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

strong, relevant first effort there

what could possibly go wrong

Activate is an independent national grassroots campaign organisation that seeks to actively engage young people in the right of centre politics, make a case for what conservatism can offer and provide a platform to enable their voices to be heard.

We are committed to modern, open and member-driven politics in the Conservative Party, working to get Conservatives elected and ensuring that a Conservative government is in power.

We intend to reclaim the voice of young people in politics, bringing together individuals and groups in our education system, workplaces and communities. We will campaign and organise to ensure that issues that are important to them are heard, discussed and addressed.

Star Wars bores probably already Tories tbf

down with the kids

Dying at this tweet from the guy who runs it... pic.twitter.com/Gh5kALku6Z

— S★mmy✌️ (@samstyles147) August 29, 2017

http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/39399000/jpg/_39399648_tory_boy203.jpg

there's loads of kids already engaged in right of centre politics, they're called public schoolboys

#meme #retweet #fellowkids

srsly straining my brain to think of any current Tory ideas with undeniable appeal to The Youth

Pension triple-lock shurely

some of the oh so hilarious Activate pisstake memes doing the rounds make me feel like voting Tory, well maybe not, but stop doing this kind of thing please! Unless it is actually funny.

the dreary steeples that are nixing brexit:
https://www.irishtimes.com/opinion/fintan-o-toole-parishes-of-fermanagh-and-tyrone-are-unravelling-brexit-1.3201011

"The Border problem can be dealt with only if the UK stays in the customs union and, preferably, also the single market. The announcement on Sunday by the British Labour Party that it now supports doing this, at least for four years but perhaps for good, is thus of great moment for Ireland."

this thread (read down the bottom) doesn't make his takes on politics any more useful but it does somewhat unstitch the "all jolyons must have lived posh untroubled lives" argt*

David Benedictus is my biological father, and did go to Eton. There’s no mystery about this: it’s in his Who’s Who entry. /1 pic.twitter.com/8W1woSHFn0

— Jo Maugham QC (@JolyonMaugham) August 28, 2017

•which has always been a bit basic imo (disclaimer: windmill man is still a chump)

I can't be bothered linking the Indie piece cos it has Frank Field in the url for starters! But TLDR version: FOI requests have revealed the DWP has pissed away over £40m on futile legal battles to prevent disabled people getting ESA payments, and the cost may be even much higher. ATOS + CAPITA have received £578m for "assessing" people for PIP since it launched. Shorter version: There is also a magic money tree when it comes to killing disableds, it seems.

was there a point where the Great British Public lost any shred of empathy for disabled people? I don't remember this base level of resentment and awfulness towards disabled people being on benefits when I was growing up with a wheelchair-bound dad, and that was Thatcher's Britain - is it just the army of cunty twitter Tories and Mail commenters emboldening the policies?

lol

Michel Barnier is acting like a smackhead begging for his next hit of our money. Time for this depraved addict to go cold turkey! pic.twitter.com/wSv7T5AWZL

— LEAVE.EU 🇬🇧 (@LeaveEUOfficial) August 29, 2017

xp
I often read comments like: there were too many people taking the piss, something had to be done .. etc. Like as if benefits fraud is the root of all society's ills and as if killing the disabled is a bit harsh, but acceptable collateral damage to sort out these malingerers etc..

I sometimes have conversations with people where I argue that a huge national benefits system is bound to be vulnerable to a small degree of fiddling at the margins, but it's better that everybody in need is properly looked after and a few people cheat rather than nobody cheats but sometimes those in need lose out.

And people look at you for a minute while their mouth does the goldfish thing and you can see their brain going "NO, BUT SCROUNGERS, KILL THE SCROUNGERS" and then you feel a bit sad inside

I've never gaf about benefits fraud, and sometimes in between company liquidations and layoffs - have quite happily committed it myself. At least people committing BF are putting it back into the economy, unlike those slippery tax avoiding fuckers, funnelling all their wedge into dodgy off-shore holding companies. Like our current Home Secretary for starters.

yeah i totally agree, that's just my attempt at being reasonable

i might start caring about the vanishingly-small amount of benefits fraud committed in this country once the corporations and the rich start paying their fair share of tax, but not a second before then

calzino otm in other words

100 % otm.

kezia dugherowngrave morelike

Probably bollocks but good if true:

A senior Scottish Labour source tells me Kezia Dugdale was "hounded out by JC's mob".

