"oh you don't get me I'm the end of the union": lol brexit is how we're all gonna die

What did happen to EVEL? Are we just pretending it's not a thing now?

https://i.pinimg.com/originals/e2/45/78/e24578018259f60cfea79c5751a5682e.jpg

once upon a time there was
english votes for english laws

k wark's last question to Venezuelan opposition dude on Newsnight was "what would you say to Jeremy Corbyn, who has expressed strong support for Maduro?"

The BBC seem under instructions to try to nail Corbyn and his supporters in the party over this one.

kirsty wark never the most impartial. was always sticking the boot into the nats while being soft on labour and then literally went on a couples holiday wi her man and jack mcconnell and his wife

i.e there's no way in hell she's no a sensible centrist labour people's voter who hates corbyn's guts

although as always, don't support old fashioned corrupt strongmen in latin america if you don't want your opponents to bring that up

this is quite incredible/unprecedented from Bercow:

"It is both ill-judged and rude... it really is time he upped his game"

Commons Speaker John Bercow accuses Home Secretary Sajid Javid of "scuttling off" to do media interviews without properly presenting knife crime policy to MPshttps://t.co/Z77UGVuGxs pic.twitter.com/gaFYsSWoTo

— BBC Politics (@BBCPolitics) February 4, 2019

I'm sure folks like George Galloway, Chris Williamson and The Canary will be doing a cracking job of showing up the MSM for the right wing lackeys they are, and offering some solid resistance to their tired pro-Imperialist narratives. all is saved.

although as always, don't support old fashioned corrupt strongmen in latin america if you don't want your opponents to bring that up

― ( ͡☉ ͜ʖ ͡☉) (jim in vancouver), Tuesday, 5 February 2019 Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Corbyn doesn't care what Newsnight does or says lol. Sure he kept a low profile when Venezuela was making it high on the news cycle, has talked about a "negotiated solution to the conflict" (saw a tweet and pic of him meeting the right hand man to Morales yesterday) since. Chakrabarti went on Sky news over the weekend to triangulate on appalling human rights abuses (laughed at the read Amnesty if you want to understand countries you don't know much about lol) so the libs are assured, the way Starmer would deflect during People's Vote.

Being extremely cynical for a bit - every minute that reporters spend haranguing him about Venezuela, which most ordinary voters don't care about, is a minute they could be spending flinging mud that *might* stick. It might be a deliberate strategy but tbh given his likely views it's probably best he says as little as possible.

This might change the more time Putin spends bro-ing down with Maduro but for now I think it's largely remote from most British people's concerns, especially now.

Enough of the new young left in the US Congress are pushing back on regime change like so: ‘Venezuelans have been living under sanctions for years, the American right wing want to get hold of all that lovely oil, and there’s a history of US-led regime change in Latin/South American countries that we don’t want to encourage further, let’s negotiate something better and do a green New Deal at home to rely less on fossil fuel’ and I don’t see a lot of difference in the UK left tbh.

britain leaves corrupt strongmen alone all the time, idk why it should be different in latin america

Unleash Kirsty Wark and Fiona Bruce on these New Young Left types.

Yes, i'm not sure the public has as much appetite for right-wing Latin American coups as The Guardian and Newsnight clearly do. Though it's probably not going to have much impact on Corbyn, there's a risk that the general press hostility to him is going to help remove any last vestiges of nuance when it comes to coverage of difficult international issues.

corbyn should just declare himself prime minister and seek international recognition for his premiership

Aye, I think "US-government-backed coups in Latin America" has as about as much totemic power in one direction as "winter of discontent" in the other.

My understanding is that the Venezuelan constitution does actually allow for what's happened in some instances, but like most British people I don't really know shit about Venezeuela or what it's like to live there so should probably stfu. Also Corbyn is entirely irrelevant to what happens in Venezuela but you wouldn't know that from British coverage.

If I had to be critical, I'd say that 'not caring what the press says' is all well and good but it tends to mean his head goes down and he goes silent at a moment of criticism, then pens an article later after everyone's had time to construct their narratives. They were probably going to do that anyway, but it DOES matter with issues like, say, dealing with antisemitism in the party, when he just isn't perceived as taking it seriously.

They can carry on with the "This is what Corbyn wants for this country, this is what always happens with Socialism" approach, that's always good for a laugh.

