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

Stephen Bush has some very interesting thoughts
https://www.newstatesman.com/politics/staggers/2019/09/what-went-failed-move-against-tom-watson

But I just think: I look at Rebecca Long-Bailey having a pretty good day at the office when she filled in for Corbyn at PMQs. I look at John McDonnell’s recent interviews with the Times and the FT. And I see either Corbyn, or his allies, abandoning all caution to remove a neutered foe whose only relevance will be if there is a vacancy at the top. And I think about the continual rumours that Corbyn is planning his exit, which I have always in the past dismissed as the wishful thinking of Corbynsceptics with no viable way to retake the Labour party.

And I think, could it be that this time, the rumours are true?

Why would he be planning his exit, he'll be prime minister in a couple months?

It’s like you never heard of the banter heuristic

🐦[Some extraordinary passages in Cameron’s book. Imagine the cringe factor of this: he tried to deliver a presentation to Angela Merkel in German, despite the fact that he could "barely speak a word of the language". pic.twitter.com/qzd2rbpqLa🕸
— Property Spotter (@PropertySpot) September 20, 2019🕸]🐦

Labour making a cunt of things again

I'm in Brighton but no baggymp effigies spotted yet

Someone on a media FB thread claimed her friend saw Mr and Mrs Corbyn coming out of Moorfields Eye Hospital (where he’s being treated for a problem with his right eye) looking pretty unhappy.

The Labour Students thing has happened because it’s supposed to be OMOV, there’s 20k members, and only 500 people got ballots.

The instinct with the students looks entirely correct, the timing is not so good perhaps

just found out at the annual block BBQ that one of my neighbours often plays sunday five-a-side against sir keir starmer

(one of the others -- not there today as he broke his foot on thursday -- is in corbs's kitchen cabinet, which is a pity as i was hoping to quiz him a bit abt this and that)

hah! the idea of "Starmy" bombing about in shorts, and the mysteries of corb's cavernous kitchen cabinet.

Gulp! That latest Opinium poll gives the tories a 72 seat majority according to the stats for lefties modelling, however crude the system they use to calculate this I'm going to continue getting drunk instead of preparing to die.

Andrew Fisher quitting seems big.

He’s still tweeting like he normally does. Really strange.

I’m watching the BBC press review and John Rentoul is a smirk in human form.

Fisher is someone I don't know much about, is he a big loss?

Bush is saying the Humphrys book should be a good read based on the teasers in the mail so far. Lol just go into the dark recesses of ConHome or pro Tommy Robinson/UKIP threads on football forums if you want to read shitposting about the "lefty metropolitan bbc"

If "smirk" derives from the name of some folk Germanic hobgoblin that eats children

The kinder gentler Corbyn supporters don't realise that every time they say I look like a vampire I grow a little stronger

— John Rentoul (@JohnRentoul) May 12, 2017

he's no Frank Field when it comes to powers of occult regeneration

lol we're all gonna fucking die https://t.co/PTFlxIL7lk

— Crowsa Luxemburg (@quendergeer) September 21, 2019

I love my milk full of microbial disease and deadly bacteria!

anyone got the gen on fisher going? don't trust the guardian's reporting

he's a genuine corbyn true believer and the reasons they're quoting seem v odd

oh, shippers is the source of those claims. bullshit then

Nothing has been invalidated. The BBC has been given his official resignation statement. I have obtained his private reasons as shared with friends. Stop being a cultist and look at the denials from Corbyn’s office or Fisher of my reporting. There has been none

— Tim Shipman (@ShippersUnbound) September 21, 2019

andrew fisher's friend is tim shipman's source. right

the "lack of professionalism, competence and human decency” quote that has been attributed to him sounds like pure bullshit seeing as he has pledged to work for them through the next GE

... and I thought he was PRO-class war?

