“I take my responsibilities seriously. I did not lie” - UK politics June 23 on

I lie awake literally every night worrying about the planet my kids are going to grow up on and then shit like this happens.

The way the rain is coming down at the moment those floods might arrive sooner than you think.

― Monthly Python (Tom D.), Wednesday, 20 September 2023 bookmarkflaglink

Imagine the lack of investment in infrastructure and a climate event combining to decimate SE England and crashing house prices?

It's all such extremely short-termist, penny-wise pound-foolish stuff, utterly transparent to anyone

Some of this could ostensibly be rowed back by a different government but pushing 100% EV sales back to 2035 probably could not be; you can't tell global car makers one date, then give them 5 years' breathing room, and then pull it back up to the original date

xpost I live in Stratford near the marshes so I'll be one of the first images on the 10 'clock news, waving down a helicopter from my roof

They're so convinced that this is what the general hard working family public want too. Not exactly sure why. It's probably going to please the hardcore Tory headbangers in 5ge electorate but they're not going to win them an election

Well the Daily Mail hailed it as FINALLY COMMON SENSE so that's someone pleased.

A summer full of catastrophic fires and floods all over the world seems to have resonated with people, just from the conversations I have with people at work. Plus anyone under 30? Forget it!

(xp) Yes, the Telegraph love it... Sunak has gone from (net) zero to hero overnight.

What the UK does or doesn't do isn't a huge issue, to me. It's too small. China is adding huge amounts of renewables this year and some targets are being met. You can see other cities around Europe doing things too.

It's not enough but I suspect things will accelerate globally.

There is a kernel of underlying reality to all debates about climate policy - who shoulders the costs? And UK politics is built on two parties both happy to disproportionately lumber the poorest with this. Of course that doesn't mean that any chat from the parties about hard working families is done in good faith, quite the opposite. But any form of flat tax is regressive and it's ok to call it as such

xp Yeah the manufacturers are furious about this, not least because Labour immediately said "no, that won't happen, we'll reverse that" (though we'll wait to see whether they'll stand on it)

sunak was on radio 4 this morning talking about it, but as soon as i realised who it was i turned it off so i've no real idea if he said anything even vaguely convincing.

did find this though:
https://transact.westminster.gov.uk/env/streetreport.aspx?Street=Downing%20Street&USRN=8400071

it's quite obvious to me that he has people who put his bins out for him

the four words i did hear him say was that the uk is doing more than anyone else already. british exceptionalism again...

UK is the second biggest carbon emitter in Europe iirc

the pure daftness of allocating quanta of responsibility for global catastrophe to individual nation states should discount those arguments at source but people like to wrinkle their brows I guess

really surprising to see all those good apples in the Met trying to subvert a murder trial

Not being able to legally execute young black men in broad daylight is the thin end of the wedge for them, where would it end?!

the MoD have offered military support tho so the streets will stay safe

this all feels very liberal democracy

Imagine the lack of investment in infrastructure and a climate event combining to decimate SE England and crashing house prices?,

Storm Agnes about to hit but it's missing the South East so who cares, trebles all round etc.

Jack Straw, home sec, in 2000 and Phil Woolas, immig min, in 2009 also called for changes to Geneva convention https://t.co/87PtCJk6pe

— John Rentoul (@JohnRentoul) September 26, 2023

See also Tony Blair, A Journey pic.twitter.com/xHmmUrxAHJ

— John Rentoul (@JohnRentoul) September 26, 2023

Rentoul pointing out that the Braverman comments that provoked such outrage are not that different from things prominent New Labour figures used to say. I don't know if this is encouraging (the discourse has changed and there is now more pushback against these ideas?) or if it just indicates that a lot of the people currently denouncing Braverman will shrug it off when Starmer and Cooper make the same arguments in 18 months time, probably the latter

it was bad then and it's bad now john you undead cunt

you'd think he'd be all in favour of fresh blood

OK, so now it seems people are pretending to be gay to get into the UK, says Bravermann

... and we've got quite enough of them already, thank you. Is the unsaid part there.

If I was an LGBT+ asylum seeker the UK would be far down my list of safe spaces to want to come to. I barely feel safe and I've got comparative privilege as a white cis gay man, I can't imagine how hard it is to just exist in this country without the benefits that background brings me.

It's not like asylum seekers get free choice of which country to go to though, nor do they always have access to the best information regarding the places they're going to. Anecdotally from my time in a detention support group yes a significant portion of the ppl we were visting were LGBTQ.

Community life is being completely hollowed out in this country. All there is now is endless cycles of going to work, coming home, watching a mediocre streaming service and going to bed miserable, skint and tired.

