Best Of

Trevor Phillips on Times Radio this morning said the three main themes of the march were 1) immigration; 2) pride in our country; and 3) christianity.

Which last I didn't see coming as England is quite some way along its post-reformation journey to complete atheism. Stig Abell countered that when people said "christianity" it was shorthand for times gone past (old maids..holy communion...etc).

To which he, Phillips, then went on to say that the/a main driving force of this christian resurgence was from immigrants.

Very interesting. There appears to be a contradiction between a crowd of - let's say xenophobic - people being nevertheless motivated by a faith largely driven by immigrants.

Hmmmm. The parent drift away from the faith, keeping it nominally. Then the children, searching for identity and certainty, rediscover The Faith.

No, that's never happened before.

I the bit in bold is partly your bubble talking. The 50 % of the population who go to Uni, move about for work etc will be like you, but there will be many, many others who grow up, live, work and retire in the same area. I know loads of them.

Interesting responses which made me look for more evidence. According to this, 8% have never been abroad and 41% have never tried foreign food.

https://www.quora.com/What-percentage-of-British-people-have-never-been-outside-the-UK

More startling (to me at least) is that the proportion who have moved in their lives actually seems to be declining:

https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-d&q=proportion+in+uk+who+have+never+moved&udm=50&fbs=AIIjpHxU7SXXniUZfeShr2fp4giZ1Y6MJ25_tmWITc7uy4KIeqDdErwP5rACeJAty2zADJjYuUnSkczEhozYdaq1wZrEheAY38UjnRKVLYFDREDmzxDQH5cf73Nv5SUwLly1WG01kd0x6xwqRzi4OBnEW65tn62XvLTlOVUiuqU_-c52rQSPbzBVwa4gwPo8bjR3cgzknkm5OeDockKv0WDUfN-v0gyB1Q&ved=2ahUKEwjuov_8uNqPAxWYXEEAHZRtBCkQ0NsOegQIJxAA&aep=10&ntc=1&mstk=AUtExfAgBu8TSUCBA5AbdV9puUIn33i5GC3Iw97kdlmw1YWbQLeJSm9KI6RMgPs2MgXr61ae5boVs5ItsO99FhBdwcSZmpDgbJLM5h5ClODIh2DeyhujPEz5Xzdm0ds5KSywGOnQdykqpy12BO8hlQjaGUxXt60EhgkRk9Y&csuir=1

As you say, it's a bubble thing - living in one place and going abroad occasionally for the weather but not eating foreign food seems common, and not apparently in decline.

This is not the header I was expecting.

The pb Tories who did not bark in the night time. Is it just me who noticed that of all our party leaders, it is only Kemi who had a good week?

Keir Starmer – under attack from his own side over his lack of political judgement or even plain common sense when appointing and then backing up to the last moment Lord Mandelson who has now had to resign three times for what was, at least to a first approximation, the same pattern of behaviour, being entranced by men considerably richer than him: Geoffrey Robinson, the Hindujas, Jeffrey Epstein. (On second thoughts, who better to inveigle himself into the inner circle of a billionaire property developer and cryptocurrency grifter?)

Ed Davey – the honourable member for falling in the water is being criticised by his own side for irrelevant stunts.

Nigel Farage – stamp duty obviously but also risks being outflanked by Tommy Robinson who attracted somewhere north of 100,000 largely peaceful protestors to London, along with squillionaire cheque-writer Elon Musk.

Kemi Badenoch – widely praised for an excellent PMQs and now can lay claim to two top Labour scalps.

And where were pb's Conservatives? Arguing about crowd sizes and frantically trawling the interwebs for a culture war about the assassination of a man who this time last week they could not have picked out of a police line-up even if he wore his MAGA hat. Poor old Kemi.

Badenoch probably has had her best week since becoming leader but I’d hesitate to say that she was wholly responsible for the PMQs. Yes, she turned up more prepared and yes she asked the right questions (though got a bit sidetracked at the end) but it was a huge open goal given that Starmer turned up to PMQs on the back foot and made a bad situation even worse by putting in a very poor performance.

In truth the problem for Kemi is she won’t get any potential credit until she tries to answer the question about what the Tories are for, and what they offer as an alternative.

