Horace V. Wigglesworth

Horace V. Wigglesworth @wiggler.bsky.social [ View ] Jul 09, 2024 at 15:53 UTC

Today the PCF is more socially conservative than the LFI and centre-left, and trades on the old nostalgia of the 20th Century industrial working-class. It's similar to what you'd call "Old Labour" in the UK - "the values of the party my grandparents voted for" etc.

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Horace V. Wigglesworth @wiggler.bsky.social [ View ] Jul 09, 2024 at 15:34 UTC

The French communist party also played an important role in the development of "Eurocommunism" - a movement of the 70's and 80's amongst western European communist parties such as the PCF breaking with much of the Marxist-Leninist orthodoxy of the USSR and Eastern Bloc, also granting it legitimacy

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Horace V. Wigglesworth @wiggler.bsky.social [ View ] Jul 09, 2024 at 15:27 UTC

French Communist Party was a historically large party with a strong base in the urban working class. It played a pivotal role in the anti-fascist resistance in WW2, earning it a degree of respectability and popular support that is unusual for people from Anglophone nations to understand

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Horace V. Wigglesworth @wiggler.bsky.social [ View ] Jul 08, 2024 at 20:44 UTC

... that means millions of ordinary American voters will have seen the poor state of Biden. Finally, he was always a gaffe-prone rambler prone to incoherence but today he looks significantly worse. He stares into space with his mouth gaping. He speaks in a whisper.

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Horace V. Wigglesworth @wiggler.bsky.social [ View ] Jul 08, 2024 at 19:51 UTC

No, that's bullshit. Firstly, 2 years ago there was every chance Biden not even run for office again. He'd said as much during his primary. Secondly, now he's out debating and campaigning, people are watching who would otherwise tune out anything political....

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Horace V. Wigglesworth @wiggler.bsky.social [ View ] Jul 08, 2024 at 18:36 UTC

Im not disputing, by the way, that the NYT is looking for a political scalp with forcing him to stand down, I'm simply saying that his poor health and inability to communicate is not something that you can ignore any longer.

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Horace V. Wigglesworth @wiggler.bsky.social [ View ] Jul 08, 2024 at 18:34 UTC

Well because the attempts to cover up the full extent of Biden's decline have been renderee useless, the idea that his frailty was "just a stutter" or a product of Republican propaganda has been discredited, and because a significant chunk of Democrat reps and donors are calling for him to go

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Horace V. Wigglesworth @wiggler.bsky.social [ View ] Jul 08, 2024 at 15:56 UTC

It stops when Labour stops being transphobic.

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Horace V. Wigglesworth @wiggler.bsky.social [ View ] Jul 08, 2024 at 15:54 UTC

Meet the new boss (same as the old boss)

www.bbc.com/news/article...

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Horace V. Wigglesworth @wiggler.bsky.social [ View ] Jul 08, 2024 at 15:07 UTC

Not really viable to pretend the President being visibly decrepit isn't a news story. Irrespective of the NYT's right-wing drift and shady motivations, the sitting President of the USA and presumptive Democratic nominee being in his 2nd childhood is a huge story. You can't ignore it.

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Horace V. Wigglesworth @wiggler.bsky.social [ View ] Jul 08, 2024 at 14:51 UTC

Hobsbawn is another very influential figure in this world, benefitting of course from being the nepo-daughter of The World's Foremost Marxist Historian, founder of Editorial Intelligence, a professional networking/PT firm. Available to speak for just £10-15k

www.speakerscorner.co.uk/business-spe...

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Horace V. Wigglesworth @wiggler.bsky.social [ View ] Jul 08, 2024 at 14:45 UTC

The article itself is worth a read, especially the bit about how she uses now uses twitter to network with "feminist bloggers, video game journalists and comedy writers" (hmm....) and also because it relates to Julia Hobsbawm, PR spiv, TERF and daughter of Eric

www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

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Horace V. Wigglesworth @wiggler.bsky.social [ View ] Jul 08, 2024 at 14:36 UTC

Not hard to see why 95% of Britain's media class is transphobic when you understand the gatekeepers mechanisms and cronyism involved.

