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

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2021/sep/23/bp-rations-petrol-and-diesel-deliveries-to-its-service-stations

Winter of Discontent 2: Electric Fuck You

i can't claim to have been publicly prescient here since i basically more of less shut up commenting at all once bojo took charge but throughout all this -- and against much left doomsaying re the impenetrably dishonest bloc of the commenteriat -- i have had a super-vivid sense of the frameworks being stretched beyond (load)bearing and of the return (not to say the revenge) of unmediated reality itself. you can't glibly fib yr way out of the house falling on you.

and the bulk of the fibbers entirely deserve what's coming to them but i honestly dread* what is arriving with that -- aimed at us (tho some of us are comfier than most) and at many others, but basically happening to all

*this is largely why i shut up commenting: i have gone from "oh something will turn up, here are some possible glimpses" to "that was our last slim chance and we fvcked it"

The miracle of British Democracy is that it took the wave of discontent produced by the Great Financial Crisis and transmuted it into government by a small clique of malingerers from the top end of society, while allowing them to pose as the fighting underdog.

— Metatone (@Metatone2) September 24, 2021

my neighbourhood WhatsApp group is freaking out about the petrol.

Wonderful. pic.twitter.com/NRb2k1vWHb

— Andy Churnwell (@churnwell) September 24, 2021

lol that's a good one

I’m reliably told that Labour members in Darlington, including councillors, have *never* been invited to meet Starmer when he's visited.

So why is he visiting so regularly? One explanation is that it’s the former seat of friend, and former political aide, Jenny Chapman.

I think maybe Kieth loves visiting Darlington so often because he can fit in a sneaky trip to Durham Cathedral.. that's it

it happens to the best of us pic.twitter.com/uC9IVDm4k8

— jewish space laser (@goulcher) September 24, 2021

Tulo meeting being described as a “car crash” for Starmer

— Sienna Rodgers (@siennamarla) September 24, 2021

BREAKING @uklabour NEC won't now discuss @Keir_Starmer 's rule changes

— iain watson (@iainjwatson) September 24, 2021

Union source emphasises it's "not over til it's over", but seems Starmer faces humiliation over electoral college reforms if he brings to vote

Trade Union & Labour Party Liaison Organisation (TULO) meeting was "BAD": "nobody" defended Starmer, even moderate unions look uncertain

I think a nice trip to Darlington might be what he needs right now

Hearing Gary Smith of GMB was "generally furious", repeatedly asking Starmer if he appreciated how "embarrassing it is" for Labour to be backing £10 an hour, not the £15 advocated by his union

sounds like he's tried to push this through without even negotiating with them and they are extremely pissed off with him. A leader can can only get away with that kind of behaviour if they are in a very strong position, like 20 pts ahead and not about to stand down to make way for McShitter!

went to the pub today for first time in months.
out of the 10 pumps, only 2 were in action, and the pub crew did not think they would last the day, and no delivery until next week.
shit just got very real.

as a car hating non-driving mofo I find it quite amusing at the moment, but it won't be amusing when the deliveries stop coming.

Keir Starmer meeting with GMB, Unison, Usdaw leaders to look for "face-saver", as one source puts it – expected to be similar package minus electoral college. (Some say this was the plan all along. Way it was handled did prompt concerns over relations with unions though.)

— Sienna Rodgers (@siennamarla) September 24, 2021

"some say this was the plan all along" lol sure

"Guest workers" to save Xmas is it?

This is just 🤦🤦🤦

NEW: Keir Starmer has abandoned his controversial electoral college reforms overnight.

A spokesman says he will still bring other measures to "better connect us with working people and re-orient us toward the voters who can take us to power".

Another source texts: "It's dead"

— Gabriel Pogrund (@Gabriel_Pogrund) September 25, 2021

Starmer ally quoted as promising reform package will still “have left howling with outrage”.

Labour CONFIRMS these reforms are now going to the NEC:

- Higher nomination threshold for MPs in leadership elections, avoiding "another Corbyn"
- Scrap registered supporters, apply freeze for new members eligible to vote
- Review affiliated supporters scheme + levy payers
1/2

— Gabriel Pogrund (@Gabriel_Pogrund) September 25, 2021

lol he's really fucked it and his failure is now the biggest story of the conference. But he's still going for less ambitious reforms designed to undermine party democracy and are counterintuitive to connecting with people and the rest the drivel he chats

One key Starmer ally now accepts reforms have to change - but still optimistic left will be "howling" with outrage and claims of betrayal by Sunday

just calmly posting as they normally do

Those around Starmer believe he will deliver a speech with echoes of Hugh Gaitskell - a cri de coeur for Labour’s modernisers

I find it quite easy to imagine him losing an election very badly and then ...

