Oh, you missed the reference. Never mind.

at the very least she’s apologised (multiple times) and given one of the victims £30,000.

Oh that’s alright then. An incredibly wealthy woman, giving away what amounts to less than half her annual commons salary (which is a fraction of her annual income), and less than the dividends she was receiving from her stake in a company that profited from racist apartheid. Absolves her of all sins. Obviously.

There are many who would accuse Corbyn of similar unfitness

Oh I’m sure there are. Your own misinformed post demonstrates that perfectly.

If I were Starmer looking at this, I’d rather have Hodge in the tent shouting out than the opposite.

You should let the BNP know. They might send you some flowers.

924 is just a VW.

They all are. ;)

As for the original question: neither. 928s. And an early one. Much classier.

Had a look at the Leatherman site; wow they’re quite expensive! I think I paid about £40 for my Juice CS4, some 20 years ago (and that was reduced from about £70). In my mind, they are worth the expense over other brands though.

Do I think Hodge’s profiteering from Stemcor’s involvement with the SA govt in the 70’s and 80’s was wrong? Absolutely. Do I think that chucking her out of a party for events she had little to do with over 40 years ago will solve anything wrong in the party now? No, I don’t think it will.

Perhaps chucking her out of the party will make some folk who felt that her attacks on Corbyn were wrong, happy, but I doubt it’ll solve anything.

Problem is (and it’s a pretty big one), Hodge owes her wealth and political influence purely down to such wrongness. She’s still happy to benefit from her familial ties to that same company, through the dividends from shares she owns. Accusing others of racism is a bit rich, when you’ve profited from actual racism yourself. And that’s before we even get to her inaction on sex abuse, when she was leader of Islington council. In short; she is not a fit and proper person to hold any kind of position in politics, much less be anywhere near power (as she was when a member of Blair’s government, happily voting to bomb the shit out of brown people). You see? Hodge is part of the problem with Labour, and people like that cannot be members of a party that claims to stand against racism, inequality and injustice.

https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2019-11-20-dame-margaret-hodge-mp-a-very-british-apartheid-profiteer/

https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/comment/past-hers-margaret-hodge-might-show-bit-more-humility-10098871.html

Didn’t need to. You can see the difference is the chuck. There wasn’t any significant weight difference to suggest the internal parts were any different; the more expensive 990 (I think) model has more substantial internals. The drills are essentially the same; the 795 is sold in ‘DIY’ outlets in budget packs (with low capacity batteries), the 796 sold more in ‘professional’ suppliers. The difference is a metal chuck, and marketing.

Edit: this is confused further because the 796 is apparently a slightly newer model (hence the 795 being sold off cheaper), with the newer one having a bit more power (on paper). So possibly slightly better electronics. Plus; Google suggests that you could also get a 795 with a metal chuck. Anyway; replacing the plastic chucks on the DIY shed models is probably a good idea for greater longevity.

Reading this back, I realise it’s really, really boring. I apologise.

No I mean built in to the tools themselves. Most extraction ports are plain, so any fittings are just push on, which isn’t always ideal. Some sort of standardised thread attachment would be great. I’m not about to buy a 3D printer for something that will be no better than a fitting I can easily bodge.

landscaping is man’s work

Then there’s ‘manscaping’, which is something a bit different…

It also produced epic amounts of dust that coated everyone’s car, especially my neighbour’s new (to him) Z4 he’d just lovingly waxed. He then waxed it again, now it’s covered in dust from the digging 🙂

We once had some work done, and in the process of taking out rubbish, our neighbour’s car got a bit of dirt on the front. So I got a bucket of hot soapy water and a hose, and gave it a bit of a clean. Problem was, the car was a quite filthy to begin with, so it now had a nice clean front which contrasted with the rest, so I cleaned the entire car. I went to explain this to the neighbour when she came back, and she took one look and said ‘oh my god, it’s never been that clean before!’ :D

So you want a party that represents everyone, but excludes some people? How does that work then?

Have a think about the recent Black Lives Matter protests, and events in the US etc. Do you really think somebody who still enjoys great privilege as the result of something as abhorrent as racial apartheid, should be in a party that claims to be ‘inclusive’? Should the police recruit people who are openly members of neo-nazi groups?

When I see Starmer acknowledging and addressing these perceptions, rather than sarcastiacly throw an accusation of ‘flag-shagging’ etc, I see someone who’s trying to show that the labour party isn’t sneering haughtily at them, which was definitely the impression given by a lot of those in the previous regime.

