news & politics:discussion

[Guest]

1 hour ago, steviewevie said:

eh? Johnson will be kicked out because labour has no alternative?

Johnson will stay put until he makes one cock up too many and becomes an electoral problem for the tories, but at moment they've still got a comfortable lead in the polls, and I can't see that changing unless the pandemic suddenly gets a lot worse or the economy collapses. Afghanistan looks bad on the news, but do most people give a shit? Not sure.

No - I meant the situation in Afganistan won't be the cause of him being kicked out. 

[Ryan1984]

4 hours ago, steviewevie said:

eh? Johnson will be kicked out because labour has no alternative?

Johnson will stay put until he makes one cock up too many and becomes an electoral problem for the tories, but at moment they've still got a comfortable lead in the polls, and I can't see that changing unless the pandemic suddenly gets a lot worse or the economy collapses. Afghanistan looks bad on the news, but do most people give a shit? Not sure.

I think there was a Guardian article (I know…) the other day that said the Tories won’t get rid of him as he’s a proven winner. They can make life difficult when he’s in power but when he has that background of victories and nothing sticks to him, they value their majority over everything else. Same kind of thing Cummings was saying when he said they used him as a pawn.

[Guest]

I won't post them here as they are very grim but look up Fionna O'Leary on Twitter, she's shared some horrible accounts of what's going on in Afghanistan.

Edited August 19, 2021 by Ozanne

[DeanoL]

On the subject of imposing values on other people:

OnlyFans to ban sexually explicit content: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-58273914

Quote

The subscription site OnlyFans, known for its adult content, has announced it will block sexually explicit photos and videos from 1 October.

People will still be able to post nude content on the site.

But this will need to be consistent with OnlyFans' policies.

The announcement comes after BBC News had approached the company for a response to leaked documents concerning accounts which posted illegal content.

OnlyFans said the change had come after pressure from banking partners.

This is one of those things that just seems outright wrong to me, yet no-one will kick up a fuss because no-one cares about sex workers. I mean, the site has problems, it certainly needs to do more in some places, and if the government passed some law to stop them trading that would be one thing... but it's not what's happening here.

What's happening is payment processors are threatening to stop working with them. PayPal, Visa, Mastercard, etc - all those companies basically have a stranglehold on online transactions, but never seem to use it, other than for shutting down pornography. It does seem to be entirely driven by a weird sense of puritan values.

(And of course, all the actually illegal buying and selling still happens on the dark web via cryptocurrencies - but people selling legal content shouldn't be forced down that route)

[Guest]

Wow. The Tory lead has been slashed. 

Edited August 21, 2021 by Ozanne

[mattiloy]

On 8/21/2021 at 10:56 PM, Ozanne said:

Wow. The Tory lead has been slashed. 

hello darkness my old friend

[steviewevie]

3 hours ago, mattiloy said:

hello darkness my old friend

stats for lefties.

😆

[steviewevie]

 

[steviewevie]

 

[fraybentos1]

4 hours ago, mattiloy said:

hello darkness my old friend

😂😂😂😂 this can’t be true- have it on good authority the tory lead has been slashed

[Guest]

37 minutes ago, steviewevie said:

 

I do wonder about some of these polls as in the same poll where Starmers approval went down, his rating for best PM against Johnson went up.

 

 

[steviewevie]

37 minutes ago, fraybentos1 said:

😂😂😂😂 this can’t be true- have it on good authority the tory lead has been slashed

lol

[fraybentos1]

55 minutes ago, Ozanne said:

I do wonder about some of these polls as in the same poll where Starmers approval went down, his rating for best PM against Johnson went up.

 

 

+1 means nothing omg how do you not get this yet ?! It’s well within margin or error ffs 

[Guest]

44 minutes ago, steviewevie said:

lol

His obsession with me is very strange.

[mattiloy]

https://sadtrombone.com

[topmarksbri]

Looking at poll trends, seems to have stagnated a bit with a small gap potentially starting to widen in most recent polls. For what seems like the millionth time on this thread, individual polls don't tell you anything. 

[fred quimby]

1 hour ago, topmarksbri said:

Looking at poll trends, seems to have stagnated a bit with a small gap potentially starting to widen in most recent polls. For what seems like the millionth time on this thread, individual polls don't tell you anything. 

