Saturday 27th & Sunday 28th April 2024

[refitman]

Morning all.

[AnatolyKasparov]

Good morefternoon to anyone here.

[frog222]

Evening all !

There's a whole article in the G on Gideon F and the streets being unsafe for jews .

[frog222]

[frog222]

[frog222]

‘I’m resigning as a Tory MP and crossing the floor. Only Labour wants to restore our NHS’

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/20 ... nhs-crisis

[AnatolyKasparov]

Any defecting MP is going to have supported their old party at least most of the time previously, which makes it close to a meaningless complaint.

As that post even makes clear, he is *actually* switching because of the NHS.

[refitman]

While it is nice to have one less Tory MP, it is rather concerning that a man who has spent the last 14 years thinking up ways to fuck the NHS, now thinks that Labour's plans are better.

[GetYou]

"Those are my principles, and if you don't like them... well, I have others."

[refitman]

Hahahahaha

[AnatolyKasparov]

Well he is standing down as an MP at the election, so Labour's campaign and indeed candidate there will be basically unaffected.

[Sky'sGoneOut]

Hmm yes, when asking a rhetorical question I often stare blankly into space for a few seconds looking confused before asking it with a raised inflection in my voice.

There are two possibilities here.

Chris Philp is either lying, or he's a valley girl from the 1990's.

[Sky'sGoneOut]

While it is nice to have one less Tory MP, it is rather concerning that a man who has spent the last 14 years thinking up ways to fuck the NHS, now thinks that Labour's plans are better.

You should see his voting record on cutting benefits for the very people he claims he's now resigned from the Tories on behalf of.

Nobody on the left should be touching him with a shitty stick.

[AnatolyKasparov]

Just asking for a friend, but were Tories this sniffy when that SNP parliamentarian defected to them recently?

Of course they will usually have supported their former party, that is how it works.

[refitman]

Just asking for a friend, but were Tories this sniffy when that SNP parliamentarian defected to them recently?

Of course they will usually have supported their former party, that is how it works.

One of the points of Labour - at least in the recent past - was to try and make things better for 'normal' people. There should be at least some basic standards of not being an absolute cunt, who takes pride in dismantling the welfare state.

The Tories, on the other hand, are just happy to welcome anyone who will help them make the rich richer, the poor poorer and reduce as many protections for minorities as they can, along the way.

So no, I don't believe the Tories would have been sniffy about defectors to their side.

Next question?

[Sky'sGoneOut]

While out and about today a friend and I encountered my local 'Alliance for Green Socialism' candidate hammering little election signs into a grass verge so we stopped to have a chat. He was a lovely bloke and after a discussion about environmental collapse and the fallacy of infinite growth we ended up inviting him for a pint as we were on our way to a nearby pub. He said he still had a few signs to put up so we gave him a hand and he came for a drink with us. To be honest I was expecting him to be a retired teacher or something similar, but no, he'd spent most of his working life in the merchant navy and watched the world being despoiled as he travelled it for 40 years. He'd also been a union rep for the RMT. Wanting to continue the conversation we offered him another pint but he said his wife had given him strict orders to be back for his Sunday dinner at half past five so we bid him farewell and I promised to vote for him.

Because why not? Who else am I going to vote for? Labour?

He's been standing in local elections here for the last few years and I asked him what the largest number of votes he'd ever received had been and he said just over a thousand. So if everyone's as easily swayed as me and he has a pint with all of them he'd have to drink at least 4000 units of alcohol just to reach those previous heady heights.

Which sounds a lot but it would be over a few days.

[Sky'sGoneOut]

Just asking for a friend, but were Tories this sniffy when that SNP parliamentarian defected to them recently?

Of course they will usually have supported their former party, that is how it works.

Oh AK, I appreciate you exist in some zero sum political world, but what's the point of being a political party with an alleged aim to make the country a better place for your supporters if you're perfectly prepared to accept into your fold someone who has made life worse for them?

This is chimp politics. There's nothing clever about it. It's hooting and beating a tree with a stick because you've lured a member of another group to join your tribe. The kind of thing that impresses political naturalists like Laura Kuenssberg.

Who will remember it when it comes to voting in the GE?

Nobody.

[Sky'sGoneOut]