like the queen this thread will never die: in which we ALL resign (ourselves to disgusting miseries to post-boris politics 2022)

my memory is fucked (i'm old and i spend my entire time on twitter) but i do not recall this being a talking point -- tory rank-and-file in the mid-late 90s were very extremely entrenched in the fight over europe and were planning to stay on to battle this out within the party come what may

(is my memory, possibly highly unreliable)

I think they're much much more of a mess than they were in '97.

I mean, '97 was just a standard issue tired government that had ran out of ideas and pissed everyone off, apparently the economy was doing fine - I don't remember either way. This current mob is a whole 'nother shitshow.

tories have been engaged in a civil war for six years now and it is only intensifying. who's left from the Cameron era at this point? just Gove? but Tory cabinet from 1997 was at least 50% pre-Major figures.

Hunt is still there - or, rather, back there.

Oh yeah, so two then. But Major finished with Hessletine, Clarke, Rifkind, Howard in great offices of state. Hurd had only been gone for less than two years. Lots of blustering old fuddie duddies in charge.

Major had Black Wednesday on his watch and a series of high profile scandals all the way up to the election, current situation is hypothetically not as bad by 2025

on the other both of the big English parties have been colluding in demonstrating that parliamentary democracy is a pointless irrelevance for the last few years which i don't remember from the 90s

in fact i naively held some brief hope that Blair's gov would turn left from it's election stance

not gonna fall for that shit again

I can remember having a late 90's chat with an old boy with his copy of the daily mirror on the table. "You've got to give them a chance" he said. I think even he knew they were a bunch of lying Thatcherite scum before he passed on from this world. I can't remember the full conversation but there was something about lazy young layabouts not voting Labour being a big part of the problem!

Crazy!

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2022/dec/05/homelessness-charity-shelter-staff-start-unprecedented-two-week-strike

https://news.stv.tv/scotland/glasgow-coffin-manufacturers-to-walk-out-again-in-pay-dispute

... the question is, for the next 40+ years from now, will the British media be going on about "the dead lying unburied" the way they did after the so-called Winter of Discontent under a Labour government? Somehow I think not.

🧟‍♀️ 🧟‍♂️👍🏽

Industrial action has been called off as over 2,000 @unitetheunion Metroline bus drivers in London have won an 11% pay increase with a 10% increase on back pay (they were originally offered just 4%).

Collective action delivers results. pic.twitter.com/KBjcUbb1kC

— Saul Staniforth (@SaulStaniforth) December 8, 2022

Our strike ballot fell short of the government's 50% rule by SEVEN people!

Did you know: the fucking Penal Laws still applied?

Irish language legislation receives royal assent to become law https://t.co/mY1gOIlIZE

— The Irish Times (@IrishTimes) December 7, 2022

NEW: After 11 weeks of strike action, more than 750 workers at the Jacobs Cream Crackers factory in Ainstree have won an improved pay offer. @GMB_union has now called off industrial action.

— Taj Ali (@Taj_Ali1) December 8, 2022

Just completely deluded.

This is just bollocks! They’ll repeal some anti union laws, scrap hire and fire, build more council housing, nationalise the railways, borrow £28bn a year for a green transition. Enough? No. But it’s just an untruth to say it’s the same!

— Owen Jones (@OwenJones84) December 6, 2022

Even if you get this it's crumbs. And you won't get this.

ffs Owen i totally disagree with your continued support for Labour but i think i understand it. doesn't mean you have to swallow the Koolaid tho

The Koolaid would be "Starmer's going to swing left once he's elected" - I don't think he thinks that, though.

he seems to think that they'll do all of the things he's listed

he had much less faith in Corbyn's ability to deliver on pledges when he was asking him to stand down because he was "unelectable". That's all that matters to this simp, just Labour need to be elected at any cost.

well that didn't take long

Labour refusing to promise repeal of Tory anti-strike laws https://t.co/iqawUhJJ6E

— The Guardian (@guardian) December 8, 2022

Biden was much friendlier in tone to the Sanders/progressive lot and that has ended as crumbs. Starmer has made no concessions. He knows he has enough Tories on board to not need it.

