love* in the time of plague (and by love* i mean brexit* and other dreary matters of uk politics)

xps it’s more to do with the fact that calz hates him & doesn’t need a reason to say this!

He’s appointed some dodgy people to his shadow cabinet and hasn’t had much interesting to say on the pandemic, when Labour should be dragging the government for the hideous death figures and its failure to protect NHS staff and other key workers.

not nearly enough trouble if current events are any yardstick xp

Lads
I know this thread is very serious and we shame the whole site etc etc BUT

I’ve genuinely just had a telephone call from Ian Austin who is threatening to take legal action against me because I referred to him as a “sheep botherer.”

— Jon Argles (@JonArgles) April 12, 2020

Let the man sue

My defence would be in light of Austin's character any accusation of bothering sheep couldn't possibly diminish him further in the public's opinion

His argument is that the sheep didn't seem bothered.

— DB (@D_B_90) April 12, 2020

So what’s the story on how this child of a nurse and tradesman named for an ancestral Labour lion grew up into a doughy lad that calzino loathes? (I only looked at Wikipedia for about six seconds here)

― silby, Sunday, 12 April 2020 16:33 (nineteen minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

gyac has covered the current situation well but i'll add that calz hates him more for what he isn't than what he is tbh. he isn't a lot of things. what he is exactly (beyond a capable prosecutor) is something of a political mystery, meaning that he could be all things to all people, which in practice has greatly emboldened the centre & right of the labour party

Oh good

I was saying that my neighbourhood whatsapp group was nice on here, I think yesterday? well today our alarm went off, I thought it had been disabled years ago, very odd. after I had found how to reset it, saw these messages in the group chat.

An alarm going off somewhere?

It's come from the Chinese House. 🤬

Having no obvious political convictions is a real bonus in a party leader

and what the fuck does he mean by "the chinese house"? racist cunt.

Ffs cam some people are just moronic scumbags

xp absolute cuntery, I’m sorry 😞

pretty staggering fact here pic.twitter.com/hrXyVhrWq9

— Hadley Freeman-on-the-land (@wariotifo) April 12, 2020

xp I have just called him out in the group chat, I don't like conflict at all, so almost shaking now, but it's got to be done.

what a cunt

don't do whatsapp groups with the British public folks.

10 minutes since I posted that in the whatsapp group, 82 participants in there, not a peep since. Hm.

they're all building the wicker bojo

*wicker covid-19 cell

in all seriousness though, that is grim

My neighbourhood groups, in descending order of goodness, let me show you them:

Covid Mutual Aid slack group - good at getting stuff done, no nonsense organizing, no chat
Covid Mutial Aid FB group - mostly sound, mods delete stupid "waaaah there's people in the parks!" posts
Building whatsapp group - cool, got to pawn off some veggies I didn't want on neighbours and got a potted tomato plant from one. Occasional frisson caused by the lad downstairs who posts in reddit snark mode, apparently oblivious that that's not the right tone for the place, bless 'im
Covid Mutual Aid whatsapp group - mostly abandoned for slack
Regular neighbourhood group - Absolutley abysmal, quarantine stasi out in full force, endless handwringing about civility when someone disses Boris. You wouldn't think there's too many tories in Stoke Newington but every last one of them is in this group.

xposts

(that last one's FB too)

Notice how the highest paid jobs in society (banking, hedge funds) have been proven utterly useless and unjustifiable when there’s been a global pandemic, and the lowest paid (nursing, cleaning, teaching) jobs have proven the most useful and essential for a society to function?

— Mangal 2 Restaurant (@Mangal2) April 12, 2020

Mangal 2 kebab shop OTM.

mangal 2 kebab shop go on trashfuture

Presumably Mangal 1 is silent on this because it doesn't think we should be talking down wealth creators at a time of crisis.

There absolutely are Tories in N16 ime Daniel, I was once trapped behind a drunk one in a queue at our corner shop who was trying to banter with the man behind the counter (“What part of Turkey are you from?” “Kurdistan” “Never heard of it”). Ofc they were the ones screaming for the army to be sent in during the riots/praising the Turkish & Kurdish shopkeepers turning out in the street when they’d never normally pass air with them otherwise.

The Mangal2 guy is otm about politics more than 98% of the nation’s columnists put together.

those riots really brought the tories and the racists out of their hidey holes

i'll add that calz hates him more for what he isn't than what he is tbh. he isn't a lot of things. what he is exactly (beyond a capable prosecutor) is something of a political mystery

Who the hell doesn't know what Starmer stands for lol.

forensic niceness

starmer

Sensible
The Grown Up In Charge
Arsenal Season Ticket Holder
Reluctant Leader
Moderate
EU saviour
Respects The Ladies

lol

Who the hell doesn't know what Starmer stands for lol.

― xyzzzz__, Sunday, 12 April 2020 17:53 (nineteen minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

granted, 'square-jawed white man' is about the limit of what he truly represents in the minds of most, and it's appalling how this is ample qualification

forgot 'slickly-presented'

Emilie Oldknow who made some of the most egregious WhatsApp posts is Mrs Jonathan Ashworth.

prickly resented

the whatsapp racist was an old man across the road, he apologised and then left the group, the group moderator then made a post about how everyone should be "politically correct" in the group and a line seems to have been firmly drawn. Making a name for ourselves around here!

the group moderator's choice of words make them seem like a bad actor there ffs

yup! they sent me a pm saying he was "an odd character but not a racist as far as we know" - choosing to laugh at this rather than argue with her.

granted, 'square-jawed white man' is about the limit of what he truly represents in the minds of most, and it's appalling how this is ample qualification

― ban laggy jazzer (imago), Sunday, 12 April 2020 bookmarkflaglink

You've just moved to 'in the minds of most'. Wasn't talking about that.

Who was it who made the comment "anyone who nominated Corbyn to broaden the debate needs to be taken out and shot"?

BREAKING: Very significant Labour news. Emilie Oldknow, the party's Executive Director for Governance, Membership & Party Services has quit. Source: "She was the brains and the muscle of the whole party operation. That's it for the Labour party."

— Kevin Schofield (@PolhomeEditor) March 13, 2018

never forget

BREAKING: Very significant Labour news. Bobson Dugnutt, the party's Executive Director for Governance, Membership & Party Services has quit. Source: "She was the brains and the muscle of the whole party operation. That's it for the Labour party."

powerful tweet imo

It's not enough to say "if you leave, they will get what they wanted" - you have to show that, within the Labour Party, it's possible for it to be any other way

— Dan (@d_j_frost) April 12, 2020

the news that bobson dugnutt is a woman is HUGELY significant

Emilie Oldknow who made some of the most egregious WhatsApp posts is Mrs Jonathan Ashworth.

Have fun, comrades:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/eq5c3qnd375rj69/The%20Work%20of%20the%20Labour%20Party’s%20Governance%20and%20Legal%20Unit%20in%20Relation%20to%20Antisemitism%2C%202014%20-%202019%20%282020%29.pdf?dl=0

You've just moved to 'in the minds of most'. Wasn't talking about that.

― xyzzzz__, Sunday, 12 April 2020 18:23 (ten minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

yeah, he represents the status quo, or at least, the notion that everything can be like it was in 1998

crumbs what is this