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

a *lot* of bacon-sandwich stuff was thrown at corbyn in the run up to the election (by which i mean goofy looking photos etc ):

I think this mostly had less traction in 2017 than it did in 2015 because both leaders were older and so the focus was different. May is clearly quite image conscious but Corbyn famously doesn’t give a shit about it and it’s one of the things that plays into his whole image of being unpretentious (if you like him) or a typical unwashed lefty (if you don’t).

One of my favourite anecdotes from the snap election book Betting the House was about Corbyn and Milne seeing the Sun’s polling day front page - they both burst out laughing. Miliband post leadership has taken a much tougher line on the press, but then he followed the party’s lead during his term which is why he went softly softly on it the whole time. Don’t want to scare the voters!

The main difference between the two is that Corbyn was coming in from decades on the back benches having supported a number of unpopular positions and as a result was much more inclined to do things his own way. Why shouldn’t he, he might think, he’d been elected by the membership with a huge mandate for being himself? Miliband had been in government as a minister and he’d based his approach on what he’d seen work successfully for others. They should have let him be himself.

Tomorrow's front page: Don't chuck Britain in the Cor-bin pic.twitter.com/43iypkcpwB

— The Sun (@TheSun) June 7, 2017

^ the polling day cover

Miliband being way more empathetic and generally likeable since giving up politics.

There's a lot in that category

Miliband is still an MP!

decent read was Betting The House, for something published only months after the fact.

xxxxp
Lord Hayward was predicting a London disaster for them in early January. And then adding a bit hopefully:

“The story of election night will be Labour’s success, but within a week you may see a coup in Haringey and possibly more coups in other Labour boroughs, at which point the headlines would quickly turn sour for Corbyn,” he said."

corbyn very definitely started smartened up -- better suit, better haircut -- during the election campaign, in a way that fit all the "absolute boy" memes very well

(i doubt the effect of these was huge electorally, but i can't see how it wasn't heartening feedback, of a kind he'd surely not experienced before)

I know, I meant 'front-line' but hey.

xp yeah he did and it’s a good look for him, but he still wears that suit that doesn’t fit and he’s a lot less polished than party leaders tend to be. As I said above though, that plays into his image in a positive way for lots of people.

Having to go by Leadermobile instead of cycle/29 bus to Westminster has probably put a stone or two on Corbyn so he probably had no choice about the new wardrobe.

from absolute boy to absolute unit

Two-Jags was pretty good on QT tonight.

Louis Two-Jags?

yeah, he took a question about the ILX metal poll.

Prescott dismisses microtonal experimentation as "just basically death metal wi' brass knobs on".

Put Big Ash on QT every week until she's overtaken Fragage.

The government will not consider entering into a customs union with the EU after Brexit, Jeremy Hunt has insisted, setting up a Commons fight over the cabinet’s plans for leaving the bloc that could inflict a damaging defeat on the prime minister.

After one senior Brexiter emerged from eight hours of cabinet talks at Chequers on Thursday to say “divergence was the victor”, the health secretary spelled out the government’s line on Friday morning, saying the way to a customs union was now closed.

The prospect of a damaging Commons defeat for the government now looms large after leading pro-remain MPs tabled an amendment calling for continued participation in a customs union – and said there was enough Commons support for it to pass.

Asked if the government would consider thinking again on the issue, Hunt told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “No. Because, if we were part of the customs union, we wouldn’t be able to negotiate trade deals independently with other countries and we wouldn’t have full sovereign control of our destiny as a nation.”

'we must have the freedom to flush our nation down the shitter,' insists jeremy cunt

Brexit: a play in two acts:

Today @Telegraph has a story on its front page saying the UK may ban plastic straws, with Michael Gove saying Brexit will make this easier.

It also has a leader inside complaining that the EU wants to ban plastic straws pic.twitter.com/lQ4cmIbkts

— William Wright (@Williamw1) February 23, 2018

I regret to inform you that Activate are at it again

Since Stormzy is such a big fan of socialism... when will he start leading by example and redistribute his own wealth?

