From the official France Diplomacy account: Foreign Minister @JY_LeDrian claims that @BorisJohnson is a "populist who uses all elements at his disposal to blame others for problems he faces internally."
It’s true, but very odd to see this sort of thing from an ostensible ally.
Oh dear, oh dear.
France is not our ally.
What rot - your Francophobia does you no credit.
France is a great country, the French are generally nice people, we have much more in common than divides us, the petty rivalries on both sides are pointless and corrosive.
Time to grow up.
I'm not a Francophobe, I speak the language, love the food, love holidaying there.
You slip into Boris-lite mode too often when referring to the French for me to believe you are being ironic (same thing regards Wales and the Welsh).
It does you no credit, and I say that as a strong admirer of the majority of your views and posts.
Agreed. It's absolutely pathetic stuff from Eagles.
WATCH: Labour’s Shadow NI Secretary tells me that if there was a referendum on a united Ireland that the British government and British political parties should not campaign for the Union “if there is a border poll, we should remain neutral”
Blair publicly supported the union. Starmer has said he would campaign for the union in a border poll. But such is the facile level of understanding about the Good Friday Agreement it is now assumed the UK is the only state in the world that cannot campaign for its own existence.
I think the best policy is not to campaign... let the people of NI decide.
Do you think the Irish government will follow your advice?
I suspect they will.
It is not currently clear to me whether the Irish government would want a united Ireland given the financial and social issues that come with it; I very much doubt whther they would want it on the back of a devisive referendum the outcome of which they have narrowly helped sway.
There does seem to be a global movement away the countryside and towards the cities.
We don’t really see this in the U.K. much - maybe parts of Scotland? - but it’s a big issue across most of Europe.
Maybe Covid will stall this somewhat?
Highlands* and Scottish Borders Regions have seen modest but real increases in population over the last two decades (didn't check back further).
*PS Had a thought and went back and checked - but no, not entirely due to growth of Inverness (real as it is).
The increase in the size of Inverness is very noticeable, there are huge new estates in which to get lost on the southern side of the city. Much of this has come from oil related jobs though as is some of the growth further north. I wonder if that will continue as the North Sea industry closes down. We could really do with the development of carbon capture technology using the old depleted fields before the infrastructure is removed.
From the official France Diplomacy account: Foreign Minister @JY_LeDrian claims that @BorisJohnson is a "populist who uses all elements at his disposal to blame others for problems he faces internally."
It’s true, but very odd to see this sort of thing from an ostensible ally.
Oh dear, oh dear.
France is not our ally.
What rot - your Francophobia does you no credit.
France is a great country, the French are generally nice people, we have much more in common than divides us, the petty rivalries on both sides are pointless and corrosive.
Time to grow up.
I'm not a Francophobe, I speak the language, love the food, love holidaying there.
You slip into Boris-lite mode too often when referring to the French for me to believe you are being ironic (same thing regards Wales and the Welsh).
It does you no credit, and I say that as a strong admirer of the majority of your views and posts.
Agreed. It's absolutely pathetic stuff from Eagles.
Personal statement - yesterday got my copy of "The British General Election of 2019" which was published just this past spring.
Cover photo features Boris Johnson wearing a sly grin (composite of Benny Hill & Alfred E. Neuman?) and a "Get Brexit Done' apron, and carrying what appears to be a casserole of some sort (perhaps an old Etonian favorite such as "badgers in a trap" or somesuch?) fresh from the (Brexit) oven.
My copy is paperback fully 1.5 inches thick, 659 pages. Chock full of both nuts (for example Nigel Farage), facts and analysis until the cows (or the chickens?) come home.
For me only downside is the choice of cartoons used as illustrations/examples, as I do NOT like as general rule complex, multi-color, often downright nasty and/or macabre efforts in faux Gilray-Stedman style. Much prefer the work of Marf and Matt - much more in the spirit of Low humor!
FYI, am now the proud possessor of all 21 editions of "The British General Election" series from 1945 forward, if you are not familiar with them, check them out!
WATCH: Labour’s Shadow NI Secretary tells me that if there was a referendum on a united Ireland that the British government and British political parties should not campaign for the Union “if there is a border poll, we should remain neutral”
Blair publicly supported the union. Starmer has said he would campaign for the union in a border poll. But such is the facile level of understanding about the Good Friday Agreement it is now assumed the UK is the only state in the world that cannot campaign for its own existence.
I think the best policy is not to campaign... let the people of NI decide.
Do you think the Irish government will follow your advice?
I suspect they will.
It is not currently clear to me whether the Irish government would want a united Ireland given the financial and social issues that come with it; I very much doubt whther they would want it on the back of a devisive referendum the outcome of which they have narrowly helped sway.
Lol - Irish politicians not wanting a united Ireland?
Pretty much as you were then. Our numbers are not really moving, unlike those on the continent.
As far as I can make out cases in the UK have been increasing since the 5th November, but we're not seeing an increase in hospitalizations yet, where the latest data is a continued decline on the 18th - so perhaps an increase is imminent.
The England data on the dashboard is more recent and shows a continued decline in admissions on the 21st, following a rise in cases since the 5th.
I think the previous trough in admissions we on the 28th September, which was following a trough in cases on the 13th September.
We will see in a few days whether the booster campaign is exerting a downward effect on hospitalizations that is greater than the increase in cases.
It clearly is, otherwise the rise in cases would have resulted in more hospital admissions rather than less. The link between infection and hospitalisation has been significantly weakened, almost broken. It is a public health triumph that we don't appreciate enough.
There's a lag between cases and admissions though, and based on the timings of the last trough a rise in UK admissions would be one day early if it was seen in the latest figures and two days late if seen in the next English figures - so it's still possible we will see an increase in admissions following the recent increase in cases, though I'm starting to be optimistic that we won't on the basis of the English figures.
WATCH: Labour’s Shadow NI Secretary tells me that if there was a referendum on a united Ireland that the British government and British political parties should not campaign for the Union “if there is a border poll, we should remain neutral”
Blair publicly supported the union. Starmer has said he would campaign for the union in a border poll. But such is the facile level of understanding about the Good Friday Agreement it is now assumed the UK is the only state in the world that cannot campaign for its own existence.
I think the best policy is not to campaign... let the people of NI decide.
Do you think the Irish government will follow your advice?
I suspect they will.
It is not currently clear to me whether the Irish government would want a united Ireland given the financial and social issues that come with it; I very much doubt whther they would want it on the back of a devisive referendum the outcome of which they have narrowly helped sway.
The Irish government probably doesn't need to campaign itself as there will be plenty of Ireland to do that anyway, whereas sadly I doubt as many in rUK would do so absent the involvement of the UK government.
As to whether they would want it or not, admittedly I don't knowas much about Irish politics as I should, but whatever the private feelings or cold hard numbers, I'd always assumed no Irish political party would openly say they don't want the return of NI. And thus it would be impossible to in practice be neutral.
On this side of the water some people get into some weird presumptions about it implying islands being unified is just an inevitable fact of life, which doesn't tend to get extended elsewhere.
@Leon, those Ukraine demographic statistics are horrendous.
Yes, the equivalent in the UK would be our population falling from 67 million to about 50 million in the next 25 years. Twice the population of London: disappearing. In one generation. Remarkable and desolating
However as @eek points out, other East European countries have it even worse. And the demographic crunch is spreading....
Must be some pretty spectacular properties available at very reasonable prices ...
The €1 house in Italy meme is actually a real thing. People do it. Tho if you add in the fees and whatnot, it's more like a few thousand euro. Still a bargain for a great big townhouse in Sicily
There's a boring 'in the middle' truth here. The Con GE19 landslide WAS due to Corbyn's weakness as a candidate. But it was also due to Johnson's strength. It was, truly, the Brexit election and it was Brexit that cemented the negative/positive view of the 2 leaders. For Johnson, hellbent on pushing Brexit through, his breezy 'can-do' persona was burnished. For Corbyn, dithering and triangulating, his previous rep as a man of principle was destroyed. So, that 80 seat result, it was Corbyn, and it was Johnson, but above all it was BREXIT.
Yes
And remember that brilliant Xmas Election ad with Boris at the door
The best British political ad I've ever seen. Powerful and persuasive, and it relies almost entirely on Boris' charm and charisma. Of recent prime ministers only Blair at his peak could equal that. Imagine Major or Cameron or May trying it on. Cringe
Farooq made a brilliant analogy on the prior thread. Campaigning is like conceiving, Governing is like parenting. Boris is now surrounded by the tedious nappies of political reality (and real nappies, as well). He needs to learn to be a decent Dad, super quick
Such inventive genius that Rosena Allin-Khan shamelessly copied it a fortnight earlier.
Jesus F Christ. We had this tedious debate at the time. Allin-Khan didn't invent it, either. She ripped it off Love Actually. But then Richard Curtis quasi-plagiarised it from Bob Dylan, and the same technique has been used by lots of other people, over the decades
The point is that Boris and his media team did it superbly well, better than anyone, and they pitched it perfectly at an electorate bloody bored of Brexit. And it has that genius payoff when Boris, shoulders slumped like Churchill, gruffly walks to the camera, and says "Enough. Enough. Let's get this done" - giving a growly voice to the heartfelt desire of practically the entire country
I get that Boris has many many flaws. But it is futile to deny his charisma. Those that do are blinded by their hatred of him, and thus under-estimate him. Fatally. And it is this charisma which also enables him to overcome the flaws - until now, perhaps.....
Not really, she used the meme to make a political ad. And the Ludicrous Boris shamelessly copied it.
And who would you rather have knocking on your door?
QED. You fear and loathe him, and it warps your judgement of him
I neither fear nor loathe him. I just think he is an embarrassment.
And you didn't answer my question.
Who would I rather have knocking on my door? Boris Johnson or Rosina Allin-Khan? Is that a serious question??
lol. Again: QED
Would I rather have some boring, horse-faced non-entity of a Woke Labour MP for Nowheretown come to visit, or would I rather have the rollicking Boris Johnson, Prime Minister of the country, father of seven, husband of three, ex editor of the Spectator, winner of the Brexit wars, clown and/or hero to millions.
Ooh. Tough question. Which one gets invited in for some egg nog and a gossip?
The fecking prime minister, idiot
I've met Boris twice – believe me, he's remarkably tedious IRL.
I've also met him, did not find him tedious at all
I haven't met him but if I did I'd find him tedious. Or put it this way, I'd be disappointed in myself if I didn't.
WATCH: Labour’s Shadow NI Secretary tells me that if there was a referendum on a united Ireland that the British government and British political parties should not campaign for the Union “if there is a border poll, we should remain neutral”
Blair publicly supported the union. Starmer has said he would campaign for the union in a border poll. But such is the facile level of understanding about the Good Friday Agreement it is now assumed the UK is the only state in the world that cannot campaign for its own existence.
I think the best policy is not to campaign... let the people of NI decide.
Do you think the Irish government will follow your advice?
I suspect they will.
It is not currently clear to me whether the Irish government would want a united Ireland given the financial and social issues that come with it; I very much doubt whther they would want it on the back of a devisive referendum the outcome of which they have narrowly helped sway.
I think that's the point people forget. At the point a border poll is actually called the result will be a foregone conclusion with a massive (60%+) NI vote for unification. Anything else is just too risky...
WATCH: Labour’s Shadow NI Secretary tells me that if there was a referendum on a united Ireland that the British government and British political parties should not campaign for the Union “if there is a border poll, we should remain neutral”
Blair publicly supported the union. Starmer has said he would campaign for the union in a border poll. But such is the facile level of understanding about the Good Friday Agreement it is now assumed the UK is the only state in the world that cannot campaign for its own existence.
I think the best policy is not to campaign... let the people of NI decide.
Do you think the Irish government will follow your advice?
I suspect they will.
It is not currently clear to me whether the Irish government would want a united Ireland given the financial and social issues that come with it; I very much doubt whther they would want it on the back of a devisive referendum the outcome of which they have narrowly helped sway.
Lol - Irish politicians not wanting a united Ireland?
SF are a mainstream party in ROI now
If SF were in power then yes, the Irish Governmet would certainly cmapaign for a united Ireland.
If it were FF or FG (or as now FF & FG)... then I'm not so sure.
WATCH: Labour’s Shadow NI Secretary tells me that if there was a referendum on a united Ireland that the British government and British political parties should not campaign for the Union “if there is a border poll, we should remain neutral”
Blair publicly supported the union. Starmer has said he would campaign for the union in a border poll. But such is the facile level of understanding about the Good Friday Agreement it is now assumed the UK is the only state in the world that cannot campaign for its own existence.
I think the best policy is not to campaign... let the people of NI decide.
Do you think the Irish government will follow your advice?
I suspect they will.
It is not currently clear to me whether the Irish government would want a united Ireland given the financial and social issues that come with it; I very much doubt whther they would want it on the back of a devisive referendum the outcome of which they have narrowly helped sway.
They may or may not, deep down, want it. But they can't say they don't. Nor even really broach the subject in public. So we'll never know.
From the official France Diplomacy account: Foreign Minister @JY_LeDrian claims that @BorisJohnson is a "populist who uses all elements at his disposal to blame others for problems he faces internally."
It’s true, but very odd to see this sort of thing from an ostensible ally.
Oh dear, oh dear.
France is not our ally.
What rot - your Francophobia does you no credit.
France is a great country, the French are generally nice people, we have much more in common than divides us, the petty rivalries on both sides are pointless and corrosive.
Time to grow up.
I'm not a Francophobe, I speak the language, love the food, love holidaying there.
You slip into Boris-lite mode too often when referring to the French for me to believe you are being ironic (same thing regards Wales and the Welsh).
It does you no credit, and I say that as a strong admirer of the majority of your views and posts.
Agreed. It's absolutely pathetic stuff from Eagles.
Would you describe it as racist?
No, I'd describe it as moronic.
On the other hand, unlike a certain poster, he doesn't quote eliminationist rhetoric about the French with approval.
There's a boring 'in the middle' truth here. The Con GE19 landslide WAS due to Corbyn's weakness as a candidate. But it was also due to Johnson's strength. It was, truly, the Brexit election and it was Brexit that cemented the negative/positive view of the 2 leaders. For Johnson, hellbent on pushing Brexit through, his breezy 'can-do' persona was burnished. For Corbyn, dithering and triangulating, his previous rep as a man of principle was destroyed. So, that 80 seat result, it was Corbyn, and it was Johnson, but above all it was BREXIT.
Yes
And remember that brilliant Xmas Election ad with Boris at the door
The best British political ad I've ever seen. Powerful and persuasive, and it relies almost entirely on Boris' charm and charisma. Of recent prime ministers only Blair at his peak could equal that. Imagine Major or Cameron or May trying it on. Cringe
Farooq made a brilliant analogy on the prior thread. Campaigning is like conceiving, Governing is like parenting. Boris is now surrounded by the tedious nappies of political reality (and real nappies, as well). He needs to learn to be a decent Dad, super quick
Such inventive genius that Rosena Allin-Khan shamelessly copied it a fortnight earlier.
Jesus F Christ. We had this tedious debate at the time. Allin-Khan didn't invent it, either. She ripped it off Love Actually. But then Richard Curtis quasi-plagiarised it from Bob Dylan, and the same technique has been used by lots of other people, over the decades
The point is that Boris and his media team did it superbly well, better than anyone, and they pitched it perfectly at an electorate bloody bored of Brexit. And it has that genius payoff when Boris, shoulders slumped like Churchill, gruffly walks to the camera, and says "Enough. Enough. Let's get this done" - giving a growly voice to the heartfelt desire of practically the entire country
I get that Boris has many many flaws. But it is futile to deny his charisma. Those that do are blinded by their hatred of him, and thus under-estimate him. Fatally. And it is this charisma which also enables him to overcome the flaws - until now, perhaps.....
Not really, she used the meme to make a political ad. And the Ludicrous Boris shamelessly copied it.
And who would you rather have knocking on your door?
QED. You fear and loathe him, and it warps your judgement of him
I neither fear nor loathe him. I just think he is an embarrassment.
And you didn't answer my question.
Who would I rather have knocking on my door? Boris Johnson or Rosina Allin-Khan? Is that a serious question??
lol. Again: QED
Would I rather have some boring, horse-faced non-entity of a Woke Labour MP for Nowheretown come to visit, or would I rather have the rollicking Boris Johnson, Prime Minister of the country, father of seven, husband of three, ex editor of the Spectator, winner of the Brexit wars, clown and/or hero to millions.
Ooh. Tough question. Which one gets invited in for some egg nog and a gossip?
The fecking prime minister, idiot
I've met Boris twice – believe me, he's remarkably tedious IRL.
I've also met him, did not find him tedious at all
I haven't met him but if I did I'd find him tedious. Or put it this way, I'd be disappointed in myself if I didn't.
I think you'd get on famously; shooting the breeze, sharing your midget gems.
WATCH: Labour’s Shadow NI Secretary tells me that if there was a referendum on a united Ireland that the British government and British political parties should not campaign for the Union “if there is a border poll, we should remain neutral”
Blair publicly supported the union. Starmer has said he would campaign for the union in a border poll. But such is the facile level of understanding about the Good Friday Agreement it is now assumed the UK is the only state in the world that cannot campaign for its own existence.
I think the best policy is not to campaign... let the people of NI decide.
Do you think the Irish government will follow your advice?
I suspect they will.
It is not currently clear to me whether the Irish government would want a united Ireland given the financial and social issues that come with it; I very much doubt whther they would want it on the back of a devisive referendum the outcome of which they have narrowly helped sway.
The Irish government probably doesn't need to campaign itself as there will be plenty of Ireland to do that anyway, whereas sadly I doubt as many in rUK would do so absent the involvement of the UK government.
