I've honestly lost track of how many times I've seen millions of pounds getting thrown on some random idea related to Brexit that inevitably goes nowhere.
You know after all this time I'm still no closer to understanding what the tangible benefit of the common brexit supporting person on the street is to all of this. I've really tried too! I've gone on to so many pro brexit blogs and message boards to just read it all and see what it is they want. All I've gleaned is they want brexit. No more, no less.
Why they want it? Still a mystery. They don't even discuss it among themselves.
Freedom. Being a part of the EU = not being free. Being free = being great, meaningful, powerful.
Obviously that doesn't make much more sense, but it's not about real, tangible things, but about identity and nationality and quasi-mythical, masturbatory bullshit.
I'm talking about what benefit to you a person on the street. No one living in a council house gives a fuck about trade deals. "Soverginty" doesn't put food on their table. I want to understand what it is they want personally.
Like me off the top of my head I can come up with a few personal perks for me of the EU. I like the idea I can live and work in Europe or I can marry someone and bring them here. I like EU stuff like continent wide no roaming charges for my phone. I like being able to buy pizza imported from Italy in European owned shops. I like the workers rights protected by the EU government that directly make my life better.
What can Joe Brexiteer living in Sunderland, getting mad as hell he doesn't have his brexit yet, have to point to that would have made his life better on November 1st had we left on the 31st? Everything has pros and cons and at this point part of me is desperate to find some silver lining to this whole thing when it inevitably happens. Frankly "JRM gets a bit richer shorting the currency and Farrage gets his own statue" ain't cutting it for me.
I've honestly lost track of how many times I've seen millions of pounds getting thrown on some random idea related to Brexit that inevitably goes nowhere.
A Johnson administration throwing away many tens of millions of public money at something that'll never happen? Perish the thought... oh, wait.
Everything has pros and cons and at this point part of me is desperate to find some silver lining to this whole thing when it inevitably happens. Frankly "JRM gets a bit richer shorting the currency and Farrage gets his own statue" ain't cutting it for me.
Wealthy Conservatives fooling their base into supporting ideas that will have no tangible benefits on anyone's life except the wealthy Conservatives is sort of the whole schtick of being a wealthy Conservative.
You know after all this time I'm still no closer to understanding what the tangible benefit of the common brexit supporting person on the street is to all of this. I've really tried too! I've gone on to so many pro brexit blogs and message boards to just read it all and see what it is they want. All I've gleaned is they want brexit. No more, no less.
Why they want it? Still a mystery. They don't even discuss it among themselves.
Freedom. Being a part of the EU = not being free. Being free = being great, meaningful, powerful.
Obviously that doesn't make much more sense, but it's not about real, tangible things, but about identity and nationality and quasi-mythical, masturbatory bullshit.
I'm talking about what benefit to you a person on the street. No one living in a council house gives a fuck about trade deals. "Soverginty" doesn't put food on their table. I want to understand what it is they want personally.
Like me off the top of my head I can come up with a few personal perks for me of the EU. I like the idea I can live and work in Europe or I can marry someone and bring them here. I like EU stuff like continent wide no roaming charges for my phone. I like being able to buy pizza imported from Italy in European owned shops. I like the workers rights protected by the EU government that directly make my life better.
What can Joe Brexiteer living in Sunderland, getting mad as hell he doesn't have his brexit yet, have to point to that would have made his life better on November 1st had we left on the 31st? Everything has pros and cons and at this point part of me is desperate to find some silver lining to this whole thing when it inevitably happens. Frankly "JRM gets a bit richer shorting the currency and Farrage gets his own statue" ain't cutting it for me.
Some wages will go up, some businesses will see an increase in trade (mostly because of brain drain and the pound lowering in value, but who cares about that if you're not planning on leaving the country). You get to stick it to The Elites.
I'm talking about what benefit to you a person on the street. No one living in a council house gives a fuck about trade deals. "Soverginty" doesn't put food on their table. I want to understand what it is they want personally.
