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

That's no contest, if the bookies haven't stopped taking bets on it they soon will.

yeah even the Guardian commenters like Rayner

Without getting too corny Rayner has lived and made mistakes and overcome a shit start in life without succumbing to rugged self-made individualist tosser speak like some do. She's become quite a force. Even melts who initially underestimated her and were condescendingly insulting to her now realise she's pretty special and much cleverer than her detractors, and people across the whole class spectrum seem to like her apart from media class tories who still try and condescend her as much as possible. Good luck to her I say and never change!

I still bristle at that moment when bbc Tory twat asks her if she'd nationalise sausages.

Graun's nose out of joint because of RLB snub? yep: they've put a vacuous Clive Lewis (more yawnsome Progressive Alliance bollox) piece above her launch. Fuck 'em.

Oh, dear. The importance of semi colons in a tricky list, @guardian. Not a good look for @RLong_Bailey’s campaign! pic.twitter.com/QNgMlAJnxZ

— Apala Chowdhury (@raspberryberet2) January 7, 2020

yes, this classy touch by the Graun as well.

"Not a good look for her campaign" is such a dumb and extremely twitter thing to say about it though.

oh yeah it was just the first screen grab I found!

they've added a semi colon now.

Fight the power <3

Clive babbling on about imaginary progressive alliances and PR! Gimme a break we've got five years of hard-right untrammelled Toryism with a huge majority ahead and he thinks it's time to talk about electoral reform.

Lol Tim Montgomerie got sacked for saying the quiet part a bit too loud?

Rayner's launch is only for Deputy but its been more impressive than any of the others. She is pretty much a shoo-in for the position and it may be sensible for her to be taking it slowly.

It's insane how nearly all the leadership contenders have been in Parliament less than five years. That doesn't feel long enough to me but I suppose says a lot about the state of the PLP before 2015.

Also I’m sorry to say Stephen Bush is bad now

Life hack: If you find yourself understandably unwilling to publicly criticise the flaming reactionaries repeatedly published by the prominent UK political magazine you politically edit, simply beat up on the vastly more benign editor of an amateur soft left politics website!

— Lafargue (@Lafargue) January 7, 2020

RLB pitch strong. “... people across these islands are sick of the British state’s distant and undemocratic institutions. They have no trust in politicians to deliver, and have a deep desire for political as well as economic transformation.” 👌🏻

xxp Cameron is your obvious precedent, becoming leader of the opposition four years after election

Cameron probably not the best precedent if we're talking inexperience tbh.

Is RLB currently being attacked both for conceding too much ground on antisemitism allegations and not conceding enough ground on antisemitism allegations?

it's almost like the attacks aren't being made in good faith

only getting attacked from two sides? They haven't even got started yet!

Lack of experience in parliament is a pretty good thing to me when you are looking at transformation of the country.

See D. Cameron.

Absolutely love too see the silence on this from everyone very concerned about racism in public life

Very insensitive statement from Johnny Mercer. "Blood on the carpet"? The guy couldn't be any more crass if he tried. pic.twitter.com/Omo8iylSMl

— Sorcha Eastwood (@SorchaEastwood) January 3, 2020

I mean he certainly transformed the country but more a series of blunders than design.

There's probably an argument that if you want to transform the country properly then deep knowledge and understanding of its institutions, and the people in them, is essential because *these are the things that are going to get in your way* and you need to know how to tackle that. We'll see how Dominic Cummings gets on with the civil service, I suppose.

The only genuinely nation-changing PMs of the 20th century had been in Parliament 20 years at least before running the country - the only equivalent figures on the Labour benches lack the kind of transformative drive we're talking about, or they're lifelong backbenchers, or they were in the Shadow Cabinet for the last five years and aren't running anyway.

problem is most of the time served PLP only want to reform their own party leadership, they couldn't give a flying one about transforming the country.

xp he’s already been slapped down by no 10 for freelancing and it’s not happening

Also I think you’d make a good case for more happening in the past five years politically than in an equivalent ten of almost any of the last century!

generally i think mocking somebody's appearance is bad but

pic.twitter.com/zxHlmBYHiD

— Howard Zinn's 10 Million Long-Bailey Relief Plan (@ZinnTruther) January 7, 2020

heh! perhaps "a pickled egg covered in pubes" is just going too far, this online bullying needs to stop at once...🤭

There's probably an argument that if you want to transform the country properly then deep knowledge and understanding of its institutions, and the people in them, is essential because *these are the things that are going to get in your way* and you need to know how to tackle that. We'll see how Dominic Cummings gets on with the civil service, I suppose.

I think I recall reading something recently about a British mistrust of technique...

