#and these are just 2 labour mps there’s literally so many more

[carebearcody]

all the labour mps that abstained:

bullshit response by labour mp rushanara ali as to why she abstained on the snp amendment (x):

a completely non-satirical response by labour mp chi onwurah as to why she abstained on the snp amendment (x):

and there are so many more. these people do not care that palestinians are being murdered, that a genocide is occurring or that they are the ones enabling it. please, if you live in the uk, put pressure on your mp; make them realise their seat is not safe and that their constituents demand calls for an end to the occupation of palestine now 🇵🇸

see how your mp voted here

[thedreadvampy]

do I place about 50% of the fault for the state of the UK on the Labour right? yes, at least.

the thing is, Tories gonna Tory. that's the thing they do. the only thing that's changed about their politics in the last decade is that they've got more mask off about their Thatcherism.

Labour, on the other hand. Labour, the supposed left wing opposition to the right wing Tories. Labour is so fucking TERRIFIED of being in any way left wing they would literally rather die than take the side of their own party base against the Tories.

after their centre right lord and saviour Tony Blair won Two Entire Elections (cough then resigned as a deeply unpopular icon of an illegal war and a growing surveillance state close cough) they have been so committed to the Neoliberal Bit that they've tanked every general election since 2010 and undermined every attempt to provide a credible or significant opposition within the party

(and don't buy the whitewashing of Miliband By The Way. He was further left than Blair or Brown but that's not saying much, his politics on immigration were fucking abyssmal, and he stayed on very Neoliberal ground with a lot of 'increase support FOR WORKING PEOPLE' rhetoric and focus on corporate-led economic growth. He would have been better than Cameron, but he wouldn't have Saved The Country If Not For That Sandwich)

They then ended up with one of the most popular Labour leaders of all time, a man who was so popular he almost tripled the size of the Labour party, bringing in 140,000 more members and more committed party activists than Blair's Labour had at its height. Instead of going 'ah there is clear and meaningful appetite and democratic demand for leftwing policy proposals', the Blairite end of the party went ARGH! A LEFTIST! KILL IT! KILL IT!!!! and took every chance to side with the Tories in attacking the (now majority) left of centre wing of the party. They were more focused on bringing the party back to centre right than winning elections, and we KNOW this because come the 2017 election, which was the easiest thing in the world to win, they fucked it by spending 2 years squabbling and trying at every turn to depose Corbyn (which at this point was literally just about his government......holding a party line against Syrian interventionism and for nuclear disarmament?) and the parliamentary party spent 2015 and 2016 trying to no con and oust Corbyn despite the general membership and the major trade unions being like 'yeah no we are pro there being A Leftism. we voted for him. he's democratically elected. you don't get to choose the direction of the party for us.'

shockingly the PLP spending literally all their time and energy trying to undercut their own party did not result in election gains so they tried a leadership bid, upon which the Labour party immediately reelected Jeremy Corbyn by even more than he came in with.

I'm not saying Corbyn was perfect or would have been a perfect PM. but the thing is that twice as many people went FUCK YEAH WE WANT THIS SORT OF POLITICS than the previous Landslide Winner. and instead of going oh ok leftism is vibing with the electorate they went NOPE. NO. NEOLIBERALISM WINS VOTES. IT WON TONY BLAIR VOTES. BETTER DEAD THAN EVEN SLIGHTLY RED. and set the entire party on fire rather than consider oh ok. maybe. if not him people would like a different candidate with leftist views and presentation. and Labour MPs spent their time literally saying 'don't vote for our leader he's a dangerous evil Marxist' and then went 'oh we're doing badly in the polls for some reason. Must be that The People Don't Want Leftist Candidates.'

anyway after losing a bunch of elections by constantly yelling 'OUR EVIL MARXIST LEADER IS DRIVING US INTO PERMANENT CRISIS WITH HIS CRAZY AUTHORITARIAN SOCIALISM' Corbyn left, they immediately put forward the world's wettest empty suit Keith Stormer, whose policy statements as and when they happen have been functionally indistinguishable from the Tories and whose role in opposition has been to say 'sure but can we maybe put a rose on it' and whose stated goal in opposition is to "refrain from scoring party political points," which has in practise meant "never disagreeing too hard with the government." Swinging into the 2021 local elections which should have been actively the biggest piece of piss in the world for the opposition after the utter shitshow of 2020, he instead managed to lose 327 council seats, lose several Labor strongholds, and And Sarwar got the literal worst Labor result ever in Scotland. in May this year he managed to lose seats to third parties across the country despite Johnson clinging on by his fingertips in a mass cost of living crisis - in a choice between Labour and the Tories, about 1 in 6 people said NO I WOULD RATHER NOT THANK YOU.

he's uhhhhh pro heavy policing and the bulk of the content in the PCS bill. anti immigration. in a frankly wild move for the leader of the LITERAL LABOUR PARTY he's consistently condemned industrial action and fired ministers for supporting union strikes. oh yeah and because the regular members of the party continue to insist on 'asking for the lefty party to do a leftism' the Labour party has responded by threatening leftist groups within the party with deselection and sanctions and reducing the role of the wider Labour party membership (aka The Party's Core Electoral Base) in selecting a leader.

What I'm saying is. OBVIOUSLY it's the Tory's fault. But if they were not, fundamentally, like this, they would not be Tories. [insert the world if.... meme here]. Labour's LITERAL ENTIRE JOB FOR A DECADE has been to offer an alternative and challenge the monopoly on power and they have gleefully and actively refused to do that. and that might not be worse but it's something you could reasonably expect them to NOT FUCKING DO.

[lhs3020b]

Some notes on recent polling developments (long, fairly depressing)...

The YouGov MRP figures came out last night. This is notable because in 2017, the multilevel-regression approach was the sole one that spotted the possibility of a hung parliament. We all ridiculed it at the time - I'll confess that I side-eyed it too. And then - well, we all know what happened to Theresa May, don't we? So, the MRP thing deserves to be taken seriously. And unfortunately, this year, it's looking grim for us. Briefly, the MRP is forecasting a Tory majority. They're also predicting that all opposition parties (bar the SNP, who only stand in Scotland) will lose seats. Labour in particular look in the danger-zone for a collapse, and contrary to their bullish predictions, the Liberal Democrats are also forecast to lose seats. (Note that this is with respect to their current strength - technically, the MRP result gives them a gain of 2 seats on where they were on the 9th of June. They currently have 19, due to defections from various other parties.)

I'll admit that I don't want to believe the MRP results, but this has never been a data-denialist blog, and I don't intend to start on that road today.

One caveat is that the reporting on the MRP results has ben remarkably-bad. The actual YouGov page is here: https://yougov.co.uk/topics/politics/articles-reports/2019/11/27/yougov-mrp-conservatives-359-labour-211-snp-43-ld- Buried a long way down the page, they say this: "Taking into account the margins of error, our model puts the number of Conservative seats at between 328 and 385, meaning that while we can be confident that the Conservatives would currently get a majority, it could range from a modest one to a landslide." As far as I can tell, the "majority of 68" figure is derived by treating 317 as a working majority and assuming that the Tory vote lands right at the upper end of their confidence-interval. This is poor statistical practice for a variety of reasons. It's also a bit questionable in terms of parliamentary arithmetic - the "working majority" thing depends on how many Sinn Fein MPs Northern Ireland elects (they don't take their seats, so count toward neither Government nor Opposition tallies). And we won't necessarily know how many that is until, well, December the 13th.

(Also, a further health-warning is that apparently the model isn't able to fully-represent some local phenomena, such as independent candidates, and the effect of the Brexit Party's partial stand-down is also apparently somewhat-unclear. The last caveat is that the analysis assumes data that has already been collected - that is, if public opinion changes between now and polling day, then obviously existing projections could become obsolete. This will still be a possible source of error even if the MRP sample is statistically-unbiased and the underlying theory/analysis is all sound.)

However, even the best-case scenario for us gives the Tories 328 seats, which is both a working and a (very small) absolute majority.

Obviously, this is not a good situation for us.

While not quite a landslide, nonetheless an inflated Tory majority will be devastating for this country. The stuff they'll do will be awful. Brexit will happen. There'll be a bus crash late next year, when the transition period ends. (No, they will have no plan for this - they won't feel they need one, as they'll be secure in power until 2024.) There'll be a Windrush for resident EU citizens. They'll trash the economy. They'll probably crash the NHS - the only question there is whether they do it through accidental negligence or through deliberate malice (say, an ideologically-driven trade "deal" that gives President Trump everything he wants on a silver platter). Nothing will be done about the country’s escalating housing crisis. They'll double down on all the maddest of the madcap "law-n-order" stuff - expect an explosion in jailable offences, accompanied by lengthy minimum-sentence tariffs and further restrictions on legal aid. They'll also resuscitate their plans to manipulate the parliamentary boundaries, and change electoral laws in their favour. The media? Expect no surprises from them. The newspapers are largely already Conservative Pravdas. The BBC - nervous about its precious Royal Charter - seems to be in the process of declaring itself for the Tories too.

