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

Age and experience and psychological makeup and etc

I gather that Phil Normal is a real person.

Labour Party needs to expel Philip Normal over these utterly vile tweets where he jokes about Hitler, paedophilia and rape

He has already made headlines over a series of racist and Islamophobic tweets

His partner, Matthew Doyle, is Sir Keir Starmer’s Director of Communications https://t.co/oERkmXbSs0

— Socialist Voice ⭑ (@SocialistVoice) January 13, 2022

He’s just resigned!

there were those left members that stuck with Labour through some barren decades and perhaps will do again as long as they didn't like any Maxine Peake tweets or ever refer to Israel as an apartheid state. I don't know how they can do it tbh, paying subs towards them fraudulent scumbags would make me sick to my stomach.

it seems the disgraced former councillor Normal could have spent a week deleting his dodgy history and there would have still been plenty to go around!

1 down, 570555895 to go

glad this guys gone, good fucking riddance. his constant pr work for hondo against the save nour campaign as a councillor was extremely shameful

Been reading the Normal saga this week, glad he's had to go, sure he'll learn lessons from this

The other thing is that his partner works in comms for Starmer but I’m not sure if it’s the same guy who approvingly called PN a Nazi in bed.

Another party for LJ to join

The people are fed up with our politicians - official.

For full data, visit our website: https://t.co/Y2LXCoZnYk pic.twitter.com/LobfuifbFH

— True & Fair Party (@VoteTrueAndFair) January 13, 2022

nah thanks they seem a bit wanky

There's talk of the Scottish Tories forming a breakaway party but I'll leave that to xyzzz and imago to chew over.

lol

A statement from Buckingham Palace regarding The Duke of York: pic.twitter.com/OCeSqzCP38

— The Royal Family (@RoyalFamily) January 13, 2022

well that's got Boris off the front pages for tomorrow then

Awww ma you're just jealous he's a beastly boy

B has gone into isolation because a close connection is covid positive (he says)

Philip Normal is a dick. He has a shop in South London that does really basic tshirts to appeal to gay nostalgia, say a picture of a spice girl with a slogan on top of it. I’ve known other people with shops/businesses in the same area, and I follow groups with similar selling online platforms like ASOS, and both find him horrible. He has tried to intimidate others who do similar things, treated customers like shit, treated gay men in the scene who don’t like him badly* etc.

Fucking amazing to see his comeuppance.

*Im not particularly involved in this third examples but I’ve heard numerous others bitch about him.

🚨EXCLUSIVE

Number 10 held two boozy parties the night before the Queen mourned Prince Philip alone.

Staff drank and at points danced until the early hours of the night of April 16.

Hours later, the Queen went to a socially-distanced funeral for Philip. https://t.co/sWrFcOrplE

— Tony Diver (@Tony_Diver) January 13, 2022

not gann lie i read that as "mounted prince philip alone"

gnnai mean who knows what their rituals are

wtf im not even drunk

tell it to sue gray

the telegraph may have found the magic formula to maximalise this scandal's appeal to the most fuckwitted

This shifts it away from Johnson though which suits them better.

gosh they didn't even observe the moratorium on drunken capering/cavorting/wobbly marionette dancing that kicks in a day before the Queen is in mourning, tories are supposed to know this shit!

This shifts it away from Johnson though which suits them better.

Doesn't seem to have worked. Basically everyone thinks Andrew is a nonce anyway, so cue much shrugging of shoulders in the wider world.

A Labour ex-minister who received hundreds of thousands of pounds from an alleged Chinese government agent has admitted he did discuss policy with Christine Lee, but insisted she "gained no political advantage for the Chinese state from me".

In an exclusive interview, Brent North MP Barry Gardiner denied he felt "a fool" following the revelation that Ms Lee has been engaged in "political interference activities".

lol, some amazing grift from Bazza G here. He somehow managed to convince an apparent CCP agent that he's £425k worth of influence on UK foreign policy.

Gary Neville was on the radio and saying he's joined the Labour Party recently and how it needs to be a party of the centre and "not just about left-wing politics". Obviously he has been paying close attention to everything and isn't a fucking clueless melt at all. God save us from professional Mancunian property developers having their political awakening when they knocking on 50.

