Inverted

This seems like it should obviously be the case, but don't underestimate how strongly pro-EU centrists hate the left-wing. Much of the Lib-Dems for example would strongly prefer a No Deal Brexit and the continued implementation of austerity, to staying in the EU and pursuing a left-wing economic policy under Labour. Economically, the Lib Dem leadership is practically to the right of the Tories these days. When pushed, the well-off will always defer to their class interest. Everything else is window-dressing.

The way you talk about it, you make it sound like collapsing at random is the norm. It can happen at random, but most of the time it's related to a prior condition. And yes many diabetics are otherwise quite healthy. This man however was elderly, lives in an area with below-average life expectancy, and was described by witnesses as looking ill. Not to mention that him being in a jobcentre suggests he's extremely likely to be from a lower-income background, and so extremely likely to have compounding health conditions. Maybe it will come out in later news that the man was in peak physical condition besides the diabetes, and really did die at complete random. However, if you don't make an effort to exclude the obvious surrounding circumstances, and thousands of similar prior cases, it's pretty easy to make reasonable assumptions about the situation. If you make assumptions that all of the far less likely options are true, then yeah maybe it's a non-story.

I think when a man drops dead in a jobcentre - after years of outrageous DWP work capability determinations being repeatedly thrown out by courts - you can assume that the guy probably wasn't really fit for work. If you're prone to dropping dead whilst sitting waiting for a morning appointment, I don't think you're fit to be out job-hunting, never mind working full-time. He could have collapsed for a million reasons, but being 65 years old and diabetic are two pretty big reasons I'd guess.

"The man, 65, was found slumped in his chair at 9.30am on Friday in Llanelli. He was waiting for an appointment to discuss Jobseeker’s Allowance after being declared fit for work earlier this year." We're heading for another 10 years of this, and it's going to get much much worse before it gets better. Think of all the horrors we've seen in the last decade - tens of thousands driven to their deaths like the man above, the persecution of black Britons and asylum seekers, the pervasive wastage and corruption, Grenfell, the spiralling homelessness and child poverty, stalling life expectancy, the absolute distintegration of public life and discourse. They're going to seem like nothing in comparison to what this country will see if it can't bring itself to finally see what the Conservative party for what it is.

The idea that Britain is such an economically attractive trade partner and site of investment, but also that the taps can somehow be "turned off" in terms of foreign lending - at a time of historically low interest rates, when capital across the world is begging for lending opportunities - is absolutely amazing self-deception.

The entire discourse around Grenfell shows that despite everything which has occurred, the Tories have not changed at all since Hillsborough. Tories do not think you are fully human nor worthy of life if you are poor. This is an objective, obvious, categorically undeniable fact. An enormous amount of effort goes on everyday to conceal this fact, or to distract people from it, but it's a fact nonetheless.

I love how Tories harken back to the exact same rhetoric (and posters) used by Churchill against Attlee, when the Labour government that then won was the best there's ever been for ordinary Britons.

It also would mean that it's even more important for Labour to drive home the economy message - the BP has nothing to offer except Brexit, so if that gets pushed down the agenda they're stuck. Despite the effort that has went into obscuring it, I think people do understand the Labour policy of "have a new referendum, go for a soft Brexit if Leave wins". It's not that controversial a policy, and with it already established and argued over already, Labour should move on to other issues. They've done the graft on their Brexit policy. The Lib Dems for example have not yet been seriously scrutinised on their policy to just revoke, and in what cases they would help pass a new referendum or not - that's going to be hard for them once they start getting more attention with the electoral media rules.

That's not confirmed yet, but looking more and more likely. Not sure how that would impact the Brexit Party's anti-establishment message, or the idea of Brexit being anti-establishment, if they basically confined themselves to be a wing of the Tory party.

I think this election will basically come down to what happens once Parliament dissolves and the electoral rules kick in for the media. The Tories lose their main advantage for a short while, and then Labour have a matter of weeks to shift the narrative from Brexit, to that chart above - people are seething about the economic situation they live in, and Labour are the only ones proposing to do anything about it. Meanwhile the Tories are potentially fighting to not bleed votes to Farage and so they might have to stick to the Brexit battle. Labour's only chance is that people are sick of talking about Brexit, are receptive to an economically focused campaign, and that the Tories are too busy asserting their Brexit credentials to tackle it.

Its actually amazing that the Tories managed to stop themselves from laughing harder after being reminded of dozens of poor people burning to death.

I'm hoping Scotland at least partially comes to its senses regarding the SNP and Labour. Corbyn has said that Labour has no intentions of blocking Indy ref 2, so there's not really any point of voting SNP over Labour in a GE. The SNP only needs a majority at Holyrood as a symbol of popular support for another referendum, their Westminster seats are wasted.

