Dan Hodges Watch

[J Ed]

Isn't it astonishing how few writers there are who seem to be able to make a good living from writing a 'I was a neoliberal once but I saw the light' article once a week every week.

 

[nino_savatte]

For how long can Dan Hodges and Nick Cohen write the same article over and over and still get paid for it?

Has anyone ever seen them together in the same place?

 

[nino_savatte]

Today's article is a real scream.

At which point Jeremy Corbyn’s office put out a response. It said “he [David Cameron] is rattled by the re-energisation of the Labour Party”. I laughed out loud at that one. No sniggering. A genuinely belly-laugh. I tried to think of another media statement that had provided such a soaring parabola in the course of its flight from reason. I couldn’t come up with one from British politics. The best I could do was the statement from Saddam Hussein’s old Information Minister Mohammed Saeed al-Sahaf that “there are no Americans at the airport”.
Jeremy Corbyn has turned the Labour Party into a laughing stock

What a pitiful figure of a man.

 

[Azrael]

Hodges is a street fighting man, from getting glassed brawling with skinheads, to kicking the electoral reform campaign in the teeth until it rolled over and played doggo. That pockmarked scowl of a face screams scrapper.

As such, he loathes political weakness, and attacks it without mercy. That's more than sufficient to explain why he's turned against Labour since Blair.

 

[youngian]

For how long can Dan Hodges and Nick Cohen write the same article over and over and still get paid for it?

Especially with an array of bitter Blairite ex-SPADs like John McTernan, Lance Price and Matt Fforde muscling in on their gigs.

 

[SpineyNorman]

Hodges is a street fighting man, from getting glassed brawling with skinheads, to kicking the electoral reform campaign in the teeth until it rolled over and played doggo. That pockmarked scowl of a face screams scrapper.

As such, he loathes political weakness, and attacks it without mercy. That's more than sufficient to explain why he's turned against Labour since Blair.

Lol

 

[nino_savatte]

Especially with an array of bitter Blairite ex-SPADs like John McTernan, Lance Price and Matt Fforde muscling in on their gigs.

Matt Forde is a dick, so he's in great company.

 

[Favelado]

Yes. Significantly.

I suppose his Trident and Nato stances are. I figured with tax, renationalisation of the railways and social security (not welfare) and spending they'd have much to agree on.

I had Smith pegged as on the same ground as Kinnock, in a parallel universe did he set us of onto a milder version of Blairism?

 

[nino_savatte]

Momentum is the new Militant, says Dan Hodges.

On Thursday It was announced that Jeremy Corbyn’s supporters have set up a new campaign group called “Momentum”. It was established with the formal approval and endorsement of the Labour leader, and his shadow chancellor John McDonnell.

Some people reacted with enthusiasm. “Momentum will strive to bring together progressives campaigning for social, economic and environmental justice across the country. Be they individuals or groups we'll reach out into our communities and workplaces to campaign and organise together on the issues that matter to all of us”, wrote Labour MP Clive Lewis breathlessly.

Jeremy Corbyn now has his own Praetorian Guard inside the Labour Party

Others were alarmed. "This is basically a parallel organisation as far as I'm concerned, it's against the principles of the Labour Party and I think less of Jeremy Corbyn for endorsing it.

Unlike Progress, eh?

But it’s equally clear that those behind the group have a different agenda. Their intentions are essentially to make Momentum a party within a party. Momentum spelt M-I-L-I-T-A-N-T.

Unlike Progress, eh? Shit, I hate repeating myself... unlike Dan.

Oh, the lazy clickbait that sadly passes for journalism these days.

 

[agricola]

Momentum is the new Militant, says Dan Hodges.





Unlike Progress, eh?



Unlike Progress, eh? Shit, I hate repeating myself... unlike Dan.

Oh, the lazy clickbait that sadly passes for journalism these days.

"First, they came for the splitters..."

 

[J Ed]

He literally campaigns for the Tories and he gets to come out with this shit unchallenged.

 

[nino_savatte]

He literally campaigns for the Tories and he gets to come out with this shit unchallenged.

Aye, he'd deny it, of course. SPers don't want to join the Labour Party either covertly or blatantly. What this also shows us is how much the right in this country want to disenfranchise anyone on the left.

 

[Balbi]

POPE SHITTING IN CATHOLIC BEAR WOODS SHOCK

I have a confession - I can't hate the Tories anymore

 

[nino_savatte]

Last week, I had dinner with Iain Duncan Smith. Yes, that Iain Duncan Smith.

Coming from the man who had his photo taken with Lynton Crosby, that comes as no surprise.

The question is: did IDS pay for the dinner or did we?

 

[J Ed]

POPE SHITTING IN CATHOLIC BEAR WOODS SHOCK

I have a confession - I can't hate the Tories anymore

It's not really a confession so much as a daily affirmation.

 

[JHE]

POPE SHITTING IN CATHOLIC BEAR WOODS SHOCK

I have a confession - I can't hate the Tories anymore

He uses a report from the IFS to show what has happened to poverty rates.

