Stability is change: crossing the floor from potato to potahto in uk 2024

Get in here, loons

Very good

Oddly starting this with Mason news.

Breaking: ISLINGTON NORTH Labour shortlist Sem Moema . Praful Nargund

— lee harpin (@lmharpin) May 22, 2024

breaking: stoya cancelling travel plans

From The Guardian blog quoting a tweet by a pol analyst:

Was in Westminster all day. Understand there’s 5 major reasons for @RishiSunak July 4 election gamble

1/ Key aides told PM inflation is now at its “election sweet spot” - 2.3% was today’s print - & warned it may rise again by autumn

2/ No fiscal space for NI cuts in Sept 1/

3/ Concern legal challenges will further delay/block flights to Rwanda taking off

4/ Mess in the English Channel with small boats during the summer months

5/ Nigel Farage hasn’t yet decided whether to front Reform UK, so snap poll may boost Tory prospects

Praful Nargund?

if they won't accept Comrade Mason they should offer a spot to Dunty

https://x.com/IanDunt/status/1793343773667480015

truly the most perfect idiot in the whole world, a brain as smooth as his scalp

Nargund is a private IVF clinic chief executive, who really cares about healthcare inequities

Dunt isn't an idiot, he just plays one for money.

Mason the early Starmer adopter, most consistent apologist/obsequious toady towards him for almost 5 years and all he gets in return is one humiliating rejection after another - which is all he deserves tbf.

I am sorry Tom D you will not be able to vote for this man

I didn't make the shortlist in @IslingtonNorth . Thanks to all those in the CLP who signed up to campaign for me, and to SERA for endorsing me. It's vital that we get out the vote the selected candidate, and keep Islington North red! ✊

— Paul Mason (@paulmasonnews) May 23, 2024

No-one likes him he does care.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xtTdQm57_MU

100 empty spots to fill, keep on keeping on Paul

If he wasn't such a weirdo who likes making a shit ton of noise he would've got into one of those.

as well as being a foolish and deeply unlikable man I don't think he's ever been forgiven by the right for his supporting Corbyn years.

Yeah there's no place in today's Labour for people whose politics change with the wind to support their own personal aggrandisement

that's what they'll throw at Starmer, he can offer evidence that he helped finish off Corbyn by quoting the "People's Vote was a conspiracy" parts of the Eagleton book!

he's an embarrassment because he actually believes things, even if he has forced himself to believe them to fit in. I remember a kid like him at school.

No Rwanda flights till after the election. If Reform get their act together its even worse for the Tories.

It also means a very grim debate where Starmer has to promise deportations of sone kind.

Getting suicide-by-cop vibes from all of this, like Sunak is pleading with the election to put him out of his misery.

the guy just wants a long summer break in california so he can pick out a house, move there ASAP, and die horribly in the record-breaking wildfires of 2028 enjoy a long and happy life

maybe it was just a case of lose a suicide-election in the summertime or lose a confidence vote and resign

The calculations are that Rwanda flights will never get off the ground, that inflation might go up (so no interest rate cuts), and that they cannot offer anything but tax rises bcz of the state of public finances.

to gazzara's point, the domiciled tax status laws are getting changed next year yeah?

the way he brought up the furlough scheme yesterday seemed desperate, it was almost like he was inferring he paid it all out of his own pocket.

it was like in the manner of a slimy boss giving you a tiny inconsequential pay rise and then never letting you forget about it

The only time the guy was popular is when he gave lots of people money.

also when he gave us rona dinners

How soon we forget "dishy Rishi".

eat out to help out just a porn video name to most people now

a furlough scheme that was actually proposed and pushed for by McDonnell iirc and which sunak was originally dead set against…

and a furlough scheme which deliberately excluded hundreds of thousands of self-employed people, my wife being among them

xp
to me there's no question that if Corbyn and McDonnell hadn't been at the despatch box in early 2020 we would never have got the furlough measures we did get, flawed as they were

Quietly impressed by The Green Party response here. Has the right people crying about it.