Wish people would stop posting them, waste of time

[mattiloy]

[Guest]

Conference will be massive for both Johnson and Starmer but especially for Starmer. This might be his only chance to win people round to him and his vision for the country.

[steviewevie]

Sharon Graham has been elected as new gen sec of Unite.

 

[mattiloy]

10 hours ago, steviewevie said:

Sharon Graham has been elected as new gen sec of Unite.

 

Weird that the liberal media have decided to coalesce around some mad line that she is a moderate candidate (presumably based on the fact that none of them had heard of her before yesterday and she lacked the support of that meddling bolshie red Len McCluskey).

She’s pretty firmly and radically left by all accounts. Even moreso than the Turner.

Ultimately McCluskey was a pragmatist, a deal maker and above all a Labour man. No doubt Turner would be the same. These are people you can negotiate with. Not sure the same can be said for Graham.

[mcshed]

7 hours ago, mattiloy said:

Weird that the liberal media have decided to coalesce around some mad line that she is a moderate candidate (presumably based on the fact that none of them had heard of her before yesterday and she lacked the support of that meddling bolshie red Len McCluskey).

She’s pretty firmly and radically left by all accounts. Even moreso than the Turner.

Ultimately McCluskey was a pragmatist, a deal maker and above all a Labour man. No doubt Turner would be the same. These are people you can negotiate with. Not sure the same can be said for Graham.

That article doesn't say she is a moderate it acknowledges she is of the left, it says that the Labour right will be happy as she stood on a campaign of the Union being more concerned with members' workplace disputes and less concerned with the goings on in the Labour party. 

If Turner had won then like Len he would have thrown his weight around trying to get what he wants, Graham is less interested.

[mattiloy]

36 minutes ago, mcshed said:

That article doesn't say she is a moderate it acknowledges she is of the left, it says that the Labour right will be happy as she stood on a campaign of the Union being more concerned with members' workplace disputes and less concerned with the goings on in the Labour party. 

If Turner had won then like Len he would have thrown his weight around trying to get what he wants, Graham is less interested.

She isn’t just of the left though. She is the socialist workers party, TUSC backed hardliner.

She doesn’t have the personal vendetta with Labour as McCluskey does but is very pro industrial action and is on record saying she prefers a ’pay for performance’ model of unite funding to Labour.

Its difficult to see any positives for Starmer from an old school, tub thumping, dyed in the wool, marxist as the boss of the Labour party’s largest donor?

Claiming it as any kind of win is absurd. The spin coming from every angle at the moment just to keep this boring barrister in a job is unbelievable. Imagine Starmer’s leadership but the press are on him like they were Corbyn. Probs be polling about 15%.

[mcshed]

28 minutes ago, mattiloy said:

She isn’t just of the left though. She is the socialist workers party, TUSC backed hardliner.

She doesn’t have the personal vendetta with Labour as McCluskey does but is very pro industrial action and is on record saying she prefers a ’pay for performance’ model of unite funding to Labour.

Its difficult to see any positives for Starmer from an old school, tub thumping, dyed in the wool, marxist as the boss of the Labour party’s largest donor?

Claiming it as any kind of win is absurd. The spin coming from every angle at the moment just to keep this boring barrister in a job is unbelievable. Imagine Starmer’s leadership but the press are on him like they were Corbyn. Probs be polling about 15%.

You don't think the country's largest union looking more at taking on the government through industrial action than trying to dominate the direction of the Labour Party isn't a good thing for the current leadership of the Labour Party?

[mattiloy]

3 minutes ago, mcshed said:

You don't think the country's largest union looking more at taking on the government through industrial action than trying to dominate the direction of the Labour Party isn't a good thing for the current leadership of the Labour Party?

 

It might be a good thing if Starmer’s Labour was significantly more pro-worker than the government but that isn’t the case.

Any attack on inadequate pay and conditions attacks Starmer’s Labour’s policy too (2.1% rise for nurses is not going to cut it). 

Then if there are strikes, he will then face pressure to both condemn from the right, and support from the unions/left. He’ll probably go down the middle with some ’support the message not the economic disruption’ line and end up looking characteristically weak.

As a result I expect Unite will fund the Labour party less and fund other causes more. Or give more direct funding to MPs that champion workers rights.

Graham has even said that unite in Scotland will back independence if their members want it and stop funding Scottish Labour.

Less money for you and more money for your rivals can’t be a good thing surely?