Bluntly, if the Tories get re-elected this year, they'll gerrymander things so you have little chance of getting rid of them in 2024.

Perhaps this is the key thing to understand about Boris Johnson: really, he's less Britain's Trump, and more Britain's Victor Orban. He'll leave just enough vestigial democracy intact to make what he's doing plausibly-deniable, but he'll busily rearrange the furniture to favour himself and his friends. If he gets re-elected this December, you can expect to be seeing his face into the 2030s. The only reason I put the cut-off as early as that is that I expect the coming climate-crisis will wreak havoc with the Tories' internal coalition. (Oh you've built all your luxury millionaire mansions by the seaside? How nice for you, especially now that the sea is literally in your parlour. Umm, whoops.)

What can be done? Well, the first thing is to reiterate some discussions I've seen on Twitter recently. The TL;DR of them is that hope doesn't have to be something you feel - it can be something you do. (And that's just as well, because I'll admit that 2019 has destroyed what traces of social optimism I was clinging to. I'm dreading the bad end that's coming to us next month, but I also fully-expect it.)

So, my advice remains as it has been: on December the 12th, turn up, and vote for whoever you judge most likely to beat the Tory.

Remember, the MRP approach is fallible. "Mortal, finite, temporary" is absolutely in play here; no model is any better than the data that went into it. Or, indeed, the date when it was calculated. And at the end of the day, the only poll that genuinely-matters is the one on December the 12th, and that hasn't actually happened yet. (Though admittedly, given the storm-surge of pre-emptive grief that's flooding Twitter today, you could be forgiven for thinking otherwise.)

As for the horrible mess that are our opposition parties, I'll repeat what I said in 2017: it's OK to vote for a least-worst option. You're not perjuring yourself or committing any moral sin, rather you're trying to be a grown-up. Part of the package of being an adult is making the best of bad situations.

It absolutely does suck - believe me, this is one of the most soul-destroying election campaigns I've ever seen. Every single party has clown-show'd itself. All of them have done things that are ridiculous, inept or otherwise ghastly. (Well, maybe not the Greens - I haven't heard of any specific scandals surrounding them - but their cardinal sin is that they have no plausible prospect of winning the election.) But even then, the barrel we're going to have to stare down is going and voting for them anyway.

(As a related case-in-point, one factor that seems to have helped the Tories win their unexpected 2015 majority was that a contingent of left-wing voters simply stayed at home on the day. While it's hard to find concrete statistics on, nonetheless anecdotally, this absolutely was a thing. A lot of people were demotivated by Labour's confused and incoherent campaign, left cold by all the bothering about fiscal rules, and alienated by things like the mug with "controls on immigration" on it. All of those are 100% valid criticisms. Except, except, except ... it helped an even worse party back into office. The theory of "if the choices are bad, sit it out" has been tested to destruction. It turns out that looking the other way is also a choice, and not necessarily the best one.)

I would add that there are also real questions to be asked about the utter vacuum of political strategy of people nominally on the anti-Tory side - it seems the Opposition spent the summer fixated on the minutiae of House procedures, while never stopping to ask why they were on this battlefield to begin with. Meanwhile the Tories largely-ignored Commons process, and instead sent a political appeal straight to Leave voters. It lost them a lot of individual legislative battles (and I'm not minimising their defeats - they were important!), but it put them in a good strategic place to win an election. And in the long run, it turns out that was what mattered.

It's hard not to feel bitter while thinking about the events of spring and summer. Perhaps if Jo Swinson had been less blinkered about Jeremy Corbyn, perhaps if Labour could have had the minimum sense to call a Vote of No Confidence when BoJo was vulnerable, perhaps if the collective Opposition had been able to recognise the huge wave of unharnessed political energy washing through the country during the petition back in March, perhaps if Change UK had managed to be something other than an unfunny joke, maybe if Corbyn had taken the anti-semitism problem seriously in 2018 and had actually done something instead of sitting on his hands and letting it metastasize to the point where it derailed his election campaign ... but, no. That's for some other, better timeline, not the one we live in. We seem to live in the world that resolutely and firmly chooses the wrong fork in every road. I don't know whether our timeline quite qualifies as the Bad Place, but it's certainly a place full of bad choices.

In a weird sort of way, though, this brings us back to the key theme. Whatever you might think of what's happening in this election - and goodness knows I'm as appalled as anyone else - nonetheless, your vote matters. Use it. As we're seeing, this is the ultimate limitation on their power, and the one chance we have of stopping them.

So once more, let me reiterate: turn up. Vote against the Tory. Do it as a hopeful action, even if you don't feel hopeful. If nothing else, do it so that when the bad things happen, at least you can say you tried to stop it. I wish I had something less bleak to offer here, but this is where we are.

[outlanderalien]

Sorry for getting Political again but i just want to summarise some frustrations i’m getting over the current Leadership Contest in the UK, which is likely to put Boris Johnson in the position of Prime Minister.

In any sane or kind world, Boris Johnson would never get the opportunity to become PM. But we are in strange times. 

The reason he’s getting so far and the reason he’s likely to become PM is because of Brexit and Brexit alone. That absolute political behemoth.

I will not be taking sides of Leave or Remain here, not because i want to be neutral or because i’m trying to appease, but because the massive gaping divide within the country due to Leave and Remain is the cause for this mess in the first place and i simply refuse to feed into that.

Leave and Remain was not a Left wing or Right wing policy, it’s very important to remember this. 

There are Remainer Tories and Leaver Tories, Remainer Labour MPs and Leaver Labour MPs. 

Since the Tories held the referendum, it became their policy to Leave, however there were many members who did not support or vote for Leave within the Tory party and actively fought against the Brexit process, the infighting made the conservatives weaker and the Brexit progress slowed, angering many Brexiteers. 

Meanwhile, Labour was having their own division as it’s leader Jeremy Corbyn was a public Euro-skeptic but was facing calls to turn his party into a remain party, since the Conservatives had now made ‘Leave’ their duty. But Corbyn was reluctant to make his parties policy Remain, and the party became very vague and confusing on its stance on Brexit, which angered a lot of Remainers. 

This leaves many MPs and voters politically homeless, and lead to Conservative/Labour Brexiteers defecting to the Brexit Party who promise a decisive and clean break from the EU through No-Deal. 

Meanwhile many Conservative/Labour Remainers defected to the Liberal Democrats who promise a 2nd referendum and peoples vote.

Both parties faced a mass exodus.

If the promises of No-Deal and 2nd Referendum were so powerful in attracting voters, why did the main 2 parties decide not to make those their policies? Well, unfortunately both those policies are flawed. 

As Brexit stands, we have a deal from the EU, that failed to be voted for in Parliament. This means the only effective and quick way to cut ties with the EU, is to force a No-Deal Brexit, this is what the Brexit Party want, and it is essentially a self-destruct button. Not to mention forcing a No-Deal would require shutting down parliament, which is utterly undemocratic.

As for a 2nd referendum, deciding to ignore the results of a referendum will never go down well with the public. No matter what your logic is, what your reasoning is, deciding that the result of a referendum wasn’t the right answer and re-doing it will make people furious and will cause rioting in the streets. What will happen if Remain win but by a very similar margin? or if the voter turn-out is considerably less than before. There will be calls for a 3rd referendum, riots, civil war essentially. It’s a non-option unless we want even more chaos.

This leaves only one reasonable option: Take the deal we’ve been given. The only reason it couldn’t get through parliament was because some MPs wanted a No-Deal and some MPs hoped for a 2nd Referendum, the deal itself wasn’t terrible. But no one, absolutely no one wants to hear that. 

After the recent European elections, the main two parties, Labour and Conservative, were absolutely knocked out of the water. The Brexit party and the Liberal Democrats popularity soared. And unfortunately, this meant that the two main parties got scared, and decided they needed to win back voters, by mimicking these third-parties.

Labour has now decided to take on a more obvious remain stance, while all the Tory leadership candidates- who are vying for the position of Prime Minister- decided to appeal to the Brexit party by promising a No-Deal. There was only one candidate who refused to entertain the concept of No-Deal (Rory Stewart), but because of that, he was forced out of the race and despite his promise to deliver Brexit, he was considered a Remainer for not wanting to destroy the UK.

The Tory party is now drifting further and further right to win support from the Brexit Party, while the Labour party is going further and further Left to win support from the Lib-Dems. This leaves us with a gaping hole in the center ground. There is no in-between, there is no moderate, there is only one extreme or the other and both threaten to damage the UK irreparably.

