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The least honest lowest quality Government Britain has ever had in democratic times.

The weakest, least principled, least honest, poorest quality crop of MPs & Cabinet that the UK has had since the start of the 20th Century. This Cabinet is the lowest calibre & weakest in my lifetime (I’m 48) but the 43% did vote for them. The Independent Group / Change UK / independent Conservatives / Lib Dem joiners failed but they demonstrated principles, leadership & political bravery in great abundance. Matching when Roy Jenkins famously lost Warrington for the SDP doing the right thing in trying to modernise British politics & challenge the extremes. Their vanquishers have sold out our country to the agenda of Putin & Trump, backed by 45.6% of the people who voted. But at least the Tory MPs can cut and paste tweets & maybe in this magical season there will be a miracle & Boris Johson will actually keep a promise he’s made

 

[This post was in response to seeing a flurry of inane copy paste tweets from new Tory MPs celebrating Britain leaving the European Union and claiming this bunch of unprincipled carpetbaggers were trying to bring people together.]

Did all Tory MPs get this tosh to parrot, the equivalent of New Labour paging soundbites. They started the populism but by God this Boris Johnson Farage-Brexit-UKIP Tory Party is putting the boot into Britain and Europe for the delight of Trump and Putin

It really is a carbon copy of New Labour pushing lines by pager but far worse. Populism yes like Labour but for these Johnson Farage-Brexit-UKIP Conservatives it is in the service of Putin, Trump & billionaire tax exiles who have thrice fooled most voters

Other tweets on the same theme:
Even in a small town in rural Uzbekistan an English teacher who loves Britain could not understand how Britain could do this to itself, the same sad, baffled, reaction from our friends abroad I’ve found everywhere in Europe.

 

Both men [talking about honours for Iain Duncan Smith and Zack Goldsmith] have though (backed by most voting public) inflicted the greatest national humiliation on Britain & damage to peace & prosperity in Europe since Munich. All of us suffer the consequences (& benefits if any happen & unicorns fly). [It is the worst British defeat since Dunkirk, and self-inflicted by a section of the British people].

 

And the peace and security, progress and increased living standards across Europe endangered by profiteers and populism. Labour lost when they accepted referendum ‘won’ by lies fraud & tax exile propaganda. Which did same against them this time

 

Tweets from December 20 – 31 2019.

Original tweet thread here: https://twitter.com/KironReid/status/1208118332316114944

Examples include: https://twitter.com/KironReid/status/1212068343034908672

Kiron ReidLeave a comment

Volunteer observers at the UK election.

What I was doing in London in the days before the UK General Election.
Delighted to join the briefing for some of the SDAI international & British election observers, volunteer professional independent observers for the UK General Election. This Canadian based NGO, Sustainable Development Assistance International, has US, Canadian and British directors. SDAI is made up of experienced international election observers. Impromptu venue the Sussex Arms, near Paddington, looked after us well. Even if the back room looked like the rather glitzy nightclub type function rooms of Ukrainian bars or model tv playing breakfast rooms often used for briefings in other countries where we work.
Informative presentations on the election by Dr Frands Pedersen of the University of Westminster (we were delighted three of his year 3 students joined us for the briefing); Alfred Dubs, Lord Dubs, an honour & pleasure to meet the inspirational campaigner Alf Dubs who gave up an hour of his very busy schedule campaigning and clearly enjoyed communicating and informing. Plus Paul Wesson, Anthony Robinson, Chris Cuninghame, Megan McKenzie, Paul Simon & our coordinator, Karen Reinhardt. Along with excellent clear handbooks, codes and guidance by the UK Electoral Commission. As I agreed with my friend Paul Salter it was worth coming to London just to hear Lord Dubs, but also to see professional friends & new colleagues. A principled campaigner in support of refugees, like Liverpool’s own Eleanor Rathbone was in the 1930s and 1940s, Dubs is a very engaging, fair, speaker and pleasure to listen to. A real twinkle in his eye despite all the serious matters to deal with.

SDAI: https://www.sdai-aidd.ca/ (SDAI-AIDD in English & French Canadian)
A year ago, when I wrote about this subject on my website and in fairly critical comments, there were 250 observers registered with the Electoral Commission, including from Government departments, some dozens of international ones (including a Ukrainian NGO I hadn’t then heard of but did since), individuals, academics, Stowe school reps, and the largest UK group, Democracy Volunteers. Now there are over 1100 on the Commission’s register of accredited observers. So more of a chance, albeit a slight one, that election staff, party workers and volunteers, and members of the public might see people engaged in election observation. Of course with professional international missions a focus is on long term observation, not only polling day, but it is still good to have people taking the trouble to look out for democratic standards.
Postscript, after the election. 31 December. Catching up having returned from observing the election in Uzbekistan. A few days earlier, on our UK E-Day I accompanied a US observer from Canadian based civil society organisation, SDAI-AIDD to observe at polling stations in Liverpool & Sefton & the Liverpool counts. While I’m critical of the UK electoral system I’m happy to say that all the polling station staff at 15 polling stations Sam Burgess, of California, & I visited were friendly, cooperative and professional. And the counts were well run. Electoral services at Sefton Council (Sefton MBC) & Liverpool City Council did a great job.

Kiron Reid1 Comment

How much money have British households spent stocking up on food and consumer goods because of the previous abortive Brexit deadlines?

‘How much money have British households spent stocking up on food and consumer goods because of the previous abortive Brexit deadlines?’ https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/how_much_money_have_british_hous via @whatdotheyknow to @DExEUgov

 

We’re keeping our Brexit box and cupboard stocked as we have done for more than a year as we don’t trust this dishonest and incompetent Government one bit.

Kiron Reid1 Comment

How many British citizens will likely lose their jobs in European Union institutions & agencies because of Brexit?

‘How many British citizens will likely lose their jobs in European Union institutions & agencies because of Brexit?’ https://whatdotheyknow.com/request/how_many_british_citizens_will_l via @whatdotheyknow
Latest request to @DExEUgov
Will they be able to answer this one? (a first)

It seems clear that our Farage / Boris Conservative Party politicians, and the 43.5% that voted for them do not care about the effect of leaving the EU on British citizens who live or work in Europe and want to be able to continue having the freedom to do so. Here are my latest questions to the Quitters and Quislings’ thankless department, the poor slaves of the Department for Exiting the European Union.