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It's February, and Boris Johnson is https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gnFMLTTjgkM Also Covid is ongoing, but there's at least a semi-competent vaccine rollout, assuming that the supply lines are still up in April for the second doses of people being vaccinated this month and there isn't a trade war between AstraZenica and Pfizer, anyhow better keep these around: Find Your Local COVID-19 Mutual Aid Group - or set one up Also check: https://freedomnews.org.uk/covid-19-uk-mutual-aid-groups-a-list/ https://secretldn.com/uk-community-aid-groups-by-area/ https://queercare.network/our-work/resources/covid-19/ In Other News  • Most of England's primary schools reopen after the Christmas break. • A major incident is declared in London by mayor Sadiq Khan, stating that the spread of the virus is "out of control" in the capital. • The Joint Biosecurity Centre recommends that the COVID Alert Level is moved from 4 to 5, indicating a "material risk of healthcare services being overwhelmed". • In a televised address, Boris Johnson announces that Nicola Sturgeon announces tougher restrictions to contain the new strain of the virus, ordering the public to stay at home, and all schools and colleges to switch to remote learning from 5 January. • The extradition of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange from the UK to the US is blocked by a court in London. • Two anti-inflammatory medications, tocilizumab and sarilumab, are found to cut deaths by up to 25% in the most serious acute COVID-19 cases. • The government bans travel from South America and Portugal over concerns of a new Lusitanic variant of COVID-19. • Modern slavery client Boohoo acquires the Debenhams brand and website for £55m after the department store went into administration in April 2020, but it does not retain any of its stores, meaning the loss of up to 12,000 jobs. • EU and AstraZenica had a slapfight over some contract but the details are badly redacted  • Brexit.  It's February again, we must get older, now, so please wake up.  Darwin Day UKMT January 2021 - i have no chin and i must chitterwagger UKMT December 2020 - Best viewed with Brexcape Navigator 4+ UKMT Autumn 2020 - Thou shalt have a Rishi act a little fishi UKMT Summer 2020 - Two Pints of Saline and Abacavir for Drip UKMT May 2020 - Let them eat Nando's UKMT April 2020 - The Betacoronavirus and the Virgin Atlantic All Previous Threads (thanks Pesky Splinter) Ice Cream for Breakfast Day Europol Thread Scotpol Thread Trainchat Thread Political Cartoons Thread C-SPAM: BREXIT BYOB: UKMT Superb Owl Sunday Podcasting is Praxis - The official podcast of the UKMT with UKMT goons talking into microphones about things. Off the Fence - Brighton based, covering UK & Global topics. Pretty chill and professional peeps. Older 'casts can be found in the PLATFORM B archive. Reel Politik - The Original Leftie Hate Trolls. Check 'em out. We Don't Talk About The Weather - Two cool guys discuss news and other stuff. The second-most UKMT-iest of Podcasts. Desolation Radio - Socialism from a Welsh perspective. Informative hosts. Revolutionary Despatches - Two new guys starting out. Connected & Disaffected - Breezy discussions of lefty social, and historical topics, and news updates. Pretty Good. Trashfuture - Theme of the week style podcast about capitalism and how much it fucks up. Cool podcasters, sometimes working with Reel Politik Agitpod - Owen Jones & Ellie Mae O’Hagan discuss news. Reasons to Be Cheerful - Former Labour leader Ed "Red Ed" Milliband and Geoff Lloyd shoot the poo poo, and discuss general politics. Sometimes with guests. Novara Media - Numerous fluctucating commentators including Matt Zarb-Cousin, Max Shanly, and James Butler among others. Varying topics with guests. [Citations Needed] - Covers the US, focussing on the media, PR, and assorted bullshit. Also some socialist history topics. Very informative. Chapo House Media - More US focused, from a leftist perspective. Basically a US version of Reel Politik, but with better mics. Worth a listen. General Intellect Unit - Podcast of the Cybernetic Marxists. Examining the intersection of Technology, (Left) Politics, and Philosophy; decently in-depth and theory-driven as podcasts go. Alpha 2 Omega - Tom O'Brien talks political strategy. Requires Improvement - Podcast of lefty teachers exploring all things education, from a socialist perspective. Swampside Chats - "The highest communist podcast" Engineer's Day Stop, Thief!: The Commons, Enclosures, And Resistance – Peter