Now enter Boris Johnson.

A political candidate who refuses to give a straight answer on his Brexit plan but has insisted we will be leaving this year on the 31st of October, with or without a deal. He refuses to answer questions on ‘how’ and has snubbed several live debates in an attempt to hide the fact that he doesn’t know what to do. 

He has a cult of followers who think he’s funny and interesting, he’s been publicly endorsed be Donald Trump and he’s well known for being able to insult and anger his allies and enemies alike since he literally has no filter. 

He’s incompetent but people don’t care. He’s vacuous, but people don’t care. He’s a literal clown but people don’t care. 

People are divided and are running to the extremes. We need moderate politics now more than ever.

[catchester]

Unfortunately, this is not a new problem. Allow me to introduce you to two of the biggest hypocrites who are somehow still lauded as socialist revolutionaries.

Karl Marx spent his life living off a rich patron, Friedrich Engels. They wrote together a lot, and both came up with Marx's communist theory.

Engles came from a very wealthy family who owned cotton mills. He refused to enter the family business and instead wrote a lot about the conditions of workers in Salford and Manchester, but also allowed his family to completely support him financially with the profits from abusing workers like those he was writing about.

Other industrialists who hated their workers conditions built model villages, but no, Engles just wrote about conditions and did not one single thing to improve the lives of those employed by his family.

His family begged him to take over the mills, or to do anything rather that waste his life really, but he refused and they always eventually backed down.

Obviously the right thing to do was to write books and newspaper articles that challenged the poorest in society to rise up against working conditions, and risk leaving their already impoverished families with one less breadwinner because they were either killed, imprisoned, or transported (sent to a foreign colony to work as slave labour) for rioting or sedition.

I mean, why would you use your power, wealth, education, and privilege to help the poor? No, they must help themselves! (most of them couldn't read and even if they could, they couldn't afford to waste money on books and newspapers, so their articles urging the working classes to rise up were rather, um, redundant).

The first model villages designed by industrialists were build in the 1700s, so it's not like he had to invent the idea, just follow other well known industrialists who not only had a social conscience, but decided to do something concrete to improve their employees working conditions and lives. In fact about 5 years after Engles began writing about the hideous conditions of the working classes in Manchester, not 40 miles away Sir Titus Salt was building Saltaire, his own model village. Literally, there was an example he could follow right on his doorstep, had be been inclined to effect real change. But then, that might have required him to do some work, something he seems to have been deathly allergic to.

Karl Marx, too, was content to share in his friends ill-gotten and unearned fortune until the day he died, never making his own living. He too made no real effort to improve conditions, other than writing about them, and penning his communist manifesto with Engles.

I mean, why petition parliament right? Why become and MP and actually make change? Ha! Nah, comrade, writing is the way to go!

Luckily many other Victorians were not only a lot more civic minded, they were actually motivated to effect change. They campaigned to change laws, they increased working age (well, actually impose a minimum working age, then kept upping it!), they increased the age of consent from 12 to 16, they brought in child labour laws, the first (what we call) health and safety laws, they made education compulsory for all children until age 12, they worked to emancipate working men and women, they made it so workers had to receive 1 day a week off (Sundays), they founded the royal societies for the prevention of cruelty to both animals and children that both pressed for new laws and protections (they're 2 different organisations, if that wasn't clear), they allowed women to own their own property and keep their own money for the first time ever, they gave women their first custody rights over their own children (they were viewed as the father's property before and could be withheld from their mothers indefinitely), they founded orphanages, charitable schools, scholarships, left huge swaths of their wealth to charities on their deaths, and just generally tried to do their bit to leave the world a better place than they found it. Hell, Victorian women got themselves elected to parliament long before women were allowed to vote for members of parliament! Yes, even relatively powerless women were using what wealth and privilege they had to bring attention to issues that bloody well needed it!

But for Marx and Engles, working was only for those with no choice, and if you were born rich, well, you should just sit back and let underpaid, over worked servants wait on you hand, foot and finger, and enjoy your (or your friends) lavish good fortune.

And maybe pen a few articles in your abundant free time to ease your conscience.

[uk-news-talking-politics]

How the general election could go against Theresa May

First things first: The Conservatives are almost certainly going to win the general election and, in all likelihood, increase their majority to around the 100 mark. Corbyn is too weak, the forces of opposition are too divided and Theresa May enjoys strong personal polling.

This is why she has undertaken this decision. It's got nothing to do with the threat of Brexit opponents derailing the project, as she said. She only just got through passing her Article 50 bill unamended, for heaven's sake. It's to do with taking advantage of her fortunate circumstances - not so much against other parties, but against the moderate and headbanger wing in her own party, who were increasingly using her small majority against her.

That being said, this election is not a given conclusion. And even with a Conservative win, it could still damage the prime minister substantially and permanently.

The first thing to note is that the Conservatives will not just win seats. They will also lose them. The Conservatives are likely to lose most of the 27 seats they took off the Lib Dems in the last election. All their gains in south London are likely to go, as are those in Cornwall and Devon, where Tory MPs had been keen for May not to hold an election. In Richmond, Tim Farron's party weaponised Brexit to overturn Zac Goldsmith's 23,015 majority. There are only so many seats where Brexit has that type of electoral impact, but they do exist and they will hurt.

That Richmond by-election can't be repeated everywhere. While the country remains about as divided over Brexit as it was at the time of the vote, it only appears to be a galvinising voting matter for about a fifth of the electorate. Plus general elections demand that parties like the Lib Dems spread their limited resources, preventing them from flooding an area with volunteers and pamphlets as they did in Richmond.

But these are uniquely chaotic and volatile political times. If a progressive alliance against hard Brexit could be formed, it would hit the Conservatives. It might not defeat them - but the prime minister needs to massively increase her majority in order to justify this decision. If she ends up anywhere near where she is now she will be treated as a self-interested failure who got her own MPs sacked and wasted valuable negotiating time trying to take advantage of beneficial political winds. Whether Labour has the intelligence or the decency to pursue that type of initiative is another matter - the fact Corbyn didn't even mention Brexit in his statement on the election suggests otherwise. But the option is there and it could work.

May presented her decision as one made in the national interest. Nothing could be further from the truth. She has only just triggered Article 50, which offers Britain a brutal two-year timetable in which to do about a decade's worth of work. She has now decided to eat into that by holding a general election for its first few months. Her supporters say that it does not matter because little will happen while everyone on the continent is distracted by the French election. That is a valid argument, but one which rather raises the question of why she decided to trigger just before French election anyway.

It also goes against her repeated promises not to hold a general election. This was literally one of the first things she said when running for leader. This type of flip-flopping is never a good look, but it is potentially a particularly damaging one for someone who already flipped rather vigorously on the subject of Brexit itself and yet tries to frame herself as a sturdy, no-nonsense Mark 2 Iron Lady.

The election announcement also dismantles several of her arguments on issues which are currently dominating the headlines. How can she say it is "not the time" for a Scottish independence referendum, for instance, when it suddenly is the time for a snap election?

May has the press on her side and enjoys much higher support than her rivals, which could insulate her from the type of damage this type of self-interested hypocrisy would inflict on another leader. But she will still take damage. And if she does not manage to substantially increase her majority, this decision will come to define her.

May made this decision because she is strong in the short term but also weak in the long term. She knows she is going into a difficult period. Last week inflation due to Brexit meant people were once again getting poorer. The rows over the loss of European regulators in the UK showed again why the Article 50 process will be politically difficult for No10. She is holding this election now because she knows it'll only be harder later.

If opposition parties play their cards right, May could come out of this election suffering severe reputational damage as she goes into the business end of Brexit negotiations. Furthermore, a Labour loss could precipitates the replacement of Corbyn with someone more competent. The stars are not aligned for a Tory defeat. But their victory could put the party in a worse position than it had with a slim majority.

Last week, a video of Google's chief business officer Mo Gawdat describing his algorithm for happiness went viral. His belief was that happiness is equal to, or greater than, the events of your life minus your expectation of how life should be.

For liberals, left wingers, centrists and Brexit critics, yesterday was a tough day. May is almost certainly going to win this election. The Tories are over 20 points ahead of Labour. But if you assume that, if you emotionally start to acclimatise to it, you find reasons to be relatively optimistic. Yes, she is cynically using her advantageous position to launch a campaign in which she will entrench social divisions in order to expand her party's power. But there are many risks for the prime minister in the path she has chosen. The task of her opponents, from wherever they are on the political spectrum, is to take full advantage of them.

Ian Dunt is the editor of Politics.co.uk. His book - Brexit: What The Hell Happens Now? - is available now from Canbury Press.

