, the ex conservative Chairman of my district council has publicly said the same. Regardless of the outcome Cameron is toast.
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    Casino_RoyaleCasino_Royale Posts: 55,412
    Interesting. According to The Times Theresa May will make a speech today for the EU striking a decidedly more sceptical tone and conceding remaining makes it harder to control migration.

    I wouldn't rule out a Gove/May play off in the finals.
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    IndigoIndigo Posts: 9,966
    edited April 2016

    Is the Boris banging the drum today about immigration the same Boris who wanted an amnesty for illegal immigrants last year?

    http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3264239/Let-long-term-illegals-stay-UK-says-Boris-London-mayor-believes-immigrants-12-years-granted-amnesty.html

    The two are not incompatible, one issue is about who you let into your country, the other is about what you do with people who are already in your country.

    Obama is of a similar opinion. Tightening the rules on who gets into the US and then looking at ways to get the people in the country that you have no realistic prospect of chucking out, into the workforce and paying taxes.

    http://www.wsj.com/articles/u-s-tightens-visa-waiver-rules-following-terror-attacks-1453405306

    http://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/21/us/obama-immigration-speech.html?_r=0

    The US has just recently tightened rules on H1 and L1 visas as well making them harder to get.
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    david_herdsondavid_herdson Posts: 17,419
    Sandpit said:

    Morning all, a good article (as was the last, by Alistair). Leave need to get on top of the narrative, and probably need to change the faces around this week. More of Gove and Hannan at this stage would be welcome, rather than the blustery Boris. Hannan in particular has a very well reasoned line on democracy and accountability, how we can't control the various European courts and can't kick out politicians we don't like - he even welcomes his own P45 as he's an MEP.

    Reforming the UK's election system so that voters can give Hannan the boot would be a simple matter. Just reform the system used for the EP to STV or some kind of open list.

    But arguing for the abolition of the EP and at the same time complaining that we "can't kick out politicians we don't like" is contradictory. In a sense it's true - how do you get rid of a bad Commission - but the only realistic remedies involve the EP. Hannan is meeting himself coming backwards.
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    blackburn63blackburn63 Posts: 4,492
    Incidentally I notice that 1 or 2 of Cameron's fanboys are very quiet lately. Are they away, do they consider things to be in the bag or are they biting their nails on the sofa?
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    Plato_SaysPlato_Says Posts: 11,822
    edited April 2016
    I thought this was much more interesting myself http://www.bloomberg.com/politics/articles/2016-04-25/cruz-and-kasich-cut-deal-to-try-and-stop-trump
    "Due to the fact that the Indiana primary is winner-take-all statewide and by congressional district, keeping Trump from winning a plurality in Indiana is critical to keeping him under 1,237 bound delegates before Cleveland," Weaver said. "We are very comfortable with our delegate position in Indiana already, and given the current dynamics of the primary there, we will shift our campaign’s resources west and give the Cruz campaign a clear path in Indiana."

    Weaver said Kasich would instead focus resources on Oregon and New Mexico, which hold their respective primaries on May 17 and June 7. "We would expect independent, third-party groups to do the same and honor the commitments made by the Cruz and Kasich campaigns," he said. Trump responded to the announcement on Twitter late on Sunday, branding Cruz and Kasich "totally desperate."
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    AlastairMeeksAlastairMeeks Posts: 30,340
    A few points on topic:

    1) we don't yet know how the public has reacted to Barack Obama's intervention. It was high risk. It may have persuaded some, it may have annoyed others.

    2) the Leave camp has completely lost its head about this. Day 4 of the Obamadrama and Boris Johnson is still digging that hole for himself. The erratic response from various Leave campaigners has probably done far more damage to their cause than anything the president said.

    3) Many Leavers are immune to reasoned argument. Unlike both the Lib Dems and Ed Miliband, there is a hardened cohort who will never give up the fight. They aren't going to go away and even if they lose comprehensively, they will delude themselves that it was an unjust defeat. They will regroup and seek to wreak havoc in different ways.
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    IndigoIndigo Posts: 9,966
    edited April 2016

    In a sense it's true - how do you get rid of a bad Commission - but the only realistic remedies involve the EP. Hannan is meeting himself coming backwards.

    Given the power the commissioners have, they should be directly elected not appointments for party place men and political failures. There is no chance the public would have put Kinnock or Baroness Ashton in those jobs... or come to that Ken Clarke's and John Major's old bag carrier Lord Hill, supposedly our man to keep an eye on Brussels, excuse me while I die laughing.
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    Casino_RoyaleCasino_Royale Posts: 55,412
    Indigo said:

    There's a long way to go. Voters are generally Eurosceptic. Leave have two linked, very strong, easy to understand arguments in their favour: sovereignty and immigration. They should start making them. They are not going to win on economics. However, Boris and Farage's comments on Obama essentially being an uppity African may have made the immigration card harder to play dispassionately

    True, although playing those two cards for eight weeks is probably going to do more harm than good. There is a feeling in some circles that Remain have played their strongest cards too early when not enough people are listening, and risk some of their better points becoming old hat before the day. With only a few arguments, even if strong ones, Leave are going to be keen not to do that.
    I think both TSE and Alastair make good points: Remain is slick, professional, experienced, well-resourced and well-organised. They clearly have a grid for the next 8 weeks where they will progressively attack any aspect of Europe that has even a tangentially positive impact on people's lives in the UK as being under threat. They will also continue to wheel out endorsements and warnings. None of this should have come to any surprise to Leave, although they were obviously shocked.

    However, they are not superhuman. They can't spend £9.3m on another HMG leaflet nor wheel out Obama for a 2nd time - they have played those cards - and spending limits have kicked in, with purdah from the end of May.

    The key thing is how the debate is framed and, on that, Leave simply have to get on top if they want to have a chance.
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    CarlottaVanceCarlottaVance Posts: 59,777

    There's a long way to go. Voters are generally Eurosceptic. Leave have two linked, very strong, easy to understand arguments in their favour: sovereignty and immigration. They should start making them. They are not going to win on economics. However, Boris and Farage's comments on Obama essentially being an uppity African may have made the immigration card harder to play dispassionately.

    On a related note, what this first week has shown is just how unsuited to major office Boris is. The Tories would be mad to choose him as Dave's replacement. But they are going through a sustained period of madness right now.

    Leave's problem is that they've a campaign packed full of political obsessives, and obsessives are often poor judges as to what the salient points of a political campaign are, and how best to make them. It could well be a big enough problem to cost them the vote.
    You'd never guess from (some of) the LEAVErs on here.....
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    dugarbandierdugarbandier Posts: 2,596

    Did you read his piece? Or is this insta-rebuttal handwaving?

    Excellent piece by Boris in Telegraph - it reads like a speech, I hope he delivers it.

    http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/04/24/do-bremainers-really-think-voters-will-be-cowed-by-the-likes-of/

    Regarding the Kenyan thing a few are so keen to fusspot over - Brendan O'Neill doesn't agree. https://www.facebook.com/brendan.oneill.79?fref=nf

    tbf Brendan O'Neill's default position on any issue is to not agree
    no, I've given up reading his pieces, because he is a professional contrarian, and adjusts arguments/justifications accordingly. debating club nonsense.

    I've not interest in rebutting anything, open-minded on EU. I don't live there anymore after all. I will have a postal vote I think, but I may not use it.
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    CarlottaVanceCarlottaVance Posts: 59,777

    Interesting. According to The Times Theresa May will make a speech today for the EU striking a decidedly more sceptical tone and conceding remaining makes it harder to control migration.

