This Once Great Movement Of Ours

[JimJamUK]

Angela Rayner seems to have gotten a recurring spot on This Morning these days, which is good news for Labour as she comes across well to their fairly apolitical audience. Ex Lib Dem MP Lembit Opik was also on today and came across as fairly odious with his whataboutery attacks on Rayner.

[CumbrianLefty]

Opik is another formerly left-liberal politico now doing the Great Moving Right Show.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Opik is another formerly left-liberal politico now doing the Great Moving Right Show.

Almost wonder if he's deluded himself into thinking that a comeback under different colours might be possible.

[Blair]

It’s quite funny as he’s such a has been that I don’t ever actually recall anything about him other than him being a long running joke- he hasn’t held office since 2010!

I’m not even sure what his actual politics were when he was an MP.

[CumbrianLefty]

He was actually a fairly mainstream and sensible LibDem to begin with.

[Estrella]

By a complete coincidence, while researching for a school project right after reading this thread, I stumbled upon the work of one early 20th century astronomer, a certain Ernst Öpik.

His grandson, Lembit Öpik, was the Liberal Democrat Member of Parliament for Montgomeryshire in Wales from 1997 to 2010, and has advocated searching for asteroids that may collide with the Earth. Lembit also became Chairman of the Parliament of Asgardia in 2019 and is a Member of the Supreme Space Council (SSC).

Asgardia?

Asgardia, also known as the Space Kingdom of Asgardia and Asgardia the Space Nation, is a micronation formed by a group of people who have launched a satellite into Earth orbit. They refer to themselves as "Asgardians" and they have given their satellite the name "Asgardia-1". They have declared sovereignty over the space occupied by and contained within Asgardia -1. The Asgardians have adopted a constitution and they intend to access outer space free of the control of existing nations and establish a permanent settlement on the Moon by 2043.

Edit: lmaooo

Lembit Öpik is Celebrating his 56th Birthday Today!

On 5 Aries (2 March), the Chairman of the first ever Space Parliament receives congratulations from the entire planet. Lembit Öpik is celebrating his 56th birthday today!

Lembit Öpik has been heading the unique international parliament of the First Space Nation for more than 4 years. People here speak different languages, but understand each other well. ‘We’ve Become the Most Experienced Digital Democracy in Human History!’ says Lembit.

His vast experience in moderating sessions and legislative forums comes from the United Kingdom Parliament, where he was among the leaders of the British Liberal Democrats and a member of the House of Commons from 1997 to 2010.

Mr. Öpik is not only a highly respected and trusted person. He is always extremely friendly with his colleagues, inviting everyone to speak out with no hesitation during online meetings. His professionalism and, when needed, humour are indisputable.

He believes that, unlike traditional countries where the evolution of the state structure is rather slow, Asgardia comes up with a completely different approach to building the political system, which is much more advanced and altruistic.

[Tintrlvr]

By a complete coincidence, while researching for a school project right after reading this thread, I stumbled upon the work of one early 20th century astronomer, a certain Ernst Öpik.

His grandson, Lembit Öpik, was the Liberal Democrat Member of Parliament for Montgomeryshire in Wales from 1997 to 2010, and has advocated searching for asteroids that may collide with the Earth. Lembit also became Chairman of the Parliament of Asgardia in 2019 and is a Member of the Supreme Space Council (SSC).

Asgardia?

Asgardia, also known as the Space Kingdom of Asgardia and Asgardia the Space Nation, is a micronation formed by a group of people who have launched a satellite into Earth orbit. They refer to themselves as "Asgardians" and they have given their satellite the name "Asgardia-1". They have declared sovereignty over the space occupied by and contained within Asgardia -1. The Asgardians have adopted a constitution and they intend to access outer space free of the control of existing nations and establish a permanent settlement on the Moon by 2043.

Edit: lmaooo

Lembit Öpik is Celebrating his 56th Birthday Today!

On 5 Aries (2 March), the Chairman of the first ever Space Parliament receives congratulations from the entire planet. Lembit Öpik is celebrating his 56th birthday today!

Lembit Öpik has been heading the unique international parliament of the First Space Nation for more than 4 years. People here speak different languages, but understand each other well. ‘We’ve Become the Most Experienced Digital Democracy in Human History!’ says Lembit.

His vast experience in moderating sessions and legislative forums comes from the United Kingdom Parliament, where he was among the leaders of the British Liberal Democrats and a member of the House of Commons from 1997 to 2010.

Mr. Öpik is not only a highly respected and trusted person. He is always extremely friendly with his colleagues, inviting everyone to speak out with no hesitation during online meetings. His professionalism and, when needed, humour are indisputable.

He believes that, unlike traditional countries where the evolution of the state structure is rather slow, Asgardia comes up with a completely different approach to building the political system, which is much more advanced and altruistic.

Any participant in Atlasia can't make fun of this!

