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It’s amazing what latest polls have done to SKS’s confidence – politicalbetting.com

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  • The reshuffle has not made the front pages, except for a couple of inches in the Guardian. See feldspar, olivine and quartz.
    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/blogs-the-papers-59470584

    Strictly a Westminster Bubble story. Nobody cares about the Labour front bench, except KS who has to deal with the dorks on a daily basis.

    I’m a believer in the maxim about governments losing elections, not oppositions winning them.
  • MattWMattW Posts: 24,002
    edited November 2021
    DavidL said:

    MattW said:

    DavidL said:


    Sebastian Payne
    @SebastianEPayne
    Whitehall officials say contingency planning is underway in case more curbs are needed, starting with mandatory masks for all indoor settings.

    Officials also examining potential WFH order over Christmas, but some govt insisters suggest it’s unlikely.

    WFH over Christmas? Bugger that, I'm having a week off.
    A friend of mine got an Opinion from Counsel dated 25th December. He regarded it as a cry for help. I am defo having the morning off. Definitely.
    But think of the overtime.
    Not sure that you have mastered the finer points of this self employment thing.
    Lawyer working for normal fees on Christmas Day?

    Hmmmm.

    I'm sure lawyers have 678 inoffensive sounding words for "overtime". :smile:
  • Meanwhile... Cripes, not cripes. Bozza next to bottom of the ConHome ratings.


    Big government, small boats, Paterson: he has clearly been marked down for all three, and his chaotic recent speech to the CBI probably hasn’t helped. That’s the second time he’s slipped into the red with the panel since the last election, the first being during the autumn of 2020.


    https://www.conservativehome.com/thetorydiary/2021/11/our-cabinet-league-table-johnson-is-back-in-negative-ratings.html

    It is a very Brexit-dominated list, at first glance. The top three are Liz Truss who has rolled over a number of trade agreements, Lord Frost who is trying to change the Brexit agreement negotiated by, erm, himself, and Anne-Marie Trevelyan who has replaced Liz Truss as chief deal-roller-over. I'm not sure if that means party activists think Brexit is still the most important issue or that they are hoping it will all go away.
  • IshmaelZIshmaelZ Posts: 21,830

    MaxPB said:

    Quite a scoop:

    The E.U. has created a shadow immigration system that stops migrants before they reach Europe’s shores. A new investigation goes inside a secretive prison for migrants, controlled by one of Libya’s most powerful militias.

    https://twitter.com/NewYorker/status/1465079031809064960?s=20

    Tbh, good on them. It's exactly the kind of hard headed thinking we need to have.
    As ever the New Yorker is doing journalism

    https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2021/12/06/the-secretive-libyan-prisons-that-keep-migrants-out-of-europe

    this image is... interesting. As is the section where it discuss the sale of prison labour in Libya. As an auction. In a market....

    image
    like a diagram of a slave ship
  • eekeek Posts: 28,592
    IshmaelZ said:

    MaxPB said:

    Quite a scoop:

    The E.U. has created a shadow immigration system that stops migrants before they reach Europe’s shores. A new investigation goes inside a secretive prison for migrants, controlled by one of Libya’s most powerful militias.

    https://twitter.com/NewYorker/status/1465079031809064960?s=20

    Tbh, good on them. It's exactly the kind of hard headed thinking we need to have.
    As ever the New Yorker is doing journalism

    https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2021/12/06/the-secretive-libyan-prisons-that-keep-migrants-out-of-europe

    this image is... interesting. As is the section where it discuss the sale of prison labour in Libya. As an auction. In a market....

    image
    like a diagram of a slave ship
    Even more cramped I think

    image
  • FoxyFoxy Posts: 49,235
    Dura_Ace said:

    RobD said:

    Foxy said:

    MaxPB said:

    Quite a scoop:

    The E.U. has created a shadow immigration system that stops migrants before they reach Europe’s shores. A new investigation goes inside a secretive prison for migrants, controlled by one of Libya’s most powerful militias.

    https://twitter.com/NewYorker/status/1465079031809064960?s=20

    Tbh, good on them. It's exactly the kind of hard headed thinking we need to have.
    The interdiction of trans Sahara trafficking by EU special forces is also quite under the radar.
    The EU has special forces now?
    Task Force Takuba with French 13th Parachute Dragoons, Estonian SOF and Czech 601st SFG (who are fucking nails by reputation).
    One of my colleagues has a son in Belgian SF, which is how I knew, but his deployment is over.
  • MalmesburyMalmesbury Posts: 51,239
    IshmaelZ said:

    MaxPB said:

    Quite a scoop:

    The E.U. has created a shadow immigration system that stops migrants before they reach Europe’s shores. A new investigation goes inside a secretive prison for migrants, controlled by one of Libya’s most powerful militias.

    https://twitter.com/NewYorker/status/1465079031809064960?s=20

    Tbh, good on them. It's exactly the kind of hard headed thinking we need to have.
    As ever the New Yorker is doing journalism

    https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2021/12/06/the-secretive-libyan-prisons-that-keep-migrants-out-of-europe

    this image is... interesting. As is the section where it discuss the sale of prison labour in Libya. As an auction. In a market....

    image
    like a diagram of a slave ship
    Indeed. I am quite sure that they were referencing

    image

    and similar.
  • Leon said:

    Sandpit said:

    Dura_Ace said:

    Sandpit said:



    Better is to have regulated indoor spaces as in Australia, Germany, and Nevada, which are like small hotels with all activity taking place indoors.

    Yeah... The German ones are nothing like 'small hotels'. They are fucking grim and, despite being putatively legal, are run by Georgian/Russian/Chechen mafia with a thriving associated trade in illegal drugs.