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Horace V. Wigglesworth @wiggler.bsky.social [ View ] Jul 08, 2024 at 14:35 UTC

Shes a really important part of this, she used to host a "networking evening" called "schmooze and booze" or something equally asasine back when she was at the New Statesman, which functioned as a sort of ideological filtering system as well the usual sort of cronyism:

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Horace V. Wigglesworth @wiggler.bsky.social [ View ] Jul 08, 2024 at 14:30 UTC

Yeah, i bet youll go straight the list to be invited in the audience for BBC Question Time

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Horace V. Wigglesworth @wiggler.bsky.social [ View ] Jul 08, 2024 at 13:37 UTC

More in Common's polling was trash this election, I'd be very wary about hanging your argument on them

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Horace V. Wigglesworth @wiggler.bsky.social [ View ] Jul 08, 2024 at 13:33 UTC

And I should add - unless there's a near miraculous spurt of growth in a very short order of time Reeves will be making further budget cuts to comply with the "fiscal rules" come Autumn. Prepare yourself.

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Horace V. Wigglesworth @wiggler.bsky.social [ View ] Jul 08, 2024 at 13:28 UTC

She's already signed up to carry out £20bn worth of cuts that Jeremy Hunt earmarked for local government and people who are disabled. I don't think it requires a great deal of interpretative generosity to see where this train is heading. Takes a lot of ideological discipline to be this credulous.

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Horace V. Wigglesworth @wiggler.bsky.social [ View ] Jul 08, 2024 at 13:24 UTC

Do you think the Bank of England is like Scrooge McDuck's hoard of gold coins, and that we're gonna cripple local services and destroy the lives of the disabled because they've literally run out?

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Horace V. Wigglesworth @wiggler.bsky.social [ View ] Jul 08, 2024 at 13:22 UTC

Do you think it's accurate, in a sovereign nation that can both issue its own currency and borrow on the international money markets, to say "there's hardly any money left" and that money supply is a finite thing?

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Horace V. Wigglesworth @wiggler.bsky.social [ View ] Jul 08, 2024 at 13:20 UTC

Semantic quibbling. I paraphrased her saying something with the same meaning and purpose - rhetorically justifying further austerity by invoking "the economy as a household budget" myths.

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Horace V. Wigglesworth @wiggler.bsky.social [ View ] Jul 08, 2024 at 13:08 UTC

www.bbc.com/news/article...

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Horace V. Wigglesworth @wiggler.bsky.social [ View ] Jul 08, 2024 at 12:48 UTC

There's £20bn cuts of she's already signed up for via Jeremt Hunt, aimed squarely at local government and the DWP, and due to her adherence to "the fiscal rules" unless we suddenly get an unprecedented growth spurt there'll be further cuts on top of this by august

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Horace V. Wigglesworth @wiggler.bsky.social [ View ] Jul 08, 2024 at 12:45 UTC

Keith, she literally said "there's no money left" - the same economically illiterate nonsense Cameron justified austerity with. Your credulity is embarassing.

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Horace V. Wigglesworth @wiggler.bsky.social [ View ] Jul 08, 2024 at 12:42 UTC

This is such a ridiculous cycle of self-delusion. Starmer has appointed a cabinet with tons of links to the post-democratic, Oligarch funded Tony Blair Institute e.g. Patrick Vallance is on his payroll

www.institute.global/insights/new...

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Horace V. Wigglesworth @wiggler.bsky.social [ View ] Jul 08, 2024 at 12:31 UTC

Yes, it is a return to normal, with a chancellor promising "tough decisions" and more austerity while blaming their predecessor for "spending all the money"

bsky.app/profile/uk-n...

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Horace V. Wigglesworth @wiggler.bsky.social [ View ] Jul 08, 2024 at 12:29 UTC

If they hadn't been bailed out by Farage, the SNP and the generally dismal nature of FIrst Past the Post, you'd be staring down the wrong end of a hung parliament.