Been listening to a lot of these guys recently.

It's weird seeing him speak English, after spending so much time watching him to practice my German.

Before the referendum nobody cared about the EU besides a small cabal of Tory MPs, financiers and major media-owners. The referendum artificially inflated it into an issue, and so the fault lies with Cameron and the Tory party. And it has worked perfectly to their advantage because we have spent 3 years arguing about Brexit and not about anything of any substance about fixing the country.

Spoiler alert: Joaquin Phoenix turns into the Joker and Thomas Wayne's son turns out to be Batman.

To me the only problem with the movie, message-wise, is that people are missing the point that the Joker is the result of a combination of societal failings alongside a narcissistic personality. It's not just society. It isn't the abuse or the poverty which makes Joker crave public admiration and approval, but the combination of that personality type with his surroundings, is what drives him over the edge. And it leads to him attacking legitimate points of authoirty, as well complete innocents and bystanders.

Joker: 7.5/10 I enjoyed it a lot but I ink there were some moments and particular decisions in it that, if made differently, could easily have made it a much much better film.

This post alone is enough to tell that psychologically and intellectually, England as a nation is fucked beyond rescue. Because a large amount of money, time, and analysis has went into this, and this is obviously what has been objectively determined to appeal most effectively to people.

Even at this desperate stage you have figures like Rutte, Bettel, and Maas calling out a lack of new suggestions - which means in principle that new suggestions could be listened to. That might be a tiny, almost atomically small bit of wriggle room, but I imagine that a little more could be gained without the 31st October deadline, with a new more sympathetic government, and also with a new negotiating position which offers a much closer relationship and ergo less of an adjustment down the line. Without a change in government or in negotiating position, of course it makes sense that the EU would just cut its losses and accept No Deal. But I think they are at least reasonable enough to give a chance for a new government - one which explicitly rules out a No Deal scenario - to make some proposals. Particularly if those proposals are more moderate than in May's deal.

That's why Labour's policy is to remove No Deal as an option, and make it Remain vs a soft-ish Brexit - the kind of Brexit which everyone in the Leave campaign initially promised we would go for. Removing No Deal is the first priority as that outcome was never mooted at the time of the vote, and no majority would accept it. If Ref 2 were to take place under a Remain-supporting gov, there is zero chance that any Brexit voter would accept an outcome for Remain. So maintaining technical neutrality is the next priority, ensuring there is at least some chance of a legitimate cancellation of Brexit. In a worst-case scenario, the result is a mandate for an exit under terms even more moderate than May's deal, if such terms can be secured. The only real flaw of the policy is that it depends on a new agreement being negotiable. I think however that with a new government, a clearer mandate, and also an offer of a closer future relationship than currently on offer, there would some possibility for future negotiations. Another flaw is that it requires a majority of the country not to be tribalistic mouth-breathers. But it is literally the only possible way of avoiding No Deal without destroying the democratic legitimacy of the state forever.

Or you know, a party which is willing to hold another referendum whilst staying technically neutral. That position might be slightly more popular if there was anyone in the media with the brainpower or integrity to explain why that's possibly a good idea, instead of banging out "HURR CORBYN REFUSES TO TAKE A STAND ON BREXIT" endlessly.

It's quite funny that the left-wing of the Labour Party has been calling the Tories authoritarian, murderous sociopaths for years. Now it seems that liberals and centrists, after poo-pooing and "both sides"-ing them the whole time, are just starting to grasp the reality. The Tories don't care about human life and they don't care about democracy. If it wasn't obvious years ago, it should be now. People need to realise that they can either keep playing the ridiculous tribalistic Brexit game, and enable no-deal along with another 5 years of this debacle. Or, they can get behind the opposition and give themselves at least a chance of keeping the country from total disaster.

https://www.newstatesman.com/politics/brexit/2019/08/england-s-rentier-alliance-driving-support-no-deal-brexit This analysis is for me the most convincing analysis of what economic interests are drawn towards Brexit. It's not quite precise enough to say "bankers" because the major institutions of banking aren't necessarily in favour, since they are at a scale where their interest is better served by stability and growth than radical disruption. Likewise it's not quite enough to say the rich, because many rich people are reliant on supply, growth etc. for their profits. There is a very particular subset, which is of smaller-mid sized financial actors who thrive on speculation and uncertainty, well-to-do retirees who are insulated from economic shocks, and comfortable provincial middle-classes, who all see Brexit as worth it and have managed to gather a sufficient amount of not-so-well-off support around them to make Brexit so forceful a movement, largely due to their control of a disproportionate share of the media.

All 11 SC judges on the prorogation case have decided that the PM's advice was unlawful. In any normal time this would be a complete disaster for the government, but I have a feeling the Tories will just soldier on as normal.