"I HIT bottom. But then I heard somebody tapping from underneath." It’s a Polish saying. But it’s immigrated to Britain. Each time, you think there’s nothing worse they can do. And each time another even grosser blunder arrives to splinter away more of the world’s diminishing respect for the United Kingdom. And here once more comes the English political elite, treating their subjects as credulous peasants, and getting away with it.

Can something even more humiliating than absurd Brexit and its dishonoured referendum be waiting round the corner for its cue? Surely there’s no further to fall, after Tory ministers threaten to use nearly two million foreigners living in Britain as diplomatic hostages? Just listen for the tapping underneath.

I remember the sound of three mighty London demonstrations against misrule, separated by a tract of 60 years. First memory is the battering of hooves and the screams of women, drowning the chants of "Law, not War". That was the Suez protest in November 1956. That was the end of political virginity for my generation. We had never imagined that a British government could commit criminal, illegal aggression in a secret conspiracy with France and Israel to invade Egypt, overthrow its regime and return the Suez Canal to private shareholders. We did not know, until then, that "our" police could slash batons across the faces of young girls, and drag them across the pavement by the hair.

An innocence died. So did a hank of the nerves which had told the British public to obey orders and – with mild scepticism – to trust those who gave the orders. But the Establishment (which wasn’t yet called that) was surprised and vexed at the fuss.

http://www.heraldscotland.com/opinion/14609459.Neil_Ascherson__Death_of_the_British_project_____my_life_in_three_demonstrations_of_public_outrage/?ref=twtrec

by John Prescott

On Wednesday we finally saw the Chilcot Report.

It was a damning indictment of how the Blair Government handled the war – and I take my fair share of blame.

As the Deputy Prime Minister in that Government I must express my fullest apology, especially to the families of the 179 men and women who gave their lives in the Iraq War.

Chilcot went into great detail as to what went wrong. But I want to identify certain lessons we must learn to prevent this tragedy being repeated.

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/john-prescott-reveals-guilt-illegal-8387319

Tory and Labour MPs have held informal discussions about establishing a new political party in the event of Andrea Leadsom becoming prime minister and Jeremy Corbyn staying as Labour leader, a cabinet minister has disclosed.

Senior players in the parties have discussed founding a new centrist grouping in the mould of the Social Democratic party (SDP) should the two main parties polarise, according to the minister. Talks should be taken seriously, though they are still at an early stage, according to the source.

“There have been talks between Labour and Tory MPs about a new party,” the minister said. “A number of my colleagues would not feel comfortable in a party led by Andrea Leadsom.”

It is understood that MPs in both parties who campaigned to remain in the European Union believe there is an opportunity to build on the newly founded relationships between centrist MPs in both parties made before the EU referendum.

https://amp.theguardian.com/politics/2016/jul/09/labour-tory-mps-talk

The woman selling me the railway ticket at a small Welsh station was in no hurry. She was having a public discussion with the worker next to her. He said: ‘You can’t buy girls pink toys anymore, they have to be grey.’ She replied: ‘It’s the same with the word gollywog...’ They were both within earshot of customers and both wearing the uniform of a major rail company.

During the Brexit campaign you could hear it everywhere, if you bothered to listen. Brief random expressions of racism, brief revolts against political correctness. Coming from a small working-class town myself I knew what they meant: a fake revolt of the underclass was under way — against the values of a socially liberal elite and its lifelong project: membership of the European Union.

In that conversation, and millions like it, nobody had to use the word ‘Europe’. The referendum was just the opportunity to say: we’ve had enough. Enough bleakness, enough ruined high streets, enough minimum-wage jobs, and enough lies and fear-mongering from the political class. On the night, 56% of voters in that solidly Labour Welsh town voted to leave the EU.

The signs were there. In the local elections of May 2016 the United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP) broke through into the former mining valleys of Wales where politics had been solidly Labour since the party was formed in 1906. In the European Parliament elections of 2014 UKIP had won 26% of the vote across the UK, always concentrated in the same kind of town: small, drab, with a low-wage private sector and just enough inward migration to remind everyone of what economists confirmed: that migration from eastern Europe was suppressing the wages of the lowest paid.

http://mondediplo.com/2016/07/03brexit

MPs will vote on 18 July whether to renew the UK's Trident nuclear weapons system, PM David Cameron has said.

Mr Cameron, who is standing down in September, said the issue should not be left to his successor.

Meanwhile, an internal review of Labour's defence policy will keep open the possibility of retaining Trident, BBC Newsnight understands.

The review is considering the party's stance on Trident, which leader Jeremy Corbyn wants to scrap.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-36754911

Like Tony Blair, we were all duped by the intelligence on Saddam Hussein – except for the millions that went on marches, and Nelson Mandela, and France, and the Pope, and the chief weapons inspector, and Robin Cook

The most important thing is Tony Blair insists he made his decision “in good faith”. So it hardly matters that a two-and-a-half-million-word official report finds him responsible for incalculable global carnage, because he says he meant well. It’s just like if you drive the wrong way up the motorway and cause 40 deaths in a pile-up, you haven’t done anything wrong if you thought you were going the right way.

