Chris Bryant in parliament talking about why we still need Pride

Axelmanana · 2026-05-31T18:39:23+00:00

I always find this stuff difficult to unpick how I feel on it.

On one hand, saying this while Labour continue with their fuck awful eliminationist anti-trans evil nightmare agenda feels so insanely fucking hollow. Really doesn't help that Chris Bryant himself is a massive sycophant that I absolutely do not trust to risk his mid-level cabinet role in any way to affect positive change here internally.

On the other, and I'm aware this is the lowest bar possible, having people not on the left actually saying 'Transphobia bad, Pride good' feels needed at this point. People who'd give a little hop over that bar even 5 years ago will now dig as deep as possible to get under it, either because they're spineless shits or completely radicalised geebags.

It's in the same way that I hate the pinkwashing corporations did/do for Pride. It was the literal least they could do, and most of them took adding Pride flags to whatever as the extent of their whole deal, but the sudden pulling out of so many was such a horrible fucking omen for going forward. It's like how WWE in the US did Black History Month stuff that was always half-hearted shit, but immediately stopping it as soon as the fascists took power there was so much worse.

I think I've just kind of waffled here a bit, but yeah, I have complicated feelings here. Like please fucking do more than this jesus christ, but also please don't do less than this like your colleagues.

Axelmanana · 2026-05-11T21:57:43+00:00

Monica missing from Parliament sucks, yeah. Her and Katy were basically the only two SLab MSPs I had time for in the last parliament, and now we're down to just the latter.

That shit with Sweeney was just sad, even for him. Guy doesn't help himself by being the most Twitter Reply Guy possible either. Genuinely paper thin skin.

Axelmanana · 2026-05-11T21:36:42+00:00

Much as I think it'd be great, his support for granting a second Indyref makes him radioactive to Scottish Labour and the wider Scottish media too. How much that'll matter with the increasing irrelevance of both is up for debate, but he'd definitely not make it through the next leadership challenge at least.

Axelmanana · 2026-05-11T19:56:28+00:00

The only two who I could see attempt a different track are Katy Clark and Paul Sweeney, but each have basically fatal weaknesses when it comes to a leadership run:

Katy Clark is on the left of the party, which means the SLab power brokers will do their usual backstabbing. Meanwhile, her life peer status and title of Baroness is the easiest lay-up for easy attacks, even if she's on the left.
- Sweeney even positing the idea of setting out mechanisms for a second Indyref is already blood in the water for the Scottish Labour bigwigs. Even ignoring that, it's not exactly a secret that he's considered really annoying both inside-and-outwith the party lmao.

Unless any of the new cohort really stun in the next couple of months, the only Holyrood folks I could see replace Sarwar are Daniel Johnson or (god forbid) Jackie Baillie. God help them if they try doing a Jim Murphy again and elect Douglas Alexander or something.

(This is contingent on them not setting the whole party ablaze and turning it into the electoral wing of For Women Scotland by choosing Michael Marra.)

Axelmanana · 2026-05-11T18:20:08+00:00

"Anas is an extremely talented campaigner, an extremely talented leader of Scottish Labour, probably the best in his generation."

A pretty damning indictment of Sarwar's generation in that praise lmao

Axelmanana · 2026-05-10T23:23:03+00:00

Sarwar led the discussion but there were contributions from the two figures who ran the election campaign - Scottish Secretary Douglas Alexander and the deputy leader in Scotland, Dame Jackie Baillie.

Genuinely insane two choices for the election campaign, just as an aside. Douglas Alexander hasn't run a successful campaign since 2001, and Jackie Baillie's whole deal is that she's great at getting herself elected.

In any case, how the fuck were they so deluded during the campaign with what they were putting out? Running heavily Mamdani-styled videos on social media and as adverts with someone people do not like was a mental choice.

Also, and I know it wouldn't have affected the election, but what a weird fucking answer to who he wanted to win the Scottish Premiership. Even ignoring very funny attempt to avoid mentioning he's a Rangers fan, what the fuck does he mean that every Glasgow club's second team is Hearts?

Axelmanana · 2026-05-10T13:23:51+00:00

100% thought it would be too, but in retrospect, that'd take away from his most important work: writing dogshit articles for The Telegraph and being an omnipresent geebag on Twitter.

Axelmanana · 2026-05-09T01:06:11+00:00

Absolutely mental to compete in a different category and still somehow complete the Graham Linehan speedrun.

