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Boris Johnson calls Labour, “Supine Invertebrate Protoplasmic Jellies”
You have to admire the chutzpah of any political party that can be found to have failed to prevent anti-Semitism by the Equality and Human Rights Commission and yet can still, with no appearance of self doubt, lambast others for racism from their pious high ground.
Labour has a proud history of being anti-racist that this author appears to be unaware of. And it would be quite difficult not to be morally superior to the current government. Yes piety/preachiness isn't attractive, but not having any moral standards at all is much worse for my money. Starmer seems to be heading towards a worst of both worlds approach.
Also, the EHRC report was a sideshow/stitchup by an organisation that's been made partisan by this government (and which doesn't even bother to investigate widespread claims of racism from Muslim members of the Tory party).
She's feisty, gets my vote.
She’s feisty, gets my vote.
Ah, well I think he mentioned you in this bit:
Perhaps it’s all the internet’s fault: however bad your behaviour, you will always find someone somewhere willing to applaud it and to commend your foul language and one dimensional approach to complex political issues.
Perhaps it’s all the internet’s fault: however bad your behaviour, you will always find someone somewhere willing to applaud it and to commend your foul language and one dimensional approach to complex political issues.
Sounds like a perfect explanation of how Boris Johnson got elected.
How bad is her behaviour? Compared to say… Johnson? He called Labour invertebrates. And that’s before we go near the slurs he has used for all sorts of groups, as if he was a writer for a 1970s sitcom. Now I’m not advocating dropping to his level to beat him, but the double standards are clear.
I think at least part of it is sexism because it's seen as 'unladylike' to use rude language, but an Eton educated man-child can say whatever they want as long as they chuck in some cod latin every now and then.
More urgently, she and her party need to understand why ordinary decent people would rather vote for “scum” than for Labour.
+1
That is a terrible, patronising article.
Massive double standards in many ways.
People on the right being against cancel culture but always trying to cancel people.
Behaviour of people Vs words they say. eg shagging someone on your sofa while your wife has cancer upstairs is imo worse than calling someone scum.
People on the right being against cancel culture but always trying to cancel people.
Well, I suppose you could say he is on the Right of Rayner and co. But if you read it, he's been a Labourparty activist for 34 years and an MP for 14, so supposed to be left of centre.
Amazing that she is getting hammered as a result of calling people out for exactly as they are behaving.
If anything she was too polite to describe a number of them
But if you read it, he’s been a Labourparty activist for 34 years and an MP for 14, so supposed to be left of centre.
Left-wing but writing in the Telegraph slating the Labour Party generally and the deputy leader specifically. Seems legit.
Rockape63 she's also intelligent and isn't full of bs, attributes you might not recognise.
In case people have forgotten:
In a 1998 column in the Telegraph, Boris described gay men as “tank-topped bumboys”.
Writing in the Spectator in 2000, Boris spoke of “Labour’s appalling agenda, encouraging the teaching of homosexuality in schools, and all the rest of it.”
In a book he published in 2001, he wrote that equal marriage was akin to bestiality, saying: “If gay marriage was OK – and I was uncertain on the issue – then I saw no reason in principle why a union should not be consecrated between three men, as well as two men, or indeed three men and a dog.”
In his 2002 column in the Spectator, Boris penned an article titled: “Africa is a mess, but we can’t blame colonialism”.
In the piece, Boris described the continent as a “blot” and suggested that it would be better off if it was colonised again, writing: “The problem is not that we were once in charge, but that we are not in charge any more…the best fate for Africa would be if the old colonial powers, or their citizens, scrambled once again in her direction; on the understanding that this time they will not be asked to feel guilty.”
In 2002, in a column in the Telegraph, BoJo described black people as “piccaninnies” with “watermelon smiles”.
In the 2005 leadership contest, bumbling BoJo said “voting Tory will cause your wife to have bigger breasts and increase your chances of owning a BMW M3”.
Boris described Papua New Guineans as prone to “cannibalism” and “chief-killing” in his column in the Telegraph in 2006.
