Free as a Dodo: UK Politics Welcomes 2021

Kieth's hair has maintained niceness but skin complexion gone very bad!

Also TL:DR but if you're going to make the strategic call not to oppose the government too much then you can't complain when voters conclude that maybe they shouldn't either.

A lot of this is based on a fantasy version of the Blair years, when Blair in opposition was actually remorselessly combative and very clear when it came to articulating his vision and ideas. Starmer is neither.

Yeah when you look back to old Blair footage he absolutely eviscerated Major and was banging his fist talking about how the Labour party is ready to take power and has a radical program to improve people's lives - Kieth meanwhile...

It was a different era I suppose and Blair had the confidence that Murdoch had his back, but still if you aren't brave enough for the job then your in the wrong job

There was a lot of uncertainty about the detail of what Blair would do in office which probably benefited him, a nudge and a wink to both the right and the left, but there were a small number of clear pledges that gave voters enough of an idea of what he stood for, he got the headlines right. Funnily enough a similar thing happened with Labour in 2017 and not in 2019 (and certainly not now). The Ed Stone was like a really shit version of it, I suppose.

Dan Trilling, who is generally excellent and should be listened to, made the point on Twitter that it's increasingly difficult to imagine any party being able to make a credible claim to represent the whole of this island and that's more problematic for Labour than anyone else.

Also the writing was literally on the wall with Under New Management, when anyone who was paying attention could have told them that management was the last thing they wanted to be associating themselves with.

cf David Graeber's point about the resentment and 'anti-elitist'lol ire channelled towards the metropolitan Professional Managerial Class. If he was onto anything (I think so), then Starmer was a disastrous choice as he really is King PMC.

At the same time, Blair was coming in on the back of what was generally seen as a relatively popular and competent Smith opposition. Starmer would have looked ludicrous simultaneously accepting that Labour was a horrendous, racist threat to the British way of life five minutes ago but, with a change of leader, was now all set to govern, however many of the journalistic well-poisoners imagined that to be possible.

Very strong Unai Emery at Arsenal vibes to Starmer's Labour. Only Mikel Arteta can save them now.

― Matt DC, Saturday, 8 May 2021 09:31 (one hour ago) link

Thus is a low blow isn't it?

So Starmer can expect to be more successful when he leaves Labour and joins the Greens?

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/E0zSSRxWUAQDFAT?format=jpg&name=small

I think Babs was on the sauce last night, and posted this, promptly deleted it and then dismissed it as fake. Unfortunately she doesn't seem to be aware the Posts MP's Delete account captures everything!

or it might be fake

Yes Blairites never really talk about the fact Labour were already 10-20pts ahead when Blair became leader. But John Smith is almost never brought up as a leader whose approach should be studied or learnt from, whereas you can't move for Labourites citing Blair or Kinnock.

Obviously Black Wednesday and the housing crash helped, and a British government has only been ejected twice in my lifetime and both times it was following a property slump. Almost any Labour opposition would benefit from the same thing happening again.

Which brings us back round to competence. I was prepared to give Starmer the benefit of the doubt (we're long past that now) and I still think that the approach of attacking them on competence was the right one. But you can't *only* do that because if you make competence the be all and end all you're left high and dry when the government can suddenly claim credit for a massive unambiguous success. There was nothing else there other than relying on people hating the Tories, hence seats also leaking to the Greens and the LibDems. Labour unethusiasm also left them very vulnerable to low turnout.

what's Conmings on about re Starmer being a gamma?

Cos he’s gamma he’ll listen to the babble! What will he NOT do? Focus on public priorities > media priorities. We have a No10 & Opposition who see their job as Media Entertainment Service & neither knows how to be this better than TB/Mandy. Neither will try to be… a government

— Dominic Cummings (@Dominic2306) May 7, 2021

xp

iirc even the right-wing press were saying Smith was PM in waiting in the obituaries at the time.

Matt DC, truly great to see you and some great points there!

Starmer surrounded himself with a mix of these Labour right ghouls, who have been obsessed with beating and humiliating the left since their student politics days. He’s also got Claire Ainslie doing policy, and the moment I heard her focus was on “family values” that set off quite a few alarm bells for me and I don’t think I was wrong to think that way.

My impression is that they are embarrassed by the people who vote for them - Corbyn won black*
and Muslim voters by huge margins last time out - but they still want the right to treat the people who do vote for them with contempt and emotional manipulation. You know the stuff. “If you don’t vote for us, the Tories will get in,” like fuck that all day every day. They are bad people with bad ideas and the Labour party is not worth that.

Quite frankly if they’re going to do things like tell me they support Johnny Mercer then they can forget having my vote, and the tolerance of people like Duffield and Mahmood is going to do them a lot of damage in the long run. The impression you do get is that suits some of them, like Ian Murray is the only MP in Scotland and unshiftable due to the very specific circumstances of that constituency - you could see the tide going out and a lot of these people left high and dry as Labour representation is swept away from around them. But what do they care as long as they get to rule over the ashes?

