Sorry to keep going on about this, but people are losing all sense of perspective and sense over current events. They will end up hugely disappointed because of course Johnson will get away with it. I genuinely do not understand how anyone can think otherwise. A short thread ...
Take a step back and look at the reality of what the Tory-leaning part of the population is seeing and experiencing at the moment:
* A hugely successful vaccine roll-out.
* The permanent easing of the lockdown after a long, hard 14 months.
...
* A furlough scheme protecting working age incomes.
* The triple lock protecting the incomes of retirees.
* Rising house prices.
On the back of all of this, economic optimism is soaring in a way it hasn't done for years, decades even ...
Does anyone seriously believe that a bout of who said what and he should have declared that is going to have any impact on the national mood or voting intentions? It is an absurd proposition. Johnson has been getting away with it all his life. Nothing has changed.
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Owen Jones, Paul Mason and countless others on the UK far left went to Catalonia and took the side of the ethno-nationalists. They wrote and spoke breathlessly about a popular uprising against a central government that had failed to cast off the shadow of Franco and the Falange.
In doing so, they failed to notice that the people they were offering support to were a privileged elite who had controlled Catalonia - politically, linguistically, socially and culturally - for close to 40 years, and whose leaders were nepotistic and often deeply corrupt.
Jones, Mason and co fell for the separatist agenda hook, line and sinker because they saw people who looked like them, had similar backgrounds and knew how to push their buttons. Essentially, they were political activist looking for stories to confirm their pre-existing opinions.
I am on the left. I do not consider calling out anti-Semitism to be a campaign against me or any of my comrades. I consider it a duty to call out racism - wherever it occurs and whoever does it. I will not make special allowances for people whose politics I otherwise share.
The reason why so many on the left opposed Jeremy Corbyn's Labour leadership bid in 2015 and continue to oppose his leadership now is because he has spent decades standing shoulder to shoulder with anti-Semites without once challenging them or their views.
The fact that Chris Williamson continues to be a Labour MP tells you absolutely everything you need to know about how serious the labour leadership is about fighting all forms of racism. He is a Jewbaiter, but one who supports Jeremy Corbyn - so he gets a free pass.
For Corbyn, Milne, Murray, McDonnell, McCluskey and Murphy Brexit is a matter of ideological conviction. They could not change their minds even if they wanted to. But those who want Labour to win general elections should read this and get very worried: whatukthinks.org/eu/a-nation-of…
Put simply, whether you voted Leave or Remain in 2016 has become more important to people than party affiliation. Remainers feel this even more deeply than Leave voters. And, as we all know, most Labour voters backed Remain.
In 2017, when we were further away from Brexit, emotions were not as raw as they are now and Labour explicitly ruled out a No Deal Brexit as the Tories talked about No Deal being better than a Bad Deal, Remain voters backed Labour. They took the least worst option.