Politics Thread!

[Deckard]

Comes to a thing when even CNN can show the truth -

https://edition.cnn.com/2026/06/22/busi ... mpact-intl

[Whiteball]

The thing that never seems to be thought about or mentioned is that nothing was ever really implemented or changed after Brexit that should have been. it is basically now just a word that is bandied about and used to justify any bad things going on.

Things could have and should have been done very very differently after Brexit. Major changes to almost everything but in reality nothing was done apart from a few small token gestures.

So can we blame everything wrong in this country on Brexit? Probably if you want the easy, quick scapegoat answers. However, we will never know the real benefits or costs of Brexit because nothing really got changed or implemented that could have. Once the vote was done, there was a long drawn out break-away from the EU and then, well nothing really.

[snaff]

The Save Europe Act is the first ever campaign to launch a patriotic European Citizen's Initiative. We demand that the political elite halt replacement migration, secure our borders, and protect the ethnocultural identity of European nations. Help us reach 1 million signatures and force Brussels to take action.

https://www.save-europe-act.com/

[Harlequin]

No.

[KlaxonCow]

The population of Europe - excluding Russia - is around 600 million people.

That's twice the population of the United States of America.

The current net migration to the entire continent, including the UK, is around 2 million people. Around 4 million incoming, but 2 million leaving. And that's for the entire continent combined.

This represents about 0.3-0.4% - less than half a percent. So if we had a small town of 10,000 people, this would be equivalent to welcoming 30 new people to the town.

What I find interesting, for something claiming to be "patriotic", is that it's all about "keep the foreigners out".

But I see no mention of wanting to preserve indigenous languages, like Catalan or Cornish, nor of supporting European cultural festivals. No talk of cultural exchange programmes, or pan-European cultural education to share our joint history. Maybe support for trading local European products with other European nations, by giving small local producers tax breaks. How about a European fund to help our more impoverished areas to raise their local employment?

You see, this does not fit the definition of "patriotism" as I know it. Patriotism is a love of one's own country and people and culture. It has nothing whatsoever to do with the hatred and want to exterminate other people's cultures and languages.

As "invasions" go, this one is perfectly pathetic.

And if you're genuinely worried that less than half a percent per annum - where Europe loses half as much as it gains - is some existential threat to a continent that has twice the population of the United States, then might I suggest you put a lot more effort into the robust preservation of local culture and language. Because if you think that having a couple more "hijabs on the high street" is going to instantly result in the complete cultural collapse of the entire European continent, then you clearly must implicitly think that it's very weak and fragile.

So, please, by all means, put some fucking effort into that - robust reinforcement of local cultural tradition - before worrying too much about some other Abrahamic religion - with nigh-on identical beliefs, honestly, I would venture from my neutral humanist position - being equally destroyed, over generations, in the face of secular reality, making it abundantly clear that it's all fucking bollocks anyway.

Yes, I'm sure this is the first "patriotic" petition of its kind. Because there was a time when racists used to socially embarrassed to make idiots of themselves in public that they knew better to even attempt it.

But I am an advocate for free speech. So, by all means, make your imagined worries known, as all citizens have a right to a redress of their grievances. But, by the same token, my right to free speech entitles me to a right of reply, in order to point out the facts that you're simply provably wrong and deluded.

But I want to make one thing very clear. When you voted for Brexit - because we all know you did vote for Brexit - you handed control to the Tory government, and look what they did to the immigration figures:



The instant that the UK's immigration policy switched after Brexit, the non-EU immigration figures nearly quadrupled. The second the UK government "took back control" of our borders, they OPENED THE FLOODGATES to cheap non-EU labour. No doubt on request of their ultra-rich backers, who wanted to suppress UK wages and who were annoyed that EU border policy actually stopped them from importing shitloads of cheap foreign labour.

Brexit was a lie. When they said "take back control of the borders", you assumed they meant in order to keep the fuzzy-wuzzies out. No, they always meant to take control of border policy to remove the restrictions on it, and let as many cheap foreign workers in as they possibly could - quadrupling non-EU immigration - to make loads of money at the average UK citizen's expense.

Farage is an ex-banker. Reform's official policy, if they gain power, is to sell off the NHS to American healthcare insurance. He's nothing but a stooge for the rich elites to use "scary black people" to get you to vote against your interests, in giving them the power to INCREASE immigration to suppress UK wages.

