tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2440117683736860632.post7047413666702805660..comments2023-08-31T15:14:58.287-07:00Comments on London Green Left Blog: Brexit Backlash as Scotland and London look to IndependenceMike Shaughnessyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16796480031110991460noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2440117683736860632.post-30346633972769985382016-06-28T07:32:48.069-07:002016-06-28T07:32:48.069-07:00(I wish I was not the only respondent to this blog...(I wish I was not the only respondent to this blog, but anyhow...)<br /><br />The currently 'most read and in the news' item on the website of the Daily Record (Glasgow) is: <a href="http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/politics/scotland-not-you-down-please-8300454#eP2fRlrKgFx0CCwT.97" rel="nofollow">MEP wins standing ovation for emotional speech to Europe</a><br /><br />Dude Swheatie of KwugKilburn Unemployed Workers Grouphttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17281633520479831796noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2440117683736860632.post-50228454166987952722016-06-25T05:42:33.712-07:002016-06-25T05:42:33.712-07:00In terms of potential negotiation for London's...In terms of potential negotiation for London's terms of EU membership, what would be the 'conditionality'? The UK's introduction of Jobseekers Allowance -- as opposed to Unemployment Benefit -- in 1996 was along the lines of the EU's 'Active Labour Market Policies' and promotion of 'workfare' schemes -- 'work for your benefits' -- that weaken the power of organised labour with no real benefit to 'participants'. The conditionality that benefit claimants are subjected to tends to increase to the point where -- albeit through the agency of privatisation of 'welfare to work' schemes, people deemed to be unpatriotic dissidents are treated by The State as dysfunctional. (Rather than the system being so.) <a href="https://scottishunemployedworkers.net/2016/06/22/psycho-coercion-and-workfare-fighting-back/" rel="nofollow">Psycho-coercion and workfare: fighting back</a><br /><br /><a href="http://kilburnunemployed.blogspot.co.uk/2016/06/fao-bishops-councils-and-company-ceos-subject-depths-of-uk-poverty.html" rel="nofollow">The depth of UK poverty are disgusting to human decency and compassion.</a> and the impact of a global housing market and laundered money on non-homeowner Londoners deepens the socio-economic divisions in London.<br /><br />I wonder: given the way that the IMF and other financial institutions have trampled on democracy in Poland, post-apartheid South Africa, etc, might not the UK's EU referendum results turn out to be part of a conspiracy furthering what Naomi Klein has called 'disaster capitalism' in her book 'The Shock Doctrine'?Kilburn Unemployed Workers Grouphttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17281633520479831796noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2440117683736860632.post-35899617763820194272016-06-25T04:26:52.085-07:002016-06-25T04:26:52.085-07:00In such a polarised Yes/No vote as the UK's EU...In such a polarised Yes/No vote as the UK's EU referendum that was heavily loaded in terms of the conditionality of the UK's EU membership, there are broad disparities as to why people and regions voted the ways they did.<br /><br />An EU national within the Kilburn Unemployed Workers Group has written of her experience of being excluded from this vote. <a href="http://kilburnunemployed.blogspot.co.uk/2016/06/eu-can-i-stay-or-must-i-go.html" rel="nofollow">EU — Can I Stay Or Must I Go? — An EU National's Perspective</a><br /><br />Perhaps a factor in Londoners' general preference for REMAIN is that exposure to people's of varying nationalities makes us much more broad minded than those who see the world — and especially migrants and migration — through the very bigoted lenses of The Sun, The Daily Mail, and The Daily Express without ever getting to interact with such people as people. Having lived in different regions of England, I know that there are several people whose world view is largely formed by the prejudices peddled in such rags rather than by first hand experience. And as someone has said, "Not everyone who would vote for Brexit is racist, but racists would certainly vote for Brexit."<br /><br />A major advantage I have over non-UK citizens is that I do not have to pledge allegiance to the Queen etc in order to buy my voting rights in UK elections. I have touched upon that matter in a separate blog post for the Kilburn Unemployed blog, broadly commenting on welfare activist Tony Cox being found guilty of trumped up charges while he was serving the cause of welfare advocacy. <a href="http://kilburnunemployed.blogspot.co.uk/2016/06/tony-cox-trial-and-eu-referendum-whose-evidence-whose-verdict-whose-politics-whose-voting-rights.html" rel="nofollow">Tony Cox trial and the EU referendum: Whose 'evidence'? Whose 'verdict'? Whose politics? Whose 'voting rights'</a><br /><br />'Dude Swheatie of Kwug'Kilburn Unemployed Workers Grouphttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17281633520479831796noreply@blogger.com