I can't see "aid budget" in the piece (?) How's that involved?
Yet another Shock ! Horror ! story with no useful context - eg how much of worldwide methane emissions does this relate to?
If we clear half of these up how much does it reduce global methane emissions by?
The aid budget isn't in the piece. That was my idea. But if we are to return to 0.7% as promised in the budget we need to make sure that it is doing some real good for our planet and cutting off these methane flares is going to do vastly more for the planet than another 5p on plastic bags. We could make a difference instead of another futile gesture. Naive I know but worth a thought.
On the VONC vote, surely the result last night persuades MPs not to stick the knife in now? Low turnout but 86% of the vote and, regardless of how you look at it, nearly 13,000 people voted for the Conservatives despite all the problems. Agreed, a lot will be postal vote but the point still holds.
It really doesn't. A by election like this is a no win situation - you cannot claim it means anything if you win because all the major parties stood aside. So only if they did shockingly badly could it matter.
They didn't do shockingly badly, so that's something, but basing a perception of what they should do about their leader because of a highly unusual by election with a very strong push of 'it's what sir david would have wanted' would be most unwise - the strength or weakness of the party are unaffected.
True but, as you said, there was an option of they could do shockingly badly. I'm not claiming this is a good result for BJ, what I am saying is that a few MPs who are sitting on the fence may see this result and waver about sending in the letter. If the result had been shockingly bad, there was a big incentive to move against him. It wasn't.
On the VONC vote, surely the result last night persuades MPs not to stick the knife in now? Low turnout but 86% of the vote and, regardless of how you look at it, nearly 13,000 people voted for the Conservatives despite all the problems. Agreed, a lot will be postal vote but the point still holds.
There are no tanks in the city, we are on the verge of a glorious victory
Let me put it another way: if you are looking at the Southend result, what is the big anti-Boris message that is coming from the result?
Ah, the latest contestant for the Mohammed Saeed al-Sahhaf Award (aka Comical Ali's most ludicrous defence Award), submits his application.
Indy: Cummings is correct. She [Mirza], like him, has come to the conclusion that Johnson is now beyond help, not up to the job, and it’s in everyone’s interest that she says so publicly. So, in a more circumspect fashion, has Rishi Sunak.
Johnson had a lot to thank the woman he liked to call “Dr Mirza” for. She was his gaslighter-in-chief on race. Yet on the one occasion she asked him to say sorry for something, he would not listen to her, apparently to the point of watching her resign over it. For those who think him loyal to his friends it is an appalling reflection of his selfish, stubborn, nasty personality. He’s really not as cuddly as he makes out, and relies on his own judgement. He must be getting lonely, though.
Mirza has really cut through to the fence-sitting MPs, I was told last night.
Johnson couldn't have chosen a less wise ditch than JS for his last stand. There's a film coming out in March which I know a reasonable amount about having had a small involvement in the making of it. It's the first time ever that I've been asked to sign an NDA which tells you the sensitivity of the subject matter. I would have expected the PM to be better informed
I said yesterday what I think happened.
It's probably been discussed a few times as an attack line but has always been ruled out.
Then Bozo wanted something on Monday that allowed him to stay in place while throwing his staff to the wolves and somehow thought of Jimmy Saville and SKS at the CPS. So he used it without thinking about the complete picture and the fact it doesn't actually match the narrative Bozo's wanted to create.
You can see that the attack line was prepared or approved of by others so it very much looks like Bozo used it as he couldn't think of anything else that allows him to remain in place while he fires everyone else to protect himself.
Yes, if you watched the exchange in the House it's easy to infer that Johnson was panicking and it was just the first thing that came into his head at the time. That would be consistent with the notion that this line of attack had been discussed with his advisers at some stage but he had been warned against it. In his panic he ignored the warning.
It is also consistent with his blustering, bullshitting debate style.
It also reflects his approach to things. Throw so many "ideas" out that one may be taken up and change the media's focus away from the thing you don't want them to focus on.
See for example Boris painting buses and Peppa pig.
The painting buses thing was to swamp Google and deflect from the Brexit Bus promise and perhaps also Boris buses. Which is actually a special case of what you suggest, so yes!
Quite a muscly Owen Jones piece here imo. His main point is we shouldn't be suckered by the Tory Party into thinking if Boris Johnson goes all is fine.
Owen must be weeping at how Starmer's star has risen
It is an all-too-common trait among too many who regarded Corbyn as the messiah. Basically they are willing Starmer to fail, gunning for him at every opportunity and as a consequence just consigning themselves to derision.
In the meantime, I am increasingly impressed with how not only Starmer but also the key players on the Labour front bench are stepping up to the mark. The opposition front bench under Starmer was initially a disappointment but since he rejigged it they seem to have got their collective act together.
I am right of centre but I have always rated Starmer. If he becomes PM, he will become the first PM in a very long time to have done a "proper job" outside of politics, and one that he has risen right to the very top in. He is a very smart cookie.
Starmer v Sunak, a privately educated former barrister and head of the CPS with an Oxford degree v a privately and Oxford and Stanford educated ex Goldman Sachs banker.
The most elitist general election ever? Definitely the end of populism then
On the VONC vote, surely the result last night persuades MPs not to stick the knife in now? Low turnout but 86% of the vote and, regardless of how you look at it, nearly 13,000 people voted for the Conservatives despite all the problems. Agreed, a lot will be postal vote but the point still holds.
There are no tanks in the city, we are on the verge of a glorious victory
Let me put it another way: if you are looking at the Southend result, what is the big anti-Boris message that is coming from the result?
Not everything plays into the dominant narrative. A normal by election might, but a free run all about good old Sir David? Even if they were inclined, and they might not be, not really a moment for locals to kick Boris
On the VONC vote, surely the result last night persuades MPs not to stick the knife in now? Low turnout but 86% of the vote and, regardless of how you look at it, nearly 13,000 people voted for the Conservatives despite all the problems. Agreed, a lot will be postal vote but the point still holds.
There are no tanks in the city, we are on the verge of a glorious victory
Let me put it another way: if you are looking at the Southend result, what is the big anti-Boris message that is coming from the result?
Ah, the latest contestant for the Mohammed Saeed al-Sahhaf Award (aka Comical Ali's most ludicrous defence Award), submits his application.
Let me copy and paste what I said to Kle:
"True but, as you said, there was an option of they could do shockingly badly. I'm not claiming this is a good result for BJ, what I am saying is that a few MPs who are sitting on the fence may see this result and waver about sending in the letter. If the result had been shockingly bad, there was a big incentive to move against him. It wasn't."
This is not about whether it was a good result or not, it's about whether a few MPs will look at the result and think that it might be best not to send in the letter yet.
On the VONC vote, surely the result last night persuades MPs not to stick the knife in now? Low turnout but 86% of the vote and, regardless of how you look at it, nearly 13,000 people voted for the Conservatives despite all the problems. Agreed, a lot will be postal vote but the point still holds.
That means at least 15,000 who voted Tory the last time didn't bother - I say 'at least' because there may have been Labour and LibDem voters from 2019 willing to support Firth against the extremists and to show respect for Amess. So potentially up to 60% of Tories stayed home.
FWIW I think that we will reach the 54 (did it just go up) today, that the VONC will be over the next 3-4 days and that Boris will lose. The wheels are coming off and spiraling into chaos. The centre cannot hold.
I have been wrong before, of course.
I have no idea. People have been saying "he's toast" for what seems like ages, but he's still there.
I would imagine that The Fall of Boris will be irresistible to TV drama-makers. But who would play the leads?
Presumably, Benedict Cumberbatch would revive his peerless Dom.
Boris, and Carrie, now there's two roles...
Jason Momoa to play Boris Johnson and Emilia Clarke to play Carrie.
Nailed on.
That influencer/presenter Oobah Butler to play Boris. I'm not sophisticated enough to upload pictures on here but seriously look him up. He'd need some ageing makeup but he could easily be one of Boris's children
Good call. I didn't know the name, but I remember the "fake restaurant" thing.
Also, on my Google autocomplete, the top suggestion for "oobah butler" is "oobah butler boris johnson"...
He actually looks even more like him these days (attempting a picture).
A bit too good looking for Boris Johnson. He would also need to "Supersize me" for about a year and even then still wear a fat suit.
On the VONC vote, surely the result last night persuades MPs not to stick the knife in now? Low turnout but 86% of the vote and, regardless of how you look at it, nearly 13,000 people voted for the Conservatives despite all the problems. Agreed, a lot will be postal vote but the point still holds.
Difficult to know for sure that they are voting for the Conservatives because they support the Boris-led regime or because they are heartened that there are finally enough rumblings of discontent about Boris that an end is in sight.
I think anyone seeking to draw too many conclusions from an uncontested by-election in a safe Tory seat is on a fools errand.
Excellent point. Are they voting for Mr Sunak or not?
FWIW I think that we will reach the 54 (did it just go up) today, that the VONC will be over the next 3-4 days and that Boris will lose. The wheels are coming off and spiraling into chaos. The centre cannot hold.
I have been wrong before, of course.
I have no idea. People have been saying "he's toast" for what seems like ages, but he's still there.
but smoke is clearly starting to spiral up out of the toaster
Quite a muscly Owen Jones piece here imo. His main point is we shouldn't be suckered by the Tory Party into thinking if Boris Johnson goes all is fine.
Owen must be weeping at how Starmer's star has risen
It is an all-too-common trait among too many who regarded Corbyn as the messiah. Basically they are willing Starmer to fail, gunning for him at every opportunity and as a consequence just consigning themselves to derision.
