Guavanaut posted:

August is that last flicker of fun and heat before everything fades and dies. The final moments of fun before the freeze. In the winter, everything changes.

Ratjaculation posted:

Greggs is poo poo

Diet Crack posted:

Dear UKMT - what is a left leaning paper that isn’t going to shovel fabricated antisemitism bullshit down my throat?

Jack the Lad posted:

Absolutely agree, just hand wringing is a bit rubbish - but whose events I can attend instead to achieve change now?

Are we talking about comrades carrying out lone wolf direct action at coal plants, or what?

namesake posted:

^^^^You coming to the organising meeting tonight at 6pm at the PRSC?

Tesseraction posted:

editing 4 hours of Scottish posters arguing over which English poster is the biggest bawbag while the bristol set discuss bars/clubs and namtab and I debate which is Best Girl this season

Diet Crack posted:

CrispCast

Sanitary Naptime posted:

Someone make a spreadsheet so we can track the volunteers and use that to work out a pool of hosts we can rotate through tia

Miftan posted:

We could do an all jew episode about labour antisemitism!

Bobby Deluxe posted:

Also she looks like an eleven year old in an adult suit feeling so pleased at her school presentation and she reminds me of Neil Morrissey.

Gasmask posted:

As it's the afternoon now, let's talk about real drinks

https://twitter.com/YouGov/status/1157207546693922816

Guavanaut posted:

Give it time.

e: There's 18 holes in a round of golf and a lot more in the West Country.

Guavanaut posted:

The last time we went down this rabbit hole it ended up that the only place that is actually the West Country is a small field outside of Tormarton with a man shouting at a cow.

Bobby Deluxe posted:

Wait, I thought ancap was a portmanteau of anti capitalism. Judging by reactions I seem to be wrong.

Generally I just thought an introduction to leftism in the form of a listicle would be a good start.

OwlFancier posted:

loving lol I just read the shadowrun wiki entries for the history of the UK and Ireland and tbh I think they're more plausible than the one we're currently living in:

OwlFancier posted:

Perhaps we could point cameras at journalists and then set actual vultures on them and televise it?

RabidWeasel posted:

Junior G-man posted:

So which one of us was silly enough to volunteer to make ukmt podcast spreadsheets or something?

Been a bit out of things as I've no roaming in this alpine paradise.

Rarity posted:

I made a spreadsheet for people to log interest in being part of UKMP. You can also let everyone know the things you're particularly knowledgeable about/would like to chat about!

Guavanaut posted:

#EUsupergirl

Miftan posted:

Hey I don't have access to a computer and can't edit this on my phone. Will you add me? Topics include philosophy (ethics and political specifically), anarchism, antisemitism, Israel/Palestine. Availability is ever day after 4pm and all day weekends. You can fill in the rest

OwlFancier posted:

What is the purpose of any butthole?

Vlex posted:

I once had the odd fortune of passing #EUSupergirl on an escalator in St Pancras station. Told her to keep up the good work (shut up this was pre-GE 2017 and we were all losing our minds). Feel somewhat responsible for this.

Sanitary Naptime posted:

Personally for the ukmp theme song I was thinking we just have god save the queen for a bar or two and then record scratch into the internationale.

Azza Bamboo posted:

well I just wasted an hour of my life

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8PFL0wMlhMw

Azza Bamboo posted:

I get the feeling I've done something bad I don't fully understand. I'm willing to trust your judgment on this because you're much more informed on feminism etc than I am. On a practical level, what do I need to do now to put this wrong right?

Pistol_Pete posted:

I wasn't going to drink tonight but there's a music festival on in a park 5 minutes walk from my new place in Bristol and oh, well.

mehall posted:

https://twitter.com/FrogCroakley/status/1157707355775221760?s=19

Jose posted:

just another nazi mass murder manifesto posted on 8chan

https://twitter.com/SocialSciNerd/status/1157722038120923143?s=20

Hentai Jihadist posted:

Re: azzas thing about wordy "leftist 101" stuff boy I hear you.
Capitalist Realism is pretty readable but imo falls into the same thing every modern leftist thing does where it goes "okay here is the problem you already know about, but very well articulated, now how should we solve it? Wel that's the subject of my next book" *never writes book*

crispix posted:

I really don't think the internet is an appropriate medium for humour/silliness

Aidan_702 posted:

PC Gamer you bought for the news, reviews and features. PC Zone you bought for Brooker’s poo poo posts on the last page

Ms Adequate posted:

A buggy version of Fantasy World Dizzy.

The Guardian posted:

Trigger ballots prove an unwelcome distraction for under-fire Labour MPs
Many MPs fear they will be fighting to keep their seats rather than fighting the Tories

Last year’s Labour party conference. Some MPs have cancelled plans to attend this year’s event in Brighton to spend longer campaigning at home. Photograph: James McCauley/REX/Shutterstock
Autumn in Westminster is likely to be one of the most exhausting periods of British politics in recent history – late-night votes on Brexit preparations, attempts to thwart no deal, a potential confidence vote in a Boris Johnson administration and an ever-more likely snap general election. But for many Labour MPs, the first thing on their minds is something different – trigger ballots.

In interviews with the Guardian, most MPs said their main frustration was being distracted from preparing for a snap election. MPs said they had set up phone banks, organised multiple dinners and tea parties for local members and set up email campaigns solely targeted at their own members – rather than local voters.

