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

(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.

Liveblogging the opening of an envelope>>>The British Open

it's just called The Open :P

Close Sesame!

Every paper went with a pic of PP smiling in her car after leaving No. 10 which was odd for a number of reasons.

Newsnight (which I rarely watch) briefly spoke to Pollard but only about how this debacle compares to past Tory debacles. NOTHING about Pollard's own claim that the PM did actually know of Patel's meetings. This too seemed odd.

The general tone in media coverage has been ODD and of almost admiration for PP's supposed leadership ambitions and everyone is certain she will be 'back', hinting at the hunger for that next phase in her trajectory already. Obv she will be back as nothing actually matters - just a question of whether she returns to the Cabinet before the next election of after, all very much dependent on when that takes place. There just seemed to be complete disinterest in the question of why the secrecy in the first place or punishing PP meaningfully.

i feel like a lot of Beeb journos have been running the "this is some shit that only politics wonks care about" line since the story broke, and on one level there may be an element of truth to that but on every other level including the legal one imagine if she'd gone on holiday to say Iran or China

Must be some in the brexit camp that are actually delighted that this whole debacle has exposed the shadiness of our foreign aid dealings and the questionable parties that our money's being channelled to

like the taxpayers alliance must whacking themselves into a lather over this

Shadiness of foreign aid as practiced by a cynical Brexiter who doesn’t believe in aid more like. Nagl for the Brexit kru