In the meantime, I am increasingly impressed with how not only Starmer but also the key players on the Labour front bench are stepping up to the mark. The opposition front bench under Starmer was initially a disappointment but since he rejigged it they seem to have got their collective act together.
I am right of centre but I have always rated Starmer. If he becomes PM, he will become the first PM in a very long time to have done a "proper job" outside of politics, and one that he has risen right to the very top in. He is a very smart cookie.
Yeah, you mean in the way he adopted a policy of "believe all victims" and so we had Carl Beech wreck people's lives? Yup, 'very smart cookie'
On the VONC vote, surely the result last night persuades MPs not to stick the knife in now? Low turnout but 86% of the vote and, regardless of how you look at it, nearly 13,000 people voted for the Conservatives despite all the problems. Agreed, a lot will be postal vote but the point still holds.
It really doesn't. A by election like this is a no win situation - you cannot claim it means anything if you win because all the major parties stood aside. So only if they did shockingly badly could it matter.
They didn't do shockingly badly, so that's something, but basing a perception of what they should do about their leader because of a highly unusual by election with a very strong push of 'it's what sir david would have wanted' would be most unwise - the strength or weakness of the party are unaffected.
True but, as you said, there was an option of they could do shockingly badly. I'm not claiming this is a good result for BJ, what I am saying is that a few MPs who are sitting on the fence may see this result and waver about sending in the letter. If the result had been shockingly bad, there was a big incentive to move against him. It wasn't.
A lot of MPs know a little bit about politics, so they realise that a contest between a reasonably credible Conservative candidate in a very right wing area is unlikely to do badly when only faced by a bunch of fruitcakes, muppets and fascists.
Indy: Cummings is correct. She [Mirza], like him, has come to the conclusion that Johnson is now beyond help, not up to the job, and it’s in everyone’s interest that she says so publicly. So, in a more circumspect fashion, has Rishi Sunak.
Johnson had a lot to thank the woman he liked to call “Dr Mirza” for. She was his gaslighter-in-chief on race. Yet on the one occasion she asked him to say sorry for something, he would not listen to her, apparently to the point of watching her resign over it. For those who think him loyal to his friends it is an appalling reflection of his selfish, stubborn, nasty personality. He’s really not as cuddly as he makes out, and relies on his own judgement. He must be getting lonely, though.
Mirza has really cut through to the fence-sitting MPs, I was told last night.
Johnson couldn't have chosen a less wise ditch than JS for his last stand. There's a film coming out in March which I know a reasonable amount about having had a small involvement in the making of it. It's the first time ever that I've been asked to sign an NDA which tells you the sensitivity of the subject matter. I would have expected the PM to be better informed
I said yesterday what I think happened.
It's probably been discussed a few times as an attack line but has always been ruled out.
Then Bozo wanted something on Monday that allowed him to stay in place while throwing his staff to the wolves and somehow thought of Jimmy Saville and SKS at the CPS. So he used it without thinking about the complete picture and the fact it doesn't actually match the narrative Bozo's wanted to create.
You can see that the attack line was prepared or approved of by others so it very much looks like Bozo used it as he couldn't think of anything else that allows him to remain in place while he fires everyone else to protect himself.
Yes, if you watched the exchange in the House it's easy to infer that Johnson was panicking and it was just the first thing that came into his head at the time. That would be consistent with the notion that this line of attack had been discussed with his advisers at some stage but he had been warned against it. In his panic he ignored the warning.
It is also consistent with his blustering, bullshitting debate style.
It also reflects his approach to things. Throw so many "ideas" out that one may be taken up and change the media's focus away from the thing you don't want them to focus on.
See for example Boris painting buses and Peppa pig.
The painting buses thing was to swamp Google and deflect from the Brexit Bus promise and perhaps also Boris buses. Which is actually a special case of what you suggest, so yes!
Was that a real thing? I read that, but it sounds too stupid to work. Certainly I dont think it did work as I doubt people struggle to know about the promise.
FWIW I think that we will reach the 54 (did it just go up) today, that the VONC will be over the next 3-4 days and that Boris will lose. The wheels are coming off and spiraling into chaos. The centre cannot hold.
I have been wrong before, of course.
I have no idea. People have been saying "he's toast" for what seems like ages, but he's still there.
He'll end up like a ship's biscuit of the Nelson era. Almost inedible. And full of weevils.
On the VONC vote, surely the result last night persuades MPs not to stick the knife in now? Low turnout but 86% of the vote and, regardless of how you look at it, nearly 13,000 people voted for the Conservatives despite all the problems. Agreed, a lot will be postal vote but the point still holds.
That means at least 15,000 who voted Tory the last time didn't bother - I say 'at least' because there may have been Labour and LibDem voters from 2019 willing to support Firth against the extremists and to show respect for Amess. So potentially up to 60% of Tories stayed home.
I suspect I didn't explain myself well. This is not about saying the result is good for BJ, it's about that the result may persuade some MPs not to send in a letter. I'd agree you cannot read too much into this by-election.
On the VONC vote, surely the result last night persuades MPs not to stick the knife in now? Low turnout but 86% of the vote and, regardless of how you look at it, nearly 13,000 people voted for the Conservatives despite all the problems. Agreed, a lot will be postal vote but the point still holds.
There are no tanks in the city, we are on the verge of a glorious victory
Let me put it another way: if you are looking at the Southend result, what is the big anti-Boris message that is coming from the result?
You could ask to have a read of the nearly 1,100 spoiled ballot papers?
For comparison, there were 170 in the 'uncontested' Batley & Spen
Quite a muscly Owen Jones piece here imo. His main point is we shouldn't be suckered by the Tory Party into thinking if Boris Johnson goes all is fine.
Owen must be weeping at how Starmer's star has risen
It is an all-too-common trait among too many who regarded Corbyn as the messiah. Basically they are willing Starmer to fail, gunning for him at every opportunity and as a consequence just consigning themselves to derision.
In the meantime, I am increasingly impressed with how not only Starmer but also the key players on the Labour front bench are stepping up to the mark. The opposition front bench under Starmer was initially a disappointment but since he rejigged it they seem to have got their collective act together.
I am right of centre but I have always rated Starmer. If he becomes PM, he will become the first PM in a very long time to have done a "proper job" outside of politics, and one that he has risen right to the very top in. He is a very smart cookie.
Yeah, you mean in the way he adopted a policy of "believe all victims" and so we had Carl Beech wreck people's lives? Yup, 'very smart cookie'
The one joy in all that horrible, horrible mess, was the horror with which certain people went "no, no, not *those* victims" when May mandated investigating *all* the reported abuse.
It effectively shows my doubts when 'levelling up' so often means 'become more like London'.
The data research firm CACI provided me with profiles of central Ashington and Edmonton Green. In many ways, they look alike. Household income is, if anything, higher in central Ashington, while private tenants in my old neighbourhood spend almost triple their counterparts in the north-east on rent. Overall, the Londoners, my Londoners, make do with half the disposable income of those in Ashington. The one big difference is that residents of Ashington are older and 98% white, whereas Edmonton has families from Bulgaria, Romania, Turkey, Somalia and south Asia. Whether from the north or the south, economically these people are in the same boat – which makes it vital for the Tories to harp on about their cultural differences. Rich remainers, citizens of nowhere … you know the rest.
There's another big difference...
Tenure: Edmonton Green | Ashington
Owned: 29.7% | 55.8% Owned: Owned outright: 10.7% | 27.9% Owned: Owned with a mortgage or loan: 19.0% | 27.9%
Shared ownership (part owned and part rented): 2.3% | 0.1%
Social rented: 43.1% | 14.5% Social rented: Rented from council (Local Authority): 23.3% | 2.6% Social rented: Other: 19.8% | 11.9%
I'm all about the big tent, yet I can't see any mileage in the Tory party trying to win in Edmonton, they need to focus on winning back Enfield Southgate which is a wealthy suburban middle class area. Shifting the focus to places like Edmonton or Tottenham doesn't make any sense at all, the Tories will never win those seats. These are two of the safest Labour seats in the country. Even in an end of days scenario they'll vote Labour.
Quite a muscly Owen Jones piece here imo. His main point is we shouldn't be suckered by the Tory Party into thinking if Boris Johnson goes all is fine.
Owen must be weeping at how Starmer's star has risen
It is an all-too-common trait among too many who regarded Corbyn as the messiah. Basically they are willing Starmer to fail, gunning for him at every opportunity and as a consequence just consigning themselves to derision.
In the meantime, I am increasingly impressed with how not only Starmer but also the key players on the Labour front bench are stepping up to the mark. The opposition front bench under Starmer was initially a disappointment but since he rejigged it they seem to have got their collective act together.
I am right of centre but I have always rated Starmer. If he becomes PM, he will become the first PM in a very long time to have done a "proper job" outside of politics, and one that he has risen right to the very top in. He is a very smart cookie.
Yeah, you mean in the way he adopted a policy of "believe all victims" and so we had Carl Beech wreck people's lives? Yup, 'very smart cookie'
And sat on his hands in the Corbyn Shadow Cabinet as anti-semitism ran unchecked through his party. Just so he could get the top job himslef. Yeah, what a guy....
Quite a muscly Owen Jones piece here imo. His main point is we shouldn't be suckered by the Tory Party into thinking if Boris Johnson goes all is fine.
Owen must be weeping at how Starmer's star has risen
It is an all-too-common trait among too many who regarded Corbyn as the messiah. Basically they are willing Starmer to fail, gunning for him at every opportunity and as a consequence just consigning themselves to derision.
In the meantime, I am increasingly impressed with how not only Starmer but also the key players on the Labour front bench are stepping up to the mark. The opposition front bench under Starmer was initially a disappointment but since he rejigged it they seem to have got their collective act together.
