Moments of political catharsis in your lifetime

[easytarget]

Roger Stone getting arrested on Friday was fun.

'97 election and seeing them finally get theirs was great. Is my mind playing tricks or did one high-profile know to be sleazy, expected to lose Tory have to give a concession speech in front of a massive drag queen? (Hamilton? Piers Merchant?)

Obama's wins in '08 and '12 (though that was more "fucking hell, dodged a bullet there").

Death of fathcha
Death of Andy Brietbart
Death of Antonin Scalia (and Sarah Palin's subsequent "well done tony you were a good juge!" (paraphrased, but barely) tweet)

Lots of death there. I think the only reason I take any exercise is to attempt to outlive Piers Morgan. We all need our own motivations.

[Paul Calf]

This tweet also:

https://mobile.twitter.com/steve_hawkes/status/872920321241776128?lang=en

[Paul Calf]

Portillo losing was just awesome.

The rise of the SNP was good as it gave a bit of hope that there is a way of breaking the two-party system but the way it's turned out with the SNP cleaning up on old Labour seats so all Unionists have defaulted to Tories is a bit bleak.

But just watching Nicola Sturgeon be a functionally competant politician and leader was worth a bit of enthusiasm.

The expenses scandal? The fuckers brushed that off didn't they? What about disgraced-national-security-threat Dr Liam Fox being forced to resign and banished from politics forever?

The SNP have been a real disappointment; just a new way to sell austerity with a few bribes paid for by Westminster. Another centrist neoliberal project.

Apart from 'Independence' and 'No Brexit', what are their stand-out policies? Keeping Corbyn away from Number 10?

[touchingcloth]

[Large Noise]

The SNP have been a real disappointment; just a new way to sell austerity with a few bribes paid for by Westminster. Another centrist neoliberal project.

Apart from 'Independence' and 'No Brexit', what are their stand-out policies? Keeping Corbyn away from Number 10?

Getting rid of Trident? Something Labour don't  have the bottle to do for reasons of national pride. Just like how they triangulated their way into this fucking Brexit disaster because they didn't want to alienate racists in swing seats.

[Norton Canes]

Whenever Iran elects a moderate president (Mrs Canes is Iranian)

[Paul Calf]

Getting rid of Trident? Something Labour don't  have the bottle to do for reasons of national pride. Just like how they triangulated their way into this fucking Brexit disaster because they didn't want to alienate racists in swing seats.

It's not very difficult to have an unambiguous anti-Brexit policy when 60% of your voters are pro-Remain and the other 40% won't vote for you anyway, is it?

[NoSleep]

It'll be Corbyn's Labour whittling down May's majority at the last GE, which was a vindication of Corbyn regarding his position as leader of the Labour Party. Should have been the last we heard of the naysayers amongst his own ranks.

[Ambient Sheep]

The first one that came to my mind was Jonathan "simple sword of truth and the trusty shield of British fair play" Aitken's libel case against The Guardian collapsing, which later led to him being jailed for perjury.  Was on holiday in Glastonbury with my then-partner, went down for breakfast in the B&B and saw the huge splash on the front of their Graun and just went "YES!!!".

Later on that day bought my own copy and kept it for many years.


Obviously the 1997 election a month earlier as well (funny how the memory works, I would have sworn Aitken's fall from grace was under John Major but hey-ho).  And yes, I was most certainly up for Portillo, taking particular joy in Stephen Twigg's jibe about people willing to vote for "an openly gay politician".  (Which is also tweaking my memory as I thought he said it during his acceptance speech but YouTube tells me I'm lying.)

[Mr_Simnock]

Seeing the Tories annihilated in 1997. It has never been bettered.

And the enjoyment level doesn't get any less with the knowledge of the partly very disappointing what happened next.

I agree with this, always good to watch portillo going on youtube too when I need little chortle or even better when david mellor lost it on stage when egged on by james goldsmith

Love this clip of when they started to realize how bad a night for the tories it was going to be - https://youtu.be/XoL_tT046tI?t=9745

[easytarget]

'97 election and seeing them finally get theirs was great. Is my mind playing tricks or did one high-profile know to be sleazy, expected to lose Tory have to give a concession speech in front of a massive drag queen? (Hamilton? Piers Merchant?)

