Detournement

It's undeniable that old people and thick people vote Tory in large numbers. Right wing grievance politics is tailor made for the stupid. The Tory campaign was clearly aimed at morons with zero policy detail and just constant repeated Brexit catch phrases.

Yesterday Corbyn got a million more votes than Blair in 2005, two million more than Brown in 2010 and a million more than Ed. And that is despite the media vilification. The idea that the centrists would have won is laughable. Blair, Mandelson and Campbell put all their energy into the People's Vote campaign which was an utter disaster (unless you think it's primary role was to weaken Labour).

I don't think he will anoint anyone. He will eat the shit for the election and stand across from Johnson as he crows about leaving the European Union then the new leader can take over with less pressure.

When members start highlighting Starmer's record as DPP he will be fucked. Joint Enterprise, Jean Charles De Menzes and Ian Tomlinson means he can't win. You can have a pig as Brexit secretary but not leader.

When you look at the data most of the most deprived areas are Labour and Labour get by far the most support from low income people. They were talking about miners voting Tory in Blyth despite the mines shutting 30 years ago. The miners are long retired, dead or they moved away to find work. When you look at places like Blyth Valley and Sedgefield the question is why wouldn't they vote Tory. They are places which are full of old people, have no industries and are pretty rural. It's the same thing as Banff and Buchan and Moray.

They are treated completely differently in the media. And it also seems to be the case that a huge number of people in England have a weird kink where they get off on having Old Etonians financially dominate them. It seems strange to us but the idea of having a leader who isn't an arsehole seems to upset some people. They want to be dom'd.

The two yanks on Tannadice St?

The 4-day week is up there as one of the running before you walk policies. It makes sense though. Automation and AI is going to reduce the amount of work that needs to be done while the number of people who need jobs increases. 4 day week solves that problem and is proven to increase productivity. It's complex but society is complex.

I think the problem is that a lot of people have no expectation of anything ever improving. Especially old people who are set in their way. Trump voters didn't really think Trump would improve their lot and the protest is as much about dragging down the people who piss them off. It's a culture war and it's the same with Brexit. The reaction to the Broadband and tree planting policies showed how limited a lot of people's thinking is. The immediate reaction is to rubbish anything that might change things for the better.

Saying you want to deal with it isn't radical. Actually dealing with it is. There are no moderate solutions to housing, climate or inequality. The scale of the solution is determined by the size of the problems and the problems are huge. I agree about the Brexit 'get it done'. A second referendum wasn't popular at all but it was forced onto Corbyn. He should have stayed stronger on that.

That's true but i think it's understandable that people who voted Leave are genuinely angry that the referendum result wasn't being implemented. Smug People's Vote arseholes on the TV every day wouldn't have helped either.

Utter shite. Labour are still the main party amongst working people. The Tories are the party of pensioners. And unfortunately pensioners are very efficently placed all over England outside the cities. You can't move for working class people in Manchester, Newcastle, London and Sheffield. Some working class Labour Leave voters went to the Tories due to Brexit which is the fault of the party for ignoring them but that issue is done now.

The Tories have doubled the national debt while enforcing austerity and wages are still lower than 2008. Why is no one worried about that? It's obviously down to media narratives but the idea that there is no alternative to the Cameron/Osborne small state model is clearly false. Public spending under Labour would still be less than Germany and France.

I don't agree about the cost of the program. To me it's fairly obvious that if the UK can afford to bail out the banks and do QE at huge losses it can afford to invest in the national infrastructure in ways which will generate positive returns. The problems that the manifesto addressed 100% exist and the manifesto was tailored to solve them. I don't think that the technical points made difference though compared to Brexit, the terror smears and the clearly emerging US style culture war. If there are idiots who genuinely believe that a national economy is like a household budget there is not much you can do.

We'll be out the EU in 8 weeks time. They won't be voting for anything.