They want someone to blame for the things that are crap, and Farage & Co give them European bureaucrats. They want something to believe in, and Johnson and Friends give them this image of a proud, free, souvereign (white, male, Christian, English) Britain.
None of this puts food on their table, but it's still an oh so potent drug. And it works in so many European countries, because the rhetoric is pretty much the same wherever you go.
Thirith on
"Nothing is gonna save us forever but a lot of things can save us today." - Night in the Woods
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zepherinRussian warship, go fuck yourselfRegistered Userregular
You know after all this time I'm still no closer to understanding what the tangible benefit of the common brexit supporting person on the street is to all of this. I've really tried too! I've gone on to so many pro brexit blogs and message boards to just read it all and see what it is they want. All I've gleaned is they want brexit. No more, no less.
Why they want it? Still a mystery. They don't even discuss it among themselves.
Freedom. Being a part of the EU = not being free. Being free = being great, meaningful, powerful.
Obviously that doesn't make much more sense, but it's not about real, tangible things, but about identity and nationality and quasi-mythical, masturbatory bullshit.
I'm talking about what benefit to you a person on the street. No one living in a council house gives a fuck about trade deals. "Soverginty" doesn't put food on their table. I want to understand what it is they want personally.
Like me off the top of my head I can come up with a few personal perks for me of the EU. I like the idea I can live and work in Europe or I can marry someone and bring them here. I like EU stuff like continent wide no roaming charges for my phone. I like being able to buy pizza imported from Italy in European owned shops. I like the workers rights protected by the EU government that directly make my life better.
What can Joe Brexiteer living in Sunderland, getting mad as hell he doesn't have his brexit yet, have to point to that would have made his life better on November 1st had we left on the 31st? Everything has pros and cons and at this point part of me is desperate to find some silver lining to this whole thing when it inevitably happens. Frankly "JRM gets a bit richer shorting the currency and Farrage gets his own statue" ain't cutting it for me.
Some wages will go up, some businesses will see an increase in trade (mostly because of brain drain and the pound lowering in value, but who cares about that if you're not planning on leaving the country). You get to stick it to The Elites.
But while wages may go up, costs will definitely go up and quality will in many instances go down. Essentially you’ll be replacing European goods with American goods. In a no deal or rushed pants down deal, that is the likely result because the trading channels are already established, and the logistics are already there.
In a deal situation it’s just going to be slightly shittier.
You know after all this time I'm still no closer to understanding what the tangible benefit of the common brexit supporting person on the street is to all of this. I've really tried too! I've gone on to so many pro brexit blogs and message boards to just read it all and see what it is they want. All I've gleaned is they want brexit. No more, no less.
Why they want it? Still a mystery. They don't even discuss it among themselves.
Freedom. Being a part of the EU = not being free. Being free = being great, meaningful, powerful.
Obviously that doesn't make much more sense, but it's not about real, tangible things, but about identity and nationality and quasi-mythical, masturbatory bullshit.
I'm talking about what benefit to you a person on the street. No one living in a council house gives a fuck about trade deals. "Soverginty" doesn't put food on their table. I want to understand what it is they want personally.
Like me off the top of my head I can come up with a few personal perks for me of the EU. I like the idea I can live and work in Europe or I can marry someone and bring them here. I like EU stuff like continent wide no roaming charges for my phone. I like being able to buy pizza imported from Italy in European owned shops. I like the workers rights protected by the EU government that directly make my life better.
What can Joe Brexiteer living in Sunderland, getting mad as hell he doesn't have his brexit yet, have to point to that would have made his life better on November 1st had we left on the 31st? Everything has pros and cons and at this point part of me is desperate to find some silver lining to this whole thing when it inevitably happens. Frankly "JRM gets a bit richer shorting the currency and Farrage gets his own statue" ain't cutting it for me.
Some wages will go up,<snip>
Can't see wages going up myself, not when moving the factory to somewhere in eastern europe is a much cheaper option.
