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Sluggardo Profile picture
Sluggardo
@eurosluggard
Proud Brummie, Englishman, Brit & European. Centrist dad. Tuts & sighs a lot. No, I won't ever ‘get over it’
3 subscribers
Mar 7, 2020 • 4 tweets • 2 min read
Why are UK govt ministers spouting this fuckwittery about independence, talking as if the UK had been colonised against its will? They’re supposed to be grownups ffs.
“As you would expect from an independent nation, we can’t be subject to the rules and laws made by somebody else” Apart from it being bullshit, every time our govt says "by leaving the EU, we have become an independent, democratic country" it insults all 27 EU member states (including some that 30 years ago were under communist dictatorship) by saying they are not independent or democratic
Feb 27, 2020 • 7 tweets • 1 min read
I just angrily messaged somebody the following words: “Between falling and lying!”
Any guesses what this was about?
(Answer in an hour) I had been arguing earlier in the day with a Scottish friend as to whether snow “settles” (me) or “lies” (him) when it lands on cold, dry ground...
Feb 22, 2020 • 4 tweets • 1 min read
If you were American, which Presidential candidate would you support? And why? Me? Not Trump. Not Sanders. Not Bloomberg except if it were the only way of stopping the previous two. I can muster a degree of enthusiasm for any of the others
Jan 12, 2020 • 4 tweets • 1 min read
Most of what the Director of “Festival 2022” (aka “The Festival of Brexit” says here I have absolutely no disagreement. The second sentence on the other hand... (Unless he means “politically, there’s no way a Tory govt would have coughed up for a big cultural festival were it not for Brexit,” as opposed to “as a result of Brexit, we have more money available for things like culture”. If that’s what he’s saying via weasel words then yeah)
Dec 22, 2019 • 6 tweets • 2 min read
I agree with this - except that the correct past tense of “to gaslight” is “gaslighted”, not “gaslit” The verb “to gaslight” isn’t derived from the irregular verb “to light” (simple past: lit). It’s derived from a proper noun: “Gaslight” (the 1940s film adaptations of Patrick Hamilton’s 1938 play “Gas Light”.
Nov 18, 2019 • 4 tweets • 2 min read
You ain’t no centrist Remainer, bruv A true centrist Remainer might not vote for a Corbyn-led majority govt, but sure as hell votes for a hung Parliament in the shitshow that is UK politics in 2019
Nov 14, 2019 • 4 tweets • 2 min read
Why are Labour not getting as much shit about Richmond Park as the LibDems are getting about Canterbury? I agree that appointing a candidate after Tim Walker stood down is a wankish thing to do. But even before he stood down, Labour weren’t getting even a small fraction of the relentless grief for splitting the Remain vote in Richmond Park as the LibDems were getting for Canterbury
Nov 2, 2019 • 4 tweets • 1 min read
I reckon Claudia Winkleman thinks we should revoke Article 50, and Tess Daly thinks we should just get Brexit done ...although I’m not sure about Claudia. Might be PV
Sep 27, 2019 • 5 tweets • 1 min read
You know what would restore trust in democracy? Boris Johnson addressing the nation and admitting that what he and the Leave campaigned for was undeliverable, that since then he has deliberately stoked a sense of betrayal as a means of gaining power, and that he is deeply sorry Not very likely, I grant you - but as I say, I’m convinced it would restore trust in politics. We could all heal and move on
Sep 13, 2019 • 5 tweets • 1 min read
Lot of ppl saying Boris Johnson “wants No-Deal”. I don’t agree: he wants a deal. But 2 problems:
1/ he wants a unicorn deal that’s not on offer- more benefits/fewer obligations than May’s deal
2/ his cunning plan for getting this fantasy deal is to *pretend* he’s ok with No-Deal In other words, a key difference between Johnson’s approach to the Brexit negotiations and May’s is... that Johnson thought he would make dazzling progress just by bluffing harder and more convincingly
Sep 9, 2019 • 9 tweets • 3 min read
THREAD: Funny how more ppl still haven’t sussed out what is going on when Brexiters behave embarrassingly in full view of the cameras (latest: Johnson gurning and stretching during his press conference with Varadkar today). 1/8 They👏are👏doing👏it👏deliberately👏 to distract attention from what their opponents are saying. If you are reacting to what they are doing, you’re not paying as much attention to the important & carefully argued message that is being shared alongside them. 2/8
Aug 28, 2019 • 4 tweets • 1 min read