    Spanish and Greek ones are good. Budget Kowloon ones are the real test of fortitude. Just get your head down and get the job done.
    Ah, I knew one of PB’s two international brothel experts would pipe up quickly. The other one is probably still asleep, dreaming of Bangkok.
    German brothels are extremely various. Dura is painting with too broad a brush. At the lower end you have the “tolerated street walker zones” where it’s like having sex in Preston bus station with a high chance you will be clouted by a hooker wielding a bottle of Bailey’s, in the midrange there are vast legal brothels in the middle of ugly cities (eg Koln) which is like having lifeless sex with your 41 year old wife in a Travelodge in Reading, at its best there are some sparkling FKK clubs where it’s as good as the best of Bangkok only the girls are paler and Ukrainian and have hauntingly beautiful cheekbones

    Bunnco-Leon, your correspondent at the count
    Aka our count correspondent.
  • Facing up to the reality of an independence-lite SNP, an SNP of poor delivery and progressive posturing, means facing up to the real Nicola Sturgeon. She is not the warrior woman with the common touch that has been spun by her PR people and lapped up by SNP true believers. She is a triangulating politician with a skill for strategy and absolutely no clue how to use the levers of government to bring about change. A talker like no other but not much of a doer.

    https://stephendaisley.substack.com/p/nicola-sturgeon-will-never-deliver
  • RobDRobD Posts: 60,046
    Dura_Ace said:

    RobD said:

    Foxy said:

    MaxPB said:

    Quite a scoop:

    The E.U. has created a shadow immigration system that stops migrants before they reach Europe’s shores. A new investigation goes inside a secretive prison for migrants, controlled by one of Libya’s most powerful militias.

    https://twitter.com/NewYorker/status/1465079031809064960?s=20

    Tbh, good on them. It's exactly the kind of hard headed thinking we need to have.
    The interdiction of trans Sahara trafficking by EU special forces is also quite under the radar.
    The EU has special forces now?
    Task Force Takuba with French 13th Parachute Dragoons, Estonian SOF and Czech 601st SFG (who are fucking nails by reputation).
    So not EU special forces then. ;)
  • Dura_AceDura_Ace Posts: 13,795

    MaxPB said:

    Quite a scoop:

    The E.U. has created a shadow immigration system that stops migrants before they reach Europe’s shores. A new investigation goes inside a secretive prison for migrants, controlled by one of Libya’s most powerful militias.

    https://twitter.com/NewYorker/status/1465079031809064960?s=20

    Tbh, good on them. It's exactly the kind of hard headed thinking we need to have.
    As ever the New Yorker is doing journalism

    https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2021/12/06/the-secretive-libyan-prisons-that-keep-migrants-out-of-europe

    this image is... interesting. As is the section where it discuss the sale of prison labour in Libya. As an auction. In a market....

    image
    I thought this was a diagram of the Pascha 'mega-brothel' in Koln when I first saw it,
  • IshmaelZIshmaelZ Posts: 21,830


    Phillipson & Streeting are fresh, eye-catching appointments.

    Lammy is interesting. I like Lammy as he stands up his people. I always wish the vast army of shabby Labour MPs for Wales did the same thing & stood up for Wales. Maybe if the vast army of ex-Labour MPs for Scotland had stood up for Scotland, they would not be ex. So, I like Lammy.

    Yvette Cooper is baffling. She has consistently under-performed whether as Cabinet minister or in the Labour Leadership contests. It is a backwards-looking appointment to the failures of the past. She has talent, but her track record is poor.

    Ed Miliband is a fool. He was the one who crashed the Labour car so badly, it has taken a decade to get it back to roadworthy condition. A dreadful appointment -- a man who knows no science in charge of Climate Change and Net Zero.

    As far as Ed Miliband goes, this is one of the most incorrect posts ever on PB. He wiped the floor with Johnson in the Commons last year, and is one of the two or three brightest and most thoughtful in the parliamentary Labour party - as well as one of the most decent.

    Theresa May copiously stole his clothes on rebalancing the economy, energy markets, workers on boards and much else, even if she did none of it, and May's legacy there was also the starting point for Johnson's "Red Tory" rhetoric, which has in turn become part of the Brexit offer.
    I agree, Labour crashed their own car in the leadership election. He did a slightly substandard job, but oppositions don't win elections

    And god I dream of that coalition of chaos we could have had in 2015
  • NickPalmerNickPalmer Posts: 21,573
    MattW said:

    Have I really woken up to David Lammy as Shadow Foreign Secretary?

    That's going to be interesting. Hope he's good at being briefed, and listening.

    This is just one q from the famous Mastermind:

    John Humphries: "Which fortress was built in the 1370s to defend on of the gates of Paris, and was later used as a state prison by Cardinal Richelieu?"

    David Lammy: "Versailles".

    John Humphries: "Le Bastille".

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DsR4Nx-ELgc

    I'd love to hear that it was a setup, but I don't think it was.

    His curse, if he succumbs to it, will be groping for answers from a half-remembered similar phrase. A bit Borisish.

    Think of the embarrassment of being confused about prison development in France in 1370! That said, I know some politicians who struggle to remember what they said last week.
  • SouthamObserverSouthamObserver Posts: 39,672
    edited November 2021
    I like Cooper, but I think that many people are forgetting that shadowing a minister is very different to chairing a select committee. Cooper currently gets the opportunity to ask a number of in-depth questions to both Patel and Johnson each month, and can follow-up on their answers. In the Commons she will be responding to Patel and the questions that she asks can be batted away much more easily. The shadow job is much more about getting in front of TV cameras and radio mikes, and answering questions from journalists. Cooper will be able to do that, but she does lose the ability to do the forensic stuff. Priti Patel and Boris Johnson will both feel slightly relieved today.
  • IshmaelZIshmaelZ Posts: 21,830
    MattW said:

    DavidL said:

    MattW said:

    DavidL said:


    Sebastian Payne
    @SebastianEPayne
    Whitehall officials say contingency planning is underway in case more curbs are needed, starting with mandatory masks for all indoor settings.

    Officials also examining potential WFH order over Christmas, but some govt insisters suggest it’s unlikely.

    WFH over Christmas? Bugger that, I'm having a week off.
    A friend of mine got an Opinion from Counsel dated 25th December. He regarded it as a cry for help. I am defo having the morning off. Definitely.
    But think of the overtime.
    Not sure that you have mastered the finer points of this self employment thing.
    Lawyer working for normal fees on Christmas Day?

    Hmmmm.

    I'm sure lawyers have 678 inoffensive sounding words for "overtime". :smile:
    Care and conduct

  • Phillipson & Streeting are fresh, eye-catching appointments.

