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And a reflection that the government have had no involvement in getting it this far.
As if that will stop them taking credit..
https://twitter.com/AlokSharma_RDG/status/1334031199535325185?s=20
If we’re doing ‘the real world’ then you might want to consider the fact that the UK is to be the first country in the world to deploy a vaccine.
Deploying effective vaccines asap is a good thing.
Waiting for them to screw up and look stupid doesn’t look like the best strategy from where I’m standing
True, there's no political advantage for Labour and potential advantage even for the Tories in this being successful. But are you seriously saying you'd rather roll-out of vaccines failed if it meant more votes for Labour? I mean, I thought I was cynical...
But are you seriously saying you’d rather roll-out of vaccines failed if it meant more votes for Labour?
Where on earth did you get that idea from? I was pointing out that the UK being the first to deploy a vaccine will play very well for Boris so Starmer and his flag wavers better come up with something a bit more imaginative and inspiring than abstaining their way to the next electioon.
Absolutely. Playing politics with a pandemic is unlikely to be helpful for anyone.
Playing politics with a pandemic is unlikely to be helpful for anyone.
It'll be helpful for Boris. He'll say he guided the country through the pandemic whilst Starmer sniped from the sidelines, facilitated the fastest rollout of the vaccine, and rebuilt the economy. All bollox of course but that's what he'll say, and the media will repeat it ad infinitum until it becomes established fact. The only conditions required for him to do this are the end of the pandemic, and a recovery from the depths of depression/recession. Both of which are near certain by 2024.
Where on earth did you get that idea from?
Its how I read you comment tbh. I assumed that wasn’t how it was intended to be read.
It’ll be helpful for Boris
Yes but so what? This isn't the wheel for labour to stick a spoke in.
Absolutely. Playing politics with a pandemic is unlikely to be helpful for anyone.
Tell that to that oily little shit Hancock.
...and Sturgeon
And now that useless, USELESS pillock Williamson too.
Jesus wept. I thought humility and dignity were things we liked to think of as 'British' traits.
The shame of it.
I thought humility and dignity were things we liked to think of as ‘British’ traits.
you won't sell many fireplaces that way. He said snobbily. What's he done?
(My earlier comments were about vaccine roll-out, not things like ignoring, bypassing and duplicating, and then kicking the PH system fwiw)
What’s he done?
Google him on Ferrari’s show on LBC. Embarrassing doesn’t cover it.
Dear god!
He's like a sort of political David Brent, isn't he?
I am shocked politician rates his country better than others, I can say I am extremely proud of the MHRA and glad to part of this great country.
I can say I am extremely proud of the MHRA and glad to part of this great country.
I mis -skim-read that as MRSA and thought you were massively taking the piss. 😂
Just the way GW talks, his slow feeble minded hesitant 'man trapped in a box' voice, surely if you were afflicted with that you'd never get past interview stage for any serious job.
It really is like Frank Spencer. He just sounds thick AF and that's before we get to the actual nonsense he spews. This government is pathetic
How did he even become a chief whip? He apparently excelled at it - a job that requires persuasion and interpersonal skills. How how HOW!!
(I know the brexit related answer to that and I guess we can run this argumemt at any cabinet member)
Aaaaaaaaaaarrrrrrgggghhhh!!
I am shocked politician rates his country better than others, I can say I am extremely proud of the MHRA and glad to part of this great country.
Nope? Me neither.
You'd have thought the bot farms would have got this 'coherent sentence' thing sorted by now, but I guess not.
He apparently excelled at it – a job that requires persuasion and interpersonal skills. How how HOW!!
We're some distance from sks now, but Williamson did have a funny line at the Tory conference one year, saying something like whips office use a combination of carrot and stick and
“I don’t very much believe in the stick, but it’s amazing what can be achieved with a sharpened carrot.”
(The mind boggles. Just a simple lad from Whitby now looking simpler by the day.)
He apparently excelled at it – a job that requires persuasion and interpersonal skills. How how HOW!!
Because persuasion covers many things. You seem to be thinking of being able to persuade via charm, logic and evidence as opposed to "be a shame if the tabloids found out about this although on the upside it would mean us losing that vote wouldnt make the 10th page".
