blandy

This is the full 100% wrong. I’m actually staggered that anyone could be that wrong. Southgate almost reluctantly took over the full team from his position as under 21s manager when fat Sam was sacked for drinking pints of wine or whatever it was. Since he’s been in the job, he’s consistently picked youngsters from all over and given them a chance. He’s also given players like Tyrone Mings his chance. On Jack, he’s said he’s very very close. Barkley scored 2 goals for England in his last game, I think. England’s team got to the semi final of the World Cup. It’s not a bad side. It doesn’t need continual changes, picking whoever is the latest name to be picked up by the media. Jack will get in, he’s too good not to, but he has no right to automatically be picked when others are also playing really well. Competition for a few places is really tough. Jack’s injury timing didn’t help either . Southgate is the opposite of all the accusations you make.

She also repeatedly says in that thread that there is a real problem with antisemitism in the Labour Party. She says she resigned from labour in 2017 because of it. So yes there are false accusations and a ”narrative” at play, but also she’s literally shown you the fire of anti-semitism in labour is real.

This entirely. They're all good at what they do, the drummer's excellent, for example. But the only stuff they've done I liked was really the stuff with Billy Bragg.

Partly, perhaps so. But by no means completely. Labour members can keep blaming the tory press, the BBC, Blairites, whoever. But ultimately they mainly need to look in the mirror.

Led the Opposition against the absolute worst government in living history, if not longer, and two of the worst tory leaders in the same timescales and somehow managed to have ratings even worse than them and part poll ratings that are around 25%. Labour ought to be romping it. Any competent leader ought to be absolutely streets ahead of the likes of May and then Johnson. His ineptitude and unsuitability will lead to another tory government.

I think you must have missed the coverage. Not exactly a storm but it was on the front pages and on the news and the internet and so on. There's also a sort of weary resignation that they're all lying, they're all coming out with rubbish and so these examples get a short coverage and then the next one happens and the coverage moves on to that.

The flip side is that Labour could be saying "we've done a deal, it's better in this way, that way, the other way...all the tories could get was a big pile of jobs, and look, we've got a deal which will mean we're sticking to the result of the referendum in 2016, to leave, as we promised we would and..." I'm sure there's been explorative talks, and maybe some broad understanding from the EU of what Labour would like and the implications and counter proposals that might be made, but a deal pretty much ready to go - no chance.

I'm less than convinced. I accept some people see that as a good thing, but I detected just a hint of general anti-immigration, anti-immigrant messaging, 5Kens.

I’ve seen the fires.

That provides historical context, as does the holocaust and its echoes, to various actions. It completely and totally does not excuse the appalling behaviour of Israeli forces, Israeli politicians (some) towards Palestine and Palestinians. Israel as a nation/government has and continues to act appallingly over Palestine. It's utterly atrocious, and those actions and behaviours should be condemned completely. All of which is nothing to do with anti-semitism, other than some effwits can't sadly distinguish between or seperate what government or its forces do and "jews" generally.

I don't think we're far apart. I agree with about 98% of what you say on this. I guess the only difference we have is that while I completely accept all sorts of partisan people do play it up, in some cases ridiculously so, for me personally there's a significant amount enough of it, compounded by an utter ineffectiveness in dealing totally firmly and unequivocally with it (I accept it's impossible, nigh on, to make a racist not be a racist, or to ever totally eliminate human idiocy/hate) that for a supposedly avowedly anti-racist, stand up for minorities party for it not to be a "crisis". So perhaps we differ on how we define "crisis". It's certainly hurting them. You've only got to look on twitter (yes, I know) to see, in the last day or so the sewer of it around a reinstate Chris Williamson push that was going on, to see that many JC4PM and hard left types are just vile with it. They may not be all Labour members or voters, who can tell, but they're attaching themselves to Labour and trying to get the pillock re-instated into Labour. I know happily he hasn't been, but it's surrounding the harder left labour lot and they're not doing much more than the fig-leaf minimum to condemn and utterly distance themselves from it. There's a strong sniff of they don't actually condemn it at all, perhaps in some "greater cause", perhaps because they share it, beneath the veneer.

Yeah. Pair of absolute duds.

