Brendan Rodgers posted:

It's not even about that really, it's perfectly rational. The entire premise of the Labour right wing is that the left have nowhere else to go and they can take us for granted, that's correct if everyone just loving folds and votes for them anyway. What's the best case scenario then? 5 years of Labour, 5 years of Tories, and then we try again? I'd rather watch them burn and refuse to piss on them.

This isn't accelerationism, this is a refusal to allow "left wing communist EXTREMISTS" to be redefined into whatever the gently caress Starmer is doing, because that's how this always works, the window just moves to the right.

Desiderata posted:

Nice to know Ruth (strictly protect) Smeeth is gonna be getting that sweet National Endowment for Democracy money, after all, she earned it.

Gum posted:

im pretty sure thats just what he says when you pull his string

Regarde Aduck posted:

Some people won’t survive another Tory government. They ‘might’ survive a lovely labour one. Maybe.

Gonzo McFee posted:

https://twitter.com/Independent/status/1272565529375584256?s=19

She also called Starmer racist as well. Pathetic.

Jaeluni Asjil posted:

Much as I hate to share a Nick Cohen / Spectator article, this one is mostly numbers rather than ideology:

The Red Wall overwhelmingly opposes a no-deal Brexit.

https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/the-red-wall-overwhelmingly-opposes-a-no-deal-brexit

Gonzo McFee posted:

https://twitter.com/Independent/status/1272565529375584256?s=19

She also called Starmer racist as well. Pathetic.

baka kaba posted:

She's been taking questions about the government's track record of racist policies, and talking about her own personal experiences of racism, therefore NO U

ronya posted:

there's a great deal of active revisionism in it and I sense that Hatherley sees himself as publishing a manifesto rather than engaging in a historical narrative

London was never left-wing in the isolationist Bennite AES mold; Hatherley constructs a narrative of left continuity by ignoring it

that's fine in the manifesto sense that Hatherley probably doesn't want the left to draw on that particular element of its past, but it's exceptionally relevant to the narrative of the decline of particular ways of economic production and the rise of others - the triumph of the cities is a global phenomenon, not just in the UK

that renders the closing rallying cries - a somewhat confused plea to shrink London and rely on other parts of England to pick up the slack - a little strange

ultimately a more powerful municipal government of London could sustain public services in London much more easily by not subsidizing the rest of the country so much, but that's no way for a socialist to treat the hinterland either

quote:

London’s government should not be afraid to be confrontational with the powers-that-be, in the interest of its citizens. The powers the gla has managed to squeeze out of Parliament, compared to its cousins in Cardiff and Edinburgh, has been minimal. Demand them, and put them in the London Plan, the only really powerful instrument the Mayor has. If he won’t, the gla needs to change the Plan, something the campaign group Just Space has already called for.

Borrovan posted:

Yeah the solution isn't to let Labour lose, it's to build our movement outside of the party and drag the cunts to the left by physical force

Guavanaut posted:

Anti-racism is the real racism. Racism is the real anti-racism.

Gonzo McFee posted:

https://twitter.com/thetimes/status/1272462537062318080

Kier's Labour will throw every single person under the bus purely to get one sympathetic headline from the sun.

justcola posted:

justcola posted:

All pile on the Green Party. All pile on.

baka kaba posted:

So my dad's been buying these
https://www.virustaticshield.com/

justcola posted:

Brendan Rodgers posted:

I'm gonna vote Green for now.

baka kaba posted:

anyway does anyone know if there's anything to this at all? is there any coating out there that gives more protection than actually washing the thing?

Dismay over adviser chosen to set up UK race inequality commission posted:

Munira Mirza has doubted existence of institutional racism and criticised ‘culture of grievance’

The new government commission on racial inequalities is being set up by a No 10 adviser who has cast doubt on the existence of institutional racism and condemned previous inquiries for fostering a “culture of grievance”, it has emerged.

Munira Mirza, the head of the No 10 policy unit, is leading much of the work to form the commission on race and ethnic disparities announced by Boris Johnson on Sunday after the global wave of Black Lives Matter (BLM) protests, the Guardian has been told.

It is understood that Mirza has said she hopes to recruit Trevor Phillips as part of the commission. Phillips, the former chair of the Equalities and Human Rights Commission, would be a controversial choice, having previously referred to UK Muslims as being “a nation within a nation”.

When Phillips was named as playing a role in a Public Health England inquiry into the disproportionate impact of Covid-19 on black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) people, it prompted condemnation from campaigners.

The revelation of Mirza’s role was met with dismay from experts and MPs. The Institute of Race Relations thinktank said it would be hard to have confidence in the commission’s outcomes.

“Any enquiry into inequality has to acknowledge structural and systemic factors. Munira Mirza’s previous comments describe a ‘grievance culture’ within the anti-racist field and she has previously argued that institutional racism is ‘a perception more than a reality’,” a spokesperson said. “It is difficult to have any confidence in policy recommendations from someone who denies the existence of the very structures that produce the social inequalities experienced by black communities.”

Diane Abbott, the Labour MP and former shadow home secretary, said: “A new race equalities commission led by Munira Mirza is dead on arrival. She has never believed in institutional racism.”

The government commission, revealed in a Daily Telegraph column by Johnson, was also condemned by Labour as overly vague, “written on the back of a fag packet” and adding delay rather than urgency.

Mirza, who is also understood to be leading efforts to recruit commission members, has been an outspoken critic of previous government attempts to tackle structural factors behind racial inequality.

She condemned an audit of racial inequalities in public services commissioned by Theresa May, which No 10 say will form part of the basis of the new commission. Writing for the Spectator in 2017, Mirza said the audit showed how “anti-racism is becoming weaponised across the political spectrum”.

