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(Thanks Lord Ludikrous) Well that was a year, alright. After the sheer misery of 2016, it was expected that 2017 would fare little better. The Tories showed no signs of shifting, Labour continued to undermine Corbyn (even after the failed "Chicken Coup"), and the grim spectre of Brexit continued to loom in the background. A Brief Retrospective: In Politics It's been busy. Holy hell has it been a busy year in British politics... So here's the short, very abrigded version: Adamant that she wouldn't call a general election, strong and stable Prime Minister, Theresa May...called a general election after a brief walking holiday, apparently on a whim, confident that she would utterly crush Labour, Corbyn and have mandate approval for her version of Brexit. What followed is an almost unbelievable tale on the perils of hubris; what was expected to be Labour's worst defeat in 90 years, turned out to be its strongest gains since the 40s. Robbing the Tories of an outright majority, and forcing a hung parliament The Tories having lost their slim majority, is forcing them to rely on the NI party, the DUP - showing the rest of the UK (who previously had not given a gently caress about Irish politics) a bunch of creationist, homophobic, God-bothering mentalists - to make up their numbers. UKIP collapsed without the foetid slime of Farage holding it together, and the Libdems underwent a change of leadership, following the failure of Tim "Gay Frog Milkman" Farron, and the ++Humilation of Loser Clegg++ - leaving a vaccum which was filled by a crusty, piss-stinking, nonagenarian charisma void, by the name of Vince Cable. In the months following the result, (and in a nice twist) it's basically been a on-going trainwreck for the Tories; May refuses to step down as leader, while her cabinet and backbenchers sharpen their knives - she's lost three high profile cabinet ministers in as many months;
Arise, Loser, Sir Clegg In Brexit The omnipresent Brexit looms forever larger - lurching from disaster to disaster. Having established that Brexit means Brexit, the task then fell to David Davis to execute it. After promising the House that 58 impact analyses had been done on what impact Brexit would have on the economic sectors, he then attempted to have it so no-one could loving read them. Forced to present the unredacted analyses in front of the Brexit Select Committee, he said that his dog ate his them, and he was excused from attending PE, honest, here's a note from my mum. Surprisingly unsatisifed with this answer, he was then forced to admit to the Committee that, there were infact, no analyses - and then quibbled over the definition of the words "impact" and "anaysis" (I'm not loving kidding). His department then pulled an all-nighter, copying bland term defintions from Wikipedia, which said nothing about the actual impact of Brexit. (Also not loving kidding). An ordinary person might say that, one-way-or-the-other, he was either; lying to the Select Commitee, or lying to the House (and by extension, the general public). But this is Westminster, so the lying frog-faced poo poo wasn't reprimanded. The face of a man you can trust Brexit continues to slowly implode the country - either through the Tories demanding the impossible (still!), the unreconcilable reality of what that would mean to NI and ROI (a hard border goes against the Good Friday agreement), Boris Johnson insulting foreigners, Disgraced MP Liam Fox trying to sell arms to whoever wants them, or MPs trying to raise public money to spend on a big yacht to take round the world and impress aforementioned insulted foreigners (I'm not even loving joking). Oh. And we'll get Blue Passports again . Which turns out we could have had anyway. In short; Brexit continues to make us the laughing stock of the world. In Society As a direct result of Tory policy in their national race to the bottom, a massive fire occured in London at the Grenfell tower, a public housing flat - killing over 70 people, and leaving more without homes. While the origin of the fire is accidental, the spread of the fire was aided by the building's exterior cladding, which, in an attempt at saving a mere £5000 on a £8.6 Million (!) renovation project in lieu of a more resistant material (at the cost of saving £2 per panel. Two. loving. Pounds), was actually combustable. Other factors included a lack of preventative equipment, and inadequate safety regulations - all of which had been highlighted by residents months before hand. Mere months before, Tories were celebrating at removing such "red tape", as they believed it was harming business profits. Not. Even. Kidding. The fallout is still ongoing - many residents are still not either compensated or in permanent reisdence - the buck being passed from the council, to government, to the