Thursday 13th November 2025
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Sky'sGoneOut
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Re: Thursday 13th November 2025
This could be quite entertaining. And no wonder Tim Davie had to go would you just look at that left wing bias, how can they get away with not having Reform on the panel when...oh wait my mistake, there's one, just like every other effing week. Why not just scrawl Reform on one of the chairs, stick a picture of Farage's grinning mug on it and be done with it.
Re: Thursday 13th November 2025
Maybe, in a sliding doors moment, the “true” path of history will out and Streeting, as it was always meant to be, will wear the crown? As they run around in pre-budget panic mode, Labour MPs need to stop and think, not just about changing the party leader but about changing the party’s whole policy and cultural direction. Nothing less will do. What economic policy will in time deliver the right kind of shared growth? How is the state to be rewired to pass power and resource down and out to the whole of the country? And how is the hyper-factionalism of the party to be ended and a positive culture of pluralism instilled that makes Labour more agile and resilient?
Labour’s crisis is not a temporary blip. It is structural and fundamental. As things stand, recovery looks unlikely and the party could follow the same fate as its counterparts in France, who went from government to the margins almost overnight.
Any potential new leader who helped get the party into this mess will not, no matter how much they “red wash” themselves, get the party out of it. Candidates who will say anything to win and mean none of it just dig a deeper hole for the left. In the absence of a shared vision and values, they’re just pumped-up personalities who will fight like cats in a sack to come out on top. There is no loyalty to each other because there is nothing to be loyal to, other than self-belief. They have all the cunning, skills and cynicism to make it to the top of the greasy pole, but none of the awareness, the boldness or the humility to lead Labour or the country to a better place.
Neal Lawson is director of the cross-party campaign organisation CompassThe next few months will make or break Labour. In people such as Ed Miliband, Angela Rayner and Andy Burnham there is a combination of skills and talents that could begin to get the party out of this existential mess. But it’s going to require everyone to be very big and very brave to beat not just Reform, but the causes of Reform. If this isn’t to be Labour’s endgame then nothing less will do.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfr ... corbyn-mps
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Sky'sGoneOut
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Re: Thursday 13th November 2025
Evening. Let's hope I can get the panelists' names right this week, it being kind of a bare minimum requirement (hat tip to Notnowsonny).
QT came tonight from London.
For the fractious Left we had Zarah Sultana (a name I so admire I was never likely to get it wrong). Before I say anything else Zarah clearly had the best of the evening if audience applause is anything to go by. She's young, fiery and I agree with much of her politics. However, as was demonstrated this evening when she effectively gave a version of the same answer to 3 of the 4 questions, she's limited and needlessly abrasive at times. I really do wish her well but we on the left have seen countless Zarahs appear over the years before
they've fallen rapidly into obscurity and given the fiasco we're witnessing between her and Corbyn I don't like the look of her trajectory. That being said pointing out that genocide is bad and the rich need to be taxed more worked a treat for her this evening. Somebody needs to say it on the apparently lefty biased BBC and she took full advantage.
For the 'sensible' old Tories we had Ken Clarke. Ken's always been an inveterate waffler prepared to pontificate at length about things he knows little about (yeah I know look who's talking) and tonight was no different. Ken gave an almost touching plea that the two main parties should grow up, go back to how they were in the 80's, and everything would go back to normal, as if the political world hasn't changed in the last 40 years. His comments on Labour's disability benefit cuts were offensively ignorant made worse by his dismissive smugness. On the other hand he did point out that only a complete idiot would rule out raising taxes before taking office as chancellor. In other words Ken was Ken. An old Tory you could enjoy having a drink and a chat with despite thinking they were a bit of a twat and not being able to get a word in edgeways.
For Labour we had Alex Davies-Jones. I'll give Alex her due, she tried her best and seemed to genuinely give a shit. There was little of the usual robotic churning out of pre-prepared bullet points so kudos to her for that. Unfortunately it didn't do her much good. No matter how hard she tried she faced a near total wall of silence. In Labour London. What was probably most interesting was her response to the question about the Number 10 briefings against ministers. She was clearly furious about it and when she used 'we' it wasn't of the royal variety, she was evidently expressing the collective anger of her and her ministerial colleagues. Also when asked about the upcoming budget she, as is customary, refused to speculate then added, 'because I'd still like to have a job in the morning.' She didn't look like she was joking.