    I also noticed that.....a little bit of triangulation going on from Mrs May......?
  • Options
    SandpitSandpit Posts: 49,914
    edited April 2016

    Sandpit said:

    Morning all, a good article (as was the last, by Alistair). Leave need to get on top of the narrative, and probably need to change the faces around this week. More of Gove and Hannan at this stage would be welcome, rather than the blustery Boris. Hannan in particular has a very well reasoned line on democracy and accountability, how we can't control the various European courts and can't kick out politicians we don't like - he even welcomes his own P45 as he's an MEP.

    Reforming the UK's election system so that voters can give Hannan the boot would be a simple matter. Just reform the system used for the EP to STV or some kind of open list.

    But arguing for the abolition of the EP and at the same time complaining that we "can't kick out politicians we don't like" is contradictory. In a sense it's true - how do you get rid of a bad Commission - but the only realistic remedies involve the EP. Hannan is meeting himself coming backwards.
    His argument is that if we leave the EU he will lose his job as a British MEP, rather than abolition of the Parliamen itself. He would rather see a stronger voice for the elected Parliament than the unelected Commissioners.

    Of course as #1 on the South of Englasd Tory list there's no other way of kicking Dan Hannan out, which is why party lists are a bad idea.
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    DavidLDavidL Posts: 51,332

    Excellent piece by Boris in Telegraph - it reads like a speech, I hope he delivers it.

    http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/04/24/do-bremainers-really-think-voters-will-be-cowed-by-the-likes-of/

    Regarding the Kenyan thing a few are so keen to fusspot over - Brendan O'Neill doesn't agree. https://www.facebook.com/brendan.oneill.79?fref=nf

    The key point of Boris' piece is the point I have been going on about. Leave must get the message out that remain is not a vote for the status quo but for closer union.

    Leave had a truly spectacularly bad first week and I don't agree with those who claim that they should hold back on their best cards. Unless they seize the lead now and get some control of the framing of the debate any such aces will end up being discarded against the wrong suit whilst remain clear up.

    Cameron and Osborne are masters at framing the debate, especially the economic debate. Once they have done that individual mistakes and faux pas really don't matter because people reach their own inevitable conclusions. Leave has very little time left to get in the game.
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    Plato_SaysPlato_Says Posts: 11,822
    edited April 2016
    Gove goes bread and butter - the HMT 3m more immigrants was a total gift.
    Writing in The Times, Mr Gove said: 'The EU response to the migration crisis is a Five Nations free-for-all with an invitation to Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia, Albania and Turkey to join the Union.

    'Because we cannot control our borders - and because our deal sadly does nothing to change this fact - public services such as the NHS will face an unquantifiable strain as millions more become EU citizens and have the right to move to the UK. We cannot guarantee the same access people currently enjoy to healthcare and housing if these trends continue.'

    'There is a direct and serious threat to our public services, standard of living and ability to maintain social solidarity if we accept continued EU membership.'

    http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3556924/Gove-warns-migration-free-Britain-votes-stay-EU-expansion-hand-millions-five-nations-including-Turkey-right-freely-UK.html#ixzz46oiTsakD
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    Casino_RoyaleCasino_Royale Posts: 55,412

    There's a long way to go. Voters are generally Eurosceptic. Leave have two linked, very strong, easy to understand arguments in their favour: sovereignty and immigration. They should start making them. They are not going to win on economics. However, Boris and Farage's comments on Obama essentially being an uppity African may have made the immigration card harder to play dispassionately.

    On a related note, what this first week has shown is just how unsuited to major office Boris is. The Tories would be mad to choose him as Dave's replacement. But they are going through a sustained period of madness right now.

    Actually, economics is precisely where Leave should target. They have immigration and sovereignty in the bag and only need to wheel those out every now and again. If I were Leave, I'd be majoring on the annual membership fee - it's easy to understand and hard to counter.

    That would really be the link to the AV referendum. For all that Cameron gave his backing to No2AV, which campaigned in part on the Lib Dems' broken promises - an apparent price of coalition politics (though really a bed the Lib Dems made for themselves in the expectation of not having that bluff called), the real winning argument of that campaign was 'one person, one vote'. Arguably, that was not entirely justified by the facts either (AV only gives people one vote too), but there you're getting into detail and explanation and if you're there, you're losing.

    So I agree with you and Mike that Leave have messed it up mightily getting so worked up about Obama - because they're now having to explain the detail of why they're not anti-African racists, which is not the sort of detail you want to be campaigning on. On top of that, it's destroying public trust in their judgement, which in a debate where so much is assertion based on prediction, is extremely damaging.

    Leave's problem is that they've a campaign packed full of political obsessives, and obsessives are often poor judges as to what the salient points of a political campaign are, and how best to make them. It could well be a big enough problem to cost them the vote.
    Hard to disagree with any of this.

    Personally, I think Leave should turn comparisons with rich, happy countries like Norway, Switzerland and Canada into an asset and go for bread & butter issues like lower food and house prices, better public finances and higher wages.
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    IndigoIndigo Posts: 9,966

    A few points on topic:

    ... various points about leave being a disaster...

    Yes yes. Leave are a complete disaster... and more or less equal in the polls. Which is a pretty clear indicator that if the campaigns were equally competent they would be comfortably ahead.. so much for Leave being a minority view.
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    Casino_RoyaleCasino_Royale Posts: 55,412

    Interesting. According to The Times Theresa May will make a speech today for the EU striking a decidedly more sceptical tone and conceding remaining makes it harder to control migration.

    I also noticed that.....a little bit of triangulation going on from Mrs May......?
    Oh yes. She plays by her own rules.
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    AlastairMeeksAlastairMeeks Posts: 30,340
    Indigo said:

    A few points on topic:

    ... various points about leave being a disaster...

    Yes yes. Leave are a complete disaster... and more or less equal in the polls. Which is a pretty clear indicator that if the campaigns were equally competent they would be comfortably ahead.. so much for Leave being a minority view.
    I wasn't expecting you to get to the end but I hoped you might have got as far as point 1.
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    DavidLDavidL Posts: 51,332

    Interesting. According to The Times Theresa May will make a speech today for the EU striking a decidedly more sceptical tone and conceding remaining makes it harder to control migration.

    I also noticed that.....a little bit of triangulation going on from Mrs May......?
    Doubt it. It is more likely an argument that further reform is still possible and indeed necessary within the EU. Remain will not want the idea that future developments within the EU are unlikely to be to our advantage to get traction.
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    CarlottaVanceCarlottaVance Posts: 59,777

    At the risk of repeating myself.....It's not as though Obama has never intervened in a UK referendum before - he did, under two years ago. And Salmond delivered a master class in 'shutting it down as an issue'.

    'Thank you for your perspective Mr President, but fear not, if (Scotland becomes independent/Britain leaves the EU) the US will still have a reliable friend and ally in (Scotland / the UK). What this illustrates is the panic in the (Better Together/Remain Campaign) and their failure to persuade the voters.

    Of course Salmond had a pop at Cameron too, which LEAVE could get a Labour LEAVEr to do, if Boris is only happy attacking 'half-Kenyans'.....

    Instead we've had the invective aimed at Obama.......'lame duck, blackmail, irrelevant, meaningless, weird.....heck, when Nigel says you've gone too far, surely its time to listen?

    If you promise a quick, beneficial trade deal with the US post-Brexit, don't be surprised if the President of the US gives a view on how likely that is. The Leave side invited Obama's intervention. It's that simple.

    Yes he gave a view alright, he lied. He said a deal with us would take ten years when the one with Australia took ten months.
    Sorry, HMS Anglosphere, but the Australia trade deal (first mooted 1945) is a red herring - the US was not simultaneously negotiating with a neighbouring block seven times Australia's size.....which is the position the UK would be in......

    Oh, and New Zealand's been trying to get a trade deal with the US since 2003.......13 years, and counting.....
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    SandpitSandpit Posts: 49,914
    edited April 2016

    Interesting. According to The Times Theresa May will make a speech today for the EU striking a decidedly more sceptical tone and conceding remaining makes it harder to control migration.

