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

pic.twitter.com/kb8z3RWF9G

— Ricardo Autobahn (@ricardoautobahn) April 30, 2018

lol!

Theresa May visited a junior school in Trafford today. Children were selected by staff to meet with her and those unlucky few were instructed not to mention recent political events or Jeremy Corbyn.
The Prime Minister is now scared of school children.

— Old Git (@toooldforit) April 30, 2018

https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/labour-mp-john-woodcock-suspended-from-party-pending-sex-harassment-investigation_uk_5ae74b37e4b02baed1bce7e5

whoah! Woodcock suspended and whip has been withdrawn sexual harassment.

It’s a fairly standard thing now - the Tories gave Charlie Elphicke suspended since November and Labour also withdrew the whip from Kelvin Hopkins around the same time.

lots of people on twitter arguing about whether Javid being the first BME home sec means there's a chance of a more liberal immigration policy - it seems like he's very right wing and enthusiastic about brexit, but less in a Theresa May, nativist, back-to-the-1950s way and more in a free-marketeer, "let's turn Britain into Singapore" way that isn't necessarily hostile to immigration? But then, Rudd's alleged personal liberalism didn't seem to have much impact on home office policy, so I guess it might not matter so much what he believes. Does May's weakened position mean that it may be possible to push back against her instincts on immigration though?

Incredibly naive of people to think that. Plus he had the following words for Diane Abbott, so...

Sajid Javid to Diane Abbott on #Windrush: “I am a second generation migrant too. She doesn’t have a monopoly on anger”.

— Tom Newton Dunn (@tnewtondunn) April 30, 2018

I read that Javid isn't much of a "details person", he might need to work on that a bit.

why does Lord Ashcroft end all his tweet with ellipses, it's maddening

We’ve seen that Javid’s fave book is The Fountainhead, right?

combined with this profile picture as well, like he thinks he's some kind of sardonic wit, taking a waspish sideways look at UK politics or something

https://www.conservativehome.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/Screen-Shot-2016-01-20-at-11.33.10.png

is that ridiculous "power pose" that Javid, May, Cameron have all done in recent times a Randian thing?

It’s gotta be the physical iteration of NLP.

Not sure if I'd prefer to think Hunt is taking the piss here, sarcastically gloating over his own longevity and regarding the idea that Rudd's departure really means a damn. Perhaps every Cabinet minister this decade has cursed themselves for not being given Hunt's position.

Devastating news for all of us lucky enough to serve with @AmberRuddHR. In cabinet she was always a true statesman who spoke her mind publicly and privately irrespective of the politics. She will be missed until she is back which she will be!

— Jeremy Hunt (@Jeremy_Hunt) April 30, 2018

https://i.imgur.com/KS6LxEc.jpg

it's so weird when a cabinet minister is forced to resign due to a scandal and their colleagues are openly saying they hope they return soon (or that they WILL return in Hunt's case) - doesn't this just make a farce of the whole thing? I remember this happening quite a bit in the Blair era as well so it's nothing new, but still

Resignation is treated like a sin bin and it seems like for 300 or so MPs in a governing party there's only ever around a tenth of that who are deemed worthy of being in the Cabinet over the course of a decade or longer. Even if Remain had won Liam Fox would've bounced his way back in too.

It was only 'technicalities' that stopped Jeffrey Archer's return...

I've still got a memory of seeing post political career Archer playing basketball on Wogan in the late 80's or something, fuck!

I've tried adding ellipses to the end of that last post and it was still fucking shit ...

that bad Lisa Nandy tweet has now been expanded into a bad HuffPo article:

https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/abusing-and-threatening-politicians-does-not-cure-our-broken-system_uk_5ae72d9be4b055fd7fce41e3

I'd tend to agree that the amount of vitriol and hate on twitter has a negative effect, even if some of it's understandable, and I think some of the online left are too willing to handwave it when it comes from their side - but this seems like a terrible example to use, and the argument that ppl being nasty about Rudd on twitter and the bigotry towards minorities are both examples of toxic political discourse is weak

oh ffs! That Nandy tweet was so braindead and rong and illiterate, it didn't deserve expanding on.

Don't let's be beastly to the Tories.

