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Namtab posted:Neo-liberalism is good, imo. Why is neo-liberalism good, iyo?
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Jan 1, 2016 14:51
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Guavanaut posted:Trans people can be men in dresses if they identify as men and wear dresses. There are some trains that are less than awesome. Particularly when someone's two-year-old has repeatedly vomited all over the carriage.
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Jan 1, 2016 15:07
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Any idea what the Mail's angle here is? This has clearly gone way beyond a spot of monstering to keep their guy in line, and I'm not completely sure it's motivated by straight-up moral outrage like what they did with Stephen Lawrence.
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Jan 3, 2016 11:58
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Spangly A posted:he's not doing and has never planned a reshuffle, I'm not sure how this is unclear Well, 'cept for Dugher getting booted. That probably counts.
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Jan 5, 2016 16:05
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Regarde Aduck posted:That was a great farce. I love how they knew they were proving the guy was the complete scum that Thornberry was implying. Ill advised or not. My theory of the British working class situation is that we have reached a unique point where it is entirely lumpenprole. Careful, that sounds suspiciously like the sort of classist dreck that this thread was churning out before Labour gleefully stomped everyone in the Oldham by-election.
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Jan 5, 2016 18:50
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Do we know anything about McFadden and what (specifically) might have led to him getting booted?
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Jan 6, 2016 02:35
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jabby posted:To be honest, I believe him. Asking a sycophantic question of an opposition Prime Minister intended to bolster his position and humiliate your own party leader is perfectly reasonable grounds for a sacking. It was exactly the type of showboating question you would expect from a Tory MP. Note how the letter said 'in particular'. That suggests that it was a prominent example of a general pattern of behaviour that Corbyn found unhelpful.
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Jan 6, 2016 03:01
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serious gaylord posted:No it really isn't. Just because you cant see the forest for the trees. Looking through Wikipedia, Doughty is a disciple of corrupt Blairite shits like Alun Michael and Douglas Alexander who was brought into Parliament through overt nepotism and voted against his constituency on Syria. Having a minister resign on TV is real bad optics, but in the long-term, I don't think the Shadow Cabinet is losing anything by his absence.
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Jan 6, 2016 13:40
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XMNN posted:On the bright side, North Korea's hydrogen bomb test hopefully means we're a little closer to cleansing the world in nuclear fire and not having to worry about this garbage anymore. C'mon, we all know it wasn't a hydrogen bomb. No visible effects from the underground detonation, and the earthquake it caused was tiny (5.1 on the Richter scale sounds big until you remember it's geometric). North Korea having any sort of nukes isn't great, but they're still stuck with (especially) crappy fission weaponry.
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Jan 6, 2016 13:47
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serious gaylord posted:People are just attributing the leaks to those two. Its almost certainly not (just) them considering they've continued since they've been sacked. They were dumb enough to be open about it, though, which is reason enough for a sacking even if it doesn't completely fix the problem.
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Jan 6, 2016 13:55
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TACD posted:Yea, seems to me we're finally getting the purge everyone was so excited for a couple of months ago Yeah, this is ugly press, but ugly press fades. What matters is what this means in the long-term, and so far, most of the sackings and resignations don't feel like major losses of talented, principled politicians (although Dugher apparently would've been OK if he hadn't behaved like a complete rear end in a top hat from the start of the Corbyn leadership).
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Jan 6, 2016 14:12
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Bedshaped posted:Pissflaps keeps this thread from becoming a guardian rss feed echo chamber. You're all babies. But nobody's mentioned houmous yet? Wait... poo poo.
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Jan 6, 2016 14:42
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Jose posted:its cool how quickly a few shadow junior ministers resigning stopped north korea maybe detonating a hydrogen bomb being the main news item To be fair, it's very probably not a hydrogen bomb, which just makes it yet another in their regular round of tests for their crappy fission weapons. The DPRK trying to make it a big story doesn't mean it's a big story.
