Psychoactive Substances: Rolling UK Politics in The Neo-Con Era

let's sell RBS at a loss & continue the theme of fiscal irresponsibility shall we

That comment about picking your fave player from the L**ds '74 squad rings so true every time I hear these self-regarding robotic fucks talking on the radio.

Londis?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-33089711

Allies of George Osborne are studying an Institute for Fiscal Studies idea to return tax credits to 2003/4 levels, plus inflation - saving £5bn.
Changes would cut entitlements for about 3.7 million low-income families by about £1,400 a year, the IFS said.

The degree to which this govt seems to relish attacking the vulnerable appals me.

... though not as much as the fact that the Great British public lap it up.

MPs and experts close to Mr Osborne believe reducing current tax credits would see low-income households encouraged to take on more work to keep their family income up.

"Encouraged". These people are evil.

"Poor people: you are not working hard enough. Work more." As you say Tom, people voted for this crap. I will never really understand why.

http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2015/jun/04/alex-salmond-tells-female-tory-minister-behave-yourself-woman

This seems to have flown under the radar, especially when we remember the DCam/Anna Eagle shitstorm or Barry Sheerman/Esther McVey.

good point

we must hold these people to account with timely and revealing analysis

yeah it's unfair that David Cameron was forced to resign over that and alex salmond isn't facing similar consequences

behave yourself, man

During the first few months of the coalition it felt like the Tories were just trying to get as much done as quickly as possible in case the government collapsed. This time the project is very obviously trying to permanently realign the centre of gravity even further to the right.

Osborne getting the message out. We all need to be more responsible and tighten our belts. Maybe use some non-solid-gold receptacles.

http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2013/06/19/article-2344670-1A68DCD5000005DC-586_634x420.jpg

We're all dindins together..

Harman backing Osborne's tax credit cuts is, I fear, going to be pretty typical of Labour moving forward. The entire party appear to be gripped by the collective fantasy that all they need to do is show they'll be tight on spending and the electorate will suddenly bestow the Holy Grail of "economic credibility" upon them and propel them back to power. As if anyone would bother when they could vote for the actual Tories.

I don't mean the entire party really, but maybe at least 3/4 of the PLP.

it's horrendous news, i am genuinely dismayed by it

dismayed doesn't cover it. holy shit.

can't believe that the party of Tony Blair, Andy Burnham, Liz Kendall, Jack Cunningham, Yvette Cooper, Ed Balls, Peter Mandelson, Frank Fields, Jack Straw, Harriet Harman, Chuka Umunna, Gordon Brown, Tristram Hunt, etc etc etc is behaving like this. truly shocking and heartbreaking

Corbyn, Burnham and Cooper are all opposed.

Kendall's silence is fairly telling.

Als, to be fair, Gordon Brown did introduce working tax credits.

Also

i take the individual points but they're all avatars of the current dead party, sometimes just a few steps at a time, but the PLP has been a rogues' gallery of careerist Tory fucks for a long time now

or in other words, they gave up every other principle, why would they baulk here?

is being unsurprised by the fuckery a more tenable reaction to being dismayed by it?

i think clinging to the notion that the Labour party is any kind of locus of resistance to our ongoing political degradation is probly unhelpful, so anything that loosens the sentimental ties is a good thing

given the lack of plausible loci of resistance (+inertia of course, always) I can understand why ppl remain there. all the hustings I've seen lately have underlined how huge the gulf is between party leadership and its local candidates, v suspect flow of information within the parties

All I'm clinging to is that a lot can happen in 5 years... pretty desperate, I know.

since Blair took the leadership the modernizing program has been all about centralizing power and strengthening hierarchies. ultimately this was more damaging than any Clause 4 moment - i see no way for any grassroots revolt to take power back from the technocrats and career politicians who run the party now. which is the same boring defeatist line i've been peddling for 10-15 years, admittedly, but it's cute how every time the party lurches further and further into neoliberalism people still look surprised.

because ultimately these are no longer social democrats in disguise trying to win back the popular vote in the service of egalitarianism or even redistribution of wealth - they're just neolib policy wonks with a faint glimmer of bleeding heart - for deserving, hard-working families - still nagging them, tho they've forgotten why

The former I could happily accept, but yeah the latter is almost certainly the case, I don't get any sense of moral purpose or indeed any real purpose at all, and neither do most of the rest of the electorate.