As to whether they would want it or not, admittedly I don't knowas much about Irish politics as I should, but whatever the private feelings or cold hard numbers, I'd always assumed no Irish political party would openly say they don't want the return of NI. And thus it would be impossible to in practice be neutral.
On this side of the water some people get into some weird presumptions about it implying islands being unified is just an inevitable fact of life, which doesn't tend to get extended elsewhere.
ROI politicians have made their opinion on the matter very well known.
Hense the lack of the Irish President to the centenary of NI celebrations.
Personal statement - yesterday got my copy of "The British General Election of 2019" which was published just this past spring.
Cover photo features Boris Johnson wearing a sly grin (composite of Benny Hill & Alfred E. Neuman?) and a "Get Brexit Done' apron, and carrying what appears to be a casserole of some sort (perhaps an old Etonian favorite such as "badgers in a trap" or somesuch?) fresh from the (Brexit) oven.
My copy is paperback fully 1.5 inches thick, 659 pages. Chock full of both nuts (for example Nigel Farage), facts and analysis until the cows (or the chickens?) come home.
For me only downside is the choice of cartoons used as illustrations/examples, as I do NOT like as general rule complex, multi-color, often downright nasty and/or macabre efforts in faux Gilray-Stedman style. Much prefer the work of Marf and Matt - much more in the spirit of Low humor!
FYI, am now the proud possessor of all 21 editions of "The British General Election" series from 1945 forward, if you are not familiar with them, check them out!
You are officially Chief PB Nerd. Well done sir!
*sniff* No, it's fine, I won't take that personally. *Sniff*. I'll just go away with my hard copy of Erskine May and lament my lack of political encyclopedias.
WATCH: Labour’s Shadow NI Secretary tells me that if there was a referendum on a united Ireland that the British government and British political parties should not campaign for the Union “if there is a border poll, we should remain neutral”
Blair publicly supported the union. Starmer has said he would campaign for the union in a border poll. But such is the facile level of understanding about the Good Friday Agreement it is now assumed the UK is the only state in the world that cannot campaign for its own existence.
I think the best policy is not to campaign... let the people of NI decide.
Do you think the Irish government will follow your advice?
I suspect they will.
It is not currently clear to me whether the Irish government would want a united Ireland given the financial and social issues that come with it; I very much doubt whther they would want it on the back of a devisive referendum the outcome of which they have narrowly helped sway.
They may or may not, deep down, want it. But they can't say they don't. Nor even really broach the subject in public. So we'll never know.
Which is why they will hide behind the screen of neutrality: 'it is for the people of NI to decide'.
Dad of Birmingham Jess Phillips MP writes glorious letter defending her roots
...my Mom worked as a conductor on the buses during the war... My Mom remarried when I was four years old, and with my wonderful stepfather we eventually got a council house of our own in Sheldon (also part of Jess's constituency). Jess's other Grandma was a dinner lady at the local school in Yardley - are you getting the links!
Jess Phillips MP @jessphillips Mrs Thatcher told my Gran to buy her council house. She said it would mean she had something to leave her family. Boris Johnson says to all those who bought their modest 2 bed houses that he's going to take it all away, while people like him get to keep so much
What a difference four months make:
'I was given a sense of injustice from the day I was born. My grandparents set up the independent Labour party in Birmingham. My grandad was a flag-waving activist. I was born, in 1981, to socialist parents who worked in the public sector. Mrs Thatcher was in power and we’d go on rallies, marches and take part in picket lines from before I can remember.' (Jess Phillips, The Guardian, 18 July 2021)
Granny must have been less of a flag-waving socialist activist than she let on. Wonder how her picketing, rallying kids felt about mum obeying Margaret Thatcher's injunction to buy her council house? Given that they sent darling Jess to a selective grammar school ten years later, perhaps it was where the rot set in.
You don't get sent to a selective grammar school. You win a place as a result of what can be a loaded exam.
"My Mom" - is this a Birmingham thing? The only place I know of in England who don't have a "Mum" are those in the North East who have a "Mam".
Yeah mom is a Birmingham thing, it is weird.
Also very much a US thing.
it's not. It is definitely British parlance now. Do you not have kids?
"Mum" will probably be gone entirely within 20 years. Blame social media
Really? Our kids still say "mum" despite two of them actually being American. In this country I've only ever heard "Mom" from Brummies. Other Americanisms are happening in our house, though. We do correct them when we can and try to encourage use of proper South London idioms in keeping with our surroundings.
If you go on Insta or Tik Tok you encounter a lot of British kids saying "Mom" now
The same process happened in Canada, they went from universal Mum to commonly saying Mom, because of the huge American influence. I doubt we will be different, sadly
Try Scandinavia. Officially our children are meant to be taught English English. Bollocks. They are taught US English. Everyone under 30 speaks and writes pure Yankee.
Yet they generally speak it with a British accent? They all speak English near-perfectly, but it is rare to find one with an American accent.
I dunno about spellings. They definitely use American idioms - as do we
From the admittedly few scandi-dramas I have seen when they speak English they sound pretty american to me.
Personal statement - yesterday got my copy of "The British General Election of 2019" which was published just this past spring.
Cover photo features Boris Johnson wearing a sly grin (composite of Benny Hill & Alfred E. Neuman?) and a "Get Brexit Done' apron, and carrying what appears to be a casserole of some sort (perhaps an old Etonian favorite such as "badgers in a trap" or somesuch?) fresh from the (Brexit) oven.
My copy is paperback fully 1.5 inches thick, 659 pages. Chock full of both nuts (for example Nigel Farage), facts and analysis until the cows (or the chickens?) come home.
For me only downside is the choice of cartoons used as illustrations/examples, as I do NOT like as general rule complex, multi-color, often downright nasty and/or macabre efforts in faux Gilray-Stedman style. Much prefer the work of Marf and Matt - much more in the spirit of Low humor!
FYI, am now the proud possessor of all 21 editions of "The British General Election" series from 1945 forward, if you are not familiar with them, check them out!
What a collection! Very envious right now.
You may be right. The Scandis I meet I tend to meet in London, who speak more British English - but they may be a self-selecting group thereby.
Researching this (I'm not sure why) I discovered this. Quite funny
WATCH: Labour’s Shadow NI Secretary tells me that if there was a referendum on a united Ireland that the British government and British political parties should not campaign for the Union “if there is a border poll, we should remain neutral”
Blair publicly supported the union. Starmer has said he would campaign for the union in a border poll. But such is the facile level of understanding about the Good Friday Agreement it is now assumed the UK is the only state in the world that cannot campaign for its own existence.
I think the best policy is not to campaign... let the people of NI decide.
Do you think the Irish government will follow your advice?
I suspect they will.
It is not currently clear to me whether the Irish government would want a united Ireland given the financial and social issues that come with it; I very much doubt whther they would want it on the back of a devisive referendum the outcome of which they have narrowly helped sway.
Lol - Irish politicians not wanting a united Ireland?
SF are a mainstream party in ROI now
If SF were in power then yes, the Irish Governmet would certainly cmapaign for a united Ireland.
If it were FF or FG (or as now FF & FG)... then I'm not so sure.
If that's your honest opinion then you're a fucking Idiot.
There should be no place for IRA Types anywhere in politics.
Pretty much as you were then. Our numbers are not really moving, unlike those on the continent.
As far as I can make out cases in the UK have been increasing since the 5th November, but we're not seeing an increase in hospitalizations yet, where the latest data is a continued decline on the 18th - so perhaps an increase is imminent.
The England data on the dashboard is more recent and shows a continued decline in admissions on the 21st, following a rise in cases since the 5th.
I think the previous trough in admissions we on the 28th September, which was following a trough in cases on the 13th September.
We will see in a few days whether the booster campaign is exerting a downward effect on hospitalizations that is greater than the increase in cases.
It clearly is, otherwise the rise in cases would have resulted in more hospital admissions rather than less. The link between infection and hospitalisation has been significantly weakened, almost broken. It is a public health triumph that we don't appreciate enough.
There's a lag between cases and admissions though, and based on the timings of the last trough a rise in UK admissions would be one day early if it was seen in the latest figures and two days late if seen in the next English figures - so it's still possible we will see an increase in admissions following the recent increase in cases, though I'm starting to be optimistic that we won't on the basis of the English figures.
Sure, but the lag is about 2 weeks for hospitalisation and another couple for deaths. If numbers of cases have been increasing since November 5th and hospital admissions have fallen over the last week I do not think it is too early to say that the link has at least been weakened. It is possible that one may still increase enough to outweigh the other but I agree that it looks increasingly unlikely. Meanwhile 27.2% of the population over 12 has already had the booster.
Dad of Birmingham Jess Phillips MP writes glorious letter defending her roots
...my Mom worked as a conductor on the buses during the war... My Mom remarried when I was four years old, and with my wonderful stepfather we eventually got a council house of our own in Sheldon (also part of Jess's constituency). Jess's other Grandma was a dinner lady at the local school in Yardley - are you getting the links!
Jess Phillips MP @jessphillips Mrs Thatcher told my Gran to buy her council house. She said it would mean she had something to leave her family. Boris Johnson says to all those who bought their modest 2 bed houses that he's going to take it all away, while people like him get to keep so much
What a difference four months make:
'I was given a sense of injustice from the day I was born. My grandparents set up the independent Labour party in Birmingham. My grandad was a flag-waving activist. I was born, in 1981, to socialist parents who worked in the public sector. Mrs Thatcher was in power and we’d go on rallies, marches and take part in picket lines from before I can remember.' (Jess Phillips, The Guardian, 18 July 2021)
Granny must have been less of a flag-waving socialist activist than she let on. Wonder how her picketing, rallying kids felt about mum obeying Margaret Thatcher's injunction to buy her council house? Given that they sent darling Jess to a selective grammar school ten years later, perhaps it was where the rot set in.
You don't get sent to a selective grammar school. You win a place as a result of what can be a loaded exam.
"My Mom" - is this a Birmingham thing? The only place I know of in England who don't have a "Mum" are those in the North East who have a "Mam".
Yeah mom is a Birmingham thing, it is weird.
Also very much a US thing.
it's not. It is definitely British parlance now. Do you not have kids?
"Mum" will probably be gone entirely within 20 years. Blame social media
Really? Our kids still say "mum" despite two of them actually being American. In this country I've only ever heard "Mom" from Brummies. Other Americanisms are happening in our house, though. We do correct them when we can and try to encourage use of proper South London idioms in keeping with our surroundings.
If you go on Insta or Tik Tok you encounter a lot of British kids saying "Mom" now
The same process happened in Canada, they went from universal Mum to commonly saying Mom, because of the huge American influence. I doubt we will be different, sadly
Try Scandinavia. Officially our children are meant to be taught English English. Bollocks. They are taught US English. Everyone under 30 speaks and writes pure Yankee.
Yet they generally speak it with a British accent? They all speak English near-perfectly, but it is rare to find one with an American accent.
I dunno about spellings. They definitely use American idioms - as do we
Re: English as spoken by people who are NOT native speakers, it's interesting that
> Americans think that virtually ANYONE who speaks with what UKers call a posh (or quasi-posh) English-English accent is smart and/or sophisticated; it's a plus with us.
> Brits on the other hand find it downright offensive (in my humble experience anyway) when non-Americans speak with an American accent;' it's a minus with youse.
WATCH: Labour’s Shadow NI Secretary tells me that if there was a referendum on a united Ireland that the British government and British political parties should not campaign for the Union “if there is a border poll, we should remain neutral”
Blair publicly supported the union. Starmer has said he would campaign for the union in a border poll. But such is the facile level of understanding about the Good Friday Agreement it is now assumed the UK is the only state in the world that cannot campaign for its own existence.
I think the best policy is not to campaign... let the people of NI decide.
Do you think the Irish government will follow your advice?
I suspect they will.
It is not currently clear to me whether the Irish government would want a united Ireland given the financial and social issues that come with it; I very much doubt whther they would want it on the back of a devisive referendum the outcome of which they have narrowly helped sway.
Lol - Irish politicians not wanting a united Ireland?
SF are a mainstream party in ROI now
If SF were in power then yes, the Irish Governmet would certainly cmapaign for a united Ireland.
If it were FF or FG (or as now FF & FG)... then I'm not so sure.
If that's your honest opinion then you're a fucking Idiot.
There should be no place for IRA Types anywhere in politics.
I think your post says more about you than you intended.
WATCH: Labour’s Shadow NI Secretary tells me that if there was a referendum on a united Ireland that the British government and British political parties should not campaign for the Union “if there is a border poll, we should remain neutral”
Blair publicly supported the union. Starmer has said he would campaign for the union in a border poll. But such is the facile level of understanding about the Good Friday Agreement it is now assumed the UK is the only state in the world that cannot campaign for its own existence.
I think the best policy is not to campaign... let the people of NI decide.
Do you think the Irish government will follow your advice?
I suspect they will.
It is not currently clear to me whether the Irish government would want a united Ireland given the financial and social issues that come with it; I very much doubt whther they would want it on the back of a devisive referendum the outcome of which they have narrowly helped sway.
I think that's the point people forget. At the point a border poll is actually called the result will be a foregone conclusion with a massive (60%+) NI vote for unification. Anything else is just too risky...
This is why Irish politicians like Varadkar have started to talk in terms of what the Republic would have to change to make Unionists feel comfortable (or at least less uncomfortable) with a united Ireland so that they can build towards a large majority for unity.
The risk of a 50%+1 strategy, as being pursued by SF, is that the implied division would put off some potential supporters of Irish unity from voting to change the status quo.
Jess Phillips MP @jessphillips Mrs Thatcher told my Gran to buy her council house. She said it would mean she had something to leave her family. Boris Johnson says to all those who bought their modest 2 bed houses that he's going to take it all away, while people like him get to keep so much
What a difference four months make:
'I was given a sense of injustice from the day I was born. My grandparents set up the independent Labour party in Birmingham. My grandad was a flag-waving activist. I was born, in 1981, to socialist parents who worked in the public sector. Mrs Thatcher was in power and we’d go on rallies, marches and take part in picket lines from before I can remember.' (Jess Phillips, The Guardian, 18 July 2021)
Granny must have been less of a flag-waving socialist activist than she let on. Wonder how her picketing, rallying kids felt about mum obeying Margaret Thatcher's injunction to buy her council house?
LOL! Well even Scargill attempted to buy a council property under Mrs T's "Right To Buy" didn't he?
(Revealed many years after the event I seem to remember)
Being Scargill, one that had never been in the scheme.
Dad of Birmingham Jess Phillips MP writes glorious letter defending her roots
...my Mom worked as a conductor on the buses during the war... My Mom remarried when I was four years old, and with my wonderful stepfather we eventually got a council house of our own in Sheldon (also part of Jess's constituency). Jess's other Grandma was a dinner lady at the local school in Yardley - are you getting the links!
Jess Phillips MP @jessphillips Mrs Thatcher told my Gran to buy her council house. She said it would mean she had something to leave her family. Boris Johnson says to all those who bought their modest 2 bed houses that he's going to take it all away, while people like him get to keep so much
What a difference four months make:
'I was given a sense of injustice from the day I was born. My grandparents set up the independent Labour party in Birmingham. My grandad was a flag-waving activist. I was born, in 1981, to socialist parents who worked in the public sector. Mrs Thatcher was in power and we’d go on rallies, marches and take part in picket lines from before I can remember.' (Jess Phillips, The Guardian, 18 July 2021)
Granny must have been less of a flag-waving socialist activist than she let on. Wonder how her picketing, rallying kids felt about mum obeying Margaret Thatcher's injunction to buy her council house? Given that they sent darling Jess to a selective grammar school ten years later, perhaps it was where the rot set in.
You don't get sent to a selective grammar school. You win a place as a result of what can be a loaded exam.
"My Mom" - is this a Birmingham thing? The only place I know of in England who don't have a "Mum" are those in the North East who have a "Mam".
Yeah mom is a Birmingham thing, it is weird.
Also very much a US thing.
it's not. It is definitely British parlance now. Do you not have kids?
"Mum" will probably be gone entirely within 20 years. Blame social media
Really? Our kids still say "mum" despite two of them actually being American. In this country I've only ever heard "Mom" from Brummies. Other Americanisms are happening in our house, though. We do correct them when we can and try to encourage use of proper South London idioms in keeping with our surroundings.
If you go on Insta or Tik Tok you encounter a lot of British kids saying "Mom" now
The same process happened in Canada, they went from universal Mum to commonly saying Mom, because of the huge American influence. I doubt we will be different, sadly
Try Scandinavia. Officially our children are meant to be taught English English. Bollocks. They are taught US English. Everyone under 30 speaks and writes pure Yankee.
Yet they generally speak it with a British accent? They all speak English near-perfectly, but it is rare to find one with an American accent.
I dunno about spellings. They definitely use American idioms - as do we
Re: English as spoken by people who are NOT native speakers, it's interesting that
> Americans think that virtually ANYONE who speaks with what UKers call a posh (or quasi-posh) English-English accent is smart and/or sophisticated; it's a plus with us.
> Brits on the other hand find it downright offensive (in my humble experience anyway) when non-Americans speak with an American accent;' it's a minus with youse.
There's a boring 'in the middle' truth here. The Con GE19 landslide WAS due to Corbyn's weakness as a candidate. But it was also due to Johnson's strength. It was, truly, the Brexit election and it was Brexit that cemented the negative/positive view of the 2 leaders. For Johnson, hellbent on pushing Brexit through, his breezy 'can-do' persona was burnished. For Corbyn, dithering and triangulating, his previous rep as a man of principle was destroyed. So, that 80 seat result, it was Corbyn, and it was Johnson, but above all it was BREXIT.
