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UK Politics: Another vote, just not for anyone who might change their minds


Which Tyler

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36 minutes ago, Tywin et al. said:

:grouphug:

Predictions for a no deal Brexit just went up by a noticeable margin. It seems the U.K. and the U.S. are engaged in a race to the bottom…

It’s kind of like the Western version of the fall of the USSR.....

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Some paraphrased highlights from Boris’ first speech as leader -

Quote

“it’s the conservatives who can best manage the contrasting instincts jostling in the human heart ... noble instincts, like the ability to own your own home ... at this pivotal moment in history we have to reconcile the noble instinct for friendship, trade and security with the equally deep, heartfelt desire for democratic self rule ... I look at you this morning and ask myself ‘do you look daunted?’ You don’t look remotely daunted to me! ... we know the mantra of the campaign that’s just gone by (unless you’ve forgotten it, you probably have, [inaudible mumble]) ... Deliver Brexit! Unite the country! And defeat Jeremy Corbyn! And that’s what we’re going to do!”

I mean, with oration like that.

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13 minutes ago, Bittersweet Distractor said:

It’s kind of like the Western version of the fall of the USSR.....

We’ve still got a ways to go. What I currently find troubling is the protests turning violent in Hong Kong and Puerto Rico. Don’t be shocked if that comes to the U.K. and mainland U.S. soon.

8 minutes ago, john said:

Yeah, the DUDE thing was funny too. Deliver Brexit, Unite country, Defeat Corbyn and ... um, Energise!

Is this normal talk in parliament? I heard the remarks live and that specific comment jumped out at me.

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19 minutes ago, john said:

Yeah, the DUDE thing was funny too. Deliver Brexit, Unite country, Defeat Corbyn and ... um, Energise! 

I mean, I find it really amusing on some levels, how obsessed the Tories are with defeating Corbyn.

On the one hand, I vaguely recall that poll among conservatives, what price are they willing to pay for Brexit.

End of the Tory party? Check. Economy taking a hit? Check. Diminished political role of the county in the world? Check. Corbyn becoming Primeminister? Hell no!

I am so glad they got their priorities in order.

Then it's also not like Corbyn actually needs much defeating. He is doing that one pretty much help himself. Labour is in such a shambolic state. With a semi-competent leader they would kill the Tories electorally (not to mention some political beast like Blur, but Iraq (here I did it for you)). But instead of putting the Tory party out of its misery, Labour is shooting bullet after bullet after bullet into their own feet to appease that bearded spare time Marxist, who - let's be perfectly blunt - is simply not a very good politician; and neither actually very principled for that matter.

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16 minutes ago, Tywin et al. said:

Is this normal talk in parliament? I heard the remarks live and that specific comment jumped out at me.

Well, they weren’t in Parliament, it was just after the announcement, he was talking to the party members.  You’d have to say “defeat the Right Honourable Gentleman” in parliament, I suppose.

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40 minutes ago, john said:

Well, they weren’t in Parliament, it was just after the announcement, he was talking to the party members.  You’d have to say “defeat the Right Honourable Gentleman” in parliament, I suppose.

Fair, but you know what I meant. Normally when someone ascends to the leader of their country, they try to project a unifying message, even if everyone knows it’s BS. It just jumped out as really strange that he would say that about the opposition leader in his introductory speech.

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1 hour ago, Tywin et al. said:

1. We’ve still got a ways to go. What I currently find troubling is the protests turning violent in Hong Kong and Puerto Rico. Don’t be shocked if that comes to the U.K. and mainland U.S. soon.

2. Is this normal talk in parliament? I heard the remarks live and that specific comment jumped out at me.

1. Pretty much nailed on going to happen once we finally have a Brexit resolution. One side or the other will take a protest too far and turn to rioting.

2. Only for the last couple of years. Very sad to have seen it emerge.

 

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1 hour ago, Which Tyler said:

1. Pretty much nailed on going to happen once we finally have a Brexit resolution. One side or the other will take a protest too far and turn to rioting.

And the sad part is the most likely result will be the populace turning to right wing authoritarian types.

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They’ve turned Corbyn into some Disney villain. Defeat Corbyn? What the fuck? THAT is one of the most important issues facing our country? Give me a fucking break. I’m not surprised at the Boris win, though. It was inevitable...what a joke.

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Hey dudes (and dudettes). Get a load of this!!! - Cometh the Hour, Cometh the Man: A Profile of Boris Johnson

Toby Young (aka the arsehole's arsehole) has written a semi-panegyric on Quillette. The intro is awesome:

"With his huge mop of blond hair, his tie askew and his shirt escaping from his trousers, he looked like an overgrown schoolboy. Yet with his imposing physical build, his thick neck and his broad, Germanic forehead, there was also something of Nietzsche’s Übermensch about him. You could imagine him in lederhosen, wandering through the Black Forest with an axe over his shoulder, looking for ogres to kill. This same combination—a state of advanced dishevelment and a sense of coiled strength, of an almost tangible will to power—was even more pronounced in his way of speaking."

