[Philip Marlow]

For the record, I did get the Animal Farm reference. Just wasn’t sure who’d originated the comparison. I suspect at least a part of my antipathy to it is that I keep seeing it used by people who I suspect dearly need to read another book.

Having had a quick root round, I may have been mistaken re him supporting Smith. I’m sure I remember him doing so - and he’s certainly had endless shit for betraying the Corbyn faith at one point - but I’ll happily concede that I may have been wrong there.

[Philip Marlow]

Mother of the gods lads, calm down. The young Owen is known to drink at the Lexington from time to time (never seen him there: good pub) and has been infamously belaboured on the premises in his time. If anyone would like to have a go at bolstering their hard bastard credentials I can provide directions.

As Oz points out he is an actual war correspondant currently in a war zone. Getting into a fight in the Lexington is not quite the same thing .

He didn’t ‘get into a fight’ though, did he? He got jumped. And I suspect that if a journalist who was more ‘one of us’ in mainstream medialand terms had been attacked by some far right loon there might have been a tad more made of it.

Fun fact: the guy who went for Jones kicked things off, literally, by kicking him in the back. I mean be a neo-Nazi if you must, but don’t be a coward while you’re at it.

[Bones McCoy]

Mother of the gods lads, calm down. The young Owen is known to drink at the Lexington from time to time (never seen him there: good pub) and has been infamously belaboured on the premises in his time. If anyone would like to have a go at bolstering their hard bastard credentials I can provide directions.

As Oz points out he is an actual war correspondant currently in a war zone. Getting into a fight in the Lexington is not quite the same thing .

He didn’t ‘get into a fight’ though, did he? He got jumped. And I suspect that if a journalist who was more ‘one of us’ in mainstream medialand terms had been attacked by some far right loon there might have been a tad more made of it.

Fun fact: the guy who went for Jones kicked things off, literally, by kicking him in the back. I mean be a neo-Nazi if you must, but don’t be a coward while you’re at it.

Jones isn't my flavour of left, but I remain appalled at the attack.
These days I'd likely be just as appalled if an unpleasant Mail columnist were assaulted.
Mainly because I think we're better than that - and I expect Littlejohn's diet to do the job for us.

As for Neo Nazis and cowards, I find the two often exist in parallel.
A gobby and fighty bunch in large Stella powered crowds.
Prone to "making their excuses and leaving" when you stand up and look them in the eye.

[The Weeping Angel]

Mother of the gods lads, calm down. The young Owen is known to drink at the Lexington from time to time (never seen him there: good pub) and has been infamously belaboured on the premises in his time. If anyone would like to have a go at bolstering their hard bastard credentials I can provide directions.

As Oz points out he is an actual war correspondant currently in a war zone. Getting into a fight in the Lexington is not quite the same thing .

He didn’t ‘get into a fight’ though, did he? He got jumped. And I suspect that if a journalist who was more ‘one of us’ in mainstream medialand terms had been attacked by some far right loon there might have been a tad more made of it.

Fun fact: the guy who went for Jones kicked things off, literally, by kicking him in the back. I mean be a neo-Nazi if you must, but don’t be a coward while you’re at it.

Ok so he was attacked. It still doesn't change the fact that he's having a go at an actual war correspondent who's living in an actual war zone by claiming that he's fighting a war with people on twitter. So yeah he was rightly put in his place.

[Tubby Isaacs]

I've stood up for him sometimes on here, but this is pretty spectacularly stupid. You can hate misgendering and cracking trans gags (parents of dead trans woman present or not) while also believing in sex in the sense Starmer does here. I reckon a fair few of the population lie somewhere in this territory.

[The Weeping Angel]

He really is the lowest of the low.

[Tubby Isaacs]

Here he is being a cock again. Will Jennings is a professor of politics, and made a fairly lighthearted post. No "why do you think that?" or "why do you think that, professor?" Straight in studs up. From a bloke who's never been tribal, apparently. I've always found Will Jennings fairly straight in his analysis

This "Starmer will be very unpopular very quickly" has some logic in that support seems to be shallow. But equally lots of people get that we're in the shit and it isn't their fault, and that nobody particularly cares if emergency funds are put into them.

[The Weeping Angel]

Normal behaviour from Owen

[Crabcakes]

Hey, guess who - after weeks and weeks of trying to derail the Labour campaign, hitch himself to the greens and generally being a pain in the arse - is suddenly all happiness and sunshine like he somehow helped get the tories out?

[Tubby Isaacs]

More self-awareness.

[Andy McDandy]

Gizza job, I can do that...

[Tubby Isaacs]

412 seats isn't a bad peak to have, in fairness.

[Tubby Isaacs]

I'd not until recently appreciated how daft he'd gone.

Lots of people think Macron's done some sensible stuff but part company with him on other things. I doubt Ian Dunt supported the anti-immigrant stuff, judging by what he says about Britain.

[Tubby Isaacs]

Explicit. Here's the whole point of commenting on things in other countries. To stick it to Starmer for chucking out Jeremy Corbyn. And factually incorrect that Melenchon led the alliance. Leadership is collective. Being led by Melenchon was something some people in it would be very quick to play down, because he's one of the RN's trump cards.

[Youngian]

No I can’t imagine an alliance led by Jeremy Corbyn or even being part of one.

[RedSparrows]

Why didn't Saint Jez unite the left?

[Tubby Isaacs]

Someone cheekily pointed out that there was the possibility of a left Remain alliance in 2019 with Greens, Plaid Cymru and the SNP. Jez didn't exactly go for it.

[Crabcakes]

Someone cheekily pointed out that there was the possibility of a left Remain alliance in 2019 with Greens, Plaid Cymru and the SNP. Jez didn't exactly go for it.

It's almost like Jones has never noticed Corbyn never compromises or changes his mind on anything - and that's most definitely not meant as a compliment. The political equivalent of pig iron - appears strong if you only look at it in one context, but is brittle and weak in all others.

[Youngian]

Owen’s very pissed off today that people condemning the Russian bombing of a Kyiv hospital might not be doing enough to condemn comparable bombings in Gaza. They are therefore massive racists.
I get that European conflicts may not high on the radar of most Middle Eastern citizens whether Arab or Israeli. It’s not because they’re racist
Or in Owen’s case any conflict not involving an ally of ‘Western imperialism’ is a faraway conflict he’s knows little about.

[Killer Whale]

He'd have more of a point if Ukraine had a stated policy of not only using human shields, but positively celebrating their 'sacrifice'.