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

So. Farewell Pesto
You were constantly baffled by flagrant corruption and lying
"What can this mean?" you pondered
Some may accuse you of
performative stupidity
But I
liked you

E.J. Thribb (17½)

Robert Peston put his vest on
Lights! Wanker! Action!

I don’t think I’ve ever uncringe from this. Always remember that some of the thickest fuckers on this planet achieve high status and great power simply from the confidence and contacts that a privileged upbringing gives them pic.twitter.com/LNU9ThekCH

— Nooruddean (@BeardedGenius) April 26, 2024

Nothing but burning large parts of this country will do tbh

It's an indictment that this guy is in a job at all after Mick Lynch comprehensively humiliated him that time on Newsnight or Preston or wherever.

Peston Knob End

alright cheers

Var check complete, zing stands

Good piece.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2024/apr/26/cost-of-living-crisis-uk-prices

Though this bit is hilarious.

"The government sometimes encourages this misunderstanding. Last July, Rishi Sunak told the radio station LBC: “If we bring inflation down, people will have more money to spend.” For a former chancellor, someone supposed to understand the economy better than almost anyone, it seemed a weirdly over-optimistic prediction."

Bet you anything Sunak is a thick fucker and doesn't actually get it.

There are many things that people don't WANT to understand, obv

Talking about not understanding, can anyone explain what on earth is happening in the Scottish government?

Reading about this. Regan is a transphobe so Yousaf either gets back in with the Greens or chooses this wreck

"How do the numbers stack up?

The SNP have 63 MSPs who can presumably be counted on to support Yousaf and vote against the motion.

The Conservatives, Labour, Lib Dems and Greens have 64 MSPs between them who are expected to back the motion.

That would leave Alba's sole MSP Ash Regan with the power to determine the outcome. In such a scenario, if she voted against Yousaf, he would lose 65-63. But if she supported Yousaf, the result would be 64-64, and in the event of a tie the presiding officer casts a deciding vote, which by tradition is always for the status quo - meaning the first minister would win the confidence vote."

Thanks. So what is the cause of this? is it disagreement over the hate crime bill? Or is it about the reneging of the net zero target?

the main issue was the reneging of the net zero target. the greens were going to take a vote among their membership to decide whether or not to walk away from the coalition. Huzma preempted this by terminating the pact.

The SNP's decision to pause access to puberty blockers for under-18s was another source of anger among many Greens.

tempting to say "well fuck him" then. who's the likely replacement?

xp
Cheers. I know Yousaf could still survive this, but seems like he's not playing this very well/trying to make friends.

i'm not sure who is the likely repalcement. This is one of the SNP's biggest problems; they don't really have anyone I can think of (who might want the job that is) who is going to bring them back from the brink.

Apart from on Gaza, Yousaf has been very poor imo.

He's fucking hopeless, I suspect most SNP supporters want rid of him.

Thanks stir monster was just coming to post more but yes it's interesting how good The Scottish Greens have been here. Quite impressed by their internal party democracy.

Doesn't sound like Yousaf is much of a politician.

Sadly this sounds like another fucking + for Labour come the General election :-(

sadly it does but the hatred for Scottish Labour does run very deep so i'm trying to remain optimistic they may not see the gains they are anticipating.

Any chance The Scottish Greens could gain seats from this

i think it is very unlikely they could win a seat at the general election.

From the outside this seems like a problem of Hamza's own making and I can hardly feel bad for him

I assume he heard that the Greens' decision was on its way, and decided to get out in front of it? He did have plenty of opportunities to bend the knee to the GC during the leadership campaign and didn't take them, Continuity Sturgeon is basically all he's got. Of course that's a harder brand after the her husband was arrested for the second time this week.

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2024/apr/27/top-tory-mp-defects-to-labour-in-fury-at-nhs-crisis

"Top Tory MP"?

