I wonder who’ll be next week’s Prime Minister?
Politics and Current Affairs
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Keir Starmer acting with his famed integrity by stitching up Diane Abbott so that she can’t run as either a Labour candidate or an independent.
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Keir Starmer acting with his famed integrity by stitching up Diane Abbott so that she can’t run as either a Labour candidate or an independent.
Why can’t she run as an independent?
Well according to leak to Newsnight from within Labour HQ last night they were holding off on telling Abbott about the result of the investigation (which finished in December) and that she wouldn’t be getting the whip back until it was too late for her to register to stand as an independent. It’s only after it all leaked that they were shamed into restoring the whip.
There’s also this from another Labour MP.
Nothing says a party of integrity like suspensions on the eve of an election due to anonymous complaints with a long resolution period that effectively deselects the MP without any recourse.
This is on top of all the CLPs that have switched to suspect digital voting for candidate selection that’s pushed through right wing candidates for selection, at the expense of sitting MPs on the left of the party.
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And another.
Also, I had assumed that Labour would be running the same candidate as last time in my constituency, a strong Tory safe seat but which polling shows could actually flip Labour (though I’m dubious as to whether that’s actual local polling or national polling applied broadly). But she’s now running in Cheltenham, which is fair enough, the constituencies cross over into each other (Cheltenham racecourse for instance is not actually in the Cheltenham constituency but Tewkesbury, which is why my local MP gets so many freebies from betting companies). The new Labour candidate though is instead a local councillor from Chatham, a mere 160 odd miles away. Just brazen carpet-bagging.
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Pretty comprehensive Guardian article on the whole thing:
https://www.theguardian.com/world/article/2024/may/30/first-edition-diane-abbott-labour-party
It’s not a good look, I have to say.
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Trump found GUILTY on all 34 counts!!!
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Glad to see the justice system still working.
This won’t be the end of that, will it though? Can he appeal and appeal and appeal this infinitely?
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Pretty comprehensive Guardian article on the whole thing:
https://www.theguardian.com/world/article/2024/may/30/first-edition-diane-abbott-labour-party
It’s not a good look, I have to say.
I think the truth is that it would be surprising if a party leader who is expecting to govern in a couple of months wasn’t making moves like this to cement his backing within the parliamentary party. It’s common practice and Corbyn before Starmer faced criticism for doing the same thing in favour of people who backed him and at the expense of those that opposed him.
You can’t be too cynical about this stuff, and my bet would be that Starmer is quite happy to create the impression that he’s pushing back against the leftwing of his own party, because that will play well with the centrist voters that he wants to attract.
Separate to this, the situation with Abbott is somewhat unique and longer-running and has clearly been badly handled. But it now seems that she will stand either way, whether as a Labour or independent candidate, so the party have clearly really fucked up in their handling of a situation that looks like it was originally going to resolve in her being given a route to stand down with some dignity.
I don’t blame her being frustrated by the situation, as – whatever you think about those comments she made a while back, which I personally think were hugely misguided and ill-considered – the internal Labour process to handle it seems pretty unfair and disproportionate, and has been carried out in such a cackhanded way that she comes out of it with a lot of sympathy.
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This won’t be the end of that, will it though? Can he appeal and appeal and appeal this infinitely?
Yes, that’s true. But from now on, instead of saying “former president Donald Trump”, newscasters can (and should) say “convicted felon Donald Trump”.
As far as the American system of justice is concerned: Trump is still allowed to run for president and, if elected, can sit in the White House for four more years; but as a convicted criminal he will not be allowed to vote in November.
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This is pretty bad, but it is not really unexpected. I think there are probably many groups like this around the world.
https://newrepublic.com/article/182008/erik-prince-secret-global-group-chat-off-leash
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It’s an interesting element to his authoritarianism that he’s planning on building Bitcoin City. Pushing a specific crypto tax haven to lure investors… it’s an interesting plan. Interesting as in, something a really dumb Bond villain might come up with, of course.
You know, one of the things that bug me about guys like him… just look at the guy!
He looks like such a fucking dork. Just like Sebastian Kurz, that babyfaced little fuck. How the hell does anybody get taken in by these ridiculous people?
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Eh Kurz is not that crazy looking. Rutte always freaks me out. He has a crazy laughing face, like he’s going to eat you.
The only handsome politician is Macron.
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The Guardian’s picture editor deserves a raise today.