The figures are there. They're from the ONS themselves. The clear "starting gun" for that insane rise in immigration on the graph was when the UK "took back control".

They lied. They were always lying. The whole thing was nothing but the rich getting richer scheme, at the expense of the poor. But they tricked those poor people into voting their puppets into power to make it all happen, with the oldest, most ancient, trick in the book: Scaring you with people who look and sound different to you.

But melanin is just a skin pigment and Islam genuinely is just a fraudulent "Christianity 2.0" from a local warlord who wanted power, and for anyone championing "Christian values", you couldn't get a cigarette paper between the actual religious beliefs of these two closely-related Abrahamic religions. I'd say Christianity is closer to Islam than it is to Judaism, for example - after all, the Jews could engage in usury, but neither Christian nor Muslim could. Far more alike than different, honestly.

I get it. No-one wants to hear that they were tricked. Trump voters continue to insanely support the guy, even when they can clearly see he's a mad man - posting AI images of himself being Jesus Christ, for pity's sake - because they can't bring themselves to admit that the "libtards" were entirely right to warn that the guy is a massive clear danger to American democracy. They won't admit the truth, even when it's staring them in the face, because no-one wants to confess they were a "useful idiot", tricked like a turkey into voting for Christmas.

But, please, look at the graph - review the numbers yourself - and understand that you've been duped big-time, by rich cunts who tricked the poor into voting to make themselves even poorer.

I've heard Brexit voters complain that, since Brexit, nothing's happened. But it's not true - plenty has happened on the "tear up regulation, so the rich can get richer" side of things. Immigration has been allowed to go through the roof to supply billionaires with cheap foreign labour. Loads has happened, but it's just that it's all been for the rich to get richer, and not a single fucking thing for the average poor UK citizen.

As was the plan all along. Sorry, but it was always a trap and you fell right into it, as they knew they could exploit your casual racism against you.

[tufty]

That's all well and good, but THE DARKIES and THE TRANNIES

[Harlequin]

Do not forget all the other queers. And the Jews. And the druggies. And the spotties ... Get all of them up against the wall.

If I had my way, I would have Farage's father shot before he ever met his mother.

[Whiteball]

Why do all discussions around Brexit always degenerate into migration and race arguments?

It seems people who voted for Brexit argue immigration should be stopped and people who voted against Brexit argue immigration is now worse.

There probably are many more things (good and bad) that could be talked about with reagrds to Brexit?

Genuinely curious.

[KlaxonCow]

Live from the Reform party conference:



As Churchill had it, you measure a civilisation by how well it treats its weakest, most vulnerable members who have little to no capacity to fight back. Its prisoners, its disabled, its elderly, its immigrants.

And on that score, we've been failing very, very badly. Removing Winter fuel payments for pensioners choosing between warmth and food, "welfare reform" focused on stealing money form cripples in wheelchairs, a prison system so overflowing we've been releasing prisoners early to prevent a total break down, and now casual racism is heading towards becoming normalised to the extent of segregated America or Apartheid South Africa.

We're failing miserably to be decent honest human beings. Our "civilisation" is rotting to its core. It's a moral failing. We're simply not good people.

[KlaxonCow]

Why do all discussions around Brexit always degenerate into migration and race arguments?

Because, fundamentally, that's all it was about.

James O'Brien on LBC spent years proving that point over and over again on his phone-in show, asking Brexiteers to explain their vote. And, every time, there'd be an attempt to say it was to do with "sovereignty" and being able to write our own laws. But, once challenged to name an EU law that they didn't like and failed, once the facade fell, they'd always return - every single time - to the topic of immigration.

It seems people who voted for Brexit argue immigration should be stopped

Again, because this was, fundamentally, the only reason anyone ever voted Leave. Proven again and again, by the fact that - when all other excuses vanish - they always return to, yes, "kick out the darkies", without fail, every single time.

and people who voted against Brexit argue immigration is now worse.

Ah, "worse" is your wording, which assumes immigration is an intrinsically bad thing (and, by the way, I'm not saying it's an intrinsically good thing either - letting so many people in since Brexit has depressed UK wages, as was the plan of the rich all along, and it's actually a nuanced thing, where you don't want none at all and you don't want too much either, for its economic effects on everyone else).

