Why the Guardian is going down the pan!

[ska invita]

its just standard, but still funny/tragic to read, a Guardian Editorial piece, reflecting on and advising the Starmerite adults in the room

The Guardian view on Labour's advance: halted but not reversed | Editorial

Editorial: Sir Keir Starmer needs to tell a story about why Labour is better for Britain than the Conservatives

www.theguardian.com

My favourite line is " Mr Johnson understands this with a message of “building back better”. Sir Keir’s argument could be to “build back fairer”. "
Powerful stuff. At least they didn't say Britain is Already Great.

 

[Gasmantell]

Giving Kath Viners boyfriend, the talentless Adrian Chiles, regular column space is particularly galling - makes it difficult to swallow any views they may have on cronyism...


Latest annual report by The Guardian:

“The Group paid £18,000 to the partner of one director (2019 nil) for services rendered to Guardian News and Media Ltd in the normal course of business at arm’s length”

 

[billy_bob]

its just standard, but still funny/tragic to read, a Guardian Editorial piece, reflecting on and advising the Starmerite adults in the room

The Guardian view on Labour's advance: halted but not reversed | Editorial

Editorial: Sir Keir Starmer needs to tell a story about why Labour is better for Britain than the Conservatives

www.theguardian.com

My favourite line is " Mr Johnson understands this with a message of “building back better”. Sir Keir’s argument could be to “build back fairer”. "
Powerful stuff. At least they didn't say Britain is Already Great.

'Just nick the other side's narrative and tweak it to make it a bit nicer' is unbelievably poor advice, even if you truly believe that all Labour needs to be is the other side but tweaked to be a bit nicer. Blairism was the other side but tweaked to be a bit nicer, but at least the pre-1997 team had enough grasp of strategy not to make that their fucking slogan.

It's still ceding control of the narrative: many people will just say 'Well obviously "better" can include fairer, so what's the point changing governments over it?' And the rest of us will say 'Well, obviously that's bollocks because "better" doesn't even include better with this government. But on the hand, you're right about 'what's the point?'"

 

[oryx]

In the next few months, Sir Keir needs to develop a narrative around the biggest problems facing Britain. The government’s Brexit deal looks bad for almost everyone outside the City. Labour has not said how it can improve the deal. The UK risks breaking up, a threat that needs more than a commission.

So...Brexit and Scottish independence.

Nothing about Covid, post-Covid or austerity and the brutal cuts being imposed on local government?

 

[Pickman's model]

So...Brexit and Scottish independence.

Nothing about Covid, post-Covid or austerity and the brutal cuts being imposed on local government?

not only that, but 'has to develop a narrative'? as mrs model says, no parliamentary party seems to do politics any more, they all seem to dance about seeing what might win them votes rather than having any actual principles. what sir keir starmer ought to do is to lay out how his principles have influenced his policies on the great matters of the day: but as he's bereft of any such things he'll fumble about in boris johnson's wake.

 

[Sue]

not only that, but 'has to develop a narrative'? as mrs model says, no parliamentary party seems to do politics any more, they all seem to dance about seeing what might win them votes rather than having any actual principles. what sir keir starmer ought to do is to lay out how his principles have influenced his policies on the great matters of the day: but as he's bereft of any such things he'll fumble about in boris johnson's wake.

Tbf, that's not exactly a new thing...

 

[Pickman's model]

Tbf, that's not exactly a new thing...

no indeed, but that point was solely to form the basis for the remainder of the argument, it's not the argument in itself.

 

[Sue]

no indeed, but that point was solely to form the basis for the remainder of the argument, it's not the argument in itself.

I was struggling with the 'principles' bit too.

 

[Pickman's model]

I was struggling with the 'principles' bit too.

sir shit stirrer doesn't struggle with them, he feels much happier since he jettisoned them

 

[TopCat]

Hurry now, folks - tickets are sure to be selling out fast

View attachment 251631

Hadley seemed to just write sub sex and the city shite on fashion. Then (maybe someone was off sick?) she started writing vacuous nonsense on the news. Lots of fashionable personal problems like being born into a family of millionaires.

Tim Dowling. Does he mean all this shit? Why not just leave your fucking wife you tit.

This event deserves a full can of Mace.

 

[billy_bob]

not only that, but 'has to develop a narrative'? as mrs model says, no parliamentary party seems to do politics any more, they all seem to dance about seeing what might win them votes rather than having any actual principles. what sir keir starmer ought to do is to lay out how his principles have influenced his policies on the great matters of the day: but as he's bereft of any such things he'll fumble about in boris johnson's wake.

Totally agree he ought to do this first. But if people didn't respond to narratives more than they do to policies and their actual impact, or even to principles, they'd never vote against their interests. In fact millions fewer would vote Tory in the first place. We can but dream of the day when someone in the Labour party can both do politics and explain their politics persuasively at the same time ...

 

[SpookyFrank]

I wonder how many years of Starmer doing fuck all it will take for the centrist dads to realise he's really not the one to save us from endless tory rule after all.

