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

this thread is really getting me down today, unfortunately I live in it so no looking away.

xp wtf

...why would antisemites see black skin and think a Black person shared their antisemitism Stephen? pic.twitter.com/GIfp8iy1JM

— Your Mum says Black Lives Matter (@judeinlondon2) June 26, 2020

Only getting a 1-point bump from opening the pubs seems hardly worth the deaths and long-term damage

Good lord I've just realised they're reopening the pubs on a Saturday instead of doing the closest-to-sensible thing and opening them on a Monday or Tuesday. Whoever signed off on that really didn't think it through at all.

srsly i made the joke yesterday, it's like "if you were gonna do this inadvisable thing, what would be the worst way to go about it?"

"They're going to call it 'Super Saturday' and cause chaos" says the Mail, who *checks notes* coined it 'Super Saturday'

then again the beaches have been full of people for the same reason

Absolutely assumed they were going to go with INDEPENDENCE DAY.

I got the Stephen Bush article from that thread but didn't want to import it so much...but I was wondering why he ventured out of his usual beat -- parliamentary politics and numbers and intrigue -- to talk about AS in detail.

i'm too pished to read Stephen Bush on a Friday evening but from the clips i think there's a point there about assumed alliances/orientations?

The antisemite in question isn't necessarily black but I think he's saying that people just assume because he's black he can't also be Jewish and start trotting shit out as a result.

It's possible that with background and right amount of luck he has personally experienced less overt anti-black racism than AS over his life - I wouldn't want to assume otherwise, but it does strike me as unlikely. Columnists in general don't write headlines or have much say in that one and the choice to use that specific line feels... loaded.

https://labourlist.org/2020/06/its-time-to-reverse-ten-years-of-tory-decline-in-our-armed-forces/

lol

it takes a ration of guillotines to hold us back

in 2015 ministers pledged that the strength of the British Army would not fall below 82,000 – but numbers are down to 73,750. And they promised “to increase the Royal Nay and Royal Air Force by a total of 700 personnel” – but have instead cut the number by 1,970. Since 2010, the Conservatives have overseen the strength of British Forces drop by a quarter, with 40,000 fewer full-time troops now than ten years ago.

Pretty sure the number of Tories in the forces is up on a decade ago.

Is John Healy ex armed forces? His ugly mothrfuckin' head looks like its been napalmed to fuckery!

Absolutely assumed they were going to go with INDEPENDENCE DAY.

They did, didn't they?

if my rag-officer brother and sister-in-law and their phalanx of spam-hued facebook friends are anything to go by, 100% otm xxp

These arseholes that love to wank off the armed forces fill me with disgust, and the Labour ones are usually the worst.

I HEAR YOU BROTHER

The Labour party is now excusing comments in staff WhatsApp groups that include racism about Diane & Dawn, calling women who worked for Jeremy “fat”, “bitch face cow”, “pube head”, saying they hope Max Shanly dies in a fire & talking about not wanting labour to win the 2017 GE 🚮

— Matt Zarb-Cousin (@mattzarb) June 26, 2020

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/c/cc/Toby_Perkins.jpg/800px-Toby_Perkins.jpg

the current apprenticeship minister Toby Perkins, who was also lol, Corbyn's armed forces minister. I hope Starmfront has warned him about his future conduct after his history of putting out hate pamphlets that demonise the travelling communities.

Michael Winterbottom is set to direct a TV drama about Boris Johnson‘s handling of the coronavirus crisis.

To create the series, the Bafta-winning 24 Hour Party People filmmaker will team up with Freemantle, Revolution Films and True Detective production company Passenger.

The series will reportedly follow the UK Prime Minister from his appointment to office through to the thick of the pandemic, including the point in which Johnson was hospitalised after being infected with the virus.

Please just fuck off lads, people are still dying in the thousands every month because of how this health crisis is being mismanaged by the UK govt and it is probably likely to get worse again.

Interested to see the Michael Winterbottom drama about the time Michael Winterbottom is sent to the gulags for being tiresomely fascinated with the motivations of cunts being cunts.

apparently Tim Shipman has an advisory role on this dreadful looking venture. What advice could you give to an actor playing Boris when he had to go into ICU :p

Lmao worst tv drama ever. What the hell is even interesting about "Boris Johnson‘s handling of the coronavirus crisis"? He fucked up in the most undramatic way. He never went "through the thick of the pandemic": he was jolly bozzer for too long, did some press-co's, looked like an ass on zoom, had a cough for which he went to the hospital, and is back to his usual dumb self. Here's yr BAFTA.