Then you see something many of us don’t. Maybe you’re only seeing what you want to see?

If you were expecting radical reform from a middle aged ex-lawyer, then you’re either woefully naïve or haven’t been paying attention to what Labour are trying to do, or just looking at the wrong party.

I’m not expecting Sir Keith do do anything he’s not told to do. And that’s the problem. There simply isn’t any genuine leadership talent in the entire senior party. Not someone who can actually lead the country towards something better, anyway. Which is why you’ve got to get rid of the neoliberals and right wingers. Because they will only hold the party back from being anywhere near progressive. Starmer isn’t going to be able to do that. Corbyn attempted to keep the peace, by not sacking people like Mann, Hodge and Astin, but in my opinion,that was a big mistake. Hodge knows full well Corbyn isn’t actually an antisemite; that incident was staged for publicity purposes. She probably hates Corbyn because he campaigned against South African Apartheid, which as I’ve already mentioned, her family profited from (one of the reasons why she enjoys such privilege). You can’t have people like her in a modern, progressive Labour party that claims to represent all. And whilst the status quo continues, Labour are irrelevant.

Your electrician didn’t mind you dismantling his drill?

Didn’t need to. You can see the difference is the chuck. There wasn’t any significant weight difference to suggest the internal parts were any different; the more expensive 990 (I think) model has more substantial internals. The drills are essentially the same; the 795 is sold in ‘DIY’ outlets in budget packs (with low capacity batteries), the 796 sold more in ‘professional’ suppliers. The difference is a metal chuck, and marketing.

Edit: this is confused further because the 796 is apparently a slightly newer model (hence the 795 being sold off cheaper), with the newer one having a bit more power (on paper). So possibly slightly better electronics. Plus; Google suggests that you could also get a 795 with a metal chuck. Anyway; replacing the plastic chucks on the DIY shed models is probably a good idea for greater longevity.

A chainsaw.

Err, no. Read the rest of my post.

Edit: I’m talking about cutting seasoned timbers, not raw. You’re probably thinking of those massive static saws that use a chainsaw to cut big logs, no? My local timber suppliers don’t have anything like that, they only get in rough sawn seasoned and treated timber, then mill it down. They won’t touch anything like proper old railway sleepers, because of the hazardous chemicals and old nails etc that are often embedded. If I wanted some of those cut down, I’d get an idiot with a chainsaw. Life’s too short to risk your own safety. ;)

What about imaginary anti-semites?

Speaking of chucks; you can replace the plastic chucks on cheaper DeWalt drills with a metal one, they’re £20 or less. Turns a £99 Wickes special into a £200+ model; the rest of the drills are near enough identical. I discovered this when examining mine (795) and our electrician’s one (796), side by side. The plastic chucks are ok, but won’t last long if bashed around.

I’ve just bought a Bosch green belt sander to do some decking boards

It’s a beast. Had a test spin, and it’ll leave grooves in wood if you’re not careful! Not particularly well damped, lots of vibration, and it’s really noisy. Dust extraction isn’t great; I do wish there was a universal dust extraction port connection system for tools, that you could just screw a hose onto. I’m bodging things with lots of bits of scavenged vacuum cleaner bits, and pieces of cut up inner tube.

Oh by the way; anyone got any tips on how to deal with the static build up from using the belt sander? It’s nothing major, just like nettle stings, but a little alarming.

When I built a 15m long retaining wall out off sleepers, 4 high, the extra large ones, I used common sense and got the most suitable tool for the job = a chainsaw.

If I’d been building such a wall, I’d have used common sense and employed the most suitable tool for the job: the massive industrial saw in the timber merchants who supplied the sleepers. Obviously having them do it for me. So, so much easier. A decent timber suppliers who can cut, mill and plane wood to your specifications, is an absolute boon. I had one recently plane some lovely Ash planks to a specific thickness; was £22.85 inc vat for the work. They do such jobs for free, if you order a sufficient amount.

I’m not defending the invasion of Iraq.

Ah, here comes the back-pedalling…

No plans to travel outside the U.K. anytime soon

I can’t wait to go abroad. A whole year of no travel. A whole world out there, waiting to be explored.

Some joker then asked me why I believe that which I don’t think is even worth an answer.

