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In a crisis the PM gets more airtime and this is reflected in the polls as a positive boost - even if they perform badly in that crisis
In a crisis the PM gets more airtime and this is reflected in the polls as a positive boost – even if they perform badly in that crisis
This. People want to be believe and be re-assured that an entity such as a Government has a grip on the situation...albeit an extremely tenuous grip like this Government has.
This also has the added bonus of people either being forgiving(for the moment) for the "antics" that this Government get's up to, such as eye tests at Barnard Castle, or Shoeing in Russian oligarchs /family members into the House of Lords, or letting stuff pass "unnoticed" such as quietly handing over our confidential medical records to an organisation with links to Cambridge analytica, as they did on the last day of Parliament before Summer Recess in order to make sure questions weren't asked in the House, all they way through to IDS not reading the small print.
He needs to make some better appointments. Just watched the shadow chancellor on channel 4. I have no idea what her name is (having Googled it, it’s apparently Anneliese Dodds) I’d think nobody else does either.
She has all the presence, authority and gravitas of a primary school supply teacher.
Given that her opposite number is the only Tory with any credibility, she needs to up her game, quite considerably
She is very much … ‘great CV, but the interview should have weeded her out’.
shadow chancellor
I'm sure people were more of the opinion on here it was all Corbyn's fault - and change the leader and it everything would click into place.
Corbyn never had a much of a chance with lame idiots of the Guardian (Freeland) and the vile Ian Austin and his vote Tory letters. Not to mention 'my' own John Mann causing all manner of shit. And these people were supposed to be on the left!
20pts ahead with Keir Starmer is now the often cited joke that was very much the rubber stamp of 2019.
There seems to be an element of back tracking about to begin.
Another major poll to feast on.
https://twitter.com/IpsosMORI/status/1291358599114104832?s=19
Centrism will not win out. It simply can't. Change UK and the Libdems are the benchmark for failure.
And I agree Socialism is a very hard sell too but is the long term answer to many problems.
The red/blue wallers in my area are really into Boris. Crack that and we could make progress.
If you want to make the UK more socialist (I do) and, more importantly, take the reigns of power away form the mob currently in no10… stop bleating on about Corbyn and centrism.
If you want to make the UK more socialist (I do) and, more importantly, take the reigns of power away form the mob currently in no10… stop bleating on about Corbyn and centrism
I make a point of only mentioning Corbyn when other people bring him into the fold. There was a lot of good coming from his direction too. That shouldn't be backed off from.
Also I don't want us to just take the reigns of power - it has to also be a Government that will actually change something.
Centrism has to be discussed or bleated on.
I completely get looking forward but it's very difficult to debate these issues without avoiding the things you mention.
Also I don’t want us to just take the reigns of power
I wouldn’t worry your head over that particular ‘problem’.
Have you been living in a cave for 5 years? Oh... sorry... Maybe a common room?
The UK will never ever elect a socialist government. Especially not one fronted by some bearded weirdo
We know that you don’t like that fact, and refuse to come to terms with it, but there it is... that’s the reality of the situation. He tested it to destruction. Twice. The last attempt delivered the worst labour performance for 85 years and delivered Boris a thumping great majority to do what the hell he likes
Deal with it
So the Labour Party has to offer something that can get as much social justice as possible into something that the majority of people will actually vote for
Otherwise it’s just permanent Tory rule which benefits nobody other than the rich.
People slag off Tony Blair and ‘centrism’ for delivering 13 years of Labour government and three election victories.
There’s a name for these people...
Actually, I can think of quite a few names for them. Some of them quite sweary. None are complimentary
And to pre-empt the next word out of your mouth...
IRAQ!!!
Maybe you should leave the common room and engage with reality?
Just a thought
You need 40% of the public. Less than half that are happy to use the word socialism at all. Look, I think Starmer is a lack lustre leader who’ll surprise me if he wins an election… but I’ll take him as PM, if he can get the support of enough voters, over Johnson, Patel, Raab… any of them. If you think it’s Corbyn’s way, or it might as well be Cummings’ way… then, you’re a selfish idealist helping to doom the country to a generation of right wing asset stripping.