    I wouldn't rule out a Gove/May play off in the finals.

    Which is why at 8/1 they are both value. Much better value than the two favourites, who are inexplicably both still the favourites after loads of shocking headlines for the pair of them.

    To me May should be the slight favourite at this stage, she'll be pragmatic rather than fervent in the EU debate, is the grandee who can try and clear up the party's mess after the referendum.
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    IndigoIndigo Posts: 9,966

    Indigo said:

    A few points on topic:

    ... various points about leave being a disaster...

    Yes yes. Leave are a complete disaster... and more or less equal in the polls. Which is a pretty clear indicator that if the campaigns were equally competent they would be comfortably ahead.. so much for Leave being a minority view.
    I wasn't expecting you to get to the end but I hoped you might have got as far as point 1.
    I did. Is Obama the only issue that Remain are campaigning on ? Surely others of their many and varied points should have cut through by now ?
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    dugarbandierdugarbandier Posts: 2,596


    3) Many Leavers are immune to reasoned argument. Unlike both the Lib Dems and Ed Miliband, there is a hardened cohort who will never give up the fight. They aren't going to go away and even if they lose comprehensively, they will delude themselves that it was an unjust defeat. They will regroup and seek to wreak havoc in different ways.

    Well, unfair in the sense that Cameron is not repsecting the Marquis of Queensbury, as Mike point out in the thread.

    Doesn't bode well for the Conservatives after the presumed win, does it? "Total destruction of Dave's opponents" = total destruction of a good party of his party?
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    IndigoIndigo Posts: 9,966

    At the risk of repeating myself.....It's not as though Obama has never intervened in a UK referendum before - he did, under two years ago. And Salmond delivered a master class in 'shutting it down as an issue'.

    'Thank you for your perspective Mr President, but fear not, if (Scotland becomes independent/Britain leaves the EU) the US will still have a reliable friend and ally in (Scotland / the UK). What this illustrates is the panic in the (Better Together/Remain Campaign) and their failure to persuade the voters.

    Of course Salmond had a pop at Cameron too, which LEAVE could get a Labour LEAVEr to do, if Boris is only happy attacking 'half-Kenyans'.....

    Instead we've had the invective aimed at Obama.......'lame duck, blackmail, irrelevant, meaningless, weird.....heck, when Nigel says you've gone too far, surely its time to listen?

    If you promise a quick, beneficial trade deal with the US post-Brexit, don't be surprised if the President of the US gives a view on how likely that is. The Leave side invited Obama's intervention. It's that simple.

    Yes he gave a view alright, he lied. He said a deal with us would take ten years when the one with Australia took ten months.
    Sorry, HMS Anglosphere, but the Australia trade deal (first mooted 1945) is a red herring - the US was not simultaneously negotiating with a neighbouring block seven times Australia's size.....which is the position the UK would be in......

    Oh, and New Zealand's been trying to get a trade deal with the US since 2003.......13 years, and counting.....
    About which you know nothing of the circumstances, so stop the handwaving.

    The USA has free trade agreements with 20 countries, the bulk of which were signed between 2000-2010, does rather suggest they are capable of negotiating more than one agreement at once.

    Also they signed TTP this year, which means they have been negotiating both TTP and TTIP, they two biggest deals at the same time for most of the last decade. The idea that the US Department of Trade can't walk and chew gum at the same time seems a little threadbare.
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    AlastairMeeksAlastairMeeks Posts: 30,340
    Indigo said:

    Indigo said:

    A few points on topic:

    ... various points about leave being a disaster...

    Yes yes. Leave are a complete disaster... and more or less equal in the polls. Which is a pretty clear indicator that if the campaigns were equally competent they would be comfortably ahead.. so much for Leave being a minority view.
    I wasn't expecting you to get to the end but I hoped you might have got as far as point 1.
    I did. Is Obama the only issue that Remain are campaigning on ? Surely others of their many and varied points should have cut through by now ?
    Right now Remain are setting the agenda, majoring on economic risk. But we don't yet know how the agenda-setting is going down. Straws in the wind suggest that it has been mildly positive for Remain. But attitudes are entrenched.

    Right now Leave look in chaos. Their best hope is that entrenched attitudes on their side mean that they remain competitive. But getting embroiled in an argument about dogwhistling on race with the president of the USA is not a good look. And it doesn't answer the economic risk point at all, so Remain's claims are going unanswered while Boris Johnson defends his words and even Nigel Farage is distancing himself from him.

    But we urgently need some fresh polling.
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    AlastairMeeksAlastairMeeks Posts: 30,340


    3) Many Leavers are immune to reasoned argument. Unlike both the Lib Dems and Ed Miliband, there is a hardened cohort who will never give up the fight. They aren't going to go away and even if they lose comprehensively, they will delude themselves that it was an unjust defeat. They will regroup and seek to wreak havoc in different ways.

    Well, unfair in the sense that Cameron is not repsecting the Marquis of Queensbury, as Mike point out in the thread.

    Doesn't bode well for the Conservatives after the presumed win, does it? "Total destruction of Dave's opponents" = total destruction of a good party of his party?
    See the previous thread...
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    Plato_SaysPlato_Says Posts: 11,822
    And we don't need a trade deal to trade either - what we do need to do is not be hamstrung by the EU from negotiating one, if it suits us bilaterally.

    This really is a red herring. The billions traded with the USA already make us one of their largest partners.

    This is a great chart.

    https://twitter.com/paul1kirby/status/724155873363410944

    At the risk of repeating myself.....It's not as though Obama has never intervened in a UK referendum before - he did, under two years ago. And Salmond delivered a master class in 'shutting it down as an issue'.

    'Thank you for your perspective Mr President, but fear not, if (Scotland becomes independent/Britain leaves the EU) the US will still have a reliable friend and ally in (Scotland / the UK). What this illustrates is the panic in the (Better Together/Remain Campaign) and their failure to persuade the voters.

    Of course Salmond had a pop at Cameron too, which LEAVE could get a Labour LEAVEr to do, if Boris is only happy attacking 'half-Kenyans'.....

    Instead we've had the invective aimed at Obama.......'lame duck, blackmail, irrelevant, meaningless, weird.....heck, when Nigel says you've gone too far, surely its time to listen?

    If you promise a quick, beneficial trade deal with the US post-Brexit, don't be surprised if the President of the US gives a view on how likely that is. The Leave side invited Obama's intervention. It's that simple.

    Yes he gave a view alright, he lied. He said a deal with us would take ten years when the one with Australia took ten months.
    Sorry, HMS Anglosphere, but the Australia trade deal (first mooted 1945) is a red herring - the US was not simultaneously negotiating with a neighbouring block seven times Australia's size.....which is the position the UK would be in......

    Oh, and New Zealand's been trying to get a trade deal with the US since 2003.......13 years, and counting.....
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    IndigoIndigo Posts: 9,966

    3) Many Leavers are immune to reasoned argument. Unlike both the Lib Dems and Ed Miliband, there is a hardened cohort who will never give up the fight. They aren't going to go away and even if they lose comprehensively, they will delude themselves that it was an unjust defeat. They will regroup and seek to wreak havoc in different ways.

    Well these sort of comments are certainly going to be ones to savour slowly if the EU Ref polling turns out to be as good as the Austrian presidential polls, I suspect I could detect your cry of despair all the way from here if the great unwashed fail to follow the lead of their betters in the metropolitan elite.
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    AlanbrookeAlanbrooke Posts: 23,758
    So post EUref, what's he going to do with a badly split party.

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    runnymederunnymede Posts: 2,536


    3) Many Leavers are immune to reasoned argument. Unlike both the Lib Dems and Ed Miliband, there is a hardened cohort who will never give up the fight. They aren't going to go away and even if they lose comprehensively, they will delude themselves that it was an unjust defeat. They will regroup and seek to wreak havoc in different ways.

