Concrete Achievements

Tag: media

  • #marr show letting Sun “Brexposed” claims be repeated unchallenged.

    #marr show letting Sun “Brexposed” claims be repeated unchallenged. EU “secret plans” were press releases on Friday. They don’t make no deal OK. They give a seven-month grace period (révocable at any time) during which UK lorries/planes can work to and from EU *but not within it*

    Fact checking post-lie is not ideal but not aiding in their spread is surely the bare minimum role of journalism.

    Here is the press release – in English, on the website – on air travel: consilium.europa.eu/en/press/press… and here on road transport consilium.europa.eu/en/press/press… – have a read and see whether it makes it seem that everything be OK for British travellers.

  • One of the things that has come up at #cp4d (workshop on innovations in Parliaments…

    One of the things that has come up at #cp4d (workshop on innovations in Parliaments around the Commonwealth) is how the media framing of politics-as-horse-race devalues the work of Parliaments and committees around policy-making and -shaping.

    Linked and probably related is the demise of the policy-focused rather than politics-focused political reporter, which is perhaps most obvious in the UK when it comes to Brexit. Brexit is not simple, but it is comprehensible.

    A reasonable understanding of EU regulation, trade deals, etc, take a bit of reading-in but nothing beyond the wit of humankind. However, we’re sixty days from the detonation point of the biggest crisis in British politics since the War…

    And large swaths of the political-journalist class (often the ones who told us how easy it would be) have still not done the reading. It is a real disgrace – but Brexit is just the cardiac arrest that followed years of eating a chips-only diet.

    I don’t know what we need to do to build up policy journalism and better political coverage (though I’ll share if anything comes up here) but I do know that political and democratic reform can’t happen without it.

  • I can see from the 27 perspective the incentive to squeeze the Brexiteers.

    I can see from the 27 perspective the incentive to squeeze the Brexiteers. They believe that no-deal is unlikely (and given the immunity of May to challenge and the huge anti-no-deal majority in the Commons, you can see why). Also they, uniquely, can offer

    extension(?s) to A50 that the UK will take in a heartbeat to keep things going (and which would come with increasingly heavy hints about how they would welcome the UK back). So they have May’s deal as a minimum, which is fine for them. That’s still going to be

    on the table. Why throw May a bone now when a few weeks of pressure might end up with a second referendum or even a Parliamentary withdrawal? They read the British press, they can see how withdrawing A50 has become a respectable edge position not a crazy one.

    “Let’s see how things develop” is a good strategy for them, given their control over the extension button.

  • I see soi-disant “Liberal Leavers” are going through another bout of pearl-clutching…

    I see soi-disant “Liberal Leavers” are going through another bout of pearl-clutching about how dreadful Brexit is and how we should stay in the EEA. To which I say “are you ashamed of winning a referendum by riding on the back of illiberal xenophobia yet?”

    The dogs in the street knew that free movement would be impossible after a referendum driven by a press and politicians with hard anti-immigration messages. Apparently not “liberal leavers”.

    I guess they hoped that their weird sovereignty obsession would be smuggled through by politicians mugging anti-immigration leave voters. Well, I hate the outcome but at least voters are getting what they wanted.

    It won’t be what voters want when they get it, of course, and that will be when people will start asking hard questions of Leave campaigners who promised them all the benefits and none of the costs.

    I wouldn’t want to be a liberal leaver. Even if they don’t feel burning personal shame at what they’ve done to the country, they are going to have some very unpleasant conversations in their future.

  • Nick Timothy taking dictation from the Kremlin here.

    Nick Timothy taking dictation from the Kremlin here. I would take it as a great compliment to be banned in Russia and Uzbekistan. twitter.com/birdyword/stat…

    It just makes me angry. Trade obsessives who don’t understand the basics of international trade, people shouting about will of the people

    who parrot the talking points of the journalist-killing, Ukraine-invading, anti-democratic Putin gang; politicians who are so obsessed with

    Parliamentary sovereignty that they want everything to be done by Henry VIII clauses; the level of “does not fucking care” is beyond belief.

    All I hope is that the public humiliation these charlatans deserve comes to them in full measure.

  • Because it *is* the Brexit decision itself.

    Because it *is* the Brexit decision itself. One side want the symbol of a world they feel they’ve lost; the other side want the freedom to live and work across Europe. twitter.com/tnewtondunn/st…

    And it’s a bit rich for the pol ed of the newspaper that is *leading with the story* to be snarky about how much people care about it.

    People care about symbols more easily than they care about statistics is something the Brexit result showed pretty clearly.

  • The Brexit conversation seems to have settled on the idea that there’ll be a really long…

    The Brexit conversation seems to have settled on the idea that there’ll be a really long transition period. I seriously doubt it.

    Even if the UK Gvt could get years more free movement and ECJ past their rabid wing (including press), which I think they can’t, the EU side

    wants to get certainty quickly, and European Parlt has talked about three years maximum transition period. And this is best case,

    if the UK doesn’t walk out or fail to reach agreement. 29 March 2019 is pretty soon.

  • Brexit negotiations are not war.

    Brexit negotiations are not war. EU are not enemies. The EU has been one of the pillars of peace in Europe. Quit the jingoistic bullshit.

    Nothing makes me more ashamed of my British passport than this “fight them on the beaches” crap from tissue-soft political journalists.

    It reinforces the idea that Britain is wallowing in some half-remembered gin-soaked Simla imperialism. We look mad. But worse,

    We look tacky and thoughtless. I don’t think Brexit can be a success but it can at least not be a national embarrassment.

  • Just one poll, but it’s hard to see Brexit getting more popular …

    Just one poll, but it’s hard to see Brexit getting more popular … or politicians being brave enough to turn away. twitter.com/simon_nixon/st…

    There’s a lot of fantasy about how we can “go back and get concessions greater than Cameron” and then stay in. We can’t. We can withdraw A50

    but we need agreement and would probably have to give up things not get more concessions. EU won’t let – shouldn’t let – Britain’s emotional

    spasm bring (what UK press wd call) benefits. Would weaken EU and give boost to populist cause just when it is being shown up as empty.

  • There’s definitely a sense that *any* deal is going to be spun in press as “bad”.

    There’s definitely a sense that *any* deal is going to be spun in press as “bad”. Chaotic Brexit definitely more than a small chance.

    Then of course it will all have been the fault of spiteful Europeans who didn’t give us what was our right.

    I would love there to be some reckoning in due course for the people who have led us here, but it doesn’t seem likely.