love* in the time of plague (and by love* i mean brexit* and other dreary matters of uk politics)

that's a good point anvil and i should've added it. it's not just that the appeasers of social conservatives or whatever euphemism you like are doing this against their better instincts for tactical reasons, it's a reflection of their own prejudices. Starmer loving the pigs isn't a front.

You could probably argue that 2016 represented the end of the line for politicians being able to say "you may not like this, but it's in the health of the nation and we know best", which had been stretched to breaking point from 2010 onwards.

Give me a minute while I get my chrome extension working.

Ok, I'm not sure this is fundamentally true (though its probably currently true). I still think the UK public would accept this if delivered correctly (especially when you factor in deference and vague yearnings for authoritarianism). Public really likes clarity! hates prevarication, and does on some level respect sticking to guns and cut the waffling.

It's the triangulating and changing of message that creates the mistrust. Saying "you might not like this but it is what it is I'm not dressing it up any differently, deal with it" can still work

Have to say this isn't happening in a vacuum, the increasingly rabid right has been dictating the terms of debate for a decade at least now and one reason why the left, or even the centre left, has failed during that time is because they weren't paying sufficient attention to what the right was doing and were caught on the hop by them.

I used to believe that if you offered enough positive reasons for people to vote for you, they'd overlook all that, which certainly seemed to be the case in 2017, but there's a wider problem which is that a lot of voters no longer valued what Labour could offer them enough to outweigh a lot of the other shit. And the right knew that and made hay with it.

One of the reasons Blair was able to start on the front foot was that he inherited a party with a substantial lead over a lame duck government, Tory failure had pushed voters Labour's way, that may happen again regardless but it would be foolish to bet on it.

whether or not they were paying sufficient attention to what the right was doing they were also happy to play along with what the right was doing, hi racist coffee mugs

that's where tactical politics leads you. a party needs to have bottom line principles so they don't end up dragged around by their enemies.

Let's make a list of people on the left that you would trust to be able to fix a garden gate or be at the wholesalers at 8.30 on the dot

Also think the left (via the Labour Party) just isn't able to offer voters what they promise. If Lab had won in 2017 how much of the programme would've been watered down. There is a sense that many people know this, or at least aren't confident to read or process a manifesto promising changes to then tick the right box at the ballot. The PLP didn't help.

Anyway, spend or else:

Covid-19 economic recovery will fail if public refuses to return to shops and restaurants, says Rishi Sunakhttps://t.co/DXOvH9lhlU

— i newspaper (@theipaper) July 16, 2020

The coffee mugs are a straight-up result of a failure to pay attention to what was really happening, focusing on the surface rather than the underlying reason. One side went "controls on immigration", the other side waited a year and said "take back control", and one of those succeeded because it understood something the other didn't, because they were the ones exploiting gigantic volumes of highly granular personal data. They didn't just decide on a course out of pure belief and plough through with it, they made it appear that way, but really they analysed and triangulated more than anyone else did and made it work to their advantage. They were more successful at the dirty stuff than Labour because they knew the game had changed since the 90s.

That piece is very good. I think left unsaid is the part where following the voters makes you look weak and it’s because it is. Preferences aren’t formed in a vacuum, and gay marriage would still be illegal if they waited for every single social conservative to change their minds.

Lynsey Hanley is from a w/c council estate background, so it's good that she is bringing some "legit concerns" "electibility" is a load of bollox perspective where people can't retort she's from the elite looking down on these silly little provincial racists!

I think I've said this before but you need to listen to people, any party that doesn't listen is doomed, but you need to understand not just what people are saying but also why they're saying it. The Labour right has tended to stop at the first bit and go 'job done'. It's the second bit that allows you to split voters off from rivals.

Shamima Begum has won her appeal btw, so this is going to be an exceptionally good day for any unwanted news to be buried.

Best thing on Twitter this week no contest https://t.co/BH8Q2ctqUV

— Complete Control PR (@pollybirkbeck) July 16, 2020

The Hancock ukelele is tremendous.

you need to listen to people, any party that doesn't listen is doomed, but you need to understand not just what people are saying but also why they're saying it

Could 'Controls on immigration' mugs not be considered an example of this?

Were they not a product of listening and understanding?

All depends on which people

oh nm I re-read and see what you mean

But one was a manifesto type pledge (of several) and the other was an actual campaign slogan (what was the Conservative slogan for GE15? anyone remember?) from one side of a very clear choice.

Prior to that Labour and Tories had a very similar attitude to the issue (immigration). It wasn't one, so you only needed to pretend it was at surface level, or so they both thought.

Not really. It's not listening below the surface, it's going "well, people are saying they want controls on immigration, we'll offer them controls on immigration". Leaving aside the question of what those controls would look like, the Tories are always going to be able to outflank you on that. What are the underlying anxieties and resentments that are driving that? You can't do anything about straight-up bigotry and but you can, if framed intelligently, do something about anxiety over jobs, housing, bills etc to break enough voters away from the right, or prevent them voting for them in the first place.