Maybe you should leave the common room
Are you planning to? Nothing in your track record suggests that's likely.
Actually, I can think of quite a few names for them. Some of them quite sweary. None are complimentary
I find your political banter hilarious.
It's so funny and outrageous with all your hilarious nicknames and all that.
What's brilliant is that you treat politics like supporting a football team.
In many ways, you do for politics what Greavsie did for 80s soccer chat.
And like Greavsie used to say - politics is a 'funny ol' game'.
Well done.
Evening comrade! Thanks for your insightful contribution, as ever. Always educational.
No problem. And I'm always happy to help you with anything you don't understand.
In many ways, you do for politics what Greavsie did for 80s soccer chat.
And like Greavsie used to say – politics is a ‘funny ol’ game’.
Well done.
Thanks. But I always thought myself more...
“Frankly, the display from Jeremy was shambolic...unforgivable...“
Maybe you should leave the common room and engage with reality?
You really are a very tiresome individual and whats funny about your constant sixth form bilge is that it shows you have the debating power of a child.
Thanks. But I always thought myself more…
I think it's apparent that self awareness isn't your strongest suit.
No problem. And I’m always happy to help you with anything you don’t understand.
like people thinking Jeremy Corbyn could ever be prime minister?
Do feel free to enlighten me with the benefit of your obvious wisdom, brother ....
Do feel free to enlighten me with the benefit of your obvious wisdom, brother ….
Why on earth would I waste energy on trying to educate pork?
The worst thing about politics, for me, is the tribalism.
I'm neither left, right, upside down or other.
It seems to me in UK politics at the moment you have to subscribe to a camp, which is utter nonsense.
Every issue that every government faces will have it's own sensible balanced solution. But they can't do it, for "reasons".
A solution that will never be reached in the current UK set up, as it's not towing the party line.
There are three answers to any UK political question, or millions if you think about it, but let's boil it down to three.
1. the tory way
2. the labour way
3. The correct way... heaven forbid a consensus - unthinkable.
So far Starmer has convinced me that he's dull and one of them, as in one of the privileged pricks too quick to cite his credentials and too slow to address issues that concern people who might vote for him. The last PMQ before the Summer recess was dismal. I really don't give flying duck about the Russian report, there's the prospect of millions of jobs going, companies going to the wall, parts of the economy close to collapse and the questions were so lame, they cast more doubt on the intelligence of the general public than the did on Boris. It's never good telling people they were stupid stupid enough to swallow foreign propaganda, you alienate them.
Comrade Corbyn was ****ing irritating with his 1974 brand of militance, Starmer is equally ****ing irritating with his whiny lawyer nit picking. Is there no one in the Labour party who can read the writing in huge letters on the wall and tell people who aren't stinking rich what's wrong with society for them and how to fix it?
Labour needs a voice that represents anyone who isn't stinking rich and Starmer is stinking rich.
Who thinks we're going to see a Starmer vs Johnson contest in a bit over 4 years time?
What we are going to see next year will be the banking crisis + the 80's recession + the 70's discontent + the social upheaval of the 60's. All at once. I can't see our political status quo surviving that.
Our traditional politics are now meaningless, they've literally flipped north-south, the two parties don't even represent any political fundamentals anymore.
If Macron could challenge the political status quo in France in a pre covid world, I find it impossible to think that outside figures won't succeed in challenging our political establishment over the next 4 years.
Sorry rone, I can't see Labour cracking the red/blue wallers. They lost them and I can't see them getting them back.
Corbyn's Labour let the genie out of the bottle. The blue/red wallers were already conservative with a small c, and many of them were racist and xenophobic but voted along class and economic lines. In switching their vote they have made a cultural identification no longer based on class identity.
If Keir doesn't go after the Tories hard on this PPE scandal then what is he for?
