Best Of

Harris lost the popular vote by a mere 1.5%. She got a higher share of the popular vote than Trump did in 2016, than Dubya did in 2000, or than Bill Clinton did in 1992.

If they’d actually had primaries and nominated a candidate who wasn’t terrible, they might even have beaten Trump.

Biden hanging on till the last moment didn't help

With the support of his cabinet and the Dem establishment.

Compare how the cabinet and MPs forced Boris out here to the lickspittle loyalty Buttigieg and the others showed to Biden.

Yes and forcing Boris out led to a landslide Labour victory and loss of the all the Conservative redwall seats, Biden I suspect would still have done better in the rustbelt than Harris did as he did in 2020

Boris was on a bizarre journey of self-destruction, he would never had lasted to 2024.

What you Conservatives need to ask yourselves is why you never made any attempt to control Boris's behaviour as PM.

Had Boris remained Conservative leader, Reform would not have got 14% at the last GE and Reform would not now be leading the polls.

Indeed Sunak might now be leading the polls as the new LOTO, Rishi made a stupid political move resigning to remove Boris

Boris had driven too many of his colleagues away with his own behaviour.

And would have driven even more away if he had remained PM for a few more months.

Say what you like but the fundamental problem was Boris's journey of self-destruction and the unwillingness of the Conservative establishment to do anything about it.

Boris could have been prime minister for ten years if he had been willing to have some self-control.

But he preferred to go to lockdown parties, grift money for redecorating and continually lie to his colleagues about trivial things.

Greetings all.
Flying visit to wish everyone a Happy Christmas. Been very busy moving into my new home, am now safely installed in Stefan Aquarone's North Norfolk and free from Clive Lewis' Socialist Republic of Green Gain Norwich South.
Probably be busy till towards May elections but a few observations since was last here (that im sure youve all discussed but i aint been here bruv)
Kemi improving but her personal recovery not yet, imo, translating into a Tory recovery (a stabilisation perhaps) - nothing over 21% since conferemces but their local election vote is starting to hold up better away from the SW and where they are also rans.
Labour face apocalypse in May - every chance they fail to 'win London' and Welsh meltdown
Tories might well poll better in Scotland than Wales - Scotland should be somewhere round Annabel Goldie 2011, Wales will be their worst there by a distance
Polanski is the sort of empty vessel that wins yourh votes like Magic Grandpa used to, but the Greens wont top 20 seats
Lib Dems need a new approach/broom or they face a real struggle to attract tactical votes from potentially fifth and hold on to the borrowed votes that won them 72 seats on 12.6% (theyll still hold a good portion whilst/if Tories struggle at 20% of course, but the bottom could fall out in a few)
Current expectation of the next GE result - +/- 3% each Ref 23 Lab 23 Con 23 LD 11 Grn 11 SNP 2 PC 1 YP 3 Advance 1 Indies/non YP gaza style 2

Merry Christmas!

We should probably wait for the details of the Erasmus deal first before jumping to sneer about it.

The old deal *was* greatly to the benefit of the EU, although the flip-side I suppose was the influx of smart, talented young Europeans into the British workforce.

We're probably going to end up paying £3bn per year or something mad like that with this lot in charge of negotiations.

Also residents of the Isle of Wight need to pay attention. They could end up being in France before they know it.

I thought you were in favour of small boat returns?

Nope. I am in favour of abolishing the right to asylum. We can then give asylum to anyone we choose, such as Ukrainians or Hong Kong Chinese but are under no obligation to accept anyone who has been unlucky enough to be born in some hell hole or thinks they can have a better life here. It needs to become our choice and when it does nearly all of the current chaos of never ending applications, appeals and lack of enforcement of hard won decisions comes to an end.

Per Telegraph:
"Benefit claimants could receive free television licences under sweeping BBC reforms being considered by Lisa Nandy, the Culture Secretary."
So the actual license payer will not just be stumping up for Trump's amour propre

Why not just give everyone a free TV licence?

That's the 'fund from general taxation' option. Then like schools, hospitals etc it's free at the point of delivery.

The BBC themselves want a digital tax. On ISPs.

Because that way the tax will be hidden from the public. Whose bills for internet connections will go up, of course.

Then all the BBC has to do is ask for more free money every year.

As someone who uses zero BBC services I would object vehemently to such a tax unless it was strictly to fund a limited set of core BBC services; news reporting, public service program making, etc. If the beeb want to continue making soap operas and game shows they should sell subscriptions or advertising to fund them.

Carry on. Object vehemently. Should I object vehemently to university subsidies as I use zero university services? Or adult social services which we fortunately don't use?

Taxation doesn't work like that.

Nothing to stop you objecting though.

Universities and social services benefit the country as a whole. BBC game shows do not.

Per Telegraph:
"Benefit claimants could receive free television licences under sweeping BBC reforms being considered by Lisa Nandy, the Culture Secretary."
So the actual license payer will not just be stumping up for Trump's amour propre

Why not just give everyone a free TV licence?

That's the 'fund from general taxation' option. Then like schools, hospitals etc it's free at the point of delivery.

The BBC themselves want a digital tax. On ISPs.

Because that way the tax will be hidden from the public. Whose bills for internet connections will go up, of course.

Then all the BBC has to do is ask for more free money every year.

As someone who uses zero BBC services I would object vehemently to such a tax unless it was strictly to fund a limited set of core BBC services; news reporting, public service program making, etc. If the beeb want to continue making soap operas and game shows they should sell subscriptions or advertising to fund them.

@PippaCrerar

EXCL: An agreement to rejoin Erasmus – the EU’s student exchange programme – set to be announced on Wednesday as part of UK government’s drive towards closer relations with Brussels.

https://x.com/PippaCrerar/status/2000992877443231788?s=20

Is this where we give the EU what they want and they fuck us up the ass.

SKS would pay full price for a Dominos pizza

Brexit was just a spiteful destruction of opportunity voted for by people who'd had their time and had no plan for the aftermath.
It's been left to the people who voted against it to make the best of the mess left behind, turns out that means trying to recover the benefits at greater cost as was said at the time.
Suck it up.

Standard drivel.

Brexit opened doors. Doors can allow you to leave the house, have fun, get a job, or meet the love of your life. Or you can stand at the threshold in the stiff breeze rooted to the spot, reminiscing about how great it was when the door was closed.

I thought it was like having a baby? Certainly it seems to lend itself to fanciful analogy in lieu of any mundane workaday benefits.

Fanciful or otherwise, you do seem to have had difficulty understanding it. Let me be more prosaic. With some obvious 'workaday', exceptions like the absence of membership fees (not exactly chump change when Reeves' hasn't got two pennies to bless herself with), Brexit restored a fairly large arsenal of competencies to the UK Government. Competencies only become benefits if one decides to use them. And deciding not to use them at all was not an outcome that anyone, from the most ardent Brexit supporter to the most passionate remainer, predicted.

Ah I see. So we're just waiting for the right government to come along and it's lift off. Right you are. That's good. It has the benefit of being repeatable forever more.

Brexit is like Communism. It only appears to have failed because it has never been tried properly.