“It has absolutely sucked the oxygen and life out of the Labour party and now we have a whole summer and autumn of introspection when we should be laying into the Tories,” one MP fumed.

Labour MPs have been notified over the past few weeks that votes on whether they must face potential deselection will take place in the next few months – starting with shadow cabinet ministers and frontbenchers from September.

The timing of the vote could mean several shadow cabinet ministers could address the party conference with their future as Labour MPs in doubt.

Some MPs have been notified their “trigger” meetings will take place the week after Labour conference, leading them to cancel plans to attend the event in Brighton in order to spend longer campaigning at home. It is unlikely the process will be completed in time for a snap election in the autumn – or even by May next year.

Labour MPs have always been subject to a trigger ballot, but rule changes agreed in September last year make it easier for an open selection to take place.

If an MP fails to get endorsements from at least two-thirds of the local member branches and two-thirds of local affiliates, such as trade unions, then a full eight- to 12-week selection process will take place – with candidates allowed to run against the sitting MP.

MPs named by their colleagues as likely to be in significant difficulty include areas where leftwing membership is strong, such as London constituencies held by Vicky Foxcroft and Helen Hayes, seats in Merseyside held by Louise Ellman and Maria and Angela Eagle, as well as places with large numbers of new members, such as Thangam Debbonaire’s seat in Bristol West and Peter Kyle’s seat in Hove.

“Thangam has a real problem, particularly given that it’s a massive local party which is very difficult for her to get to know everyone in there,” one MP said.

Other local factors could make a difference. Sources pointed to Birmingham Hall Green, held by Roger Godsiff, the MP who has angered many members by defending parents’ rights to take their children out of LGBT-inclusive lessons.

Many MPs have been quietly getting organised. Labour’s deputy leader, Tom Watson, has run private sessions on surviving the deselection process, with training offered to about 160 MPs who are part of his “democratic socialist” Future Britain group, set up after the departure of seven Labour MPs in February.

Labour’s deputy leader, Tom Watson, has been running private training sessions for MPs on surviving the deselection process. Photograph: Luke Dray/Getty Images
“I do expect to be triggered so I’ve been doing a huge amount of work to compensate,” one Midlands MP said. “I suspect I could win a selection battle, but it’s money and time which could go on fighting to keep this a Labour seat when the Tories are targeting it hard.”

Many MPs said they had compiled detailed lists of members they believed could be counted on to back them. “I’ve got a good idea of the members I think can help me win, people I’ve persuaded to stay in the party, members who I’ve convinced to join, those who have contacted me about stopping antisemitism or campaigning on Brexit,” one MP said.

Another said they were spending time and money on “calls, text messages, emails, social events all over the constituency” and said colleagues were fundraising to cover their costs.

“This is only to try and avoid losing the trigger. The time and costs will go up massively if it proceeds to open selection – that means new leaflets, a website, more phone banks.”

The frustration applies to MPs in both safe and marginal seats, but many also said they felt the party was losing ground attacking the Conservatives because MPs’ headspace was elsewhere. “I have almost 2,000 members who I could take to campaign elsewhere, but we are locked down in the constituency – during the most rightwing government of my lifetime,” one MP said.

Another in a hyper-marginal seat said they knew that any loss of a trigger ballot would be relentlessly used by a Tory opponent. “If I get triggered, then voters in my constituency are effectively being told that my own members may not have confidence in me – and all while an election is looming,” the MP said.

MPs said they were prepared to throw every effort for the next few months into holding their seats. “I don’t do things by halves, if I’m triggered I will be knocking on the door of every single member,” one MP said. “There is no way I would leave it up to chance.”

Within the party’s HQ, there is a lack of sympathy for MPs, especially for those who have only recently begun to desperately engage with members. One source close to Labour’s governing national executive committee said: “The MPs who will be in trouble are ones who have not engaged sufficiently with their members. Some unlucky ones might get triggered but then they should comfortably win their selections,” the source said.

“Member engagement is very important, local councillors have to do it constantly, and it’s something MPs should be doing all the time regardless.”

Momentum, the leftwing grassroots group that has passionately advocated the democratic importance of open selections, has launched a nationwide campaign to encourage members to begin deselection processes for Labour MPs, arguing it can open the door for more diverse, younger, working-class MPs.

The grassroots group said it would support rank-and-file members across the country to begin the process of challenging their sitting MP under Labour’s trigger ballot system.

Momentum’s national coordinator, Laura Parker, has argued the only chance Labour will have to defeat the Conservatives is with “a new generation of young, BAME, working-class leaders who will take on the political establishment and provide a genuine alternative”.

However, the group’s mass campaign on the issue has also sparked some member mix-ups. “Some members are demanding them in seats where they don’t even have Labour MPs and have to be reminded that first they need to help elect a Labour MP and then they can worry about deselecting them,” one party source said.

Should a number of MPs be deselected, party whips are said to be nervous about whether those disgruntled MPs would even stay in the party. A handful of MPs have said they would consider defecting to the Lib Dems or standing as independents.

“I might even be tempted to cause an early byelection and I think I could take a fair few members with me,” one MP said. “But I would never jump before I was pushed – for now I have to try and win this.”