thoughts

The Tories have resurrected their tax bombshell meme,  but use the slogan “No bombs for the Army”; the Army don’t use bombs, and this is a slogan brought to us by a party whose government has ensured we don’t have a bomber fit to fly.

For more on what I think about the Tories disarmament programme see here & here, and all this is before we consider Fallon’s amazingly stupid statement that the UK will now consider a nuclear first strike. …

Dianne it seems got here finance numbers mixed up when stating that a Labour Government will recruit another 10,000 policeman but the short answer to how a Labour Government will pay for its programmes, is that they’ll grow the economy and thus increase taxes collected, they’ll borrow for infrastructure, they’ll print money for liquidity they’ll collect more taxes from the rich and close tax loopholes to ensure the rich and that companies pay their share. …

The Independent reports that Dr. Andrew Watt plans to go to court to see if any agreement replacing the Lisbon Treaty as a result of the UK’s Article 50 notice requires a referendum under the European Union Act 2011. The parliamentary draftsman carelessly states that a treaty or decision amending the “Treaty of the European Union” cannot be ratified unless there’s a referendum. In the pre-amble, it states that amendments include amendments taken under Articles 48 & 49, but it’s not exclusive i.e. other amendments to the Treaty also trigger the Law. Part 1 §4 lists the type of changes which must trigger a referendum and they do not include any arrangements on leaving, but they do include “extensions of competence”, new obligations (for the UK) and new sanction powers for the EU.

I would argue that any transitional treaty which does not extend time of the UK’s rights to appoint a Commissioner, appoint Judges to the CJEU and elect MEPs will require a referendum and other clauses may also do the same. Even if some disagree, there can be surely no doubt that it will require a statute mandated Parliamentary statement and an Act of Parliament and it’s the Act of Parliament that determines if there should be a referendum.

This could be one reason why they are so keen to be thrown out. …

The neighbouring constituency of Lewisham West & Penge’s MP stood down and this created an unseemly rush to replace him. It was won by Ellie Reeves, an ex member of the NEC, a sub-committee of which appointed her  but a local resident it would seem.

At least one friend of mine applied, and unsurprisingly wasn’t short listed.  …

Just back from the Commons and looked up the debate on the early election, nine Labour MPs voted against, including Dennis Skinner, Anne Clywd, Clive Lewis and Fiona McTaggart, They broke it, they should fix it. …

While catching up on my news this morning, I am struck by the cleft stick Tim Farron has put himself in, with his preference to go into coalition with the Tories and his promise to have a second referendum … while I admit that working with Labour is difficult for him, there are potential “Remainer” LibDem voters that will ask how that is a coherent “remain” promise. …

I put my poster up this morning …

I was writing about the need for new systems in the CRM & HR domains to support the new requirements coming our of the GDPR , particularly for mid-range companies. I had found this article that talked about the nature of the HRMS market and snidely commented on the foolishness of focusing on recruitment to the exclusion of other HR functions. I had not considered the big ERP providers because their price tag, both of licence and implementation and operational cost is such that they tend to be inappropriate for SMEs. Despite this I came across this puff piece talking about an HRMS selection exercise between Oracle, SAP and Workday. The last of these offers the product as SAAS , although given it competes with the big two, it comes with a high price tag. …

Theresa May pretending that the Fixed Term Parliament Act  has never existed announced a ‘snap’ general election yesterday. She claims it’s because of the effectiveness of the “remain” campaign in parliament is jeopardising the Government’s ability to execute the “will of the people”. It’s certainly a very sudden change of heart.

While it’s massive fun to assume that she’s done it because Inspector Knacker has found evidence to prosecute 30 Tories, some of whom will be MPs, it would seem that as she pursues her negotiations with the EU, she’s finding it harder and harder to win any deal. She’s frightened of her loony Brexiteers who wont let her make the necessary compromises and frightened of her Remainers who may reject whatever she gets in two years time.

While Labour in Parliament look beatable, there’s ½ million of us in the country and the example of Jean-Luc Mélenchon shows that one can come from no-where to a position of contention. …