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

the last five years has actually felt very much like survival horror to me, but i reckon the next 5 years will really deliver the goods - but this is with the priv checking caveat that no matter how bad it gets at least i won't get deported!

― calzino, Friday, February 14, 2020 12:40 PM (ten minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

As cruel as it is, this is what Labour should hammer on, again and again and again. There were some promising grass roots campaigns by young Labour candidates the last election, being there for/building communities. It's the only way forward - well that and by god hope enough people will finally see they are being bamboozled.

they were Cornish and Northern coast people concerned about fishing rights

It is hard not to think of this as boiling down to xenophobia/nationalism though. Presumably the concern comes from what they read and hear about - the Other is encroaching on their turf, they're "our" waters and "our" fish being stolen

Why are geography teachers so maligned in any case?

Who are these unelected bureaucrats to try and tell us where our borders are?!

It is hard not to think of this as boiling down to xenophobia/nationalism though. Presumably the concern comes from what they read and hear about - the Other is encroaching on their turf, they're "our" waters and "our" fish being stolen

There's a hostility to regulation, quotas, the environmental protection lobby, etc, that sits alongside the xenophobia.

I think it's underneath not alongside tbh. UK has tended to top overfishing reports - wonder what they know or care about that. Usually the same types moaning about 'health and safety' etc. too though sure.

Why are geography teachers so maligned in any case? Big Dunty flings that line out at Corbyn all the time, only PE teachers have a worse rep.

― Matt DC, Friday, 14 February 2020 bookmarkflaglink

Reckon the music press is to blame. It's where I first this line, anyway.

can't wait to see these retrogressive 19th century cod-stinking throwbacks getting sold down the river during the brexit negging!

it's not a downer pom, and i think the state of things is more complicated than what you describe, as i'm sure you do. i think there are personal ethical considerations about engaging with politics as Trojan Horse, sales pitch or popularity contest, but then the mechanics of representative democracy isn't the sum total of politics, thank fuck.

Yeah, this is very much otm. I guess I, too, am reacting to a core frustration that has given rise to an increasingly more pressing cross-border debate on the left in recent years: put crudely, how do we win? Take Canada, for example, where in our last federal election the leftist candidate, Jagmeet Singh, achieved a pathetically low score (19.71%, 44 seats), way lower than in 2015 (30.63%, 103 seats) – partly because our system is locked between the Liberals and the Tories and always has been, partly because of unacknowledged, systemic racism (Singh is Sikh and wears a dastār), but also because so much more should have been done to appeal to the lowest common denominator, beyond the image of ball-busting self-righteousness that the left end of the spectrum all too often projects. Granted, the question then becomes (to echo bg's reply upthread): how the fuck do you achieve that without gazing into the abyss and thus becoming a Nietzschean monster, etc.? I certainly don't have an answer to that question but I appreciate that, as ogmor put it, some people are formulating it on an almost ontic level (forgive the Heideggerese, but you brought up Hegel) while doing the legwork, which is exactly as it should be.

I think was the Momentum ballot which really was moronic, it cemented a caricature of her as the preferred candidate of a shambolic and amateurish organisation that led Labour to disaster.

the momentum decision was atrocious bc it was counter to the democratic grassroots principles the org is supposed to stand for, not bc it was representative or typical of it. you could argue that this contradictory betrayal of principles was a wider problem underlying the difference between the '17 & '19 campaigns - going for the great leap rather than the long march as someone argued but I can't find the link - but momentum were responsible for a huge amount of the organising and canvassing efforts in december despite being ill-served by a labour party administration who refused to buy proper polling data or engage with any detailed constituency level analysis. I don't think many ppl who went canvassing wld say it was momentum who were shambolic

its funny but revealing that the same generation who used to tut that young ppl not voting were abdicating their civic duty and thus had no right to criticise the constitutional settlement now blithely appraise emerging leftist organising efforts as if they are the arbiters of what is to be taken seriously, sceptical consumers offering insightful criticism about the service being offered them from the transcendent position of politically inactive middle age

I guess I, too, am reacting to a core frustration that has given rise to an increasingly more pressing cross-border debate on the left in recent years: put crudely, how do we win?

Otm :( Same here, centre-right to far-right are all winning, racism is more salonfähig and normalized every year. It's a spark so easily ignited you're almost always too late trying to put it out. And even if you do, the stench still lingers. I'm all for an ontic approach, as I do think it's more or less a baseline, as good a starting point as any. Nuance defies being amplified, and we're surrounded by amplifiers these days. I worry about this more than I should..

Why are geography teachers so maligned in any case?

Codes as 'male' but not seen as intellectually serious (cf endless jokes about oxbow lakes), general suspicion of anyone who rambles as a sandal-wearing hemp nut.

I didn't quite mean Momentum per se being shambolic but more the whole organisation/team behind Corbyn - Momentum probably stands in for that in the minds of people who are not quite paying attention, which is most of the country - so it's easy for opponents to make political capital out of blurring the lines.

The stupid thing was that if they had offered a straight ballot then RLB would have won comfortably.

Rayner might not, though. I think it is the perceived stitch-up between the two of them, when there are arguably two candidates closer to the actual left, that left a lot of people upset.

Corbyn did teach geography on his VSO stay in Jamaica though, LOL.

tired: vg tic
wired: blue tic
inspired: ontic

I'm not sure I'd agree the global right keeps winning. The right-wing steal in Thuringen went awry and caused a major scandal. Bolsanaro keeps falling on his face. Sinn Fein surged in Ireland. The Norwegian right-wing government just fell apart. The right keeps falling over a lot as well. And no matter how hard they try, Maduro is still in place in Venezuela. The problem is more, that nobody ever wins. It's a constant struggle to improve the world, one step at a time. The idea that you could in the end WIN is to me connected to the evangelism deems talked about.

