Free as a Dodo: UK Politics Welcomes 2021

So finished with these oblivious bourgie cunts

tbf, there is a strong argument that the current government have um, spaffed a lot of money up the wall on a lot of wasteful shit - huge contracts going to mates and donors, poor value for money in return. look at everything from school meal vouchers to track and trace. and johnson's obviously got form there - water cannons, the garden bridge etc. it's not the worst angle to come at them from. except in practice it always comes down to following an agenda set by the tabloids, cutting services to the less well-off, being paranoid about benefit cheats etc, and letting all the real stuff slide

I'm not convinced by that. There's nothing opaque about Thatcher and Thatcherism, what you see is what you get, so I've got no idea how you can 'get Thatcher wrong' - unless you're an idiot like Angela Rayner or just a fucking liar, like most of them.

I mean yes, it's stupid and it makes no sense, I agree, they do seem to be idiots and/or duplicitous callous careerists.

xp

you don't need to be a seer to see where Starmer Labour are going to go with that kind of "VFM for British people" messaging, especially when she's already trashed the New Labour spending legacy, she's basically attacking her own party with the same lines that the tories used against them in 2010. She's such an insipidly melty minded mediocrity and doesn't seem to have a clue what she is doing.

xps to NickB that’s all true and a good point, but why would your messaging lean on VALUE FOR MONEY and not, idk, the obvious corruption of the government? Why does the New York fucking Times have to call this shit out when the shadow chancellor is looking at George Osborne for tips?

You can't inspire people people with talk of managerial competence rn, especially when your party leader is a shifty lying cunt who has run roughshod over every pledge he made last year and has not one policy to his name other than execrable shit like his Family Agenda speech!

better auditing is not gonna end poverty

"end poverty" might be a good baseline mantra for the alleged party of the working class tho

I see a few more bad polls dropped in the last few days, lol when Boris totally pwns Kieth by saying Rashford does a better job of opposition than him, this is mainstream UK thought now - the die is cast!

listening to Kieth's family agenda speech made me think about the time a work colleague got thrown out of a pub for persistently swearing too much. The manager said "This is a family pub" and he retorted "I'm from a family you fucking dickhead!"

Xps, hey i wouldn't defend that shower, just noting that the government wouldn't stand up to any sort of scrutiny on spending. Boris commissions things like he's in charge of the events soc at Eton. Stick him in charge of the catering and it would be £300 to some tory cheese twat for an entire wheel of parmesan, just cos that was the first guy on his contacts

this govt can get away with murder.. literally, and still be strongly polling at 40%+. A bit of cronyism/corruption/inefficiency is not going to touch them.

Well if neither corbynism or cronyism are going to take boris down, labour might have to miss another turn and get some new letters out of the bag

Sorry I've not had much sleep

In statuary news:
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2021/jan/17/robert-jenrick-statues-must-be-protected-from-baying-mob

“Local people should have the chance to be consulted whether a monument should stand or not. What has stood for generations should be considered thoughtfully, not removed on a whim or at the behest of a baying mob.”

People had been trying to get that Colston statue removed for decades you twat! Ignored by all and sundry to boot! Throw every statue into the sea if you ask me, even the ones of Gandhi and Mandela. Horrible things.

Labour under Kieth is like getting a cursed I I I I I U U rack!

Somebody give Jenrick a backhander and he might change his mind.

Reading about the government's 'solutions' for the Brexit-caused empty shelves in Northern Ireland and reminded of that time they spent £8m on fake shop fronts to cover empty buildings ahead of a G8 summit, Potemkin village-likehttps://t.co/pd4NmPFFWOhttps://t.co/aOAWnvZJtE pic.twitter.com/TECc8hooIl

— Irène DB (@UrbanFoxxxx) January 17, 2021

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EsAYmUCXEAcA68F?format=png&name=small

lol Kieth can't even talk about his own name without sounding like a complete twat

I want someone to shoot me dead if I ever say "that's the basis on which I'll go forward" about my own name

"Well, I've been called Keir all my life-"

"Let me stop you there,"

Tbrr keighth should lean into being a Sir, can only help him with an ultra-deferential British electorate. Parties do better the posher their leader. Labour leaders to have won parliamentary majorities: Atlee, public school, Oxford. Wilson, from Calzino's ends but pretty middle class upbringing iirc, Oxford. Blair, lol nuff said.

That's the basis on which he should go forward lol

true, if I was him I'd play it up to the hilt. "You can call me Sir.. you scratter.. only when I've given you permission to.. now keep shining boy I want to see my ruddy complexion in those Cheaney brogues"

I think once someone has been a big boss/head of an important dept for a certain length of time then they become terminal wankers and can't help talking in that sort of manner.

He actually says "Keir works really well".