You know after all this time I'm still no closer to understanding what the tangible benefit of the common brexit supporting person on the street is to all of this. I've really tried too! I've gone on to so many pro brexit blogs and message boards to just read it all and see what it is they want. All I've gleaned is they want brexit. No more, no less.
Why they want it? Still a mystery. They don't even discuss it among themselves.
Freedom. Being a part of the EU = not being free. Being free = being great, meaningful, powerful.
Obviously that doesn't make much more sense, but it's not about real, tangible things, but about identity and nationality and quasi-mythical, masturbatory bullshit.
I'm talking about what benefit to you a person on the street. No one living in a council house gives a fuck about trade deals. "Soverginty" doesn't put food on their table. I want to understand what it is they want personally.
Like me off the top of my head I can come up with a few personal perks for me of the EU. I like the idea I can live and work in Europe or I can marry someone and bring them here. I like EU stuff like continent wide no roaming charges for my phone. I like being able to buy pizza imported from Italy in European owned shops. I like the workers rights protected by the EU government that directly make my life better.
What can Joe Brexiteer living in Sunderland, getting mad as hell he doesn't have his brexit yet, have to point to that would have made his life better on November 1st had we left on the 31st? Everything has pros and cons and at this point part of me is desperate to find some silver lining to this whole thing when it inevitably happens. Frankly "JRM gets a bit richer shorting the currency and Farrage gets his own statue" ain't cutting it for me.
They might not be true or be worth the negative consequences - but if you asked Joe Brexiteer in Sunderland to say why it would be worth it, you'd probably hear:
Lower taxes/more public spending in the UK rather than sending money to other countries
Higher wages from not having to compete with Eastern European labour
Being able to work with majority British colleagues rather than above Eastern Europeans
Less regulation for small business owners/tradesmen
No limits on working hours for contractors
Which, if they were true (and good) does sound better than no roaming charges and marginally cheaper fancy cheese.
Actually having to argue for slightly counterintuitive things (like longer hours actually means less work gets done) is incredibly tricky to do in a quick and easy to digest way, and as soon as you start having to argue the numbers you have to start talking about rates and factors the average person isn't familiar with as well as explaining why your numbers are the right ones and the ones that he's seen in the paper are not.
Tastyfish on
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surrealitychecklonely, but not unloveddreaming of faulty keys and latchesRegistered Userregular
the funniest part of farages speech was that almost all his criticisms of johnsons deal were correct
You know after all this time I'm still no closer to understanding what the tangible benefit of the common brexit supporting person on the street is to all of this. I've really tried too! I've gone on to so many pro brexit blogs and message boards to just read it all and see what it is they want. All I've gleaned is they want brexit. No more, no less.
Why they want it? Still a mystery. They don't even discuss it among themselves.
Freedom. Being a part of the EU = not being free. Being free = being great, meaningful, powerful.
Obviously that doesn't make much more sense, but it's not about real, tangible things, but about identity and nationality and quasi-mythical, masturbatory bullshit.
I'm talking about what benefit to you a person on the street. No one living in a council house gives a fuck about trade deals. "Soverginty" doesn't put food on their table. I want to understand what it is they want personally.
Like me off the top of my head I can come up with a few personal perks for me of the EU. I like the idea I can live and work in Europe or I can marry someone and bring them here. I like EU stuff like continent wide no roaming charges for my phone. I like being able to buy pizza imported from Italy in European owned shops. I like the workers rights protected by the EU government that directly make my life better.
What can Joe Brexiteer living in Sunderland, getting mad as hell he doesn't have his brexit yet, have to point to that would have made his life better on November 1st had we left on the 31st? Everything has pros and cons and at this point part of me is desperate to find some silver lining to this whole thing when it inevitably happens. Frankly "JRM gets a bit richer shorting the currency and Farrage gets his own statue" ain't cutting it for me.
All the things that have been falsely blamed on ridiculous EU regs. Bendy bananas, blue passports, the euro sausage, Poland.
After our brief digression on poppies, I am delighted to discover that Poppywatch exists. It tracks particularly amusing/egregious uses of the poppy as a symbol, providing a valuable service in this era of hysterically pro-Poppy discourse.
