The Political Thread

[Frank]

Just in case there's any doubt how I feel about our economic miracle:

I was talking to a guy, recently. He lives in a tiny village, about twenty minutes drive from anything larger than a Spar shop. He is, if you'll pardon my bluntness, a head with a withered vestigial limb attached.

He was in a state because he had a benefits review coming up, and there's a real chance he'll have his specially adapted mobility vehicle taken from him and his incapacity benefit stopped.

The idea that he might soon be paying a taxi driver to take him to work at a city call centre every day fills me with personal shame. All to produce essentially meaningless headlines like the one Pro Bear reported, the only purpose of which is to placate the kind of ranting pub bore who imagines benefits claimants living it up watching daytime telly while he's stuck at work.

[The Legendary Shark]

It seems significant to me that the number of people out of work is a great worry to the "government" but the number of people out of money simply doesn't matter. "Having a job" seems to be of primary importance, even if that job is a soul-destroying grind that fails to cover basic living expenses.

"Look at all those slaves sitting around the plantation with nothing to do! Get them up and doing something, anything, it doesn't matter what so long as the place looks busy!"

[IAMTHESYSTEM]

It looks like its Regicide again in the Conservative party. After the May-Bot deactivation, her replacement will be a Euroskeptic hardliner who will appeal to the grassroots and UKIP-ers. It means we almost guarantee to crash out on the E.U on the 29th of March, not much fun there. It's going to be the worst of all worlds, possibly fatal to the Car Industry and others but I doubt we'll get a General Election or a second Referendum. 2019, for all the wrong reasons, will be a year to remember as the post-Cold War consensus gets increasingly replaced by Nationalism. Shite!

[sheridan]

Brexit's pretty weird anyway, but seeing the news lead (two nights in a row) with a chorus of pensioners from the home counties singing Twisted Sister* outside parliament is David Lynch-level weird:

https://youtu.be/4xmckWVPRaI?t=97


* I admit, I had to google it

I haven't followed the link or seen the footage but I'm assuming it's 'We're not gonna take it' and not 'I wanna rock'.

Certainly isn't Leader of the Pack or Hot Love (could be Burn in Hell or Shoot 'em Down though).

[sheridan]

It looks like its Regicide again in the Conservative party. After the May-Bot deactivation, her replacement will be a Euroskeptic hardliner who will appeal to the grassroots and UKIP-ers. It means we almost guarantee to crash out on the E.U on the 29th of March, not much fun there. It's going to be the worst of all worlds, possibly fatal to the Car Industry and others but I doubt we'll get a General Election or a second Referendum. 2019, for all the wrong reasons, will be a year to remember as the post-Cold War consensus gets increasingly replaced by Nationalism. Shite!

Strong and stable!

[IAMTHESYSTEM]

David Lloyd and Mr Moore sure did some magic work!

[sheridan]

David Lloyd and Mr Moore sure did some magic work!

Nah, it was Mr Moore and Glycon doing the magic!

[TordelBack]

One of the best pages in the best issue of one of the greatest comics ever - I love how V seems to be only the most current part of his collage of lunatics and frauds.  No simple answers with Moore & Lloyd (I think Glycon came later - part of his 50th birthday treat).

[Professor Bear]

He was in a state because he had a benefits review coming up, and there's a real chance he'll have his specially adapted mobility vehicle taken from him and his incapacity benefit stopped.

A family member works for the DWP in Belfast, but rather than take care of Northern Ireland's benefits claims, their entire building has for the last few years been dedicated to overspill from DWP claims processing offices in places like Manchester and Birmingham, dealing almost entirely with transparently fraudulent reasons for imposing benefits sanctions by third-party contractors, and the appraisal that DWP contractors are evil scum is, apparently, coming from a not-insignificant number of Northern Irish born-again Christians, the most myopic and empathy-free people you will ever encounter.
There's a conspiracy theory going around that, in order to give a pretext for a show of aggression from management and a crackdown on in-office malingering where discussion of sanctions might take place, management faked an incident involving someone in the building shitting all over the bathrooms - a "black plop" if you will - that later made the local papers.  Several months before that, someone in the office broke ranks and called in the police after finding hidden surveillance equipment in communal parts of the building - including cameras in the toilets.

Anyway, people who actually work for the DWP don't like the benefits sanctions regime.  Its pretty much maintained by and for a narrow band of subcontractors in the private sector who exist only to create excess workload that they never actually have to deal with.

[Proudhuff]

Miss read that as DUP 

[sheridan]

A family member works for the DWP in Belfast, but rather than take care of Northern Ireland's benefits claims, their entire building has for the last few years been dedicated to overspill from DWP claims processing offices in places like Manchester and Birmingham, dealing almost entirely with transparently fraudulent reasons for imposing benefits sanctions by third-party contractors, and the appraisal that DWP contractors are evil scum is, apparently, coming from a not-insignificant number of Northern Irish born-again Christians, the most myopic and empathy-free people you will ever encounter.

Thanks for that info - I won't go into details but in the course of my work I see a lot of requests from the DWP with envelopes for the NI centre.  In fact, there's so many that go to NI it really stands out when any go to local jobcentres or DWP offices - I'd assumed they weren't dealt with locally at all.

[Funt Solo]

...the only revolution worth having is a revolution of the mind.

Okay, but your central arguments don't make any sense to me and the world I live in.  You often state that power is illusory, despite all evidence to the contrary.  Perhaps you mean theoretically illusory, but that's not the same as actuality.  I mean: realpolitik.  Or: we have to play the cards we're dealt.

If someone punches me in the face, it's no good me saying that their power is illusory - that won't help stop my nose bleed, will it?  Your revolution of the mind is terribly inhuman, in that it relies on us (the species) evolving beyond where we are right now.  It's unreal.  It's illusory.  Your arguments are illusory, because they rely on a humanity that only exists in your imagination.

[Professor Bear]

Yes but if the change happens only in the mind, you don't actually have to do anything.

Unless the plan is to spike the water supply with hallucinogenic drugs in order to expand the minds of the populace so that such a shift in consciousness occurs.  Maybe Sharky plans on doing that, I dunno.

[TordelBack]

I see where you're coming from Funtington, and I sympathise, but I also suspect similar arguments were made about introducing universal suffrage, ending slavery and abolishing the death penalty: all were critical suposedly inescapable means of managing society and economy. Human behaviour isn't fixed, we can and will change. Not fast enough to usher in Sharkyworld next week or next year, but no reason to believe such a major shift isn't possible.

[JOE SOAP]

Prof. Bear offered Sharky an open door to his ideal anarcho-dream-state, and he walked on by.

Who needs a functioning government anyway?  We haven't had one here in Northern Ireland for ages and the bins still get collected.