contractors and back again. In semi-related news, homelessness has doubled under the Tory government (by their own metric of what qualifies "homelessness") - but is probably much higher, with rough sleeping up 134%, and a 73% increase of children being classed as "homeless". The NHS continues to suffer under the Tories, being starved of money, encroached on by private firms, and deliberately hosed over by Jeremy Hunt. Despite this, the doctors, nurses, and other staff still do amazing loving work, and we must protect them and the NHS at any cost we can. The short version of everything you've read is; Tories are cunts. gently caress them, and gently caress everything they stand for! Let's make a loving change! Mu. posted:https://twitter.com/jeremycorbyn/status/947618644028137473 --- Previous Year Resolutions UKMT December 2017 - DExEU's Midnight Runners - "Come On Arlene" UKMT November 2017: Pee for Vendetta/Priti Little Liars UKMT Halloween 2017: The York Ghost Walk is Nonce Seance Previous UKMT threads Kalendae Ianuariae Europol Thread Hogmanay Celebrations Scotpol Thread Trainchat Thread Old Men with Scythes, and Babies in Nappies Political Cartoons Thread The Drunken Fumble in the Bogs BYOB: UKMT A Lefty Hootenanny Some choice left-leaning podcasts: Off the Fence - Brighton based, covering UK & Global topics. Pretty chill and professional peeps. Older 'casts can be found in the PLATFORM B archive. Reel Politik - The Original Leftie Hate Trolls. Check 'em out. We Don't Talk About The Weather - Two cool guys discuss news and other stuff. The UKMT-iest of Podcasts. Desolation Radio - Socialism from a Welsh perspective. Informative hosts. Revolutionary Despatches - Two new guys starting out. Agitpod - Owen Jones & Ellie Mae O’Hagan discuss news. Novara Media - Numerous fluctucating commentators including Matt Zarb-Cousin, Max Shanly, and James Butler among others. Varying topics with guests. [Citations Needed] - Covers the US, focussing on the media, PR, and assorted bullshit. Also some socialist history topics. Very informative. New Year Honours List Stop, Thief!: The Commons, Enclosures, And Resistance – Peter Linebaugh Libertarian Communism – Isaac Puente Amestoy At The Café – Malatesta The Method of Freedom – Malatesta In Praise of Idleness – Russell Political Ideals – Russell Declaration – Hardt and Negri Liberalism, a Counter History – Domenico Losurdo God and the State – Bakunin The Conquest of Bread – Kropotkin Imperialism, the Highest Stage of Capitalism – V I Lenin Anarchism and Other Essays – Emma Goldman Social Reform or Revolution – Rosa Luxemburg Violence – Slavoj Zizek Jihad vs. McWorld - Benjamin Barber Flat Earth News - Nick Davies Hack Attack - Nick Davies Ecology of Freedom – Murray Bookchin Anarchism, Marxism and the Future of the Left – Murray Bookchin Let's Read Das Kapital – Karl Marx and Goons Auld (and New) Acquaintances (thanks feedmegin) quote:I came up with the idea of a register of goons and their CLPs in case any new joiners wanted someone to go to to get the local lie of the land. Auld Lang Syne #ukgoons on synIRC (thanks crispix). Image of The Hour Three Davis Moon OwlFancier posted:Behold my masterpiece: "Why won't you press the button, Jeremy!?" Mr.Kattykat posted:thought the thread might appreciate this --- Pesky Splinter fucked around with this message at 01:46 on Jan 31, 2018 |
# ? Jan 1, 2018 01:00 |
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# ? May 25, 2024 14:19 |
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A+ banner, OP.
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# ? Jan 1, 2018 01:01 |
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Salutations comrades
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# ? Jan 1, 2018 01:05 |
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Happy New Day fellows.
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# ? Jan 1, 2018 01:08 |
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As I said in't last thread: Get tae gently caress 2017 Survive, comrades.
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# ? Jan 1, 2018 01:10 |
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Happy new year everyone Not sure what to make of my new year fortune, but I wish you all a porky 2018 too
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# ? Jan 1, 2018 01:23 |
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Skarsnik posted:Happy new year everyone Ah, the bulling-dong chinese restraunt
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# ? Jan 1, 2018 01:36 |
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Pinch, punch, first day of the month
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# ? Jan 1, 2018 01:38 |
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https://twitter.com/jeremycorbyn/status/947618644028137473 Big Jez comin at ya 2018.
