Best Of

FPT
My concerns remain. The EU is an essentially undemocratic institution. It now contains undemocratic members such as Hungary. The Euro was way ahead of its time. The economies of Europe were not nearly integrated enough to share the same currency, interest rates and monetary policies. The consequences for many have been disastrous. Their share of world GDP has fallen sharply as a result. Their bureaucracy makes it difficult to compete internationally. Even Vance is right sometimes.

OTOH the world has got a lot more uncertain than it was at the time of the vote. America is no longer a reliable friend or ally. There is much to be said for being part of a bigger club. Brexit has added to the paperwork of trade. It has had adverse effects on our freedom of movement throughout Europe and the ability to work there. We have not used our new freedoms well.

It’s still a balancing act. I think I would probably reach the same conclusion but I can see circumstances where I wouldn’t.

Just popping in from Purgatory to say

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

Do not ever mess with angry women who know their stuff. And we do. We really do.

I see that Harriet Harman has already started misconstruing what the judgment says and means, just like people did with Forstater. Well, I and others will have something to say about that and we're not going to let her and others get away with yet more lies about what the law says.

Meanwhile I'm having blood tests for my heart. And some sort of heart scan will be needed. To find out if there is some sort of heart failure. Well, I'd bloody well like to know that too - and preferably before I die of boredom - or it - waiting to be told. Am on limited fluid intake so I have to pee in a blasted bedpan. Still waiting for the breast surgeons to see me and tell me that I have cancer or some other nastiness which seems to have shown up on the CT scan in my lymph nodes and which is what the doctors have been going on about since Sunday night and it is now Wednesday evening. Meanwhile I'm running out of knickers.

But apart from that it's all absolutely fucking peachy .......

Just popping in from Purgatory to say

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

Do not ever mess with angry women who know their stuff. And we do. We really do.

I see that Harriet Harman has already started misconstruing what the judgment says and means, just like people did with Forstater. Well, I and others will have something to say about that and we're not going to let her and others get away with yet more lies about what the law says.

Meanwhile I'm having blood tests for my heart. And some sort of heart scan will be needed. To find out if there is some sort of heart failure. Well, I'd bloody well like to know that too - and preferably before I die of boredom - or it - waiting to be told. Am on limited fluid intake so I have to pee in a blasted bedpan. Still waiting for the breast surgeons to see me and tell me that I have cancer or some other nastiness which seems to have shown up on the CT scan in my lymph nodes and which is what the doctors have been going on about since Sunday night and it is now Wednesday evening. Meanwhile I'm running out of knickers.

But apart from that it's all absolutely fucking peachy .......

The day after Christmas 2024 following a dvt and the discovery of an aneurysm my cardiologist phoned me to say my heart was finished and I needed an urgent pacemaker

On the day of the operation he told me that I wouldn't see summer without this operation and it has been a complete success

I am still monitored regularly by my haemotogist, annually by my vascular surgeon and cardiologist both of which happened in the last fortnight and all is well with my next reviews due in April 26

My wife, family, and myself are so grateful for the interventions and look forward to the future, though a wee bit slower than previously

I am sure you will get excellent treatment and wish you the very best

Latest MIC leadership polling. Amongst 2024 Tory voters barely a third think Badenoch best PM. Farage next most popular, but surprising support for Starmer too.

I suspect if the Tories replaced Badenoch with Honest Bobby J. we would see an exponential change between Ref and Con.

I doubt it. The Conservatives' fundamental problems are:-

• they have hardly any MPs left (about 120; they lost 250 MPs last July)
  
• Boris purged a lot of the experienced ones
  
• almost every criticism of Labour at PMQs can be knocked back by Starmer saying the Tories started it (whatever "it" is)
  

None of that changes under Jenrick.

Although what is the point of Farage when the Tories have Honest Bob (although the opposite is equally applicable)?

Farage offers NOTA. The old parties have failed, try my new panacea (see also Brexit). Jenrick personifies that history of failure – for Farage, for voters, and for Keir Starmer at PMQs.

