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

my condolences to Chuka at this very difficult time pic.twitter.com/GiydPrpfi0

— tom (@malaiseforever) February 10, 2019

From the same edition, I think.

some comedian twat on R5 just did the whole 2ndref/politically homeless thing, followed by Tom Watson on Labour Antisemitism. Anything else happening this week?

This book is pure gold...

"Elsewhere in the book Corbyn’s first wife told how the Labour leader’s “joyless” approach to life wrecked their marriage.

Bower writes: “He would sit on the floor in his greasy, unwashed army surplus store jacket, oblivious to his wife’s irritation.

“They rarely went out together. Dinner invitations were refused. Chapman spent lonely evenings in their small flat with Mango the dog and Harold Wilson the cat as her only companions while Corbyn met political cronies.”"

"When he returned home at night, he’d happily open a can of beans, swallow them cold and declare himself satisfied."

"... he expressed a deep interest in Britain’s manhole covers, especially their dates of manufacture: ‘My mother always said there’s history in drain covers.’"

Corbyn's mum otm. Those drain covers are like the rings on trees in the rich fabric of our histor... zzzzzz

Some hilarious stuff in here. MoS always telling on themselves with the stuff they choose to highlight:

The chosen candidate was Ted Knight, a 45-year-old unmarried Trotskyite and leader of Lambeth Council – as debt-ridden and rotten as Haringey. Always dressed in a dark suit, foul-mouthed Knight addressed everyone as ‘Comrade’, always delivered with a hint of menace.

Targeting the immigrant vote, Corbyn spread the word that Labour would abolish border controls. Tories accused his canvassers of telling West Indian immigrants they’d be sent home if Labour lost.

Has no interest in culture or in reading books;

Lacks the mental agility to chair all but the most basic political meetings

McDonnell was taken aback when Corbyn announced he was standing for the Labour leadership after Ed Miliband’s 2015 defeat. ‘I thought we decided not to put up anyone from the Left,’ he said. ‘Well, we’ve decided that we need a debate,’ replied Corbyn.

Also, I’m sure Corbyn had to be forced into standing? McDonnell wasn’t going to run again because of his health issues.

Leaving his office (decorated with a large portrait of Lenin),

Based in his office overlooking Euston station, Lansman claimed to control 90,000 supporters spread through a hundred groups across the country

Acting as part-supplicant and part-valet, Corbyn walked immediately behind, pleased to have a place as the honorary white man for the black caucus.

‘Look at Jeremy,’ said Brian Wilson, a new Scottish MP, to George Galloway, who had also been newly elected. ‘He would black up if he could.’

John Woodcock, another victim

Momentum members in local branches were empowered to remove Blairite MPs. In Hampstead, Enfield, Lewisham, Hastings, Mansfield, Stoke and Brighton, moderate Labour MPs were under siege.

2nd para is classic Dacre ... I thought he'd retired?

He immediately told friends that Parliament was ‘a waste of time’ with no relevance to his Islington constituents, especially the immigrant communities.

To meet them, he set up offices in the Red Rose Centre in Holloway where his door was always open to a tide of human misery: Cypriots, Jamaicans, Indians, Pakistanis, South Africans, South Americans, Somalis, West Saharans and Kurds all sought his help.

According to Alex Nunns’ The Candidate (which is really good), Corbyn asked, ‘what about if I run?’

Yeah I’ve read that, but this makes it sound like he insisted on running, rather than it being from a sense of duty to represent (and also no one else wanting to do it, lol)

On Milne’s advice, Corbyn chose to star at the British Kebab Awards rather than attend a major Remain rally.

Lol unite tweeted to say the Lenin portrait doesn’t exist

This party just can't get along with each other eh?
https://www.theguardian.com/society/2019/feb/10/tory-mp-blocked-fgm-law-christopher-chope-faces-deselection

Legitimately assumed that this was a joke people on here were doing rather than a pullquote in a national newspaper pic.twitter.com/x3CqD4CUH5

— Dan Howdon (@danielhowdon) February 10, 2019

legume-ite concerns.

He's got his finger on the pulses of the nation.

Mr Bean

Momentum members in local branches were empowered to remove Blairite MPs. In Hampstead, Enfield, Lewisham, Hastings, Mansfield, Stoke and Brighton, moderate Labour MPs were under siege.

Which moderates were under siege in Hastings and Mansfield?

tbf I assume this refers to the previous Labour candidate Sarah Owen, who was an advisor to Alan Sugar so probably unlikely to be a trot, being replaced by Nick Chowney, the Hastings council leader who is favourable towards Corbyn

Glenda Jackson was under siege?

harsh, but there had to be some punitive measures for Dan Hodges.

Why has Boris Johnson and ‘global Britain’ been given the last hour of coverage on the most significant current affairs programme in Britain at the start of a vital week? What’s going on? #r4today https://t.co/EbPXDpq3dc

— Peter Geoghegan (@PeterKGeoghegan) February 11, 2019

this and like someone pointed out - Boris (and his global britain spiel about doing away with foreign aid and putting it into military) is so fucking vile he makes a scumbag Rory Stewart look half decent.