(I am sarcastic, but only a little - the account is great)
You know after all this time I'm still no closer to understanding what the tangible benefit of the common brexit supporting person on the street is to all of this. I've really tried too! I've gone on to so many pro brexit blogs and message boards to just read it all and see what it is they want. All I've gleaned is they want brexit. No more, no less.
Why they want it? Still a mystery. They don't even discuss it among themselves.
Freedom. Being a part of the EU = not being free. Being free = being great, meaningful, powerful.
Obviously that doesn't make much more sense, but it's not about real, tangible things, but about identity and nationality and quasi-mythical, masturbatory bullshit.
I'm talking about what benefit to you a person on the street. No one living in a council house gives a fuck about trade deals. "Soverginty" doesn't put food on their table. I want to understand what it is they want personally.
Like me off the top of my head I can come up with a few personal perks for me of the EU. I like the idea I can live and work in Europe or I can marry someone and bring them here. I like EU stuff like continent wide no roaming charges for my phone. I like being able to buy pizza imported from Italy in European owned shops. I like the workers rights protected by the EU government that directly make my life better.
What can Joe Brexiteer living in Sunderland, getting mad as hell he doesn't have his brexit yet, have to point to that would have made his life better on November 1st had we left on the 31st? Everything has pros and cons and at this point part of me is desperate to find some silver lining to this whole thing when it inevitably happens. Frankly "JRM gets a bit richer shorting the currency and Farrage gets his own statue" ain't cutting it for me.
To expand on Thirith's point:
It's populism of a sorts. Social despondency is a resource to be harnessed.
You tell the people at the bottom rungs of the social ladder that they aren't worthless and that they are special. When they're all greased up, you then passively start talking poorly about another group, the more abstract and further removed, the better. Then you move to outright painting targets on said group's back and let the hounds do their job.
There is no rational component to any of this. They've been preyed upon by snake oil sellers and they're bought into the narrative that this is going to be their fairytale and it's going to end gloriously.
It's why Boris can do no wrong. You just keep moving the goalposts around and rewriting the story. It wasn't a failure, it's a heroic adaptation to an evil foe!
They're going to feel amazing if and when Brexit is secured.
After our brief digression on poppies, I am delighted to discover that Poppywatch exists. It tracks particularly amusing/egregious uses of the poppy as a symbol, providing a valuable service in this era of hysterically pro-Poppy discourse.
(I am sarcastic, but only a little - the account is great)
I've honestly lost track of how many times I've seen millions of pounds getting thrown on some random idea related to Brexit that inevitably goes nowhere.
I've honestly lost track of how many times I've seen millions of pounds getting thrown on some random idea related to Brexit that inevitably goes nowhere.
It's absolutely going somewhere. I guarantee that someone who knows soemone who knows someone is getting that cash, and will make a decent little donation to a politician in exchange. Look at the new speaker, his wife is employed by him in his constituency. Now you are allowed to employ family and give them nice fat pay packets for doing sweet f all, but was that hiring process extensive? Was anyone else interviewed? Are they the best person for the job? No. They just happen to be related to them in some fashion and so have a job getting paid regardless of what they do.
You know after all this time I'm still no closer to understanding what the tangible benefit of the common brexit supporting person on the street is to all of this. I've really tried too! I've gone on to so many pro brexit blogs and message boards to just read it all and see what it is they want. All I've gleaned is they want brexit. No more, no less.
Why they want it? Still a mystery. They don't even discuss it among themselves.
Freedom. Being a part of the EU = not being free. Being free = being great, meaningful, powerful.
Obviously that doesn't make much more sense, but it's not about real, tangible things, but about identity and nationality and quasi-mythical, masturbatory bullshit.
I'm talking about what benefit to you a person on the street. No one living in a council house gives a fuck about trade deals. "Soverginty" doesn't put food on their table. I want to understand what it is they want personally.
