UK General Discussion:The Rt. Hon Alex Boris de Pfeffel Johnson, Populist Hero

[Kingpoleon]

Is Yvette Cooper really that likely to succeed Corbyn? It seems like she would be a staunch turn away from Corbyn, and someone reasonable like her might make me prefer a Labour-Lib Dem coalition.

[Kingpoleon]

For the Liberal Democrats, who will likely run to succeed Swinson? Daisy Cooper? Munira Wilson?

[Kingpoleon]

https://twitter.com/PickardJE/status/1208036791623831552

Normally when a socialist revolution succeeds, that ends up happening to most of its authors anyway.

[Kingpoleon]

Main news item to-day is the resignation - on Budget Day - of the Scottish finance minister under... um... something of a cloud.

That reminds me of an old saying I read in a book, the name of which is lost to me, referring to Parliament in the 1600s: “What is in the water in London?”

I laughed at his text asking a 16 year old if he supports independence, though.

[Kingpoleon]

I'm having some Roy Moore-type flashbacks:

"It's not illegal, but it's wrong."

I guess it’s better in the sense that he.... complimented him instead of going on dates and having sex with him. I do have to ask: If it’s appropriate for these texts to be become public, would it be appropriate if the texts was an elected official sexting someone other than their spouse/cheating on them? We do have to be careful to distinguish between right and wrong, but we also have to ask: how much privacy do public officials deserve? I tend to give a great deal of leeway, unless they’re like the leader of their country or something, to the interests of privacy regarding legal, if immoral, personal matters.

[Kingpoleon]

https://twitter.com/CorbynistaTeen/status/1230202817442439168

Yes,  you if you want to work in the NHS. /s

Why on earth are British nurses paid so little?

[Kingpoleon]

I didn't wake up today expecting Vince Comrade Cable to come out in support of Dengism, but here we go.

I assume he's being serious here, but I honestly have no idea:

https://twitter.com/vincecable/status/1253020673573871617

To be fair, there are way worse socialists he could have complimented.

[Kingpoleon]

Lenin had some useful insights, even if he also did some bad things.

Pretending he was no different to Stalin/Mao just shows up those who make such an ahistorical claim.

Sure, and Franco wasn’t as bad as Hitler. But you don’t hear me go around complimenting Francisco Franco.

[Kingpoleon]

Again, "approval" is one thing.

(I don't "approve" of VIL for all sorts of very good reasons)

Accepting that he had some valid historical insights, despite all that was wrong with him, is quite another IMO. And to respond to an earlier post, that's not really true of Franco is it?

Franco recognized the weakness of the Spanish state, modernized it in many ways, restored a monarch who eventually overthrew the dictatorship, advanced its economy, and made many Spaniards feel proud and safe. But I try not to compliment him because he, seeing weakness and resentment from the Spanish population, elevated them and their country to advance his own dictatorship, and did so with the suppression of a million people and the deaths of 100,000.

Yeah, Lenin and Franco took power because they were manipulative: they filled a desire in the populace. But you don’t get credit for “valid historical insight” when you massacre tens of thousands of people, murder a Tsar, his, wife and kids, and suppress all opposition. Compared to Lenin’s brutal suppression of his opposition, Franco was a moderate liberalizer. Yet you wouldn’t take kindly to Boris Johnson praising him.

[Kingpoleon]

https://twitter.com/ldnyounglabour/status/1257728205022277632?s=21

C'mon, London Young Labour: let's not pretend that the unionists in Northern Ireland don't deserve an opinion on their country, & that you f**king middle class London students know a damn thing about Ireland. That you'd tear the wound right open again for your vision of what Ireland should be, regardless of what the peace process has already determined, is disgusting. Groups like you aren't only a blight on Labour; you're a blight on the left. I'll say it again: self-proclaimed socialists who proudly champion things that'd undoubtedly lead to violence are disgusting.

Ireland is a settled question, re-litigating this stuff helps no one. They're just trying to be edgy and cool like it's still the 70's. Labour has completely jumped the shark to the point wherever you want to say about Johnson he's better than the alternative.

Agreed. There should be a couple reasonable third parties, who actually win seats regularly. If only!

[Kingpoleon]

SNP don't count, then?

Even the SNP is better than Labour or Johnson.

[Kingpoleon]

If Johnson goes down, I can’t imagine anyone would really want to hold a title as cursed as the Conservative’s Leader.