PPE is a detail. If Starmer goes after them on that it's more wasted questions. Inkster has correctly identified tha major issue:
What we are going to see next year will be the banking crisis + the 80’s recession + the 70’s discontent + the social upheaval of the 60’s. All at once.
Labour needs to tell people how it will keep roofs over people's heads, food in their stomachs, the bailifs from the door, their savings intact... .
Nah. It needs to show people the corruption. Tories are great at woolly promises and people lap them up.
Wasted questions?, they're all wasted. Pmqs is a sham, Boris can avoid questions and lie with no comeback. Starmer needs to get on the telly more.
If what is being reported is true then its imo en9ugh to bring the govt down.
The UK will never ever elect a socialist government. Especially not one fronted by some bearded weirdo
Not when people who claim to be Labour supporters hate anyone left of David Cameron.
The worst thing about politics, for me, is the tribalism.
There are three answers to any UK political question, or millions if you think about it, but let’s boil it down to three.
The worst thing is that the tribalism is fake as ultimately the two/three sides are usually in agreement with each other and don't challenge how the system works. Corbyn came up against such vicious opposition because he threatened that cosy consensus. Noam Chomsky summed it up very well:
"In the US, there is basically one party - the business party. It has two factions, called Democrats and Republicans, which are somewhat different but carry out variations on the same policies. By and large, I am opposed to those policies. As is most of the population."
Sorry rone, I can’t see Labour cracking the red/blue wallers. They lost them and I can’t see them getting them back.
This. The red wallers are thick small-B bigots with a chip on their shoulder against anyone with an education or who doesn't talk with a thick regional accent. Under Starmer (and Corbyn before him) labour represents a hand-wringing, do-gooding metropolitan elite which cares more for immigrants and transexuals than the interests of plumbers, welders and carpet fitters. They're so bloody thick they genuinely think Boris and Cummings represent their interests. The only way Starmer will get them back is if he starts blowing his dog-whistle on immigration and benefits claimants, and that's not going to happen.
The red wallers are thick small-B bigots with a chip on their shoulder against anyone with an education or who doesn’t talk with a thick regional accent.
And that's how all this started 10 years ago. Gordon Brown called that Gillian Duffy woman bigoted (he was right, she was) and rather than then explaining to her why she was wrong (and bigoted, and stupid...), ha had to go back and apologise on national TV and it validated her view across the nation.
Careful, you're not allowed to call dumb racists dumb and racist, that's elitist - and that's much worse apparently.
It will be interesting to see if this potential downward social mobility leads to increased energy and ideas for change. Those who see themselves as 'middle class professionals' will realise they are workers too. Nonsense categories though. I passed up the opportunity for an apprenticeship as a Thames Lighterman and went to university instead, but I'm still working class.
Not my area of expertise but Starmers.record asna barrister seems very very good so he is clearly capable and bright.
The key to going after PM/Govt over all the current issues is surely timing and picking your arguments. A well timed strike with the relevant evidence is better than constant sniping over anything and everything.
Would love to see a starmer led labour government but it's about waiting for the right moments and opportunities? And accepting that may be a slow process to change people's minds as others have said.
The only way Starmer will get them back is if he starts blowing his dog
Rather unfortunate line wrapping on my iPad.
It would certainly get their attention....
No one cares about being right or moral or having evidence any more though, so all his barrister-y nitpicking isn't going to get us anywhere.
No one cares about being right or moral or having evidence any more though, so all his barrister-y nitpicking isn’t going to get us anywhere.
The main reason why I wanted Rayner to stand for leader. She's the only one of the current crop who can pull on the emotional heartstrings and identify with the northern idiots. Of course she'd have the opposite problem of turning off the self-congratulating hipsters and cultural snobs and may lose some of them to the lib dems, but I reckon most of them would vote tactically in any case.
Who do you think the red wall idiots will listen to on the subject of racism, mysogyny, immigration and all the other liberal political correctness issues? Someone from their background who knows what it's like to raise a kid as a teenager and clean floors for a living, or a middle class barrister with a posh accent?