An excellent post with one exception - the quoted bit. Yes the tabloid rags etc.overplay it for political gain and so on. But there is, to my reading a "crisis" of anti-semitism in and surrounding Labour. Significant numbers of Labour Supporters/Voters/Members and even the odd MP and senior figure within wider labour indulge in blatant offensive anti-semitism, hounding of Jewish MPs and members,, whitewashing it, denying it, failing to deal with it. It's a stain. It's not all, or most, or a majority - it's a minority, but one of sufficient scale that the problem is serious, persistent and to an extent institutional. As an aside, we saw earlier this week that a tory (Johnson was it?) compared Corbyn to Stalin who was responsible for genocidal mass murder of Kulaks and this was roundly condemned as highly offensive and all the rest by Labour people (and others), some/many of whom seem to have no problem themselves comparing Israel or Israelis to the Nazis. The absolute tools.

Ian Austin's right about Corbyn. He is totally unfit to be be PM, regardless of whatever else Austin thinks or says.

@bickster - it looks like ar yer cockneys say the names of places then written down/transcribed.

You were harder - like an undercover chris P.

Fight Fight Fight So did mine.

New Eggs song out now (played on Marc Riley last night), and New Album soon.

It's for when we Brexit.

From experience I can add that it's incredibly hard to remove once it's set its roots, and when it is dished out, even a little more of it than expected can cause pain, tears and a sense of regret and "I'm not doing that again".

To an extent it is, yes. This is because Labour's policy as written by them on their internet is as I wrote above - "A Labour government will negotiate a sensible deal within three months of being elected". Not cover the basics of an "arrangement" and work out the detail later, but an actual deal. If that's not what they are going to do so, they should say so. A deal's not a deal until it's set out in full. They don't talk about a "provisional" deal, or a "framework" or "setting out the fundamentals". ANd there are two parties to any deal. the EU have to agree, too, within this ludicrous 3 months. It's disingenuous at best. Dishonest is a more accurate term.

Brexit would be a disaster for Faridge. He "needs" it not to happen.

That's the approach the Trump lot are going with - try and discredit the character of the witnesses. It's a tactic as old as the hills. Get caught, say the evidence can't be believed because everyone providing it is a bad person with a grudge.

It's slightly less stupid than the tories "plan" which is mental, true. I differ with you on the next bit, because they will not get or do what they say they'll do in 3 months. So then what? What do they do. What does the EU do? we don't know and Labour doesn't know. They might say...OK, it's taking longer than we said it would, but we'll keep on negotiating to get something acceptable to bring back. We've seen what that's led to already. SO maybe in 6-8 months then they might have something, though it won't be what they say it will be - it won't be a NEW customs union, it won't be close to, but not in, the single market. It's not real world stuff. And then they have this special conference...and then they put something to a referendum but don't (understandably) actually have enough faith in themselves to be able to say "we'll recommend our own deal and Leaving" or the honesty or integrity to say "we want to remain" (if that's what they want). It's just a dishonest fudge. There are 2 possible outcomes if we don't do a deal to stay in the SM and CU - hard Brexit followed by years of trying to get back all the things we'll have thrown away, while being much worse off in financial and many other aspects than we are now, or revoke A50. That's it. If Labour said "we'll leave, but stay in the CU and SM, then they'd get kudos from me for having a genuine alternative to the tories and LDs different hard leave/Remain policies. As it stands they don't have a real alternative, because they're torn between those two things.

Labour's Brexit policy makes no sense at all, and they know it They say A new Customs Union. In 3 months. This is just untrue drivel. There is THE Customs Union, which we could stay part of. But Labour doesn't want to do that, it wants a "new" one. It can't have a new one. It is impossible, never mind in 12 weeks. Again, another either in or out THE SM is all that's possible, particularly in 12 weeks of negotiating. This is another load of drivel, then. Before they do that the'll (they say) hold a conference to decide if they support the deal they've just negotiated. Jeremy won't say if he would recommend remaining or Leaving, but even allowing for his refusal to say, the party will either reject their own deal that they and their leader have just negotiated, or they'll be recommending leaving. So they're saying they think they might be incompetent, but if they're not incompetent then they're a Leave party, offering a referendum. There is, as I've said, and as they effing know themselves, false promises and bluster in their policy. Whoppers. What could possibly go wrong?