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

Those tweets by Cameron...can't even describe the suffering I'd like to see inflicted on that piece of turd.

sorry to bring back the movie Martin Eden to thread, but it is one of the best movies of the last decade. And there is a bit where the titular Herbert Spencer loving protagonist of the movie has his sailor contract unceremoniously terminated by the ship owner after engine problems. It's based on a 1909 novel but makes u think - some things don't change, eh?

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FOFK2N8XwAMOVnV?format=jpg&name=900x900

he looks so awkward when he can't exert a forced perspective photo op on people taller than him. If you are knocking on 60 and most of your angst is about not being the tallest person in the room - then you really are a pathetically sad piece of shit.

It's a real trick to always seem like you've been photoshopped into pics when you haven't.

you can't photoshop a soul into a lifeless husk of ham is the main problem.

good lord, just seen that pic of Cameron at the foodbank. It's enough to make you want to commit violent homicide. Frequently I get very polite Tory looking good Samaritans from the local foodbank calling at the door on Sunday with a carrier bag of food. And it's not like the farmers' market quality stuff you see in the Cameron foodbank pic, like nice looking butternut squashes and bunches of spring onions. This might sound a bit decadent but last time I wanged most of it straight in the bin. Out of date coco pops, oranges well past their best and tins of smart price spaghetti hoops - no thanks! The sourdough loaf was good though.

Remembering when he clamped down on charities for drawing attention to the rise of hunger in the UK. Flashback to when I debated one of his MPs on Radio 4 about it. (The MP is now in prison.) Listen here: https://t.co/jYaasAaAH6 https://t.co/BjieYQT72B

— Ben Phillips (@benphillips76) March 19, 2022

Looool inject it into my veins pic.twitter.com/BOF1KKGGDe

— There’s No Point (@judeinlondon2) March 19, 2022

just as all the disabled charities got silenced with the threat of funding cuts for criticising PIP and ESA reforms and fitness for work assessments etc

Extraordinary account here of a phone call between Boris Johnson and Saudi Arabia’s Mohammed bin Salman

“I miss you,” one quipped. “I miss you more,” the other replied, according to a senior U.K. official. https://t.co/M4xgT6hUsY

— Kate Day (@kate_day) March 19, 2022

The @RMTunion says P&O plans to restart its ferry service in Dover using agency crew from India + will pay them the equivalent of $2.38 (£1.80) an hour.

RMT doesn’t offer proof but this is plausible and - while some may find this shocking - it would be legal. I’ll explain… 🧵 pic.twitter.com/xDI5drWmHV

— Joel Hills (@ITVJoel) March 21, 2022

full mask-off shit

🤪

this is quite an astonishing detail from @TulipSiddiq here: https://t.co/AKlUdZmRzo pic.twitter.com/bHn4JcySeq

— Jon Stone (@joncstone) March 21, 2022

The short answer to why the debt wasn’t paid was surely ‘the Americans wouldn’t let us until it became expedient for them to look at buying Iranian oil again’.

OMG!

I solved Semantle #52 in 4 guesses. My first guess had a similarity of 35.48 (886/1000).My penultimate guess had a similarity of 6.56.
The first and possibly last time I got a green on my initial guess! That guess being origami.

Oops. Wrong thread!

The short answer to why the debt wasn’t paid was surely ‘the Americans wouldn’t let us until it became expedient for them to look at buying Iranian oil again’.

― Scampo di tutti i Scampi (ShariVari), Monday, 21 March 2022 bookmarkflaglink

Yup (saw a thing that the West might also be trying to be more friendly with Venezuela again), still quite a detail there on how the hostile environment intersects with foreign policy.

Jamaicans shun Prince William and Duchess Kate visit, demand slavery reparations https://t.co/IylyPHMuP6

— Vincent Bevins (@Vinncent) March 22, 2022

Very much enjoying this visit

In Jamaica: "We see no reason to celebrate 70 years of the ascension of your grandmother to the British throne because her leadership, and that of her predecessors, have perpetuated the greatest human rights tragedy in the history of humankind." https://t.co/8fESmpOANf

— Richard Chambers (@newschambers) March 22, 2022

i expect the BBC will be all over this

who greenlit this photo op?? 'charm offensive' lmao pic.twitter.com/ZKwaMuNtsS

— pez (@periuspb) March 23, 2022

Lots of posturing from right-wingers to come this afternoon.

How can we live in a country where the average house price is now £350,000, the average salary is £38,600 and the average deposit is £58,986?

— Charlotte Gill (@CharlotteCGill) March 22, 2022

Colville’s going on about it too.

