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

I know a cowardly melt when I see one Suze and he would ruin the Labour party as leader in every way possible.

and MP's like RLB and Paula Sherriff didn't have his exalted highfalutin background when they voted against the welfare act.

He’s my MP and has solved problems for everyone I know who has gone to him with their issues, and was in the Camden New Journal talking about how there was no going back to the triangulation of New Labour, or abandoning the anti-austerity commitments of the last manifesto. And I am extremely worried about the plans Tories outlined on p48 of their manifesto.

The other thing I gleaned from the conversation with his former colleague was apparently Orange Juice is his favourite group.

lots of fantastic constituency MPs are complete melts.

His record at the CPS is so wretched I don't why you'd waste your energy being an apologist for him.

great he loves jangle pop lets get back into austerity lite and racism.

Rip It Up (and start again).

The first rule with melts: it doesn't really matter what they say, they always go the same way.

I bet Tim Farron loves Orange Juice as well!

LOOOOOOOL

I’m not sure he’s as melty as made out, which is only a matter of opinion at this stage. I don’t go around apologising for people with power in any case! I really hate melts; I like Jeremy Corbyn. I don’t like MPs who don’t vote against austerity but if they later fess up to being wrong five years ago and change their behaviour and views, I’m willing to allow them to move on.

Weirdly, I’ve known about Keir since the McLibel days (the plaintiffs maintained an office in the block of flats I lived in at the time), and in a weird twist my best friend from home was in danger of becoming engaged to the lawyer acting for McDonalds (she swerved that, thankfully).

In this game you can only judge them on their voting record and their past, and his is a complete fail as a candidate to deliver a transformative government on so many levels he isn't really a serious candidate imo.

The only way to win is not to play to exterminate the motherfuckers

Anyone who abstained on the welfare bill is a melt. I'll even call Rayner a melt at this stage for the sake of a dodgy argument. But it is basically true - because these are pols who said Fuck millions of people - I don't give a shit about them. Or maybe some of them lacked courage, but not the ones that count.

Cumming's latest blogpost/call for job applications from people almost as smart as he is but not quite is a horrorshow in what it lays out as his plan for the coming years (essentially "do what we did at Education, everywhere, at all once, because that worked beautifully and I am smart). It's like Alan Walters all over again, but so much worse.

jfc

None of this stuff will matter when the PM's office is stacked full of incel Red Dwarf fans and we've gone to war with the Moon.

heh!

his anti-Semitic dog whistle "the likes of Goldman Sachs.." from his blog back in November should have got him into some deep shit, luckily for him Corbyn was still LOTO and an election was looming.

Think the Cummings stuff is being a bit overplayed, Johnson isn’t Gove and he’s a lazy prick with no appetite for this.

Wonder what'll happen if Trump gets on the blower demanding military assistance for the US's Forever Wars, in true Bush/Blair style?

for all the bullshit Corbz gets for not doing enough hardman posturing he would have had the correct response here as a PM. Was just reading a comment: will any of the labour leadership candidates show their Hilary Benn chops by saying they'd have pulled the trigger on Soleimani themselves ✊

Honestly I think the fact that Johnson is so lazy and uninterested in fine detail is one reason why he's likely to give Cummings carte blanche to do what he wants on this sort of thing.

Don’t think so; people kicking up are going to go to Johnson and it’ll be endless grief for him.

On New Year's day with #Streatham 's most famous, the beautiful @NaomiCampbell 😍#YearOfReturn #ChristmasInGhana pic.twitter.com/zgEsnC4aEz

— Bell Ribeiro-Addy MP (@BellRibeiroAddy) January 2, 2020

I'm gutted that Chuka's not Streatham's most famous anymore

Chuka is so petty I bet he’s enraged by this

Boris in the job two minutes and he's already got a possible war in the Middle East to contend with, out it another way, LOL we're all gonna die.

