bojo is king, brexit is on, stuff is fvcked, tomorrow starts here -- new govt new thread new battle

That Shaun from Consett needs to get out from his metropolitan bubble and try talking to some real people for a change.

We should rejig the Union Flag to look like this bar chart - at least until Scotland goes

I'm telling you: democratic socialism has a generational momentum of its own. Corbyn's main achievement was to pry open the Labour Party, reinvigorate its young membership, and expand the political horizon. A new generation of activists will now have to take the struggle forward. pic.twitter.com/bl8HCfIijK

— Jerome Roos 🌹 (@JeromeRoos) December 13, 2019

rip big man

BREAKING: Jeremy Corbyn says he will stand down “in the early part of next year”. That leaves a out of wriggle room to help install a successor in his image.

— Paul Brand (@PaulBrandITV) December 13, 2019

From that Independent article:

Similar patterns emerge in Stockton South, Bishop Auckland, Bolton North East, North West Durham, and many other places: the story is one of a Tory surge, often sustained from an initial one in 2017, rather than a complete Labour collapse of anything other than extra voters gained in 2017.

this sounds more like Jon Stone doesn't know what words mean?

That's pretty much the state of play all over in one handy bar chart, huh

With Pidcock gone I guess I'd go for Long-Bailey. Labour now have more women than men in the Commons after all.

Absolutely devastated. In hindsight, the moment Corbyn got jeered for mentioning poor people in one of the debates was when I should of realised what this country had become.

— Darren (@nsno_83) December 13, 2019

democratic socialism has a generational momentum of its own

real talk: my genuine, paralysing terror today - as it has been for a while now - is that we're going to run out of time to install anything close to a democratic socialist government before ecofascism swamps the opposition once and for all and we just dig in and wait for irreversible global collapse

not a helpful contribution to the thread but i need to put it down somewhere

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/dec/13/brexit-party-nigel-farage-boris-johnson-labour-leavers

This is pretty much what I saw on the night. What it leaves out is how the Remain votes were squeezed by both Greens and Lib Dems too.

Boris would probably be on a small majority.

From that Independent article:

/Similar patterns emerge in Stockton South, Bishop Auckland, Bolton North East, North West Durham, and many other places: the story is one of a Tory surge, often sustained from an initial one in 2017, rather than a complete Labour collapse of anything other than extra voters gained in 2017./

this sounds more like Jon Stone doesn't know what words mean?

Guardian:

Starmer? Phillips? Who will be the next Labour leader?

Lol it won't be Starmer after the leave vote won.

if it’s starmer then god help our souls

Tired lol at the notion Mr Remain will get those Northern seats back in this universe

When I saw the exit poll, I thought of the reports of high turnout in the referendum. Turnout high enough to get people who’ve never voted or who are alienated to come out. That’s where the Tory surge is from. I’d put money on it.

The turnout was pretty mediocre in this election though? Especially in Leave areas?

Yeah poss just not making sense. My point is that surge came from the same kind of voter.

There is hope: Boris Johnson’s big majority could unleash the social liberal within | Simon Jenkins https://t.co/ltsGksBNbC

— The Guardian (@guardian) December 13, 2019

Simon Jenkins apparently agrees with my mother. This is potentially the implication in the Times endorsement too - not that Johnson is too right-wing to admit what his policies are to the electorate (which was my read of it) but he’s too liberal to let on. Chris Hope’s Telegraph piece is already talking about a major shift to the centre and comparisons with Blair. It seems completely mad but I have long suspected that a lot of the people who voted for him in the mayoral election have basically convinced themselves that it’s true.

Yes because Boris is a consistent political beast who has just been concealing his true colours to win the election.

I don't think Pidcock would have been the best idea for leadership candidate tbh. Not saying the pics/tweets of her endorsing Chris Williamson are the complete measure of her but others definitely would.

He doesn’t believe in anything. He’ll do what he has to regardless of whether it’s consistent or not.