Linebaugh Demanding The Impossible - David Morland Demanding the Impossible: A History of Anarchism - Peter Marshall Chav Solidarity - D. Hunter No Shortcuts: Organizing for Power in the New Gilded Age - Jane McAlevey Libertarian Communism – Isaac Puente Amestoy At The Café – Malatesta The Method of Freedom – Malatesta In Praise of Idleness – Russell Political Ideals – Russell Declaration – Hardt and Negri Liberalism, a Counter History – Domenico Losurdo God and the State – Bakunin The Conquest of Bread – Kropotkin Imperialism, the Highest Stage of Capitalism – V I Lenin Anarchism and Other Essays – Emma Goldman Social Reform or Revolution – Rosa Luxemburg Violence – Slavoj Zizek Jihad vs. McWorld - Benjamin Barber Crashed: How a Decade of Financial Crises Changed the World – Adam Tooze Flat Earth News - Nick Davies Hack Attack - Nick Davies Ecology of Freedom – Murray Bookchin Anarchism, Marxism and the Future of the Left – Murray Bookchin A Brief History of Neoliberalism – David Harvey Let's Read Das Kapital – Karl Marx and Goons День Советской Армии и Военно-Морского флота (thanks feedmegin) quote:I came up with the idea of a register of goons and their CLPs in case any new joiners wanted someone to go to to get the local lie of the land. The Effortpost's Graveyard (thanks goddamnedtwisto and UKMT goons) Join us on synIRC for Question Time Awfulness and Stuff #ukgoons on synIRC (thanks crispix). Or on Discord for other UKMT Chat and Podcast Conspiring https://discord.gg/QErneZT  Do Not Post In This Thread:
learnincurve posted:Need something added to every OP. DWP have been told not to tell sanctioned people about this. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OcYFl9bjnW0 
Guavanaut fucked around with this message at 01:13 on Feb 3, 2021 |
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Feb 1, 2021 01:07
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- feedmegin
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christ is it feb already
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Feb 1, 2021 01:10
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It is, I've tried complaining but nobody's doing anything about it.
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Feb 1, 2021 01:18
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whats the best place to buy a sim free phone these days?
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Feb 1, 2021 01:20
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classic guava move 
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Feb 1, 2021 01:24
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Jose posted:whats the best place to buy a sim free phone these days? first hand or second, and do you have a specific model or pricepoint in mind
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Feb 1, 2021 01:28
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CoolCab posted:first hand or second, and do you have a specific model or pricepoint in mind first hand. probably pixel 4a
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Feb 1, 2021 01:36
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Jose posted:whats the best place to buy a sim free phone these days? Carphone Warehouse? Or Amazon 
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Feb 1, 2021 01:40
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From January threadJose posted:a possible joke that they were playing ABBA and a neighbour asked them to stop out of respect for captain top being in hospital with covid I read a lot of that thread before he protected it. He denied emphatically that it was a joke. He also made another tweet that he was reporting haters to twitter. So I think he was getting some aggro (whether for making a post about Captain Tom or for playing Abba, I don't know). Mind you, if I heard Abba playing from my neighbour's kitchen I'd probably end up going after them with an axe. I don't believe in playing music so loud that the neighbours can hear it and suffer with headphones most of the time as I'm sure noone else in my block loves death metal or metal core or Iggorr or whatever. Rolling Stones and Beatles are more the era of folk in their 80s. Jaeluni Asjil fucked around with this message at 01:45 on Feb 1, 2021 |
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Feb 1, 2021 01:42
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Jose posted:first hand. probably pixel 4a I bought my pixel 2 directly from Google, but that might have been because it wasn't available anywhere else at the time, I can't remember. Also work was paying.
