"we'll change the things that need changing and that's all we'll change": the paSUKification of post-brexit politics 2021

the latest mutation - the indolent variant

xp you know what this means:

https://www.psypost.org/2021/07/large-study-finds-covid-19-is-linked-to-a-substantial-drop-in-intelligence-61577

Experts are puzzled

Isn’t the ONS infection survey still showing cases rising? kinda suggests to me that a lot more of the ppl getting it now don’t feel ill enough to get tested, plus less testing cause of school being out. Feels plausible enough they’ll go up again once the effects of the 19th start to kick in - then again we have vaccinated 70% of adults and have an ongoing national pox party for the remainder so shrug

The Labour leader added: “But I do want, in fairness to the temporary Speaker, Judith Cummins, who was there – she did the right thing, she followed the rules, because parliament doesn’t allow you to call other parliamentarians liars in the chamber. So I don’t criticise the deputy speaker for what she did. But do I support Dawn in what she said? I absolutely do.”

💪💪💪

CON +5

Which is as good as it's going to get.

Stats be melting.

And this sort of thing is exactly why it's so important that Labour wins. Whatever your view of Starmer, a Labour government will improve so many people's lives 🌹 https://t.co/n0BeUkJtXL

— Stats for Lefties (@LeftieStats) July 26, 2021

if Kieth is into workers employment rights then why is Murdoch backing his puppet in the Unite election?

Tfw it's August

Westminster voting intention:

CON: 39% (-)
LAB: 37% (+1)
LDEM: 10% (-)
GRN: 5% (-)

via @Survation , 23 Jul
Chgs. w/ 20 Julhttps://t.co/mdgKpA0AzK

— Britain Elects (@BritainElects) July 26, 2021

these polls need to include a realistic figure for people who are never voting again

24,950 new cases (compared to 39,950 last Monday) and 14 deaths today, that sounds like good news! I only get twinges of mild disappointment when Labour aren't 10-15 points behind these days.

have polls been reweighted to reflect how many people have died in the last year?

serious question

i mean it does always seem like the pollers wait until an election cycle proves them wrong before they think about whether or not the weighting approach still makes sense. not that i think labour are being done a rotten one by the pollers or anything.

it has been disproportionately killing ethnic minorities, disabled people, poor people and old people so it will hurt the tories more than Starmer Labour perhaps.

It's what I was talking about Dodds, but the soft left are, well, soft.

(4)AFAICT the last Frontbencher to make noises about increasing SSP above £95 a week was then-Shadow Chancellor Anneliese Dodds . But soft-left Dodds got sacked, so abandoning SSP increases looks like part of Starmer's latest lurch right https://t.co/NyUL7ljGb4

— Solomon Hughes (@SolHughesWriter) July 27, 2021

at least get sacked/demoted for taking a principled stance, but it was more like Kieth decided to make her a scapegoat for how useless he is.

I dread to think what Reeves position on benefits system reform is these days. Kieth wants to make the UK "the best country to work in" which might be a nice thought, but millions in precarious employment/zero hours contracts need radical reform rather than empty platitudes made not to frighten the horses too much.

we're so fucked aren't we pic.twitter.com/rH1PqWQLt0

— aaЯjan (@aarjanistan) July 27, 2021

🚨 | NEW: The GMB Union has withdrawn funding for the Labour Party in London

— Bywire News™ (@bywirenews) July 27, 2021

wow they've actually done it

oh that just withdrawn finding from London Labour?

What is that reasoning? Does sound like a simple reinstatement of a job would result in funds being released

Over 100 dead from covid today :-(

So Keir will make Britain the best place to work - unless you work for @UKLabour He has made 90 staff redundant. But is also recruiting workers on insecure temporary contracts with worse employment conditions #FutureOfWork https://t.co/3CbUeEKuCY

— Diane Abbott MP (@HackneyAbbott) July 28, 2021

Suit the action to the word, the word to the action you fucking arsehole.

"Angela Rayner, are you against zero hours contracts?"

"We're against exploitation of them."

yeah those non-exploitive zero hour contracts are absolutely fine, Angela. I can do my p/t Yoga instructor gig and still have plenty time of time for wild swimming.