He did keep a tarantula in the chief whips office for some reason which I think gives an idea of his approach.
He apparently excelled at it – a job that requires persuasion and interpersonal skills. How how HOW!!
I was under the impression that the main qualification for being chief whip was to be a genuinely nasty, vindictive little ****! He seems perfectly suited to that
One look at such an obviously sad, inadequate little man and you just know he'd massively get off on being in a position of power like that. Did you see the photo he had published of himself?
Where do you even start with that? A psychologist would have a field day. You just know that he got wedgied and had his dinner money taken off him every single day at school and that he doesn't actually have any friends
We got the vaccine first out of a bit of enlightened self-interest. We head the lists for deaths, mismanagement and economic dislocation, the sick man of Europe.
Did you see the photo he had published of himself?
Look at my desk.
Look at my large desk.
Look at my extremely large desk.
LOOK AT MY DESK.
A psychologist would have a field day.
Indeed and they'd diagnose all sorts of syndromes with German/Nordic names that can roughly be translated as:
"Jumped up little pillock".
Is that a whip at the front of the picture? His facial expression suggests where the sharpened carrot may be located.
he's sitting on it.
it's all in the best possible taste.
Idiot Cabinet ministers tells world that we have the greatest people while simultaneously demonstrating that we obviously don’t...
pillock
Idiot Cabinet ministers tells world that we have the greatest people while simultaneously demonstrating that we obviously don’t…
pillock
Yes, I wonder what the likes of Super-Gav think when they look in the mirror. What he should be thinking is "**** me, I am one lucky bugger to be where I am, I need to keep my head down and pass civil servants' work off as my own until someone cottons on".
I bet what he really thinks is "looking gooooooood, you really are 'The Man', here's to another day of being awwwwesommmme, yeah baby".
Pillock.
Is that a whip at the front of the picture?
It is indeed. And what is lying on the whip is the chief whips 'little black book'. He released that professionally posed photograph during the exams fiasco where a large number of Tory backbenchers were calling for him to resign on account of being so utterly ****ing useless.
He had that image put out to send the message 'hey you lot calling for my head... guess what's in this book? Its got all the details of your affair with a lap-dancer/coke habit/weekends in Amsterdam with rent boys, and unless you pipe down then it'll be all over the Sunday papers
Yes, I wonder what the likes of Super-Gav think when they look in the mirror
Gareth Cheeseman is what...
He had that image put out to send the message ‘hey you lot calling for my head… guess what’s in this book? Its got all the details of your affair with a lap-dancer/coke habit/weekends in Amsterdam with rent boys, and unless you pipe down then it’ll be all over the Sunday papers
Credit where credit is due!
@nickc - Gareth Cheeseman was exactly who I thought of too
YOU’RE A TIGER!!!!
When he was defence minister he was apparently referred to by everyone in the department as Private Pike
Getting back on topic...
Channel 4 news has a report on tonight that their polling shows in the ‘red wall’ seats, pretty much all of them would return Labour MPs if there were an election tomorrow
Given how the north has been treated by the government during Covid, that’s hardly surprising
Channel 4 news has a report on tonight that their polling shows in the ‘red wall’ seats, pretty much all of them would return Labour MPs if there were an election tomorrow
Hardly a surprise seeing as Starmer has turned himself and his party into enthusiastic brexiteers.
Hang on, wasn't hero Corbyn a secret Brexidiot?
You seem to be getting a tad confused there when referring to enthusiastic Brexiteers amongst recent labour leaders
Didn’t do the last one much good, vote-wise, did it? And he was as Brexity as Farage
Shall we have a look at your boys record?
Cheers Jezza!
Hardly a surprise seeing as Starmer has turned himself and his party into enthusiastic brexiteers.
No he has not. what he has done is accepted it happening and thus not wanting to continue the arguement.
I think we can all come together and celebrate the fact that Labour is only a bit behind this shambolic government.
It’s not about national polling figures.
Have you bothered to take note of the fact that the present ‘red wall’ polling means most of those seats go back to labour, which means.... whisper it... a labour government
Imagine that?
Mad, eh?
I know it’s not exactly ‘winning the argument’ or a socialist revolution or overthrowing the capitalist system, but at least it’s something, eh?
On a personal note... how are your A levels going?