I am right of centre but I have always rated Starmer. If he becomes PM, he will become the first PM in a very long time to have done a "proper job" outside of politics, and one that he has risen right to the very top in. He is a very smart cookie.
Yeah, you mean in the way he adopted a policy of "believe all victims" and so we had Carl Beech wreck people's lives? Yup, 'very smart cookie'
Is that the latest right wing nutter meme since the previous one backfired spectacularly on Big Clown? Yes he is a very smart cookie. You are too partisan to see it, or you are really not a very smart cookie, or perhaps both.
Quite a muscly Owen Jones piece here imo. His main point is we shouldn't be suckered by the Tory Party into thinking if Boris Johnson goes all is fine.
Owen must be weeping at how Starmer's star has risen
It is an all-too-common trait among too many who regarded Corbyn as the messiah. Basically they are willing Starmer to fail, gunning for him at every opportunity and as a consequence just consigning themselves to derision.
In the meantime, I am increasingly impressed with how not only Starmer but also the key players on the Labour front bench are stepping up to the mark. The opposition front bench under Starmer was initially a disappointment but since he rejigged it they seem to have got their collective act together.
I am right of centre but I have always rated Starmer. If he becomes PM, he will become the first PM in a very long time to have done a "proper job" outside of politics, and one that he has risen right to the very top in. He is a very smart cookie.
Starmer v Sunak, a privately educated former barrister and head of the CPS with an Oxford degree v a privately and Oxford and Stanford educated ex Goldman Sachs banker.
The most elitist general election ever? Definitely the end of populism then
Point of order: Starmer didn't go to Oxford for undergrad, he went to Leeds and did a BCL at Oxford.
... Has he not done exactly what he said he'd do in the House? He's got rid of the people who were 'badly' advising him ...
If that was the strategy with the other three, the way in which it was done couldn't have backfired more disastrously. Surely the press should have been well and truly briefed about what was about to happen before the resignations went in. With Mirza announcing her resignation on a point of principle first, it gave the impression that Johnson's entire staff were walking out in protest at his behaviour. Probably a lot of people without too much interest in politics will still be left with that impression.
But I suppose if you sack all your advisers you're not likely to benefit from the best advice about how to go about it.
He hasn't sacked all his advisers; Carrie's still there.
However, I agree that it looks awful, but I stick with the thought that he doesn't jump; he has to be pushed. And unless he is, and pushed hard, he'll stay.
And I recommend, in this context, Andrew Murrison's piece in the Guardian.
Carrie has had a reasonably free ride because it isn't polite to call someone 'Lady Macbeth' anymore. However anyone who knows the play will know that it's a toss up who is worse Lady M or Big M himself! I think the Scottish play is an almost perfect match for those two. As for the three witches....take your pick
"By the pricking of my thumbs something wicked this way comes." Shakespear is full of great lines but for me that is right up there. By the end of the play MacBeth has gone well beyond his wife.
Rishi ..................'Is this a dagger I see before me?'
Can somebody get it down off that shelf for me?
But that's the point (so to speak) - he's not wielding it quite yet.
FWIW I think that we will reach the 54 (did it just go up) today, that the VONC will be over the next 3-4 days and that Boris will lose. The wheels are coming off and spiraling into chaos. The centre cannot hold.
I have been wrong before, of course.
I have no idea. People have been saying "he's toast" for what seems like ages, but he's still there.
People seem to be expecting a 24 hour news cycle style toast.
Politics works slower than that. I don't think the end result is in much doubt.
Quite a muscly Owen Jones piece here imo. His main point is we shouldn't be suckered by the Tory Party into thinking if Boris Johnson goes all is fine.
Owen must be weeping at how Starmer's star has risen
It is an all-too-common trait among too many who regarded Corbyn as the messiah. Basically they are willing Starmer to fail, gunning for him at every opportunity and as a consequence just consigning themselves to derision.
In the meantime, I am increasingly impressed with how not only Starmer but also the key players on the Labour front bench are stepping up to the mark. The opposition front bench under Starmer was initially a disappointment but since he rejigged it they seem to have got their collective act together.
I am right of centre but I have always rated Starmer. If he becomes PM, he will become the first PM in a very long time to have done a "proper job" outside of politics, and one that he has risen right to the very top in. He is a very smart cookie.
Yeah, you mean in the way he adopted a policy of "believe all victims" and so we had Carl Beech wreck people's lives? Yup, 'very smart cookie'
This is nuts. Sunak will be extremely damaged by the looming inflation crisis. He should move now.
Stewart Wood @StewartWood If you wanted to be the next Conservative Prime Minister, you would want Boris Johnson to own as much of the mushrooming cost of living crisis as possible. Plus the probable electoral nightmare of May’s local elections. All of which suggests months of zombie government by default
I always think that those who think they are being clever by arguing that there is a "right" time to take over are delusional. The right time is always now. Once there you can set the agenda, the mood, the tone. Yes, you will have problems but problems are also opportunities and, let's face it, the bar is pretty low right now. Avoiding calling the LOTO soft on peodophiles is not too difficult a start.
I actually that, if Sunak becomes PM, he will get through the looming economic and cost-of-living crisis better than any of the other candidates would, and of course miles better than Boris would. The last thing that would go down well in such difficult time would be the mindless boosterism of Boris, with voters suspecting quite rightly that he doesn't give a toss about it and is just laughing at them. Liz Truss would be a bit better, but would look hapless and lightweight.
Sunak, on the other hand, is actually very good at giving serious and empathetic answers to difficult questions on how ordinary people are being affected, explaining clearly what he is doing, not belittling the problems which he can't address, and being very clear on the limits of what can be done. It won't satisfy everyone, obviously, and the government is going to be unpopular whatever it does, but I reckon Sunak is better placed than almost any other potential candidate, except perhaps Jeremy Hunt, to mitigate the damage to the party from the economic travails to come.
I did predict and bet on the over 80% band, though got turnout wrong at over 30%. So up on the contest modestly at the princely sum of £3.50.
The By-election in Evington (Leicester) is interesting, and shows the continuing problems of the Labour Party in the Leicester East Constituency following the Claudia Webbe fiasco. She was an unpopular imposition under Corbyn. It is in this constituency in nearby Humberstone that the city elected a Conservative councilor last year. He hasn't made much impact, turning up at 29% of expected attendances.
Evington is the poshest bit of the constituency, being mostly detached and semi detached housing around the Leicester General Hospital, and the best state schools in the city. It is mixed ethnically, mostly middle class. The sort of place where Sunak might be popular.
To keep perspective though, the LP has 52 of 54 Council seats, held this one, and the rest of the constituency is much more inner city working class of all ethnicities. Leicester East will stay Labour at the GE, unless the local Labour party does something seriously fratricidal.
It does seem that every week when there is a by-election and Labours performance is nowhere near their national polling position it is put down to local issues where the local labour party is doing some crazy things. Out of 3 by-elections counted last night, 2 of the very disappointing labour performances were put down to mad happenings in the local labour party. I know local politics can be odd but does labour have a particular problem?
Quite a muscly Owen Jones piece here imo. His main point is we shouldn't be suckered by the Tory Party into thinking if Boris Johnson goes all is fine.
Owen must be weeping at how Starmer's star has risen
It is an all-too-common trait among too many who regarded Corbyn as the messiah. Basically they are willing Starmer to fail, gunning for him at every opportunity and as a consequence just consigning themselves to derision.
In the meantime, I am increasingly impressed with how not only Starmer but also the key players on the Labour front bench are stepping up to the mark. The opposition front bench under Starmer was initially a disappointment but since he rejigged it they seem to have got their collective act together.
I am right of centre but I have always rated Starmer. If he becomes PM, he will become the first PM in a very long time to have done a "proper job" outside of politics, and one that he has risen right to the very top in. He is a very smart cookie.
Yeah, you mean in the way he adopted a policy of "believe all victims" and so we had Carl Beech wreck people's lives? Yup, 'very smart cookie'
Is that the latest right wing nutter meme since the previous one backfired spectacularly on Big Clown? Yes he is a very smart cookie. You are too partisan to see it, or you are really not a very smart cookie, or perhaps both.
Ahem, if you are going to lob insults, it might be better to get your facts right. Who is disagreeing with the statement that Starmer instituted a policy of believe all victims at the CPS? What people are disagreeing with BJ on is that Starmer didn't prosecute Jimmy Saville.
On the VONC vote, surely the result last night persuades MPs not to stick the knife in now? Low turnout but 86% of the vote and, regardless of how you look at it, nearly 13,000 people voted for the Conservatives despite all the problems. Agreed, a lot will be postal vote but the point still holds.
There are no tanks in the city, we are on the verge of a glorious victory
Let me put it another way: if you are looking at the Southend result, what is the big anti-Boris message that is coming from the result?
You might as well look at the Cameroon Egypt result from last night than the Southend bi election
On the VONC vote, surely the result last night persuades MPs not to stick the knife in now? Low turnout but 86% of the vote and, regardless of how you look at it, nearly 13,000 people voted for the Conservatives despite all the problems. Agreed, a lot will be postal vote but the point still holds.
There are no tanks in the city, we are on the verge of a glorious victory
Let me put it another way: if you are looking at the Southend result, what is the big anti-Boris message that is coming from the result?
You might as well look at the Cameroon Egypt result from last night than the Southend bi election
Quite a muscly Owen Jones piece here imo. His main point is we shouldn't be suckered by the Tory Party into thinking if Boris Johnson goes all is fine.
