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

what will cheer me up will be seeing the back of this ragtag gang of dubious melts and jokers and seeing RLB as the next leader. I'm not asking for much.

my melt-dar game is strong. In 40 odd years I'm yet to see a Labour pol who I've dismissed as a complete cunt prove me wrong, if anything they've always turned out much worse than my initial misgivings about them.

the broadband policy was one of the ones that really hit in the election! you can argue with the “and another thing” way that new investment policies were drip fed and also to meadway’s point about the prioritisation of nationalisation, but it seems daft to drop something that played well. also you can give cities control over bus franchising very easily. david miliband has been struggling through that particular thicket of central gov and obstruction admin for a few years.

yeah Fizzles it's the billionaire owned media that decide the policies, not the electorate.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2020/01/04/nigel-farage-plans-100000-party-parliament-square-10000-brexiteers/

i do not see what could possibly go wrong with this

a thermobaric bombs igniting above the lot of 'em would what could go right!

sorry for much chainposting. not even 1pm and am already fresh on red wine - need to try and save what is left of this day!

I've been wondering when and how Farage will choose to turn on Johnson. These negotiations are not going to go well for the government and a split on the pro-Brexit side will be one of the crucial turning points of this Parliament.

Basically Johnson has the option of extending the transition period and enraging the Ultras - "out of the EU but still controlled by Brussels" - or threatening a WTO Brexit that will decimate what remains of manufacturing in a lot of newly Tory seats. It's a very unstable coalition that hasn't been put under any serious strain yet.

Yep, otm, the wheels will come off this thing sooner rather than later.

Seeing as he’s being an absolute prick, I no longer feel bad about tweeting about the time I met Paul M*son and got him to sign some of @Lokinash06’s fan art. pic.twitter.com/J9s6KNE2Dg

— molly (@molono) January 5, 2020

speaking of which I saw this horrific image of A Campbell playing bagpipes over Charles Kennedy's grave the other day

TS: Dancing on your grave vs. Playing bagpipes badly over your grave.

Asked what she would drop from Labour’s 2019 manifesto, Lisa Nandy replies: “Free broadband.

Jess Phillips brought up the free broadband pledge too, I'm assuming these cretins don't seriously think that people didn't vote Labour because of free broadband but can't think of anything else in the manifesto to single out.

https://tribunemag.co.uk/2020/01/jess-phillips-is-not-the-answer

Phillips has remarkable faith in the power of public relations and internal company processes to resolve industrial disputes. “Now,” she writes, “if I worked at Uber and I had a problem with the way staff and drivers were being treated . . . the first thing I would do in making a complaint . . . would be to use the company’s own words and point out where it isn’t living up to its own self-imposed standards and values.”

Where to begin with this? Everybody knows that, when it comes to gig economy work, such channels of communication as exist between workers and bosses are mainly cosmetic — anyone kicking up a fuss will likely be booted out without much ceremony. When Uber drivers recently won legal recognition of their employee status, it wasn’t because they had finally mastered the art of persuasion and convinced their employers that their ill-treatment ran contrary to the company’s mission statement; it was because they took them on, and won, in a court of law.

This dubious sentiment is echoed in a later passage about workplace harassment, in which Phillips advises that, “asking for help is okay; the worst someone can say is no.” This is incorrect: saying no is not the worst thing your superior can do. Anyone who has ever endured a difficult situation at work, and held their tongue for strategically sensible reasons, would have good reason to feel patronised by these suggestions. “In your life,” she writes, “you have more opportunity to use the systems in place to change stuff than you think.” It is true that many people are not fully up to speed on their rights under company grievance procedures, but this seems rather a tenuous basis for a politics of dissidence.

No doubt she picked that up when she worked for her parents' company, ee by gum.

Come on now, her family toiled hard for that second home in France and they all talk like Noddy Holder ho ho ho etc

Yeah that’s someone who’s never had a job in the gig economy talking. Like your parents thinking you can drop CVs into businesses.

Someone who also swells her MPs income with 9k from a dodgy donor and gives her hubby 30k assistant jobs. She couldn't be more ignorant + insulated from how it is out there now.

Not that she couldn't find out, but she is a incurious individual.

Nadia - the so called virtue signaller - shows her up for what a grasping piece of shit she is.

I need to find out what the advance was on her books - she switched publisher for the second (bought by Caitlin Moran’s old editor at Ebury/RH, dude moved to Hodder to start his own imprint) and the first book was published by a super-posh acquaintance of mine at Macmillan, both with authority to spend six figures if need be. Wondering why she didn’t stick with a female editor?

I've been wondering when and how Farage will choose to turn on Johnson. These negotiations are not going to go well for the government and a split on the pro-Brexit side will be one of the crucial turning points of this Parliament.

Basically Johnson has the option of extending the transition period and enraging the Ultras

Do the ultras matter anymore? I can't really see how Farage will have an opening to turn on Boris, at least not any time soon.

I don't think the ERG matter that much for the time being with the new parliamentary arrhythmic. But isn't the money behind the Boris campaign pretty much a bunch of ultras?

lol, parliamentary arithmetic even

Farage is a busted flush at this stage, even if (when) the Brexit negotiations start going tits up they'll still be able to present it as down to the intransigence and bloody-mindedness of foreigners. Mark Francois and the rest will have knighthoods lined up to keep them sweet.

This won't be an issue for two or three years - we're too far from an election - but if the Tories are seen as having failed to deliver a satisfactory Brexit then we could well see pressure building from a Farageist perspective again. Or they might all lose interest after January 31st, who knows.