Like me off the top of my head I can come up with a few personal perks for me of the EU. I like the idea I can live and work in Europe or I can marry someone and bring them here. I like EU stuff like continent wide no roaming charges for my phone. I like being able to buy pizza imported from Italy in European owned shops. I like the workers rights protected by the EU government that directly make my life better.
What can Joe Brexiteer living in Sunderland, getting mad as hell he doesn't have his brexit yet, have to point to that would have made his life better on November 1st had we left on the 31st? Everything has pros and cons and at this point part of me is desperate to find some silver lining to this whole thing when it inevitably happens. Frankly "JRM gets a bit richer shorting the currency and Farrage gets his own statue" ain't cutting it for me.
I don't think it's about anything they want personally. It's about a feeling. It's like how people's impressions of the economy go up or down based entirely on whether their party won or not. Brexit has been sold as this intangible feeling of winning and they want it.
You know after all this time I'm still no closer to understanding what the tangible benefit of the common brexit supporting person on the street is to all of this. I've really tried too! I've gone on to so many pro brexit blogs and message boards to just read it all and see what it is they want. All I've gleaned is they want brexit. No more, no less.
Why they want it? Still a mystery. They don't even discuss it among themselves.
Freedom. Being a part of the EU = not being free. Being free = being great, meaningful, powerful.
Obviously that doesn't make much more sense, but it's not about real, tangible things, but about identity and nationality and quasi-mythical, masturbatory bullshit.
I'm talking about what benefit to you a person on the street. No one living in a council house gives a fuck about trade deals. "Soverginty" doesn't put food on their table. I want to understand what it is they want personally.
Like me off the top of my head I can come up with a few personal perks for me of the EU. I like the idea I can live and work in Europe or I can marry someone and bring them here. I like EU stuff like continent wide no roaming charges for my phone. I like being able to buy pizza imported from Italy in European owned shops. I like the workers rights protected by the EU government that directly make my life better.
What can Joe Brexiteer living in Sunderland, getting mad as hell he doesn't have his brexit yet, have to point to that would have made his life better on November 1st had we left on the 31st? Everything has pros and cons and at this point part of me is desperate to find some silver lining to this whole thing when it inevitably happens. Frankly "JRM gets a bit richer shorting the currency and Farrage gets his own statue" ain't cutting it for me.
To expand on Thirith's point:
It's populism of a sorts. Social despondency is a resource to be harnessed.
You tell the people at the bottom rungs of the social ladder that they aren't worthless and that they are special. When they're all greased up, you then passively start talking poorly about another group, the more abstract and further removed, the better. Then you move to outright painting targets on said group's back and let the hounds do their job.
There is no rational component to any of this. They've been preyed upon by snake oil sellers and they're bought into the narrative that this is going to be their fairytale and it's going to end gloriously.
It's why Boris can do no wrong. You just keep moving the goalposts around and rewriting the story. It wasn't a failure, it's a heroic adaptation to an evil foe!
They're going to feel amazing if and when Brexit is secured.
As someone once said, "it is easier to fool someone than convince them that they have been fooled."
ChanusHarbinger of the Spicy Rooster ApocalypseThe Flames of a Thousand Collapsed StarsRegistered Userregular
in the same way every american sees themselves as temporarily embarrassed millionaires, people with no vision of the ladder up are convinced it is the boot of the treacherous EU keeping them down and if they could only pry themselves free, their fortunes would finally change
Haven't seen it mentioned here, but you lot have a new Speaker, Sir Lindsay Hoyle and he was Labour. Seems like a chill bloke compared to Bercow, which seems like something everyone was longing for.
Not having followed H-B politics until recently, I was surprised to read in that article that several of the finalists for the position were Labour members (and indeed, a Labour person was selected). I get that it's supposed to be a neutral role, but I'd still have thought the majority party would push to get one of their own in the seat.
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surrealitychecklonely, but not unloveddreaming of faulty keys and latchesRegistered Userregular
edited November 2019
hawhaw treasury costings of labour policies blocked for being too close to start of purdah (midnight tonight)
Haven't seen it mentioned here, but you lot have a new Speaker, Sir Lindsay Hoyle and he was Labour. Seems like a chill bloke compared to Bercow, which seems like something everyone was longing for.