In the same article, Mirza criticised two other reports which Johnson’s government has promised to act on: one by David Lammy, the Labour MP turned shadow justice secretary, on inequalities in the judicial system, and another on unequal pay among ethnic groups. Mirza said both showed “wrongheaded thinking about race”.

Dawn Butler, a Labour MP and former equalities minister, said Mirza’s role “undermines its credibility from the very outset by appointing someone who stands by Johnson’s racist comments, rejected the Lammy review, saying ‘institutional racism’ is ‘a perception more than a reality’, and opposed Theresa May’s very own racial disparities audit.

“I am tired of fighting the government on this issue. The only review needed is a review into all the past consultations and reviews as well as their failure to implement over 200 prior recommendations.”

Zubaida Haque, the interim director of the Runnymede Trust, a leading race equality thinktank, said the prime minister bore ultimate responsibility for the commission, however. “There are several members in this government who were not strong supporters of Theresa May’s race disparity audit including Munira Mirza, Boris Johnson’s own adviser in No 10. But we must remember that it’s the prime minister who’s in charge here and it’s the prime minister who needs to be held accountable for his words and actions, not his advisers.”

Johnson announced the commission in two lines of an article for Monday’s Telegraph otherwise devoted to arguing against the removal of historic statues and condemning protesters, and in brief TV comments that referenced a desire to end “the sense of victimisation”, which were described by critics as unhelpful.

Mirza, a one-time supporter of the Revolutionary Communist party, who spent eight years as Johnson’s deputy mayor for culture in London, has been an outspoken critic of anti-racism and what she called “its culture of grievance”.

In the Spectator article, she took issue with Lammy’s review into the justice system by saying that in some ways, people from BAME backgrounds have “more favourable treatment compared with whites”.

In a blogpost from 2018, Mirza argued that injustices were only treated seriously if there was “a social justice angle that can be divined (or manufactured)”.

These views chime to an extent with Johnson’s attempts to reframe the debate about the mass protests following the killing of George Floyd at the hands of police in Minneapolis in terms of opposition to removing statues, and his view that more should be done to talk up positive experiences about race.

“What I feel most strongly is that there are so many positive stories that are not being heard,” he told reporters in Downing Street on Monday. “Things really are changing. You’re seeing young black kids now doing better in some of the most difficult subjects in school than they were ever before, more going to top universities.”

Addressing MPs in the Commons, the home secretary, Priti Patel, confirmed the government was backing a plan by some Tory MPs for a new law imposing heavier prison sentences on protesters who vandalise war memorials, after a statue of Winston Churchill in Parliament Square was defaced during a BLM demonstration.

This prompted counter-demonstrators, including far-right groups, to protest in Westminster on Saturday. Patel said about 2,000 “racist and far-right hooligans” attended, some of whom threw smoke bombs at police.

Patel said more than 210,000 people attended demonstrations across the country over the weekend at about 160 protests.

Asked about Mirza’s role and the concerns around it, a No 10 source highlighted Johnson’s comments on Tuesday about the value of the commission’s work.

XMNN posted:

so about that racism commission...

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/jun/15/dismay-over-adviser-chosen-set-up-uk-race-inequality-commission-munira-mirza

rcp membership continues to be a massive red flag

a pipe smoking dog posted:

Was the revolutionary communist party a CIA front or something? It seems weird just how prominent Trotskyites are at all levels of right wing politics in this country.

XMNN posted:

so about that racism commission...

Guavanaut posted:

There's some like brass and silver that can be impaired by overwashing and sterilize themselves over some hours, and there's HEPA type materials that are best sterilized with UV-C than washing, but unless it names names, studies, and patent numbers I'd file it with the covid USB stick.

baka kaba posted:

Yeah I was really just wondering if "wash the drat thing every time you use it" would ever be the wrong advice for something you're not going to throw away. Like "avoid washing" sounds like really risky advice?

And no there's no specific info at all lol so I'm just treating it as marketing, just wondering if something along those lines is A Thing that's definitely being used in clinical settings or whatever

justcola posted:

A movement backing the Greens like Momentum did whilst having a party that isn't the Tories or Labour would be a good thing. They just have to get over their image of 'well they couldn't win though could they'

XMNN posted:

everything smells more alive when it's raining

jaete posted:

Hmm yes, if it's raining frogs for example, those frogs smell more alive

Gonzo McFee posted:

https://twitter.com/thetimes/status/1272462537062318080

Kier's Labour will throw every single person under the bus purely to get one sympathetic headline from the sun.

baka kaba posted:

I've got a corona q if anyone wants to do a science

So my dad's been buying these
https://www.virustaticshield.com/
and it has a "unique anti-viral coating" which lasts "up to 3 hand washes" so you should "wash sparingly and only when necessary"

as far as I'm concerned that's bs, you treat any face covering as if it's contaminated and you wash it as soon as possible, you definitely don't let it hang around for a while to marinate and then put it back on your face next time you go out. My dad's annoyed that I "think I know better" even though it's literally marketing blurb that I have zero reason to believe

anyway does anyone know if there's anything to this at all? is there any coating out there that gives more protection than actually washing the thing?

CancerCakes posted:

The "virus proof" mask almost certainly contains silver nanoparticles, of varying quantity and quality. Google oligodynamic effect - note that most of the research is on bacteria rather than viruses, and there isn't much on the effect upon cov-sars-2.

Not a doctor so I can only say what I am doing - stay at home. If you can't stay at home wear a mask and wash your hands, and if you wear a mask wash/dispose it.