Labour's policy is to remain in the EU but negotiate a better reform package

On BBC Question Time yesterday Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell said that Labour's policy is to remain in the EU but negotiate a better reform package than David Cameron.

Admittedly the David Cameron package was a dud.

But the idea that the Labour party would get anything better is not credible.

In reality, Jeremy Corbyn is stuck with a parliamentary party that does not represent the membership and yet will not allow the leadership to campaign for LEAVE.

Therefore we have this wholly ignominious situation where Jeremy Corbyn pretends to be in favour of staying in, and his parliamentary party pretends to support him.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b072fpn3

This leader in the Daily Telegraph is worth reading more than once:  http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/eureferendum/12183729/Our-pompous-bigoted-elite-have-not-even-bothered-to-consider-the-case-for-Brexit.html

David Cameron's Dodgy Dossier on relations with the EU

The publication of David Cameron's Dodgy Dossier on relations with the EU should the United Kingdom leave makes assumptions that are not credible:

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/david-cameron-accused-of-releasing-dodgy-dossier-in-support-of-eu-membership-a6906816.html

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3473952/Fury-camp-s-latest-dodgy-dossier-Philip-Hammond-sparks-outrage-claiming-campaigners-secretly-content-sacrifice-British-jobs-regain-borders.html

The assumption made in the Dodgy Dossier is that there would be severe implications for British trade should the EU choose to get nasty.

In reality we have a very attractive trade relationship with the EU, our imports vastly greater than our exports.

If for some insane reason the EU decides it does not want to maintain that trading relationship with the United Kingdom all we have to do is say to the other trading blocs in the world "hey rest of the world, there are billions and billions of pounds worth of trade for you - all you have to do is match the current arrangements we have with the EU and the trade is yours - oh and the first bloc to get the trade arrangements in place gets the deal".

Don't you think the other blocs in the world will fall over themselves to take the EU's place?

Danny Finkelstein on the Daily Politics was indulging chav-hate

On Daily Politics this lunchtime non-Conservative Conservative peer Danny Finkelstein claimed that tolerance, cohesion and international peace depend on prosperity:  http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006mjxb

The remarks went unchallenged.

And yet they are incredible.

Is he really saying that only comfortably-off middle class people are tolerant, cohesive and peaceful?

My parents, grandparents and great-grandparents (and so on back into the past at least as far as the mid-eighteenth century) lived in the East End in conditions that were poor and without significant economic assets.

And yet they were a respectable law-abiding family, among similar respectable law-abiding families, and they formed a cohesive society that was completely at ease with their patriotic self-identity.

Danny Finkelstein on the Daily Politics was indulging chav-hate in making a link between economic wealth and civilised behaviour.

How dare the French president threaten the British people with "consequences"

Why are we giving £17 million to sort out problems in France?

Is France some kind of shitty third world country that cannot manage its own affairs and needs financial handouts?

And how dare the French president threaten the British people with "consequences" if the EU referendum does not produce the result he wants.

And what sort of pathetic Chamberlain-like prime minister is Cameron that he just stands there while the United Kingdom is threatened.

The people in the "jungle" near Calais have nothing to do with the United Kingdom - they are entirely (ENTIRELY) a French problem.

Any attempt to "weaponise" these people and send them into our territory will be a hostile act by France against the United Kingdom and should be met with a proportionate reaction against France.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-eu-referendum-35712463

Did Hollande learn from Putin the idea of weaponising migrants?  http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/syria/12180073/Nato-chief-Vladimir-Putin-weaponising-refugee-crisis-to-break-Europe.html  http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/news/uk/article4704478.ece

Agnes Poirier tells us it is "obvious" that the border with France is in Kent.

Actually Ms Poirier the border is half-way along the Channel Tunnel - you need to ponder the consequences for the tunnel if your country continues to weaponise the migrants in your territory.

And can you please explain Ms Poirier why the migrants in Calais do not want to remain in France?

Is it possible that your country poses as a tolerant and welcoming and humane country but in reality is just as nasty and zenophobic and cruel as it was under Marshal Pétain?

https://twitter.com/AgnesCPoirier