Owen must be weeping at how Starmer's star has risen
It is an all-too-common trait among too many who regarded Corbyn as the messiah. Basically they are willing Starmer to fail, gunning for him at every opportunity and as a consequence just consigning themselves to derision.
In the meantime, I am increasingly impressed with how not only Starmer but also the key players on the Labour front bench are stepping up to the mark. The opposition front bench under Starmer was initially a disappointment but since he rejigged it they seem to have got their collective act together.
I am right of centre but I have always rated Starmer. If he becomes PM, he will become the first PM in a very long time to have done a "proper job" outside of politics, and one that he has risen right to the very top in. He is a very smart cookie.
Starmer v Sunak, a privately educated former barrister and head of the CPS with an Oxford degree v a privately and Oxford and Stanford educated ex Goldman Sachs banker.
The most elitist general election ever? Definitely the end of populism then
Point of order: Starmer didn't go to Oxford for undergrad, he went to Leeds and did a BCL at Oxford.
He still has an Oxford degree, a postgraduate degree in law, even if he went to Leeds for undergrad.
No different to Bill Clinton who went to Georgetown for undergrad but Yale law school for postgrad or Obama who went to Occidental College and Columbia and Harvard law school or indeed Gerald Ford who went to Michigan University and Yale law school.
On the VONC vote, surely the result last night persuades MPs not to stick the knife in now? Low turnout but 86% of the vote and, regardless of how you look at it, nearly 13,000 people voted for the Conservatives despite all the problems. Agreed, a lot will be postal vote but the point still holds.
There are no tanks in the city, we are on the verge of a glorious victory
Let me put it another way: if you are looking at the Southend result, what is the big anti-Boris message that is coming from the result?
You might as well look at the Cameroon Egypt result from last night than the Southend bi election
Quite a muscly Owen Jones piece here imo. His main point is we shouldn't be suckered by the Tory Party into thinking if Boris Johnson goes all is fine.
Owen must be weeping at how Starmer's star has risen
It is an all-too-common trait among too many who regarded Corbyn as the messiah. Basically they are willing Starmer to fail, gunning for him at every opportunity and as a consequence just consigning themselves to derision.
In the meantime, I am increasingly impressed with how not only Starmer but also the key players on the Labour front bench are stepping up to the mark. The opposition front bench under Starmer was initially a disappointment but since he rejigged it they seem to have got their collective act together.
I am right of centre but I have always rated Starmer. If he becomes PM, he will become the first PM in a very long time to have done a "proper job" outside of politics, and one that he has risen right to the very top in. He is a very smart cookie.
Starmer v Sunak, a privately educated former barrister and head of the CPS with an Oxford degree v a privately and Oxford and Stanford educated ex Goldman Sachs banker.
The most elitist general election ever? Definitely the end of populism then
Point of order: Starmer didn't go to Oxford for undergrad, he went to Leeds and did a BCL at Oxford.
Equally Starmer didn't start at a private school, he started at a state Grammar school that changed while he was there to become a private school.
Quite a muscly Owen Jones piece here imo. His main point is we shouldn't be suckered by the Tory Party into thinking if Boris Johnson goes all is fine.
Owen must be weeping at how Starmer's star has risen
It is an all-too-common trait among too many who regarded Corbyn as the messiah. Basically they are willing Starmer to fail, gunning for him at every opportunity and as a consequence just consigning themselves to derision.
In the meantime, I am increasingly impressed with how not only Starmer but also the key players on the Labour front bench are stepping up to the mark. The opposition front bench under Starmer was initially a disappointment but since he rejigged it they seem to have got their collective act together.
I am right of centre but I have always rated Starmer. If he becomes PM, he will become the first PM in a very long time to have done a "proper job" outside of politics, and one that he has risen right to the very top in. He is a very smart cookie.
Yeah, you mean in the way he adopted a policy of "believe all victims" and so we had Carl Beech wreck people's lives? Yup, 'very smart cookie'
That was Allison Saunders fwiw.
Ahem, Saunders formally instituted it but it was Starmer who very much laid the groundwork for it when he was CPS after the Rochdale case. It merely came into effect on Saunder's watch
It effectively shows my doubts when 'levelling up' so often means 'become more like London'.
The data research firm CACI provided me with profiles of central Ashington and Edmonton Green. In many ways, they look alike. Household income is, if anything, higher in central Ashington, while private tenants in my old neighbourhood spend almost triple their counterparts in the north-east on rent. Overall, the Londoners, my Londoners, make do with half the disposable income of those in Ashington. The one big difference is that residents of Ashington are older and 98% white, whereas Edmonton has families from Bulgaria, Romania, Turkey, Somalia and south Asia. Whether from the north or the south, economically these people are in the same boat – which makes it vital for the Tories to harp on about their cultural differences. Rich remainers, citizens of nowhere … you know the rest.
There's another big difference...
Tenure: Edmonton Green | Ashington
Owned: 29.7% | 55.8% Owned: Owned outright: 10.7% | 27.9% Owned: Owned with a mortgage or loan: 19.0% | 27.9%
Shared ownership (part owned and part rented): 2.3% | 0.1%
Social rented: 43.1% | 14.5% Social rented: Rented from council (Local Authority): 23.3% | 2.6% Social rented: Other: 19.8% | 11.9%
I'm all about the big tent, yet I can't see any mileage in the Tory party trying to win in Edmonton, they need to focus on winning back Enfield Southgate which is a wealthy suburban middle class area. Shifting the focus to places like Edmonton or Tottenham doesn't make any sense at all, the Tories will never win those seats. These are two of the safest Labour seats in the country. Even in an end of days scenario they'll vote Labour.
The Tories are unlikely to win back Enfield Southgate post Brexit for a generation.
I agree on Edmonton and Tottenham, even Cameron did not win those seats, though he did win Enfield Southgate.
On the VONC vote, surely the result last night persuades MPs not to stick the knife in now? Low turnout but 86% of the vote and, regardless of how you look at it, nearly 13,000 people voted for the Conservatives despite all the problems. Agreed, a lot will be postal vote but the point still holds.
There are no tanks in the city, we are on the verge of a glorious victory
Let me put it another way: if you are looking at the Southend result, what is the big anti-Boris message that is coming from the result?
You might as well look at the Cameroon Egypt result from last night than the Southend bi election
Anne Applebaum is, in my view, simply the best journalist writing on geopolitics today. Like one of her predecessors, Robert Fisk, no one will agree with all her points but she is deeply informed, smart, articulate and thought provoking.
Quite a muscly Owen Jones piece here imo. His main point is we shouldn't be suckered by the Tory Party into thinking if Boris Johnson goes all is fine.
Owen must be weeping at how Starmer's star has risen
It is an all-too-common trait among too many who regarded Corbyn as the messiah. Basically they are willing Starmer to fail, gunning for him at every opportunity and as a consequence just consigning themselves to derision.
In the meantime, I am increasingly impressed with how not only Starmer but also the key players on the Labour front bench are stepping up to the mark. The opposition front bench under Starmer was initially a disappointment but since he rejigged it they seem to have got their collective act together.
I am right of centre but I have always rated Starmer. If he becomes PM, he will become the first PM in a very long time to have done a "proper job" outside of politics, and one that he has risen right to the very top in. He is a very smart cookie.
Yeah, you mean in the way he adopted a policy of "believe all victims" and so we had Carl Beech wreck people's lives? Yup, 'very smart cookie'
Is that the latest right wing nutter meme since the previous one backfired spectacularly on Big Clown? Yes he is a very smart cookie. You are too partisan to see it, or you are really not a very smart cookie, or perhaps both.
Ahem, if you are going to lob insults, it might be better to get your facts right. Who is disagreeing with the statement that Starmer instituted a policy of believe all victims at the CPS? What people are disagreeing with BJ on is that Starmer didn't prosecute Jimmy Saville.
I have no need to defend Starmer on detail. I am not a Labour supporter, and therefore will be able to disagree with him on lots of things. He is very smart though. The fact that you are still an apologist for the worst PM probably in history suggests that you are going to be more and more disappointed that Starmer outmanoeuvres him at every juncture. One of the important things in politics and life in general is not to underestimate your opponents. Smarter Tories are beginning to realise they need someone better than the fat blusterer to outsmart Starmer.
Reasons why Boris doesn't want to go now No 1 to 60million
Boris wants another 4-6 months to get past Brown and May - and he needs to avoid a VONC otherwise he isn't going to get there.
I still think Boris wins a VONC 55% to 45% or so for now
If it gets to a VONC and Bozo wins the Tories are completely and utterly f***ed for generations.
Every none Tory on this site will be hoping you are right although annoyed about the damage that will be done meanwhile.
What a load of rubbish. Even now under Boris most polls have Labour less than 10% ahead.
Fancy a wager about the next 5 polls?
Average 10% or above I win Average below 10%, you do
A tenner to keep it frugal as befits the mood
I think people's expectations might need to adjust to reflect the polarised age we're living through. It's like in the US where Biden's victory looked fairly tight by historical standards but was actually as comprehensive as can be expected given how divided the US is. We're not quite there in the UK yet but I wonder if any party will ever achieve the kind of poll lead that HYUFD seems to think is the metric for success.
Quite a muscly Owen Jones piece here imo. His main point is we shouldn't be suckered by the Tory Party into thinking if Boris Johnson goes all is fine.
Owen must be weeping at how Starmer's star has risen
It is an all-too-common trait among too many who regarded Corbyn as the messiah. Basically they are willing Starmer to fail, gunning for him at every opportunity and as a consequence just consigning themselves to derision.
