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

i’m with ecotricity and weirdly i am now in credit. my bill last month was less than £100 for gas and electricity together.

Those with the least shouldn’t pay more to heat their homes and turn on their lights.

But under the Tories, they do.

Labour would end energy prepayment premiums, giving 4m households relief on bills.

This is part of our energy package to tackle the cost of living crisis.

— Keir Starmer (@Keir_Starmer) August 12, 2022

xp

mine, for both gas and electricity is £242 a month, whereas it was previously £118. I was seriously thinking about linking out my electric meter, but there is an anti tamper seal that I fear if I cut it then I might be in serious legal trouble, perhaps even the doing time variety!

I'm with Scottish Power and they reduced my DD earlier this year because I was in credit, now I owe them £300+.

Truss: "No solar panels, I want to see fields of fruit and veg"

Alarming effects of dry weather on food production. pic.twitter.com/cI9TTX4EPx

— Dave (@MediocreDave) August 12, 2022

We have spent so many years here documenting the failures of politics and now we are seeing the effects.

yeah but have u considered that the civil service are woke antisemites tho

This is the most unhinged thing I’ve seen from Liz Truss on the campaign and that’s a high bar: pic.twitter.com/7Ael8SYpTU

— William Kedjanyi (@KeejayOV3) August 12, 2022

Food inflation is going to rocket up because of this drought. Blaming it on Russia won't be enough if there is no food on the plate.

we're rapidly approaching german levels of "all antiracism is antisemitism" at this point xp

(also is there anything more embarrassing than british people inveighing against "wokeness"?)

I shouldn't but I find it quaint and gently amusing and a nice easy shibboleth to identify fuckwits and scum

The essential Jewish value of being a business owner pic.twitter.com/JNrTJZXqn3

— jewdⒶs // ייִדהודה (@jewdas) August 12, 2022

liz added: happymerchant.jpg

Almost literal boilerplate:

https://i.postimg.cc/J0sx1t6b/2-D1-F36-BB-D1-A1-4-A07-9-AC6-33-FF4-C6-D7-CDD.jpg

Subtext: unlike those feckless untrustworthy Muslims who keep voting Labour.

who also are also hated by Starmer's campaign team for deciding not to vote Labour in a byelection as a protest against the rampant and unchecked Islamophobia in the party. They just can't win really.

Oh sorry I meant to say they didn't vote Labour cos of their inherent Antisemitism

Lol

1) Lobbying. 2) Boycott & Divest. 3) An option we will reveal soon.

Direct action in this situation is counterproductive.

— Rescue Britain (@RescueBritain) August 2, 2022

We don't have anything do do with them, and for the record we don't have any comment about them, and just to make ourselves very extra-specially clear here is a comment about them which we agree with

Hi Pete. We dont. We have no relationship with DontPayUK, and have no plans to do so. Also for the record, we provide no comment about DontPayUK.https://t.co/VidyuU2ni2

— Rescue Britain (@RescueBritain) August 7, 2022

i'm waiting for the one organised by @GritishBas

rescue brian

couldn't deal with all the angst of NOT PAYING. Like fantastic, now I'm 2 grand in debt rather than the current £190 and it's spiralling on and on the longer I don't pay it. Got more than enough stress in my life already.

It feels like Keir Starmer is working for the energy companies and this can be easily explained, with some research it shows he hasn't be totally honest about his conflicts of interest pic.twitter.com/xabCXuZOoy

— Jonny Mao (@JonnyMao) August 15, 2022

"we asked a director at one of the major energy companies what his position on nationalising energy was.. and he said it was an ideological position to take and not the correct solution."

obv a fake but a fake that is absolutely true!

They'll be lobbied to shit.

"Jobs, Jobs, Jobs"

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2022/aug/16/uk-wages-in-june-fall-at-fastest-rate-for-20-years?

More debt great

Interest-free loans to be rolled out in UK to help with food bills https://t.co/Cz7lDboPBt

— Guardian news (@guardiannews) August 15, 2022

ok as a one-off solution to people in desperate circumstances, but like with UC advances, the debt is carried on to the next month - then back to square one but even more skint.

North Sea Oil ran out and we are back where we started because we mistook what happened as being the result of the Thatcherite policy mix instead of the arrival of said oil.

— Metatone (@Metatone2) August 17, 2022

i see they're preparing us for winter pic.twitter.com/B7NcEJh93E

— Nate (nice mode) (@inthesedeserts) August 17, 2022

the accompanying photo sums up the Torygraph poverty cosplaying at work here as well, let's see if you can make the same albeit small, but nutritious and healthy looking salad portion from a food bank visit.

i see they're preparing us for winter pic.twitter.com/B7NcEJh93E

— Nate (nice mode) (@inthesedeserts) August 17, 2022

the only downside to this is that some Tory donors will bail them out so normal service can be resumed when their main party becomes unelectable.