Yes
And remember that brilliant Xmas Election ad with Boris at the door
The best British political ad I've ever seen. Powerful and persuasive, and it relies almost entirely on Boris' charm and charisma. Of recent prime ministers only Blair at his peak could equal that. Imagine Major or Cameron or May trying it on. Cringe
Farooq made a brilliant analogy on the prior thread. Campaigning is like conceiving, Governing is like parenting. Boris is now surrounded by the tedious nappies of political reality (and real nappies, as well). He needs to learn to be a decent Dad, super quick
Such inventive genius that Rosena Allin-Khan shamelessly copied it a fortnight earlier.
Jesus F Christ. We had this tedious debate at the time. Allin-Khan didn't invent it, either. She ripped it off Love Actually. But then Richard Curtis quasi-plagiarised it from Bob Dylan, and the same technique has been used by lots of other people, over the decades
The point is that Boris and his media team did it superbly well, better than anyone, and they pitched it perfectly at an electorate bloody bored of Brexit. And it has that genius payoff when Boris, shoulders slumped like Churchill, gruffly walks to the camera, and says "Enough. Enough. Let's get this done" - giving a growly voice to the heartfelt desire of practically the entire country
I get that Boris has many many flaws. But it is futile to deny his charisma. Those that do are blinded by their hatred of him, and thus under-estimate him. Fatally. And it is this charisma which also enables him to overcome the flaws - until now, perhaps.....
Not really, she used the meme to make a political ad. And the Ludicrous Boris shamelessly copied it.
And who would you rather have knocking on your door?
QED. You fear and loathe him, and it warps your judgement of him
I neither fear nor loathe him. I just think he is an embarrassment.
And you didn't answer my question.
Who would I rather have knocking on my door? Boris Johnson or Rosina Allin-Khan? Is that a serious question??
lol. Again: QED
Would I rather have some boring, horse-faced non-entity of a Woke Labour MP for Nowheretown come to visit, or would I rather have the rollicking Boris Johnson, Prime Minister of the country, father of seven, husband of three, ex editor of the Spectator, winner of the Brexit wars, clown and/or hero to millions.
Ooh. Tough question. Which one gets invited in for some egg nog and a gossip?
The fecking prime minister, idiot
I've met Boris twice – believe me, he's remarkably tedious IRL.
I've also met him, did not find him tedious at all
Great exchange, guys. Keep it going.
PS - Am I the only person who found Boris's Peppa Pig trolling of the shirts at the CBI a real LOL moment? My impression is that while he may be going off the rails, at least he seems to be enjoying himself. (Takes cover...)
Is he meant to be trolling people when he appears?
Jess Phillips MP @jessphillips Mrs Thatcher told my Gran to buy her council house. She said it would mean she had something to leave her family. Boris Johnson says to all those who bought their modest 2 bed houses that he's going to take it all away, while people like him get to keep so much
What a difference four months make:
'I was given a sense of injustice from the day I was born. My grandparents set up the independent Labour party in Birmingham. My grandad was a flag-waving activist. I was born, in 1981, to socialist parents who worked in the public sector. Mrs Thatcher was in power and we’d go on rallies, marches and take part in picket lines from before I can remember.' (Jess Phillips, The Guardian, 18 July 2021)
Granny must have been less of a flag-waving socialist activist than she let on. Wonder how her picketing, rallying kids felt about mum obeying Margaret Thatcher's injunction to buy her council house?
LOL! Well even Scargill attempted to buy a council property under Mrs T's "Right To Buy" didn't he?
(Revealed many years after the event I seem to remember)
Whereas, Bob Crow got grief (unfairly, in my opinion) for living in a council house...
Pretty much as you were then. Our numbers are not really moving, unlike those on the continent.
As far as I can make out cases in the UK have been increasing since the 5th November, but we're not seeing an increase in hospitalizations yet, where the latest data is a continued decline on the 18th - so perhaps an increase is imminent.
The England data on the dashboard is more recent and shows a continued decline in admissions on the 21st, following a rise in cases since the 5th.
I think the previous trough in admissions we on the 28th September, which was following a trough in cases on the 13th September.
We will see in a few days whether the booster campaign is exerting a downward effect on hospitalizations that is greater than the increase in cases.
It clearly is, otherwise the rise in cases would have resulted in more hospital admissions rather than less. The link between infection and hospitalisation has been significantly weakened, almost broken. It is a public health triumph that we don't appreciate enough.
There's a lag between cases and admissions though, and based on the timings of the last trough a rise in UK admissions would be one day early if it was seen in the latest figures and two days late if seen in the next English figures - so it's still possible we will see an increase in admissions following the recent increase in cases, though I'm starting to be optimistic that we won't on the basis of the English figures.
Sure, but the lag is about 2 weeks for hospitalisation and another couple for deaths. If numbers of cases have been increasing since November 5th and hospital admissions have fallen over the last week I do not think it is too early to say that the link has at least been weakened. It is possible that one may still increase enough to outweigh the other but I agree that it looks increasingly unlikely. Meanwhile 27.2% of the population over 12 has already had the booster.
Personal statement - yesterday got my copy of "The British General Election of 2019" which was published just this past spring.
Cover photo features Boris Johnson wearing a sly grin (composite of Benny Hill & Alfred E. Neuman?) and a "Get Brexit Done' apron, and carrying what appears to be a casserole of some sort (perhaps an old Etonian favorite such as "badgers in a trap" or somesuch?) fresh from the (Brexit) oven.
My copy is paperback fully 1.5 inches thick, 659 pages. Chock full of both nuts (for example Nigel Farage), facts and analysis until the cows (or the chickens?) come home.
For me only downside is the choice of cartoons used as illustrations/examples, as I do NOT like as general rule complex, multi-color, often downright nasty and/or macabre efforts in faux Gilray-Stedman style. Much prefer the work of Marf and Matt - much more in the spirit of Low humor!
FYI, am now the proud possessor of all 21 editions of "The British General Election" series from 1945 forward, if you are not familiar with them, check them out!
You are officially Chief PB Nerd. Well done sir!
*sniff* No, it's fine, I won't take that personally. *Sniff*. I'll just go away with my hard copy of Erskine May and lament my lack of political encyclopedias.
It you've genuially got hard copies of Erskine May... That would be pretty hard core.
- Cases are up in the unvaccinated children. Cases are falling the in older groups - especially where there are boosters (50+) - Hospitalisations are down - Deaths are down
Dad of Birmingham Jess Phillips MP writes glorious letter defending her roots
...my Mom worked as a conductor on the buses during the war... My Mom remarried when I was four years old, and with my wonderful stepfather we eventually got a council house of our own in Sheldon (also part of Jess's constituency). Jess's other Grandma was a dinner lady at the local school in Yardley - are you getting the links!
Jess Phillips MP @jessphillips Mrs Thatcher told my Gran to buy her council house. She said it would mean she had something to leave her family. Boris Johnson says to all those who bought their modest 2 bed houses that he's going to take it all away, while people like him get to keep so much
What a difference four months make:
'I was given a sense of injustice from the day I was born. My grandparents set up the independent Labour party in Birmingham. My grandad was a flag-waving activist. I was born, in 1981, to socialist parents who worked in the public sector. Mrs Thatcher was in power and we’d go on rallies, marches and take part in picket lines from before I can remember.' (Jess Phillips, The Guardian, 18 July 2021)
Granny must have been less of a flag-waving socialist activist than she let on. Wonder how her picketing, rallying kids felt about mum obeying Margaret Thatcher's injunction to buy her council house? Given that they sent darling Jess to a selective grammar school ten years later, perhaps it was where the rot set in.
You don't get sent to a selective grammar school. You win a place as a result of what can be a loaded exam.
"My Mom" - is this a Birmingham thing? The only place I know of in England who don't have a "Mum" are those in the North East who have a "Mam".
Yeah mom is a Birmingham thing, it is weird.
Also very much a US thing.
it's not. It is definitely British parlance now. Do you not have kids?
"Mum" will probably be gone entirely within 20 years. Blame social media
Really? Our kids still say "mum" despite two of them actually being American. In this country I've only ever heard "Mom" from Brummies. Other Americanisms are happening in our house, though. We do correct them when we can and try to encourage use of proper South London idioms in keeping with our surroundings.
If you go on Insta or Tik Tok you encounter a lot of British kids saying "Mom" now
The same process happened in Canada, they went from universal Mum to commonly saying Mom, because of the huge American influence. I doubt we will be different, sadly
Try Scandinavia. Officially our children are meant to be taught English English. Bollocks. They are taught US English. Everyone under 30 speaks and writes pure Yankee.
Yet they generally speak it with a British accent? They all speak English near-perfectly, but it is rare to find one with an American accent.
I dunno about spellings. They definitely use American idioms - as do we
Re: English as spoken by people who are NOT native speakers, it's interesting that
> Americans think that virtually ANYONE who speaks with what UKers call a posh (or quasi-posh) English-English accent is smart and/or sophisticated; it's a plus with us.
> Brits on the other hand find it downright offensive (in my humble experience anyway) when non-Americans speak with an American accent;' it's a minus with youse.
Why is that?
Our cultural cringe toward the USA, so thinking any non native speaker should use our accents (but only certain ones).
Though I think it's also because no one actually objects to or minds a more 'neutral' american accent spoken by non americans as we're so familiar with it anyway, but a more stereotypical accent that comes with (to some) negative associations might just sound weird, like finding a non-Brummie talking in a Brummie accent as they learned it there.
WATCH: Labour’s Shadow NI Secretary tells me that if there was a referendum on a united Ireland that the British government and British political parties should not campaign for the Union “if there is a border poll, we should remain neutral”
Blair publicly supported the union. Starmer has said he would campaign for the union in a border poll. But such is the facile level of understanding about the Good Friday Agreement it is now assumed the UK is the only state in the world that cannot campaign for its own existence.
I think the best policy is not to campaign... let the people of NI decide.
Do you think the Irish government will follow your advice?
I suspect they will.
It is not currently clear to me whether the Irish government would want a united Ireland given the financial and social issues that come with it; I very much doubt whther they would want it on the back of a devisive referendum the outcome of which they have narrowly helped sway.
They may or may not, deep down, want it. But they can't say they don't. Nor even really broach the subject in public. So we'll never know.
Which is why they will hide behind the screen of neutrality: 'it is for the people of NI to decide'.
That is not going to happen; all 3 parties in ROI will campaign for a united Ireland.
WATCH: Labour’s Shadow NI Secretary tells me that if there was a referendum on a united Ireland that the British government and British political parties should not campaign for the Union “if there is a border poll, we should remain neutral”
Blair publicly supported the union. Starmer has said he would campaign for the union in a border poll. But such is the facile level of understanding about the Good Friday Agreement it is now assumed the UK is the only state in the world that cannot campaign for its own existence.
I think the best policy is not to campaign... let the people of NI decide.
There is an obvious difficulty with members of the Government (particularly Tories) knocking on doors in NI, as to whether such a measure is productive or counterproductive. But I do not think that support for the Union is hampered by them coming out in support of it.
Perhaps it is this word "campaign" that is ambiguous.
Dad of Birmingham Jess Phillips MP writes glorious letter defending her roots
...my Mom worked as a conductor on the buses during the war... My Mom remarried when I was four years old, and with my wonderful stepfather we eventually got a council house of our own in Sheldon (also part of Jess's constituency). Jess's other Grandma was a dinner lady at the local school in Yardley - are you getting the links!
Jess Phillips MP @jessphillips Mrs Thatcher told my Gran to buy her council house. She said it would mean she had something to leave her family. Boris Johnson says to all those who bought their modest 2 bed houses that he's going to take it all away, while people like him get to keep so much
What a difference four months make:
'I was given a sense of injustice from the day I was born. My grandparents set up the independent Labour party in Birmingham. My grandad was a flag-waving activist. I was born, in 1981, to socialist parents who worked in the public sector. Mrs Thatcher was in power and we’d go on rallies, marches and take part in picket lines from before I can remember.' (Jess Phillips, The Guardian, 18 July 2021)
Granny must have been less of a flag-waving socialist activist than she let on. Wonder how her picketing, rallying kids felt about mum obeying Margaret Thatcher's injunction to buy her council house? Given that they sent darling Jess to a selective grammar school ten years later, perhaps it was where the rot set in.
You don't get sent to a selective grammar school. You win a place as a result of what can be a loaded exam.
"My Mom" - is this a Birmingham thing? The only place I know of in England who don't have a "Mum" are those in the North East who have a "Mam".
Yeah mom is a Birmingham thing, it is weird.
Also very much a US thing.
it's not. It is definitely British parlance now. Do you not have kids?
"Mum" will probably be gone entirely within 20 years. Blame social media
Really? Our kids still say "mum" despite two of them actually being American. In this country I've only ever heard "Mom" from Brummies. Other Americanisms are happening in our house, though. We do correct them when we can and try to encourage use of proper South London idioms in keeping with our surroundings.
If you go on Insta or Tik Tok you encounter a lot of British kids saying "Mom" now
The same process happened in Canada, they went from universal Mum to commonly saying Mom, because of the huge American influence. I doubt we will be different, sadly
Try Scandinavia. Officially our children are meant to be taught English English. Bollocks. They are taught US English. Everyone under 30 speaks and writes pure Yankee.
Yet they generally speak it with a British accent? They all speak English near-perfectly, but it is rare to find one with an American accent.
I dunno about spellings. They definitely use American idioms - as do we
Re: English as spoken by people who are NOT native speakers, it's interesting that
> Americans think that virtually ANYONE who speaks with what UKers call a posh (or quasi-posh) English-English accent is smart and/or sophisticated; it's a plus with us.
> Brits on the other hand find it downright offensive (in my humble experience anyway) when non-Americans speak with an American accent;' it's a minus with youse.
Why is that?
It demonstrates our waning cultural influence
Yes, it's definitely that, in part
But also I find it a pity, because a crisp, modestly RP British accent is, to my mind, the most beautiful form of English (and it is OUR language, after all)
It is interesting that in Asia it is all British English in officialdom (not sure about the kids). They clearly perceive the poshness aspect. The station announcers on some big Asian city subways sound like Audrey Hepburn - as does the lady who says "Mind the Gap" on the Tube. Perhaps they borrowed her
WATCH: Labour’s Shadow NI Secretary tells me that if there was a referendum on a united Ireland that the British government and British political parties should not campaign for the Union “if there is a border poll, we should remain neutral”
Blair publicly supported the union. Starmer has said he would campaign for the union in a border poll. But such is the facile level of understanding about the Good Friday Agreement it is now assumed the UK is the only state in the world that cannot campaign for its own existence.
I think the best policy is not to campaign... let the people of NI decide.
Do you think the Irish government will follow your advice?
I suspect they will.
It is not currently clear to me whether the Irish government would want a united Ireland given the financial and social issues that come with it; I very much doubt whther they would want it on the back of a devisive referendum the outcome of which they have narrowly helped sway.
They may or may not, deep down, want it. But they can't say they don't. Nor even really broach the subject in public. So we'll never know.
Which is why they will hide behind the screen of neutrality: 'it is for the people of NI to decide'.
This is absolutely not the case. The current coalition government in Ireland has created a new unit for Irish unity in the Taoiseach's office. They are all unequivocally behind Irish unity. They have many disagreements on what they should be doing to prepare for, or encourage, it, however.
There was an interesting discussion on RTÉ not too long ago. I'll see if I can find a link.
Personal statement - yesterday got my copy of "The British General Election of 2019" which was published just this past spring.
Cover photo features Boris Johnson wearing a sly grin (composite of Benny Hill & Alfred E. Neuman?) and a "Get Brexit Done' apron, and carrying what appears to be a casserole of some sort (perhaps an old Etonian favorite such as "badgers in a trap" or somesuch?) fresh from the (Brexit) oven.
My copy is paperback fully 1.5 inches thick, 659 pages. Chock full of both nuts (for example Nigel Farage), facts and analysis until the cows (or the chickens?) come home.
For me only downside is the choice of cartoons used as illustrations/examples, as I do NOT like as general rule complex, multi-color, often downright nasty and/or macabre efforts in faux Gilray-Stedman style. Much prefer the work of Marf and Matt - much more in the spirit of Low humor!
FYI, am now the proud possessor of all 21 editions of "The British General Election" series from 1945 forward, if you are not familiar with them, check them out!
You are officially Chief PB Nerd. Well done sir!
*sniff* No, it's fine, I won't take that personally. *Sniff*. I'll just go away with my hard copy of Erskine May and lament my lack of political encyclopedias.
It you've genuially got hard copies of Erskine May... That would be pretty hard core.
Just the one. I'm bloody annoyed it is now available online, as it's ruined the ability to brag about it to wonks.
Dad of Birmingham Jess Phillips MP writes glorious letter defending her roots
...my Mom worked as a conductor on the buses during the war... My Mom remarried when I was four years old, and with my wonderful stepfather we eventually got a council house of our own in Sheldon (also part of Jess's constituency). Jess's other Grandma was a dinner lady at the local school in Yardley - are you getting the links!
Jess Phillips MP @jessphillips Mrs Thatcher told my Gran to buy her council house. She said it would mean she had something to leave her family. Boris Johnson says to all those who bought their modest 2 bed houses that he's going to take it all away, while people like him get to keep so much
What a difference four months make:
'I was given a sense of injustice from the day I was born. My grandparents set up the independent Labour party in Birmingham. My grandad was a flag-waving activist. I was born, in 1981, to socialist parents who worked in the public sector. Mrs Thatcher was in power and we’d go on rallies, marches and take part in picket lines from before I can remember.' (Jess Phillips, The Guardian, 18 July 2021)
Granny must have been less of a flag-waving socialist activist than she let on. Wonder how her picketing, rallying kids felt about mum obeying Margaret Thatcher's injunction to buy her council house? Given that they sent darling Jess to a selective grammar school ten years later, perhaps it was where the rot set in.