Is Boris Johnson a populist despite claiming to be socially liberal & despite wearing his learning on his sleeve (unlike Salvini or Orban)? Yes. ⁦@Yascha_Mounk⁩ argues here that to claim otherwise “is based on a misunderstanding of populism.” (1/2) theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/… “Populists can come in all kinds of ideological flavors. Many, especially in Europe, are far-right. Some, especially in Latin America, are far-left. A few, like those who belong to Italy’s 5 Star Movement, claim to eschew traditional political categories...” (2/4)
Aug 19, 2019 • 4 tweets • 3 min read
Pro-Brexit propagandist Tom Harwood on Yellowhammer: “People are reading about the risks, they’re not reading about the solutions. Cab Office is working on No-Deal planning to make sure those things don’t come about. We’re preparing & that means we’ll have a much smoother exit.” Still can’t get over the fact that, on 28 July, the BBC has Tom Harwood on BBC Breakfast *alone* (not as part of a panel) to review the papers, as if he was some kind of credible, respected, impartial commentator
Jun 27, 2019 • 7 tweets • 2 min read
Boris Johnson is reprising Vote Leave’s call for an “Australian points system” for immigration. A Commons Library paper from 2018 coyly stated “it has not always been obvious what advocates [of an ‘Australian model’] specifically have in mind.” I beg to disagree. It is obvious➡️ When senior Brexiters call for an “Australian points system”, what they are doing is, very cynically, sending out three distinct messages, which are heard in different ways by different groups of potential supporters (so, in that sense, it is a dogwhistle)... (2/5)
Jun 22, 2019 • 4 tweets • 1 min read
Stop referring to it as an “implementation” period. We haven’t agreed what we’re transitioning too, so we can’t implement it. It isn’t even a transition period. It’s a pre-cliff edge standstill period during which we’ll try to negotiate the thing that we’re going to implement. Language matters. It’s partly this kind of abuse of language that got us into this mess in the first place.
Jun 13, 2019 • 4 tweets • 1 min read
Thread: how Boris Johnson’s advisers use deliberate misdirection to hide the truth. In the same vein, note how (post-Gove exposé) they steered media towards his earlier admission he took coke at uni - thereby shutting down more pertinent question of whether he ever did so later. Here’s what Johnson said at his press conference yesterday: “I think the account of this event when I was 19 has appeared many many times.” Note what he *doesn’t* say. He doesn’t address whether he took cocaine in his 20s/30s while a journalist/MP. But he moves the discussion on.
May 29, 2019 • 5 tweets • 2 min read
Nearly three years too late with this, Govey, and we see you. The time to say this was 24 June 2016 before the jubilant Brexiters, Daily Mail, etc succeeded in promoting the idea that post EUref it was now anti-democratic to continue arguing that Leaving the EU was a bad idea. Oh, I’ve just realised: this isn’t *at all* about the fact that Remain views were suppressed by a bullying Leave media-political establishment immediately after EUref.
May 25, 2019 • 5 tweets • 1 min read
Psst, Matt you appear not to have understood how this works, so let me explain... Firstly, the people voting in this race are a small number of radicalised blue-rinse super-annuated zealots who will never in a million years vote for you unless you make engage in blood-curdling bluster about Brexit. Moderation and compromise won’t cut it....
Apr 16, 2019 • 4 tweets • 1 min read
Genuine question: what’s going on when you get retweeted within a few seconds of tweeting but when you look at who did it you get the “nothing to see here...yet” screen? Bots, right?
Mar 26, 2019 • 4 tweets • 1 min read
If somebody says they voted Remain in 2016, but would now vote Leave in a hypothetical 2nd referendum “to respect the 2016 vote” then I draw conclusions about their capacity for empirical decision-making and I certainly wouldn’t want them managing my telecoms project. A bit snarky, that last tweet of mine. There are plenty of worse people on twitter. Feel bad, but don’t like to delete my tweets unless there are typos in them.
Mar 24, 2019 • 4 tweets • 2 min read
I see that Matthew Goodwin is pushing the discredited and implausible claim that “Re-Leavers” (yuck) are an electorally significant phenomenon, rather than a confected trope to neutralise (through false equivalence) the evidence that many EUref Leavers have changed their mind. Here’s a thread I wrote in response to the term and the concept of “Re-Leavers” (coined by YouGov in May 2017 just before the 2017 election) soon after it first reared its ugly head. (Warning: from the bad old days when I used to swear a lot on Twitter.)