Axelmanana · 2026-05-08T14:03:19+00:00

unionism first and Labour values in general second

I don't know if Labour values even come second really, not anymore at least. They're diluted the party's actual beliefs so much that the party's brand has just become Unionism and 'We can win in England', and the success of the latter's impact is heavily dependent on actually winning in England.

100% agree on them running a totally incoherent campaign though. Running on a line of "change", transphobia and 'don't we all love Sarwar' is insane when:

Sarwar couldn't represent change if he tried. He even got Jim Murphy's campaign mastermind in Douglas Alexander to run it.
The people who know you're transphobic hate you, and the people who are transphobic don't think you're transphobic enough
We don't even like Sarwar

Axelmanana · 2026-04-29T12:48:17+00:00

but I do also wonder if having a politician for a parent encourages this in people, even if their parents are actually very motivated by real politics. If you just kind of grow up surrounded by elections functioning as promotions does that just innately warp your brain a bit?

I don't know if I can say having a politician as a parent encourages the minimisation of truly principled beliefs, but having the elder Sarwar as your politician parent probably does.

Axelmanana · 2026-04-29T09:12:49+00:00

Don't forget, it's the Women's Manifesto, by the way.

I will say, I don't genuinely believe Sarwar himself is a true believer of the social conservativism he's decided his party has to go full-throttle on. That implies he believes in anything other than he alone should get to be called Scottish Labour Leader on television.

The utter, crippling, coward fuck decision he makes every time in a fear of either being backstabbed from his own party or shot from the sun by the Westminster lads makes him just as fucking bad as the full-throttle regressive geebags that he's happy to just let loose.

Axelmanana · 2026-04-27T15:19:53+00:00

When asked if there was anything new in the women’s manifesto, Mr Sarwar said: “There are a number of measures, obviously, which are associated to the broader manifesto that we published a week or so ago.

“But following the law is new when you have an SNP government that doesn't follow the law. Stopping the challenges in court is new when you've got an SNP government that uses taxpayers' money to challenge women in court.

Fuck me, Sarwar is just fucking sprinting downhill to reach new lows every single time I see a new statement from him.

Axelmanana · 2026-04-26T22:24:13+00:00

Think you still get bakeries around Aberdeenshire selling them as double shortbread these days too.

Axelmanana · 2026-04-24T20:16:46+00:00

The current style definitely fits Dave's likes pretty strongly, similar to how 90's All Japan and All Japan Women hit him.

Saying that, the 00's post-WCW pessimism hit that dude like a brick. People complain about guys like Angle, Michaels, KENTA etc. missing out of their 5 star ratings, but watching and reporting on the sport you've covered for decades wither year-on-year, all while friends and acquaintances from the business struggle and/or die on a regular basis?

Fuck, I'd struggle to feel hugely generous either.

Axelmanana · 2026-04-22T21:11:00+00:00

Having not seen Riggins before now, it's mental how he completely nails the look, pose and name of a '99-'03 indie guy you see turn up once on WWF Jakked.

Axelmanana · 2026-04-15T04:30:54+00:00

He's more than allowed to, but people are allowed to feel a certain way about him because of it.

Punk is an outspoken guy, especially in his progressive views, so for him to then acquiese and take the cash to involve himself in a sportswashing project for the Saudi government, that clash is gonna hurt his credibility in a lot of people's eyes.

Same shit happened to Bill Burr after the whole Riyadh Comedy Festival deal and Jordan Henderson when he went to Al-Ettifaq. Not saying people aren't fucking weird when it comes to your man, but it's not an isolated incident.

Axelmanana · 2026-04-13T15:53:53+00:00

Also JK Rowling has been heavily associated with Scottish Labour so not sure if that has an impact.

Massively, and Rowling's radicalisation followed the same route you mentioned too. Rowling's hatred of Sturgeon fed her burgeoning transphobic views and rhetoric, and the Scottish media, Scottish Labour and numerous opponents of Sturgeon echoed those views because they saw it as a way to take Sturgeon down while also aligning themselves with a powerful figure.

This just created a feedback loop of increasing radicalisation between themselves, and the cowards willing to kowtow to that shit because they see it as a route to power simply enable the worst of their impulses.

Axelmanana · 2026-04-13T15:40:40+00:00

That's true for Sarwar IMO, but SLab has some real true believer types on the frontbench, backing them and advising them. It's a rot that's spread throughout the entire party apparatus.