The thing is, this lot have become so fixated on the Brown/Miliband defeats that they've forgotten what happened to Gordon Brown when he scrapped the 10p tax band. Rightward shifts are just handled differently by the press depending on whether it's Labour or the Tories, they're not going to start clapping like seals if they adopt Tory policies wholesale.

Most of the electorate don't even think in Left-Right terms, and Harman's "listening to the electorate" line overlooks the fact that more often than not the Tories don't really bother, they just go ahead and do it even when the policies are unpopular. I still believe the British public are open to listening to social-democratic policies, individual policies that are even now popular in isolation. You just have to be someone the country trusts and wants to listen to - so not Miliband, not Harman, certainly not any of this lot (probably not even Jeremy Corbyn sadly).

Labour won't win "economic credibility" back until the Tories have managed to blow theirs, there's just no point to throwing every remaining principle out of the window in the meantime, people won't care.

that's about right, tho i think it's too late to worry about them retaining principles.

i do believe that there are better policies that could be sold to the electorate, but that would take a set of coherent beliefs, the will to do the hard work of fine-tuning and selling those beliefs and the recognition that you won't effect a substantial change in worldview in the short term, probably not even in a 5-year cycle. if a political party in our system has any point at all then it's to lead people, to persuade them and to show them alternative ways of thinking. the whole focus group market research culture is really the death of meaningful parliamentary politics, just as the de-democratizing of the Labour party has been.

but it's not like anybody gives a shit. this is the best of all possible economic worlds so maybe it's best just to let people enjoy it. while it lasts.

I joined the Labour Party after the election - as did several people I know - but nothing over the last two months has given me any clue who to vote for in the leadership election or wtf the party needs to do going forward. If anything I feel worse; it feels like the electorate in general simply doesn't care about what the Tories are doing.

Will vote Bradshaw for deputy out of local loyalty, and also because I think he's a decent moderniser and knows how to win things. But I want principles too. So maybe Corbyn for leader.

I joined the Labour Party after the election - as did several people I know

joining the gym in January

Think the gym has a little bit more shame when it comes to bombarding you with emails and text messages 24/7.

also when you sign up to the gym it probably won't decide it's a doughnut shop 6 months later

Yeah, there are a LOT of emails.

the whole focus group market research culture is really the death of meaningful parliamentary politics

OTM. See the tweets now from MPs going on about how Kendall is polling best with the voters, as if the idea is to go where the public leads, rather than to lead them.

I supported some labour party petition backing a parliamentary motion once. I kept getting emails from Alistair Campbell after.

Thinking of paying three quid to vote Corbyn.

^^^ have had the same notion but purely for the lulz you understand

Understand only too well.

See the tweets now from MPs going on about how Kendall is polling best with the voters, as if the idea is to go where the public leads, rather than to lead them

It needs to be a sensible balance between the two - "leadership" is pointless without ground-up engagement and proper dialogue. The problem is that they are being highly selective about which voters they "listen" to.

As if any of "the public" know or care who Liz Kendall is.

Can anyone fill me in on who "labour first" are. All the major press organs have been giving them a platform to say that Corbyn's politics are not "ours" but googling them all I can find aside from this story is a two year old blog post that refers to them as "mysterious." Assuming that they're the Blair led pressure group that I read about before the election in something that implied they would hand pick the next leader, but I can't find that article

they're just neolib policy wonks with a faint glimmer of bleeding heart - for deserving, hard-working families

i believe 'strivers' is now the term of art. Given that Frank Field has apparently used it three times in two sentences.

