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

Well now I'm confused was it this rock or the bacon sandwich that destroyed the guy

it was a banana that destroyed his brother, just to add some US clarity!

I remember him!

He went up to my g/f and in a doleful voice, intoned "Are you suffering from too much marital love?"

'Chance would be a fine thing!' I thought to myself...

That was art MarkS's pic

Wrt! As in with regard to! Damn spelling korrector!

"BASIC PROCESSED FOOD SUSTENANCE FROM FOODBANKS HASN'T YET STOPPED PROLES FROM COPULATING"

He got debunked in this era!

Good lord:

https://mobile.twitter.com/hendopolis/status/854449280865767425/photo/1

Houses of Parliament needs an expensive re-wire, might as well burn it down at this point.

xp the kubrick crazy stare

https://ichef-1.bbci.co.uk/news/660/cpsprodpb/9226/production/_95641473_mediaitem95641472.jpg

― -_- (jim in vancouver), Tuesday, April 18, 2017 1:46 PM (one hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Stop it! That wasn't even close Jim!

― calzino, Tuesday, April 18, 2017 1:53 PM (one hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

no, wearing silly clothes is exactly the same as making a racist 2001 monolith

― Brexterminate all the brutes (Noodle Vague), Tuesday, April 18, 2017 1:56 PM (one hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

it was more of an ed eating bacon sandwich thing to be fair.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/C9uiXfXW0AMrkO7.jpg:large

ooops sorry SV ..

it's a shock, i thought the Daily Mail would be supporting her

my first impression when i saw the cover ..

https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/originals/b0/c4/73/b0c473c6aca8e81403e0213954f68432.jpg

The Mail really aren't doing any favours for her there. But one person's psychotic Mosley-clone might be what the electorate wants. I really don't know anymore.

Hello EU I'm ready to negotiate XO

Every other party leader should be hammering her for ducking the TV debates at this point. It's not like I even like them that much but May is clearly the one with the least to gain and the most to lose from them. Plus I think she'd be shit.

She'd be terrible. Cameron ducked them last time. Brown stupidly agreed to do them.

wouldn't put a lot of faith in either corbs or farron winning a televised debate - they'd tske more hits than they'd deliver imo - but nicola sturgeon would make mincemeat of her right now

aha.

Labour could have played this so much better by making their support for an election conditional on certain criteria for fairness being met, perhaps in conjunction with other parties. First, we want a reasonable time to make our case, not the rushed snap election that suits a government living by the polls and terrified of a long lead time. Secondly, we want tv debates. And so on. No fairness, no election.

The nuances of voting for a local representative who will be active within a constituency, and who will effectively cast their vote for their party leader to be Prime Minister..

Will be replaced for the forthcoming election

It will be basically a referendum with two people's names on it, and the question "Who's Best?"

We haven't time to have TV debates, choose candidates, all that. Also, Britain's Got Talent has just started, and we don't have the airtime for anything else.

The SNP are abstaining in this vote, I believe. So is anyone actually voting against this election?

Is Corbin really as Aethelred as all that?

Why on earth would the SNP vote against it? They must be rubbing their knees in glee at the idea.

It will be basically a referendum with two people's names on it, and the question "Who's Best?"

Honestly I think this is how a lot of people vote in General Elections, they don't vote with the local candidate in mind and a lot don't even consider policies that much, they treat it like a Presidential election. It's one reason why Corbyn could drop 10 hugely popular policies and still lose.

Corbyn would be fine in a debate imo.

May would struggle under any kind of combative presenter / audience questioning even without opposition there. She has an inherent reluctance to explain policy beyond soundbites at the best of times. Given how much of Brexit policy is TBD or has problematic consequences, she'd be appalling. She's enormously fortunate nobody with access seems interested in asking difficult questions.

TBD I understood momentarily as "The Best Deal" which represents the entirety of brexit policy detail

Opposition support for a snap election should have been on the condition that it was achieved through May calling and winning a vote of no confidence in her government - not an unfair interpretation of yesterday's speech

Yeah I think Corbyn would do well in a TV debate as well, and I suspect May knows that.

god forbid our unelected pm should have to defend her positions against other leaders, heaven forfend

*DRUDGE SIREN* Osborne stepping down as MP

Nick Clegg coming back. Or attempting to.

a scoop for the evening standard I see

osborne stepping down to spend more time with his coke habit his other job

Bins not emptied for 3 weeks in LibDem Sutton mentioned on PMQ. I'm still convinced it will be un-emptied bins that will create more of an austerity backlash rather than more pertinent matters like A+E closures/Social care-fail/education-fail/disenfranchised disabled etc

Four levels of frit at work here:

i: the panic switch from no early election to election now, courtesy the EU requirements (as explored in the anthony barnett piece linked by the pf)
ii: the election fraud investigations
iii: may's unwillingness -- inability -- to field confrontation or surprise
iv: just six weeks