Nothing to see here. Just @TheGreenParty⁩ leader on Radio 4 failing to condemn one of her fellow Green candidates for liking a post which said "we have to destroy Zionism". And she has the chutzpah to refer to the EHRC report into Labour's antisemitism to boot. What a state. pic.twitter.com/QrAo4fynZz

— Mike Katz (@mikekatz) May 23, 2024

From a locked acc:

"On Politics Weekly, Kiran explains that Sunak would rather get drenched than be compared to noted brolly loser Steve McLaren. Optics discourse is incredible"

Union Jack gazebos are a thing:

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/165496541979

behold, the Racism Cube

Don't let Starmer know or he'll be doing his press conferences from inside one.

he already is, psychically

dismal

Keir Starmer needs you to vote for Reform on July 4th.

A vote for Reform is a vote to put Keir Starmer into power. pic.twitter.com/CGVoo5snGc

— Conservatives (@Conservatives) May 23, 2024

in fairness his politics are more or less identical to theirs

And I would have got away with it if it hadn't been for you meddling Conservative Party Central Office political advisers.

A more abstract approach would be better: "vote Labour, you get Starmer as pm" with Starmer getting a Starmer mask yanked off, revealing that this confirms that he is indeed Starmer.

^^
I'm giving this one for free, if my name was saatchi & saatchi I could charge millions for this shit!

I like that, you'll go far in this game

Still an opportunity for Paul Mason

NEW
 
Conservative HQ have emailed asking for candidates in almost 100 seats
 
When candidates ask when the deadline is, they have been told it’s 48 hours, according to 2 I’ve spoken to
 
Some Tory associations are pretty livid at having been left in such an unprepared situation pic.twitter.com/baBLr6TiMK

— Paul McNamara (@PGMcNamara) May 23, 2024

lol, only a matter of time before serial carpetbagger Mason declares that the only way to advance the class struggle is by running as a Tory candidate.

Islington North too, he could run against Corbyn after all!

It’s official!

https://www.islingtontribune.co.uk/article/jeremy-corbyn-why-i-am-standing-as-an-independent-candidate-at-the-general-election

Excited for the Lab right focusing a proportionate amount of time and attention on this.

Stafford Cripps had her number. In parliament he referred to her as "our honourable member for Berlin". I mean, imagine the reaction if Jez had a portrait of her in his office.

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2024/oct/24/uks-borrowing-costs-rise-on-news-that-reeve-is-changing-fiscal-rules

“It seems to be related to Reeves last night suggesting that the fiscal rules would be rewritten to increase spending on infrastructure,” Lyn Graham-Taylor, a senior rates strategist at Rabobank, told Reuters.

the idea that these bullshit fiscal rules were set in stone/non-negotiable as Reeves had been saying up to now was just such a fucking pointless and ultimately harmful self-restriction to put on a "change" govt. I guess she has been told as much.

created her own story that will cast this (theoretically) positive investment in the worst possible light - as a reversal, another "promise" broken. this is really huge-brained politics, absolutely masterful, grown-up stuff

there was an economist I listened to the other week, who was a former Bernie adviser and was talking about how regressive the UK Labour govt's fiscally hawkish deficit obsessed mindset is. She put it simply for an economics moron like me + said basically it's a historically antiquated gold standard era mindset, that doesn't belong here, like they don't have to find/produce the gold to pay for national infrastructure/healthcare/public services etc.. that's not how it works. And 14 years of that shit, you don't need to be a hotshot LSE grad to know that this has been a major fail, on every fucking metric - apart from if you belong in the top few %.

This kind of thing makes me fume, people responsible should be in jail.

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2024/oct/25/council-destroys-missing-tenants-belongings-after-banning-his-family-from-flat

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2024/oct/25/new-uk-freeports-budget-labour-starmer?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Other

More favours for their corporate donors.

