UK Political Thread, part the second

I’m conflicted watching “Senior Tories” rip Suella Braverman for being too racist*, accusing her of doing so out of leadership ambitions. Like, woah, “Hey Sue, racism isn’t really our brand this year.” While I agree she’s manifestly unfit for any leadership position, it feels racist and sexist to hear Tories say should shouldn’t have ambitions. Are they saying that winning votes by being racist is exclusively a tactic for white Tories? Furthermore, I doubt this is tactical on her part – she’s genuinely racist and horrible.

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Interestingly, no one seems to have a problem with her being a TER.

Maybe this is why Sunak/Braverman/Badenoch are where they are now. Blame the collective Tory bigotry on them for their inevitable election loss, then five years later hope everyone has forgotten when white Tories try and get elected on the same old hateful shit.

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As far as I can tell, the only Tory MP who has actually gone on the record to openly criticise Braverman for her bigotry is Sayeeda Warsi, while the rest of the oxygen wasters in the party seem content to quietly “harrumph” in anonymous briefings, to make sure that everyone knows of course they’re decent chaps and they’re terribly upset about it but there’s nothing they could have done, what?

Whether Warsi having specific misgivings about racism now rather than at any previous point in the racist shitshow we have endured over the last 13 years is because the Home Secretary has started being openly racist to people of Warsi’s ethnic background and not, say, “faceless hordes of foreigners, othered to the point of comfortable abstraction” is a philosophical question left to the reader to resolve.

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Sharing a grid post on Friday (14 April), the author called out lead stories in the Daily Mail and The Sun which she said focused on “the bodies of trans women”, adding that “the problems in this country… are not caused by trans people”.

She also called out journalists “asking politicians about penises” during a time of rising poverty across the UK, echoing previous statements that Britain is an “artificially divided nation”.

She added: “The problems in your life, the problems in this country… food shortages, food poverty, the cost of living, fuel bills, the problems brought about by Brexit, NHS waiting lists… none of these things are caused by trans people.”

“Those things are caused by Tories.”

emphasis mine

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I’m not saying this isn’t true, but I wouldn’t trust GeeBeebies who have an Tory funded interest in causing a split.

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As @anon73430903 says, GB News is definitely not a trusted news source (American friends: think OAN) and anything they have to say should be taken with more than a pinch (try a shovel-full) of salt.

I don’t think that GB News have anything meaningful to add to anything beyond bigotry and hatred, and I think that it would be great if people (generally, not you specifically) would try to avoid linking to it if possible.

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I would put GB “news”, aka GeeBeebies, on the ‘screenshot, don’t link’ list.

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That’s odd. I can think of another issue where he’s actively anti-science.

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“… quick, what can we blame Britain’s collapsing economy on, other than ourselves?” :crazy_face:

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I’m not sure that I would even be that generous. Their management has gone on record as saying they don’t care much about viewers or page impressions, and that what they’re actually trying to do is “create a conversation” through snippets of their shows being shared online.

The problem is that the “conversation” that they are trying to have is bigoted and just plain unpleasant on a bunch of different levels. I don’t think they (or Talk TV, the Daily Mail, Fox News, OAN, etc.) have any more to contribute to the discourse around a topic than, say, the National Enquirer. As they’re all keen to point out in their defence when sued for their bullshit, they’re “entertainment” that “no reasonable person could take to be a serious source of news.”

We don’t take “Elvis Ate My Hamster” stories seriously, and definitely don’t reference them in discussion of Elvis. Why should these shitrags be any different?

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Oh I agree. I repeatedly, frustratingly made very similar points myself on a group I used to admin, that sharing anything at all from shit-stirring, hate mongering far right disinformation sources just furthers their cause. If you absolutely must draw attention to it in a “god, look what these assholes are doing now” way, then at least screenshot/quote rather than link, to minimise viral spread, but it still just contributes to more polarisation, drives us all further and further away from any kind of nuanced discussion, commonality, even basic linguistic consensus. It’s sheer poison, by design.

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Picture editor at BBC seeing an opportunity.

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Finding common ground with people who oppress you and want you eliminated is an option available only to those not on the receiving end of that oppression. For some things - there’s no nuance or commonality to be found.

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I’m sure the folks who scrutinize tv broadcasters there are loving this news

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They should appoint him the Duke of Foula and make him live there in a caravan.

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People live on Foula, they’ve done nothing to deserve him.

Prince of Rockall works well though, no one is living there, except for molluscs, gannets, guillemots, kittiwakes, fulmars and the occasional environmental protestor. Unfortuately Gruinard (Anthrax Island) has been decontaminated, otherwise that would have been a better choice.

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Here’s a fishing rod, cup, knife and a tarp.

Have fun!

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