Nauseating Stupidity On Confiscating Homes For The Greater Good

Authored by Mike Shedlock via MishTalk.com,

When it comes to anti-war pieces and matters of the US government overstepping its bounds in matters of privacy and security, The Intercept is usually spot on.

On matters of social justice, The Intercept puts out some nauseating trash.

Intercept writer Zaid Jilani provides a perfect example with JEREMY CORBYN WANTS TO REQUISITION HOMES OF THE RICH FOR FIRE SURVIVORS — LIKE CHURCHILL DID IN WWII.

BRITISH LABOUR PARTY leader Jeremy Corbyn has a bold proposal to house the survivors of a devastating fire at London’s Grenfell Tower apartment complex in empty luxury homes.

YouGov polling found that Corbyn’s idea is popular among the British public, with 59 percent supporting it. Yet there has been a harsh backlash from the U.K.’s right-wing government and press, which equated his plan with a Marxist plot. “Suggesting requisitioning empty properties when empty student accommodation is available locally is completely in line with his Marxist belief that all private property should belong to the state,” Conservative MP Andrew Bridgen said.

But Corbyn’s plan has historical roots not in Marxist literature or state-run economies, but in his country’s own past.

To help bear the brunt of the Nazi war machine, the British government requisitioned both industrial and residential properties to accommodate soldiers and evacuees, run makeshift schools and hospitals, and train the military, among other uses.

All Corbyn is asking is that the the United Kingdom show the same compassion and patriotism as its forefathers.

Compassion My Ass

Even if one believes that confiscation of property is acceptable in wartime (try telling that to the Jews or US citizens of Japanese descent), does that make it OK now?

Confiscation of private property “for the greater good” is an even bigger government intrusion than spying on people.

Jilani’s article is so idiotic, it should be his last, anywhere.

UK Election Proved the Death of Neoliberalism Is Finally Here

(ANTIMEDIA) — Just last week, prominent U.K. newspaper the Telegraph ran an article entitled “Jeremy Corbyn the mime artist: Don’t vote for the man with no answers.” The opening line – the one line most likely to be read beyond its overly biased title – reads “Jeremy Corbyn is one of the most radical prospective Prime Ministers this country has ever seen.”

The same day, this same newspaper ran another article entitled “Jeremy Corbyn is a danger to this nation. At MI6, which I once led, he wouldn’t clear the security vetting.”

A day later, the Telegraph declared that a victory for Corbyn would mean a “hard Brexit and doom for the economy.”

Taken together, the evidence overwhelmingly shows that Corbyn has suffered a barrage of attacks courtesy of the mainstream media. Honorable mentions go to the Daily Mail, whose front page had a picture of Jeremy Corbyn with the massive headline “apologists for terror,” and the Sun, whose front page had an enormous headline that read “Jezza’s [a childish nickname for Jeremy Corbyn] Jihadi Comrades.” (You can see these headlines and others here.)

Following Corbyn’s surge in the general elections, the Telegraph ran another article, this time entitled “To the millions of people who voted for Jeremy Corbyn: you scare me.”

The attacks keep on coming, even though the recent elections indicate that the people are no longer buying the propaganda. Another leading U.K. newspaper, the Guardian, spent years bashing Corbyn even though they knew approximately 78 percent of their readers backed Corbyn in the first place.

Learning their lessons from their coverage of Brexit and Trump’s election bid, the Guardian is now changing their tactic and giving generous media coverage to Corbyn’s position as the leader of the opposition party. This is clearly not a genuine and sincere move but a calculated response to their dying status as an international newspaper (at the end of every article, the Guardian begs for donations).

We have seen this all too often before: the mainstream media rams a particular candidate down our throats and ignores the fact that the people no longer want that type of person or their ideology running the show. In the case of the 2016 U.S. elections, the U.K. general elections have again given rise to the idea that Bernie Sanders could have won the elections last year, but that the people were denied this opportunity.