Labour loses nearly 100,000 members and makes £5 million loss in 2021

this I meant, won't link it because it's the Independent

That Torygraph thing is also the usual insanity.

reading live blog of the latest tory hustings is wild. neither of them seem even to be conscious of the magnitude of the trouble we’re in, much less have any answers. sunak responded to a question about the nhs having to put mattresses on the floor by saying he’d get tough on people who miss appointments! maybe i’m naive but i’m shocked by how little of a grip they have on the crisis staring them in the face. it ain’t 1997 any more guys! it ain’t even 2010!

starmer’s an idiot obviously but the nature of opposition at least means that his job is to point out problems and problems is what we’ve got

I think the below is optimistic given that we don't know the direction of the War and that we don't know whether a climate event might happen to further strangle supply of food, and push prices.

---

"Despite the grim outlook for the economy, there is still a possibility that the Conservatives could win a fifth term. Inflation will start to fall rapidly in the second half of next year. Growth and living standards might be rising by 2024. Voters might not be convinced that Labour would be significantly different. The election might be fought on the basis of culture wars rather than the economy."

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2022/aug/14/like-thatcher-truss-wants-radical-change-but-could-she-avoid-a-crisis-rishi-sunak

The next election might be fought on culture wars if inflation goes down and standards pick up, otherwise I doubt that's going anywhere.

even when inflation falls and “growth” rises again the backdrop of all this is decades of productivity gains going to the 1% and everybody else staying flat (in the face of historically high housing inflation). this current bout of inflation is the “finish him” moment, but the damage has been inflicted for years

how’s this for a culture war: fuck the bosses

BREAKING: Arriva buses will be back on the streets of Merseyside tomorrow after 30 days of strikes after workers secured an historic 11.1% pay increase from the company https://t.co/gDkwtxX3Dc

— Liam Thorp (@LiamThorpECHO) August 17, 2022

I wonder if these victories might not be enough by the end of the year. People were saying 13% inflation but it might be more than that if we are at 10% now.

I'm a UCU member and we'll likely be going out on strike after receiving a 3% pay "award" this year

reading live blog of the latest tory hustings is wild. neither of them seem even to be conscious of the magnitude of the trouble we’re in, much less have any answers. sunak responded to a question about the nhs having to put mattresses on the floor by saying he’d get tough on people who miss appointments! maybe i’m naive but i’m shocked by how little of a grip they have on the crisis staring them in the face. it ain’t 1997 any more guys! it ain’t even 2010!

― Tracer Hand, Wednesday, August 17, 2022 1:07 PM (forty-six minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

this thread addresses this issue in an interesting way, with the usual caveats about the Pol Profs

Narrator: no cyclist ended up needing number plates https://t.co/yeprzjhZEG

— Jonathan Hopkin (@jrhopkin) August 17, 2022

Everybody knew that Truss was a dimwit but people, sorry, journalists and commentators, actually rated Sunak, the guy who is on his way to getting trounced, deservedly, by a dimwit.

Neil S: a worry for UCU and HE is that different HEIs are so differently placed financially. There are places (KCL, UCL, say) that can weather whatever happens in the next year or two (indeed probably thrive), others that can't. UCU, I think, is not good at articulating these inequalities within the sector -- well, it wouldn't be politic for them to do so.

It seems accurate to say that government policy is to drive many HEIs out of business.

I fear that strike action cannot save the more vulnerable places and staff. I hope I'm wrong.

yes, those are certainly worrying issues Pinefox. I work at another large-ish London uni which is very financially secure but is happy to see pay and conditions eroded while hiding behind excuses about collective bargaining. What is happening at places like Roehampton and Goldsmith's is terrible, and seems to be part of a concerted government policy to run down the humanities. The idiot Tory candidates have both made rhetorical moves threatening "low paying" courses. Presumably everyone will have to do business studies in future.

Presumably everyone will have to do business studies in future.

Starting with Truss. Oh, and Sunak too....

Sir Topham Hatt, folks, he’s good! Strong man. Controls the trains! They respect him. But the Troublesome Trucks, they are always causing confusion and delay. Not good! And the British press is very unfair to him, they call him the Fat Controller. Very nasty!

— DougExeter (@Doug_Exeter) August 17, 2022

Given the pressures as detailed in this article the supply chain squeeze first experienced during covid is bound to continue.

https://m.dw.com/en/low-water-again-threatens-to-sink-industries-along-the-rhine/a-62550672

Government to make it easier for landlords to evict people who fall behind on renthttps://t.co/yyo2r11BC7

— Jon Stone (@joncstone) August 19, 2022

They have by subtile wit and power, pretended to preserve a people in safety by the power of the Sword; and what by large Pay, much Free-quarter, and other Booties, which they call their own, they get much Monies, and with this they buy Land, and become landlords; and if once Landlords, then they rise to be Justices, Rulers, and State Governours, as experience shewes: But all this is but a bloudy and subtile Theevery, countenanced by a Law that Covetousness made; and is a breach of the Seventh Commandement, Thou shalt not kill

New drone photos show how beavers in East Devon are defying the current South West drought. A network of dams they’ve built on Estate farmland is helping to maintain an area of wetland, despite the UK experiencing one of its driest summers on record. More: https://t.co/mb1QCFjhw3 pic.twitter.com/77flLYqEJS

— ClintonDevonEstates (@ClintonDevon) August 19, 2022