Psychoactive Substances: Rolling UK Politics in The Neo-Con Era

They all seem like awful, awful people, but there are a lot of awful people about, and maybe who am I to judge?

(xp) Indeed.

Even when London becomes annexed by the North Sea, there will still be young tory twats. There wasn't some magic 2015 enlightenment where people could no longer be inured to the shittiness of our current government.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CVAu-zqWIAEW_99.jpg

"I'm not having that."

That's bang out of order.

my own citizens

are those the leadership qualities we're told corbyn lacks

"I'll do time," Cameron said.

I'm going to fucking do him.

David Davis wading in - "leeeave it, he ain't worth it".

What I've seen of Corbyn on Marr yesterday was clear with no intention of going anywhere. A lot of Blairites saying Corbyn isn't even attempting to convince but how can you do that when the shadow Cabinet are talking to the press (lol shadow cabinet sources) like there is no tomorrow?

"I'm not having that."

(xp) I bet he had his shirt sleeves rolled up when he said all that.

They have their shirt sleeves rolled up all the time now. That's Major's legacy.

Not at all, Cameron had to be schooled in the rolling up of the shirt sleeves during the election campaign.

yeah, and now it's 'now'.

Training briefly abandoned after he rolled a cigarette up into the sleeves and stuck a pack behind his ear.

"with brimstone, decapitation raids are more likely to be authorised"

aside from stray use of the word decapitation in a story about bombing a terrorist group who decapitate people, can anyone decipher what this means? with this fancy tool we will allow ourselves to... do "decapitation raids"??

protect ya neck

"these Isis geezers really do me 'ead in" Cameron told aides

Looks like Corbyn's offering a free vote on Syria. Be interesting to see how many of the MPs voting in favour also abstained on the welfare cap for reasons of 'party unity'.

also keen to see how many voting for bombs are willing to give a number on how many refugees they'd welcome as a theoretical result

Almost certainly going to get air-strikes now. Corbyn wants a two-day debate so he is not exactly afraid of amplifying disagreements.

— George Eaton (@georgeeaton)
November 30, 2015

Shadow cabinet member told me that free vote would leave Labour "unfit for government".

Why doesn't this Shadow Cabinet member resign?

@TristramHuntMP
Beyond excited that #StokeOnTrent is finally going to get a @PizzaExpress

At this point I just want Corbyn to put himself out of his misery, watch them elect some ultra-Blairite cunt because they're the only ones allowed on the ballot, and then sit back and watch them lose anyway.

Milne will shoot 'em down Matt don't worry just give him time.

i've said from day one the most important thing Corbyn can do is take the party away from the hands of these vermin rather than worry about the next election, maybe this is part of his strategy to offer them enough rope

otm, mostly important to re-orient Labour and its a long-term project (so equally important that Corbyn stays for as long as poss).

What we are seeing is a major party in anti-imperialist mode. That's significant.

Not necessarily - if Corbyn stays a full term and fucks up really badly, it's possible that the rest of the party might go running into the arms of another Blairite. Not sure who that would be, mind.

If they try and unseat him early, either through a direct challenge or just by rebelling so frequently it makes his position untenable, they're more likely to elect whoever is most like him. As long as there's this level of disconnect between the party and most of its MPs, any lol "moderate" that pledges to continue austerity is going to fail.

oh it's quite possible that some version of complacent lib dem is always going to form the bulk of the PLP from now on, i'm far from hopeful that Corbyn can succeed in realigning the party, but i think it's important to look at the in-fighting now in terms of a necessary struggle rather than a distraction from putting a shiny unified spin on a 2020 election campaign

even the leadership election helped draw out the sheer reactionary spite of all folks Blairite - rather than bounce platitudes off one another and their pet journalists we got to see just how desperate they are to oppose any form of Labour politics that threatens to contest a neolib economic narrative and a neocon social/foreign policy

I can definitely see some kind of horrific interim leader (surely Harriet Harman can be convinced to reprise her star turn?) declaring that job number one is a further purge of who can and cannot vote in the leadership election.

i'm not sure of the exact proportions of hypocrites to idiots bleating about how badly the worst off will suffer if the Tories win in 2020 but they don't have much to say about what Blair did with 10 years of rock solid majority gov to make lasting improvements in the life chances of working class people or to reverse even a fraction of the fragmentation and marginalization of the poor or to rebalance an economic base reduced to coffee shops and crooked financial institutions - the next twat that suggests Corbyn has even a sliver of responsibility for what's happening to the NHS needs the letters PFI branded onto their dense, dense skulls

I got my Paula Sherriff email today and she is voting against the motion for airstrikes, she also voted against the Welfare Reform Bill but was a big Yvette Cooper stan, no-ones perfect I suppose.

Quite hard to know whether Corbyn will fuck up quite badly unless its really obvious.

Can Momentum round up the members of the PLP voting for the bombing plz?

wait what i thought we oh never mind

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CVF6YjVWwAEW0E2.jpg

I really don't want to use that hackneyed old phrase, "You couldn't make it up" but...

metro's mail group isnt it? mail, express, telegraph and metro all lead with "corbyn caving in means war/air strikes" headlines.

deranged and co-ordinated-looking. only beats mind-numbing predictability by exceeding expectations.

Anyone heard much re: Oldham by-election?

Labour will clearly win, Daily Mail has lost interest funnily enough.

The Argus asked all 16 Sussex MPs how they will vote. Just Caroline Lucas, MP for Brighton Pavilion, said she would oppose strikes, with eight for and three undecided.

Four MPs had not responded by the time The Argus went to press.

Caroline Ansell, Conservative MP for Eastbourne, said she backed the strikes but described it as “the hardest and most difficult decision an MP can make”.

Maria Caufield, Conservative MP for Lewes, said the attacks in Paris last month had had a “significant effect” in her decision to back strikes.

She said: “If we all voted in ways that we thought were popular and made people happy we would never get anywhere.

“We have to believe we are doing what is fundamentally the right thing to do.

“If we say we are going to do nothing, let’s not pretend people [in Syria] aren’t going to suffer as a result of that.”

Henry Smith, Conservative for Crawley, said RAF air strikes would be more accurate than those by other air forces.

He said: “The way the Russians approach military action is not as sensitive as we do. The RAF will be far more careful to target purely military targets and reduce to a minimum the collateral civil damage. Not to say there will be no collateral damage but what we say to that is that at the moment civilians are being killed in their thousands and we have a moral responsibility.”

^ local newspaper stuff but that last argument is really quite some bullshit

Yeah, I was prepared to allow the "this is the hardest decision I have had to make" as being true enough (if I agree with their decision or not)..

I guess there would always be a "our forces are the best in the world they never kill any innocent people" whoa yeah why not take over the judiciary in this country then?

Did the Argus ask the Right Honorable MP for Crawley whether he was confident enough in the intelligence we have on Syria to effectively minimise civilian casualties?

just a bit of feel good humane bombing, i'm sure they know what they're doing

there's also the suggestion that the russians will say yes, your armed forces are innately superior, thank god you're here to do the bombing instead, no need for us bodge it anymore

If we all voted in ways that we thought [...] made people happy we would never get anywhere

good tory motto

We owe to our friends and allies to bomb some civilians, we can't just let them do all the bombing of civilians for us, that's not going to put the Great back into Great Britain.

Does anyone else find it a bit *off* that David Cameron has cancelled PMQs tomorrow because of the debate?

Its entirely predictable.