Topic: Doesn't matter who you vote for as long as it's for the right reasons!

[Circa1892]

500,000 legally have to self isolate this week.

Two of those are taking part in a “pilot” daily test to release scheme.

Living on Downing Street definitely doesn’t give you special treatment does it...

[TSC]

Jenrick on Marr has just said “we’ve known about ‘this wave’ incoming from the beginning of the year.”

Lying with impunity or able to see into the future?

[Welshred]

Nah everyone knew there'd be an exit wave so he's not lying. No one thought it would be as bad as this though.

[TepidT2O]

Nah everyone knew there'd be an exit wave so he's not lying. No one thought it would be as bad as this though.

Been predicted for about 3 months … no one really knows how big it will be, or when it will peak though…

Here’s a prediction though… Sunak and Johnson will decide they do need to self isolate after all…

[TSC]

Nah everyone knew there'd be an exit wave so he's not lying. No one thought it would be as bad as this though.

Did they (government) foresee the Delta variant landing here from the start of the year? That makes the decision not to place India to their ‘red list’ ASAP earlier this year an even worse decision.

Don’t think anyone can know for certain this is an ‘exit wave’ or when that may come should this not be it.

[TepidT2O]

Been predicted for about 3 months … no one really knows how big it will be, or when it will peak though…

Here’s a prediction though… Sunak and Johnson will decide they do need to self isolate after all…

And there we have it…

Sunak self  isolating

Whilst the test and trace pilot is fairly restrictive, allowing only essential government business, I recognise that even the sense that the rules aren’t the same for everyone is wrong.

To that end I’ll be self isolating as normal and not taking part in the pilot.

Oh and there we go, so is Johnson …

Talk about back pedalling

[Riquende]

Here’s a prediction though… Sunak and Johnson will decide they do need to self isolate after all…

One down (Sunak has now said he will). Mentioned in the same report that Johnson will isolate at Chequers but I haven't seen a direct statement to that effect.

[TSC]

And there we have it…

Sunak self  isolating

Oh and there we go, so is Johnson …

Talk about back pedalling

Sacrificial lamb Jenrick was destroyed on sky news and then Marr earlier so not surprised at the latest u-turn.

[Circa1892]

The lack of any kind of sense from the spads and other political advisors in this government is baffling.

This u turn was so obvious - what was the point in attracting this much vitriol for about 2 hours of not isolating. They’re all incredibly arrogant, but so fucking useless.

[Dr. Beaker]

Joan Armatrading will make a fortune out of this.

[TSC]

Starmer says ‘Johnson and Sunek have been busted again’.

Government branded a shambles

https://news.sky.com/story/latest-politics-news-live-robert-jenrick-quizzed-on-sky-news-as-boris-johnson-escapes-having-to-self-isolate-as-part-of-pingdemic-12358191

[Dr. Beaker]

Starmer says ‘Johnson and Sunek have been busted again’.

Government branded a shambles

https://news.sky.com/story/latest-politics-news-live-robert-jenrick-quizzed-on-sky-news-as-boris-johnson-escapes-having-to-self-isolate-as-part-of-pingdemic-12358191

But Starmer vacillates while Johnson vaccinates!

[Circa1892]

But Starmer vacillates while Johnson vaccinates!

I reckon they’re going to lose that vaccine boost pretty sharpish as everyone gets pinged over the next few weeks.

[Andy @ Allerton!]

New poll

[Commie Bobbie]

I reckon they’re going to lose that vaccine boost pretty sharpish as everyone gets pinged over the next few weeks.

Thing is, I'm seeing many of my friends saying that they're going to delete the app - in their minds, the government have shown that the rules don't necessarily apply to them so fuck it. This is a dangerous moment.

[oldfordie]

I reckon they’re going to lose that vaccine boost pretty sharpish as everyone gets pinged over the next few weeks.

I think they will as well. it  will be hard for Johnson to defend himself when Covid cases rise rapidly in 2 weeks+. NHS workers are calling it insanity, Holland Covid rates went  up 500% after opening night clubs. can't  see how he can argue we never saw it  coming when he's forced to close clubs etc in weeks to come.

[Zeb]

Most successful bit of framing by Labour for a fucking age.

Poll by SavantaComRes finds 75% per cent of people think it is “one rule for the government and one for everyone else”.

And 60% say it was unfair for the PM and Chancellor to try and skip self-isolation.

https://twitter.com/PaulBrandITV/status/1416809454004277256

Not sure it's going to win an election on its own, but it's still interesting to see something which resonates being picked up and used well. (eg if you're on social media, you'll have seen Labour's MPs using the phrase lots since the news broke.)

[Dr. Beaker]

One rule for us and no rules for them.

