"n'er cast a clout til May be out aka NO BREXIT: hell is other voters -- UK election 2017

ie it's not possible to really have deep ideological divisions if ultimately your only ideology is yourself - a political philosophy you might gravitate towards is only ever clothes you think look nice

Can't accuse Theresa May of gravitating towards nice clothes

ah yes, that makes better sense, thank you -- tho "high politics" seems a funny term for this (what's "high" about it, except it's mostly posh people doing it, and isn't it actually a kind of evasion of politics?)

also unclear if it's runciman's own analysis there, or he's channelling benn: either way i actually think it's a pretty bad description of *how* the tories have managed these divisions except for quite a brief etonian interlude (there was real venom during the major era and after, and it's really not what may is about either) (basically remainer tories are largely shutting up and falling in line, i suspect, bcz business and the city are simply switching to the assumption that brexit is on, and they must retool and adapt to the new situation)

(i was going to say, same as capitalism did under hitler, then thought better of it, then unthought unbetter of it) (angry dubdobdee now, as my twitter voters demand)

A new YouGov poll conducted for The Times has shaved 7 pts off the Con lead.

Labour increased its support by four points to 29 per cent, while the Liberal Democrats were down two points to 10 per cent and Ukip rose two points to seven per cent.

fuck polls but at this point i'd probably take a 10% gap the day before the GE

WHY DO UKIP STILL EXIST FFS

(although i guess they're still useful from soaking up votes from the foamier-mouthed end of previous conservative voters)

I'd be surprised if the UKIP vote wasn't at least halved with at least a third going Tory. A lower turnout overall might at least prevent the Tories getting more votes than two years ago and keep the UKIP vote under 1.5M. The bulk of the remaining UKIP vote will be just another direct fuck you to Labour.

to non-white people via Labour I think you mean

Sure. I mean I hope the UKIP vote shatters by that much or more but it really depends on how many of them go blue and where.

In the meantime UGH LOL Esther McVey still being a thing.

I bet the good Tory voters of Tatton are thrilled to have the scouse gobshite!

Headline figures are one thing, but this is a scary snippet on (lack of) class effect on voting in Times/YouGov poll

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/C-bEzZIWAAIamr9.jpg

now do the same for age alba -- that's where the divide is

I know. Let's let down the tyres on the minibuses.

Logan's Run the MFers tbh

what's the cutoff age

the point where you think voting Tory is socially acceptable

i seriously think if a momentum party does split off -- or less plausibly forces o/g labour to split off -- then it's likely to coalesce round rhetoric with an age-based resent-the-boomers it's-our-world now component

i was just watching an argument unspool on twitter abt pensions, which was beginning to touch on this -- it began with the triple-lock (linking pensions to inflation etc, which the tories are apparently considering tinkering with?), and someone joking that one thing tories and labour share is hatred of young people… bcz angela rayner is committed to keeping the triple-lock in place

anyway the meat of the quarrel was that (for the young) the double-whammy of "our taxes pay your pensions" (which is of course built into the concept of pensions) and "pensions in the future may be very different, to our disadvantage" is likely to generate quite a lot of friction if weaponised politically

Throw in 'pensioners keeping the other-demonising newspapers alive' perhaps.

the sooner ver kids are out setting things alight in the streets the better tbh

what's keeping the other-demonising newspapers alive is (i) print advertising of a particular kind and (ii) the continued (elsewhere exploded) belief that print advertising works anything like as well as it's thought to

Some top notch posts in the old brexit thread this morning. Matt DC and noodle vague blazing a trail.

Rachel Johnson, sister of Boris, has defected to the LibDems.

How could someone who is pals with the likes of Littlejohn and Hopkins (and Boris!) possibly vote for the cuddly and compassionate LibDems?

Oh, she is hinting at standing as a candidate as well.

I bet that shambling BJ performance on Today was the last straw.

some of her best friends are mugwumps

maybe she likes the smell of spaniels

Maybot stuck again https://twitter.com/rosschawkins/status/857633537671008256

Radio Derby to PM: Do you know what a mugwump is?
PM: ...what I recognise is that what we need in this country is strong and stable leadership

see she's too statesmanlike and leaderly to listen to questions or respond to them appropriately. conversation is for weaks

she is in full "that would be an ecumenical matter" autopilot for the next 6 weeks!

hope there's scope to turn S&S into a joke against them

Search reveals a surprisingly rich history of mugwump usage on ILE.

actually "strong and stable" and "smell my spaniel" are totally interchangeable: maybe this is the joke comes from

holy shit! search is back.