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Horace V. Wigglesworth @wiggler.bsky.social [ View ] Jul 08, 2024 at 12:27 UTC

Indeed, but even the vote share increase was almost entirely down to the SNP collapse, outside of Scotland they barely increased their vote share from the lowest-ebb of Corbynism. Considering they came into the election polling 40, 45+ to end up on 33.6% is atrocious.

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Horace V. Wigglesworth @wiggler.bsky.social [ View ] Jul 08, 2024 at 12:09 UTC

Absolutely, don't misread me I have zero respect for a scab like her, if anything she deserves this snub royally, but it is nonetheless an insight into Starmers mindset.

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Horace V. Wigglesworth @wiggler.bsky.social [ View ] Jul 08, 2024 at 12:02 UTC

Big part of Starmer's psychology is Big Dick, Very Important Barrister posturing. Thornberry was a rival and contemporary of his coming up in the legal world, same with Shami Chakrabarty, petty victories over people like that are entirely in keeping with the sort of person he is.

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Horace V. Wigglesworth @wiggler.bsky.social [ View ] Jul 08, 2024 at 11:58 UTC

This is incorrect. Nigel Farage brought Labour back by splitting the Tory vote. I assure you, Corbyn would've too had Farage dome the same in 2019. Labour gained a mere 1.6% increase, nearly all of which in Scotland, and elsewhere went backwards, losing over half a million votes from 2019.

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Horace V. Wigglesworth @wiggler.bsky.social [ View ] Jul 08, 2024 at 11:53 UTC

OK - the gauntlet has been thrown down, the low hanging fruit (onshore windfarms, putting Timpson in the cabinet etc) has been picked, its time to start getting organised and active, in your union, on the streets etc, because there's a big fight coming.

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Horace V. Wigglesworth @wiggler.bsky.social [ View ] Jul 08, 2024 at 11:49 UTC

Amazing stuff

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Horace V. Wigglesworth @wiggler.bsky.social [ View ] Jul 08, 2024 at 11:23 UTC

You understand that further austerity is *bad* for Britain's fiscal position and finances, right? That it doesn't just destroy communities but damages Britain's budgetary position also?

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Horace V. Wigglesworth @wiggler.bsky.social [ View ] Jul 08, 2024 at 11:16 UTC

Why don't you try and explain, without resorting to Centrist Dad platitudes about how "The Economy has been Wankpuffin'd to death by Tories" or other euphemistic language why continued austerity is a wise and correct political decision.

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Horace V. Wigglesworth @wiggler.bsky.social [ View ] Jul 08, 2024 at 11:14 UTC

Its absolute horseshit. I hate it when people use vague, allegorical language to describe a specific thing. Hiding behind this bullshit turn of phrase to justify the fact they don't wanna see anyone they consider socially inferior to them get paid.

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Horace V. Wigglesworth @wiggler.bsky.social [ View ] Jul 08, 2024 at 11:12 UTC

Literally. As in - not figuratively.

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Horace V. Wigglesworth @wiggler.bsky.social [ View ] Jul 08, 2024 at 11:10 UTC

"Literally" tanked the economy?

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Horace V. Wigglesworth @wiggler.bsky.social [ View ] Jul 08, 2024 at 11:09 UTC

Guess there'll be no more weapons for Ukraine then....

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Horace V. Wigglesworth @wiggler.bsky.social [ View ] Jul 08, 2024 at 03:09 UTC

You're not talking about "obligations to fellow citizens" - you're saying citizens are obliged to vote for a particular party, Democrat, even if they don't share their politics and won't be represented by them. Absolutely not, the vote is not owed to a party, it's the property of the voter.

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Horace V. Wigglesworth @wiggler.bsky.social [ View ] Jul 08, 2024 at 02:30 UTC

You're *supposed* to vote selfishly in a representative democracy! You're voting to be represented, not because the Democrat party has some inherent right to be elected. You wanna get more votes? Convince people to vote for you. You fail at that it's 100% the fault of the party, not the voter.

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