[d2kvirus]

Dickheads of the Month: May 2020

As it seems that there are people who say or do things that are remarkably dickheaded yet somehow people try to make excuses for them or pretend it never happened, here is a collection of some of the dickheaded actions we saw in the month of May 2020 to make sure that they are never forgotten.

Not only did Gollum impersonator Dominic Cummings think the best thing to do when testing positive for Covid-19 was to get in a car with his wife and child and drive 260 miles to Durham - while his wife Mary Wakefield wrote a Spectator piece claiming the two were still in London - but when the story broke...twice, as a day later it was reported he also drove 30 miles from where he was staying in Durham to Barnard Castle with his wife and child in tow and claimed he did so because of his failing eyesight, he broke the ultimate rule of all advisors and became the story...especially when giving a press conference from Downing Street that he was half an hour late for where he reeled off one cock and bull story after another while claiming that it wasn’t a political issue.  While giving a press conference from Downing Street

...which led to yet another test that proven liar Boris Johnson failed, something he has a habit of doing when faced with tests these days, as he refused to sack Cummings for grossly undermining the government’s lockdown advice even after Cummings admitted to doing so in his press conference, while also managing to contradict Cummings’ version of events

...but Tories being Tories, of course we had plenty of them rushing forth to defend one of their own, and rush forward did the likes of Michael Gove, Dominic Raab, Matt Hancock, Rishi Sunak, Suella Braverman, Oliver Dowden et al all came out vociferously defending his right to violate lockdown protocol, and doing so in a manner that definitely didn’t look as if they were following orders given the stock phrases littered through all of their tweets

...naturally, we also had Laura Kuenssberg and Dan Hodges leaping to his defence, saying it was his right to break the law as well as completely undermine the government's own message regarding lockdown, while the Tory tribalists of Twitter started invoking the name of Caroline Flack like the cynical cowards that they are 

...meanwhile the BBC had their own spin on pure cowardice, issuing a statement critical of Emily Maitlis’ intro to an edition of Newsnight about not following editorial guidelines about impartiality almost as soon as the episode had finished and then benchiung her for the following evening’s edition while claiming that they hadn’t benched her even though their own listings listed Maitlis as hosting the edition she was benched for

When in need of clear guidance trust proven liar Boris Johnson to provide the exact opposite with his decision to ditch the remarkably clear “ STAY HOME. PROTECT THE NHS. SAVE LIVES” message for one that’s so clear that it needed a two-page document to be included with it, a message he didn't bother to tell the Scottish or Welsh governments about so the first they heard about it was reading that morning’s papers, and supposedly he also didn’t bother discussing it with his own ministers as when they convened to discuss it he told them the job had already gone to the printers and he had to pre-record a press conference for that evening so he could avoid anything approaching a question

It’s safe to assume that Matt Hancock has been taking lessons from proven liar Boris Johnson judging by him claiming that the Tories did meet their 100,000 Covid tests a day target by the end of April, when the actual number was 2/3 of that and the rest was padded out by people on the Tory mailing list who’d been contacted sending in tests a day or two before the end of April which had not been carried out - which may be why the number dropped back down to the 60,000 mark over the weekend of 1-3 May

Fascist bully boys Minnesota State Patrol somehow thought the best thing they could do PR-wise following the murder of George Floyd was to arrest CNN reporter Omar Jimenez during a report while the officer who killed Floyd, Derek Chauvin, as well as those who were also at the scene doing the square root of fuck all were still walking free

Smirking cretin Priti Patel has been on a mission to completely undermine any attempts by the Tories to pretend that they care about any migrant NHS workers, first by crawling out of whichever hole she’d been hiding in for the previous month to say that non-UK NHS workers would have to pay up to a third of their salary for the right to work for the NHS, and soon followed that up by bringing her immigration bill for a second reading in the Commons that restricts movement of non-UK workers who are deemed “unskilled” based solely on what their salary is, with NHS starter salaries all below the threshold

...which Selaine Saxby said she wholeheartedly supported, not because of anything in the bill, but because of how The Sun reported it - because I’m sure voters in North Devon will be delighted to hear their elected MP bases her voting intentions on what The Sun says

It was so nice of Matt Hancock to literally laugh at Kay Burley’s suggestion the government were rushing out track & trace as a desperate effort to stop people talking about Dominic Cummings - although he presumably wasn’t laughing when, within an hour of that interview, the entire system crashed

Trust the stenographers at the BBC to respond to the news that the UK had the highest Covid death toll in Europe for two days, and following that up with a headline saying Italy had the highest death toll in the EU - even though their death toll is still lower than the UK’s

...which was soon followed by Dan Hodges looking to reclaim his crown from Allison Pearson for being the furthest from the correct side of every story he tweets about when he suggested those saying the UK has the highest death toll in Europe are factually incorrect doomsayers as there are countries with higher death rates...or to put it another way, Dan Hodges thundered about how he doesn’t know the difference between a death toll and a death rate, that or he has a crippling inability to admit his beloved Tories have killed more people in the space of three months than the Luftwaffe did in the entirity of the Blitz

It’s also safe to assume that Matt Hancock really doesn’t like it when faced with criticism, especially valid criticism, judging by the only response he could muster when Rosena Allin-Khan asked him about the lack of testing in frontline NHS workers being responsible for multiple unavoidable deaths was to avoid answering the question (obviously) while also taking the opportunity to lecture her about her tone - because the ~womz need to know their place, right Matt?

Smirking cretin Priti Patel continued to have problems with the concept of numbers when saying the UK didn’t have quarantine at their airports because not enough people and too many people were arriving, which begs so many question about what the perfect number is so that quarantine would be implemented, swiftly followed by yelling at her that one infected person getting off a plane from New York, Wuhan or Italy is one too many to not be quarantined

There are ways in which Joe Biden could make himself more appealing to a wider demographic of voters.  Unfortunately for him, saying that African Americans who are considering voting for Trump aren’t black is not one of them

The Tory hive mind saw Nadine Dorries, Maria Caulfield and Lucy Allen all retweet a video purporting to show that Keir Starmer was soft on grooming gangs...although for some strange reason the video didn't last too long, nor did Caulfield’s Twitter account, when even the most basic of fact checks revealed that the video was heavily doctored and the source of it was a far-right group

Bold move by Keir Starmer to appoint Baroness Wilcox to lead the panel investigating Labour Leaks considering she’s a.) Anti-Corbyn, and b.) An associate of Ian McNichol, whose name just so happens to feature prominently is the Labour Leaks document

...equally bold was Shadow Housing Minister Thangam Debbonaire do so much for her, and by extension Starmer’s, credentials by saying a policy to protect renters during lockdown would be “un-Labour” as opposed to, for the sake of argument, “quite obviously Labour”

How nice of Amber Rudd to make herself the face of the numerous Tory MPs effectively trying to bully teachers back into work in the most hypocritical manner possible, namely telling them all to go to work from the comfort of her living room rather than deigning to join Andrew Marr in the studio for The Andrew Marr Show

...although she was soon joined by George Eustace saying that, if Denmark was able to send kids back to school, that means that England the UK can too - apparently failing to grasp the concept that, on the day Eustace made that statement, the number of people dying of Covid in the UK was higher than the number who had died in total in Denmark

Not only did Prince Joachim of Belgium get caught with his proverbial pants down flouting lockdown to take a private jet to Spain so he could attend a party make him look bellended, but the fact he got a dose of Covid from doing so made him look even more selfish and idiotic

It looks spectacularly bad when Rishi Sunak proudly states that a few branches of Nandos will reopen as if that’s a “win” - yet somehow that still came across as less crass than Matt Hancock announcing horse racing would be back considering the significant spike in cases directly linked to allowing the Cheltenham Festival to go ahead

5G Truther messiah David Icke responded to getting banned by Facebook for posing a real and genuine risk to the public in the most calm and composed manner he could think of, namely going on a rant about Jewish groups wanting to silence him, which makes him look completely sane and rational

Lockdown must be getting to Elon Musk if he thinks it’s normal to tweet out how he thinks that Tesla’s share price is too high...which promptly wiped $14bn off of Tesla’s value...although given he's one of those cretins who hates lockdown as he can’t act how he wants, it fits the profile of selfishly affects people other than himself with his selfish, idiotic actions

While it was a surprise that David Baddiel didn’t blame Spurs fans for robbers breaking into Dele Alli's house, it wasn’t a surprise that he once again appointed himself the voice of the "centrists” of Twitter as the lot of them responded to Owen Jones’ quite reasonable request that if you can pay a cleaner you should pay them to stay at home rather than risk contracting Covid-19 by raging about how cleaners actually love performing menials tasks so they don’t have to, saying cleaners shouldn't work is anti-feminist, and who are you to demand that I operate my own vacuum cleaner - you know, stuff that sounds remarkably Tory...