Not having followed H-B politics until recently, I was surprised to read in that article that several of the finalists for the position were Labour members (and indeed, a Labour person was selected). I get that it's supposed to be a neutral role, but I'd still have thought the majority party would push to get one of their own in the seat.
They did, but the Conservatives don't have a majority.
I think you need to be nominated by at least 3 members of the opposing party too. Not many Cons I imagine that Labour would support. There were a lot more Labour candidates than Con.
Speakership traditionally alternates between the two main parties - Bercow was ostensibly a Tory*, so convention was that it was a Labour speaker next.
*Bercow was on the very left of the Tories and his victory was largely because of Labour support (who were in majority at the time)
The Conservatives have misleadingly edited a video of the Labour MP Sir Keir Starmer to give the impression he failed to answer a question on the party’s Brexit position during an interview with ITV’s Good Morning Britain.
In the Tory version of the video, produced by the party for its social media channels, Starmer is shown unable to speak after being asked about Labour’s position on the EU, with his face appearing under the caption “Labour has no plan for Brexit”.
In reality, the shadow Brexit secretary did provide a lengthy answer regarding his discussions with other EU countries over the past three years and insisted: “A customs union and single market alignment and protection of workers’ rights and environmental rights and consumer rights is something that can be negotiated.”
Good Morning Britain presenter Piers Morgan said that Starmer’s answer may have been “unconvincing” but the way the video was edited by the Tories was “misleading and unfair”.
After being called out on the party’s decision to edit the video, the Conservative party failed to apologise and appeared to revel in the extra attention. Its press office encouraged more people to watch the “car-crash interview”.
Lies, damned lies, statistics, and social media video ads, apparently. This shit is just getting started, we've got weeks more of this, and once again nothing will be done about it. This is the new normal.
Still, on the other side, it's not like you need to misleadingly edit footage of Boris Johnson or indeed anyone else from this government...
Fuckin round of applause for Andrew Bridgen giving the Rees-Mogg comments another day of attention. “You should be grateful he’s cleverer than the stupid dead people” was an awesome thing to say.
Particularly when right before that interview they had a comment from a Labour MP pointing that some people did leave when told to stay and suffocated in the stairways because of it.
Lies, damned lies, statistics, and social media video ads, apparently. This shit is just getting started, we've got weeks more of this, and once again nothing will be done about it. This is the new normal.
Still, on the other side, it's not like you need to misleadingly edit footage of Boris Johnson or indeed anyone else from this government...
This is all planned. Conservative HQ has been in General Election mode since Johnson became PM they haven't just been thrust into it suddenly last week.
Don't forget, this is the same people behind Vote Leave and look how that panned out (ethically speaking). Nothing is by accident.
Ed Vaizey is stepping down now. BlowJo has gone to the Queen to dissolve parliament completely.
The state of that man, everything down to his posture is just disheveled. How can someone who can't represent themselves properly represent a country. Hopefully it's indicative of how hollow he has become knowing that he achieved his dream and possibly lost it in 3 months.
Ed Vaizey is stepping down now. BlowJo has gone to the Queen to dissolve parliament completely.
The state of that man, everything down to his posture is just disheveled. How can someone who can't represent themselves properly represent a country. Hopefully it's indicative of how hollow he has become knowing that he achieved his dream and possibly lost it in 3 months.
To be fair, yesterday I defended never being bothered to iron a shirt, because I come to work, do my job, deliver value, and go home. Johnson can rock up looking however he wants, if he delivers something. I'm not entirely sure what, but presumably the lizards who vote for him have some ideas.
Also, as we enter election season: CCHQ and the Vote Leave people are, well, people. Probably. Not ten-dimensional chess masters. Every time they get worked over (like when Rees-Mogg says something unconscionable on live broadcast) it's not part of a cunning triple bluff. They just screwed up. They're not very nice people, and they're playing to win, but every move their opposition makes is not part of their master plan. Lets all remember to revel in the victories and unforced errors as we get them (enough will come from other sides, too.)