Boris blamed rising house prices on women graduates in his Spectator column in 2007. It’s almost as if people should stop giving him columns.
In the same article, he managed to wrap classism into sexism, writing: “The result is that in families on lower incomes the women have absolutely no choice but to work, often with adverse consequences for family life and society as a whole – in that unloved and undisciplined children are more likely to become hoodies, NEETS, and mug you on the street corner.”
Also in 2007, BoJo described Hillary Clinton as looking like a “sadistic nurse in a mental hospital”.
In 2008, Boris allowed a piece to be printed that claimed black people have lower IQs, under his editorship at the Spectator. “Orientals…have larger brains and higher IQ scores,” the piece read. “Blacks are at the other pole.”
London assembly member Jennette Arnold accused BoJo of all-round sexist conduct in 2012, arguing that he generally treats women assembly members in a “disrespectful, patronising” way that was different to the men.
In 2013, Boris suggested that the increase in Malaysian women going to university was down to the fact that they have “got to find men to marry”. Groans were reportedly heard from Malaysian women in the audience.
Boris dabbled as a wordsmith in 2016 when he wrote a poem about the Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan: “There was a young fellow from Ankara / Who was a terrific ****erer / Till he sowed his wild oats / With the help of a goat / But he didn’t even stop to thankera.” Boris won a £1,000 poetry prize for the limerick.
In a Tory party conference speech in 2016, Boris claimed that “the values of global Britain are needed more than ever” and that British “beliefs” are necessary to “lift the world out of poverty”.
In the same speech, he called Africa a “country”.
After Barack Obama suggested that the UK should remain in the EU, BoJo said that the then-president should stay out of the conversation as he was “part-Kenyan” and had an “ancestral dislike” for the UK.
In 2017, Boris met with Steve Bannon, founder of Breitbart News, a self-described “platform for the alt-right”.
Boris also apologised to political prisoner Nazanin Zaghari-Radcliffe in 2017 after saying she was in Iran “training journalists”, when she was in fact on holiday. He was accused of risking adding an extra five years to her time in prison due to the mistake.
Boris was asked to apologise after referring to Emily Thornberry using her husband’s name to ridicule her in the commons in early 2018.
Last summer, Boris wrote in his column in the Telegraph that the burqa was “oppressive and ridiculous”, comparing Muslim women to “bank-robbers” and “letterboxes”.
In June this year, police were called to Boris’ flat due to a report of a loud altercation allegedly heard through the wall. Neighbours reported hearing screaming, shouting and banging, and Boris’ partner, Carrie Symonds, saying “get off me” and “get out of my flat”. When asked about the incident at Tory leadership hustings, Boris said “I don’t think they want to hear about that kind of thing.”
That's not even everything awful he's said, by any means.
As ever rules for thee, but not for me.
Scum is pretty tame to be fair. How thin skinned are these ****s? Probably explains why I’m not a politician as I would’ve called them a set of utter ****s and revelled in the fallout.
I wish more politicians would just speak honestly and perhaps, just maybe answer a ****ing direct question for once. No wonder a lot of folk don’t vote.
On the taped call, Guppy tells Johnson he wants to scare Collier by getting heavies to give him “a couple of black eyes” and a “cracked rib”. Appearing to indicate he is happy to help supply Collier’s address, Johnson is heard saying at the end of the call: “OK, Darry, I said I’ll do it. I’ll do it, don’t worry.”
...
He recalled how his wife was at home with their young son, Ross, when he learned of the plot to have him assaulted and warned her to be careful opening the door.
Scum? Yup.
The problem isn't that she was incorrect in calling him scum, it's that she is falling into the trap of allowing Boris to do his comedy act now, he won't have taken any offence, he will have loved it because all it's done is open up the cracks in the labour party that haven't been fixed since the leadership contest last year.
Seems to be a lot of ‘whataboutery’ on this page. I think that some have missed the point!
It's not whataboutery to detail why what she said was factually correct. The article you posted was chock full of whataboutery BTW.
