The car's on fire and there's no driver at the wheel - The Tory leadership elections

Also infuriating: NS and NYT now do ‘you’re in PRIVATE MODE’ if you’re trying to read over your allocation in the dark browser.

i've been known to view source, save as a local file and edit out the overlay code

/clearly insane

Also re FT piece:

The @FT is pretty stingy on letting you read behind the firewall, so only three of you will be able to successfully hit this link to the single best explainer of Brexit and Boris Johnson -- Oxford culture & how the ruling class is groomed there. https://t.co/rhTxQxP6X3

— Quentin Hardy (@qhardy) June 22, 2019

That's an excellent piece - I hadn't quite made the connection between growing up in an antiquated fantasy world, the will to power as birthright for power's sake, and the refusal to share that power with anyone least of all Brussels.

Or at least I had but I hadn't quite appreciated how ingrained it was and how far back the roots of Brexit stretched. It does explain why they've been so inadequate in delivering it though.

When did you become this person, Allison? Because you seemed relatively sane when you were a subeditor back in the day. Now you appear willing to say anything to defend a crass, racist, chaotic, shambling, lying, carnival huckster. Does the notion of PM Johnson really thrill you?

— Jay Rayner (@jayrayner1) June 22, 2019

Obviously Jay Rayner hasn't been reading any of her columns over the last 10 years or more.

I am a bit interested in her, in that I never picked up her being so full of bile and froth when she was reviewing things on TV. I don't know if I was just a poor judge of character or if she's been somehow radicalised since then.

That was a long time ago she was on TV reviewing things.

also she was bad

Awful but my friend David fancied her like mad.

I had no idea jay rayner and claire rayner were related

if this week has taught us anything it’s that the discourse can always get worse

Exposed.. “the neighbours from hell” pic.twitter.com/3T19KaKlhH

— MoS_Politics (@MoS_Politics) June 22, 2019

between the monstering of aman and the remain neighbours, it’s not worrying at all that our nation’s respected journalists have chosen “know your place serfs” as their guiding philosophy over “holding the powerful to account”

Ah, I see Carrie Symonds’ ex Harry Cole is one of the four dickheads with a byline on that story.

In retrospect, things haven't turned out well for the four core regulars of the Late Show. Mark Lawson got sacked for bullying, Allison Pearson became the new Melanie Phillips, and Tony Parsons became Tony Parsons. Only Tom Paulin seems to have emerged untainted, though I suppose he did have that indiepop band named after him.

xxp otfm. Like there’s a photo of the house, map of the inside, rabble-rousing language about the couple - it’s fucking disgusting.

xp yeah it’s extremely odd that he’s still enthusiastically pushing Boris like his life depends on it lol

xp
amazing that Pearson wasn't the worse thing about the Late Show in my memory. Lawson always did seem like a complete scummy piece of shit, and he's a Leeds Utd fan. Parsons doing his strained attempt at being thoughtful and middle-brow was so painful - you could hear the cogs grinding and clicking.

Minor public schoolboy bullshit, I reckon.

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2019/jun/22/boris-johnson-steve-bannon-texts-foreign-secretary-resignation-speech

"For the ‘One Nation’ Tories who have backed Johnson, the video may make uncomfortable viewing."

One nation tories my arse, ooh how uncomfortable it makes us that our right wing headcase takes counsel from the klan-man.

*cough* called it

How much one-nation toryism has there really been in the last 40 odd years? but Boris has learned from Cameron that you can do all sorts of ruthless social engineering murder policies and still pay lip service to it, and that's all that really matters to the press who will constantly parrot it as a credential without any analysis or thought.

I think "one nation" means not publicly calling for the murder of LGBTQ+ people and keeping your racism on the down low oh hang on

I'm still lost here, who are these one nation tories? Michael Heseltine? Gary Lineker?

That's just a video of Bannon chatting shit isn't it? Unless they can get evidence of recent contact...just unsure how seriously to take anything Carole Cadwalladr writes about.

Even New Labour were only half-arsed One Nation Tories, cos after the crash they were forced to show their true Thatcherite colours.

xp you are so dementedly anti-Cadwalladr that that's your take? Jesus wept

although I guess we did already know that he was in cahoots with the neofascist vanguard

Right, it just adds nothing extra. Its not as if the guy wouldn't be racist if he hadn't met Bannon. Or as if the UK is a wonderful place for migrants and its now under threat because of it.

