Gemmill

Find it quite odd that Alan Bates has accepted a knighthood given the number that the establishment has done on him and his associates.

I have to hold myself back from bringing up my niece and nephew when I get into it with my mam and sister about Brexit. Both voted for it, both made these kids' lives worse off, but it feels a step too far to actually spell it out to them. My sister loves falling out with people and I suspect I'd never hear from her again, and scoring a point in an argument probably isn't worth that. Probably.

Speaking of which.... Got some very triumphant texts from my mam yesterday about Reform polling ahead of the Tories. Sent her one back referring to the self-publicising, racist architect of Brexit and she quickly changed the subject. Not that keen to talk about Brexit anymore, although as expected it's not Brexit that's the problem, it's *this version* of Brexit. Last time I went out for a dog walk with my dad, he raised the horrifying spectre of 15 minute cities. I had to try and explain that it's a simple town planning concept that has been weaponised by conspiracy nuts, but unfortunately the conspiracy nuts have won the day there too. How I came from these people, I do not know. It's genuinely depressing though, the power of social media to melt people's brains.

Alright stop, collaborate and listen, Renty's back with a brand new patient.

Still alive and kicking.

Collaborate

Unlike me btw. 28 years can fuck right off.

Never gets old.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/article/2024/jun/14/rishi-sunak-class-system-ripley-saltburn?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Other

Looks like they've finally realised they need to take the fight to Farage. They'll be at war with one another now too cos Jenkyns etc will see this as an opportunity to get Reform voters back onside if she has a go at Cameron etc.

We all need to agree not to let them renounce their plastic jockiness. They've made their shitty tartan beds, now they need to lie in them.

This is gonna be red as fuck.

Trust the jocks to not ever even look like making a contest of it, the absolute minnows.

FINE! Wallow in your cynicism and misery!

https://open.substack.com/pub/iandunt/p/hidden-in-the-manifesto-labours-war?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android&r=172g This from Ian Dunt is excellent. It starts off pretty pessimistic, but the stuff about Starmer and the way he intends to govern is, imo, very heartening.

You're younger than I expected. And why the Germany top?

https://yougov.co.uk/topics/politics/trackers/voting-intention?crossBreak=5064 This doesn't give you the age of those leaving the Tories to vote for them, but it shows you the splits across age groups if you play with the graphs. There's a surprising number of young people voting for them - 15% of 18 to 24 year olds with a big spike in recent weeks. The Tories only get 7% of the same age cohort.

He'll come under too much scrutiny as the leader of the official opposition imo. There's skeletons in his closet that decent investigative reporters will expose and it'll finish him. Also, I still think his appeal has a ceiling which is currently way below what's required to ever become PM. Which, if you're opposition leader, is your end goal.

Good point, it would be Deputy PMQs every week cos that cunt would never be there. Starmer could have every Wednesday actually getting on with some graft.

He'll do what he did as an MEP. Turn up for less than half the votes, but get on telly loads and clip up the odd question in Parliament for his social media. I don't know what the requirement is for minority parties to have representation on committees, but he could definitely be a grandstanding cunt in the manner of MTG if he finds his way on to any of them.

This stuff that's coming out this morning about setting up Mission Boards that Starmer will chair across all key objectives, is at least an attempt to do things differently, and evidence of someone with a plan to actually get things done. I'm hopeful. I know everyone is super cynical at the minute, but I've seen nothing to suggest that Starmer doesn't WANT to do the right thing. I hope/think that he's just being very careful not to promise to do these things before he knows the full extent of the challenge.

Best case scenario is Farage kills the Tories but loses in Clacton. That would end his involvement in mainstream politics in this country. He can fuck off and tongue Trump's hole for the rest of his life. Unlikely because Clacton appears to be 70% thick as fuck, but I can dream.

It does become a concern when he's everywhere on the airwaves. The bloke is a proven snake oil salesman, and he's very good at it. He'll start brainwashing the dopes from all age groups if he's given enough air time. I still think he's destined to only ever be a fringe character, but he's a fringe character that's given far too much exposure by the media in the name of ratings. They get him on to say mental shit, and then punish right thinking presenters for calling it out when he says mental shit.