I’ll forgive your rudeness, but the truth is, you can’t really answer the question I put to you, is the bottom line. It’s now quite apparent that the penny is starting to drop for the Starmerists; they are slowly coming to the realisation they’ve backed the wrong horse. It’s clear Starmer isn’t going to offer any kind of serious reform of our society, all the macho posturing when he was ‘cleansing’ the party of dissidents, resulted in little more than expelling Jewish members. Oops. And now, he’s reduced to flag-shagging and bigging up British bombs, in a desperate attempt to appeal to the populism that Boris etc have sewn up. I fully expect him to get tough on the causes of crime, immigrants and benefit scroungers, next.

But I do recognise that most on here really do want to see some change, and society leaning back towards something half decent. And that all this infighting is simply an open goal for the tories. So, there has to be some kind of unity, cohesion, solidarity between people, if we’re to get out of this mess at all. Trouble is, where do we even start?

I don’t think he’s homophobic, I doubt anyone serious thinks he’s homophobic. But the left think it’s fine to throw that insult at him. I really wonder why labour and the left self immolate at every opportunity.

I’m glad at least one person got it:

I don’t think Corbyn’s detractors seriously believe him to be anti-Semitic, but that didn’t stop the usual suspects on here.

But as the saying goes; mud sticks. Corbyn’s enemies knew that by throwing enough mud, some of it would hopefully stick. I’ve had to explain to Israeli friends that Corbyn isn’t actually the rabid anti-semite that he’s portrayed in the right wing media as, far from it. But my point was that if Starmer makes such glaring mistakes, he can expect them to come back and bite him at some stage, if he incurs the wrath of Murdoch etc. Boris can be an actual racist, homophobe misogynist ****, but that’s fine. It’s how Blair can be an actual war criminal, but Murdoch etc like him, so that’s ok. See the apologists for Blair on here, for a perfect example of how easily people’s minds are shaped.

If we’re including historical figures, can we have Churchill as well?

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/world-history/winston-churchill-genocide-dictator-shashi-tharoor-melbourne-writers-festival-a7936141.html

You’re not allowed to give nu labour, Blair or Brown any credit for anything, ever, under any circumstances.

I think being one of the orchestrators of mass genocide kind of blots your record, somewhat, no? Shall we give Mussolini credit for getting the transport system to be more punctual?

Most of that is little more than smoke and mirrors. Most of those policies had been long proposed by ‘lefties’ anyway. Stuff like reducing ‘poverty’ was merely simply fiddling the way poverty is evaluated. Writing off ‘debt owed’ by certain countries, was simply about changing what it was called; all it something different, it’s no longer ‘debt’. one could argue it was never ‘debt’ in the first place anyway. New Deal was an absolute scam; forced many people into doing unpaid ‘voluntary’ work, and employment figures were skewed by the explosion of zero hour contracts; why have one person doing 40 hours a week, when you can have 8 doing only 5 each? Great.

Whiles there were indeed many benefits that came with a Labour government(surely it should be Labour’s job to try to improve society for the many?), most were short lived, as we’ve now seen. Much of the extra spending was simply because of inflation and rising costs anyway. And much of it was possible because of massive borrowing; we’re still paying the price for that now. Blair failed to properly regulate the financial sector, who just went and set their own terms of interest etc. That’s gone well,too.

So it’s easy to reel off a load of numbers, but you have to look at the real picture; today’s Britain is mired in deprivation, inequality and injustice. And it was Blair’s New Labour that paved the way:

https://www.legalcheek.com/2019/01/former-lord-chancellor-admits-that-labour-got-it-wrong-on-legal-aid/

Much of what New Labour did, was rob Peter to pay Paul. Things like ‘terrorism’ legislation were introduced to enable government restrictions on freedoms. Blair wanted electronic controls on asylum seekers and refugees. If you were white, middle class and relatively affluent, life under Blair was great. It wasn’t so great for millions of others. Wages have dropped steadily, in real terms, since Blair came to power. Housing costs have risen massively though. So people have less economic ‘power’ than they did previously. Etc. You can pick and choose all sorts of statistics to try to prove whatever argument suits your own agenda; truth is, Britain is a worse place now than it was before Blair came to power. A few years of boom and bust have done nothing to make it any better.

I think mine expires in 2026. Do you have to replace it to travel to Europe (when we’re allowed to, of course), or are existing passports ok? Do I have to felt-tip over the ‘EU’ bits?

That’s really good, well done Molegrips. Good to see you’ve listened to common sense, and not bought a chainsaw. As for that circular saw you bought; just take it back. As I said; a plunge saw is a much better tool, although a bit more expensive. Look elsewhere other than BnQ for power tools though, they don’t have a great selection, and what they do have tends to be the cheap end of the market, tools for very occasional use rather than things that will serve you well.

