Thursday 23rd February 2023

[refitman]

Morning all.

[PaulfromYorkshire]

Mister Raker in car crash interview (4,7).

[refitman]

Who could possibly seen this coming?

[gilsey]

Greg Hands, the Conservative party chairman, has put out this statement in response to Keir Starmer’s speech. Hands said:

Starmer has never made a pledge he intends to keep.

[gilsey]

As for his 5 missions, 'Secure the highest sustained growth in the G7'? Really?


Not even desirable, let alone necessary or even achievable.

[Sky'sGoneOut]

Britain: the shitty frontier. These are the voyages of the Labour Party. Its five mission-mission: to explore mundane new ways to disappoint. To snuff out hope and dreams for the future. To boldly lower expectations to a level no party has done before!

[AnatolyKasparov]

Lots of enthusiasm here, then

Personally, think they could have been a fair bit worse.

And the growth one is fairly obviously an aspiration rather than a "pledge", nor do i think we should go too far down the "growth is bad" road.

[refitman]

Here are his "missions"

[Sky'sGoneOut]

Here it is in all its glory.

A ‘MISSION-DRIVEN’ GOVERNMENT TO END ‘STICKING PLASTER’ POLITICS.

https://labour.org.uk/wp-content/upload ... ritain.pdf

Truly inspirational stuff.

Frankly if we're going to have a mission driven government I'd prefer it was this mission. At least it would be fun.

[Sky'sGoneOut]

Personally, think they could have been a fair bit worse.

Those 'missions' could have been set by any Tory of the Cameron variety. Never mind going back to 1997, this is more like going back to 2010.

[AnatolyKasparov]

And the Tories of today? Culture wars seem to be literally all that they are interested in.

[refitman]

At least Coffey was there, to take some of the heat of Starmer

[refitman]

Yes, because energy bills are at a sustainable level at the moment

[frog222]

One very funny very cool infanteer sergeant major , now a Press officer, actually went to sleep on the night of 23/2/2022 ?

Well, he'd been on and off in the frontline since 2014 so maybe he did !

[refitman]

[Sky'sGoneOut]

No QT review tonight. I'm in way too good a mood after that Man Utd performance to have it sullied by an hour of David TC Davies.

[PaulfromYorkshire]

@sky I might do it for you

[RogerOThornhill]

What an utter berk.

[AnatolyKasparov]

Apart from anything else, Sweden doesn't count as "the West" now??

[Sky'sGoneOut]

And the Tories of today? Culture wars seem to be literally all that they are interested in.

Come on AK, using these current Tories as a yardstick is a bit of a cop-out isn't it? Not being utterly despicable is hardly anything to be proud of. The fact is none of those 'missions' could be described as being exclusively left wing. I mean even as an ex Lib Dem (which places me firmly in the centre according to the Labour Left) it seems like weak centrist bollocks to me.

Have you read the official 'mission' document I posted a link to above? It's mostly gibberish, a word salad facade attempting to obscure the fact it offers absolutely nothing of any substance. A worthless document written by cowards too timid to actually say anything besides offering hand wavy objectives few people would disagree with regardless of their political colours.

I get why they're doing it, I really do, but that doesn't make it any less depressing.

Anyway sorry, I'm not having a go at you AK, merely venting, and I hope you saw the match. Or at least the second half because it was magnificent. I've just about got rid of the headache the first half gave me because I was grinding my teeth so much.

[Sky'sGoneOut]

@sky I might do it for you

Please go for it man!

[AnatolyKasparov]

We are where we are. If a Labour government elected at the next GE goes a significant way towards achieving these stated aims, this country *will* be a much better place than it is now. And tbh sometimes one recalls the widespread scepticism (or worse) many on the left had towards Biden before he became POTUS.

[PaulfromYorkshire]

@refitman

I’m no match for Sky

After hearing Thangnam Debonnaire parrot the Starmer line on Shemima Begum followed by Fiona the fucking Bruce trailing the next question on Roald Dahl I threw in the towel

[Sky'sGoneOut]

We are where we are. If a Labour government elected at the next GE goes a significant way towards achieving these stated aims, this country *will* be a much better place than it is now. And tbh sometimes one recalls the widespread scepticism (or worse) many on the left had towards Biden before he became POTUS.

Oh come one dude, Biden's left wing credentials were never in doubt and he's pumped trillions of dollars into the likes of increased benefits for those with mental health conditions, state funded child care for single mothers, more funding for poor students to go to college, and those are just off the top of my head. It's been received wisdom for years that that the Overton Window is so far to the right in the US that the Democrats are essentially right wing when compared to their European counterparts but the UK and its Labour Party are endeavouring to prove otherwise.

[PaulfromYorkshire]

As I was saying

[AnatolyKasparov]

We are where we are. If a Labour government elected at the next GE goes a significant way towards achieving these stated aims, this country *will* be a much better place than it is now. And tbh sometimes one recalls the widespread scepticism (or worse) many on the left had towards Biden before he became POTUS.

Oh come one dude, Biden's left wing credentials were never in doubt

Not to you perhaps, but prior to the 2020 election left wingers slagging him were two a penny.

Even saw the "no effective difference between him and Trump" classic take out in the wild!

[Sky'sGoneOut]

I’m no match for Sky

After hearing Thangnam Debonnaire parrot the Starmer line on Shemima Begum followed by Fiona the fucking Bruce trailing the next question on Roald Dahl I threw in the towel

Not as easy as it seems is it? You need to warm up beforehand with at least one beer, so you're chilled enough not to give up immediately as Paul appears to have done. A rookie mistake. Have another beer at the beginning so you can suss out the panelists before transitioning to wine about half way through for a more drunken take, being careful to leave enough wine to fuel the nonsense that your about to write. It's a fine art.

[refitman]

*sigh*

[Sky'sGoneOut]

Not to you perhaps, but prior to the 2020 election left wingers slagging him were two a penny.

That's not how I remember it. Biden is way to the left of Clinton and the concern was about his age rather than his politics.

But once again you've failed to address my point, which is even Biden is to the left of Starmer and managed to get left wing state spending through Congress and a hostile Senate while Starmer messes his pants at nationalising companies who have us literally swimming in shit or waiting for trains that will never arrive. It's pitiful.

[Sky'sGoneOut]

Hmm...I like Thangnam Debonnaire and after a quick check on the iPlayer she doesn't say quite what Paul accuses her of saying. She says it's not for politicians to question human rights lawyers and the law is supposed to be equal for all of us.

Sadly she wasn't wearing a nice jumper.

[AnatolyKasparov]

We won't know how "left" or "right" Starmer actually is until he governs, is my more fundamental point.

Many of his/Labour's strategems currently are about winning over swing voters and opinion formers (who have a disproportionate impact on people who aren't that committed either way) Especially in 2019 Corbyn's party did literally nothing to win these over and got smashed, that much at least has to be undeniable.

[Sky'sGoneOut]

Others have said she was awful. I don't fucking know I didn't watch it.

[Sky'sGoneOut]

[Sky'sGoneOut]

If you don't press play I'll evaluate your IQ as inadequate.

[PorFavor]

[PorFavor]

[PorFavor]

Night night.

[Sky'sGoneOut]