    Well, unfair in the sense that Cameron is not repsecting the Marquis of Queensbury, as Mike point out in the thread.

    Doesn't bode well for the Conservatives after the presumed win, does it? "Total destruction of Dave's opponents" = total destruction of a good party of his party?
    Yes, perhaps Mike shouldn't have been so upset after the GE. It looks increasingly like the Lib Dems have engineered a reverse takeover of the Conservatives.
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    dugarbandierdugarbandier Posts: 2,596


    3) Many Leavers are immune to reasoned argument. Unlike both the Lib Dems and Ed Miliband, there is a hardened cohort who will never give up the fight. They aren't going to go away and even if they lose comprehensively, they will delude themselves that it was an unjust defeat. They will regroup and seek to wreak havoc in different ways.

    Well, unfair in the sense that Cameron is not repsecting the Marquis of Queensbury, as Mike point out in the thread.

    Doesn't bode well for the Conservatives after the presumed win, does it? "Total destruction of Dave's opponents" = total destruction of a good party of his party?
    See the previous thread...
    indeed, but actually I was thinking more of the party at large in the shires, rather than the parliamentary lot
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    Richard_TyndallRichard_Tyndall Posts: 30,969

    At the risk of repeating myself.....It's not as though Obama has never intervened in a UK referendum before - he did, under two years ago. And Salmond delivered a master class in 'shutting it down as an issue'.

    'Thank you for your perspective Mr President, but fear not, if (Scotland becomes independent/Britain leaves the EU) the US will still have a reliable friend and ally in (Scotland / the UK). What this illustrates is the panic in the (Better Together/Remain Campaign) and their failure to persuade the voters.

    Of course Salmond had a pop at Cameron too, which LEAVE could get a Labour LEAVEr to do, if Boris is only happy attacking 'half-Kenyans'.....

    Instead we've had the invective aimed at Obama.......'lame duck, blackmail, irrelevant, meaningless, weird.....heck, when Nigel says you've gone too far, surely its time to listen?

    If you promise a quick, beneficial trade deal with the US post-Brexit, don't be surprised if the President of the US gives a view on how likely that is. The Leave side invited Obama's intervention. It's that simple.

    Yes he gave a view alright, he lied. He said a deal with us would take ten years when the one with Australia took ten months.
    Sorry, HMS Anglosphere, but the Australia trade deal (first mooted 1945) is a red herring - the US was not simultaneously negotiating with a neighbouring block seven times Australia's size.....which is the position the UK would be in......

    Oh, and New Zealand's been trying to get a trade deal with the US since 2003.......13 years, and counting.....
    LOL. I do love Carlotta's desperate attempts to write off anything that doesn't agree with the Eurofanatic narrative.
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    foxinsoxukfoxinsoxuk Posts: 23,548
    edited April 2016
    Indigo said:

    At the risk of repeating myself.....It's not as though Obama has never intervened in a UK referendum before - he did, under two years ago. And Salmond delivered a master class in 'shutting it down as an issue'.

    'Thank you for your perspective Mr President, but fear not, if (Scotland becomes independent/Britain leaves the EU) the US will still have a reliable friend and ally in (Scotland / the UK). What this illustrates is the panic in the (Better Together/Remain Campaign) and their failure to persuade the voters.

    Of course Salmond had a pop at Cameron too, which LEAVE could get a Labour LEAVEr to do, if Boris is only happy attacking 'half-Kenyans'.....

    Instead we've had the invective aimed at Obama.......'lame duck, blackmail, irrelevant, meaningless, weird.....heck, when Nigel says you've gone too far, surely its time to listen?

    If you promise a quick, beneficial trade deal with the US post-Brexit, don't be surprised if the President of the US gives a view on how likely that is. The Leave side invited Obama's intervention. It's that simple.

    Yes he gave a view alright, he lied. He said a deal with us would take ten years when the one with Australia took ten months.
    Sorry, HMS Anglosphere, but the Australia trade deal (first mooted 1945) is a red herring - the US was not simultaneously negotiating with a neighbouring block seven times Australia's size.....which is the position the UK would be in......

    Oh, and New Zealand's been trying to get a trade deal with the US since 2003.......13 years, and counting.....
    About which you know nothing of the circumstances, so stop the handwaving.

    The USA has free trade agreements with 20 countries, the bulk of which were signed between 2000-2010, does rather suggest they are capable of negotiating more than one agreement at once.

    Also they signed TTP this year, which means they have been negotiating both TTP and TTIP, they two biggest deals at the same time for most of the last decade. The idea that the US Department of Trade can't walk and chew gum at the same time seems a little threadbare.
    Remain has framed this well. The £4300 poorer figure drew the response "it will not be as much as that"*

    Similarly the Obamadrama gets the response "a trade deal may only take a couple of years"

    Leave will do well on immigration as an issue, but risk losing all other arguments, as well as ruling out EEA/EFTA as an option.

    * interesting discussion with my sib who used to work in economic forecasting last night, he thinks the Treasury report significantly underestimates the cost of Brexit.
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    IndigoIndigo Posts: 9,966
    runnymede said:

    Yes, perhaps Mike shouldn't have been so upset after the GE. It looks increasingly like the Lib Dems have engineered a reverse takeover of the Conservatives.

    We get the government we deserve. The public seems to have a taste for illiberal statists at the moment, it's the last despairing hope that someone can find a few more quid on the magic money tree to continue paying for the lifestyles we are not earning....
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    Plato_SaysPlato_Says Posts: 11,822
    Good stuff from Janet Daley too - http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/04/23/why-should-we-take-advice-from-a-president-who-has-surrendered-t/
    When this referendum began, what seems an eternity ago, I was unsure how I would vote. Membership of the EU on a day-to-day basis is pretty much all gain for me, because I am an affluent professional who benefits from the supply of inexpensive domestic help, willing tradesmen and convenient travel that the EU provides. Unlike those whose wages are being undercut by cheap imported labour, or who cannot afford to buy their own homes because of the pressure on housing from unlimited immigration, I have lost nothing.

    But I believe in democratic legitimacy, which means paying attention to people who do not have my advantages. So should I go for self-interest, or for political principle? Watching this campaign, with its unscrupulous attempts to bully and terrorise a brave and conscientious electorate, has made up my mind. I shall be voting for Leave.
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    As he's not busy playing golf with his Special Relationship, it would be nice if Cameron could spend some time doing what many of us elected him to do. Run the country.

    His precious NHS has ground to a halt again - perhaps he could find the time to deal with that?
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    dugarbandierdugarbandier Posts: 2,596
    runnymede said:


    3) Many Leavers are immune to reasoned argument. Unlike both the Lib Dems and Ed Miliband, there is a hardened cohort who will never give up the fight. They aren't going to go away and even if they lose comprehensively, they will delude themselves that it was an unjust defeat. They will regroup and seek to wreak havoc in different ways.

    Well, unfair in the sense that Cameron is not repsecting the Marquis of Queensbury, as Mike point out in the thread.

    Doesn't bode well for the Conservatives after the presumed win, does it? "Total destruction of Dave's opponents" = total destruction of a good party of his party?
    Yes, perhaps Mike shouldn't have been so upset after the GE. It looks increasingly like the Lib Dems have engineered a reverse takeover of the Conservatives.
    well, it certainly seems as if something is afoot. the current de facto political groupings seem to be: old labour; new labour/old libdem (aka labour libdem switchers); orange booklibdem/cameroons; leave cons-Hannan faction; anti immigration leavers

    How that resolves itself who knows? (or maybe the status-ish quo will prevail)
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    So post EUref, what's he going to do with a badly split party.