JC not denying the times wording on marr

LMAO at Corbyn wondering aloud at the type of memo going round Andrew Marr’s team about him.

he seemed quite relaxed about the fisher thing but that wording is pretty strong stuff

he's a total prick for timing this outburst for the conference.

the times do have previous on chopping and screwing internal labour emails to present an alternate meaning from the original intent

I genuinely believe AF is a sound xunt and have 0 faith in times' reporting

Timing is terrible even if Fisher's reasoning is unclear. In the end it's very minor stuff atm. Staffing issues, Labour students, the 'coup' against Watson.

so if those are his words, and not taken out of context, they are pretty stiff stuff

Got a link to his actual statement?

only bbc have seen it so this is probably the best source.

Times and Guardian reporting is supposedly from a memo to colleagues last weekend.

Obviously policy isn't getting through but idk I'd rather get a lot of this shit out now than in a few weeks xp = staying out through the autumn election could be untenable.

here's the official statement. only shippers and fisher's friend who goes to another school you wouldn't know him have seen the full internal memo but JC did not dispute the quotes put to him on marr

NEW: This is the full resignation statement from @FisherAndrew79 pic.twitter.com/gixwxMV5V9

— Tom Rayner (@RaynerSkyNews) September 21, 2019

When Andrew Fisher resigned he sent a message to close colleagues outlining 10 things that had caused him to quit. Many are coded attacks on the behaviour of Seumas Milne. He then added this: pic.twitter.com/jLKwjQRYga

— Tim Shipman (@ShippersUnbound) September 21, 2019

We're going to get No Deal because everyone involved in the Labour Party apparently can't stfu and focus on what really matters. I'm sure there are awful people working within Corbyn's team (I guess he's talking about Milne and Murphy?) but as with Lansmann yesterday if you pull something like this on the eve of the conference you're just fucking everyone. No one's going to come out of any of this with any credit.

otm

can't help themselves w coming the xunt

The moves against Boris a couple of weeks ago felt like a genuine turning point so of course they're all pissing it up the wall because internal disputes and vacuous personal brand building are more important than presenting a united front and actually preventing the worst government we can remember from driving us over the cliff. And I'm including Jo Swinson in this as well.

That's a hasty reaction Matt. When was the last time conference business decided anything election wise? The key (atm) is Fisher is staying on to work through the next election.

The policy on Europe is decided (bar Corbyn's neutrality in a ref).

They are actively trying to generate terrible, damaging headlines in conference week and last year they showed they were capable of doing the opposite.

yeah but last year all the bad headlines were attacking their policies that would be a marxist raid on shareholders etc.. was that any less damaging to the party? idk

It was less damaging because the policies are more popular than the perception of the party and its MPs

That said it seems like they can't win the media game in between elections so Matt is probably overstating the damage

It's kind of exhausting having to tie your calculations about how best to unseat this useless shitheel government to considerations of Brexitmania, the need to appease or at least work with hostile melts etc; hard to blame anybody for getting to the "can we just whack Watson/MR Seumas Milne already?" phase

An actual election should take their minds off it for a bit

Just a month or so ago we had the shares plan, and the property acquisition from landlords. I feel the policies will go on.

The problem to me -- and this might be fatal -- is the selling of this European policy and whether we can cut through as a reasonable plan. We could get No deal because it's easier to get that we leave, and people thinks this will make Europe go away. The reality of dealing with an issue at another ref might be asking too much of people.

A good line is still needed.

but of course what makes the line so difficult, and plays into the hands of Brexit Party and Lib Dem ultras, is that Europe cuts across the established party lines and this brute fact can't just be handwaved away in a wishful "become the Remain party" fantasy, not least because of the labyrinthine mathematics of FPTP

It was a cathartic rant but we'll know after the election won't we?

Last year the press clutched their pearls about the policy announcements but the policies themselves were popular and cut through. That's less likely to happen if they're being drowned out by all the other noise.

I'm still wondering why a previously loyal and supportive aide would choose this precise moment to resign. Maybe they had to get ahead of the story - the publication of the full memo or something else.