— Activate UK (@ActivateBritain) February 23, 2018

should probably go in the Trenchant thread TBH

They're really, really poor at twitterlife aren't they/

The Scottish parliament committed, two weeks ago, to ban plastic straws by the end of 2019. As far as I know Scotland is still in the EU.

thats_not_how_the_force_works.gif

xpost

Leading Britain's Crusade

Thoroughly enjoyed chatting to @NickFerrariLBC this morning on @LBC

Do you agree that we should be able to privately express offensive views? pic.twitter.com/kiqsIU7dfg

— Jo Marney (@Jo_Marney) February 23, 2018

Lovely stainless-steel straws come with a natty brush to polish their innards

think i can guess how the Telegraph leader writer spends his lunchtime

lovely to see Activate UK rocking the same argument that Tressell ripped to bits 100+ years ago

Define "Privately"

Because it seems to involve posting said opinion on public areas without putting yr name on it.

Ugh, don’t know what’s worse: racist bitch Jo Marney or the sofa telly guest bookers giving her a platform (and appearance fees).

it’s the guest bookers

Yeah that was pretty straightforward tbh, those thousands of racists who'd do it for free

there's

Clear pattern. Seen it with Eddie Izzard, Anne Black and now Iain McNicol. Doesn't matter how long you've been in the Labour movement, or what you've contributed. If you're not a Corbynite, and didn't come in with Corbyn, you're nothing. Year Zero strategy.

— (((Dan Hodges))) (@DPJHodges) February 23, 2018

lol!

he also tweeted some centrists said McNicol was a red line that wouldn't be crossed, oh dear!

Maybe Eddie Izzard wasn't the best example to use there, Dan.

lol Conservative spokesman criticizing the Labour party's internal divisions

tbf on party democracy: a lot of members voted for Izzard, just not enough to get on him on the NEC. And it didn't happen because of sinister cultism or mind control, lots of people just can't stand the fucker and consider his politics way suspect.

that probably sounds like sinister cultism tbh, but I maintain that Izzard is a psychopath - I mean is it anyone's fault that he spent over a decade brown-nosing Blair and Brown and now has only 2 failed NEC elections to show for it.

Fuck the lot of 'em, don't recall any concern-trolling about longstanding Labour members when they tried to kick Corbyn out of the leadership

I was just thinking back to that moment when I heard the extremely condescending Corbyn profile on R4 when M Beckett became his unintentional kingmaker. I'm sure there was some mention of his brother, but it was academic because this was going be a 2 way race between Kendall and Cooper (some obscure law firm now operating above a shop in Wakefield).

http://cards.littleoak.com.au/197374_abc_bluebacks/029%20Howard%20Kendall.jpg http://cards.littleoak.com.au/196970_abc_greenbacks/lee_050_terry_cooper.jpg

fucking quality looking leftback there, at least in them days you got a week's notice if a player was going to turn around.

Iain McNichol also responsible for disenfranchising thousands of Labour members and supporters around both leadership elections, for egregious crimes such as liking Green Party tweets, but also keeping all the money those people paid in. Dick.

oh yeah, what an absolute tool. RIP!

i actually quite like some of matt's cartoons and also the comical little people he draws* HOWEVER this is also funny, as is the pompous response it has stirred up

https://twitter.com/horton_official/status/967159517556375553

*caveat: i will literally laugh at anything

oops sorry:
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DWwKcipX4AEhWME.jpg

no sad upper normie me:
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DWywdYWX0AAVhp6.jpg:large

I'm not what's going on here?

haha sorry: the telegraph's cartoonist "matt" is celebrating 30 years of being the telegraph's cartoonist "matt", and everyone (all politicians) were invited, most of them sending on a pro forma quote abt the high value of such cartooning etc etc

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/content/dam/news/2017/08/30/3108-MATT-GALLERY-WEB-P1-small_trans_NvBQzQNjv4BqqVzuuqpFlyLIwiB6NTmJwfSVWeZ_vEN7c6bHu2jJnT8.png

but declining an invitation because a cartoonist isn't funny enough is pretty funny.