That's fair, Fred. I'm mainly thinking of the anglosphere, which I guess has never truly leaned left to begin with.

There was an awful lot of schadenfreude over that clip of Alan “Labour In” Johnson tearing a strip off Jon Lansman on election night. I wonder what it is about the left-wing Jew who built his own campaigning group that brings out such vicious glee in right-wing press and people? Momentum scaremongering has been a very deliberate thing, it didn’t just occur organically.

inspired: ontic

Galaxy brain: borrowing a term from a notorious Nazi sympathizer (cf. the Schwarze Hefte) to describe contemporary leftist praxis.

Ireland is still the Anglosphere btw.

https://i.pinimg.com/originals/61/60/57/616057353218de3fa0330de0c96cdada.jpg

That's easy for him to say

Ireland is still the Anglosphere btw.

My statement was to be read mutatis mutandis (if only because Trudeau isn't exactly right wing either, or at least not as much as the Tories). And while SF's victory in Ireland is an obvious step forward, they're not exactly running the country now, are they? I suspect a long road awaits.

As a precaution, we have cancelled all engagements until next Thursday when the 14-day potential incubation period will end. If you think you may have been in contact with someone who has coronavirus, self-isolate and call 111 for an assessment more here https://t.co/U1Viswxt3v

— ((( Alex Sobel MP ))) (@alexsobel) February 14, 2020

*Statement* As has been reported by
@harry_horton
I attended the UK bus summit on the 6th Feb, where there was an attendee who has tested positive for coronavirus. Whilst I have been informed that I am at very low risk, I have called 111 to be formally assessed.

that UK Bus Summit was in London at QEII Centre

More friends of this Tory MP pic.twitter.com/TjYNoLNQV0

— jewdⒶs // ייִדהודה (@jewdas) February 14, 2020

what on earth has a tory mp got to do get suspended, actually murder somebody? Andy Foster poses with neo-fascist activists, posts a HB to Hitler and refers to "paki cunts" in reference to a fire at mosque.

One for the Real England thread.

too fash, too strong.

two of them social media screenshots probably date before he was an MP but are serious enough to warrant retrospective action.

Dehanna Davison is the MP, Foster is the Fascist she’s posing with.

oh right .. they all look the same to me !

Scientists for Labour nominates:

• Keir Starmer to be leader of the Labour Party
• Rosena Allin-Khan to be deputy leader of the Labour Party

— CLP Nominations (@CLPNominations) February 14, 2020

the scientific rationale for melting.

in a world where "evidence-based" has become synonymous with "please punch me in the face for 10 minutes" what can we expect

The idea that you could in the end WIN is to me connected to the evangelism deems talked about.

― Frederik B, Friday, 14 February 2020 bookmarkflaglink

Spoken from a place of comfort.

the "evidence" always seems to say "don't be mean to Wes Streeting" and our billionaire overlords are doing a cracking job!

I Fucking Love Centrism

I didn't quite mean Momentum per se being shambolic but more the whole organisation/team behind Corbyn - Momentum probably stands in for that in the minds of people who are not quite paying attention, which is most of the country - so it's easy for opponents to make political capital out of blurring the lines.

ppl similarly made political capital out of blurring anti-EU sentiment into more general xenophobia - the solution is not concern trolling and trying to fearfully preempt these confusions but to speak confidently & positively and address them if and when they pop up. its really the only viable strategy given that there are a million different ignorant conflations going on in the minds of voters

The idea that you could in the end WIN is to me connected to the evangelism deems talked about.

I think it depends how you defined winning. So for example with the Jamaica 50 flight I would say the right won. Climate change may be another

i assume Fred meant that there's never an end point that could be called a win and if so i broadly agree, every small victory should only be the platform to make further demands

lol

Constituency school visits almost always hit the nail on the head. Today no exception:
Child - 'do you know Boris Johnson?' Me- 'yes' Child - 'wow. when did you last meet him' Me - 'er, yesterday' Child 'really! How was it?' Me 'er, er, er...great, it was just great'.

— Julian Smith MP (@JulianSmithUK) February 14, 2020

I took it as there isn't an end point but that kind of attitude is lazy and complacent when every small win by the right is rolled over into a point in which life becomes intolerable for almost all but the elite.

battles being won in a seemingly endless bitter war

Just like the Blood War.

They’re really gonna do this eh? pic.twitter.com/iVwcmd7aXJ

— Socialist Dad (@shirleymush) February 14, 2020

the more of this kind of stuff coming out between now and the vote should focus some wavering voters to the immense pressure and expectations that will be on Starmer from the worst people associated with the party. And his record of being a steady career pol wouldn't suggest he is not capable of wandering off the well beaten track or telling perps from right wing pressure groups (that are running his campaign) to get fucked.

Even these people who are backing him now just see him as a short term fix UI for their ultimate goal of a mildly centre-right Labour completely eradicated of the Left. They might have learned a bit since they were "fucking useless plotters"

tbf i don't know how much rejoining is a big deal to the Blairites, it was only a stick to beat Corbyn with, they'll probably not see it as worth pursuing with any intent if that represents a threat to their election chances

meanwhile anybody who gives one fuck what AC Greylag thinks about anything is a lost cause in every area of life

I don't think anybody knows how the new intake in party membership are going to vote. if there was some data on it Starmer's team would have hacked it by now.