 

[Serge Forward]

Er... never. They'll never realise fuck all.

 

[two sheds]

I wonder how many years of Starmer doing fuck all it will take for the centrist dads to realise he's really not the one to save us from endless tory rule after all.

He's showing that he's STATESMANLIKE though - true Prime Ministerial material - by not criticizing Johnson when Johnson makes minor infringements of the rules.

Or Johnson being largely responsible for the deaths of 100,000+ people, best not to criticize him then either just to be safe.

 

[SpookyFrank]

Er... never. They'll never realise fuck all.

Yes, that was the joke. Although it's not much of a joke really is it.

 

[Monkeygrinder's Organ]

Well they'll realise when he loses an election.

But then they'll decide the problem was that he was just a bit too radical, he wasn't Starmer-y enough.

 

[billy_bob]

Hey, I've got an idea. After Starmer loses the next general election, let's start a grassroots campaign to get a 'proper left-winger' from the backbenches onto the ballot paper for the resultant leadership contest.

Why has no one thought of this before?

 

[Pickman's model]

Hey, I've got an idea. After Starmer loses the next general election, let's start a grassroots campaign to get a 'proper left-winger' from the backbenches onto the ballot paper for the resultant leadership contest.

Why has no one thought of this before?

Because even the plw from the backbenches are notably to the right of red jim callaghan, michael foot and even neil kinnock on a range of issues

 

[billy_bob]

Because even the plw from the backbenches are notably to the right of red jim callaghan, michael foot and even neil kinnock on a range of issues

What? You mean not everyone to the left of Ed Miliband is a communist?

 

[stavros]

What? You mean not everyone to the left of Ed Miliband is a communist?

If I remember the popular press of ten years ago or so, a good few communists were to the right of Comrade Ed.

 

[shambler]

For those who have tired of the Guardian. I cannot vouch for how 'clean' it really is, but this Firefox extension "paywall bypass clean" that someone recommended me a couple of weeks ago seems to genuinely work to remove - literally all - online newspaper paywalls.

So now, the news is still shit, but I'm enjoying a greater variety of newer and less familiar shit.

Bypass Paywalls Clean – Get this Extension for 🦊 Firefox (en-GB)

Download Bypass Paywalls Clean for Firefox. Bypass Paywalls of (custom) news sites

addons.mozilla.org

 

[belboid]

For those who have tired of the Guardian. I cannot vouch for how 'clean' it really is, but this Firefox extension "paywall bypass clean" that someone recommended me a couple of weeks ago seems to genuinely work to remove - literally all - online newspaper paywalls.

So now, the news is still shit, but I'm enjoying a greater variety of newer and less familiar shit.

Bypass Paywalls Clean – Get this Extension for 🦊 Firefox (en-GB)

Download Bypass Paywalls Clean for Firefox. Bypass Paywalls of (custom) news sites

addons.mozilla.org

it's a fine addon, massively worth it. It does miss a few things out though (tho nothing important I can recall offhand)

 

[Kaka Tim]

the redditors trolling the hedge funds is the same as the trump-nazis storming the capitol apparently ...

Why the GameStop affair is a perfect example of 'platform populism' | Evgeny Morozov

 

[IC3D]

Have we had the depressed guide dogs piece today. Must be tongue in cheek.

 

[brogdale]

Ah yes, those'll be the East or West Downs, then?

 

[ska invita]

the redditors trolling the hedge funds is the same as the trump-nazis storming the capitol apparently ...

Why the GameStop affair is a perfect example of 'platform populism' | Evgeny Morozov

i think theres been a pretty incredible propaganda wave over this incident, seemingly every day there's weird analysis and misinformation put out about it across the press and US tv. The response is as interesting as what has happened in the first place. Naively I thought economics reporting was pretty much neutral and fact based, it turns out there's a huge amount of bias, shilling and rumour-as-fact repeating.

that guardian piece is weirder still though. whats blatantly missing from the piece is that the redditers immediately turned away from the appen masse, or are in the slow process of untangling their shares from it, and there's even a court case filed against it. that key element would've fitted the general point of the article of the false promise of such platforms, but would've confused the narrative that the reddit army is like trumps army. really strange

 

[krtek a houby]

I've nothing to add to the thread specifically, but Barry Glendenning's faux-curmudgeon schtick really gets on my wick.

If that's the same Barry Glendenning of Hot Press, we'd a run in some 20 odd years ago.

Got it into his head that I'd dissed him and badmouthed me to a mutual friend.

Of course he ended up in the Graun.

 

[platinumsage]

Ah yes, those'll be the East or West Downs, then?

View attachment 253147

Nominative determinism - perhaps she has a big garden.

 

[teqniq]

A sorry tale of censorship:

How the Media Cracks Down on Critics of Israel ❧ Current Affairs

<p>I was fired as a newspaper columnist after I joked about U.S. military aid to Israel on social media.</p>

www.currentaffairs.org

 

[Hyperdark]

Ive noticed lately they have a lot of links to old stories on the front page that if you dont know they are old can be misleading as when you click on them, the resulting page has no date, sloppy