Someone from their background who knows what it’s like to raise a kid as a teenager and clean floors for a living, or a middle class barrister with a posh accent?
It shouldn’t be so, and I see your point, but disappointingly, I fear a posh accent still works. 😔
…or a middle class barrister with a posh accent?
Sorry, but are these the voters that need to be swung away from voting for Johnson? The voters you patronisingly think need a working class northerner to vote for?
Don't they like Johnson because he's 'a lad' though? You know, cheats on his wife, racist, and LOVES THE BANTER. Starmer is definitely not a lad.
True. I’ve said before… he’s too “dull” to win over the “Boris is a laugh” voters. And I like Rayner, but she wisely realised that more experience was needed to lead the party out of its current hole.
^^^^ This. The bluster and the long words make people think he's funny, cheeky and loveable, and not some racist, power-hungry, untrustworthy narcissist being told what to do by his financial backers.
He could shit on the table at a party for sick kids and it would get laughed off in the press as "Boris being Boris".
If another party wants to beat him at that game, they need to, well, beat him at that game. Sadly, that would mean a race to the bottom and the beginning of the rise of President Camacho.
The voters you patronisingly think need a working class northerner to vote for?
TBH I don't know who they will vote for any more. I'm long past trying to understand what will please them, because they're so full of prejudice and contradictions, and have proven themselves completely incapable of simple judgements about what is in their own best interests. If they want to vote for someone like Boris or Farage who will lie and say anything to take advantage of their bigotry and ignorance then fine. Labour and other parties should forget about them and concentrate on the majority who are capable of putting brains before brawn.
Agreed.
[ not sure it’s a majority though ]
I think the problem is that there's a big angry group whose voting has been defined as "against something" rather than voting "for something".
Anti Europe.
Anti Corbyn.
Etc.
It's scary times in politics. 1930s stuff.
I don't think they'll be converted to pro-starmer, it's not a Messiah they want but a scapegoat to blame.
The question is more whether they'll be more anti-Johnson than anti-starmer when it matters.
But then the Tories/Cummings also have the option to just change the puppet (sunak?) if this one becomes a vote loser. Although media control might mean they don't need to.
sunak?
You think they’re going to vote for someone with brown skin?
It's not about voting "for" anything.
But there's 365 of them.
You're probably right that it won't be him, but if there's an anti Johnson feeling then it's easy enough to just pop another puppet in.
I think the problem is that there’s a big angry group whose voting has been defined as “against something” rather than voting “for something”.
Well done, you just summed up Scottish politics.
In response to you question dazh,
Yes.
I can still remember where i was when i heard that John Smith had died.
My second thought was *it has to be Blair*
Sometimes you have to be realistic - the Tories only ever think this way - you have to win.
It's like Lear - nothing will come of nothing - we can weep as Cordelia for our loss or we can be more Regan.
These people are becoming ruthless - we must stop them before they make us just like them.
I don't want to set binners off but I had quite a good laugh reading the following. If anyone was wondering at the delusion of 20th century socialists this is a good start. I mean, he uses the phrase 'petit-borgeois' 3 times 🙂
I wish them luck in persuading working class culture warriors in Sunderland to join the cause of workers solidarity and class unity.
https://www.socialist.net/storytelling-culture-wars-and-the-left-a-reply-to-paul-mason.htm
My second thought was *it has to be Blair*
Here’s where I get to say… you were right, I was wrong. Labour lost me then, just before I got my first chance to vote… and it wasn’t ‘till Corbyn became leader that I voted Labour. I was wrong. I should have voted Labour under Blair, Brown & Miliband… sorry. A Labour leader needs to lead for the country, not just for people of the left, like myself.
We don’t need another Blair now… or another Brown or Miliband… but, just as importantly… we don’t need another Corbyn… and those annoyed that Starmer will not be Corbyn2, or continually looking back and moaning about how unfairly treated Corbyn was need to wake up to the reality that he’s gone… and, in my opinion, not gone away as completely as he now needs to.