I've only just finally seen the clip of the humane doctor defending vaccination of the homeless -- what a tremendous fellow, standing up bravely for the ethics of his profession.

re. Jenrick, this thread is a good take IMO

For some reason, elite decisions without democratic participation to erect statues in the past are 'the people's preferences', but democratically elected local authorities' decisions to take down statues today are not. https://t.co/QEd9mP3iNO

— Peter Mandler (@PeterMandler1) January 17, 2021

He actually says "Keir works really well".

Reads like he's literally reading out the feedback from his "Sir or Not?" focus group.

xp

I'm looking forwards to day when he loses it and snaps on live tv and says I'd love to see one of you cowards call me Kieth to my fucking face!

Every time Kieth opens his mouth he sounds more Pooterish

Tbrr keighth should lean into being a Sir, can only help him with an ultra-deferential British electorate. Parties do better the posher their leader. Labour leaders to have won parliamentary majorities: Atlee, public school, Oxford. Wilson, from Calzino's ends but pretty middle class upbringing iirc, Oxford. Blair, lol nuff said.

You can hardly compare Wilson's background to Attlee or Blair's plus his appeal was largely based around him not being posh. The Tories had just replaced Harold Macmillan with Alec Douglas Home ffs! Wilson was like Barry Chuckle in comparison!

I like that pretty amusing parliamentary exchange where Wilson accusingly calls Alec Douglas Home by his full lordly title (18th whatever of whatever) and Home wittily retorts something like: and you are the 18th Harold Wilson!

1964 election ended up much closer than expected, after the government had plumbed depths of unpopularity, think Douglas Home might be another posho overperforming electorally. By all accounts, he had little else in the way of personal appeal.

Get stuffed. Go hang.

Boris Johnson believes people need to be “civil and kind to each other” in political debate, his spokeswoman has said, as she accused Labour of making the public worry unnecessarily by debating universal credit and free school meals.

“The prime minister believes that all of us, in our political language and debate, need to remember to be civil and kind to each other,” Allegra Stratton told reporters when asked why Johnson had compared Labour tactics with those used by supporters of Donald Trump.

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2021/jan/18/tories-oppose-universal-credit-cut-keir-starmer-labour

this country since 2010 has been tories saying "why are you hitting yourself" to the left and it working

I do miss those days when McD would say these subhuman scum should be scared to walk the streets

cool that these bullshit comments from former grauniad hack allegra stratton are being uncritically reported in the grauniad

You know what else is cool?

Labour's lawyer also said there were “no notes” and “no minutes” from the meeting attended by Keir Starmer, Angela Rayner, Morgan McSweeney, Unite’s Len McCluskey and Jon Trickett MP following Corbyn’s original suspension.

— Sienna Rodgers (@siennamarla) January 18, 2021

Can the centre-left take a shit?

'Starmer can chair a meeting. He can draft a minute. He can lead a team. He can hold a press conference. He can stay calm in an interview. Those skills look simple, but they’re not, and they’re vital.' @gsoh31 on the breadth of Sir Keir Starmer's potential https://t.co/nkxtholWy1

— British GQ (@BritishGQ) June 10, 2020

every time they open their mouths iirc

they must have meant he can sink a draught in a minute because apparently it's against the party rules to have no minutes/notes at disciplinary meetings

Good Sense Of Humour 31?

Why is he not wearing a mask https://t.co/J1iyVP9v5Y

— No-One (@judeinlondon2) January 18, 2021

he's so fucking ham-fisted in everything he does, he could have at least slipped one on for the photo op, is he a Trump republican or something? what is actually right with the cunt.

he gets such an easy ride, if leader Jezza Crumblin was stood mask less in front of a Mask Up sign it would have been tomorrow's front page, but I guess that is why Kieth is 20 pts ahead.

The relieved “sister parties”: https://t.co/2wgM7VccCs pic.twitter.com/pxpvJ56rsa

— Paul O'Connell (@pmpoc) January 18, 2021

Lisa Nandy talking to a right-wing conservative Murdoch talk station about the relief felt amongst the international centre-left melthood that Labour is now as unelectable as they are.

An absolute failure of stunning proportions
https://t.co/x2DrJlLjBN

— 'Client Journalism' Expert (@ClientJournoExp) January 19, 2021

I'd be calling for a vote of no confidence but Marcus Rashford isn't an opposition party and is only available part time.

I heard the BBC spinning the flagrant lie that Boris is glad Trump lost, that certainly hasn't been apparent until the last week or so.

yeah. insane. don't see how that passes any bar for newsworthiness partic given how transparently self-serving it is. it suited Boris to kiss Trump's ass until the moment Trump was deemed a liability.

just picturing the pitch session at 6am on that one - 'what have you got Chris?' 'Well I have a highly placed source that says... ' 'Yes?' 'that the Prime Minister....' 'Yes?!?' 'actually is happy, on balance, that Trump lost' '.....'