Nandy comes across as quite thick tbh

I think she's pretty sharp, but she also seems attracted to some really dreadful ideas, I remember she was one of the people pushing that 'progressive patriotism' thing, appearing at some events put on by Blue Labour and John Denham's godforsaken English Labour Network rtc

Rudd is a classic ministerial resignation, no? Your department does something wrong, you lie, you get caught out, you resign. It's the least-21st-century drama we've seen for a while.

It’s gotta be the physical iteration of NLP.

When I was working in China one of the high-ups in the company (an American business school type) led presentations on this stuff, and as a low-ranking manager I had to roll it out to my team. I was very glad to be able to tell them all (from the safety of my new job in the UK) when it was debunked. It was too late to stop me attempting, and horribly failing, to use it to increase my confidence in an interview where I completely crashed and burned though, so thanks for that Amy Cuddy and W*** D*****

i'd be marginally concerned that politicians in a representative democracy are into power poses and strong leadership and all that but ugggh what's the point fuck politics tbh

whoah! Woodcock suspended and whip has been withdrawn sexual harassment.

Whatever it takes - MP by MP, councillor by councillor..

apparently suspending him was a Jennie Formby decision. I'll get her a beer in.

xp that means someone sent Theresa May on an NLP course, LOL. But I tend to think that whenever I hear one of their ministers say ‘it is right that...’ in answer to some question about a constituent pranged by DWP or similar.

“Legs apart, try not to fart!”

I don't really know what to think of all this corporate psuedo-science bollox, at least until I've read Noel Edmunds take on it all.

Mr Edmonds can't come to the phone right now as he has chained himself to the bike rack outside his local Barclays

Whenever I have to do a speak on a film, I always begin by striking a power pose. Then I turn around, point to my name on the screen, and use the opportunity to shake my ass a little. That usually gets their attention.

I demand spotlights, dry ice and the intro to Back In Black before any presentations.

The NLP stuff smacks of such deep insecurity in the political class it’s embarrassing. Literally all they need to do half the time is stand there and not look weird and they can’t even manage that.

Pseudo-scientific corporate bollocks is the best way of knowing that all these people are mugs, and the teachers/testers/programmers see them as stuffed open wallets. *steeples fingers*

"see them as stuffed open wallets"

A bit like how China General Nuclear saw Gideon coming, when he was getting rinsed on the Hinckley Point C deal. The problem with people already millionaires in their 20's is that some tend to develop a lifelong arrogant sense of their own "special" predestination and uniqueness. Fucking tools.

Literally all they need to do half the time is stand there and not look weird and they can’t even manage that.

To be fair I've spent the best part of 40 years trying and failing to do this

Literally all they need to do half the time is stand there and not look weird and they can’t even manage that.

https://img.buzzfeed.com/buzzfeed-static/static/2014-12/1/12/enhanced/webdr10/enhanced-buzz-19746-1417454607-35.jpg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=42WFxAtoM-g

https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/tory-candidate-suspended-dudley_uk_5ae824eee4b055fd7fcf32b8

Should have just gone the whole hog and just put 'leprosy'.

A bit harsh on hepatitis to compare it with Ian Austin!

lol

- Pestilence

lurgy

that means someone sent Theresa May on an NLP course, LOL. But I tend to think that whenever I hear one of their ministers say ‘it is right that...’

Fifty virtual pence to whoever can tell me which go-getters' manual instructed the Maybot and many other power-dressers to begin sentences with a variant of "Let me be clear: <obfuscatory content-free waffle>"

It makes me itchy as hell, but perhaps I am just jealous, as I have just enough dim awareness that all my sentences are badly-phrased tangles not to claim otherwise even for NLP points

(I used to be sad that Neuro-Linguistic Snake-Oil had the same abbreviation as Natural Language Processing but now the latter mostly means "let's run 'sentiment analysis' on everyone's social media accounts so we can sell stuff" maybe it's appropriate)

Whenever I hear ‘let me be clear’ it is always in the voice of Barack Obama, so obviously the nerds were going to copy him. Before that, it was Tony Blair with ‘I say to you today’.

'i commission this to be inscribed on a giant stone tablet:'

Before that, it was Tony Blair with ‘I say to you today’.

In respect of the fact that [LONG PAUSE] I'm an evil cunt..