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

obv that moment when he offered Putin out on live tv wasn't an isolated "shit the bed" moment, but pretty much his f/t m.o.

Not to mention the owl thing. I forgotten what it was exactly but I assume it's on this thread somewhere.

lol at Raab's cake and eat it speech. can hear the hand wringing in brussels from over here.

https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/scottish-news/alex-salmond-reported-cops-over-13129661.amp?__twitter_impression=true

Scottish Government conducts investigation into the former First Minister over two sexual assualt allegations and finds sufficient evidence to pass the file to Police Scotland.

Salmons sues the Scottish Government for applying rules that weren't brought in until after he left office.

arsehole

I think reading between the lines (of the long winded windbag's response here), the RT presenter might be a bit full of shit and completely guilty in this case.

Technically correct, the *best* kind of correct

As they say in Glasgow, YASSSSSSSSSSSSS!

It all snacks a bit of what happened with Keith O'Brien.

"How dare you say that about me, I'll sue! I would never do such a thing! Wait, who was it?"
<reads names>
"It's a fair cop."

Today's going to be a fucking humdinger for fans of 'he's on our side so it doesn't matter' political Twitter.

Also for people with good jobs and secure housing to declare themselves ‘politically homeless’ which seems to me to be a tone-deaf way to express party political alienation when they’re passing dozens of rough sleepers in the street each day. Tactless.

I don't see how the LibDems don't represent these ppl, but these melts are very self-deluding creatures and seem more concerned with Corbyn blocking at all costs, rather than than any discernible ideological stance.

melts and self-deluding yes but even they recognise the uselessness of the libdems

aye, it would take some strong drugs to start believing the libdems are useful! But they are backing a 2nd ref and have a manifesto which probably wouldn't be radically different to whatever team Yvette Cooper was planning in '15.

Also for people with good jobs and secure housing to declare themselves ‘politically homeless’ which seems to me to be a tone-deaf way to express party political alienation when they’re passing dozens of rough sleepers in the street each day. Tactless.

― suzy, Friday, August 24, 2018 8:44 AM (fifty-two minutes ago) Bookmark

OTM, I think the journo Solomon Hughes made a similar point recently. Fine to be a centrist melt, that's up to you, but stop whining on about how that hurts you to the bottom of your heart and there's no one who will ~understand your pain~

And +1 Suzy's point that ppl like Lineker declaring themselves "politically homeless" in an era where no gov dept is counting how many homeless ppl are dying on the streets, is some next level vulgarity.

That ‘heavy heart’ thing (apart from being a massive clunking cliché) is a bit OH PLEASE too.

Thing is the Lib Dems are really ripe for infiltration and takeover and somehow making less useless. I think the issue is that the brand is so comprehensively trashed that no one wants to be associated with it.

A really wacky idea that would probably improve the country immeasurably in the long run would be for all these hundreds of thousands of destitute centrists to infiltrate the Tories. If their membership is as low as its rumoured to be it would be pretty easy and it would offset the threat of infiltration by the actual far right. But it would be career suicide for anyone to attempt it.

Stephen Bush's analysis that a centrist party might actually hurt the Tories more than Labour was reasonably convincing yesterday.

god bless you Matt and the idea that there's a possible "not useless" version of the Lib Dems

I said "less useless".

Stephen Bush's analysis that a centrist party might actually hurt the Tories more than Labour was reasonably convincing yesterday

"Labour do have things to worry about as far as their 2017 coalition goes: in my view, they should be more worried than they are that around a third of their 2017 vote is not keen on Jeremy Corbyn. It’s not certain that in a close election, this group will stay with Labour: they might stay home or vote for someone else, and either is potentially disastrous for that party’s hopes in 2022. Labour’s central priority should be getting more people to see Corbyn as a Prime Minister-in-waiting.
But the other thing about this group is that they are, on the whole, Leavers not Remainers. So it is hard to see how this new, anti-Brexit party becomes the default second home for these votes."

Is there any evidence for that?

doesn't affect yr query but that actual quote is from a piece bush wrote in april, not the one he wrote yesterday

i'm assuming the reading comes from a breakdown of preferences in a post-election poll (or polls), an area bush is on the whole smart on rather than bad at -- but yes, he doesn't actually point at what he's resting the claim on

Ah, have you got a link to what he wrote yesterday?

https://www.newstatesman.com/politics/uk/2018/08/labour-party-split-inevitable-corbyn-MPs I suspect

Don't think so - that doesn't say anything about how "a centrist party might actually hurt the Tories more than Labour"

https://www.newstatesman.com/politics/elections/2018/08/don-t-be-so-certain-new-party-would-hurt-labour-more-tories

it's this one!

https://www.ft.com/content/4f0ea43e-a77e-11e8-926a-7342fe5e173f

xp Oh yeah fair point

Gah. I've now hit my limit of four free articles per month and can't read it.