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Jan 6, 2016 14:55
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Looking them over, Jonathan Reynolds seems to be the only one of the three to resign that we should feel particularly upset over. Like Doughty, he was mentored by a corrupt Blairite poo poo and got his position through a questionable selection process, but he seems to have been something of an asset to the party, expressing broadly Correct opinions in a sensible way and outputting a pretty respectable voting record. Hopefully, Corbyn can find a good, smart railway nerd to replace him.
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Jan 6, 2016 17:27
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Pissflaps posted:Where did you go? Wales, presumably, if Doughty was his MP.
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Jan 6, 2016 19:49
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Noxville posted:So that seems to have been a fairly successful reshuffle to me; sack two Blairite tossers who have been deliberately destabilising the leadership, see a handful others gently caress off and voluntarily abdicate any input into policy, and in a week nobody in the general public will remember or care since no-one knew who any of them were and they weren't high-profile roles anyway. Defence secretary's pretty big, and it'll be interesting to see who takes Jones's place. English Labour will likely scream bloody murder if it's not another Trident advocate to balance out Thornberry, and Corbyn might actually listen to them - Eagle's biggest son doesn't seem to have been supporting nukes, but badmouthing her party leader for failing to support 'em. Hence Jones jumping rather than being pushed. Reynolds won't get press, but I think he's a genuine loss - seemed like one of the talented, Correct young MPs Corbyn was trying to foster for a greater role. Hopefully our boy can find a good replacement.
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Jan 6, 2016 22:44
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Oberleutnant posted:
Didn't Conference end up voting for Trident? This could be a little awkward from a perspective of empowering the base.
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Jan 8, 2016 14:11
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So the reshuffle is over, and there's a bunch of new faces in the Cabinet. Let's find out a little bit about them, shall we? Kate Hollern, Shadow Defence: We basically know nothing about her - she's a university contracts manager who was elected in 2015 and voted against Syria. Presumably, Corbyn and company saw promise in her and gave her to Thornberry to train up, though at 60 years old, they're picking her up a little late for a long-term investment. Jenny Chapman, Shadow Education: A Blairite former Shadow Prisons Minister in favour of Trident and bombing people. Hopefully has a better understanding of the difference between disagreement with the party leader and actively sabotaging them than the folks who just left. In terms of her new post, though, her opinions are pleasingly Correct - she has a big mad-on for academies and tuition fees in particular (and for the record, she was very into rehabilitation as Shadow Prisons, so don't expect a hang 'em and flog 'em authoritarian). Jo Stevens, Shadow Prisons: Another newbie to parliamentary politics, but one who fortunately has the relevant experience for her ministerial field - she's spent over twenty years as a lawyer. Doesn't seem to be a fan of tightening our asylum system either, and has consistently lobbied in favour of charities doing offender rehabilitation (and against the privatisation of the probation service) so hopefully shouldn't be an authoritarian. Looking forward to her laying into Serco and G4S good. One interesting detail - she seems to be a lefty Eurosceptic, which might generate some news when the referendum rolls around. Andy McDonald, Shadow Transport: A veteran lawyer and local politician who got into Parliament via the 2012 Middlesborough by-election. Worked as an assistant to Thornberry and Umunna under Miliband, and his politics suggest an enthusiastic Corbynite (yes, even given the Umunna thing) who'll be an asset well beyond his ministerial portfolio. Voted against the privatisation of the East Coast Main Line, so expect glorious full train communism in our lifetimes. Angela Rayner, Shadow Work and Pensions: Another parliamentary novice from the 2015 crop, apparently brought in as an addition to Labour's stable of young, promising MPs being groomed for greater things. A highly committed Unison representative who'll hopefully give IDS a good bollocking, although she's unfortunately most famous for using her position as a not-very-veiled threat to a shop after being unable to obtain some Star Wars high heels. Like Stevens, a bit cautious about the EU. Fabian Hamilton, Shadow Foreign Affairs: This guy could be trouble. He's another local-government veteran who's mostly ideologically aligned with Corbyn, but he's highly outspoken about stuff he doesn't like, which could be a problem for Jezza given that Hamilton's an enthusiastic Zionist in Foreign Affairs (Corbyn and most of his Cabinet are more sympathetic to Palestine) and described all-woman shortlists as just as bad as anti-Semitism after falling foul of one. Also, he was caught up in the expenses scandal, although he claims it was an honest mistake. Could generate some bad headlines if the rest of the Shadow Cabinet don't keep him on a tight leash.