But he added: “What is unacceptable is for the government to wallop strivers who are already in work, with their low wages brought up to a more decent level by tax credits.
“The Tory attack on strivers now gives us a chance to to reposition Labour on the strivers’ side and not simply be a pressure group for people on benefit whatever their circumstances.”

oh god it's all going to be strivers vs skivers next

a chance to to reposition Labour on the strivers’ side and not simply be a pressure group for people on benefit whatever their circumstances

vote Labour

And in a general election you can have candidates of a split Labour standing against one another in Labour strongholds - UKIP can win some seats then.

The only time Corbyn's likely to have any influence over them is if they did split and later needed his party's backing in a coalition.

I can't seem them doing it though. If it was a neat geographical split or a smaller party, perhaps, but this is a political machine that is hugely divided at every level throughout the country. How does, for example, Angela Eagle even campaign effectively as an MP if her local constituency party fails to follow her into the new party? How does Name TBC survive without unions, etc?

have been wistfully thinking about matt dc's 'end of season finale' thing from the hazy days of the newscorp crisis, jesus what innocent times those were

― coygbiv (NickB), Tuesday, June 28, 2016 12:26 PM (3 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

otm

Yeah I think the whole series might be about to finish. Maybe there'll be a spin-off, or at least a few extras for the box set.

How does, for example, Angela Eagle even campaign effectively as an MP if her local constituency party fails to follow her into the new party? How does Name TBC survive without unions, etc?

They are clever people, sure they'll come up with something by conference time. They plotted this psychodrama for long enough.

Aaaaaaand Boris has appointed Lynton Crosby to lead his campaign, which is like putting a petrol bomb on a fire.

had got it down to persistent anxiety and misery, now right back up to Friday/Monday levels of sick terror again.

there was this telegraph story is suggesting that if Corbyn stays Labour MPs are considering "breaking away" but still staying in the Labour party, it seems crazy but who knows:

The idea is for the PLP to elect a new leader, create its own shadow cabinet and effectively begin operating as a distinct Labour Party totally separate from Mr Corbyn.

Crucially, Labour rebels believe they would have control of “short money”, the public funding given to political parties for staffing and organisation.

It would create technical difficulties within Parliament, such as who leads Prime Minister’s Questions. Some experts have suggested John Bercow, the Commons Speaker, would decide who the official Opposition leader is in such circumstances.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/06/26/labour-rebels-plan-party-within-a-party/

that is nuts

hey the Papacy pulled this off for decades

LOL who is the baddest baddie to get the funds

I'm all for skipping a boring leadership election to see this in action.

Surely Angela Eagle isn't the best they can come up with?

She'd keep headline writers happy for a generation though.

and in Labour 2016, that's all that matters

Beyond the matter of the Labour leadership and whether it's one party or two, I just don't see people answering the key question of what position can be taken on Brexit. Well, Paul Mason did, by saying they have to respect the will of the people and not campaign to rejoin/sabotage Brexit. But years of "Well, we are where we are, it's not what I would have done but let's make the best of it because we're not going to try to change it" is not a very strong vibe to give out.

Tories hit with this too, but they're likely to get Boris as leader and a few other frontbench Brexiters so it's not so bad for them.

/ a weird consensus of usually conflicting interests (free-market fundamentalists, garden variety Little England Tories, sovereignty wonks, socialists, fascists, anxious or angry working class voters, morons etc /

^^^ matt dc otm

https://www.facebook.com/OfficialGeorgeGalloway/videos/10154221853780797/

keep calm and carry on!

the look as he says it! gwan george:P

too much news. can everyone stop fucking newsing pls
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CmDWbvTWQAAE_59.jpg

If Boris gets the leadership we're on the dark path I think. He craves popularity far too much (and is too fundamentally awful) to resist the shit directions he'll be driven by the forces at play here. And no election just makes that massively worse.

Having two separate Labour factions is just an insane, unworkable idea. You'd end up with a situation like the SDP in the eighties, which resulted in neither side being electable due to the split in votes. Madness!

It almost feels like history repeating, in some respects.

