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

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.

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.

I don't disagree but this raises the question - what should be our site of struggle? Outside of parliamentary politics altogether, I guess?

Yes I understand the difficulties abandoning Labour represents, I guess a short version of the answer would be it can still be a site of struggle but certainly not the main one, if you believe in the possibility of political change

Which is true of electoral politics in the wider context too

The flicker of hope under Corbyn has to be seen in the context of the age and experience of the people it gave hope to

Age and experience and psychological makeup and etc

I gather that Phil Normal is a real person.

Labour Party needs to expel Philip Normal over these utterly vile tweets where he jokes about Hitler, paedophilia and rape

He has already made headlines over a series of racist and Islamophobic tweets

His partner, Matthew Doyle, is Sir Keir Starmer’s Director of Communications https://t.co/oERkmXbSs0

— Socialist Voice ⭑ (@SocialistVoice) January 13, 2022

He’s just resigned!

there were those left members that stuck with Labour through some barren decades and perhaps will do again as long as they didn't like any Maxine Peake tweets or ever refer to Israel as an apartheid state. I don't know how they can do it tbh, paying subs towards them fraudulent scumbags would make me sick to my stomach.

it seems the disgraced former councillor Normal could have spent a week deleting his dodgy history and there would have still been plenty to go around!

1 down, 570555895 to go

glad this guys gone, good fucking riddance. his constant pr work for hondo against the save nour campaign as a councillor was extremely shameful

Been reading the Normal saga this week, glad he's had to go, sure he'll learn lessons from this

The other thing is that his partner works in comms for Starmer but I’m not sure if it’s the same guy who approvingly called PN a Nazi in bed.

Another party for LJ to join

The people are fed up with our politicians - official.

For full data, visit our website: https://t.co/Y2LXCoZnYk pic.twitter.com/LobfuifbFH

— True & Fair Party (@VoteTrueAndFair) January 13, 2022

nah thanks they seem a bit wanky

There's talk of the Scottish Tories forming a breakaway party but I'll leave that to xyzzz and imago to chew over.

lol

A statement from Buckingham Palace regarding The Duke of York: pic.twitter.com/OCeSqzCP38

— The Royal Family (@RoyalFamily) January 13, 2022

well that's got Boris off the front pages for tomorrow then

Awww ma you're just jealous he's a beastly boy

B has gone into isolation because a close connection is covid positive (he says)

Philip Normal is a dick. He has a shop in South London that does really basic tshirts to appeal to gay nostalgia, say a picture of a spice girl with a slogan on top of it. I’ve known other people with shops/businesses in the same area, and I follow groups with similar selling online platforms like ASOS, and both find him horrible. He has tried to intimidate others who do similar things, treated customers like shit, treated gay men in the scene who don’t like him badly* etc.

Fucking amazing to see his comeuppance.

*Im not particularly involved in this third examples but I’ve heard numerous others bitch about him.

🚨EXCLUSIVE

Number 10 held two boozy parties the night before the Queen mourned Prince Philip alone.

Staff drank and at points danced until the early hours of the night of April 16.

Hours later, the Queen went to a socially-distanced funeral for Philip. https://t.co/sWrFcOrplE

— Tony Diver (@Tony_Diver) January 13, 2022

not gann lie i read that as "mounted prince philip alone"

gnnai mean who knows what their rituals are

wtf im not even drunk

tell it to sue gray

the telegraph may have found the magic formula to maximalise this scandal's appeal to the most fuckwitted

This shifts it away from Johnson though which suits them better.

gosh they didn't even observe the moratorium on drunken capering/cavorting/wobbly marionette dancing that kicks in a day before the Queen is in mourning, tories are supposed to know this shit!

This shifts it away from Johnson though which suits them better.

Doesn't seem to have worked. Basically everyone thinks Andrew is a nonce anyway, so cue much shrugging of shoulders in the wider world.

A Labour ex-minister who received hundreds of thousands of pounds from an alleged Chinese government agent has admitted he did discuss policy with Christine Lee, but insisted she "gained no political advantage for the Chinese state from me".

In an exclusive interview, Brent North MP Barry Gardiner denied he felt "a fool" following the revelation that Ms Lee has been engaged in "political interference activities".

lol, some amazing grift from Bazza G here. He somehow managed to convince an apparent CCP agent that he's £425k worth of influence on UK foreign policy.

Gary Neville was on the radio and saying he's joined the Labour Party recently and how it needs to be a party of the centre and "not just about left-wing politics". Obviously he has been paying close attention to everything and isn't a fucking clueless melt at all. God save us from professional Mancunian property developers having their political awakening when they knocking on 50.

Doesn't seem to have worked. Basically everyone thinks Andrew is a nonce anyway, so cue much shrugging of shoulders in the wider world.

It's not that, more shifting the blame to advisers and civil servants. I don't know why else Johnson's Bosses would acknowledge it this much.

Yes, that would probably work in normal circumstances but...

"Staff partied in the basement of No10, to music DJd by a special adviser." pic.twitter.com/ZKII6pp5VF

— Will Davies (@davies_will) January 14, 2022

I bet Dom would just be playing fucking Zappa records

Nah that jacket is straight out of an Autechre press photo

Although the right hand poised for crabbing a cross fader and left sleeve rolled up makes me think it could have been a scratch set

maybe DJ Dom would have some kind of SySteMs ThInKiNg approach to spinning some fookin' tunes at a party!

PLANK JOHNSON MUST GO

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FJGCFMHWYAglX8o?format=jpg&name=large

lol this came out weeks ago, wouldn't be surprised if they've got plenty more in the vault on this wanker and will be waiting for the right strategic moment of maximum damage to release it. Like how they've waited for him to attack Johnson on the parties for a few days until this made the cover to show him up as the hypocritical and mealy-mouthed dickhead that he is.