Pity they didn’t feel accountable to the electorate when they invaded Iraq. They werent, in the sense that everybody knew the Tories were as bad on that and worse on everything else.
But then people ran out of reasons to vote labour. It didn’t keep the bad men away.
Party identification rather than policy voting sucks.
And conversely, joining the party on the eve of its Leadership election doesn’t magically entitle you to tell other people’s chosen representatives what to stand for.
Thank you! 
Well, actually it does. Labour Party membership is and has been open to anyone, so if you or anyone else was keen on influencing the leadership vote, that was your democratic opportunity–you just had to grab it and pay £3 into the pot.
Are you proposing some new rules in regard to who can become a voting LP member or some arbitrary timescales for earning the right to vote?
I wasn’t a LP member at the time of the leadership election (I had cancelled my membership because I was fed up with the utterly undemocratic shenanigans of LP decision making by apparatchiks–the EU could take a leaf out of that book) but I was able to vote as a paying member of one of the Socialist Society and that vote was my first experience of anything even remotely resembling a democratic process in relation to the Labour Party. There is a good reason why the Corbyn LP has doubled its membership.
Actually, Jaguar (together with Rover) belongs to Tata, which is an Indian car manufacturer. Bentley, on the other hand, belongs to Volkswagen, and Rolls Royce belongs to (tadaa!) BMW. There are very few British car companies left in British hands (Aston Martin and MG come to mind).
That wasn’t so much “compromise” as “selling your arse for a handful of magic beans”. The LibDems were punished for incompetence.
MG is Chinese owned.
BMW doesn’t really own RR, they license the brand name and logo from RR Plc.
VW bought the old RR factory as part of the Bentley purchase.
Not at all. Just reminding you that party members have many powers, such as selecting Labour candidates to run in parliamentary elections, but no democratic legitimacy to tell elected MPs what to stand for.
A Labour MP faithfully representing her constituents might disagree with Corbyn’s platform. Come next election Labour party may select a different candidate for her seat. And the constituents might not elect that candidate. And that’s democracy.
OK.
The Rolls-Royce company basically went bankrupt in the early 1970s and was nationalized and subsequently split into the car manufacturer part and the aircraft engine manufacturer part. At the end of the 1980s, the aircraft engine manufacturer part was reprivatised as “Rolls-Royce plc” while the car manufacturer part went to Vickers (together with a license to use the brand for cars) and from there to Volkswagen which foolishly neglected to obtain a license for the name, even though they had secured rights to use the grille and the figurine. The right to use the name went to BMW instead.
Rolls-Royce (the original company) had bought the Bentley company in 1931, and Volkswagen agreed with BMW that Bentley as well as the actual car factory would stay with Volkswagen while BMW would start building cars that looked like Rolls-Royces and be called that, too. So technically BMW doesn’t “own” Rolls-Royce, but if you buy a new Rolls-Royce today that car is basically a BMW that is even more expensive than regular BMWs.
All of this only goes to prove that the British car industry doesn’t need lobbyists to hold its own in the EU against continental auto makers since virtually all “British” cars are actually made by EU-based (if not Indian or Chinese) companies already. The British economy these days is much more service-oriented, as opposed to manufacturing-oriented, than it used to be, and it is unlikely that, for example, London will remain as important a financial centre as it is today if the UK actually leaves the EU. Here in Frankfurt, Germany, the office space surplus will probably not last too long as EU banks relocate from London to here, which is an observation that should really not be lost on Boris Johnson, either.
I’m a Scot, I want to stay in the EU but exit the UK.
It’s difficult to tell how to play this, my inclination is to stay in the EU but if a brexit forced another referendum and a quick application to join the EU as an independent nation-state… I’d prefer that outcome. But winning that vote so soon after the disappointment (and underhand shenanigans) of the last referendum could prove difficult.
Of course, the majority of people who voted ‘no’ in the referendum don’t care about the nuances of EU membership, they just want to stay fixed to England because we ‘always’ have been and ‘that’s what’s best for us’. I’m not sure quite how obviously dire our circumstances would have to be to sway such informed opinion.
I think another yes campaign could find the crucial 5 or 6% of the vote, but the obstructionist mindset, grounded in some rosy fantasy of the UK will continue to hold sway with a large percentage of Scots regardless of what evidence is proffered. I don’t foresee any consequences swaying that kind of attitude whatsoever, it’s just not evidence-based.
I know.
India isn’t part of the EU, so that wouldn’t help Jaguar. BMW and Mercedes would have the German government supporting them in the committees that set the rules, but Jaguar wouldn’t have anyone.