The fact that someone as vile and dangerous as Donald Trump won last year instead of Hillary Clinton tells us one important thing: it didn’t really matter who the alternative to Clinton was because the people are fed up with the status quo. When people see a failing economy, a wave of terror attacks, or a refugee crisis, for example – they are hardly going to be so naive as to accept the candidate who runs on a simple platform of “We need to keep doing the same things we have been doing for decades.” As long as the candidate can distance themselves from these failing policies, it ultimately won’t matter how racist, authoritarian, or unpredictable they are.

Similarly, Corbyn may have operated on the complete opposite end of the political spectrum (for 30 years, one might add), but he ran on a platform of opposing the status quo, particularly when it comes to matters of war and terrorism. A recent poll found the U.K. public agrees with Corbyn’s view on the causes of terrorism.

After a number of attacks in which people see their own dying before them, the dialogue ceases to be incessant obsession about who their government should bomb in response (given they have been doing that incessantly since 2001 with no tangible results), but a rational discussion regarding how we can effectively stop innocent people from dying on their own soil.

The people aren’t stupid, but the mainstream media will most likely continue to find this out the hard way. While Corbyn didn’t outright win the election in the U.K., technically, the loss of confidence requires the incumbent, Theresa May, to resign. The power should instead cede to Corbyn’s side.

Unsurprisingly, May is refusing to budge and still wants to press forward with her plans to regulate the conversation on the internet. How else will she be able to stay in power, especially considering the internet is how we have learned of her deep and dark secrets regarding the role she played in fostering known terrorists?

However, the most important lesson to learn is that Corbyn achieved this partial victory (note that almost two-thirds of May’s own party want her to resign) in the face of an obsessive media onslaught that sought to completely undermine him at every turn. Despite this one-sidedness, a new poll has found that Corbyn would most likely win a second general election and become the country’s prime minister, further cementing the idea that the corporate media is once again on the wrong side of history.

Imagine who would really be in power in the United States and the United Kingdom if members of the mainstream media did their jobs and reported accurately instead of advancing an outdated and dangerous neoliberal, neoconservative agenda.

Creative Commons / Anti-Media / Report a typo

Tim Price: "The UK Today Feels Like A Very Strange & Disturbing Place"

Authored by Tim Price via SovereignMan.com,

If you have been voting for politicians who promise to give you goodies at someone else’s expense, then you have no right to complain when they take your money and give it to someone else, including themselves.

-Economist Thomas Sowell

It is difficult to know where to begin.

In our election last week, 262 British parliamentary seats fell to a party led by Jeremy Corbyn, a self-confessed Socialist.

Corbyn has also publicly supported the IRA, Hizbollah and Hamas.

Yet his message attracted 12.9 million votes while the United Kingdom is under attack by terrorists. It simply beggars belief.

Sir Richard Dearlove, the former head of MI6, the British Secret Intelligence Service, points out that Corbyn, who seeks the office of Prime Minister, would not be cleared to join either his former agency, or GCHQ, or MI5 (the British equivalents of NSA/FBI).

It is said that you get the politicians you deserve. So what on earth did we do to deserve this?

Sadly we are not criticizing a single political party.

While Jeremy Corbyn offered the UK electorate the sort of swivel-eyed Trotskyism that ought to have died out in the 1970s along with flares and safari jackets, Theresa May has been making her own lurch towards the left.

So a plague on both your houses.

Our politics have gone mad, and our markets have gone mad with them. The plain numbers are stark.

Simon Mikhailovich of Tocqueville Bullion Reserve reminds us of those numbers with a sobering tweet:

A bit of math. With the global debt / GDP ratio at 320% and the cost of average debt service at 2%, it takes 6.4% growth per annum just to service the debt. Not happening.

The rise of Socialism will only create more of these financial challenges.

The only sensible and credible responses to the investment challenge of our times can be to diversify broadly, and then invest selectively, and defensively.

(Longstanding readers, along with our clients, will know that we put particular emphasis on Benjamin Graham-style value stocks, systematic trend-following funds, and gold.)

This is also a crisis of education.

How, aside from craven bribery, could so many young Britons flock to the sirens of socialism?

