PMs change and lol we're all gonna die (but brexit will never end)

I like that the photographer who snapped that shot of her with the balloons is Romanian.

Chivers is UnHerd's equivalent of Massie in the Spectator. It doesn't sound wrong, but NV OTM -- it is wrong to ignore possibility that Cummings might not mind a crash, because then he can collect the insurance.

Is there any coherent articulation of what Cummings et al want to see as the end state of all this burn-it-down shit? Is it actually tax-haven-style unbridled Capitalism? Brexit has to be a means to an end, and there must be a poorly constructed blog post talking about what that end is, no? And can it be achieved after an illegitimate Brexit, or has he lost sight of that goal by focusing on the immediate prize?

Thurrock sounds like a lovely place:

It's regularly voted the unhappiest place in Britain fwiw. You'd never know from The Guardian treating it like a lumpen racist safari park that the Tories very nearly lost it to Labour at the last election. idk what value consistently handing a megaphone to the worst, most ignorant people and not challenging or contextualising their opinions has.

Cummings end goal: maybe this is a summary of some of his thinking? https://dominiccummings.com/2014/12/04/times-op-ed-what-is-to-be-done-an-answer-to-dean-achesons-famous-quip/

To live a long enough and interesting enough life that Benedict Cumberbatch plays him again in the sequel.

If Thurrock boy was that bright he'd be bumped up a year.

Like the others, the restoration of lost sovereignty was a priority

Lost sovereignty? They must mean Empire.

That's an illuminating read, thanks Toby. I actually feel some of his frustrations: EU procurement is something I never want to do again; big orgs/bureaucracies are a nightmare to get stuff done quickly within. But God save us all from "what we need is to be more like a startup". (Startups are, at heart, all about getting to scale and/or an exit. The state starts at scale, and there is no exit for it. Having the state emulate the worst "fuck the negative externalities and fuck the rules" mindset also creates a terrible environment for everyone, including actual startups.)

Behind the blether I think he is selling a shittier update of "efficient private-sector businessmen should run the services of the state. Top Businessmen". If his Brexit is at heart a stepping stone to get there by returning us to prelapsarian pre-bureaucratic feudal idyll, well that's just depressing in its vaucity. Even the Lexiters can do better.

(Ironic too that if everyone had done his Maths For Dummies, Politicans and the Leader Class courses we might not be in this predicament. I wonder how he finds Boris measuring up to his statistics-aware patrician ideal)

Just another disruptor with all a disruptor's care for other people and their lives

stet otm again.

start ups are a *terrible* model for solving your existing business problems.
1) start ups are VC spread betting magnets. failure is expected in the majority of cases.
2) your big structural and legacy problems will not be solved by “thinking more like a start up” or “disrupting from within.
3) stet’s scale/exit/IPO point, which is really just 1) magnified, but also *that’s the model of even successful start ups*.
4) Tech start ups with the software/agile/fail fast model of deployment really hit all sorts of problems when you’re looking at real world SLAs, serious QA or uptime requirements. which together with
5) many start ups use loopholes based on the fact legislation hasn’t caught up with technology and its externalities

give stet’s fuck the externalities fuck the rules point.

none of this stops it being recommended by people who’ve got a musty Economist article rotting beneath the floorboards of their brains somewhere. (there are some useful day to day practices that come out of customer/user engagement etc - it’s not all bad, but i come out in hives when i hear the be more like a start up mantra).

and second

yes cummings is basically often *efficient private sector* thinking and well, i got news for you, bub.

The end of goal has always seemed to be to turn the United Kingdom into Singapore.

Anyone who has ever worked for a startup would never ever use the "work like a startup" line. They're fuckin' nightmares.

it's "running the country like a business" for cursed gen xers or something

xxp More news for him: "fuck the rules" tactics you can get away with in the shadows of the DoE struggle in the spotlight of Number 10.

“This is not easy, I’m trying to engage with my constituents” Cheltenham MP Alex Chalk faces protesters outside his office pic.twitter.com/rcpHd9Jo1n

— Hayley Mortimer (@HayleyMortimer) August 29, 2019

I think the wheels might be falling off this wheeze. Majority of 1 and MPs getting doorstepped? Nah.

running the country like a neil woodford investment fund.

You love to see it

Conservative MP Alex Chalk — also PPS to the Foreign Secretary — asks a crowd gathered outside his office whether they think bringing down the government is a good idea pic.twitter.com/fsR7VNe1G4

— Matt Zarb-Cousin (@mattzarb) August 29, 2019

Ah, same link as stet. That’s a prime Lib Dem target.

Cheltenham MP Alex Chalk is booed by protesters as he returns to his office pic.twitter.com/LvVW5AI08A

— Hayley Mortimer (@HayleyMortimer) August 29, 2019

i feel there’s quite a lot of background dramatic potential in cummings’ willingness to be disliked - why are you booing me? I’m right! - and johnson’s desire to be liked.

“ffs dominic this is going down like a sack of shit” etc.

i may be guilty of humanising them too much.

My question to ilxor brits: why is Corbyn still in charge of the opposition? He has been there for what? 4 years? He's had the referendum, a general election, and the entire EU negotiation process to rally the nation against this scourge, a scourge that is the largest existential threat to his ideology and he just seems unable to stop it. Is there really no one else more competent for the situation?