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Feb 1, 2021 01:46
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Lol who could for predicted this? Wonder how "it's just the flu" people will spin it https://news.sky.com/story/covid-19...HI8eeMwqaJA58C8
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Feb 1, 2021 01:48
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Jose posted:Lol who could for predicted this? Wonder how "it's just the flu" people will spin it They'll ignore it. The 'just the flu' people's view is it's no more serious than the flu - this changes nothing for them. they probably know that's not true but want to find a way to excuse their wants/behaviours
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Feb 1, 2021 01:51
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Jose posted:a possible joke that they were playing ABBA and a neighbour asked them to stop out of respect for captain top being in hospital with covid Asking a question in the last hour of the month like a coward. Anyway, depends - if you want just cheap and cheerful, given the mobile phone shops aren't open, your local big supermarket will have half a dozen sub-£100 handsets. For mid-level stuff Amazon, for high-end straight from the manufacturer because anyone doing latest-model iPhones or whatever cheaper than the manufacturer is probably a con of some kind.
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Feb 1, 2021 01:56
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Jose posted:first hand. probably pixel 4a Direct from Google or one of the approved resellers on the site then, you won't get the full warranty through a non-approved reseller.
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Feb 1, 2021 01:57
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Jose posted:Lol who could for predicted this? Wonder how "it's just the flu" people will spin it
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Feb 1, 2021 01:59
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Jose posted:Lol who could for predicted this? Wonder how "it's just the flu" people will spin it The way they are already spinning it and have been for weeks is that covid IS just the flu and oh look the proof is that flu cases have gone down because it's being called covid now. The facts that masking, social distancing and handwashing are good precautions against colds/ flu transmission as well as covid seem are immaterial to them. And funnily enough, it is anti-maskers who are in the vanguard of the claims that covid is just the flu with a new name. (Ed: and they all seem to think they know what flu is because they had a bad cold once time and called it 'flu'.) Jaeluni Asjil fucked around with this message at 02:09 on Feb 1, 2021 |
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Feb 1, 2021 02:00
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Jose the answer for where to get a phone seems to be shops
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Feb 1, 2021 02:03
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Good thread summarising the BBC'S 'mistakes' from 2019 that just happened to be in the tories favour. The 0.6 / 0.06 thing seems like it might have been an honest mistake but remembering some of the others, especially the question time stuff, made me go a bit Rafael Behr. https://twitter.com/docrussjackson/status/1206992886841192451?s=19
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Feb 1, 2021 03:02
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Jose posted:first hand. probably pixel 4a Google or Argos. I bought my 3a from Argos and had no trouble with getting a warranty replacement (free) phone direct from Google 20 months in.
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Feb 1, 2021 03:05
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big scary monsters posted:The thing with all the melts calling for Labour to agree to a government of national unity is why would the Tories even want that? They have an 80 seat majority and no opposition to speak of anyway, if anything a unity government would weaken their position because they'd presumably have to put a couple Labour figures into token cabinet positions. No reason for Boris to agree, but the Tories are a different matter. A ‘national government’ is a reference to the Norway debate, about a year into WWII. That resulted in the replacement of Chamberlain with Churchill, at the urging of the opposition parties led by Labour. How many words in this speech: from that debate would need changing to appy to the last year? “David Lloyd George” posted:Is there anyone in this House who will say that he is satisfied with the speed and efficiency of the preparations in any respect for air, for Army, yea, for Navy? Everybody is disappointed. Everybody knows that whatever was done was done half-heartedly, ineffectively, without drive and unintelligently. For three or four years I thought to myself that the facts with regard to Germany were exaggerated by the First Lord, because the then Prime Minister — not this Prime Minister — said that they were not true. The First Lord was right about it. Then came the war. The tempo was hardly speeded up. There was the same leisureliness and inefficiency. Will anybody tell me that he is satisfied with what we have done about aeroplanes, tanks, guns, especially anti-aircraft guns? Is anyone here satisfied with the steps we took to train an Army to use them? Nobody is satisfied. The whole world knows that. And here we are in the worst strategic position in which this country has ever been placed. Basically every Tory MP secretly thinks of themselves as Churchill, and knows this could be their moment.