Tbfttl he nearly died and has looked awful ever since

You'd have to pull a Braveheart and completely turn all factual accuracy upside down to squeeze any "drama" from this.

He looks like shit, I'll give you that, but "nearly died"? Nah. It was all "just a precaution nbd" remember?

Sorry I just dread the danger of potential churchillisation

that doctor did use the expression "gilding the lily somewhat" and suggested a bit of "artistic license" was taken by Boris. I don't doubt he had it, just think he was playing it much worse than he felt.

after that Theresa May flop by the bbc that seemed to be based on the presumption she was going get a mountainous landslide victory in '17 and Cumbertwat playing DomCum as a troubled genius with a lot of sharpies, don't need any more additions to this worse ever genre.

was listening to a doctor on WS earlier who specialised in viral pneumonia, he was talking about how fucking awful the rona is and how many of his patients with lung scarring are suffering worsening breathing problems months after leaving ICU. I don't don't it has fucked him up a bit, but still feel he was swinging the lead/doing a bit of political theatre - because he had fucked things up so bad.

don't don't doubt

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Ebdy0XOUwAA2O6P?format=jpg&name=900x900

so this is how the Labour Party responds to internal racism/sexism bantz when the offenders are from the Tory wing of the party.

don't need any more additions to this worse ever genre

What if Winterbottom does it as a musical?

Twats?

Springtime for uhhh

Oklarona

NEW: Keir Starmer has launched a new Labour Friends of the Forces engagement programme to "open up Labour again to our armed forces": https://t.co/mw71H8lSq5

— LabourList (@LabourList) June 26, 2020

I wonder why he didn't mention he was Dan Jarvis in disguise in his leadership campaign video, fucking low-down piece of shit!

and also I think Loki once mentioned LabourList is run by Will Straw

Careening rapidly from ‘is this a party I want to be a member of?’ to ‘under what circumstances is this a party I could bring myself to vote for?’.

You could launch an initiative like this, if you were minded to, by saying ‘building on the manifesto pledges of better support to veterans around mental health and homelessness, and better pay and conditions for serving personnel, we want to ensure that we’re working constructively with the people who serve the country and that their voice is heard in the party’ but what kind of dog whistle would that be?

tbf i used to remind myself when they were under Blair that the history of the Labour party has always been more cunts than champions.

the social Left (ffs) have always been outliers in this grim angry nation

if military cunts aren't happy they should unionize

For sure, I’ve voted for bad Labour governments in the past and likely will again. I think I’ve been more fair to Starmer than many and have long been resigned to them being sub-optimal on policy to appeal to swing voters. The inability to make even simple statements without getting in a dig at Corbyn or foghorning ‘we are not like them’ (‘them’ in this case being every perverse right-wing distortion of the multiracial, multigenerational coalition that came together for mild social justice reforms) feels needless and petty - but also calculated specifically to ensure that left-wing voters don’t feel comfortable under the Labour banner. They could have taken a big tent approach and it looks like they aren’t particularly interested.

I’m sure they’ve done the maths and have worked out that for every three left-wing BAME voters they lose in safe or unwinnable seats they can pick up one 53-year-old quantity surveyor in Newcastle-under-Lyme who doesn’t consider themselves racist but believes in sensible controls on Muslims and that, so good luck to them.

i didn't disagree with you on most of your comments on Starmzy

also calz much as i love you there's always been the possibility of a middle ground between Blairite bullshit and actual socialism and i don't think Starmz was obviously the former, at least at first

i don't think this has to be a question of strategy tho, just kneerjerk instinct towards a Blue-ish Labour. i doubt it's calculation so much as authentic reactionary cuntness.

Labour under Corbyn made a great offer to the Forces community. The misinformation ensured it didn’t cut through.

As an Army wife I was really impressed with the 5 pledges and the wider vision.

This 👇 right wing banging the patriotism drum, no thanks. #ArmedForcesDay2020 https://t.co/s2Sn2Jtwsu

— Tina McKay (@TinaMcKay_) June 27, 2020

It remains to be seen whether right-wing "party of armed forces" posturing will also include any policy that improves on what Corbyn offered them, but at this point it is just a signalling game, but unfortunately he is signalling to the type of morons Ian Austin would consider salt of the earth and possibly voted for Ukip or the Tories in the last decade.

I’m sure they’ve done the maths

I'm not sure anyone in the Labour party, good or bad, has ever done any maths. Even the few good ones aren't the sharpest shanks

xp

no doubt yeah

also fuck the army and the rest of them

also xp yes anvil speaking truth to poo-er