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

They've attempted to oust four leaders in a row and have failed on every occasion, unless you count Blair's eventual resignation. You have to conclude they're just terminally shit at regicide.

Portillo has always been anti-EU. He was never anywhere near the being part of the liberal wing of the party, so the Cameron comparison does not hold up.

Cameron was just a cipher who cloned Blair for the Tory Party, I've no idea what this politics actually are, Portillo was a staunch Thatcherite.

Nah he definitely tried to reposition himself as a reformed character and a liberal of sorts, or at least a moderniser, in 2001. That was probably down to expediency as much as anything else.

listening to portillo on the moral maze and on brillo pad's axed show for years, definitely gave the impression to me of a horribly right-wing beast.

but I'm talking recent years here

Cameron’s job as an ex-PR was to be as innocuous as possible in the run-up to power and then parachute right-wing arseholes into all the British soft-power institutions while most people who hated him were focusing on the cruelty of austerity.

Johnson says Patel is doing an excellent job. There is an investigation. But he will take no lessons on bullying from Corbyn, who saw female MPs leave the party over bullying.

Corbyn says we have a part-time PM who covers up for bullies. Patel has been accused of bullying and harassment, leading to hard-working staff attempting suicide. He says Johnson has no shame.

Johnson says Corbyn is a full-time neo-Marxist. He says he is proud of his record. He lists some of the actions taken by the government. That is just in the last 82 days, he says. He is getting on with the people’s priorities.

Spitting Image confirms return in 2020 as BritBox UK unveils first original commission https://t.co/qJba66VivO pic.twitter.com/vHB6qv1oYQ

— ITV Press Centre (@itvpresscentre) March 4, 2020

omg this will break all known records of sucking and blowing shit at the same time

Trump looks like he swallowed Farage.

No doubt it will be terrible.

I think ILX agreed that the original show was fucking terrible and certainly shouldn't be dug up by the necrophiliac ShitBox

Trump looks like he swallowed Farage.

Taking it in stride :)

I've heard they are going to use a mix of real footage and deepfake for Starmer

Harry and Meghan there possibly because the team feel they are among the most accurate representations rather than because they have a big stack of sketch ideas they now can't use. Useful indicator of how news moves way too fast for a show like this to work anymore.

No idea who the guy between Trump and Putin is meant to be tho.

Did u lot ever see our half-assed swipe from back in the day

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZEB0YDoZsiU

many xposts
The worst thing is how IDS went on and somehow became even more powerful after he was humiliated and crushed as leader. Architect of universal credit mass murder and immiseration, and now one of the ideological godfathers/big beasts of the current Tory Party. It's unbelievable really, moreso to me than that he beat Clarke and Portillo. At least Howard and Hague had the good grace to fade away. IDS is indestructible, and his ideology has won.

Also by far the stupidest of the three.

ive a feeling thats meant to be....kanye?

"The quiet man is turning up the volume" said in a hoarse sepulchural whisper-shout was the most cringey thing since Blair's "Not a day for soundbites, but I feel the hand of history on my shoulder". But it was prescient, far-sighted. Since 2016 all the quiet bald racist white men have turned up the volume, and they now control the discourse.

Actually that's very unfair on Cameron and Osbourne, who killed and impoverished thousands before 2016. Mea culpa.

his "quiet man" line stunk so bad it was probably considered too ridic even for the enigmatic hero (no doubt based on himself) of his gritty spy fiction novel.

MPs have voted 328 to 227 against the motion to thank those who worked to respond to the floods and call for an independent review to assess the government's response and decide what lessons need to be learned. pic.twitter.com/XmWrU9rg4H

— UK House of Commons (@HouseofCommons) March 4, 2020

Translation:

I know Labour members wouldn’t like the people who are bank rolling my campaign, so I’m just not going to tell them. 🤷🏼‍♀️ Hmm, I wonder if Boris has a spare fridge I can borrow... 🤔 #andrewneilshow #LabourLeadership #NeverStarmer

pic.twitter.com/K81054dGd6

— Kimberley 🌹 (@LeftWingKim) March 4, 2020

I hope some of the membership are getting buyer's remorse already for voting for this pathetic twerp. Christ how did he get to the top job of the DPP? He's not even got a good bullshit lawyer routine just robotically repeating random party regs, worst talking barbie doll mode since the maybot, while his pathetic voice cracks up under soft pressure from brillo pad.

He wants LANDLORDS on the board that will decide rent controls??? This guy has no understanding of class politics at all https://t.co/pcaCgTNl64 pic.twitter.com/MIz6fb5HaG

— hsna (@BlazeQuark) March 3, 2020

Khan

In practice the Mayor's office doesn't have any power to impose rent controls and the government isn't exactly going to be inclined to help him out.

The only way it has even a small chance of success is if he can claim it's a result of a negotiation with representatives of all parties round the table. Otherwise its going to be seen as illegitimate and unenforceable from the off. And even with the most pliable and bought-in of landlords round the table (good luck with that one) it is almost certainly doomed to failure when the former Mayor decides he has no desire to help Labour out in one of the few regions they did well in.