How did so many millions manage to avoid any grasp of history (or choose to ignore it)?

The millennials and Generation Z are right to be angry. They’ve been chewed up by the system.

But last week this anger manifested itself in the form of some socialist Corbyn supporters burning newspapers.

To anyone with a sense of history, the UK today feels like a very strange, and disturbing, place.

Do you have a Plan B?

Bernie Sanders: Corbyn Surge in UK Proves the World is Rising Up

“People in the U.K., the U.S. and elsewhere want governments that represent all the people, not just the 1%,” Sanders said.

(COMMONDREAMS) — Responding to the results of the U.K. election, which commentators have already deemed a “political upset” for the ages and a stunning backfire for Prime Minister Theresa May, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) on Thursday congratulated Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn and the British people for “rising up against austerity and massive levels of income and wealth inequality.”

People “all over the world” are fighting the same battle, Sanders added, concluding:

“People in the U.K., the U.S. and elsewhere want governments that represent all the people, not just the 1%. I congratulate Jeremy Corbyn for running a very positive and effective campaign.”

Corbyn’s strong run—which culminated in an additional 31 seats for Labour and a hung parliament—was, in many ways, reminiscent of the Sanders “revolution” in the United States, which posed a stark challenge to “the billionaire class” and a political establishment flush with corporate money. Sanders himself drew the comparison between his campaign and Corbyn’s recently on a three-day U.K. speaking tour, during which he praised the Labour leader’s “willingness to talk about class issues.”

“These problems are not unique to the U.S.,” Sanders noted. “Globalization has left far too many people behind. Workers all over the world are seeing a decline in their standard of living. Unfettered free trade has allowed multinational corporations to enjoy huge profits and make the very rich even richer while workers are sucked into a race for the bottom.”

“Globalization has left far too many people behind.” —Sen. Bernie Sanders

Corbyn utilized similar messaging. Under his leadership, the Labour Party this year published one of the most left-wing manifestos in its history, adopting a slogan Sanders backers surely recognized: “For the many, not the few.”

It is unsurprising, then, that British voters were seen donning Sanders apparel as they cast their ballots for Labour.

Peter Bloom, writing for Common Dreams, argued the campaigns of Sanders and Corbyn both successfully harnessed similar forces, and thus “exposed the beginnings of a potentially new political mainstream.”

Bloom concluded:

“Corbyn’s strong campaign is no small political achievement. Historically, he has altered the public discussion on major issues of the economy and foreign policy. He has also shown that a full throttled progressive agenda is not only not suicidal but potentially downright popular.”

For many, Corbyn’s remarkable surge in recent weeks and his performance in an election that was prematurely viewed as a landslide opportunity for the Conservatives is a strong indicator of the electoral viability of left populism and of the strong desire for systemic change.

Corbyn is way to the left of Bernie, smeared more by the media (& Bernie has way more legislative accomplishments). Bernie would have won.

— Lee Fang (@lhfang) June 9, 2017

UK voters weren"t voting against the US President; they came out to vote FOR progressive policies that build a better future for their kids. https://t.co/bcV9Et2BIe

— Our Revolution (@OurRevolution) June 9, 2017

LONG lines of young voters all across U.K. As w/@BernieSanders, @jeremycorbyn draws a new generation to the polls.https://t.co/bGtrPw6ny9

— John Nichols (@NicholsUprising) June 8, 2017

Pollsters and analysts—even those who had for weeks closely documented Corbyn’s rapid rise in the polls—were openly startled by the results.

“No major left-wing politician had been so often accused of being unelectable—not even Sanders,” wrote the Washington Post‘s Dave Weigel. “All through election night, the BBC and other organs of an infamously Corbyn-skeptical media marveled at how Labour had gained ground.”

In a triumphant rally on Thursday, Corbyn argued that his party’s gains portend a seismic shift in the landscape of British politics.

“Politics has changed,” Corbyn declared as the results rolled in. “Politics isn’t going back into the box where it was before. What’s happened is people have said they’ve had quite enough of austerity politics.”

