And the sad thing is that it probably won't make a damn bit of difference. (Nice article btw).
Stupidity, lies, dirty tricks and exploitation have been the mechanics of power since forever, but the management of this has been a particular skill of the Labour party in the C20th and C21st starting with Jim Callaghan and finding its champion in Neil Kinnock. Whether things would have changed with John Smith is a moot point, but they certainly didn't with Tony Blair. I'm afraid it's quite understandable if Boris Johnson follows the parallel evolution of Trumpism. It's too depressing to think about.
If you ever want to find out about how Kinnock set about stamping out any success left wing politics might have had in modern government in the UK, try Googling Lol Duffy and the tragedy that ended with Angela Eagle becoming a high flyer in the party.
So you're saying Boris Johnson is one of those people who perform better under pressure...
No, it really hasn't. The BBC's lead political correspondent, Laura Kuenssberg, in particular, has been openly partisan. Whilst it may serve her short term interests, in the long term, it may come bite her in the bum.
My twitter handle made
the national news in that particular scrum, when a friend - passing on the shit that was going down on FB - was accused of being a right wing sock puppet.
Yeah, I don't know the gory details of their past missteps, but I prefer to blame "left wing politics" becoming the persona non grata / third rail of certain, um 'democracies' (e.g. US, UK, and yes, Canada), on media conglomeration, and the rise of billionaire feudalism, at the expense of all life on earth (eventually... soon -ish). This UK GE, and the USian impeachment process, are both part and parcel of an existential struggle between human greed and human survival --> two go in, one comes out. And I'm fucking scared. :-@
Hard to call really. Scotland is fairly well split down the middle on the independence question, and the vast majority can't see past that when evaluating Sturgeon.
At a place I worked around the time of the last indy ref i heard colleagues (mostly retirement age men) who were diehard unionists and idiots go on about how 'she's definitely shagging Salmond' and practically in the same breath say 'bet she's a fucking lesbian'.
They were also out and out racists, which was pleasant. Two of the old guys (we're talking in their 70s here) got sacked eventually for having a full on fisticuffs session (including one of them vaulting over the customer service desk to land a punch on the other :'D ), I'm not sure of the exact reason why it started but it was probably football related.
Apart from that she's got mixed reviews really. Anyone against independence focuses solely on the areas that are not going so well (mainly NHS and the, thankfully now dropped, 'named person scheme' where every child was to be appointed a named 'responsible adult' contact point with pretty ill defined reasoning and powers involved), where as those who are ambivolent or for independence I think generally think she's doing an OK job. Doing well in some areas, pish in others.
They've been in power for quite some time up here now, I think they've had to learn a hell of a lot in fairly short space of time and on the whole I think they're doing OK. I'll be voting SNP tomorrow, because a) I hate the tories and b) Scottish Labour is dead*. Their policies are largely in line with my views (certainly more so than New Labour, but not as much as Corbyn's Labour (which I don't agree with all of either)).
*they died around 1998 when they brought in devolution and it was revealed how much contempt Scottish Labour had for, well, Scotland. It just took a decade for the corpse to stop moving.
Anecdotally, big turnout, looking a lot closer than just a couple of days ago.
Exit poll predicting an 86 seat Conservative majority. :'(
Bit of a shitter for you lot, eh?
If Scotland gets another referendum (in spite of Johnson's implacable resistance), votes for independence, splits off the UK, and rejoins the EU, I wonder how citizenship and residency will be dealt with.