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Jan 8, 2016 15:31
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Puntification posted:Sounds like a loving idiot op Yep. From my cursory reading on him, I get the impression of someone who's a good, solid leftie right up until it personally inconveniences him. Of the six, I think McDonald and Stevens look very good, Chapman and Rayner could be good if they behave, and it's probably best not to expect much from Hamilton and Hollern, although the latter might be a pleasant surprise (even if it's a total mystery why she got the post - she must have delivered a hell of an interview).
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Jan 8, 2016 15:58
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OwlFancier posted:Ergh, that's still not a great answer. "I have no idea why I'm doing this but I'm really keen." Former Shadow Attorney General who's worked on military courts. That's fairly useful for the role, at least.
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Jan 8, 2016 17:13
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HorseLord posted:brocialist spotted From any other poster, this might be a decent point to make. From a literal Stalinist, not so much. Do we need to bring up Beria again?
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Jan 9, 2016 20:31
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ThomasPaine posted:How so? Social justice is very important but meaningless when each element is discussed in isolation by those it applies to without reference to the broader class issues they should all be incorporated into. It's liberal bullshit and it's a loving corrupting cancer endemic to ostensibly left wing groups. There's a certain tendency in the left (hi, SWP!) for a bunch of white dudes to take over and start shunting aside minority perspectives as a distraction from The Cause. Unironically using the term 'SJW' is a bit of a red flag (and not the good kind of red flag  ), and while it may well not be what you meant, it creates the impression that you're grumpy about your party having to listen to all those uppity gays/blacks/women rather than focusing on the stuff that affects you as well.
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Jan 9, 2016 20:49
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Conference voted for Trident last time around, so the angle of attack seems to be that Corbyn's anti-Trident push is going against the democratically-expressed wishes of the party.
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Jan 10, 2016 16:26
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Autonomous Monster posted:Well, the issue was kept off the agenda via procedural shenanigans, and then a pro-Trident clause was snuck in on the back of the foreign policy report. That's a long way from an iron-clad democratic mandate on the subject. The Thornberry-Eagle switch was generally interpreted as a way to push nuclear disarmament. Since the new deputy Shadow Defence Secretary is basically a non-entity, that means the defence part of the Shadow Cabinet has gone from wholly pro-Trident to wholly anti-Trident.
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Jan 10, 2016 16:55
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Tesseraction posted:Strange, normally people of your ideology go for the Jews first. This is actually a darkly amusing thing in the far-right, neo-Nazis trying to pretend they were always cool with Jews and it's the Muslims who are the real problem as their country's accepted scapegoats shift. Results in a whole lot of mortified retractions when some skinhead goes off-message.
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Jan 11, 2016 12:18
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Serotonin posted:Not my experience with the U.K. far right. They are all about blaming the Jew. Islamification is apparently a Jewish plot. White Genocide and all that. You see it a lot in groups like UKIP and the EDL, plus across the pond - Marine Le Pen kicked her own father out because he kept being too old-school in his fascism.
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Jan 11, 2016 12:23
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Pesmerga posted:No one appears to be reporting that in her publishes resignation letter her first given reason for stepping down is just having had a third child and the logistics of family and the position being too hard to manage. Got a link?
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Jan 11, 2016 12:46
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baka kaba posted:Oh I don't know, maybe because she's resigning now, because of things that are happening now, instead of resigning in the past before Corbyn was leader and before she was in cabinet? Like, say, finding out she has a third baby on the way?
