Brexit and the waning days of the United Kingdom

[Sheilbh]

I think it's a Brexit thing and a function of there being two competing democratic mandates because of the referendum.

I don't think it's as bad (yet) as the GOP.

[Valmy]

The Lib Dems, winning moral victories.

Well they haven't had any actual victories since 1910 (or 1918 depending on how you count it) so that is all they have

Yes. I'm not sure I'd position the Liberals as a great party of moral victories given they're the only party to have had a leader who tried to arrange the murder of his lover

At least they got Hugh Grant to play him on the BBC. That is kind of a victory, there are much uglier actors out there.

[Sheilbh]

And it was a tremendous performance.

Up there with Hugh Grant's turn in Paddington 2

[Razgovory]

This may be naivete but I feel Tories are still more attached to rules and norms and less nihilistic than the GOP.

I mean the polls still say he'll win - so why risk it. But, despite that, I still think it could be tight.

I'm glad I'm not the only one who thinks the GOP has become nihilistic.

[Iormlund]

This may be naivete but I feel Tories are still more attached to rules and norms and less nihilistic than the GOP.

Doctoring footage is not that far behind blackmailing foreign governments. They'll get there.

[Josquius]

On a lighter note, it seems Johnson wrote a novel

https://www.pinknews.co.uk/2019/11/28/boris-johnson-novel-2004-seventy-two-virgins-racist-misogynistic-homophobic/

[Tamas]

Labour will use people's assemblies to help decide how nationalised utilities are run, says McDonnell
McDonnell says Labour will make the nationalised companies publicly accountable.

In our first hundred days we will start the process of bringing water and energy into public ownership. We'll set up boards to run these utilities made up of who, the customer, and you, the worker, as well as representatives from local councils, metro mayors and others.

We'll make sure decisions are taken locally by those who understand the services – those who use them and deliver them.

Meetings will be public and streamed online, with new transparency regulations set higher than ever before, so you can see if your road is being dug up, why, and for how long. And we'll create new people's assemblies to give everyone the option of participating in how their utilities are run.

Bloody hell this country is fucked, these guys are the only "realistic" alternative to 5 years of Boris Johnson.

[Tamas]

Also this shows how much Tyr can hope of the party reigning Corbyn's crowd of Chavezists in.

Read an excellent summary of Labour's promises in the Economist: trying to address 21st century challenges by policies that failed in the 20th.

[Syt]

I found this funnier than I should have.

[Richard Hakluyt]

It has happened before Tamas. Labour went left shortly after Thatcher's election and thus guaranteed 18 years of Tory rule. On that basis we can expect the tories to get two more full five year terms; with Labour, always slow to realise that only 25% of the electorate is interested in socialism, only really making themselves electorally competitive again after the 2024 election.

Depressing 

[Sheilbh]

Except in that comparison it's 1989 and the Bennites won.

[Josquius]

Not so much down to socialism this time as the lack of any competition for Corbyn. Nobody decent wants to touch the brexit mess.
I increasingly suspect even Corbyn and Co have accepted some dark times and a loss and are settling for Overton shifting so when Khan or Jarvis or whoever it is runs in in a few years the centre is left of where it is at the moment.

The problem with all these policies isn't that in themselves they're bad policies, but they're just throwing out so many of them. It's like they're doing the tories job for them in throwing out story after story about what they'll change next. If they concentrated instead on a few core things, like saving the nhs and nationalising the railways, and then put some effort into actually selling them (not hard considering they are the better idea) they could have done a lot better.

Also this shows how much Tyr can hope of the party reigning Corbyn's crowd of Chavezists in.

Read an excellent summary of Labour's promises in the Economist: trying to address 21st century challenges by policies that failed in the 20th.

There's nothing radical in those policies and they haven't failed. They have absolutely nothing to do with chavez. More, continental European.

Economic localism has been taking off in quite a big way in a lot of towns in the UK. It's the smart way to go really, to take advantage of the best parts of every level: local, regional, national, and international. Rather than just throwing everything in the arbitrary  national basket.
Odd you say they're 20th century ideas too. This sort of smart city stuff like pot hole reporting and tracking is quite modern.

[Tamas]

Name me one, ONE continental European country, where utilities and railroads are run by a committee of customers and workers.

[Josquius]

Name me one, ONE continental European country, where utilities and railroads are run by a committee of customers and workers.

Germany

[Valmy]

Name me one, ONE continental European country, where utilities and railroads are run by a committee of customers and workers.

Germany

Customers and workers may have representatives on boards and commissions but do they really run them? Explain how this works to me.

And customers in utilities typically mean giant corporations that consume the majority of the electricity and water involved.