[The Weeping Angel]

Try harder.

[Abernathy]

Ach, well, so you’re not prepared to put your money where your gob is. I can’t say I’m surprised.

I don't need to.

Neither do I. But I am prepared to back up my point of view with action, since I know I’m right. You, however, know you’re wrong, so you won’t.

[Malcolm Armsteen]

It amazes me that anyone would bother to come to a small forum like this just to try to wind people up - when they are on to their plan immediately and don't give a fuck.

[Oboogie]

It demonstrates a distinct lack of ambition.

[Crabcakes]

It demonstrates a distinct lack of ambition.

And talent. I assume joining under a new name, then being normal for a bit and then suddenly wheeling out the absurd trot lines is meant to either bamboozle or make people think ‘Gosh. Maybe this claim that Labour will lose against a party in freefall with a chronically unpopular leader has some merit after all? Maybe we’d better look again at that Corbyn feller’. Or possibly just annoy, but really you’d have to be a leagues better troll than that.

[Tubby Isaacs]

John McDonnell is making an arse of himself.

[Philip Marlow]

It’s easy enough to make politicians look weird with a maliciously timed candid shot (see Ed and the bacon sarnie), but uncanny valley photoshoots fascinate me. I suspect someone was indulging a ‘stern grown-up face of authority’ kink, but Reeves looks like she should be asking Clarice if the lambs have stopped screaming yet.

[Tubby Isaacs]

I quite like that. I get the same vibe as the OP does there.

[Abernathy]

I think she looks great. But Bridget Phillipson is still unchallengeable as my number one Labour front bench crush.

[davidjay]

I think she looks great. But Bridget Phillipson is still unchallengeable as my number one Labour front bench crush.

I worry about you.

[Philip Marlow]

I quite like that. I get the same vibe as the OP does there.

There’s a hint of Carrie Brownstein there too. Although I suspect that the likelihood of anything Reeves does in government bringing me as much joy as even a middling Sleater-Kinney record is, alas, slim.

[Tubby Isaacs]

She's a huge asset to Labour in terms of reassuring markets. I just have to hope she doesn't stick to fiscal rules when they're untenable.

[mattomac]

I strangely feel she will be one of the best chancellors we’ve ever had.

[Dalem Lake]

I don't know. Whenever I see her I always think of a bird plucking at some roadkill. Each to their own I suppose.

[mattomac]

I don’t find her attractive, I just think someone who plays Chess generally is of sound mind, she’s also a bit dull.

Those who play chess and those who claim they have a chess brain are different in the fact ones a boaster.

[kreuzberger]

Hey! Get off her back.

It is not her fault that she lacks the panache and sincerity to record announcements regretting the delayed arrival of a rail replacement service...

[Abernathy]

I had to look up who the fuck Carrie Brownstein is (of course), and all I can say is Mr. Marlow should have gone to Specsavers.

[Bones McCoy]

Tic-tic-genics aside.

I have a mild concern about the next administration.

I am sure it will be Labour.
I am sure there will be a very large majority.
And we've seen how large majorities bring problems of their own.

Admittedly fewer problems than a minority (coalition) or a tiny majority (A couple of coronaries away form an election).

If the majority is in the 60+ mark (or even 120 as some predict, you get a lot of untried "new blood" among your MPs.
That will include momentumites, corbynistas and people with a grubby social media history.
The types who always want to be campaigning and never governing.
Essentially the mirror image of the various tory splinter nutjobs.

Splinter nutjobs are one thing when you have a compliant media, covering your every blunder.
You could be Norman Wisdom and they'd paint you as a safe pair of hands.

The very same titles will be up in arms about some backbencher who attended a jumble sale at a mosque, signed a petition about Nicaragua or donated to the RNLI.

The culture wars ain't gonna stop on account of a general election.
And the valuable Ming vase will be just as valuable and fragile after the vote as before.

[Abernathy]

Contrary to what the Rochdale by-election farrago might suggest, Labour's due diligence in candidate selection is actually more rigorous and effective than it has ever been. So there should be very few, if any, Momentumites, Corbynistas and people with a grubby social media history (scrutiny of would-be candidates' social media accounts is especially thorough), other than nut jobs and cranks that are already there and who get re-elected.

[Tubby Isaacs]

I'm not entirely confident. I'm sure they looked at Corbynites properly, less sure they've looked at everybody else.