Utterly chickenshit

can't even be justified by "responible economics", just craven playing to cunts that will never vote Labour, even this one

He's going to triangulate himself right out of existence if he's not careful

Not even a good WC for the English is doing anything

Westminster Voting Intention:

LAB: 47% (+1)
CON: 20% (-1)
RFM: 9% (+2)
LDM: 8% (+1)
GRN: 6% (-3)
SNP: 5% (=)

Via @PeoplePolling, 7 Dec.
Changes w/ 30 Nov.

— Election Maps UK (@ElectionMapsUK) December 9, 2022

Weirdly enough I've yet to see Sunak making anything of the WC. Bojo would be milking it.

Has this been mentioned yet?

https://www.ipsos.com/en-uk/yes-pulls-ahead-and-snp-strengthens-support

Gordon Brown’s blueprint for the future of the UK will provide a "safer" and "more radical" alternative to Scottish independence

I see this went down well

lol at the full context of that Guardian tweet about Labour not repealing anti-strike laws:

Starmer and Reeves were speaking to an audience of business leaders at Canary Wharf as part of the party’s “prawn cocktail offensive 2.0”, which is seeking to repeat Tony Blair’s success in persuading business leaders to back Labour.

The event on Thursday included speeches by Amanda Blanc, the chief executive of Aviva, and Ian Stuart, the chief executive of HSBC UK.

Jim O’Neill, the former Goldman Sachs banker and Treasury minister under David Cameron, also spoke, having helped formulate the party’s policies towards startups.

Starmer told the conference: “Labour is back in business … We have more business engagement in the last two years than the Labour party has had in well over a decade.”

Nice, disowned EMil too

They've even got Liz Kendall in the Shadow Cabinet these days.

I would actually give a tactical vote to the Tories if I lived in her constituency

FT Exclusive: UK ministers blocked a possible deal to call off this month’s rail strikes by preventing the industry from offering unions higher pay deals and adding tough new conditions at the last minute https://t.co/A1Hwl4EE0H pic.twitter.com/jzry2inRhn

— Financial Times (@FinancialTimes) December 9, 2022

NEVER

NOT

AT IT

It’s stories like that which make it glaringly apparent that the US was originally a colony, since similar things have happened here in recent weeks.

UK power prices hit record high amid cold snap.

Energy companies profiteering.

Selling price has changed but cost of producing energy hasn't. There is no additional investment.

Prosecute profiteers, need 100% windfall tax, public ownership of energy.https://t.co/3Z18jJaHEU

— Prem Sikka (@premnsikka) December 12, 2022

Have any of you seen grit put on the streets?

Wondering if councils are just cutting back

I haven't noticed any gritters on the main roads but it hasn't snowed here but there has still been days of freezing fog and very icy conditions. One thing I have noticed is that the communal grit bins have mostly disappeared in the last few years and the ones that remain have labels that show they haven't been refilled since 2017 and the remaining grit has solidified.

Grit everywhere in Camden, pavement and streets.

None in Islington, but Camden having more money to spend than Islington is nothing new.

at least Islington had Joe Orton and Camden had erm... Menswear

Seriously though, I know someone who lives on the border, one side of her street is in Islington and the other is in Camden, the Camden side is always spotless, council are forever trimming hedges and branches, Islington side not so spotless.

Lol

Ok so a postcode lottery for gritters, as for everything else.

It was three years to the day Johnson won. This Tory report says that transphobia is a non issue with Tories, which is funny.

Today marks 3 years since the Conservatives 2019 General Election success. 🗳️

With latest polls placing Labour at 47%, our report After the Fall identifies what matters to voters the most and how the Conservatives could win again. 👇🏻https://t.co/KEZLS3KLvR pic.twitter.com/EX2VWZhAgV

— Onward (@ukonward) December 12, 2022