You don't get sent to a selective grammar school. You win a place as a result of what can be a loaded exam.
"My Mom" - is this a Birmingham thing? The only place I know of in England who don't have a "Mum" are those in the North East who have a "Mam".
Yeah mom is a Birmingham thing, it is weird.
Also very much a US thing.
it's not. It is definitely British parlance now. Do you not have kids?
"Mum" will probably be gone entirely within 20 years. Blame social media
Really? Our kids still say "mum" despite two of them actually being American. In this country I've only ever heard "Mom" from Brummies. Other Americanisms are happening in our house, though. We do correct them when we can and try to encourage use of proper South London idioms in keeping with our surroundings.
If you go on Insta or Tik Tok you encounter a lot of British kids saying "Mom" now
The same process happened in Canada, they went from universal Mum to commonly saying Mom, because of the huge American influence. I doubt we will be different, sadly
Try Scandinavia. Officially our children are meant to be taught English English. Bollocks. They are taught US English. Everyone under 30 speaks and writes pure Yankee.
Yet they generally speak it with a British accent? They all speak English near-perfectly, but it is rare to find one with an American accent.
I dunno about spellings. They definitely use American idioms - as do we
From the admittedly few scandi-dramas I have seen when they speak English they sound pretty american to me.
Personal statement - yesterday got my copy of "The British General Election of 2019" which was published just this past spring.
Cover photo features Boris Johnson wearing a sly grin (composite of Benny Hill & Alfred E. Neuman?) and a "Get Brexit Done' apron, and carrying what appears to be a casserole of some sort (perhaps an old Etonian favorite such as "badgers in a trap" or somesuch?) fresh from the (Brexit) oven.
My copy is paperback fully 1.5 inches thick, 659 pages. Chock full of both nuts (for example Nigel Farage), facts and analysis until the cows (or the chickens?) come home.
For me only downside is the choice of cartoons used as illustrations/examples, as I do NOT like as general rule complex, multi-color, often downright nasty and/or macabre efforts in faux Gilray-Stedman style. Much prefer the work of Marf and Matt - much more in the spirit of Low humor!
FYI, am now the proud possessor of all 21 editions of "The British General Election" series from 1945 forward, if you are not familiar with them, check them out!
What a collection! Very envious right now.
You may be right. The Scandis I meet I tend to meet in London, who speak more British English - but they may be a self-selecting group thereby.
Researching this (I'm not sure why) I discovered this. Quite funny
Could it be that some of these folks speak "English" to the English, and "American" to the Americans? Smart strategy if you can pull it off!
Reminded of the case of the late Edwin Edwards, former congressman & multi-term governor of Louisiana, who also served a term in Angola state prison (though NOT in the "Dead Man Walking" section) and was married three times to increasingly younger (at least compared with him) women.
EE was half Cajun, and was famous for > speaking in lightly-accented English in DC and to national audiences > speaking heavily-accented English in Louisiana, to what degree depending on audience & circumstance > speaking Cajun French to fellow Acadians on their home turf > speaking pure (or close enough) Parisian when in Paris doing international wheeling-dealing.
WATCH: Labour’s Shadow NI Secretary tells me that if there was a referendum on a united Ireland that the British government and British political parties should not campaign for the Union “if there is a border poll, we should remain neutral”
Blair publicly supported the union. Starmer has said he would campaign for the union in a border poll. But such is the facile level of understanding about the Good Friday Agreement it is now assumed the UK is the only state in the world that cannot campaign for its own existence.
I think the best policy is not to campaign... let the people of NI decide.
Do you think the Irish government will follow your advice?
I suspect they will.
It is not currently clear to me whether the Irish government would want a united Ireland given the financial and social issues that come with it; I very much doubt whther they would want it on the back of a devisive referendum the outcome of which they have narrowly helped sway.
They may or may not, deep down, want it. But they can't say they don't. Nor even really broach the subject in public. So we'll never know.
Which is why they will hide behind the screen of neutrality: 'it is for the people of NI to decide'.
This is absolutely not the case. The current coalition government on Ireland had created a new unit for Irish unity in the Taoiseach's office. They are all unequivocally behind Irish unity. They have many disagreements on what they should be doing to prepare for, or encourage, it, however.
There was an interesting discussion on RTÉ not too long ago. I'll see if I can find a link.
Oh. It was in May. Certainly didn't feel that long ago.
WATCH: Labour’s Shadow NI Secretary tells me that if there was a referendum on a united Ireland that the British government and British political parties should not campaign for the Union “if there is a border poll, we should remain neutral”
Blair publicly supported the union. Starmer has said he would campaign for the union in a border poll. But such is the facile level of understanding about the Good Friday Agreement it is now assumed the UK is the only state in the world that cannot campaign for its own existence.
I think the best policy is not to campaign... let the people of NI decide.
Do you think the Irish government will follow your advice?
I suspect they will.
It is not currently clear to me whether the Irish government would want a united Ireland given the financial and social issues that come with it; I very much doubt whther they would want it on the back of a devisive referendum the outcome of which they have narrowly helped sway.
Lol - Irish politicians not wanting a united Ireland?
SF are a mainstream party in ROI now
If SF were in power then yes, the Irish Governmet would certainly cmapaign for a united Ireland.
If it were FF or FG (or as now FF & FG)... then I'm not so sure.
If that's your honest opinion then you're a fucking Idiot.
There should be no place for IRA Types anywhere in politics.
I think your post says more about you than you intended.
I'm here all day - well until my meds kick in and I get sleepy.
WATCH: Labour’s Shadow NI Secretary tells me that if there was a referendum on a united Ireland that the British government and British political parties should not campaign for the Union “if there is a border poll, we should remain neutral”
Blair publicly supported the union. Starmer has said he would campaign for the union in a border poll. But such is the facile level of understanding about the Good Friday Agreement it is now assumed the UK is the only state in the world that cannot campaign for its own existence.
I think the best policy is not to campaign... let the people of NI decide.
Do you think the Irish government will follow your advice?
I suspect they will.
It is not currently clear to me whether the Irish government would want a united Ireland given the financial and social issues that come with it; I very much doubt whther they would want it on the back of a devisive referendum the outcome of which they have narrowly helped sway.
They may or may not, deep down, want it. But they can't say they don't. Nor even really broach the subject in public. So we'll never know.
Which is why they will hide behind the screen of neutrality: 'it is for the people of NI to decide'.
This is absolutely not the case. The current coalition government on Ireland had created a new unit for Irish unity in the Taoiseach's office. They are all unequivocally behind Irish unity. They have many disagreements on what they should be doing to prepare for, or encourage, it, however.
There was an interesting discussion on RTÉ not too long ago. I'll see if I can find a link.
The future is a unfied Ireland and it always will be.
Dad of Birmingham Jess Phillips MP writes glorious letter defending her roots
...my Mom worked as a conductor on the buses during the war... My Mom remarried when I was four years old, and with my wonderful stepfather we eventually got a council house of our own in Sheldon (also part of Jess's constituency). Jess's other Grandma was a dinner lady at the local school in Yardley - are you getting the links!
Jess Phillips MP @jessphillips Mrs Thatcher told my Gran to buy her council house. She said it would mean she had something to leave her family. Boris Johnson says to all those who bought their modest 2 bed houses that he's going to take it all away, while people like him get to keep so much
What a difference four months make:
'I was given a sense of injustice from the day I was born. My grandparents set up the independent Labour party in Birmingham. My grandad was a flag-waving activist. I was born, in 1981, to socialist parents who worked in the public sector. Mrs Thatcher was in power and we’d go on rallies, marches and take part in picket lines from before I can remember.' (Jess Phillips, The Guardian, 18 July 2021)
Granny must have been less of a flag-waving socialist activist than she let on. Wonder how her picketing, rallying kids felt about mum obeying Margaret Thatcher's injunction to buy her council house? Given that they sent darling Jess to a selective grammar school ten years later, perhaps it was where the rot set in.
You don't get sent to a selective grammar school. You win a place as a result of what can be a loaded exam.
"My Mom" - is this a Birmingham thing? The only place I know of in England who don't have a "Mum" are those in the North East who have a "Mam".
Yeah mom is a Birmingham thing, it is weird.
Also very much a US thing.
it's not. It is definitely British parlance now. Do you not have kids?
"Mum" will probably be gone entirely within 20 years. Blame social media
Really? Our kids still say "mum" despite two of them actually being American. In this country I've only ever heard "Mom" from Brummies. Other Americanisms are happening in our house, though. We do correct them when we can and try to encourage use of proper South London idioms in keeping with our surroundings.
If you go on Insta or Tik Tok you encounter a lot of British kids saying "Mom" now
The same process happened in Canada, they went from universal Mum to commonly saying Mom, because of the huge American influence. I doubt we will be different, sadly
Try Scandinavia. Officially our children are meant to be taught English English. Bollocks. They are taught US English. Everyone under 30 speaks and writes pure Yankee.
Yet they generally speak it with a British accent? They all speak English near-perfectly, but it is rare to find one with an American accent.
I dunno about spellings. They definitely use American idioms - as do we
Re: English as spoken by people who are NOT native speakers, it's interesting that
> Americans think that virtually ANYONE who speaks with what UKers call a posh (or quasi-posh) English-English accent is smart and/or sophisticated; it's a plus with us.
> Brits on the other hand find it downright offensive (in my humble experience anyway) when non-Americans speak with an American accent;' it's a minus with youse.
Why is that?
It demonstrates our waning cultural influence
If anything social media is creating a more coherent global Anglosphere culture. It's not just a one-way process of American influences taking over. For example, American children are picking up British expressions from Peppa Pig.
Dad of Birmingham Jess Phillips MP writes glorious letter defending her roots
...my Mom worked as a conductor on the buses during the war... My Mom remarried when I was four years old, and with my wonderful stepfather we eventually got a council house of our own in Sheldon (also part of Jess's constituency). Jess's other Grandma was a dinner lady at the local school in Yardley - are you getting the links!
Jess Phillips MP @jessphillips Mrs Thatcher told my Gran to buy her council house. She said it would mean she had something to leave her family. Boris Johnson says to all those who bought their modest 2 bed houses that he's going to take it all away, while people like him get to keep so much
What a difference four months make:
'I was given a sense of injustice from the day I was born. My grandparents set up the independent Labour party in Birmingham. My grandad was a flag-waving activist. I was born, in 1981, to socialist parents who worked in the public sector. Mrs Thatcher was in power and we’d go on rallies, marches and take part in picket lines from before I can remember.' (Jess Phillips, The Guardian, 18 July 2021)
Granny must have been less of a flag-waving socialist activist than she let on. Wonder how her picketing, rallying kids felt about mum obeying Margaret Thatcher's injunction to buy her council house? Given that they sent darling Jess to a selective grammar school ten years later, perhaps it was where the rot set in.
You don't get sent to a selective grammar school. You win a place as a result of what can be a loaded exam.
"My Mom" - is this a Birmingham thing? The only place I know of in England who don't have a "Mum" are those in the North East who have a "Mam".
Yeah mom is a Birmingham thing, it is weird.
Also very much a US thing.
it's not. It is definitely British parlance now. Do you not have kids?
"Mum" will probably be gone entirely within 20 years. Blame social media
Really? Our kids still say "mum" despite two of them actually being American. In this country I've only ever heard "Mom" from Brummies. Other Americanisms are happening in our house, though. We do correct them when we can and try to encourage use of proper South London idioms in keeping with our surroundings.
If you go on Insta or Tik Tok you encounter a lot of British kids saying "Mom" now
The same process happened in Canada, they went from universal Mum to commonly saying Mom, because of the huge American influence. I doubt we will be different, sadly
Try Scandinavia. Officially our children are meant to be taught English English. Bollocks. They are taught US English. Everyone under 30 speaks and writes pure Yankee.
Yet they generally speak it with a British accent? They all speak English near-perfectly, but it is rare to find one with an American accent.
I dunno about spellings. They definitely use American idioms - as do we
What Stuart says may be true about Sweden but it is certainly not true about Norway. I worked there for 15 years and mixed with all manner of Norwegians from those who spoke almost no English to those who spoke it as well as any Englishman I have ever met. A few I worked with had very definite US accents and pronunciations, a lot more had very British accents and, not surprisingly, most had Norwegian accents. But they all spoke what would be regarded as British rather than American English, using British words rather than their US alternatives.
A lot of Norwegians get their language skills from two main sources; US and British TV - in pretty much equal amounts, both of which are shown solely in their original language and often without Norwegian subtitles - and UK football. Norwegians are fanatical about UK football teams, particularly the Premier League and prior to the pandemic there were planes leaving Norwegian airports every Friday night completely filled with Norwegian supporters travelling to UK hubs to go and watch their favourite team.
Norwegians on the whole are far closer to British in a whole raft of ways including the form of English they speak, than they are the the US.
WATCH: Labour’s Shadow NI Secretary tells me that if there was a referendum on a united Ireland that the British government and British political parties should not campaign for the Union “if there is a border poll, we should remain neutral”
Blair publicly supported the union. Starmer has said he would campaign for the union in a border poll. But such is the facile level of understanding about the Good Friday Agreement it is now assumed the UK is the only state in the world that cannot campaign for its own existence.
I think the best policy is not to campaign... let the people of NI decide.
Do you think the Irish government will follow your advice?
I suspect they will.
It is not currently clear to me whether the Irish government would want a united Ireland given the financial and social issues that come with it; I very much doubt whther they would want it on the back of a devisive referendum the outcome of which they have narrowly helped sway.
They may or may not, deep down, want it. But they can't say they don't. Nor even really broach the subject in public. So we'll never know.
Which is why they will hide behind the screen of neutrality: 'it is for the people of NI to decide'.
That is not going to happen; all 3 parties in ROI will campaign for a united Ireland.
Labour have lost the plot on this one.
Day 1 of the 'neutral' campaign
"Taoiseach, don't you support a united Ireland on a personal level at least?" "Of course I bloody do"
Personal statement - yesterday got my copy of "The British General Election of 2019" which was published just this past spring.
Cover photo features Boris Johnson wearing a sly grin (composite of Benny Hill & Alfred E. Neuman?) and a "Get Brexit Done' apron, and carrying what appears to be a casserole of some sort (perhaps an old Etonian favorite such as "badgers in a trap" or somesuch?) fresh from the (Brexit) oven.
My copy is paperback fully 1.5 inches thick, 659 pages. Chock full of both nuts (for example Nigel Farage), facts and analysis until the cows (or the chickens?) come home.
For me only downside is the choice of cartoons used as illustrations/examples, as I do NOT like as general rule complex, multi-color, often downright nasty and/or macabre efforts in faux Gilray-Stedman style. Much prefer the work of Marf and Matt - much more in the spirit of Low humor!
FYI, am now the proud possessor of all 21 editions of "The British General Election" series from 1945 forward, if you are not familiar with them, check them out!
You are officially Chief PB Nerd. Well done sir!
*sniff* No, it's fine, I won't take that personally. *Sniff*. I'll just go away with my hard copy of Erskine May and lament my lack of political encyclopedias.
It you've genuially got hard copies of Erskine May... That would be pretty hard core.
Just the one. I'm bloody annoyed it is now available online, as it's ruined the ability to brag about it to wonks.
I was under the assumption that Erskine was more than one book?
Dad of Birmingham Jess Phillips MP writes glorious letter defending her roots
...my Mom worked as a conductor on the buses during the war... My Mom remarried when I was four years old, and with my wonderful stepfather we eventually got a council house of our own in Sheldon (also part of Jess's constituency). Jess's other Grandma was a dinner lady at the local school in Yardley - are you getting the links!
Jess Phillips MP @jessphillips Mrs Thatcher told my Gran to buy her council house. She said it would mean she had something to leave her family. Boris Johnson says to all those who bought their modest 2 bed houses that he's going to take it all away, while people like him get to keep so much
What a difference four months make:
'I was given a sense of injustice from the day I was born. My grandparents set up the independent Labour party in Birmingham. My grandad was a flag-waving activist. I was born, in 1981, to socialist parents who worked in the public sector. Mrs Thatcher was in power and we’d go on rallies, marches and take part in picket lines from before I can remember.' (Jess Phillips, The Guardian, 18 July 2021)
Granny must have been less of a flag-waving socialist activist than she let on. Wonder how her picketing, rallying kids felt about mum obeying Margaret Thatcher's injunction to buy her council house? Given that they sent darling Jess to a selective grammar school ten years later, perhaps it was where the rot set in.
You don't get sent to a selective grammar school. You win a place as a result of what can be a loaded exam.
"My Mom" - is this a Birmingham thing? The only place I know of in England who don't have a "Mum" are those in the North East who have a "Mam".
Yeah mom is a Birmingham thing, it is weird.
Also very much a US thing.
it's not. It is definitely British parlance now. Do you not have kids?
"Mum" will probably be gone entirely within 20 years. Blame social media
Really? Our kids still say "mum" despite two of them actually being American. In this country I've only ever heard "Mom" from Brummies. Other Americanisms are happening in our house, though. We do correct them when we can and try to encourage use of proper South London idioms in keeping with our surroundings.
If you go on Insta or Tik Tok you encounter a lot of British kids saying "Mom" now
The same process happened in Canada, they went from universal Mum to commonly saying Mom, because of the huge American influence. I doubt we will be different, sadly
Try Scandinavia. Officially our children are meant to be taught English English. Bollocks. They are taught US English. Everyone under 30 speaks and writes pure Yankee.
Yet they generally speak it with a British accent? They all speak English near-perfectly, but it is rare to find one with an American accent.
I dunno about spellings. They definitely use American idioms - as do we
Re: English as spoken by people who are NOT native speakers, it's interesting that
> Americans think that virtually ANYONE who speaks with what UKers call a posh (or quasi-posh) English-English accent is smart and/or sophisticated; it's a plus with us.