    Lammy is interesting. I like Lammy as he stands up his people. I always wish the vast army of shabby Labour MPs for Wales did the same thing & stood up for Wales. Maybe if the vast army of ex-Labour MPs for Scotland had stood up for Scotland, they would not be ex. So, I like Lammy.

    Yvette Cooper is baffling. She has consistently under-performed whether as Cabinet minister or in the Labour Leadership contests. It is a backwards-looking appointment to the failures of the past. She has talent, but her track record is poor.

    Ed Miliband is a fool. He was the one who crashed the Labour car so badly, it has taken a decade to get it back to roadworthy condition. A dreadful appointment -- a man who knows no science in charge of Climate Change and Net Zero.

    The army of ex-Labour MPs for Scotland not only did not stand up for Scotland, they actively worked against Scottish interests. However inactive Welsh Labour MPs are, I don’t think they’ve flipped over to being hostile to Welsh interests?
  • LeonLeon Posts: 56,606
    Dura_Ace said:

    MaxPB said:

    Quite a scoop:

    The E.U. has created a shadow immigration system that stops migrants before they reach Europe’s shores. A new investigation goes inside a secretive prison for migrants, controlled by one of Libya’s most powerful militias.

    https://twitter.com/NewYorker/status/1465079031809064960?s=20

    Tbh, good on them. It's exactly the kind of hard headed thinking we need to have.
    As ever the New Yorker is doing journalism

    https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2021/12/06/the-secretive-libyan-prisons-that-keep-migrants-out-of-europe

    this image is... interesting. As is the section where it discuss the sale of prison labour in Libya. As an auction. In a market....

    image
    I thought this was a diagram of the Pascha 'mega-brothel' in Koln when I first saw it,
    I wonder if we have both met “Armin Lobschied”
  • SandyRentoolSandyRentool Posts: 22,273
    Well it looks like winter is over and we are back to autumn. Snow gone and 9degC.

    "Proper" winter starts tomorrow.

  • Phillipson & Streeting are fresh, eye-catching appointments.

    Lammy is interesting. I like Lammy as he stands up his people. I always wish the vast army of shabby Labour MPs for Wales did the same thing & stood up for Wales. Maybe if the vast army of ex-Labour MPs for Scotland had stood up for Scotland, they would not be ex. So, I like Lammy.

    Yvette Cooper is baffling. She has consistently under-performed whether as Cabinet minister or in the Labour Leadership contests. It is a backwards-looking appointment to the failures of the past. She has talent, but her track record is poor.

    Ed Miliband is a fool. He was the one who crashed the Labour car so badly, it has taken a decade to get it back to roadworthy condition. A dreadful appointment -- a man who knows no science in charge of Climate Change and Net Zero.

    As far as Ed Miliband goes, this is one of the most incorrect posts ever on PB. He wiped the floor with Johnson in the Commons last year, and is one of the two or three brightest and most thoughtful in the parliamentary Labour party - as well as one of the most decent.

    Theresa May copiously stole his clothes on rebalancing the economy, energy markets, workers on boards and much else, even if she did none of it, and May's legacy there was also the starting point for Johnson's "Red Tory" rhetoric, which has in turn become part of the Brexit offer.

    Ed Miliband has a hugely important role to play. The Greens are currently getting up to 10% in national polling. Labour needs to halve that, at least, by the time the GE comes around. That's Ed's unstated brief. He is probably the Labour politician best-placed to do it.

  • Jonathan said:
    Nor is it the RNLI
  • Jonathan said:
    No, THIS is the issue. Those ghouls I was attacked for mentioning, when I said they had had refugees weaponised by the government? Who were trying to criminalise the RNLI for saving lives?

    Here we have a crowd of the bastards trying to stop the Hastings lifeboat going out on a shout.

    https://www.hastingsobserver.co.uk/news/people/hastings-rnli-lifeboat-crew-blocked-from-going-out-to-sea-by-people-angry-at-them-rescuing-refugees-3475179
    That is frankly disgraceful
  • TOPPINGTOPPING Posts: 43,049
    Good to see Lammy in the Shad Cab. I rate him. Those who don't haven't been paying attention.

    Lab has inched forward a smidge in being a party to vote for.

    Interested to see what development from here. I will never vote for them while they continue to advocate longer, harder, stronger Covid restrictions, that said. So that might be them waiting for me vote for ever.
  • MattWMattW Posts: 24,002
    edited November 2021

    MattW said:

    Have I really woken up to David Lammy as Shadow Foreign Secretary?

    That's going to be interesting. Hope he's good at being briefed, and listening.

    This is just one q from the famous Mastermind:

    John Humphries: "Which fortress was built in the 1370s to defend on of the gates of Paris, and was later used as a state prison by Cardinal Richelieu?"

    David Lammy: "Versailles".

    John Humphries: "Le Bastille".

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DsR4Nx-ELgc

    I'd love to hear that it was a setup, but I don't think it was.

    His curse, if he succumbs to it, will be groping for answers from a half-remembered similar phrase. A bit Borisish.

    Think of the embarrassment of being confused about prison development in France in 1370! That said, I know some politicians who struggle to remember what they said last week.
    Good morning Nick.

    Or not knowing that Versailles was 18C.

    Perhaps it's like getting the Tower of London mixed up with Buck House, except that the Bastille is a (the?) key symbol of how France sees itself. Imagine the explosion from Macron if BJ did that

    I think the Marie Antoinette - Marie Curie mix up was more revealing of what was going on.

    As was the thing about the 'racist smoke'.

    It's like Govt Ministers who turn out not to know the price of milk or petrol, or not being able to identify a seagull, but rather than admitting it take a flyer and get it badly wrong.

    As I say, I hope he doesn't do any similar - but it is knowing when to keep quiet.

    Suspect he needs a competent handler given the authority to speak to him clearly, and definitely as a buffer from twitter. The sort of aide who would have saved BJ from so many policy pratfalls (as opposed to presentation pratfalls, which BJ can wing successfully).

  • StockyStocky Posts: 10,236

    Foxy said:

    Jonathan said:

    felix said:

    Jonathan said:

    It is amusing how many people claim that Cooper is a serious heavyweight with a strong career behind her . . . then react with horror/boredom when HIPS are brought up.

    Perhaps Cooper's fans on this site could say what about her exactly that does attract her to them, given that HIPS are about her only ever "achievement" and that's to be ruled out.

