"we'll change the things that need changing and that's all we'll change": the paSUKification of post-brexit politics 2021

I wish someone would ruin my former colleague Lee H4rpin for all his dealings in the ‘90s (and when I say dealings…)

(xp) See you later, Mary, don't let the door hit your arse on the way out.

One of the funnier things about the current Labour party and the Starmer cultists is the idea that bin collections are a matter for your MP and not your local council. https://t.co/vZ4cOCPlt5

— Dr. Professor Sir Bane QC KCB MP PhD (@BaneNook) January 9, 2022

well it just about worked in Batley + Spen. Now the bin collections are just as shit but they have an MP who can't complete a sentence without using one of "brilliant" "compassionate" or "fantastic" but she doesn't give a fuck about austerity.

Guide on how we are sliding into fascism.

https://gal-dem.com/every-bill-the-tories-are-trying-to-pass-2022/

As we celebrate the closure of an Israeli arms factory in Britain, a monumental victory for the Palestinian people, check out a few highlights of the campaign to #ShutElbitDown in #Oldham [Thread] pic.twitter.com/tAIRgZd9Tz

— Palestine Action (@Pal_action) January 10, 2022

Looking forward to fuck all coming of this

EXCL: Email obtained by @itvnews proves over 100 staff were invited to drinks party in No 10 garden at height of lockdown to “make the most of the lovely weather”.

We’re told PM and his wife attended, with staff invited to “bring your own booze!”https://t.co/rg34EIkdz2 pic.twitter.com/UORlSwwHJX

— Paul Brand (@PaulBrandITV) January 10, 2022

safe to say they broke a lot of lockdown protocols and had plenty of booze parties but how do those offences compare with the corporate manslaughter of 100k+ disabled people and fascist campaign of deportations/stripping of citizenship etc.. the more this nonsense goes on the less I give a fuck.

so there's no way Boris Johnson is going to worm his way out of this fix... is there???

x-post

Agree - less and less interest.

I think he might well wriggle out of it on the grounds that this looks like something the office management team organised rather than him personally ( I guess the idea might have been floated past him for 30 seconds or so - but I doubt there's anything in writing)

Ah! Well, nevertheless

The writing is definitely on the wall for Johnson. He may well wriggle out of this one, but there's no way he'll be leader come the next election.

Fully expecting a future UK politics thread "Stoked for the madness: new Iron Lady - Tanks on the Lawn", covering the Liz Truss years, in due course.

Labour abstained on the renewal of the welfare cap last night. These were the only Labour MPs to vote against (Corbyn did too). pic.twitter.com/cLBWo5kmB3

— I (@zObscurantist) January 11, 2022

the very sensible austerity party up to their shit again, lol one of the Labour non-abstainers, Kate Hollern actually voted with the Tories.

i've seen some Labour MPs who i don't hate spinning the abstention as "because it legitimizes the cap by voting against" and yet those 11 didn't get the message?

I can't imagine many of the 11 are in the same whatsapp groups as Lucy Powell - that must be so disappointing. It's hard not to take that as a very specious excuse considering the PLP's voting record on austerity. I bet Reeves would not only be happy to vote for the cap, she'd go lower!

Tonight’s vote was on whether to raise the cap or keep it the same. Labour abstained because we are against the entire principle of a cap but would not oppose a rise.

oh one is Nadia Whittone, does she think she's speaking for the entire PLP there? Because she seems to be suggesting they are principled.

even the SCG are splitting up into factions now!

yeah it was Nadia i saw defending this and i've never thought of her as a wrong'un

RLB abstained as well

gave up on her way back

So has the world tbh.

Hate to bring up trivial matters but I do like this headline:

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FIxdvDqUYAUwdQu?format=jpg

Be pretty ironic if the blubbing of a DUP MP helps bring down Boris.

Which one? I haven’t seen this

If you really want to see a middle aged man degenerate into whimpering high pitched squeaking, his name is Jim Shannon. Sounds like I'm taking the piss out of the guy but it's quite painful to watch.

And now....

Found on a Home Office page aimed at explaining to asylum seekers whether they can work. Bloody hell. pic.twitter.com/vOIGlo20hj

— Alex Piletska (@alexinlaw) January 12, 2022

Yes: Support raising the welfare cap
No: Don't raise the welfare cap, but implicitly support the concept.
Abstain: Don't support any sort of welfare cap

I probably should cut some slack on the SCG Welfare Cap abstainers yesterday after seeing a summary of the voting options. But still all the rhetoric from Reeves in the Miliband years and recently would suggest she would gladly vote No.

Cry more

Even by the @nytimes's standards, this is extraordinary. Basically accusing Johnson of being Putin/Erdogan, on the front page of its international edition. https://t.co/tFLpD1TFiA pic.twitter.com/Zn96eMcGCs

— Robert Colvile (@rcolvile) January 12, 2022

What a weird thread. You can practically hear the synapses frying.

I probably should cut some slack on the SCG Welfare Cap abstainers yesterday after seeing a summary of the voting options. But still all the rhetoric from Reeves in the Miliband years and recently would suggest she would gladly vote No.

