spud

I read this thing in the guardian about how it’s unfair to call everyone in Clacton credulous fuckwits:

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/aug/12/farage-clacton-human-zoo-truth-town

You’re all thick, racist, gullible, hateful, toothless, jobless old fools, we were told. You deserve him. The worst of the snobbery was, sadly, on my lefty social media platform of choice, Bluesky

Oh no not bluesky! You musn’t generalise! Some of us are ok!

Fuck that, nuke Clacton

alright i agree man

It’s very possible that it’s late and i’m talking a lot of shit. But I think the point was that if you are appointed housing secretary and you get sacked for fucking up your own housing affairs, then you get paid off to the tune of sixteen grand (still on backbench salary mind you), then less than a year later you’re made housing secretary again, it looks pretty grim to keep the cash and the flat and go i’m alright cunts, how about you?

we mostly agree then

Yeah probably. If I found a score on the pavement I wouldn’t stick up any posters about it. 16k in notes? I might have that as well, no need to trouble the constabulary

should/is difference

This is where we diverge. Enforcers of ‘should’ even if they just recently inherited the responsibility should do as their own rules oblige them to do

strange thing to devote this much energy to

It’s the subject of the post. I’ll comment about other matters on other posts, energy allowing. I can’t always be bothered

I don’t know or care what a ‘vibe shift’ might entail but willing to bet it’s the continuity-starmer, just-a-little-bit, lets not upset the status quo soft soap stance that goes: this situation requires soft liberal tinkering round the edges of the giant money hoover positioned above the working class. Do not disrupt the hoover. Please god lets not anger the hoover

edited for clarity: Of course the sticking point exists in both the tax avoidance & reward for failure and of course I wouldn’t turn down the cash if it were me. But she and hypothetical us aren’t in the same position. Rules must apply more strictly to custodians & enforcers of those same rules

Well quite but nobody would be very likely to notice. But if you you lived in Manchester and worked in London and got the sack from your job as housing secretary for avoiding tax on your nice new flat in Brighton, copped the sixteen grand payoff and was reappointed to housing secretary within a year that’s a bit different isn’t it?

Sweet. Wes, it’s funding time, bell up Pete Thiel and get it implemented asap

OK that’s a non-starter. How then do we make our proposal for self-funding provision of IVF on the NHS? What if they reserve a modest quantity of spare stem cells for the production of veal?

In the vein of encouraging smoking as it costs the NHS for associated diseases earlier on, but kills the patients before the really expensive care for Alzheimers etc is required, could you argue that IVF saves money in the long run by providing a child to care for those who would otherwise require extensive state support in their old age?

He fucked up by apologising in the first place