love* in the time of plague (and by love* i mean brexit* and other dreary matters of uk politics)

Gavin Shuker was among those – along with Chris Leslie – who had more to lose than most from his rebellion. When we spoke, he was in the middle of self-quarantine as his partner had mild symptoms of the virus; he was not finding that lockdown was conducive to job-hunting. Still, he believes standing up for his principles was the most rewarding experience of his political life. He has been spending his afternoons, like all of us, watching the briefings about coronavirus. “People might ask me in 30 years ‘what did you achieve in your time in politics?’,” he says. “I’m no fan of this government obviously. But still, I will be able to say I helped prevent Jeremy Corbyn from leading us through a huge national crisis. And to be honest, I’ll take that."

Where’s that from?

by losing his seat? lol

Re: the Sunday Times - its executive editor is the son of the late Guardian editor Peter Preston and the husband of leading TERF Janice Turner. Is there anything more which needs to be said about centrist bigotry not being cancelled out by Remain views?

Right from the get go, @SkyNews not giving Iain Duncan Smith an inch.

More 👏 interviewers 👏 like 👏 this 👏 please 👏 pic.twitter.com/gqQttEzMlb

— Rory Cashin (@roarEcashin) April 19, 2020

I said it during the election, but Sky is still far better than the BBC.

Obviously Sky are a couple of levels above the BBC no one is going to dispute that, but I don't see how this is a good interview. Two people speaking at once is a terrible interview

Where’s that from?

― gyac, Sunday, 19 April 2020 11:23 (forty-six minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2020/apr/19/a-year-on-did-change-uk-change-anything

I just couldn't think of any comment to add to the insanity on display there. Corbyn Derangement System I know, but pointing to the current government's handling of Covid as the thing you're most proud of in your political career...

what exactly does gavin shuker think jeremy corbyn would have done to tackle coronavirus which would be worse than how the current clown car of cunts has handled it

Used it as a cover to exterminate the entire UK Jewish community.

Empty shelves, Venezuela, Putin, the list goes on

His ineffectual weak iron grip tightening

Also I don't know what page this article actually appeared on but they seem to have a thing lately where there's a big anti-govt scoop that feels like front page news or at least a prominent p.2, but it's actually hidden in double-figure page numbers, and you wonder if sources who could've risked their careers might have liked the gesture to go a bit more appreciated...

on the front page, but not the lead story

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EV6sV2pXYAIlNeZ?format=jpg&name=large

Used it as a cover to exterminate the entire UK Jewish community.

My questions really, boiled down to one: did Change UK change anything?

He kept a little diary of his thoughts. “The questions that kept cropping up for me back then were,” he says: “Do you run away? Do you wait for them to come for you?

At the same time that Shuker was sounding out Labour MPs, Chuka Umunna and Chris Leslie, who had shared an office at Westminster, were having conversations with likely Tory MPs. Brexit had fractured party loyalties. Umunna was not sure at that time how many Tories would join them. “They were two to three years behind Labour in being hijacked by an ugly populism – in their case, of the right – and it was hard to tell when that would happen, to what degree,” he says.

always furrow my brow at "populism" as a term of abuse in a democracy

I know I shouldn't be surprised by these things but the fact that anyone thought that an interview with Change UK was even remotely relevant right know is still faintly surprising to me.

isn't it just cos they've always got time to talk?

now more than ever we need the lols

There are many reasons why Labour lost the election so badly but a group of nonentities in a Nandos had nothing to do with it, they'd already been forgotten by December.

