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

The Labour back benches, usually.

I hope never liked a post by the person using the ironic Follow Back Putin Enthusiast handle on my Twitter.

corbyn is a filthy communist, as is putin, who is propping up assad, therefore corbyn is a stooge for the ussr

i mean it's pretty simple if you ignore facts, logic and reason

somethign something backchannel to czechoslovakia

A national scandal. >> Deaths of UK homeless people more than double in five years. Human beings left to die in supermarket car parks, church graveyards and crowded hostels. https://t.co/Mqck26UCJt

— Frances Ryan (@DrFrancesRyan) April 11, 2018

if they didn't want to die on the streets they shouldn't have become homeless iirc

Lifestyle choice.

There were reports a while ago of Corbyn having recieved a "briefing" on Syria from a pro-Assad anti-White Helmets conspiracy theorist but they didn't gain much traction, possibly because the dude in question was the one trumpeting it and there's no indication Corbyn gave him much credence.

He's fairly likely to have some loose associates with extremely dodgy opinions here and the likelihood of one of those stories blowing up sometime soon is very high.

xp
But they wouldn't even sub them a one-way ticket to Dignitas ffs!

I think they've blown it with Corbyn, short of him being revealed as a PIE enthusiast, I think ppl are developing a fatigue for whatever evil he is up to his neck in this week.

The Times is reporting May has demanded more evidence from the US before signing off on any bombing, which you can take with as large a pinch of salt as you like.

Yeah, irony. I'm getting the impression May is not exactly in a rush to get involved in this mess. Unlike Emperor Macron.

I think they've blown it with Corbyn, short of him being revealed as a PIE enthusiast

i believe we've already esatblished itt that there's nothing wrong with being interested in news for professionals in international education

Fatigue or not, that won't stop them.

May doesn't seem to be shamelessly rinsing the Syria situation to look authoritative and strong, so that could suggest doubt.

One Russian paper today asks "Is macho Trump starting World War 3?" & warns that a US missile strike on Syria "...risks spilling over into open conflict between nuclear powers." Today's Russian press review. pic.twitter.com/cvPNMvxfNg

— Steve Rosenberg (@BBCSteveR) April 11, 2018

i hope she's taking into account that her government has achieved literally nothing of any note since last summer and is still in the process of comprehensively fucking up brexit, so adding a war into the mix is probably a bad idea

gotta balance that against all those conservative donors in the defence industry jizzing themselves at the prospect of sexy night-vision footage of their missiles raining down on syrian women and children tho i suppose

Syria is a former French mandate, so yeah, it speaks to a sense of French imperialism, like Mali did.

He's fairly likely to have some loose associates with extremely dodgy opinions here

every politician associates with people who have extremely dodgy opinions on foreign policy

Yes but only Corbyn gets attacked for them.

by a media which continually weakens its position with every new bit of rubbish

I think he should have sacked Gardiner by now. Couldn’t get over his cavalier comments about the border, and can’t imagine him commenting that the 6 Brexit are “bollocks” is doing anything for the party mood.

I like Gardiner, it was a bit careless of him, but what the hell - shame the devil!

Anyone shit-talking the Good Friday Agreement needs to go really.

i missed that one tbh.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/apr/09/barry-gardiner-good-friday-deal-played-up-for-economic-reasons-labour-brexit-hard-border-paramilitary

ok not good, but he always seems so decent on AQ. Probably not best measure of a politician tho!

He has a nice voice, I say keep 'im.

The Times is reporting May has demanded more evidence from the US before signing off on any bombing, which you can take with as large a pinch of salt as you like.

― Wag1 Shree Rajneesh (ShariVari), Wednesday, 11 April 2018 Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

If any of that is true it would point to May's reluctance to go anywhere with Trump on this, just too unpredictable. strong and stable

Getting in the middle of a proxy war between Trump and Putin without any guarantee of improving the situation on the ground in Syria, with Brexit on top. I don't think she wants to turn into a combination of Blair and Major with her hold on power as fragile as it is.

I wouldn't bank on her being able to resist any pressure from her own benches, especially when Boris Johnson inevitably starts shooting his mouth off.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3j_Z1f84Ps8

my dad is a tory-voting, telegraph-reading, jingoistic, ex-military, gung-ho, delusional brexit-loving lunatic and even he thinks that getting involved in this is a terrible idea

former ambassador to syria peter ford otm

the bbc won't be asking him back on any of their radio shows in a hurry, too much grown-up talk.

Sorry guys but there are literally thousands of batshit internet conspiracy theorists making roughly the same points as he makes from four minutes on.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/dec/18/syria-white-helmets-conspiracy-theories

'The images are faked and you're all having your chains jerked by jihadists' - well it's a good job Putin or Assad have absolutely no vested interest in having the world think like that, and that the Russian state has no recent record of deliberately and systematically spreading online disinformation.

George Soros. People don't half hate that guy.

Yes OF COURSE Soros is involved in the conspiracy. You don't have to be all 'YAY BOMBS!' to accept that there is some deeply unsavoury and fucked up stuff going on on the other side.

Sometimes thousands of batshit internet conspiracy theorists are not completely wrong imo.

It inevitably happens at times.

matt I can't believe your reaction to seeing a former ambassador repeat things you've seen dismissed by such authorities as a californian tech journalist is to assume it's former ambassador who's a batshit internet conspiracy theorist w no credibility

idk if someone has rebutted the points made here but I'm not sure what reasons there are not to at least take it seriously:
https://www.alternet.org/grayzone-project/how-white-helmets-became-international-heroes-while-pushing-us-military

http://zelo-street.blogspot.co.uk/2018/04/tory-grenfell-spinner-has-previous.html
Maxwell Woodger, Tory candidate for Queen’s Gate Ward in South Kensington is allegedly overheard making scandalous/offensive comments in a pub about Grenfell survivors, and then is asked to leave.

Maxwell Woodger - imagine the hilarity on ILB if John Lanchester invented the character of a Young Conservative and called him Maxwell Woodger.

I was thinking if you made some very complex Tory name generator software, it couldn't do much better than that.

https://soundcloud.com/maxwell-woodger

I can't believe there isn't an ILM thread on him.

Oh my goodness.

Woodger like to funk with me?

i used to love the ‘maxwell woodger and his tiny toodger’ strip in viz

a pisstake of Woodger the Doodger iirc

Dear Valued Cuntstomer: https://www.thelondoneconomic.com/news/theresa-may-sends-oaps-letter-asking-for-donations-to-the-tory-party-addressed-dear-mr-fingjoking/11/04/

matt I can't believe your reaction to seeing a former ambassador repeat things you've seen dismissed by such authorities as a californian tech journalist is to assume it's former ambassador who's a batshit internet conspiracy theorist w no credibility

The fact that he's a former ambassador doesn't make him infallible, and tbh when I see someone claiming that an atrocity was faked then yes my impulse is to assume it's batshit conspiracy theorism at best, and knowing Assad apologism at worst.

As reasons to oppose the bombing go, 'it will make an already catastrophic humanitarian situation immeasurably worse' is enough for me.