In other words its not people on the Tory benches that the govt needs to be wary of.

Now the public has agreed that Brexit is whatever Boris says it is, going to be tough to unconvince them again. Breathing life back into that will take work, especially now that remainers have disappeared and aren't there to keep it rolling with their sweet snowflake tears

What the hell is strategy here

He knows he has an election in 120 days in the one region labour did well in? Where he'll want labour activists to support him? pic.twitter.com/e9VPSuWH9t

— bread and poses (@MrJackGrant) January 5, 2020

It’s a good job he doesn’t particularly need the Labour GOTV machinery to get re-elected.

Hate to admit it, but Livingstone is the only one who actually saw the role of Mayor of London as something other than a step on the career ladder and the chance to strut about acting important while doing fuck all.

Khan is a fucking melt, always has been. hated him since he snubbed Corbyn at the start and did that crude speech where he used the word "power" 963 times to back up his hypothesis that only Labour melts can actually get into power.

xxp

snowflake tears of happiness tbf. Two of their primary objectives have been realised : i/ the death of Corbynism. ii/ bollox to brexit passport covers that let people at EU customs know they aren't happy with this bloody rum state of affairs. Not quite the utopia of 2012 where the loud blast of the horn of plenty was often deafening, but almost!

MOMENTUm are the real embarrassment though. 🤷🏽‍♀️ https://t.co/rk26KeWeSI

— The Trashies (@TheTrashiesUK) January 5, 2020

postman pat seriously needs to die.

This is hilarious, full admiration for Ross immediately steaming in there with “its Alan Johnsooooon” cos you can tell those guys don’t have a clue who he is

Lol @ ppl begging for wwiii and fuck, who could blame 'em

Ken Jeong clearly has zero idea who he is.

When you definitely know who Alan Johnson is. pic.twitter.com/pZ9mI0MVtM

— Ash Sarkar (@AyoCaesar) January 5, 2020

to be fair, he does have changnesia.

It's called the Masked Singer, celebs sing in costume and we're supposed to try and guess who they are, which is completely impossible. Six of them perform and then the loser gets unmasked

— RopesToInfinity (@RopesToInfinity) January 5, 2020

MARGARET, 51, DROITWICH: why hasn't Corbyn built that new train station for the county yet? He's been our unelected president for 35 years.

LISA NANDY: you're actually so right 😭 ffs how shit are we it's actually mad. Sorry. Sorry

— Death to the West (@FlairmanWao) January 5, 2020

good work of someone to do accurate transcripts of her doorsteps convos and make it look like a joke.

Labour leadership: Jess Phillips clarifies Brexit stance, saying party won't back rejoin at next election - live news

that was a rapid about-face. These melts are always preaching about "message discipline" to Corbyn but not so cracky at practising it themselves.

when you have about as much political conviction as mayor khan a jellyfish, probably best avoiding improvised policy on-the-fly.

At this rate, I'd be voting for the fly!

Looks like some interesting stuff, quite a long read so will finish later.

How Labour increased its vote share in the Isle of Wight against the odds https://t.co/YoJ6iZoL6u via @leftfootfwd

— Ian Woodland (@IanWoodland) December 30, 2019

Rayner is the absolute Heineken candidate for deputy, getting broad support and reaching the parts of the PLP that I wish had fucked off into oblivion by now.

that was a rapid about-face. These melts are always preaching about "message discipline" to Corbyn but not so cracky at practising it themselves.

― calzino, Monday, 6 January 2020 09:56 (four hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

I am a "message discipline" person but I've never claimed that any of the competition have shown a superior command of it. Starmer was notably terrible in the runup to the election campaign before they locked him in the cupboard.

I wasn't taking a potshot at you sean. More at certain ex Labour shadow cabinet melts talking lots of shite, despite being involved a dismal fail of an election campaign themselves.

Apart from wheeling out the slicey bois, how do you propose those in the shadow cabinet draw a line under Campaign 2019 and focus on the future?

I am going to say something unpopular with calz, who I totally agree with on the awfulness of some or KS’s views - that welfare thing was dire. Unless that’s not how how old gig worked? (paging SV or anyone who might know more about this, basically). But I liked his campaign video, even though yr nobody-tells-me-what-to-write types were straight in there pissing on his bit about the print unions. My prefs (before campaigning) are: RLB, KS and that’s it. Amazing how not supporting certain female candidates makes you a misogynist these days. Deputy - happy with Butler or Rayner. They’re a lot better choices than 2015!

I wouldn't piss on that tory tosser if he was on fire!

I think they need to forget about 2019, there isn't necessarily a lesson in everything that went wrong. Or the lessons I can see are be more ruthless with melts: don't have any wreckers/people constantly briefing the gutter press about internal wrangles in the cabinet this time, especially as deputy leader.

Starmer is basically a slow route back to 2010 despite his bullshit video. His words aren't worth shit when you can see he has a record of falling in line with the arsehole wing of the party. They'll slowly chip away at him until he actually starts even looking like Owen Smith. For me he's already crossed the rubicon with his behaviour at the CPS, which isn't defensible at all, and as far as I'm concerned he's in the wrong party. My card is going in the bin with Labour's chances of ever winning an election as a proper party of opposition, if that slimeball is the new leader.

FYI although Starmer abstained on That Welfare Vote he did vote against the very same bill at third reading.

Again, we seriously need the public to be educated in how the CPS brings charges (or not) because even the most crusading QC who does 50 per cent of his work pro bono, for good left causes, would not be able to ignore the law in order to bring/not bring charges.