ChanusHarbinger of the Spicy Rooster ApocalypseThe Flames of a Thousand Collapsed StarsRegistered Userregular
that’s kind of the difference
if ironing your shirt is less important than doing your job well then so be it
if not ironing your shirt is part of your carefully manicured ploy to make idiots think you’re just like them so they don’t question the fact you don’t do a good job, well
Also it's part of his public image - he noticeably ruffles his hair before he gets on camera.
I don't think the Tories are playing 4d chess all the time, the Mogg stuff is absolutely terrible for a campaign - but people sharing that Tory campaign video with a comment about it being doctored are really doing their work for them.
I lost touch with this whole thing a bit over the last couple of weeks. Just to recap - Brexit was supposed to happen on Oct 31st, didn't happen and Johnson asked the EU for an extension, which they granted. Now an election is scheduled? For when?
The Tories are having a terrible campaign so far but today is the day Labour will make a decision on reinstating Chris Williamson so there’s plenty of scope to catch up.
Posts
I'm talking about what benefit to you a person on the street. No one living in a council house gives a fuck about trade deals. "Soverginty" doesn't put food on their table. I want to understand what it is they want personally.
Like me off the top of my head I can come up with a few personal perks for me of the EU. I like the idea I can live and work in Europe or I can marry someone and bring them here. I like EU stuff like continent wide no roaming charges for my phone. I like being able to buy pizza imported from Italy in European owned shops. I like the workers rights protected by the EU government that directly make my life better.
What can Joe Brexiteer living in Sunderland, getting mad as hell he doesn't have his brexit yet, have to point to that would have made his life better on November 1st had we left on the 31st? Everything has pros and cons and at this point part of me is desperate to find some silver lining to this whole thing when it inevitably happens. Frankly "JRM gets a bit richer shorting the currency and Farrage gets his own statue" ain't cutting it for me.
A Johnson administration throwing away many tens of millions of public money at something that'll never happen? Perish the thought... oh, wait.
Steam | XBL
"Nothing is gonna save us forever but a lot of things can save us today." - Night in the Woods
Wealthy Conservatives fooling their base into supporting ideas that will have no tangible benefits on anyone's life except the wealthy Conservatives is sort of the whole schtick of being a wealthy Conservative.
Some wages will go up, some businesses will see an increase in trade (mostly because of brain drain and the pound lowering in value, but who cares about that if you're not planning on leaving the country). You get to stick it to The Elites.
None of this puts food on their table, but it's still an oh so potent drug. And it works in so many European countries, because the rhetoric is pretty much the same wherever you go.
"Nothing is gonna save us forever but a lot of things can save us today." - Night in the Woods
In a deal situation it’s just going to be slightly shittier.
They might not be true or be worth the negative consequences - but if you asked Joe Brexiteer in Sunderland to say why it would be worth it, you'd probably hear:
Lower taxes/more public spending in the UK rather than sending money to other countries
Higher wages from not having to compete with Eastern European labour
Being able to work with majority British colleagues rather than above Eastern Europeans
Less regulation for small business owners/tradesmen
No limits on working hours for contractors
Which, if they were true (and good) does sound better than no roaming charges and marginally cheaper fancy cheese.
Actually having to argue for slightly counterintuitive things (like longer hours actually means less work gets done) is incredibly tricky to do in a quick and easy to digest way, and as soon as you start having to argue the numbers you have to start talking about rates and factors the average person isn't familiar with as well as explaining why your numbers are the right ones and the ones that he's seen in the paper are not.
tfw good arguments get coopted to a stupid end
All the things that have been falsely blamed on ridiculous EU regs. Bendy bananas, blue passports, the euro sausage, Poland.
(I am sarcastic, but only a little - the account is great)
Goodreads
SF&F Reviews blog
To expand on Thirith's point:
It's populism of a sorts. Social despondency is a resource to be harnessed.