In the meantime, I am increasingly impressed with how not only Starmer but also the key players on the Labour front bench are stepping up to the mark. The opposition front bench under Starmer was initially a disappointment but since he rejigged it they seem to have got their collective act together.
I am right of centre but I have always rated Starmer. If he becomes PM, he will become the first PM in a very long time to have done a "proper job" outside of politics, and one that he has risen right to the very top in. He is a very smart cookie.
Yeah, you mean in the way he adopted a policy of "believe all victims" and so we had Carl Beech wreck people's lives? Yup, 'very smart cookie'
And sat on his hands in the Corbyn Shadow Cabinet as anti-semitism ran unchecked through his party. Just so he could get the top job himslef. Yeah, what a guy....
I know, even though his wife is Jewish. Obviously, a principled man who would be a vast improvement when it came to his personal behaviour...
Indy: Cummings is correct. She [Mirza], like him, has come to the conclusion that Johnson is now beyond help, not up to the job, and it’s in everyone’s interest that she says so publicly. So, in a more circumspect fashion, has Rishi Sunak.
Johnson had a lot to thank the woman he liked to call “Dr Mirza” for. She was his gaslighter-in-chief on race. Yet on the one occasion she asked him to say sorry for something, he would not listen to her, apparently to the point of watching her resign over it. For those who think him loyal to his friends it is an appalling reflection of his selfish, stubborn, nasty personality. He’s really not as cuddly as he makes out, and relies on his own judgement. He must be getting lonely, though.
Mirza has really cut through to the fence-sitting MPs, I was told last night.
Johnson couldn't have chosen a less wise ditch than JS for his last stand. There's a film coming out in March which I know a reasonable amount about having had a small involvement in the making of it. It's the first time ever that I've been asked to sign an NDA which tells you the sensitivity of the subject matter. I would have expected the PM to be better informed
I said yesterday what I think happened.
It's probably been discussed a few times as an attack line but has always been ruled out.
Then Bozo wanted something on Monday that allowed him to stay in place while throwing his staff to the wolves and somehow thought of Jimmy Saville and SKS at the CPS. So he used it without thinking about the complete picture and the fact it doesn't actually match the narrative Bozo's wanted to create.
You can see that the attack line was prepared or approved of by others so it very much looks like Bozo used it as he couldn't think of anything else that allows him to remain in place while he fires everyone else to protect himself.
Yes, if you watched the exchange in the House it's easy to infer that Johnson was panicking and it was just the first thing that came into his head at the time. That would be consistent with the notion that this line of attack had been discussed with his advisers at some stage but he had been warned against it. In his panic he ignored the warning.
It is also consistent with his blustering, bullshitting debate style.
It also reflects his approach to things. Throw so many "ideas" out that one may be taken up and change the media's focus away from the thing you don't want them to focus on.
See for example Boris painting buses and Peppa pig.
The painting buses thing was to swamp Google and deflect from the Brexit Bus promise and perhaps also Boris buses. Which is actually a special case of what you suggest, so yes!
Was that a real thing? I read that, but it sounds too stupid to work. Certainly I dont think it did work as I doubt people struggle to know about the promise.
That's my memory, but of course other memories are available, potentially. But if you searched for boris + bus you'd get the unfulfilled promises and slogans, and maybe those double jobs in London. After the cardboard buses the first page or two would be the cardboard buses, and who would bother looking further?
Alternatively it was just to muddle people's memories on boris + bus - on much the same principle.
It is difficult to see any rational explanation otherwise. Unless he was making it for Wilfred, who was far too young at the time anyway IIRC.
... Has he not done exactly what he said he'd do in the House? He's got rid of the people who were 'badly' advising him ...
If that was the strategy with the other three, the way in which it was done couldn't have backfired more disastrously. Surely the press should have been well and truly briefed about what was about to happen before the resignations went in. With Mirza announcing her resignation on a point of principle first, it gave the impression that Johnson's entire staff were walking out in protest at his behaviour. Probably a lot of people without too much interest in politics will still be left with that impression.
But I suppose if you sack all your advisers you're not likely to benefit from the best advice about how to go about it.
He hasn't sacked all his advisers; Carrie's still there.
In a way that's the point I'm making. Probably I should have said he's sacked all his advisers except his wife.
Bizarrely - and shamefully - announcing his divorce is one thing that would actually go down well with a lot of Tory members, judging from some of the comments you see from them
Definitely a lot of misogyny around but it's also because she's perceived as the one behind his left-wing green policies, amongst a load of other alleged character defects.
Johnson has managed to piss off the whole party. Not even Theresa May managed that.
Johnson has been consistently in the Green wing of the Conservative party for a number of years - even before Cameron was leader, IIRC
I don't know how anyone can apply the word consistent to Johnson on anything. He flits and flies at the merest whim.
Some of his policies appear green one week and others hard right the next. He's an assortment of populist demagogy and downright lies.
On the green agenda stuff he has been pushing the policies fairly steadily - faster end to ICE, more wind power etc
This is a continuation of various previous government policies, but there has been no slackening of the pace on this. If anything an acceleration.
I saw some convincing commentary that feet are being dragged on replacing the larger Green renovation schemes (the smaller one funded by the green levy has been very successful). These have been a series of disasters since 2010.
This is because of the Conservatives being cowards about taking the Owner Occupied bull by the horns and making OO people pay their way, and the Treasury not being put back in its toybox sufficiently.
If OO people have to pay their own way, landlords also need to pay their own way and that opens up a whole set of problems.
Interested to hear about that new set of problems. Seriously.
However, on Green issues, landlords are already largely paying their own way.
Statutory requirements for Private Rented Dwellings to meet increasing Energy standards were announced in I think 2012-2013, passed into law in 2015, and a rented dwelling now requires an EPC value of E or better since 2018.
That will be D or better in a couple of years. And will be C or better in 2028 or 2030. Not sure exactly where these dates are, but there was a consultation.
Which represents iirc roughly a halving of energy required in toto.
If a parallel measure had been brought in for owner occupied we would have had 10 years of progress, and a roadmap for the path to improvement from here.
Instead, the Govt ran away from tackling the issue, and are now sitting on their bottom in a puddle, scrabbling around looking for answers.
Remember that newbuild contribute a tiny % to housing emissions, and that older houses contribute the vast majority. And in the UK 65-70% of houses are owner occupied.
2-3 years ago the Private Rental Sector went ahead of the OO in Energy Efficiency Terms.
There are perhaps interesting issues about standards in socially owned lettings, and especially places that enforce their own "codes of practices" (eg Universities), that never seem to get much attention.
On the VONC vote, surely the result last night persuades MPs not to stick the knife in now? Low turnout but 86% of the vote and, regardless of how you look at it, nearly 13,000 people voted for the Conservatives despite all the problems. Agreed, a lot will be postal vote but the point still holds.
There are no tanks in the city, we are on the verge of a glorious victory
Let me put it another way: if you are looking at the Southend result, what is the big anti-Boris message that is coming from the result?
You might as well look at the Cameroon Egypt result from last night than the Southend bi election
What was the score?
Nil nil, Egypt through on penalties.
Salah vs Mane in the final.
Mmmmm, might be worth watching.
The shootout features one of the worst penalties ever taken.
It was that gloriously bad I wish there was an NFT of it.
Quite a muscly Owen Jones piece here imo. His main point is we shouldn't be suckered by the Tory Party into thinking if Boris Johnson goes all is fine.
Owen must be weeping at how Starmer's star has risen
It is an all-too-common trait among too many who regarded Corbyn as the messiah. Basically they are willing Starmer to fail, gunning for him at every opportunity and as a consequence just consigning themselves to derision.
In the meantime, I am increasingly impressed with how not only Starmer but also the key players on the Labour front bench are stepping up to the mark. The opposition front bench under Starmer was initially a disappointment but since he rejigged it they seem to have got their collective act together.
I am right of centre but I have always rated Starmer. If he becomes PM, he will become the first PM in a very long time to have done a "proper job" outside of politics, and one that he has risen right to the very top in. He is a very smart cookie.
Yeah, you mean in the way he adopted a policy of "believe all victims" and so we had Carl Beech wreck people's lives? Yup, 'very smart cookie'
Is that the latest right wing nutter meme since the previous one backfired spectacularly on Big Clown? Yes he is a very smart cookie. You are too partisan to see it, or you are really not a very smart cookie, or perhaps both.
Ahem, if you are going to lob insults, it might be better to get your facts right. Who is disagreeing with the statement that Starmer instituted a policy of believe all victims at the CPS? What people are disagreeing with BJ on is that Starmer didn't prosecute Jimmy Saville.
I have no need to defend Starmer on detail. I am not a Labour supporter, and therefore will be able to disagree with him on lots of things. He is very smart though. The fact that you are still an apologist for the worst PM probably in history suggests that you are going to be more and more disappointed that Starmer outmanoeuvres him at every juncture. One of the important things in politics and life in general is not to underestimate your opponents. Smarter Tories are beginning to realise they need someone better than the fat blusterer to outsmart Starmer.
Yes, I see you didn't acknowledge you got your point wrong, did you? Never mind.
Quite a muscly Owen Jones piece here imo. His main point is we shouldn't be suckered by the Tory Party into thinking if Boris Johnson goes all is fine.
Owen must be weeping at how Starmer's star has risen
It is an all-too-common trait among too many who regarded Corbyn as the messiah. Basically they are willing Starmer to fail, gunning for him at every opportunity and as a consequence just consigning themselves to derision.
In the meantime, I am increasingly impressed with how not only Starmer but also the key players on the Labour front bench are stepping up to the mark. The opposition front bench under Starmer was initially a disappointment but since he rejigged it they seem to have got their collective act together.