Critics of freeports say there is little evidence they attract new investment or help the economy. The Office for Budget Responsibility said in 2021 that tax breaks in England’s freeports would cost the government £50m a year and that their impact on GDP was likely to be so small it would be “difficult to discern even in retrospect”.

Trade unions have in the past called for clarity on how freeports impact on workers’ and union rights. The prime minister’s spokesperson said that “where necessary the government will make improvements to the freeport programme” and that the employment rights bill would help safeguard workers’ rights.

Labour MP illustrates Labour attitude to the electorate in awkward symbolism shocker

🚨 BREAKING: Labour has suspended Mike Amesbury after CCTV showed him sucker punching a constituent pic.twitter.com/t9PMJ5d5Sg

— Politics UK (@PolitlcsUK) October 27, 2024

No no nv. Political discourse in this country has been so eroded and divisive . MPs absolutely must be protected from the violence of some of these elements.

They're gonna parachute fucking Ashworth in here aren't they?

I bet Paul Mason's got his A2Z out already

put him in a cage with mike hookem

Lookalike: Otto and Wes.

From the Private Eye Annual 2024, out now.

The year's best cartoons, jokes, parodies and topical sketches from the UK's most successful satirical news and current affairs magazine, illustrated throughout with cartoons, sketches and photo-bubbles. 📕 In… pic.twitter.com/o3fJOTjRiF

— Private Eye Magazine (@PrivateEyeNews) October 28, 2024

That’s Otto Pilot from Airplane for those who don’t want to follow the link.

Another local, who didn't want to be named, said Mr Amesbury drank regularly with his friends in Frodsham and was often 'p***** up' in local bars.

This story is the gift that keeps giving.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-14011613/MP-Mike-Amesbury-arguing-constituent-closure-bridge-punch.html

Total brainrot...

https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/ace/standard/976/cpsprodpb/10e0/live/f73a6e00-953d-11ef-8e6d-e3e64e16c628.jpg.webp

Oops, wrong thread!

This story is the gift that keeps giving.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-14011613/MP-Mike-Amesbury-arguing-constituent-closure-bridge-punch.html

― The count has shot himself (Tom D.), Monday, 28 October 2024 bookmarkflaglink

Quality intake of MPs.

This bus fare cap lift is hilarious, they are so cooked.

If you want an idea of why removing the £2 bus fare cap may be so damaging beyond polls, read Greg's quote from our focus group. At a time of deep political distrust it's one of few recent examples of a policy people can point to that tangibly improves their lives for the better pic.twitter.com/HBacQdz3ww

— Luke Tryl (@LukeTryl) October 28, 2024

it does seem like the act of someone who doesn't use buses

and hates poor people and universality

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2024/oct/29/hard-hit-defra-to-have-budget-slashed-further-despite-warnings

At Defra, these cuts are understood to largely fall on nature and flood protections. Plans to cut about £100m a year from England’s nature-friendly farming budget have been proposeed. As part of the EU, British farmers were allotted funding based on how much land they managed. The new post-Brexit scheme is financed by the UK government and pays farmers to protect nature. As 60% of land in England is farmed, this scheme is supposed to be the main driver in reducing species decline and restoring nature.

Reed has also refused to commit to flooding payments promised by the Conservatives, and Defra insiders have indicated this money is to be shaved back. As it stands, the Defra budget faces cuts of at least 20%, according to sources at the department.

Elliot Chapman-Jones, head of public affairs at The Wildlife Trusts, said: “Defra’s funding was slashed during austerity, hampering its ability to protect nature and stop river pollution. Nature is dying and without a substantial increase in funding – particularly for nature-friendly farming – the government’s target to halt nature’s decline by the end of the decade will be unachievable.”