    Well for a start she’s got you all riled up and worried. That’s good, I guess it’s her performance in committee that’s unnerved you. More than a match for Patel.
    The impact of politicians on most regulars of the site is largely irrelevant to the public at large - anyone on here often, myself included tends to be failry partisan and unusually politicallly aware. Her hectoring style can be quite effective in the committee setting - in othe venues I'm not sure the public warm to it so much. Time will tell.
    Her immediate job is to oppose Patel, who obviously needs opposing. She then has to set out the Labour vision on security with authority. She is more than up to both tasks.
    She had 5 years in the same job and didn't lay a glove on May, why are you so confident?

    May was a lot more competent than Patel.

    This is Cooper vs Patel fairly recently.

    https://twitter.com/BBCPolitics/status/1283347431606964226?s=20
    Wow. I can see why Starmer likes her - a forensic demolition.
    I'm sure Starmer has always rated her. These appointments weren't' "flyable" when he took charge, but they now are due to the way he has inched his party in the direction he wants it to go, i.e. the electable direction.

    He's doing a great job. Reminiscent of what Blair, Brown and Mandelson did before they gained power. Starmer's no Blair, but making Labour competent-looking again may be enough.

    Government-in-waiting type stuff.
  • By declaring war on Starmer, the Corbyn-obsessed left set him free. They’re really not very smart.
  • YBarddCwscYBarddCwsc Posts: 7,172


    Phillipson & Streeting are fresh, eye-catching appointments.

    Lammy is interesting. I like Lammy as he stands up his people. I always wish the vast army of shabby Labour MPs for Wales did the same thing & stood up for Wales. Maybe if the vast army of ex-Labour MPs for Scotland had stood up for Scotland, they would not be ex. So, I like Lammy.

    Yvette Cooper is baffling. She has consistently under-performed whether as Cabinet minister or in the Labour Leadership contests. It is a backwards-looking appointment to the failures of the past. She has talent, but her track record is poor.

    Ed Miliband is a fool. He was the one who crashed the Labour car so badly, it has taken a decade to get it back to roadworthy condition. A dreadful appointment -- a man who knows no science in charge of Climate Change and Net Zero.

    As far as Ed Miliband goes, this is one of the most incorrect posts ever on PB. He wiped the floor with Johnson in the Commons last year, and is one of the two or three brightest and most thoughtful in the parliamentary Labour party - as well as one of the most decent.

    Theresa May copiously stole his clothes on rebalancing the economy, energy markets, workers on boards and much else, even if she did none of it, and May's legacy there was also the starting point for Johnson's "Red Tory" rhetoric, which has in turn become part of the Brexit offer.
    So, the evidence that Miliband is not a fool is:

    (i) he wiped the floor with Johnson and (ii) Theresa May stole his clothes.

    I see.
  • IshmaelZIshmaelZ Posts: 21,830

    MattW said:

    Have I really woken up to David Lammy as Shadow Foreign Secretary?

    That's going to be interesting. Hope he's good at being briefed, and listening.

    This is just one q from the famous Mastermind:

    John Humphries: "Which fortress was built in the 1370s to defend on of the gates of Paris, and was later used as a state prison by Cardinal Richelieu?"

    David Lammy: "Versailles".

    John Humphries: "Le Bastille".

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DsR4Nx-ELgc

    I'd love to hear that it was a setup, but I don't think it was.

    His curse, if he succumbs to it, will be groping for answers from a half-remembered similar phrase. A bit Borisish.

    Think of the embarrassment of being confused about prison development in France in 1370! That said, I know some politicians who struggle to remember what they said last week.
    OK, but it is surely counterintuitive to think that Henry VIII was succeeded by Henry VII.
  • Jonathan said:
    No, THIS is the issue. Those ghouls I was attacked for mentioning, when I said they had had refugees weaponised by the government? Who were trying to criminalise the RNLI for saving lives?

    Here we have a crowd of the bastards trying to stop the Hastings lifeboat going out on a shout.

    https://www.hastingsobserver.co.uk/news/people/hastings-rnli-lifeboat-crew-blocked-from-going-out-to-sea-by-people-angry-at-them-rescuing-refugees-3475179
    That is frankly disgraceful
    But that is what happens when the government weaponise the issue. I did say that their continued attempt to criminalise the RNLI would have an impact on the ghouls and here we are.

    Some people now want migrants to drown. And the Tories are working very hard to secure their votes.
  • NigelbNigelb Posts: 72,377
    .

    Re: YC's HIPS (hope the moderators will let me get away with that, with apologies to Ms C) yours truly recalls that Winston Churchill once said, "Every dog deserves one bite".

    In the same way, is it true that every minister who proves worthy of their salt, will have at least one pile of dog you-know-what to answer for blotting their official copybook?

    Speaking of WSC, he is THE poster child for this theory,

    Which absolves a LOT of foulness that's floated down the Thames for centuries. What you might call a byproduct!

    EDIT - have no major feeling for Cooper one way or the other, though hope for the best from her & her fellow frontbenchers on that side of the House.

    Just think it's possible to learn from mistakes, indeed one of the great learning tools of all time.

    Certainly that way for yours truly.

    If nothing else, at least people know who she is. Not something you can say about whomever it was that she's replacing.
  • WhisperingOracleWhisperingOracle Posts: 9,261
    edited November 2021

    By declaring war on Starmer, the Corbyn-obsessed left set him free. They’re really not very smart.

    He also needs to be very careful that he doesn't shoot himself in the foot in reverse, though, by sidelining figures such as Rayner or Miliband. I'm not fully convinced that he understands this as yet.
  • MattWMattW Posts: 24,002

    MaxPB said:

    Quite a scoop:

    The E.U. has created a shadow immigration system that stops migrants before they reach Europe’s shores. A new investigation goes inside a secretive prison for migrants, controlled by one of Libya’s most powerful militias.

    https://twitter.com/NewYorker/status/1465079031809064960?s=20

    Tbh, good on them. It's exactly the kind of hard headed thinking we need to have.
    As ever the New Yorker is doing journalism

    https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2021/12/06/the-secretive-libyan-prisons-that-keep-migrants-out-of-europe

    this image is... interesting. As is the section where it discuss the sale of prison labour in Libya. As an auction. In a market....

    image
    Who funded this? Is this the Italian funded first one, or the EuCo follow on?
  • eekeek Posts: 28,592
    Nigelb said:

    .