My point is that it has massively, massively increased - because the con men who tricked the public into voting for Brexit always wanted to "take back control" of the borders for the purposes of letting in as much non-EU migration as they possibly could to import cheap foreign labour and depress UK wages, which they have succeeded admirably in doing, as the graph shows - that what they blindly voted for is the exact polar opposite of what they got.

This was all a big con to "take back control" of the borders, not to keep immigrants out but to let more of them in, to depress UK wages.

And, by the way, it worked, as many economists have concluded that the reason Brexit wasn't a complete catastrophic economic collapse was because - get this - "some of the losses in trade have been partially offset by increases in migration".

Watch from 0:40 onwards:

There probably are many more things (good and bad) that could be talked about with reagrds to Brexit?

You'd think, wouldn't you? Such a major constitutional change. All those votes and all the debates. There must surely be more to this than just casual racism? There must be some positives, right?

Nope. It was all about racism, and the only positive - hilariously enough - was that the massively increased immigration, which is why the "rich get richer" backed Brexit all along and conned people into voting for it, has partially offset what would otherwise have been a catastrophic economic collapse in trade.

And the point is further proved by that petition snaff wants us to join. It's all just "kick out the darkies".

As I say, if it was actually "patriotic" and about the preservation of European ethnocultural identity ("ethnocultural" when you're talking about the most diverse set of cultures on planet Earth; such a "dog whistle" for you-know-what) - which, I stress, is under no threat whatsoever from a 0.3% increase to a population twice the size of the United States of America - then where are the bits about defending at-risk European languages? Where's the call for more funding into museums and the preservation of our shared history? Where are the positives towards that perservation of our ethnocultural heritage?

Because, you know what? If it was genuinely about what they're saying, I'd not be opposed to some assistance to the Catalonians or the Cornish to keep their languages and culture alive. If that's what it was about, that actually sounds good. Doing something positive for the preservation of any and all cultures is a very good thing in my books.

But, nope, it's just not there. It's all just "kick out the darkies". All negative. All about race. There's nothing else there.

That's the point I was trying to stress. Show me the bit where it's not about race and immigration... oh, it's just not there. There is no other argument here. That's it.

[Deckard]

Just look at the mess in Cornwall with reform trying to get a council -

[Deckard]

and this is a classic too -

[Harlequin]

Live from the Reform party conference:

[video]

I had quite forgotten the strength of Parker's imagery for Run Like Hell and Waiting for the Worms.

That clip also reminded me that I have yet to complete RTD's Years and Years, having found the early episodes a little too stressful for me at the time.

[Whiteball]

Hmm, I see.

I did at the time work in a place where a few people voted to leave and when I asked them they said they were fed up of 'us' having to 'kowtow' to an unelected bunch of people from another country.

Presumably, I guess the way they saw it was:
People in this country not having a vote in most matters and presumed more would be focused in this country where they would have a say. I don't recall them ever talking about immigration or borders and such things so I guess there was a few that maybe had a different take on things even if it was also completely misguided.

[KlaxonCow]

Yes, in the interests of honesty and fairness, it is entirely possible to have legitimate issue with the democratic deficit, or with the structure of the union, or even to have valid concerns about immigration based on economic factors.

But, like, if you voted Leave and don't massively regret it all by now - as polls have it that only 20%, or 1 in 5, of Leave voters actually still think it was a good idea - then that's because your original motivation was always "kick out the darkies", and those still banging the Brexit drum at this point are continuing, despite the obvious complete and utter failure of it all, because casual racism.

It's not that all Leave voters were racists. There were many ways in which the stooges of the ultra-rich elites utilised propaganda to trick people into voting against their own interests - for example, maybe you actually believed that the NHS would get millions of pounds, as the famous red bus lied, and you essentially voted that way, hoping for promised extra funding of the NHS.

But if you're still banging the drum - with fingers firmly in your ears, singing "la-la-la, I'm not listening", to the very obvious conclusion that it's been an economically terrible idea that has not resulted in a single extra penny for the NHS, nor has the highly-lofted "sovereignty" been used for any actual useful purpose since - then you're still going because open racism has, sadly, become more socially acceptable and normalised now. So you think you're "winning", where absolutely no-one who voted Leave for any other potentially legitimate reason feels any "success" from Brexit at all.

As I said, I don't doubt the claim that this is the first "patriotic" "ethnocultural defence" petition filed with Brussels. Because, previously, this wouldn't have gotten anywhere to even be attempted, due to social embarrassment of making a dick of yourself in public.