like the queen this thread will never die: in which we ALL resign (ourselves to disgusting miseries to post-boris politics 2022)

yeah ppl keep saying Kieth's gonna resign next and I dunno if it's just wishful thinking or what but I don't see any reason to believe that, he might still blunder his way into becoming PM at this point xposts

the super-injunction got to daniel

it's only 21°C and folk are melting already!

It's 35 next week! Get your buckets of ice cream ready!

lol guys I'm not happy or hopeful about it! if anything him winning is worse than another tory govt.

the wishful thinking is what I'm accusing the "Keith's gonna resign" crowd of, it's not on my part

hm

Ash Sakar was on newsnight just now, Kirsty Wark asked her opinion about today's news, she started saying that it was undemocratic that the future of our country was being currently decided at a spectator garden party, Kirsty almost shouted over her to get her to shut up.

― Sudden Birdnet Thus (Camaraderie at Arms Length), Thursday, 7 July 2022 bookmarkflaglink

Gordon Brown wasn't elected either. 3 of the last five PMs have not gone to the nation first to get elected to the top job. The next one isn't doing so either and I expect the coming crises with inflation or climate to ensure this pattern continues.

I want Kieth to be PM because if you don't vote for him then you are a TORY ENABLER and he's a human rights lawyer + a top bloke.

Ash Sarkar made everyone else on the news look bad (and old, and irrelevant).

The UK media is happy to spend hours interviewing Con MPs, about Con MPs, then finally, for a break, cut to some vox pops with Con voters.

It's true that those vox-pop exceptions who say nasty things about the PM are welcome relief and admirable (I only see them in online clips).

The media is not able or willing to comprehend the idea of asking socialists or people with sensible ideas about what is going on or what should happen. Sarkar's politics are unfathomable to Newsnight and everyone on it, though much about them appears common sense to many of us.

I've got a lingering feeling Boris will try to stay on beyond October under the pretext of some kind of national emergency - I mean, there's bound to be one the way things are going.

100%

this mf’er is gonna cling to power by any means necessary

If he had Cummings around I would've have said that for sure. Not sure who he's got around him rn to work anything out.

place yr bets now: covid surge / national strike / britain unleashes nuclear arsenal on moscow

too shit to even organise a tesco value Jan 6, his followers would all be grumbling that they couldn't find anywhere to park in London.

They will just keep laughing at us.

The @BBCPolitics Time Lords had plenty to talk about at @TheSpectator Summer Party last night. All agree the new Dr - @ChrisMasonBBC - is doing a brilliant job pic.twitter.com/J1UCVqvNZi

— Nick Robinson (@bbcnickrobinson) July 8, 2022

the politics nerd in me is mildly peeved abt the fuss when prime ministers change w/o elections: we don't have presidential elections, via election of MPs in constituencies we determine the party we want to govern and the party then determines who will represent us in discussion with the monarch -- that's why the role is called "her majesty's prime minister"

i mean yes no doubt we shd dispense with this entire system but the system is not being outlandishly distorted by change of PM between elections it's being used exactly as it says on the tin SITO

(to be even more provocatively nerdy the existence of party structures in advance of the election is a bigger distortion of the usage as orignally intended lol)

point is that
* yes we should dispense with the whole system
* it is not OK to even imply the system is ridiculous on TV, you will be immediately shut down if you do so

I know this but the more it happens, the more I see a democratic deficit in it. xps

sth that has stuck with me for a while (but I forget the source) is that someone said a functional liberal democracy has three requirements

* representative democracy
* free & independent press
* human rights independently enforced

with any of these three missing, the others are in danger of being eroded. these were being presented in the context of Iraq, but when I look through them we are right in the shit with the first two, and the third is looking shaky. (not that we ever really had all three of course)

no fine for kieth, disappointing for the banter timeline

I look forward to him going 20 points ahead then

it's only fair, as an alcoholic the beers were medicinal and nobody was happy in his company so it was literally like work for all involved.

spot the alphiebait in this spread

https://i.imgur.com/kTSfUoM.png

some truly bizarre photo choices there

Stop bullying me mark lol

xp Reminding everyone of Sunak's status as a Short King

someone has been having fantasies about Penny Mordaunt - the cruel and very strict swimming instructor

The person is xyzzzz__

Jeremy *flames added digitally* Hunt there

Hahaha just missing some stink lines

Oh he's been to Pret.

So has Dominic Raab.

Lisa complained that Mr Raab is not “open-minded” and claimed: “He has the same sandwich every day. He has the same lunch.

“He has the same baguette with the same smoothie with a pot of fruit everyday.

“It’s from Pret. He has the chicken Caesar and bacon baguette, superfruit pot and the vitamin volcano smoothie every day.

“He is so weird. I get it for him. I go to Pret. That’s how I know. It’s the Dom Raab Special.”

Oh dear.

Although their poetry skills are amazing. Spitting str8 🔥 pic.twitter.com/AlDa5pBUX4

— ⚫Neil Kulkarni (@KaptainKulk) July 8, 2022

Could the Labour Party try to expand its base now that the Conservative Party is in disarray? Would that help it win the next election?

if Kieth got assassinated they'd be 20 points ahead

They are expanding their base to appeal to right wingers, racists, terfs and melts who enjoy laughing at working class people but are terrified of changing the economic status quo

The Labour Party has become like the Tea Party in the US?

More like a less ambitious Democrats with a ton of dog whistles

they could maybe still win a GE with a low turnout from their own so called voter base if the Tories remain to be unpopular but it might be close and require another ghastly coalition govt with the LibDems. Ugh! too depressing to think about.

🤔🤔🤔

Looks like the favour was called in as I had suspected with Keir Starmer being “cleared” by Durham police https://t.co/UIYBzCmgNT

— Rhys (@RhysForBear) July 8, 2022

It won't matter who wins. No party have the policies for the problems we are going to face.

Is there any party willing to rejoin the EU?

The SNP!

the lib dems too, probably, though they have finally learned to shut up about it. all academic though as they will never be in power.

Could the Labour Party try to expand its base now that the Conservative Party is in disarray? Would that help it win the next election?

The thing that will win an election in current circs is really due to tories staying home and tories have the angry pensioners who always vote demographic locked down - although Brexit has now happened and they don’t really have a big issue like that to campaign on.

Sorry I just reiterated NV’s post very unhelpfully there. Anyway, then and now:

Then:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_o0D0GEOR7I

The 2019 campaign video features people from all backgrounds, the Grenfell Tower marchers, WASPI women (women who lost out on state pensions due to government reforms), cities and towns, old and young etc. Unions, the traditional backers of the party are prominently featured. As with the manifesto that year: life doesn’t have to be this shit, let us help you.

What are they doing now? Attacking deporting people to Rwanda on the basis of it being too expensive rather than it being a gross, idk, violation of decency? Briefing against their own voters when they nearly lost a formerly safe seat due to voters due to the party giving them nothing on issues important to them? Doing appearances at Pride while this goes unaddressed?

Lib Dems. That makes sense. Yay for the SNP.

Shouldn't economic issues matter more to Labour than nationalist ones?

Perhaps liberal democracy and socialism have different meanings now or the context is different but parts of what came before remain.

Labour has votes it doesn't want to lose because of the risk; it takes a leap of faith(?).

Separate question: I wonder about the placement of gender issues and gender identification in different national/ethnic/cultural contexts. I sometimes look for clues in literature or fiction about tolerance and openness. To me the UK seems to be a case where there is tolerance but not openness.

At the risk of upsetting some thread followers, rejoining in the EU isn't a priority for any serious party and it wouldn't solve any of the serious economic issues facing people in the UK anyway