[MisterMuncher]

Part of the weirdness with Linehan is that he was almost always on the "right" side of things, very publicly. Right up until he wasn't. He wasn't someone of neutral or hidden politics, he was actively into causes for representation and inclusion, used to speak eloquently and humourously on the subject when asked or given the chance. Even in his works, much of which were pretty fluffy, he still had some pretty good digs at establishment power, bigotry, radicalisation and folk devilry.

I'm not defending him or his shit, but it's hard to look at that guy there and not think that someone has gone pretty desperately wrong for him to end up where he is

[Crabcakes]

Linehan is a very, very strange one. As you say, he did an absolute shit ton of good stuff around fertility and abortion in Ireland, women’s right etc. - but just seems literally incapable of comprehending trans people (and more specifically trans women) aren’t all just cartoon villain chunky bearded dudes in a dress who want to hang out in women’s toilets, and goes to horrific lengths to try and prove his ‘point’.

The guy’s lost jobs, income, and his wife over it. And seemingly, his sanity, given he now says he questions Covid vaccines and climate change because he’d been ‘lied to so much’. And yet he’s still going with it.

I’m in no way suggesting this has happened, but his almost overnight flip reminds me of someone I know who suffered a head injury and their personality instantly changed - although seemingly normal a lot of the time, they now frequently became incandescently angry at perceived sleights that absolutely weren’t there, and would be incapable of letting things lie.

[davidjay]

Which reminds me of something I was mulling over the other day. When I were a lad it was the Left who had a mixture of causes that had to be supported - CND, anti-apartheid, miners, anti-racism and a few more; it was all or nothing. Now it's the far right - look at any anti-trans or vax refuser on social media and the overwhelming odds are that they'll also be climate change deniers, anti-lockdown, stop the boats, send 'em back, Bring Back Boris, Islamopohobic, sport are troops, defund the BBC, ban strikes and Politically Homeless.

[Bones McCoy]

Which reminds me of something I was mulling over the other day. When I were a lad it was the Left who had a mixture of causes that had to be supported - CND, anti-apartheid, miners, anti-racism and a few more; it was all or nothing. Now it's the far right - look at any anti-trans or vax refuser on social media and the overwhelming odds are that they'll also be climate change deniers, anti-lockdown, stop the boats, send 'em back, Bring Back Boris, Islamopohobic, sport are troops, defund the BBC, ban strikes and Politically Homeless.

You've identified one of the identifiers of a cult.

Turning Point UK's Facebook's full of 'em.
Professionally produces slogan posters, whose text could ave been lifted form a Jack Chick tract.

[The Weeping Angel]

A useful thread on the 10 pledges

[Bones McCoy]

My initial (sorry if I've not been paying attention) impression is that ten is always too many.
Some of he slogans are also a bit wordy and open ended.

Somewhere in the mists of Time I learned that people can retain between seven and three facts from a communication in short term memory.

I've recently been quite rude about Dominic Cummings, but his three word slogans had the merit of not going over anybody's head.
I'd be inclined to not overestimate the public, and focus on three objectives, each with a three word slogan.
Pick your safest ground and hammer your plans and tory failure in those areas at every appearance.

But that's me.
I'm sure Sir Kier has a bunch of experienced campaigners around him.
I'm sure they have a plan.
And I doff my hat to his greater experience of persuading people in a public sphere.

Let's hope it works.

[davidjay]

Three word slogans win elections. "Labour's not working" Labour's tax bombshell"; "Education, education, education"; "Get Brexit done" - every one a winner. Even "For the many" almost got over the line.

[mattomac]

These weren’t really pledges to the electorate though, they were pledges to the party membership.

The sort he probably expected would read them, but then he didn’t take into account the likes of Owen Jones and Damien from Brighton.

[kreuzberger]

Won't somebody please give the poor lamb some peace?

He's trying to gingerly manoeuvre a priceless Ming vase and lob it to the Brexit skip-fire.

In other, not at all related news, there is an old phrase in German medical circles: "the cure worked but it killed the patient."

[The Weeping Angel]

What are you on about?

[kreuzberger]

What are you on about?

Read it again. Perhaps slowly.

[The Weeping Angel]

Yeah I have read it and I still don't know what you're on about.

[Abernathy]

Yeah I have read it and I still don't know what you're on about.

Our sauerkraut-munching comrade is, I think, alluding to Roy Jenkins' famous observation about Tony Blair's endeavours leading up to the 1997 landslide.

..
In 1996, Roy Jenkins was watching Tony Blair.

The young Labour leader, he said, brought to mind the image of a man carrying a priceless Ming vase across a highly polished floor.

It was just a year before the General Election, and the antique vase represented Labour's gigantic lead in the opinion polls.

The fear of dropping it was etched in the face of the man who bore it.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/p ... 009753.stm

For Blair, read Starmer. Capiche?

[The Weeping Angel]

Yeah I get that although banging on about throwing it on the Brexit bin fire is anyone's guess.

[mattomac]

I don’t think he really needs to mention it again, I don’t think Labour will particularly get anything from it and it’s best Labour move on to things they will do.

I don’t think the comms were pretty good but Ian Dunt has written a good piece on it, the fact he has met with the German and French names as well as people in the Democrats suggest someone willing to reached out.

I think everything that happened in the last two days it might be worth Labour stepping up as Sunak May take the gamble now.

[Tubby Isaacs]

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/20 ... ty-contest

Labour blocks ‘last Cornynista in power’ from North East mayor contest

I'm generally not fussed with Labour excluding people who are going to be liabilities, like Corbyn, but this seems a bit unnecessary. Jamie Driscoll made an arse of himself in an interview a few years ago, IIRC, but I've not seen anything since then that suggests he'd be a problem. The days of local government showboating and hubristic taxes are long gone, and you're basically forced to be sensible if you want investors in your region. As far as I can tell, he's dynamic enough, has got his head down, and is going to piss Starmer about less than Burnham.

I wouldn't be surprised if this got changed and it were discovered he's on the long list after all.

[Tubby Isaacs]

On the other hand, this is very funny. I didn't realise he'd had a formal role under Corbyn. I'm impressed Jez was as sane as he was with people like this around him, apparently serious about deselecting 200 MPs.

[mattomac]

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/20 ... ty-contest

Labour blocks ‘last Cornynista in power’ from North East mayor contest

I'm generally not fussed with Labour excluding people who are going to be liabilities, like Corbyn, but this seems a bit unnecessary. Jamie Driscoll made an arse of himself in an interview a few years ago, IIRC, but I've not seen anything since then that suggests he'd be a problem. The days of local government showboating and hubristic taxes are long gone, and you're basically forced to be sensible if you want investors in your region. As far as I can tell, he's dynamic enough, has got his head down, and is going to piss Starmer about less than Burnham.

I wouldn't be surprised if this got changed and it were discovered he's on the long list after all.

Apart from sharing platforms with anti semites and repeating those tropes via his social media.

[Tubby Isaacs]

Sharing a platform with Ken Loach was clearly a mistake, but it's something I think could be apologised for. Doesn't reflect well on him that he hasn't done that yet, mind.

[Tubby Isaacs]

It seems to have been a purely film event at one of Driscoll's local cinemas. There's not endorsement of Loach's wider politics in that. Loach has been hosted at all sorts of places to talk about film more recently.