Of course Tomi Lahren tried to make self-isolating a left vs right thing, and emboldened by her idiocy she tried to sound smart by taking to Twitter to say those damn dirty lefties better not complain if the government followed what they were saying and started cancelling Pride parades...and was promptly informed they were cancelled in April, and the reason she was unaware was due to people realising that massed gatherings during a pandemic are A BAD IDEA

Looks like it’s Jake Paul who gets to be the twattiest Paul brother again, judging by him filming himself joining in the looting for the LULZ

I’m sure that Dave Kitson had some grand ideas when putting his name forward to become the new Chief Executive of the PFA...however, half an hour later he had to withdraw his bid due to countless players outright rejecting his bid due to his habit of posting some patently racist bullshit to his Instagram account with a side-order of victim blaming aimed at Raheem Sterling

Old man yelling at clouds Jim Cornette appeared to take the news of Becky Lynch having the vacate her title as an excuse to sound like a reactionary blowhard even by his own standards, with a bizarre rant that broke down to WWE paying her $1m a year means she has no right to have children until her money-making years have passed, embellished with odd remarks about stretch marks and hemorrhoids because he was already down the rabbit hole and may as well keep going until he sounds like a misogynistic fuckwad

I don’t know when Kyle Walker metamorphosed into Mario Balotelli, but weeks after he was roundly criticised for breaking lockdown by cheating on his wife with a pair of escorts, he thought the best idea was to release a statement saying that it isn’t fair that people are picking on him

And finally, naturally, is noted virologist Donald Trump took a break from pretending that Rome isn’t burning around him to go on a Twitter rampage about Barack Obama, because when you’re responsible for a death toll approaching 100,000 and you’ve made a laughing stock of yourself when suggesting people inject disinfectant you need to play the hits because that’s the only way to motivate your cretinous support base, shortly before having a meltdown as two female journalists in a row had the gall to ask him reasonable questions that he had no answer for so he rage quit his own press conference like a normal adult man most certainly would only to follow that up by biting the hand of Twitter and discovering that Twitter wasn’t going to back down

[goodnewsjamaica]

Fun Fadda Facts

New Post has been published on https://goodnewsjamaica.com/culture/fun-fadda-facts/

Fun Fadda Facts

Being a dad is a serious job – that’s a fact. But it’s always great when, even in the chaos, they can sit back, relax and enjoy the fruits of their labour – their adorable offsprings. This father’s day we decided to celebrate dads in a unique way. The Flair spoke to few local celebrity fathers about their insightful parenting journey. Be warned: Some of their answers will surprise you. Welcome to Fun Fadda Facts.

Kamal Powell

Age: 33

Profession: Marketer – Regional brand marketing manager Campari Group

Number of children: 1

First reaction to hearing your partner was pregnant: My immediate reaction was elation, children are a blessing, and while I was somewhat surprised, I was excited to take on the journey of parenthood.

First reaction when your child was born: My first reaction was joy and relief that he was born healthy. He came in at a whopping 8 lbs 3 ounces.

Describe your first diaper change: My first diaper change was actually not my first. I sort of cheated the system. I have older siblings so I had little nieces and nephews to practise with. I was more than experienced in that department.

The most important thing you’ve learnt as a dad: The most important thing I’ve learned as a dad is patience. It takes a lot of patience to be a good father. Children learn at their own pace and as adults, sometimes we tend to forget that it took us time to learn as well.

Nicholas Rasinski

Age: 35

Profession: Entertainer/producer/DJ

Number of children: 1

First reaction to hearing your partner was pregnant: I was both excited and frightened at the same time.

First reaction when your child was born: Wow! That’s a lot of hair. And, you have destroyed the vagina.

Describe your first diaper change: I still actually wonder how so much comes out of so little.

The most important thing you’ve learnt as a dad: Patience. Having your child is different from looking after someone else’s own for a day. You can’t return this one. The most important thing is to be calm and understanding as the baby grows and makes mistakes. My daughter’s eyes show how curious children can be and they yearn to be able to communicate. They get frustrated trying to communicate and this is where the patience comes in: you learning from them and them learning from you.

Orrett ‘Bambino’ Hart

Age: Ain’t nothing but a number

Profession: Entertainer/disc jockey/music producer – to name a few

Number of children: 1 (that I know of )

First reaction to hearing your partner was pregnant: Excited. So much excitement!!!! But also a little fear – not knowing what to expect.

First reaction when your child was born: Overjoyed and overcome with emotions, I didn’t even know existed.

Describe your first diaper change: I thought it was perfect. Until my wife said, “It’s OK, let me do it for you.”

The most important thing you’ve learnt as a dad: That the saying “Children live what they learn” is a real thing. I’ve learned you have to be careful about what you say and how you behave in front of children because they’re taking it all in and basically taking form from everything they’re learning from you.

Kevin Williams

Age: 41

Profession: Security and safety officer

Number of children: Two

First reaction when you heard your partner was pregnant:

I was very happy.

First reaction when your child was born:

For both of my children, I was grateful to God for beautiful and healthy children.

Describe your first diaper change:

I have been changing diapers from I was a child. As a matter of fact, I was even changing nappies, too. So when it was my time, diapers were a walk in the park for me. I was a natural.

The most import thing you’ve learnt:

I have learnt that true love is unconditional, even when you have to be firm on your children.

Neil Lawrence

Age: 36

Profession: CEO of Growth Tech Limited

Number of Children: 1

First reaction when you heard your partner was pregnant:

I was just very excited.

First reaction when your child was born:

I couldn’t believe it. She was so beautiful. I said to myself, God is so good. I felt a number of emotions at once.

Describe your first diaper change:

I was nervous as I did it, I was just protecting my face in case anything happened. And there was a lot of crying, from both me and the baby.

The most import thing you’ve learnt:

I have learnt that kids need their father just as they need their mother. Also, the moms need the father, too.

Rory-Leif McPherson

Age: 32

Profession: Assistant Manager of IT and Projects at JN Fund Managers Limited

Number of Children: 2

First reaction when you heard your partner was pregnant:

I was very happy and elated. There was just happiness all around.

Describe your first diaper change.

It was easier than I expected. It went smoothly. I thought it would have been scornful, but it was all right.

The most import thing you’ve learnt:

You are no longer living for yourself. It’s the biggest change and anything you do is not for you. It’s for your children.

Dayton Campbell

Age: 35

Occupation: Medical doctor and MP

Number of Children: Three, two girls and a boy

First reaction when you heard your partner was pregnant:

My reaction was yes, yes! I hope it is a boy (hides face) but it was a dawta so I got brawta.

First reaction when your child was born:

My first reaction was check and make sure we have 10 fingers and 10 toes, lol!

Describe your first diaper change:

First diaper change was like a mission, I got all the things ready, took a deep breath, encouraged myself that yes, you can do this, Dayton, then I held my breath and pull the diaper then said man stop the foolishness and change the diaper, which I did.

The most import thing you’ve learnt:

It is the most important responsibility you will ever have in life, the chance to shape a child into a responsible adult to pass on appropriate morals and values, it literally changed my whole being, I now first think of how will this action affect my children before I engage in any activity.

Scott Dunn

Age: 41

Occupation: Managing director – Dream Entertainment and Loans Unlimited

How many children do you have?: 2

First reaction when you heard your partner was pregnant?: Excitement! Gratitude!

Describe your first diaper change:

Diaper changes are easy … I actually miss those baby years.

What is the most import thing you’ve learnt?:

I’ve learned that girls are very different than boys.

Kevin Jackson

Age: 32

Occupation: Sales Manager ATL Automotive

How many children do you have?: Two: a boy and a girl, 5 and 1yr

First reaction when you heard your partner was pregnant:

I was ecstatic! I held him first and tears came to my eyes. I said to his mom “What a boy pretty!”.

Describe your first diaper change:

If I can remember correctly, I was a pro. I was actually looking forward to it.

The most import thing you’ve learnt?:

There’s no greater feeling than loving and being loved. Family is everything.

Original Article Found Here

[vulkanmag-blog]

EMILY BERRINGTON

New Post has been published on https://vulkanmagazine.com/content/emily-berrington/

EMILY BERRINGTON

EMILY BERRINGTON

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ASYMMETRIC TOP: Joshua Millard

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MIDI DRESS: Isabelle Fox, TRENCH BELT: Vintage

EMILY BERRINGTON

Interviewed by: Vanessa Peters IG @sofxposh

Actress Emily Berrington is known for roles on hit TV series like Humans and Inbetweeners. VULKAN caught up with Emily to discuss her role as Niska on Humans and her thoughts on gender equality in the film industry.

Upcoming, you can see Emily as the lead in Sophie Treadwell’s 1928 play MACHINAL. MACHINAL was inspired by the true story of convict Ruth Snyder and will run from June 4th until July 21st at the Almeida Theatre. Click HERE for more information on tickets and showtimes.

