I've had people jump through some precariously high hoops to defend stuff like, "Ask anyone who has dated an Arab man; the reviews aren't good," but I don't recall them being regulars. He definitely has his defenders around here, but most of them will concede he's a dick. They just think he's one who contributes…

I've certainly done worse!

Oh man, I really, really hope it's Phoebe Waller Bridge, I think she'd be fantastic. The 'boring' I was referring to was Luke Treadaway, and the 'horrible' was Kris Marshall. Even if it isn't PWB, I'd prefer an unknown over a relatively big name - in fact, other than Capaldi, my least favourite Doctors (Tennant and…

I think the fact that he didn't spring to mind may indicate that there's something a gulf between what constitutes comedy in France vs the anglosphere. Like, I honestly didn't realise he was primarily thought of as a comedian.

Well, take Corbyn - he didn't win, but under his leadership Labour got the biggest swing to a single party in decades, and gained seats for the first time since 1997. And it's difficult to point to left wing politics winning elections when even mainstream centre left parties have been shifting steadily to the right…

Sorry man, that was real dickish.

Aw, fair enough. I'll apologise to Teo Macaroni.

I didn't posit that Macron and Corbyn were in any way similar. You'll note the major difference between Macron and Clinton is also that he won, though. But by all means keep doing what you're doing and enjoy eight years of Trump.

Imagine if this article had embedded YouTube videos where you could find out that isn't the case.

So…what are you going to do?

Yeah, I get that too, believe me. But there are also the people who were duped by Trump's dishonest messages about jobs and trade protection and taking back power from economic elites. Those people can be flipped, like they flipped from UKIP back to Labour when Labour actually remembered their traditional base.

I hope so too, for everyone's sake.

I'm not ruling out Russian shenanigans by any means. I'm not sure it's a winnable fight when you're in opposition though, and I'm not sure how you'd go about winning it even in government. Sanctions? War? Surely better to focus on why the margin against Trump was tight enough that the Russians were even able to have…

Why would a neoliberal party be having the same problems as the French Socialist Party instead of the same ones as parties they're actually comparable to, in countries with more directly analogous electoral systems and cultures?

Then it's going to be a long hard road, but they're going to need to start at the local, grassroots level like the moral majority did in the 70s and 80s and work their way up. Focusing on the Presidency to the detriment of all else clearly isn't working.

Yup. And I'm sorry, but liberals love it because throwing your hands up in the air and saying it's all Putin's fault is a fuck of a lot easier than addressing your electoral failings head on. The Democratic Party has the same problem as Australian Labor and UK Labour pre-Corbyn. To paraphrase George Monbiot, no one's…

Then maybe they shouldn't have made her one. No one here has ever been anything other than embarassed by Iggy Azalea.

Yeah, because it takes itself more seriously. The NT News at least has fun with being a shitty tabloid. The Courier is just in a constant state of trembling, Helen Lovejoy-style outrage.

You also seem upset. Maybe even more upset, somehow?

It really is a very, very bad newspaper.