Best Of

Are we expecting about 4am declarations for Makerfield? Trying to time my power nap and fit in some exam marking.

The Mexico vs South Korea match at 0200 sounds quite competitive if you are planning an all-nighter.

Presumably the Scottish seats will be a similar time.

It is tempting just to stay up and watch football, not gonna lie.

My plan is early night tonight as tomorrow has the Scotland match which kicks off at 11pm.

This whole World Cup in which Scotland are competitive, plus by elections, and A level marking is very inconvenient for me. When will Burnham condemn?

I know, I am also watching Scotland being competitive in the women's T20 world cup right now.

I cancelled all my meetings for tomorrow, I told the CEO, COO, and CFO, soz the meeting has to take place on Monday.

Thankfully I'm not teaching tomorrow, so I'll be hiding in my office with a vat of coffee, whilst marking exams.

During the 2024 election, I was off on the Friday to visit friends in Durham. I stayed up right through to Liz Truss getting ousted, had a refreshing nap then drove up the A1 with an apparently misplaced sense of optimism.

Are you doing paid marking or just school marking?

Paid marking for one of the exam boards - my students have left for the academic year, and my employer encourages us to mark for the boards.

When did the Tories last gain a Westminster seat? Must be an age ago...

Hartlepool in 2021.

Last time the Tories gained a seat in a Scottish by election though was 1948 so huge boost for Kemi if the Aberdeen South reports are correct

It would be a shock if Tories didn't win

SNP rocked by scandal and popular MP gone

Labour deeply unpopular everywhere

Reform not that strong further north

Not LD or Green territory.

Tories have abandoned English By Elections on North thrown massive effort in to Aberdeen

Badenoch been 3 times.

If SNP held would be a big shock

Really?

Badenoch has been struggling in the polls as well.

Aberdeen South contains the harbour and central wards which are kinder to the Greens, they polled very strongly on the list there last month. A Labour collapse wouldn't automatically assume their vote would go Tory. Lib Dems held Aberdeen South at Holyrood when their leader was Nicol Stephen. Reform are not bad in Aberdeenshire, they nearly took Banff and Buchan coast 6 weeks ago, missing out by 360 odd votes.

Its largely a city seat, and the Tories haven't been doing well in urban areas for the past few years.

All that being said, SNP are struggling outside the central belt, they are facing more opposition from Lib Dems and Tories in rural areas.

They would be hoping for a world cup bounce but John Swinney couldnt have had a worse start to his return to Holyrood.

We’re Rejoining!

It’s inevitable.

We hold all the cards.


UK could keep special pre-Brexit terms if it rejoined EU, Michel Barnier says

Exclusive: Former chief Brexit negotiator says staying out of euro and Schengen area would be ‘perfectly possible’

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2026/jun/18/uk-could-keep-special-pre-brexit-terms-if-it-rejoined-eu-michel-barnier-says

That is interesting because while there is no groundswell to rejoin the EU, there does seem to be a consensus that Brexit was a mistake or at best a damp squib. While no-one wants to go through the whole Brexit sturm und drang again, they might respond to an EU offer of a time machine or big red reset button that will magically take us back to where we were, and perhaps that has occurred to Barnier too.

Does Barnier speak for the EU? I thought he had retired from there.

When did the Tories last gain a Westminster seat? Must be an age ago...

Hartlepool in 2021.

Last time the Tories gained a seat in a Scottish by election though was 1948 so huge boost for Kemi if the Aberdeen South reports are correct

It would be a shock if Tories didn't win

SNP rocked by scandal and popular MP gone

Labour deeply unpopular everywhere

Reform not that strong further north

Not LD or Green territory.

Tories have abandoned English By Elections on North thrown massive effort in to Aberdeen

Badenoch been 3 times.

If SNP held would be a big shock

It'll be a shock to punters who had the SNP as favourites until about 10pm.