No, you're right, it's truly impressive. Take those seats back and they return to their 2017 position. You were very complimentary about that, as I recall.
Now, get yourself off to bed, because it's school in the morning and you need to concentrate if you're to succeed at remedial studies.
‘remedial’?
Very PC
Anyway.... you know why they lost all those seats, right?
If you’re in any doubt, watch the channel 4 report from tonight
If you stick your tellybox on now to Brexicast on BBC1 or catch it on iplayer you’ll see the most reasoned political analysis of the present situation in this country from a certain Mr T Blair
Talks more sense than anyone in the Labour Party and is head and shoulders above anyone in our present political system
*awaits sprit-crushingly tedious cries of IRAQ!*
Sorry - I disagree with you about Blair. a man only concerned with his own power and wealth. any good he did was a by product
I rather have Burnham and i despise him for his racism
Jon Stone (@joncstone) Tweeted: there’s been a reassessment of the Blair/Brown government on the Left in recent years: you hear more about its achievements than you used you. that’s good, but it’s also important not to forget that it regularly did things a Tory government would be criticised for (THREAD) https://twitter.com/joncstone/status/1231543272943898626?s=20
Corbyn lost by 80 seats to an incoherent panto act who hid in a fridge to avoid scrutiny.
But won the argument apparently Danny which is all that matters. I wonder where Labour would be in the polls today if JC was still in charge or Long Bailey had won the leadership election.
Is this the Blair who knighted his chums Fred Goodwin and Philip Green and went on to become a multimillionaire landlord? Not sure if SKS will be quite as good but he's giving it his best shot.
But won the argument apparently Danny which is all that matters. I wonder where Labour would be in the polls today if JC was still in charge or Long Bailey had won the leadership election.
The problem with that argument is i) no-one here is arguing that Corbyn didn't have serious failings as leader, and ii) if all you've got in favour of Sir Starmer is "yeah, but Corbyn" then you don't have very much in your locker.
We have a corrupt government and 60,000 CV19 deaths, yet Labour is still behind in the polls. It's just not good enough.
@ctk - that's a good thread. A few of those were absolutely shocking to me at the time, but it's hard to introduce some of these points with people who have their fingers in their ears and just yell the same crap every time they post (a-level, revolution, blah, blah).
A lot of what went on during that period set up the stage for the anti-immigration feelings that fuelled brexit. I remember thinking at the time, that it seemed to be pandering to the right-wing media when there seemed little need with the majority they had.
It’s just not good enough.
Probably not, but it is a better position than Corbyn would have the Labour Party in right now.
Probably not, but it is a better position than Corbyn would have the Labour Party in right now.
The problem with that argument is i) no-one here is arguing that Corbyn didn’t have serious failings as leader, and ii) if all you’ve got in favour of Sir Starmer is “yeah, but Corbyn” then you don’t have very much in your locker.
if all you’ve got in favour of Sir Starmer is “yeah, but Corbyn” then you don’t have very much in your locker.
Probably not, but it is a better position than Corbyn would have the Labour Party in right now.
I think you just proved his point 🙂
ii) if all you’ve got in favour of Sir Starmer is “yeah, but Corbyn” then you don’t have very much in your locker.
Hard working, extremely competent and credible. Being a center right person myself, I would probably disagree with a lot of Starmer’s policies yet would vote him in a heartbeat, since unlike most MPs he doesn’t come across as an opportunistic lunatic.
It’s just not good enough.
But an 80 seat Tory majority is?
Everything's relative. On April 4th this year Magic Grandad belatedly shuffled off - 3 years too late - leaving in his wake an 80 seat Tory majority, having handed over seats to the Tory's that had been labour since Jesus was a lad, and a 26 point poll deficit.
Well under a year later, if you bothered to watch the channel 4 report which details polling in the seats that delivered Boris his majority, you'd see that if there was an election now then we'd likely have a labour government. What we certainly wouldn't have is a huge Tory majority giving them free rein to do whatever the **** they like
You don't think this is good enough?
Well, it's worth bearing in mind that the politics you advocate was tested twice and proved to be about as popular with this country's electorate as a fart in a lift.
Given that fact, I'd question whether your opinion is worth an awful lot, as what you propose has delivered, and will only ever deliver, permanent whacking great Tory majorities.