    Leave it to someone else.

    2020's going to be interesting, particularly as the Tories are rapidly running out of friends with whom they can hope to form a coalition.
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    AlistairAlistair Posts: 23,670

    Interesting. According to The Times Theresa May will make a speech today for the EU striking a decidedly more sceptical tone and conceding remaining makes it harder to control migration.

    I also noticed that.....a little bit of triangulation going on from Mrs May......?
    Executing the classic political strategy of attempting to both have cake yet consume cake at the same time.
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    IndigoIndigo Posts: 9,966

    * interesting discussion with my sib who used to work in economic forecasting last night, he thinks the Treasury report significantly underestimates the cost of Brexit.

    Other economists rather less convinced
    http://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2016/04/23/a-pro-eu-study-straight-from-the-ministry-of-truth/
    Unusually for a newspaper pundit, perhaps, I’m a trained economist. And in all my many years of studying official economic documents – budgets, comprehensive spending reviews and the like – through all that sifting and weighing of fine-print, I’ve never come across methodology and assumptions so blatantly rigged.
    But economists are like lawyers. If you ask two of them what they think, you will get three opinions.
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    Clearly David Cameron has decided 'Eurosceptics/Eurosceptism delenda est'
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    IndigoIndigo Posts: 9,966
    edited April 2016

    Clearly David Cameron has decided 'Eurosceptics/Eurosceptism delenda est'

    Good luck with that. It destroyed Fatcha and Major. She was 10 times the PM he is.
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    dugarbandierdugarbandier Posts: 2,596
    Alistair said:

    Interesting. According to The Times Theresa May will make a speech today for the EU striking a decidedly more sceptical tone and conceding remaining makes it harder to control migration.

    I also noticed that.....a little bit of triangulation going on from Mrs May......?
    Executing the classic political strategy of attempting to both have cake yet consume cake at the same time.
    Boris has eaten the cake
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    Sean_FSean_F Posts: 35,851

    Clearly David Cameron has decided 'Eurosceptics/Eurosceptism delenda est'

    Or destroying the Conservative Party in order to save it.

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    Sean_FSean_F Posts: 35,851

    So post EUref, what's he going to do with a badly split party.

    That will be someone else's problem.
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    LayneLayne Posts: 163
    Alastair Meeks claims that Leave are being "deluded" about the fairness of this referendum are comprehensively undermined by the Electoral Commission agreeing with them. I know his warped world view and his swivel-eyed hatred of Leave can not concede any argument to them, but the facts speak for themselves. Remain are free to do blanket ads on Twitter and YouTube because they have already had a massive leaflet drop from public funds. If you want this result to be fair, follow Jeremy Corbyn's advice and give Leave £9m to do a leaflet drop to even the scales.
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    CD13CD13 Posts: 6,351
    edited April 2016
    One of the advantages of being the establishment is that you set the agenda unless a black or very grey swan turns up. So they are using celebrity endorsements (being the establishment that is easy) and economists, who are to scientists what the Sudan is to cross country skiing. On that last point, I've never seen a growth forecast last longer than three months before being revised.

    I assume the GDP forecasts are per capita? But not only does it look like 1975, it is beginning to look like the Scottish referendum, A head vs heart battle that didn't go that well for the winners.
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    Sandpit said:

    I see the BBC has taken up Air Accident Investigation......who needs the Dutch Safety Board when a documentary maker and journalist are to hand?

    http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/mh17-been-downed-ukrainian-fighter-7826518

    http://www.onderzoeksraad.nl/en/onderzoek/2049/investigation-crash-mh17-17-july-2014

    It will be fascinating to learn how a Ukrainian fighter could have shredded the bodies of the Pilot, Co-Pilot and Chief Steward with BUK Shrapnel.....

    Why on Earth are the BBC pushing Putin's widely discredited line on this accident?

    The Dutch report is very clear on what happened, identifying the type of missile used and from which direction it came.

    https://www.bellingcat.com/news/2014/11/14/russian-state-television-shares-fake-images-of-mh17-being-attacked/
    Why are the BBC doing what they're doing? Because they're lefties.

    Patriots should demand that the Beeb is taken over by Murdoch and the Daily Mail. And if you're not prepared to torture Guardian readers to death you ain't no patriot.

    Seam Thomas is God!

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    IndigoIndigo Posts: 9,966

    Sandpit said:

    I see the BBC has taken up Air Accident Investigation......who needs the Dutch Safety Board when a documentary maker and journalist are to hand?

    http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/mh17-been-downed-ukrainian-fighter-7826518

    http://www.onderzoeksraad.nl/en/onderzoek/2049/investigation-crash-mh17-17-july-2014

    It will be fascinating to learn how a Ukrainian fighter could have shredded the bodies of the Pilot, Co-Pilot and Chief Steward with BUK Shrapnel.....

    Why on Earth are the BBC pushing Putin's widely discredited line on this accident?

    The Dutch report is very clear on what happened, identifying the type of missile used and from which direction it came.

    https://www.bellingcat.com/news/2014/11/14/russian-state-television-shares-fake-images-of-mh17-being-attacked/
    Why are the BBC doing what they're doing? Because they're lefties.

    Patriots should demand that the Beeb is taken over by Murdoch and the Daily Mail. And if you're not prepared to torture Guardian readers to death you ain't no patriot.

    Seam Thomas is God!

    Yawn.
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    SandpitSandpit Posts: 49,914
    Zac Goldsmith laying hard into Sadiq Khan in the DT, describing him as "Unfit" to be mayor.

    “And probably it’s fair to say we’re not winning, we’ve got great security services keeping us safe, but the problem is not shrinking, it’s growing. One of the things we need to do is isolate those people who have extremist views and come down upon them without making the rest of the community feeling isolated.

    “It’s very difficult but the one thing you don’t do is give platforms and oxygen and cover and excuses for people who are on the wrong side of the argument and that’s what he’s done consistently.”

    “If you want to be mayor of London you have got to show good judgement and I think he has consistently shown really bad judgement, whether that’s opportunism or something else but it is bad judgement and I think the idea that that extraordinary post should be held by someone who has so consistently wrong on this issue for so many years, is at the very least a legitimate question to ask.”


    http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/04/24/sadiq-khan-unfit-to-be-london-mayor-says-zac-goldsmith/
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    TonyETonyE Posts: 938
    The largest mistake I can see a the moment from the Leave camp is that in trying to find a campaign/slagan to hang their hat on, they have actually forgotten the main principle behind the desire to leave in the first place:

    Democracy

    While they went on £350m a week, they have underestimated the intelligence of much of the public, who can actually think for themselves and won't believe the first piece of propaganda which reinforces their view of the world. (While there is a degree of that kind of thinking, it is far from universal).

    The economic angle is not abut the desire to leave, it is purely a reinforcement - in that having an economically safe plan allows people to go to the booth and vote for that which they want, on the basis that their day to day life won't fall off a cliff. In reality, the only likely way out of the EU is slowly - via EEA/EFTA as the first stage - which is fiscally neutral for the foreseeable future, and if Vote Leave had not gone all Faragista on immigration, then they might have stood a realistic chance of making that point, thereby reducing much of the Government's spin operation to dust.
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    Casino_RoyaleCasino_Royale Posts: 55,412

    Indigo said:

    At the risk of repeating myself.....It's not as though Obama has never intervened in a UK referendum before - he did, under two years ago. And Salmond delivered a master class in 'shutting it down as an issue'.

    'Thank you for your perspective Mr President, but fear not, if (Scotland becomes independent/Britain leaves the EU) the US will still have a reliable friend and ally in (Scotland / the UK). What this illustrates is the panic in the (Better Together/Remain Campaign) and their failure to persuade the voters.

    Of course Salmond had a pop at Cameron too, which LEAVE could get a Labour LEAVEr to do, if Boris is only happy attacking 'half-Kenyans'.....

