UK Politics: The Love Song of A. B. de Pfeffel Johnson

[Chaldanya]

Looking at the video it seems all of the seats were reserved.  Imagine if he'd have taken one and the passenger had got on and released that story.  This dude just can not catch a break.  And it's at a detriment to the country tbh whether you agree with him or no.

[Channel4s-JonSnow]

13 minutes ago, Chaldanya said:

Looking at the video it seems all of the seats were reserved.  Imagine if he'd have taken one and the passenger had got on and released that story.  This dude just can not catch a break.  And it's at a detriment to the country tbh whether you agree with him or no.

Yeah I think the hounding of Corbyn is quite sad to see. Its strange because it suggests there is an element of people who are scared of him. However I still regard him as mostly out of touch with the concerns and thinking of most of the populace, which would make him pretty much unelectable at the moment. Why the fear?

[mormont]

52 minutes ago, Chaldanya said:

Looking at the video it seems all of the seats were reserved.  Imagine if he'd have taken one and the passenger had got on and released that story.  This dude just can not catch a break.  And it's at a detriment to the country tbh whether you agree with him or no.

According to Virgin the seats weren't reserved, though. (The tickets might indicate they were reserved from York or something.) Even Corbyn now admits there were single unreserved seats he could have used (he's now saying he needed two together so he could sit next to his wife).

Corbyn can't complain about 'not catching a break' when the whole thing was a publicity stunt he set up. Sometimes, he's been treated unfairly, but on this occasion, he brought it on himself. If you want to highlight a problem, don't make it a story about how humble and ordinary you are.

[Chaldanya]

10 minutes ago, mormont said:

According to Virgin the seats weren't reserved, though. (The tickets might indicate they were reserved from York or something.) Even Corbyn now admits there were single unreserved seats he could have used (he's now saying he needed two together so he could sit next to his wife).

Corbyn can't complain about 'not catching a break' when the whole thing was a publicity stunt he set up. Sometimes, he's been treated unfairly, but on this occasion, he brought it on himself. If you want to highlight a problem, don't make it a story about how humble and ordinary you are.

Yeah, and I've done the same thing. Because it's all well and good finding a reserved seat that has the reservation start some stops after you've got on but it just pushes the problem to further down the line.

Just to be clear I'm the one saying that Corbyn can't catch a break.  And he can't and this comes from someone that doesn't particularly like him or agree with some of his positions.  This is unrelenting and tiring now.  And it's not like he's making things up; trains are overcrowded and expensive. Believe me when I say if he were more popular with the press the media coverage would be very very different.

This whole thing makes me feel ill to be honest.  A country needs strong opposition to ensure that all voices are heard and one doesn't have to leap to any conclusions about the (mainly) right wing owned media's insistence on hammering on this dude to the exclusion of everything else.  

Unless I'm very much mistaken:

Syria is still an unholy mess (Turkish tanks are rolling in)

NHS is still in danger

Brexit is a mess

Earthquake in Italy

But by all means let's continue to do this thing.

[Chaldanya]

1 hour ago, Channel4s-JonSnow said:

Yeah I think the hounding of Corbyn is quite sad to see. Its strange because it suggests there is an element of people who are scared of him. However I still regard him as mostly out of touch with the concerns and thinking of most of the populace, which would make him pretty much unelectable at the moment. Why the fear?

The funny thing is if they treated him seriously and gave his views significant air time and treated him with a modicum of respect I think he wouldn't get elected and some of his supporters would fall away.

 

[A wilding]

To me the whole story reflects perfectly the central problem with Corbyn, his amateurish incompetence.

It would have been trivial to show a genuinely massively overcrowded train. Just pick any going into London in the morning rush hour or out of London in the evening rush hour. Pull in the recent issues with Southern Rail also. You could then use that to make the strong case for at least a partial renationalisation of the railways, a case that would resonate strongly with many people.

Instead we get this halfhearted effort, giving Branson and the unsympathetic media the chance to shift the discussion. It is not political rocket science to predict that they would look for a way of doing this, Corbyn and those around him should have anticipated it and made sure they were reasonably bullet proof.

 

[Chaldanya]

18 minutes ago, A wilding said:

To me the whole story reflects perfectly the central problem with Corbyn, his amateurish incompetence.

It would have been trivial to show a genuinely massively overcrowded train. Just pick any going into London in the morning rush hour or out of London in the evening rush hour. Pull in the recent issues with Southern Rail also. You could then use that to make the strong case for at least a partial renationalisation of the railways, a case that would resonate strongly with many people.

Instead we get this halfhearted effort, giving Branson and the unsympathetic media the chance to shift the discussion. It is not political rocket science to predict that they would look for a way of doing this, Corbyn and those around him should have anticipated it and made sure they were reasonably bullet proof.

 

Now this I can agree with.  I actually think he's a woefully inept leader but even given that this coverage just feels like punching a person when they're down and it sits uneasily with me.

Ah, well, I just can't deal with the hideous state of British Politics atm it's just this caught my eye and pissed me off.

[mormont]

1 hour ago, A wilding said:

To me the whole story reflects perfectly the central problem with Corbyn, his amateurish incompetence.

It would have been trivial to show a genuinely massively overcrowded train. Just pick any going into London in the morning rush hour or out of London in the evening rush hour. Pull in the recent issues with Southern Rail also. You could then use that to make the strong case for at least a partial renationalisation of the railways, a case that would resonate strongly with many people.