Shitehole of a place. https://t.co/pHunYWuG3R

— Calum Baird🔻 (@CalumBairdSongs) September 28, 2023

Just thinking this morning how Tory and Lab have always acted as a series of coalitions. Post WWII it was a lot of housebuilding and public infrastructure (Lab coming from a social democratic perspective; Tories more patrician) but after the 70s it's been mostly a destruction, which has accelerated despite bits of relief in the late 90s.

Now the consensus is austerity all the way.

a Labour Party that refuses to side with labour and doesn't believe in the economic power of the state, you've gotta love it

I've never felt any sense of community in this country; when people here speak of it I don't quite know what it means.

Apart from -- in a v small way -- when I've gone to a local library. It certainly was the thing that provided for me. Almost certain my life would be so different, and I'd be so much poorer without it.

I hope the younger crowd are somehow managing, but so many, at any age group, have dropped out of society altogether.

community is a huge nebulous concept that's very interesting to examine. i would say there have been times when i've experienced it, altho "belonging" is another strong, nebulous term. switch "society" for "community" and maybe Thatcher will explain the direction of travel in the UK over my lifetime

And people wonder why Scotland consistently votes SNP, shitty as they are.

great to see the prime minister of this great nation gearing up to go full qanon probably sometime in the middle of next week at this rate

Just the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom planning to make a debunked far-right conspiracy theory a key part of his conference speech to the nation. pic.twitter.com/vYF4tBceIp

— Adam Bienkov (@AdamBienkov) September 29, 2023

number of BBC phone-ins encouraging members of the public to talk about how the doctors' strike has impacted on their healthcare = dozens

number of BBC phone-ins encouraging doctors to talk about how decades of real terms pay cuts have impacted on their lives and impacted on the NHS = zero

Don't even start... do not, even, start https://t.co/qK8wvrnZo8 pic.twitter.com/QBnkScmbW3

— Maurice Nagington 🏳️‍🌈💃☮️ (@NagingtonUoM) September 30, 2023

lol, also, lmao

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2023/oct/02/rishi-sunak-commons-majority-in-peril-as-60-tories-join-liz-truss-group

Yes, the tories stand little chance of staying in at the next election.

But a year more of this kind of discourse will mean some people are so terrified of being seen as 'skivers' they will starve. I mean that quite literally + I can point you to cases where that has happened.

— Dr Jay Watts (@Shrink_at_Large) October 2, 2023

The dark lols keep coming.

So to summarise, the Government has just announced plans to scrap the biggest public transport infrastructure project planned for any Northern city, while taking part in its conference in that same city, which its Chancellor chose to travel to by plane. https://t.co/x45OU9DGhu

— Adam Bienkov (@AdamBienkov) October 2, 2023

Liz and the Growth Groove are getting the band back together.

Honestly, no matter how bad Rishi is, I can’t comprehend how shit you must be to support the worst PM in history for anything.

He might have to call a GE to make it go away?

i'd describe it as a fight for the soul of the Conservative Party but, well, y'know

Starmer will back Sunak

lol

I think at some points between the Tory leadership debate and during Sunak's time as PM, both him and Truss have accused each other of having socialist policies. I think with Sunak it was his CoL payments and with Truss it was her unfunded tax cuts for the rich. But mentioning the rich was a bit awkward for him so he just called it something for nothing socialism.

is this demented US-style rhetorical turn happening in other countries or is it mostly just this shithole?

When it comes to summing up what’s going on at the Conservative Party conference, phone footage of Priti Patel and Nigel Farage dancing and singing along to ‘Can't Take My Eyes Off You’ could hardly be more on point.pic.twitter.com/mSDiau2gGt

— Nicholas Pegg (@NicholasPegg) October 3, 2023

Thought politics was solved once that awful Jeremy Corbyn was defeated. What happened?

We need robust and serious journalism as the General Election draws near. Sunak and his team of ministers cannot be allowed to get away with demonstrably false claims like meat taxes, blanket 20mph zones and 15 minute cities where councils regulate how often we can go shopping.

— Matthew Stadlen (@MatthewStadlen) October 3, 2023

xp oh jfc they absolutely fucked and now I have that image in my head

is this demented US-style rhetorical turn happening in other countries or is it mostly just this shithole?

From the places I know I'd say it's yes and no. Portugal, France and Germany all have far right parties in charge of promoting this kind of rhetoric, so it doesn't penetrate the establishment right as much. But otoh, the establishment right is consistently losing votes to these parties, so they'll probably head that way soon enough.