The four left the Labour Party as a result of the January 1981 Wembley conference which committed the party to unilateral nuclear disarmament and withdrawal from the European Economic Community. They also believed that Labour had become too left-wing, and had been infiltrated at constituency party level by Trotskyist factions whose views and behaviour they considered to be at odds with the Parliamentary Labour Party and Labour voters.

http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/angela-eagle-backs-jeremy-corbyn-labour-leadership-motion-of-no-confidence_uk_5772a5d8e4b08d2c563a1dea?f8kfvm96fk02kjra4ijust

Crick is reporting that Burnham is about to jump, along with three of the people Corbyn appointed yesterday. Still no sign of a challenger.

Burham has denied it

https://twitter.com/andyburnhammp/status/747880452711653376

Yes, i just saw that. Good on him.

‏Crick also tweeted this earlier, good times for fans of political farce:

@MichaelLCrick
SNP Parliamentary leader Angus Robertson may claim at PMQs tmrw he should be deemed Leader of Opposition as has 56 MPs behind him; Corbyn 40

Any truth to the idea that Fabian's and/or Portland Communications is behind the coup?

http://www.thecanary.co/2016/06/27/tony-blairs-crony-elite-want-to-snatch-labour-back-from-the-working-class/

I don't see how Blair's crony elite snatch back the votes from the working class.

not sure that any of them seriously think they could win an election under one of their own

Blab blab bland

Sorry, my drunk girlfriend got hold of my phone on the train home

Devastating political insight tbf

"The failed Britain Stronger In Europe campaign has been run by executive director Will Straw, the son of Jack Straw"

I had more respect for the little tosser when he was selling weed:p

hypnic jerk (rushomancy) wrote this on thread Psychoactive Substances: Rolling UK Politics in The Neo-Con Era on board I Love Everything on 28-Jun-2016

"The only alternative to not stabbing them in the back is cutting our own throats though.

― stet"

honestly, a lot of the damage has been done already. the metaphor i'd go for is that the majority of voters have stabbed britain in the face. i can't say for sure that this won't prove fatal to britain, and certainly i understand the desire for self-preservation, but i do think there needs to be an understanding of the cost. failing to honor the results of this referendum would not just be a stab in the back to the voters, but to global democracy, which is already being pretty sorely threatened everywhere.

right now, there is a man running for president of the united states, and he is getting up and cheering britain, and he is saying that this is what he wants america to be like. and those of us with the slightest bit of sense in our heads, we are horrified, because here's somebody openly proclaiming that, if elected, he will immediately turn the entirety of the most powerful country in the world into a disaster area. a guy like that doesn't

Feel like ive done a good deed for the day somehow by slogging that far into that post tbh

Sorry, my drunk girlfriend got hold of my phone on the train home

― imago, Tuesday, 28 June 2016 22:49 (41 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

NO, ESTE ES FALSO

Feel like ive done a good deed for the day somehow by slogging that far into that post tbh

― poor fiddy-less albion (darraghmac)

joke's on you- everyone who actually finishes reading one of my posts gets a free beer

(not counting this one)

apologies, my previous post was typed by my curvy co

gonna repost every ilf salsa shark post ever

Not tryin to pick on you rushomancy, these are shit times etc, but that one was a dud im afraid.

weve all had em, beckett that shit up and go again i will support u

pull yourself together tt, this situation calls for *hic* *vomit*

wins i cannot nurse u with bottles of water and so forth, be well

Okay I'm going to shut this one down now, we can use the Brexit thread for UK politics from now on.

Fight over Europe! Hammer the Scots! Pay down the debt Labour ran up! Gerrymander the wards! Ban immigrants! Increase the cuts! Sell the NHS! Open consultations on a draft paper for proposal for a British Bill of Rights! Vote for Boris! Sign TTIP! Ban Porn! Spy on Everything!

Is there anything to look forward to?

― stet, Wednesday, June 10, 2015 9:58 AM (1 year ago)

No, FYI.