It’s very easy to say ‘houses are too expensive’, much harder to say ‘the value of your property should fall to a point at which it’s affordable for someone without a £60k deposit’, so we will keep going round in circles.

pic.twitter.com/tTsu9aB9Tl

— Frank Sobotka (@cymrurouge) March 23, 2022

Awkward pic.twitter.com/lHRfERrxP9

— Salena Godden (@salenagodden) March 23, 2022

Inevitably blames Ukraine conflict for pain about to hit British households - reality is most of the pain (and growth slowdown) was coming even before the conflict

— Torsten Bell (@TorstenBell) March 23, 2022

Is everyone aware that in one week’s time, the government is expecting all NHS staff either (a) to pay for their own LFTs or (b) to stop self-testing & potentially come to work with Covid, infecting vulnerable patients?

Is everyone really OK with this? https://t.co/hsY0zvsk2N

— Rachel Clarke (@doctor_oxford) March 23, 2022

I can’t stop laughing at this

chancellor of the exchequer doesn’t know how to use contactless my head’s gone

pic.twitter.com/h2yBKVMu2K

— lucy (@LMAsaysno) March 23, 2022

It’s surprisingly difficult to find the Labour response to Sunak’s statement, other than a few soundbites about the Tories being the ‘party of high taxation’ and a suggested one-off windfall tax on energy companies. Is that all there is?

I've seen more about Reeves' nerdy politics joke.

Today I'm broken my 36 Yr old son is in bits as to how they will manage the fuel food gas/electric he cried it broke my heart they both work hard never been out of work but it's not enough
What has happened to this country?@RishiSunak @BorisJohnson

— lynne drewery (@drewl55) March 23, 2022

Has there been a good write-up/summary on how many will be affected next winter? Looks like the Tories could get away with it till then?

Lol at this stupidity.

Rachel Reeves tells @LBC: "The Chancellor can say as many times as he likes that he is a tax-cutting Chancellor but it is a bit like kid in his bedroom playing guitar, he's not a rock star."

— Theo Usherwood (@theousherwood) March 24, 2022

Particularly as Sunak is clearly going to go on a tax cutting blitz ahead of the next General Election.

https://i.postimg.cc/tgMLxF9v/06-A0974-D-8506-4936-AE75-5-A208-ED03119.webp

Will the tax cuts be enough to offset the pain a lot of people might be going through? Haven't really seen much on it but my reflex is to say its all about volumes affected. Austerity was accepted as it only made the poorest worse.

I’m not sure austerity has only made the poorest worse when you look at the overall impact on the NHS, transport, local services, education, etc, but we’re moving from a position of ‘tolerable decline’ for middle-income households to one of ‘intolerable decline’, I guess.

Tax cuts aren’t going to fix it but everyone from the Tory right to the Labour front bench aligning on the idea that they will, and it’s only Sunak standing in the way of a solution, puts him in a position where he can render most of the attacks toothless when it suits. Reeves’ other line on ‘an office of value for money’ doesn’t look likely to carry much weight.

Lol at this stupidity.

🐦[Rachel Reeves tells @LBC🕸: "The Chancellor can say as many times as he likes that he is a tax-cutting Chancellor but it is a bit like kid in his bedroom playing guitar, he’s not a rock star."
— Theo Usherwood (@theousherwood) March 24, 2022🕸]🐦

she said one genuinely funny thing at the dispatch box yesterday, while teeing up the ted heath zonger: "prumps" - stumbling over "prices at the pumps"

She actually came up with "prime the prump", not a lot of people know.

More fake tears.

the former executive director of the Adam Smith Institute, here pic.twitter.com/ZnAOYP4zlJ

— Lafargue (@Lafargue) March 24, 2022

"I’m not sure austerity has only made the poorest worse when you look at the overall impact on the NHS, transport, local services, education, etc, but we’re moving from a position of ‘tolerable decline’ for middle-income households to one of ‘intolerable decline’, I guess."

Yes you are right I was thinking of the rise in food banks and maybe homelessness.

'We all have different breads in my house' pic.twitter.com/HOlOUSLV4Y

— black lives matter (@jrc1921) March 24, 2022

They plan to starve us and freeze us. Arrest us if we protest. Let others take our jobs. Make it impossible for us to vote.

And @UKLabour are calling for a windfall tax. A windfall tax.

Just in case you thought they were on our side.

— Raphael Dogg (@raphaeldogg) March 23, 2022

so what's driving the sunak vibe-shift?

How it started How it ended pic.twitter.com/tOimamPNfm

— Tina Mac (@TinaMcKay_) March 24, 2022

Not sure the "Lads, it's Spurs" strategy is going to win it for Kieth

Gary Neville at Lab Party fundraiser with Keir Starmer: “If Rishi Sunak was a footballer he’d be playing for Tottenham. He looks good but when the going gets tough he does one.” pic.twitter.com/O1AIqSRC6I

— andy spinoza (@andyspin) March 24, 2022

2000AD is doing a weekender of panels to celebrate its birthday and this thread should know that at 2pm there'll be a panel on politics in comics with Dunty, Alex Sobel and Stella Creasy.

can a mod correct that typo? "in" is meant to be "of" i think

omg this country is so embarrassing in such deeply weird way xp