    Re: YC's HIPS (hope the moderators will let me get away with that, with apologies to Ms C) yours truly recalls that Winston Churchill once said, "Every dog deserves one bite".

    In the same way, is it true that every minister who proves worthy of their salt, will have at least one pile of dog you-know-what to answer for blotting their official copybook?

    Speaking of WSC, he is THE poster child for this theory,

    Which absolves a LOT of foulness that's floated down the Thames for centuries. What you might call a byproduct!

    EDIT - have no major feeling for Cooper one way or the other, though hope for the best from her & her fellow frontbenchers on that side of the House.

    Just think it's possible to learn from mistakes, indeed one of the great learning tools of all time.

    Certainly that way for yours truly.

    If nothing else, at least people know who she is. Not something you can say about whomever it was that she's replacing.
    I think that's a lot of the battle here - few people would care enough about the Labour Shadow Home secretary saying something to get them on the radio, YC is famous enough that she will get more air time.

    And more air time for YC means more media attention on the Home Secretary and her issues - in fact Priti is now going to be attacked on 2 sides with YC on one side and ReformUK on the other.
  • NerysHughesNerysHughes Posts: 3,375
    TOPPING said:

    Good to see Lammy in the Shad Cab. I rate him. Those who don't haven't been paying attention.

    Lab has inched forward a smidge in being a party to vote for.

    Interested to see what development from here. I will never vote for them while they continue to advocate longer, harder, stronger Covid restrictions, that said. So that might be them waiting for me vote for ever.

    I think Lammy is an excellent backbench MP standing up for his constituents, Im unsure he has the brain quickness to be an effective shadow minister.
  • WhisperingOracleWhisperingOracle Posts: 9,261
    edited November 2021


    Phillipson & Streeting are fresh, eye-catching appointments.

    Lammy is interesting. I like Lammy as he stands up his people. I always wish the vast army of shabby Labour MPs for Wales did the same thing & stood up for Wales. Maybe if the vast army of ex-Labour MPs for Scotland had stood up for Scotland, they would not be ex. So, I like Lammy.

    Yvette Cooper is baffling. She has consistently under-performed whether as Cabinet minister or in the Labour Leadership contests. It is a backwards-looking appointment to the failures of the past. She has talent, but her track record is poor.

    Ed Miliband is a fool. He was the one who crashed the Labour car so badly, it has taken a decade to get it back to roadworthy condition. A dreadful appointment -- a man who knows no science in charge of Climate Change and Net Zero.

    As far as Ed Miliband goes, this is one of the most incorrect posts ever on PB. He wiped the floor with Johnson in the Commons last year, and is one of the two or three brightest and most thoughtful in the parliamentary Labour party - as well as one of the most decent.

    Theresa May copiously stole his clothes on rebalancing the economy, energy markets, workers on boards and much else, even if she did none of it, and May's legacy there was also the starting point for Johnson's "Red Tory" rhetoric, which has in turn become part of the Brexit offer.
    So, the evidence that Miliband is not a fool is:

    (i) he wiped the floor with Johnson and (ii) Theresa May stole his clothes.

    I see.
    As Johnson has in turn also stolen those clothes from May, I would say helping to set the direction of British politics, as well as defeating the Prime Minister in a Commons performance, is pretty respectable evidence.
  • MalmesburyMalmesbury Posts: 51,239
    MattW said:

    MaxPB said:

    Quite a scoop:

    The E.U. has created a shadow immigration system that stops migrants before they reach Europe’s shores. A new investigation goes inside a secretive prison for migrants, controlled by one of Libya’s most powerful militias.

    https://twitter.com/NewYorker/status/1465079031809064960?s=20

    Tbh, good on them. It's exactly the kind of hard headed thinking we need to have.
    As ever the New Yorker is doing journalism

    https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2021/12/06/the-secretive-libyan-prisons-that-keep-migrants-out-of-europe

    this image is... interesting. As is the section where it discuss the sale of prison labour in Libya. As an auction. In a market....

    image
    Who funded this? Is this the Italian funded first one, or the EuCo follow on?
    Read the article - it is a matrix of funding. All carefully indirect.

    Interesting that the EU has created the "Offshore Gulags" for immigrants that some people here are getting bent out of shape about in the UK context.

    Also in the article, the Libyan "Coast Guard" which is being funded by this - *shooting* at immigrants in boats....
  • MattWMattW Posts: 24,002
    edited November 2021

    TOPPING said:

    Good to see Lammy in the Shad Cab. I rate him. Those who don't haven't been paying attention.

    Lab has inched forward a smidge in being a party to vote for.

    Interested to see what development from here. I will never vote for them while they continue to advocate longer, harder, stronger Covid restrictions, that said. So that might be them waiting for me vote for ever.

    I think Lammy is an excellent backbench MP standing up for his constituents, Im unsure he has the brain quickness to be an effective shadow minister.
    I might question the FM appointment, but I'm not sure where I would put him either.

    I don't think the Angela Rayner tactic will work in that position.

    But it will be interesting to see some pressure on Liz Truss if he can do it. I don't think I have heard anything from her in the media for a time. What is our FM doing at present?

    Lack of attention to detail may be an issue imo.
  • IshmaelZIshmaelZ Posts: 21,830

    Jonathan said:
    No, THIS is the issue. Those ghouls I was attacked for mentioning, when I said they had had refugees weaponised by the government? Who were trying to criminalise the RNLI for saving lives?

    Here we have a crowd of the bastards trying to stop the Hastings lifeboat going out on a shout.

    https://www.hastingsobserver.co.uk/news/people/hastings-rnli-lifeboat-crew-blocked-from-going-out-to-sea-by-people-angry-at-them-rescuing-refugees-3475179
    That is frankly disgraceful
    But that is what happens when the government weaponise the issue. I did say that their continued attempt to criminalise the RNLI would have an impact on the ghouls and here we are.

