[The Weeping Angel]

"The real issues", no doubt. Unlike the violence against women and girls strategy that's actually happening.

Could have something to do with who I'm following I suppose.

[Tubby Isaacs]

Oh no, Pippa. They didn't get fed up with (among others) your paper running "number 10 refuses to deny" headlines all the time, did they?

[The Weeping Angel]

Oh no, Pippa. They didn't get fed up with (among others) your paper running "number 10 refuses to deny" headlines all the time, did they?

To be replaced by televised briefings.

[mattomac]

There is a perfect example of a story that will get more comments because of who it affects.

Considering they don’t report whatever Labour says anyhow and Ed Miliband has now been sacked at least 15 times I’m not sure why they care? They will print what they want to print.

[Malcolm Armsteen]

Government in more transparency shock horror, cry the secretive, anonymous-briefing lobby journalists...

[Boiler]

There was definitely some wailing and gnashing of teeth about this on PM last night.

[Tubby Isaacs]

They really won't like this. They'll doubtless do the same stuff except phone up the press office instead.

"Hello, you've got a new prisons policy coming up.."
"Yep"
"Can you tell me what's in it?"
"You can wait a couple of days, can't you?"
"Well, just tell me, does it involve (something a bit controversial)?"
"Wait a couple of days"
You can't even tell me if it involves the return of birching?"
"Nice try, but I already told you, wait a couple of days"

GOVERNMENT REFUSES TO RULE OUT THE RETURN OF BIRCHING!

Closely followed by Johnny Columnist: "WHAT SORT OF LABOUR GOVERNMENT CONSIDERS BRINGING BACK BIRCHING?'
And Sally Columnist: "LABOUR CHASING REFORM BY CONSIDERING BIRCHING IS A TERRIBLE MISTAKE'

[Tubby Isaacs]

And then Polly Toynbee (who to her credit tries to be balanced): "LABOUR HAVE SOME VERY GOOD POLICIES BUT THEY'RE GETTING OVERSHADOWED BY THE ROW OVER BIRCHING".

[Malcolm Armsteen]

Many years ago the Star ran a story claiming that Hitler was a woman (I know... it was the Star...).
They contacted a famous historian, I think Hugh Trevor-Roper.

Star: "Professor, do you think Hitler might have been a woman?"
H T-R "Umm... well anything's possible, but..."

Headline: 'Hitler might have been a woman says top history boffin!'

So it goes.

[Tubby Isaacs]

Then George Monbiot- "WELCOME TO THE CRAZY WORLD OF LABOUR: WHERE BIRCHING IS TAKEN MORE SERIOUSLY THAN (insert something nice that the government didn't commit to at one precise moment, but which ends up happening anyway)"

[Tubby Isaacs]

They've appointed a career diplomat to replace Mandelson as US ambassador. Mandelson seems to have done a reasonable job, but he was a very bad appointment, with his baggage and with the more general feeling that politics is a bunch of mates who keep giving each other jobs. The idea that a career diplomat couldn't have done what he did was always nonsense.

[Tubby Isaacs]

Investigation into current politics in "doesn't look at something from 9 years ago" shock.

People who say this stuff aren't always so keen for the Indy Ref to be investigated.

This was retweeted by an American I follow. It's noticeable how many of those are convinced the UK government are terrible.

[Tubby Isaacs]

There's a not insignificant group of people, particularly on Bluesky who still can't process that we lost the Referendum. Leave had big cards- more charismatic frontmen, "everything's shit", immigrants, massive media support, being able to argue for contradictory things at once. Lots of us knew we were fucked before we knew about Russian propaganda.

[Boiler]

I do wish The Great Sulkers would get it into their thick skulls that (a) they lost in a democratic vote and (b) it'll be at least a generation before the EU will consider letting us back in - and who knows what form an EU in 2045 might take? For all we know, it could conceivably be a hotbed of nationalism.

[Tubby Isaacs]

If what we're told here about Labour is true (they're making PM Farage inevitable with their immigration shit) then by the same logic, Farages are going to romp home in lots of the EU. The one place that commentators seem to agree is doing it right is Spain, where a PP-Vox coalition would be the likely outcome of a general election now.

[Tubby Isaacs]

Stephen Bush has a view. They're doing it all wrong.

The trouble with this stuff is that privatization, once you reach a fairly full capacity, has very little room for innovative train company management to run more trains than are running anyway. Railtrack quickly realized that the ideal of borrowing lots for investment and recouping the money from extra trains didn't make conventional business sense. We ended up with private train companies just running what they're told to, and adding a modest percentage on. I don't what he thinks should happen, but conventional nationalization has a logic to it than isn't purely nostalgic. No doubt the structure will evolve over time, just like BR did. By the time it reached the end, many people thought BR's structure was better than it had been before ("sectorisation").

[The Weeping Angel]

Investigation into current politics in "doesn't look at something from 9 years ago" shock.

People who say this stuff aren't always so keen for the Indy Ref to be investigated.

This was retweeted by an American I follow. It's noticeable how many of those are convinced the UK government are terrible.

I follow quite a few Americans on Bluesky and all of them are convinced that the government are bad. A phrase I often hear is Labour are what internet leftists say Democrats are.

[Tubby Isaacs]

It's rubbish, if you look at the Labour manifesto or King's Speech.

The US Bluesky position is likely based on immigration and trans rights, which are very strong issues for the Bluesky US Left, in their opposition to Trumpism as a whole. Not that the UK Government is running anything like an ICE operation. We'll see what the new guidance says on trans rights. The fact the first draft was rejected may be a semi-positive sign that there could be flexibility. But I can more see the Bluesky US Left point on that, because the UK is anomalous with other European countries.

[kreuzberger]

I do wish The Great Sulkers would get it into their thick skulls that (a) they lost in a democratic vote and (b) it'll be at least a generation before the EU will consider letting us back in - and who knows what form an EU in 2045 might take? For all we know, it could conceivably be a hotbed of nationalism.

Losing your livelihood, your business, your home, your horizons and your future (and those of your family and friends) because of an advisory plebiscite which the courts ruled would have been otherwise struck down, is actually the cause for lasting, bitter regret, you sixthwitted sociopath.

It is an enduring absurdity that Russian involvement should not be investigated and the conduits of their interference not be nailed to the fucking wall.