I am right of centre but I have always rated Starmer. If he becomes PM, he will become the first PM in a very long time to have done a "proper job" outside of politics, and one that he has risen right to the very top in. He is a very smart cookie.
Starmer v Sunak, a privately educated former barrister and head of the CPS with an Oxford degree v a privately and Oxford and Stanford educated ex Goldman Sachs banker.
The most elitist general election ever? Definitely the end of populism then
And compare Boris Johnson, the beacon of populism, to both of those ? Clearly the son of a postman who pulled himself up by his bootstraps.
Quite a muscly Owen Jones piece here imo. His main point is we shouldn't be suckered by the Tory Party into thinking if Boris Johnson goes all is fine.
Owen must be weeping at how Starmer's star has risen
It is an all-too-common trait among too many who regarded Corbyn as the messiah. Basically they are willing Starmer to fail, gunning for him at every opportunity and as a consequence just consigning themselves to derision.
In the meantime, I am increasingly impressed with how not only Starmer but also the key players on the Labour front bench are stepping up to the mark. The opposition front bench under Starmer was initially a disappointment but since he rejigged it they seem to have got their collective act together.
I am right of centre but I have always rated Starmer. If he becomes PM, he will become the first PM in a very long time to have done a "proper job" outside of politics, and one that he has risen right to the very top in. He is a very smart cookie.
Yeah, you mean in the way he adopted a policy of "believe all victims" and so we had Carl Beech wreck people's lives? Yup, 'very smart cookie'
And sat on his hands in the Corbyn Shadow Cabinet as anti-semitism ran unchecked through his party. Just so he could get the top job himslef. Yeah, what a guy....
I know, even though his wife is Jewish. Obviously, a principled man who would be a vast improvement when it came to his personal behaviour...
On the VONC vote, surely the result last night persuades MPs not to stick the knife in now? Low turnout but 86% of the vote and, regardless of how you look at it, nearly 13,000 people voted for the Conservatives despite all the problems. Agreed, a lot will be postal vote but the point still holds.
There are no tanks in the city, we are on the verge of a glorious victory
Let me put it another way: if you are looking at the Southend result, what is the big anti-Boris message that is coming from the result?
I did predict and bet on the over 80% band, though got turnout wrong at over 30%. So up on the contest modestly at the princely sum of £3.50.
The By-election in Evington (Leicester) is interesting, and shows the continuing problems of the Labour Party in the Leicester East Constituency following the Claudia Webbe fiasco. She was an unpopular imposition under Corbyn. It is in this constituency in nearby Humberstone that the city elected a Conservative councilor last year. He hasn't made much impact, turning up at 29% of expected attendances.
Evington is the poshest bit of the constituency, being mostly detached and semi detached housing around the Leicester General Hospital, and the best state schools in the city. It is mixed ethnically, mostly middle class. The sort of place where Sunak might be popular.
To keep perspective though, the LP has 52 of 54 Council seats, held this one, and the rest of the constituency is much more inner city working class of all ethnicities. Leicester East will stay Labour at the GE, unless the local Labour party does something seriously fratricidal.
It does seem that every week when there is a by-election and Labours performance is nowhere near their national polling position it is put down to local issues where the local labour party is doing some crazy things. Out of 3 by-elections counted last night, 2 of the very disappointing labour performances were put down to mad happenings in the local labour party. I know local politics can be odd but does labour have a particular problem?
It's a very good point. We keep hearing that Labour is on course for power and yet we never actually see any results that may provide some vindication. If the hatred for BJ / respect for Starmer was as strong as some believe here, you would have thought it would be showing up at least somewhere when it comes to actual votes.
Indy: Cummings is correct. She [Mirza], like him, has come to the conclusion that Johnson is now beyond help, not up to the job, and it’s in everyone’s interest that she says so publicly. So, in a more circumspect fashion, has Rishi Sunak.
Johnson had a lot to thank the woman he liked to call “Dr Mirza” for. She was his gaslighter-in-chief on race. Yet on the one occasion she asked him to say sorry for something, he would not listen to her, apparently to the point of watching her resign over it. For those who think him loyal to his friends it is an appalling reflection of his selfish, stubborn, nasty personality. He’s really not as cuddly as he makes out, and relies on his own judgement. He must be getting lonely, though.
Mirza has really cut through to the fence-sitting MPs, I was told last night.
Johnson couldn't have chosen a less wise ditch than JS for his last stand. There's a film coming out in March which I know a reasonable amount about having had a small involvement in the making of it. It's the first time ever that I've been asked to sign an NDA which tells you the sensitivity of the subject matter. I would have expected the PM to be better informed
I said yesterday what I think happened.
It's probably been discussed a few times as an attack line but has always been ruled out.
Then Bozo wanted something on Monday that allowed him to stay in place while throwing his staff to the wolves and somehow thought of Jimmy Saville and SKS at the CPS. So he used it without thinking about the complete picture and the fact it doesn't actually match the narrative Bozo's wanted to create.
You can see that the attack line was prepared or approved of by others so it very much looks like Bozo used it as he couldn't think of anything else that allows him to remain in place while he fires everyone else to protect himself.
Yes, if you watched the exchange in the House it's easy to infer that Johnson was panicking and it was just the first thing that came into his head at the time. That would be consistent with the notion that this line of attack had been discussed with his advisers at some stage but he had been warned against it. In his panic he ignored the warning.
It is also consistent with his blustering, bullshitting debate style.
It also reflects his approach to things. Throw so many "ideas" out that one may be taken up and change the media's focus away from the thing you don't want them to focus on.
See for example Boris painting buses and Peppa pig.
The painting buses thing was to swamp Google and deflect from the Brexit Bus promise and perhaps also Boris buses. Which is actually a special case of what you suggest, so yes!
Was that a real thing? I read that, but it sounds too stupid to work. Certainly I dont think it did work as I doubt people struggle to know about the promise.
That's my memory, but of course other memories are available, potentially. But if you searched for boris + bus you'd get the unfulfilled promises and slogans, and maybe those double jobs in London. After the cardboard buses the first page or two would be the cardboard buses, and who would bother looking further?
Alternatively it was just to muddle people's memories on boris + bus - on much the same principle.
It is difficult to see any rational explanation otherwise. Unless he was making it for Wilfred, who was far too young at the time anyway IIRC.
I don't think Wilf was even a twinkle in papa's piggy eye at that point.
FWIW I think that we will reach the 54 (did it just go up) today, that the VONC will be over the next 3-4 days and that Boris will lose. The wheels are coming off and spiraling into chaos. The centre cannot hold.
I have been wrong before, of course.
I have no idea. People have been saying "he's toast" for what seems like ages, but he's still there.
I did predict and bet on the over 80% band, though got turnout wrong at over 30%. So up on the contest modestly at the princely sum of £3.50.
The By-election in Evington (Leicester) is interesting, and shows the continuing problems of the Labour Party in the Leicester East Constituency following the Claudia Webbe fiasco. She was an unpopular imposition under Corbyn. It is in this constituency in nearby Humberstone that the city elected a Conservative councilor last year. He hasn't made much impact, turning up at 29% of expected attendances.
Evington is the poshest bit of the constituency, being mostly detached and semi detached housing around the Leicester General Hospital, and the best state schools in the city. It is mixed ethnically, mostly middle class. The sort of place where Sunak might be popular.
To keep perspective though, the LP has 52 of 54 Council seats, held this one, and the rest of the constituency is much more inner city working class of all ethnicities. Leicester East will stay Labour at the GE, unless the local Labour party does something seriously fratricidal.
It does seem that every week when there is a by-election and Labours performance is nowhere near their national polling position it is put down to local issues where the local labour party is doing some crazy things. Out of 3 by-elections counted last night, 2 of the very disappointing labour performances were put down to mad happenings in the local labour party. I know local politics can be odd but does labour have a particular problem?
Yes, I think so. A large part is lack of clarity on policy, having abandoned Corbynism it seems.
Either this is deliberate, to keep powder dry for the campaign, or simply vacuous. I am concerned that it may well be the latter.
There is a widespread feeling in the country that things are heading in the wrong direction, from the right as well as the left. There is though a dearth of real ideological coherence to the various suggestions. I suspect Sunak style deregulated capitalism will emerge as the winner on the right. Thatcher too started with tax rises, notably doubling VAT early on, but also reducing deductions and exemptions.
That will not be popular with either Red Wall voters wanting autarky, nor the centrist dads, nor the hard left, but it is a clear direction.
On the VONC vote, surely the result last night persuades MPs not to stick the knife in now? Low turnout but 86% of the vote and, regardless of how you look at it, nearly 13,000 people voted for the Conservatives despite all the problems. Agreed, a lot will be postal vote but the point still holds.
There are no tanks in the city, we are on the verge of a glorious victory
Let me put it another way: if you are looking at the Southend result, what is the big anti-Boris message that is coming from the result?
On Alastair Meeks' count, hostile is up to 43... but friendly is up to 100. Still seems momentum is with Boris Johnson.
I suspect there is a lag in AM's data that may mean the friendlies are currently higher than they actually are. Were I a Tory MP I would be avoiding people at the weekend as you know what the conversations are going to be like.
I imagine we will see a slow but steady trickle of letters through until Monday when I would expect some sort of announcement.
Mps already know what their constituents think. It is now surely all about timing and positioning.
Another day breaks. Another day of Tory parliamentary majority wasted. And another day closer to the next election. There’s no refund on time, not that you would know it from the inaction of these gutless Tory MPs.
Two years is a long time in politics but I think the Conservatives may have already cooked their goose for 2024. Yesterday felt an awful lot like Black Wednesday. If you look at the polls from 1992 through 1994 when Blair took over, the damage to the Cons had already been done.