Radio 4 Today's Nick Robinson attacking Jess Phillips for being too like "Corbyn" and "backing the wrong side" because she criticised the US blowing up Qassim Soleimani in Iraq - something is surely deeply wrong with BBC news. (1:14 here https://t.co/ib5L6QPDyp ) pic.twitter.com/LQ1VXOVnWP

— Solomon Hughes (@SolHughesWriter) January 3, 2020

fuck’s sake

Wonder if this will give her or her side pause...nah

I was worrying about govt learning Silicon Valley's lesson that 20something nerds are easily weaponised into working 70 hour weeks for probably evil causes without asking big-picture questions as long as you murmur sweet noises about Red Dwarf William Gibson and LessWrong (apparently) and tell them they're very clever and nobody else understands them and btw they can have free snacks all day so why would they ever go home, but hopefully gyac otm

the only problem is that the "just tell them they're very clever and everything's their idea but promise to handle the social aspects of any fallout, and you can do what you like" trick probably works on Boris too

felt a bit like going back to bed and never coming out when I read the Iran stuff this morning, is this what every day this decade is going to be like? <magic_8ball.gif> signs point to yes

This is not going to end well for anyone.

I shed no tears for Soleimani, he was a cruel man who unleashed suffering for many. But violence begets violence, especially without a thought out military strategy. I know this from my time in Afghanistan. The UK must now lead in being a broker for peace.

— Clive Lewis MP (@labourlewis) January 3, 2020

parroting what every lib wanker in the western hemisphere is saying to show you ain't like that Corbyn is it? sigh

not that he's a serious contender.. but what a pathetic, cowardly mealy mouthed dickhead

in the time-honoured tradition of 'the world is a better place without (x)' formulations, where have i heard that before, let's see, i'm sure it worked out well

I know this from my time in Afghanistan.

Rory Stewart has not had a take on this yet, but going to his twitter tells me it’s his birthday, so he’s ahead of Clive on two counts there.

Oh that’s just what today needs

Sky News understands Labour MP Jess Phillips will announce her bid to become party leader later today

— Sky News Breaking (@SkyNewsBreak) January 3, 2020

Apparently this ghoul hasn't fucked off yet, wish he'd hurry up.

She doesn’t say we need to stand up to Iran who have caused so much of the carnage in Syria. https://t.co/dTj4QlGaIl

— Ian Austin (@IanAustin1965) January 3, 2020

Graham Jones must be devastated he can’t make a booming speech for Hansard today.

Once again, a desolate parade of warmongering bozos clogging up the replies to this moderate & obviously correct statement https://t.co/2AynQweGSu

— Edmund Griffiths (@EdmundGriffiths) January 3, 2020

It’s not as though Raab is particularly disagreeing at this stage.

The default Sensible position is apparently some way further to the right than the Tories.

Actually looking forward to a few weeks of JP being put under a bit of scrutiny and being given anything other than the very easiest of rides from the media. My feeling is she won't be very good at it. (Then again that didn't exactly hurt Boris).

he's been kicked around for it but we shouldn't underestimate the importance of having had a Labour leader who isn't subordinate to the whims of Washington. This needs to be a basic requirement for his successor, especially given the situation we're now in https://t.co/UsYb4fpdrx

— tom (@malaiseforever) January 3, 2020

Good piece on the supposed shake-up of the civil service:

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/jan/03/dominic-cummings-whitehall-civil-service-no-10

Jesus I have one drunky lie in and apparently we're in another fucking war, might give 2020 a miss tbh

Good:

With this assassination, President Trump is pushing us to the brink of another disastrous war that would cost countless lives, further destabilise the region and make us all less safe.

Our government should help de-escalate tensions, and we must resist any rush to war.

— Rebecca Long-Bailey (@RLong_Bailey) January 3, 2020

not really the thread for it but this from a useful Economist review of Iraq-US tensions is pretty special:

American officials are quietly seething at the Iraqi government’s willingness to rebuke them while giving a free hand to Iranian-backed groups. Iraq failed in its “responsibility to protect us as their invited guests”, complained a State Department official.

perfectly timed

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p07zcbwv

A Small Matter of Hope
Life's getting better. Statistics show the average human is healthier and better fed and educated than ever. So why don't we believe it? Fraser Nelson investigates.

Fraser Nelson investigates

That's the actual answer

YOU'VE NEVER HAD IT SO GOOD UNLESS YOU'VE JUST STARVED TO DEATH AND YOUR CHILDREN HAVE RICKETS

I really think we should start offing people, who's in?