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#1
Off the Record / Re: Brexit and the waning days...
Last post by Sheilbh - Today at 06:41:30 PMIncidentally slightly nasty story coming out of Labour at the minute.
Long story short is that the Labour MP for Hull, Karl Tuner, is a long-standing and vocal Starmer critic (more from the Labour right). However he has been a fairly loyal backbencher until the proposal to abolish most jury trials. There was a Tory motion to oppose the government plans on jury trials a few months ago and after a huge whipping effort, most Labour MPs voted it down. Karl Tuner rebelled (this was unnecessary and there were many abstentions).
Labour have now withdrawn the whip from him, which he discovered when it was reported by journalists. So far, so standard for Starmer's approach to party management - see withdrawing the whip for Labour rebels who tried to get rid of the two children benefit cap followed by, within twelve months, the government getting rid of the benefit cap and Starmer calling it his proudest moment in office.
Where it takes a rather nastier turn is that Tuner has been seeking mental health support from the House of Commons authorities. People in Number 10 were briefing to journalists and other MPs that Tuner was "mad" and "nuts" and according to one political editor told him that Tuner was "on suicide watch". Tuner apparently explicitly raised it with Starmer in a private meeting and asked him to tell his team to stop these briefings but they continued. (Slightly reminds me of Gordon Brown, another PM who made a lot of not doing dirty tricks or spin, whose chief spin doctor had to resign after it emerged he was briefing journalists that George Osborne's wife was "mentally unstable".)
It might just be politics but can't help but be struck at the extent to which Starmer has become everything he said he hates about it. Smear campaigns against backbench MPs (and cabinet ministers), regularly chucking underlings with no right of reply under the bus for his mistakes, doing the really annoying thing of just ignoring questions at PMQ and attacking the opposition. Not great when his deputy before the election was describing him as "Mr Propriety".
Long story short is that the Labour MP for Hull, Karl Tuner, is a long-standing and vocal Starmer critic (more from the Labour right). However he has been a fairly loyal backbencher until the proposal to abolish most jury trials. There was a Tory motion to oppose the government plans on jury trials a few months ago and after a huge whipping effort, most Labour MPs voted it down. Karl Tuner rebelled (this was unnecessary and there were many abstentions).
Labour have now withdrawn the whip from him, which he discovered when it was reported by journalists. So far, so standard for Starmer's approach to party management - see withdrawing the whip for Labour rebels who tried to get rid of the two children benefit cap followed by, within twelve months, the government getting rid of the benefit cap and Starmer calling it his proudest moment in office.
Where it takes a rather nastier turn is that Tuner has been seeking mental health support from the House of Commons authorities. People in Number 10 were briefing to journalists and other MPs that Tuner was "mad" and "nuts" and according to one political editor told him that Tuner was "on suicide watch". Tuner apparently explicitly raised it with Starmer in a private meeting and asked him to tell his team to stop these briefings but they continued. (Slightly reminds me of Gordon Brown, another PM who made a lot of not doing dirty tricks or spin, whose chief spin doctor had to resign after it emerged he was briefing journalists that George Osborne's wife was "mentally unstable".)
It might just be politics but can't help but be struck at the extent to which Starmer has become everything he said he hates about it. Smear campaigns against backbench MPs (and cabinet ministers), regularly chucking underlings with no right of reply under the bus for his mistakes, doing the really annoying thing of just ignoring questions at PMQ and attacking the opposition. Not great when his deputy before the election was describing him as "Mr Propriety".
#2
Off the Record / Re: The Off Topic Topic
Last post by Sheilbh - Today at 06:06:19 PMVia Matt Sitman, fantastic W.H. Auden commonplace on Good Friday:
(I really struggle with Auden - and Isherwood actually - never really get on with them when I read them but some fantastic passages and individual poems. Always slightly feel they're less than the sum of their parts.)
QuoteJust as we are all, potentially, in Adam when he fell, so we were all, potentially, in Jerusalem on that first Good Friday before there was an Easter, a Pentecost, a Christian, or a Church. It seems to me worthwhile asking ourselves who we should have been and what we should have been doing. None of us, I'm certain, will imagine himself as one of the Disciples, cowering in agony of spiritual despair and physical terror. Very few of us are big wheels enough to see ourselves as Pilate, or good churchmen enough to see ourselves as a member of the Sanhedrin. In my most optimistic mood I see myself as a Hellenized Jew from Alexandria visiting an intellectual friend. We are walking along, engaged in philosophical argument. Our path takes us past the base of Golgotha. Looking up, we see an all too familiar sight — three crosses surrounded by a jeering crowd. Frowning with prim distaste, I say, 'It's disgusting the way the mob enjoy such things. Why can't the authorities execute people humanely and in private by giving them hemlock to drink, as they did with Socrates?' Then, averting my eyes from the disagreeable spectacle, I resume our fascinating discussion about the True, the Good and the Beautiful.