By Jake Johnson / Creative Commons / Common Dreams / Report a typo

Corbyn Stuns UK: “Most Incredible Amazing Political Upset in British History”

“UK to humanity – we just killed neoliberalism,” says one Labour supporter as progressive leader’s bold vision credited with delivery crushing blow to Tory rule.

(COMMONDREAMS) — As it looked as though U.K. election might be heading towards shocking results and a hung Parliament, Labour leady Jeremy Corbyn called on Conservative Prime Minister Theresa May to resign while declaring his party’s campaign “has changed the face of British politics.”

Based on exit polling and early returns, indications of the shocking outcome were being widely viewed as a rejection of May’s Conservative Party rule and a win for the bold, progressive vision Corbyn asserted—despite internal party tensions—as the Labour leader. If the trend holds, said journalist and Labour supporter Owen Jones, “then this is the most incredible amazing political upset in British history.”

U.K. to humanity – we just killed neoliberalism

— Paul Mason (@paulmasonnews) June 9, 2017

Labour"s change is now permanent. A party committed to radically transforming Britain in the interests of the many, not the few. https://t.co/ph3s485mGj

— Owen Jones (@OwenJones84) June 9, 2017

The British right wing press led a vicious campaign of lies, smears, hatred and bigotry. And millions told them where to stick it

— Owen Jones (@OwenJones84) June 9, 2017

Though final results have yet to be determined, British politics were nonetheless turned upside as it appeared that May and the Tories failed expectations and would likely be unable to claim a majority in Parliament. Even if the Tory’s retain the most seats overall, the ability of other parties to form a coalition with Labour would put her political future in severe jeopardy and make Corbyn the “odds on favorite” to become the nation’s next Prime Minister.

Politics is on its head. Anything could happen. Would never have believed it, but I"m pleased. Change is possible. #GE2017

— Nick Dearden (@nickdearden75) June 9, 2017

The Independent explains:

Many polls predicted a crushing defeat for Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour, with the Conservatives gaining a considerable majority. Others were less generous towards May, and showed a dramatic narrowing between the two parties as their campaigns progressed. But even then, when the numbers were relatively favourable for Labour, the Conservatives were still out in front.

If you cast your mind back before the snap election was called, you may remember the double-digit leads the Tories held over Labour, and the huge advantage in popularity May had over Corbyn. With these in mind, many Labour supporters were resigned to the fact they were never going to win, and had their eyes on simply reducing Theresa May’s majority.

But as the tallies continue to come in, the newspaper added, “the future of [May’s] premiership, party and legacy could all be in doubt.”

If May is ousted from leadership, explained columnist Laurie Penny writing at Salon, that would tell a tale of deep dissatisfaction in the U.K., especially among younger voters and those who have suffered most directly at the hands of Tory policies:

The Tories haven’t just fucked up this election. They’ve fucked up the country, mercilessly and for eight long years, and people are sick of them. In less than two terms, they have destroyed the welfare state; almost bankrupted our health service and school system; plunged millions of children into poverty; presided over an enormous uptick in racism, social division and terrorist violence; almost lost Scotland; utterly failed to balance the nation’s finances; and sent us spinning out of the European Union into the maw of decades of uncertainty, recession and fear. Racists are running brave in the streets. Food banks are the new normal. Millions of people are languishing in exhausting, low-paid work. People with disabilities are dying in their homes. School buildings are rotting. The mental health system is close to collapse. Young people have given up hope of starting families. People are poor, angry and scared.

In a speech accepting victory for his own seat in North Islington, Corbyn also said the elections results show that the British people have had enough of May and the Tories’ economic policies. He said people were inspired by the “For the Many, Not the Few Manifesto” that Labour put forth during the campaign and that he was proud people from across the country were “voting for hope for the future, and turning their backs on austerity.”

He added: “If there is a message from tonight’s result is this: the Prime Minister called the election because she wanted a mandate and lost votes, lost support and lost confidence. I would have thought that is enough to go, actually, and make way for a government which will be representative of all of the people!”

