bojo is king, brexit is on, stuff is fvcked, tomorrow starts here -- new govt new thread new battle

My only bit of good cheer

1 week ago this man decided to send me hate-filled racist abuse.

Today he’s sent me an apology because he’s been fired from work.

Lesson: don’t mess with this 16 year-old. pic.twitter.com/M4YJm8u0vr

— Hasan Patel 🌹 (@CorbynistaTeen) December 19, 2019

Xps agreed - and the fact that there is so much riding on the next leader reflects how much work there is to be done to decentralise decision-making, etc. However, I think that case stands up on its own merits and RLB can win over the membership. Going full attack dog against Starmer, Lewis, Thornberry, et al, when they’re the kind of people who have shown a willingness to work with the left, and will probably have to again if there is going to be a full shadow cabinet, seems unnecessary and counterproductive.

Your probably right, but I don't think the fear that some of these lot would stop at nothing to back to 2015 is not completely irrational. Although lol Ace with Mace is a bit of a tool tbf and a credible shadow cabinet will have to include some melts.

I haven't seen full attack dog. It could be a reaction to the right's attacks since the 12th, what I've seen on twitter are people trying to make the membership aware of Starmer's record, or of how someone like Lewis could get the leadership into deep water.

Like to think everyone is thick skinned enough to dust themselves off after the contest and work with RLB in a shadow cabinet xp

The end-of-year @timesredbox really is a treat 🎄🎁🎅 https://t.co/VW4bG0Cx1q pic.twitter.com/aCuD1Z2phc

— Esther Webber (@estwebber) December 20, 2019

reasons to be cheerful ...

grim grim grim

are you... fuckin... serious.... with this https://t.co/F0CKdiqvpv

— 𝔐𝔞𝔤𝔫𝔢𝔱𝔰 🧲 (@PerthshireMags) December 21, 2019

hislop letting the mask slip there

hignfy did brexit the slide into the full-spectrum mainstreaming of fascism

say what u like about the fascists but they’re famously good at comedy

Brooker still breathing? that's a pity.

I see Times is doing RLB puts a Stalinist in charge of her leadership campaign today. Another ringing endorsement for the UK's very own AOC.

hislop letting the mask slip there

What mask?

You could say this is the least of anyone's worries but RLB's supporters also appalled the campaign so far consists of behind-the-scenes briefings. She hasn't been interviewed or made a speech or tweeted since the election

— Esther Webber (@estwebber) December 21, 2019

This is good not bad.

lol one of the people from my football forum is in the replies to that

fyi he and i are enemies in a manner that makes my weekly sat morning scrap with alphie look like the book group it is

well yeah, if only RLB would write some bullshit op-ed in the very newspaper that spent 3 years trashing the last leader. yes, I'm appalled!

i still want an rlb greatest hits video reel - i haven't seen her talk very often! does she have a sense of humour and does she sound natural when questioned etc. these shouldn't have to be considerations in a perfect, purely policy-driven world, but they are

right away sir

I've never attended a book group imago, but sure.

You’d enjoy my book group, comrade alphabet, it’s a bad one if there isn’t a fight!

All news is local, all politics is local. pic.twitter.com/mqEGJwc7hp

— Scott Reid 🔍 (@scottreid1980) December 20, 2019

You mess with the bowlers of West of Scotland at your peril.

When my uncle died last year, the reception was held at his local bowling club in Kilmarnock - my aunt and my cousin are serious bowlers - and it was like travelling back to the 70s, including the bar prices! Ayshire working class Presbyterian through and through, all the older guys walking around in club blazers, and even though I'm forever slagging off Ayrshire, those people were fucking great, friendly and funny and really sharp. Anyway, all sorts of fears were being expressed about the future of the bowling club and talk of having to recruit young people as members, so I imagine it won't be around in a few years time.