With the exception of one energy policy, Miliband's Labour tended to gloss over the specifics of this and bundle it together under the please-nobody phrase 'legitimate concerns' - at best that was ceding the playing field to the right, at worst it was giving them license to go even further in that direction. Corbyn's Labour did actually understand that but full on Brexit warfare had broken out by the time they went to the polls and drowned most of that out.

(xpost)

This was quite a good response to that piece. The left is small, it does not have that ecosystem that can weigh against the right.

I agree with this but it doesn’t go anywhere near far enough. https://t.co/dtVo4pPUXg

— Sonia (@yet_so_far) July 16, 2020

lmao idiot

Some people have asked for a clip. Here is the moment it happened.

For reference:
- Labour Councillors have the plain backgrounds.
- Mayor of Wandsworth is on the top right.
- Independent Cllr bottom-right.
- Tory Councillors top-left, bottom-left and center. pic.twitter.com/yTSlecQBKY

— Dr Rosena Allin-Khan (@DrRosena) July 16, 2020

CSA appoints @ChrisLeslieUK, former MP, Minister and Shadow Minister as CEO with effect from 1 August.https://t.co/V0TJEg1z81 pic.twitter.com/I5ecyqXkf3

— CreditServicesAssoc (@CreditServicesA) July 16, 2020

hey, what could be more consistent with a lifelong belief in social democracy than joining a...checks notes...PR front for loan sharks?

I will vote for CuK.. P. P. P please don't break my legs!

so govt now saying Russia tried to interfere in UK elections by leaking govt documents on social media

"Corbyn is Putin's puppet!" never gained much traction before but guessing they're willing to give it another go

Feels like straightforward flooding the zone with shit to me. There's probably more substance to the vaccination hacking story but the timing is convenient to say the last.

State of these cunts

Monsieur Zen is back pic.twitter.com/Gix08VNuEZ

— John Stevens (@johnestevens) July 16, 2020

that's fucking horrible

That was what it was like the whole time he was leader.

i guess i saw bits of it, news dodger that i am. he seems more vulnerable now somehow as a backbencher just trying to go about his day to day

I'm so glad he didn't have an unlock door fail moment. helping the Tories defeat him isn't enough for these vindictive bastards, they always need more.

So the covid testing kits are poisonous or something?

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/jul/16/uk-government-orders-halt-randox-covid-19-tests-over-safety-issues

fucking lunatic reporter there at cromryn's door

ironing my hair to get the Starmer quiff then turning the steam up and ironing my face to imitate his complexion

— Rosewood Shoehorn (@apiarism) July 16, 2020

"Randox was awarded a £133m contract in March to produce the testing kits for England, Wales and Northern Ireland without any other firms being given the opportunity to bid for the work."

i wonder who they know.

If you believe in shady Russian interference in Brexit then why would they be interfering on behalf of the party with a second referendum in their manifesto?

Easy for the right to play this as Corbyn choosing politics over patriotism (in an 'allegiance to The West' sense). Doesn't really make a blind bit of difference to anything.

it doesn't need to make any sense for it to be effective unfortunately. As if the Tories aren't the party of Russian oligarchs as well, they probably have been amongst the top donors in the last decade and most of these lads are subordinate to Putin still.

Feel sorry enough for Jez having to haul his bike through the front door every day and presumably out to the back garden. That is not figuring out how to live lad.

Why this journalists are harassing us and not asking the government about the suppressed #RussiaReport? pic.twitter.com/ImlaKseIqK

— Laura Alvarez (@LauraAlvarezJC) July 16, 2020

@pestononsunday had to go outside to take picture of El Gato as he's not too impressed with your guest pic.twitter.com/OOa6vWzeWU

— Jeremy Corbyn (@jeremycorbyn) May 22, 2016

no, the back gardens are small in those. this is his neighbour's
https://assets.themodernhouse.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/4_Berriman-Rd_HIGH-RES-5-1600x1068.jpg

always funny when you see JC's unkempt garden (left) next to the pristine fussiness of his neighbour's (middle)
https://assets.themodernhouse.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/1_Berriman-Rd_HIGH-RES-44-1600x1068.jpg

that's an extension though. Very nice room.

The government’s chief scientific adviser has said the UK does not yet have the capacity to carry out 350,000 coronavirus tests a day over winter.

Tennessee, which is a COVID basket case right now, is already doing this many tests a day.

Wait sorry I got those numbers wrong :/

NEVER TRUST ANYTHING I SAY, I’VE TOLD YOU FOOLS THIS BEFORE

This afternoon I spoke to Keir and asked to step back from the front bench duties as Minister for Air Quality and the Natural Environment but remain a Labour and Co-operative MP for Brighton Kemptown and Peacehaven.

See my statement below. 👇 pic.twitter.com/g1I8T7QLVg

— Lloyd Russell-Moyle MP🌹🇪🇺🏳️‍🌈 (@lloyd_rm) July 16, 2020

R-M stepping down due to attacks and harassment.

That's really awful, I don't even want to know the nature of some of those messages but you can well imagine.

Feel sad for the ace with the mace and I bet he'll be replaced by someone with more melt adjacency

Looking forward to reading the broadsheet thinkpieces decrying his cancellation