Free as a Dodo: UK Politics Welcomes 2021

Before we get to the question of whether or not a political party is supposed to have a set of core beliefs that it rallies round and sells to the electorate rather than just being a weathervane for whatever agenda its market research people feel like pushing this month

I think about the nicest thing I could say about Rayner these days is that she isn't Jonathan Ashworth. "We are officially 1.1% better than the Tories" is a great pitch to take into the May local elections.

Maybe - just throwing this out there - the beliefs and policies of a party could be determined by the members of that party, they could work it out thru some kind of voting system where each member's voice has equal value.

Sorry for infantile fantasy talk

listening to voters and then telling them to fuck off throught the other side of your mouth is a contradiction seems to have eluded Rayner today.

constantly dismissing and denouncing everything from 2019 is such a self-own.

2019 denialism has become such a thoughtless mantra of Labour and the Tories will use it successfully against them and then do their own watered down version of McD and Jerimiah's greatest misses.

this is abject and painful to watch. Proving their own key campaign message to be devoid of any substance before they've even launched it. The professionals really are back in charge! https://t.co/KwoYO14120 pic.twitter.com/M9b0WYmd9h

— tom (@malaiseforever) March 11, 2021

hi calzino, don't remember what thread this was on but you recently recommended When The Boat Comes In? Watched the first ep last night, very much My Kind Of Thing.

yeah it's brilliant and all 3 seasons are up on YT. I was asking my mum if she remembered it and she said of course and then started singing a line from the theme tune down the phone.

Keir Starmer emphasises at the campaign launch that the May elections "will be tough" for Labour, saying for example: "We’ve been constrained. I’ve yet to make a speech to a live audience."

— Sienna Rodgers (@siennamarla) March 11, 2021

there won't be anything funnier than this tweet all day

Starmer after a Sarah Everard question: we need more police on the beat...

He also talks about the need for "more police officers on the beat" and "a criminal justice system that works well".

— Sienna Rodgers (@siennamarla) March 11, 2021

I actually went to search for versions of the theme song on YT after watching and the first one was from a channel called "English Revival" w/ a pixelated St.George's Cross so I got the hell out of there, perhaps knee-jerk on my part?

probably not

I think the constraints on Starmer speaking to live audiences need extending indefinitely

Try an Irish version:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mU3PSsnHzJs

(Love this song btw)

I think it's important to acknowledge here that a police officer has been arrested in this case. A number of officers last year were arrested/investigated for selfies taken next to two murdered women's dead bodies. Let's not forget spycops. All of this is linked and relevant.

— Sienna Rodgers (@siennamarla) March 11, 2021

Actually fucking enraged by this, fuck this guy

When you think he can't get any worse...

that goes way beyond the bounds of a very dumb faux pas, it's also grossly offensive and insensitive. He's a wretched human being and also not fit to be let loose in public life.

Yeah, genuinely can't imagine even, like, Priti Patel saying something so fucking cretinous... real Trump/Bolsonaro level stuff

those additional policemen catching murderers in full:

https://www.dailydot.com/wp-content/uploads/146/6e/6d78ec0c8c8eaf31.png

might be more accurate to have both spider-men pointing and laughing at the corpse of someone who died in police custody, safe in the knowledge that only one fellow copper has been convicted of the murder of someone in their care since 1969

The source said ministers were considering a rise of more than the 2.1 per cent proposed by the NHS, and suggested that a rise of between 2 and 3 per cent would be “realistic”. There have been suggestions of 5 per cent, although this is “very unlikely”.

starting low and then offering something similar or even higher than what Rayner and Nandy were willing to argue for this week seems to be the game. And it's one they can keep doing over and over again with such cowering opposition.

the morons are inside the house

All that "worse election performance since 1930s" stuff the Starmer fans like to talk about a lot, well, they are on course to exceed that in the locals. Their one approach to tackling what went wrong in 2019, using more rightwing comms to chase rightwing voters, is incompetent https://t.co/nvRa63uLPz