Jenrick's latest pronouncements are against Islamist gangs running prisons, which, as Starmer will remind everyone, started under the Conservatives, along with prison overcrowding, access to boiling oil and so on and so forth.

Most damning of all, Jenrick is a Cambridge-educated lawyer.

Jenrick would solve some problems for the Conservatives. He is undoubtedly less lazy than Badenoch, and has a surer finger on the pulse of what Conservative-inclined voters care about.

Set against that, there's the whole Tawdry Bob thing.

But the big issues would remain. He was part of the 2019-24 government, and that failed utterly. Farage wasn't. Furthermore, Nigel has started quality in a way that is in a different league.

The problem is that the star quality that Farage has is eerily similar to that of Jeffrey Archer. He has charisma, but he also has no real anchor, neither personal, political, nor-lets face it- moral.

This is a guy who has taken the money to front the Russian state propaganda channel, who has burned through several political parties and eventually fallen out with all his colleagues. He lacks gravitas as much as he lacks anything except the most facile solutions to the mostly fake problems that he identifies, so he is a media creation, not a statesman.

After Trump, I think the danger of these media creations is now far more evident, so although I can certainly see a scenario where Farage does well in the short term, this is more to do with the ongoing death rattle of the Tories than any particular virtues, or lack of them, that Farage has.

In short, am unconvinced that Farage can control his own destiny, and at 61, time is against him.

What preposterous bollox

Farage is nothing like Jeffrey fecking Archer

Farage - like it or not - is a deeply skilled politician who changed British history - by securing Brexit - and now threatens to do it again by taking a new party to second or even first place in a general election

Jeffrey Archer became chairman of the Tory party, wrote some books, went to jail

Farage very nearly crashed the Brexit vote with his illl-judged poster campaign that was all about Me! Me! Me! Frage trying to wrest attention away from the person who REALLY delivered Brexit. Which was Boris Johnson.

A Brexit fronted by Farage would have failed.

So you are confirming what I have always believed that the true architect of Brexit was the man who held two letters in his jacket pocket because he wasn't entirely sure whether he was a Leaver or a Remainer. Fantastic!

I get so exasperated with this story. On occasions, when time allows, I draft a speech for the opposing party. It is the best way to identify the weaknesses and strengths of your own position.

Frankly, anyone who thought Brexit was a simple question with an obvious solution is an idiot ( yes Nigel, that includes you). There were points to be made on both sides. Setting out both sides so he could recognise that and be prepared for the counter argument is one of the main reasons Boris won. If the remainers had done the same they might have had a chance.

BREAKING: Supreme Court rules the term sex refers to 'biological women'
published at 10:02
10:02
Breaking
UK Supreme Court judge Lord Hodge announces that the Equality Act’s definition of a woman is based on biological sex.

He counsels not to see this as a triumph for one side over another and stresses the law still gives trans people protection against discrimination.

(some hope on the last point)

Another straw in the wind of the vibeshift

Only for people who never understood the vibe.

An entirely reasonable and understandable judgment and doesn’t take away from woke at all.

TOTAL VICTORY FOR TERFS

Now we have to bring down the RNLI

Our son puts his life on the line to save lives at sea in weather you wouldn't believe, and he does it entirely free and that is only because he is part of the RNLI which is highly respected and any normal person would see your comment as utterly distasteful

It’s a frigging joke. I’m making a joke that I’m so dementedly antiWoke I’m determined to crush the communist running dogs manning the lifeboats

It's not a joke in our family who have had several members drowned at sea over the years, and experienced the pain of a loved one never being found or returned to them and who value the RNLI with a passion

Is this true?? You have family members who work in the lifeboats???

My son joined Llandudno RNLI in 2021 and with intensive training, including in Poole, he has advanced to an inshore lifeboat helm [his first command] and inshore lifeboat head launcher and recently passed his tier 1 all weather lifeboat qualification and is on his way to passing tier 2

This is done in his own time, and on 24 hour call in all weather, and he provides his services along with his other dedicated colleagues entirely free but has the same legal liability as any full time RNLI paid crew member including coxswains

This is why I will defend the RNLI against unwarranted attacks