Watch:

By Joe Queally / Creative Commons / Common Dreams / Report a typo

Jeremy Corbyn: “The war on terror is simply not working”

(image: Chatham House, London, Wikimedia Commons)

Claims that terrorism is a consequence of Britain’s military action abroad.

With the level of alert still to the maximum and the police combing the city of Manchester on the hunt of the network that supported the terrorist suicide, the electoral campaign resumed this Friday in United Kingdom with a little controversy.

Labor leader Jeremy Corbyn linked the country’s foreign policy and intervention in wars abroad with terrorist attacks at home.

“The war on terror is simply not working,” he said, in a very measured intervention that nevertheless provoked harsh criticism of the prime minister since the first day of the G7 in Taormina.

With only two weeks to election day, conservatives are worried about the fact that, in recent polls, Labor continues to cut its distance.

Corbyn wanted to make it clear, in a speech in London, that only terrorists are guilty of their vile actions. But he argued that it is up to governments to assess the effectiveness of their policies.

“No logic based on the actions of any government can remotely excuse or explain savagery such as this week’s massacre,” warned the veteran anti-war activist.

“But we must be brave enough to admit that the war on terror is simply not working. Many experts point to the connections between the wars we have participated in or have supported with terrorism here at home. “

“We need a smarter way to reduce the threat of countries that feed and generate terrorism,” added the Labor leader.

“No government can prevent all terrorist attacks. But its foreign policy must reduce rather than increase the terrorist threat to this country. “

His opponents were quick to accuse Corbyn of exploiting Monday’s tragedy in Manchester, where suicide bomber Salman Abedi killed 22 people, some of them children, blowing up a bomb after a concert by Ariana Grande.

Defense Minister Michael Fallon accused the Labor candidate of having “a very embarrassing and dangerous thought,” and Boris Johnson, the somewhat subtle Foreign Minister, called his comments “absolutely monstrous.”

British Prime Minister Theresa May took advantage of the final press conference of the first day of the G7 in Taormina, Sicily, to lash out at Labor. “Today I have been working here with other world leaders to fight against terrorism. But Corbyn, at the same time, has said that, in part, the attacks are our fault, ” she said in anger. “There can never be an excuse for terrorism or what happened in Manchester.

The election at the polls is between me, who work constantly to protect national security, or Jeremy Corbyn, who is not prepared for this job. “

The resumption of the campaign on Friday, interrupted after the bombing in Manchester, put all the pressure on the Tories, who saw how, in the latest polls, Labor cut even further their distance.

A poll conducted Wednesday and Thursday puts Conservatives only five points ahead, almost half a week ago and nearly four times less than when Theresa May a month ago decided to hold the elections to secure a majority Parliamentary agreement that gives her more strength to negotiate Brexit with Brussels.

The support for Labor is, in that YouGov poll, of 38%, the highest level since October 2014. But it is not the only data of the poll that should worry the conservatives: the support for May goes down and the one for Corbyn goes up, which would indicate that the strategy of the Tories of turning the elections into a kind of presidential election between the two leaders is not giving the desired result.

UK Terror Threat Level Lowered To "Severe" As Police Tear Down Terrorist Cell

Four days after UK Prime Minister Theresa May announced on Tuesday the nation"s terror threat level was raised to the highest possible, "Critical" level in response to the Manchester suicide bombing which killed 22 people, and resulted in British troops being deployed on the streets of London for the first time in a decade, on Saturday Theresa May said Britain had lowered its security threat level to "severe" following a number of arrests and significant activity by police investigating the suicide bomb attack. As a result the British soldiers who were deployed earlier in the week to assist police, would be withdrawn from Britain"s streets from midnight on Monday.

Earlier in the day, police hunting the terrorist network behind the suspected suicide bomber, Salman Abedi, said they had made two further arrests overnight as they closed in on other possible cell members. May said this meant that the independent body which sets the threat level had decided it should be lowered from its highest rating "critical", which means an attack could be imminent, to "severe". As a result, the UK"s threat assessment has now been returned to the level it was at prior to the Manchester attack, with no imminent attacks expected, although as May also added an attack is still "highly likely".