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Feb 1, 2021 03:37
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I'm still pissed at the revelation that Keith doesn't support issues if they focus test badly. Motherfucker it's your job both as a QC and as leader of the opposition to make the case for the opposition. Get a focus group that doesn't see it your way, find the fastest way to convince them, and go with that if you really need to lean on focus groups, but don't loving make policy based on the opinions of people who have so little worth living for that they'd spend the afternoon doing a loving focus group. He's so loving useless, and the worst thing is that he and the centre-right jellyfish surrounding him think they're clever for doing it.
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Feb 1, 2021 03:47
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Labour's infantile obsession with focus groups and political consultants is entirely because they've misunderstood how Blair won elections. They think it's because he triangulated and focus-grouped everything to death, when actually it's because he Human Centipeded himself to Murdoch's arse and rode the coattails of tabloid approval. The focus groups and triangulation were red herrings. And they're so comfortable middle class that there's never been a reason for any of them to have their own ideas about policies. They choose the policies that are popular, and they know that these are popular because the tabloids praise the Tories when they talk about them.
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Feb 1, 2021 07:35
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I wonder who people are who end up in focus groups. How do they find them out, ship them to some room, ask them questions like 'if Keir Starmer was an animal what would he be' and someone would say 'eagle'. I've been feeling a bit sad about politics last few weeks so have been avoiding news and the thread. Instead I have been watching lots of tv and film and thinking about how poo poo everything is, from the messages they put out to how the staff were exploited making it. Not the best way of taking in entertainment but when I find something that isn't poo poo, its pretty good (just Small Axe so far, we'll see) Hope you all have a good Feb anyway
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Feb 1, 2021 07:46
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A National Unity Government could have been a useful thing if it had been implemented under the conditions of actually having a coherent Covid plan, because it would have made it possible to say "Look this isn't about party politics it's about the best scientific advice" and so on, and true or not, having both major parties (Plus ideally the SNP) saying it and being both responsible for what comes out of the Cabinet would have left a significantly smaller space for dissenters and conspiracy theorists to operate in whilst hopefully giving a sense of greater weight to lockdowns and mandates and so forth. At this point I only see it after someone pushes Boris, because they could say "blank slate, new government, new policies to finally get things under control". You risk sharing the glory whilst you also get to share some blame, but being able to say "We nobly sought to share power with our political rivals in those trying times for the greater good of the country" is a good look that the opposition can't really share because well of course the oppo want some power. As I say I do think it could have use if it was part of a sincere plan to actually fix things but that is not the situation we are in, and Starmer is vastly too unimaginative to have any useful ideas to share and vastly too short of the daring needed to push for radical plans anyway. So it definitely appeals to the centrist mind, because it implies a vaunted spirit of coolheaded National Good is upon the political class without any regard at all for actually prevailing conditions 
Ms Adequate fucked around with this message at 22:36 on Feb 1, 2021 |
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Feb 1, 2021 08:12
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Bobby Deluxe posted:I'm still pissed at the revelation that Keith doesn't support issues if they focus test badly. Motherfucker it's your job both as a QC and as leader of the opposition to make the case for the opposition. kingturnip posted:Labour's infantile obsession with focus groups and political consultants is entirely because they've misunderstood how Blair won elections. What I remember about the late 90's/ early 2000's is that Labour radiated confidence: even before '97, they were acting like they'd already won, while the Tories were visibly nervous and exhausted by comparison. They didn't awkwardly hover around focus groups, asking what policies they'd like to see: they swept people along on a wave of enthusiasm. This is what the current Labour leadership just don't get: they think that they're reconnecting with the public by doing this continual: "Labour needs to apologise for x, Labour hasn't listened on y, Labour has appeared out of touch on z" when all they're actually doing is broadcasting to the electorate how timid and weak they are. Even when people don't conceptualise it in quite that way, they instinctively react to that cringeing attitude with dismissal and contempt. If Starmer and his cronies really were the new New Labour, they'd be actively gathering the public up and carrying them along with them; as it is, when they make it clear that they have no confidence in Labour's mission, why on earth should anybody else?
