Best Of

I think Trump's dire performance as President is in danger of making us forget what a dismal candidate Harris was. She never seemed to say why she wanted to be President, had no original or inspiring ideas and, when given the chance to put her point across, actively fled from the media.

As I've said before, Democrats win when they have a charismatic bullshitter who inspires the young and the left without terrifying the centre and the middle-aged then lets them down in office - see Kennedy, Clinton, Obama. Trump may be so unpopular by 2028 that even Harris will win, or maybe she will be able to fake enough charisma, but the Democrats would be unwise to bank on that.

For all their faults Kennedy, Clinton, & Obama were three of the most outstanding political leaders of my lifetime. The only potential candidate coming anywhere near now is Buttigieg.

What do you think?

The nominee Polymarket, with $300m+ traded so far, is very weird.

https://polymarket.com/event/democratic-presidential-nominee-2028

The two favourites are Newsom and AOC, and I don’t see how either of them get there. Middle America isn’t voting for a very coastal liberal.

Gretchen Whitmer at 50/1 could be a good outsider, and they’ll want to keep at least one woman in the race for as long as possible. Josh Shapiro is probably underpriced at 20/1, as is Andy Beshear at 33/1.

Middle America doesn't come into it. This is the nominee market.

I do wonder if the Dem primary voters will even try and take into account the suitability of the candidates to beat a Republican (likely one of Rubio or Vance or DeSantis), or if they go for the most woke coastal ideologue that makes them feel warm and fuzzy inside?

Should not be hard to beat that trio of absolute donkeys

Quite. Trump is at record levels of unpopularity. If that continues (probable), and the election is fair (unknown), then the Democrats will win with just about anyone, and said winner will get the Nobel Peace Prize just for not being Trump.

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

The expression 'the blind cannot see' comes to mind with your idolatry of Johnson

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

Very true. Boris would have got minimum 30% and the Tories would have held many of the seats lost to the LDs and we would likely still be in a Duopoly in England

She's going to end up looking like a power propellerhead.

Well done TSE, I loved History Repeating Itself with Shirley Bassey and the Propellerheads. Don't know if its true, but I once read an article that claimed that after Shirley Bassey agreed to record with them the actual recording was delayed because when she turned up she insisted on performing with a live orchestra for the recording? But Shirley Bassey is always a class act and old school.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yzLT6_TQmq8&list=RDyzLT6_TQmq8&start_radio=1

There’s an album I bought in the late 90s, Shaken and Stirred: The David Arnold James Bond Project, where David Arnold reworked a load of Bond songs with different artists where there is a version of On Her Majesty’s Secret Service by the Propellerheads.

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!

Cheating fucking Aussies, this test and the entire series is tainted and should be awarded to England.

Alex Carey's controversial reprieve on the first day of the third Ashes Test was down to an error by the operator of the Snicko technology.

Carey admitted he edged a delivery from England pace bowler Josh Tongue that was caught by Jamie Smith when the Australia wicketkeeper had 72.

Carey went on to make 106 in Australia's 326-8 at the Adelaide Oval.

BBG Sports, the company that owns Snicko, has accepted culpability for the mistake.

"Given that Alex Carey admitted he had hit the ball in question, the only conclusion that can be drawn from this, is that the Snicko operator at the time must have selected the incorrect stump mic for audio processing," BBG told BBC Sport.

"In light of this, BBG Sports takes full responsibility for the error."

It is understood the sound used for the review was taken from the stump microphone at the bowlers' end, rather than the strikers' end.

This caused a discrepancy between the pictures and sound wave shown to TV umpire Chris Gaffaney.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/cricket/articles/c0mpjw7g7nko