Apech

So if I have this right, today while thousands of people in Mozambique who have lost everything die of cholera, in Westminster 650 of the most brilliant privileged minds meet for the third time to give an 'unmeaningful vote' on May's deal which they have already rejected meaningfully twice. Having already said: no to 'no deal' no to a public vote no to a customs union no to common market 2.0 no to Canada plus no to Norway plus no to revoking Art. 50 which can be summed up as Parliament taking back control. I think that's about it.

Fair do's he kept his socks on and I respect that.

Why would MPs be more likely to vote for her deal if May resigns? I really don't get the logic of that, if there is any.

Hi, Good question. The word 'politics' comes from old words meaning 'city', like Latin 'polis' and Sanskrit 'pur' and a city originally is a walled enclosure for defence. When people live in cities they develop politics - and this is because we are constrained by the walls (made for mutual protection) into close relation whether we like it or not. So there has to be a way to deal with the fact that we have individual wills and contain a great deal of historical 'material' - subconscious forces, memories and so on which influence us, make us into a jumble in fact - and yet we need to act together. Hence the need of rulers from the earliest times to use images and slogans and so on to affect the minds of the masses. So politics as practiced is often a sham of covered up truths, power plays and manipulation. It is dangerous waters to step in. Because of the suppression of instinct and naturalness usually politicos work on hating the other. This is particularly true at the moment where there is a big divide between conservatives and liberals. Working in anger and hate is ultimately harmful because it generates bad chemicals in the body which lead to disease. However, you talk about meaning - and this is key - finding something you value and working towards it is important to a person and if those things you find important involve working with others - if you are convinced it is a good thing - then you should work towards it - but while you do - watch the process and its effect on yourself and others - and you might find through educating yourself through experience that even higher ideals emerge like compassion and understanding for instance. Just my thoughts

Last time I was philosophising about life and death, someone said 'cheer up, it could be worse' - so I did and it was.

I think Manchester counts as north of Watford. I was only saying she was competent and had skills. I don't like her or her policies. And i find 'heinous witch' to be insulting - to witches

Here is a list of British premiers since 1945 -- five from the Labour Party and nine from the Conservatives. 1945-1951: Clement Atlee (Labour) 1951-1955: Winston Churchill (Conservative) 1955-1957: Anthony Eden (Conservative) 1957-1963: Harold Macmillan (Conservative) 1963-1964: Alec Douglas-Home (Conservative) 1964-1970: Harold Wilson (Labour) 1970-1974: Edward Heath (Conservative) 1974-1976: Harold Wilson (Labour) 1976-1979: James Callaghan (Labour) 1979-1990: Margaret Thatcher (Conservative) 1990-1997: John Major (Conservative) 1997-2007: Tony Blair (Labour) 2007-2010: Gordon Brown (Labour) 2010-2016: David Cameron (Conservative) 2016- : Theresa May (Conservative). For reflection

Thatcher was competent and had leadership skills - even if you don't like her policies you have to respect her. May on the other hand has little to recommend her apart from a certain stubbornness. We have had far worse PMs such as Anthony Eden by the way.

they all have very large families and really believe in British values. (didn't want to let you down)

I enjoy Hancock for the same reason you seem to loathe him. Although I do recall throwing Fingerprints of the Gods across the room in exasperation. But I'll still watch him on Rogan when he appears.

We knew that the Guardian would not let us down ... Art 50: The Sound of Britain review – can art stop the Brexit madness? "So we got glimpses of London hip-hop dance company Boy Blue’s projectREBEL (one of whose members is still too young to vote), which is about finding your voice and not being paralysed by fear and hostility; and of Birmingham’s DanceXchange performing the multimedia palimpsest piece they had developed from interviews with local people in an area that voted to leave by the slimmest of all regional margins. There were hints of the extraordinary, powerful things they were doing with their bodies, and the stories they were telling, but never enough to hang together. Even allowing for the fact that these were essentially functioning as trailers (you were directed to links to follow to the full performance), they weren’t done justice." .... "The chief creators of the collaborative projects, who had already been seen talking eloquently about them in their individual sections, were gathered together to go over almost exactly the same ground at the end. This ensured that the programme finished on a dying fall rather than taking the energy it had almost gathered in the run-up and using it to galvanise viewers – or at least induce a brief cessation in the sobs of despair that are the evening companions of so many of us by the time we have drunk of another day’s headlines. But on the other hand, how very Brexit – to squander what you have and leave people no better off in your wake." https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2019/mar/25/art-50-the-sound-of-britain-review

Your youtube channel is a bit disappointing - some of those are from 11 years ago!

You could sign this one: https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/229963 it just asks for name, post code and email.

Seems like legit site to me - here's a link so you and Chang can sign up https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/241584

Just to back up my Nanny State argument - I read daily about the UK police arresting or interrogating people for what they post on twitter and so on. I find this genuinely frightening - and god knows what would happen if Labour got into power. Just for comparison I live in a European country with a constitution protects my free speech even as a foreigner living here: After the Christchurch shooting in NZ someone who was titled 'head of censorship' banned the showing of the video and the 'manifesto' issued by the shooter. In so called free commonwealth countries this is what we have now. And what is the protection for the individual - nothing. https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/arrests-for-offensive-facebook-and-twitter-posts-soar-in-london-a7064246.html Welcome to the nanny state.

Well! I am a herdling for thinking for myself - interesting conclusion. I asked about free speech because Patrick seemed to be questioning whether people might genuinely express themselves via an online petition. Seems only natural to me. I seem to remember many Marxist parties calling themselves 'democratic' as per North Korea for instance. From my point of view individual liberty - free speech, assembly, religion ... whatever... comes first and democracy second, as it is just the mechanism by which we prevent the former being taken away. This despite the fact that our current so called conservative government seems hell bent on restricting our rights whenever possible. It does puzzle me why people think Brexit is going to make us freer when it is our own home grown political parties who enforce PC rules and legislation on a daily basis. Nanny state Britain awaits you.

Have you got any evidence for the fixing of the referendum result! ? ! It seems to me it was correct (and the polls seem to reflect this). As I have said before I am resigned to accepting the result and leaving because that's what most people want but that doesn't change the fact that many people want to remain - and to ask them to just shut up is a bit odd to be honest. My problem with the present moment is that it is a mess and leaving in a mess without what appears to be a properly run government seems a bit risky to say the least. I would prefer to leave in proper order.

But, but 48% wanted to remain - do you expect them to just be silent. Why shouldn't they express themselves? What happened to free speech?

Of course - I didn't want to disappoint you - I'd sign anything.

So given that 16m people voted Remain you think it is inconceivable that 4/5 m of them might click an online petition? And death threats to an old granny - that's fine? Don't you think it might have something to do with the clusterfuck at the House of Commons and just that a great many people are sick of it all and want it to stop? and this is their way of expressing it.

https://www.euronews.com/2019/03/23/meet-the-grandmother-behind-the-record-breaking-petition-to-reverse-brexit?fbclid=IwAR05XtXzsRdWhhwpP3psJvjsO4adAGd7qxP2KMcq30QIIjtwhYOps-AP-hM

mea culpa. I was chatting to Michael and Hancocks new book came up - so I posted it here.

Expats like me who have lived abroad for less than 15 years can still vote in the UK - so over seas emails does not invalidate necessarily.