> Brits on the other hand find it downright offensive (in my humble experience anyway) when non-Americans speak with an American accent;' it's a minus with youse.
Why is that?
It demonstrates our waning cultural influence
If anything social media is creating a more coherent global Anglosphere culture. It's not just a one-way process of American influences taking over. For example, American children are picking up British expressions from Peppa Pig.
So long as Americans eventually figure out that they couldn't care less ...
Dad of Birmingham Jess Phillips MP writes glorious letter defending her roots
...my Mom worked as a conductor on the buses during the war... My Mom remarried when I was four years old, and with my wonderful stepfather we eventually got a council house of our own in Sheldon (also part of Jess's constituency). Jess's other Grandma was a dinner lady at the local school in Yardley - are you getting the links!
Jess Phillips MP @jessphillips Mrs Thatcher told my Gran to buy her council house. She said it would mean she had something to leave her family. Boris Johnson says to all those who bought their modest 2 bed houses that he's going to take it all away, while people like him get to keep so much
What a difference four months make:
'I was given a sense of injustice from the day I was born. My grandparents set up the independent Labour party in Birmingham. My grandad was a flag-waving activist. I was born, in 1981, to socialist parents who worked in the public sector. Mrs Thatcher was in power and we’d go on rallies, marches and take part in picket lines from before I can remember.' (Jess Phillips, The Guardian, 18 July 2021)
Granny must have been less of a flag-waving socialist activist than she let on. Wonder how her picketing, rallying kids felt about mum obeying Margaret Thatcher's injunction to buy her council house? Given that they sent darling Jess to a selective grammar school ten years later, perhaps it was where the rot set in.
You don't get sent to a selective grammar school. You win a place as a result of what can be a loaded exam.
"My Mom" - is this a Birmingham thing? The only place I know of in England who don't have a "Mum" are those in the North East who have a "Mam".
Yeah mom is a Birmingham thing, it is weird.
Also very much a US thing.
it's not. It is definitely British parlance now. Do you not have kids?
"Mum" will probably be gone entirely within 20 years. Blame social media
Really? Our kids still say "mum" despite two of them actually being American. In this country I've only ever heard "Mom" from Brummies. Other Americanisms are happening in our house, though. We do correct them when we can and try to encourage use of proper South London idioms in keeping with our surroundings.
If you go on Insta or Tik Tok you encounter a lot of British kids saying "Mom" now
The same process happened in Canada, they went from universal Mum to commonly saying Mom, because of the huge American influence. I doubt we will be different, sadly
Try Scandinavia. Officially our children are meant to be taught English English. Bollocks. They are taught US English. Everyone under 30 speaks and writes pure Yankee.
Yet they generally speak it with a British accent? They all speak English near-perfectly, but it is rare to find one with an American accent.
I dunno about spellings. They definitely use American idioms - as do we
What Stuart says may be true about Sweden but it is certainly not true about Norway. I worked there for 15 years and mixed with all manner of Norwegians from those who spoke almost no English to those who spoke it as well as any Englishman I have ever met. A few I worked with had very definite US accents and pronunciations, a lot more had very British accents and, not surprisingly, most had Norwegian accents. But they all spoke what would be regarded as British rather than American English, using British words rather than their US alternatives.
A lot of Norwegians get their language skills from two main sources; US and British TV - in pretty much equal amounts, both of which are shown solely in their original language and often without Norwegian subtitles - and UK football. Norwegians are fanatical about UK football teams, particularly the Premier League and prior to the pandemic there were planes leaving Norwegian airports every Friday night completely filled with Norwegian supporters travelling to UK hubs to go and watch their favourite team.
Norwegians on the whole are far closer to British in a whole raft of ways including the form of English they speak, than they are the the US.
In both language and
Although the programme was only so so I did like the show 'Norsemen' on Netflix, where they apparently just filmed each scene twice, once in Norwegian, once in English. Saves time creating a dub later I suppose, for those who cannot bear subtitles.
From the official France Diplomacy account: Foreign Minister @JY_LeDrian claims that @BorisJohnson is a "populist who uses all elements at his disposal to blame others for problems he faces internally."
It’s true, but very odd to see this sort of thing from an ostensible ally.
Oh dear, oh dear.
France is not our ally.
What rot - your Francophobia does you no credit.
France is a great country, the French are generally nice people, we have much more in common than divides us, the petty rivalries on both sides are pointless and corrosive.
Time to grow up.
I'm not a Francophobe, I speak the language, love the food, love holidaying there.
You slip into Boris-lite mode too often when referring to the French for me to believe you are being ironic (same thing regards Wales and the Welsh).
It does you no credit, and I say that as a strong admirer of the majority of your views and posts.
Agreed. It's absolutely pathetic stuff from Eagles.
Would you describe it as racist?
Can't we just note that people associated with the current French Government are even bigger panto characters than those associated with ours, and leave it at that?
WATCH: Labour’s Shadow NI Secretary tells me that if there was a referendum on a united Ireland that the British government and British political parties should not campaign for the Union “if there is a border poll, we should remain neutral”
Blair publicly supported the union. Starmer has said he would campaign for the union in a border poll. But such is the facile level of understanding about the Good Friday Agreement it is now assumed the UK is the only state in the world that cannot campaign for its own existence.
I think the best policy is not to campaign... let the people of NI decide.
Do you think the Irish government will follow your advice?
I suspect they will.
It is not currently clear to me whether the Irish government would want a united Ireland given the financial and social issues that come with it; I very much doubt whther they would want it on the back of a devisive referendum the outcome of which they have narrowly helped sway.
They may or may not, deep down, want it. But they can't say they don't. Nor even really broach the subject in public. So we'll never know.
Which is why they will hide behind the screen of neutrality: 'it is for the people of NI to decide'.
This is absolutely not the case. The current coalition government on Ireland had created a new unit for Irish unity in the Taoiseach's office. They are all unequivocally behind Irish unity. They have many disagreements on what they should be doing to prepare for, or encourage, it, however.
There was an interesting discussion on RTÉ not too long ago. I'll see if I can find a link.
Oh. It was in May. Certainly didn't feel that long ago.
Dad of Birmingham Jess Phillips MP writes glorious letter defending her roots
...my Mom worked as a conductor on the buses during the war... My Mom remarried when I was four years old, and with my wonderful stepfather we eventually got a council house of our own in Sheldon (also part of Jess's constituency). Jess's other Grandma was a dinner lady at the local school in Yardley - are you getting the links!
Jess Phillips MP @jessphillips Mrs Thatcher told my Gran to buy her council house. She said it would mean she had something to leave her family. Boris Johnson says to all those who bought their modest 2 bed houses that he's going to take it all away, while people like him get to keep so much
What a difference four months make:
'I was given a sense of injustice from the day I was born. My grandparents set up the independent Labour party in Birmingham. My grandad was a flag-waving activist. I was born, in 1981, to socialist parents who worked in the public sector. Mrs Thatcher was in power and we’d go on rallies, marches and take part in picket lines from before I can remember.' (Jess Phillips, The Guardian, 18 July 2021)
Granny must have been less of a flag-waving socialist activist than she let on. Wonder how her picketing, rallying kids felt about mum obeying Margaret Thatcher's injunction to buy her council house? Given that they sent darling Jess to a selective grammar school ten years later, perhaps it was where the rot set in.
You don't get sent to a selective grammar school. You win a place as a result of what can be a loaded exam.
"My Mom" - is this a Birmingham thing? The only place I know of in England who don't have a "Mum" are those in the North East who have a "Mam".
Yeah mom is a Birmingham thing, it is weird.
Also very much a US thing.
it's not. It is definitely British parlance now. Do you not have kids?
"Mum" will probably be gone entirely within 20 years. Blame social media
Really? Our kids still say "mum" despite two of them actually being American. In this country I've only ever heard "Mom" from Brummies. Other Americanisms are happening in our house, though. We do correct them when we can and try to encourage use of proper South London idioms in keeping with our surroundings.
If you go on Insta or Tik Tok you encounter a lot of British kids saying "Mom" now
The same process happened in Canada, they went from universal Mum to commonly saying Mom, because of the huge American influence. I doubt we will be different, sadly
Try Scandinavia. Officially our children are meant to be taught English English. Bollocks. They are taught US English. Everyone under 30 speaks and writes pure Yankee.
Yet they generally speak it with a British accent? They all speak English near-perfectly, but it is rare to find one with an American accent.
I dunno about spellings. They definitely use American idioms - as do we
Re: English as spoken by people who are NOT native speakers, it's interesting that
> Americans think that virtually ANYONE who speaks with what UKers call a posh (or quasi-posh) English-English accent is smart and/or sophisticated; it's a plus with us.
> Brits on the other hand find it downright offensive (in my humble experience anyway) when non-Americans speak with an American accent;' it's a minus with youse.
Why is that?
It demonstrates our waning cultural influence
Yes, it's definitely that, in part
But also I find it a pity, because a crisp, modestly RP British accent is, to my mind, the most beautiful form of English (and it is OUR language, after all)
It is interesting that in Asia it is all British English in officialdom (not sure about the kids). They clearly perceive the poshness aspect. The station announcers on some big Asian city subways sound like Audrey Hepburn - as does the lady who says "Mind the Gap" on the Tube. Perhaps they borrowed her
Ah, Audrey Hepburn. "Born in Ixelles, Brussels, Hepburn spent parts of her childhood in Belgium, England, and the Netherlands".
Pretty much as you were then. Our numbers are not really moving, unlike those on the continent.
As far as I can make out cases in the UK have been increasing since the 5th November, but we're not seeing an increase in hospitalizations yet, where the latest data is a continued decline on the 18th - so perhaps an increase is imminent.
The England data on the dashboard is more recent and shows a continued decline in admissions on the 21st, following a rise in cases since the 5th.
I think the previous trough in admissions we on the 28th September, which was following a trough in cases on the 13th September.
We will see in a few days whether the booster campaign is exerting a downward effect on hospitalizations that is greater than the increase in cases.
It clearly is, otherwise the rise in cases would have resulted in more hospital admissions rather than less. The link between infection and hospitalisation has been significantly weakened, almost broken. It is a public health triumph that we don't appreciate enough.
There's a lag between cases and admissions though, and based on the timings of the last trough a rise in UK admissions would be one day early if it was seen in the latest figures and two days late if seen in the next English figures - so it's still possible we will see an increase in admissions following the recent increase in cases, though I'm starting to be optimistic that we won't on the basis of the English figures.
Sure, but the lag is about 2 weeks for hospitalisation and another couple for deaths. If numbers of cases have been increasing since November 5th and hospital admissions have fallen over the last week I do not think it is too early to say that the link has at least been weakened. It is possible that one may still increase enough to outweigh the other but I agree that it looks increasingly unlikely. Meanwhile 27.2% of the population over 12 has already had the booster.
The hospital figures are published in arrears.
The cases for the older groups who are at more than moderate risk of hospitalisation have been holding steady/falling in England. The increase in cases is for children who are below the vaccination age.....
Personal statement - yesterday got my copy of "The British General Election of 2019" which was published just this past spring.
Cover photo features Boris Johnson wearing a sly grin (composite of Benny Hill & Alfred E. Neuman?) and a "Get Brexit Done' apron, and carrying what appears to be a casserole of some sort (perhaps an old Etonian favorite such as "badgers in a trap" or somesuch?) fresh from the (Brexit) oven.
My copy is paperback fully 1.5 inches thick, 659 pages. Chock full of both nuts (for example Nigel Farage), facts and analysis until the cows (or the chickens?) come home.
For me only downside is the choice of cartoons used as illustrations/examples, as I do NOT like as general rule complex, multi-color, often downright nasty and/or macabre efforts in faux Gilray-Stedman style. Much prefer the work of Marf and Matt - much more in the spirit of Low humor!
FYI, am now the proud possessor of all 21 editions of "The British General Election" series from 1945 forward, if you are not familiar with them, check them out!
You are officially Chief PB Nerd. Well done sir!
*sniff* No, it's fine, I won't take that personally. *Sniff*. I'll just go away with my hard copy of Erskine May and lament my lack of political encyclopedias.
It you've genuially got hard copies of Erskine May... That would be pretty hard core.
Just the one. I'm bloody annoyed it is now available online, as it's ruined the ability to brag about it to wonks.
I was under the assumption that Erskine was more than one book?
Does it take up much storage capacity?
My edition (24th) is about 1100 pages, pretty small text, but my understanding is that editions have changed massively over the years in terms of detailing the past situation and what changes there have been, for reasons of space, so you don't get a very clear picture of how it has developed for every part of it.
I'd have to check but I don't think it itself collates all standing orders of the House either.
Personal statement - yesterday got my copy of "The British General Election of 2019" which was published just this past spring.
Cover photo features Boris Johnson wearing a sly grin (composite of Benny Hill & Alfred E. Neuman?) and a "Get Brexit Done' apron, and carrying what appears to be a casserole of some sort (perhaps an old Etonian favorite such as "badgers in a trap" or somesuch?) fresh from the (Brexit) oven.
My copy is paperback fully 1.5 inches thick, 659 pages. Chock full of both nuts (for example Nigel Farage), facts and analysis until the cows (or the chickens?) come home.
For me only downside is the choice of cartoons used as illustrations/examples, as I do NOT like as general rule complex, multi-color, often downright nasty and/or macabre efforts in faux Gilray-Stedman style. Much prefer the work of Marf and Matt - much more in the spirit of Low humor!
FYI, am now the proud possessor of all 21 editions of "The British General Election" series from 1945 forward, if you are not familiar with them, check them out!
You are officially Chief PB Nerd. Well done sir!
*sniff* No, it's fine, I won't take that personally. *Sniff*. I'll just go away with my hard copy of Erskine May and lament my lack of political encyclopedias.
It you've genuially got hard copies of Erskine May... That would be pretty hard core.
I've got a hard copy of Erskine May (17th edition).
On the shelf it's right next to my copy of "[US] Senate Procedure" (1981) which was formerly owned by the late, great US Senator Henry "Scoop" Jackson (D-WA); his name is embossed on the front.
WATCH: Labour’s Shadow NI Secretary tells me that if there was a referendum on a united Ireland that the British government and British political parties should not campaign for the Union “if there is a border poll, we should remain neutral”
Blair publicly supported the union. Starmer has said he would campaign for the union in a border poll. But such is the facile level of understanding about the Good Friday Agreement it is now assumed the UK is the only state in the world that cannot campaign for its own existence.
I think the best policy is not to campaign... let the people of NI decide.
Do you think the Irish government will follow your advice?
I suspect they will.
It is not currently clear to me whether the Irish government would want a united Ireland given the financial and social issues that come with it; I very much doubt whther they would want it on the back of a devisive referendum the outcome of which they have narrowly helped sway.
The Irish government probably doesn't need to campaign itself as there will be plenty of Ireland to do that anyway, whereas sadly I doubt as many in rUK would do so absent the involvement of the UK government.
As to whether they would want it or not, admittedly I don't knowas much about Irish politics as I should, but whatever the private feelings or cold hard numbers, I'd always assumed no Irish political party would openly say they don't want the return of NI. And thus it would be impossible to in practice be neutral.
On this side of the water some people get into some weird presumptions about it implying islands being unified is just an inevitable fact of life, which doesn't tend to get extended elsewhere.
ROI politicians have made their opinion on the matter very well known.
Hense the lack of the Irish President to the centenary of NI celebrations.
Dad of Birmingham Jess Phillips MP writes glorious letter defending her roots
...my Mom worked as a conductor on the buses during the war... My Mom remarried when I was four years old, and with my wonderful stepfather we eventually got a council house of our own in Sheldon (also part of Jess's constituency). Jess's other Grandma was a dinner lady at the local school in Yardley - are you getting the links!
Jess Phillips MP @jessphillips Mrs Thatcher told my Gran to buy her council house. She said it would mean she had something to leave her family. Boris Johnson says to all those who bought their modest 2 bed houses that he's going to take it all away, while people like him get to keep so much
What a difference four months make:
'I was given a sense of injustice from the day I was born. My grandparents set up the independent Labour party in Birmingham. My grandad was a flag-waving activist. I was born, in 1981, to socialist parents who worked in the public sector. Mrs Thatcher was in power and we’d go on rallies, marches and take part in picket lines from before I can remember.' (Jess Phillips, The Guardian, 18 July 2021)
Granny must have been less of a flag-waving socialist activist than she let on. Wonder how her picketing, rallying kids felt about mum obeying Margaret Thatcher's injunction to buy her council house? Given that they sent darling Jess to a selective grammar school ten years later, perhaps it was where the rot set in.
You don't get sent to a selective grammar school. You win a place as a result of what can be a loaded exam.
"My Mom" - is this a Birmingham thing? The only place I know of in England who don't have a "Mum" are those in the North East who have a "Mam".
Yeah mom is a Birmingham thing, it is weird.
Also very much a US thing.
it's not. It is definitely British parlance now. Do you not have kids?
"Mum" will probably be gone entirely within 20 years. Blame social media
Really? Our kids still say "mum" despite two of them actually being American. In this country I've only ever heard "Mom" from Brummies. Other Americanisms are happening in our house, though. We do correct them when we can and try to encourage use of proper South London idioms in keeping with our surroundings.
If you go on Insta or Tik Tok you encounter a lot of British kids saying "Mom" now
The same process happened in Canada, they went from universal Mum to commonly saying Mom, because of the huge American influence. I doubt we will be different, sadly
Try Scandinavia. Officially our children are meant to be taught English English. Bollocks. They are taught US English. Everyone under 30 speaks and writes pure Yankee.
Yet they generally speak it with a British accent? They all speak English near-perfectly, but it is rare to find one with an American accent.