What are you going to do with all those rocks?

And just look what it’s enabled them to do.

Imagine being able to actually do stuff?

What a mad idea!

And look what Blair achieved! The stealth privatisation of public services, education and the NHS! Massive national and personal debt! Spiralling housing costs! Huge swathes of housing bought up by overseas ‘investors’! Tuition fees! Plunging the nation into an illegal war! Genocide of hundreds of thousands of people in the Middle East! The demonisation of Islam and the resulting exponential wave of xenophobia towards Muslims and other ethnic minority groups! The enablement of the rise of the far right! Gordon Brown! And his best trick; condemning Britain to right-wing rule (tory or Labour, it’s irrelevant as they’re now just two cheeks of the same arse) FOREVER!

Fantastic.

I’m sure had the Torys been in power for those 13 years that labour were, they’d have done pretty much the same thing, wouldn’t they? Most definitely. Their agendas were virtually indistinguishable from each other. As the last ten years have illustrated.

So basically, you just want a right-wing government. So why have you expended so much time and energy on ranting about Labour? Just vote for the kind of politics you actually want; you seem to be a tory at heart, so there you go. I’m sure they’ll welcome you with open arms.

So to summarise, once again, the electoral philosophy of the left: You’re all ****ing bastards and I hate you all! Vote for me!

Erm, no; that’s the electoral philosophy of the right. That’s why Labour’s ****.

Now; tell me how your brylcreemed homophobic messiah is going to transform the fortunes of the Labour Party, and our society?

Hang on a minute?

Weren’t all you lefties only yesterday bemoaning the lack of ‘proper’ working class labour MP’s who’ve had proper jobs.

So; you can only bring up Alan Johnson as an example of a ‘working class’ Labour MP? Johnson, by his own admission, was on the right of the Labour party. Claims to live in a ‘working class community’, yet actually lives in two converted 17thC cottages in East Yorkshire, ‘surrounded by rich, flat farmland’. Some way from an inner city council estate in Hull. Basically, the man’s full of shit, whatever his background. And it isn’t about simply parachuting ‘working class’ Labour members into safe seats, it’s about having greater representation of people of ALL backgrounds, at all levels of the party. It’s about giving those from poorer and more deprived backgrounds, more voice within the party. And that’s what Corbyn was doing. People like Alan Johnson hate that, because they want to be the only Working Class Bloke In The Village. Blair hates the working classes and ethnic minorities, because he’s a racist Thatcherite posh boy. Gordon Brown hates the working classes because they’re all bigots. And Starmer hates homosexuals. Go Labour!

That reminds me of the crap school holiday TV of my childhood.

The Singing Ringing Tree – Creepy as Hell

The Flashing Blade – Imported TV that ran for 14 episodes but nobody had bothered to check the film stock and the the last part lost picture part way through.

Oscar, Kina and the Laser – The adventures of a small boy, his pet goose and a talking lamp.

No wonder kids in the 70s and 80 spent so much time outside.

I don’t think it was any worse. Less sophisticated, but perhaps more imaginatively stimulating. Most kids’ TV now seems to be little more than adverts for toys. I loved stuff like Oscar, Kina and the Laser!

Kids spend more time inside now, due to media scaremongering over ‘peadophiles’ etc, and the fact there’s too many cars for kids to play in the street, and that every square inch of land kids could play and explore on, gets built on. That, and the increasingly sedentary nature of our working environments.

Yes, any updates?

Bruneep; I once saw a man cutting a ply/MDF board by holding it up in mid-air with one hand, and cutting it with a circular saw in the other. Quality work practices. Some people shouldn’t ever be allowed to hold spoons, let alone dangerous power tools.

Thinking about that horrific dismemberment above; what’s the insurance situation for such injuries? I’m pretty sure that there are strict conditions relating to the use of dangerous equipment, such as having had proper training, using correct safety procedures etc. Such an injury is life changing, and potentially massively debilitating. Putting aside the years needed for surgeries, proper rehabilitation, physiotherapy etc, even if you were to regain use of a limb, it would never function 100% again. So that could have a huge impact on a person’s economic situation, possibly requiring them to need the financial support a big payout could provide. But I’m sure insurance companies protect themselves against idiocy. If that happened to someone, and they didn’t get a payout, that could have massive consequences for the rest of their life. Terrifying.

The evidence that Corbyn did more harm than good lies in mess he left the Labour Party in.

