https://twitter.com/ITVNewsPolitics/status/1698622166638452785 https://twitter.com/ITVNewsPolitics/status/1698674935424581991
Back in the day, such a hot-mic moment would have been career-limiting. Alas, these are Interesting Times.
“The day” wasn’t really all that long ago: https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2010/apr/28/gordon-brown-bigoted-woman
When one party's backers own the majority of the press, one party's election losing gaffe is the other paty's minor hiccup. It would be nice to have a free press in the UK again...
Back in the day most of these non-entities wouldn't have been anywhere near ministerial roles in the first place. The tory 'talent pool', especially post 2019, has the breadth and depth of a teaspoon... full of piss...
I saw this poster... Then I saw this very real poster... Then I thought... wait a minute, you can consolidate them in to one big Tory poster... Election campaign slogan confirmed.
Can’t we just “kick ideology out of science” altogether? There’s a difference between “this study is bad because it’s not blinded, it’s a small number of participants, there’s no control group, etc” and “this study is bad because it doesn’t agree with my ideology”. The evidence is the evidence, whether you like it or not. And going by the evidence: climate change is happening and it is anthropogenic; human sexuality and gender is not a simple binary system on any level; legal intoxicants are far more harmful to both health and society than some illegal intoxicants; and so on. No party gets this right. The Green Party, for example: they’re all for eliminating dependence on fossil fuels for domestic energy production to mitigate the impact of climate change… But they are vehemently against nuclear power despite the evidence demonstrating the safety and efficacy of nuclear power, or reactor designs that can consume waste fuel from older reactors and render the material effectively inert. Labour, for example: the last Labour government fired the chair of the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs, a prolific and well-respected academic, because he published evidence demonstrating that horse riding is more dangerous to health than taking ecstasy.
Tweet— Twitter API (@user) date Government response to the recent storm, it was the wrong type of rain. In other news, the dog ate my homework - here's some crap I've made up on the spot
If there's one thing anyone, with even so little as a picogram of sense should, by now, know about the Tories, it's that they just don't bloody care.
Genuinely not sure I can stomach the idea of doing anything that increases the odds of another Tory win, even in theory (in practise I'm in a safe Tory seat); but also not sure I can bring myself to vote Labour (what even is the Labour party any more, nobody seems sure) or Lib Dem (did it before and got the coalition, lesson learned). Spoiling the ballot seems...in line with my feelings, but also petty and pointless. I felt like this the last two elections - like I'd rather not legitimize the awful system we have by participating, but also like I had a moral duty to participate because leftist/centrist apathy was what kept marching us into more Tory leadership and cockups.
Cautious. Very very cautious. A Labour win at the next GE is not a foregone conclusion at this point and we've no idea how far away that election actually is. They can't be too radical, "left wing", or "outspoken" - the spectre of the Corbyn years is still too near in the memory. It's fairly clear that people are sick of the status quo, but only a handful of mis-steps will ruin Labour's chances of an outright majority. To be honest, even if Labour do get a decent majority, we're not going to see major sweeping changes for a few years: one single parliamentary term is nowhere near long enough to undo the damage that's been done by 13 years of austerity and spending cuts. Especially given where we are right now with inflation, energy prices, cost of living, and the relatively weak economy. I'm kinda swallowing my pride with Labour at the moment. The policy platform seems to be extremely milquetoast and there have been a lot of internal party shenanigans over the last couple of years (particularly around candidate selections)... but I'm willing to give them the benefit of the doubt. I can't give up hope, the prospect of yet another 5 years of Tory (mis)rule is just too depressing to even consider. Things might appear rather "reined in" at the moment, but there are some very strong figures within the Labour party right now, particularly Lisa Nandy and Angela Raynor. It's also quite easy to underestimate Starmer himself. Honestly in your situation the best choice might be tacital voting. You might not have much of a hope if it's that safe a Tory seat, but it's not out of the question - by-elections aren't always a useful guide for a general election, but some of the seats that were overturned recently were also extremely safe Tory seats.
