Best Of

"I've got a brilliant new strategy, which is to make so many gaffes that nobody knows which one to concentrate on. [...] They cease to be newsworthy, you completely out-general the media in that way, and they despair. [...] You shell them, you pepper the media... you've got to pepper their positions with so many gaffes that they're confused. It's like a helicopter throwing out chaff, and then you steal on quietly and drop your depth charges wherever you want to drop them."

- Boris on BBC Booktalk in 2006.

Donny is doing the same thing

The problem though is that every single gaffe is newsworthy. Every single one says "This guy should not be in charge, of anything"

Trump rose to the top of the American political system because he's the most qualified to be commander in chief. He's actually capable of leading the public towards his positions in a way that lesser politicians, who rely on focus groups to know what to say, can only dream of.

He didn't. He made it back due to (i) his cultish base scaring the GOP into submission and (ii) high inflation under the Dems and (iii) Biden spiking their drink by hanging on until the last minute.

More that the nutball right self radicalised in a spiral, going through a sound finance phase (Tea Party) to moon howling.

The various groupings saw that their barrier to power was other non-batshit Republicans - see Mitt Romney etc. So they concentrated on gathering power at local level and working their way up.

In the more general sphere, they did similar in local elections for various minor offices and the lowest levels of the judicial system.

The pyramid of loons reached ever higher. And higher

Trump lucked out on reaching out to these people at the right time. They broke through the dam of the Republican establishment to give him the first nomination. And he, as the nominee and then President gave them full control of the party.

But he hasn't given them full control of the party. Trump has imposed positions on them that are not at all in line with things they have been arguing for over the years. Trump is a very skilled politician, which you can see most clearly in how he handled the question of abortion.

Oh he has skills. This cannot be denied.

He gave them the judges. Which gave them the end of an abortion. He gave them exactly what they wanted.

Wrong. They wanted a national abortion ban and he'd put that off the agenda, probably forever. He's neutralised an issue that poisoned national US politics for decades.

Wrong.

That is a further aspiration that doesn’t match with even the majority of MAGA. They were, as a group, agreed on “Return control of abortion to the States”. This is what he delivered.

There is very little support, even among the hardline nutters for a federal abortion ban. Numbers vary between 65-80% *against* in various polls.

It was the official position of the Republican party until Trump. This was their platform in 2012:

https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/2012-republican-party-platform

Faithful to the "self-evident" truths enshrined in the Declaration of Independence, we assert the sanctity of human life and affirm that the unborn child has a fundamental individual right to life which cannot be infringed. We support a human life amendment to the Constitution and endorse legislation to make clear that the Fourteenth Amendment's protections apply to unborn children.

Which has been conspicuously ignored by everyone.

What the MAGA group, as a collective average, wanted was an end to Roe. Trump delivered this.

There is next to no support for attempting to legislate a federal ban, even among the crazy crazy *crazy* MAGA.

It's the wrong frame of reference to see increasing craziness as more MAGA. Trump has moved the Republicans towards the centre.

The centre of what?

Moscow Centre.

…

Police confirming a white man has been arrested. Hmmm, do they always give the race of the arrested perpetrator?

Farage did in Southport when quoting Andrew Tate's X account. Unfortunately he was wrong.

Did he? What did he say?

That the perp was a Syrian (I believe) asylum seeker. Details he got from Andrew Tate's X account, which turned out to be bollocks.

Wasn't Farage bellyaching after Southport that the police weren't informing the public of the suspect's nationality?

I thought he said something along the lines of “Are we being told the whole truth? Was this person known to the security services?”. I didn’t know he actually alleged the race (or country if he said ‘Syrian’), never seen that

Turns out we weren’t being told the whole truth and the person was known to security services

https://x.com/DavidGauke/status/1820870926822465932?lang=en

Farage stoked the fire with falsehoods from Tate. Spin that however you wish.

