Rolling Brexit Links/UK politics in the neo-Weimar era

the takeaway of everyone's gloom is that labour has to get better at convincing ppl it can be good at something again (=believes in something and can deliver it)

which goal can it reach quickest, most effectively? (i agree i and ii both are a massive ask, tho i consider i much further out of reach)

i: managerial economic competence for the good of all
ii: pile of bloody bosses' skulls
iii: other (plz specify)

Brentry

The Sarah Champion paper just given at LSE this morning: she's asking for an economic equality bill to stop budgets favouring men (86 per cent of austerity's cuts and tax rises have fallen on women). Good optics to make a fake feminist PM look bad?

There is the kernel of something in there when you consider the extent to which people like Philip Green and Mike Ashley are held up as modern-day folk demons, and maybe this is what Ed Miliband was hamfistedly aiming for with "predatory capitalism" and you can see how that turned out.

It's one thing to tell people you're on their side, and even have them believe you, but they also have to trust that you're capable of delivering what you say without making things worse, and that's where Labour's real problems have been for years.

― Matt DC, Wednesday, 1 March 2017 11:05 (eleven hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Oh, Geeen is already redeemed.

PARDONED!
As he (belatedly) does the right thing by BHS pensioners The Mail hereby revokes the title Sir Shifty. Well done Sir Phil!

http://en.kiosko.net/uk/np/daily_mail.html

It is a good job the Mail put in that exclamation marK in the heading, possibly to signify he is a bit of a raffish/maverick/zany character - because otherwise I might have mistaken the thieving cunt for a criminal type that would literally rob your fucking wallet if you were dying on the pavement!

... and then get shirty and outraged if anyone objected to him rifling the pockets of a corpse.

I see it was 'a deal' and that 'most' of the money has been (or is to be) paid back..

Yes, without him even having to sign a caution for the missing money. None of this falling off yachts anymore, the story just blows over within a year.

I meant by normal people, not the Daily Mail. People fucking hate Philip Green (although they hate Ashley more).

i do basically think there's a *lot* of energy ready to be unleashed here, and not just at green and similar high-profile figures

Left always overstating potential of green energy n'est pas

This government is killing people! But again to hammer that message is nakedly antagonistic.

Dunno if the issue is a lack of hammering tbh, ppl are well aware of it I think. It's just that loads of people are fine with it.

cheekily lifted from comments on DHancox FB thread, in counterpoint response to the piece linked above: "Having read your piece, and while I completely agree with you on the reading of the polls, I wouldn't think that boss-hating could form a solid base for a left-wing populism. Without looking at any polls, I find it very hard to imagine a time when people didn't hate their bosses. It's why class based mobilisation is quite hard to achieve too. People don't think of it as "money in their pockets", to put it cynically. There's a lot to talk about here, especially on how to interpret the success of Podemos, Syriza etc, but eat the rich has never been much of a rallying cry (however much it might be my favourite one)."

(i think this is wrong though: the locus of fury at issue isn't The Rich per se, it's more like your incompetent bullying line-manager and the ppl above him -- sometimes her -- who appointed him/her and back him/her against you)

In addition to that point, Ukip voters are full of shit and completely incoherent politically. Basing a whole political strategy on some of them responding favourably to (one or two) vaguely leftish ideas does not look wise.

I mean, I'd like to see such policies pushed by labour, but not to reel in kippers who are supposedly really socialists, if only they could see.

i believe the point is that all proles are really socialists if only they could see

and, y'know, sometimes i concur but the world makes it v hard to be optimistic and cuddly sometimes

think the dynamic is the other way round (xp to bananaman)

i) as you say, BB, we should be doing this anyway!!
(1st clue: the word "labour" in the phrase "labour party")
(2nd clue: there's a *lot* of free-floating anger out there, someone else will certainly hoover it up if we merely daintily sidestep it) (tbh one good side-effect of brexit is that it has brought anger back onto the metropolitan munching menu) (angry blairites twit-listing the good things blair/brown did are in fact making the loud leftish noises blair/brown as a matter of policy delined to make even as they were doing these often not-bad things) (obviously the horse has long bolted bcz blair/brown also left the stable door open…)

ii) given this poll, there appears to be more anti-boss anger among ukip voters than any other voting group, incoherent as it indeed is -- so playing to it as a strategy has the BONUS of overriding or tending to nullify the angers in that (incoherent) sector pulling them elsewhere, plus of course (more urgent) "speaking to the left behind" etc etc, plusplusplus starting to articulate the now decade-long unhappiness at recently emergent types of employment (biggest employer in stoke = not the potteries but bet365 etc), not to mention all the zero-hour contract garbage disguising actual functional unemployment

(caveat: it's a poll, all polls are probably garbage, surprising results like this may be wrong) (tho this isn't actually a surprising result of course)

our cat among their pigeons for a change, in other words

http://www.newstatesman.com/world/europe/2017/03/world-after-brexit

Packed with question-begging this but is the first "Britain can handle Brexit" piece that feels like it has real thought behind it compared to all the unicorns

Good luck NI! The 1st preference votes have been added up but the STV magic has yet to happen.