This is not the header I was expecting.

The pb Tories who did not bark in the night time. Is it just me who noticed that of all our party leaders, it is only Kemi who had a good week?

Keir Starmer – under attack from his own side over his lack of political judgement or even plain common sense when appointing and then backing up to the last moment Lord Mandelson who has now had to resign three times for what was, at least to a first approximation, the same pattern of behaviour, being entranced by men considerably richer than him: Geoffrey Robinson, the Hindujas, Jeffrey Epstein. (On second thoughts, who better to inveigle himself into the inner circle of a billionaire property developer and cryptocurrency grifter?)

Ed Davey – the honourable member for falling in the water is being criticised by his own side for irrelevant stunts.

Nigel Farage – stamp duty obviously but also risks being outflanked by Tommy Robinson who attracted somewhere north of 100,000 largely peaceful protestors to London, along with squillionaire cheque-writer Elon Musk.

Kemi Badenoch – widely praised for an excellent PMQs and now can lay claim to two top Labour scalps.

And where were pb's Conservatives? Arguing about crowd sizes and frantically trawling the interwebs for a culture war about the assassination of a man who this time last week they could not have picked out of a police line-up even if he wore his MAGA hat. Poor old Kemi.

Tbf I doubt Kemi gives much of a crap what pb notices!

She willbe raging if the voters didn't though

I the bit in bold is partly your bubble talking. The 50 % of the population who go to Uni, move about for work etc will be like you, but there will be many, many others who grow up, live, work and retire in the same area. I know loads of them.

Interesting responses which made me look for more evidence. According to this, 8% have never been abroad and 41% have never tried foreign food.

https://www.quora.com/What-percentage-of-British-people-have-never-been-outside-the-UK

More startling (to me at least) is that the proportion who have moved in their lives actually seems to be declining:

https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-d&q=proportion+in+uk+who+have+never+moved&udm=50&fbs=AIIjpHxU7SXXniUZfeShr2fp4giZ1Y6MJ25_tmWITc7uy4KIeqDdErwP5rACeJAty2zADJjYuUnSkczEhozYdaq1wZrEheAY38UjnRKVLYFDREDmzxDQH5cf73Nv5SUwLly1WG01kd0x6xwqRzi4OBnEW65tn62XvLTlOVUiuqU_-c52rQSPbzBVwa4gwPo8bjR3cgzknkm5OeDockKv0WDUfN-v0gyB1Q&ved=2ahUKEwjuov_8uNqPAxWYXEEAHZRtBCkQ0NsOegQIJxAA&aep=10&ntc=1&mstk=AUtExfAgBu8TSUCBA5AbdV9puUIn33i5GC3Iw97kdlmw1YWbQLeJSm9KI6RMgPs2MgXr61ae5boVs5ItsO99FhBdwcSZmpDgbJLM5h5ClODIh2DeyhujPEz5Xzdm0ds5KSywGOnQdykqpy12BO8hlQjaGUxXt60EhgkRk9Y&csuir=1

As you say, it's a bubble thing - living in one place and going abroad occasionally for the weather but not eating foreign food seems common, and not apparently in decline.

A shorter version of that ginormous link is here: https://www.google.com/search?q=proportion+in+uk+who+have+never+moved

The hard bit for Farage will be keeping up the pretence that he is an everyman anti-elite crusader. Difficult to do when you are part of the elite. If not this then something else - and it may well be policy.

If the current trend continues and refuk continue to lead, their policy positions will come under scrutiny.

Policy can win or lose an election, even if people agree with the policies they have to agree with the person saying them. Ask Jeremy Corbyn about this - popular policies until you say whose they are.

Farage has the inverse problem - the popular guy who will Fix People's Problems. But as we get into actual detail and people start to actually think, how much of this will survive as people have it explained to them in black and white how the Nigel's policies are the exact opposite of what they expect? How voting Reform will make their lives worse, not better?

I expect "fake news" to be used a lot to try and explain away awkward facts...

Donald Trump has successfully portrayed himself as both fabulously wealthy and as an everyman anti-elite crusader. I'm not certain Farage having a nice house will damage his image.

