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

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

jesus i got my stupid book out and out of the way just in time lol

Some real scummy behaviour reported by the Times

Charlie Elphicke spent four years suing The Sunday Times for revealing a woman accused him of rape

He used British libel law to silence her and prolong her pain after being jailed for sex crimes

Last week he dropped the case. Today we tell the full story https://t.co/2SOERvSKAc

— Gabriel Pogrund (@Gabriel_Pogrund) March 26, 2022

holy shit

looks like the times still has a real journalist or two kicking around??

A source told The Sunday Times that they had witnessed Elphicke’s attempts to cover up embarrassing potential evidence during the MeToo scandal, including abruptly disposing of the contents of his parliamentary desk drawer — which apparently included documents he feared could compromise him — and telling one aide who had witnessed certain documents to drink from a goblet of “loyalty wine”.

Those who did so, Elphicke allegedly told them, would be rewarded with career opportunities.

also just sign this document here... aaaand here. in your own blood. what's the document say? don't worry about it

Rolling Stone....thank you

I interviewed some people and wrote about how a generation got into (formal) politics for the first time with Jeremy Corbyn and got told to shut up and what happens with that now: https://t.co/mc2aXi1ECZ for @RollingStoneUK

— Great Editor (@simonchilds13) March 28, 2022

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-kent-60911483

Critical support for comrade Distinguished Jumping Spider. London Resort is no more.

Conservative MP Jamie Wallis has come out as transgender.

In a statement, Wallis has spoken out about an incident where they were raped by a man they met online and a separate incident of blackmail where a man wanted wanted £50,000 to "keep quiet" about Wallis' gender identity.

— TLDR News UK (@TLDRNewsUK) March 30, 2022

Wallis put out the statement after attending the Tory dinner where Boris Johnson opened with:

"Good evening ladies & gentleman, or as Keir Starmer would put it, people who are assigned female or male at birth".

But Wallis did say colleagues have provided "incredible support".

— TLDR News UK (@TLDRNewsUK) March 30, 2022

Shadow Chancellor Rachel Reeves refuses five times to say whether she would support public sector workers going on strike for better pay.@AndrewMarr9 pic.twitter.com/8bLorPaiRO

— LBC (@LBC) March 29, 2022

I can't fill in for him but I can state that the PCS has totally voted for strike action and the Labour party can get fucked

Unban calz for this thread

Julia Hartley-Brewer applauds Labour MP Wes Streeting for his answer to "Can a woman have a penis?"

Wes: "Men have penises, women have vaginas."@JuliaHB1 | @wesstreeting pic.twitter.com/61qGtyc30b

— talkRADIO (@talkRADIO) March 30, 2022

Lmao

Sharing this very intimate story would have taken an immense amount of courage. Thank you @JamieWallisMP for your bravery, which will undoubtedly support others.

The Conservative Party I lead will always give you, and everyone else, the love and support you need to be yourself. https://t.co/Y7VjQOMgkO

— Boris Johnson (@BorisJohnson) March 30, 2022

Sympathetic coverage that will certainly fail to mention this:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jamie_Wallis#Controversies

An investigation by BuzzFeed in January 2020 found that Wallis had been a co-owner of a 'sugar daddy' dating website, "which offered students financial relationships with wealthy 'sponsors'". Although Wallis initially denied links to the company, Buzzfeed found that he had been a director and shareholder of the site's parent company.[12] The Labour MP Jess Phillips called for Wallis to be removed.[13] Since the 2019 election, Wallis has quit as director of at least seven companies.[14]

fifteen minutes.
fif. teen. min. utes.
15. pic.twitter.com/G2DcXIbpED

— education discourager. (@McDivergence) March 30, 2022

had to shut down their comments after an influx of "not all Wes's" cunts

we really are gonna need bigger gulags