The Labour party was in a mess long before Corbyn became leader. Blair saw to that. Once he’d achieved his puppet masters’ aims, he was more than happy to walk away from the ruins. Labour is little more than a shell, propped up the right wing grandees. Losing money hand over fist, desperate to court corporate sponsorship.

And then there’s len…

But this is a thread about Keith Starmer. Let’s not get distracted, eh?

Solidarity, eh comrades?

How about that?

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/labour-leak-report-corbyn-election-whatsapp-antisemitism-tories-yougov-poll-a9462456.html

In spite of their various marked differences, the tories came together to show a united front. The Labour right decided not to bother. That’s their choice of course, but they now have to take responsibility for their own actions. Starmer’s bumbling uselessness shows how it’s increasingly clear, that the real problem with Labour lies at the very top. Cut out all the negative elements, the neoliberals who have failed their voters, and Labour might have some chance of refloating. As it is, Labour is holed below the waterline and sinking fast.

Corbyn and Co. We’re rubbish and did more damage to progressive politics than good.

This is just utter blinkered revisionist crap. Corbyn managed to get more people engaged with politics than ever before. Labour had the largest membership of any political party in Europe, under Corbyn. The impact Corbynism had on young people, was unprecedented in the UK. That we are now talking about the inequality in society due to the actions of wealthy powerful elites, isn’t down to Ed Milliband, Gordon Brown and definitely not Tony Blair. It’s down to Corbyn. He changed the conversation, and created genuine fear amongst the elites, so much so they spent many millions on bringing him down. He may have not wanted to become Labour leader, but the paucity of left wing figures, genuine opposition to right wing politics, is not his fault. That blame lies squarely at the feet of the neoliberals. And I don’t know what your idea of ‘progressive’ is, but it definitely aint more of the same neoliberal shit Starmer seems intent on serving up. Blaming Corbyn is precisely what the right wants; keep the proles arguing amongst themselves, and distracted from what’s really going on. It’s time to change that stuck record, and look at what is actually progressive, and concentrate on that. And that has to be done without any help from the Labour leadership, because that’s a rudderless ship. Labour need everyone from the ‘far left’ to the moderate right, if they are to stand any chance of challenging the tories. So far, all Starmer has done is alienate everyone who isn’t part of his metropolitan elite cabal. Well done Sir Keith. That’s going really well.

Top thread. Acid/Techno was always my preferred sound ‘back in the day’. The proper hard stuff, not poppy Handbag House and Garage. Love some of the stuff posted up here. I have to refrain from a proper YT wormhole session, I’ve too much to do! But if you like your harder Acid/Techno type sounds, then check out HÖR Berlin; literally hundreds of DJ sessions. Boiler Room as well. So much stuff out there. Ellen Alien, Amelie Lens, Bloody Mary, Boris Brecha, so many. Fernanda Martins, Lukas, Sheefit if you want something harder and faster. I’ll even go as far as Angerfist and Miss K8, but that should come with a health warning. My neighbours aren’t keen on it…

We used to go to the one in London. I went to the 2nd bday party and it was so packed and hot they opened the doors into the shopping centre. Hundreds of people sat on the balcony overlooking woolworths off their faces. It was like day of the dead.

I’ve got the scary feeling I might have been there. Does sound very familiar. I never quite worked out exactly where Club UK actually was; we’d wander the streets for what seemed like hours, to get to that place. Nowhere near a tube station. Used to really enjoy Megatripolis at Heaven; saw Sven Vath play there at least once. Bit more towards hard trance. **** nuts, that place. Trade @ Turnmills could be fun, but most people were so out of it by the time it opened!

My personal view is that it’s all over for any left wing party in this country; there was never much appetite for it in the first place.

It is a largely selfish country full of horrible people and was tipped over the edge in the 80’s and will never go back

Whilst I don’t think it’s possible for this country to suddenly tip towards a radical leftist zeitgeist any time soon, you clearly haven’t been around many young people. They’re the future voters and decision makers. They won’t be subscribing to the ‘I’ll alright Jack’ mentality of many of their parents. Because they’ll have to be implementing ‘socialist’ ideals, in order to survive and progress in life. In the same way that if you grew up in the 70s and 80s, you’re probably a lot less racist and homophobic than your parents’ generation, so the kids growing up today, could be a lot less tory. Here’s hoping anyway.

I really doubt he has the time to do that sort of due diligence, He’s got plenty of other things to worry about which is why he has his team should have vetted them. Labour make Starmer do all sorts of things for a plethora of religious groups from all religions Starmer has better things to do than vet them all.