But at the moment I do have a begrudging respect for Rishi Sunak and I fear him. He's very capable and competent. I also liked his calm after the storm demeanour yesterday. Undoubtedly PM material but I think it's now or never.
Liz Truss would be my golden ticket.
No it didn't.
The Labour leads are still nothing like 1994 and absolutely nothing like the over 20% leads they had once Blair took over.
The Tories have also just won the Southern West by election with an increased voteshare on 2019. If the Tories were heading for a landslide defeat they would not have got 86% of the vote last night, no Labour and LD candidate or not
The site is, in my view, overpricing Partygate as an issue, and underpricing cost of living the same way.
If Johnson survives Partygate the call will be the storm is over, whereas in fact the storm for Johnson and all the tories will be just beginning.
Absolutely agree with this. Partygate will be meh for many. Meanwhile, I think the national expectation (whether justified or not) was for the good times to roll/roaring twenties post-pandemic.
Who did people expect was going to pay the costs of lockdowns they were demanding?
Fantastic comment and absolutely.
Public in favour of lockdowns. Public not in favour of tax rises.
Quite a muscly Owen Jones piece here imo. His main point is we shouldn't be suckered by the Tory Party into thinking if Boris Johnson goes all is fine.
Owen must be weeping at how Starmer's star has risen
It is an all-too-common trait among too many who regarded Corbyn as the messiah. Basically they are willing Starmer to fail, gunning for him at every opportunity and as a consequence just consigning themselves to derision.
In the meantime, I am increasingly impressed with how not only Starmer but also the key players on the Labour front bench are stepping up to the mark. The opposition front bench under Starmer was initially a disappointment but since he rejigged it they seem to have got their collective act together.
I am right of centre but I have always rated Starmer. If he becomes PM, he will become the first PM in a very long time to have done a "proper job" outside of politics, and one that he has risen right to the very top in. He is a very smart cookie.
Yeah, you mean in the way he adopted a policy of "believe all victims" and so we had Carl Beech wreck people's lives? Yup, 'very smart cookie'
That was Allison Saunders fwiw.
Ahem, Saunders formally instituted it but it was Starmer who very much laid the groundwork for it when he was CPS after the Rochdale case. It merely came into effect on Saunder's watch
No, it was Allison Saunders, she was very much behind casting people into victim and perpetrator roles even before charging. She removed the "alleged" from the language around alleged victims/accuers and called people accused of crimes "perpetrators" rather than the accused/alleged perpetrators. There was a huge culture change that she oversaw which led to innocent people being locked up due to the CPS withholding information from defence teams that may have damaged the prosecution's case. She was a disaster and happily got sacked. Starmer wasn't to blame for her failures.
On the VONC vote, surely the result last night persuades MPs not to stick the knife in now? Low turnout but 86% of the vote and, regardless of how you look at it, nearly 13,000 people voted for the Conservatives despite all the problems. Agreed, a lot will be postal vote but the point still holds.
There are no tanks in the city, we are on the verge of a glorious victory
Let me put it another way: if you are looking at the Southend result, what is the big anti-Boris message that is coming from the result?
The 1k spoiled ballots, dumbass.
Significant yes. Enough to persuade MPs to put in their VONC letter? Question mark.
FWIW I think that we will reach the 54 (did it just go up) today, that the VONC will be over the next 3-4 days and that Boris will lose. The wheels are coming off and spiraling into chaos. The centre cannot hold.
I have been wrong before, of course.
I have no idea. People have been saying "he's toast" for what seems like ages, but he's still there.
Someone will be right... eventually
I don't actually think there are 54/55 MPs with enough a backbone to actually kick a VONC off.
Which is why I see Bozo continuing in power and the party as a whole being destroyed as inflation kicks off and Bozo shifts from being a PM for all people (because they see hope in what he appears to / could offer) to a PM for absolutely no-one (as over 4 years he's managed to upset absolutely everyone).
Quite a muscly Owen Jones piece here imo. His main point is we shouldn't be suckered by the Tory Party into thinking if Boris Johnson goes all is fine.
Owen must be weeping at how Starmer's star has risen
It is an all-too-common trait among too many who regarded Corbyn as the messiah. Basically they are willing Starmer to fail, gunning for him at every opportunity and as a consequence just consigning themselves to derision.
In the meantime, I am increasingly impressed with how not only Starmer but also the key players on the Labour front bench are stepping up to the mark. The opposition front bench under Starmer was initially a disappointment but since he rejigged it they seem to have got their collective act together.
I am right of centre but I have always rated Starmer. If he becomes PM, he will become the first PM in a very long time to have done a "proper job" outside of politics, and one that he has risen right to the very top in. He is a very smart cookie.
Yeah, you mean in the way he adopted a policy of "believe all victims" and so we had Carl Beech wreck people's lives? Yup, 'very smart cookie'
Is that the latest right wing nutter meme since the previous one backfired spectacularly on Big Clown? Yes he is a very smart cookie. You are too partisan to see it, or you are really not a very smart cookie, or perhaps both.
Ahem, if you are going to lob insults, it might be better to get your facts right. Who is disagreeing with the statement that Starmer instituted a policy of believe all victims at the CPS? What people are disagreeing with BJ on is that Starmer didn't prosecute Jimmy Saville.
I have no need to defend Starmer on detail. I am not a Labour supporter, and therefore will be able to disagree with him on lots of things. He is very smart though. The fact that you are still an apologist for the worst PM probably in history suggests that you are going to be more and more disappointed that Starmer outmanoeuvres him at every juncture. One of the important things in politics and life in general is not to underestimate your opponents. Smarter Tories are beginning to realise they need someone better than the fat blusterer to outsmart Starmer.
Yes, I see you didn't acknowledge you got your point wrong, did you? Never mind.
Oh dear, I didn't get a point wrong (although it has been known occasionally - well maybe about 1985ish perhaps?). I said Starmer is a smart cookie, which you took exception to because you are so absorbed with thinking that anyone that you disagree with is not effective. He is smart cookie, for you to pretend otherwise is just silly. Starmer is very very smart. That comes as a shock to swivel-eyed far right UKIPy/Johnson apologist Tories. Sorry to have to break it to you.
The butterfly sanctuary, part of the North American Butterfly Association, made the announcement Wednesday. The decision came just days after GOP operatives descended on the site, reviving baseless and false conspiracy theories linking the center to sex trafficking...
...The butterfly center has been the target of far-right conspiracy theories for years, after the sanctuary in 2017 sued over the Trump administration’s plans to build a border wall through the 100-acre nature preserve.
On Alastair Meeks' count, hostile is up to 43... but friendly is up to 100. Still seems momentum is with Boris Johnson.
I suspect there is a lag in AM's data that may mean the friendlies are currently higher than they actually are. Were I a Tory MP I would be avoiding people at the weekend as you know what the conversations are going to be like.
I imagine we will see a slow but steady trickle of letters through until Monday when I would expect some sort of announcement.
Mps already know what their constituents think. It is now surely all about timing and positioning.
Another day breaks. Another day of Tory parliamentary majority wasted. And another day closer to the next election. There’s no refund on time, not that you would know it from the inaction of these gutless Tory MPs.
Two years is a long time in politics but I think the Conservatives may have already cooked their goose for 2024. Yesterday felt an awful lot like Black Wednesday. If you look at the polls from 1992 through 1994 when Blair took over, the damage to the Cons had already been done.
But at the moment I do have a begrudging respect for Rishi Sunak and I fear him. He's very capable and competent. I also liked his calm after the storm demeanour yesterday. Undoubtedly PM material but I think it's now or never.
Liz Truss would be my golden ticket.
No it didn't.
The Labour leads are still nothing like 1994 and absolutely nothing like the over 20% leads they had once Blair took over.
The Tories have also just won the Southern West by election with an increased voteshare on 2019. If the Tories were heading for a landslide defeat they would not have got 86% of the vote last night, no Labour and LD candidate or not
The site is, in my view, overpricing Partygate as an issue, and underpricing cost of living the same way.
If Johnson survives Partygate the call will be the storm is over, whereas in fact the storm for Johnson and all the tories will be just beginning.
Absolutely agree with this. Partygate will be meh for many. Meanwhile, I think the national expectation (whether justified or not) was for the good times to roll/roaring twenties post-pandemic.
Who did people expect was going to pay the costs of lockdowns they were demanding?
Fantastic comment and absolutely.
Public in favour of lockdowns. Public not in favour of tax rises.
*passes out in shock and surprise*
Public in favour of tax rises for the wealthy.
Where did that £8.7bn wasted on PPE go? It's sitting in somebody's bank accounts.
Quite a muscly Owen Jones piece here imo. His main point is we shouldn't be suckered by the Tory Party into thinking if Boris Johnson goes all is fine.
Owen must be weeping at how Starmer's star has risen
It is an all-too-common trait among too many who regarded Corbyn as the messiah. Basically they are willing Starmer to fail, gunning for him at every opportunity and as a consequence just consigning themselves to derision.
In the meantime, I am increasingly impressed with how not only Starmer but also the key players on the Labour front bench are stepping up to the mark. The opposition front bench under Starmer was initially a disappointment but since he rejigged it they seem to have got their collective act together.
I am right of centre but I have always rated Starmer. If he becomes PM, he will become the first PM in a very long time to have done a "proper job" outside of politics, and one that he has risen right to the very top in. He is a very smart cookie.
Yeah, you mean in the way he adopted a policy of "believe all victims" and so we had Carl Beech wreck people's lives? Yup, 'very smart cookie'
And sat on his hands in the Corbyn Shadow Cabinet as anti-semitism ran unchecked through his party. Just so he could get the top job himslef. Yeah, what a guy....