I dunno about spellings. They definitely use American idioms - as do we
What Stuart says may be true about Sweden but it is certainly not true about Norway. I worked there for 15 years and mixed with all manner of Norwegians from those who spoke almost no English to those who spoke it as well as any Englishman I have ever met. A few I worked with had very definite US accents and pronunciations, a lot more had very British accents and, not surprisingly, most had Norwegian accents. But they all spoke what would be regarded as British rather than American English, using British words rather than their US alternatives.
A lot of Norwegians get their language skills from two main sources; US and British TV - in pretty much equal amounts, both of which are shown solely in their original language and often without Norwegian subtitles - and UK football. Norwegians are fanatical about UK football teams, particularly the Premier League and prior to the pandemic there were planes leaving Norwegian airports every Friday night completely filled with Norwegian supporters travelling to UK hubs to go and watch their favourite team.
Norwegians on the whole are far closer to British in a whole raft of ways including the form of English they speak, than they are the the US.
In both language and
My brief research right now suggest you and Stuart are right. The Swedes DO tend to have faint but discernible American accents (tho not all), the Norwegians are definitely much more British. The Danes somewhere in between?
As I say in Asia there is definite demand for British English teachers, the accent has higher status in many places
Pretty much as you were then. Our numbers are not really moving, unlike those on the continent.
As far as I can make out cases in the UK have been increasing since the 5th November, but we're not seeing an increase in hospitalizations yet, where the latest data is a continued decline on the 18th - so perhaps an increase is imminent.
The England data on the dashboard is more recent and shows a continued decline in admissions on the 21st, following a rise in cases since the 5th.
I think the previous trough in admissions we on the 28th September, which was following a trough in cases on the 13th September.
We will see in a few days whether the booster campaign is exerting a downward effect on hospitalizations that is greater than the increase in cases.
It clearly is, otherwise the rise in cases would have resulted in more hospital admissions rather than less. The link between infection and hospitalisation has been significantly weakened, almost broken. It is a public health triumph that we don't appreciate enough.
There's a lag between cases and admissions though, and based on the timings of the last trough a rise in UK admissions would be one day early if it was seen in the latest figures and two days late if seen in the next English figures - so it's still possible we will see an increase in admissions following the recent increase in cases, though I'm starting to be optimistic that we won't on the basis of the English figures.
Sure, but the lag is about 2 weeks for hospitalisation and another couple for deaths. If numbers of cases have been increasing since November 5th and hospital admissions have fallen over the last week I do not think it is too early to say that the link has at least been weakened. It is possible that one may still increase enough to outweigh the other but I agree that it looks increasingly unlikely. Meanwhile 27.2% of the population over 12 has already had the booster.
The hospital figures are published in arrears.
The cases for the older groups who are at more than moderate risk of hospitalisation have been holding steady/falling in England. The increase in cases is for children who are below the vaccination age.....
So the 'fourth wave' is almost entirely schoolchildren, plus a sprinkling of parents, and next to nobody else.
WATCH: Labour’s Shadow NI Secretary tells me that if there was a referendum on a united Ireland that the British government and British political parties should not campaign for the Union “if there is a border poll, we should remain neutral”
Blair publicly supported the union. Starmer has said he would campaign for the union in a border poll. But such is the facile level of understanding about the Good Friday Agreement it is now assumed the UK is the only state in the world that cannot campaign for its own existence.
I think the best policy is not to campaign... let the people of NI decide.
Do you think the Irish government will follow your advice?
I suspect they will.
It is not currently clear to me whether the Irish government would want a united Ireland given the financial and social issues that come with it; I very much doubt whther they would want it on the back of a devisive referendum the outcome of which they have narrowly helped sway.
They may or may not, deep down, want it. But they can't say they don't. Nor even really broach the subject in public. So we'll never know.
Which is why they will hide behind the screen of neutrality: 'it is for the people of NI to decide'.
This is absolutely not the case. The current coalition government on Ireland had created a new unit for Irish unity in the Taoiseach's office. They are all unequivocally behind Irish unity. They have many disagreements on what they should be doing to prepare for, or encourage, it, however.
There was an interesting discussion on RTÉ not too long ago. I'll see if I can find a link.
The future is a unfied Ireland and it always will be.
Not in Antrim, East Londonderry, East Belfast or the north of Down it won't be
There's a boring 'in the middle' truth here. The Con GE19 landslide WAS due to Corbyn's weakness as a candidate. But it was also due to Johnson's strength. It was, truly, the Brexit election and it was Brexit that cemented the negative/positive view of the 2 leaders. For Johnson, hellbent on pushing Brexit through, his breezy 'can-do' persona was burnished. For Corbyn, dithering and triangulating, his previous rep as a man of principle was destroyed. So, that 80 seat result, it was Corbyn, and it was Johnson, but above all it was BREXIT.
It was above all CORBYN.
I loathe Boris. I loathe Brexit. But I loathe Corbyn about a million million million times more.
And I imagine as I think so does perhaps a majority-winning number of reasonably centrist types around the country.
It was above all CORBYN.
You're projecting, I'm analysing.
You would rather that the anti-semitic, Brit-hating, terrorist-loving c**t who you supported was a minor factor in the election result.
But he wasn't.
You replied to my post without reading it. It said that both Johnson and Corbyn were major factors.
I did read it. You are right they were all major factors but the most important one was Corbyn.
But that said I'm sure someone has the evidence to support either your or my point. I tried a mini-google but gave up.
Brexit, for me, since it was the biggest (almost only) issue in its own right and it also impacted positively on Johnson's image and negatively on Corbyn's. Hence it had a massive direct impact and a significant indirect impact. This is to repeat the main point in the post I wrote so I think that needs to be a wrap.
The issue as to why Corbyn was quite so disastrous though was that he was disliked by all sorts, so there was far less room for Labour to gain or hold people who were bothered about Brexit but might cast a vote differently, whichever way they jumped. A significant number of staunch remainers would never vote for him - either because they were generally Tory and viewed him as PM an even more dangerously stupid idea than Brexit or were ex-Labour/floating voters bothered by antisemitism or the extremism it served as a prime example of. It's remarkable in hidsight given the divides on Brexit that there were no Tory to Labour defections given how the significant anti-Brexit minority were basically told to get out of the Tory Party. Except of course it wasn't because someone like David Gauke was never going to endorse Jeremy Corbyn as PM - even as a gamble to get a desired outcome on Brexit.
Disastrously, though he couldn't embrace Brexit to counterbalance that, as why on Earth would a Labour leave/UKIP voter bothered about things like immigration, sovereignty and national prestige, vote for someone whose entire persona and support base was being vocally in opposition to those notions? Even if they turned round and said 'Brexit is great'. So they ended up where they had to be on damage limitation - in part because they had a leader so unpopular he couldn't take his own stance on Brexit and build a coalition around that.
Good analysis imo. Couple of points I'd not so much add but stress.
That Corbyn was unpalatable to Remainer Tories and Centrists meant they forewent the opportunity to put him in as caretaker PM with a brief to deliver Ref2 and cancel Brexit. PM Corbyn was a bigger bad for them than Hard Brexit was.
Antisemitism was a self-inflicted wound for Labour but Brexit was not. The policy they ended up with for the GE was the worst possible apart from all the alternatives. Soon as Johnson threw the DUP under a bus, accepted the Brexit deal that 'no PM could ever accept', and framed the 'people v parliament' narrative, Labour were sunk. It was only about the margin. Big or very big. Maybe a not Corbyn could have limited it to just big.
WATCH: Labour’s Shadow NI Secretary tells me that if there was a referendum on a united Ireland that the British government and British political parties should not campaign for the Union “if there is a border poll, we should remain neutral”
Blair publicly supported the union. Starmer has said he would campaign for the union in a border poll. But such is the facile level of understanding about the Good Friday Agreement it is now assumed the UK is the only state in the world that cannot campaign for its own existence.
I think the best policy is not to campaign... let the people of NI decide.
Do you think the Irish government will follow your advice?
I suspect they will.
It is not currently clear to me whether the Irish government would want a united Ireland given the financial and social issues that come with it; I very much doubt whther they would want it on the back of a devisive referendum the outcome of which they have narrowly helped sway.
They may or may not, deep down, want it. But they can't say they don't. Nor even really broach the subject in public. So we'll never know.
Which is why they will hide behind the screen of neutrality: 'it is for the people of NI to decide'.
That is not going to happen; all 3 parties in ROI will campaign for a united Ireland.
Labour have lost the plot on this one.
Indeed, while 2019 Labour voters may prefer a United Ireland to NI staying in the UK by 33% to 31%, UK voters overall prefer NI staying in the UK to a United Ireland by 37% to 27% https://twitter.com/YouGov/status/1463187662890680326?s=20
Personal statement - yesterday got my copy of "The British General Election of 2019" which was published just this past spring.
Cover photo features Boris Johnson wearing a sly grin (composite of Benny Hill & Alfred E. Neuman?) and a "Get Brexit Done' apron, and carrying what appears to be a casserole of some sort (perhaps an old Etonian favorite such as "badgers in a trap" or somesuch?) fresh from the (Brexit) oven.
My copy is paperback fully 1.5 inches thick, 659 pages. Chock full of both nuts (for example Nigel Farage), facts and analysis until the cows (or the chickens?) come home.
For me only downside is the choice of cartoons used as illustrations/examples, as I do NOT like as general rule complex, multi-color, often downright nasty and/or macabre efforts in faux Gilray-Stedman style. Much prefer the work of Marf and Matt - much more in the spirit of Low humor!
FYI, am now the proud possessor of all 21 editions of "The British General Election" series from 1945 forward, if you are not familiar with them, check them out!
You are officially Chief PB Nerd. Well done sir!
*sniff* No, it's fine, I won't take that personally. *Sniff*. I'll just go away with my hard copy of Erskine May and lament my lack of political encyclopedias.
It you've genuially got hard copies of Erskine May... That would be pretty hard core.
I've got a hard copy of Erskine May (17th edition).
On the shelf it's right next to my copy of "[US] Senate Procedure" (1981) which was formerly owned by the late, great US Senator Henry "Scoop" Jackson (D-WA); his name is embossed on the front.
WATCH: Labour’s Shadow NI Secretary tells me that if there was a referendum on a united Ireland that the British government and British political parties should not campaign for the Union “if there is a border poll, we should remain neutral”
Blair publicly supported the union. Starmer has said he would campaign for the union in a border poll. But such is the facile level of understanding about the Good Friday Agreement it is now assumed the UK is the only state in the world that cannot campaign for its own existence.
I think the best policy is not to campaign... let the people of NI decide.
Do you think the Irish government will follow your advice?
I suspect they will.
It is not currently clear to me whether the Irish government would want a united Ireland given the financial and social issues that come with it; I very much doubt whther they would want it on the back of a devisive referendum the outcome of which they have narrowly helped sway.
They may or may not, deep down, want it. But they can't say they don't. Nor even really broach the subject in public. So we'll never know.
Which is why they will hide behind the screen of neutrality: 'it is for the people of NI to decide'.
This is absolutely not the case. The current coalition government on Ireland had created a new unit for Irish unity in the Taoiseach's office. They are all unequivocally behind Irish unity. They have many disagreements on what they should be doing to prepare for, or encourage, it, however.
There was an interesting discussion on RTÉ not too long ago. I'll see if I can find a link.
The future is a unfied Ireland and it always will be.
Not in Antrim, East Londonderry, East Belfast or the north of Down it won't be
You really aren't very bright - and continually come back to your cut and paste comments without thinking through the points others have made earlier on.
Middle England, not Nigel Farage, is now Boris Johnson’s biggest political challenge.
Thanks to the economy and the PM's governing style, the Tories should be worried about losing voters they won back in 2005.
Johnson’s allies are convinced Farage and a new right wing force could pose a huge danger in splitting the vote. “The old enemy is rearing his head,” one says.
But if Farage doesn’t come back, Richard Tice and Reform have shown scant campaigning success
Tory strategists reckon the next big battleground is a set of middle-class, middle-income, middle of the road, middle England seats which voted Tory because they were fed up with Labour. After 11 years in power, the cycle could be about to go into reverse
2005 is generally remembered for the Lib Dem surge. But the Tories also gained 33 seats, mostly in the south of England that set the foundations for their return to government. But some have already flipped back: Illford North, Enfield Southgate, Putney
WATCH: Labour’s Shadow NI Secretary tells me that if there was a referendum on a united Ireland that the British government and British political parties should not campaign for the Union “if there is a border poll, we should remain neutral”
Blair publicly supported the union. Starmer has said he would campaign for the union in a border poll. But such is the facile level of understanding about the Good Friday Agreement it is now assumed the UK is the only state in the world that cannot campaign for its own existence.
I think the best policy is not to campaign... let the people of NI decide.
Do you think the Irish government will follow your advice?
I suspect they will.
It is not currently clear to me whether the Irish government would want a united Ireland given the financial and social issues that come with it; I very much doubt whther they would want it on the back of a devisive referendum the outcome of which they have narrowly helped sway.
They may or may not, deep down, want it. But they can't say they don't. Nor even really broach the subject in public. So we'll never know.
Which is why they will hide behind the screen of neutrality: 'it is for the people of NI to decide'.
That is not going to happen; all 3 parties in ROI will campaign for a united Ireland.
Labour have lost the plot on this one.
Indeed, while 2019 Labour voters may prefer a United Ireland to NI staying in the UK by 33% to 31%, UK voters overall prefer NI staying in the UK to a United Ireland by 37% to 27% https://twitter.com/YouGov/status/1463187662890680326?s=20
How many people in mainland GB would notice for more than 15 minutes if Ireland united itself as God clearly intended?
There's a boring 'in the middle' truth here. The Con GE19 landslide WAS due to Corbyn's weakness as a candidate. But it was also due to Johnson's strength. It was, truly, the Brexit election and it was Brexit that cemented the negative/positive view of the 2 leaders. For Johnson, hellbent on pushing Brexit through, his breezy 'can-do' persona was burnished. For Corbyn, dithering and triangulating, his previous rep as a man of principle was destroyed. So, that 80 seat result, it was Corbyn, and it was Johnson, but above all it was BREXIT.
It was above all CORBYN.
I loathe Boris. I loathe Brexit. But I loathe Corbyn about a million million million times more.
And I imagine as I think so does perhaps a majority-winning number of reasonably centrist types around the country.
It was above all CORBYN.
You're projecting, I'm analysing.
You would rather that the anti-semitic, Brit-hating, terrorist-loving c**t who you supported was a minor factor in the election result.
But he wasn't.
You replied to my post without reading it. It said that both Johnson and Corbyn were major factors.
"You replied to my post without reading it." - saves time for busy, politically polarized (and polarizing) PBers.
That's true. If everyone read with great care every post to which they're responding, and then responded in a manner which made it clear that they had, PB would much the poorer.
Pretty much as you were then. Our numbers are not really moving, unlike those on the continent.
As far as I can make out cases in the UK have been increasing since the 5th November, but we're not seeing an increase in hospitalizations yet, where the latest data is a continued decline on the 18th - so perhaps an increase is imminent.
The England data on the dashboard is more recent and shows a continued decline in admissions on the 21st, following a rise in cases since the 5th.
I think the previous trough in admissions we on the 28th September, which was following a trough in cases on the 13th September.
We will see in a few days whether the booster campaign is exerting a downward effect on hospitalizations that is greater than the increase in cases.
It clearly is, otherwise the rise in cases would have resulted in more hospital admissions rather than less. The link between infection and hospitalisation has been significantly weakened, almost broken. It is a public health triumph that we don't appreciate enough.
There's a lag between cases and admissions though, and based on the timings of the last trough a rise in UK admissions would be one day early if it was seen in the latest figures and two days late if seen in the next English figures - so it's still possible we will see an increase in admissions following the recent increase in cases, though I'm starting to be optimistic that we won't on the basis of the English figures.
Sure, but the lag is about 2 weeks for hospitalisation and another couple for deaths. If numbers of cases have been increasing since November 5th and hospital admissions have fallen over the last week I do not think it is too early to say that the link has at least been weakened. It is possible that one may still increase enough to outweigh the other but I agree that it looks increasingly unlikely. Meanwhile 27.2% of the population over 12 has already had the booster.
The hospital figures are published in arrears.
The cases for the older groups who are at more than moderate risk of hospitalisation have been holding steady/falling in England. The increase in cases is for children who are below the vaccination age.....
So the 'fourth wave' is almost entirely schoolchildren, plus a sprinkling of parents, and next to nobody else.
I wouldn't say that.
But the current case numbers are driven by unvacinnated children. And are falling among those who have received the boosters.
@Leon, those Ukraine demographic statistics are horrendous.
Yes, the equivalent in the UK would be our population falling from 67 million to about 50 million in the next 25 years. Twice the population of London: disappearing. In one generation. Remarkable and desolating...
Do those numbers include the loss of Crimea?
I believe so, there is a sudden drop around the time of the annexation. However it was falling hard before that, and it has continued to fall, hard, ever since
Pretty bleak outlook for Ukraine. It is also a negative feedback loop. The more young people leave the less viable the economy becomes, the fewer the opportunities, the villages are dead and the cities become sadder, and so even more people run away...
Sorry to correct you Leon, but that's a positive feedback loop. Negative feedback is stabilising.
Dad of Birmingham Jess Phillips MP writes glorious letter defending her roots
...my Mom worked as a conductor on the buses during the war... My Mom remarried when I was four years old, and with my wonderful stepfather we eventually got a council house of our own in Sheldon (also part of Jess's constituency). Jess's other Grandma was a dinner lady at the local school in Yardley - are you getting the links!
