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

I think a trio of Housing, Broadband and Trains would have been perfect. Especially as further season ticket hikes were being announced during election week.

or is that too much as well? fuck knows tbh!

Trouble is much of the time 'yes but how will you pay for it'/'where will you build new homes' type questions are coming from people with no desire to see these policies actually implemented. For them more homes means more people/more immigrants and free this or that means other people not earning it like they have.

The other thing is that broadband is a popular policy but just isn't a short term priority for most people - what really matters to them that it's in your power to fix? Housing is a massive one obviously but everything needs to be grounded in sustainable job creation at national and local level. The Tories have finally seemed to understand that with the pledge to increase infrastructure investment in the North - even if it never materialises.

Also don't drop dozens of policies at once two weeks before an election when people have spent years not really knowing what you stand for. You need to fix them in people's minds over years not weeks - obviously that carries risks but things like the minimum wage were announced years in advance.

Two-thirds of voters want Boris Johnson‘s government to ban zero-hours contracts, a poll has found.

The public also wants workers’ rights protected after Brexit and tax rises for higher earners, according to the survey for the Trade Union Congress (TUC).

sad lol. But more evidence that the Labour manifesto wasn't unpalatable to most of the electorate.

"Trouble is much of the time 'yes but how will you pay for it'/'where will you build new homes' type questions are coming from people with no desire to see these policies actually implemented"

Some of them yes but not all - there has to be a willingness to take this stuff on head-on and win the argument over time.

I did not say 'all'.

I don't get your point anyway though re 'years not weeks' - in a six week campaign with huge ground to gain the opposition obviously has to balance running off what seemed to work last time with some updates re policies.

I mean surely the big success here is the consensus on austerity? That the government is rolling out spending promises after years of “difficult decisions have to be made”? How did they change that narrative?

"A bloke sitting behind me immediately parped up with an incredulous "where are they gonna build them?" He had immediately written it off as unworkable and unrealistic - that's the sort of knee jerk dismissiveness that needs to be tackled. It's also why I think the broadband pledge - and the general overstuffedness of the manifesto - did more harm than good. People have to believe you will be able to deliver what you say you will."

I get this critique of the difference between the '17 and '19 manifestos. I'll just note that this criticism of the housing policy from #blokeinapub would not have been answered by the '17 manifesto either.

Obviously if you said you would requisition land from aristos, or make sure that all development is 99% social housing this guy would still be incredulous. Important to note the work here is to re-make Labour as a party that attacks property rights. Something that Corbyn and McDonnell hinted at and that will become necessary as and when the housing market fails for most people.

Not even re-make but to keep pushing the conversation in those directions.

People, even blokes in pubs, are generally in favour of building houses, so I would say this particular bloke in a pub was an outlier.

I've seen a lot of nimby mobilisation against proposed new build sites locally. Lots of Fields Not Houses type posters are popping in Shaw Cross. At least they can't blame Corbyn!

Also I bet that Nimbyism increases tenfold when you tell them the plan is to build social housing there.

Obviously the situation is different in London due to the green belt and a lack of suitable build sites generally but you see that general type of incredulity everywhere. People have been conditioned into believing that good things are unachievable.

Whereas if you offer the achievable, and deliver nothing, that's all right then.

London is brimming with construction work on overpriced (and increasingly unsold) apartments though. Lots of new housing here (if you can afford it), apparently not so much elsewhere.

I see Daniel Hannan is claiming that “Labour voters like cats and Tory voters like dogs”. RIP calz and comrade barcode

What an outrageous claim to make. Probably true in the sense that in urban zones it is a hell of a lot easier to keep a lil furball though!