[RainbowFlick]

New poll

I wouldn't even be against a few more things opening up if we used mitigation (masks/tests or vaccines). But in reality getting private companies to monitor that kinda thing is a bit onerous. I think as we currently are isn't the worst thing but plenty of businesses and people are still negatively impacted enough for it to be an issue and we know the government support dries up.

[Yorkykopite]

One rule for us and no rules for them.

Everyone is levelled up. But some are more levelled up than others.

[Commie Bobbie]

Everyone is levelled up. But some are more levelled up than others.

Indeed.

[Dr. Beaker]

Just hope the staff at Chequers are all safe from the one man super spreader event.

[Zeb]

A German journalist translated her essay for a German publication into English, "The politics of lies: Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson and the erosion of the rule of law". Found it interesting for how similar it is to essays about Trump, and also some of the writing on parts of the 'alternative' media which are happy to distort and invent for the clicks generated and the hoped for political effect. https://www.newstatesman.com/politics/uk/2021/07/politics-lies-boris-johnson-and-erosion-rule-law

In any case, the actual lies are only part of the problem; the bigger issue is the blurring of the truth behind the bullshit, as the American philosopher Harry Frankfurt deduced as far back as the 1980s. If you lie, you must know the truth, and keep an eye on the facts as your reference system. That way, truth ultimately retains its validity. The bullshitter, on the other hand – and Frankfurt believed this to be key – is indifferent to the truth; he simply takes liberties with truth and facts. He is not interested in “reality”. He is only interested in making his claims stick. He manipulates everything to suit his cause, in order to hide the fact that he is up to no good. He obscures the facts as points of reference and by so doing undermines the political culture of a democracy that depends on the distinction between what is true and what is false.

Here is an example. Since the success of the British vaccination programme Johnson has not tired of extolling that success at every opportunity as the first big Brexit benefit. Yet the decision to go it alone was in fact arrived at and implemented during the transition period – a modus operandi which all EU member states were free to choose if they wished. One could of course say that had the UK still been a full member of the EU, the country would have signed up to joint programmes with the other European nations, and that vaccination would have been slower, but that would be pure speculation. The distortion of the facts, however, caused a false picture to emerge that has taken hold in the public consciousness.

This blurring of the facts functions in a similar manner with the post-Brexit trade deals. These are so far mostly carbon copies of the existing EU deals have been sold to the nation as new ones that are better for the country, and trumpeted on social media using spurious facts. The mood music to all this can then be heard in the big tabloid newspapers, which were the driving force behind Brexit. Trade deals have so far not really been judged in terms of their real benefit to the country; they are simply rhetorical props in the great Brexit spectacle. The reality behind them is fading from view.

The same is happening on the international stage. What was formally agreed yesterday is no longer valid today. The new reality is simply superimposed on the old. The Northern Ireland minister Brandon Lewis, for instance, warned the EU that Brussels must find a solution to the unrest in Northern Ireland, otherwise the whole Brexit deal was at risk. The background to this was that thanks to Johnson’s Brexit deal the EU external border now runs through the Irish Sea between Northern Ireland and Great Britain. This has led to frequent delays at customs in Northern Ireland resulting in severe goods shortages. That was the price that Johnson – unlike his predecessor Theresa May – was willing to pay to get the troublesome issue off the table. For years trade experts had repeatedly warned of the problems this would cause Northern Ireland, but they were consistently ignored.

As late as early March the same Brandon Lewis had declared the problems in Northern Ireland were “teething problems” which could be soothed away. Johnson himself had – though he must have known better – repeatedly promised that there would be no border whatsoever and urged Northern Irish businessmen, live to camera, to simply bin any customs forms in future. However, there is no avoiding reality, so the problems are suddenly the fault of the EU. What a breathtaking, if predictable, 180-degree turn. As if Brexit had never taken place, the EU as scapegoat is suddenly resurrected and made responsible for the deadlock. What is even more surreal is the implied assertion that the deal the British government had signed and sealed itself had never been negotiated or agreed in that form. The list of the Johnson government’s distortions, half-truths and outright lies is endless. Truth is a currency that is being devalued almost on a daily basis and for that reason, very few Brits make the effort to keep up with it all.

Why did nothing of what Cummings put forward resonate in the public arena? The answer is relatively simple: because Cummings fell victim to his own strategy. It was he who, together with Johnson, first ushered in the post-truth era in Great Britain, thereby destroying the very basis on which a minister, or even Johnson, can still be held accountable. To be able to do that, you need truth as your currency, the distinction between right and wrong, as a valid criterion in the democratic dialogue. Instead, Cummings experienced first hand what happens in such a misguided society if you try to pursue a government with fact-based allegations: nothing, any more.