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Mexico had elections. And 38 candidates, for different positions, were assassinated. Thirty-fucking-eight.
It’s hard for us to conceive how fucked up many other countries are.
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Rishi Sunak has apologised for leaving yesterday’s D-Day commemorations in Normandy early to record an election interview with ITV. The decision was widely criticised, including by members of the PM’s own party, with ConservativeHome founder Tim Montgomerie describing it as both undignified and “political malpractice of the highest order”.
So, is Rishi intentionally trying to tank his campaign or is he just an idiot?
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So, is Rishi intentionally trying to tank his campaign or is he just an idiot?
All together now…
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Todd wrote:
So, is Rishi intentionally trying to tank his campaign or is he just an idiot?All together now…
(something)(something)TWO THINGS!!
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To be so dumb as to not realise the PR importance of not only attending all the D-Day stuff but being photographed with other world leaders too and to go and pre-record an interview for next week instead is staggering, frankly.
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Hunter Biden found guilty on all counts in gun case
I’ll be honest, I’m not surprised at the verdict. I haven’t followed the trial in any sort of depth, but I felt like he would be found guilty.
I don’t feel that this was some sort of “miscarriage of justice”. A jury listen to all the evidence and found him guilty. End of story.
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And of course, the Republicans are pissed off about Hunter’s convictions.
“This is a distraction! This is sham! Daddy will pardon him! He’s taking the fall to hide all the Biden family corruption! BLAH, BLAH, BLAH!!!”
WhatEVER…
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Yeah, it’s only a “rigged justice system” when Trump is found guilty.
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Hey, remember when the Republicans voted to impeach Joe Biden for enabling bribery by allowing his son Hunter Biden to influence the domestic policy of a foreign nation and accept benefits from foreign nationals in exchange for favors? And remember when we found out that the FBI agent behind the allegations admitted that he lied and made the whole thing up? SO here’s my question:
WHY THE FUCK ISN’T THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY, FROM THE LEAST MEMBER OF CONGRESS TO THE VICE PRESIDENT, REMINDING THE VOTERS EVERY FUCKING DAY THAT THE REPUBLICANS CHEAT AND LIE AND WOULD KILL SOMEONE’S GRANDMOTHER IN ORDER TO WIN THE ELECTION?!
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Hunter Biden found guilty on all counts in gun case
I’ll be honest, I’m not surprised at the verdict. I haven’t followed the trial in any sort of depth, but I felt like he would be found guilty.
I don’t feel that this was some sort of “miscarriage of justice”. A jury listen to all the evidence and found him guilty. End of story.
I think this can actually be good for Biden. Not that his son is a drug addict trying to get a gun, but if he accepts the verdict and sentence without interfering or trying to pardon him, he can demonstrate that the justice system is impartial and that no-one, not even the family of the president is above it. Not that I think that will matter much with the hardcore Magats, but undecideds might react well to it. Or just lump him in with Trump for having a criminal son. Who knows.
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Not that I think that will matter much with the hardcore Magats, but undecideds might react well to it. Or just lump him in with Trump for having a criminal son. Who knows.
The difference is, Biden only has one criminal offspring.
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What the hell is happening in the Vatican
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I saw about five minutes of that Sky News leader pseudo-debate last night, the start of the interview with Starmer, and that was more than enough for me. What a fucking psychopath. “Did you lie when you said Jeremy Corbyn would be a good Prime Minister?” “Well I knew we weren’t going to win the election.” That’s not a direct answer, it’s is also just a cowardly “yes but”. At least fucking own it instead of weaselly justifying it without admitting it. No-one forced him to be in the shadow cabinet.
“Did you lie when you made your 10 pledges as leader, given you’ve abandoned most of them?”. “I reassessed them asking myself if I was putting country first, party second”. So you put party first to get leadership of the party and now you’ve got that, fuck them, it’s “country” first? What’s after that? What’s the point of a pledge if you’re not going to stick to it. How can anyone take any of the few policies in his manifesto seriously? He gets elected saying he’ll put VAT on private school fees and then in power goes “ah well, I reassessed whether I was putting country first, so sowwy uwu.”? A completely unprincipled, untrustworthy sack of shit. A public prosecutor with no convictions. Say what you like about Corbyn, but at least he fucking stood for things and had principles.