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# ? Jan 1, 2018 01:39 |
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I'd put modest money on this actually happening this year. Purely by accident of course, because the palace of Westminster is a goddamn firetrap.
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# ? Jan 1, 2018 02:08 |
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Happy new year Toby Young to help lead government's new universities regulator
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# ? Jan 1, 2018 02:11 |
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Op should link the sexy UK chat thread instead of train chat imo https://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3733476
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# ? Jan 1, 2018 02:13 |
Mu. posted:https://twitter.com/jeremycorbyn/status/947618644028137473 Yeaaaaaah boi Also, nice OP, new OP
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# ? Jan 1, 2018 02:16 |
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Happy 2018, it can only get better.
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# ? Jan 1, 2018 02:19 |
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Happy new year UKMT. Hopefully things will go better than in the last one Also OP your latin is a bit wrong I think, it's either Kalendae Ianuariae or Kalendas Ianuarius, but the second's not nominative pl. so Kalendae Ianuariae I think.
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# ? Jan 1, 2018 02:39 |
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I'll bow to your superior grasp of Latin. Barry Foster posted:Yeaaaaaah boi Thanks! Ratjaculation posted:Op should link the sexy UK chat thread instead of train chat imo Linked.
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# ? Jan 1, 2018 02:46 |
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This is the year when the little people flex their muscles and I will buy a forums upgrade for the first 3 people in this thread who post a screengrab that they joined Labour and declare they will gently caress poo poo Up And Radicalise their constituency group.
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# ? Jan 1, 2018 02:49 |
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Well i managed to get through 2 whole hours of 2018 before feeling miserably depressed. It's a new record!
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# ? Jan 1, 2018 02:58 |
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Ratjaculation posted:Op should link the sexy UK chat thread instead of train chat imo This is the UK chat thread
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# ? Jan 1, 2018 02:58 |
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Byob scares me, it's just too chill yo, if I relax that much I might die
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# ? Jan 1, 2018 03:02 |
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Merry $Orbital_Counter++, everyone! On Adonischat, the Owen Jones thing is interesting. OK people might not be all that willing to listen to a man who sits in the House of Lords and who goes skiing. On the other hand, Adonis worked his way up from a council estate to get there. And those same people are apparently happy to hang on the every word of a Home Counties ex-stockbroker who likes posing in solid-gold lifts with his billionaire pals and whose pension alone is three times the median wage.
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# ? Jan 1, 2018 03:02 |
communism bitch posted:Well i managed to get through 2 whole hours of 2018 before feeling miserably depressed. It's a new record! Chin up Ober, those fash won't bash themselves
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# ? Jan 1, 2018 03:10 |
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Man who was in the care system until 11, son of a Cypriot immigrant: out-of-touch metrocucked Establishment elitist Man who is the privately-educated stockbroker son of a stockbroker: swashbuckling salt-of-the-earth tribune of the little people
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# ? Jan 1, 2018 03:12 |
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Zephro posted:Merry $Orbital_Counter++, everyone! Commodities broker
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# ? Jan 1, 2018 03:16 |
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Namtab posted:Commodities broker
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# ? Jan 1, 2018 03:18 |
No gods, no masters, no heroes. Policy is all
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# ? Jan 1, 2018 03:36 |
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This is our year. We will build the foundations of a Blair free 21st century British socialism.
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# ? Jan 1, 2018 03:44 |
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So apparently Freemasons are helping keep the police bigoted.
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# ? Jan 1, 2018 04:43 |
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The British ruling class was all pedophiles, sure, maybe the Freemasons are actually behind terrible poo poo
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# ? Jan 1, 2018 05:20 |
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Zephro posted:Merry $Orbital_Counter++, everyone! The problem is you're exactly right, on all counts. Leavers do consider Farage to be a man of the people, even though he is establishment through and through, and it's massively hypocritical of them to dismiss Adonis on that basis. But they will anyway! I don't know about you but personally I care a lot more about actually stopping Brexit than racking up debate points against insane Leave voters. So as much as I appreciate the letter, it's not actually going to achieve anything and I wish people would stop treating it like a silver bullet.
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# ? Jan 1, 2018 05:49 |
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Hello 2018.