When asked whether he regrets going to war, Blair repeated that he’s not sorry for the overthrow of Saddam Hussein. But that wasn’t the question. It’s similar to Oscar Pistorius answering a question about whether he regrets his decision to shoot by saying “I don’t regret getting rid of that bathroom door, I’d been meaning to get it replaced for months”. In any case, even the man filmed in 2003 smashing Saddam’s statue with a hammer said in an interview: “If I met Tony Blair I would spit in his face.”

Yet there were still MPs who voted for the war, who yesterday claimed the people of Iraq were grateful for Blair’s actions. Maybe they’re right, and spitting in your face is one of those customs that means different things in different countries – when you come back from Iraq drenched in gob it means they adore you.

http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/jeremy-corbyn-iraq-war-chilcot-report-tony-blair-right-important-matter-doing-up-tie-a7125521.html

The outspoken multi-millionaire who spent £5.6m of his own personal fortune on the leave campaign in the referendum is the bookies' third joint favourite at 10/1 behind Paul Nuttall at 15/8 and Steven Woolfe at 5/2.

...

He has a controlling interest in a diamond mine in Kimberley, South Africa and mining rights in Lesotho.

...

Even if he decides to run, Mr Banks said he will still support Andrea Leadsom to win the Tory leadership contest to become the next prime minister.

...

Mr Banks first made headlines when he donated £1million to UKIP in 2014 in an attempt to start a "peasant's revolt" against the European Union. He had previously donated to the Conservatives.

http://www.bristolpost.co.uk/bristol-based-millionaire-arron-banks-could-be-next-ukip-leader/story-29479241-detail/story.html

UKIP MEP Paul Nuttall brands BBC Question Time reaction 'appalling'

...

Political reporter Liam Murphy pulled a variety of tweets onto our liveblog, including one that hit out at the scouse credentials of both Mr Nuttall and Ms McVey.

@LivEchonews they're not proper Scouse ones a orrible Tory wool the other is a bad Bootle UKIP meff
— Jill (@LipglossJill) January 22, 2015

The Collins English dictionary defines meff as i) a tramp, ii) a stupid or worthless person

Tony Blair deliberately exaggerated the threat posed by the Iraqi regime as he sought to make the case for military action to MPs and the public in the buildup to the invasion in 2002 and 2003, the Chilcot inquiry has found.

In his forensic account of the way Blair and his ministers built the case for military action, Chilcot finds the then Labour prime minister – who had promised US president George W Bush, “I will be with you, whatever”– disregarded warnings about the potential consequences of military action and relied too heavily on his own beliefs, rather than the more nuanced judgements of the intelligence services.

In particular, Chilcot identifies two separate, key occasions in the buildup to the conflict, against the background of mass protests on the streets of London by the Stop the War coalition, when Blair appears to have overplayed the threat from Iraq and underplayed the risks of invasion.

In the House of Commons on 24 September 2002, Mr Blair presented Iraq’s past, current and future capabilities as evidence of the severity of the potential threat from Iraq’s WMD . He said that, at some point in the future, that threat would become a reality,” Chilcot says.

But Chilcot argues instead: “The judgments about Iraq’s capabilities in that statement, and in the dossier published the same day, were presented with a certainty that was not justified.”

Read the full story here:
Tony Blair deliberately exaggerated threat from Iraq, Chilcot report finds
Iraq war inquiry says the then prime minister disregarded warnings of the risks as he built case for military action

Tony Blair deliberately exaggerated the threat posed by the Iraqi regime as he sought to make the case for military action to MPs and the public in the buildup to the invasion in 2002 and 2003, the Chilcot inquiry has found.

In his forensic account of the way Blair and his ministers built the case for military action, Chilcot finds the then Labour prime minister – who had promised US president George W Bush, “I will be with you, whatever”– disregarded warnings about the potential consequences of military action and relied too heavily on his own beliefs, rather than the more nuanced judgements of the intelligence services.

In particular, Chilcot identifies two separate, key occasions in the buildup to the conflict, against the background of mass protests on the streets of London by the Stop the War coalition, when Blair appears to have overplayed the threat from Iraq and underplayed the risks of invasion.

In the House of Commons on 24 September 2002, Mr Blair presented Iraq’s past, current and future capabilities as evidence of the severity of the potential threat from Iraq’s WMD [weapons of mass destruction]. He said that, at some point in the future, that threat would become a reality,” Chilcot says.

But Chilcot argues instead: “The judgments about Iraq’s capabilities in that statement, and in the dossier published the same day, were presented with a certainty that was not justified.”

Read the full story here:
Tony Blair deliberately exaggerated threat from Iraq, Chilcot report finds
Iraq war inquiry says the then prime minister disregarded warnings of the risks as he built case for military action