General Election 2019

How odd.
I presume the letter was to be returned to your local authority?

What the actual fuck is this Tory political broadcast? It's just inane bullshit questions about about fish and chips and apparently he likes the clash, get to actual fuck you stodgy, psychotic cunt, it's obviously the first time he's made himself a cup of tea too.

Property damage to Iain Duncan Smith's office in Chingford:

https://www.standard.co.uk/news/politics/iain-duncan-smiths-hits-out-at-absolute-morons-who-vandalised-his-conservative-office-in-east-london-a4295701.html

Not as bad as actually physically attacking canvassers, but it's always wrong when political 'discourse' descends into violence and property damage, irrespective of party.

Fucking shambles, you’d think he’d just hired Prince Andrew’s head of comms if it weren’t so depressingly familiar

I am quite shocked by the Rabbi’s intervention. I’d never have Corbyn down as an anti semite

Voting intentions for Labour over time, general population graphed alongside British Jews.

Source: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0261379419300721

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Andrew Neil is a horrific interviewer, did you see the sturgeon one? I hope he’s as much of a dick head to boris Johnson. It seems to have gained very little traction outside the right wing press.

And lead story on the bbc...

Admittedly the today programme

Has Boris not yet agreed to do one? If so it was very naive of Jeremy to agree to one, he was never going to come out smelling of roses.

Yesterday was fucking depressing.

Can you imagine an alternate universe where Boris is a member of the Labour party and instead of writing a column using derogatory comments about the religious attire of Muslim women he made similar comments about Jews religious attire. Would he have been kicked out of the Labour Party or would be the leader of the party now.

The Muslim Councils concerns about Islamophobia in the Tory party doesn't seem to have same traction in the media.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/election-2019-50561043

I assume that's because everybody would hope and expect the Labour party to be better than this ? and by the same token expect Tory's to be a bunch of racists who will happily allow a bit of dog whistle racism if it gets them the endorsement of the likely of Yaxley-Lennon so it isn't news.

Yeah I must admit I’m feeling pretty uninspired about it all, I suppose that’s what they want. I suppose it’s 2 weeks out and will probably be forgotten as the media will have moved onto whatever attacks the Tory party has got up its sleeve next.

Johnson visits a hospital for a photoshoot. The walls are quickly painted, cleaners are sent from the wards to pick up leaves in the carpark, Johnson serves cold tea to a captive audience, no doctor in the entire hospital agrees to meet him, patient care suffers whilst he's there, then he slides in / out of a side door to avoid meeting unvetted people.

This is unverified, reads a bit like fan fiction and is just a bit too perfect. So treat with caution.

Not all misinformation is right wing.

Fiction or not, it does sum up the Johnson visits a hospital vibe very well.

I assume that's because everybody would hope and expect the Labour party to be better than this ? and by the same token expect Tory's to be a bunch of racists who will happily allow a bit of dog whistle racism if it gets them the endorsement of the likely of Yaxley-Lennon so it isn't news.

Potentially but the glaring problem with that is that for 26 of the last 39 years we've had a tory government; that's 2 generations of racist governments that have gone unchallenged which is surely part of how racism breeds. Of course that's not to say that previous Labour governments have had their hands clean either—David Blunkett's 'swamped with migrants' comments are the first thing that spring to mind but there are obviously more structurally important policy choices than that...

I am finding myself profoundly depressed with things as a labour supporter after yesterday, both for the inadequate responses to antisemitism within the party, and (increasingly) with the tenor of debate that surrounds this issue. The different standards by which the parties are being held are absolutely unbelievable, and the weaponisation of antisemitism by actors who clearly do not give a shit about racism only plays into the (potentially antisemitic) conspiracy that this whole 'smear' (again, it's obviously not a smear) is being orchestrated by a powerful, wealthy cabal.

+1 for being profoundly depressed.

To be honest I can't ever remember seeing any anti-semitism, only reports in the papers of it. I'm not saying no Labour members are anti-semites but the media response feels wildly out of proportion.

The only thing I'm actually sceptical of in this case is the painting of walls.

Stuff like everything suddenly being cleaned much more thoroughly etc. is pretty standard fare for politician's visits. I was working for 'Agroscope' at some point (Swiss federal agricultural research institute), and the then federal council member Schneider-Ammann visited from Bern (including landing in a helicopter and everything...). You can be sure everything was cleaned up real nice, including getting rid of leaves etc.

As for no one really wanting to talk to him, well, doctors really do not like him, in general. It might well be exaggerated, but not completely unbelievable. And sliding in / out of a side door, isn't that exactly what he did at Addenbrooke's too?

Yep, not got mine yet. Spoke to the council who said "early december" which feels very close to "we don't care if you can get it in time"

The only thing I'm actually sceptical of in this case is the painting of walls.

It happens though.

The CEO of our (very large) company came to visit last year some time and had a meeting in the office I work in (which houses ~1000 people).

The route the CEO was taken on, including the stairs to a different floor, had been carefully mapped out long in advance and everything along that path was tarted up. New carpet tiles on the floor, all walls painted, even new door furniture where it was showing signs of wear an tear. That was about 1/20th of the building, and it was so obvious for several months until they finally felt guilted into sorting out the rest of the building.

Corbyn has fucked this campaign up. He and/or his advisors refusal to see that nuance is (currently) dead in politics is destroying them. I have some sympathy for his position and it is good to see that someone has convictions and sticks to them, but in the current political climate it's an unelectable stance.
On Brexit the refusal to answer direct questions about how he would campaign looked shifty and could have been handled so much better.
On anti-semitism the lack of apology and lack of clear action is disastrous.
His style of leadership is completely at odds with what people want to see now. They know Johnson lies, but he does it with conviction and doubles down if challenged. Everything is so polarised, having a strong 'position' is more important than what the position is. Black and white - no room for nuance. Corbyn's tactics are 20 years out of date and rely on the (misplaced IMO) hope that a grassroots upswell will happen at the last minute.
It's going to be a tory landslide.

Yes - you're absolutley right.

Funny how that hadn't occured to me yet I happily asumme most pro-tory pieces as having been written by a Russian botnet.

He comes across as a man of integrity and conviction but I sadly feel he will go down in history as the worst opposition leader at a time when one with charisma and leadership skills was most needed.

Or maybe Putin has compromat on Corbyn and the Russians are meddling :-)

Find it difficult to disagree with this unfortunately.

I agree with the overall pessimistic assessment, but I'm not sure that e.g. actually 'apologising for antisemitism' would help matters. You can bet that would be exploited to the max by the Tories just like the lack of one is being exploited now.

When the whole system is racist and anti-Semitic what do you expect?

The questions were traps which he wasn't able to escape (not that they weren't inescapable or that he handled them in the best manner). If he apologised for antisemitism he would be admitting to being an anti-Semite. If he apologised for the handling of antisemitism in Labour he would have admitted to not being able to handle antisemitism within his own party.

I honestly think his Brexit position is the correct position. The media is allowing it to be turned into indecisiveness when it could just as easily report it as it is: the refusal to be partisan on a position which threatens to break up the UK.