With that, Cummings has no doubt served his purpose for Johnson. That is because from the outset, Brexit was for Johnson solely a route to holding the levers of power. He probably secretly hoped that the expulsion of his anarchic chief adviser meant he could now leave the dirty part of the business behind him and simply rule as normal from now on. That, however, is not going to happen, much as Johnson himself may have longed for it. Firstly, because Johnson is not a normal politician himself: his entire life to date has consisted of breaking rules and crossing legal and ethical boundaries. He succeeded in making it to Downing Street thanks to the Brexit campaign and the destructive power inherent in the project. As the Cummings hearing showed, the consequent blurring of empirical reality can no longer be reversed in the foreseeable future. And the fact that Johnson has got away with it with such success will no doubt reinforce his belief that he is untouchable and encourage him to further advance his specific form of British populism.

The second reason why an early return to “normal” British conditions can hardly be expected is Brexit itself. As a deeply ideological project, it lacks any real perspective as to where and into what better world the people’s regained sovereignty should lead the country. Five full years after the referendum was won, for example, there is still no coherent trade strategy. Leading Brexiteers are now more or less openly admitting this. The only prospect of a new trade agreement so far is one with Australia, which is estimated to boost UK GDP by 0.02 per cent over 15 years, while the EU, one of the largest free trade areas, and one on Britain’s doorstep, continues to be painted as an opponent.

The UK’s new sovereignty remains a show for the benefit of the governing party and its voters, in which the main character, Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson, has turned his back on reality and has to entertain the confused audience with large and increasingly authoritarian gestures to distract them from the political vacuum that his Brexit offers. Politics becomes a hollow formula, a flurry upon flurry of headlines that blur in the public consciousness as quickly as yesterday’s news. The destruction of the foundations of democratic culture is accepted as lightly as the repercussions for the cohesion of the United Kingdom.

[TSC]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-57854811

Cummings surfaces again

[scatman]

none of the shit sticks to this bumbling fool though, I mean the BBC have seen the whatsapp messages Cummings is talking about there but none of this will stick to this damn fool.

[Zeb]

A small good thing to come out of the pandemic was the government increasing funding to trials in Liverpool, Manchester, and Brum for 'housing first' for rough sleepers. It's what they do in Finland. Sort someone somewhere a decent place to live as the priority, give them support to help settle in and maintain it. It's massively successful in comparison to other programmes for rough sleepers. And for every £1 the taxpayer puts into it, it saves £1.56 in spending down the line. Between the three cities there've been 1100 people helped, needs another 15000 across the country.

Any surprises government still won't commit to funding it past 2022? Cross party effort now on to get the funding long term just for what's already being done. Sadly not as exciting as flags.

https://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greater-manchester-news/i-thought-going-die-streets-21093259

[KillieRed]

One rule for us and no rules for them.

"We make the rules" - Stanley Johnson.

[Snail]

NEW: In meeting with Labour staff, I’m told David Evans has said the party’s poor financial state is due to lost members and dealing with antisemitism cases. Reserves now down to one month’s payroll. Voluntary severance offered to all NEC-funded staff.

https://twitter.com/siennamarla/status/1417420588021436428?s=21

Membership is down by around 100,000 so far and big business donations have failed to materialise. Wouldn’t want to be working in Labour’s finance team, that’s for sure.

[Nobby Reserve]

A German journalist translated her essay for a German publication into English, "The politics of lies: Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson and the erosion of the rule of law". Found it interesting for how similar it is to essays about Trump, and also some of the writing on parts of the 'alternative' media which are happy to distort and invent for the clicks generated and the hoped for political effect. https://www.newstatesman.com/politics/uk/2021/07/politics-lies-boris-johnson-and-erosion-rule-law

It's a superb critique, and the second section you post is a particularly astute assessment.

I will add, though, that Cummings and the Vote Leave campaign people were just building on very deep foundations laid by the right-wing media over decades, who had been weaving a screechy, dog-whistle anti-EU narrative for years, which had evolved to incorporate an anti-immigration, anti-'woke' (I hate that word, but it's a shortcut term) dog whistles, whilst peddling a lie of a 'metropolitan liberal elite' holding the true levers of power.

[Nobby Reserve]

https://twitter.com/siennamarla/status/1417420588021436428?s=21

Membership is down by around 100,000 so far and big business donations have failed to materialise. Wouldn’t want to be working in Labour’s finance team, that’s for sure.

By how many did membership increase during the Corbyn leadership era?

[Zeb]

https://twitter.com/siennamarla/status/1417420588021436428?s=21

Membership is down by around 100,000 so far and big business donations have failed to materialise. Wouldn’t want to be working in Labour’s finance team, that’s for sure.

Membership is at 490k still when measuring like for like according to last NEC meeting figures were given. That's same as summer 2019, down on peak of end of 2017 though which was 60k more than that. Major issue is millions of pounds of liabilities which need to be covered, both for discrimination cases which the party has to take responsibility for and the data breach by (then) Labour employees. Absolute mess from all ends.