When we held events, rather than just covering the event and scrutinizing the policy, as they would with others, the press would seek out a trivial issue in an attempt to mock the whole thing...

the lead story on today this morning was literally "boris johnson called JC a funny name"

she is in full "that would be an ecumenical matter" autopilot for the next 6 weeks!

― calzino, Thursday, April 27, 2017 4:50 PM (fifty-four minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

ah so she did learn something at the vicarage after all

https://twitter.com/LabourEoin/status/857358855013052416

She's a straight up sociopath.

Sociopaths are popular this year.

From the Jacobin article linked upthread by Corbyn's former press officer:

"Theresa May is not a people-person, she interacts very badly with the public and tends to detach herself from them as soon as the cameras are turned off."

This, I think, is something that Labour should have greater scope to play to than they seem to be managing. It's deeply unfortunate that Corbyn has this image in the press as a grumpy uncle or pedantic fusspot schoolteacher. I remember seeing a video some time ago, probably during one of the leadership elections, and it showed Corbyn interacting with some "normal hardworking people." It seemed like he was attending some event where there happened to be a little workplace birthday party, a woman was being given a cake and sung to by colleagues and Corbyn had joined in. There was a very quotidian warmth and he put his arm around the woman whose birthday it was while singing along. It seemed completely natural. You could never imagine May or most MPs being that comfortable with ordinary people. At the time it was still Cameron leading the Tories and I remember thinking how different it would be had he tried to join in, dressed as a city banker wherever this was, maybe a school or a library or something. The unease and pungent whiff of distaste that I'm pretty sure would be palpable. I think people know in this country do know that many of those that rule have no idea what people's lives are like really, and in all likelihood think of the great unwashed as being different to them. I think that clip of May shows someone who ultimately doesn't see human beings down the end of her policies for the most part. She understands a certain technocratic notion of "fairness" only. Like I said, I think people know this and it is part of what underwrites a more general "populist" turn.

What I mean is that May herself said it best when she talked about the "nasty party," Labour need to stop talking about fairness because fairness has completely contradictory meanings made by neoliberal rationality and the legacies of class. Labour need to make people realise that in fact the Tory party and Theresa May, well sort of hate most of the people in this country. And I think the recognition of this contempt is just barely beneath the surface, held in place by a mix of "aspiration" and masochism.

http://i3.mirror.co.uk/incoming/article10269552.ece/ALTERNATES/s615/General-Election-2017.jpg

http://i3.mirror.co.uk/incoming/article10269552.ece/ALTERNATES/s615/General-Election-2017.jpg

omg plaxico

remember during the last general election when there was this strange attempt to convince people that teen girls thought ed milliband was dreamy?

gr8 post but isn't there perhaps an element that what the masochistic inferiority-complex-ridden genuflecting gbp want IS someone who's aloof, unapproachable, removed from everyday graces? someone who looks like they could just execute a thousand insurgents with a single gesture and no batted eyelid?

I think that is a very real possibility, yes.

remember during the last general election when there was this strange attempt to convince people that teen girls thought ed milliband was dreamy?

I will not stand for this calumny that Milifandom was anything less than a genuine grassroots phenomenon

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milifandom

#Cameronettes, a Conservative response to the Milifandom, was suggested by 21-year-old Twitter user and University of Exeter student, Charlie Evans.[11] A Cameronettes Twitter account was created, that claims to be run by a 13-year-old girl. The hashtag has been reported by the BBC to be "less successful" than the Milifandom.[4]

the absolute state of scotland
http://i.imgur.com/hKKBM4W.jpg

DOBs

just home fae the pub is jeremy cunt hunt prime minister yet

ok lol:

Ruth Davidson planning Scottish Tory breakaway as she challenges Theresa May's Brexit plan' https://t.co/ssHhpvbCsE

— Sara Maioli (@sara_maioli) June 9, 2017

Ruth Davidson plotting a Scottish Tory breakaway, both over DUP and Single Market: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/06/09/ruth-davidson-planning-scottish-tory-breakaway-challenges-theresa/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter

Xp lol

this day just keeps getting weirder

and funnier

“Before Easter, I spent a few days walking in Wales with my husband, thought about this long and hard and came to the decision that to provide that stability and certainty for the future, this was the way to do it – to have an election."