[popcorn.gif]

Considering the intense media antipathy, general lack of Remainer/counter-No-Deal backbone and the parliamentary math he seems to have done fine to me? But I'll let the UKers weigh in lol

He has solid support from the party membership is why. The portion that hate him look around and see that all the wets that could/would/tried to challenge him are incapable of doing so because they mostly rode in on Blair's coattails and it seems like they don't actually know how to win things or plot. Plus -- even if they were it's hardly a good time because we're in a permanent state of crisis/"don't interrupt your enemy" territory rn.

tldr: they came for the king, they missed.

A joint statement from @UKLabour, @theSNP, @LibDems, @Plaid_Cymru, @ForChange_Now and @TheGreenParty as we work together to stop Boris Johnson's smash and grab on democracy: pic.twitter.com/e8fd2uSstS

— Jeremy Corbyn (@jeremycorbyn) August 29, 2019

the last time the UK had a remotely centre left-ish government was the early 1970s if i'm being exceptionally generous, Labour under Corbyn would have faced massive obstacles to power without Brexit, and Brexit has split the country down the middle across traditional party allegiances and pushed the state's unwritten constitution to possible breaking point so maintaining forward momentum (cough) for the last four years has been a significant feat

also leaders, schmeaders

ffs how many more years do we have to explain Crobbyns

have to do the occasional "for those of you who've just tuned in"

Listen up Van Horn Street (and all of you flakes) Corbyn and his momentum thugs are going to do a Venezuela and there is nothing you can do to stop it.

Momentum national co-ordinator Laura Parker calls on the group's members to “occupy bridges and blockade roads” in protest at Boris Johnson suspending Parliament.
She says: "Our message to Johnson is this: if you steal our democracy, we’ll shut down the streets.”

— Kevin Schofield (@PolhomeEditor) August 29, 2019

corbyn is playing the long game against the neoliberal order.

we will crash out with no deal
??????
labour wins election

we completely extricate ourselves from NATO, the WTO, the EU, etc. etc.

everyone has an allotment, not just corbz. agriculturally self-sufficient in 5 years.

no more rules against state aid. so we reopen tata steel. specializing in drain covers now obv.

homelessness solved by expropriating the 100s of 4000 sq feet apartments in london that oil despots keep their exotic animals in.

will the real prime minister please stand up

Tory MP Ken Clarke tells Sky he "probably would" support @jeremycorbyn as a caretaker PM to stop no deal. But only if he could be kept "under control" and "wouldn't have the slightest chance of implementing any bits of his Labour manifesto"

— Rob Powell (@robpowellnews) August 29, 2019

sign me the fuck up tbh xp

I've been jesting but on reflection this sounds good.

i'll be growing potatoes and collecting dulce on the barren hebridean island my great great great grandparents were evicted from if you need me

The end of goal has always seemed to be to turn the United Kingdom into Singapore.

This is true when it comes to Singapore’s ‘competitive environment’, not true when it comes to Singapore’s gigantic network of affordable public housing.

Whats the actual reason proroging is bad? If its a tool thats on the books and available to use how can parliament complain? Especially as there was plenty of advance notice the tories were likely to pursue this path, and they decided against preventing it.

I don't see how its undemocratic if its part of the rules and the people who had the ability to prevent decided against it

he's prorogued it for longer than usual, in order to limit the time parliament sits before the deadline, in order to not allow parliament to debate

no it's not technically illegal so it's totally fine

almost everything about the UK constitution is undemocratic

Yeah, I realize that but its in the rules isn't it? And when corbz gets in we can used it to confiscate all the garages and golf balls

Especially as there was plenty of advance notice the tories were likely to pursue this path, and they decided against preventing it.

refer you to mark s’ wise words upthread:

as well as being byzantine and unwritten, the rules change and the meanings of the rules change!

this is what politics is, and the active space of politics is how much change can be made and how much will be tolerated

proroguing is legitimate. the expectation is that it’s for a couple of weeks prior to the Queen’s Speech. five weeks just before a potential deal is let’s say pushing the envelope of what people will tolerate. the extent to which tories won’t tolerate it is to be seen.

xpost to anvil.

It's a coincidence that the D&D thread's active this week because there are a lot of similarities between the UK constitution and a badly run role-playing game

I actually agree that the underhandedness of the proragation is not in proportion to the vapours displayed by some folks but it also represents an opportunity to attack the government so it has to be done

when are you guys gonna get around to murdering the queen

Surely the fault is with those who failed to close the door on the possibility of prorogation at time. If i dont close the door behind me and it rains on my carpet, I have to take some blame, can't put all the blame on clouds

I mean he said he was going to do it and everyone said ok striker knock yourself out

yes that is fair enough, they did have a chance. but the process of the last three years has been quite often a case of factions unable to avoiding the unavoidable until it actually became unavoidable and even then not quite managing it and relying on eg Theresa May to bail them out.

Oh there's plenty of blame to go round, we've been rolling our eyes for months at the inability of the opposing pols to get their shit together

the government’s path to this point has been facilitated by a desire not to oppose the government by people who claim to oppose what it is intending to do.

when are you guys gonna get around to murdering the queen

I wonder if Jacob Rees Mogg stares up the ceiling at night knowing he lied to the Queen.

Because he did.

— Emma Kennedy (@EmmaKennedy) August 29, 2019