It was Hamilton and he had to give his concession speech flanked by Burnel Penhaul (Miss Moneypenny's Glamorous One Party)'s tits. The nipples lit up.
Such dignity.
https://youtu.be/XoL_tT046tI?t=17531
If you keep the tape playing you get to hear Malcom Rifkind and Michael Portillo get beat.
That was a good night.

[Sony Walkman Prophecies]

Day we voted to leave the EU: one of the most significant challenges to the 'business as usual' programme of national withdrawal the country has ever seen, or is likely to see. Of course, political upheaval is now the new normal. Something even more alarming could come along next week. Which would be just in time, as Brexit-fatigue has fully set in at SWP towers. We don't even bother turning up the volume on Jacob Rees-Mogg anymore.

[Mr_Simnock]

Agree with SWP there, yes when the vote showed up as leave I was shocked a lot but also glad that was the result as "one of the most significant challenges to the 'business as usual' programme of national withdrawal the country has ever seen, or is likely to see" will have deeply pissed off all the horrid elements of the EU in the right way. I do feel though that biggy could be right and a very contrived method of keeping us in EU will be found at the eleventh hour (as no one is ever supposed to leave, that's just silly) it was good while it lasted.

[jobotic]

Two more that will be just fine thank you.

[finnquark]

[jamiefairlie]

The SNP have been a real disappointment; just a new way to sell austerity with a few bribes paid for by Westminster. Another centrist neoliberal project.

Apart from 'Independence' and 'No Brexit', what are their stand-out policies? Keeping Corbyn away from Number 10?

Lots more here: http://www.snp-hls.scot/what-has-the-snp-ever-done-for-us/

Compare and contrast with Labour's Welsh government performance.

Re-introduced FREE higher education by scrapping tuition fees and the £2,300 graduate endowment
Increased funding for college bursaries to support more than 42,000 students.
358 new schools have been built or refurbished, meaning that over 130,000 pupils have been taken out of dilapidated and substandard school buildings.
They've put 1,105 more police on Scotland's streets, helping drive recorded crime down to its lowest level for 38 years.
Used £46 million seized from criminals to invest in community projects for 600,000 Scottish kids.
Provided more free nursery education, benefitting 100,000 pre-school Scots and their working parents.
Reformed the laws on sexual offences to make it easier to prosecute people for serious sexual attacks.
Increased funding for Victim Support Scotland and our victim notification scheme is helping people affected by crime.
Given parents more information on dangerous paedophiles to protect children in local communities.
A record 39 new renewable projects since coming to power and pioneering climate change legislation.
Scotland i now produces 51% of our electricity needs from clean green renewable sources thanks to SNP policies. And aiming for 100 per cent by 2020.

[Sebastian Cobb]

Blaming the SNP for 'taking' votes away from labour ignores the fact that Scotland has never swung an election for Labour or how egregious Scottish Labour were when they didn't think they had any competition. They only got out of bed for the whips.

[zomgmouse]

There was a point in the state election late last year when a historically very safe conservative seat was quite seriously threatened by a nineteen-year-old with almost no budget or campaigning. That was fun.

[Paul Calf]

Day we voted to leave the EU: one of the most significant challenges to the 'business as usual' programme of national withdrawal the country has ever seen, or is likely to see. Of course, political upheaval is now the new normal. Something even more alarming could come along next week. Which would be just in time, as Brexit-fatigue has fully set in at SWP towers. We don't even bother turning up the volume on Jacob Rees-Mogg anymore.

Agree with SWP there, yes when the vote showed up as leave I was shocked a lot but also glad that was the result as "one of the most significant challenges to the 'business as usual' programme of national withdrawal the country has ever seen, or is likely to see" will have deeply pissed off all the horrid elements of the EU in the right way. I do feel though that biggy could be right and a very contrived method of keeping us in EU will be found at the eleventh hour (as no one is ever supposed to leave, that's just silly) it was good while it lasted.

People who are bored with their lives and don't have the wit or will to change them, so vote to burn everyone else's. Seems to have been a significant Brexit cohort.

[Crisps?]

Imagine reading a thread like this and your answer being Tony Blair winning.

[thenoise]

Imagine reading a thread like this and your answer being Tony Blair winning.