Jess Phillips MP @jessphillips Mrs Thatcher told my Gran to buy her council house. She said it would mean she had something to leave her family. Boris Johnson says to all those who bought their modest 2 bed houses that he's going to take it all away, while people like him get to keep so much
What a difference four months make:
'I was given a sense of injustice from the day I was born. My grandparents set up the independent Labour party in Birmingham. My grandad was a flag-waving activist. I was born, in 1981, to socialist parents who worked in the public sector. Mrs Thatcher was in power and we’d go on rallies, marches and take part in picket lines from before I can remember.' (Jess Phillips, The Guardian, 18 July 2021)
Granny must have been less of a flag-waving socialist activist than she let on. Wonder how her picketing, rallying kids felt about mum obeying Margaret Thatcher's injunction to buy her council house? Given that they sent darling Jess to a selective grammar school ten years later, perhaps it was where the rot set in.
You don't get sent to a selective grammar school. You win a place as a result of what can be a loaded exam.
"My Mom" - is this a Birmingham thing? The only place I know of in England who don't have a "Mum" are those in the North East who have a "Mam".
Yeah mom is a Birmingham thing, it is weird.
Also very much a US thing.
it's not. It is definitely British parlance now. Do you not have kids?
"Mum" will probably be gone entirely within 20 years. Blame social media
Really? Our kids still say "mum" despite two of them actually being American. In this country I've only ever heard "Mom" from Brummies. Other Americanisms are happening in our house, though. We do correct them when we can and try to encourage use of proper South London idioms in keeping with our surroundings.
If you go on Insta or Tik Tok you encounter a lot of British kids saying "Mom" now
The same process happened in Canada, they went from universal Mum to commonly saying Mom, because of the huge American influence. I doubt we will be different, sadly
Try Scandinavia. Officially our children are meant to be taught English English. Bollocks. They are taught US English. Everyone under 30 speaks and writes pure Yankee.
Yet they generally speak it with a British accent? They all speak English near-perfectly, but it is rare to find one with an American accent.
I dunno about spellings. They definitely use American idioms - as do we
What Stuart says may be true about Sweden but it is certainly not true about Norway. I worked there for 15 years and mixed with all manner of Norwegians from those who spoke almost no English to those who spoke it as well as any Englishman I have ever met. A few I worked with had very definite US accents and pronunciations, a lot more had very British accents and, not surprisingly, most had Norwegian accents. But they all spoke what would be regarded as British rather than American English, using British words rather than their US alternatives.
A lot of Norwegians get their language skills from two main sources; US and British TV - in pretty much equal amounts, both of which are shown solely in their original language and often without Norwegian subtitles - and UK football. Norwegians are fanatical about UK football teams, particularly the Premier League and prior to the pandemic there were planes leaving Norwegian airports every Friday night completely filled with Norwegian supporters travelling to UK hubs to go and watch their favourite team.
Norwegians on the whole are far closer to British in a whole raft of ways including the form of English they speak, than they are the the US.
In both language and
My brief research right now suggest you and Stuart are right. The Swedes DO tend to have faint but discernible American accents (tho not all), the Norwegians are definitely much more British. The Danes somewhere in between?
As I say in Asia there is definite demand for British English teachers, the accent has higher status in many places
I remember asking someone who had a perfect American accent where in the US he was from and he said Hackney. His mother was Irish and his father was English.
Middle England, not Nigel Farage, is now Boris Johnson’s biggest political challenge.
Thanks to the economy and the PM's governing style, the Tories should be worried about losing voters they won back in 2005.
Johnson’s allies are convinced Farage and a new right wing force could pose a huge danger in splitting the vote. “The old enemy is rearing his head,” one says.
But if Farage doesn’t come back, Richard Tice and Reform have shown scant campaigning success
Tory strategists reckon the next big battleground is a set of middle-class, middle-income, middle of the road, middle England seats which voted Tory because they were fed up with Labour. After 11 years in power, the cycle could be about to go into reverse
2005 is generally remembered for the Lib Dem surge. But the Tories also gained 33 seats, mostly in the south of England that set the foundations for their return to government. But some have already flipped back: Illford North, Enfield Southgate, Putney
Let's use Bucks as an example. Lib Dems focus on Chesham and Amersham, Beaconsfield while allowing Labour to focus on High Wycombe.
There are 3 seats that I can easily see the Tories not winning at the next election. Likewise Aylesbury (Labour), Henley and Buckingham shared based on spare resources.
I don’t gloat at anyone’s demise but what a grade A plum
It is interesting. Personally I agree with you that he was a fool. But if the Government has forced you, by law, to have antibodies to be able to function in society, and if you genuinely believe that the vaccines are dangerous, then what he did was completely logical and obvious. Ultimately this is a perfectly predictable outcome of such laws.
I governments are so convinced that everyone should be vaccinated - and again I agree that is the best thing for everyone if possible - then the only way to avoid these sorts of situations is to make vaccination mandatory, not through making life difficult for the unvaccinated but by forcibly insisting everyone is jabbed.
For me that is a step too far. But this is incident - and there will be plenty more - is a direct result of the vaccination laws currently being enacted in Europe.
@Leon, those Ukraine demographic statistics are horrendous.
Yes, the equivalent in the UK would be our population falling from 67 million to about 50 million in the next 25 years. Twice the population of London: disappearing. In one generation. Remarkable and desolating...
Do those numbers include the loss of Crimea?
I believe so, there is a sudden drop around the time of the annexation. However it was falling hard before that, and it has continued to fall, hard, ever since
Pretty bleak outlook for Ukraine. It is also a negative feedback loop. The more young people leave the less viable the economy becomes, the fewer the opportunities, the villages are dead and the cities become sadder, and so even more people run away...
Sorry to correct you Leon, but that's a positive feedback loop. Negative feedback is stabilising.
It is however a very bad positive feedback loop due to it's negative consequences.
WATCH: Labour’s Shadow NI Secretary tells me that if there was a referendum on a united Ireland that the British government and British political parties should not campaign for the Union “if there is a border poll, we should remain neutral”
Blair publicly supported the union. Starmer has said he would campaign for the union in a border poll. But such is the facile level of understanding about the Good Friday Agreement it is now assumed the UK is the only state in the world that cannot campaign for its own existence.
I think the best policy is not to campaign... let the people of NI decide.
Do you think the Irish government will follow your advice?
I suspect they will.
It is not currently clear to me whether the Irish government would want a united Ireland given the financial and social issues that come with it; I very much doubt whther they would want it on the back of a devisive referendum the outcome of which they have narrowly helped sway.
They may or may not, deep down, want it. But they can't say they don't. Nor even really broach the subject in public. So we'll never know.
Which is why they will hide behind the screen of neutrality: 'it is for the people of NI to decide'.
That is not going to happen; all 3 parties in ROI will campaign for a united Ireland.
Labour have lost the plot on this one.
Indeed, while 2019 Labour voters may prefer a United Ireland to NI staying in the UK by 33% to 31%, UK voters overall prefer NI staying in the UK to a United Ireland by 37% to 27% https://twitter.com/YouGov/status/1463187662890680326?s=20
How many people in mainland GB would notice for more than 15 minutes if Ireland united itself as God clearly intended?
There's a boring 'in the middle' truth here. The Con GE19 landslide WAS due to Corbyn's weakness as a candidate. But it was also due to Johnson's strength. It was, truly, the Brexit election and it was Brexit that cemented the negative/positive view of the 2 leaders. For Johnson, hellbent on pushing Brexit through, his breezy 'can-do' persona was burnished. For Corbyn, dithering and triangulating, his previous rep as a man of principle was destroyed. So, that 80 seat result, it was Corbyn, and it was Johnson, but above all it was BREXIT.
Yes
And remember that brilliant Xmas Election ad with Boris at the door
The best British political ad I've ever seen. Powerful and persuasive, and it relies almost entirely on Boris' charm and charisma. Of recent prime ministers only Blair at his peak could equal that. Imagine Major or Cameron or May trying it on. Cringe
Farooq made a brilliant analogy on the prior thread. Campaigning is like conceiving, Governing is like parenting. Boris is now surrounded by the tedious nappies of political reality (and real nappies, as well). He needs to learn to be a decent Dad, super quick
That was effective but the killer (imo) was him driving a truck through the fake wall in that factory. The wall was the Brexit impasse and he just damn well drove through it and knocked it over, boom, it's gone. For the Brexit election, with most of the country sick and tired of the wrangling, it was perfect. Worth a million words. And it played to his big bear physicality, also it ... oh ffs I can't go on, all true, this stuff, but I just can't be typing any more of it out, it both bugs and bores me at the same time. BoJo gave us Brexit, yes, but a deeper truth is that Brexit gave us BoJo and we're stuck with him until we aren't.
How much of that campaign really brilliance of Boris or spin doctors utilising him effectively with their own brilliant ideas?
And another element in winning elections, making promises people like and reassures them. Surely the simple answer as polls go against you is you didn’t deliver your promises.
Bit of both, I guess. And you're right about promises. Back at GE19 he hadn't had that long as PM to break any. He has now and boy is he on it. The difficulty is to point to one he hasn't broken.
Still, back to the (imo) bad take of GE19 was all or mainly about how bad Jeremy Corbyn was. Perhaps the strongest piece of evidence against this is that when Mrs May fell Labour under JC were polling strongly - then in short order after Johnson took over and framed his desired Brexit narrative the Cons were smashing them. The poll lead then became the 80 seat Con win. How can this be explained if Corbyn was the main driver of it?
I guess the answer to your question at the end there, suddenly, unexpectedly, people were given a real question to answer rather than hypothetical ones - these are the offices of power, it’s him or him, his party or his party in them? And once you make your mind up you can have Christmas. 🥳
But honestly, I think the header and yourself are both right. Something like the forced choice I have just given main reason, some percentage behind is I love Brexit get it done, in the mix is I no longer give toss about Brexit just get it out my face, and then tribal as always voting. And then between 10 to 50 people who always voted Conservative, but since Boris charmed them into bed and gone by first light didn’t this time. And then about 5 to 10 people who have never voted Labour before but just liked the idea of faster broadband.
Dad of Birmingham Jess Phillips MP writes glorious letter defending her roots
...my Mom worked as a conductor on the buses during the war... My Mom remarried when I was four years old, and with my wonderful stepfather we eventually got a council house of our own in Sheldon (also part of Jess's constituency). Jess's other Grandma was a dinner lady at the local school in Yardley - are you getting the links!
Jess Phillips MP @jessphillips Mrs Thatcher told my Gran to buy her council house. She said it would mean she had something to leave her family. Boris Johnson says to all those who bought their modest 2 bed houses that he's going to take it all away, while people like him get to keep so much
What a difference four months make:
'I was given a sense of injustice from the day I was born. My grandparents set up the independent Labour party in Birmingham. My grandad was a flag-waving activist. I was born, in 1981, to socialist parents who worked in the public sector. Mrs Thatcher was in power and we’d go on rallies, marches and take part in picket lines from before I can remember.' (Jess Phillips, The Guardian, 18 July 2021)
Granny must have been less of a flag-waving socialist activist than she let on. Wonder how her picketing, rallying kids felt about mum obeying Margaret Thatcher's injunction to buy her council house? Given that they sent darling Jess to a selective grammar school ten years later, perhaps it was where the rot set in.
You don't get sent to a selective grammar school. You win a place as a result of what can be a loaded exam.
"My Mom" - is this a Birmingham thing? The only place I know of in England who don't have a "Mum" are those in the North East who have a "Mam".
Yeah mom is a Birmingham thing, it is weird.
Also very much a US thing.
it's not. It is definitely British parlance now. Do you not have kids?
"Mum" will probably be gone entirely within 20 years. Blame social media
Really? Our kids still say "mum" despite two of them actually being American. In this country I've only ever heard "Mom" from Brummies. Other Americanisms are happening in our house, though. We do correct them when we can and try to encourage use of proper South London idioms in keeping with our surroundings.
If you go on Insta or Tik Tok you encounter a lot of British kids saying "Mom" now
The same process happened in Canada, they went from universal Mum to commonly saying Mom, because of the huge American influence. I doubt we will be different, sadly
Try Scandinavia. Officially our children are meant to be taught English English. Bollocks. They are taught US English. Everyone under 30 speaks and writes pure Yankee.
Yet they generally speak it with a British accent? They all speak English near-perfectly, but it is rare to find one with an American accent.
I dunno about spellings. They definitely use American idioms - as do we
Have you heard Crown Princess Victoria? I have followed and liked her for many years, but was shocked when I first heard her talking English. Yankee doodle dandy. And she has a mild case compared to the generation under her.
Listen to anybody under 20 and “British accents” are non-existent. YouTube accents abound.
Middle England, not Nigel Farage, is now Boris Johnson’s biggest political challenge.
Thanks to the economy and the PM's governing style, the Tories should be worried about losing voters they won back in 2005.
Johnson’s allies are convinced Farage and a new right wing force could pose a huge danger in splitting the vote. “The old enemy is rearing his head,” one says.
But if Farage doesn’t come back, Richard Tice and Reform have shown scant campaigning success
Tory strategists reckon the next big battleground is a set of middle-class, middle-income, middle of the road, middle England seats which voted Tory because they were fed up with Labour. After 11 years in power, the cycle could be about to go into reverse
2005 is generally remembered for the Lib Dem surge. But the Tories also gained 33 seats, mostly in the south of England that set the foundations for their return to government. But some have already flipped back: Illford North, Enfield Southgate, Putney
WATCH: Labour’s Shadow NI Secretary tells me that if there was a referendum on a united Ireland that the British government and British political parties should not campaign for the Union “if there is a border poll, we should remain neutral”
Blair publicly supported the union. Starmer has said he would campaign for the union in a border poll. But such is the facile level of understanding about the Good Friday Agreement it is now assumed the UK is the only state in the world that cannot campaign for its own existence.
I think the best policy is not to campaign... let the people of NI decide.
Do you think the Irish government will follow your advice?
I suspect they will.
It is not currently clear to me whether the Irish government would want a united Ireland given the financial and social issues that come with it; I very much doubt whther they would want it on the back of a devisive referendum the outcome of which they have narrowly helped sway.
They may or may not, deep down, want it. But they can't say they don't. Nor even really broach the subject in public. So we'll never know.
Which is why they will hide behind the screen of neutrality: 'it is for the people of NI to decide'.
That is not going to happen; all 3 parties in ROI will campaign for a united Ireland.
Labour have lost the plot on this one.
Indeed, while 2019 Labour voters may prefer a United Ireland to NI staying in the UK by 33% to 31%, UK voters overall prefer NI staying in the UK to a United Ireland by 37% to 27% https://twitter.com/YouGov/status/1463187662890680326?s=20
How many people in mainland GB would notice for more than 15 minutes if Ireland united itself as God clearly intended?
What about us Scots?
Meaning would you notice NI going, or would rUK notice if you went? Yes it would I think. Overseas is overseas.
Dad of Birmingham Jess Phillips MP writes glorious letter defending her roots
...my Mom worked as a conductor on the buses during the war... My Mom remarried when I was four years old, and with my wonderful stepfather we eventually got a council house of our own in Sheldon (also part of Jess's constituency). Jess's other Grandma was a dinner lady at the local school in Yardley - are you getting the links!
Jess Phillips MP @jessphillips Mrs Thatcher told my Gran to buy her council house. She said it would mean she had something to leave her family. Boris Johnson says to all those who bought their modest 2 bed houses that he's going to take it all away, while people like him get to keep so much
What a difference four months make:
'I was given a sense of injustice from the day I was born. My grandparents set up the independent Labour party in Birmingham. My grandad was a flag-waving activist. I was born, in 1981, to socialist parents who worked in the public sector. Mrs Thatcher was in power and we’d go on rallies, marches and take part in picket lines from before I can remember.' (Jess Phillips, The Guardian, 18 July 2021)
Granny must have been less of a flag-waving socialist activist than she let on. Wonder how her picketing, rallying kids felt about mum obeying Margaret Thatcher's injunction to buy her council house? Given that they sent darling Jess to a selective grammar school ten years later, perhaps it was where the rot set in.
You don't get sent to a selective grammar school. You win a place as a result of what can be a loaded exam.
"My Mom" - is this a Birmingham thing? The only place I know of in England who don't have a "Mum" are those in the North East who have a "Mam".
Yeah mom is a Birmingham thing, it is weird.
Also very much a US thing.
it's not. It is definitely British parlance now. Do you not have kids?
"Mum" will probably be gone entirely within 20 years. Blame social media
Really? Our kids still say "mum" despite two of them actually being American. In this country I've only ever heard "Mom" from Brummies. Other Americanisms are happening in our house, though. We do correct them when we can and try to encourage use of proper South London idioms in keeping with our surroundings.
If you go on Insta or Tik Tok you encounter a lot of British kids saying "Mom" now
The same process happened in Canada, they went from universal Mum to commonly saying Mom, because of the huge American influence. I doubt we will be different, sadly
Try Scandinavia. Officially our children are meant to be taught English English. Bollocks. They are taught US English. Everyone under 30 speaks and writes pure Yankee.
Yet they generally speak it with a British accent? They all speak English near-perfectly, but it is rare to find one with an American accent.
I dunno about spellings. They definitely use American idioms - as do we
Re: English as spoken by people who are NOT native speakers, it's interesting that
> Americans think that virtually ANYONE who speaks with what UKers call a posh (or quasi-posh) English-English accent is smart and/or sophisticated; it's a plus with us.
> Brits on the other hand find it downright offensive (in my humble experience anyway) when non-Americans speak with an American accent;' it's a minus with youse.
Why is that?
