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

Kate Hoey next? Maybe she can resign next Thursday so we can all enjoy our weekend a bit more.

Spread the joy.

Hoey shd've gone first, she could've organized this rabble into a proper marching band and they could've left together in the manner befitting.

Yes the weird thing from the interview I read is that Field isn't going round calling Corbyn an antisemite. Even said the comparison's to Powell were over the top.

And he's said Corbyn should fight the next election as he has won two leadership contests..

Not saying what he's expected to say is his whole raison d'etre.

that's why in many ways Sheerman is a much worse safe-seat waster than Field. Sheerman is a complete nihilist who doesn't even do politics, he's too busy taking lobbying donations from construction companies etc ..to get into that messy business.

I'm not sure many people outside of Huddersfield have heard of Sheerman whereas Field is pretty shameless at self-promotion.

Guessing that a big part of it with Field is that he spent most of his career voting alongside Corbyn and McDonnell, including on Europe, and he's getting all the shit thrown at him while they're running the show and (more or less) getting away with it on Brexit.

true, the sheer hatred is a very local phenomena. And even when his racist tweet popped up it didn't even go national. He probably prefers being under the radar, because any scrutiny is an existential threat to his cushy life.

Sheerman's not trying hard enough, look at John Mann, there's a guy who knows how to get his name in the papers.

his twitter bio puts his cards on the table: "Not scared to say it how it is."

i think commentators like field bcz for a lifetime he seemed the epitome of the english MP as difficult Burkean maverick: the constituency representative who firmly votesd his conscience come what may, his continued presence a sign of the "unique genius of the mother of parliaments working as it's meant to work" and so on… it helped them carry on tick a highly idealised and sentimentalised (and small-c conservative)* box in their grasp of the actual and proper shape of things

*i'd say that -- as so often with small-c conservative things -- it actually basically shored up a cap-C Conservative hegemony, but actually i think until events propelled him into a highly unexpected role, corbs also comfortably ticked this box for most commentators… which is why he initially found the full quota of supporters he needed to stand when he did

Not scared to say it how it is.

why people write this when "utter wanker" would save them characters

Not scared to say it how it is.

Definitely fails the 'would this have made them look like a wanker in the Big Brother house?' test. See also self-identifying as 'gobby'.

I'm scared to say how it is.

tempted to start a "How is it?" poll but Old Lunch'll get round to it eventually

Frank Field says Labour should be a 'champion against racism'

hey if you ban immigration that makes the task easier

can't be racist in a strictly enforced ethnostate

xxxp well i won't be voting in it

New centrist party backed by LoveFilm founder 'splits before launch'https://t.co/qy8PuoeN2o

— PoliticsHome (@politicshome) August 31, 2018

I have occasionally been thinking about starting a trend where Labour supporters pledge to protect the Jewish population - called “never through me shall you be overcome”, or something. But it all seems so stupid - no one can rationally believe that the Labour Party are more of a threat than the Right, right? How can we be simultaneously accused of being radical PC, taking offence at every anti-egalitarian statement etc, while being accused of antisemitism? (I mean, I know the answer, because the right considers all acts of ‘virtue’ so be disguised self interest and so on). It just sucks - I would never support anything that victimised Jewish people, and I’ve met a lot of Tories who would.

I mean, I know it’s mawkish, and seems overly sincere, but it’s maddening that anyone would claim that I (as someone who joined the Labour Party for its left wing movement) would be a threat to my Jewish friends, and Jewish people in total. There are problems with antisemitism on the left - and I’ve always called them out, I think - but for those few people to be the focus of anyone who is concerned about antisemitism is ludicrous. The people in the Tory party, the people who give them money, the people who see them as a vehicle to spread hate: they’re the ones to be worried about.

(I’m also half drunk and altogether crazy, so feel free to be merciful and ignore those posts)

> New centrist party backed by LoveFilm founder 'splits before launch' https://t.co/qy8PuoeN2o

"United for Change" ha ha

United, For a Change would have been a better name.

This stuff is going to seem parochial in two years' time when every senior Tory politician is in Steve Bannon's pocket but it doesn't mean it shouldn't be called out now. I think any minority group has a right to be alarmed when hate speech against them appears to be increasingly legitimised or prevalent.

