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

David Graeber OTM over and over again in this long NYRB blogpost: https://www.nybooks.com/daily/2020/01/13/the-center-blows-itself-up-care-and-spite-in-the-brexit-election/

Yeah there's a difference between man-in-a-suit competence and actual competence. FWIW I think Starmer is going to be broadly competent as an administrator - certainly more than a clown like Owen Smith. What he's lacking the is the ability to inspire, basically he's very very dull and that's going to come into play against Johnson eventually.

If the likes of Chuka Umunna or Chris Leslie had really been competent political players, they would have stuck closer to the leadership, provided support, kept their heads down, and they'd be in with a chance of the leadership now. But they weren't as good as they thought they were, shot their mouths off and eviscerated their careers.

not necessarily the thread but love this and it ties into Priti Patel yesterday denying media racism - part of the problem being that she is asked at all if she agrees it is there by people who know exactly what her answer will be (as much a problem as turds like Piers Morgan, who in 2016 tweeted that Muhammed Ali has said more racist things than Trump, demanding proof of it that fits their narrow little ideas of what it means)

- Phillip Schofield: “what examples do you have (of racism against Meghan)?”

- @SholaMos1: “That’s another problem. When people keep asking ‘what examples?’, it makes me question where have you been the last two years.”

What an interview.

pic.twitter.com/9yfu1njOKq

— Nadine White (@Nadine_Writes) January 13, 2020

wait a minute, is David Graeber in fact...... anvil???

Not enough shiteing on about 'idpol'

Big Ben: Public can fund Brexit Day bongs, says PM

Big Ben: Public can fund Brexit Day bongs, says PM https://t.co/iVNwJB0Hhf

— guy fieri 2020 campaign manager (@libbycwatson) January 14, 2020

spaffed up the bell end

Hang on.. but Nationalism from northern England Brexit voters is totally okay and normal, so much so we make videos nodding our heads along listening to it. https://t.co/0BJJqmk9G5

— Chardine Taylor Stone 🌹 (@misschazmatazz) January 14, 2020

lets go doorstepping and tell swivel-eyed nazi headcases who keep bottles of urine in their kitchen that their concerns are quite legitimate and fair but nationalism is divisive. It's almost like as soon as you try legitimising idiots you get completely lost in the mire of the damned!

That Graeber piece is really good.

But in other parties, no one without media training is ever placed anywhere near a microphone. (To put the matter in perspective, when the Conservatives tried to create their own answer to Momentum, a youth group called “Activate,” it had to be almost immediately shut down because members were caught calling for the mass murder of the poor.)

For most care-givers, however, these people are the enemy. If you are a nurse, for example, you are keenly aware that it’s the administrators upstairs who are your real, immediate class antagonist. The professional-managerials are the ones who are not only soaking up all the money for their inflated salaries, but hire useless flunkies who then justify their existence by creating endless reams of administrative paperwork whose primary effect is to make it more difficult to actually provide care.

graeber: he's good

classic spicy take right here

Starmer is a left candidate. So is Thornberry.

— Paul Mason (@paulmasonnews) January 14, 2020

I know he'a an absolute joke and a level 2 poltroon but is he actually a spice user?

I love his dunderheaded 10 point rim-job on Starmer - he's such a transparent crawler - he's beyond the fucking joke!

jesus when Owen Smith was pretending to be a socialist I think the Spiceman was employing a bit more forensic analysis on this claim, but now he's fallen out with most of lefty PLP.

not a huge graeber fan (probably partly bcz i know someone who knows him lol) but most of that piece is p good yes, up until towards the end

it comes apart a bit towards the end when he starts to argue that lawyers-as-a-subclass and accountants-as-a-subclass are merely more layers in an administrator class who "believe in the rules" -- when actually both professions are just stiff w.ppl extremely well paid for cynically knowing how to GAME the rules, and further that any set of rules is always in effect gameable, bcz it's always an extension of politics

(tbh i think this line stems from classic anarchist naivety abt the nature of politics: practically speaking -- alongside the ppl who happily tip the tables over and the other ppl who can build structures that improve life for everyone -- our side also always needs ppl who grasp the rules-as-they-are in order to be better at gaming them)

gonna tell my kids that this was gamergate

oh no I agree with all of this (the six points at least) by JP although they should all be givens for any credible candidate

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/jan/14/trust-politics-public-mistrust-labour

https://i.guim.co.uk/img/uploads/2018/01/20/Jess_Phillips,_L.png?width=300&quality=85&auto=format&fit=max&s=8f350f9ab8b8734e1a2eb9e6cdd47fc0

No, go on.

gonna tell my kids that this was gamergate
― que pasa picasso (bizarro gazzara), Tuesday, January 14, 2020 3:57 PM (one hour ago) bookmarkflaglink

lol

Much love to this thread, where my fellow hard leftists (and the rest of you) never mistake me for a brocialist!

