SV you know i'm not agreeing with him, just looking at how this stuff will be played as tactics. It won't be wholly ineffective.
No, of course - just that it might have landed better from May, for example.
― ShariVari, Wednesday, 10 June 2020 14:00 (three years ago) link
maybe whoever takes over when Johnson carks it will have more moral no i can't do it straight-faced
― rolling keyring (Noodle Vague), Wednesday, 10 June 2020 14:06 (three years ago) link
Starmer is currently only one percentage point behind Johnson on the "who would make the best Prime Minister?" question. That's the thing they should feel rattled about because it tends to be a decent predictor of the next election. Labour had reasonable poll leads under Miliband and at times had a slight one under Corbyn but at no point did either leader come close to matching up with Cameron, May or Johnson on that question.
So yes they're going to start getting personal with him soon. So far Starmer's approach seems to be to try and keep at arm's length anything that might be used against him when the Tories shift back into culture war mode but "lawyer from London" isn't really something he can make go away. Question is how many people will care or be influenced by that.
― Matt DC, Wednesday, 10 June 2020 14:09 (three years ago) link
If it’s true that elections are decided on what people think a party’s going to do next rather than what’s it’s done before, it won’t matter. Johnson being a sleazy journalist didn’t matter for the same reason - a lot of people arguably voted because he was going to GBD
― stet, Wednesday, 10 June 2020 14:17 (three years ago) link
I don't think people have ever really considered Johnson to be just a journalist, or at least not for a long time, his brand has been much bigger than that for 15 years or so at least.
― Matt DC, Wednesday, 10 June 2020 14:22 (three years ago) link
i'm not much of a believer in tactics or optics as influencers of opinion but maybe the one area where it works is if voters trust you to *do* something, as anvil often points out ;-)
in that case Starmzy probably needs to avoid getting a rep for being all things to all people, tho again who's to say he'll ever get a shot at a general election?
― rolling keyring (Noodle Vague), Wednesday, 10 June 2020 14:22 (three years ago) link
Probably the single biggest reason behind the collapse in the government's ratings is that voters are losing faith in the government's ability to do anything and particularly to protect them in a crisis. It's one of the reasons why Rishi Sunak (spray the fucking money around quickly) is more popular than Matt Hancock (fail to have anything in place and working months after you said you would). Johnson is probably taking more of the hit from the latter than he is feeling the benefit of the former right now.
― Matt DC, Wednesday, 10 June 2020 14:40 (three years ago) link
xpvery disappointing to have read that post as "who's to say Starmzy won't get shot" on my rain-wet phone, only to get home and see I'd misread it!
― calzino, Wednesday, 10 June 2020 14:42 (three years ago) link
Look away now Calz:
'Starmer can chair a meeting. He can draft a minute. He can lead a team. He can hold a press conference. He can stay calm in an interview. Those skills look simple, but they’re not, and they’re vital.' @gsoh31 on the breadth of Sir Keir Starmer's potential https://t.co/nkxtholWy1— British GQ (@BritishGQ) June 10, 2020
Generally worrying if the best you can say about a future PM is stuff that i can do too.
― ShariVari, Wednesday, 10 June 2020 14:53 (three years ago) link
https://thumbs.gfycat.com/MisguidedWeightyHen-small.gif
― Subverted by buggery (Tom D.), Wednesday, 10 June 2020 14:58 (three years ago) link
fuck me i've got a shot at the leadership
― rolling keyring (Noodle Vague), Wednesday, 10 June 2020 15:02 (three years ago) link
British GQ, the home of progressive politics in the UK
― rolling keyring (Noodle Vague), Wednesday, 10 June 2020 15:03 (three years ago) link
"He can draft a minute" is genuinely incredible stuff.
― Matt DC, Wednesday, 10 June 2020 15:04 (three years ago) link
he can hold a pen in his hand, pensively studying some legal documents on his desk while jerking off with the other hand.. he's a fucking miracle!
― calzino, Wednesday, 10 June 2020 15:05 (three years ago) link
I can cook dinner and tea at the same time pal, so get fucked!
― calzino, Wednesday, 10 June 2020 15:06 (three years ago) link
Lads GQ, bestowers of Politician Of The Year on Rory Stewart last year for his many many achievements, are not easily impressed.
― nashwan, Wednesday, 10 June 2020 15:09 (three years ago) link
Rory Stewart can make a cup of tea in Dari tbfttm
― rolling keyring (Noodle Vague), Wednesday, 10 June 2020 15:17 (three years ago) link
which is the most difficult language to master? Dari or the often arcane and oblique language of the barrister, sometimes known by laypersons as Wanker-ese.
― calzino, Wednesday, 10 June 2020 15:20 (three years ago) link
Johnson doing the presser this afternoon, some more announcements incoming
― stet, Wednesday, 10 June 2020 15:26 (three years ago) link
it's PUB DEATH TIME
― rolling keyring (Noodle Vague), Wednesday, 10 June 2020 15:26 (three years ago) link
Meanwhile Neil Ferguson is fucking it up for them in ctte: "earlier lockdown would have prevented half of the deaths".
― stet, Wednesday, 10 June 2020 15:27 (three years ago) link
so that means they saved 30,000 people? yay!
― rolling keyring (Noodle Vague), Wednesday, 10 June 2020 15:32 (three years ago) link
Literally a week earlier would have prevented 50% of deaths. Fucking hell.