A Tory MP and former health minister has staged a dramatic defection to Labour, saying the Labour Party have become a “nationalist party of the right” that has abandoned ­compassion and no longer prioritises the NHS.

i've got some bad news for him about the Labour Party

"crossing the floor" eh?

it would have been a hell of a story if it happened when Labour had the crazy utopian policy of funding the NHS adequately

Toby Belm somehow always has the scoop on right wing Labour

Sadly this sounds like another fucking + for Labour come the General election :-(

Just heard some smug Labour supporting journalist - English, of course - saying the SNP will be "wiped out" at the next election and then some 12 year old Tory journalist - also English - cooing over the idea that the SNP will "fade into obscurity". We'll see.

It's all bollocks but I guess after a period of dominance some people might stay home?

Everything has come up for Labour.

I expect SNP will lose a lot of seats but "wiped out"? Well he's a Labour supporter, he would should know all about electoral wipe outs in Scotland.

Yeah it's bollocks. They may lose seats, but they'll be back when they sort out the leadership, which is clearly not up to scratch.

Just 15 mins of Lab in power will get the stay at home Tories back. Suspect it will be even more the case with the snp.

quite intrigued to see, if they actually win a majority, how long the Labour honeymoon will last

We saw last time around that even after murdering a million+ Iraqis it was 13 years long, as long as There Is No Alternative they will be fine.

hopefully it won't take too long for Starmer to get the full Graham Taylor treatment. It would be amusing if the UK tabloid press adopted the derogatory "Kieth" moniker. Even without any substantial scandal or governmental fuckup he's so easy to clown - he's a dreary man who possibly has a drink problem and can't answer basic questions without awkward equivocation. He says/posts the stupidest things on a regular basis. There is plenty to work with.

they aren't starting from anything like the relative economic prosperity that the 97 government stepped into, they'll almost certainly be facing a Tory party offering full fat fascism that the newspapers will be hugely enthusiastic about, and apart from all the failings calz just listed Kieth also seems to be a very brittle, vain man with less resilience under pressure than an amateur submarine full of billionaires

early New Labour policies like WFTC + CTC are rather a stark contrast with Sir Kid Starver, who is sticking to the Theresa May "don't overbreed if you can't afford 'em" principle. It was exclusionary shit that only applied to "families" but it still pushed a lot of ppl a few inches above the poverty line. Starmer Labour won't have anything like that to point at if accused of political inertia.

I’d be surprised if they have anything like the 97 majority either

From his colouring & bloat it’s pretty clear starmer spent the lockdown years much the same way I did — “relatable” I guess but everyone knows a ton of pols have been sauced all the time, it’s a basically unremarkable trait

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2024/apr/28/home-office-to-detain-asylum-seekers-across-uk-in-shock-rwanda-operation

I don't know that "sort the leader out" is that easy, the coalition has been fraying for a while. Alba might suck up the terfs, and Scottish Labour has been given a long leash on "the left wing alternative to the SNP" - Anas Sarwar's response to the CASS report was "The Scottish Government should produce one of our own" which is definitely not the line from Starmer. I mean, the leash will tighten a lot after a Labour win (and I'm a lot more pessimistic than most of you of Labour getting a small enough majority that Starmer has to listen to anyone), but people vote for illusions all the time.

“dreary man who possibly has a drink problem” is all time

Quite a large constituency that.

I’d be surprised if they have anything like the 97 majority either

I think it will be even bigger unless something dramatic and unexpected happens

I don't think it's a case of the dramatic & unexpected, Kieth has already alienated vast swathes of muslim voters, many of which could be in marginal constituencies. And expecting a bigger majority than '97 is crazy talk. And also I think it would be a disaster tbh. But I fucking hate these cunts so I might be a bit conflicted here.

the Tory vote is never going to be as low as the polling suggests. Their activists were like ants in my area in '19. I think Labour will have a weaker ground game than in in ,19. They have lost a lot of the enthusiastic fools who used to knock on doors and have been told they aren't welcome anymore. In fptp they could get 2-3 million less votes than Corbyn did and still win a big majority, but I think it will be much closer.

https://x.com/Aiannucci/status/1784836866186809565

must be a GE coming soon, Armando is back on his REGISTER TO VOTE campaign. Yep, that's some sharp analysis of the utter wretchedness of UK politics - we just need more voters.. lol