I'm not see whats so damning in the Bannon clip?

And what is damning in any future General Election is not the same thing as damning his bid for leadership. its all so intangible. Trump talking about the NHS? Thats tangible, and enough to have had an effect

There's probably a cumulative effect to all this stuff, but I don't know how significant - beyond a certain point it ceases to become a story

the point is that Boris has repeatedly claimed that he didn't meet with Bannon nor solicit any advice. But Bannon certainly has form in exaggerating his own importance.

Even Trump talking about the NHS is a side-show - he'll see it as a deal like anything else if its ever put in front of him. What about the state of it today in many parts of the country, or its ongoing privatization?

Scottish independence voting intention (ft. scenario prompting Boris Johnson being UK Prime Minister):

Yes: 53%
No: 47%

via @Panelbase, last week

— Britain Elects (@britainelects) June 23, 2019

rip woke Ruth

how is it still so close

Scotland should stick around just in case the overdue Tory permaban kicks in tbh

I guess you can only wait so long

how is it still so close

That's exactly what I thought.

lol the union’s gonna die

"ts: boris johnson vs wings over scotland" is how i break it down to an extent

i'm sure that the technology already exists to solve the Scottish backstop problem

late show: a warning from history

gove is gove (bad not good), morley is morley (good not bad)*, the greer sisters are differentially problematic (germaine is terrible, bonnie is mildly blairite) -- and no one has yet mentioned the brexit beatle >:|

*has he ever made a single political noise of any kind?

lol the union’s not gonna die

I am a bit interested in her, in that I never picked up her being so full of bile and froth when she was reviewing things on TV. I don't know if I was just a poor judge of character or if she's been somehow radicalised since then.

― Alba, Saturday, 22 June 2019 Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

That was a long time ago she was on TV reviewing things.

― Orpheus Knutt (Tom D.), Saturday, 22 June 2019 Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

also she was bad

― mark s, Saturday, 22 June 2019 Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Poor woman and two-year-old murdered by partner in Essex. Neighbour shouted at police: "You KNEW this was going to happen & did nothing."

— Allison Pearson (@allisonpearson) June 6, 2011

i am crossed out there because as always i am correct

Right, it just adds nothing extra. Its not as if the guy wouldn't be racist if he hadn't met Bannon. Or as if the UK is a wonderful place for migrants and its now under threat because of it.

Are we really flogging the argument that because things are bad they can't get meaningfully worse?

One Nation Tories are in the minority these days but I'd guess the supposedly liberal Cameron contingent is reasonably prominent. For those people it's about the optics - it's not about the logical consistency of going "well this amount of hostile environment was OK but Steve Bannon is beyond the pale" - although they will do that. But being associated with a straight-up fascist like Bannon is a terrible look for a party that needs the votes of the socially liberal to win.

Looking like you're a cog in a supranational far right conspiracy isn't exactly a great look either but most voters won't think like that anyway.

Are we really flogging the argument that because things are bad they can't get meaningfully worse?

I don't think Carole writes up something on Bannon praising Johnson means things getting worse but sure go ahead and 'flog' this one.

I don't think there are any significant number of One Nation Tories at all in terms of there being a clique who would put social policies over economic ones or who aren't fully committed to that ol' free market or have any record of campaigning for a better model of wealth redistribution. Maybe that is judging what makes a one-tory by the old definition or whatever, but makes one these days is not very clearly defined or even complete bullshit as far as I can see.

* what makes one*

*fucking typing*

Did you watch the video? He isn't just praising him, he's claiming he advised him.

Tracer's read that Bannon might be exaggerating his own importance seems pretty credible to me. But even if he was just praising him it would still be newsworthy because it would suggest that Bannon *was* expecting things to get materially worse for a lot of people, and that our most likely next PM might have done something to give him that idea. Even if it isn't of itself hugely significant in the grand scale of things that doesn't make it a non-story or something to be shrugged off.

(xxxpost)

It’s a side note. It doesn’t mean it shouldn’t be covered but framing it as proving Johnson is Bannon’s ‘protege’ does nothing for the credibility of journalists meant to be holding Johnson and his backers up to scrutiny. You only have to look at the front pages of the Telegraph, Mail, Sun, etc, to know there is a coordinated effort by the rich and influential to make Johnson PM. Elevating the importance of a gin-addled old wretch, based on nothing more than his own bragging, to a pivotal cog in the machine just obfuscates what’s actually happening imo.