DUP on 28.1% share of 1st preference votes (down from 29.2% in 2016), SF on 27.9% (up from 24.0%).

Suspect that will get shaken up by the vote transfers but this brief moment is exciting...

http://sluggerotoole.com/2017/03/03/ae17-live-blog-the-count/

(also I'm realising I don't really understand STV quotas)

xp Brendan Simms is excellent, I can recommend this book to anyone interested in Longue durée approach to European history: https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/56563/europe/

Heaven forbid it should be >4th story on the BBC website.

Live coverage here at least: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/election/ni2017 -- expect it'll move up as it gets closer to result time tomorrow.

Our Queen

BEST CHILD EVER

Crying. That's amazing.

adorable, but I don't believe it wasn't planned.

Oh its a stitch-up.

That's pre-planned, you mean

ffs everyone

don't post that shit unless it's farage being literally run through with a broadsword

i saw the conversation on the Tweet, sure it might be pre-planned, but how does it work to Farage's advantage?

admittedly if the kid had said "my mum says you're a specious cunt" it would've been better but

I want to believe damnit

Just a bit of fun Louie.

ni election results looking interesting (full results not clear till tomorrow afternoon)

248. Posted by dodger on 8 minutes ago

The papes have out bred the unionists, no surprise there given the policies of their lords and masters in Rome.
The obscenity that is religion just disgusts me.

DUP: 28
Sinn Féin: 27
SDLP: 12
UUP: 10 (leader has resigned)
Alliance: 8
Greens: 2
People Before Profit: 1
Traditional Unionist Voice: 1
Independent unionist: 1

40 unionists, 39 nationalist/republicans, 11 unaffiliated

The good news here (apart from the general hilarity of the situation) is that the DUP no longer singlehandedly have the 30 votes required for a "Petition of Concern", a veto which was supposed to stop one side imposing legislation on the other side, but because the DUP had enough MLAs to trigger it without even asking the UUP they were using it for anything and everything, including stopping enquiries into their own misconduct

we still don't know if they'll actually manage to form a govt - this should have sent a message to the DUP but if Arlene Foster refuses to stand down SF may continue to refuse to form an assembly, and then what?

either way, with the DUP veto-less or with temporary direct rule from Westminster, there's a chance to get the gay marriage bill through in NI, so that's good, but for the bigger picture, it's hard to say

currently quite pleased with the result, though also wondering: now we've seen that the nationalist vote can be mobilised and potentially topple the unionists, can the 35% who didn't vote or the unknown % whose vote was Anyone But The DUP be mobilised to vote for e.g. Alliance or some other nominally non-aligned party in future?

Do the DUP *have to* be part of whatever power-sharing government can be formed? Is it theoretically possible you could have SF + SDLP + Alliance + UUP?

Simon Danczuk still somehow finding new depths of indignity to plumb:

http://i2.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/incoming/article12693787.ece/ALTERNATES/s615b/Untitled.jpg

http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greater-manchester-news/simon-danczuk-television-belly-dancer-12693783

Questioning RT more.

@LiamFoxMP
"The United Kingdom, is one of the few countries in the European Union that does not need to bury its 20th century history" #scc16
8:39 AM - 4 Mar 2016

https://media.giphy.com/media/l3q2K5jinAlChoCLS/giphy.gif

John Humphrys being a prick again

https://inews.co.uk/essentials/culture/radio/john-humphrys-criticised-saying-jo-cox-killer-thomas-mair-not-terrorist/

Still marvelling at Nuttall's "it's not like I was CAUGHT sexually abusing children" defence from the other day.

hi Liam, here's a top 5 just in case you didn't do history at school

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/worst-atrocities-british-empire-amritsar-boer-war-concentration-camp-mau-mau-a6821756.html

a diabolical imperial historical listicle

Lol! Liam has read plenty of history, but just Tristam Hunt's books unfortunately!

who could forget this classic?

http://www.the42.ie/bloody-sunday-1920-1767626-Nov2014/

or the all-round good work of these lovable scamps?

http://militaryhistorynow.com/2015/11/09/the-black-and-tan-war-nine-fascinating-facts-about-the-bloody-fight-for-irish-independence/

agree with Liam tho, nothing to bury here