Yeah, but that would be a different story. The story they were looking for was about Jeremy and his common touch, which is understandable, because that's his leadership pitch in a nutshell. But having made himself the story, he can't complain when people respond accordingly.

It does come off as amateurish, but stories about politicians doing 'ordinary' things usually do. Bacon sandwich anyone?

[ljkeane]

52 minutes ago, mormont said:

 

It does come off as amateurish, but stories about politicians doing 'ordinary' things usually do. Bacon sandwich anyone?

In fairness I think that was the media jumping on Miliband excessively. So what if there's a picture taken of him looking slightly awkward? This train thing is Corbyn deliberately trying to set up a publicity stunt and shooting himself in the foot though.

[john]

If you believe Corbyn's statements then the video was apparently an off the cuff thing, taking advantage of the situation after failing to find a seat.

 

The most absurd thing here is Richard Branson that smug, financial oportunist publicity hound, attempting to pour scorn on somebody else. Please.

[The BlackBear]

Theresa May has ordered an audit of public services and their treatment of minorities and poor people.

The argument being more information can help them tackle the issues more effectively. But I'm pretty sure the government has a fair amount of data already, will this really make much difference? In which case it's clearly just an attempt to look proactive whilst avoiding the issue.

[Channel4s-JonSnow]

15 hours ago, The BlackBear said:

Theresa May has ordered an audit of public services and their treatment of minorities and poor people.

The argument being more information can help them tackle the issues more effectively. But I'm pretty sure the government has a fair amount of data already, will this really make much difference? In which case it's clearly just an attempt to look proactive whilst avoiding the issue.

She has to get past her image as some sort of heartless medieval queen, a mini thatcher, somehow.

[Hereward]

6 hours ago, Channel4s-JonSnow said:

She has to get past her image as some sort of heartless medieval queen, a mini thatcher, somehow.

No, she really doesn't. The opinion polls tell us that. I think the more likely explanation is that. Heaven forfend, she is actually a genuine One Nation Tory, who doesn't happen to be a closet bigot, capitalist lackey and hater of poor people. They do actually exist.

[Werthead]

May's actually come out of the blocks pretty strong. She's made it clear we're going to have reduced austerity and some more money is going to be poured back into things it was being removed from previously and she's taken a reasonable tone on Brexit (and some apparently astute wooing of Nicola Sturgeon, which could allow Sturgeon to back down on independence without it being too humiliating). She's actually moved the party at least a couple of notches back towards the centre, celebrated the Tory achievements in gay marriage and the economy and apparently taking up a position which Labour would have found hard to challenge her on, if they weren't destroying themselves. She must be seriously tempted to call a general election now, as I don't see Labour standing a gnat's hell in chance against the Tories at this very moment.

Her first big challenge is going to be handling the NHS fiasco. The Tories have spent half a decade telling us that the NHS is ringfenced whilst privatising its support services but this won't affect standards, and now it's clear that they have plans to close wards and potentially entire hospitals up and down the country. If she can tackle that effectively - ritually dismembering Jeremy Hunt would be a start - it'll be impressive, otherwise her honeymoon period in office could come to a rather abrupt end.

[The Marquis de Leech]

9 hours ago, Werthead said:

 She's actually moved the party at least a couple of notches back towards the centre, celebrated the Tory achievements in gay marriage and the economy and apparently taking up a position which Labour would have found hard to challenge her on, if they weren't destroying themselves

The Overton Window shifts leftwards for the first time in over thirty years!

[Mathis]

12 hours ago, Roose Boltons Pet Leech said:

The Overton Window shifts leftwards for the first time in over thirty years!

1997 doesn't do it for you?

Let me guess, Blair was a Tory?

[polishgenius]

Are you seriously suggesting that Blair dragged the Overton Window leftwards?  Because you don't have to think he was a Tory to think that that is ludicrous.

[Mathis]

32 minutes ago, polishgenius said:

Are you seriously suggesting that Blair dragged the Overton Window leftwards?  Because you don't have to think he was a Tory to think that that is ludicrous.

I am suggesting that. He was left of the Tories, who had won the '92 election with a record number of votes. He made a number of left wing polices acceptable to large swathes of the country.

[The Marquis de Leech]

4 hours ago, Mathis said:

I am suggesting that. He was left of the Tories, who had won the '92 election with a record number of votes. He made a number of left wing polices acceptable to large swathes of the country.

Thatcher moved the right-side of the Overton Window to the right (self-explanatory). Blair (by embracing the neoliberal consensus) moved the left-side of the Overton Window to the right - the sort of policies traditionally associated with Labour became unthinkable under him.

Now we have a situation where Corbyn (whether you like him or not) has suddenly made talking about nationalisation mainstream again - he's moved the left-side of the Window leftwards. May's response has been to move the Tories to the centre - the right-side of the Window is now shifting leftwards.

[polishgenius]

7 hours ago, Mathis said:

I am suggesting that. He was left of the Tories, who had won the '92 election with a record number of votes. He made a number of left wing polices acceptable to large swathes of the country.

The window doesn't just refer to who is in power. Like RBPL says, he brought Labour back to power by leaving the left wing of the party and bringing it central. It's probably fair to say that he was responding to as much as pushing the changes but by running the New Labour campaign the way he did he closed off the left side of the party from wide discussion. So the left side of the window moved right.