This is the News!

[Hawkmumbler]

I hear you can 3D print guillotines these days.

[The Legendary Shark]

While I don't think there's ever been a truly bloodless revolution, there have been a few with minimal violence. Gandhi had a decent stab at it (no pun intended), for example, and there have been others - indeed, most general elections are bloodless (if largely artificial) revolutions.

I've said it before; the only revolution worth a damn is a revolution of the mind. I believe we must begin with questions such as, are these people really the best we have to offer, and is the system that keeps them in power truly the best we can come up with?

Most of us, I believe, are pretty on-board with the wisdom of separation of church and state - is it now time to start thinking about the separation of party and state?

[The Mind of Wolfie Smith]

become a republic and we will merely elect a president farage.

there is no hope.

[The Legendary Shark]

There. Is. Always. Hope.

[Jim_Campbell]

general elections are bloodless (if largely artificial) revolutions.

We had a genuine opportunity to break the neoliberal consensus at the 2017 general election. The just-published (and previously leaked) Forde report shows quite clearly that the establishment will allow no such thing to happen.

It's depressing as fuck.

[Leigh S]

I like how the BBC are reporting the Forde Report as "both sides" being toxic, rather than what it actually says which is that the Right of the Party launched an all out war on Democracy, both within the Party and without. 

[Jim_Campbell]

I like how the BBC are reporting the Forde Report as "both sides" being toxic, rather than what it actually says which is that the Right of the Party launched an all out war on Democracy, both within the Party and without.

The Guardian, ostensibly one of the two remaining papers of the 'left', both-sides-ing this one, too.

There is no objective truth any more.

[IndigoPrime]

It's very weird how things are and how they've gone. And I'd sooner have had "chaos with Ed Miliband" or Corbyn as PM (presumably aided heavily by McDonnell).

Mind you, even in 2017, we still got a bizarre end point that was supported in structural terms by the biggest loser. Had Corbyn not been vilified by the press, I don't imagine Labour's polling would have gone up that much. It's reasonably likely the Libs would have grabbed more votes and the Tories would have dropped. (Many Con/Lib fence sitters at the time said as much.) So we'd have had another majority govt on around 40–43% of the vote. And Corbyn said multiple times he had no interest in reforming the Commons – one of the few things he has in common with Starmer. (He did want to reform the Lords, notably. Why? Because PR there would increase Labour's seats share.)

I've accused Blair of the same in the past, and that appears to be his current position, bizarrely. But reports that have come to light suggest 1997 and beyond was a bit more complex than widely acknowledged. It seems for some time, he tried to do something with the Libs, but a few heavyweights in his cabinet said they'd quit if he did. Frankly, he should have told them to go fuck themselves, but, well, politics.

Ultimately, everything now is just fiddling with the edges unless we can get PR. At that point, Labour will form the core of most governments, but with greater impact from liberalism (Lib Dems, who'd likely end up on 30–60 seats during the first PR election) and equality/green issue (Greens, who'd probably get 5–20 seats). We could have collaborative, consensus-driven politics that is broadly progressive (vs regressive Tory leadership being the default). But the big two have no interest in that. It's all or nothing. The problem for Labour is that more often or not for them, it really is nothing. And they then, post-election, blame voters rather than decisions they've made themselves when they did have power.

[Jim_Campbell]

Had Corbyn not been vilified by the press, I don't imagine Labour's polling would have gone up that much.

It wasn't the polling, or even the press, that tipped 2017 — either of those factors could have helped, but the fact remains that Blairite-controlled party management actively sabotaged the Labour campaign. They abandoned winnable marginals and poured resources into safe seats held by 'their' candidates with the intention of staging an electoral disaster that would see the centrist/Labour right MPs retaining their seats while anyone to the left would be out.

(There was open talk of changing the access codes to the party HQ the day after the election, to provide the press with images of the electorally-destroyed Corbyn standing on the doorstep of his own party's building, unable to get in. Obviously, it didn't quite go to plan, as the reactions of centrist Labour MPs on election night clearly showed. They tried much harder in 2019.)

Less than 3,000 extra votes spread across Labour's most winnable marginals would have seen enough gains to have made it mathematically impossible for May to have formed a government.

Whilst that's always going to be a "What If?" scenario, it's a tiny number of votes that seems easily achievable if the party management had actually staged effective campaigns in those seats. It's not like the party was short of resources, they just chose to throw the election instead, to reinforce the centrist narrative that "Labour cannot win from the left."

[paddykafka]

On a brighter, slightly-Slaine-related note, and for those with a particular interest in archaeology - I'm thinking of you, Tordels, if you're reading this, mate (hope to see you gracing the Tooth forum again some day soon, and that you are keeping well) - comes news of a recent fascinating discovery, here in the Emerald Isle. 

https://www.independent.ie/regionals/dublin/fingal/ancient-lost-chamber-uncovered-on-corballis-site-in-donabate-41854332.html

[JayzusB.Christ]

Bejaysus!  Donabate was the last place I lived in before I moved to the sadly-deceased boat. 

On a related but sadder note, there was a similar underground passageway just outside the town where I grew up.  There was no sign or anything to note its existence, and you could go down into it and look at ancient carvings on the stones.  The fecking farmer eventually considered it an inconvenience and filled it in with rocks.  I don't know if it was an illegal act of vandalism at the time or not, but I'm pretty sure nothing ever happened to him because of it.

[The Legendary Shark]

Here we go again... WHO Director-General's statement at the press conference following IHR Emergency Committee regarding the multi-country outbreak of monkeypox - 23 July 2022.

[Funt Solo]

Again, and again (that's evolution for ya): Wikipedia: List of epidemics


The BBC's choice of images is blowing my mind a little today:

[JayzusB.Christ]

Seems like Steve Bannon is heading for the slammer, and Alex Jones is about to lose a whole lot of money.  It's not all bad news this week.

[wedgeski]

Seems like Steve Bannon is heading for the slammer, and Alex Jones is about to lose a whole lot of money.  It's not all bad news this week.

I wish there was better news than this to celebrate, but I'll take it. Two of the most detestable humans I've ever seen.