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# ? Jan 1, 2018 06:30 |
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Scikar posted:The problem is you're exactly right, on all counts. Leavers do consider Farage to be a man of the people, even though he is establishment through and through, and it's massively hypocritical of them to dismiss Adonis on that basis. But they will anyway! I don't know about you but personally I care a lot more about actually stopping Brexit than racking up debate points against insane Leave voters. So as much as I appreciate the letter, it's not actually going to achieve anything and I wish people would stop treating it like a silver bullet. yes - on the other hand, it suggests that there's little reason to think that said insane Leave voters are receptive to Jone's recommendation of hitching Bremain onto causes like abolishing the Lords or grassroots national campaigns led by people who grew up in hardships just like one's own. The presumption is that these latter are at least more popular than the elite-tainted Bremain cause, but there's no reason to think that this is the case these things are populist banners only in the fevered dreams of a certain kind of socialist - Tory gains amongst C2DE/Labour gains amongst ABC1 + Tory gains amongst less-educated/Labour gains amongst highly-educated are only entrenching this change ronya fucked around with this message at 06:41 on Jan 1, 2018 |
# ? Jan 1, 2018 06:32 |
Most leave voters didn’t logic themselves into supporting Brexit, so it’s hardly reasonable to expect them to logic themselves out of it. This means the government won’t have cover to reverse course. Absent anyone in government calling a halt to the whole stupid idea on their own initiative, which isn’t going to happen, the only thing to do is to let it get worse and worse and when we get the chance, vote a socialist government in to minimise the damage. The best outcome would be a second referendum with a really strong GOTV against Brexit. I’m fairly sure that without stay-at-homes remain wins comfortably. I just don’t see that happening unfortunately. It sucks that Brexit probably can’t be stopped but that’s all there is. Happy 2018 anyway! Beefeater1980 fucked around with this message at 07:17 on Jan 1, 2018 |
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# ? Jan 1, 2018 07:08 |
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Hello
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# ? Jan 1, 2018 09:06 |
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As my new years resolution is to go to more meetings can you put me down for Stretford and Urmston CLP?
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# ? Jan 1, 2018 09:43 |
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Get the gently caress out this stupid loving government. The result of this will be that the bottom 90% of universities go back to becoming polytechnics in all but name because what else are you going to do if you’re regulated as a degree selling institution while research can only persist in the large non-university institutes and Oxbridge with baseline funding/large endowments. Having more polytechnics might actually be a good thing for people wanting a technical job rather than wanting to become a starving scientist, but turning unis into degree mills isn’t how you do that. suck my woke dick fucked around with this message at 09:52 on Jan 1, 2018 |
# ? Jan 1, 2018 09:50 |
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If I understand right, Adonis wants Corbyn to gauge the public support for reversing brexit and position the party to take advantage of that to call for a second referendum on the details of the brexit deal. Win this, cancel brexit and then translate that win into an election victory and form a government. Is there any evidence (or even vague hope) he will do this? I spoke with about the only leave voter I really know before xmas and his position was: 'You all said the morning after the referendum the country would literally collapse, it didn't, so you are still wrong about everything'. Any attempt to introduce any argument or facts (like brexit not actually having happened yet) and he just returned to that same gotcha. My only hope would be that a second referendum would allow enough people who double down and express opinions like that to save face whilst quietly reversing their vote, saving us all but leaving them free to spend the rest of their lives reminding us all how we stole away their brexit utopia. I haven't cared what year it is since I had to write the date at the top of my margin at the start of every lesson and that was gently caress knows how many years ago.
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# ? Jan 1, 2018 10:12 |
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And don’t forget that anything less than “London burned down, the North is under
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# ? Jan 1, 2018 10:27 |
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NotJustANumber99 posted:leaving them free to spend the rest of their lives reminding us all how we stole away their brexit utopia.
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# ? Jan 1, 2018 10:33 |
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# ? May 25, 2024 14:19 |
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Zephro posted:Merry $Orbital_Counter++, everyone! On which note, here's some incisive commentary on capitalism from the Hartnoll boys. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xkQgXZxJ3PI Bonus points awarded for spotting the goon (me) in the video. No clues.
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# ? Jan 1, 2018 10:37 |