Key appointments for @jessphillips' leadership team announced, inc co-chairs @wesstreeting & @OnnMel, & Tom Watson's ex-chief of staff as campaign director @aliciakennedy07 pic.twitter.com/AYKsU3stya

— Rachel Wearmouth (@REWearmouth) January 14, 2020

blair mcdougall AND will straw ? dream team

/goes back to ignoring this shit

For most care-givers, however, these people are the enemy. If you are a nurse, for example, you are keenly aware that it’s the administrators upstairs who are your real, immediate class antagonist. The professional-managerials are the ones who are not only soaking up all the money for their inflated salaries, but hire useless flunkies who then justify their existence by creating endless reams of administrative paperwork whose primary effect is to make it more difficult to actually provide care.

Funny story you need their votes.

Yeah I don’t think you understood the article. Also lol at the reason at reading this and taking offence on behalf of the class over represented in liberal media and on shit podcasts

What DG said: people who talk about the stuff other people do for a living are widely regarded as wasters/scum by people who do the things for a living, and the Remain campaign was over represented of the former (rather than, for example, EU nurses).

What AF read: MANAGERIAL CONSULTANTS DON’T DESERVE RIGHTS (a fine sentiment in and of itself but not the one being made)

Do you want another run at that?

Did you have another reading that makes more sense re: you getting huffy at DG not tiptoeing enough around *checks notes* the famously underrepresented managerial class?

My comrade, my captain, my king

Guys I was using it when it was https://t.co/HSHrbEpufc (for personal use) you can have a laugh at old ones. Most are private so you won’t see them though https://t.co/scEapLLUN0

— ((( Alex Sobel MP ))) (@alexsobel) January 14, 2020

Respect for our new management class:

Uri Geller applies for Dominic Cummings 'misfits and weirdos' job vacancyhttps://t.co/KcnW4LKlNn

— Total Politics (@TotalPolitics) January 14, 2020

OMG.

twitter witches assemble!

Bend him Uri

Lisa Nandy has the NUM nomination, if she gets GMB (as expected) then she’s on the ballot proper. Starmer has Unison, Unite haven’t endorsed anyone yet.

There was a shouting match between RLB and Len McClusky a while back, apparently.

I genuinely thought I posted the Geller thing - it's a week old. Sorry for the Standard, but it has the better photo.

Uri Geller applies for No 10 job after Cummings' call for 'weirdos' https://t.co/9AyN0FaTX7

— Evening Standard (@standardnews) January 8, 2020

gyac - that's a little closer, I suppose - I'm just pointing out that the 'class' mentioned is also feeling the pinch - not as much as many, but they're still potential Labour voters - drawing the battle lines between the nurses and the admins would be a silly idea even even there was a national working class consciousness, which it seems there really really isn't.

I am not entirely convinced by "the revolt of the Caring Classes" as a narrative, perhaps because it's under-developed here. As a grouping it contains proportionally more migrants (and children of migrants) than pretty much any other group in British society and that thread isn't quite followed through to its conclusion. (Also, the question about why Labour didn't benefit from that conflict, well, a lot of them aren't eligible to vote in this country). It's also the area where we are most likely to experience a skills shortage after Brexit.

Also the point about the LibDems at the end - Labour's Brexit policy was a disaster in the Midlands and the North but in the South and other metropolitan areas it served to checkmate the LibDem revival and cause them to self-combust. As the only pro-referendum party they would almost certainly have hurt Labour in those areas - either by taking seats off them or splitting the vote enough to let the Tory candidate in. (Also most Labour members, including its young activists, were pro-referendum, it had been on the table for years and would have made been voted through in a conference motion if there hadn't been an election).