    Instead we've had the invective aimed at Obama.......'lame duck, blackmail, irrelevant, meaningless, weird.....heck, when Nigel says you've gone too far, surely its time to listen?

    If you promise a quick, beneficial trade deal with the US post-Brexit, don't be surprised if the President of the US gives a view on how likely that is. The Leave side invited Obama's intervention. It's that simple.

    Yes he gave a view alright, he lied. He said a deal with us would take ten years when the one with Australia took ten months.
    Sorr...
    About which you know nothing of the circumstances, so stop the handwaving.

    The USA has free trade agreements with 20 countries, the bulk of which were signed between 2000-2010, does rather suggest they are capable of negotiating more than one agreement at once.

    Also they signed TTP this year, which means they have been negotiating both TTP and TTIP, they two biggest deals at the same time for most of the last decade. The idea that the US Department of Trade can't walk and chew gum at the same time seems a little threadbare.
    Remain has framed this well. The £4300 poorer figure drew the response "it will not be as much as that"*

    Similarly the Obamadrama gets the response "a trade deal may only take a couple of years"

    Leave will do well on immigration as an issue, but risk losing all other arguments, as well as ruling out EEA/EFTA as an option.

    * interesting discussion with my sib who used to work in economic forecasting last night, he thinks the Treasury report significantly underestimates the cost of Brexit.
    And my europhile friend who works as a Director in Deutsche Bank says the Woodford Capital Economics report is by far the best out there and should be read by everyone.

    It says economic fears of Brexit are wildly overblown with effects more likely to be positive than negative in the long run.
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    Sean_FSean_F Posts: 35,851
    edited April 2016

    At the risk of repeating myself.....It's not as though Obama has never intervened in a UK referendum before - he did, under two years ago. And Salmond delivered a master class in 'shutting it down as an issue'.

    'Thank you for your perspective Mr President, but fear not, if (Scotland becomes independent/Britain leaves the EU) the US will still have a reliable friend and ally in (Scotland / the UK). What this illustrates is the panic in the (Better Together/Remain Campaign) and their failure to persuade the voters.

    Of course Salmond had a pop at Cameron too, which LEAVE could get a Labour LEAVEr to do, if Boris is only happy attacking 'half-Kenyans'.....

    Instead we've had the invective aimed at Obama.......'lame duck, blackmail, irrelevant, meaningless, weird.....heck, when Nigel says you've gone too far, surely its time to listen?

    If you promise a quick, beneficial trade deal with the US post-Brexit, don't be surprised if the President of the US gives a view on how likely that is. The Leave side invited Obama's intervention. It's that simple.

    Yes he gave a view alright, he lied. He said a deal with us would take ten years when the one with Australia took ten months.
    Sorry, HMS Anglosphere, but the Australia trade deal (first mooted 1945) is a red herring - the US was not simultaneously negotiating with a neighbouring block seven times Australia's size.....which is the position the UK would be in......

    Oh, and New Zealand's been trying to get a trade deal with the US since 2003.......13 years, and counting.....
    LOL. I do love Carlotta's desperate attempts to write off anything that doesn't agree with the Eurofanatic narrative.
    I'm guessing that trade takes place between the USA and New Zealand, already.
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    MarkHopkinsMarkHopkins Posts: 5,584

    I think many are angry with Obama because he can hypocritically stand there and tell Britain to be open to unlimited immigration, whilst the US has very very strict immigration criteria.

    The trade deal is a red herring, designed by No 10 to frighten voters, but in practice will not affect trade.

    Remain certainly have the initiative right now, and Leave need to work out their plan. Leave need a consistent counter-argument (eg to US trade) and deploy it every time asked - before moving the argument on to one of their own points.

    And they need to do it fast.

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    LondonBobLondonBob Posts: 467
    Sandpit said:

    I see the BBC has taken up Air Accident Investigation......who needs the Dutch Safety Board when a documentary maker and journalist are to hand?

    http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/mh17-been-downed-ukrainian-fighter-7826518

    http://www.onderzoeksraad.nl/en/onderzoek/2049/investigation-crash-mh17-17-july-2014

    It will be fascinating to learn how a Ukrainian fighter could have shredded the bodies of the Pilot, Co-Pilot and Chief Steward with BUK Shrapnel.....

    Why on Earth are the BBC pushing Putin's widely discredited line on this accident?

    The Dutch report is very clear on what happened, identifying the type of missile used and from which direction it came.

    https://www.bellingcat.com/news/2014/11/14/russian-state-television-shares-fake-images-of-mh17-being-attacked/
    Actually in a Dutch report released last October, the Netherlands’ Military Intelligence and Security Service (MIVD) reported that the only anti-aircraft weapons in eastern Ukraine capable of bringing down MH-17 at 33,000 feet belonged to the Ukrainian government.

    MIVD made that assessment in the context of explaining why commercial aircraft continued to fly over the eastern Ukrainian battle zone in summer 2014. MIVD said that based on “state secret” information, it was known that Ukraine possessed some older but “powerful anti-aircraft systems” and “a number of these systems were located in the eastern part of the country.”

    The intelligence agency added that the rebels lacked that capability: “Prior to the crash, the MIVD knew that, in addition to light aircraft artillery, the Separatists also possessed short-range portable air defence systems (man-portable air-defence systems; MANPADS) and that they possibly possessed short-range vehicle-borne air-defence systems. Both types of systems are considered surface-to-air missiles (SAMs). Due to their limited range they do not constitute a danger to civil aviation at cruising altitude.”

    http://english.ctivd.nl/documents/reports/2015/10/13/index

    https://consortiumnews.com/2016/03/16/the-ever-curiouser-mh-17-case/

    Presumably this is all part of some Putin conspiracy in your mind? Not sure quite how the fact the US continues to stonewall victims families on releasing the data and photos they claimed they had plays into that for you? Would love to hear though.
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    NickPalmerNickPalmer Posts: 21,350

    I thought this was much more interesting myself http://www.bloomberg.com/politics/articles/2016-04-25/cruz-and-kasich-cut-deal-to-try-and-stop-trump

    "Due to the fact that the Indiana primary is winner-take-all statewide and by congressional district, keeping Trump from winning a plurality in Indiana is critical to keeping him under 1,237 bound delegates before Cleveland," Weaver said. "We are very comfortable with our delegate position in Indiana already, and given the current dynamics of the primary there, we will shift our campaign’s resources west and give the Cruz campaign a clear path in Indiana."

    Weaver said Kasich would instead focus resources on Oregon and New Mexico, which hold their respective primaries on May 17 and June 7. "We would expect independent, third-party groups to do the same and honor the commitments made by the Cruz and Kasich campaigns," he said. Trump responded to the announcement on Twitter late on Sunday, branding Cruz and Kasich "totally desperate."
    I agree - this is really important news. It may be too late, but if they're working together it opens up the possibility of a Cruz-Kasich "unity ticket" which I can see having some appeal.
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    Scott_PScott_P Posts: 51,453

    There's a long way to go. Voters are generally Eurosceptic. Leave have two linked, very strong, easy to understand arguments in their favour: sovereignty and immigration.

    The sovereignty argument has been fatally wounded by Obama. "We will be free to negotiate our own trade deals" is the cry. "We need the cooperation of the people we just insulted" is the small print.

    Immigration is required for post-Brexit economic growth.

    So knowing that the "two linked, very strong, easy to understand arguments in their favour" are neither, Gove instead tries "8 WEEKS TO SAVE THE NHS!!!!"