Merrily destroying nature and the habitable environment to project "common sense" to the press who will them them anyway

*will hate them anyway

the £3 billion annual cost of extending the 5p fuel duty cut is roughly equivalent to the annual fare take of every bus in England — £3.1 billion in 2023. so you could nearly make every bus free for the same cost https://t.co/1bWvqcYVx8

— Jon Stone (@joncstone) October 30, 2024

not even any comedy value here

in a result that's surprised nobody

The result was obvious as soon as they walked in the room, Badenoch smirking and Jenrick looking like he was about to burst into tears.

looking forward to some big thinkpieces about identity and representation which will be bollocks but will also tell some truths about the Labour Party

anyway, stoked for the sadness

Can't wait to have proper fascism, none of this briefcase bollocks.

Apparently, even before the result was announced, there was a lot of chat among Tories about who is actually going to fight the next election. The assumption being it'll be Cleverley and that's why he isn't going to take up a Shadow Cabinet role.

Might be a fun bet on neither of the current leaders to be there at the next GE

If Tories do well at the next council elections she could be their candidate at the next GE?

She's got to survive for 5 years, I don't see that happening.

What do you think she will do so that Tory MPs get rid of her?

Look like she's not going to win the next election.

Anyway, there's plenty of time for things to go wrong especially if people were plotting who will be your successor before you were even crowned!

Look like she's not going to win the next election.

― biting your uncles (Tom D.), Saturday, 2 November 2024 bookmarkflaglink

The government is polling badly already. If Tories perform a bit more strongly at council level, and the base feels energized she will contest the GE.

But yeah its a long way to go, she is not exactly very bright

if she can put together a pact with Reform then she's basically got it in the bag already. All that's left is for Labour to tack even further to the right to try to keep up.

Pacts with Reform will require political skill to pull off. Huge opportunity for the next Tory leader in five years.

if badenoch ends up being utterly hopeless as leader it'll probably just be farage who benefits? labour's best hope is probably just for reform to keep splitting the vote enough to damage the tories without actually being able to win much

The government has a majority of 174, they're not going anywhere for five years, not sure the fact that they're polling badly afer four months is telling us all that much tbh.

I don't disagree the government will stay in for five years.

In terms of opposition, though, polling can be an indicator. If the Tories and Lab are equal now, then Badenoch has a lot of breathing room as opposed to IDS or whatever ghoul they had as leader.

I'm struggling to imagine a scenario where the Tories and Reform - or a good chunk of their voters at least - don't engineer a rapprochement at the next GE

A lot of today's sophisticated racists can also clearly deal with a black leader if she offers them the right policies

starmer tanking his own popularity pretty much immediately is a terrible sign for his ability to win the next election (unless he gets even luckier with how the right split themselves) & it's not like the party has any ideas that anyone will actually like. if things don't turn around some of the others in the party with ambition will try to force him out eventually, not that that will fix anything for them though.

She’s in the fine tradition of being a jerk to people her supporters hate, and if the hated people are lefty Black and Asian people, so much the better for Tory members. I’ve heard lots of conservatives either side of the Atlantic use people like her to justify their own prejudices.

a really stupid thing that feels way too likely now that i've thought of it is labour's genius strategists deliberately trying to boost farage's popularity so that the right-wing vote will be even more split, but this would very likely just backfire and end up with farage on top

Anyway this is all for tomorrow.

Let's enjoy a Tory wife crying.

Robert Jenrick's wife thought she had applauded Kemi Badenoch enough - then realised she had to carry on… 😂 pic.twitter.com/ZIHxdB8BwO

— M A R T I N R O G E R S ⭐️ (@martinrogers92) November 2, 2024

Lol tbf I usually get tired of clapping and tap out early in any situation

add James Dyson to the people complaining about the budget, unsurprisingly

The worst person you know etc.

Kemi Badenoch: "I find it astonishing that Rachel Reeves keeps talking about how she's the first female Chancellor, which is a very, very low-glass ceiling... which she may have smashed."#bbclaurak pic.twitter.com/HWM6T9mnY0

— Haggis_UK 🇬🇧 🇪🇺 (@Haggis_UK) November 3, 2024