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Feb 1, 2021 08:42
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Jose posted:Lol who could for predicted this? Wonder how "it's just the flu" people will spin it Since we've all started working at home, the sickness rates at work have apparently gone way down. I think it's a mixture of people not getting sick, and people who're slightly sick continuing to log in because it's less effort than going in and they don't have to worry about infecting anyone else.
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Feb 1, 2021 09:11
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Honestly surprised he didn't keep gambling after he won. You know how gamblers are. E: Wrong thread but you know what I'm gonna leave it here,
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Feb 1, 2021 09:23
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Mobile phones: John Lewis. You can price match with them against competitors (and the phones you’re looking at will all be about the same everywhere) and you get their 2 year warranty free.
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Feb 1, 2021 09:28
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Angrymog posted:Since we've all started working at home, the sickness rates at work have apparently gone way down. I think it's a mixture of people not getting sick, and people who're slightly sick continuing to log in because it's less effort than going in and they don't have to worry about infecting anyone else. Yeah, ever since I started having home working as an option, I pretty much never call in sick. It's easy enough to keep your head down for a day or two if you have a cold, especially if you whinge about it just a little...
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Feb 1, 2021 09:43
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I feel like this discussion about the Bradford Score came up itt in the last few weeks BUT - Employees should have a little fake sick leave, as a treat
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Feb 1, 2021 09:48
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Jose's mate just on radio 4 being gently caressed about Bellingcat funding sources.
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Feb 1, 2021 09:50
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The Perfect Element posted:Yeah, ever since I started having home working as an option, I pretty much never call in sick. It's easy enough to keep your head down for a day or two if you have a cold, especially if you whinge about it just a little... Yeah unless you physically can't work it just feels like a waste not to log on and do what you can (even if it's from bed). Gotta keep that Bradford factor low in case you need it later.
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Feb 1, 2021 09:53
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On that Grauniad editorial: Looking now on the webpage rather than the app the editor's picks are nice 'keif needs to do X' ones until you click through to all, clicking through to all comments they were originally sorted by oldest, and if you hit recommendations it's him getting bodied by the left. Not sure if the sorting there is set by default or if I've messed with it in the past, but it's good to see all the highest rated comments are telling it like it is.
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Feb 1, 2021 09:54
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Failed Imagineer posted:I feel like this discussion about the Bradford Score came up itt in the last few weeks BUT - Employees should have a little fake sick leave, as a treat My wife used to work for a trendy recruitment agency (who, of course, were all utterly horrible, mercenary cunts), and they allowed staff to have 2x 'duvet days' per year, where you were just allowed to ring in and say you couldn't be hosed. Of course, given that this was an organisation where you were castigated if you didn't get in an hour early and leave an hour late every day (at least), I imagine this perk was pretty much never used, or caveated so far up the arse that it effectively wasn't worth it.