Also I know xyzzzz__ posted the link to the Guardian article about the new new new party on Monday, but I don't think anyone mentioned this gem:

The final piece of the puzzle is the question of the Lib Dems, the original centrist, alternative party that is still struggling in the polls. The party is “ripe for entryism, which we’re not totally against”, one source said.

'guys, we believe in nothing and we know no-one cares about us, let's just throw open the doors and see what happens'

it would beyond outrageous to end-run the NS monthly limit by using safari's private window, as found in the "file" column

Looking forward to Britain's Got Centrists with acid-tongued judge Simon Hughes

The NS thing is full of bugs anyway: four a month from FB, four a month from Twitter app, four a month from Twitter on normal mobile, probably four a month linked from here and four a month direct from the site. I haven’t missed anything from Stephen Bush and he is VERY prolific.

xps - OK, I definitely won't do that then, Mark

missed this yesterday:

A curious fact emerged in the pile of technical documents the U.K. government put together should it crash out of the European Union without a deal: a shortage of sperm.

It came to light that the country imports donated sperm, primarily from commercial sperm banks in the U.S. (4,000 samples) and Denmark (3,000 samples). This detail was included in the document dealing with the quality and safety of organs if there’s no Brexit deal.

What happens after March 2019, should things not go as hoped? There will be more red tape. The U.K. would become a “third country” so U.K. importers need “new written agreements” with the relevant fertility clinics.

feeling pretty smug now about my decision to keep my vital essences in jars under the bed these last 25 years

I sense a business opportunity

I'm sure we'll be able to replenish our depleted sperm banks with contributions from India and China, it's a big wide world out there and, frankly, the EU needs our sperm more than we need theirs.

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2018/aug/24/chuka-umuna-slams-talk-of-breakaway-party-as-false-news

Chuka Umuna introduces his new supermarket own brand version of "fake news"

“The summer holidays are supposed to be magical times for children. It’s a chance to be with friends and family and create memories that can last a lifetime. For too many families, it has been a miserable existence, living in inappropriate conditions as they experience the sharp end of our national housing shortage.

“Councils are currently housing almost 123,000 children experiencing homelessness, which not only has hugely negative impact on their young lives but creates an unsustainable position for local councils, as they experience spiralling housing costs without the tools and resources to deliver the homes their residents need.

“It’s crucial that we take the serious measures that are needed to get towards our collective ambition to end homelessness outright. The Government needs to ensure all councils are able to borrow to build the new homes that are needed to address our housing shortage, and adapt welfare reforms to prevent people from losing their home where possible.”

^^^

This major crisis was already coming under the last Labour government, but has been much exacerbated in the last 8 years by the Conservative party's complete ideological opposition to building new social housing (as opposed to NewLabour's assertion that everybody was middle class now, so they had become passe) and of course the wonderful UC reforms that make work pay etc... The response to this story on R4 this morning was that they are pumping billions into lolfordable housing schemes and some weak jackanory sauce that Local Authorities have an option to borrow money to build more lolfordable air-castles for people who don't register to vote because they are constantly busy + one step away from living on the street.

I’ve been reading conservatives for a year now saying that this is the one area where the Market is fucking useless, and the government must step in - and still here we are.

Also sound of muffled crying and laughing repeating:

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/news/no-deal-brexit-uk-trading-wto-under-wto-rules-not-realistic-roberto-azevedo-a8505946.html

Xp Mass homelessness is the intended outcome of government policies though, and an unfettered free market is certainly good for achieving that.

Wonga apparently about to go tits up. So there's some good news around.

It's good that they're dying but - if I could sound a note of caution - they exist because there's a massive need out there, and I mean absolute need. I'm not sure that many of their customers will necessary find themselves in better hands if companies like Wonga go out of existence. Not sure what the realistic answer to that is under existing political conditions tho.

One of the guys responsible for setting up Wonga is now an artist btw.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jonty_Hurwitz

So if you ever come across any of his art, smash it to smithereens and grind it to dust.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/BCSk3vbCUAABJOw.jpg

quite profound

whatev

he doesn't seem like a classic rich kid waster/pretentious talent-less wank stain at all!