Looks like Momentum Thugs are out and Stalinists are in? For post election coverage

In general we need to be better in understanding that words and their underlying meanings are only loosely connected, and that the last few years have stretched the link between the two into new forms. Calling Jess Phillips a centrist is the behaviour of also rans. Calling Jess Phillips a Stalinist is what winners do, you gotta mix it up

We're too tied to the literal meanings of words rather than the emotive meanings of them

there is a widely mocked branch of the humanities that has been analysing this gap for about 50 years iirc

there was something profoundly sad when 10 years ago my partner's dad died and nobody wanted his bowling trophies and they all went in the skip:(

I've read two volumes of Kotkin's Stalin biography - so in a fashion I'm a Stalinist myself!

If more people realised the dictatorship of the proletariat would have hislop and brooker shot, then there wouldn't be negative associations with "stalinism"

Everything about Ayrshire bowling clubs is minted except the bowling

another Norman conquest import.

Source close to Alex Halligan tells me: “He’s not a Stalinist. He is a mainstream socialist. And he’s not running Becky’s leadership campaign - it’s unclear who is at the moment. That will be worked out in time.”

Henry VIII, himself a bowler, in 1511 banned the sport among the lower classes and levied a fee of 100 pounds on any private bowling green to ensure that only the wealthy could play.

Literally nothing to add today other than: this was Lindsay Hoyle and his parrot on BBC Breakfast this morning. pic.twitter.com/YOyEKt2o42

— 🎄Leia Murray🎄 (@leiamurr) December 21, 2019

the Puritan revolution virtually ended all sports in England, and lawn bowling did not make much of a comeback even with the Restoration of 1660.The sport flourished in Scotland

Skwarkbox is probably toast, which is no great loss, as Anna Turley won her libel action against them and Unite.

Canary also needs to go.

This is a thoughtful tweet on RLB (rather than brainless 'convince me'). Reckon she will do it anyway but it's good to make sure they don't go to Starmer, say.

I have nothing against RLB really and I'd be happy with her as leader. I need to know I'm not just getting Milne/Murphy/Murray and more years of the party being totally dominated in a Unite/Momentum gentleman's agreement.

If she can get breadth, then people like me are winnable.

— Tom Miller (@TomMillerUK) December 20, 2019

lost a seat, won a libel action - swings and roundabouts. pity The Canary didn't run with it as well.

the Puritan revolution virtually ended all sports in England, and lawn bowling did not make much of a comeback even with the Restoration of 1660.The sport flourished in Scotland

When I come to think of it, not only was there a bowling green where I latterly grew up - in a bog standard 60s/70s housing estate - but where we lived before that there was fuck off giant bowling club at the end of our street.

Bowling is big on the east coast too. There are days of the week my dealer is unavailable because he’s playing bowls.

It was kind of my point. JCB (of Johnson's election photo opportunity fame) having been a major local employer that partly filled in the gap after the mines shut. Paternalistic and deeply anti-union, they have had a strong influence on the local culture.

— Susan (@susan1878) December 21, 2019

Luke Pagarani's tweet thread from last week has become a Guardian short read
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/dec/21/labour-older-voters-corbyn-local-socialism

Bowling in the East: I don’t live in Scone anymore but growing up there were two bowling greens in the village, the main one in the park with a very busy social club (think my parents were members briefly at one point but never bowled) and another one tucked away a few streets away.

There’s one in a village down the road from where I live now but can’t vouch for its liveliness.

Theres a bowling club in Shettleston you can go to where four drinks gives you change of £5. My favourite thing about Scotland is when you go to an 18th/21st etc in a bowling club and you can get very drunk very cheaply then watch your granny dance to "Step By Step" and then sit down during "Bits & Pieces" and every single night in one of these is exactly the same

the Puritan revolution virtually ended all sports in England, and lawn bowling did not make much of a comeback even with the Restoration of 1660.The sport flourished in Scotland

Not by me!

https://cdni.rt.com/files/2019.12/article/5dfb2374203027286144de48.png

cursed images

For @tribunemagazine I wrote about what the Labour Party owes to its black and brown voters, and how appeals to a “traditional working class” disguise calls for a cross-class coalition of racism https://t.co/xPfvhGOxUJ

— Jase (@jasebyjason) December 21, 2019

alex salmond looks like the dwarf from twin peaks

...only creepier.