    Some people now want migrants to drown. And the Tories are working very hard to secure their votes.
    I don't see that that kind of hysterical overstatement advances your case. The right wing position (which I am stating, not agreeing with) is that they want fewer migrants. It is impractical to think we can drown enough of them to make a meaningful dent in the numbers. Therefore we should discourage them from setting out in the first place. You can absolutely bet that part of the sales pitch for the channel crossing is: Short crossing, powerful engine, done it loadsa times without a problem, and if there is one we'll call up the RNLI on this vhf radio I have here. There is therefore a respectable argument that the RNLI's availability is part of the problem as much as being part of the solution.
  • turbotubbsturbotubbs Posts: 17,700

    MattW said:

    Have I really woken up to David Lammy as Shadow Foreign Secretary?

    That's going to be interesting. Hope he's good at being briefed, and listening.

    This is just one q from the famous Mastermind:

    John Humphries: "Which fortress was built in the 1370s to defend on of the gates of Paris, and was later used as a state prison by Cardinal Richelieu?"

    David Lammy: "Versailles".

    John Humphries: "Le Bastille".

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DsR4Nx-ELgc

    I'd love to hear that it was a setup, but I don't think it was.

    His curse, if he succumbs to it, will be groping for answers from a half-remembered similar phrase. A bit Borisish.

    I regard myself as passing intelligent, and am quite good at pub quizzes, but I suffer from a tendency to say “left” with great confidence when what I actually meant was “right”.
    On the other hand I would regard that as one reason amongst many why I would make a really bad shadow foreign secretary.
    And awful at directions...
  • NigelbNigelb Posts: 72,377

    MattW said:

    Have I really woken up to David Lammy as Shadow Foreign Secretary?

    That's going to be interesting. Hope he's good at being briefed, and listening.

    This is just one q from the famous Mastermind:

    John Humphries: "Which fortress was built in the 1370s to defend on of the gates of Paris, and was later used as a state prison by Cardinal Richelieu?"

    David Lammy: "Versailles".

    John Humphries: "Le Bastille".

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DsR4Nx-ELgc

    I'd love to hear that it was a setup, but I don't think it was.

    His curse, if he succumbs to it, will be groping for answers from a half-remembered similar phrase. A bit Borisish.

    I regard myself as passing intelligent, and am quite good at pub quizzes, but I suffer from a tendency to say “left” with great confidence when what I actually meant was “right”.
    On the other hand I would regard that as one reason amongst many why I would make a really bad shadow foreign secretary.
    I don't know.
    So long as you can still tell your arse from your elbow, you'd be one up on a few of the present cabinet.

  • turbotubbsturbotubbs Posts: 17,700
    Foxy said:

    Huge moment. ‘An appalling atrocity,' says Prince Charles of transatlantic slavery. No British royal - or Prime Minister - has come as close to apologising for the 250 years of state-sanctioned exploitation and murder. #Barbados https://t.co/gMBibgB3QY

    https://twitter.com/axrenton/status/1465578624292212739?s=19

    Costs little, but I'm still not a fan. When/where do you draw the line? Should the Italians apologise for the Roman empire? How about the Egyptians enslaving the people of Israel?
    If you personally have done something wrong, then apologising is the right thing. When our ancestors did something to their ancestors, I'm not so sure.
  • Northern_AlNorthern_Al Posts: 8,484
    edited November 2021

    By declaring war on Starmer, the Corbyn-obsessed left set him free. They’re really not very smart.

    He also needs to be very careful that he doesn't shoot himself in the foot in reverse, though, by sidelining figures such as Rayner or Miliband. I'm not fully convinced that he understands this as yet.
    I agree, but I don't think that's what's happening. Yesterday's reshuffle was as much about effectiveness as ideology. He dispensed with Thomas-Symonds because he'd had so little impact. He dispensed with Kate Green (Education) for the same reason, even though she'd only taken over from RLB 16 months ago. And Miliband, I think, still has an important role on climate change/attracting Green waverers, as Southam argued earlier.

    Starmer is showing himself now to be quite ruthless in building an election-winning machine. I think it's the determination to have the most capable SC in place, rather than ideological differences, that lie behind yesterday's changes. If the left is under-represented, it's partly because, as I've argued before, there are no towering figures at the moment on the left of the party. Which is a pity.
  • TheuniondivvieTheuniondivvie Posts: 42,175
    edited November 2021

    MattW said:

    MaxPB said:

    Quite a scoop:

    The E.U. has created a shadow immigration system that stops migrants before they reach Europe’s shores. A new investigation goes inside a secretive prison for migrants, controlled by one of Libya’s most powerful militias.

    https://twitter.com/NewYorker/status/1465079031809064960?s=20

    Tbh, good on them. It's exactly the kind of hard headed thinking we need to have.
    As ever the New Yorker is doing journalism

    https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2021/12/06/the-secretive-libyan-prisons-that-keep-migrants-out-of-europe

    this image is... interesting. As is the section where it discuss the sale of prison labour in Libya. As an auction. In a market....

    image
    Who funded this? Is this the Italian funded first one, or the EuCo follow on?
    Read the article - it is a matrix of funding. All carefully indirect.

    Interesting that the EU has created the "Offshore Gulags" for immigrants that some people here are getting bent out of shape about in the UK context.

    Also in the article, the Libyan "Coast Guard" which is being funded by this - *shooting* at immigrants in boats....
    Or to put it another way, people who touch themselves inappropriately at the thought of the UK taking such actions but get bent out of shape about it in the EU context.
  • eekeek Posts: 28,592
    This thread is disappearing like BJ's satisfaction ratings.
  • Farooq said:

    Foxy said:

    Huge moment. ‘An appalling atrocity,' says Prince Charles of transatlantic slavery. No British royal - or Prime Minister - has come as close to apologising for the 250 years of state-sanctioned exploitation and murder. #Barbados https://t.co/gMBibgB3QY

    https://twitter.com/axrenton/status/1465578624292212739?s=19

    Costs little, but I'm still not a fan. When/where do you draw the line? Should the Italians apologise for the Roman empire? How about the Egyptians enslaving the people of Israel?
    If you personally have done something wrong, then apologising is the right thing. When our ancestors did something to their ancestors, I'm not so sure.
    If you follow that argument to its logical conclusion, you also don't revel in the glories of a country unless you partook at least in some small way.