I would have thought the one very striking thing about the IFS data is that "absolute poverty", defined in fact in relative terms as 60% of median income, came down significantly during the Blair years.

 

[ItWillNeverWork]

How is it absolute poverty if it's defined relatively? What if the median income drops whilst the lowest incomes stay the same? In relative terms that would show 'absolute' poverty as having decreased even though more people are now poorer.

 

[agricola]

I would have thought the one very striking thing about the IFS data is that "absolute poverty", defined in fact in relative terms as 60% of median income, came down significantly during the Blair years.

Looking at that graph I am surprised that Hodges didn't argue that, in fact, invading Iraq was the best thing we could have done to reduce absolute poverty - and that we could eliminate it completely if only we bombed Assad a bit.

 

[nino_savatte]

He will be quoting posters on here within the week.

He already recycles other people's articles.

 

[Monkeygrinder's Organ]

It's not really a confession so much as a daily affirmation.

He really is banging this shit out on a daily basis atm isn't he. They obviously consider him their trump card in winning over all those Labour voting Telegraph readers.

 

[DaveCinzano]

They obviously consider him their trump card in winning over all those Labour voting Telegraph readers.

 

[cantsin]

Hodges is a street fighting man, from getting glassed brawling with skinheads, to kicking the electoral reform campaign in the teeth until it rolled over and played doggo. That pockmarked scowl of a face screams scrapper.

As such, he loathes political weakness, and attacks it without mercy. That's more than sufficient to explain why he's turned against Labour since Blair.

tbf to him, according to the official version ( the only one I know of ) he stepped in to try and prevent a racist attack, which isnt the same as "brawling with skinheads" .

Wld like to hear/read any verification of the story, obvs...

 

[miktheword]

How is it absolute poverty if it's defined relatively? What if the median income drops whilst the lowest incomes stay the same? In relative terms that would show 'absolute' poverty as having decreased even though more people are now poorer.

that is exactly what happened post crash. We're still not up to wage levels (real) of pre 2008, and they fell a lot in post crash years, whilst lowest incomes were static more or less; hence absolute poverty levels declined.
I suppose the relative 2/3s definition didn't expect the world financial crash.

The Tories in making the recession worse and reducing median incomes, obviously claimed they'd reduced absolute poverty as a result.

 

[Dogsauce]

Similar thing with wages, they've been able to claim wage growth over the last year simply because those at the top have massively increased their income and it's pulled the average up, real terms wages for most people are static or still in decline (I had a cut in hourly rate last year). Cunts get away with it because none of the media bother looking at the numbers and probably wouldn't understand the maths anyway.

 

[JHE]

How is it absolute poverty if it's defined relatively? What if the median income drops whilst the lowest incomes stay the same? In relative terms that would show 'absolute' poverty as having decreased even though more people are now poorer.

I think they are calling it absolute because for every year they are using the same amount of money as the threshold. They chose 60% of median earnings in the year 2010-2011 (I don't know why they chose that particular year, but they did) and that figure, whatever it may be, is the threshold for all the years in the graph. It is not 60% of median earnings in the relevant year. A consistently relative measure would be.

 

[JHE]

Looking at that graph I am surprised that Hodges didn't argue that, in fact, invading Iraq was the best thing we could have done to reduce absolute poverty - and that we could eliminate it completely if only we bombed Assad a bit.

The graph indicates that the fall in (this particular measure of) poverty pretty much stopped in or soon after 2003. Perhaps an ingenious Blairite following the sort of line you suggest could credit previous invasions: Kososo, Afghanistan..., but not Iraq

 

[killer b]

He really is banging this shit out on a daily basis atm isn't he. They obviously consider him their trump card in winning over all those Labour voting Telegraph readers.

He's not just read by telegraph readers though, that ignores how people read newspapers these days. His articles are also shared on facebook with approving nods by blue labour types.

 

[agricola]

The graph indicates that the fall in (this particular measure of) poverty pretty much stopped in or soon after 2003. Perhaps an ingenious Blairite following the sort of line you suggest could credit previous invasions: Kososo, Afghanistan..., but not Iraq

Indeed, which is why that graph seems an odd piece of evidence to use when pointing out how humane and caring IDS is - his tenure was as effective at reducing poverty as invading Iraq has been.

 

[nino_savatte]

Indeed, which is why that graph seems an odd piece of evidence to use when pointing out how humane and caring IDS is - his tenure was as effective at reducing poverty as invading Iraq has been.

Like a lot of people (I saw Hannan and Carswell use uncited graphs to support their 'arguments' in The Plan), he thinks a graph is like an amulet that protects him from accusations that he's a bullshitter.

 

[nino_savatte]

I thought Hodges would have commented on Corbyn's appointment of Seumas Milne as his strategist. Not yet. I found this while I was looking.

The Left should keep its moral lectures to itself
I'm sick of lefties' sense of moral superiority, when they actually have a fundamental lack of humanity
The Left should keep its moral lectures to itself

Now I know he'd tell us "I don't write the headlines" but what about the words underneath? It looks like knock-off Dan Hannan.