Westminster Election 12th December 2019

[Eamonnca1]

Last night I saw a friend share a video on FB of some people who looked like immigrants picking up clothes that were left out for the homeless. Some girl with a Belfast accent was berating them for it. There was no context, no other side of the story, no mention of whether or not the people picking the clothes needed them, just an assumption that they were "immigrants stealing from honest local people."

I've seen that kind of video shared by him before. It had a caption saying "Unbelievable! Stealing water from marathon runners!" It showed some black women gathering up water bottles from some tables at the side of the road. It was obvious from the background that the marathon was over, the road was empty, the water was no longer needed by any runners, and the stewards were standing around and letting them have at it. They were obviously low income people who were happy to avail of some free stuff that was being given to them, but some video editor with an agenda decided to repurpose it for his own racist ends knowing that he'd get plenty of shares.

The point I'm making is that in the next few weeks we're probably going to see evidence of the election being "tampered with" in the form of targeted social media content distributed in marginal constituencies, produced and funded by unknown parties (potentially from outside the country) and designed to whip up as much xenophobia, fear, bitterness, and all the other emotions on which the Tories thrive. And of course, like the day of the Brexit vote, once the election is past it'll be too late to do anything about it.

There are people in this world who are determined to prove that democracy doesn't work, and that their autocratic systems are superior. They're exploiting weak spots in western democratic systems, like the UK's first-past-the-post system and the US electoral college. And for now they seem to be winning.

[Kidder81]

Corbynism/Momentum will go down as one of the biggest disasters in British Politics, totally self indulgent and as I said the "f**k off to the Tories you ****" approach to Labour voters if you disagree with them in the slightest approach didn't work, imagine that.

[gallsman]

Scots people are Sovereign

I don't think winking emojis of people from Roscommon have much sway when it comes to the constitutional status of countries within the UK.

[Milltown Row2]

The Scots had their chance, and decided not too. Be interesting to see a UI referendum, would they learn from the Scots mistakes ?

[Armagh18]

Suzanne Breen saying bookies have Finucane at 4/6 with Dodds at 11/10!

From Twitter
pinkmiss Retweeted

Sniffer 72
@Weller64
·
2h
The turnout figures in Nationalist areas of North Belfast at 5pm are off the scale.  Whatever happens tonight, John Finucane has mobilised the electorate here in a way unseen since the 1980's.  He appeals to all classes and is getting votes right across the divide.

If Finucane unseated Dodds I think you could be potentially looking at the next leader of SF.

Would be brilliant. Far sooner see Doherty/Finucane than Mary Lou and Michelle.

[dec]

Corbynism/Momentum will go down as one of the biggest disasters in British Politics, totally self indulgent and as I said the "f**k off to the Tories you ****" approach to Labour voters if you disagree with them in the slightest approach didn't work, imagine that.

When Corbyn won the leadership he didn't have enough supporters among Labour MPs to get nominated so some MPs nominated him even though they did not intend to vote for him just to ensure he got on the ballot. I imagine they thought he had no chance of winning.

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-33127323

[Captain Obvious]

A buffoon like Boris Johnson having a such a landslide victory just highlights how awful weak Corbyn and his party are.

[Itchy]

A buffoon like Boris Johnson having a such a landslide victory just highlights how awful weak Corbyn and his party are.

No ot highlights how f**king stupid the general english man is

[Armagh18]

British people really are idiots. Imagine even considering voting for the party that has completely fucked your country for the last 10 years and will sell the nhs to Trump and his buddies.

Needs to be a UI within the next 3 years. Scotland to go within 2.

[seafoid]

Carole Cadwalladr
@carolecadwalla
America, wondering what UK election means for 2020? Think: zero idea what is going on in real time. Zero idea who is being targeted with what data. Zero idea who is placing 1/3 ads. Mainstream media still being gamed. Lies absolutelyfuckingeverywhere. Like Britain except worse



Edward Luce
@EdwardGLuce
·
16m
Not feeling massively bullish about the future of liberal democracy tonight.

[bennydorano]

SNP will be on a sticky wicket now, they could go down the route of having a Referendum without UK approval, it could get very dirty & nasty.

[gallsman]

One thing this result will hopefully force people to realise is that social media, especially Twitter is not the real world. The likes of Owen Jones and Ash Sarkar have been tweeting flat out over the last few hours about major Tories (BoJo, IDS, Raab etc) were at risk. If they all come back with comfortable majorities, people might start to think that there's more to things than what like-minded people say on the interweb.

[RedHand88]

One thing this result will hopefully force people to realise is that social media, especially Twitter is not the real world. The likes of Owen Jones and Ash Sarkar have been tweeting flat out over the last few hours about major Tories (BoJo, IDS, Raab etc) were at risk. If they all come back with comfortable majorities, people might start to think that there's more to things than what like-minded people say on the interweb.

Agree completely. Wouldn't get my hopes up though.

[HiMucker]

Binding referendum needs UK government approval.

If they don't grant them one and they have one themselves, they can hardly stop it. It won't be like Catalonia thats for sure. It's in the Scots hands no matter what Westminster say about it.

[Eamonnca1]

What's this I hear about Jo Swinson being in a bit of trouble in her own seat?