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

"FIVE PIND???"

if only because it will hopefully cut down on the amount of shite posted itt due to silly season

yeah don't get yr hopes up is basically how i break it down to an extent

Can't see them losing this court case - which is a pity because there'd be all manner of fun if they did.

it's a nonsense, i don't see any way that the prorogation isn't legit, the problem is elsewhere and you know boohoo they strongarming ma queen

Those people doing the Robocop and Hulk up there ^^^^ - Who are they? Who organises it? Who makes all those papier mache heads that appear for five seconds on the six o'clock news?

Commence speculation

Source at #LDConf tells me another defection is rumoured for this afternoon. In the leader's speech?! Would have to be pretty big if so...

— Charlotte Henry (@charlotteahenry) September 17, 2019

o fuck boris is gonna cross the floor

Churchill's coming home

"FIVE PIND???"

I enjoy "highever" personally, and sometimes practise saying "house" and "towel" in Northern Irishish to myself under my breath (I can't do it on demand/daren't do it out loud but it amuses me)

I wish I had a keen enough ear to know if this half-ow-half-aye sound is the same as a Dutch "ui" or different, let alone be able to pronounce them myself

anyway please can we not have any politics happening for a day or two, my chest hurts looking at the pile of open twitter tabs I've amassed already (oh, and the pile of work tickets I should have been doing instead of clicking twitter links)

comrade alphabet defecting to LDs

xy's midnight runner

:D

Amber Rudd or Jo Johnson for maximum lols.

jo johnson would be hilarious, amber rudd would be a valuable addition to the list of actual genuine monsters the libdems have taken on over the last few weeks

This is so bad

Similarly, Swinson’s speech criticised Corbyn for what she called a lukewarm attitude to staying in the EU. “If he had campaigned to remain in 2016 with half of the energy he put into the 2017 election, we may have seen a different result.”

She added: “Nigel Farage might be Brexit by name, but it is very clear that Jeremy Corbyn is Brexit by nature.”

this is fucking dismal stuff

Swinson descending the stage to Spice up your life. Honestly makes Corbyn look like an incredible orator.

are... are you shitting me

But don’t just take my word for it:

It’s certainly a very striking visual image - Swinson pacing the stage with no lectern or notes (it’s all seemingly done by distant autocue). This could be one of the Lib Dems’ election strengths. She looks and seems *very* different to Boris Johnson and Jeremy Corbyn.

— Peter Walker (@peterwalker99) September 17, 2019

lol i've watched about 3 mins of jo swinson's speech and the camera's cut to angela smith twice - once catching her smiling while she talks about people dying bc of medicine shortages and once looking bored taking a pic with her phone

— ciarán (@schmrn) September 17, 2019

Jo Swinson walking off stage to Spice Up Your Life is a power move. #LDConf

— ems 🍁 (@helloitsems) September 17, 2019

tfw the bar for a future prime minister is set at 'is capable of walking around onstage'

I have realized I have completely forgotten why he is trying to prorogue parliament. I thought it was to stop the bill thats already passed. Maybe I didn't know in the first place

xp the winning aesthetic and crushing banality of your average Ted Talk

capable of walking around onstage

What about lamely shimmying to 'Dancing Queen'?

Swinson descending the stage to Spice up your life.

"Yellow men in Timbuktu" is it

Tim Farron loved the walk and talk as well, js
https://youtu.be/kVO_H9K2eTg

xp music video that looks like a horrendous corporate dystopia, v on brand

xy's midnight runner

My liege

*bows*

Darragh - let me apologise to all the wrong I did to you.

i need to hear it in both the eu and the irish threads for it to mean anything tbh

Harsh

Mark Francois: "If we don't leave on 31 Oct, this country is going to explode".

evenbiggerthumbsup.jpg

Literally.

big day for People Having To Listen To Mark Francois pic.twitter.com/99mMSqa6lX

— Marie Le Conte (@youngvulgarian) September 17, 2019

(shhh)

Lol, just like when march 31st came and went huh. Raging brexiters causing chaos with rioting and civil disobedience is the paperest of tigers. Not going to happen.