So I understand you took Development Geography at King's College London; what drew you to that discipline in your undergraduate studies?

Like many 18 year olds, I wasn’t totally sure what I wanted to do with my life yet! I loved acting but didn’t know how to turn a hobby into a career. I was also interested in politics, languages, international relations, social equality, and had fantastic geography teachers at school. I decided that course would allow me to learn more in all of those areas but also be flexible in terms of where I took it. I was lucky that tuition fees were so much lower then - perhaps now I wouldn’t feel as able to do something without a clear plan of what would follow.

From playing Jane Shore in the White Queen to playing Katie Evans in the Inbetweeners (which is one of my favourite shows by the way), what was your experience playing such different characters?

One of my favourite things about being an actor is being able to work on wildly different characters and projects. But whatever I'm doing I start from the same place - what does this character want and why?

When asked to comment on your experience working for the labour party you said, terrifying, very masculine and not particularly encouraging to young blonde women; care to expand on that?

This phrase has kept coming back to haunt me! I think what I meant when I said it, but perhaps flippantly put, was that there was a clear under representation of women in parliament and that felt odd. It is gradually improving but still women make up only about 32% of all MPs. However, as a woman who in many ways falls into the ‘majority’ groups in that environment - race, class, physical ability and so on - I feel it’s important to note that it’s potentially a far more challenging environment for women who don’t. Our government should reflect the society we live in.

What do you think the most important thing your parents have taught you pertaining to your career?

My parents have always been so supportive of my career and I feel very lucky about that. They’ve been especially brilliant at celebrating the ‘journey’ rather than ‘success’ of it. The trying is what matters.

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DUNGAREES: Joshua Millard, KNIT TOP: Gap, SHOES: Topshop

[vc_single_image image="20573" img_size="full" alignment="center" onclick="link_image" css_animation="bounceIn"]

BLAZER: Louis Charles

For those who haven’t heard of it, could you explain Humans and your role in it?

Humans is a drama set in a parallel present, where the world is exactly as we know it to be now but with one major exception - the existence of ‘synths’. Synths are advanced AI machines that assist humans in their homes and workplaces. Anything from doing the dishes, to giving medical care, to assembling cars in a factory. They appear human, but aren’t conscious. However a few synths were created with consciousness, and this number increases as we move through the series’. Niska is one of these conscious synths.

What do you hope viewers learn from watching Niska?

I think Niska has a very interesting journey. When we meet her she’s a reflection of the world around her - violent, cynical, angry. But we gradually see that these things aren’t inherently who she is; the way she’s been treated has forced her to find ways of surviving. She is completely capable of love, trust and kindness when others give them to her.

What has been your favourite part of the Humans experience?

Aside from working with the rest of the cast I’d say the movement work we do with Dan O’Neill, both in synth school and on set every day. It’s so satisfying to have been part of developing the physical language of the synths and to keep tackling each new challenge we meet. Whether it’s walking down a flight of stairs, a kiss, putting a coat on, or smashing people with a (rubber) bat - we have to find out how a synth would do it!

Is there something you are a nerd over, as in you literally can’t help but be a nerd over it because you know a lot about it and truly have a vested interest in it?

I can sing an unforgivable number of Queen guitar solos....

Was there a fellow actor or actress that you were incredibly geeked to work with because you are quite a fan?

William Hurt. What an actor - I’ve long been a fan of his work.

Could you talk to us about your involvement with Era 5050?

I was shocked to discover last year that the ratio of men to woman shown on stage and screen in the UK is 2:1. There was actually greater gender equality on screen 100 years ago. The Era 50:50 campaign seeks to highlight the gender inequality that exists not only on the stage or in front of the camera, but behind the scenes too. It also proposes ways in which this can change, for example asking production companies to ensure that over the course of a year they employ 50:50 male and female writers, directors, actors and so on. I feel very passionate about it not just in terms of the opportunities available to women in creative arts, but also the impact it has on audiences and society as a whole.

What is the most recent movie or TV show you watched that totally pulled at your heartstrings?

Every episode of Queer Eye.

If there is one take away from this interview, what is it that you want everybody to know about you?

Anything but the guitar solos....

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TRENCH COAT: Freya Dalsjø

Credits

PHOTOGRAPHER: Annemarie Sterian STYLIST: Yasmine Sabri MAKE UP ARTIST: Justine Jenkins HAIR STYLIST: Laura Chadwick PHOTOGRAPHY ASSISTANT: Gintare Povilonyte

[hmyconrad374-blog]

The National politics Of Concern.

Exactly how THIS method could finish an anxiety of flying - with the Lady of Cornwall a follower. Nigel Farage, the-then Ukip leader, and also the-then Labour MP Kate Hoey led a small flotilla of angling watercrafts up the Thames days before the EU referendum ballot last June, where they clashed with rival boats led by the singer as well as political activist Bob Geldof. This Post has a component height of 5. The sidebar size is short. Sandys' follower, from the Brexit wing of Preservation, anticipates a particularly huge turnover amongst an older group of just what he describes as cottage estate type" voters, that have actually marketed up in London and also come to stay in Kent. An automatic market requires that people can switch over providers regularly in response to the high quality and price of service-- like getting the best fruit and vegetables in a genuine market-- but most Google individuals are embeded the inertia of long-standing routine. Interplay will be collaborating with Jim creator Doug TenNapel on the new anime as well as a function film. Theresa May was implicated of blackmail in March when she utilized the Post 50 letter which activated the Brexit process to caution protection would certainly be deteriorated" by a failing to reach a deal on withdrawal. All emergency situation situations are different, however the feedback to the tower block fire has subjected big failings in both regional and also central government. Approved, like its precursor, Worry the Walking Dead brings death, devastation as well as heaps of the living dead that want nothing more to treat on people. Dead Donkeys Concern No Hyenas is an uncommon, no danger movie that is already finished and also just requires your help to reach the larger world. The original Anxiety Result games focused on painful cam angles and the sensation of isolation to produce a stressful environment. Sridhar's foreign job visa is part of a program that could quickly go through a White Residence overhaul, and also the SupplyAI CEO is worried the brand-new management might decline his partner's application - and also make it difficult for him to run a service in the US. When the index shifted to a much more prompt as well as easier modern technology (Twitter) the cash streamed with it and away from the technologies that opened the door, and also. She informed: The Remain project has taken a march and taken the initiative and also people are going to start thinking Brexit could be a poor point nevertheless. This is my twelfth Kickstarter project, and also with each project, I could not have actually published and also generated them without the assistance of Kickstarter backers. The directorate's budget plan has jumped 13 percent for 2006, mirroring an expanding DHS emphasis on exclusive innovation development. It's what makes video games like Memory loss: The Dark Descent so distressing; there's a better sense of the unidentified. Because she was afraid of the judgment and objection she anticipated from a joint organisation companion, she was holding back. A short trip takes guests with take off, prior to travelling over the UK, while a pilot narrates each aspect of the process so participants could get utilized to precisely what's happening. The preferred mobile application struck 50 million downloads last year, as well as the iPad variation made waves last week at the DICE Top below when it was chosen for the Academy of Interactive Arts and also Sciences' respected Game of the Year award. If you beloved this write-up and you would like to obtain much more details about simply click the following internet page kindly check out our internet site. An anxiety of flying is one of one of the most typical in the modern world - up there with agoraphobia (spiders) and also acrophobia (heights). Obtain The Strolling Dead: All Out War Miniatures Video game, Atlanta Camp Growth, The Strolling Dead Game Dice as well as Dice Bag AND Kickstarter Exclusive Sheriff's Badge Initiative Counter - all crammed in a Collection agency's Version game box PLUS all appropriate stretch objectives. The Malibu coastline is literally melting around Madison, her sweetheart Travis (Cliff Curtis), and also youngsters Alicia as well as Nick (Alycia Debnam-Carey and also Frank Dillane, extra restrained than he was last period). The Walking Dead completed its sixth period as the highest-rated tv show among individuals aged 18-49. From an expert viewpoint-- and perhaps remarkably-- Takeuchi is encouraged that the crash might end up being a web favorable" in the feeling that it has actually made him reconsider what the company has been doing as well as to consider everything with a fresh set of eyes". All this, if it functions, equates right into more users spending even more time in Google services-- a fad that, as our reliance on traditional search decreases, typically directs the various other means. If you question that, simply invest a day or 2 at the yearly seminar of the not-for-profit organization Autism One, a group developed around the sentence that autism is caused by vaccines. Many clearly, they happen on opposite coasts; Worry races also swiftly, whereas the initial tends to creep; as well as The Walking Dead has done a much better task establishing most of its characters compared to Concern has, with few exceptions. Amidst the substantial tectonic (tech-tonic?) enjoyment change to OTT video watching and the worldwide SVOD land grab, unique material is the excellent differentiator.