Rural Yorkshire is full of kennel club dog breeders who sure ain't Labour voters

Come to Camden (the borough). Labour dogs all over the place.

i would invite you to brockwell park to similarly disprove that theory

👍

https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-fJzEI1BrfhA/WftEtVHLY1I/AAAAAAAAB24/p665Hqbett8hnhrYBSy504Byjqf_A2ZagCLcBGAs/s1600/IMG_3903.JPG

Matt DC otm in public’s incredulity that stuff could be delivered, that day when there was a silly argument about two billion trees being planted. By the time experts got around to explaining the practicality of how it would be delivered it had already been rubbished in the public’s mind. It doesn’t help having a press who are actively hostile, but you’ve got to be able to show that you can deliver it.

tell them

Solidarity with @stormzy.

Ask people locked up in Yarlswood, babies drowning at our borders, Windrush elders who built the NHS only to be denied cancer treatment.

Boris Johnson’s government is institutionally racist.

— Nadia Whittome MP (@NadiaWhittomeMP) December 22, 2019

Cats are definitely more Tory than dogs, how is this even a debate?

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EEIC94iVAAEgL6T.jpg

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EMeyJGBWwAkkN-f?format=jpg&name=4096x4096

I just asked this lad what he thinks of the continuity Thatcherite consensus that has been destroying this country for decades and "it's dog rough" was his answer.

2012 was the best year of the decade. Dispute if you dare. https://t.co/6pc30UZA9F

— Polly Mackenzie (@pollymackenzie) December 20, 2019

she's doing a bid to put all the parody accounts out of business here

she's the 5p plastic bags lady isn't she?

2012 was the best year ever love it or leave it you Marxist scumbags

xp
yep and she's complete devoid of self awareness

still

And Danny Boyle’s opening ceremony showed us that we can do it. Yes, it was a bit sentimental. But a national story needs a good dose of sentiment. And that opening ceremony (watch the video again: it’s worth your time) contained everything you’d want in a vision of modern Britain. Creativity. Optimism. Technological aspiration.

i was working in a miserable gastropub in s london during this and I don't think I even glanced at the screen once. pub was full of obnoxious australians that I never saw before or since.

danny boyle is no leni riefenstahl - that's for sure

why don't people understand the simple fact that its always leni riefenstahl?

my demeanour/facial expression was actually like that famous leni riefenstahl in poland pic when i watched it

At least Leni made positive films about mountaineering

and was a very talented and innovative nazi! I think Boyle has had a string of flops since that opening ceremony, it's cursed the fucker!

Boyle is weird cause he alternates between perfectly fine entertainments and some of the worst movies ever made (eg Trance, Yesterday [note: have not seen, refuse to see the latter])

A lot of his films are shot by Anthony Dod Mantle, which in my view mostly explains their good parts.

2012 was the best year of the decade because we all died on december 21

funny how these dumbshits always forget george osbourne getting booed at the paralympics because atos had been condemning sick and disabled people to death for quite some time by 2012 innit

In exchange for a plastic bag charge

well yeah i’m not saying it was all bad

By the time experts got around to explaining the practicality of how it would be delivered it had already been rubbished in the public’s mind. It doesn’t help having a press who are actively hostile, but you’ve got to be able to show that you can deliver it.

Do you think "40 new hospitals" is different to this?

Maybe it seems more deliverable to people because it's a lower number.

How do you show you can deliver when you're not in power, besides documenting the costs?

Everyone knows Johnson is bullshitting but they were voting for Brexit, racism and not having a cabbage-botherer in charge

funny how these dumbshits always forget george osbourne getting booed at the paralympics because atos had been condemning sick and disabled people to death for quite some time by 2012 innit

Top 5 greatest George Osborne moments:

1. Crying at Thatcher’s funeral
2. Getting booed at the Paralympics
3. Looking zoomed off his head on the front bench
4. Going to the Queen’s Irish reception and acting like he was Irish-Irish rather than Ascendancy
5. tbc

People might be tired of Why Things Are Like This threads but I found this one insightful

THREAD

A long thread about my own personal experiences during this election dealing with my Labour voting family deciding to out themselves as casual racists by voting Tory / Brexit Party in traditional Labour "Red Wall" heartlands

— Wayne Rhodes (@Sheff_socialist) December 23, 2019