    And we all know how well that works...
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    JohnOJohnO Posts: 4,215
    How many times does it have to be said? Following a comfortable Remain win, Cameron will move swiftly to conciliate the leading Tory leavers: Gove will get a big promotion, as will Patel and Raab and even Boris may get a nugget, though now unlikely in the Cabinet. The vast majority of those Conservative MPs supporting out will be propitiated: the likes of Peter Bone and Sir Bill Cash will keep banging on (and that's OK so long as they don't disrupt the government on other issues). And gradually, it will take a little time, the party will re-find its bearings.

    In the longer run, Gove vs May for the leadership looks the likeliest contest at present (but really who knows?). But it will not be a re-run of the referendum - it really won't.

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    Morris_DancerMorris_Dancer Posts: 60,989
    Good morning, everyone.

    Worth noting the onset of civil war as Rome's national sport did not enhance its longevity in the West.
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    Scott_PScott_P Posts: 51,453
    @Reuters: Odds move sharply towards Britain staying in EU cut after Obama warning https://t.co/AzThyvr8ei
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    SquareRootSquareRoot Posts: 7,095
    edited April 2016
    Indigo said:

    Clearly David Cameron has decided 'Eurosceptics/Eurosceptism delenda est'

    Good luck with that. It destroyed Fatcha and Major. She was 10 times the PM he is.
    Aaaah.. that old refrain!

    I think we get the PM's we need for the times we live in.(and we largely avoid the ones we oughtn't to have)(( Gordon Brown was a noted and disastrous exception )) Dave is cleverer than most give him credit for.... bile spills every time "LEAVE's toes are trodden on.
    The nastier LEAVE becomes , the more certain I am that REMAIN will win.
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    LondonBobLondonBob Posts: 467

    There's a long way to go. Voters are generally Eurosceptic. Leave have two linked, very strong, easy to understand arguments in their favour: sovereignty and immigration. They should start making them. They are not going to win on economics. However, Boris and Farage's comments on Obama essentially being an uppity African may have made the immigration card harder to play dispassionately.

    On a related note, what this first week has shown is just how unsuited to major office Boris is. The Tories would be mad to choose him as Dave's replacement. But they are going through a sustained period of madness right now.

    Actually, economics is precisely where Leave should target. They have immigration and sovereignty in the bag and only need to wheel those out every now and again. If I were Leave, I'd be majoring on the annual membership fee - it's easy to understand and hard to counter.

    That would really be the link to the AV referendum. For all that Cameron gave his backing to No2AV, which campaigned in part on the Lib Dems' broken promises - an apparent price of coalition politics (though really a bed the Lib Dems made for themselves in the expectation of not having that bluff called), the real winning argument of that campaign was 'one person, one vote'. Arguably, that was not entirely justified by the facts either (AV only gives people one vote too), but there you're getting into detail and explanation and if you're there, you're losing.

    So I agree with you and Mike that Leave have messed it up mightily getting so worked up about Obama - because they're now having to explain the detail of why they're not anti-African racists, which is not the sort of detail you want to be campaigning on. On top of that, it's destroying public trust in their judgement, which in a debate where so much is assertion based on prediction, is extremely damaging.

    Leave's problem is that they've a campaign packed full of political obsessives, and obsessives are often poor judges as to what the salient points of a political campaign are, and how best to make them. It could well be a big enough problem to cost them the vote.
    Agree with that. Wages, competition for jobs, housing and cost of living needs to be hammered home.

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    Sean_FSean_F Posts: 35,851
    Scott_P said:

    There's a long way to go. Voters are generally Eurosceptic. Leave have two linked, very strong, easy to understand arguments in their favour: sovereignty and immigration.

    The sovereignty argument has been fatally wounded by Obama. "We will be free to negotiate our own trade deals" is the cry. "We need the cooperation of the people we just insulted" is the small print.

    Immigration is required for post-Brexit economic growth.

    So knowing that the "two linked, very strong, easy to understand arguments in their favour" are neither, Gove instead tries "8 WEEKS TO SAVE THE NHS!!!!"

    And we all know how well that works...
    No, immigration and sovereignty are very strong points for Leave. Remain obviously should keep the debate away from these if they can.
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    Plato_SaysPlato_Says Posts: 11,822
    Gove's Times article - very well argued as usual. Reassuring, yet critical. http://www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/news/soviet-style-control-freaks-will-worsen-migration-free-for-all-m3rfb6vmb
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    another_richardanother_richard Posts: 25,101
    Indigo said:

    runnymede said:

    Yes, perhaps Mike shouldn't have been so upset after the GE. It looks increasingly like the Lib Dems have engineered a reverse takeover of the Conservatives.

    We get the government we deserve. The public seems to have a taste for illiberal statists at the moment, it's the last despairing hope that someone can find a few more quid on the magic money tree to continue paying for the lifestyles we are not earning....
    Leave and likewise Independence for Scotland were both 'stand on our own two feet' options.

    And that's not what a majority of people wish to do.

    The irony of becoming ever more hooked on the magic money tree is that it hides the power and wealth transfer from the average person to the 1%.

    Enjoy paying back Osborne's £172bn of overborrowing fellow PBers.
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    Scott_PScott_P Posts: 51,453
    edited April 2016
    Keep digging guys...

    @GuardianAnushka: IDS defending Boris on "part-Kenyan"- saying London mayor was pointing at reasons Obama might have lack of regard for the UK.

    @tnewtondunn: IDS: "You can't talk to Boris yourself". John Humphrys: "We'll actually we can't, because he won't come on the programme" #bbcr4today
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    I've no idea why anybody (except a politician) thinks that businesses need any 'help' from the govt. However difficult govts make it to trade, deals will still be done. It is daft to claim that the UK businesses will be stuck until govt ministers ride to the rescue with a trade deal.

    To see how silly it is, look at countries where there is a formal trade embago. They can still get whatever they want. Maybe not in the same quantities, and not at the same price. But any cursory inspection would inform you that that, in the real world, the price premium is actually very small.

    No businesses, much less well respcted UK firms, are dependent on govt-organised trade deals.
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    AlastairMeeksAlastairMeeks Posts: 30,340

    Good morning, everyone.

    Worth noting the onset of civil war as Rome's national sport did not enhance its longevity in the West.

    Playing devil's advocate, both England and the USA came out of their civil wars and then stepped up a gear. Even the Roman Empire survived centuries after it started indulging in intermittent civil wars.
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    RogerRoger Posts: 18,891
    Oliver Reid was employed to do a cinema commercial for Bacardi. Just before the shoot he got involved in a fight and spent the night in a Carribean jail.

    It was all over the British press and Bacardi fired him. They didn't fire him for being drunk. That was his persona. They fired him because the photo accompanying the story showed him lying on a sunlounger drinking a scotch and soda.

    Boris's credibility as a salesperson has been completely shot. Everyone knows he's a clown. No one knew he had no judgement. This referendum is all about which side the voters trust most. Boris has just reduced his celebrity endorsement value to zero.

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    AlastairMeeksAlastairMeeks Posts: 30,340
    I see Leave are moving the debate on:

    https://twitter.com/paulwaugh/status/724499008698208256
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    LondonBobLondonBob Posts: 467

    I thought this was much more interesting myself http://www.bloomberg.com/politics/articles/2016-04-25/cruz-and-kasich-cut-deal-to-try-and-stop-trump

    "Due to the fact that the Indiana primary is winner-take-all statewide and by congressional district, keeping Trump from winning a plurality in Indiana is critical to keeping him under 1,237 bound delegates before Cleveland," Weaver said. "We are very comfortable with our delegate position in Indiana already, and given the current dynamics of the primary there, we will shift our campaign’s resources west and give the Cruz campaign a clear path in Indiana."

    Weaver said Kasich would instead focus resources on Oregon and New Mexico, which hold their respective primaries on May 17 and June 7. "We would expect independent, third-party groups to do the same and honor the commitments made by the Cruz and Kasich campaigns," he said. Trump responded to the announcement on Twitter late on Sunday, branding Cruz and Kasich "totally desperate."
    I agree - this is really important news. It may be too late, but if they're working together it opens up the possibility of a Cruz-Kasich "unity ticket" which I can see having some appeal.