Fizz it in the mixer, play with passion and pride etc.

xxp idk why he’d run when Rayner has broad cross party support but ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

he's even dozier than he looks obv

Can’t believe this is happening again, a Labour woc being immediately trivialised by the glorious press is it?

Rosena Allin-Khan, setting out her deputy Labour leadership pitch, says "I've been to the north last weekend"

— Esther Webber (@estwebber) January 7, 2020

The Tooting MP, who has a Pakistani father and Polish mother, dismissed concerns that Labour must have a leadership team that is drawn from northern constituencies.
“I grew up poor with a single mum working three jobs to support me and my brother. That taught me the reality of day to day life for people across this country,” she said.
“There’s no regional distinction to hunger. Loss of hope lives across the UK. London is used to mean ‘metropolitan elite’ but we also have some of the highest levels of deprivation.

Brendan Cox is like a dog with a bone on "strict immigration rules". Another melt who thinks the only way forwards for Labour is back to 2010 via 2015. What a fucking prick.

with the slimeball lib caveat of "celebrate the contribution of migrants" but just don't let any more of the fuckers in!

but hey we've more in common that what divides us ...bleurrrgh!

Cameron as transformer is overrated really. He did what Tories usually like to do to public services (cut them), especially when the financial crisis gave him a reason. Enough people voted UKIP for the referendum to take place.

Reckon it's far better to have people who wouldn't normally get into parliament, and then don't get used to the constraints to see possibilities. Corbyn is a good example of someone who has been in the place for a long time but on the margins. It probably helped him to stay as leader for as long. Like to think this is a start of a healthy trend.

> What RA-K actually said...

i think the 'oop north' quote came from the radio4 interview she gave this morning. she seemed fine, if a bit fence-sitty (although to be fair the interviewer did seem to be asking her mostly about what other people were thinking).

Sure, but that’s a conscious decision to tweet a context free quote, leading to yr aggressive reply guys jumping in to tell us all how much wiser they are than an A&E doctor.

Labour MPs know one design guy with one colour palette who is absolutely raking it in on leadership campaign work this year. pic.twitter.com/XzIB0Xu18U

— Tom Wilson (@feedthedrummer) January 7, 2020

Your occasional reminder that one of the country's leading political journalists is a thicko. https://t.co/Lkr1b5lkBn

— Phil BC (@philbc3) January 7, 2020

This is a well put together thread that explains what a dangerous time this is:

(1)Discussion of Migration completely misunderstands Tory Migration Policy:they don't want to reduce the 'number' of migrants : They want to reduce the Rights of Migrants.The policy is for 100k's of migrants who are charged extra for NHS and need a not from their Employer to stay

— Solomon Hughes (@SolHughesWriter) January 7, 2020

As I was trying and failing to explain to my mother, people who have a problem with EU immigrants in this future hate that we are treated equally under the law. Which is not excusing the disgraceful treatment of non-EU immigrants in this country, which the same crowd don’t think is harsh enough anyway.

i started my current job in may 2012. there's a woman i know here who started in june 2012. to me she will always, ALWAYS be 'the new hire'. i feel like i have some kind of advantage of seniority over her. ridiculous. but it's deep in my lizard brain. i feel like humans are always going to have this weird tribal, in/out selfish obsession with who has what privileges. how do we mitigate this chimp quality?

in the electrical game it used to be if you aren't an apprentice served and qualified sparky then your a boy, regardless of age or gravitas etc. It used to amuse me when companies would bring in agency labourers in their 30's/40's and some lil' shit in his mid 20's would point and yell "get those fucking boys sweeping up some rubble, don't just let them dawdle about!"

I've been reading this from the middle of last year about the creation of "Essex man", it's not related except it's a picture of how you create a new constituency (you need the wash of money to do so though, and while it's clear that Boris would like to, it's not clear there's as much around)

https://www.theguardian.com/news/2019/jun/27/the-invention-of-essex-how-a-county-became-a-caricature

Rory Stewart wrapping it up! pic.twitter.com/MsULP4fSio

— Eye Spy MP (@eyespymp) January 7, 2020

Eye Spy MP (retired)

I am waiting for the big Johnny Mc endorsement and remembering this proud father tweet from an insanely long time ago

I know Becky Long Bailey’s lovely parents and they will be very proud of their daughter today as she triumphed against the Tories at #PMQs today. https://t.co/D4THCFzskl

— John McDonnell MP (@johnmcdonnellMP) June 5, 2019

rory stewart's interest in wraps presumably sparked by seeing rolled-up afghan rugs when he walked across afghanistan and did u know he speaks dari