I'm sure I'm not the first to point this out, but at national vote share level, this is *not* a Labour to Tory swing. It's Labour to Lib-Dem and Brexit Party. The *Green* vote increased in absolute numbers by almost as much as the Tory vote. pic.twitter.com/0JaDPE4jMY

— Jo Michell (@JoMicheII) December 13, 2019

Precisely. Belief in anything else about his character is… misguided, to say the least.

xp

No, I wouldn't have had Pidcock either and she couldn't hold on to her seat anyway.

I think that kind of helps him, tbh. Spend a whole campaign making claims about the beliefs of a man who quite openly has none and you’re arguing with smoke.

Xp

Should have gone harder on the character stuff but it’s too late now.

For sure. It's just that voting for the flesh-and-blood avatar of a Rorschach test doesn't strike me as a brilliant democratic move but what do I know?

xp

Cameron didn't believe in anything either fwiw.

Just read that Gary Younge piece. Good stuff.

It is absolutely wild that the Tory vote only went up 1.2%. That's a figure worth remembering.

FPTP ftw, that most venerable of cultural exports to the Empire's ex-colonies.

So we're still waiting for St. Ives right? Seeing as the LDs were useless everywhere I assume this stays blue too.

There are many things that need to change in the Labour Party. Let’s start with something simple: there are no ‘right wingers’, ‘neo cons’, or ‘Tories’ in the Labour Party. Nor are there ‘slugs’ or ‘melts’. Let’s deliver kinder, gentler politics for real this time.

— Wes Streeting MP (@wesstreeting) December 13, 2019

*hard stare*

Interesting on how the hatred of Corbyn took a while to take hold.

How did the demonization of Corbyn have such a strong effect in 2019 but not in 2017? Although on the face of it that demonization has been raw and relentless, actually it has only circled around the key charge, never making it explicit,... 4/

— Luke Pagarani (@LukePagarani) December 13, 2019

this feels crushingly otm

... so it has taken four years for low engagement voters to absorb it fully. The real charge against Corbyn is that he fundamentally believes that British/white lives are of equal value with the lives of others. 5/

— Luke Pagarani (@LukePagarani) December 13, 2019

The cenotaph. Gerry Adams. Prosecutions of historic crimes in N.I. Laying wreaths in foreign cemeteries. Poppies. Diane Abbott. Pushing the button. Watching the Queen at Christmas. 7/

— Luke Pagarani (@LukePagarani) December 13, 2019

it's a good thread, by which i mean it's extremely depressing

Boris had people at his count chanting “no surrender”

It is absolutely wild that the Tory vote only went up 1.2%. That's a figure worth remembering.

The party that made the biggest advance, percentage-wise, was ... the Lib Dems!

jo swindon we need u now more than ever

https://images.991.com/large_image/Jimmy+Shand+Will+Ye+No+Come+Back+Again-644479.jpg

uh-oh

I can this morning announce that as government advisor on antisemitism that I will be instigating an investigation this January into the role of the Canary and other websites in the growth of antisemitism in the United Kingdom. https://t.co/e76OcSydZm

— John Mann (@LordJohnMann) December 13, 2019

How can one pick a side between Lord Mann and the fucking Canary!! Fuck!

I was thinking perhaps the seeing the end of the trying-to-lie-more-than-tories Swinson LibDems might cheer me up a bit if the result was absolutely terrible. But it is has only delivered a wee morsel of grim satisfaction. Still pretty much winded from that gut punch of the exit poll last night. The weather is fucking horrible as well.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/ELrOa__XUAE8ME8?format=png&name=large

The issue is distribution as much as that breakdown

by the time the cohort has aged away from power it'll be too late for the climate, fuck everything.

The world itself will change, and the people in it will need to adapt to survive. The result of this election doesn't change that. Even if Labour had won it.

Something tells me a lot of you need cheering up, so here you go (even though I can already feel the stick I'm going to get!)...

Six reasons for the left to be cheerful https://t.co/Zh8LHchmQz

— Tom Clark (@prospect_clark) December 13, 2019

sorry everyone :(

The world itself will change, and the people in it will need to adapt to survive. The result of this election doesn't change that. Even if Labour had won it.