"A significant amount of police activity has taken place over the last 24 hours and there are now 11 suspects in custody," May said. "The public should be clear about what this means. A threat level of severe means an attack is highly likely. The country should remain vigilant."

UK terror threat level reduced from CRITCAL to SEVERE. WATCH @Theresa_May statement HERE: pic.twitter.com/ZYqzv8wATD

— Darren McCaffrey (@DMcCaffreySKY) May 27, 2017

Elsewhere, Reuters reports, that UK police officers said they had used a controlled explosion to gain entry to an address in the north of the city where two men were detained on Saturday. Some hours later, police cordoned off a large area in the Moss Side area of south Manchester and houses were evacuated with a bomb disposal unit sent to the scene. A man working in a local shop, who declined to be named, told Reuters he saw three men being taken away from the address.

"As part of an ongoing search at a property in Moss Side an evacuation is currently being carried in the area," police said in a statement.

On Friday, Britain"s most senior counter-terrorism officer said police were confident that they had made "immense" progress and had apprehended a "large part of the network". However, extra armed officers will be on duty across the country with security stepped up at some 1,300 events over the long holiday weekend.

The scope of the response to the Manchester attack has been dramatic, with the Times newspaper reporting on Saturday that intelligence officers had identified 23,000 jihahist extremists living in Britain. Earlier this week a source with knowledge of the matter told Reuters the security services were managing 500 active operations involving some 3,000 people who were thought to pose a threat.

An armed police officer at Manchester Piccadilly railway station

A concern for the UK, and perhaps explaining the reduction of the threat level, is that over the weekend there are a number of high-profile events including soccer cup finals in London and Glasgow, and the Great Manchester Run. However, Assistant Commissioner Mark Rowley, the UK police chief for counter-terrorism, advised people to be vigilant but to "go out as you planned and enjoy yourselves".

Meanwhile, the traditional blowback to these kinds of events has emerged, with Greater Manchester Police Chief Constable saying there had been a rise in reported hate crimes, from an average of 28 to 56 incidents on Wednesday even as the police and politicians praised communities in Manchester for their reaction to the bombing.  "We can"t directly link these to the events of Monday night and are continuing to monitor the situation," he said.

Also on Friday, political campaigning for the June 8 national election which was suspended after the Manchester attack resumed with the bombing becoming a central feature. The opposition Labour Party, emboldened by a rise in opinion polls, argued that Britain"s foreign policy had increased the risk of attacks and criticized Conservative Prime Minister Theresa May for cutting spending on policing. May said Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn was saying Britain was to blame for the bombing.

"I want to make one thing very clear to Jeremy Corbyn and to you, and it is that there can never, ever be an excuse for terrorism," she said at the G-7 meeting in Sicily. A recent poll on Thursday put May"s Conservatives five points ahead of Labour suggesting a far tighter race than previously anticipated, sending the British pound tumbling..

"London Bridge Is Down"

Authored by Raul Ilargi Meijer via The Automatic Earth blog,

The French election, won overnight by Emmanuel Macron, put several segments of the French population opposite one another in a pretty fierce contest. And that contest will continue. Because Macron won’t be able to lift the French economy out of its doldrums any more than Le Pen could have, or than Trump can life the US, and the new president will have the honor of presiding over a further and deepening downturn. The French political dividing line was aptly described by Simon Kuper recently:

The ultra-nationalist writer Charles Maurras believed there were “two Frances”. The one he loved was the “pays réel”, the real country: a rural France of church clocks, traditions and native people fused with their ancestral soil. Maurras loathed the “pays légal”, the legal country: the secular republic, which he thought was run by functionaries conspiring for alien interests.

Maurras was born in 1868 and died in 1952. But if he returned on Sunday to witness the French presidential run-off, he would instantly recognise both candidates. He would cast Emmanuel Macron as the incarnation of the “legal France” and Marine Le Pen as embodying the “real” one.