The answer to Farage's question: “Was this person known to the security services?” was yes, wasn't it? He'd been referred to Prevent.

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Brilliant articles about the "lanyard class" from Janice Turner and Angus Colwell recently.

https://www.thetimes.com/comment/columnists/article/voters-are-sick-of-lectures-from-the-lanyard-class-gxbqg5zhk
https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/are-the-lanyard-class-the-new-enemy/

This feels a bit like self-employed Times/Spectator writers trying to make lanyards a thing when to a vast proportion of people employed by others, they’re just a routine part of daily working life.

They never used to be..the civil service is not a template for the rest of the workforce..🧐🥴

I've worked in offices all my working life, and in nearly every one there was some kind of card with my picture on it that I had to show/swipe to gain entry/exit. Sometimes it was attached to my clothing. Now it's on a lanyard round my neck. This "lanyard-class" silliness just goes to show that the Times and Spectator are staffed by spoilt idiots who have never done a day's work in their life. What are they going to go after next? Yearly assessments? Passwords? Laptop usage?

Brilliant articles about the "lanyard class" from Janice Turner and Angus Colwell recently.

https://www.thetimes.com/comment/columnists/article/voters-are-sick-of-lectures-from-the-lanyard-class-gxbqg5zhk
https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/are-the-lanyard-class-the-new-enemy/

I don't think the epithet works in the UK, or has resonance. Maurice Glasman afaics got it from amongst other places Steve Bannon, to whom he was introduced by Farage at the Trump inauguration events, if I have it right.

And it's not clear what it means here in the UK. In the USA Trumpists such as the anti-establishment Bannon are attempting to demonise the "professional, managerial classes" to whom they apply the term. *

Most people seen with lanyards in the UK are afaik simply service providers - NHS staff, staff in care homes, people in Council Offices and so on. And we recognise that in such settings identifying staff is important. Personally, I've never worn any lanyard round my neck, because it gives out of control people something to grab onto, and attempt strangulation. I would wear it pinned on or in a top packet instead. But it's never been an issue.

There are bits of "PC" to whine about, rainbow lanyards and so on but it's inconsistent getting angry about those if eg you are defending the wearing of a cross or fish badge on the lapel. But such often mean staff with particular training. Personally I'm more concerned about rainbow crossings than rainbow lanyards, as there is a fairly clear downside.

There are also schemes such as "sunflower lanyards" used to identify people with hidden disabilities without having to go through the whole "Prove to me that you disabled" interrogation.

I don't see it sticking here. They'll have to invent something else to get angry about.

* https://observer.co.uk/news/politics/article/labours-trump-card

Tories would be fools to fall for Boris Johnson again, writes Jenni Russell in The Times

While Johnson dithers, wondering not what he could do for his country but what his country might do for him, the Tories must decide how to react; they would be culpable fools to fall for this hollow man a second time. The idea that Johnson is the route to Tory recovery is preposterous. He’s the root cause of their current collapse. He broke their brand. He promised to cut immigration only to drive it up by millions. He promised post-Brexit prosperity but made the country poorer. He promised levelling up but couldn’t be bothered, so delivered levelling down. He wrecked his party, expelling so many decent principled Tories that his successor was the catastrophic Truss. He pioneered the recklessness she tried to imitate. He modelled deception, charm and carelessness as a route to highest office. His betrayals have deepened the despairing political cynicism that pervades Britain now. The country has been damaged in every way by his legacy.

If some inattentive voters have forgotten or forgiven this, Reform haven’t; a party led by Boris would be pulverised on his record. This is not 2016, and Johnson is yesterday’s man. This is no time for a dilettante. Britons are angry, scared and furious at politicians’ paralysis as their lives and prospects get worse. They’re looking for conviction, action, dynamism, and leaders who mean to do what they say.

https://www.thetimes.com/article/1d323e77-2eef-42b2-bf9b-af2dae00d230?shareToken=f530e93df83b65aaed3a941515844785