I'd have thought the vast majority of voters agree with her, labour, liberals & green alike. Members of the public who don't already vote with either look on with mild amusement or distain, but it won't get them to the ballot.
The current gov cabinet and are the serious dregs of the party, unfortunately they are the ones making policy and most of the conservative MPs seem to be blindly following them. The situation the UK is currently is in, is truly appalling from so many different angles - but imo the common denominator seems to be Boris.
(Also I'm not a labour voter)
A real lack of whataboutery to be honest.
Pointing out ludicrous double-standards isn't the same thing as whataboutery - whataboutery is where it isn't relevant and you're just trying to divert by accusing the other side of something too.
Anyone who writes regularly in the telegraph - the house paper of the tory party - has long since lost their right to be considered anything but a tory
Anyone who writes regularly in the telegraph – the house paper of the tory party – has long since lost their right to be considered anything but a tory
Doesn't necessarily mean everything they write is wrong or not worth considering. Labour were totally humiliated at the last election and seem quite happy to continue as if nothing was wrong with that.
Doesn’t necessarily mean everything they write is wrong or not worth considering.
I think there's something in the perceived piety/moral superiority thing but that's about it. The rest is just meaningless 'lefties are bad' anecdotes.
Labour were totally humiliated at the last election and seem quite happy to continue as if nothing was wrong with that.
How on earth would you have come to that conclusion?
I think there’s something in the perceived piety/moral superiority thing
I don't disagree, but surely this is likely to apply to both/every side in an argument or discussion. If you didn't believe that what you thought was better than the others, you wouldn't be voicing it, I'd have thought...?
Anyone who is in a tizzy about the word "scum" really hasn't the gumption for the fight to defeat the Tories.
Anyone who is in a tizzy about the word “scum” really hasn’t the gumption for the fight to defeat the Tories.
This.
Also:
Labour people are morally superior to Conservative people. It matters not that there is not a microscopic particle of evidence to justify this conclusion; it is an article of faith among activists that is rarely, if ever, questioned. This moral superiority has hampered the movement for decades, because it allows adherents to skip the part where they need to justify their own moral motivations.
Furious ironing going on there with not an ounce of self awareness.
If only there were some stats on this eh
People who call themselves right-wing are more likely to think they are better, morally speaking, than others
If any political group thought they were morally superior to others, you might think it would be left-wingers - Jeremy Corbyn's theme at the Labour Party Conference was all about a kinder politics, focusing on decency and care for the most vulnerable in society.
But this turns out not to be true. New YouGov research reveals that it’s those on the right who are more likely to believe they are morally superior.
47% of those who describe themselves as very or fairly right-wing or right-of-centre say they’re more of a good person than the average Briton, while 43% say they’re about as good.
Significantly fewer left-wingers think they’re morally superior (39%) and just over half (51%) say they’re about as good as others. Those in the centre of the political spectrum are most likely to claim moral parity (58%).
Oh...
MoreCashThanDash
Full Member
Anyone who is in a tizzy about the word “scum” really hasn’t the gumption for the fight to defeat the Tories.
Not sure many on here are in a tizzy about calling Boris scum, it's just the fallout from this is more a split in the labour ranks than any effect on the tories.
By my understanding, scum is something which has floated to the top, but needs to be removed.
Of course lefties are morally superior - how can they not be when tories have no morals?
I'd never vote for Labour these days. They're useless.
& the country is running like clockwork at the mo?
How on earth would you have come to that conclusion?
Which bit, the 80 seat majority for the Tories? I would consider than a humiliating defeat for Labour - although JC seemed quite happy with 'winning the argument'.
As for being quite happy with the status quo, as I see it (and it's just my opinion): Keir Starmer is trying to minimise the control the left have to stop another JC and trying to make Labour electable (pull it to the middle ground, tame it down a bit, become media friendly etc) and the Labour Party members seem to be up in arms about it, trying to stop his reforms ie continue as before. E.g. Owen Jones etc, who apparently hates the Tories and wants noting more than a Labour government, seems to consider KS to be the devil incarnate and want Labour to continue in JC style; which I would expect to mean Tories in power for at least a generation.