#r4today is now having a discussion on the Anglosphere. It’s remarkable how a small, well paid right wing lobby took completely fringe ideas and used a porous media to mainstream. That’s the real story of Brexit

— Peter Geoghegan (@PeterKGeoghegan) February 11, 2019

and this

oops

Global Britain is just some pissed up old wet-brain aristo-tramp with delusions of grandeur, talking to themselves.

we're pioneers.

Lol we're all going to die. https://t.co/LahTGf8cmE

— My Actual Face (@redrichie) February 11, 2019

Unless you're an ilxor if so apologies for dragging your face here.

Bg will be getting a royalty cheque for tuppence any day now!

boris johnson is big joe joyce and brexit is his youtube channel ouvre

russia is james quinn mcdonagh

i think europe may be the extended joyce clan but it could also serve as the garda allocation for the kilbeggan area in the buildup to a fight

america is, in this metaphor, america

The staggering incompetence and venality of Australian politics is such that I have to keep coming to this thread just to remind myself that elsewhere it is, unbelievably enough, even worse.

nice to see political discourse finally reaching my level, thx redrichie

not sure what's worse re: davis' galaxy brain take on the devalution of sterling - that he knows he's spouting shit but he's doing it to try to keep dimwitted leavers on-side or that he's stupid enough to actually believe what he's saying

either way, lol we're all gonna die obv

In stopped clock is right news, Simon Jenkins is spot on on Gavin Williamson: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/feb/11/gavin-williamson-defence-policy-uk

lol thinking gunboat diplomacy against the military behemoth that is China is still going to cut it in 2019 is so ... addled.

brb gonna photoshop gavin williamson's face over the man facing down the tanks in tianamen square

I think the last time I looked the Chinese military-industrial complex wouldn't even fit in the UK.

jeremy gilbert on labour brexit strategy is worth a read

https://www.newstatesman.com/politics/uk/2019/02/labour-cannot-ride-brexit-wave-socialism-it-must-fight-nationalist-right

That's an excellent article, but does anyone in the country, including those who vote Labour and oppose free movement, seriously believe that Labour is an anti-immigration party, even vaguely? It's more likely that they don't, and continue to vote for them anyway.

There's a logical issue whenever somebody tries to argue that "Brexit was only a small majority" and "there's no point differentiating between the reasons people voted Leave" in the same piece. Also I don't think he addressed the idea that Labour is a permanent coalition and is always compromised on its policies to some extent because of this.

starmer is not this dim - someone pulling peston’s leg imo

I am told @Keir_Starmer is not the happiest member of the frontbench. According to multiple sources, he had agreed that the final part of Corbyn’s letter to May would say “if you do not accept this [Brexit offer] there will be a People’s Vote”. One source...

— Robert Peston (@Peston) February 11, 2019

That is why, ultimately, the members should be leading on this — and we all know that if that were happening, then Labour would be campaigning for a “Remain and reform” position, arguing for a second referendum...

gilbert article def worth engaging with more broadly but on this specific point I’m not sure this is necessarily true. in the leaked PV poll which showed 72% of labour members support a second referendum - it also showed labour members support (46:29) the labour leadership’s current policy/strategy on brexit

I mean it’s probably true - given strength of feeling on it but at the same time ppl are probably 1 fairly resigned to brexit happening now and 2 happy with a pragmatic approach which privileges a labour govt above all other considerations

Not news to anyone here but it's good to see it in the papers:

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/universal-credit-food-bank-amber-rudd-welfare-department-work-pensions-dwp-a8773931.html

"Universal credit to blame for soaring food bank use, government admits after years of denial"

zebra, would it be rude to point out that everything after 'probably' there is fanfic?

Wow, this new caring and cuddly, one nationist Rudd will make a tory voter out of me at this rate.

#cuddlerudd

I know that "in normal times..." is now way overused as a rhetorical device, but I can't help but feel that in normal times a government minister openly admitting that the government is literally starving some of its citizens might be considered beyond the pale.

My fave response to foodbank UK was JRM's : more ppl are using them now because we had the decency to tell them where they are!

"in the leaked PV poll which showed 72% of labour members support a second referendum - it also showed labour members support (46:29) the labour leadership’s current policy/strategy on Brexit"

I wouldn't put too much stock in this as things can change very rapidly depending on what the leadership does next - it's not exactly unconditional support.

In other words that support is, I think, conditional on the implied chain of events in the conference motion (yes I know its not an exact chain of events). If the leadership is seen to break that then things could get fractious.

Not unconnectedly the Tories have been talking up the areas of agreement between May and Corbyn on Brexit talks. That is extremely unlikely to be motivated by genuine bipartisanship - they want Labour to erupt into infighting again.