Renton

I'm assuming Starmer has asked the shadow cabinet not to attend the picket lines to counter this narrative, but that seems to have backfired, so once again the tories are in control of it. Complete set up, p[art of operation save big dog before Tiverton.

What does the big red button do?

It's fucking unbelievable isn't it. Whoops I've shat the bed.. But in a hypothetical future, it was Dr Gloom who shat the bed.

Most the agencies have said they want no part because: 1) Their workers don't have the skills or knowledge. 2) They have a shortage of workers in their supply pool anyway. 3) They don't want to be scabs. Another genius plan by this government, purely enabled to feed their culture wars.

There was the Head of a school in Hertfordshire whinging on the BBC 600 of students use the train and they will struggle to get in to do their GCSEs. I just thought, instead of whinging, why not be proactive and charter a couple of coaches. Probably only 120 of them or so will be doing the exams, I'm sure their parents can chip in a few quid, what with living in the home counties. The strike will make fuck all difference in the North East. Most intercity are running a reduced service anyway. And we have fuck all local trains to cancel.

She was another one who was gorgeous until she raised her arms revealing her teutonic hirsute pits on ToTP. Plus that song charted way too long.

Be a referral from a private consultation. Always pissed me off this, private healthcare in this country is often just a way of bypassing the gatekeepers, with the NHS doing the actual work, for free.

Twinned with Coventry no less. "The rudiments of the NDH style were established by Oomph! on their seminal second album, Sperm (1994)," Think I'll pass on this genre.

I had to look up who these are. A German Neue Deutsche Härte band apparently. I can't be arsed to look up what that means, but it sounds horrendous. These krauts can actually fill an English stadium?!

Fill your boots. The very rich retired couple opposite me are lovely, really nice people, always asking how I am, used to ask after my Dad, sent flowers and cards etc, great with the kids. Nicer than me tbh, I can't be arsed with neighbourly relations. Most the street are like them. They read the fucking Express and I'm 99% sure they vote tory. What can you do?

Some people, sure. Either because they are bone fide cunts or just brainwashed by the Mail etc usually. But let's not foget, the tories only ever get a modal majority, they have never achieved over 50% of those people who vote. Most people vote for progressive parties, but because of FPTP which we have discussed in detail before, they are not represented.

Belieiving the NHS should be free fro everyone is consistent with people being selfish, because its in their self interest. You only have to look at the US to realise in a privatised system only the super rich benefit, far beyond the top 15 percentile. And even then a lot of that 85% will resent "foreigners" using it, or people will drug, alcohol, obesity, or tobacco issues. I think all of us are motivated for selfish reasons. I want a fairer society because I think that will be a better place for ME and my family to live in. That's worth more to me than keeping my tax money. I don't want to step over the homeless on the way to my local Coop, I don't want the hell of antisocial behaviour on the metro bought on by nihilism as a consequence of hopelessness and lack or education, I don't want myself to decide which charity to donate to. I want the government to do it, and I'm willing to pay for it. Not this government though, the fucking cunts.

Hope the surgeon's scalpel slips.

Yeah, I posted about this a few months ago. It fucking stinks but gets no coverage.

I think this is spot on. Assange was very selective with what he leaked and it has proved disastrous for the UK and especially the US. Fuck knows what his motives were but am I fuck trusting somebody like him. Always makes me think about HF mind, who was his biggest supporter.

FT article on Brexit, reposted on a free to read site. Nothing new really but highlights the insanity of this situation. https://jnews.uk/the-deafening-silence-over-brexits-economic-fallout/

Starmer was spot on yesterday when he said the tories are deliberately provoking these strikes as part of the cutlure war. And a further distraction from Johnson's personal life (where the fuck did that article on Carrie Johnson disappear to btw?). They really are fucking scum. However, I think they've probably misread the room here, as usual. And underestimated the Labour front bench. Look at this hilarious exchange between Javid and Streeting's excellent drop the mic response:

Classic SMB wibble.

They always bang on about the centre being alright but the surrounding areas being a shit hole. But I think the surrounding areas of Newcastle are better than most comparable cities. Jesmond, Gosforth, Benton for starters. Even less salubrious areas like Sandyford, Heaton, Walkerville are alright. I can't vouch for the west end but it looks okay when I drive through. Then you have rhe coast etc. Compare this to cities like Manchester, Liverpool, Glasgow, and Birmingham. Places where you take a wrong turn and you're scared for your life. All I know about Sunderland is the city centre IS a shit hole, having never had reason to go elsewhere there.

See this has been a problem, people assume Keir Starmer was privileged when in fact he had a working/lower middle class upbringing, his Dad being a tool maker and his mother a nurse. He went to Leeds Uni, and worked his way up to be head of the CPS. To me, this is quite an inspirational story, especially contrasted with Johnson who has achieved nothing that wasn't given to him. A lot of people are even ignorant he was named after Keir Hardy, or who he was. My Dad was called Rodney BTW, he cam from Chirton in North Shields to hard core internationalist socialists. They were massively into esperanto and such. Apparently he was named after the battleship which I never fully understood as they were pacifists!

Not sure I agree. Bad timing maybe, but Starmer was excellent in PMQ this week, calling Johnson Jabba the Hutt. As for policy, its too early to release it and I think its a better strategy to sit back and let the tories rip themselves apart. They have a baseline support which they will never lose no matter what Johnson does. They're canny near that already. Labour need to keep their powder dry until it really matters. Plus I think people really will want competent boring when it comes down to it. Happened in the US last time.

Think Geidt deserves some credit for this.

Yeah it was AV. I don't remember much about it but it would have been a big improvement compared to full FTP. Think the main argument against it was that FTP leads to stable governments . Labour need PR now, and it would also diffuse Scottish independence imo. But they're shit scared of the bigger picture.

I really, really hope this is the start of something but too jaded to believe it is. If labour really adopted this as a manifesto pledge, I'd rejoin and maybe become active again.

Quite a long read for a twitter thread but trust me, well worth it. Some of his adjectives are superb (" Priti Patel, a smirking, razor-faced ghoul with all the warmth and tenderness of a Klingon backstreet abortionist") and the overall arc is tragically hilarious.