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

let me make sure i've got this straight

- wages are not high enough to attract poultry workers and truck drivers here to fill these jobs
- so workers from elsewhere are imported to do the work
- prices of goods and chicken can now stay low
- so that our underemployed and underpaid workforce can afford them

a new bbc period drama in which antifascists attempt infiltrate a far right group featuring tracy ann oberman and eddie marsan

So the Unison delegation will vote against the union’s policy & the democratic decisions of its elected National Executive Committee. As a Unison member since the founding of the Union & before that a Nupe member I never envisaged my union being taken being subverted in this way. https://t.co/8edJAfkeyk

— John McDonnell MP (@johnmcdonnellMP) September 26, 2021

BREAKING Starmer's rule changes have passed, according to sources. Breakdown expected shortly.

— Jessica Elgot (@jessicaelgot) September 26, 2021

Vote breakdown is out - triggers and changes to leadership threshold were passed narrowly by 53.67% to 46.33%

— Eleni Courea (@EleniCourea) September 26, 2021

what happened there? did they ban enough delegates from the conference last week to get it through

Looks like it was Unison that was the difference

Unions voting to diminish their power is so fucking sensible

out of control union delegates voting against their instructions for presumably personal gain is how i read that timeline

Yeah it was the delegates, which is fucked up.

it would be nice if the people around Corbyn during his time as leader could look at this and learn how to properly crush your political enemies but who cares, the ship has sailed, lol nothing matters

Definitely sailed for now. It's pretty astonishing how shortages were not used at all, instead it was these bureaucratic changes by weirdos which won't matter as these ppl will be crushed in 18 months.

I keep looking back to how earnest and weak the RLB campaign was, they were in a factional war but kowtowed to this nonsense about keeping it polite and not personal while the Starmer campaign ran roughshod over them with dirty tactics. It's not their fault the membership were a bunch of guileless wankers and melts but they really should have realised this was last chance saloon for the left in Labour for probably decades and fought back much smarter.

It was v hard after an election defeat.

I joined the party in december 2019 and left about 6 months later, during the leadership campaign i used to get phone calls asking me if starmer had my support - they were incredulous when i said i was voting for RLB

Had to check it was today about three times.

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-58698403.amp

Unison is the main union in my work and I've often thought I should be in a union but fuck that and fuck them.

I've never been a member of a union in my life and a colleague that joined Unite got fuck all from them during that 2007-08 period when companies realised they could use the financial crisis as a handy stick to beat workers even harder with. And lots of self-identifying "trade-unionist" type people often are very conservative in my experience.

Larry Elliott wrote these crises up last week. That's how weak Lab's opposition is right now.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/sep/22/triple-crunch-tories-labour

The assumption seems to be that such is the weakness of the opposition, the government can get away with anything.

yep, this is precisely why Starmer is complicit with so much bad stuff, and that he genuinely deserves even more contempt than tories.

It seems to me that the only unions that are doing anything important in the UK are small independent unions and maybe the teaching/nursing unions. The tuc is very good at its job of clipping the wings of Union power.

“This is not the moment to be looking at nationalising companies”

Shadow Chancellor Rachel Reeves MP tells #BBCBreakfast Labour will focus on issues that impact ‘day-to-day life’ despite conferences delegates backing nationalising energy. https://t.co/cyPn2CCEVf pic.twitter.com/1FkmKdeeUX

— BBC Breakfast (@BBCBreakfast) September 27, 2021

one thing that gave me much cheer during Corbyn era was that hideous ghoul getting marginalised to background noise

Fuck Mandelson that is all

Tories to be in power until every atom of the Corbyn-era is dusted off.

My instinct from observing opening days of this conference (very possibly wrong) is that no-one who served on Corbyn's front bench can successfully lead a transformation of Labour's prospects. Question is how, and over what time scale that changeover happens.

— Rafael Behr (@rafaelbehr) September 26, 2021

Her big day, she's ready.

this is what peak performance looks like pic.twitter.com/qPh2JrWkln

— ian mighty ft. eugene cobwebs (@iammightor) September 27, 2021

Nice, gonna sample that and make a banger

Oh dear.

I agree with the comments on this thread.

The party is now corrupt.

I must remember to stop giving them money!

🚨BREAKING🚨

Historic motion on Palestine passes at Labour Party Conference 2021 acknowledging that Israel is practicing apartheid and calling for strong sanctions #Lab21 #FreePalestine pic.twitter.com/nmsvZDxIYR

— PSC (@PSCupdates) September 27, 2021

hahahahaha

imagine the Grown Ups In The Room being interrupted in their celebrations about being a Serious Party with this news

Shadow chancellor @RachelReevesMP tells me on @Channel4News #Brexit is partly to blame for fuel crisis but vows no @UKLabour govt would reverse it. She also says someone born male who identifies as a woman would not get access to a women’s refuge under Labour policy. Watch at 7.

— Cathy Newman (@cathynewman) September 27, 2021

Is their policy to repeal existing protections?

I’d be amazed if that’s the case.

Reeves not knowing what she’s talking about seems more plausible.

starmer just stated last week their policy was not to repeal existing equality protections, so this is reeves not having any clue in one way or another, either going off on her own or buying into the transphobes' interpretation of the equality act that says that (though courts have already firmly said it's incorrect). it's been clear she's on their side anyway, repeatedly defending duffield etc.

the transphobic interpretation of the equality act gives cover for it not being a change from existing policy even though it is

so it's alienating non-transphobic voters without actually giving the terfs what they want either, just amazing politics

no it is giving transphobes what they want, just that if she's pressed on how her statement differs from starmer's very recent re-commitment to the equality act, saying "the equality act makes an exemption for single-sex spaces" etc. is a likely out for her, even though the reality of the act is much more nuanced - courts have found the exemptions are very limited & must be much more suitably justified than transphobes would like & are not some giant loophole allowing discrimination against trans people. but transphobes keep yelling about their interpretation anyway of course

TERFs on twitter are convinced that the only thing holding labour back from winning elections is their not being transphobic enough.

I alluded in recent @LRB piece as to why this might not be so. (1) Why give up so large a majority until you really need to? (2) Boundary changes (advantageous to Conservatives) will pass into law in summer '23. Prob can't campaign August. October election at a squeak, but... https://t.co/1o6nBzv92N

— James B (@piercepenniless) September 27, 2021

Reeves appears to be evil AND hopeless. Good promotion!

she seems to be the current holder of that fake "most feared by the Tories" title awarded by snivelling journos, previous holders include Yvette Cooper, Dave Miliband, Dan Jarvis, Hilary Benn

Good summary

Like when the australian cricket team used to brief journos that Graeme Hick was the guy they really feared in the england team

Lol

Andy McDonald quits shadow cabibet pic.twitter.com/6vcEORphGG

— Sam Coates Sky (@SamCoatesSky) September 27, 2021

he does always seem very principled and decent by Labour standards

Yes, too good for this shower of shits.

rachel reeves' voice is almost as bad as keir starmer's - slightly less strangled but she sounds like her mouth is full of marbles

I believe I've commented on its hideousness before.

Opposing an increase in the minimum wage and statutory sick pay count as two new Starmer policies! #202notout

— Elvis Buñuelo (@Mr_Considerate) September 27, 2021

fao S Bush