brexit negging when yr mandate is is trash: or further chronicles of a garbage-fire

it's the nature of compromise innit brian

straightening pencils, clearing her throat, practising first lines.

"MISS Patel" "Miss PAtel" "Miss PaTEL"

it’s extremely good how we have no government right now. love too have no government

anarchy in the uk is a lot less exciting than i expected tbh

written down like this, it's is real mid-season-2 twin peaks stuff

https://www.buzzfeed.com/emilyashton/heres-a-complete-timeline-of-the-increasingly-batshit-story

don't mean this from a place of any sympathy, not even slightly, but some of the live reporting on this today is fucking farce of the highest order. the guardian is quoting people's tweets about her whatsapp account displaying that she's online. they had a pic, an aerial shot from a few hundred metres, in which they speculated whether it was her hand closing a distant car door.

boarding far-away planes.. to take them home to ...

there isn't enough news :-(

(there aren't a lot of Patels over here) I keep reading her last name as Pastel, as if it wasn't funny enough already

pic.twitter.com/2i57IG1p8C

— Conor Wilson (@ConorWilson) November 8, 2017

Come come, this is fucking awesome!

i think the helicopter hovering over her car driving in on the m4 was the daftest thing so far and probably a reasonable argument against the licence fee

reminscent of the diana funeral procession. people like a nice funeral.

especially if they can watch the corpse stumble ashen-faced out of no 10 after getting merked

24-hr-rolling news is bad not good

i entirely understand journalists *following* a politician's whats-app -- it's the digital equivalent of doorstepping -- but i don't at all understand them tweeting out its status, which is the digital equivalent of paying for yr rival's taxi to allow him/her to doorstep alongside you

unless of course you have insider knowledge abt a rival app, and it's misdirection

There are so many people googling 'Priti Patel' right now they'll be sticking up pretty much any old shit as long as it keeps the google juice flowing.

John McTernan - a man who knows a thing or two about being a hapless loser - weighs in:

Anyone who truly loves the Conservative Party -- which has done so much good for our country over the years -- should be outside the gates of 10 Downing Street now calling for Theresa May and her government to go.

Despite being a lifetime Labour Party supporter, it gives me no joy to write these words.

Unless I've misjudged him and he was pishing himself and howling with laughter when he wrote those words.

between the stranglers fanzine he ran in the 70s and the fact that he follows me on twitter, mr mcternan is a baffling man

he really went downhill after Die Hard with a Vengeance imo

didn’t we all

Priti Patel's allies turn on Theresa May over deepening Israeli meetings row as minister faces the sack.

... according to the Telegraph. Yes, she has allies.

Can't help thinking there's some shifty spy shit going on

Surely PP's allies are her fellow Unchaining Britannia ("this country is a household but also a factory so work harder you lazy fucks") dimbulbs - Raab, Truss, Kwarteng and the other one. The best that Youngish Conservatism can manage.

Now, lets get rid of boris

Resigned. Not sacked.

not really but omg May, claw back one tiny shred of authority please

“Now that further details have come to light, it is right that you have decided to resign and adhere to the high standards of transparency and openness that you have advocated,” May’s letter said.

May would be rubbish on The Apprentice

http://www.bbc.co.uk/staticarchive/dd00f52c877d1a2074071ea4af6a504536279d85.jpg

As opposed too where?

xpost

Blumenthal spelling corrector

an important perspective:

BBC helicopter tracking Priti Patel's ministerial car. Yet when Stockhausen wanted to use four of those for a performance in Salzburg of his Helikopter-Streichquartett, it was blocked by the Austrian Green Party.

— Ian Pace (@ianpacemain) November 8, 2017

makes u think

lol!

If that Stock's 'copters were blocked by the Austrian far-right I would've expected an Eric Garland style tweet from Ian.

Anyway, WHAT CAN WE MAKE THEM DO NEXT?!

Still quite a lot in this story - many meetings, why the number, timelines, who was and wasn't present, and what else was discussed beyond what has come out.

In the meantime we could all do with Damian Green resigning next Wednesday.

Need an actual explanation from PP but seems like it's just being swept away. And as it's described as extraordinary that she met Netanyahu secretly - does that apply to him too or not? Naturally Johnson trotted out an inane glowing tribute to her as if she really had "decided to resign" and was somehow unfairly a victim of the system.

Tom Watson has written to May demanding answers on what the hell was going on there, and what May knew/sanctioned

incredible that the media line is to just accept this family holiday that happened to have 15 political engagements.

xxp he's a known grifter under current criminal investigation. no one in israel is going to care about this.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benjamin_Netanyahu#Criminal_investigations

Somebody on Newsnight (maybe Ian Dale, I wasn't paying attention) said that Theresa May had at least allowed Priti Patel to resign with some dignity... yeah, that was going on today, dignity.

Dignity:

https://www.standard.co.uk/s3fs-public/styles/hero_tablet/public/thumbnails/image/2017/11/08/14/prit1a.jpg

Convinced her Whatsapp status was only newsworthy because of the 'Always working *winky face emoticon*', which is either insane levels of brass neck or just crushing irony.

felt more like an opportunity for hacks to broadcast that they have the secretary of state for international development in their whatsapp circle to me

For that to happen you only really need to have their phone number and 'political hack has minister's number' is not really bragging territory.

i didn't say it was a good or effective brag

for good and ill, the "first!!" impulse is insanely strong in journalists, by professional deformation and self-selection -- and in story downtime (the drama of a key figure unreachable on a long flight) will bend towards fatuously minor nothings of info, esp among journos with no self-awareness or self-respect

(i hesitate to say THIS IS ALL OF THEM, but consider the exemplars of the field…)

Just on a more basic technical level, being FIRST! is hugely important in terms of search results. On a day when tens of thousands of people were all googling 'Priti Patel' at once then getting even the most minor irrelevant shit up before everyone else = clicks.

Obviously this doesn't lead to good journalism but when the whole commercial ecosystem is this fucked the insatiable content machine needs constant feeding, and it's why people will liveblog the opening of an envelope these days.