UK politics April 2018

this whole thread, good god

CW; triggering

https://twitter.com/CLARESAMBROOK/status/985864314362957824

system works eh? ffs

There was a brilliant line in 2012 from the transport manager character:

“The more it goes wrong, the more we’re finding out why that is.”

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yeah the “put on a Jamaican accent” thing reads like a rejected joke from the thick of it or something.

it’s really cool how our government are now the BNP in everything but name.

Imagine being the kind of person who could come out and do a series of media appearances expressing your “disgust” and “outrage” at something you had deliberately made happen.

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Quite:

https://twitter.com/malaiseforever/status/985938664701284354

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the rest of the thread though… I mean, fucking hell

What’s Corbyn and Lammy’s relationship like? Seeing lots of reactionary people wishing Lammy was the Labour leader, because people only ever base things on whatever’s happened that week now.

I know he opposed Corbyn over Brexit, but then the biggest criticism of Jezza’s been his dithering stance on that, surely? Surely most people vote for Corbyn because they fundamentally agree with his socialist policies, i couldn’t see anybody else towards the centre of Labour matching Corbyn’s polling numbers, though he obviously does turn elements of the party off.

Watching Lammy’s speech really made the hairs on the back of my neck stand up, though, and i find myself agreeing with him as much as most MPs on Twitter, etc. Corbyn and McDonnell struggle getting their personalities across at times for me.

Are Corbyn and Lammy on opposite sides of the party infighting, and are they quite in line on policy? Given so much of the Tories policy is directly or indirectly racist, Lammy seems like the sort of authentic voice that would appeal to undecided and crossover voters in a way that few people around Corbyn do.

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Lammy was one of the 35 who nominated Corbyn to run for the Leadership in 2015 but he didn’t vote for him. He’s no Corbynite but not outwardly hostile either from what I’ve seen.

Oh yeah forgot he was a Labour candidate for London Mayor when Khan got it. Probably be a good future tip for that gig.

worried how much I’m agreeing with peter bloody hitchens lately. he is quite good on foreign policy tho imo.

My impression of him is principled, committed, really not very bright.

Don’t fancy the idea of him as Mayor.

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Lammy wasn’t a Corbyn supporter, but I think the strength of the party in the past year has emboldened him a little. He’s more of a community spokesman/campaigner than a politician (which is something that could be said about Corbyn, too), but he’s done very admirable work on this, the HDV, and the Grenfell Tower tragedy in the past year.

It’s been a common thread of Corbyn’s leadership that he lets other MPs, many of whom aren’t necessarily in his camp, make parliamentary speeches on issues like this, when previous leaderships would have brought it ‘in house’. Obviously, this gets Corbyn’s opponents talking about them as potential successors…

His tilt at being the party’s London Mayoral candidate was pretty embarrassing though, and made him look very dim in a lot of ways.

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Did anyone see Newsnight last night? The Tories fielded Chris Philp MP to discuss the Windrush fiasco. He was unbelievably weak in his attempts to defend the indefensible. Quite rightly he got a roasting, and came across as an ineffectual numpty.

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Yeah probably fair. He is still relatively young and seems a decent MP.

:smiley:
what could he do to stop them?

As in, the speeches are drafted as a team, and the individual MP gets to make it.

Blair etc would have made the speech himself, or got a cabinet member or minister to do it.

really? Backbenchers like Lammy draft their speeches with Corbyn’s team? I genuinely had no idea that happened.

I know using hypocrisy as an argument against the tories is a bit like criticising joe steel for being a totalitarian tyrant - i mean, it’s their essence, it’s what gets them hard - but seriously, if some semi-failed state in eastern Europe tried this windrush shit it would be heralded as proof of fascism’s return wouldn’t it. but we actually implement a policy of forced repatriation and low-level ethnic cleansing and the evil bastards and the press shrug it off as an admin error. jesus fucking christ.

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Was trying to find this thread the other day when we were talking about ’Rivers of blood’ glad it’s turned up again

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The system works!