Mason will be wheeling out Gramsci's 'Prison Notebooks' next, written in code and wide open to interpretation, as did the Eurocommunists. He'll be claiming 'organic intellectuals' were people with allotments. Postmodernism is a relativistic reactionary load of guff and in the social sciences it has sort of disappeared. Find me a postmodernist book with any 'evidence' in it, it's all anecdote, conjecture, ultimately conservative and really offers nothing to help our understanding of the present. If a society is built on production then the first point of analysis has to be the process of production and how a system allocates its resources. Similarly that analysis has to inform the possibility and process for change and it ain't about squabbling over great parliamentary leaders and who'll do what in four yeas time. We're in the here and now, and it's serious.
Well that gets my vote🙄
Mason will be wheeling out Gramsci’s ‘Prison Notebooks’ next
Don't get me wrong, I'm not using that example as a defence of Mason, I've found much of his latest stuff far too academic and hand-wringing for my liking. He was much better off sticking to the economic stuff about post-capitalism than getting involved in pointless arguments about Marxism and labour factionalism.
The point was more that many on the left are hopelessly out of date with their language and messaging, and far too academic in their arguments to be making any real impact in the real world. The problems of today can be understood fairly simply in terms of tax, regulation and corruption of government for the interests of a tiny few rich people. All this stuff about class and postmodernism deflects from that.
When was the last time we heard Boris, Farage or any leading tories waxing lyrical about narratives, class, the petit-bourgeois, economism, neoliberalism, postmodernism or any of the other elitist academic phrases which turn people away from politics? They don't, they talk in language people understand. Even Tony Blair understood that, and so should Starmer.
I took the Gramsci reference from the article. Terminology is a shorthand for allocating ideas and of course puts people off. It's also used to obfuscate and prove elite status like Johnson and his classical allusions. The role of an organic intellectual was to translate complex analyses into accessible language to help bring about change, so Gramsci and Daz agree!
I live in Rishi Sunaks constituency, yes i am the only communist in the village 🙂
Last week a mail shot from Rishi landed on my door mat. It did not include the following words "Tory, Conservative" or any form of Tory party branding and all of the twitter, facebook refs etc were "Rishi"
It is obvious that he is distancing himself from Boris and the rest of the Tory cabinet and copying the approach that Blair took in the 90s.
I think Rishi is aiming to be in Boris's job before the economic pain really sets in and he has transferred that bag of shit to some other Tory minister.
I have seen Rishi in my local gastro pub and heard him discussing with a member of staff how many times he was in the press last month (this was before his chancellor job)
He is smart and very ambitious, he has unlimited sums of family money behind him. He can easily outsmart Boris and the ERG, however like Boris it is not clear what he wants to do if anything if he gets to be PM. He is very similar to Blair when he was younger.
The Tory faithful will vote for him regardless of his ethnicity.
He has also given the farming community a significant back hander that has not been in the press, if you can demonstrate a drop in revenue for the same period last year you got a £10k grant.
Dazh,
Yep, that was funny. Stuck in the 20th Century, a complete anachronism that flies in the face of reality. But part of the problem is that we haven't yet moved on from the last Century with regards our thinking. Everything is a re-tread of 20th Century ideologies. Neo Liberalism, New Labour, Post Modernism, Neo Marxism, Neo Conservatism.
Everything is a New, Neo, Post something or other. We have to get our heads round the idea that that these old ideologies just don't have the answers for the connected, technologically driven world we find ourselves facing.
We're stuck in a world which we think is driven by ideology. We look at current events and see them through the prism of Orwells' 1984 when in fact we are entering a brave new world. Aldous Huxley posited that the coming world would be shaped by technology and human beings relationship to it rather than ideology.
There has yet to be any 21st Century thinking. We might start to see it emerge next year, I feel certain new figures will emerge from this chaos that try to make sense of the world in terms that don't rely on trotting the same old 20th Century cliches.