Which is a long way of reiterating that Labour were fucked either way - probably the best-case scenario would have been a Labour minority government that would have been required to respect the result/deliver Brexit but without the Parliamentary votes to do so - or indeed anything else, as it would have been reliant on votes from the SNP or LibDems, not to mention its own rebellious MPs. And the defeated Tories certainly wouldn't have been inclined to help it over the line. The government would have collapsed in fairly short order OR they would have been required to sell out their Brexit policy in return for a confidence-and-supply agreement.

One of the very few good things about Brexit actually taking place is that it might actually nullify itself as an election issue and give Labour a considerably more straightforward path next time. And it's taking place very very early in this Parliament, early enough for it to be ancient history by the next election, so the Tories might not necessarily benefit electorally from it even if it isn't a disaster.

As a revolt against the managerial class, yes that makes sense, but that revolt is coming from other directions I think.

"One of the very few good things about Brexit actually taking place is that it might actually nullify itself as an election issue"

I'm thinking something similar, if Labour had managed win enough seats to form a minority govt they might have ended up wishing they'd lost with the interminable shitstorm they would have been walking into and to do deal with further brexit negging and deliver a radical manifesto at the same time time might have broken them even worse than losing!

although the having another five years of these cunts bit is a bitter pill to swallow.

So I've just looked into this and just under a fifth of people working in the social care sector alone are migrant workers, given the massive expansion that will be required in that sector over the next few years, that's going to be a serious shortfall unless as a country we change our attitude to immigration, and there doesn't appear to be much chance of that happening every time soon.

Also I would have thought British NHS nurses would have been about as reliable a Labour-voting bloc as exists anywhere, but what do I know.

Labour voting, yes. Remain, not so much.

One of the very few good things about Brexit actually taking place is that it might actually nullify itself as an election issue and give Labour a considerably more straightforward path next time

On some level at least people weren't just voting For Conservative / Against Labour, they were voting For Action / Against Deadlock. Give someone some power and let them actually do something.instead of sitting around arguing all day. I'm not sure thats really the democracy that people want, two builders arguing about how to fix the roof. The promise of another hung parliament wasn't the most enticing selling point

And it's taking place very very early in this Parliament, early enough for it to be ancient history by the next election, so the Tories might not necessarily benefit electorally from it even if it isn't a disaster.

While the Tories own Brexit now (maybe?), I can't see them carrying the can for any problems arising from it. Even in event of disaster I don't know the Tories will be carrying the can for that, I don't know if problems will even be attributed to Brexit in the first place. As to whether it will be ancient history or not, that will be for the media to decide

I agree with the article that says this is largely about drawing cocks on stationery while they're out on a two hour lunch again

but 'they' and their 'stationery' don't have to be real or current. We don't need to just get back at todays manager, there are the managers past and future to think about too.

hey, no talkin bad about two hour lunches

I can't see them carrying the can for any problems arising from it.

Yes, I know who will be. Women more likely to vote Labour and most care workers are women - actually no idea if the latter is true tbh.

The only thing that matters is the sweet moment a cheap Bic hits an expensive notepad. It doesn't even have to draw a cock, just the simple effortless movement of a Bic gliding into arena it doesn't belong in. Writing 'there' instead of 'their' is better than drawing a cock. That meeting of eyes, yes I wrote on that notebook was I not supposed to? His eyes narrow, he's trying to decide did you get that wrong on purpose, just to fuck with me? Do you have any idea how expensive these notebooks are, do you even know what you've done?

Yes, this is better than drawing a cock

'Most workers' is all fine and dandy for countries where elections aren't decided by pensioners tho

Whether it's a disaster or not is almost irrelevant, it's a question of whether the Tories will be thanked at the ballot box for having delivered it, or if people will have stopped giving a shit by then. This government's entire stated reason for existence will be technically fulfilled within two months of winning the election, that feels unprecedented to me.

Sort of, if you consider Brexit as a cause not a symptom. But if the EU was just the first and most visible of many symptoms of the grip the out of touch elites hold over the rest of us, well there may be more to be done. Donald Tusk, Jeremy Corbyn, Anne in HR, George Soros and Jenny at the Bean and Button Cafe have more tricks up their sleeve than just the EU.

It depends if they can continue in power as though they are in opposition. Trumps a master at it, can the Tories do it without Brexit? Who said it has to be done within two months? Who decides what 'done' means?

well

I'd like to congratulate @BBCPolitics and the @GdnPolitics for being the largest sources of referral traffic to the Guido Fawkes website. Top work. pic.twitter.com/LRdEYg6qAc

— J A Earley (@AlbyEarley) January 14, 2020