I the bit in bold is partly your bubble talking. The 50 % of the population who go to Uni, move about for work etc will be like you, but there will be many, many others who grow up, live, work and retire in the same area. I know loads of them.

Interesting responses which made me look for more evidence. According to this, 8% have never been abroad and 41% have never tried foreign food.

https://www.quora.com/What-percentage-of-British-people-have-never-been-outside-the-UK

More startling (to me at least) is that the proportion who have moved in their lives actually seems to be declining:

https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-d&q=proportion+in+uk+who+have+never+moved&udm=50&fbs=AIIjpHxU7SXXniUZfeShr2fp4giZ1Y6MJ25_tmWITc7uy4KIeqDdErwP5rACeJAty2zADJjYuUnSkczEhozYdaq1wZrEheAY38UjnRKVLYFDREDmzxDQH5cf73Nv5SUwLly1WG01kd0x6xwqRzi4OBnEW65tn62XvLTlOVUiuqU_-c52rQSPbzBVwa4gwPo8bjR3cgzknkm5OeDockKv0WDUfN-v0gyB1Q&ved=2ahUKEwjuov_8uNqPAxWYXEEAHZRtBCkQ0NsOegQIJxAA&aep=10&ntc=1&mstk=AUtExfAgBu8TSUCBA5AbdV9puUIn33i5GC3Iw97kdlmw1YWbQLeJSm9KI6RMgPs2MgXr61ae5boVs5ItsO99FhBdwcSZmpDgbJLM5h5ClODIh2DeyhujPEz5Xzdm0ds5KSywGOnQdykqpy12BO8hlQjaGUxXt60EhgkRk9Y&csuir=1

As you say, it's a bubble thing - living in one place and going abroad occasionally for the weather but not eating foreign food seems common, and not apparently in decline.

How do we define 'foreign' food there?

Curry, pasta, pizza, noodles were all 'foreign food' to my parents - and I had none of them (apart from Macaroni cheese) in my first ten years of life or so. But I doubt they'd qualify as foreign for most people nowadays.

Snap. Chicken tikka masala is basically an English dish, for instance.

Invented in Glasgow, AFAIK.

I the bit in bold is partly your bubble talking. The 50 % of the population who go to Uni, move about for work etc will be like you, but there will be many, many others who grow up, live, work and retire in the same area. I know loads of them.

Interesting responses which made me look for more evidence. According to this, 8% have never been abroad and 41% have never tried foreign food.

https://www.quora.com/What-percentage-of-British-people-have-never-been-outside-the-UK

More startling (to me at least) is that the proportion who have moved in their lives actually seems to be declining:

https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-d&q=proportion+in+uk+who+have+never+moved&udm=50&fbs=AIIjpHxU7SXXniUZfeShr2fp4giZ1Y6MJ25_tmWITc7uy4KIeqDdErwP5rACeJAty2zADJjYuUnSkczEhozYdaq1wZrEheAY38UjnRKVLYFDREDmzxDQH5cf73Nv5SUwLly1WG01kd0x6xwqRzi4OBnEW65tn62XvLTlOVUiuqU_-c52rQSPbzBVwa4gwPo8bjR3cgzknkm5OeDockKv0WDUfN-v0gyB1Q&ved=2ahUKEwjuov_8uNqPAxWYXEEAHZRtBCkQ0NsOegQIJxAA&aep=10&ntc=1&mstk=AUtExfAgBu8TSUCBA5AbdV9puUIn33i5GC3Iw97kdlmw1YWbQLeJSm9KI6RMgPs2MgXr61ae5boVs5ItsO99FhBdwcSZmpDgbJLM5h5ClODIh2DeyhujPEz5Xzdm0ds5KSywGOnQdykqpy12BO8hlQjaGUxXt60EhgkRk9Y&csuir=1

As you say, it's a bubble thing - living in one place and going abroad occasionally for the weather but not eating foreign food seems common, and not apparently in decline.

How do we define 'foreign' food there?

Curry, pasta, pizza, noodles were all 'foreign food' to my parents - and I had none of them (apart from Macaroni cheese) in my first ten years of life or so. But I doubt they'd qualify as foreign for most people nowadays.