    I'm ok with that, but not with those who celebrate their country's greatness without also feeling shame for her squalor.
    Thankfully we haven't constructed an honours system based around the British Empire under which much of the horrors of transantlantic slavery took place.

    We haven't, right?
  • CyclefreeCyclefree Posts: 25,346
    Jonathan said:

    felix said:

    Jonathan said:

    It is amusing how many people claim that Cooper is a serious heavyweight with a strong career behind her . . . then react with horror/boredom when HIPS are brought up.

    Perhaps Cooper's fans on this site could say what about her exactly that does attract her to them, given that HIPS are about her only ever "achievement" and that's to be ruled out.

    Well for a start she’s got you all riled up and worried. That’s good, I guess it’s her performance in committee that’s unnerved you. More than a match for Patel.
    The impact of politicians on most regulars of the site is largely irrelevant to the public at large - anyone on here often, myself included tends to be failry partisan and unusually politicallly aware. Her hectoring style can be quite effective in the committee setting - in othe venues I'm not sure the public warm to it so much. Time will tell.
    Her immediate job is to oppose Patel, who obviously needs opposing. She then has to set out the Labour vision on security with authority. She is more than up to both tasks.
    Her biggest task will be to come up with a coherent and popular Labour policy on migration, refugees etc.

    Can she?

    algarkirk said:

    Sandpit said:

    MattW said:

    Sandpit said:

    Leon said:

    isam said:

    Kirklees child sexual exploitation: 42 charged by police

    https://t.co/w7oK27UWoO

    Those bloody Finns again?
    Take a closer look at the names. Two are not like the others, and nor are their charges. Or their genders, come to that.
    Three of them, in fact. Middle-aged women, charged with what amounts to finding girls and running a brothel.
    Makes you wonder about their back-story.
    It's time prostitution was legalised and regulated.

    I think I would go for legalising of brothels with a small number of sex workers.
    Yep, there’s a reason it’s called the world’s oldest profession.

    Rather as with drugs policy, criminalisation has been an utter failure, unless you’re making good money as the criminal.

    Legalise drugs and sex - because they’re going to happen anyway - it’s better that they happen in a controlled, regulated and taxed environment.
    Prostitution in itself is not illegal in England. Lots of other related things are but the transaction of paying for sex is not an offence. And if it were it would be unenforceable. It is hard enough proving that sex has been forced in rape trials, unrealistic to trace and prove the payment in consensual cases.

    If we legalised drugs (which I support) it would be the same. Lots of regulation would prevent, for example, advertising it on children's television or selling an adulterated version.

    BTW human nature being what it is, the radical legalisation supporters, Twitterati and the Guardian would immediately turn their attention to how to blame the government/police for anything about it that caused harm of any sort.

    Prostitution should be occurring from a legal and taxed brothel, not on the street.

    Drugs should be sold from a legal and taxed pharmacist, not on the street.

    It is pushing these activities onto the streets that makes them an issue.
    Bless. The idea that women and girls are not trafficked, beaten, abused, raped etc in brothels because they are not on the streets would be sweetly naive were the reality of this trade - for women anyway - not so revolting and dangerous.

    And yes I have done an investigation into senior City persons who were involved in this business - as suppliers not just punters. It is a grim business.
  • Cyclefree said:

    Jonathan said:

    felix said:

    Jonathan said:

    It is amusing how many people claim that Cooper is a serious heavyweight with a strong career behind her . . . then react with horror/boredom when HIPS are brought up.

    Perhaps Cooper's fans on this site could say what about her exactly that does attract her to them, given that HIPS are about her only ever "achievement" and that's to be ruled out.

    Well for a start she’s got you all riled up and worried. That’s good, I guess it’s her performance in committee that’s unnerved you. More than a match for Patel.
    The impact of politicians on most regulars of the site is largely irrelevant to the public at large - anyone on here often, myself included tends to be failry partisan and unusually politicallly aware. Her hectoring style can be quite effective in the committee setting - in othe venues I'm not sure the public warm to it so much. Time will tell.
    Her immediate job is to oppose Patel, who obviously needs opposing. She then has to set out the Labour vision on security with authority. She is more than up to both tasks.
    Her biggest task will be to come up with a coherent and popular Labour policy on migration, refugees etc.

    Can she?

    algarkirk said:

    Sandpit said:

    MattW said:

    Sandpit said:

    Leon said:

    isam said:

    Kirklees child sexual exploitation: 42 charged by police

    https://t.co/w7oK27UWoO

    Those bloody Finns again?
    Take a closer look at the names. Two are not like the others, and nor are their charges. Or their genders, come to that.
    Three of them, in fact. Middle-aged women, charged with what amounts to finding girls and running a brothel.
    Makes you wonder about their back-story.
    It's time prostitution was legalised and regulated.

    I think I would go for legalising of brothels with a small number of sex workers.
    Yep, there’s a reason it’s called the world’s oldest profession.

    Rather as with drugs policy, criminalisation has been an utter failure, unless you’re making good money as the criminal.

    Legalise drugs and sex - because they’re going to happen anyway - it’s better that they happen in a controlled, regulated and taxed environment.
    Prostitution in itself is not illegal in England. Lots of other related things are but the transaction of paying for sex is not an offence. And if it were it would be unenforceable. It is hard enough proving that sex has been forced in rape trials, unrealistic to trace and prove the payment in consensual cases.

    If we legalised drugs (which I support) it would be the same. Lots of regulation would prevent, for example, advertising it on children's television or selling an adulterated version.

    BTW human nature being what it is, the radical legalisation supporters, Twitterati and the Guardian would immediately turn their attention to how to blame the government/police for anything about it that caused harm of any sort.

    Prostitution should be occurring from a legal and taxed brothel, not on the street.

    Drugs should be sold from a legal and taxed pharmacist, not on the street.

    It is pushing these activities onto the streets that makes them an issue.
    Bless. The idea that women and girls are not trafficked, beaten, abused, raped etc in brothels because they are not on the streets would be sweetly naive were the reality of this trade - for women anyway - not so revolting and dangerous.

    And yes I have done an investigation into senior City persons who were involved in this business - as suppliers not just punters. It is a grim business.
    I'm sure there are problems in legal and licensed brothels were they exist, as there are problems in all walks of life.

