Cycling Related

Regulator wrote: ↑

4 years ago

I can send you some photos...

As if brexit wasn't bad enough.

This from newsthump

https://newsthump.com/2019/08/29/dissol ... ff-tarkin/

We’re at the rally in Cambridge:

My favourite poster today:

London. Have to say, not as many people as I would have hoped. Diane Abbott speech didn't quite hit the mark but some v good (supposedly) vox pop speeches.

In Brighton we had a women's singing circle marching along chanting "We are the Rees-Mogg Haters", and also a version of a creaky old Pink Floyd anthem:

We don't need no prorogation,
We don't need no thought control,
No dark sarcasm in the chamber,
Boris, leave our votes alone.
All in all, you're just another prick in Whitehall.

A small group of jeering EDF types were shouted down with "We are many, you are few", and shoved to one side by some burly police officers.

Rutabaga wrote: ↑

4 years ago

A small group of jeering EDF types were shouted down with "We are many, you are few", and shoved to one side by some burly police officers.

English Defence Fuckers or the electricity suppliers?

Sonic Budgie wrote: ↑

4 years ago

English Defence Fuckers or the electricity suppliers?

Ha ha, oops. Well, it wasn't a group of electricians as far as I could tell.

Likewise in Whitehall. Probably no more than 10 Leave skinheads/thugs, marshalled by at least 30 police, as they shouted a bit before ending up in a pub, still with more police attending them than anywhere else on the demo at that stage.

Am I being too harsh? There seemed to me to be a few thousand tops in London. I was disappointed that was all that were there given the gravity and the publicity. Seems like similar numbers elsewhere (albeit in quite a lot of separate places). I was worried that it would be perceived (and presented in the media) as a damp squib and vindication for Johnson getting away with it. But the media seem to be presenting it as significant protests?

JohnToo wrote: ↑

4 years ago

Am I being too harsh? There seemed to me to be a few thousand tops in London. I was disappointed that was all that were there given the gravity and the publicity. Seems like similar numbers elsewhere (albeit in quite a lot of separate places). I was worried that it would be perceived (and presented in the media) as a damp squib and vindication for Johnson getting away with it. But the media seem to be presenting it as significant protests?

Perhaps a little bit, it was pretty short notice. I expect they'll be more out for the march in October.

I need to apologise. I couldn't make it today. Life got in the way.

Overheard a snatch of conversation between two blokes this morning. One was vehemently likening Hong Kong to Brexit - they only let you have democracy when it suits them, as soon as it threatens their interests they shut it down. Trouble is, I honestly couldn't tell whether, in relation to Brexit, he was thinking of the non-implementation of the referendum or the proroguing of Parliament.

Well, one thing they have in they are both the fault of the British Government. I think HK would be a very different place now if it had a thriving democratically elected government in 1997.

Would some form of Citizen's Assembly help sort out the Brexit mess, and if so, would Justin Welby be a suitable person to facilitate it?

I suggest (and suggested at the time) that the referendum question was so open to multiple interpretations that, way before triggering Article 50, we should have held a Constitutional Convention or a Citizen's Assembly or something to work out what we actually wanted from the negotiations with Europe. But it's far too late now.

When national discussions of fraught issue need to be held outside the parliamentary process, they need to be led by someone educated, trained, used to working in a professional environment, familiar with the way power works. But that person also needs to have avoided (in both reality and perception) having become part of the establishment and needs to be seen to be in touch with the feeling of the communities affected. Those two requirements are almost mutually exclusive. Bishops - who pretty much have to be educated and familiar with power, but who can, sometimes, be genuinely rooted in their communities - can be one of the few groups that could be looked to, and sometimes this has worked. But Welby is disqualified on multiple counts - being an old Etonian would be quite sufficient, even if he weren't the leader of an Established church, and even if his personal reputation wasn't suffering under revelations of failure of safeguarding process.

I would not automatically favour a bishop any more than I would a rabbi or an imam. I would favour a woman over a man. At the moment, personally I would favour Caroline Lucas to set things up and get the ball rolling.