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

these people are like the "historians" who turn up on every "did the Templars fake the moon landing?" and "hey guys let's have another look at the Nazis" documentary - they cite their countless TV appearances on their websites as proof of credibility and then get invited onto loads more TV shows because hey clearly they're experts

*bizarro and me falling over one another to note that YES the templars DID fake the moon landing, wake up sheeple*

this has an example of that, and as an extra added bonus, the "academic" in question is from our old friends Spiked https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-glasgow-west-49435041

that's just terrible writing from the Beeb isn't it? "Author and academic", no credentials, no sense of their standing within their own unnamed academic field, any one of us could turn up as an author and academic on those terms and say whatever we felt like

Yeah, unforgivably poor. Her credentials seem to be that she has written some books along the lines of "universities eh, what's that all about?", and that along with being friends with Brendan O'Neill is enough to make her an "expert". It's illustrative of the BBC's problems with "balance": balance is seen to be off-setting some perfectly reasonable initiative or POV with someone who has nothing to offer or is actively acting in bad faith, as in this example.

i've seen Claire Fox being present on shows as the nominal left wing balance a few times. it's beyond a joke.

that's Claire Fox MEP to you, buddy

Use her full title, Claire “The Bosnian genocide never happened” Fox MEP

Didn't her sister write a similar piece about the Rwandan genocide? I could check but on the phone rn

*bizarro and me falling over one another to note that YES the templars DID fake the moon landing, wake up sheeple*

xps to myself

yep Fiona Fox wrote a toxic piece for LM called "Massacring the truth in Rwanda" which described the use of the word genocide as an "emotional overreaction".

The fox sisters and Nora mulready worthy nominations for the continuing awful contributions of the Irish diaspora to public life

Just linking this excellent Rory Stewart content for xyzzzzzzz & mark s

chuckling at the filename of this photo of Rory Stewart pic.twitter.com/2h9rcv0fLj

— Henry Dyer (@Direthoughts) August 30, 2019

: )

Always glad to be reminded that we're a bunch of oil paintings here, don't know what I'd do if I was sharing my thoughts with people who were only mentally, not physically, the elite.

not sure that’s about the looks so much, as the self perception of “best” as serious quizzical-but-kindly interrogative look.

and that he called it that in da metadata.

xp Rory Stewart’s looks are like the least of his worries and picture wise that’s way better than most of the ones out there. It’s the labelling of it as best, as though he sat there and very seriously ranked a number of photos before lighting on one as “best” and uploading it without renaming it.

- speaking as someone who is not physically elite and who generally prefers “weird” looking men!

Wow, thanks.

Looks like there’s more than one communist on here who can’t read!

*throws little-read book down in front of gyac*

real talk, folks: rory stewart is, objectively speaking, a hideous hose-beast

deal with it

he's no rory mcgrath

his face looks like a mummified cat's arsehole, his skin looks like he's survived an airlocking.

but I'm a believer in shaming tory twats by any means necessary, throw the decent conduct rule-book out the window with these bastards.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EDNacr-WkAAHC7I?format=jpg&name=large

he's just pulled (a pint of tequila flavoured lager)

it's a still from the Terence Davies trilogy obv (best pic)

one for the real england thread shurely

he's trying too hard for that thread imo

appearance on Real England does not equal endorsement

oh i know, but it seems to be reaching too hard for real englandness. but i suppose that is real england as well.

that stage patrician demeanour of your Stewarts has been at least partly performative since the moment you stopped being legally entitled to horsewhip the peasantry at will

i don't think r stewart is naming his own website assets? could be wrong,
he does speak dari after all

Sad times for Britain's ancient and hallowed democracy, which dates all the way back to when Catholics in Northern Ireland got the vote in 1969

— Frankie Boyle (@frankieboyle) August 29, 2019

I met a Liberal Democrat a few weeks ago AMA:

He said "I am a Liberal Democrat". He had a striped shirt and did that cardigan thing that rich people do when within 100 yards of a river.