TM is a brittle figure and history will not judge her well, but so far her tendency to lunge towards quite risky decisions has paid off -- partly because the corb-machine to date only has one speed, slow-and-steady. Which made sense in terms of refashioning the party and the left (this was always going to take time and the nu-lab strategy of placing all policy eggs bar war in the electoral basket is very much a reason why we are where we are); and also suits JC's own schoolmasterly temperament. And arguably -- in the longer haul -- would have paid dividends just in terms of the electorate being fkn SICK of electioneering at this horrible high level and beginning to be drawn to something/someone more measured… "Our opponents will bit by bit fall completely to pieces, we will gradually be seen to be there to take charge and reconstruct what has been broken." (Bcz I am old and tired these days I am drawn myself to this pitch; but I am also far too long in the tooth to believe that MY WAVE OF POLITICS is here at last; it never has been and never will be)

Unconvinced the corb-machine can be rammed into the high gear needed for a six-week campaign, to batter at these layers of frit. JC personally dislikes nastiness and has set his face against it; he dislikes "politics" in the sense of the opportunistic deployment of the quick-fire jab (many of his followers are fine with it obviously but -- bcz not "led" -- merely create a self-cancelling bubble-buzz of venom and contempt). He distrusts "deftness" -- it's a slimy professional pol quality that fits in with everything nu-labour stood for (and against all they lost).

And -- as ever in recent years -- there are nearly no labour-friendly mainstream media platforms now. The Mirror, that's kind of it. Undercutting mainstream media platforms by means of social media etc is the work of years not weeks. It's happening (and will continue to): print media is dying as we watch -- some of the headlines today are a symptom of that tbh. But there are no secret invisible levels. And no adults left to appeal to, who'll step in and fingerwag the wrong uns back into their box.

I agree Theresa May would be shit in a TV debate but it's not as if that would matter. The TV debates led to Cleggmania which lasted approx three hours iirc.

Amidst all the tedium of Labour infighting and centrist bleating the most depressing thing is how Teflon the Tories/May seem to be. Regardless of who the opposition is she's deeply unimpressive if not actually horrifying on every level. But the electorate basically seem OK with her and the direction she's taking the country in. I'm not sure you can blame the media for being useless at this point, she's the prime minister that Rainy Fascism Island wants and deserves.

apparently jeremy corbyn is goading theresa may about tv debates

The TV debates led to Cleggmania which lasted approx three hours iirc.

alternatively, were it not for a brief burst of cleggmania we might have ended up with a straight tory majority instead of coalition which could well have been worse for the country

Is there really much difference between the ConDem coalition and untrammelled Tories though? It didn't make much difference for a lot of disabled people.

The word 'cleggmania' gives me simultaneous giggles and goosebumps

alternatively, were it not for a brief burst of cleggmania we might have ended up with a straight tory majority instead of coalition which could well have been worse for the country

iirc the Lib Dems actually did substantially worse than anyone expected and didn't so much win a place in the coalition with a good performance as back into it despite a bad performance thanks to sheer fluky mathematical luck

I'm not sure May is particularly well liked outside of the core Conservative party and Thatcher nostalgists - but rather thought 'competent' and 'safe', something even centrist journalists have been willing to buy into.

The BBC and others uncritically parroting the line that a clear majority (which, realistically, only the Tories can deliver) means a stronger hand in Brexit negotiations is also hugely important. It's a softer position than 'crush all saboteurs' for sure - but still positions her being given uncontested power as objectively in the national interest. It all adds up to 'you don't have to like her but you need her'.

it's almost as if centrist pundits and lols are naturally small c conservatives

pols, not lols, but well played stupid spell checker

The BBC WS just played a truncated snippet of Corbyn making pertinent points about a lot of people being poorer, followed by a longer snippet of uninterrupted platitudinous waffle from May. I know it gets boring continually pointing out how impartial and shit the BBC are. I probably need to switch to R3 and Classic FM for my sanity.

didn't so much win a place in the coalition with a good performance as back into it despite a bad performance thanks to sheer fluky mathematical luck

ok but bear in mind that the visionary leader who allowed them into the coalition was one cameron, now little remembered: "cleggmania" only needed to have impressed him, a man whose depth of judgment has been laid open to all, for all time

the seeds of cleggmania -- cleggmania-without-clegg if you will -- have been present in UK politics (among the commentariat) since AT LEAST the limehouse declaration (1981): have probably been there ever since the labour party first emerged, as a fusion of incompatible class elements

Venn diagram of centrist pundits, people sending their kids to private school and people who think that 'well, actually, these days £70k isn't a lot of money...' would be something to see.

The BBC had Tim Montgomerie from Conservative Home and Dan Hodges in discussion earlier - covering all points of the spectrum from 'i am a Conservative who will be voting for the Conservatives' to 'i am a "liberal" who will be voting for the Conservatives'.

Lol 'Cleggmania' happened because the majority of people, who generally don't care enough about party politics to know who the leader of the LibDems actually is, suddenly noticed him for the first time and he did well in that first debate. Then they got to know him better and he became reviled.