― Matt DC, Wednesday, 10 June 2020 15:33 (three years ago) link
and now they can't play the man and dismiss this as coming from mr lockdown-breaker, either
― stet, Wednesday, 10 June 2020 15:36 (three years ago) link
the current line appears to be "if we hadn't acted it would have been even worse so fu"
― stet, Wednesday, 10 June 2020 15:37 (three years ago) link
look we could have seen 470,000 more deaths in the uk so stfu
― Prosecutor Bradley Tankerton (bizarro gazzara), Wednesday, 10 June 2020 15:38 (three years ago) link
Ferguson: "The policy has always been to protect care homes... the policy was always clear...the problem-this is not unique to this country-was that the policy simply failed to be enacted, at least until v recently."Doesn't sound much like a "protective ring" as Hancock says...— Lewis Goodall (@lewis_goodall) June 10, 2020
― stet, Wednesday, 10 June 2020 15:41 (three years ago) link
have seen more effective iterations of "protective ring" on 80's era Catholic altar-boys ... never mind.
― calzino, Wednesday, 10 June 2020 15:53 (three years ago) link
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-52993734
the UK's coronavirus epidemic did not have one origin - but at least 1,356 origins. On each of those occasions somebody brought the infection into the UK from abroad and the virus began to spread as a result.
Good job we quarantined our little island before things really kicked off
― BRAVE THE AFRIAD (onimo), Wednesday, 10 June 2020 15:59 (three years ago) link
European holiday season is going to be a real clusterfuck.
― Matt DC, Wednesday, 10 June 2020 16:09 (three years ago) link
he's brushed his hair for this one
― stet, Wednesday, 10 June 2020 16:10 (three years ago) link
bubbles, eh
― stet, Wednesday, 10 June 2020 16:12 (three years ago) link
Anecdotally, people are reserving hotel rooms across Europe - and the UK - like it's going out of style.
― Li'l Brexit (Tracer Hand), Wednesday, 10 June 2020 16:18 (three years ago) link
DIDN’T HAPPEN 🚨 pic.twitter.com/irqLV9Dm8f— The Trashies (@TheTrashiesUK) June 10, 2020
― calzino, Wednesday, 10 June 2020 16:20 (three years ago) link
good work, wish i'd thought of that
― rolling keyring (Noodle Vague), Wednesday, 10 June 2020 16:22 (three years ago) link
schools "catchup" over summer
― stet, Wednesday, 10 June 2020 16:33 (three years ago) link
Breaking News: R Number between 0.7 and 0.9
(ie same as it's been for weeks)
although boris has just said "we've got it right down", to a mere 39,000 new cases a week.
― koogs, Wednesday, 10 June 2020 16:34 (three years ago) link
― Prosecutor Bradley Tankerton (bizarro gazzara), Wednesday, 10 June 2020 16:40 (three years ago) link
A bunch of hotel chains are offering flexible booking, which is going to come in handy when more countries put up big NO BRITS signs at the border.
― ShariVari, Wednesday, 10 June 2020 16:44 (three years ago) link
Add Austria to that list
― stet, Wednesday, 10 June 2020 16:45 (three years ago) link
tbh I fear the Southern European countries will be sufficiently shook by the idea of tourism collapsing that they won't leave the brits out
― Daniel_Rf, Wednesday, 10 June 2020 16:56 (three years ago) link
Portugal have already said some come one come all.
― Subverted by buggery (Tom D.), Wednesday, 10 June 2020 17:35 (three years ago) link
.@BethRigby: "What do you now wish you had done differently?"@BorisJohnson: "We're going to have to look back at all of it and learn the lessons we can, but frankly I think a lot of these questions are still premature."Follow live: https://t.co/4sGQDLLTHi pic.twitter.com/EsO3tghtQR— SkyNews (@SkyNews) June 10, 2020
Fucking hell this is honestly even worse than it looks in print.
― Matt DC, Wednesday, 10 June 2020 17:39 (three years ago) link
boris in full 🤷♂️ mode
― Prosecutor Bradley Tankerton (bizarro gazzara), Wednesday, 10 June 2020 17:48 (three years ago) link
What's with all the #ScumMedia replies to that tweet? Is that some coordinated right wing thing?
― groovypanda, Wednesday, 10 June 2020 17:59 (three years ago) link
good replies to this
The madness of censoring shows like Little Britain, by Brendan O’Neillhttps://t.co/e8XCfpzdAJ— Coffee House (@SpecCoffeeHouse) June 10, 2020
― 𝔠𝔞𝔢𝔨 (caek), Wednesday, 10 June 2020 18:13 (three years ago) link
"Cancel culture", that's the new one is it?
― Subverted by buggery (Tom D.), Wednesday, 10 June 2020 18:23 (three years ago) link
[Thread]1/ The hashtag "Scum Media" is trending in the UK as some people rally to defend #DominicCummings. With democracy constantly under attack, it's important to understand attacks on our media. I downloaded around 19000 tweets from 7030 accounts. Some findings 👉 #CumGate pic.twitter.com/InBQ5hBlsu— Marc Owen Jones (@marcowenjones) May 25, 2020
Thought this thread was interesting on #ScumMedia - does seem to be a coordinated thing with a lot of bots involved but also a lot of sincere idiots fuelling it.
― Matt DC, Wednesday, 10 June 2020 18:25 (three years ago) link
Also straight up Nazis but that's par for the course.
― Matt DC, Wednesday, 10 June 2020 18:32 (three years ago) link
Cheers
― groovypanda, Wednesday, 10 June 2020 18:36 (three years ago) link