Free as a Dodo: UK Politics Welcomes 2021

exackly

itisamystery gif working overtime the last couple of days

How long before he changes his mind back to thinking boris is good again

Burnham has won by a huge margin in Manchester, it was a high turnout and he got something like 3 times the votes of the challenging Conservative candidate.

All Keith needed to do was show up like this chump.

Andy Burnham re-elected mayor of Greater Manchester in the first round, with 473,024 votes - with 69.7% of the vote (that's an increase in vote share from 63.4% in 2017)

— Sophy Ridge (@SophyRidgeSky) May 8, 2021

There is also this, so some enthusiasm for the walking corpse that is Labour.

Compare to Teesside and the West Midlands. The political geography of England is being transformed.

Norris doesn't appear to have a meaningful policy program, and is unclear whether he would bring buses under public control. One to watch whether he shifts on that. https://t.co/xunccXsk7t

— Aaron Bastani (@AaronBastani) May 8, 2021

This video though

As I've said before, Keir Starmer's strategy is designed to appeal to a caricature of the British working class, crafted by overpaid consultants. Truly pathetic and patronising. This person sums it up beautifully.pic.twitter.com/3fCrUMF56t

— Ammar Kazmi 🇵🇸 (@AmmarKazmi_) May 8, 2021

I'm really not sure why they think Northerners, and 'working class' people in general, are more patriotic than anyone else - strike that, I do know, it's because they think they're morons.

Roughly what proportion of the West of England electorate is in Bristol?

It’s Greater Bristol basically - includes Bath but after that it’s towns like Chipping Sodbury and Keynsham (the latter seeming more like a suburb the only time I went there, good pubs though).

NEW

Blame game inside Labour escalating tonight 🔥

There's a fight over whether Labour Deputy Leader Angela Rayner should get the blame for elections as formal campaign head - or whether it should be Keir Starmer

Cont

— Sam Coates Sky (@SamCoatesSky) May 8, 2021

it was the coat wot lost it

It's Michael Foot's donkey jacket all over again.

Had it confirmed by two sources that Keir Starmer has sacked Angela Rayner as party chair.

So much for "I take full responsibility" ...

— Andrew Fisher (@FisherAndrew79) May 8, 2021

Cont

Harsh.

But valid.

It’s not all bad news

Results from St. Mary's ward. 🗳️

Chris Jarvis (Green) and Dick Wolff (Green) elected.#LocalElections2021 pic.twitter.com/zsdeOFopD0

— Oxford City Council (@OxfordCity) May 8, 2021

was it Angela who made the decision to parachute Saudi Paul into Hartlepool? I don't think she did tbh.

Yes, but she's just some thick Northern prole innit?

I think alongside all his other fine qualities it's not surprising that Kieth is a vindictive fucking coward as well

Wasn’t there a video from his days as DPP shifting all the blame for something onto a staffer? He has form for this anyway I’m sure

I've seen footage where he blames a female staffer because he's too fucking thick to work out how floppy disks work

Even SR (who I think likes to present herself as a fairly neutral reporter) can't contain herself:

In a series of terrible political management decisions, this has got to be the worst.

— Sienna Rodgers (@siennamarla) May 8, 2021

Lol

Reports confirmed that Angela Rayner has had job of party chair and campaign chair removed from her - she's still deputy of the party, which is an elected position, and popular with members

— Laura Kuenssberg (@bbclaurak) May 8, 2021

It was Jenny Chapman, Kieth's director of politics who championed the move to circumvent party democracy and drop a hopeless candidate into Hartlepool. so is she sacked as well?

yeah I don't think I've seen Sienna Rogers post anything like that before.

FUCK

Hearing this too. Another name doing the rounds is Wes Streeting, who it is thought would be an effective (shadow) ‘minister for the Today programme’ https://t.co/TPfstAILH7

— Henry Zeffman (@hzeffman) May 8, 2021

🤪

— Stephen Bush (@stephenkb) May 8, 2021

You heard it here first.

Re: Streeting, that's the only way this is going now.

bad move to bring in another person much taller than Kieth imo

really smart politics to sack a popular rival who could outflank you from the right on a wave of fantasy red wall credentials tho

Word that even Nandy is being pushed out?? This really is C:UK #2.

I was fooled by Angela at one point, probably wanted to think the best of her because she is quite relatable and fit as.. her politics are almost sub-UKIP unfortunately.

Nandy’s being one of the few councils to be solidly red and stay that way so far fwiw so of course she has to go

apologies for objectifying Angela there, but I've never FPed a female poster for saying Chukka is hot!

Man's not hot

Nobody has ever said Chuka is hot. I said Rayner was hot just today and I was right when I said it.

NEW: Rayner ally leaks this email in which David Evans invites colleagues to election post-mortem Zoom led by him and Starmer. Rayner notably nowhere, which, they say, is curious given her role as campaigns coordinator - and more evidence she had "nothing" to do with the campaign pic.twitter.com/YWcJrvsseM

— Gabriel Pogrund (@Gabriel_Pogrund) May 8, 2021

Pretty sure people on ILX have said Chuka is hot. Or words to that effect. Long time ago though.

This is going even better than I dared dream

Click for a surprise
London's Burning: Rolling thread for the 2011 summer protests, riots and general unrest

Maybe kieth hasn't lost his mind, but is trying to do angela rayner a solid by pushing her off in a lifeboat

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/E04u-q6X0AA_L47?format=jpg&name=large

On the second day, a sail drew near, nearer, and picked me up at last. It was the devious-cruising Rachel Reeves, that in her retracing search after her missing children, only found another orphan.

I like to think every day in Kieth's office is like that Downfall scene now

phwoar @ those silver birches

I definitely would not want to play Starmer at chess.

— Steven Fielding (@PolProfSteve) January 3, 2021

Yeah there is this:

But @AngelaRayner, you let them send you out to front the suspension of Jeremy Corbyn, who was always so kind to you. They used you to attack the membership, and you went along with it. Now they have spat on you and humiliated you, and it's hard to feel any sympathy.

— Alex Nunns (@alexnunns) May 8, 2021

But if it gets a lot worse I'm wondering if there's one fucking leadership challenge in about six months.

https://t.co/1rWdzp7mjR pic.twitter.com/pUVmOKuaRr

— tom (@malaiseforever) May 8, 2021

Banter timeline would suggest that Wes to be installed as chair in time to be sacked after the Batley & Spen by election.

probably best not trying to repeat the Hartlepool debacle in Batley and Spen.They are quite a peculiar and tough crowd. and shitloads of them voted Tory in '19.