Do you think we would be better off now if we had had uninterrupted conservative rule since 1979?

[Billy]

I was 22 when the tuition fee protests happened, and after attending the first one genuinely convinced myself that it was 1990 again and Cameron would be out in a few weeks and everything was going to be brilliant.

[Paul Calf]

I once had a dream, around about 1999, that's stayed with me to this day, that I went back in time to 1988-ish and joined a group of anti-Tory protestors who were all saying "They're going to be out soon! Tories will be gone!"

"No, they won't, I was saying, "They're going to be here for another decade or so."

They scoffed at me. At the end of the dream, I was presented with the classic 'Stay here or go back to your own time' dilemma. Sometimes it feels like I chose to stay.

[Shoulders?-Stomach!]

Agree with SWP there, yes when the vote showed up as leave I was shocked a lot but also glad that was the result as "one of the most significant challenges to the 'business as usual' programme of national withdrawal the country has ever seen, or is likely to see" will have deeply pissed off all the horrid elements of the EU in the right way. I do feel though that biggy could be right and a very contrived method of keeping us in EU will be found at the eleventh hour (as no one is ever supposed to leave, that's just silly) it was good while it lasted.

Some sort of pithy diddums meme in response to this would seem in order

[bgmnts]

Lots more here: http://www.snp-hls.scot/what-has-the-snp-ever-done-for-us/

Compare and contrast with Labour's Welsh government performance.

Re-introduced FREE higher education by scrapping tuition fees and the £2,300 graduate endowment
Increased funding for college bursaries to support more than 42,000 students.
358 new schools have been built or refurbished, meaning that over 130,000 pupils have been taken out of dilapidated and substandard school buildings.
They've put 1,105 more police on Scotland's streets, helping drive recorded crime down to its lowest level for 38 years.
Used £46 million seized from criminals to invest in community projects for 600,000 Scottish kids.
Provided more free nursery education, benefitting 100,000 pre-school Scots and their working parents.
Reformed the laws on sexual offences to make it easier to prosecute people for serious sexual attacks.
Increased funding for Victim Support Scotland and our victim notification scheme is helping people affected by crime.
Given parents more information on dangerous paedophiles to protect children in local communities.
A record 39 new renewable projects since coming to power and pioneering climate change legislation.
Scotland i now produces 51% of our electricity needs from clean green renewable sources thanks to SNP policies. And aiming for 100 per cent by 2020.

And the wine!

[Shoulders?-Stomach!]

Hardly any of those achievements are placed in context by explaining what "more" means, ie. Whether that's above inflation, or whether the rise was as high as before.

The language used is frequently Tory language. You hear this from cabinet ministers and department spokesmen routinely. Semantic disguising cuts and failure.

I'll take the tuition fees scrapping and if they manage to get to 100% renewables by 2020.

[Sony Walkman Prophecies]

People who are bored with their lives and don't have the wit or will to change them, so vote to burn everyone else's. Seems to have been a significant Brexit cohort.

Yet isn't that why you'd happily wave though a Corbyn government in the next General Election? "If I can't have none, no one else will either." The politics of spite and learned helplessness.

[Crisps?]

Do you think we would be better off now if we had had uninterrupted conservative rule since 1979?

I'd rather have had (official) Tory wins in Blair's three elections if it gave us a Corbyn a decade earlier.

[Blinder Data]

Blaming the SNP for 'taking' votes away from labour ignores the fact that Scotland has never swung an election for Labour or how egregious Scottish Labour were when they didn't think they had any competition. They only got out of bed for the whips.

I used to say the same thing. However, it's unlikely Labour will clear up in England like they did under Blair. If Labour don't win considerably more Scottish seats at the next election they will struggle to form a majority, so Scotland is pretty crucial in that regard.

In answer to the OP, the GE2017 was fantastic viewing for the sense of upset and schadenfreude. And while the spectacle of the SNP takeover in GE2015 was enjoyable at the time, my feelings have since changed and everything else about the election was horribly depressing.

[pcsjwgm]

Corbyn defeating the Blairite coup after the EU referendum; Nick Cohen being shown to be a fucking fool: https://twitter.com/ggreenwald/status/873000761550139399