I'd forgotten about this, at the time it seemed like sinister fake modesty with a distastefully hitleresque sense of "schicksal". Thinking of this hubris and looking at those fucking DUP headbangers that will be holding them to ransom (even tho it probably shouldn't be) is actually pretty fucking funny atm!

But this RD situation adds another amusing clusterfuck to the situation.

also reading on twitter that sinn fein say the dup-tory coalition contravenes the good friday agreement

(but haven't tracked down a link to an actual story, so pinch of salt)

i suspect bringing the dup in this way does actually bring a LOT of um difficult irish politics onto the english front pages, including exactly the kinds of ppl nigel dodds has spent time hanging around in the past

If DUP Is only a party in Northern Ireland doesn't that effect the ability to make a coalition anyway?
If you're supposed to be doing that using legitimacy as a buzzword or whatever.
Just would have thought you'd need a party that was present throughout the UK, like.

It isn't really a coalition.

Also only gives them a 2 seat majority which looks a bit dodgy.

past is probably a more precise word but ppl are going to say coalition bcz it rams the problems (and the hypocrisy) home

anyway i haven't found a link to the story and don't know enough abt the GFA to say if it's plausible

xp: one is all they need to form a government (which may well not last long, i'm old enough to remember the late 70s, they were lots of fun for this kind of stuff)

past s/b PACT, sorry

Thinking about May out on Downing Street behind her podium, railing at the EU for meddling in the UK election feels like a lifetime ago.

Did anyone see Anna Soubry on channel 4 news. Clearly pissed, in the British and North American senses.

I was thisclose to Patsy/vodka/cigarette meme post.

Haha!

Meme From ILX Of Yore Reappears

http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/39027000/jpg/_39027407_abfab-bbc-203index.jpg

B****cks. Folk might remember I fought a leadership election on the other side of that particular argument.... https://t.co/IQev2xSnUp

— Ruth Davidson (@RuthDavidsonMSP) June 9, 2017

davidson pours water on the idea that she's going to go her own way

http://i.imgur.com/9BcpRXK.jpg

has matthew goodwin ate that book already

She's pretty straight talking but I think she's protesting too much there, probably using the fact they'll keep the whip to mean they're not "going their own way".

I think her constituency is going to force this of her. If she wants to keep those 12 at the next election, especially with Labour and LDs suddenly seeming plausible in Scotland again, she needs to court the huge Remain base, and also acknowledge that not only is Scotland more open to immigration, it'll be in recession without it. Add to that the gay rights angle and she has makings of a party-within-party

Here's a video of Jonathan Powell talking about how this DUP coalition contravenes the Good Friday agreement because because it relies on the impartiality of Westminster.

https://www.facebook.com/JeremyCorbyn4PM/videos/1708919496068789/

sorry, I couldn't find the video outside of Facebook.

I cannot wait for Ruth Davidson to crash and burn. She lucked out because of Sturgeon's stupidity and imcompetence.

poll
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DB6TUQDXoAArfxn.jpg

i found the trevi fountain and the colosseum somewhat deflating when visiting them on a family holiday so i think i'll have to go for ecumenism

Soubry's BBC interview with dimbleby around 5am election night was wild. Worth seeking out.

as ever i must choose 'antichrist'

This tweet is EVERYTHING and its brutality is to be admired:

https://mobile.twitter.com/PolComForum/status/873186390539988993

savage

this article excerpt doing the rounds is great 1 because of the utter stupidity of the suggestion by Fiona Hill, 2 bcos of the impression it gives of May standing back behind the aggression and rudeness of her spads, as the layer between her and the cabinet, and the world really.

Blimey. pic.twitter.com/X9lYAWFa5h

— Theo Bertram (@theobertram) June 10, 2017

also yes that was a hell of a Police Community burn.

call: new circs new thread:
brexit negging when yr mandate is is trash: or further chronicles of a garbage-fire