Of course lefties are morally superior
You see I genuinely don't get this. The left professes to want to fight injustice, help the poor etc, but when it comes to putting their ego aside and actually getting elected, they can't do it. As I see it, they'd rather take part if some left wing vanity parade, outdoing each other in their worthiness than actually get elected and really help people.
The number of people JC lifted out of poverty is zero, not a single person helped.
Britain elects politcially central parties, move to the centre and get elected. Move to the left and don't get elected. Been like that all my lifetime (4 labour governments) and I can't see anything changing in the near future.
England not Britain 🙂
Scotland votes 80% centre left
tories think greed is good, lefties want to help their fellows.
The number of people JC lifted out of poverty is zero, not a single person helped
Except in his constituency. Also changed LP policy to be against austerity.
want Labour to continue in JC style
Well that's exactly what Keir Starmer lied and pretended to be to get elected leader, that's the trouble.
Britain elects politcially central parties, move to the centre and get elected.
Tell that to this government's policies on immigration, protest, 'culture wars' and authoritarianism all round. Very little about them is centrist apart from arguably some aspects of economic policy.
However, much as everyone likes to take the piss about 'winning the argument', it seems fairly obvious the tories have seen what was popular about Corbyn's platform and tried to incorporate at least paying lip service to a lot of it. The Daily Mail etc is full of people complaining about how lefty and non-conservative this government is. Probably some of the less ***** things the tories have done could well be as a result of the scare they got in 2017.
Which bit, the 80 seat majority for the Tories? I would consider than a humiliating defeat for Labour – although JC seemed quite happy with ‘winning the argument’.
As for being quite happy with the status quo, as I see it (and it’s just my opinion): Keir Starmer is trying to minimise the control the left have to stop another JC and trying to make Labour electable (pull it to the middle ground, tame it down a bit, become media friendly etc) and the Labour Party members seem to be up in arms about it, trying to stop his reforms ie continue as before. E.g. Owen Jones etc, who apparently hates the Tories and wants noting more than a Labour government, seems to consider KS to be the devil incarnate and want Labour to continue in JC style; which I would expect to mean Tories in power for at least a generation.
That 80 seat majority was won by co-opting the Brexit strategy of promising ill defined "change" to people disenfranchised by the preceding half decade or so of austerity. Boris rode the wave George Osborne started all the way to No.10
Those red brick voters flipped because Corbyn lacked the personality his momentum supporters thought he had, and just saw Labour as a bunch of malcontent sixth-formers led by a renegade geography teacher...
The trouble is Starmer's strategy isn't yet totally clear to anyone, but it seems like he wants to go back to a Blair style centrism. I think the point he's missing is that those people who gave Boris his majority aren't really proper Tories, yes they're trying something different because they felt ignored and marginalized by both parties and the Alt-right insurection of the conservatives did at least make it new and novel. But they're still receptive to someone who has a plan on how to actually improve their lot.
What Kier needs to be doing is focussing the nation's attention on all the ways in which this flavour of conservative government is as bad, if not worse than the previous one, and displaying a little passion, and using some Frank language communicates that perfectly well. Then you tell them what you would do instead.
Those feigning outrage and clutching their pearls at someone expressing an honest opinion aren't the group to focus on, it's those "Red brick" voters dabbling with conservatism for the first time. Do they appreciate the fact that Raynor is passionate about the issues or do they really want a more "managerial" style politicians like Starmer and half the Tory front bench? Presentation or substance?
Personally I would rather be represented by someone who says what they mean than one toff jibbering in Latin or a wet blanket just trying not to offend anyone by being invisible...
She's been likened to Prescott, able to say the things the more polished front man can't in a more concise manner, perhaps that's the idea. But Kier does need to start getting people more riled up about the sheer piss taking that has become normal business under Boris...