It’s his job to show leadership, ergo, it’s his responsibility to ensure stuff like this doesn’t happen. It has, which shows a clear failure of leadership. When Corbyn ‘liked’ a mural that was then interpreted as antisemitic, in spite of him apologising and admitting his error, that was then used ruthlessly as ‘proof’ he was antisemitic. The fact that very, very few people would have actually recognised the mural as containing antisemitic tropes (I didn’t until it was pointed out, and I doubt 99.99% of the population did either) was irrelevant. But in Starmer’s case, it was known that that church was dodgy. Boris was criticised for attending in 2009. And let’s be honest, a lot of religious groups and institutions are fundamentally homophobic anyway. No; making excuses for Starmer is just papering over the cracks. He’s useless. Labour are a busted flush. Time for change.

Blair was at Fettes, the Scots Harrow.

You are right of course. My mistake. The point still stands however; he’s from a very privileged background, is extremely wealthy, and is a member of the social elite. Heath, Thatcher, Major and May all went to grammar schools. The bottom line is that our society has grown steadily more and more conservative since the ‘socialism’ of the post war era, and people ever more in thrall of those with wealth and power. The only way to break that cycle, is to field actual working class alternatives to the old school tie brigade; Starmer is nowhere near that. When the choices are between two men in suits, and one has a much better act, it’s a no-brainer to see which one will win.

I have a Festool Kapex

Genuine tool envy here. Saw one demonstrated a few years ago; feels so solid and precise. I needed a chop saw to do our decking, but couldn’t justify even the KS60. Went with a decent Makita which was on silly special offer, but it’s been sat in a friend’s house since I did the deck. He used it once and put it away in a cupboard. So it’s actually been pretty poor value for money. He’s badgering me to take it back, as it’s taking up space. I might just sell it to be honest; a decent chop/mitre saw is a great tool if you need one, but unless you’re doing regular work with it, it’s bulky and redundant most of the time.

Can we call Starmer a homophobe now?

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-56644740

what should Starmer be saying & doing to beat Johnson?

That’s what I’ve been asking the Starmerists on here. So far, nobody has come up with anything more than ‘he should be like Biden’. Seeing as how Starmer has been Labour leader for a year now, and it’s been an absolute disaster, isn’t it perhaps time to stop blaming Corbyn/the ‘left’ and whatever other right-wing rhetoric some people seem to have swallowed? And maybe have a look at what is really causing the problem,; the right of the party, those in the most senior positions, who are orchestrating this dismal shambles. Those who refused to back Corbyn, despite him winning two leadership elections, those who still want to push the failed neoliberal agenda, those who have little but their own middle class elite interests at heart. People like Margaret Hodge; screamed ‘antisemite’ at Corbyn, yet used racist rhetoric to win a constituency election. Margaret Hodge, who is the heir to a steel trading company worth billions, which profited from the Apartheid regime in South Africa. ‘Represents’ some of the poorest and most deprived communities in the UK. That’s just one example. Blair, of course, went to Eton. Are these the kind of people Labour’s traditional supporters can really trust to act in all their interests? No. And that is really why Labour have lost their way; by forcing out trade union representation, and instead courting big business etc, Labour became a party for elite interests. Having the odd ‘working class’ token figures such as Jess Phillips or Angela Rayner, is a distraction, much like the tories token people of colour such as Priti Patel, Rishi Sunak etc.

Number of Labour MPs who had working-class job before entering politics

1987-1992: 64 MPs
1992-1997: 59 MPs
1997-2001: 55 MPs
2001-2005: 49 MPs
2005-2010: 37 MPs
2010-2015: 20 MPs
2015-2017: 13 MPs
2017-2019: 12 MPs
2019-now: 7 MPs

From our dataset, ht Tom O'Grady @Bill_Bowkett

— Matt Goodwin (@GoodwinMJ) September 4, 2020

That, right there, tells the story of how Labour are no longer attractive to working class people. Politics is an elitists game, and unless more working class people become politically engaged and involved, there will be no change to the status quo. So I’ll ask once again; what is Starmer doing to change anything?

The scariest of scaries, the Swing Saw.

That looks like something out of a 2000AD creation, that would be on the arm of some crazed cyborg. Madness. What could possibly go wrong? :D

48kg according to the supplier’s website.

My maths might be wildly off, but I’m getting about 34.5kg for a 240x20x10cm piece, @ 720kg per cubic metre?