Uk politics

Joseph Goebbels said fascists should not worry about their propaganda being too rough or too mean. 'It ought not be decent nor ought it be gentle or soft or humble; it ought to lead to success.' No one could accuse the anti-Semitic propaganda in London’s East End of being 'soft'. The Los Angeles graffiti artist Kalen Ockerman, who calls himself ‘Mear One’ to sound more street, painted a mural on the side of a house near Brick Lane showing bankers sitting round a monopoly board resting on the backs of suffering humanity. The bank that crashed the British economy almost a decade ago was the Royal Bank of Scotland. But history shows there’s more of a market for hating the Jews than hating the Scots.

This evening Owen Smith has been unceremoniously sacked by Jeremy Corbyn from the Labour front bench after he called for another EU referendum. However, given that the Labour frontbench aren't exactly known for sharing a coherent Brexit position, some are questioning how fair the move is. After all, when it coms to calling for second referendums, Diane Abbott actually beat Smith to it. Back in November, the Labour frontbencher was reported, by the Guardian, to have written to two constituents pledging she would argue in favour of a referendum on the final Brexit deal – a policy that had been ruled out by the party: ‘I will argue for the right of the electorate to vote on any deal that is finally agreed.’ Only unlike Smith, Abbott is still in post.

Oh dear. With Theresa May in Brussels today for the EU Council summit, Remain campaigners have been keen to do what they can to undermine her latest Brexit efforts. In that vein, Vince Cable held a meeting with the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe (ALDE) on Brexit today. The Liberal Democrats subsequently issued a press release announcing that 'liberal prime ministers from eight EU countries' had publicly backed Cable's call for a vote on any Brexit deal: Only that appeared to come as a surprise to those listed. The ALDE were quick to rebuff the claims – stating that while they regret the Brexit vote, they respect the result and the Article 50 process. Cable's side have since suggested it was a 'verbal agreement' between the leaders.

Now that Alexander Nix has been suspended as Cambridge Analytica chief executive, the hunt is on to see who else he has been meeting – in London or Washington. His meetings with UK officials would have been disclosed. But one wasn’t: a meeting with Boris Johnson in December 2016. The Foreign Secretary wasn’t seeking the algorithm that took Trump to victory – his objective was to try to learn about, and improve links with, Team Trump. And here was a Brit who, apparently, was a close part of that team. Boris and Nix met on the advice of Foreign Office officials, at a time when Britain was scrambling for routes into the Trump administration. Nix had been deftly promoting himself as someone who had all sorts of connections in Trumpworld.