You tell the people at the bottom rungs of the social ladder that they aren't worthless and that they are special. When they're all greased up, you then passively start talking poorly about another group, the more abstract and further removed, the better. Then you move to outright painting targets on said group's back and let the hounds do their job.
There is no rational component to any of this. They've been preyed upon by snake oil sellers and they're bought into the narrative that this is going to be their fairytale and it's going to end gloriously.
It's why Boris can do no wrong. You just keep moving the goalposts around and rewriting the story. It wasn't a failure, it's a heroic adaptation to an evil foe!
They're going to feel amazing if and when Brexit is secured.
There's some serious gold there.
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The exodus of MPs is one thing; the exodus of relative moderates (whichever way they otherwise lean) is another.
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The grift is the point.
It's absolutely going somewhere. I guarantee that someone who knows soemone who knows someone is getting that cash, and will make a decent little donation to a politician in exchange. Look at the new speaker, his wife is employed by him in his constituency. Now you are allowed to employ family and give them nice fat pay packets for doing sweet f all, but was that hiring process extensive? Was anyone else interviewed? Are they the best person for the job? No. They just happen to be related to them in some fashion and so have a job getting paid regardless of what they do.
I don't think it's about anything they want personally. It's about a feeling. It's like how people's impressions of the economy go up or down based entirely on whether their party won or not. Brexit has been sold as this intangible feeling of winning and they want it.
As someone once said, "it is easier to fool someone than convince them that they have been fooled."
Another well known high street name gone.
When does the story come out that the higher ups all took million dollar bonuses while the company floundered.
It's okay, the CEO was sacked last year before being rehired a few weeks later on a lower salary.
He went from £612k to a mere £480k.
Bercow seemed like a pretty decent fellow to me?
Not having followed H-B politics until recently, I was surprised to read in that article that several of the finalists for the position were Labour members (and indeed, a Labour person was selected). I get that it's supposed to be a neutral role, but I'd still have thought the majority party would push to get one of their own in the seat.
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They did, but the Conservatives don't have a majority.
*Bercow was on the very left of the Tories and his victory was largely because of Labour support (who were in majority at the time)
Lies, damned lies, statistics, and social media video ads, apparently. This shit is just getting started, we've got weeks more of this, and once again nothing will be done about it. This is the new normal.
Still, on the other side, it's not like you need to misleadingly edit footage of Boris Johnson or indeed anyone else from this government...
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This is all planned. Conservative HQ has been in General Election mode since Johnson became PM they haven't just been thrust into it suddenly last week.
Don't forget, this is the same people behind Vote Leave and look how that panned out (ethically speaking). Nothing is by accident.
The state of that man, everything down to his posture is just disheveled. How can someone who can't represent themselves properly represent a country. Hopefully it's indicative of how hollow he has become knowing that he achieved his dream and possibly lost it in 3 months.
To be fair, yesterday I defended never being bothered to iron a shirt, because I come to work, do my job, deliver value, and go home. Johnson can rock up looking however he wants, if he delivers something. I'm not entirely sure what, but presumably the lizards who vote for him have some ideas.
Also, as we enter election season: CCHQ and the Vote Leave people are, well, people. Probably. Not ten-dimensional chess masters. Every time they get worked over (like when Rees-Mogg says something unconscionable on live broadcast) it's not part of a cunning triple bluff. They just screwed up. They're not very nice people, and they're playing to win, but every move their opposition makes is not part of their master plan. Lets all remember to revel in the victories and unforced errors as we get them (enough will come from other sides, too.)
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if ironing your shirt is less important than doing your job well then so be it
if not ironing your shirt is part of your carefully manicured ploy to make idiots think you’re just like them so they don’t question the fact you don’t do a good job, well
I don't think the Tories are playing 4d chess all the time, the Mogg stuff is absolutely terrible for a campaign - but people sharing that Tory campaign video with a comment about it being doctored are really doing their work for them.
Did I get that right?
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