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Jan 11, 2016 13:23
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JFairfax posted:You're right, I am not a fan of misogyny. No, it's a derogatory term for the profession. 'Sex worker' is the nice one.
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Jan 11, 2016 22:41
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JFairfax posted:what if they're not a nice sex worker? Then that's probably the fault of them, not the industry. And if it's the industry that's not being nice, 'sex slaves' usually works.
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Jan 11, 2016 22:51
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Tesseraction posted:My entry would just be me covered in tin foil running around picking the other fuckers up and slamming them to the ground. They can weigh well over a hundred kilos - the House Robots weighed several hundred. Hope you've been working out.
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Jan 14, 2016 00:42
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In defence of flipperbots, the most tournament-successful one was Chaos 2, which could literally throw other robots out of the arena. That was pretty rad.
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Jan 14, 2016 00:56
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Pork Pie Hat posted:Goddamn Half Blood Prince and his lovely spidery writing. I'm surprised those posts weren't filled up in the initial formation of the Shadow Cabinet. They seem pretty standard. I'll try to do some research on this little lot like I did with the last crop of additions.
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Jan 14, 2016 13:56
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Hey, remember I said I was going to write up his new set of Shadow Ministers to determine whether we should care about them or not? Let's do that. Basically, the keyword for all three is 'promising'. They're from the 2015 crop, with solid experience outside Parliament, relatively young (in their thirties and forties), ideologically-aligned with Corbyn, and dropped into relatively minor Cabinet roles (all of them are deputies to a pre-existing minister) with the obvious goal of training them for something bigger. Imran Hussain, Junior Shadow International Development: Backing up Diane Abbott, he's a former lawyer and councillor with a reputation for strict principles, rejecting both a dual allowance (which his council work entitled him to) after being elected to Parliament, saying it wouldn't be fair to overcharge the public, and a £1,000 loan from Tony Blair to fund his election campaign due to his opposition to the Iraq War. He's been a staunch opponent of austerity ever since he was elected, and was part of the forty-eight who rebelled on the Welfare Bill, voting against rather than abstaining. As icing on the cake, he's no friend of the SWP/Respect 'loony left' clique - he's the MP for Bradford East rather than Bradford West because Galloway ran a dirty as gently caress campaign against him in the 2012 by-election, including calling him insufficiently Muslim for having the occasional drink. Basically, he looks set to be a rock-solid ally for Corbyn who's clearly being prepped for something big... and may serve double-duty in stopping Abbott from embarrassing herself as a Shadow Minister. Kate Osamor, Junior Shadow Women and Equalities: By appointing her as Kate Green's second, Corbyn is basically taking a first step in fulfilling a family dream. She's the daughter of Martha Osamor, a remarkable woman who was a big name in anti-racist activism in the Eighties, working with Corbyn himself to help salvage the notorious Broadwater Farm housing estate and coordinating with feminist and gay-rights campaigners across the world. Notoriously, she got ratfucked out of a safe-seat candidacy by Neil Kinnock for being too black and lefty, triggering a major race row in the Labour Party. Kate, meanwhile, is a proud 'mother's girl' (her words) who 'grew up on the pickets' and worked as a community/trade union activist alongside her main job of managing a GP practice before being appointed to Parliament. Since then, she's been leading the charge against Yarl's Wood. Since she's a black woman with opinions and a family in the radical wing of Eighties Labour, expect her to get piled on by the tabloids if she moves to a more media-visible role (or they may just start right now, if they're feeling frisky), but fortunately for her, she's got a more supportive party leadership than her mum did. Thangam Debbonaire, Junior Shadow Culture and Sports: The new assistant for the newly-shifted Maria Eagle, now Dugher's got the boot. In addition to her awesome name, she's a real renaissance woman, tripling as a professional cellist (hence her first post, I guess), a manager for multiple women's charities, and an academic with several published articles on domestic abuse. One thing to note, though - you may notice that her voting record is a little sparse, and there's a reason for that. She came down with breast cancer shortly after being elected, and is only now making a return to Parliament. She says she's made a full recovery, but that may end up being a limiting factor on her time in the Cabinet if she has a relapse.