[graesays]

We need to talk about Jez

I’m starting to feel like the time has come where we all need to take our head out of the sand and admit what many people have known for a while. Despite every want for him and his politics to succeed, despite everything that local Labour Party members have put to one side to try and allow him a chance at success, despite the beacon of hope that his politics represent for the younger and not previously politically motivated members of momentum. We need to accept that Jeremy Corbyn is not good enough in his current job and for the sake of everyone involved he needs to stand down.

I didn’t vote for him in 2015 (he was my 2nd choice behind Yvette Cooper). I did vote for him in 2016 because I feel he deserved more of a chance to demonstrate what he can do with the party behind him (and Owen Smith was a much worse candidate on balance). But in exchange for that support I gave him last year (to the point of attending his Leeds rally and buying a T-Shirt and badge while telling the people hawking the Socialist Worker to shove their placards up their arses fat end first) I expected him to show that he deserved it, that he would make an effort to make the party about more than his supposed personality cult. I gave him that chance, and he dropped the ball.

The first red flag (now isn’t that ironic) for me was the demotion of Clive Lewis from Shadow Defense to Shadow Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy. This was done after Corbyn altered Lewis’ conference speech moments before he was due to deliver it. Clive originally wanted to state that he would not personally seek to change the current policy on Trident renewal (meaning he would leave it for the membership to decide whether to retain the policy, or scrap it in favor of a policy for nuclear disarmament). On Corbyn’s orders, Seumas Milne (Jeremy’s Comms advisor) handed Clive a post-it note moments before he was due on stage to deliver the speech saying that the Trident part of his speech had been changed to pro-disarmament. This in spite of the fact that the original speech was signed off by Jeremy himself prior to conference. Thus proving that in order to cement his views on an issue, he’s willing to throw his supporters under the bus (Lewis being considered as one of the key figures that got Corbyn the required number of nominations from the PLP to enter the leadership race in 2015) (1)

The second issue was his appearance at the Stand Up To Racism rally in October. For those unfamiliar with SUTR, it is a well known front for the Socialist Workers Party (The SWP). Not only do the SWP regularly compete against Labour in elections (as part of the Trade Union & Socialist Coalition, TUSC) but the more relevant issue in regards to Jeremy’s relationship with Labour activists who are also committed Equality & Diversity activists, is that the SWP deliberately attempted to cover-up, then downplay the fact that one of it’s senior members raped two women, and effectively held a donkey trial clearing the man (commonly referred to as Comrade Delta) rather than reporting the matter to the police. Deservedly, the SWP has been shunned by E&D groups and by the majority of Labour MP’s. While links between the SWP and Corbyn/McDonnell/Abbott are nothing new, this was the first time a formally SWP affiliated group had invited Corbyn to speak.

He did initially decline the invitation (he was due to speak in Scotland at the time) but as those plans changed, rather than giving the event the wide berth it deserved, he showed up and gave a speech, this legitimizing a group of institutionalized rape apologists. This for me was the straw that broke the camels back, the moment where he officially lost my support. I am an Equality activist first and a Labour activist second and that will never change. I just felt unable to vocalize my thoughts at the time in the face of how much support he still seemed to have at local level. (2)

From there though, things have only gotten worse. Whether it’s the complete and utter betrayal of his principles by standing aside and allowing the Snoopers Charter to pass into law without anything resembling a fight (John McDonnell voted FOR the bill at 3rd reading!) or obliterating our negotiating abilities on Brexit plans by announcing before amendments had been announced that he would use a 3 line whip to force his MP’s to vote FOR article 50 to be triggered irrespective of the success or failure of the amendments. He’s now suffering the humiliation of seeing Shadow Cabinet members resign and maybe even worse, public declarations of defying the whip coming from the very people responsible for enforcing said whip!

His stance on Article 50 more than any other issue shows that ultimately, he’s in it only for him, his mates and their own views rather than those of the wider party. Many of whom come from constituencies that voted overwhelmingly to remain in the EU and will now have to sit and watch their MP’s be forced by the leadership to hand control of the EU negotiations over to the Tories without anything in the way of a serious fight. Killing any chance we might have had to regain ground in Scotland and dealing a major blow to the Northern Ireland Labour Group to contest assembly elections in future. Admittedly he’s caught between a rock and a hard place when it comes to this because UKIP are breathing down our necks in previously safe Labour areas, but the bowing down to hard brexit without even the impression of a nuanced consideration of ideas taking place shows complete disregard for the 48% of the nation that voted to remain.

For the party to still be polling considerably lower in popularity than the Tories at this point, after Theresa May defied democracy to become Prime Minister in a way that Gordon Brown never even had a prayer of getting away with from the opposition of the day, after the Trident failure, the Pound falling to one of it’s lowest ever positions against the US Dollar, the ripping apart at the seams of the NHS and a seemingly giddy enthusiasm to sell off our most hard fought for workers and human rights to the lowest bidder is nothing short of an utter embarrasment and it is all down to the lack of ability to lead shown by those at the top.

Rather than just call out Corbyn for his failings, call on him to resign and clock off for the day though, I’m gonna suggest an alternative. It’s a tad radical but it’s an alternative that makes a lot of sense in the current climate the more you think about it, and that suggestion for Corbyn’s successor is the man who was in fact the first victim of his incompetence post leadership election mk2. Clive Lewis is the man who I think should be the next leader of the Labour Party. At face value this sounds like a stupid idea because lets face it, he’s only been an MP for 20 months. That said, have a think about these factors.

Politicians arent exactly the most popular people amongst the general public at the moment. Part of UKIP’s appeal to traditionally working class areas is that they present themselves as an alternative to career politicians (even if those who know their politics can see how much bullshit that claim is coming from a long line of ex-tory backers). Clive would be able to turn his relative inexperience in the house of commons as an advantage in this regard which could mend the party’s public perception.

He would appeal to a large number of those who were motivated to join Labour and Momentum because he self-identifies as a socialist and shares a lot of Corbyn’s values. Helping to ensure that the genuinely impressive rise in engagement by younger party members is not lost when Corbyn steps down.

He will be able to work with those within the party who dont drift as far left as he does. Having demonstrated his ability to do so with his original conference speech where he sought to uphold current Labour policy on trident renewal for as long as it remained the will of party members.

The usual Tory tactic of decrying those who identify as socialists as hating the country will never work when it comes to Clive Lewis as he has served in the Army, and even been on active service in Afghanistan, meaning he has literally laid his life on the line for queen and country, something that would definitely appeal to the type of voter that UKIP is currently working towards attracting.

All these combined mean that he would be able to assemble a Shadow Cabinet that contains the best qualified MP’s in each area. Meaning that we can have the best of both worlds in regards to having a party fronted by a man who personifies the party’s founding values while taking advantage of the broad church in a way that Corbyn and his friends were never able to.

We would be the first major UK party to have a BME leader. However bad their politics are, the fact that the Tories have had two leaders from a minority background and Labour have had none is an embarrasment considering that we are supposed to be the party of Equality & Diversity.

So that’s where I stand. I expect to be disagreed with quite a bit with other Labour members/supporters but whatever your thoughts, ultimately we all want the same thing, and that’s for Labour to succeed and be a party of Government. Hopefully whatever happens, that’s what we will be sooner rather than later because we seriously need them to be right now.

[d2kvirus]

Dickheads of the Month: August 2019

As it seems that there are people who say or do things that are remarkably dickheaded yet somehow people try to make excuses for them or pretend it never happened, here is a collection of some of the dickheaded actions we saw in the month of August 2019 to make sure that they are never forgotten. 

When there was the possibility of the parliamentary sovereignty that Leavers harp on about, off sprinted proven liar Boris Johnson to Balmoral to beg the Queen to suspend parliament in order to force through a No Deal Britait - but of course, everyone but him are the “traitors” in this sordid affair, even after Ben Wallace apparently forgot that cameras and microphones exist when blabbing about how Johnson did this due to fearing that his working majority of one wouldn't survive a No Confidence vote

It was so nice of Michael Coudrey to post a blatantly faked screenshot of El Paso shooter Patrick Crusias’ MyLife profile page to try and claim that Crusas was a left-wing extremist rather than, oh I don’t know, a white supremacist who happened to parrot several of Trump’s soundbites about Hispanics, let alone consider that maybe mass shootings are something that shouldn’t happen with alarming frequency

Meanwhile it was equally predictable that Paul Joseph Watson was jumping up and down yelling “See!  See!  A leftist went on a killing spree!” which not only made it obvious he was trying to divert attention from the El Paso shooter, but also drew attention to the fact that while the alt right were tripping over one another to make excuses for Patrick Crusas as he’s some poor innocent victim of society, as soon as it emerged that Connor Betts isn’t one of them the excuses evaporated

So naturally, peak twattery followed when Dmitriy Andreychenko walked into his local Missouri branch of Walmart toting a tactical rifle and handgun while wearing body armor, and when he was arrested for being such a monumental fuckwit he bleated something about testing to see if Walmart respected his Second Amendment rights

Yet somehow the UK couldn’t laugh at Americans trying to blame video games for mass shootings thanks to Priti Patel trying to create a direct link between stabbings and fried chicken

Of course Jo Swinson has taken it upon herself to say she and only she can stop Britait, which was obvious by her rejecting Jeremy Corbyn’s proposal of an interim government out of hand without any reason in spite of the fact that, as Leader of the Opposition, of a vote of no confidence in Boris Johnson does get through the Commons it will be Corbyn who is asked to put together an interim government - but Jo Swinson instead suggested the first tow backbenchers she could think of because she cannot countenance the idea of Labour stopping Britait, as at that point what is she other than somebody who lies about her voting record?

