Westminster Politics

NinjaFletch

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Pexbo said:
She makes me vomit. “Understood to want to continue his role as Jesus lord and saviour”


When she says “Understood“ what she is actually saying is “Cummings told me to say”. Understood implies that she has researched, critically analysed and concluded (come to the understanding) that these are his intentions when she clearly has done nothing of the sort. She’s a client journalist for one of the most dangerous men in the country.
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This tweet is an all time classic for me:


If only there was a person whose job it was to get to the bottom of conflicting accounts and to report what was happening.
 

Sweet Square

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The Left dislikes Kuenssberg for her awful reporting and the Right dislikes her because she's a woman.

All of this must mean she is actually a very good journalist!
 
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Pexbo

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Sweet Square said:
The Left dislikes Kuenssberg for her awful reporting and the Right dislikes her because she's a women.

All of this must mean she is actually a very good journalist!
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Never go full Brwned
 

Smores

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I may be giving them too much credit but Dom and his lot were always likely to leave shortly, this feels very orchestrated for a clean break for the PM. Ridding himself of unpopular figures in the most dramatic way possible.
 

jeff_goldblum

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I find Monbiot a very frustrating pundit. I generally agree with him but he almost invariably fails to get his arguments across effectively. Rather than keeping emphasis on a salient point which has a chance of cutting through, he launches into mini-speeches where his key argument is lost in flowery language or diluted by digressions, and which are subsequently easily ignored or deflected.

I wouldn't mind so much but as he's one of the few left-wing commentators who gets a degree of unchallenged airtime it always feels like a missed opportunity. Although, I suppose if he was more forensic and more effective as a proponent of 'the left' he probably wouldn't get the platform he does.
 

jeff_goldblum

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Sweet Square said:
The Left dislikes Kuenssberg for her awful reporting and the Right dislikes her because she's a woman.

All of this must mean she is actually a very good journalist!
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On the one hand, the BBC's Political Editor constantly demonstrates inappropriately close working relationships with key figures around the Prime Minister and uncritically reports their spin as news, whilst generally playing down stories which are damaging to the Government and playing up stories which are damaging to the Opposition....but on the other hand Andrew Neil probably would have been tough on the Prime Minister if he'd interviewed him before the election, so I think it all balances out.
 

Buster15

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Smores said:
I may be giving them too much credit but Dom and his lot were always likely to leave shortly, this feels very orchestrated for a clean break for the PM. Ridding himself of unpopular figures in the most dramatic way possible.
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Are you suggesting this because there is massively increasing pressure on Boris to sign a trade deal with the EU, mainly because of the US election outcome?
 

Smores

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Buster15 said:
Are you suggesting this because there is massively increasing pressure on Boris to sign a trade deal with the EU, mainly because of the US election outcome?
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I'm not sure the conclusion to Brexit matters all that much to my point no. Even if we go down the no deal path Dom and his cronies would likely go.

Boris is going to try and put Brexit behind him and rebrand next year like he failed to do this year. There's this huge narrative that's formed around Cummings and it necessitates he goes. By all accounts Cummings didn't want to stay on this long anyway.

A public spat that projects Boris as not under the thumb of Cummings is the best way to break that unhelpful alliance. I thought it would have been Barnard castle but egos got in the way.
 

Sweet Square

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jeff_goldblum said:
On the one hand, the BBC's Political Editor constantly demonstrates inappropriately close working relationships with key figures around the Prime Minister and uncritically reports their spin as news, whilst generally playing down stories which are damaging to the Government and playing up stories which are damaging to the Opposition....but on the other hand Andrew Neil probably would have been tough on the Prime Minister if he'd interviewed him before the election, so I think it all balances out.
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In Britain there's a particular type of liberal/centrist politics that will dismiss any argument/critique(no matter how clear the evidence) if it's been made by the left.

It's very bizarre and shows the massive hole that is at the core of 21st century liberalism.
 
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berbatrick

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Jippy said:
'Understood' often just means 'our direct rival has reported that...' or it's an unsubstantiated rumour.
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i've seen it used in that context on UK/US twitter, but hadn't seen it used like that before (reading indian and sometimes foreign newspapers). is it a long-stnading thing for "understood" to mean "cribbing positive spin from a source"? i'm trying to think, not 100% sure, but the spin we usually get is something like, "A has been telling his inner circle ...."
 

Buster15

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Smores said:
I'm not sure the conclusion to Brexit matters all that much to my point no. Even if we go down the no deal path Dom and his cronies would likely go.

Boris is going to try and put Brexit behind him and rebrand next year like he failed to do this year. There's this huge narrative that's formed around Cummings and it necessitates he goes. By all accounts Cummings didn't want to stay on this long anyway.

A public spat that projects Boris as not under the thumb of Cummings is the best way to break that unhelpful alliance. I thought it would have been Barnard castle but egos got in the way.
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Really interesting. You obviously have a good grasp on the goings on in Westminster.
 

Jippy

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Wow, this isn't actually a parody piece. Ingenious Tory policies.

We have one last chance to stop Britain's descent into a post-Covid socialist nightmare
Even a vaccine won’t halt the Left-wards drift of a society permanently scarred by lockdown

'The dream of a dynamic, post-Brexit buccaneering Britain would be dead and buried: there is no path for the UK to thrive, no combination of other ingenious Tory policies that can save us if our tax and spending levels end up at Continental levels.'

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politic...e-stop-britains-descent-post-covid-socialist/
 

NinjaFletch

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I'm confused by Kuenssberg's tweets. Does she start with the premise that her source isn't Cummings before giving it up in the next sentence, or is she pretending like she has another source who for some reason she's decided to quote even though Cummings has told her he's off himself?
 

sebsheep

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Jippy said:
Wow, this isn't actually a parody piece. Ingenious Tory policies.

We have one last chance to stop Britain's descent into a post-Covid socialist nightmare
Even a vaccine won’t halt the Left-wards drift of a society permanently scarred by lockdown

'The dream of a dynamic, post-Brexit buccaneering Britain would be dead and buried: there is no path for the UK to thrive, no combination of other ingenious Tory policies that can save us if our tax and spending levels end up at Continental levels.'

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politic...e-stop-britains-descent-post-covid-socialist/
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You have to be wrong there, that has to be a parody.
 

Mr Pigeon

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Shame. I hope he finds solace in the new Advisor role that he'll be getting at one of the unfit-for-purpose companies that were given multi million pound coronavirus contracts.
 

Jippy

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sebsheep said:
You have to be wrong there, that has to be a parody.
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Christ, finally read the whole thing and it's predictably moaning about sponges and free school meals. He wants taxes and welfare spending cut. Nothing new in there, just wrapped in wrapped in hyperbole and furlough and covid this time around.
 

Mr Pigeon

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Jippy said:
Wow, this isn't actually a parody piece. Ingenious Tory policies.

We have one last chance to stop Britain's descent into a post-Covid socialist nightmare
Even a vaccine won’t halt the Left-wards drift of a society permanently scarred by lockdown

'The dream of a dynamic, post-Brexit buccaneering Britain would be dead and buried: there is no path for the UK to thrive, no combination of other ingenious Tory policies that can save us if our tax and spending levels end up at Continental levels.'

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politic...e-stop-britains-descent-post-covid-socialist/
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Buccaneer. Pirate. Unscrupulous.

Sounds about right.

I do love how these types try to romanticise the world of politics. "Dog Eat Dog", "Imma Pie-rit", all that good stuff about the British Empire etc.
 

vodrake

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Have an odd feeling we're going to be hearing a lot less about what "Senior sources at Downing Street" are saying from Laura
 
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