In the news

Nothing against Rashford at all ... I think it was incredibly brave for him to take on an issue so publicly and strongly as he did ...

But fucking hell, all this government can do is bounce from pillar to post to try and win public opinion - there is absolutely no strategy or thinking involved. This morning Johnson was spouting on about how the existing benefits system did more for hungry families than extending school dinners. Was that a lie? What the fuck changed in 3 hours?

Every single decision they've made since being elected is focused on appeasement, with no basis in fact or belief in any way.

I think it was somebody in the guardian who was say the very same thing over the weekend, perhaps andrew rawnsley.

Downing street is now run by ex journalists all decisions are taken on the basis of polling data and focus groups.

To miss the open goal of a young, black, famous voice asking for help so kids don't go hungry during an epidemic. It's multi-levelled dumb.

Labour can put forward a costed manifesto with clear cut explanations of how they plan to achieve it and The tories who demonstrably fucked the lower classes since new labour lost power can say absolutely fuck all about what they'll do and literally the only thing we hear is "labour can't possibly do everything they promise, better stick with the tories".

Oh look the firefighters are here, but they've brought too many buckets with them, there's no way they can fill all of them with water, they probably wont even be able to put out all of us that are on fire. let's stick with the other group throwing petrol on us.

One suspects that a lot of rank and file Conservative members had made it clear that they wouldn't support it. A volte-face looks (marginally) less bad than losing a vote on such a clear-cut issue (cf 'Nasty Party'); the whips probably made it clear to No 10 that they could lose a vote tonight.

However caving in will only strengthen the backbenchers' hand in opposing whatever vileness is to follow. It was indeed 'multi-levelled dumb' to have dug in over this one.

I read that, I have also read the Guardian a couple of times saying if you look at the cabinet as a single issue vote leave campaign group rather than a functioning Government things suddenly make more sense and sadly it does

Yeh, they realised that not feeding hungry kids is a odd choice of hill to die on

So the FCO/DfID merger was supposed to happen in the Autumn (apparently). I wonder if the attacks on Cummings resulted in it being pushed forward? Something seems to be going on. It seems like a weird moment to have found a lot of free time to push forward a rather grand institutional change.

I'm an away travelling Arsenal fan and we've had Tommy Robinson and mates turn up to European away games just to have a scrap alongside their Arsenal mates. The Luton town bunch do seem to like their continental fighting. Last time I saw him and Danny Tommo was in Munich. Every club has them. Spurs or Arsenal no exception.

The political allegiances and behaviour of a minority of fans on our away trips has led me to seriously consider not going any more. Although technically speaking, if you're turning up to away games for a team you don't support just for the knuckle you probably don't get to call yourself a fan.

This is (actually, not shitting you) one of the only good things to come from Brexit - Robinson and his scumbag mates will have to apply for an ESTA type document to travel to matches, which can be denied due to their criminal records. At the moment free movement means that they can all go wherever they want, but come the 1st of Jan they'll find that the world just got smaller.

could we ask another footballer to put in a request for a nice custom 531c frame for each person in the country

So the FCO/DfID merger was supposed to happen in the Autumn (apparently). I wonder if the attacks on Cummings resulted in it being pushed forward? Something seems to be going on. It seems like a weird moment to have found a lot of free time to push forward a rather grand institutional change.

Red meat for the Gammon - cancellation of the International Aid budget having been one of their goals for years. What's left of it will now go to Tory party donors, posing the question how many refugees can James Dyson turn into hoovers?

I bet Rashford's mum is floating on air.

If Dyson is going full bodyhorror mutating people into vacuum cleaners then Cronenberg is our god ;)

Serious topic, I know, saw the news and thought: Less accountability, excused with such slogans as "India has a rocket program" "it's just going to corrupt governments" "good riddance" in tomorrow's DM.

cancellation of the International Aid budget having been one of their goals for years

Yeah, for sure, but Johnson has explicitly said aid will be kept at its current level (for what that's worth). This doesn't feel like a dead cat to me (or at least not entirely). Most people won't give a fuck, I think.

Re: timing of FCO/DfID merger
I'd just assumed they're doubling-down on their defensive reactions against Empire-shame....
DfID is about as close as we get to reparations to those the Empire shafted for 1oo+ years.
Bearing in mind the PMs opinion that the main thing wrong with Africa is that we're not still running it, I'm guessing his fragile sense of self is taken a kicking and he's reasserting his belief in a perfect past rather than facing an uncertain future...

(in all honesty, that's probably more a reflection of my world view than his, but it was my instant response to the news this afternoon)

In that case, why do it now? They have no election for four and a half years, so the timing makes no sense unless they want to distract from starving children, but even then- we have to accept starving children for another four and a half years if Johnson wanted us to.

Oh cool. So next time they'll have DFLA high vis jackets on so we can clearly see who's doing the fighting

Whatever happened to the Popular People's Football Lads Alliance? Did they merge with the Alliance of Football Lads or with the Allied Lads of Football?

I'm slightly confused by their symbology, as I associated the raised fist with left:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raised_fist

Or am I missing something?

Liberal arts college professor assaults alt-right group member.

This is just disgusting. No matter what you believe, everyone has a
right to their opinion, and should not be attacked for the beliefs
they hold and clothes they wear. Nazism and fascism, like it or not,
is a legitimate ideology, You won't see these scene in the liberal
news networks, unfortunately.

https://imgur.com/t/alllivesmatter/kxiA2qV

Completely random assertion. I wonder if it is connected to the use of the raised fist that is prominent in the Northern Soul scene. Couldn’t go anywhere when I was growing up without seeing this bag somewhere.

2 Attachments

Is this real? What's the source?

Northern Soul fist itself is the Black Power fist

Also actually, from that Wikipedia article ‘The right white fist, also known as the Aryan fist or the White Power fist is a logo generally associated with white nationalism’ so not necessarily just the left.