    But having it legal and with the possibility of inspections etc is going to be far better for the women and girls involved than having it 'licensed' by pimps on the streets.
  • Jonathan said:

    Jonathan said:

    It is amusing how many people claim that Cooper is a serious heavyweight with a strong career behind her . . . then react with horror/boredom when HIPS are brought up.

    Perhaps Cooper's fans on this site could say what about her exactly that does attract her to them, given that HIPS are about her only ever "achievement" and that's to be ruled out.

    Well for a start she’s got you all riled up and worried. That’s good, I guess it’s her performance in committee that’s unnerved you. More than a match for Patel.
    I'm neither riled up nor worried. I'm amused. Hence the phrase "It is amusing".

    It is also amusing how whenever one responds to something on this site people on the other side of politics frequently retort with a line like "you're worried". No, no I'm not.
    Yeah, right. You doth protest too much.

    Either way I am sure that you would much rather talk about ancient history than the home secretary’s current handling of migration. Is the government still trying to undermine the RNLI?
    I think it's "thou dost"; 'doth' is the third person singular (like 'the lady doth').
  • NEW THREAD

  • MaxPB said:

    Quite a scoop:

    The E.U. has created a shadow immigration system that stops migrants before they reach Europe’s shores. A new investigation goes inside a secretive prison for migrants, controlled by one of Libya’s most powerful militias.

    https://twitter.com/NewYorker/status/1465079031809064960?s=20

    Tbh, good on them. It's exactly the kind of hard headed thinking we need to have.
    As ever the New Yorker is doing journalism

    https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2021/12/06/the-secretive-libyan-prisons-that-keep-migrants-out-of-europe

    this image is... interesting. As is the section where it discuss the sale of prison labour in Libya. As an auction. In a market....

    image
    That shows each person with 2.25 feet by 3.72 feet.
  • CharlesCharles Posts: 35,758

    Very disappointed to hear that Labour now has absolutely no chance at the next GE because Starmer has appointed a woman who was responsible for the introduction of Home Information Packs many years ago. The electorate will think about nothing else when the next GE comes, particularly in the Red Wall.

    May be you can tell us why she is so highly rated?
  • CharlesCharles Posts: 35,758
    Jonathan said:
    No, it’s RIBS
  • IshmaelZ said:

    Jonathan said:
    No, THIS is the issue. Those ghouls I was attacked for mentioning, when I said they had had refugees weaponised by the government? Who were trying to criminalise the RNLI for saving lives?

    Here we have a crowd of the bastards trying to stop the Hastings lifeboat going out on a shout.

    https://www.hastingsobserver.co.uk/news/people/hastings-rnli-lifeboat-crew-blocked-from-going-out-to-sea-by-people-angry-at-them-rescuing-refugees-3475179
    That is frankly disgraceful
    But that is what happens when the government weaponise the issue. I did say that their continued attempt to criminalise the RNLI would have an impact on the ghouls and here we are.

    Some people now want migrants to drown. And the Tories are working very hard to secure their votes.
    I don't see that that kind of hysterical overstatement advances your case. The right wing position (which I am stating, not agreeing with) is that they want fewer migrants. It is impractical to think we can drown enough of them to make a meaningful dent in the numbers. Therefore we should discourage them from setting out in the first place. You can absolutely bet that part of the sales pitch for the channel crossing is: Short crossing, powerful engine, done it loadsa times without a problem, and if there is one we'll call up the RNLI on this vhf radio I have here. There is therefore a respectable argument that the RNLI's availability is part of the problem as much as being part of the solution.
    My "hysterical overstatement" is simply what people are saying - drown the buggers. You may find it as appalling as I do, but that is what happens when the government reduce people to a plague.

    Rescuing drowning children is not "part of the problem" - perhaps I was wrong about you finding it appalling
  • TimTTimT Posts: 6,468
    DavidL said:

    MaxPB said:

    DavidL said:

    MaxPB said:

    Quite a scoop:

    The E.U. has created a shadow immigration system that stops migrants before they reach Europe’s shores. A new investigation goes inside a secretive prison for migrants, controlled by one of Libya’s most powerful militias.

    https://twitter.com/NewYorker/status/1465079031809064960?s=20

    Tbh, good on them. It's exactly the kind of hard headed thinking we need to have.
    So we need an armed militia in France? Worth a go, I suppose.
    Don't start, @TheScreamingEagles will be conscripting us all into said militia by this afternoon!
    Dealing with failed states is always a problem. Giving money to the current gang has certainly not worked.
    Are we still talking about France?
  • CharlesCharles Posts: 35,758
    MaxPB said:

    Quite a scoop:

    The E.U. has created a shadow immigration system that stops migrants before they reach Europe’s shores. A new investigation goes inside a secretive prison for migrants, controlled by one of Libya’s most powerful militias.

    https://twitter.com/NewYorker/status/1465079031809064960?s=20

    Tbh, good on them. It's exactly the kind of hard headed thinking we need to have.
    Disagree. If that article is correct it’s utterly unethical.
  • Charles said:

    Very disappointed to hear that Labour now has absolutely no chance at the next GE because Starmer has appointed a woman who was responsible for the introduction of Home Information Packs many years ago. The electorate will think about nothing else when the next GE comes, particularly in the Red Wall.

    May be you can tell us why she is so highly rated?
    Her husband was on strictly. Swing voters love strictly.
  • Foxy said:

    Huge moment. ‘An appalling atrocity,' says Prince Charles of transatlantic slavery. No British royal - or Prime Minister - has come as close to apologising for the 250 years of state-sanctioned exploitation and murder. #Barbados https://t.co/gMBibgB3QY

    https://twitter.com/axrenton/status/1465578624292212739?s=19

    Costs little, but I'm still not a fan. When/where do you draw the line? Should the Italians apologise for the Roman empire? How about the Egyptians enslaving the people of Israel?
    If you personally have done something wrong, then apologising is the right thing. When our ancestors did something to their ancestors, I'm not so sure.
    As private individuals sure. As leader of a hereditary monarchy that has been in place for hundreds of years and expects to be in place for hundreds of years more? Absolutely correct to apologise for what the institution has done before your lifetime.

    The only reason his words have more meaning than mine is because they represent an idea and power that spans many lifetimes.
This discussion has been closed.