brexit negging when yr mandate is is trash: or further chronicles of a garbage-fire

it's the implicit esteem that it gives to smooth, rational discourse which is what irks, the studied calm, the pretensions of objectivity, the idea that's how we want politicians to perform. it has the atmosphere of the hostile job interviews in the apprentice, helping the public to find the manager who can give the slickest & neatest presentation. holding people to account on their own terms can be useful to prick pomposity (which is ofc what makes for hot content) but challenging those terms is more important

the obsession of interviewers like eddie mair with trying to make politicians look incompetent, as if memorising enough pertinent details to be able to deflect/drown these sorts of questions is what anyone wants from politicians

i don't think this is fair. eddie mair wasn't demanding facts or figures. he was just saying, whatever happened to theresa may's supposed concern with racial injustice? with concern about access to a good education? do you want eddie mair to challenge that concern? i think they were good concerns to supposedly have! boris is a frontbencher and supposed to be leadership material. he should have something to say about race, something to say about education. that's all that was being asked of him.

obv this is as sympathetic an example as I am likely to find but still, it's little more than a work appraisal seeing how you've met your targets. there are lots of ways of doing that without the performative aloofness. disingenuity can be challenged head on rather than drawn out for viral humiliation. it's important to challenge on details but also to be able to join the dots together to demonstrate bigger points. evan davies does at least advocate alternative positions, some sort of dialectic is important or the discussion is purely destructive

Boris hasn't succeeded as a politician for his achievements or his ability to get things done, but for his public persona. If Mair is able to shred it so easily and quickly in that great interview I am personally fine with it.

the savage take downs aren't a real corrective because they sitll appeal to people's worst instincts & don't really help anyone figure out what they think about any issues, just keeps it about characters

to some extent it's important to keep it about characters tho - if the people in charge of taking care of those issues are dumb as a bag of hammers or liars or otherwise untrustworthy then the public have a right to know

I think interviews are v limited as assessments of intelligence bc of the biases I mentioned upthread in how they are presented. would also question this notion of stupidity which is rife in all the least edifying corners of the internet. people can inflict tremendous misery & injustice but appearing foolish is what will finally do for them

Eddie Mair challenged BJ on some of his past indiscretions a few years ago and summarised with 'you're a nasty piece of work, aren't you?'

ogmor very much otm here

but hey, parliamentary democracy is light entertainment

Mair has a lovely voice.

Lefties are delusional and seem proud of the fact that Corbyn is a terrorist synthesizer.

— Dean 🇬🇧 (@iDeanPod) June 21, 2017

https://www.channel4.com/news/revealed-inside-the-secretive-tory-election-call-centre

Dean GB is some sort of heavy-handed not funny joke, right?

Terrorist synthesizer was the drummer of Gay Dad iirc

lol i didn't even see that, just had a look thru his Twitter

What's his retweetcount of his next highest tweet?

Just looked. Ten.

]https://www.channel4.com/news/revealed-inside-the-secretive-tory-election-call-centre

i guess i was right: https://medium.com/@rmkf/inside-the-conservative-party-election-hq-56915f2c033f

DYING

GoSkippy.com CHEAPER CAR INSURANCE

A year ago today, we as a nation voted for a sovereign United Kingdom outside of the European Union.

Happy Independence Day, everyone! 🇬🇧🎉💥 pic.twitter.com/8q3l6j9RaW

— LEAVE.EU 🇬🇧 (@LeaveEUOfficial) June 22, 2017

I didn't think the UK had what it takes to reach US levels of crying eagle jpeg glory but that comes mighty close

Certainly very promising one can only imagine what heights may be reached once full insularity arrives

i was just coming here to post that abomination

i appreciate that they've chosen a picture of prince philip where he doesn't look like a desiccated lizard-person

it's the goskippy branding that really elevates it imo

that's the icing on the shit-cake, certainly

lovely assemblage of true-blood Brits in that photo

Greece, USA and Wilhelm Germany reprezenting!

not sure if it's just the effect of context but farage looks even more like a smug toad than usual

the sexual chemistry between churchill and kate is electric tho, look at that sly eye contact

No, Kate is eyeing up Filthy Phil, a real man, much to the displeasure of crybaby mummy's boy, Wills

Winnie is reminding Nige of UKIP's current percentage points in the latest opinion polls.

William having a convo with Churchill about the cruel vagaries of male pattern baldness: "It's not fair, even my dad has more hair than me"

what if fan-fic, but awful

but

I seem to remember TM making a show of how this Hinckley Point project of Gideon's would be thoroughly scrutinised before being given the OK. Then in typical style of what was to come she did absolutely nothing and it was green lighted anyway. Despite massive reservations about it's costs and legacy to follow.

In a scathing report, the NAO said ministers had failed to look at alternative ways of funding the power station to get the best deal possible, saying officials expect it will add up to £15 to annual electricity bills up to 2030.

Hinkley Point will cost £37 billion to power 5% of the grid's needs. New gas storage would have cost £1.4 billion to power 40% of the grid

Way to cut that deficit, TM.

She's a fucking moron in charge of a party of lazy backslapping greed-heads

not sure if it's just the effect of context but farage looks even more like a smug toad than usual

He's making that *record scratch* "you're probably wondering how I got here" face

has margaret beckett been reached for comment since june 8th?

Well if she hadn't nominated Corbyn she might have just been remembered for being a lousy mediocrity of a career politician and 600 quid plant pots!

the calm quiet dignity of old Labour centrists, working away their whole careers for moderation, marginal charity policies and maintaining the awesome goodness of lightly regulated capitalism

a constitutional monarchy where only the aspirationless don't become middle class homeowners and the wealthy can enjoy the fruits of their genius unmolested by government

kids today don't know what's good for them

lol lord sainsbury taking his political toys home

(i'm fine w/him funding the arts tbh until a better method is found, perhaps powered by the nobility's heads on poles)

Sometimes I feel like people don't get mad enough about how the government spends their taxes

bear with me

There's lots of "my taxes are too high" or "my taxes went to pay for underwater basket weaving" but I don't see nearly enough outrage over the lack of simple, hard-headed negotiation when tendering public services and getting value for money. Right-wingers love the household fallacy, so how about they go the goddamn distance and call out deals like Hinckley Point C for the financial disasters they are, in those household terms? If you buy a new boiler for anything more than a grand or two you are getting FLEECED and you should be ASHAMED and CLOWNED about it until you RESIGN in DISGRACE. Safe pair of hands? Fiscally conservative? Like fuck

Near Kings Cross station, someone has scrawled 'TORY SCUM' a few times on a branch of Sainsburys express.

lol @ Progress having to look to grassroots fundraising

this new twist in the Food Dancing campaign sounds intriguing

Lol!

gl Preogress.

While the general election confounded many expectations about Jeremy Corbyn, it also confirmed that ‘one more heave’ will not work and that to win, Labour must win over people who voted Tory.