— Stephen Smith (@SteveNickSmith) March 12, 2021

these local election projections are not a new poll but taken from current polling data or something, anyway it doesn't look good! And Starmer's finally hit some kind of 20, but it's a minus 20 approval rating in Scotland unfortunately for SLab.

they've put a new centre right millionaire in charge, I'm sure they'll bounce back

you couldn't get a starker contrast between Sanwar's twitter account and Sturgeon's in terms of numbers and popularity. I recall reading he got half the amount of votes to win the leadership election than he got losing to Richard Leonard the last time. But he was a massive flop as well tbf.

i would've preferred monica lennon obviously but scottish labour is basically secured in 3rd place lib dem style irrelevance forever and it doesn't really matter who the leader is. the membership vote strongly for sarwar, because the only people left in the scottish labour party are older, middle-class, anti-scot nat melts.

So have I got this straight? This is Labour HQ using old, already disproven accusations of voter fraud in largely BAME constituencies, while lying about a police investigation, as cover to suspend two constituency parties, for factional political reasons? https://t.co/PtftzPh830

— Ally Fogg (@AllyFogg) March 12, 2021

Seems bad: part 475.

jesus, is the cunt going to support Voter ID next? They are hellbent on burning this party down and salting the ground just in the name of factional purges. kieth is definitely a plant.

some kind of algae maybe

any labour leader serious about winning an election has to challenge the inherent racism and lies of the non-existent "electoral fraud" that the Tories have been banging on about for years and the idea of Voter ID that goes with it that would disenfranchise at least a million plus potential Labour voters. He's either a secret algaent or an absolute fool who hasn't got a clue what the fuck he is playing with here.

Yes.

Metropolitan Police must believe they have an strategic reserve of inifinite legitimacy that they can set completely on fire by banning a vigil of someone murdered by a member of their own. Can British institutions go on like this forever?

— Cyclist on Starmer's big day out to #BigTesco (@naadirjeewa) March 12, 2021

even all the other terrible human rights barristers seem to be speaking out against this. Not a fucking dickie-bird from kieth who clearly cares not a jot about the erosion of civil liberties.

We are angry. We will not be controlled. We will not be silenced. See you in Clapham at 6.#ReclaimTheseStreets https://t.co/A9O7FRMd4f

— Sisters Uncut (@SistersUncut) March 13, 2021

what do you call them kind of sham democracies with evil murderous cops and apparently unaccountable leaders that crack down on civil liberties without any significant opposition and also spend inordinate amounts on their bloated military?

pic.twitter.com/VQJi6asiIY

— Flying_Rodent (@flying_rodent) March 12, 2021

"Gee, I wish we had one of them doomsday machines."

if we must destroy society it must be the british who lead the way, it is our god-given duty

The new Police act cracking down on protests should be a free hit for Starmer and I’d be slightly surprised if he doesn’t try to use it to rehabilitate some of his civil liberty credentials. If he doesn’t, he’s more of a mug than I think he is.

he is and he won’t

he'd rather look like a no nonsense authoritarian to to 978 people in Workington who are never going to vote for him.

Quite something to be the ‘11th Marquess of Annaville’ when there has never been a first, and there is in fact no such peerage. The Indy have been stung here. https://t.co/wYOu5yQZR8

— Elvis Buñuelo (@Mr_Considerate) March 13, 2021

lol/Jesus Christ

".. and I'm The 12th Earl Of Bofa"

Hereditary baronetcy conferred by updog

We are here. We will not be silenced. Sisters united will never be defeated ❤️ pic.twitter.com/xKjiZbbVwq

— Sisters Uncut (@SistersUncut) March 13, 2021

The Survation poll in tomorrow's @TheSundayMirror puts Conservatives on 43%, Labour on 33%, Lib Dems on 9% and Greens on 5%

— Nigel Nelson (@NigelNelson) March 13, 2021

The pubs haven't even opened yet