Maurras may have been a questionable character, but that description is not half bad. Once enough people in the country understand the failure of ‘legal’ France, they will want ‘real’ France back. That will be true in countries all over Europe; to a large extent it already is. Marine Le Pen summed up the key issue really well a few days ago when she said of the country post election: “France will be led by a woman, me or Mrs. Merkel.”

There is only one reason the French people would ever tolerate Germany having an outsized influence in their politics and economics: that they feel they benefit from it financially. And yes, if you put it that way, it’s already quite something that they haven’t revolted more and earlier.

The generous unemployment benefits are undoubtedly part of that. But those can’t last. And since the Germans owe their influence in Paris to the EU, it’s obvious how the French will feel they can stop that influence. And then the EU will turn out to be not a peacemaker, but the opposite.

Still, as much as France is divided, and as serious as that division is, the country is a shining beacon of unity compared to the UK, where the dividing lines are as manifold as they are laced with toxins. The snap election PM Theresa May called, in just over a month, can do nothing to resolve any of it. That means the EU can do what they want in the Brexit negotiations. Which will therefore be an unparalleled disaster for May and the UK.

The EU can and will ‘have its way’ with the UK for one simple reason: the United Kingdom is anything but United. It makes no difference what the EU does to the UK, the British won’t blame them for it. They will blame each other instead. No matter what happens these days, the British always know in advance who’s to blame, and it’s never themselves; it’s always another group of Brits.

The Tories are deeply divided between pro- and anti-Brexit forces. Labour is divided along those same lines, and adds pro- and anti-Corbyn sentiments for good measure. Other parties don’t really matter much, but they have similar dividing lines as well.

Anti-Corbyn Labour MPs have convinced themselves they know better than pro-Corbyn party members. They’ve kept claiming for so long that Corbyn is unelectable it’s become a self-fulfilling prophecy. They’ll be lucky not to face the fate of their former brethren in François Hollande’s Parti Socialiste, who ended up with just 6% of the vote in the 1st round of the French elections.

PM Theresa May called the snap election for June 8 to hide some of the divisions behind, to make them appear less relevant, or even to profit from them and grab more power. But the very fact that Brexit was voted in, already makes the election nigh irrelevant.

Whoever wins, and it looks certain to be May herself. will open themselves to being scapegoated in a big way. Which won’t keep them from seeking victory, because the loser can expect the same fate. The trenches have been dug, and deeply. Governable? Don’t count on it. It feels more like 40 years later we’re back to Johnny Rotten ‘singing’ Anarchy in the UK.

If May threatens to leave the EU ‘cold’ and trigger a ‘Hard Brexit’, she will simultaneously trigger a whole lot more, and much wider, divisions in the country (or is that countries?!), and that’s even without mentioning an entire minefield of legal, and potentially constitutional, issues. The latter especially because Britain doesn’t have an actual -written- constitution.

For Brussels, it’s easy pickings, and pick they will. This week, they casually raised the UK’s cost of leaving the EU to €100 billion, from estimates varying from €40 billion to €60 billion before. Paddy Power and its equally powerful bookie ilk soon won’t be taking any bets below, say, €150 billion. In that regard, and many others, the EU will do to the UK what it is doing to Greece.

The only way to stand up against that is to show a common front. But there will be no such thing in the Divided Kingdom, not for a long time. Everyone has their favorite scapegoat, for some it’s Nigel Farage, for others David Cameron, George Osborne, Tony Blair, Jeremy Corbyn or Theresa May. And nobody is going to leave their blame trenches. They’re the only places they feel somewhat comfortable, less scared, in.

Theresa May, if the polls are to be believed -and given the divisions we might for once-, will have to sit down and negotiate with the multi-headed Hydra that is the EU, ‘strengthened’ by a major election victory, but she will find it the ultimate Pyrrhic victory, because Brussels will have a ball playing her divided ‘nation’.

Scotland can probably easily be seduced with the carrot of EU membership, but more importantly, Juncker and his people can cast doubt on the entire Brexit vote, and they will have many interested takers.

