bojo is king, brexit is on, stuff is fvcked, tomorrow starts here -- new govt new thread new battle

look i know we're going to be mired in endless navel-gazing about why boris won for months but the real answer is right here

Met with #borisjohnson's team, gave @BorisJohnson a spoon which belonged to Golda Meir. I energised this spoon with #PositiveEnergy as part of my strategy with the #mindpower of the #UK public to ensure that #JeremyCorbyn did NOT end up as #primeminister! https://t.co/zK252H9RhO

— Uri Geller (@TheUriGeller) December 16, 2019

cunt can't even energise his own career so excuse me but

ssshhhh this is how your cutlery drawer gets ruined

even if the spoon worked it's probably not in the ten worst things he's been involved with

He originated the phrase "My friend Michael"

Gets on well with sexual predators.

These are both very good ideas, but given the Tories will try and rig elections using voter registration, Labour should have a dedicated unit with only one goal:

Helping people with whatever formalities are needed to get them onto the electoral register and eligible to vote. https://t.co/ff3alefJer pic.twitter.com/ApgZxzyteR

— epiplexis (@epiplexis_) December 17, 2019

this is worth reading: https://theoutline.com/post/8438/uk-general-election-what-now?zd=1&zi=ds2mbz7g

What was most important about the Leeds hospital photo was not Johnson’s reaction, but rather that of the general public. Obviously, the force of the photo, when the Mirror published it, was supposed to be: “fucking hell, the Tories have let the health care system get really bad. How can anyone in good conscience vote for them?” But online, almost immediately, rumors spread that the photo had been staged by the child’s Labour-supporting mother simply to make the Tories look bad. Don’t worry everyone, the conspiracy around the photo seemed to say, you don’t actually need to care about any of this. Caring is just something they’re trying to trick you into doing to get you to vote for a better world.

In this conspiracy, then, I felt a desire I recognized from talking to people far less enthusiastic about the possibility of a Labour government than me, especially the property-owning middle-aged men who comprise the Tories’ demographically most solid basis of support. A desire that also manifests itself in the belief that climate change is a hoax, or that every homeless person you see begging on the street “really” lives a very comfortable life in an expensive house, or that if your colleague calls in sick they must be bunking off. This desire is, simply, the desire not to care. The desire to be able to explain away all of the horror and suffering in the world as an elaborate sham, created by people more comfortable and less hard-working than you, in order to line their own pockets.

if germaloid crumpet got taken down by nonce with a spoon, how the hell is he going to keep us safe from terrorists?

two blokes of a certain age told me on the afternoon of the election that the child's mother had publicly admitted to the picture being a hoax, by that time i'd given up trying to argue the toss, there's a lesson for activists who want to use this kind of stuff to campaign with - in the internet age every image like this, every micro-story, will likely be buried in the fog of war within hours - i strongly doubt it creates any net gain

Had an endorsement of sorts as well, albeit in typically gnomic MES terms. pic.twitter.com/CW7tCqmUpl

— Lewis Jones (@fousadelier) December 17, 2019

A desire that also manifests itself in the belief that climate change is a hoax, or that every homeless person you see begging on the street “really” lives a very comfortable life in an expensive house, or that if your colleague calls in sick they must be bunking off. This desire is, simply, the desire not to care. The desire to be able to explain away all of the horror and suffering in the world as an elaborate sham, created by people more comfortable and less hard-working than you, in order to line their own pockets.

so yes, the question isn't that this attitude exists, it's about productive means of nullifying it or ignoring it. it's only the mirror image of the ultimate lie-dream of capitalism - our personal wealth and security is a product of our own character and endeavour, and the poor have ultimately failed a moral test. because it's unthinkable for "hard working families" that they owe their standard of living to fortune.

I think it's more the desire for innocence (similar I guess, the abdication of responsibility so as not to care). It's not their fault but also those who try and judge them or direct any blame their way must be punished.

which does beg the somewhat crushing question of what will create net gain if evidence of the effect of nhs cuts / the tories' plan to privatise the nhs / the prime minister cheerily admitting at a press conference to sustaining himself solely on the harvested organs of orphaned children doesn't xxxp

Just from the passage - yes a lot of people are uncaring. OTOH how can you read that much into 700k that went from Lab to BXP? We all know that a lot of the policies are liked even if socialism as a programme is not when it's talked like that xps

it's worth reading the whole thing tbf, i struggled to pick a representative excerpt

see the full adoption of “virtue signalling” which iirc originated with Neo-Nazis? To say both that caring is weak and insincere, reinforces existing attitudes and obviously benefits the status quo enormously.

don't get me wrong i don't think voodoo psychology is really the answer to any question of political strategy, what i'm suggesting is that the pointless of psychoanalysing the electorate cuts both ways and shd be a more important factor in how not to waste time on your own campaign than worrying about what the enemy are saying

sorry, in short: appeals to morality are useless

I know Tom's writing a little and I don't particularly like his deployment of theory, nor his basic analysis. This passage:

"In 2017, the Tories ran as an unambiguously pro-Brexit party, which sought to deliver Brexit as if doing so would be good in-and-of itself: they lost their majority. But in 2019, the Tories won in a landslide by promising to deliver Brexit simply in order to get Brexit done. Previously, the Tories had been the party of Brexit, but they had never quite been the party of the Brexit “Fuck You” (hence, in part, why they were defeated by the “Brexit Party” at the EU elections earlier this year). Now they are: they offer their supporters nothing."

Don't forget what was achieved in 2017 despite everything, or what happened in the two years before the 12th December.

From upthread but this is where I agree w...plax maybe? That an opportunity to be more 'pro-business' was missed.