Toby continues

"In Boris, though, it was as if I’d finally encountered the ‘real’ Oxford, the Platonic ideal. While the rest of us were works-in-progress, vainly trying on different personae, Boris was the finished article. He was an instantly recognizable character from the comic tradition in English letters: a pantomime toff. He was Sir Toby Belch in Twelfth Night demanding more cakes and ale, Bertie Wooster trying to pass himself off as Eustace H. Plimsoll when appearing in court after overdoing it on Boat Race night. Yet at the same time fizzing with vim and vinegar—“bursting with spunk,” as he once put it, explaining why he needed so many different female partners. He was a cross between Hugh Grant and a silverback gorilla.

My uncle had described him as a “genius” and as a boy he’d been regarded as something of a wunderkind. There was the occasion when he was holidaying with his family in Greece, aged 10, and asked a group of Classics professors if he could join their game of Scrabble. They indulged the precocious, blond-haired moppet, only to be beaten by him. Thinking it was a one-off, they asked him to play another round and, again, he won. On and on it went, game after game. At the prep school he attended before going to Eton, Britain’s grandest private school, he was seen as a prodigy. A schoolmaster who taught him back then told his biographer, Andrew Gimson, that he was the quickest-learner he’d ever encountered. In the staff room, the teachers would compare notes about the “fantastically able boy.

...

From the first moment I saw him, I felt I was in the presence of someone special, someone capable of achieving great things. I’ve never been able to dispel that impression."

So there you go. The Ubermensch, the Platonic ideal, possessor of coiled strength. All hail Bozzah.

Toby does concede though, "The next three months, between now and October 31st, will reveal whether that was a historical premonition or a sophomoric illusion." Well yeah. 

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Jared O'Mara, the guy who beat Nick Clegg in Sheffield Hallam in 2017, but was then suspended from the Labour party for sexism and homophobia, probably hasn't realised that his PR guy has resigned yet.

 

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1 hour ago, Theda Baratheon said:

They’ve turned Corbyn into some Disney villain. Defeat Corbyn? What the fuck? THAT is one of the most important issues facing our country? Give me a fucking break.

It's noticeable that in almost the next breath he is ruling out an early General Election, which suggests he's not quite as confident about defeating Corbyn as he claims he is.

I’m not surprised at the Boris win, though. It was inevitable...what a joke.

We got lucky in 2016 when Boris seemed like a certainty to win before Gove stabbed him in the back, but he unfortunately he managed to avoid self-destructing this time.

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6 hours ago, Tywin et al. said:

We’ve still got a ways to go. What I currently find troubling is the protests turning violent in Hong Kong and Puerto Rico. Don’t be shocked if that comes to the U.K. and mainland U.S. soon.

Is this normal talk in parliament? I heard the remarks live and that specific comment jumped out at me.

I think you could be right about the protests coming to the UK and US, I mean sure London has had some protests alredy but they've mostly been quite well mannered, Boris becoming PM is going to upset more people than it makes happy, that is for sure.

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10 minutes ago, williamjm said:

It's noticeable that in almost the next breath he is ruling out an early General Election, which suggests he's not quite as confident about defeating Corbyn as he claims he is.

 

 

We got lucky in 2016 when Boris seemed like a certainty to win before Gove stabbed him in the back, but he unfortunately he managed to avoid self-destructing this time.

I still find it slightly amazing that he didn’t

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56 minutes ago, Denvek said:

Jared O'Mara, the guy who beat Nick Clegg in Sheffield Hallam in 2017, but was then suspended from the Labour party for sexism and homophobia, probably hasn't realised that his PR guy has resigned yet.

 

The PR guy has now tweeted on his own account that because of 2-factor authentication, O’Mara needs his phone in order to log in

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2 hours ago, Theda Baratheon said:

They’ve turned Corbyn into some Disney villain. Defeat Corbyn? What the fuck? THAT is one of the most important issues facing our country? Give me a fucking break. I’m not surprised at the Boris win, though. It was inevitable...what a joke.

I’ll always remember Alistair Campbell on Question Time asked about why the Tories are so successful: because they’re ruthless bastards. They had a very clear talking point between 2010 and 2016: the debt we inherited, the debt we inherited, the debt we inherited. Meanwhile, Labour memorably ummed and arred their way through those years and essentially conceded the point (do yourself a favour and look up UK debt between 2010 and 2016 under Cameron). 

Their new mantra, and it’s one that cuts through all the party infighting quite effectively, is that a Prime Minister Corbyn would destroy the universe. And you know what? It’ll fucking work. People will have some vague sense that it’s irresponsible to vote Labour and stick with the party who are ‘good at governing’. Eventually there will be a general election and Boris will win it.

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1 hour ago, Bittersweet Distractor said:

I think you could be right about the protests coming to the UK and US, I mean sure London has had some protests alredy but they've mostly been quite well mannered, Boris becoming PM is going to upset more people than it makes happy, that is for sure.

I really can't speak too strongly about your guys' situation, but we're clearly ahead of you here. Given the wide spread dehumanization of people, I fear we are close to seeing a lot of terrifying incidents, especially with our insane gun culture.

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