[Secretary of State Liberal Hack]

What is it with the Lib Dems and attracting cranks ?

[Filuwaúrdjan]

What is it with the Lib Dems and attracting cranks ?

Ancient tradition. After all, they once had Gladstone as their leader.

[Conservatopia]

What is it with the Lib Dems and attracting cranks ?

Ancient tradition. After all, they once had Gladstone as their leader.

How dare you.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

How dare you.

All I'm saying is that it remains a great tragedy that neither the BBC nor Channel Four ever greenlight Dennis Potter's proposal for a TV play or series about the man called 'Prostitute Reformer'.

[CumbrianLefty]

What is it with the Lib Dems and attracting cranks ?

The two big parties also do tbf, its just that "safety in numbers" makes them stand out a bit less.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

What is it with the Lib Dems and attracting cranks ?

The two big parties also do tbf, its just that "safety in numbers" makes them stand out a bit less.

There was a joke in the Not The Nine O Clock News book for the 1983 election in which the comments made by canvassers for the different parts on the doorstep were 'translated' into what they really meant. One was 'Just because I'm a Liberal it doesn't mean that I'm a crank' which was 'translated' to 'not only we will make paedophilia legal but we'll make it compulsory'. Quite an interesting joke given... well... certain issues that are clearer now than then...

[CumbrianLefty]

Christian Wakeford has been selected for Bury South.

Not particularly surprising, given Starmer's focus on selections (and his embrace of Wakeford, who spent the summer as a PPS, and joined the Labour Whip office a few weeks back), and Wakeford's rather effective charm offence (and seemingly genuine Damascene conversion).

But still slightly impressed that there was less intra-party noise over selecting a former Tory MP, than in the wide-open selections in other seats.

Though his selection does seem to have been "fast-tracked", leading to a predictable reaction from the usual suspects. And they may on this occasion have a bit of a point tbf.

[Torrain]

What is it with the Lib Dems and attracting cranks ?

The two big parties also do tbf, its just that "safety in numbers" makes them stand out a bit less.

There was a joke in the Not The Nine O Clock News book for the 1983 election in which the comments made by canvassers for the different parts on the doorstep were 'translated' into what they really meant. One was 'Just because I'm a Liberal it doesn't mean that I'm a crank' which was 'translated' to 'not only we will make paedophilia legal but we'll make it compulsory'. Quite an interesting joke given... well... certain issues that are clearer now than then...

Party Political Broadcasts by the Liberals in the 70s... *ahem* hardly dispute that assessment.

Impassioned direct-to-camera pleas by the then member for Rochdale, Jeremy Thorpe interviewed by Jimmy Saville, just a total car-crash.

Ran across them in a party political broadcast compilation when trying to find the "Crisis, What Crisis?" bit from 1979.

[Coldstream]

I’ll actually be quite sad if Ian Byrne is deselected in Liverpool, he’s been a hard working MP at the national level - but local factors seem to be dooming him. He’s far from the worst.

[Blair]

People are clearly bored in the Labour Party as there is once again briefing against Ed Miliband in the Sunday papers which ofc features the 'wrong brother' trope hahaha.

[CumbrianLefty]

Glad to say I missed that. I did note, however, an equally dreary revival of Corbyn discourse - which was started by Wes Streeting a "Shadow Cabinet member" saying that Starmer personally expelling him from the party (something that is not possible anyway, but actual details like that have never bothered such people) was the only way for Labour to counter Sunak's current laughably irrelevant devastatingly effective exhuming of his political corpse at every opportunity.

[Blair]

Labour campaign for labour MPs to understand the Labour Party’s rules.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Labour campaign for labour MPs to understand the Labour Party’s rules.

Hmm... no, I don't know about that. I can spot some obvious drawbacks.

[Conservatopia]

Labour try not to blow golden opportunities by infighting challenge (Impossible, Screaming, Vomiting)

[CumbrianLefty]

I wouldn't get your hopes up too much

[YL]

Thoughts on this from Michael Crick?

https://twitter.com/tomorrowsmps/status/1594288084786597888

[CumbrianLefty]

Crick probably exaggerates things, but a certain amount of favouritism is undeniable. What is also the case, however, is that this is nothing new (and very much including Starmer's predecessor here)

[Filuwaúrdjan]

It isn't possible to have a 'fair' system by definition: the fact the electorate is ultimately self-selecting guarantees this. Complaints get made at every selection round and, as a rule, they are both technically justified and entirely hypocritical. Genuinely atrocious cases (what happened at Bassetlaw last time round, or various cases of branch-stacking in the past) are comparatively rare exceptions - serious, but very much not the norm. Labour selections are more likely to get this sort of attention even though they're no worse than those in other parties - this isn't due to anti-Labour bias, but simply because Labour is a much more transparent organization. If a selection is rigged (not slanted, but actively rigged), then it's always quite obvious. But impossible tell for the other parties.