The phrase Working class is meaningless. As is the phrase Marxism. Come the next election half the world's population won't have even been born in the 20th Century.
In the meantime, as somebody has already said, the best Starmer could do is to get on telly a bit more.
The phrase Working class is meaningless. As is the phrase Marxism.
My word, a postmodernist!
There's a good few on here who articulate very meaningfully on the working class experience on redundancy, debt, short hours, housing, food and sadly, more to come.
Quite right Bill, there's quite a few on here who like to gasslight using their working class credentials.
If the working class still exist as a political entity or voting block they have switched over to Boris and they now identify themselves along cultural (Nationalistic) lines. And that working class experience you describe is an experience that isn't alien to many middle class people.
The class distinctions of yore aren't as applicable anymore in the gig economy. The middle classes are shrinking and their fortunes are more closely aligned with those you describe as working class than they were in the last century. The more we pit the working classes against the middle classes the better it will be for Boris and chums.
I tell you one thing, the salt of the earth Northern Working class massive turning out to vote for Boris has absolved me of any lingering middle class guilt I might have had.
Grinding out the working class narrative will only serve the Tories.
And that working class experience you describe is an experience that isn’t alien to many middle class people.
Lets be honest, many people who regard themselves as middle class are anything but. Owning an audi does not make you middle class. The whole class debate is very boring though. I'm not sure it's irrelevent but one thing I will agree with Mason on is the division along the lines of those in stable salaried jobs versus gig workers and the self employed. The third group are those who don't need to work as they can fall back on income derived from their wealth and the rent it generates. The rentier economy is where labour should be focusing it's efforts.
Grinding out the working class narrative will only serve the Tories.
It will as long as the working class hold on to the view that the labour party abandoned them under Blair. It did, and now that Boris has captured them with his dog-whistle identity politics it's almost impossible for labour to claim them back because that would involve them jumping on the racism/immigration is bad bandwagon. Andy Burnham tried that and look what happened to him.
You knows it oldmanmtb, the Tory faithfull would vote for Rishi regardless of his ethnicity. Don't think he's in Cummings or Johnstones pocket either.
When Javid resigned on principle (hold that thought for a minute, a current Tory who actually acted out of principle) the consensus was that Sunak was a stooge. Covid conspired to thrust him from and centre as the most competent and reassuring figure in Government. Likeable even. My first thoughts when I saw him commanding the podium were 'Boris isn't going to like this'
It could all go tits up and it probably will but Sunak is the most Blair like figure in Parliament.
On the flip side don't count Javid out either. In resigning he can say he put Parliament and due process before party and self interest, never mind that he's reportedly the most Ayn Randy of the lot of them! He's the least damaged goods in the Conservative party at the minute and he's Covid free.
Crazy I know but you could see a party leadership run-off between Sunak and Javid.
I wouldn't vote for either. I'd vote for Starmer but I'd much rather see either of the aforementioned potential candidates lead the country than the current incumbents and I feel a good portion of the non Tory voting public would too. Either of them would be a formidable appointment for Starmer.
Starmer still rising, but the party isn’t…
https://twitter.com/britainelects/status/1291717368192925696?s=21
He's making a good impression. In the long term that has to be a good thing.
I know but you could see a party leadership run-off between Sunak and Javid.
Quite possibly. When Brosis runs out of steam or the backers stop backing him because they've Got Brexit Done and no longer need him.
Sunak will need to keep his nose clean, which could prove tricky as part of the Covid Cabinet.
Just for clarification, your class is determined (irrespective of how you identify) by whether you sell your labour or you own or control capital with which you employ labour. So 'middle class' workers are workers like 'working class' workers. These categories are not very illuminating and have their origin in the development of the RG classification of occupations in the early C20th (which was based on reactionary and moralistic judgements). They were wrong then but sadly their errors survive.
Just for clarification, your class is determined (irrespective of how you identify) by whether you sell your labour or you own or control capital with which you employ labour.