    Kasich has no money to campaign anyway. Cruz has seen his ratings tumble since the delegate shenanigans. Both will suffer if they are seen to collude in this manner with their Trump second choices likely to peel off. Given the polling in Indiana and California it is about the only card they have to play though.

    Kasich is on Trump's left, Cruz on his right. There is not much crossover and the NeverTrumps constitute only a small percentage who already switch.
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    timetrompettetimetrompette Posts: 111
    edited April 2016
    I see the great plan to turn all schools into Academies is falling apart, as Nicky Morgan U turns.

    'The significant departure from the plan announced by George Osborne in his budget speech last month will seek to appease up to 40 Tory rebels who risked defeating the Government's bid to make the change.'

    http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/04/25/academy-plan-u-turn-by-nicky-morgan-as-she-seeks-to-calm-tory-re/

    A taste of things to come.
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    IndigoIndigo Posts: 9,966

    Indigo said:

    Clearly David Cameron has decided 'Eurosceptics/Eurosceptism delenda est'

    Good luck with that. It destroyed Fatcha and Major. She was 10 times the PM he is.
    Aaaah.. that old refrain!

    I think we get the PM's we need for the times we live in.(and we largely avoid the ones we oughtn't to have)(( Gordon Brown was a noted and disastrous exception )) Dave is cleverer than most give him credit for.... bile spills every time "LEAVE's toes are trodden on.
    The nastier LEAVE becomes , the more certain I am that REMAIN will win.
    Shame there is no evidence for that in the polls, despite the undoubted superiority of remains campaign, and despite them having world leaders and hot and cold running economists on tap. Tsk.
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    CarlottaVanceCarlottaVance Posts: 59,777

    At the risk of repeating myself.....It's not as though Obama has never intervened in a UK referendum before - he did, under two years ago. And Salmond delivered a master class in 'shutting it down as an issue'.

    'Thank you for your perspective Mr President, but fear not, if (Scotland becomes independent/Britain leaves the EU) the US will still have a reliable friend and ally in (Scotland / the UK). What this illustrates is the panic in the (Better Together/Remain Campaign) and their failure to persuade the voters.

    Of course Salmond had a pop at Cameron too, which LEAVE could get a Labour LEAVEr to do, if Boris is only happy attacking 'half-Kenyans'.....

    Instead we've had the invective aimed at Obama.......'lame duck, blackmail, irrelevant, meaningless, weird.....heck, when Nigel says you've gone too far, surely its time to listen?

    If you promise a quick, beneficial trade deal with the US post-Brexit, don't be surprised if the President of the US gives a view on how likely that is. The Leave side invited Obama's intervention. It's that simple.

    Yes he gave a view alright, he lied. He said a deal with us would take ten years when the one with Australia took ten months.
    Sorry, HMS Anglosphere, but the Australia trade deal (first mooted 1945) is a red herring - the US was not simultaneously negotiating with a neighbouring block seven times Australia's size.....which is the position the UK would be in......

    Oh, and New Zealand's been trying to get a trade deal with the US since 2003.......13 years, and counting.....
    LOL. I do love Carlotta's desperate attempts to write off anything that doesn't agree with the Eurofanatic narrative.
    How's HMS Anglosphere, Captain Smith? So we can add "Eurofanatic" to the various descriptions LEAVErs are applying to Obama....
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    rottenboroughrottenborough Posts: 58,271

    I see the great plan to turn all schools into Academies is falling apart, as Nicky Morgan U turns.

    'The significant departure from the plan announced by George Osborne in his budget speech last month will seek to appease up to 40 Tory rebels who risked defeating the Government's bid to make the change.'

    http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/04/25/academy-plan-u-turn-by-nicky-morgan-as-she-seeks-to-calm-tory-re/

    A taste of things to come.

    Morning all,

    What a mess Morgan is making of her brief. And to think she was talking about running for the leadership. Cameron needs to reshuffle her out of the way as soon as EU result is in (if he's still there).
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    Plato_SaysPlato_Says Posts: 11,822
    And a good thing too. It was a crap plan. The whole point of fostering excellence driven by parental choice turned on it's head by central government diktat.

    I see the great plan to turn all schools into Academies is falling apart, as Nicky Morgan U turns.

    'The significant departure from the plan announced by George Osborne in his budget speech last month will seek to appease up to 40 Tory rebels who risked defeating the Government's bid to make the change.'

    http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/04/25/academy-plan-u-turn-by-nicky-morgan-as-she-seeks-to-calm-tory-re/

    A taste of things to come.

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    another_richardanother_richard Posts: 25,101

    I see the great plan to turn all schools into Academies is falling apart, as Nicky Morgan U turns.

    'The significant departure from the plan announced by George Osborne in his budget speech last month will seek to appease up to 40 Tory rebels who risked defeating the Government's bid to make the change.'

    http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/04/25/academy-plan-u-turn-by-nicky-morgan-as-she-seeks-to-calm-tory-re/

    A taste of things to come.

    Another Osborne disaster.
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    CarlottaVanceCarlottaVance Posts: 59,777
    Roger said:

    Oliver Reid was employed to do a cinema commercial for Bacardi. Just before the shoot he got involved in a fight and spent the night in a Carribean jail.

    It was all over the British press and Bacardi fired him. They didn't fire him for being drunk. That was his persona. They fired him because the photo accompanying the story showed him lying on a sunlounger drinking a scotch and soda.

    Boris's credibility as a salesperson has been completely shot. Everyone knows he's a clown. No one knew he had no judgement. This referendum is all about which side the voters trust most. Boris has just reduced his celebrity endorsement value to zero.

    I had a friend who was being headhunted by Guinness meet three of their execs at Heathrow for lunch. "Like a drink?" "Just half a lager" "Ok, that's half a lager and three halves of Guinness". Needless to say it went no further
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    LondonBobLondonBob Posts: 467
    Of course the US needs Britain in the EU because that is their main way to influence the EU. The other members it (ab)uses for influence hardly count (Poland, Baltics). Far too many in this country can be relied on to shamelessly parrot whatever the Americans tell them, whether it is Iraq, Syria or the Ukraine.
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    Scott_PScott_P Posts: 51,453
    @DPJHodges: Outters will begin to shift their line. You'll start seing articles claiming anything over 40% is a win for them and a defeat for Cameron.
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    Morris_DancerMorris_Dancer Posts: 60,989
    Mr. Meeks, that neglects the advantageous geographical position of the United States [coupled with European countries not exactly helping one another in the early 20th century], as well as the opening opportunities for empire after the civil war.

    Plus, they were both one-off wars. Rome was pitted into a state where it had civil wars at the start of the imperial period under Augustus, around 69AD [may have the year wrong] in the Year of the Four Emperors, was calm for about a century. But, (following Septimius Severus claimed the purple), when Alexander Severus was slain by Maximin there was a rash of civil warfare, with the empire itself splitting at one point.

    Without Aurelian's excellent leadership, Rome could've ended in the 3rd century, and the Dark Ages started two centuries early. Not to mention, Rome embarked, in the West, on an unstoppable downward spiral because its strength was consumed by infighting, its people had been enervated by luxury, and its enemies were growing stronger.

    The Conservative EU sceptics aren't going to go away. Either they win, or the war goes on. Cameron cares more about the EU than he does his party. The sceptics care more about leaving the EU than their party.
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    kle4kle4 Posts: 91,840
    The more time leave spend saying remain are being unfair is less time spent on putting forth strong counter arguments. The more time they spend justifying previous statements is less time for the new ones to be made and gain traction.
This discussion has been closed.