UK Politics: Russian Adventures in Toryland

[polishgenius]

 

[A Horse Named Stranger]

Who could've guessed that Irvine Welsh wouldn't be too impressed by a bunch of posh conservatives ripping off from his main work?

I am surprised, shocked and saddened to live in a world, in which Irvine Welsh is not a fooking tool.

[Heartofice]

I’m shocked and surprised that Scottish Conservatives created a good advert

[mormont]

4 minutes ago, Heartofice said:

I’m shocked and surprised that Scottish Conservatives created a good advert

Could you post it when you have a minute?

[A Horse Named Stranger]

The absolute lack of self-wareness. Choose flags, choose nationalism, choose a hard border with your neighbours. Choose division, and more flags. Of course you liked it. 

[Heartofice]

Nah it’s funny, gets the heart of how bad the SNP are

[mormont]

I mean, humour is subjective and all.

What's not subjective is that the ad above is dated, confusing, badly designed and dull. Bit of a Friday afternoon at 5pm effort.

[Heartofice]

1 minute ago, mormont said:

I mean, humour is subjective and all.

What's not subjective is that the ad above is dated, confusing, badly designed and dull. Bit of a Friday afternoon at 5pm effort.

I didn’t expect you to enjoy it 

[kiko]

4 hours ago, A Horse Named Stranger said:

The absolute lack of self-wareness. Choose flags, choose nationalism, choose a hard border with your neighbours. Choose division, and more flags. Of course you liked it. 

Since I don't follow Scottish politics as much as I should, I'm genuinely confused. There seem to be a lot of points that are obviously long standing Tory policy. So is this a compiled list of their manifesto? If yes then some of the points appear to be rather not mainstream. Is there a big demand for ships with painted on windows in Scotland? Also while I'm completely aware that Tories would love more dead drug addicts below a certain income threshold, I'm baffled that they said that loud. 

 

[mormont]

4 hours ago, kiko said:

Since I don't follow Scottish politics as much as I should, I'm genuinely confused. There seem to be a lot of points that are obviously long standing Tory policy. So is this a compiled list of their manifesto? If yes then some of the points appear to be rather not mainstream. Is there a big demand for ships with painted on windows in Scotland? Also while I'm completely aware that Tories would love more dead drug addicts below a certain income threshold, I'm baffled that they said that loud. 

 

My point exactly. It's confusing even to people who do follow Scottish politics.

In theory, it's supposed to be a series of criticisms of the SNP. In practice, many of the things called out are either obscure even to Scottish voters, applicable to the Tories themselves, phrased in a contorted way, weirdly racist (the only SNP minister called out by name is the brown guy, and it's only his name, implying that his mere existence is a Bad Thing), or actually sound like good things (what's wrong with being the Saudi Arabia of renewables'?)

Then after this litany, there's an appeal to vote Conservative, which is a switch of gears.

Add to that the fact that people stopped doing Trainspotting parodies in 2005 because the joke had long worn thin, the ugly, badly kerned font that isn't the actual Trainspotting font but the designer clearly thought 'eh, close enough', the fact that everyone prominently associated with the film or book loathes the Tories, and the fact that the message of the film and book are pretty much antithetical to and scathing of everything the Tories stand for, and what we wind up with is objectively a half arsed retread idea that I would be embarrassed to see in a student election.

ETA -  I really want to emphasise here, I obviously dislike the Tories. But what is really getting my goat about this poster is that it's just so fucking lazy as a piece of graphic design. From concept to execution. Any designer worth their salt should be ashamed.

[BigFatCoward]

10 hours ago, Heartofice said:

I’m shocked and surprised that Scottish Conservatives created a good advert

Come on, in the words of Renton 'it's absolute gash'. It's the advertising equivalent of Spuds speed induced/enhanced interview ramblings, and has the political subtlety of Begbie's pint glass off the balcony. 

 

[Heartofice]

Are we really complaining about bad jokes, lack of subtlety and poor graphic design in political advertising?

[kiko]

58 minutes ago, Heartofice said:

Are we really complaining about bad jokes, lack of subtlety and poor graphic design in political advertising?

Didn't you say it's funny?

[Heartofice]

42 minutes ago, kiko said:

Didn't you say it's funny?

Bad jokes can be funny.

[mormont]

I guarantee we have all now spent more time thinking about this poster than the people that made it ever did.

[Heartofice]

It's almost like you've inadvertently fallen into the trap of talking about it and spreading it's reach despite hating it.

I'm seeing a pattern.

 

[mormont]

Yes, when the Tories romp home in Scottish councils across the land, truly it will be said that the role played by discussing this shitty poster in an international forum where none of the Scots present would ever in a hundred years vote Tory that swung it. 

[Heartofice]

2 minutes ago, mormont said:

Yes, when the Tories romp home in Scottish councils across the land, truly it will be said that the role played by discussing this shitty poster in an international forum where none of the Scots present would ever in a hundred years vote Tory that swung it. 

Just so you know, Scottish Tories got 348 retweets of their poster.. but Irvine Welsh managed to spread that poster around the internet by at least 10x that amount by talking about it.

 

[Spockydog]

In other 'why on earth would the Tories accept money from the oil baron' news:

Boris Johnson blows cold on onshore wind faced with 100-plus rebel MPs

Quote

Pro-green cabinet ministers are frustrated by Boris Johnson’s decision to back away from ambitious onshore windfarm plans for England, as it emerged more than 100 Tory MPs are lobbying against the policy behind the scenes.

The prime minister, who is to announce his energy strategy later in the week, will announce big targets for increasing nuclear power and offshore wind, as well as exploiting more North Sea oil and gas.

But he has been hit by a cabinet split over onshore wind, with Kwasi Kwarteng, the business secretary, and Michael Gove, the levelling up secretary, in favour, and others including Grant Shapps, the transport secretary, branding onshore turbines “an eyesore”.

Another nine ministers sitting in cabinet – Steve Barclay, Nadine Dorries, Simon Hart, Chris Heaton-Harris, Brandon Lewis, Priti Patel, Jacob Rees-Mogg, Mark Spencer and Nadhim Zahawi – signed a letter calling for a cut in support for onshore wind in 2012. The letter was orchestrated by Heaton-Harris, now responsible for party discipline, who co-ran a campaign called Together Against Wind and wrote a manual that was a “step by step guide on opposing a windfarm in your area”.

A spokesperson for Heaton-Harris would not comment on his communications with the prime minister about the issue of onshore wind.

One cabinet source said those cabinet ministers and Tory MPs arguing against the expansion in England said they “should look at the polling in favour of onshore wind. They are fighting a war from 10 years ago.”

 

[Spockydog]

Hard to argue with anything this guys says...