Determined by whom? The Precariat may very well fit your description, but so do permanently contracted homeowners.
Well he's made up 26 points
But Johnson still has a 40% base
& As long as he keeps waffling on about the proms & Rule Britannia , they'll keep on backing him
Does Starmer really want to sink to the level of the lowest to win them over?
LibDems will be at 4% or lower by the end of the year, thanks to their choice of leader, and Labour will be a few points higher than the Tories without anyone having to give up on Johnson. Next year? That’s when Johnson will lose his shine.
RS, not 'determined by whom' but where you stand in the process of production. RG 3N put white collar clerical workers above 3M skilled manual electricians, bricklayers and plumbers. They would have had less skill and training but were regarded as 'superior' to the morass of manual workers. Owning a home, unless you're a landlord, should not be included in your 'wealth' as it is a long-term consumer durable and you can't use it to 'make money' and by including it makes the distribution of wealth seem more equal than it is. Class is determined by what you do not what you own or how you might like to see yourself, didn't 'Mrs Bucket' explore this area of status and stratification on the telly? Most people are not 'class conscious' in that they do not see this relationship and imagine class is determined by your accent, net curtains and the labels on your clothes or car. As leader of the loyal opposition, Sir obviously enjoys the pageantry and symbolism of inequality and he is rewarded for it accordingly.
Class is determined by what you do not what you own or how you might like to see yourself,
Again, determined by whom? Your definition is reductionist to the point of uselessness.
Anyway , the Starmtrooper has gained my vote, Mrs zip’s and my parent’s.
That’s the important bit.
Your relationship to selling or buying labour power is what determines your class ie do you own and/or control the means of production or do you sell your labour power to the owners of capital?
It might be reductionist in that it gets to the heart of the matter and doesn't consider status or ideology but it's how the system works. Well-paid 'middle class' mortgaged workers with shiny cars and shoes will also find themselves done over when it suits the management.
Your relationship to selling or buying labour power is what determines your class
You're doing it again. Class definitions are not inscribed on tablets of stone, and I suggest that historical definitions are less than useful for describing contemporary society.
All well and good if in that history we've seen a transformation of class relations in capitalist society. If it happened, I didn't notice. Contemporary society is much more unequal than it was in Marx's time but people can be conveniently distracted by gender, ethnicity, region, status, football clubs, sex, drugs, rock'n'roll, and the disaster of capitalism happily rumbles on and profits from it.
LOLZ
Johnson attempted to turn the tables, suddenly suggesting the Labour leader had somehow been sympathetic to the IRA because he had worked under Jeremy Corbyn. “This is a leader of the opposition who supported an IRA-condoning politician,” said Johnson, to the bemusement of MPs on all sides of the house.An angry Starmer pointed out he had in fact spent five years of his legal career prosecuting IRA terrorists and working with the intelligence services to bring terrorists to justice. Despite Hoyle’s request for Johnson to apologise he refused to do so.
A Labour source said: “If Boris Johnson wants to have a debate with Keir about past careers then bring it on. While Keir was a human rights lawyer or director of public prosecutions Johnson was being sacked for lying.”
A senior Tory MP said: “It is the issue of competence that we worry about against Starmer.”
Mega LOLZ.
I bet it is - having someone competent on the other side of the house appears to have Johnson shitting himself.
having someone competent on the other side of the house appears to have Johnson shitting himself
That was always certain.
That was always certain.
Competent at what? I see no evidence of anything other than this bloke that turns up on time. The lack of passion and useful offense towards the Tories is mind-blowing. He's playing the long game the centrists screech...
Besides - Boris is carrying the can and apart from one poll (which wasn't that great) seems to be doing okay in the public eye. Once Boris has done his number 10 squat - he will move on anyway.
Really don't know where Labour are in this shambles they should be tearing into the economic lack of policy from Tories which is about to fall apart. It's an easy goal. But actually they can't really attack the Tories because their own economic policy is not clear either.
Magic Starmer.