At present it's a choice between an inoffensive centrist party scared of its own lefty shadow and shagger Johnson's griftonomic adventure, at the minute the electorate will probably opt for the latter 'cos it's strangely entertaining...
Scotland votes 80% centre left
Yet not in a way that helps get the Tories out of UK government. In our current system and without independence voting SNP at a general election is a protest vote at best
Nonsense. The SNP will never support a tory government, they would support a labour one.
YOu need to look at the maths. Scotland has not voted tory majority for 60+ years and only returns a couple of tory MPs
It matter not at all what Scotland votes - we get the government England votes for
If all SNP MPs were replaced with Labour MPs in the 2017 general election we would have had a Labour government, not Tory. The 2019 election was all about Brexit (or was made to be by BoJo/Cummings/media agenda) so in that instance I'll agree Scotland got what England voted for.
Edit: While Scotland votes majority SNP in a UK election they will never get what Scotland votes for as it is impossible. If Scotland voted for whole UK parties in a whole UK election they *might* stand a chance of getting what they vote for.
If all SNP MPs were replaced with Labour MPs in the 2017 general election we would have had a Labour government, not Tory.
not true - look at the numbers
If Scotland voted for whole UK parties in a whole UK election they *might* stand a chance of getting what they vote for.
not true - look back when scotland was returning many labour MPS and we still got tory governments
Ok, I got my numbers wrong on 2017. I'll hold my hands up on that and apologise. I stand by my point about voting for whole UK parties though. If Scotland want a UK government they had a say in then the country needs to vote for whole UK parties, not just vote to have a voice that will be largely ignored by the Conservatives that England (inevitably and stupidly) votes for.
You are completely missing the point. The SNP will support a labour government and never a tory one - so the UKs chances of a labour government are not altered if its 50 snp or 50 labour. Its still 50 anti tory MPs
Yeah, but if it was 50 more Labour MPs then with a bit of a swing in England it would be a Labour government. While it remains 50 SNP MPs that same swing in England would return a minority Tory government and as has been shown before there will always be someone willing to sell their souls and prop up the Tories.
That really is not how it works. Have a think about it
In the scenario you suggest the minority tory government would collapse as they would lose a vote of confidence
The SNP will never support a tory government, they would support a labour one.
Really not sure about that one. More likely I suppose.
Not sure many on here are in a tizzy about calling Boris scum, it’s just the fallout from this is more a split in the labour ranks than any effect on the tories.
Exactly. Quicker to fight each other than fight the Tories. Just so disappointing and counter productive.
If this is the reaction she probably shouldn't have said it, but that's a reflection on the wider Labour movement, not her.
In the scenario you suggest the minority tory government would collapse as they would lose a vote of confidence
Didn't happen with a Tory/Lib Dem coalition when Tories had a minority win
Thats because labour and SNP together even with the lib dems was still not enough to get a majority
Its really simple - if labour + snp are more than half the seats in Westminster we get a labour government. If labour plus snp do not add up to more than half the seats we get a tory government
Please - have a think about this and look at the maths.
there is not single circumstance where if all SNP seats go to labour it would alter whether we got a labour government or not.
Some Telegraph stuff:
At first, some Conservatives may have taken offence when Angela Rayner called them “scum”. No doubt they were reassured, however, by her subsequent explanation. “Scum”, insisted Labour’s deputy leader on Sunday, wasn’t necessarily a term of abuse. In “northern, working-class towns,” she said, “we even say it jovially to other people.”
Yes, that sounds perfectly plausible. I’m sure it happens all the time.
“Ay up Doris, you worthless piece of Tory scum.”
“Arright Ted, you hated oppressor of the proletariat. How’s your Tracey?”
“Still lower than vermin, the evil Thatcherite cow. How about your Stan?”
“Oh, you know. Still enriching himself off the backs of the poor and disenfranchised, the neoliberal warmongering Zionist parasite.”
At any rate, Ms Rayner’s outburst was hardly the most troubling news from Labour conference. There was far worse. In an interview, Sir Keir Starmer pledged to tax private schools an extra £1.7 billion a year. Inevitably this would cause many of them to close.