I think it was the first time I'd met a self-identified one in recent years. I said 'how come you are a Liberal Democrat, thats quite unusual these days" but I wasn't really able to get an answer. I thought he might say something about EU/Remain, but he didnt. He said he voted remain but now thinks we should leave. I was sadly unable to ascertain what it was that made him a Liberal Democrat. I think it's something to do with the appearance of being one of the adults in the room, the identity of not being zealous or childish. Until recently I think you would have said 'this man is a conservative"

some of us still would :D

His partner was a supporter of Kirsten Gillibrand(!) and Hillary before that

She is now torn between Harris and Warren. I said "aren't they pretty different, which policies is it that you like?" but I think I was missing the point again. With both there was such a sense of policies aren't actually that important. Bernie is bad because he is rude(?)

I felt completely unable to connect with either, even my questions were wrong, I knew I was missing the point entirely. How do you talk to centrists like this? Its a different kind of brainworm - much harder to pin down because its so identity based. These aren't people who think mad things, they're people that don't seem to think anything at all - whats going on in there?

when your personal world is essentially safe and comfortable then your political concerns are likely to be tenuous and malleable

some of us still would :D

― Joe Proroguin' (Noodle Vague),

Yes! I should have capitalized Conservative. But thats the sense I got, that traditionally this would have been a self-identified "Socially Liberal Conservative" but is put off by gammon enthusiasm for nuclear strikes and self-immolation

also i think you nailed something with "zeal is childish"

would dearly love to go and march in Hull today but i can't face the crowds or the exposure

We know that the age profile of Conservatives is trending upwards (but it doesnt matter as the boomer cohort is huge and the most important electorally), and that the UK's main divide is age. But where have younger Conservatives actually gone (I don't mean "Young Conservatives" that want to bring back hanging and re-invade Zimbabwe but the 'socially liberal' crew). The Liberal Democrats should surely be scooping these up more than they are?

I don't quite understand the idea that Lib Dems are competing with Labour for voters, this isn't 2005

I know several young Tories.

Otm with the “zeal is childish” observation - they’re people who have never been subject to the real effects of politics and they absolutely hate being forced into having an opinion on it. They’re the ones that look at Labour and Tories fiercely opposed and genuinely don’t get why people get so mad about politics.

Although you said all this more succinctly.

Lib Dems represent a few constituencies: the consistently Remainiest mainstream party to voters for whom Brexit is the one over-riding issue in their lives; the sensible middle of the road for people who hate zeal or "incivility" and think the middle lane of the motorway is reserved for sensible drivers; bleeding heart liberals who can't articulate their fear of even a centre left Labour party in terms of class consciousness but that's what it is;

god my word porridge is lumpy today

i mean in general - economically conservative, think the world is basically good (it probably is to them) but don't want to vote for the Nasty Party (especially in public), are massively exercised by Brexit but largely in terms of their own fantasy image of Europeanism plus distaste for the nasty people that've voted for Leave

i shouldn't post this ramble but truth in messageboarding i guess

before i get FBPEeped i'm talking about the appeal of the Lib Dems, not the notion of Remain in toto

I don't quite understand the idea that Lib Dems are competing with Labour for voters, this isn't 2005

i think they are - it’s more a function of the fact that lab bleed to lib dems is not in lab marginals so much aiui.

so an fptp artefact.

++BREAKING++

Dominic Cummings has notified Conservative MPs that if they vote for the extension legislation next week, they will be "automatically deselected" before the next election via Conservative Central Office "even if their local organisations stand by them".

Incredible.

— Nick🇬🇧🇪🇺 (@nicktolhurst) August 31, 2019

secretly I love Cummings, he's fantastic value

ok not secretly

i assume that's within the party rules. i mean i'd look forward to a slew of legal action but this is the natural party of shutting the fuck up and climbing over the top of the trench when you're told to so