Aston Martin is 37% Italian owned, but I’m not sure the Italian government would be that interested in backing them in negotiations.
There’s also Nissan, Honda and Toyota with large factories in the UK - big enough for the UK government to want to support them in EU committees. For Honda and Nissan, the UK factories are, I think, their only major car assembly plants in Europe. Nissan could rely on Renault to lobby for them, but it would be harder for Honda and possibly Toyota.
Why not? Corbyn got plenty of votes from life long members as well as new supporters anyway. He trounced the other candidates because everyone was pig sick of Blairism and rightly so.
I think Morgan & Ariel might be the only 100% British owned car brands that people have at least heard of. Of course they are hardly mainstream manufacturers. From what I have heard Tata have done a good job at JLR- financially supporting without too much meddling.
yes and no. I don’t think Clegg sold out anymore than any other UK politician on either side of the divide. e.g. Blair and friends.
But Clegg’s demeanour does have something distinctly European, non-adversarial about it. He is far less skilled in the fine arts of posturing than the rest, and English voters love their Farage…
In summary, I wish Charles Kennedy could have tamed his demon. UK politics would have been different. Also why do all the good ones die? Mo Mowlan, Robin Cook did bring some integrity and intellectual rigour to the sell out that was the Labour Party 
Your human rights would not be violated by Brexit in any way that I can conceive, unless you can claim to be a national (but not citizen) of some other EU country. In which case, you should try to get citizenship in that other country now.
One might argue that you would additionally need to in some sense not be a British national, despite being a UK citizen. For otherwise, you would not have been deprived of some nationality. I.e. you would not be stateless. But I will not go that far.
P.S. To honor the customs of your people, I have removed the comma from after my i.e. Grudgingly.
Maybe this can help you decide:
http://www.piie.com/publications/interviews/interview.cfm?ResearchID=2921#.VstFlaYaEi9.twitter
very much doubt it. if the Euro Crises hasn’t destroyed the EU, it’s highly unlikely Cameron’s posturing will. The thing is, that for most of Europe the English question is not very high on the agenda. I doubt Angela Merkel is loosing too much sleep over it while trying to integrate 1 Million refugees.
Saving the EU by voting Brexit doesn’t sound like a particularly effective strategy.
I’m pretty sure border controls are not under the purview of the Stormont executive, so the opinion of the DUP wouldn’t be particularly relevant. I can’t see strict border controls coming into place if the UK leaves. The CTA (common travel area) that currently exists in the UK, Isle of Man, Channel Islands and Ireland would remain in place, as it is a bilateral agreement between Ireland and the UK and has nothing to do with the EU.
Britain could of course decide to annul the agreement, but I can’t see why they would want to, bad for the economy and bad for the political situation in the North.
Interestingly Ireland has passport checks when arriving from British airports (and some checks via ferry), but the UK does not check travelers from Ireland at all, that could conceivable change, but would only be a minor inconvenience (as they’d just be ensuring one had an Irish or UK passport).
Not sure what you mean by this.
In most respects Britain outside of the EU would interact with Ireland in much the same way. Certainly in respect to the movement of people, as has been pointed out in this thread already. It’s also worth remembering that there are around 300,000 people from the UK who live and work in Ireland as well, so any attempts from the UK to change things around would effect those people as well, and that would not be a good idea politically - to put it mildly. In terms of other things like social welfare, voting in elections, things would also remain the same as they are now because these agreements are not based on the EU.
The only big change would be trade, but given that both governments on either side of the Irish Sea are economically liberal (and will likely remain so after the upcoming elections), I can’t foresee much problems in quickly hammering out a free trade agreement. The UK has had a problem with our low rate of corporation tax in the past, so that might be the only sticking point.
I think Ireland mostly wants the UK to remain in Europe because we have similar views on how Europe should be run. Ireland does not want to see a european super state any more than the UK does, so it’s important to the small like minded nations (the Dutch, Estonians, etc.) to have someone like Britain around to keep a check on the French and the Germans.
Ireland could actually see some benefits from the UK leaving though, it would make a very good entry point for the UK market for european companies for example - much like US companies use us for in terms of europe generally (and even more so for Scotland in the case of independance there).
A bilateral agreement would be problematic because because Ireland would still be bound by the EU Customs Union. However I would expect the UK to stay in the EEA and EUCU at least (or negotiate a unique agreement that amounts to the same thing.) You can’t risk hurting the precious economy after all.