Are they just pretending that the Parliamentary extension ruling didn't happen?

i need to hear it in both the eu and the irish threads for it to mean anything tbh

I legit unsubscribed to a podcast cos they featured her and her poxy book. It’s a delicate peace, Andrew!

Re comment upthread about Swinson giving HR manager vibe, this:

Leader of the Liberal Democrats @joswinson caught up with new Lib Dem MP @lucianaberger at Conference earlier today 👇👇 #LDConf pic.twitter.com/DHqYEidTI5

— Liberal Democrats (@LibDems) September 16, 2019

she has big bake off energy

In France, there's this thing called the 'Villejuif Scale', a cringe-o-metre whose highest score (10) is based on a video of two actors who were tasked with singing in character at a Carrefour in Villejuif, to celebrate the supermarket's 50th anniversary:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QEM0r0t88Mg

So on the Villejuif Scale, I'd say that video is a 6.

Lol, just like when march 31st came and went huh.

how soon we forget

Ugh, every move Swinson makes is just cringe, really puts the dumb in East Dumbartonshire.

I once did some substitute work in an English school where we had to make a speech to the students who were leaving each Friday to discuss their learning journey in front of the whole school and it was utterly mortifying, that video has the exact vibe and I find it impossible to watch.

Oddest thing about that LD vid with Swinson & Berger is that it has fake crowd hubbub dubbed onto it. There are cuts in the video. But the background rhubarb-rhubarb is continuous.

Cut at 35ish seconds. Lucian as mouth goes from open to closed (with smile coming back) from closeup to Mid Shot.

xp feel like you’d like the Tom Brake video even less

sorry not to let sleeping dogs lie from earlier today but

Daniel - Greece had its elected government fucked over by the EU and it was the biggest example. Yes I know it was all linked with much of southern Europe.

Yeah, well, the fact that Greece was a) the most dramatic example and therefore b) the one where the EU acted the harshest imo makes it the least representative of how the EU actually operates and as such looking at how things went down in states where its pressures were more subtle and/or propped up by compliant govts (or, in Portugal's case, wanting to "go further" than what the troika was suggesting) makes a much stronger case for euroskeptics.

― Daniel_Rf, Tuesday, 17 September 2019 09:39 (six hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

I find this a strange line of argument. Ireland immediately acquiesced to the troika's demands. This had to do with a very characteristically irish collective self-flagellation that seemed born of the fact that we had lost the run of ourselves during the boom. By attempting to push back against ECB orthodoxy, Greece made it visible whereas in Ireland it was presented as entirely inevitable. In either case the outcome is the same but the Greek pushback animates the political aspect of it whereas in the case of Ireland it was allowed to masquerade as an entirely technical or procedural set of decisions, outside the scope of democratic challenge.

Because how dare you, these are fundamental Irish values and the suggestion that we'd be lagging behind on them without the help of Brussels is beyond the pale.

It would be impossible to disagree with this but this point does largely elide the point of the extent to which Irish fiscal policy has been shaped by eu standards and norms. It also elides the fact that the emphasis on austerity rather than stimulous was required by the ECB as part of the bailout agreement. whether or not ireland "would have" gone along with this in a hypothetical reality is sortof beside the point as we can only go on the reality that exists.

plax' somewhat dystopian fintanish description

this is so rude I can't even, but looking back on it my description is incredibly mild. Ireland is a tax shelter but compare it to other tax shelters like Singapore or Luxembourg and it comes out pretty badly in terms of quality of life, particularly around things like healthcare. It is my hope that this will change soon but as it is....

Labour should keep extending the hand of co-operation to Swinson. Again and again including in TV debates. The more they do it the more childish it looks throwing it back in their faces.

Priority should probably be improving terms with the SNP but giving a glaring Swinzy a fake cheery wave now again sure why not.