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Jan 15, 2016 20:08
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One important thing to remember about Brimstone - it's a volley-fire weapon. The accuracy is so that it can obliterate entire columns of tanks with a single salvo, precisely targeting their weak spots. It's not an assassination weapon, because gently caress firing six insanely expensive missiles at once to vapourise one guy. The individual strikes will be exquisitely precise - it'll just so happen that there'll be enough of them to coat an entire city block.
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Jan 16, 2016 12:38
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feedmegin posted:Yeah, sorry, this seems pretty dumb to me. So we keep the submarines, which are very expensive in themselves to maintain, operate and crew, but they're literally incapable of doing more than a couple of Tornadoes? It's not like you can go down to the pound shop and buy new warheads, getting new ones has a lead time which is likely to be longer than the sort of international crisis where we suddenly REALLY REALLY WANT an actual credible deterrent. Not to mention it would actually incentivise anyone who was thinking of nuking us to do so before we bring the subs back into dock (lovely, vulnerable dock) and load the warheads onto them. Dedicated cruise/ballistic missile platforms the size of Vanguards are a lot scarier than Tornados. If we advertise that they're no longer nuclear (so people shouldn't wig out when we launch ballistic salvos), we've got surprisingly accurate city-levelling firepower that we can deploy from incredible ranges without any risk to our personnel. There's a reason that the Russians are using a lot of naval-launched missiles in their strikes on Syria, and our weapons are much more reliable, so we shouldn't have to worry so much about them malfunctioning and landing in Iran. This move may get rid of our deterrent, but it'll give us a lot more practical, day-to-day utility for our subs.
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Jan 17, 2016 15:58
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blowfish posted:Basically turning the Vanguards into Seawolf 2.0s that will end up dumping a truckload of missiles on tents in a middle eastern desert. Town-levelling, then? Certainly, they offer a degree of firepower that nothing in the RAF does, and might mean we can actually contribute militarily to future international campaigns rather than just sending a couple of Tornados to poke at stuff that's already been levelled by an American strategic bomber flight. Oh, and if you're uncomfortable with the level of mass civilian deaths that my posts imply, submarine missiles are also very good for winkling out hard targets like armoured bunkers and fortresses built into caves, which are significantly less likely to be inhabited by noncombatants.
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Jan 17, 2016 16:13
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blowfish posted:I think it would be sensible to move to an integrated deterrent with the French, but right now sharing nukes with European Surrender Frogs is probably not politically feasible. The whole idea, though, is to figure out what we should do with all those Vanguards we currently have floating around. It's not about bolstering our firepower, it's about making good use of what we already have after a policy change, and while a missile-boat can't beat a surface ship for sub-orbital doom-volleys, it's pretty good at them.
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Jan 17, 2016 16:28
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jabby posted:The US already thought about arming ICBMs with conventional warheards on the basis that it gives you airstrike capability literally anywhere in the world within minutes. Nothing anyone has currently can do that, all existing options usually take days to get into position. Though the latter could be mitigated if Britain's operating as part of an international campaign (as it usually is), where everyone gets a detailed advance warning (and proof that the missiles won't be nuclear, if they want) before fire starts raining from the skies. Not having a nuclear deterrent also allows us to be less secretive about our military, after all, since we're no longer playing the MAD game.
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Jan 17, 2016 16:45
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The Saurus posted:How are the projections for London mayor/assembly, Cymraeg and Scotch elections looking for Corbae? I'm telling everyone I know to vote 1) Galloway 2) Sadiq for mayor. Wait, Galloway as in George? Why are you advising people to vote for that loving weasel? He's basically a lefty Danczuk.
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Jan 20, 2016 04:26
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