This month it was Arron Banks who wanted to sound triggered to a sociopathic degree by Greta Thunberg with his lovely response to her yachting across the Atlantic by tweeting that freak yachting accidents tend to happen at this time of year, while Julia Halfwit Hartley-Brewer posted some lame tweet gloating about she and her family would be flying across the Atlantic instead, meanwhile Roger Helmer resorted to calling her a “Swedish pixie” during one of the rare occasions he remained awake when in public and Paul Joseph Watson talked about how an autistic girl was being “exploited” - but because Arron Banks has to be Arron Banks, he had to have the most cuntish last word and said it was just a joke...like saying women wearing burqas look like letterboxes

As if proven liar Boris Johnson hadn’t used the NHS as a platform for his outright lies enough in the past three years, he pledged an increase in funding...that was actually funding that NHS providers had been saving up for the past three years, but had been unable to spend in that time as the Tory government banned them from spending it...until it became convenient enough to allow them to spend their own money

If only somebody suggested to Lou Dobbs that, if you see a group of protesters sat in the road outside the ICE facility that employs you, driving your truck just inches from their faces is guaranteed to piss them off - and then using that as an excuse to plow through the pissed off crowd is guaranteed to cost you your job and piss off everyone bar the weirdos who believe it’s not vehicular assault if you run into people with differing opinions to you

It clearly did not occur to Steve King when trying to find a logical reason to say abortions should be banned that saying the human race may not exist if not for cases of rape and incest tens of thousands of years ago doesn’t in any way defend his position, instead make it sound uncannily like he’s on the side of those who raped and pillaged

It didn’t take long before Boris Johnson started reading from the Bannon playbook, stating that he would not take interviews with the press as they’re all biased against him - yes, even the BBC, the Murdoch Empire, the Daily Mail and Daily Express, all of whom have been churning out unthinkingly slanted headlines in his favour

It was so nice that James Cleverly repeatedly wanted to talk about how the Tory MP  William Wilberforce fought to end slavery...even after it was pointed out to him the first time he made that statement that Wilberforce stood as an independent and not a Tory, no matter how many times Cleverly tries to rewrite history

Let’s see if I’ve got this straight: the Lib Dems state that they will do everything in their power to stop Britait...yet Jo Swinson has ruled out going into coalition with either Labour or the SNP, in spite the fact they both have far more MPs than the Lib Dems and just so happen to also be opposing Britait

Similarly, the best idea Caroline Lucas had for solving Britait was for an all-woman cabinet that just so happened to include her, Jo Swinson, Heidi Allen, Justine Greening, Yvette Cooper and Anna Soubry among others - and seemed confused when it was mentioned that not only did her dream cabinet exclude all men but it didn’t include a single non-white MP either, and appears to have forgotten that a woman spent between 2016-19 fucking the process up at every turn

In the latest Priti Patel brainfart, she suggested that migrants earning less than £36,000 a year are no longer welcome in the UK...clearly failing to comprehend that arbitrary figure is higher than the basic salary of any member of NHS staff, any teacher or any police officer - you know, something a Home Secretary should be able to understand...

Walking proof that nominative determinism isn't really a thing James Cleverley could only try and claim that the leaked Operation Yellowhammer dossier was “out of date” and was no remotely relevant to any discussion about what would happen if the UK leaves the EU without a deal...even though the dossier was dated 1st August 2019

There was something deeply sinister about how the BBC described Owen Jones as a “Labour activist” after he was assaulted, as opposed to...oh I don’t know?  A journalist?

With the Leave hardcore now lionising chlorinated chicken of all things, it;s not surprise that Darren Grimes tried to say there’s no issue because we also have chlorinated water...somehow spectacularly missing the point

I have no idea how the Entertainment Software Association managed to bungle so badly that they managed to release the personal information of thousands of people who attended this year’s E3, including games journalists and Youtubers/Twitch streamers, but they managed it nonetheless

In a quite remarkable turn of events there was a controversy regarding Borderlands 3 that didn’t involve Gearbox CEO Randy Pitchford, instead it was Take Two Interactive sending private investigators to the doorstep of Youtuber SupMatto to harass him into keeping quiet, and because he wasn’t keeping quiet they abused Youtube’s copyright system on an industrial scale with over 100 copyright strikes to force him off the platform because of reasons

For a documentarian Stacey Dooley makes an awful lot of factual blunders, the latest of which being a Panorama documentary where she described a Muslim prayer gesture as an “ISIS salute”, leading to the BBC removing the clip from the documentary...on the iPlayer, but leaving it in unchallenged for its initial broadcast

You would think that Microsoft wouldn’t be so dense as to release an update that cripples the computers of everyone using Windows 7 due to somebody typing a 2 instead of a 1 in one line of code, but that’s exactly what happened with the KB4512506 update that was coded by someone who assumed everyone has Windows 10

As it was time for Suzanne Moore to vomit another opinion piece into the pages of the Guardian, she took it upon herself to write a piece that managed to insinuate that Shilpa Shetty somehow deserved the racial abuse she received from Jade Goody, Jo O’Meara and Danielle Lloyd on Celebrity Big Brother back in 2007 because...hold on a minute...because Shetty had servants at home while the others didn’t which apparently makes it alright

The outraged howls from Manchester City fans and football pundits alike all because VAR rightly disallowed what would have been a last-minute winner for City was truly a sight to behold, because apparently VAR exists to make things easier for a small kabal of teams and everyone else can get fucked

...and demonstrated by Mike Dean using The Wenger Defence of “I didn’t see it guv” a week later to overrule VAR stating that Tottenham should have been awarded a penalty

...and yet the depths were truly plumbed when Ian Holloway blamed the EU for the fact he doesn’t understand the offside law, even though as a football pundit (and former manager) he’s literally paid to understand it

Ooblets developers Glumberland decided to double down on their dickheadishness which began with their smug and condescending blog post explaining why they decided to make their game an Epic Games Store exclusive, but they followed that up by acting like complete bellends on their Discord that culminated with them responding to somebody asking when they could buy the game with their own currency by telling them that nobody owed them the game

With both Bury and Bolton facing extinction, trust Sky Sports News to cover this by having a clock ticking down in the corner of the screen all day, as if the possibility (and, in Bury’s case, eventuality) of a club being kicked out of the league was the same thing as Deadline Day

Britain’s most triggered man Piers Moron Morgan was predictably irked by the Meghan Markle guest-editing Vogue because obviously somebody doing that is only after the publicity...a sentiment he neglected to express when Kate Middleton did the exact same thing a few years previously

The sensible thing that Bethesda should have done after the have done after the humiliation conga line that was Fallout 76 was try not to do anything that would irritate gamers further.  So instead they decided that, when releasing Doom - that’s the 1993 original, not the 2016 reboot - it would require players to use their Bethesda account to play the actual game 

I know it’s a cheapshot, but did UKIP really elect somebody named Dick Braine as their new leader?

How the hell did Apple develop a credit card that gets discoloured if it touches materials such as denim or leather, or to put it another way if it’s in somebody’s pocket or wallet?  What are they supposed to do?  Carry it around in their hand at maximum reach?

If you have a name like Michael Buerk it isn’t a good idea to make your name fair game, but that’s exactly what he did when he suggested that it’s potentially a good thing for obese people to die early as it would save the NHS money

And of course, it wouldn't be a month without Donald Trump being a colossal cockhead, and he certainly disappoint with his prioritising schmoozing with guests at Mar A Lago while people in Dayton and El Paso were experiencing the aftermath of their respective mass shootings, and when the Orange Overlord deigned to make a statement he not only demonstrated he couldn’t give a toss by talking about the mass shootings in Toledo and El Paso, but his response to it being plain for all to see that white nationalism was the catalyst for both was to blame video games for all of society’s ills