The right is brimming with antisemitism as well but Tory antisemites are a little more circumspect about airing it in public - unlike literally every other prejudice.

Like this guy who's behind the Sadiq Khan balloon, I've seen no coverage whatsoever of his anti-Semitism, it's all a jolly good laugh.

Reckon it would be quite easy to dig and find Tory antisemitism but there is a narrative of the left being antisemitic and the right being islamophobic when both strands exist in both parties. Too complicated though. xp

> New centrist party backed by LoveFilm founder 'splits before launch' https://t.co/qy8PuoeN2o

"United for Change" ha ha

― koogs, Friday, 31 August 2018 Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Lenin hold my beer etc.

Interesting ongoing thread from Ash Sarkar

In 4 days time, it's likely that Labour NEC will adopt the IHRA Working Definition of Antisemitism (text: https://t.co/VvI3Io9gYm) with caveats added to protect freedom of speech re: Israel/Palestine.

I don't think this is a good idea. Thread incoming, mea culpa, me paenitet..

— Ash Sarkar (@AyoCaesar) August 31, 2018

> I've seen no coverage whatsoever of his anti-Semitism, it's all a jolly good laugh.

bit on bbc london news last night. guy is in northampton and is campaigning on london knife crime. (the whole thing seems to be an attempt to sell t-shirts)

he also claimed that his use of hashtag jewsruntheworld was a compliment.

from 5:20 here: https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b0bghckw/london-news-late-news-30082018

and this got picked up by things like the independant

https://www.bellingcat.com/news/uk-and-europe/2018/08/01/exposing-past-anti-semitic-tweets-man-crowdfunding-giant-sadiq-khan-balloon-fly-london/

i hope when we're all dying of post-hard-brexit starvation a year from now we can look back and say 'well at least we were focused on the big issues'

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/aug/31/the-guardian-view-on-frank-field-a-voice-worth-hearing

Lol

The inappropriate response – sadly, one that some of Mr Corbyn’s supporters leapt for – is to suggest that Mr Field is an embittered has-been who was facing deselection anyway, so an unreliable critic of the leader.

Well done on persisting with this https://t.co/NEy9yskXpK

— Kate Hoey (@KateHoeyMP) August 31, 2018

Kate Hoey crowing over the arrest of documentary makers of a film about British state collusion in the Loughinisland massacre

'"Macron has a lot to answer for," a well-placed source said. "Every f****r wants to be Macron."' https://t.co/00nK6glgv2

— Stephanie Boland (@stephanieboland) September 1, 2018

after Simon Franks previous 2nd-rate visionary moment - creating the game changing business model of posting fucking DVDs to folk, and then them posting them fucking back. "Hey let's start SDP2" might be an improvement on his game!

lovefilm hate everyone else in my microparty

Everyone wants to be Macron, but will anyone walk the walk by marrying a woman 25 years their senior?

I bet Tristam Hunt would do anything Macron told him to do, well maybe apart returning some of the V+A's colonial plunder, but I bet he'd marry one of his old teachers if Macron commanded him to.

meanwhile, in london

These lads paid 60grand so 6 people could show up to hang out with a sexy mayor balloon this is my favourite self own this year I am losing my mind pic.twitter.com/DTMhMSphGT

— TechnicallyRon (@TechnicallyRon) September 1, 2018

They can always sell it off to disgruntled Man Utd fans to use as a Jose Mourinho balloon.

Stick to Economics, Mr Political editor of The Economist

He’s right https://t.co/BPtsWk33aQ

— Adrian Wooldridge (@adwooldridge) August 31, 2018

lmao

these are the "thinkers" we're cursed with

that francis fukuyama interview is quite good and worthy of discussion, although obviously its beneath the weary intellectual titans of ilx

Genuinely surprised you'd want to go to bat for Fukuyama

Should we all read it? IDK, it's nice out.

It's a toss up between that and a Trollegraph list of their dreamiest fascios

can’t help but chuckle at the fact Frank Field was included on the Daily Telegraph’s list of the '100 Most Influential Right-Wingers' https://t.co/jto627cURa pic.twitter.com/VjVupoeix7

— Jon Stone (@joncstone) September 1, 2018

proper and genuine titans of intellect feign to have read the latest Fukuyama interview and follow up with a witty "Bofa deez nuts in yr mouth, chump" type putdown to whoever they are having a discussion with!