— Jamie Ross (@JamieRoss7) August 29, 2017

i want a mob too

jc's mob otm

i think the chances that she was "hounded out by JC's mob" are slim, but are of course going to predominate as the press is enjoying pushing the narrative that corbynite labour is a stalinist (or trotskyist) cabal.

here is what kezia herself said in her resignation letter (think this is abridged maybe? but makes clear there's no finger-pointing going to be going on from her) https://blogs.spectator.co.uk/2017/08/kezia-dugdale-why-i-have-quit-as-leader-of-the-scottish-labour-party/

where they go from here is a bit of a puzzler. corbyn has done scottish labour a big favour with the election manifesto: while more conservative and unionist older labour voters seemed to have swung to the tories in scotland, young snp voters swung to labour. this is something that can be potentially be built on in the future. on the other hand this young cohort of former snp voters - or at least yes voters in 2014 - are potentially going to be put off in the long-term with corbyn's complete ignorance of scottish politics (his gaffe at the weekend that apparently showed he doesn't know that scotland has a separate legal system) and his disinterest in further powers for scotland/enthusiasm for the continuance of unitary government in britain. any leader who just parrots the corbyn line on these matters will look like the scotlandshire branch leader. anyone who, like dugdale, floats federalism, or even potentially someone who allows for less discipline around the constitutional question will be undermined by the uk leadership and will look weak

id imagine if the corbynites are really in ascendance in scottish labour it will probably be neil findlay who will be the new leader. union backed, sed-described socialist, anti-trident, pro-corbyn.

problem is he seems a bit of a dafty. but scottish labour is hardly an embarrassment of riches

kez says she's left the scottish labour party in much better condition than she found it in: "it's on its uppers," she said.

booming post, jim

Jim, re: the young snp voters you describe, how deep rooted do you think their desire for independence is? And how much of it is more "let's have independence so we don't get endless tory governments courtesy of the English", which would (conceivably, temporarily) be less of a concern under Corbyn?

I think Labour will have to do a lot more than get rid of Dugdale to win back the trust and support of Scottish people, especially younger voters. There is a lot of support for Corbyn but there is no faith in Scottish Labour, and the party in general seems to struggle positioning itself as a viable left alternative to the SNP. I think that the desire to avoid Tory rule is why so many people initially switched to a pro-indy position, but what the SNP have done remarkably well is convincing that independence is the sole way to ensure a fairer Government.

the other thing I think worth noting is that a lot of the rising stars of Scottish politics are young people like Mhairi Black, Stewart McDonald and the Green's Ross Greer. People who aren't in their 30s yet and voters find really relatable and inspiring, and all aligning with an independence position. Labour haven't really got anyone of the same profile and stance. I don't want to be reductive and say young people merely vote for people like themselves, but I think there's a lot to be said for being able to see someone who has lived a life not disimilar to your own, and seeing policy shaped by that reflection of similar cultural climates.

in a stunning turn of events, activate isn't quite as independent of the tories as it claims to be

http://evolvepolitics.com/exclusive-the-shady-ultra-posh-tory-elite-running-the-new-momentum-imitation-group-activate/

Jim, re: the young snp voters you describe, how deep rooted do you think their desire for independence is? And how much of it is more "let's have independence so we don't get endless tory governments courtesy of the English", which would (conceivably, temporarily) be less of a concern under Corbyn?

― Daniel_Rf, Wednesday, August 30, 2017 1:40 AM (eight hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

im not sure as i am handicapped in two ways - have lived away from scotland for 5 years, and am 33 years old with a friendship group of similar age. i know that people around my age, from the glasgow area, in their 30s, on the left are generally fairly wedded to independence as an idea at this stage, especially those who were active during the referendum campaign

so apparently it's going to be richard leonard vs anas sarwar. leonard is a union guy, member of the campaign for socialism (which amalgamated with momentum), and sarwar is an absolutely brutal diddy of the centrist mark who will be found out as a non-entity after any amount of debate

so you're saying it's gonna be sarwar

Activate activated

"We're Activate and we're striking back.... #Meme #Retweet #FeeltheForce" pic.twitter.com/cDGtCgKlWO

— Activate UK (@ActivateBritain) August 31, 2017

#FellTheForce

conservative youth group activate uk encouraged their opponents to take their own lives in a shocking post on social networking site twitter today

note to self: don't post every half-witted Activate garbage-tweet to ILX for everyone to laugh at, as this amplifies their message

b-b-but i enjoy laughing at their message ;_;

I looked at their twitter followers the other day and they seemed to be approx 70% ironic follows from left wingers, which does make me worry that they've found a way to turn their essential crapness into a successful marketing strategy

that's basically how memes work

i dunno if i'd describe attracting followers who are only there to laugh at your messages as 'successful'

Activate's Twitter account came under a successful hacking attempt at 15:34 today. The hacker has been identified & reported to the police.

— Activate UK (@ActivateBritain) August 31, 2017

their account now consists of 4 tweets

Activate lads also had a whatsapp log leaked where they joked about sending chavs to gas chambers, so banner day all around.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/tories-gassing-chavs-whatsapp-messages-group-chat-activate-members-leaked-a7921086.html

"joked"