(I really struggle with Auden - and Isherwood actually - never really get on with them when I read them but some fantastic passages and individual poems. Always slightly feel they're less than the sum of their parts.)
#3
Gaming HQ / Re: The Miscellaneous PC & vid...
Last post by Valmy - Today at 06:03:38 PMAll the beauty of my homeland 
#4
Off the Record / Re: What does a TRUMP presiden...
Last post by Tonitrus - Today at 05:29:28 PMOr the Army Chief of Staff...
https://apnews.com/article/pentagon-hegseth-army-chief-iran-war-c6707d1d3a95ea5f679e0f9a5c5012e7
Indications are he is being succeeded by a Trump sycophant.
https://apnews.com/article/pentagon-hegseth-army-chief-iran-war-c6707d1d3a95ea5f679e0f9a5c5012e7
Indications are he is being succeeded by a Trump sycophant.
#5
Off the Record / Re: Cuba vs Trump
Last post by Sheilbh - Today at 05:18:41 PMQuote from: The Minsky Moment on Today at 04:18:30 PMAnd before that under the ruins of Mariupol, Bucha et al.Yeah. I agree. I suppose the difference is the West was very comfortable calling Mariupol and Bucha what it was.
Still I think there is a rationalization that puts the Israelis in a separate box and even for an arguable major power like Russia, a "what do you expect from the Russians" exception. A legal norm can survive even when there are instances that go unpunished, and perhaps even when the constable turns a blind eye to certain perps, but when the constable himself is a leading perpetrator, it just can't be sustained.
In that framing I think there's two sides. The behaviour of the "constable" may still be shaped by a sense of legal norms even if they're turning a blind eye. But I'm not sure for the legitimacy of a legal system for all the other participants that legal norms can survive hypocrisy or the constable turning a blind eye. I think that's actually pretty profoundly corrosive. I think the sense one rule for some and another for others is one that's difficult to recover from - or takes a lot of rebuilding. And if a legal system doesn't have the consent or legitimacy it binds then I think it will come under huge pressure. I think this is partly where Kosovo is interesting.
But in the case of Gaza specifically I'm not sure it is simply just turning a blind eye v actively arming and in some countries repressing protests against that policy.
#6
Off the Record / Re: The Off Topic Topic
Last post by DGuller - Today at 04:57:49 PMQuote from: Jacob on Today at 10:10:36 AM2028 eh? That's pretty soon.Feels like it's an eternity away.
#7
Off the Record / Re: Iran War
Last post by OttoVonBismarck - Today at 04:23:09 PMThat's basically how all the big oil producers think--including the petrostates like KSA, they've openly said their goal for oil prices is to not let them get so high that it drives rapid market shifts to alternatives. Which is basically common sense in any case that people will follow a profit maximizing strategy.
#8
Off the Record / Re: Cuba vs Trump
Last post by The Minsky Moment - Today at 04:18:30 PMQuote from: Sheilbh on Today at 02:30:22 PMI think there is a tendency to overcentre Trump or read everything through him. In my view that credibility lies under the ruins of Gaza.
And before that under the ruins of Mariupol, Bucha et al.
Still I think there is a rationalization that puts the Israelis in a separate box and even for an arguable major power like Russia, a "what do you expect from the Russians" exception. A legal norm can survive even when there are instances that go unpunished, and perhaps even when the constable turns a blind eye to certain perps, but when the constable himself is a leading perpetrator, it just can't be sustained.
#9
Gaming HQ / Re: The Miscellaneous PC & vid...
Last post by Baron von Schtinkenbutt - Today at 03:27:49 PMIf you want to drive to relax, and not get pissed off at other drivers, Houston is a bad place to be.
#10
Gaming HQ / Re: The Miscellaneous PC & vid...
Last post by Syt - Today at 03:13:25 PMI tried one, but ended up mostly annoyed. I play these to chill, not to get pissed off at other drivers. 