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Seems like there was a kind of “liberal consensus” in the UK too, then, in the postwar period?
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Labour, Conservative and Liberal all saw the importance of the Beveridge report
Even Winston Churchill had a universal healthcare system planned if he had won the 1945 General Election. The Tories were the first to forget it’s importance when Margaret Thatcher won in 1979, but what was surprising was that it was Labour, not the LibDems, who were the next to abandon it. Now it seems like none of the major parties would support it today, except maybe the SNP.
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It’s like for a second there after the war, everyone was like… “maybe we can have a civilized society”… didn’t last long… Fucking neoliberalism…
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Yes, it was even given the satirical name “Butskellism” after Rab Butler and Hugh Gaitskell, two “moderates” from the Labour and Tory parties who would have been largely at home in either.
We got thirty good years, the same as France.
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Retired Florida man waffling about things he has no idea about.
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Tough choice for the day.
You have a rocket to Pluto with only two seats. Which of these three arseholes stays on Earth?
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Bolting a third seat to the outside of the rocket sounds like a good plan.
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Normally I don’t cross post between here and the Brexit thread but this, I think, goes beyond Brexit.
This response makes a mockery of any pretense of accountability that parliament keeps up. JRM is openly laughing at the idea of being held accountable.
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British security forces colluded with terrorists in the 70s to murder a cabaret band and are paying out money now in civil suits.
Just a reminder they are still trying to give British agents immunity for murders of civilians.
They have already delayed justice for decades and are continue to drag their heels after simply covering up and lying from the start.
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After reading the article (and looking at wikipedia)… why were they targeted by the UVF in the first place? Was it because the band had both Catholic and Protestant members? Were there some sort of rumors about band members supporting the IRA? Like… fucking WHY? 
At least there is a settlement now, but the damage can’t be undone.
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Because they were doing a favour for a particularly notorious British army officer, spy, murderer, and torturer. His name is in the parliamentary record.
When spies get involved anything can happen rheir webs of deceit entangle even themselves.
The IRA’s internal discipline/murder wing operated and was run by British intelligence for some years, getting rid of people military intelligence found awkward. It’s one of the early discoveries of the peace process. We always knew they were the loyalist terrorists, that they were republican terrorists was something of a surprise
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And another one - This one has photos -
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But why target the band is what I’m trying to grok? What was the connection between the band members he wanted targeted and the British officer that he believed necessitated their assassination? From what I can gather they were just musicians… what am I missing?
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There’s a bunch of theories about the motives for the killings.
One is that the security services and / or loyalist terror groups were trying to make it look as if the showband was smuggling bombs for the IRA , and justify harsher border measures.
Another theory is that the attack was a targeted assassination of one of the protestant members of the band, for not collaborating with the loyalist terrorists.
Yet another is that it was a plot by the security services to exacerbate tensions between the UK government and Ireland, sabotaging the Wilson government’s attempts to revive some form of power sharing after the collapse of the Sunningdale agreement.
Whatever it was, there’s evidence of deep collusion between the security services and loyalist terrorists, which is yet another thing that this awful proposal of a mass amnesty for British troops and spies will excuse and brush under the carpet.
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You know the way the English Tory government is seeking to limit judicial review? Here’s why:
The days when they’d surround a neighbourhood with armoured cars and helicopters and sweep through it smashing everything and dragging the men off to prison without trial have never actually had consequences for them.
Apart from promotion of course. A sitting Tory MP has admitted to torturing people in Northern Ireland. I mean he laughed it off as… well, why wouldn’t he?
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So now we see what Labour’s lead in the polls actually means.
I don’t think that Lab-SNP coalition is going to happen for some reason. That would be too much like socialism for Sir Keir, and the SNP hate Labour and have good reasons for it.
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