Starmer’s only principles seem to be saying whatever he needs to in order to get the power that he wants. “I think Jeremy Corbyn would be a great Prime Minister” – shadow cabinet position. 10 pledges – Labour leader. What’s he lying about now to become Prime Minister?
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But they’re electable now! And nothing’s more important than being electable.
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But as we’re pretty much seeing with Biden, just getting elected doesn’t mean much if you don’t do anything meaningful with it. The Supreme Court is still, four years later, mostly conservative and on the precipice of being restocked overwhelmingly so if Trump wins again (because what has electing Biden got anyone), abortion rights are so fucked that even IVF is under threat and college professors are suing their students for having sex. As Naomi Klein was saying the other day, Starmer getting elected on the most Milquetoast platform possible with policies barely different from the Tories serves only to open the way for a far right surge further down the line.
When we’re five years into Starmer’s I Can’t Believe It’s Not The Tories and they’ve fixed precisely fuck all about the country, who is going to be there to pick up on that resentment? A left wing continually marginalised and denigrated by the media or their favourite talking head Farage, head of a party reaching parity with the crushed remains of the Tories?
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I don’t think Labour really have to wow with their manifesto or policies because they’re basically being gifted No 10 because the Tories have fucked up so badly and people want some kind of change, even if it’s not as extreme as some would like.
Personally I just don’t have the energy to be thinking about the possible party compositions five years from now. For all we know the economy could see a sudden upswing, Starmer could be really popular and lead us into a golden age, another plane might finish Farage off for good or we might get Covid Part 2 that puts us all out of our misery🤷♂️.
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Macron said he’ll stay on as president even if Le Pen’s party takes over parliament in the coming elections.
Well yeah, that’s how the French presidency works. It’s elected separately from the parliament. He’s president for another couple of years, regardless.
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It also might serve his purposes quite well to have a couple of years of the nationalists controlling the parliament before the presidential election comes around – because if they prove to be incompetent and ineffectual, it could actually weaken their position in the presidential contest.
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Well, it sure worked the other way round. Macron’s neo-liberal policies are what enabled Le Pen’s triumph.
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I think it’s clear that Biden is just a normal 81 year old man, who has trouble forming coherent sentences, mixes up words, gets confused etc. It’s just common behavior for his age. The problem is democrats are only now realizing that that might not be appealing to the voter. They’re fucking idiots
There are plenty of 80 year olds that can still string a thought and sentence together and still look like they can get around by themselves. I watched a video earlier of Biden debating Trump in 2020 and it’s like a completely different person. His decline over the last 4 years is crazy to see.
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I’ve bosses decades younger than your average US politician, who understand succession planning better than they do. There really is a generation over there who think they can stay on top forever.
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Biden’s son Beau died in 2015 and he used that as a reason not to run in 2016. I think he knew he really pushed it for 8 years as Obama’s VP. It’s not as bad being POTUS but it does have responsibilities. I believe he knew he couldn’t handle being the President.
After Hillary shit the bed against Trump, no one was really rising up for the Dems that could stand against him in 2020. Biden stepped up, hoping to use some of his Obama year goodwill and the fact that Trump REALLY shit the bed. There were rumors that Biden was going to select a VP with the intention to step down a year or so after the election and let that person become become POTUS. I think the decision makers who helped select Harris seriously overestimated her popularity. He then had to push on and run again. Being POTUS is one of the most physically and mentally demanding jobs on the planet. It takes a toll on a person. I can’t imagine what it’s like for someone in their 70s and 80s.
And let’s be clear on something: Trump also has serious cognitive issues. There’s video after video of Trump showing serious cognitive problems, but that’s not being reported or treated as a serious issue.
The bottom line is neither of them are fit for office. Maybe the “October Surprise” will be that Biden and Trump both die before the election.
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I’ve bosses decades younger than your average US politician, who understand succession planning better than they do. There really is a generation over there who think they can stay on top forever.
A-fucking-men.
I liked Bernie Sanders and Christian had said he favored Elizabeth Warren. But as I have sadi many times before, they are too fucking old to run for President. The Democrats should have been mentoring younger people and guiding them to eventually run. (The Republicans have a more Battle Royale process and basically formed a cult around Trump he spoke to their lowest common denominator.) What is true for both parties is that when someone gets some power, they hold on to it with a death grip, even to the detriment to their own party’s best interest.
I fucking hate politics.
