the day after the deadline: can the union survive brexit and other deep questions

Struck by developments at local at Haringey and (this morning) Southwark. Scrutiny of plans is on the up, councilors going against people's wishes are resigning. The local elections will be important.

In some ways whether Corbyn makes it to No 10 or not is becoming (and should be) less of an issue than a left network and infrastructure that is set up in every corner of this island so the direction of travel is one way. XP = yes, Labour seems to be full of ideas like this. Building the movements that DO.

i really like the sound of jon lansman's ideas that momentum should be expanding its menu of activities, running food clubs and offering volunteer advocacy for people affected by benefits sanctions

yeah i was pretty impressed by the dsa's programmes for fixing brake lights and the like over in the states - 'good praxis' as the youngs are saying nowadays

What, Bennite dinosaur and loony left relic, Jon Lansman?

novara's ash sarkar was just on good morning britain making mince of piers morgan in a debate about the national anthem (she said wiley shd write new one), yes it's literally the least important topic ever devised, but i think her presence indicates a significant coming fracture point in who we're going to be seeing on current affairs TV (including quite big-viewership TV): we're going to be seeing a lot more young people, highly political, who've been chatting shit abt TOWIE and whatever all their lives, who will honestly just dance rings round the gerontocracy facing them. And TV will want them: it wants the young viewers who will come with it, and it wants the spark of it. Every move by the right to amp up the generational culture wars undermines their own media base (this is one reason the mail and the sun are crashing: they belong in a different time)

She rattled the PTB - there was a Mail Online splash about 90 minutes telling their readers how awful she was and how Should Of-type Tweeters found her repugnant.

who've been chatting shit abt TOWIE and whatever all their lives

sorry this is a bit random, what i mean that -- unlike the politicised youth of earlier times -- they are culturally deft and not at all unversed in or afraid of things that are popular

jon lansman who founded momentum and just got elected to the nec, several xps back to tom

sarkar actually said it shld be changed to "wearing my rolex" which I thought was a neat jab at liz

yeah lol i didn't actually watch it, i'm not that ill -- my wisdom as ever is supplied by the sages of twitter

me either, just paid attention to a more attentive twitter sage

well done us

I did see some fucking awful cunt who used to edit Loaded or something, talking about Carillion the other day, start a sentence with, "I'm old enough to remember nationalization..." and, I thought, you're dead mate, you're the fucking dinosaur now.

The Conservatives appear* to be mortally afraid of Corbs & Co not because they have more attractive policies (the youth possibly vote by rolling dice, or comparing Klout scores, or something else who knows who knows) but because they view him as an existential threat to the country.

"The 70s was a lake of fire from which Maggie rescued us" is not even a matter of faith, as faith is still a personal attribute - it's the water that they swim in (partly because it's the water all governments have swum in for nearly 4 decades).

So the youth are to blame, but largley because they don't remember the 70s and won't listen to their elders.

* Or want to appear, but to be honest I'm not sure what would convince me that second-level strategy is happening over there.

How are Labour's policies not more attractive (speaking around worries) to the young? End of tuition, house building program, end to austerity, etc.

a good way for getting someone to listen to you is to repeatedly tell them that you think they're all hateful weirdo idiots who don't grasp how great you're making their lives

he's saying that's what the tories think, julio

Sorry just read that post again..

Tracey Crouch is a new Minister For (the) Loneliness (of Britain).

I would v much like to see that Sarkar vs Morgan clip

They aren't worried that he'll be a disaster for the country, they'd fucking love that eventuality. They ARE terrified that he'll succeed, or at least do well enough that the country doesn't collapse in flames. In that case, he's an existential threat to the entire narrative the Tories have presented since the 70s, as Andrew mentions. As things stand, the Tories don't appear to have the self-reflection necessary to understand what's happening and why they need to change course if they're not to go over the electoral cliff. I'm not convinced that 'sound a bit more socially liberal' is going to cut it any more.

not gonna watch because morgan but here it is

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l0H-BykoktI

I predict that Tracey Crouch will deduce that housebound disabled people who have had their benefits cut, their mobility cars taken, their home help stopped. What they need is more platitudes about us all in it together, we are all the same etc blah blah ..

i realise calling a particular type of person a ham or a gammon is kind of bad not good -- body-shaming if you will -- but come on xp

I think you're describing what they should think, Matt - what I'm saying is that they've internalised that narrative, they see it as saving the country rather than defending the narrative.