Pro-business is, or can easily be, 2019 speak for pro-worker. Framing the nhs as a charity receptical can only work in the short term, and when that runs out...

Better to frame it like roads, or boxing

Tories in 2019 ran like a parent putting their foot down.

You don't have to like your parents to do what you're told

No big deal, just Asa Winstanley lamenting that leadership candidates might actually see anti Semitism as a problem to take seriously 😒 pic.twitter.com/hrLMnX8qtT

— Natalie Sedacca (@nataliesedacca) December 17, 2019

voted against the welfare bill and knew Williamson was an oxygen thief, she'll do for me.

hnnnggggghhhhh

Boris Johnson made his ministers repeat campaign lies about the NHS in unison during his first cabinet meeting since the election.

In a call-and-response exchange that resembled a school teacher addressing his pupils, Mr Johnson repeated widely debunked claims made by the Conservative Party about investment in the health service.

“How many new hospitals are we going to build?” the prime minister asked his cabinet.

“40!” they replied, ignoring the fact the government has only put in place funding for building projects at six hospitals by 2025.

Matt Hancock, the health secretary, admitted in September that the other 34 projects, which are expected by 2030, have only been promised £100m of “seed funding” so far.

The £2.7bn allocated for the six hospital projects will fund extensions to existing buildings, as well as new buildings on separate sites.

“How many more nurses are we going to hire?” he asked to replies of “50,000” from his ministers, despite Mr Johnson publicly admitting that the figure was inaccurate during the election campaign.

Pretty sure the pledge to build any new hospitals lost them a million or so votes anyway. A real howler as far as the base reckon.

Tonight 'The Brexit Storm Continues: Laura Kuenssberg’s Inside Story' airs on the beeb.

https://www.standard.co.uk/stayingin/tvfilm/the-brexit-storm-continues-laura-kuenssberg-inside-story-a4315626.html

This review makes it sound like it's not even worth to hate-watch it :-/

Interesting piece from, once again, Dan Hancox on, once again, Wetherspoons
https://www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/magazine/tim-martin-wetherspoons-long-read-brexit-remain

The new intake of @UKLabour BAME MPs-Breaking glass ceilings together✊ pic.twitter.com/PA2DWhGTmI

— Sarah Owen (@SarahOwen_) December 17, 2019

What the fuck is Dan Hancox talking about? every proper pub regular that I know thinks Spoons is tolerable at best, there's more atmosphere on fucking Pluto than there is in the average Spoons.

Probly popular in places where all the good pubs have shut I guess

OTM. Generally full of sad lonely old drunks ime.

... more sad lonely old drunks than usual, that is.

sign of good pubs tbh

I'd say the only other pubs in Town are quite moribund and likely places to get stabbed or murdered or witness a Paedohunter citizens arrest, but then again someone crashed a car right through the window of the local Whetherspoons last year. By some miracle there was a few cuts and bruises and spilt pints of cheap Carling but no serious injuries.

If I'm gonna be sad lonely old drunk I'll at least do it somewhere with sport on the telly

sign of good pubs tbh

Not really.

Central London Wetherspoons tend to be as ridiculously busy all day as they are gigantic. I've avoided them more and more since 2016 and persuaded a few friends (people who tend to prefer 'proper' pubs anyway) to do same in the last year for meetups desite the convenience, cost and choice. For what little good it does...

I still won’t go to them because the idea of giving that man my money is repugnant.

Xps - re: the attitude the guy talks about in the article, believing climate change, homelessness, kid on hospital floor etc are all fake.

His diagnosis is otm and there's a lot to be said about this.

One thing is - they're using our strategies against us, right? It used to be that they'd post immigrant scare story memes on Facebook and we'd say this isn't factual because it wasn't. Somehow the areseholes have picked up this response and now use it against things they don't want to see whilst still fucking believing in actually fake shit. Like we think of Fake News as something Trump would shout but in reality the phrase was first used against him.

The trouble is anything viral only seems to go viral amongst people who already agree with it

The new Chairman of the Independant review into @Conservatives racism writes for Spiked - see below for their “hierarchy of hate” theory pic.twitter.com/D4NxAZ5Aso

— Sayeeda Warsi (@SayeedaWarsi) December 17, 2019

wow, when even a centre-right pol like Warsi has the measure of how racist Spiked is, yet the BBC loves 'em.

oh and obv the Tories need to investigate their investigation into party racism..

Warsi will be pushed beyond her limit eventually, already seen her sheepishly admit in interview that she's sick of the Islamophobia in her party but she's too economically right wing to go anywhere else. Just hope she really lets rip when she finally snaps.

as much as she doesn't give a flying fuck about ppl on poverty wages in her dad's local bed factory - I almost feel sorry for her these days.

there's more atmosphere on fucking Pluto than there is in the average Spoons.

my local spoons is in a magnificent, and only lightly refurbished, art deco cinema, complete with a balcony filled with original seating, and it's still completely soulless and antiseptic

it is kinda remarkable how they can make every location feel like a doctor's waiting room, i dunno how they manage it

Best thing about Spoons is the running memes about having to climb up the North face of the Eiger to get to the bogs, impressive they build that feature into such varied locations

no dogs policy at spoons is bollocks, you can't even sit on the benches outside with yr mutt

spoons advantages: cheap, usually a decent selection of ale, no music. not somewhere i'd relish having a session, but have certainly nipped in for a quick one before.

I'm going to take some time off from this thread, as I'm taking a some time off from uk politics in general (a luxury i have, seeing as i don't actually live in the uk) for the sake of my mental health.

good luck, uk. i'll be back to moan in a month or two

take it easy jim, be well