[Tubby Isaacs]

I agree with the first point there and don't think Labour should back strikes directly. I don't see why you have to condemn strikes though. In public sector strikes, stress the government role. In private sector ones, just say "only the two sides know the state of the talks, all around the table" etc.

[Bones McCoy]

It's a funny old world #372:

Extremely wealthy Tory Donor does something harmful and despicable:

No Laws were broken / He hasn't done anything illegal.

Trade union successfully navigates all the legal barriers to call Industrial action:

Why don't you think of the children/commuters/pensioners.

It's an example that comes close to defining "Client Media"

[The Weeping Angel]

I agree with the first point there and don't think Labour should back strikes directly. I don't see why you have to condemn strikes though. In public sector strikes, stress the government role. In private sector ones, just say "only the two sides know the state of the talks, all around the table" etc.

They've actually taken the former approach to the rail strikes.

[kreuzberger]

Rayner supports the strikes and likes listening to music as well. Me neither.

CHAMPAGNE SOCIALIST Angela Rayner sips champagne at the opera after boasting of her ‘solidarity’ with rail strikers

ANGELA Rayner and her Labour MP ­boyfriend managed to get to the opera — despite the rail strike.

Deputy leader Rayner was snapped on Thursday holding a glass of fizz next to Shadow Transport Minister Sam Tarry at Glyndebourne, East Sussex.

Rayner, who paid for her £62 ticket herself, said: “I’m both a proud trade unionist and a proud enthusiast for this British cultural landmark.” https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/19002944/ ... il-strike/

If you know fuck all about opera and especially Giuseppe Verdi, you probably think that it's ok to close a library.

[Andy McDandy]

It's the Spiked attitude to working class people.

[davidjay]

See also the amount of sneering tweets about Glastonbury - how DARE these people claim there's a cost of living crisis and enjoy themselves? And what about all that rubbish, eh?

[Andy McDandy]

Reminds me of a letter I saw in a local paper about 10 years ago, complaining about people on work breaks smoking. How dare they, it went, they have a job and should be grateful so shouldn't be shirking off, and how much are they wasting on fags, and in the writers' 25 years on the planet they'd never smoked even once, and nor had their two children.

It got torn apart over the next few editions. Many saying that "my kid is under 10 and has never smoked" isn't really that much of a claim.

[Malcolm Armsteen]

Many saying that "my kid is under 10 and has never smoked" isn't really that much of a claim.

It wasn't Croydon, then?

[Boiler]

Today, the barristers come out.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-61946038

Ms Brimelow, speaking from the picket line outside Manchester Crown Court on Monday, told BBC Breakfast that the system had run on "good will" for a long time, including throughout the pandemic, with junior barristers working "ridiculous hours."

She said the issue had been "caused by government, not by barristers."

The government's criminal legal aid system pays for both solicitors and barristers to ensure suspects who can't afford lawyers are properly advised and represented, from their police interview through to trial.

Barristers have been rallying outside a number of high-profile courts, including the Old Bailey in London and Birmingham, Manchester and Bristol Crown Courts.

[Youngian]

This is worth reading, and seems to me to be sensible.

That’s not a position I’d like to take (doubt Lammy does for that matter) but this is electoral politics and the stakes are too high not to nibble away further at the Tory vote.
Lib Dems are now saying they wouldn’t rule out coalition with a moderate post Johnson Tory party. Why the hell are they saying that when its a fantasy scenario anyway? Same reason as Lammy over BA strikers, to reassure a broadly centre right Tory vote to break away.

[Youngian]

See also the amount of sneering tweets about Glastonbury - how DARE these people claim there's a cost of living crisis and enjoy themselves? And what about all that rubbish, eh?

If they think £300 for four days of top acts and the rest, is extortionate, they haven’t been to any concerts or sporting events in a very long time. Perhaps these right wing headbangers have no cultural hinterlands. Just a thought.

[Tubby Isaacs]

One particular gobshite on Twitter who was slagging off Glasto had Arsenal prominently on his profile.

Watching football at Arsenal is famously cheap.

[Boiler]

See also the amount of sneering tweets about Glastonbury - how DARE these people claim there's a cost of living crisis and enjoy themselves? And what about all that rubbish, eh?

You call Glastonbury 'Glasto'
You'd like to go there one day
When they've put up the gun towers
To keep the hippies away

(CORGI Registered Friends, with apols to HMHB).

[Andy McDandy]

A few years ago we were living in a very socially conservative area, and one of our neighbours saw us packing the car to go camping for a weekend. "Are you going camping?", she asked, in a sort of "I've heard of it but I never thought it happened for real" tone. Almost as if we said we were going dogging.

Camping and festivals seem to occupy a similar mindspace in the heads of Mailites as bicycles and public transport do. If you can afford a car, why not have a car? If you can afford a hotel or a holiday cottage, why settle for canvas? Besides, it's al a bit ... kiddy ... and isn't it better to put aside childish things?

[Malcolm Armsteen]

@Youngian

1 - why not?
2 - that isn't an official lib Dem position.

[Tubby Isaacs]

It's a free hit for the Lib Dems to say "if a moderate Tory Party came along..." The next Tory leader won't be Harold Macmillan. I wonder if they're fishing for defections here too.

[Nigredo]

I'd never known the junior barrister position was that perilous, says a lot about how things have been since 2010 that the Tories seem content for young people to have the hardest start possible in life.

Heaven knows what'll happen if the junior medics go on strike.

[Abernathy]

@Youngian

1 - why not?
2 - that isn't an official lib Dem position.

Indeed. Unless my short-term memory is even faultier than I’d thought, I distinctly recall Ed Davey explicitly ruling out any future repeat of the 2010 coalition with the Tories.

[Youngian]

It was Charmichael delivering the free hit

[Malcolm Armsteen]