― calzino, Wednesday, 12 January 2022 12:49 (twenty-eight minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

whittome definitely sailed close to the 'are you for real' wind here (it always boils down to the voting record obv), but i still see no reason to distrust her ultimate sympathies, she'll be a major player in any attempt to wrest labour back leftward

some people seemed to be getting it mixed up with the household benefits cap, especially that Northern Independence lot. Or like me they didn't look at what the voting options actually meant. But when you see Labour abstaining on a welfare bill it's hard not to think the worst.

it's quite amusing seeing people who even after they've had the nature of the vote explained to them they carry on posting stuff like "There is no opposition" "These bastards have yet more blood on their hands"

Some of the exchanges with the PM's press sec today:

Did the PM lie about the parties? This is an attempt to pre-empt the findings of the review.

Is he a liar? No.

— Sienna Rodgers (@siennamarla) January 12, 2022

Breaking : The Duke of York will face a civil trial in America over sexual abuse claims after a US judge dismissed Prince Andrew's attempt to have the lawsuit thrown out.

— Krishnan Guru-Murthy (@krishgm) January 12, 2022

Douglas Ross MP, leader of the Scottish Conservatives, has called for Boris Johnson to resign.

... in a desperate attempt to shore up the Tory vote on Scotland.

NEW: On a huge day for Boris Johnson things just got that bit worse.

High court rules govt’s use of “VIP lane” to award PPE contracts to two companies during pandemic first wave was unlawful.

— Lewis Goodall (@lewis_goodall) January 12, 2022

Have to say *****even though I don’t think it’s worse than austerity and creeping fascism***** it fucking sucks that this cunt was attending mass pissups when ppl were facing fines for seeing 2 mates/encouraged to report parties of 3 to the filth. You could miss it at this distance but the strain of spring 2020 did real and possibly permanent damage to many (surviving) ppl’s psyches, before we even get to the trauma of that xmas & 1000 deaths/day; I doubt it’s just cop-loving melts that would want to make political hay out of the fact that they were taking the piss out of all of us and have so much open contempt for voters that they continue to lie beyond plausible deniability

For clarity I do think that ol bojo May wriggle out of this jam but in any case I hope he dies soon

Well said, wins.

any attempt to wrest labour back leftward

I don't envisage any such attempt, let alone a remotely successful one. Most socialists have been expelled from the party.

so it turns out Starmer, who despite everything his approval rating is still something like -26 , it turns out he's actually very good at doing ruthless factional purges.

A shippers story I had missed but was mentioned on tysky this evening was that some of the slugs had been kanticipating prospective bankruptcy off the back of plummeting membership subs cos it would give them the opportunity to relaunch the party with a fresh constitution and without all those tiresome unions/members - and it was only the prospect of potential Tory attack ads on their fiscal mismanagement that prevents them actively welcoming it.

yeah it would be a very effective tory attack line if business friendly, competent management briefcase Labour are going bankrupt, it would actually be their worst nightmare.

After they lose their next ruinous court case they could blame it all on Corbyn just like the Tories blamed the financial crisis on Gordon Brown!

I was talking to this guy earlier (hopefully from a safe enough distance) who has covid and is bitterly struggling on ssp during his self-isolation period ("one fucking week after Christmas") which obv he was strictly adhering to the UK govt rules of, and he was getting very angry about Downing Street pissups. He's not a tory voter, his politics are somewhere between the greens and UKIP and I'm never quite sure which one he votes for if he does vote! But anyway he's a regular at the Trojans club which was quite possibly having unofficial lock-ins during the first lockdown and he definitely had a few house parties in that period. Oh dear I'm turning into a terrible curtain-twitcher here but he's not one who could protest that he followed all the rules, that much is certain. His dog kept trying shag my dog as well which is normally quite funny but not so much when the dog could also be infected.

What leaves me completely indifferent about it all is i/ I couldn't gaf about tory leadership succession games any more. ii/ I don't believe for a microsecond that a Labour govt would be any better as unlikely as that scenario is. iii/ I'd be quite happy for a UK govt that broke lockdown protocols and had mad pissups to exist if they were committed to ending homelessness, foodbank dependency and not committed to treating asylum seekers like subhumans, not committed to the corporate manslaughter of disabled people and prioritising the avaricious demands of their billionaire donors, which would almost just about describe where both main parties are at rn.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FI7EAu6WYAsIcE2?format=jpg&name=medium

imagine such a cursed country that the centrist melt commentariat are doing May nostalgia

It's curious that some people are still saying 'the Labour Party must be our site of struggle' when the Labour Party has shown that it has no place for them and no interest in them except as objects of ritual humiliation.

Calzino correct about Theresa May.

Most of the UK press seems to have decided it's time to turn against the current disgusting PM.

Even the Express?

You're right - the Express remains the outlier.

I'm behind the times - it's not the *colourful* media mogul Desmond who owns the Express any more it's Trinity Mirror Group or Reach plc as they are now known. I don't think the news that Brexit has been fixed by Boris has got to Dublin and Belfast yet.