For Reform we had Danny Kruger. Danny is the very epitome of the over educated idiot. Speaks well, impeccable manners, talks absolute shite.
With an audience stuffed with Reform goblins (honestly watch the programme and see how often Fiona Bruce managed to magically pick them out to grunt about foreigners) Danny managed to get as much response from them as Alex above. In all fairness the goblins probably couldn't understand what he was saying because he's a bit posh and uses the occasional long word but his finest moment came when in an act of unfeasible stupidity he decided to bring up the Reform councils in a discussion about being honest about taxation. It took mere seconds for the other panelists and Bruce to weigh in and say, 'hang on a minute they're raising Council tax despite promising the opposite.' To which Danny replied that Nigel had never said anything about not raising taxes and it was the fault of the local parties for lying on their leaflets.
Someone should have a word with Pru Leith about the ownership of her son's soul although I'm not sure what she could do, according to my demonology manuals whisking him with egg whites and sticking him in the oven isn't going to help.
QT came tonight from London.
For the fractious Left we had Zarah Sultana (a name I so admire I was never likely to get it wrong). Before I say anything else Zarah clearly had the best of the evening if audience applause is anything to go by. She's young, fiery and I agree with much of her politics. However, as was demonstrated this evening when she effectively gave a version of the same answer to 3 of the 4 questions, she's limited and needlessly abrasive at times. I really do wish her well but we on the left have seen countless Zarahs appear over the years before
they've fallen rapidly into obscurity and given the fiasco we're witnessing between her and Corbyn I don't like the look of her trajectory. That being said pointing out that genocide is bad and the rich need to be taxed more worked a treat for her this evening. Somebody needs to say it on the apparently lefty biased BBC and she took full advantage.
For the 'sensible' old Tories we had Ken Clarke. Ken's always been an inveterate waffler prepared to pontificate at length about things he knows little about (yeah I know look who's talking) and tonight was no different. Ken gave an almost touching plea that the two main parties should grow up, go back to how they were in the 80's, and everything would go back to normal, as if the political world hasn't changed in the last 40 years. His comments on Labour's disability benefit cuts were offensively ignorant made worse by his dismissive smugness. On the other hand he did point out that only a complete idiot would rule out raising taxes before taking office as chancellor. In other words Ken was Ken. An old Tory you could enjoy having a drink and a chat with despite thinking they were a bit of a twat and not being able to get a word in edgeways.
For Labour we had Alex Davies-Jones. I'll give Alex her due, she tried her best and seemed to genuinely give a shit. There was little of the usual robotic churning out of pre-prepared bullet points so kudos to her for that. Unfortunately it didn't do her much good. No matter how hard she tried she faced a near total wall of silence. In Labour London. What was probably most interesting was her response to the question about the Number 10 briefings against ministers. She was clearly furious about it and when she used 'we' it wasn't of the royal variety, she was evidently expressing the collective anger of her and her ministerial colleagues. Also when asked about the upcoming budget she, as is customary, refused to speculate then added, 'because I'd still like to have a job in the morning.' She didn't look like she was joking.
For Reform we had Danny Kruger. Danny is the very epitome of the over educated idiot. Speaks well, impeccable manners, talks absolute shite.
With an audience stuffed with Reform goblins (honestly watch the programme and see how often Fiona Bruce managed to magically pick them out to grunt about foreigners) Danny managed to get as much response from them as Alex above. In all fairness the goblins probably couldn't understand what he was saying because he's a bit posh and uses the occasional long word but his finest moment came when in an act of unfeasible stupidity he decided to bring up the Reform councils in a discussion about being honest about taxation. It took mere seconds for the other panelists and Bruce to weigh in and say, 'hang on a minute they're raising Council tax despite promising the opposite.' To which Danny replied that Nigel had never said anything about not raising taxes and it was the fault of the local parties for lying on their leaflets.
Someone should have a word with Pru Leith about the ownership of her son's soul although I'm not sure what she could do, according to my demonology manuals whisking him with egg whites and sticking him in the oven isn't going to help.