A reminder that all but two of the outgoing Labour MPs were replaced by members of the Socialist Campaign Group. Leslie - Whittome is probably the biggest upgrade of all time.

poor Chuka, stuck in the house, twiddling his thumbs, leafing thru his Eye Spy Book of Famous Liberal Democrats, suddenly the phone rings, he nearly trips over running to answer it

surprised he's not been offered a UK Music job to help discover the next Toploader

Chuka is more of a Bottomfeeder

Had enough now with government failures. It’s not opposition for opposition’s sake to call out Gvt’s failure to pursue effective test & track programme & supply basic protection to front line staff & to neglect support for care homes & care workers. People are dying as a result/1

— John McDonnell MP (@johnmcdonnellMP) April 19, 2020

like cut of this young lad's jib. hmm "opposition for opposition’s sake" what type of lame Tory wanker would ever use that as a criticism against the main opposition party?

stirring words from sir starmer pic.twitter.com/IC0rvLttWO

— Crowsa Luxemburg (@quendergeer) April 19, 2020

feel like pure shit just want big john back :(

what's the expression ? politically ... without shelter.. without political abode.. anyway the Labour Party will soon be bankrupted by the litigation costs of leaked internal enquiry and loss of 100000+ members

politically evicted by a feckless robbing cunt of a landlord?

Sir "party of landlords/property developers" Kier's latest favourability ratings are on the slide. As soon as more people develop awareness of what he's all about the slide will become more rapid.

or indifference will replace disapproval!

The fact that so many people want to read important journalism but really don't want to pay the likes of Melanie Phillips a living to do so could be a learning moment for people in the newspaper industry, were they so minded as to pay attention

— PDK Mitchell (@pdkmitchell) April 19, 2020

It's a good take. If the columnists (and might be far better paid) could be phased out that would be a really good thing.

Seems to me that Starmer's entire strategy is based around avoiding becoming mocked, hated, distrusted or feared by swing voters within the first year, as happened to the last two leaders. He has actually been calling the government out on PPE, poor preparation etc but in this frustratingly vanilla way. The benefit of this is that no one gets that early Red Ed type reducer in on him, but the risk is that no one takes any notice of him at all.

It's one of those things that if it works it works and if it doesn't then it's going to be a fucking disaster.

idk there seem to be a lot of Labour -> Untitled Communist Project swing voters itt ;)

yes, it's a pretty high-risk thing. You wonder if he knows, and is taking the risk, or it's the only way he knows how. xp

the idea of the swing voter is falling apart a bit as only half of voters have voted for the same party in the last four GEs

i would be sympathetic to the risk if it seemed like it was in the interests of future worthwhile policy but yes we'll see

also, the level of support for lockdown in polling is really quite something. Criticism has to be balanced against its popularity. (ofc there are gaping holes in the execution that he isn't exploiting)

Maybe I mean floating voters rather than swing voters. Its either a deliberate approach or its just the only mode he can operate in, temperamentally.

strongly suspect the latter but am more melt-ish than calz on this

good time to press the advantage may be if the government's more hawkish voices are successful in arguing for a premature end to lockdown

also, the level of support for lockdown in polling is really quite something. Criticism has to be balanced against its popularity.

I don't think anyone's suggesting Starmer should be calling for an end to the lockdown? I doubt nurses going w/o PPE or nursing homes collapsing would poll well with the public

One reason I think ending lockdown is a non starter even for the govt hawks is that people just don't believe its safe. There's no way people are going to start piling onto trains, for example.

there are still lots of swing or indeed floating voters ofc especially if you allow 'not voting' as one of the poles you can swing or float between, it's just that they make up such a big chunk of the electorate now that loyal partisan voters are shrinking (altho it will be interesting to see if the tory base re-solidifies post-brexit)

I don't think anyone's suggesting Starmer should be calling for an end to the lockdown?

One reason I think ending lockdown is a non starter even for the govt hawks is that people just don't believe its safe. There's no way people are going to start piling onto trains, for example.

It’s going to be hard for people to refuse to send their kids to school, or for those in precarious employment to refuse to go back to retail jobs, for example. Ultimately, unless you can work from home, or the government is going to pay you a secure wage for as long as you need it, it’s going to be a risk a lot of people are going to have to take.

That strikes me as too big a risk for the government - if people feel forced back into normal life and cases spike again it will provoke widespread fury without necessarily delivering any boost to the economy. Plus it just means another lockdown, more bailout cash etc.

those in precarious employment to refuse to go back to retail jobs, for example

They can make the employees go back into the shops but they can't do the same with shoppers