Seizing back control: The ILX lol brexit is how we're all gonna die thread.

That get works just as well, la'

I see a lot of wrinkly ravens about these days, he looks like the type who went grey as a church-mouse when he was in his 20's. As well as looking like an odious cock as well of course.

I wonder how CHUK would have reacted if you told them they'd be polling 3% below the Tories at this stage.

Impossible now to imagine that the next PM won't be a complete Brexit headbanger with the Tories swerving even further to the right.

I always thought the Stop Boris contingent could be relied upon to prevent him ever getting near a members vote, but he's casually talked as next leader all over the shop. Although S Bush thinks this would be great news for Corbyn.

Bad news for UK-based sentient lifeforms tho

He seemed to think that BJ would be the worst possible candidate for the tories to run against Corbyn in a GE.

good luck uk

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/may/21/far-right-milkshake-nigel-farage-tommy-robinson

'This Milkshake Spring isn’t political violence – it’s political theatre' - but isn't a political landscape dominated by 'political theatre' the kind of environment where the likes of Farage, Ukip etc thrive? like how Trump turning US politics into a circus/series pro wrestling stunts works to Trump's benefit.

I've seen lots of people repeating this idea that the way to undermine far-right populists is to laugh at them, make them figures of fun, but being laughed just seems to work to their advantage, they feed off resentment - "they laugh at me, just like they're laughing at you" (I got an election leaflet from Tommy Robinson the other day that actually has "they're laughing at us" as one of it's headlines, points out that Tommy stands with "people who have been mocked by the elites")

Use other substances please

I wouldn't worry unduly about the tactical effectiveness of shaking, i just feel like it's a deontological good to throw things at fascists

The people hurling milkshakes aren't elites though, they're ordinary people - one of the reasons it works as protest is it undermines the idea that everyone north of London basically agrees Farage. It's an incredibly succinct way and media-friendly way of going "this is my town, you don't speak for me/us". The question of whether or not Farage benefits is arguably separate to whether it's worth doing anyway.

After years of John Harrisisms and Legitimate Concerns On The Doorstep we're seeing video footage of big Northern blokes shouting "nonce" at Yax in the street, or that woman in a tiara calling him a cunt on camera. We need more of this kind of thing, not less.

Now inviting Farage or Yax onto the BBC where an Oxbridge-educated wannabe Jeremy Paxman can sneer at them, that *does* play into their hands.

If the result looks like that yougov poll, that'll pretty much finish off any prospect of remaining/second referendum

fucking OTM as fuck matt dc.

My vantage point is limited, etc., etc., but Matt DC thoroughly otm indeed.

the content of what is shared is completely irrelevant imo, no such thing as bad publicity for right wingers. but we went through this yesterday.

this paragraph from the article is fucking tragic:

Even if the Brexit party romps home in Thursday’s polls, the final sound ringing in Farage’s ears won’t be applause and cheers. It will be the screeching laughter of the boy following him as he squelched his way out of Newcastle city centre and back to a taxi. Because to many decent people in this country, that’s what Farage is: a bad joke. As for his suit, I’m sorry about the mess, but perhaps Arron Banks can buy him a new one.

like, really? the brexit party is polling at 37% but it's okay because the great british tradition of laughter.

Throwing things at farage is good, but yeah that's horseshit. It just doesn't matter very much.

The people hurling milkshakes aren't elites though, they're ordinary people

also like, neither are the vast majority of people who oppose farage/robinson, obviously. what even are 'elites'? what are 'ordinary people'? these are concepts cooked up by the right in the first place. the idea that the target audience for the right is going to be able to make this distinction or choose to do so seems very optimistic.

Booming post Matt DC

The elite and the people are a construct, yes, but when Farage talks about elites, the people who listen to him by and large aren't thinking of the kind of people they see in their hometown all the time, that's my point. They're thinking of the people they see on TV, or a distant strawman of a prosperous Londoner.

"the brexit party is polling at 37%"

in the EU elections, which is their whole raison d'etre tbf. if the CUKS knew what they were doing, maybe they would have consolidated the Remain vote more lol successfully. But I wouldn't call the death of UK 2 party hegemony yet based on current polling of/or EU election results. I'd be ready to shoot myself with an elephant gun if the exit poll of the next GE had brexit party on 37%, but it isn't going to happen imo.

Matt DC OTM

British Steel's collapse is more awfulness - wonder how much Brexit really has to do with it.