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I think the wisest thing the Dems can do, if sticking with Biden, is emphasise that the President is the head of a team not a single despotic autocrat, and that Biden will be surrounding himself with a top tier group of politicians (cough) whereas Trump will throw any old nutter who compliments him into any job they ask for.
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They’ll stick with Biden, God help us all. Nothing to do but close your eyes and wait for the world to end.
Every end is a new beginning. ;)
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The US Supreme Court is clearly hellbent on its own destruction as, in an act that is weak and gutless, they declare US presidents have immunity for “official acts”.
What is and isn’t an official act? Not their fucking problem, you sort it out.
I can’t recall ever seeing a nation’s entire media, politics and law warping itself to fawn over an ancient, psychopath crapbag like Trump.
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I can’t recall ever seeing a nation’s entire media, politics and law warping itself to fawn over an ancient, psychopath crapbag like Trump.
Thank goodness that could never happen here!
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I can’t recall ever seeing a nation’s entire media, politics and law warping itself to fawn over an ancient, psychopath crapbag like Trump.
Thank goodness that could never happen here!
Oh yeah, but with even less checks and balances, as it’s the “good chap” stylè of government, don’t you know. But, he did get booted when found out, that’s not happening with Trump.
I don’t think they give a crap Arjan. This is a court where a good few go on about original intent of the founders, but that intent included no women and no blacks.
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Meanwhile, this is a real article, not the Onion or other satire:
Jacob Rees-Mogg has said he wants to “build a wall in the English Channel” in a leaked recording, in which he heaped praise on Donald Trump and the hardline Republican response to immigration.
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Presumably, if a president has immunity from prosecution for any official acts, then Biden can simply shoot dead the Republican Supreme Court judges and replace them with Democrat ones.
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Presumably, if a president has immunity from prosecution for any official acts, then Biden can simply shoot dead the Republican Supreme Court judges and replace them with Democrat ones.
Biden sending Seal Team 6 after them and Trump would be the neat little bow on the whole mess. The right wing suddenly realise that the President having immunity for everything is stupid, Biden probably goes to jail and has to be replaced and Trump is dead. Winner winner chicken dinner.
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Meanwhile, the tories have deployed the Horney Honey Monster to save them.
Except he won’t and, damn, does he look old.
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It’s all so very sad. Boris having to stump for the man that helped start off the wave or resignations that led to him standing down. And Sunak fucking his campaign so badly that he’s had to wheel this shambles of a man out..It’s a fittingly comical end to this whole mess.
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Reminds me of how comically it started. The variations on Cameron’s Lament may still be my favourite internet moment of the last ten years.
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Voted, will scan the carnage tomorrow morning.
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I voted but had to email my borough council to complain about the polling station. They’re checking ID at the door and not at the desk issuing ballots, which is both completely pointless and bottle-necking the door. Which is the same shit I had to email about at the PCC election the other month.
Thankfully, the council has replied within a couple of hours rather than a couple of days this time and are going to send people over to sort it out.
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Website where you can track the presumptive wipeout of the Tories MP by MP. https://portillogeddon.com/
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Exit poll has Labour on 410 seats, Tories on 131, Lib Dems 61 and Reform on 13. SNP suffering massively, down to 10 seats.
Be interesting to see how it shakes out after the final counts.
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Feels about right for Lab, Con and Lib Dem. I’m not convinced by that Reform number though. It feels high.
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Feels about right for the Tories. The under 100 seats polls always felt like wishful thinking to me.
The SNP collapse isn’t a surprise unfortunately after the last couple years. I’ve voted SNP for years, but I didn’t today.
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You can check the exit poll by constituency on Sky News’ site. Islington North (Corbyn’s seat) is too close to call. Bristol Central is at 99% likely Green. My constituency of Tewkesbury, a strong Tory safe seat, is too close to call.
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Feels about right for Lab, Con and Lib Dem. I’m not convinced by that Reform number though. It feels high.
I feel the same, but I think there might be quite a few voters turning away from the Tories who will prefer what Reform are offering to anyone else.
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Feels about right for the Tories. The under 100 seats polls always felt like wishful thinking to me.
Yeah, it always seemed far-fetched that they could be pushed into third place.
I fully expect a counter-narrative of “Labour didn’t win as big as some people thought” to be deployed soon, if it hasn’t already.
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There’s already Tories saying “see, it wasn’t so bad, we’re over 100” even though 131 would be the lowest number of MPs ever in the history of the party since the 17th century.
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Fuck Reform.
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