[The Weeping Angel]

Aaron Bastani backing Georgia's NGO Law

[Tubby Isaacs]

Lots of the Very Online Left seem to think that they can genuinely beat Starmer.

The most hopeful precedent they have for that is Galloway winning Bethnal Green and Bow in 2005, but that's not really much of a precedent. The swing was 26.2%, which wouldn't be enough to stop Starmer winning. Galloway had an existing public profile and strong campaigning skills that Andrew Feinstein is unlikely to match. It's a different constituency- Galloway picked a constituency to get elected in, Feinstein is picking an opponent (he'd have chosen another constituency if he was prioritising getting elected). And there was a substantial vote in Labour's overall voteshare which isn't going to happen this time. And there are Greens running to split the left of Labour vote- a few people might think the Greens were a nicer option than Stop The War.

They think if they all turn out, they'll persuade everybody. Like nobody else has ever thought of taking out the top man before. The Lib Dems in 2005 wasted a ton of effort on "decapitating" Michael Howard, Oliver Letwin and David Davis.

[Tubby Isaacs]

These two things are exactly the same, Steve.

[Tubby Isaacs]

[Tubby Isaacs]

Great stuff here. The Leader of the Opposition in a country with no influence just as guilty as the actual Prime Minister of Israel. A Scottish Green MSP has retweeted this.

You might as well say "Howard Beckett just as guilty as Assad".

[Malcolm Armsteen]

Man’s a cunt.

[davidjay]

That's nothing - according to Jody McIntyre's leaflet Jess Phillips is responsible for the NHS, social housing and unemployment.

[Tubby Isaacs]

Having pissed away a major sponsor of book festivals in the UK, an investor called Baillie Gifford, attention now spreads to people who criticise the campaign, like Richard Osman and Marina Hyde. Baillie Gifford, you might think from this stuff invests mainly in petroil for IDF vehicles. It doesn't. It invests in some firms who do business in Israel just like they do everywhere, and has some fossil fuel clients (though it's invested heavily in electric vehicle makers too).

You might think, hmm, this sounds a bit tenuous. But Ash has an answer- or rather an analogy. Grapefruits from Apartheid South Africa. Take that, Osman! Bet you'd have been sneering at this, Hyde! Both of them are in their 50s, and as far as I know have never said anything to suggest they disagreed with boycotting South Africa. But guilty by analogy. A really crap analogy because it wasn't Israel/ South Africa who were sponsoring the festival. It wasn't even the equivalent of Barclays (who were widely boycotted for doing business in South Africa).

As ever there's the "ooh, can't take a bit of invonvenience" stuff. But the inconvenience isn't the point. Marina Hyde and Richard Osman are doubtless well off, not waiting desperately on shifting a few signed copies from a book festival. Other authors, not to mention caterers, temps will miss the money and work. But hey, chaps, you stuck it to the book festival liberals! And book festival iberals are quite literally the worst people in the world, or something.

[The Weeping Angel]

Beginining to think Hays should get the Qataris to sponsor them.

[Tubby Isaacs]

I didn't realise there were so many Hay festivals.

[Killer Whale]

I didn't realise there were so many Hay festivals.

https://www.hayfestival.com/festivals

Don't get me started on that bunch of English, complacent, middle class smugness.

[Crabcakes]

Having pissed away a major sponsor of book festivals in the UK, an investor called Baillie Gifford, attention now spreads to people who criticise the campaign, like Richard Osman and Marina Hyde. Baillie Gifford, you might think from this stuff invests mainly in petroil for IDF vehicles. It doesn't. It invests in some firms who do business in Israel just like they do everywhere, and has some fossil fuel clients (though it's invested heavily in electric vehicle makers too).

You might think, hmm, this sounds a bit tenuous. But Ash has an answer- or rather an analogy. Grapefruits from Apartheid South Africa. Take that, Osman! Bet you'd have been sneering at this, Hyde! Both of them are in their 50s, and as far as I know have never said anything to suggest they disagreed with boycotting South Africa. But guilty by analogy. A really crap analogy because it wasn't Israel/ South Africa who were sponsoring the festival. It wasn't even the equivalent of Barclays (who were widely boycotted for doing business in South Africa).

As ever there's the "ooh, can't take a bit of invonvenience" stuff. But the inconvenience isn't the point. Marina Hyde and Richard Osman are doubtless well off, not waiting desperately on shifting a few signed copies from a book festival. Other authors, not to mention caterers, temps will miss the money and work. But hey, chaps, you stuck it to the book festival liberals! And book festival iberals are quite literally the worst people in the world, or something.

What Ash Sarkar and chums are doing, to me, is true virtue signalling in the negative sense. Reducing everything down to absolutes, where there is no compromise and you have to be always on 100% of the time.

It must be exhausting. Or at least it would be if, as I suspect, they just stick their oars in for easy wins while ignoring or excusing their own 'transgressions'. I'd be willing to bet whatever device Sarkar posted from comes from a company that also sells devices in Israel. And she posted on Twitter as well, whose infamous owner is hardly Palestine's no. 1 cheerleader.

It's almost like they've seen something harmless they generally perceive as horribly middle class and therefore riddled with awful centrists, and therefore they'd love to shut it down and make themselves feel good by making other people feel guilty.

[Tubby Isaacs]

I prefer the expression "culture war", but yeah. It takes an issue (minor in itself) and by polemic makes it out to be a key dividing line. with people it doesn't like on the wrong side of the line. It's like George W Bush, as Governor of Texas and President of the US, except Bush had an electoral logic, with a key part of his base (social conservatives with economic views not particularly different to Democrats) on the same side of the line as him.

Harder to see political logic with leftwing culture war. If you were trying to persuade the public of your overall case, why would you spend time dumping on popular game show presenters?

[Malcolm Armsteen]

Shibboleths.

[Andy McDandy]

Well, that's easy for you to say....

[Malcolm Armsteen]

Ephraimite!

[Youngian]

Harder to see political logic with leftwing culture war. If you were trying to persuade the public of your overall case, why would you spend time dumping on popular game show presenters?

Have a Pointless special with celebs accused of bringing down Corbin. Eddie Marsan, Tracey Ullman, James O’Brien, Patrick Stewart, David Baddiel.

[The Weeping Angel]

I see Naomi Wolf's off on one again.

[MisterMuncher]

I didn't think anyone really classes the bould Wolf as "left" any more.

[Killer Whale]

I see Naomi Wolf's off on one again.

Wolf and Klein are really quite famously not the same person.