So I'll pass on that, thanks
Hard working, extremely competent and credible. Being a center right person myself, I would probably disagree with a lot of Starmer’s policies yet would vote him in a heartbeat, since unlike most MPs he doesn’t come across as an opportunistic lunatic.
Unfortunately, polling suggests that not enough people share your opinion.
Anyway, it seems that it doesn't matter: others here are satisfied with him doing slightly better than the man they hold to be completely useless.
Slightly better?
26 points difference in the polls? That's an interesting definition of 'slightly'
Is that the same as Manchester City being 'slightly better' than Burnley last Saturday?
SKS is not Blair.
Criticism of Blair is not criticism of SKS.
I hope SKS gets elected and proves all us doubting lefties wrong with an ambitious plan to revolutionise the economy and renew infrastructure.
We really do not need more of the same but with a red rosette.
Slightly better?
Losing by a little vs. losing by a lot as an indicator of success:
Let's put up the bunting and chill the champagne.
Maybe ask Boris how he's enjoying having an 80 seat majority?
News of Labour still being behind has just hit their HQ
since unlike most MPs he doesn’t come across as an opportunistic lunatic.
We have had our aspirations thoroughly screwed over, haven't we?
Ctk, nice aspiration, but it has never happened ever, always the reverse.
Coming to the conclusion that ransos is in fact a Tory bot, and best ignored
We really do not need more of the same but with a red rosette.
Not a single thing KS has said or done indicates he's going to do anything different than what has come before. We can look forward to slightly more generous benefits, slightly different taxes, slightly different wages, slightly different amounts spent on public services, slight different practises for managing all these things, and unfortunately all the same problems these slightly different policies have failed to solve in the past 40 years. Given the lack of any real difference its amazing so much effort goes into politics.
Coming to the conclusion that ransos is in fact a Tory bot, and best ignored
I'll try to contain my disappointment.
Not a single thing KS has said or done indicates he’s going to do anything different than what has come before.
He seems to be frightened of saying anything much. Meanwhile, the kool-aid drinkers will continue to inflate the scantest of evidence to justify their backing.
Ransos what is Kool Aid drinkers?
I’ll try to contain my disappointment.
That's the spirit.
Best thing I’ve seen on the AS catastrophe. Are these the people Starmer wants to kick out of the party?
https://twitter.com/doubledownnews/status/1333045949032263680?s=21
Dazh - Thanks that was great viewing really powerful, she came across so well.
Meanwhile, the kool-aid drinkers will continue to inflate the scantest of evidence to justify their backing.
In the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is king.
So one eyed that they think they are king and that people who can see perfectly well are blind.
So those of you that disagree with having Starmer what do you propose? And who would you rather be at the lead?
In the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is king.
Yes, I'm already aware that you wish to celebrate losing by not quite so much.
So those of you that disagree with having Starmer what do you propose? And who would you rather be at the lead?
They don’t propose anything. If you’re looking for any kind of strategy or reason you’ll be left wanting. They’re basically a bunch of puerile, sanctimonious sixth formers who’s ideas, such as the are, amount to
Their only proposal was to have Rebecca Wrong-Daily as the ‘continuity Corbyn’ candidate, because Corbynism went down so well with the electorate that to continue it would be the obvious thing to do.
Remind me again how you define madness?
Now that their messiah has thankfully been deposed they’re now heading back to the 1970’s political backwater they’ve always inhabited and that means that hopefully the grown-ups in Labour can return the party to the real world, free of their pious infantile nonsense
Remind me again how you define madness?
Have you met any of the U.K. electorate? They’re pretty reliable at voting in the Right (barstads) even when it clearly seems (to me) to be against their interest.
The first election I have much recollection of involved Kinnock.
Tories at the election; “Hi, we *****ed over the old heavy industries with no transition to a new economic profile and have literally just delivered you a recession, but will you vote us in anyway. Oh you will, thank you very much. Here, let me kick some work shy dole scum in the ghoolies as a thank you”
So those of you that disagree with having Starmer what do you propose? And who would you rather be at the lead?
I think Starmer is the best leader the labour party have had since Smith
Remind me again how you define madness?
Posting the same picture over and over again and expecting different results?