As you say, as a party they're a little short on self-reflection (which is infuriating some of them because "biggest electoral upset in decades" is kind of a good time for that, but "Why would people vote for Corbyn?" is a question that their mind slides off).

Again I may be thinking what they _want_ me to think..

i think ascribing any 3d chess motives to this obviously flailing and incompetent government is probably giving them a bit too much credit

thanks for the clip BG, sadly it features too much Piers and doesn't get to the Wiley stuff which is what I'm assuming got him really nice and steamed

xp
more like Chess on a ZX80, innit?

anybody remember Scrabble on the Spectrum where you had to tell the computer if a word was legit or not using an irl dictionary?

presumably the powers that be at good morning britain cut the clip short before piers' most damaging self-owns

in that case why broadcast a show?

fair

just imagined a show a bit like The Prisoner where the likes of Moran and Kyle struggle session themselves unto madness/death

sounds good but i'd prefer more of a running man / hunger games vibe

The Tories game is written in Basic, you can just press Break and type List, and it's just 1. Be a Cunt 2. Goto 1.

what the fuck would you term that nine gammon-men matrix from the pre-election TV debate, if you wanted to track down a specific evolution of the meme that you'd seen recently (i realise i'm spoiling the surprise somewhat)

Tic-Tac-NO ?
Noughts and Tossers?

very good but they don't help me search for it

Fellowship of the Rong?

https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=angry+yorkshiremen+question+time&safe=active&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjogM_fod_YAhXiJsAKHbCtDHQQ_AUIDCgD&biw=1024&bih=609

here they are

https://i.pinimg.com/736x/a8/f1/77/a8f1779a362f1be307af95749bc21367--john-fiedler-jack-warden.jpg

really misses the deli-counter-colours aspect of in the original tho

In so far as there's changes with the new Conservative Party Chairman / Deputy Chairman / Vice Chairmen, they may well be entirely procedural - three former MPs have spoken up in the last week saying that they won't be standing again, which means that someone's asking them, which might indicate that the tories are actually thinking about sorting out candidates early - the last minute centrally-imposed candidates at the last election not only didn't do them any good but pissed off a lot of local activists.

Which might make a difference - they did win the election after all, and their Vice Chairman for Candidates is a 37-year-old daughter of Nigerian immigrants. But there's probably only so much magic she can make, as young relevant tories are in fact complete cunts.

thank you: that is the correct term but clicking on that link i have somehow lost the will to pursue my quest to its terrible next stage

https://i2-prod.mirror.co.uk/incoming/article10672838.ece/ALTERNATES/s615b/Screenshot-2017-06-22-235123.jpg

Pretty much ready to set off for Downing Street now tbh if anyone’s up for it

Armagammon It

Well this is timely: https://blogs.spectator.co.uk/2018/01/a-digital-toolkit-for-young-tories/

that's a deliberate spoof, yes? not joking

confused by seeing humour in the Spectator

nope, all too real

if young tories use this toolkit to build on the astonishing success of activate uk then we might as well admit we're fucked and pack it all in

Mr Lewis told the Sunday Telegraph young Tory activists would be given a digital "toolkit" of graphics, Gifs and videos to help them.

The Great Yarmouth MP said the party needed to be "very positive and proactive about outlining what we're doing in government... so we can enthuse them about being Conservative and... not just vote for us but get involved".

Mr Lewis said his focus would be on getting the party "battle ready" for the next general election and prepared for some "really difficult local elections" in May.

He added: "It's not just young people, older people are accessing their information through the digital world as well... It's important that we've got to engage through that medium."

yeah but the specific examples...Charlie bit my finger was the first one on the list, there is NO WAY that's not a joke