[filopastry]

Membership is at 490k still when measuring like for like according to last NEC meeting figures were given. That's same as summer 2019, down on peak of end of 2017 though which was 60k more than that. Major issue is millions of pounds of liabilities which need to be covered, both for discrimination cases which the party has to take responsibility for and the data breach by (then) Labour employees. Absolute mess from all ends.

Yes I feel terrible for all those who might end up losing their jobs over this

[12C]

none of the shit sticks to this bumbling fool though, I mean the BBC have seen the whatsapp messages Cummings is talking about there but none of this will stick to this damn fool.

I can’t understand how Whitty, VanTam and the rest all stand up there dancing as puppets to Johnson’s Gepetto.
Last night he basically argued that it was better to get the infections and subsequent  deaths done now than in the Autumn so fuck the masks and social distancing.
Those two clowns stood there and went along with him.
A man who was happy to let the over 80s be wiped out, who said “let the bodies pile high!”
They know he is wrong surely.
Also
The most telling thing though is his throwaway line that he works for his real boss the Barclay Brothers.
Been saying it for a while, £250k a year for the weekly shit he wrote  was a simply a retainer paid via the Telegraph.

[Zeb]

Yes I feel terrible for all those who might end up losing their jobs over this

Not impressed that they and the unions found out in the papers first. Expecting some, just from loss of Short Money and reorganisation, is one thing but this is a scale beyond that and adds onto the pisstake of the way the 2019 Christmas redundancies were done. Own house in order needed and quickly on a number of things.

[Wild Romany Boy]

https://twitter.com/siennamarla/status/1417420588021436428?s=21

Membership is down by around 100,000 so far and big business donations have failed to materialise. Wouldn’t want to be working in Labour’s finance team, that’s for sure.

It's worth noting that I still get my comms and I left nearly a year ago.

Am I counted in the 490,000 currently registered? It would seem odd as the number is down as having risen lately.

[Zeb]

All modern Labour membership figures include members who have left within six months to a year because there's room for people fallen on tough times to build up some arrears in dues. So summer 2019 I would have been counted in the total in the same way as I was in December 2018 or 2019 in spite of not being a member in between. There's definitely a shift in who is in the party since Starmer's election and I'd not be surprised if it's going down at a similar pace to 2018 through 2019 rather than staying at or around 500k. 500k used to be something of the magic number because the previous General Secretary drew her budget on the assumption that Labour would never dip below 500k members. Would doubt the current GS is doing the same.

[classycarra]

https://twitter.com/siennamarla/status/1417420588021436428?s=21

Membership is down by around 100,000 so far and big business donations have failed to materialise. Wouldn’t want to be working in Labour’s finance team, that’s for sure.

Nor their legal team!

[Wild Romany Boy]

Same here but I doubt either of us are being counted. A lot of people were rejoining the party post-Corbyn at the same time as we were leaving.

Luke Akehurst and my little brother will have to do all the door knocking at this rate.

In all seriousness, Starmer got a fair bit of money for his leadership campaign, so I'm sure he'll get a few donors onboard and it will look a little peachier. But you feel for anyone losing their jobs in this situation though.

[Yorkykopite]

A smaller party (in terms of membership) wouldn't necessarily be a bad thing for Labour. It's obviously not good financially, but most of those who've left in the last two years are probably out of sympathy with Starmer and the mainstream traditions of British social democracy. As an organised faction inside the party they could do some real damage to the leader. 

Some of those who've left will also be the people who brought the party into disrepute with the general public. It's much better that they spout off under another party's banner than continue to sully the reputation of the Labour party - especially among the more traditional working-class supporters.

I suspect there's also no evidence that massive individual memberships necessarily translate into majorities at Westminster or even local government level.

[west_london_red]

A smaller party (in terms of membership) wouldn't necessarily be a bad thing for Labour. It's obviously not good financially, but most of those who've left in the last two years are probably out of sympathy with Starmer and the mainstream traditions of British social democracy. As an organised faction inside the party they could do some real damage to the leader. 

Some of those who've left will also be the people who brought the party into disrepute with the general public. It's much better that they spout off under another party's banner than continue to sully the reputation of the Labour party - especially among the more traditional working-class supporters.

I suspect there's also no evidence that massive individual memberships necessarily translate into majorities at Westminster or even local government level.

Your sounding an awful lot like the people you rightfully criticise most of the time… the only word missing is purity!

Membership may not translate into electoral success, but having some money probably helps. We can’t rely on wealthy donors, I suspect the unions won’t be so generous now Corbyn’s not in charge, and the Tories are constantly trying to change donation rules in their favour/Labours disadvantage so membership is absolutely key.