It demonstrates our waning cultural influence
Yes, it's definitely that, in part
But also I find it a pity, because a crisp, modestly RP British accent is, to my mind, the most beautiful form of English (and it is OUR language, after all)
It is interesting that in Asia it is all British English in officialdom (not sure about the kids). They clearly perceive the poshness aspect. The station announcers on some big Asian city subways sound like Audrey Hepburn - as does the lady who says "Mind the Gap" on the Tube. Perhaps they borrowed her
There is a great documentary of Jimmy Greaves on BT Sort - one of the things that stoods out for me was how well he spoke as a young man, for instance he used "one" in the posh way to describe himself, despite coming from Dagenham
From the official France Diplomacy account: Foreign Minister @JY_LeDrian claims that @BorisJohnson is a "populist who uses all elements at his disposal to blame others for problems he faces internally."
It’s true, but very odd to see this sort of thing from an ostensible ally.
Oh dear, oh dear.
France is not our ally.
What rot - your Francophobia does you no credit.
France is a great country, the French are generally nice people, we have much more in common than divides us, the petty rivalries on both sides are pointless and corrosive.
Time to grow up.
I'm not a Francophobe, I speak the language, love the food, love holidaying there.
You slip into Boris-lite mode too often when referring to the French for me to believe you are being ironic (same thing regards Wales and the Welsh).
It does you no credit, and I say that as a strong admirer of the majority of your views and posts.
Agreed. It's absolutely pathetic stuff from Eagles.
Would you describe it as racist?
I was kind of hoping my block days might be behind me.
Mind you, as a former wild one, who doesn’t dream of throwing the tv into the hotel pool from the 6th floor?
Dad of Birmingham Jess Phillips MP writes glorious letter defending her roots
...my Mom worked as a conductor on the buses during the war... My Mom remarried when I was four years old, and with my wonderful stepfather we eventually got a council house of our own in Sheldon (also part of Jess's constituency). Jess's other Grandma was a dinner lady at the local school in Yardley - are you getting the links!
Jess Phillips MP @jessphillips Mrs Thatcher told my Gran to buy her council house. She said it would mean she had something to leave her family. Boris Johnson says to all those who bought their modest 2 bed houses that he's going to take it all away, while people like him get to keep so much
What a difference four months make:
'I was given a sense of injustice from the day I was born. My grandparents set up the independent Labour party in Birmingham. My grandad was a flag-waving activist. I was born, in 1981, to socialist parents who worked in the public sector. Mrs Thatcher was in power and we’d go on rallies, marches and take part in picket lines from before I can remember.' (Jess Phillips, The Guardian, 18 July 2021)
Granny must have been less of a flag-waving socialist activist than she let on. Wonder how her picketing, rallying kids felt about mum obeying Margaret Thatcher's injunction to buy her council house? Given that they sent darling Jess to a selective grammar school ten years later, perhaps it was where the rot set in.
You don't get sent to a selective grammar school. You win a place as a result of what can be a loaded exam.
"My Mom" - is this a Birmingham thing? The only place I know of in England who don't have a "Mum" are those in the North East who have a "Mam".
Yeah mom is a Birmingham thing, it is weird.
Also very much a US thing.
it's not. It is definitely British parlance now. Do you not have kids?
"Mum" will probably be gone entirely within 20 years. Blame social media
Really? Our kids still say "mum" despite two of them actually being American. In this country I've only ever heard "Mom" from Brummies. Other Americanisms are happening in our house, though. We do correct them when we can and try to encourage use of proper South London idioms in keeping with our surroundings.
If you go on Insta or Tik Tok you encounter a lot of British kids saying "Mom" now
The same process happened in Canada, they went from universal Mum to commonly saying Mom, because of the huge American influence. I doubt we will be different, sadly
Try Scandinavia. Officially our children are meant to be taught English English. Bollocks. They are taught US English. Everyone under 30 speaks and writes pure Yankee.
Yet they generally speak it with a British accent? They all speak English near-perfectly, but it is rare to find one with an American accent.
I dunno about spellings. They definitely use American idioms - as do we
Have you heard Crown Princess Victoria? I have followed and liked her for many years, but was shocked when I first heard her talking English. Yankee doodle dandy. And she has a mild case compared to the generation under her.
Listen to anybody under 20 and “British accents” are non-existent. YouTube accents abound.
Yes, I yield. I just checked on Youtube. Very American in Sweden. Yet British in Norway. An odd mix
There's a boring 'in the middle' truth here. The Con GE19 landslide WAS due to Corbyn's weakness as a candidate. But it was also due to Johnson's strength. It was, truly, the Brexit election and it was Brexit that cemented the negative/positive view of the 2 leaders. For Johnson, hellbent on pushing Brexit through, his breezy 'can-do' persona was burnished. For Corbyn, dithering and triangulating, his previous rep as a man of principle was destroyed. So, that 80 seat result, it was Corbyn, and it was Johnson, but above all it was BREXIT.
It was above all CORBYN.
I loathe Boris. I loathe Brexit. But I loathe Corbyn about a million million million times more.
And I imagine as I think so does perhaps a majority-winning number of reasonably centrist types around the country.
It was above all CORBYN.
You're projecting, I'm analysing.
You would rather that the anti-semitic, Brit-hating, terrorist-loving c**t who you supported was a minor factor in the election result.
But he wasn't.
You replied to my post without reading it. It said that both Johnson and Corbyn were major factors.
I did read it. You are right they were all major factors but the most important one was Corbyn.
But that said I'm sure someone has the evidence to support either your or my point. I tried a mini-google but gave up.
Brexit, for me, since it was the biggest (almost only) issue in its own right and it also impacted positively on Johnson's image and negatively on Corbyn's. Hence it had a massive direct impact and a significant indirect impact. This is to repeat the main point in the post I wrote so I think that needs to be a wrap.
The issue as to why Corbyn was quite so disastrous though was that he was disliked by all sorts, so there was far less room for Labour to gain or hold people who were bothered about Brexit but might cast a vote differently, whichever way they jumped. A significant number of staunch remainers would never vote for him - either because they were generally Tory and viewed him as PM an even more dangerously stupid idea than Brexit or were ex-Labour/floating voters bothered by antisemitism or the extremism it served as a prime example of. It's remarkable in hidsight given the divides on Brexit that there were no Tory to Labour defections given how the significant anti-Brexit minority were basically told to get out of the Tory Party. Except of course it wasn't because someone like David Gauke was never going to endorse Jeremy Corbyn as PM - even as a gamble to get a desired outcome on Brexit.
Disastrously, though he couldn't embrace Brexit to counterbalance that, as why on Earth would a Labour leave/UKIP voter bothered about things like immigration, sovereignty and national prestige, vote for someone whose entire persona and support base was being vocally in opposition to those notions? Even if they turned round and said 'Brexit is great'. So they ended up where they had to be on damage limitation - in part because they had a leader so unpopular he couldn't take his own stance on Brexit and build a coalition around that.
Good analysis imo. Couple of points I'd not so much add but stress.
That Corbyn was unpalatable to Remainer Tories and Centrists meant they forewent the opportunity to put him in as caretaker PM with a brief to deliver Ref2 and cancel Brexit. PM Corbyn was a bigger bad for them than Hard Brexit was.
Antisemitism was a self-inflicted wound for Labour but Brexit was not. The policy they ended up with for the GE was the worst possible apart from all the alternatives. Soon as Johnson threw the DUP under a bus, accepted the Brexit deal that 'no PM could ever accept', and framed the 'people v parliament' narrative, Labour were sunk. It was only about the margin. Big or very big. Maybe a not Corbyn could have limited it to just big.
The issue was that many people weren't prepared to give Corbyn a hearing on Brexit because it was Corbyn. Of course he did spectacularly well (as @isam continues to remind us) vs previous Labour efforts but for a significant number of people just being Corbyn meant that whatever Brexit arguments Lab might have had weren't heard.
Now you think it was Brexit first then Corbyn but my point is that Corbyn rendered moot Lab's Brexit position by being Corbyn. Slick, affable salesman he is not. Would it have made a difference to have, say a Tony Blair in charge? I believe it may well have.
I don’t gloat at anyone’s demise but what a grade A plum
It is interesting. Personally I agree with you that he was a fool. But if the Government has forced you, by law, to have antibodies to be able to function in society, and if you genuinely believe that the vaccines are dangerous, then what he did was completely logical and obvious. Ultimately this is a perfectly predictable outcome of such laws.
I governments are so convinced that everyone should be vaccinated - and again I agree that is the best thing for everyone if possible - then the only way to avoid these sorts of situations is to make vaccination mandatory, not through making life difficult for the unvaccinated but by forcibly insisting everyone is jabbed.
For me that is a step too far. But this is incident - and there will be plenty more - is a direct result of the vaccination laws currently being enacted in Europe.
Well said. Neither option is palatable but this guy literally died (could have been in a ditch) for the principle of freedom.
Middle England, not Nigel Farage, is now Boris Johnson’s biggest political challenge.
Thanks to the economy and the PM's governing style, the Tories should be worried about losing voters they won back in 2005.
Johnson’s allies are convinced Farage and a new right wing force could pose a huge danger in splitting the vote. “The old enemy is rearing his head,” one says.
But if Farage doesn’t come back, Richard Tice and Reform have shown scant campaigning success
Tory strategists reckon the next big battleground is a set of middle-class, middle-income, middle of the road, middle England seats which voted Tory because they were fed up with Labour. After 11 years in power, the cycle could be about to go into reverse
2005 is generally remembered for the Lib Dem surge. But the Tories also gained 33 seats, mostly in the south of England that set the foundations for their return to government. But some have already flipped back: Illford North, Enfield Southgate, Putney
I would say this is an accurate prediction EVEN IF Farage comes back. I think he was a spent force long before he decided to 'retire' from politics.
Farage is massively overrated because the Westminster and journalistic class are heavily Europhile and attribute to him some magic charisma in selling euroscepticism to the public. In reality euroscepticism is a mainstream, moderate position in the electorate, which has been proven time and time again by its electoral success even when UKIP weren't fronting it. Many British voters felt compelled to vote for Farage for a while because he was the only one offering then something the establishment parties were trying to shut out, even though they didn't like his overall hard right politics. Once the Brexit vote happened, people got what they wanted from mainstream politicians so no longer needed to suffer Farage.
Comments
It is not currently clear to me whether the Irish government would want a united Ireland given the financial and social issues that come with it; I very much doubt whther they would want it on the back of a devisive referendum the outcome of which they have narrowly helped sway.
SF are a mainstream party in ROI now
As to whether they would want it or not, admittedly I don't knowas much about Irish politics as I should, but whatever the private feelings or cold hard numbers, I'd always assumed no Irish political party would openly say they don't want the return of NI. And thus it would be impossible to in practice be neutral.
On this side of the water some people get into some weird presumptions about it implying islands being unified is just an inevitable fact of life, which doesn't tend to get extended elsewhere.
If it were FF or FG (or as now FF & FG)... then I'm not so sure.
But they can't say they don't. Nor even really broach the subject in public.
So we'll never know.
Hense the lack of the Irish President to the centenary of NI celebrations.
Researching this (I'm not sure why) I discovered this. Quite funny
How English sounds to non English speakers
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vt4Dfa4fOEY
There should be no place for IRA Types anywhere in politics.
> Americans think that virtually ANYONE who speaks with what UKers call a posh (or quasi-posh) English-English accent is smart and/or sophisticated; it's a plus with us.
> Brits on the other hand find it downright offensive (in my humble experience anyway) when non-Americans speak with an American accent;' it's a minus with youse.
Why is that?
The risk of a 50%+1 strategy, as being pursued by SF, is that the implied division would put off some potential supporters of Irish unity from voting to change the status quo.
Let's have it the same day as Scottish Indyref2 would keep us all entertained on PB for a few months/years
- Cases are up in the unvaccinated children. Cases are falling the in older groups - especially where there are boosters (50+)
- Hospitalisations are down
- Deaths are down
Though I think it's also because no one actually objects to or minds a more 'neutral' american accent spoken by non americans as we're so familiar with it anyway, but a more stereotypical accent that comes with (to some) negative associations might just sound weird, like finding a non-Brummie talking in a Brummie accent as they learned it there.
Labour have lost the plot on this one.
Perhaps it is this word "campaign" that is ambiguous.
But also I find it a pity, because a crisp, modestly RP British accent is, to my mind, the most beautiful form of English (and it is OUR language, after all)
It is interesting that in Asia it is all British English in officialdom (not sure about the kids). They clearly perceive the poshness aspect. The station announcers on some big Asian city subways sound like Audrey Hepburn - as does the lady who says "Mind the Gap" on the Tube. Perhaps they borrowed her
There was an interesting discussion on RTÉ not too long ago. I'll see if I can find a link.
Reminded of the case of the late Edwin Edwards, former congressman & multi-term governor of Louisiana, who also served a term in Angola state prison (though NOT in the "Dead Man Walking" section) and was married three times to increasingly younger (at least compared with him) women.
EE was half Cajun, and was famous for
> speaking in lightly-accented English in DC and to national audiences
> speaking heavily-accented English in Louisiana, to what degree depending on audience & circumstance
> speaking Cajun French to fellow Acadians on their home turf
> speaking pure (or close enough) Parisian when in Paris doing international wheeling-dealing.
Different strokes for different folks.
https://www.rte.ie/news/claire-byrne-live/2021/0324/1205840-what-would-a-united-ireland-look-like-if-it-came-to-pass/
A lot of Norwegians get their language skills from two main sources; US and British TV - in pretty much equal amounts, both of which are shown solely in their original language and often without Norwegian subtitles - and UK football. Norwegians are fanatical about UK football teams, particularly the Premier League and prior to the pandemic there were planes leaving Norwegian airports every Friday night completely filled with Norwegian supporters travelling to UK hubs to go and watch their favourite team.
Norwegians on the whole are far closer to British in a whole raft of ways including the form of English they speak, than they are the the US.
In both language and
"Taoiseach, don't you support a united Ireland on a personal level at least?"
"Of course I bloody do"
Does it take up much storage capacity?
Also very French, of course.
https://www.gov.ie/en/campaigns/c3417-shared-island/
I'd have to check but I don't think it itself collates all standing orders of the House either.
On the shelf it's right next to my copy of "[US] Senate Procedure" (1981) which was formerly owned by the late, great US Senator Henry "Scoop" Jackson (D-WA); his name is embossed on the front.
As I say in Asia there is definite demand for British English teachers, the accent has higher status in many places
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2021/nov/23/french-fishers-plan-block-freight-uk-licences-dispute-brexit
That Corbyn was unpalatable to Remainer Tories and Centrists meant they forewent the opportunity to put him in as caretaker PM with a brief to deliver Ref2 and cancel Brexit. PM Corbyn was a bigger bad for them than Hard Brexit was.
Antisemitism was a self-inflicted wound for Labour but Brexit was not. The policy they ended up with for the GE was the worst possible apart from all the alternatives. Soon as Johnson threw the DUP under a bus, accepted the Brexit deal that 'no PM could ever accept', and framed the 'people v parliament' narrative, Labour were sunk. It was only about the margin. Big or very big. Maybe a not Corbyn could have limited it to just big.
https://twitter.com/YouGov/status/1463187662890680326?s=20
See https://www.irishtimes.com/news/politics/united-ireland-would-grant-unionists-significant-opportunities-in-coalitions-1.4682171
and https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2021/nov/20/young-loyalist-joel-keys-united-ireland amongst other similar posts.
Middle England, not Nigel Farage, is now Boris Johnson’s biggest political challenge.
Thanks to the economy and the PM's governing style, the Tories should be worried about losing voters they won back in 2005.
Johnson’s allies are convinced Farage and a new right wing force could pose a huge danger in splitting the vote. “The old enemy is rearing his head,” one says.
But if Farage doesn’t come back, Richard Tice and Reform have shown scant campaigning success
Tory strategists reckon the next big battleground is a set of middle-class, middle-income, middle of the road, middle England seats which voted Tory because they were fed up with Labour. After 11 years in power, the cycle could be about to go into reverse
2005 is generally remembered for the Lib Dem surge. But the Tories also gained 33 seats, mostly in the south of England that set the foundations for their return to government. But some have already flipped back: Illford North, Enfield Southgate, Putney
https://www.ft.com/content/78772675-52e0-4d10-8631-76d138038260
But the current case numbers are driven by unvacinnated children. And are falling among those who have received the boosters.
Almost as if vaccines work, or something.....
I thought it was a like a library worth of books that only Sir Lindsay had access to.
My next political book I buy is going to be the Pikketty one though.
There are 3 seats that I can easily see the Tories not winning at the next election. Likewise Aylesbury (Labour), Henley and Buckingham shared based on spare resources.
I governments are so convinced that everyone should be vaccinated - and again I agree that is the best thing for everyone if possible - then the only way to avoid these sorts of situations is to make vaccination mandatory, not through making life difficult for the unvaccinated but by forcibly insisting everyone is jabbed.
For me that is a step too far. But this is incident - and there will be plenty more - is a direct result of the vaccination laws currently being enacted in Europe.
But honestly, I think the header and yourself are both right. Something like the forced choice I have just given main reason, some percentage behind is I love Brexit get it done, in the mix is I no longer give toss about Brexit just get it out my face, and then tribal as always voting. And then between 10 to 50 people who always voted Conservative, but since Boris charmed them into bed and gone by first light didn’t this time. And then about 5 to 10 people who have never voted Labour before but just liked the idea of faster broadband.
Listen to anybody under 20 and “British accents” are non-existent. YouTube accents abound.
https://erskinemay.parliament.uk/
Mind you, as a former wild one, who doesn’t dream of throwing the tv into the hotel pool from the 6th floor?
Now you think it was Brexit first then Corbyn but my point is that Corbyn rendered moot Lab's Brexit position by being Corbyn. Slick, affable salesman he is not. Would it have made a difference to have, say a Tony Blair in charge? I believe it may well have.