I was surprised to read that Corbyn would have still won in 2015 and the Smith leadership challenge if you subtracted the votes of registered members, yet Luke is talking about scrapping them as preventative measure against another 2015 "hijacking". And I reckon next leadership slate was already going to be some grim shit even without the MP nominations threshold changes.

We’re getting to a point where new members won’t be able to vote but can be selected as an MP.

Meanwhile GMB left members saying their union’s preferred candidate last year Nandy would not have made it to ballot.

the "GMB left" that's a good one

wonder who it could have been https://t.co/tiMUwBf0NO pic.twitter.com/TR0AZsSUZO

— axaxaxas lmaö (@demarionunn) September 24, 2021

I don't see why these other proposals get through tbh

I don't see any motivation for the unions to vote them through but god knows what horse-trading will be going on. lol maybe Kieth will be upping the the minimum wage 10p at a time until they break.

I mean, accept for one minute that fuel shortages are a Westminster bubble issue, and the real man and woman in the street in the Red Wall cab most about destroying the labour left. How much closer to that goal have the geniuses got this week? Not the width of a single pamphlet

— Dan Davies (@dsquareddigest) September 25, 2021

that typo is otm because Kieth was responding to indifferent vox pops to him in Darlington by saying talk to the cab drivers next time they really respect me

The last three Labour leadership election candidates supported by @GMB_union failed to get 25% of nominations from the PLP.

Miliband - 24.51%
Corbyn - 15.52%
Nandy - 14.6%

Are they really going to sign away their ability to get their candidate on the ballot paper?

— Elliot Dugdale (@ElliotDugdale) September 25, 2021

https://culturepowerpolitics.org/2021/09/24/keir-starmers-the-road-ahead/

I'm quite enjoying listening to these lefty polprofs discussing the flop Starmphlet.

While Lab eats itself.

https://nowthenmagazine.com/articles/sheffield-tenants-facing-eviction-from-their-homes-over-as-little-as-292

tenant rights and landlord reforms just never comes up at the focus groups

BREAKING- Starmer’s deal makes it through the NEC. Leadership candidate threshold will be 20% of MPs.

(25% always sounded like an opening offer...)

— Jessica Elgot (@jessicaelgot) September 25, 2021

job's fucked (for any leadership candidate to the left of Rayner) when the rotting ham get's chucked

Another Labour left source says "20% is by definition the white man status quo amendment".

as if the membership would vote for Zarah Sultana in big numbers under the previous candidate threshold anyway.

Starmer said: “I’m very pleased these party reforms have got the backing of our NEC. These proposals put us in a better position to win the next general election and I hope constituency and trade union delegates will support them when they come to conference floor.”

— Sienna Rodgers (@siennamarla) September 25, 2021

The threshold for selecting a new leader will improve Labour's chances in the next GE?

I mean, yes but

https://amp.theguardian.com/world/2021/sep/24/a-bit-of-a-mistery-why-england-covid-cases-are-going-down-despite-ease-of-restrictions?

It is looking v good. And surely no 'mistery'?

David Evans : " Everybody remembers why they joined Labour. What was it for you?". People in the conference shout JEREMY CORBYN.

Lol he totally walked into it.

David Evans (acting General Secretary): " Everybody remembers why they joined Labour. What was it for you?". People in the conference shout JEREMY CORBYN. #Lab21 pic.twitter.com/T2KCDja1Dt

— Saul Staniforth (@SaulStaniforth) September 25, 2021

Indifference, inhuman and degrading treatment of young woman in Sodexo run Bronzefield prison. The key question we need to ask is why she was in prison in the first place – she could and should have been kept safely in the community. https://t.co/dPP1sG8A3H

— Deborah Coles (@DebatINQUEST) September 25, 2021

Corbyn tells Young Labour event in last leadership election Starmer “promised unity, but instead we are given division.

“We were promised ten pledges - and where are they? We were promised effective opposition, but instead the Tories have been given a free pass time & again”

just saying what everyone else is saying

5,000 overseas lorry drivers and 5,500 poultry workers will be eligible for three-month UK visas until Christmas Eve https://t.co/g9bCbEtucP

— BBC Breaking News (@BBCBreaking) September 25, 2021

So fucked...but it's the future.

let me make sure i've got this straight

- wages are not high enough to attract poultry workers and truck drivers here to fill these jobs
- so workers from elsewhere are imported to do the work
- prices of goods and chicken can now stay low
- so that our underemployed and underpaid workforce can afford them

is this the moment that the remainiacs crew find out that "we need low paid EU labour to pick our crops" isn't quite the slam dunk they imagined it was?

pic.twitter.com/ZWkTqhfCRf

— ToboBobo (@tobobobo) September 25, 2021

xp

no point expecting any self reflection/self awareness from these fucking clowns at this point in the game

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iDSPgorO6hs