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2019/may/22/what-went-wrong-at-british-steel

It is not the only factor in the crisis but it is very important. Steel contracts are typically agreed well in advance of the product being delivered. As things stand, the UK is due to leave the EU on 31 October and the terms of that separation are yet to be agreed, meaning British Steel’s overseas customers do not know what tariffs will apply to steel they buy from the company. Sources close to the company say orders from customers in the EU and further afield have dried up as a result.

That is why the company wanted an urgent cash injection, to replace the drop in sales in the hope that a favourable Brexit deal could be signed in the meantime. Another factor is the weakness of sterling since the referendum result, which makes the cost of imported raw material used in making steel higher. Greybull bought British Steel after the referendum but it did not expect Brexit uncertainty to last this long.

I think it's used to mean 'liberal', pretty much and hence a moveable feast. The fact it's so spurious from the get go doesn't lead me to think it's difficult to paint anyone who is against Brexit/Farage as an elite.

I mean, you're an intelligent person interpreting this incident, your take on it is not typical I would suppose. I can't really put myself into the mind of people who are willing to believe these conceptual elites are their biggest enemy. I don't know if any us can.

xposts.

Farage the prosperous Londoner (just about) always on TV tho

Associated with the concept of “real people” - the right gaslighting as “fake” any person who doesn’t fit a WWC stereotype. Bit racist, too.

Re: British Steel. Just sceptical on the reporting in this way, a day before EU elections by a very remain paper.

Obviously Brexit will put pressure on British Steel but it's like the discussions around Huawei being a supplier a couple of weeks ago. It covers how Steel been in trouble for a while so the collapse would point to a lack of industrial strategy too but that isn't explicitly stated.

I used to work on a magazine covering the steel industry and this:

Steel contracts are typically agreed well in advance of the product being delivered. As things stand, the UK is due to leave the EU on 31 October and the terms of that separation are yet to be agreed, meaning British Steel’s overseas customers do not know what tariffs will apply to steel they buy from the company. Sources close to the company say orders from customers in the EU and further afield have dried up as a result.

ties in very closely with how I understood the industry to work, and the dangers of such a situation.

if British Steel really want to be competitive on the big stage, slave labour is the way forwards, that's how we've nearly reached full employment. Check out the DWP UC ads.

Fair enough Stevie. I was referring to this:

When Greybull Capital bought British Steel for £1 in 2016 from Tata Steel, rebranding it with the old British Steel name, it promised great things

Seems to be as much of a story to me.

Ha! You get what you pays for I guess. It's a business full of awful people, as far as I remember.

Ta ta British Steel (companies or brands you thought were dead but weren't but now are)

leaving insignificant little domestic industries to the whims of shitheel hedge-funds sounds like a winning industrial strategy to me.

Now inviting Farage or Yax onto the BBC where an Oxbridge-educated wannabe Jeremy Paxman can sneer at them, that *does* play into their hands.

I don't think I've ever seen any BBC person dare sneer at Farage tbh. Marr meekly reading him out a lot of his past quotes with all the vim and vigour of a 12 year boy reading out a shopping list was an abject failure. Dare I say, it really needed Andrew Neil.

sob! Come back a' is forgiven brillo pad!

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2019/may/22/universal-credit-hardship-linked-to-prostitution

It's enraging that this sort of news, which should be causing serious trouble to the government, is behind both Brexit and some Game of Thrones bullshit about Theresa May: The Final? Years?

(I'm aware I'm part of the problem here)

Yes, let's all vote Lib Dem, they had nothing to do with austerity after all.

give them some credit .. 5p carrier bag charges etc..

mountain of dead disabled ppl would have much smaller without their "moderating influence" on the tories to kill more of them for 5p carrier bag bill.

Wait what, is that to me?

not directing towards you, just the LibDem party.

Amber Rudd is now lodging a complaint over UN's austerity report. This is a full scale PR drive, in which the Tories spend time and money denying widespread suffering instead of doing anything about it. https://t.co/hF0J79mupc

— Frances Ryan (@DrFrancesRyan) May 22, 2019

surely not the cuddly fucking lib One nation tory leadership candidate being exposed as pure evil again.

Ah yes, the UN, that notorious tankie wellspring.

bunch o' fucking lefties!

it's a compliment to Alston's work really, because the US reacted with the same faux incredulity to his extreme poverty and human rights report over there a couple of years back as well.

is ... is may resigning?

Rumours - unconfirmed, but also not denied - that the PM is planning a statement from Downing Street tonight

— Jason Groves (@JasonGroves1) May 22, 2019

(IE fuck knows)

going by previous statements i wouldn't get too excited...

plinth at downing st to announce that she is calmly not resigning imo

Lonely and wants a chat

important announcement about where bears shit