Phil Edwards

Update: today I learned (by trying to use the matching lead to charge my keyboard) that the socket in question *is* in fact a weird little Swedish protocol I've never seen anywhere else and need that one lead for, and not USB-C.

(Fortunately I managed to find an actual USB-C lead.)

That's a very fine video, but I don't see what it's got to do with the naming question. I know "Rube Goldberg machine" is the default phrase in US culture; that was where we started.

But, but he's going to fearlessly release all my conversations with the Prince of Darkness - even the ones that make him look embarrassingly independent and left-wing!

"I've never been a shrinking violent on Israel" is a great typo.

But yes – Wes's play here is "I'll fearlessly release all my conversations with the Prince of Darkness, even the ones that make me look embarrassingly independent and left-wing!". Which, ironically, is far below Mandelson's standard.

I have no idea who Rube Goldberg actually was or what he did. I have heard his name used (usually followed by "-style") to signify "elaborate contraptions to perform a simple task" - in other words, used where I'd use "Heath Robinson-esque" (or "Wallace-and-Gromit-like" for variety).

Much-loved Guild member and writer Des De Moor passes away The Guild board is desperately sad to hear that long-time Guild member and wonderful writer Des De Moor has passed away.The outpouring of stories since the news tells its own story, but Des was one of...

Dreadfully sad news, not least b/c he was younger than I am... I didn't know Des well, & now wish I had - I never realised I had a couple of his downtempo ambient house cuts, and I shall be tracking down a copy of the David Bowie album. A great loss.
www.beerguild.co.uk/news/much-lo...

He also tries to put the blame on misogyny in politics, on the basis that if a woman had been in the room when the appointment was made, it could never have happened. Which is ingenious if nothing else.

Faithful friends who are dear to us
Will be near to us
Once more
She wore
Blue.... velvet...

I hate hybrid earworms.

Unfortunately the next film we saw was Eraserhead.

We agreed that we'd do just that; the next film we saw, we'd go and get dim sum afterwards.

Many years ago, my partner and I were talking about how we always went to the same two or three places after going to the cinema. "We should branch out!" I said. "We could go anywhere - we could go to a Chinese and order nothing but dim sum!".

If you read the rest of the thread you'll know that I didn't vote Labour under Starmer or Blair. So, no, they're not.

I think a left-wing Labour Party - nothing drastic, just as left-wing as it was under Harold Wilson, say - would be a very good idea.

Corbyn could say "I was elected by the members, it's up to them" - and he didn't need to worry about them voting for someone else. Only one of those two things is true of Starmer.

Very poor. Probably incompetence rather than malice, but even so.

"Some people who have abandoned Labour for other parties are pleased that McSweeney has gone, and may be more likely to return to Labour as a result. This is a bad thing."

Lastly, what's most extraordinary about Theo's observation - that *former* Labour supporters are the ones rejoicing the most in McSweeney's fall - is that he presents it as a gotcha, as if to say "it's only *them*, who cares what *they* think?".

Labour's current 7-day polling average is 19%.

So it's possible to say "I voted Labour under Corbyn for the same reasons I voted Labour under Miliband and Kinnock; those reasons didn't apply under Blair and Starmer".

And it's not necessarily the case that someone who didn't vote Labour in 2024 doesn't have Labour's best interests at heart.

I thought they were; I think a lot of people thought they were. For me, the difference between Corbyn and most of his predecessors is that they sincerely paid lip service (if that's not a contradiction) to things he genuinely wanted to achieve. Blair's agenda was different; Starmer's is too.

Secondly, there's a consistency to my voting history, if you care to see it. Tony Blair made some big changes to the party's positioning; Starmer made more. Were those changes big enough to put Blair's and Starmer's Labour on one side of a line and Kinnock/Smith/Miliband/Corbyn on the other?

Firstly, we didn't just up and leave. Many were expelled; many more left after Starmer and McSweeney made it abundantly clear that they didn't want us in the party and intended to make sure that nobody even slightly left-wing had any influence within it.

So yes, we're glad the guy's gone.

OK, fine. I voted Green in 2005, I was a member of the party from 2015 to 2024, and I voted Green again in 2024. Fairweather Labour supporter, that's me - and yes, I'm extremely pleased that McSweeney's gone, at least for now.

Before dismissing what people like me think, a couple of points.

(Doesn't everyone want to get out of the room? No, I don't think so. Bill Clinton would stay in the room until they started dimming the lights. Tony Blair practically lived in the room.)

As for what he wants, I always thought with Boris Johnson that what he wanted was (a) to please his audience and (b) to get out of the room, and that (b) was just as strong as (a).
Starmer's (a) is more like "be seen to achieve something", but I think (b) is pretty much the same.

Point being that the political menu he'd signed up to then was completely different from that of the current Labour Party; it only had a few overlaps with Corbyn's, for that matter. But the man was the same.

I knew him slightly when he was a Trotskyist. His manner was exactly the same - earnest, dogmatic, awkward and slightly defensive, "on top of his brief but only just". I thought then it was b/c he was young*, but evidently not.

*i.e. 28 to my 30 - we're not talking "student leftism" here

When Starmer announced his first Shadow Cabinet I remember thinking "Anneliese Dodds, Nick Thomas-Symonds... is this the new leadership cadre? is this... Starmerism?".

Turned out they were placeholders to make the transition to a Labour Right team less obvious. We can see the costs of that now.

Interesting that the Graun's being less frank about this than the BBC.

Labour's woes are self-inflicted, but they'll never accept responsibility for them. It's painful for me too. My whole family was once staunch Labour voters, but not anymore.
#VoteGreen 🗳️

I agree that that's a bad argument - democracy costs what it costs, it's like saying trial by jury's too expensive (OK, bad example). And briefing "a by-election for mayor? in Manchester? Reform would walk it!" was basically insane.

The trouble with that is that the 2024 rule change didn't say "no exceptions" - it said "an NEC committee will decide". At which point the NEC committee needs to have reasons - and all they could come up with was "democracy is expensive, especially on this particular occasion"