Sorry unfinished asterisk re black voters: my understanding is that the Tories did better with black African voters because ofc the community isn’t monolithic and that’s interesting too - you can see how they treat their black MPs compared to Labour where again you get the sense the party is embarrassed by them.

So that's who "Babs" is.

Also the writing was literally on the wall with Under New Management, when anyone who was paying attention could have told them that management was the last thing they wanted to be associating themselves with.

Is Cummings now attacking both the government and the Opposition?

Cummings doesn’t give a fuck about anything besides being right. He was right to say that KS was a moron to be guided by the media though.

Have to say it's the first time I've seen Cummings acknowledge Starmer's existence (or even Labour's, he's always struck me as someone more comfortable at war with people closer to home). In an of itself that's pretty damning.

More generally, a Conservative Party that doesn't fear electoral consequences is a terrifying prospect, and we're about to find out what that really looks like. The handbrake will be really off now. The Brexit Party/UKIP no longer being in the race has fundamentally changed the game in a lot of seats.

Pains me to say this but Cummings is right about the centre ground not really existing except as pundit fiction. A lot of people mix up 'policies that attract floating voters' with 'centrism', and Brexit is one of the most successful pieces of divide-and-rule I've ever seen.

Covid restricted Keir Starmer from setting out vision for UK, says Labour

jeez, what next? "The vaccines really hurt us..."

I’ve checked and Starmer has never tweeted about Preston and I can’t find any public comment from him on the council’s success. 2/2 pic.twitter.com/ExquQ5tQY5

— George Eaton (@georgeeaton) May 8, 2021

One of the Graun hacks was saying it might be advisable for him to stay away from Hartlepool because the polling got even worse after he campaigned there!

I hope Rooney has seen the latest score and his arse has dropped out!

oops wrong thread!

Big name, inexperienced manager, brought in to steady the ship after a disappointing season and ends up getting relegated.

#onethread

yep!!!

Derby fans switching to Nottingham Forest in droves.

Lots of fans got over-excited by a few routine early wins, a year later the team is still playing with no clear identity and no one seems to know what their job is. And the fans are tearing up their season tickets.

This week on Fabian Street, everyone finds out that Keith has run his business into the ground. Ange is angry but her uncle Tony says she needs to stay with him. It's the only way she'll get control of the business. Mandy is up to no good, again.
Coming up: Northern Andy's return pic.twitter.com/AU0w6t4oEu

— Devutopia (@D_Raval) May 8, 2021

Tom I’m dying at your dn btw, that fucking story kept popping up on twitter yesterday and I refused to click

Despite whatever else one says about her -- I like Rayner's ensemble in that picture.

Or maybe I just mean -- her coat.

Covid restricted Keir Starmer from setting out vision for UK, says Labour

jeez, what next? "The vaccines really hurt us..."

― nashwan, Saturday, 8 May 2021 bookmarkflaglink

Lol I thought Starmer was waiting for a general election to come along before he unveiled his awesome vision for the country that will make this mess right and the UK from becoming a one-party state.

Tom I’m dying at your dn btw, that fucking story kept popping up on twitter yesterday and I refused to click

LOL I noticed it this morning on one of my occasional trips to Twitterland.

Or maybe I just mean -- her coat.

Another vote for the coat here, it even survives being adjacent to Starmer

That G Eaton tweet contains a picture of a footballer whose politics are to the right of Starmer's. Impressive

isn't that also true about 95% of footballers though?

Lyle has a particular interest in winding up lefties on social media

Oh I think remember him, ex- Charlton and it was no mystery who he was voting for in '19

Yep

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

no Chris Leslie was the Which mag guy.

― calzino, Saturday, 8 May 2021 09:50 (four hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

lol you are right, burnham was "john lewis shoppers" so even more appropriate than i remembered!

lol what a prick, but quite ahead of the melt-time continuum on John Lewis tbf!

Lol @ all the quote tweets to this one.

It’s giving... pic.twitter.com/jpevPdE56y

— Vote for London Independence Party ⬛️🟫 (@misanthropicc92) May 7, 2021

Watching the BBC's election coverage, Kirsty Wark is a terrible interviewer, she should should have stuck to whatever it is she's been doing for the last five years. LOL @ Huw Edwards constantly trying bring the discussion around to Wales despite no-one being interested in talking about Wales.

Helen found someone to report on from the north who isn’t a Tory pizza restaurant owner

Paul Dennett, the newly re-elected Labour mayor of Salford, didn't hold back in his criticism of Keir Starmer and the national party in his victory speech pic.twitter.com/bHIizFv0kx

— Helen Pidd (@helenpidd) May 8, 2021