Doesn't seem to have worked. Basically everyone thinks Andrew is a nonce anyway, so cue much shrugging of shoulders in the wider world.

It's not that, more shifting the blame to advisers and civil servants. I don't know why else Johnson's Bosses would acknowledge it this much.

Yes, that would probably work in normal circumstances but...

"Staff partied in the basement of No10, to music DJd by a special adviser." pic.twitter.com/ZKII6pp5VF

— Will Davies (@davies_will) January 14, 2022

I bet Dom would just be playing fucking Zappa records

Nah that jacket is straight out of an Autechre press photo

Although the right hand poised for crabbing a cross fader and left sleeve rolled up makes me think it could have been a scratch set

maybe DJ Dom would have some kind of SySteMs ThInKiNg approach to spinning some fookin' tunes at a party!

PLANK JOHNSON MUST GO

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FJGCFMHWYAglX8o?format=jpg&name=large

lol this came out weeks ago, wouldn't be surprised if they've got plenty more in the vault on this wanker and will be waiting for the right strategic moment of maximum damage to release it. Like how they've waited for him to attack Johnson on the parties for a few days until this made the cover to show him up as the hypocritical and mealy-mouthed dickhead that he is.

the "it was a work event" thing, isn't that unimportant? i don't remember there being caveats at the time that said 30 people at a time was ok if it was work related, or if they were bubbled or anything.

"hosting boozy parties" is a strange thing to call it too, like he's 14 and telling on his slightly older brother to their parents.

Wholly righteous indignation over the gatherings in and of themselves is fine, but careless emoting over the ‘boozy’ aspect risks tripping things over into a moral crusade which will help nobody in the end and is also a bit dishonest. Britain has long floated on a river of piss.

— barney farmer (@barneyfarmer) January 14, 2022

Barney Farmer otm

Koogs' point is good. I don't remember work being exempt either!

The thought came to me that a Zizek would say something like:

"We wouldn't actually have wanted these stories and outrages to come out at the time - we wanted to believe that the powerful were responsible - and we needed to stay responsible, to stay safe -- but now that things have changed (vaccines etc), we do want these stories to emerge, as a kind of retribution for the frustration and despair we experienced at that time."

Thus that there is something ritual / psychological / convenient about the scandals, that they serve a function.

OTOH, the Cumming was scandal was all the way back in Spring 2020, wasn't it, and did come out, so maybe that doesn't add up even on its own terms.

(Also, I know that the UK government are not responsible but are corrupt and disgusting. Many people don't seem to share this view, though.)

BBC RIP?

https://www.theguardian.com/media/2022/jan/16/bbc-licence-fee-to-be-abolished-in-2027-and-funding-frozen?

the key is: “Dorries’ allies said there would be no further licence fee deal under a Johnson government”

there will not be much further anything under a “Johnson government”

this is pantomime to shore up the party’s hardcore imo

Yes, it does sound like a lot of noise. But I wonder if (as I feel it very likely) the Conservatives win the next election they will attempt to end the license fee.

"The days of the elderly being threatened with prison sentences and bailiffs knocking on doors, are over."

remind me who it was that removed the government-funded free licenses for pensioners

This is the usual Tory tactic of threatening to reduce/abolish the license fee to get the BBC to be even less critical of the Tories.

i’m not sure toying with people’s livelihoods when you’re at your weakest point is going to bring them onside but they’re welcome to try it

sorry a bit of pronoun confusion there

by my lights this is desperate stuff from a weak government and while still dangerous, in terms of saying it out loud, and adding that extra little bit of oomph to the overton window, it’s transparently bullshit. it goes so far that it kind of breaks the “deal” with the BBC that would normally have editors backpedalling to soften the blow. there’s no blow promised here, just pure hostility. the quote about “state-run broadcasting” is ignorant and shows the level of seriousness on offer here i.e. none

Yeah, they were going to abolish the House of Lords a couple years ago.

i mean i could be whistling past the graveyard here - johnson’s successor will likely be more of a headbanger than he is

but it’s easy to make promises about 2027 right now

"whistling past the graveyard"

such a great phrase - and used in the last line of Lloyd Cole's magnificent debut solo LP (1990).