This is all about the optics really, Khan is making it a key plank of his campaign but even with a big win behind him will be able to claim he's been thwarted at the end and this is why everyone needs to keep voting Labour.

Given it's not going to succeed anyway he might as well go the whole hog and leave the landlords out frankly but then it will look like his fault rather than the government's when they say no.

Less "landlord", more "rentreaper"

In the end its going to come down to "lol fuck you, you should have thought about this when you took my bridge away".

"this is why everyone needs to keep voting Labour."

if it's still the Labour melt version of the Maybot or someone from the Right after he has been done in, even with a nose-peg and asbestos removal full body ppe I won't be able to enter that voting booth in the next 5 years. They need to either die as a party and be reborn as genuine opposition or make a clean split from the Blairite detritus and start a new party to get my support back again.

Nah it's fine, in a few months we won't be able to go anywhere without full asbestos removal gear.

truedat!

I hope the ear perforations on mine to release the steam from my ears every time I see Starmer on the box will be regs compliant!

They need to either die as a party and be reborn as genuine opposition or make a clean split from the Blairite detritus and start a new party to get my support back again.

currently no mechanism or force on the horizon to make either of these things happen. entropy is a much more potent force than disillusionment

It wasn't really a completely rational post. I'm a bit burnt out/fucked up/angry/dysfunctional rn.

It turns out that beautiful Persian rug I thought was under me was just some tatty old fucking rag taken from a skip.

"this is why everyone needs to keep voting Labour"

I say this as a Lab member who will not rip up their card when Starmer wins...there will not be a vote in five years from me if the Manifesto isn't at least as Radical as the 2019 one and we look like we could deliver on it. This is whether I live in Lambeth now (where my vote does not matter) or perhaps in a marginal in future.

Currently working through Lab structures and seeing what room there is to keep pushing at different levels of the party. People are not giving up. Do wonder if the younger ones will just leave though.

if the Manifesto isn't at least as Radical as the 2019 one

I 1000% believe it won't be and I don't think the dominant Jezza/Starmer are-both-nice-guys apolitical-left element of the membership are discerning or principled enough to give a shit. it will be compromise compromise compromise until by 2024 we'll back to austerity lite/legit concerns, which might be more palatable than neo-fascism, but will still involve letting down minorities and the most vulnerable of society and not bring any of the transformative agenda of 2019 to the table.

Maybe...maybe not. The picture in 2024 will radically change, which will demand more robust action. Events etc., and the left in Labour is far more sizeable.

the disillusionment is v familiar. canvassing I was struck by how unique everyone's 'political journeys' are, how many personal factors, history, concerns and narratives totally outside any sort of academic/media/party analysis are brought to bear in every election. one of the longest chats I had was with an 85+ yo guy in bolton who made it v clear he wasn't going to vote, but then told me his history of industrial disputes and poor treatment from corrupt trade unions in the 70s and his gradual erosion of faith in the unions and by extension labour. when it came down to it the reason he wasn't going to vote labour in 2019 was barbara castle! so my awareness of everyone's varied journeys and experiences is tempered with the looming feeling that they are all equally irrelevant in the cold mathematics of working out power

so easy to lose sight of how much politics is just the q of power. when you read the kotkin stalin bio and it's full of all these much less monstrous socialists taking principled stands and quitting in protest at key points, the end result is that at the next key event there are fewer principled ppl around

I had considered tearing up my membership card (I might still if they don’t sort out my ballot!) but have since been talked out of it by someone much lefter than me, on the grounds that left members rage quitting is just what your Progress/Labour First crowd want.

otm, this thread is the eternal struggle of "calmly posting as we always do" against "lol we're all going to die"

Think it's more calmly posting as we always do about how we're going to lol die

Sorry I should say "this is why everyone needs to keep voting Labour (b/c otherwise the Tories will continue foiling everything we try and do)" is the line that will be used by Khan. I didnt vote Labour in 15 and I would never advocate robotically voting for them in all circumstances.

Even if RLB wins there is next to no chance of the manifesto being as radical as 2019 (and clearly not enough people in enough parts of the country thought they could deliver on it, or wanted it delivered on, in any case). 2017 might be a realistic benchmark though.

xps

funny you mention Kotkin - I've currently got audiobook of Waiting For Hitler, (that I read year before last but it is a monumental work that reveals more to me on repeat listens!) on my mp3 player. And finishing V Ullrich's 2nd Hitler volume on the kindle. No wonder my mind is full of murder/genocide/suicide rage at the moment!

the manifesto wasn't radical ofc, repackaging essentially the same ideas as sensible moderate boring lawyer shit is probably overall a good thing

I should be clear that the 2024 manifesto should be something I would happily canvass for in the doorstep. I think a lot of the policy will need to of course be updated, as will the way it's communicated and yes the sense that it's possible but that just depends on where we are at in five years. It could be what is impossible now will have to happen then.

XP yes not radical, it was just painted that way. That's where phrasing as sensible lawyer shit might work to counteract that.

xxp I didn’t realise my dad posted here :|