The Brexit negotiations will take at least 2 years. But it could be 3 or 4 years, who knows? May has no power over that durationm unless she walks. She won’t. And as things are drawn out, Juncker et al have all the time and opportunities they want to tell both May and the British public that Brussels has no intention of punishing them, but will have to do so anyway.

After all, Brexit is a threat to the entire European project, and all the leaders of the 27 remaining nations, as well as the vast majority of their domestic opposition parties, are behind that project, no questions asked. And the many thousands of people working their very well-paid jobs in Brussels and Strasbourg are not too critical either.

All in all, the British need to wake up and smell the roses as long as there are any left, and before they have been replaced with less savory odors. Or they will have to seriously wonder whether the Kingdom, united or not, can outlive the Queen, aka the London Bridge.

*  *  *

“London Bridge is Down” was recently revealed as the secret UK government code for the moment the Queen dies.

US-UK Trade Talks To Begin Immediately In Defiance Of EU Rules: What's Trump Up To?

Submitted by Mike Shedlock via MishTalk.com,

Congratulations to UK prime minister Theresa May for poking a finger into the eyes of EU nannycrats.

EU rules say members cannot negotiate trade deals until exit from the block is finalized, but you can kiss that rule goodbye.

The Wall Street Journal reports British PM Theresa May Says U.K.-U.S. Trade Talks to Begin Immediately.

High-level talks between the U.S. and the U.K. on strengthening trade ties will begin immediately, Downing Street said Saturday, following British Prime Minister Theresa May’s meeting with President Donald Trump in Washington on Friday.

Mrs. May’s office said a team of U.S. and U.K. officials would start scoping out what can be achieved together before the U.K. exits the European Union. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who Mrs. May met in Ankara on Saturday, made a similar commitment to increase trade links with the U.K.

The British leader has said the U.K. is reshaping its role in the world as it leaves the EU, including by renewing its relationship with both new allies and longstanding ones. But her trip to Washington and Ankara prompted criticism from some opposition lawmakers, who said she was cozying up to leaders whose values didn’t align with those in Britain.

Mrs. May on Saturday declined to comment on Mr. Trump’s executive order on refugees, saying the U.S. policy on immigration is a matter for the U.S. This prompted criticism from opposition lawmakers.

Jeremy Corbyn, leader of the Labour Party, said Mrs. May should have stood up for Britain by condemning Mr. Trump’s order. “It should sadden our country that she chose not to,” he said.

Tom Brake, a Liberal Democrat lawmaker, said of Mrs. May’s reaching out to Mr. Trump and Mr. Erdogan: “This is a deeply alarming sign of her priorities for diplomacy in post-Brexit Britain,” Mr. Brake said. The pro-EU Liberal Democrats said Mrs. May is seeking trade deals with “unsavory leaders.”

While the U.K. is in preliminary talks on trade in more than a dozen countries, under EU law, the U.K. can’t finalize any trade deals with other countries while still a member of the bloc.

The U.K. has tested the limits of that rule. Over lunch at the White House on Friday, Mrs. May and Mr. Trump agreed to maintain the same trading relationship the U.S. currently has with the U.K. in the immediate aftermath of Brexit to ensure stability for businesses, Downing Street said. Mr. Trump has said he wants to agree as soon as possible to a trade deal with the U.K.

Testing the Limits or Clear Violation?

It’s hard to say why Theresa May cozied up to Erdogan (simple defiance of the EU? NATO?) , but it makes sense to start trade negotiations with the US now.

Working out a deal now to be signed the moment Brexit is official seems more like a violation of rules as opposed to “testing the limits”.

Regardless, what the hell can the EU do about it?

Yesterday, the Financial Times reported Theresa May will not find it easy to broker a US-UK trade deal … “British agriculture and financial services may suffer at hands of Capitol Hill”.

That all depends on what Trump’s primary motive is doesn’t it?

If Trump wants to assist in the collapse of the EU, he might be willing to give the UK a very favorable deal.