Modern British politics neatly summed up in a cartoon

[Red Star Rising]

http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/pictures/2014/11/22/1416671573668/Chris-riddell-23112014-010.jpg
:laugh:

[Futility Personified]

I quite like Riddell's drawing style, he drew for some kids books called the edge chronicles that were quite good.

As for the politics? I feel more hopeless now than ever. We are all fucking doomed unless something changes.

[GiantMonkeyMan]

I quite like Riddell's drawing style, he drew for some kids books called the edge chronicles that were quite good.
I used to love those books. When I was younger I met Riddell and got an autographed copy of the first in the series and he even drew a quick picture for me on the inside of the front cover. Mini-me, the young nerd version of myself, fucking loved it.


As for the politics? I feel more hopeless now than ever. We are all fucking doomed unless something changes.
I feel that's a bit dramatic but I get where you're coming from. There's no real organised left capable of challenging the current narrative. When I look at places like Scotland and Ireland, where there's a real politicisation of the working class and compare it to dull Plymouth, I get depressed.

[Ethics Gradient, Traitor For All Ages]

Can one of you blokes explain the van thing? I read the story on BBC but was kind of baffled by it. Is it considered 'low class' to drive white vans or something?

[GiantMonkeyMan]

Can one of you blokes explain the van thing? I read the story on BBC but was kind of baffled by it. Is it considered 'low class' to drive white vans or something?
White transit vans are considered pretty synonymous with construction workers/builders/plumbers that sort of thing. Combined with the multitude of England flags, it's a stereotype of the manual 'worker' yob type character, basically the stereotype of an EDL supporter.

[Futility Personified]

The working class are turning to a party of ex tories who now say they are representing the working class. There are layers of ignorance being weaved here that should be obvious to anyone who can read or write. Yet this situation persists. Dramatic, perhaps, but doomed, almost certainly. Unless someone on here is going to go fruitloops and assassinate murdoch?

[RedKobra]

Politics in the UK is pretty bleak. Despite being reformist Left-Unity should be watched with some interest. I don't see them as a force for political change but as perhaps a force for radicalization and politicization, maybe. Other than that there's very little happening on the left or even centre-left.

As for white vans. I was born and raised in London and they came to represent the emergent "working-class boy made good" I.e - someone who works for themselves or free-lance, pays tax when they feel like it, lauds it over their natural allies (the working class), buys a large, ostentatious house in Essex, the county which took the East-London over spill after the war. They're also associated with racism (some having left London because of the influx of migrants) and far-right nationalism. They were a electorally significant if not numerically large constituent of Thatcher's mandate back in the 80's. These were social climbers, class traitors and have a reputation as I say for hugely reactionary views.

The Labour MP who tweeted the pic is an obnoxious idiot herself but it doesn't make the sentiment any less legitimate.

[Fakeblock]

The working class are turning to a party of ex tories who now say they are representing the working class. There are layers of ignorance being weaved here that should be obvious to anyone who can read or write. Yet this situation persists. Dramatic, perhaps, but doomed, almost certainly. Unless someone on here is going to go fruitloops and assassinate murdoch?

I think this points directly to a failure of the left. The fact that so many working people swarm to UKIP, even though they have yet to achieve a single significant political accomplishment, is prime evidence of the gap in British politics.

[The Idler]

And what did Emily Thornberry MP, professional politician of the Labour Party do? Defend her tweet and launch a blistering critique on nationalism and patriotism?
Nope, agree to resign. Craven and cowardly. These are the sort of politicos that workers elect to represent them.