🤦🤦🤦

In my fucking veins

Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) are being attacked for saving migrant lives

Inhumanity of people like Nigel Farage knows no bounds

Worth remembering: Enemy of the Working Class Travels by Private Jet not Migrant Dinghy

Farage travels by Private Jet btw @ZarahSultana pic.twitter.com/2eFlgzbDFQ

— Double Down News (@DoubleDownNews) July 28, 2021

I think the odds on Zarah ever melting are roughly 9 million to one.

Shadow minister Jess Phillips has said Labour staff "don’t want to be used as some sort of tool in an argument" in response to the suggestion that the party should 'get its own house in order' before putting forward employment rights policies

Commenting on Times Radio today, Jess Phillips said: “Funnily enough, before doing the morning round, I speak to Labour staff about the lines of the day. What was clear to them is that they don’t want to be used as some sort of tool in an argument going on between the Labour Party, so I would just stress that."

good to know it was quite clear to them what the staff are supposed to think about Labour hypocrisy and the fire/rehire tactics used to make them more job insecure and poorer and put other colleagues on the dole.

Well, tbf, they were asked if they liked the contract before they signed it...

The chief executive of a North Sea oil company has said the climate emergency is “fake” in now deleted tweets from his personal account, despite his company’s claims it is working towards a net zero carbon emissions target, Channel 4 News can reveal.

— Channel 4 News (@Channel4News) July 29, 2021

big story about shell and the science museum and gagging orders as well.

Exclusive: The Science Museum has signed a gagging clause in its agreement with Shell International to sponsor its climate change exhibition, agreeing to take care not to say anything that could damage the company’s reputation, Channel 4 News has learnt.

— Channel 4 News (@Channel4News) July 29, 2021

science

alternative facts! It's like having a dinosaur exhibition sponsored/gagging ordered by some creationist organisation.

The DUP, for instance.

My comfort read
The 2017 and 2019 Labour party manifestos; never give in, never give in, never, never, never, never.

David Peace of Ossett - Huddersfield Town fan and not a melt!

of the course the Graun headline is "old Labour manifestos because 2017 + 19 never happened ... cunts!

lol Tweets very much in prose character

it's from a Graun "what you reading" type q+a and that last answer gives me the impression he isn't a fan of Kieth.

I've forgiven him for the time he diplomatically said " a draw would be a good result" when he was plugging his L66d6 Utd book!

lol that's a big forgive, before the days wehn Bielsa made them socially acceptable

Damned Utd still possibly as close as we'll ever get to a great football novel

oh it's really great, the film adaptation though was mediocre dross.

This is an excellent interview, such a bunch of weird cunts to concentrate on the Lab manifesto line.

https://amp.theguardian.com/books/2021/jul/30/david-peace-my-comfort-read-old-labour-party-manifestos?

I'll need to read the Akutagawa story sometime.

old = 2-4 years ago .. fucking wankers

tbh i think putting "old labour manifestos" in the headline is more good than bad: it's the "open for a surprise" type of headline, it reads a bit quirky, you click and read, you encounter a bunch of chewy names to open yr brane in unexpected directions (few of whom wd word in the same way: maybe auberon lol), and the final line is a zinger to clap back at some ppl's assumptions

tbh also i shd write up my grand thesis of the problem of headlines in the age of twitter clickbait, bcz the despised act of substitution -- headline content cynically erasing article content -- is simulteously a genuine phenomenon (which sub editors shd be much more bothered by) and a function of the agency not of authors* and not of sub-editors**, but of readers en masse declining to be coaxed by accurate headlines that don't need subsequent correction but only by those which rage-troll or pander to assumption-dopamine or somehow seem worth five mins of yr reading time bcz wonky enough to puzzle productively (the last is very easy to get wrong)

*all dead, as foucault teaches us
**underacknowledged legislators who are also underpaid under pressure overworked and lamost always almost out of time

page furniture is of course partially shaped by management ideology but it's also shaped just by panic abt falling revenues and diminishing clicks and how to turn these round

same double-shaping applies to how the question "what do ppl want to read" gets answered