People can get more madness, but more nuance on social media too. Yer David's and Nick's can huff and puff all they like its not the only game in town anymore.

... Cameron / Clegg?

https://metrouk2.files.wordpress.com/2018/12/Nick-Tilsley-and-David-Platt-in-showdown-over-huge-secret-in-Coronation-Street-13ba.jpg

i suspect the alphatical comrade means aaronovitch and cohen

Yes.

Corbyn just can't be reactive to everything the press says, Matt. I know what you mean in terms of perception but you can't have a grown-up conversation with Nick Cohen.

I was wondering whether Corbyn as PM could get the Bank of England to release the Venezuelan cash or not. In that sense his positions matter.

May's gang seem to admire + are currently trying out the regional "pork barrel" bribery politics of the Americas, but then talk a load of shite about how our iteration of democracy is an example to the world + the font of all freedoms blah blah. I really want to see the back of this lot very soon.

This sets out nicely what I said the other day about the applicability of the Bribery Act re: pork barrel politics. I would certainly write to the police asking them to consider forwarding to the CPS if any MP went down the Section 2 path. pic.twitter.com/Uf5PmZJkGI

— Paul Cotterill (@Bickerrecord) February 4, 2019

I don't know if this is a bit hopeful.

There's no coup. There's the leader of the one politically legitimate body in Venezuela calling on a military dictator to step aside, and it's maddening that people who should know better are just bullshitting about it. The coup was in 2017, and it was against the opposition-led National Assembly. After that, there's been no legitimate government of Venezuela, and therefore nothing to 'coup'.

Corbyn just can't be reactive to everything the press says, Matt. I know what you mean in terms of perception but you can't have a grown-up conversation with Nick Cohen.

It's not about getting into dialogue with hostile individuals, it's about making properly thought-out early statements that clear up ambiguity about his position. He was too late doing that with the Skripals and last summer's antisemitism row. As I said I don't think it really matters here but it would save Labour a lot of grief by at least attempting to put out fires before they spread.

Can we have imago, Jim and LBI's galaxy takes on Venezuela. Please keep Fred's bullshit in mind, its going to be a tough one to top.

XP = I was just giving Cohen as an example...its fair on AS for sure.

He was pretty clear on Skripal, wasn't he? He was just stupid and wrong.

it's ambiguous what 'clearing up ambiguity' means other than 'answering questions framed by your opponents'

How do you pretend to be a political leader if you can't answer questions framed by your opponents convincingly?

Because they are not asked in good faith dummy

can we ban fred from this thread please

OTM. How was he wrong about Skripal?

I think with AS there were genuine questions from the membership to the leadership that weren't cleared. These moments are there on immigration too.

Because they are not asked in good faith dummy

― xyzzzz__, 5. februar 2019 12:27 (two minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

So what? If you can only answer questions if they're asked in good faith, you're worthless as a politician.

And yeah he wasn't wrong about Skripal, the need for evidence before pushing the trigger iirc. That it might have had an effect on the polling is just people being dumb.

Fred Corbyn has been leader of Labour for longer than Gordon Brown, you are an internet Danish film critic, sit down man.

We're all internet critics here tbf.

possible responses to this malformed post:

1. not being convincing is what differentiates pretenders from the real deal, it's a pre-req
2. no one answers every question put to them, it's a question of picking carefully
3. you can offer your own framing
4. debates and bad faith back and forth is not normally what changes ppls minds
5. 'convincingly' begs a lot of questions

There was clearly enough evidence that the Russians weren't going to cooperate on an attack on British soil on an enemy of Putin. Nobody was 'jumping the gun' or 'pushing the trigger'. And of course, as everyone should have foreseen, it became clearer and clearer that Russia was behind the attacks, and Corbyn looked dumber and dumber.

Corbyn is a lot better than Gordon Brown, lol, let's not go crazy. It's just maddening the low low expectations there is for him to just, like, get these things right?

"let's just expel their diplomats and be legends"

Fred otm. Save your skepticism for diplomatic incidents that don't involve a repeat offender.

who da fuq is fred

An internet Danish film critic.

oh yeah the guy who was bad at burning

He's got more geopolitical hottakes of certainty than there are actually countries in the world.