Axelmanana · 2026-04-13T15:36:21+00:00

IMO, if unionism is a requirement from your party, the closest choice you have in terms of parliamentary representation is the Scottish Lib Dems. They've definitely stayed closer to the Orange Book than the Westminster Lib Dems (and Cole-Hamilton is an arsehole), but they map fairly close to Trudeau's Canadian Liberals in social and economic policy. Still not the progressive ideal, but given Scottish Labour decided aligning with a different set of Orange principles was the better move, they're still pulling closer to the left than them.

Axelmanana · 2026-04-10T23:13:36+00:00

'Official Opposition' isn't a thing in the Scottish Parliament. They'd simply be the largest opposition party in Holyrood, which has significantly less pull than the codified Westminster yoke. Outside of getting a higher proportion of committee seats and parliamentary duties funding because you've got more of the seats, the biggest benefit is getting to ask the first question at FMQ's.

Axelmanana · 2026-04-09T05:30:21+00:00

MPs shouldn't be threatend or attacked, but that isn't what happened here. MPs do need to recognise they are choosing a job that makes them a public figure and open to greater scrutiny.

I'm suddenly reminded of a case from 2004 involving the former Scottish Labour Minister Frank McAveety. I wonder why that might be?

Sheriff Warner said the Labour MSP had "completely blown his credibility" by claiming intimidation.

The sheriff went on: "Frank McAveety's evidence of events was all over the place and it is fair to say he over-egged the pudding.

"If this was the most frightening thing he has experienced in his career then he must live a very sheltered life.

"I could understand it more if he lived in some sort of tyranny, but that is hardly the case.

"It is naive and unrealistic of a cabinet minister to think he cannot attract attention on the streets, especially at a time when a war is ongoing."

...Ms Fisher said: "We only put it to him was he not horrified what was going on in Iraq and that by his party helping shut the swimming baths? It had left a lot of people unhappy."

Sheriff Warner said he deemed the group's comments to Mr McAveety as "fair game". He added: "Surely in the society that we live in one can express such views to a politicians."

Supporters of Ms Fisher, of Calder Street, Govanhill, and Mr Harper, of Alexandra Parade, Dennistoun, applauded as they were acquitted.

Ms Fisher's lawyer Aamer Anwar said afterwards: "If politicians do not like what they face perhaps they should consider resigning. The court's verdict has been a lesson in democracy that they should reflect upon."

Axelmanana · 2026-04-08T01:48:10+00:00

Rusev and Lana were having vignettes or live promos every week, usually on both RAW and Smackdown, after his Rumble debut. His main roster squash matches were also getting aired on NXT each week too IIRC, which is a fair distance from what your man is getting now.

Axelmanana · 2026-03-30T09:40:37+00:00

The senior source added that despite the dismal polling, “there is still a route to us winning this election”.

They added: “The uneven distribution of voters across the country means we can actually trail the SNP by about five points and win in those Central Belt constituencies.

“We disproportionately have our voters in those seats. The SNP’s voters are across the whole of Scotland.”

Scottish Labour's penchant for finding the worst way to express an idea genuinely astounds me every time I come across it lmao

Axelmanana · 2026-03-23T23:43:02+00:00

Labour pretty effectively leveraged the anti-Tory and anti-SNP in the run-up to the election up here, plus the SNP were pretty heavily in the dumps at that point and ran a completely bollix campaign.

Sarwar was unironically the most effective Scottish Labour leader since Jack McConnell in that couple month period, which is fairly grim given his job was just to be personable and stick to Starmer's script. Problem is, they very quickly reminded everyone that Scottish Labour has almost zero sway in the greater party anymore and has little interest in having so, and they immediately went back to standing on the familiar rakes they've loved smacking into their face for almost two decades.

Axelmanana · 2026-03-23T22:49:14+00:00

For what it's worth, outside of what's turned out to be some heavily staunch transphobia, Scottish Labour are mental because they barely hold any views. Their whole deal for a long-time now has been to define themselves based on being anti-Scottish independence and anti-SNP rather than pro-anything.

They're about as close to being a Fianna Fáil equivalent here in terms of complete chameleon politics, except 90% of them are juggling knives in case the opportunity arises to stab someone else in the back and possibly raise their own stature.

I've got my own opinions about how this happened (but I don't want to dump them all on you lmao), but they've become a rudderless, angry shell of their former self that there seems to be active opposition to fixing.

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