Best Of

On Zack Polanski, he is impressively well presented but becomes questionable once the surface is scratched. Imo he's less questionable than the Reformista bigwigs, because he at least has principles rather than nihilism.

On Hypnoboobs (which is a good quip) I not sure whether to look down for on him or his customers more. He was 30, and Harley Street is an epicentre of both quackery and the enablement of criminality - did not Mohammed Al Fayed have his victims pre-inspected there?

Perhaps he should have used blue pyramids?

I'm excited by the reference to blue pyramids, which I'm choosing to infer is a reference to the Great Pyramid of Stockport - which is where ZP went to school - but I don't fully understand it. So I expect my inference is wrong...?

I got onto the Stockport one last time.

This one is Sarah Ferguson in the early 1990s and a clairvoyant called Madame Vasso, where SF sat under a Blue Pyramid to be cleansed. Same sort of edgy stuff that highly intelligent or rich people swallow, to meet some sort of need.

A strange character, who betrayed Sarah Ferguson's confidences in a book - Isobel Oakeshott style.

My photo quota:



Short interview:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UG0bIEX4qUI

Obit (may not be paywalled):
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/1493102/Madame-Vasso.html

That is bonkers.
Still, just think how cleansed the patrons of the curry house which now inhabits the Great Pyramid of Stockport will be.

I think there is a tipping point with Reform where if enough people become aware of the crazy, it will hit support. Despite all the comparisons the UK is not quite the states yet where everything is excused dependant on one’s overall worldview (though it is skating perilously close to the edge).

But I’d just let these things feed into general public discourse through osmosis: I wouldn’t, as a political party, go particularly hard on it. Just highlight it and leave it there for people to realise the nuttiness.

There multiple ways in which Reform don't form/lead the next government. The 60-65% who really don't want this need to work on them.

Being found out as nasty natured charlatans and chancers who have policies that are both contradictory and crazy, with huge silences over every really hard questions and little talent would be a start.

The next would be for other parties (the Tories have a big choice here, and look like making the wrong one) to get a lot better at centrist politics and for government to start getting better at doing its job so that tactical voting by the 60% who don't want Reform can be credible and effective.

The Tory choice? Is to say that they would rather be in coalition with Labour than with Reform.

But they wouldn't, would they?
Really? Deep down?
And anyways. That would lead to a peeling off of half of their current support.
Leaving them in single figures.

You reckon Labour would say they'd go in with the Tories to keep Reform out?

That's a different question entirely.

Is it? It's a bit weird to use grand coalition as a stick with which to beat the Tories but not do the same to Labour or anyone else for that matter.

Wasn't using it as anything.
Labour won't be asked to choose between propping up a Tory government or a Reform one.

They'll be asked about coalition partners. It's the same thing.

And just like the Tories they'd be mad to answer it.

The problem for the Greens is that as they move left under Polanski they will lose ex Tory seats they won in Herefordshire and like Waveney and lose the chance of taking Isle of Wight East next time. Whereas originally the Greens were solely focused on the environment and mildly Eurosceptic, even Farage voted for them in the 1989 EU Parliament elections on that basis

Morning all.
On this, I have my doubts Ramsay will be able to stomach staying in a harder left Green party and it will be interesting to see if and how long he stays after his return from compassionate leave.
Id not be entirely surprised regardless of his movements to see a Green mk 2/Ecology Party emerge to try and sweep up that rural ex Tory, environmental vote.
Of course they'd be tiny like the original Ecology Party but there is obviously a space for that in politics.

Defecting to the LibDems would probably be the easiest way for him to keep his seat.

They lost their deposit in 2024. They wont be winning Waveney Valley any time soon

Because Ramsay hoovered up their potential vote. If Ramsay defects and brings some of the local party with him, I think they'd be well placed to hold the seat.

They hold one council ward within Waveney Valley (narrowly) and never got more than 15% of the vote in the predecessor Waveney seat which was in 2010 at their height.
The notional vote for LDs going in to 2024 was 9%, so not much vote to hoover. They arent a factor in the seat and won't be in 2029.

The notional vote for the Greens going in to 2024 was also 9%. (9.3% versus the LibDems' notional 9.2%.) And yet the Greens won. They won because they hoovered up the LibDem vote and a big chunk of the Labour vote, while the Conservatives saw their vote split with a Reform UK candidate.

Well there is little point continuing the discussion, we have irreconcilable views on this. Ill be happy to frame a bet around the LD % next time if Ramsay defects to the LDs or indeed a sporting bet but its not going to happen.

It's a hypothetical. It probably won't happen. But if Ramsay does defect, happy to offer a bet then!

I think what is more likely is that all the current Green MPs stay in the party, albeit with tensions between the leaderships and the Ramsay/Chowns faction. With good local campaigns, I suspect Ramsay and Chowns can hang on, regardless of Polanski taking the party further left. But who knows what will happen in a few years time?

On Zack Polanski, he is impressively well presented but becomes questionable once the surface is scratched. Imo he's less questionable than the Reformista bigwigs, because he at least has principles rather than nihilism.

On Hypnoboobs (which is a good quip) I not sure whether to look down for on him or his customers more. He was 30, and Harley Street is an epicentre of both quackery and the enablement of criminality - did not Mohammed Al Fayed have his victims pre-inspected there?

Perhaps he should have used blue pyramids?

I'm excited by the reference to blue pyramids, which I'm choosing to infer is a reference to the Great Pyramid of Stockport - which is where ZP went to school - but I don't fully understand it. So I expect my inference is wrong...?

I got onto the Stockport one last time.

This one is Sarah Ferguson in the early 1990s and a clairvoyant called Madame Vasso, where SF sat under a Blue Pyramid to be cleansed. Same sort of edgy stuff that highly intelligent or rich people swallow, to meet some sort of need.

A strange character, who betrayed Sarah Ferguson's confidences in a book - Isobel Oakeshott style.

My photo quota:



Short interview:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UG0bIEX4qUI

Obit (may not be paywalled):
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/1493102/Madame-Vasso.html