In my view, such a policy would be disastrous. Not just for private schools – but for the Labour Party.
The reason is simple. Aside from the odd outlier like Ms Rayner, these days practically all socialists in this country are privately educated. So if Sir Keir puts private schools out of business, where is the next generation of Labour activists going to come from?
English private schools have always been a vital breeding ground for the Left. These places pump out budding anti-capitalists by the truckload. You only need to look back at the last Labour leader and his team. Jeremy Corbyn, Seumas Milne, James Schneider, Andrew Murray, Jon Lansman… all privately educated. As was their idol, Tony Benn.
Having only been state educated myself, I’m afraid I have no idea why it is that English private schools produce so many Marxists. Goodness knows what they’re teaching these impressionable children. Although presumably not history.
Whatever the reason, the fact remains that almost any hardline Leftist you meet will turn out to have been sent by his or her parents to an expensive school. State schools, by contrast, barely seem to produce any lifelong Trotskyites, Stalinists or Hoxhaists at all.
Perhaps this explains why socialism has never taken hold in this country. Only seven per cent of the population is privately educated. You can’t possibly win a general election with a support base as small as that.
The lesson for Sir Keir is obvious. If he wants the Labour Party to have a future, he shouldn’t be raising taxes on private schools. He should be cutting them.
What relevance does that have to anything?
Is it a statement, a quote, or just some stream of consciousness thing?
there is not single circumstance where if all SNP seats go to labour it would alter whether we got a labour government or not.
For arguments sake.... Next GE
Tories 300 seats
Labour 276 seats
SNP 50 seats
Others 24 seats
If those 50 SNP seats had gone to Labour we wouldn't have a Labour government?
For arguments sake…
You've come to the right place... 🤣
The problem is that her supporters will probably agree with the language…but it will put some waverers off, and Labour needs all those waverers if it’s ever to form a government.
there is not single circumstance where if all SNP seats go to labour it would alter whether we got a labour government or not.
Apart from if SNP and Labour act like children and won't agree to form a coalition because you know the SNP might want a referendum promise as part of the coalition deal.
I think the issue isnt really what she said, but more the party's inability to own the message. On Andrew Marr KS spent more time trying to dodge questions about this and nationalisation than he did saying anything of any merit. Instead of using weasel language he should have just said "yes, and here's why..." or "No, and here's why..." and moved the debate on. If we have learnt anything about politics over the last few years its that taking a stand and holding it, even if its utter bullshit, carries more weight than trying to deflect and survive and hoping the centre ground somehow switches its allegiance.
Spot on @Blackflag
This kind of David Cameron-esque trying not to offend anyone but saying nothing is getting Labour nowhere.
Perhaps not everything has a yes/no answer. Trying to reduce everything to such a simple response is arguably the biggest problem in UK politics right now (well, after down right lies and corruption).
Saying 'on the one hand this but on the other hand this' might be realistic and sensible but then everyone will just say you are indecisive and weak. 🤷♂️
Its not reductive to be able to answer a question directly. When asked about re-nationalisation of a sector (trains, energy etc.) there are some clear answers than can be given:
A) Yes, its critical to our national infrastructure.
B) No, we dont want to wind the clock back but we want to work with industry
C) Yes, some elements (which elements? why these elements...)
To try and say "we will be working closely with private sector" or "consider options" without addressing the core question means utterly nothing. I could go on TV and say that.
100% agree with everything above.
This kind of David Cameron-esque trying not to offend anyone but saying nothing is getting Labour nowhere.
completely agree.
Britain is literally (figuratively) falling apart at the seams, and the Labour Party are engaging in a hugely intense and self indulgent round of navel gazing, instead of being **** ing furious about it, and telling us all to be **** ing furious about it too.
The next few months are going to see the government lurching for cock-up to cock-up on an hourly basis - the Labour Party need a bit of fire in their belly - and a front man/woman who can capitalise of this bunch of clowns and actually turn that into future labour votes.