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

Not convinced by this either. JC is always nice to people at least until they are nasty to him.

It would be a classy thing to do. But the best we usually get there is heavy sarcasm. Which from his point of view is a shame. https://t.co/QV3We3oRmu

— Carl Dinnen (@carldinnen) August 13, 2018

Thinking about BJ yet again -- his 'no comment' stance is part of his bold 'refusal to apologise'.

But no -- wait -- his column was, as it presumably always is, about boldly speaking his mind, sounding off, being himself. The fact that he is now reduced to (in effect) 'no comment' on the very issue that he was proud to sound off about, is itself a kind of defeat.

It's as though his column had been blank or had said 'I'm afraid I'm not going to comment on this issue as it might be controversial'. No longer being prepared to follow through and defend the same, supposedly strongly held, position invalidates the status that he has sought as a fearless maverick and shaper of public opinion.

Or, he prefers to get paid for his 'pinions

About £4800 per column, as it goes. After two or three weeks he’d have enough cash to pay for the moob reduction he so desperately needs.

good to have an estimate on that :(

Time to check in on how the Progress wing of Labour is doing and...

@stephenkb @AnthonyHorowitz Not to mention number of children lifted out of poverty is a far, far bigger number than died in Iraq.

— Conor Pope (@Conorpope) November 26, 2014

just WOW

wow yes but it's from four years ago, why is it suddenly doing the round again?

In fairness to the Pope dullard he was directly responding (four years ago) to Horowitz claiming the exact opposite but it does look a bit 'free TV licenses for Iraqi widows' in isolation.

stuff that could look like belonging to an Onion article, but it's some twat from Progress!

Boris Johnson: Tea anyone? pic.twitter.com/PoMdE9phlD

— Matthew Collings (@m_collings) August 13, 2018

Corbyn-Netanyahu is an ilx style flamewar

Dr Corbius.

I know, it's Sunny Hundal and everything but the fact that point #3 even needs to be explained to some people is extremely revealing about post-2010 politics.

So I think Corbyn is at that stage where he could literally shoot someone on Oxford Street and still maintain his base.

There are three main reasons for this, IMO:
1) Media
2) Brexit
3) Economy

— Sunny Hundal (@sunny_hundal) August 13, 2018

I mean specifically this:

3) I don't think Westminster appreciates how much anger at the economy and growing inequality drives Corbyn's support. Is anyone else talking about it? No. Not even Labour 'moderates'.

Meanwhile, Tories are hemmed in between their ideology and reality.

— Sunny Hundal (@sunny_hundal) August 13, 2018

he could literally shoot someone on Oxford Street and still maintain his base

If it was a Tory then sure of course.

Is Sunny Hundal bad? I do not know.

Well said xyzzzz.

Wonder if he was ranking them in which case Sunny is def part of the problem - economy is #1, and had a role in #2. The Media are 30 people howling on twitter in August. xps

yep, disillusionment with the media goes deeper than their treatment of corbyn, it's generational & unlikely to change imo

Corbyn could get away with shooting someone, but if the likes of Blair, Campbell, Darling .. started backing Corbyn and telling the electorate to vote for him with the usual levels of condescension they reserve for talking to children or household pets - he could be knackered.

Dr Corbius, I should said instead Corbyn twice in one sentence!

I actually think Mr Hundal seems OK on that thread.

This reply, on the other hand:

Oh, come on. Lots of people who find it impossible to align with Corbyn care deeply about, and talk about, and act on inequality. It's beneath you to suggest otherwise.

— Jo Maugham QC (@JolyonMaugham) August 13, 2018

they care deeply about inequality up to the point they have to take any action whatsoever to combat it

well come on, lip service is arguably a form of action.

It's beneath you to suggest otherwise.

he could literally shoot someone on Oxford Street and still maintain his base

Is he saying this is a good thing? I don't believe it anyway, I think Corbyn is already on the wane.

My feet are beneath me.

I don't see it like that either. I don't think it's about his policy platform, which is little more than condensed Milibandism. It's the sticky perception of authenticity, which is both his attraction to those who buy it and a repulsion to those who don't.

— Jo Maugham QC (@JolyonMaugham) August 13, 2018

It's the austerity, stupid.

Twitter has been good for exposing how poor the thinking really is among journos, but it also elevates these really silly individuals.

The only way we'll know if Corbyn is on the wane is if people were not turning up on any rallies and there was some serious internal opposition on Labour's Brexit position. Unfortunately for the press these attacks re-energise his base.

I think Corbyn support would get much stronger if an election was called, even amongst people that are not particularly into Corbynism but are seeing austerity affecting local services, schools etc

life through a Joylon tinted lens is generally like walking around on stilts, but tbf he hid campaign for the Garrick Club to accept female members.

for once I feel able to engage in the true spirit of this thread: people who proudly display their post-nominal letters are to be pushed into the pit

LOOOOOL

That's no way to talk about Matt DC !!!

bloody tankies!

I'm starting to think it's very doubtful that either party leader will fight the next election campaign, although that does depend on when it is and whether the government collapses before 2022 (which it surely must). Not a cat in hell's chance that May will.

There's not going to be an election for a while yet and, yes, I don't think Corbyn will be there to fight it.

Because he is 69 years old?

I disagree, earlier this month i thought Corbyn might be moving aside - but I can't see it happening before the next election rn.

Things are changing so rapidly at the moment, four years is such a long time. I mean four years ago we were talking about Cameron, Miliband and Clegg and no one had even used the word 'Brexit' on ILX.

Who can say? What *is* interesting is that a right-wing oppo research company has set up shop in the UK just this spring:

https://www.opendemocracy.net/uk/why-has-republican-attack-operation-opened-shop-in-uk

I don't know, I'm just speculating, I've never been a great fan of Corbyn anyway but there's no-one else apart from McDonnell.

Both parties have the one problem - no one to replace them.

Although after the exchanges we had here last week I was thinking that Laura Pidcock could be what the likes of lj could be praying for. Young, left more than centre-left but without the practiced anti-imperialism (and indeed could be 'schooled' into imperialism). To young to have any associations although as I think its more telling that all of the noise has occured in August and no one in the media raising it really cares about Jews or Muslims. Be far more serious then.

when I read a Jolyon opining i go thru 3 stages: firstly I want to take apart the dishonesty, wishful thinking and rhetorical shiftiness bit by bit; secondly i sigh and think 'what's the point? his policies are a product of his class and his upbringing and he won't change them'; then finally i contemplate whether shooting or exile would be the better option

the extremely poor Labour results in the council elections in May shows that Corbyn peaked quite a while before that.

Sorry that last bit is garbled and its more of a separate point to the overall thing. blah

I think the miserablist tankie thought police of ILX are being so harsh on poor Joylon today:p

Actually Labour don't have much of an offering for Local government and I wouldn't take it as an indication of Corbyn as leader. The polling nationally has held up to the general election and nothing substantial has happened to change that either way. xp

Turnout much higher in the GE as well. Labour did terribly in the previous lot of local elections as well.

Thing is some kind of major political and/or economic shock in the next few years is a near certainty and you have to price that in. It's also reliant on Corbyn not coming under any challenge from the left, and I think it's reasonably likely that he will, whether it's over antisemitism or Brexit.

I think that Jolyon Maugham has stated that he was brought up in relatively challenging or impoverished circumstances, by a single parent as I recall.

Nobody makes people clarify their upbringing bona fides unless they say something spectacularly glib about the victims of austerity, so the fact that he had to say something....