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Feb 1, 2021 09:55
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Pistol_Pete posted:What I remember about the late 90's/ early 2000's is that Labour radiated confidence: even before '97, they were acting like they'd already won, while the Tories were visibly nervous and exhausted by comparison. They didn't awkwardly hover around focus groups, asking what policies they'd like to see: they swept people along on a wave of enthusiasm. labour actually focus group'd especially intensely 1992-1997 due to internal suspicions and intraparty accusations that 1992 could happen again (recall LAB was heavily favoured to win in polling and instead Major rode to a massive unprecedented landslide - exactly the opposite of what Kinnock had promised after 1987), having the Labour Communications Agency run groups every single week in the years leading up to 1997 the 'acting like we've already won' schtick - in particular fronting Blair as a leader brutally overriding intraparty objections, 'hippie punching' in contemporary parlance - emerged from focus group research that LAB was still tainted by a perception of weak leadership. In 1987 and 1992 the Daily Mail had pushed a message that Kinnock - despite being massively despised by the hard left by this point - was actually in the pocket of the hard left. Hence the elaborate staged confrontations with the left under Blair subsequently these were massive controversies within the party at the time, as the New Labourites used focus group outcomes to justify the ferocity of internal reform in those years (by the 1990s there were no serious defenders of Militant still relevant - but there were still plenty of soft-leftists who preferred a less confrontational 'one more heave' coexistence) - but these were not nonpartisan/commercial focus groups given neutral prompts as conventional today, but instead engineered groups personally led by Mandelson or his handpicked loyalists. e.g., the campaign to reform Clause IV in 1995 was heavily premised on Labour's focus-group-guided polling supposedly indicating a massive aversion to 'old Labour' but in fact Philip Gould himself would both moderate discussions and then write his conclusions on how the party had to change to appeal to Middle Englanders. Exuding confidence, maybe not. quote:Labour used polls when conducting its policy review after the 1987 defeat, to such an extent that critics on the left of the party claimed that Walworth Road was more interested in asking what the public wanted and devising policies to match these requirements than it was in sticking to Labour's eternal principles. It was argued that policies should not be trimmed to the passing whims of voters, and that it was more important to 'sell' the ideas and policies which members believed in... what has been will be again, what has been done will be done again &c
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Feb 1, 2021 10:05
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The Perfect Element posted:My wife used to work for a trendy recruitment agency (who, of course, were all utterly horrible, mercenary cunts), and they allowed staff to have 2x 'duvet days' per year, where you were just allowed to ring in and say you couldn't be hosed. Of course, given that this was an organisation where you were castigated if you didn't get in an hour early and leave an hour late every day (at least), I imagine this perk was pretty much never used, or caveated so far up the arse that it effectively wasn't worth it. Same as those tech companies out in SV who announced there was no longer any holiday quota, employees could just take time off whenever they wanted, unlimited holiday! You'll be surprised to hear that days off shrank massively!
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Feb 1, 2021 10:32
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Facebook dug up this ancient article I read and it's still the best thing. Checkmate, communists, this chimpanzee's a loving idiot!
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Feb 1, 2021 10:37
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josh04 posted:Facebook dug up this ancient article I read and it's still the best thing. Checkmate, communists, this chimpanzee's a loving idiot! The child grew up to be Toby Young, so I'd say the results are inconclusive.
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Feb 1, 2021 10:40
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Jose posted:Lol who could for predicted this? Wonder how "it's just the flu" people will spin it The massive fall in flu deaths mean the actual excess deaths over normal aren't that high, meaning lockdown was never actually required. Also flu cases are just being called COVID. These people's brains are the smoothest surface known to science.
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Feb 1, 2021 10:41
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I pretty much entirely agree with you, and your effort posts about Labour's factional history are always appreciated, but I'd query your reading of this: quote:engineered groups personally led by Mandelson or his handpicked loyalists. e.g., the campaign to reform Clause IV in 1995 was heavily premised on Labour's focus-group-guided polling supposedly indicating a massive aversion to 'old Labour' but in fact Philip Gould himself would both moderate discussions and then write his conclusions on how the party had to change to appeal to Middle Englanders. Exuding confidence, maybe not. I'd say that does exude confidence, at least of a certain kind. Using focus groups as a factional tool to give the answer you want (so you can effectively say "look, the public agrees with me") suggests you are confident people will believe you. It's setting the agenda, or at least saying your agenda is also the public's agenda, and I think that gets to what Pistol Pete was saying. It's difficult to get proper reads on current internal party/LOTO's office machinations just because these things are by their nature pretty opaque, but it seems a bit of a mess right now and I do think even judged on his own terms Starmer has done a poo poo job so far and failed to impose a coherent identity or any kind of vibe that makes sense beyond the very very narrow scope of labour infighting. I know the Blair years get mythologised way too much in UK politics, but it really does seem like the current crop of Labour politicians and commentariat don't really understand it, or care to understand it, beyond "Blair was on the right of the party," and think that that in itself is a guarantee of electoral success.
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Feb 1, 2021 11:19
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