I know, even though his wife is Jewish. Obviously, a principled man who would be a vast improvement when it came to his personal behaviour...
That echo chamber must be a fun place to be.
It's a very big one but I must admit I do enjoy reading the far-right views of the Guardian and New Statesman when I get down to my reading.
On the VONC vote, surely the result last night persuades MPs not to stick the knife in now? Low turnout but 86% of the vote and, regardless of how you look at it, nearly 13,000 people voted for the Conservatives despite all the problems. Agreed, a lot will be postal vote but the point still holds.
There are no tanks in the city, we are on the verge of a glorious victory
Let me put it another way: if you are looking at the Southend result, what is the big anti-Boris message that is coming from the result?
FWIW I think that we will reach the 54 (did it just go up) today, that the VONC will be over the next 3-4 days and that Boris will lose. The wheels are coming off and spiraling into chaos. The centre cannot hold.
I have been wrong before, of course.
I have no idea. People have been saying "he's toast" for what seems like ages, but he's still there.
I seem to recall confident predictions that he wouldn't survive advising the Queen to break the law over prorogation. Many weeks ago now.
Of course, eventually one of these predictions will be true, but how to tell the difference ahead of time?
Quite a muscly Owen Jones piece here imo. His main point is we shouldn't be suckered by the Tory Party into thinking if Boris Johnson goes all is fine.
Owen must be weeping at how Starmer's star has risen
It is an all-too-common trait among too many who regarded Corbyn as the messiah. Basically they are willing Starmer to fail, gunning for him at every opportunity and as a consequence just consigning themselves to derision.
In the meantime, I am increasingly impressed with how not only Starmer but also the key players on the Labour front bench are stepping up to the mark. The opposition front bench under Starmer was initially a disappointment but since he rejigged it they seem to have got their collective act together.
I am right of centre but I have always rated Starmer. If he becomes PM, he will become the first PM in a very long time to have done a "proper job" outside of politics, and one that he has risen right to the very top in. He is a very smart cookie.
Yeah, you mean in the way he adopted a policy of "believe all victims" and so we had Carl Beech wreck people's lives? Yup, 'very smart cookie'
And sat on his hands in the Corbyn Shadow Cabinet as anti-semitism ran unchecked through his party. Just so he could get the top job himslef. Yeah, what a guy....
I know, even though his wife is Jewish. Obviously, a principled man who would be a vast improvement when it came to his personal behaviour...
That echo chamber must be a fun place to be.
It's a very big one but I must admit I do enjoy reading the far-right views of the Guardian and New Statesman when I get down to my reading.
... Has he not done exactly what he said he'd do in the House? He's got rid of the people who were 'badly' advising him ...
If that was the strategy with the other three, the way in which it was done couldn't have backfired more disastrously. Surely the press should have been well and truly briefed about what was about to happen before the resignations went in. With Mirza announcing her resignation on a point of principle first, it gave the impression that Johnson's entire staff were walking out in protest at his behaviour. Probably a lot of people without too much interest in politics will still be left with that impression.
But I suppose if you sack all your advisers you're not likely to benefit from the best advice about how to go about it.
He hasn't sacked all his advisers; Carrie's still there.
In a way that's the point I'm making. Probably I should have said he's sacked all his advisers except his wife.
Bizarrely - and shamefully - announcing his divorce is one thing that would actually go down well with a lot of Tory members, judging from some of the comments you see from them
Definitely a lot of misogyny around but it's also because she's perceived as the one behind his left-wing green policies, amongst a load of other alleged character defects.
Johnson has managed to piss off the whole party. Not even Theresa May managed that.
Johnson has been consistently in the Green wing of the Conservative party for a number of years - even before Cameron was leader, IIRC
I don't know how anyone can apply the word consistent to Johnson on anything. He flits and flies at the merest whim.
Some of his policies appear green one week and others hard right the next. He's an assortment of populist demagogy and downright lies.
On the green agenda stuff he has been pushing the policies fairly steadily - faster end to ICE, more wind power etc
This is a continuation of various previous government policies, but there has been no slackening of the pace on this. If anything an acceleration.
I saw some convincing commentary that feet are being dragged on replacing the larger Green renovation schemes (the smaller one funded by the green levy has been very successful). These have been a series of disasters since 2010.
This is because of the Conservatives being cowards about taking the Owner Occupied bull by the horns and making OO people pay their way, and the Treasury not being put back in its toybox sufficiently.
If OO people have to pay their own way, landlords also need to pay their own way and that opens up a whole set of problems.
Interested to hear about that new set of problems. Seriously.
However, on Green issues, landlords are already largely paying their own way.
Statutory requirements for Private Rented Dwellings to meet increasing Energy standards were announced in I think 2012-2013, passed into law in 2015, and a rented dwelling now requires an EPC value of E or better since 2018.
That will be D or better in a couple of years. And will be C or better in 2028 or 2030. Not sure exactly where these dates are, but there was a consultation.
Which represents iirc roughly a halving of energy required in toto.
If a parallel measure had been brought in for owner occupied we would have had 10 years of progress, and a roadmap for the path to improvement from here.
Instead, the Govt ran away from tackling the issue, and are now sitting on their bottom in a puddle, scrabbling around looking for answers.
Remember that newbuild contribute a tiny % to housing emissions, and that older houses contribute the vast majority. And in the UK 65-70% of houses are owner occupied.
2-3 years ago the Private Rental Sector went ahead of the OO in Energy Efficiency Terms.
There are perhaps interesting issues about standards in socially owned lettings, and especially places that enforce their own "codes of practices" (eg Universities), that never seem to get much attention.
One problem with any improvement plans is that they often just don't work. The great project for years was filling cavity walls with insulation without thought as to what might be there that meant it may not be a great idea.
On Alastair Meeks' count, hostile is up to 43... but friendly is up to 100. Still seems momentum is with Boris Johnson.
I suspect there is a lag in AM's data that may mean the friendlies are currently higher than they actually are. Were I a Tory MP I would be avoiding people at the weekend as you know what the conversations are going to be like.
I imagine we will see a slow but steady trickle of letters through until Monday when I would expect some sort of announcement.
Mps already know what their constituents think. It is now surely all about timing and positioning.
Another day breaks. Another day of Tory parliamentary majority wasted. And another day closer to the next election. There’s no refund on time, not that you would know it from the inaction of these gutless Tory MPs.
Two years is a long time in politics but I think the Conservatives may have already cooked their goose for 2024. Yesterday felt an awful lot like Black Wednesday. If you look at the polls from 1992 through 1994 when Blair took over, the damage to the Cons had already been done.
But at the moment I do have a begrudging respect for Rishi Sunak and I fear him. He's very capable and competent. I also liked his calm after the storm demeanour yesterday. Undoubtedly PM material but I think it's now or never.
Liz Truss would be my golden ticket.
No it didn't.
The Labour leads are still nothing like 1994 and absolutely nothing like the over 20% leads they had once Blair took over.
The Tories have also just won the Southern West by election with an increased voteshare on 2019. If the Tories were heading for a landslide defeat they would not have got 86% of the vote last night, no Labour and LD candidate or not
The site is, in my view, overpricing Partygate as an issue, and underpricing cost of living the same way.
If Johnson survives Partygate the call will be the storm is over, whereas in fact the storm for Johnson and all the tories will be just beginning.
Absolutely agree with this. Partygate will be meh for many. Meanwhile, I think the national expectation (whether justified or not) was for the good times to roll/roaring twenties post-pandemic.
Who did people expect was going to pay the costs of lockdowns they were demanding?
Fantastic comment and absolutely.
Public in favour of lockdowns. Public not in favour of tax rises.
*passes out in shock and surprise*
Public in favour of tax rises for the wealthy.
Where did that £8.7bn wasted on PPE go? It's sitting in somebody's bank accounts.
Specifically, "Public in favour of tax rises for the wealthier than them".
Quite a muscly Owen Jones piece here imo. His main point is we shouldn't be suckered by the Tory Party into thinking if Boris Johnson goes all is fine.
Owen must be weeping at how Starmer's star has risen
It is an all-too-common trait among too many who regarded Corbyn as the messiah. Basically they are willing Starmer to fail, gunning for him at every opportunity and as a consequence just consigning themselves to derision.
In the meantime, I am increasingly impressed with how not only Starmer but also the key players on the Labour front bench are stepping up to the mark. The opposition front bench under Starmer was initially a disappointment but since he rejigged it they seem to have got their collective act together.
I am right of centre but I have always rated Starmer. If he becomes PM, he will become the first PM in a very long time to have done a "proper job" outside of politics, and one that he has risen right to the very top in. He is a very smart cookie.
Starmer v Sunak, a privately educated former barrister and head of the CPS with an Oxford degree v a privately and Oxford and Stanford educated ex Goldman Sachs banker.
The most elitist general election ever? Definitely the end of populism then
Point of order: Starmer didn't go to Oxford for undergrad, he went to Leeds and did a BCL at Oxford.
He still has an Oxford degree, a postgraduate degree in law, even if he went to Leeds for undergrad.
No different to Bill Clinton who went to Georgetown for undergrad but Yale law school for postgrad or Obama who went to Occidental College and Columbia and Harvard law school or indeed Gerald Ford who went to Michigan University and Yale law school.
People who go to Oxford for a postgraduate degree are generally older, wiser and far more serious than the jeunesse dorée for whom the institution was originally intended. They must surely emerge with a jaundiced view of undergrads and all they stand for.
... Has he not done exactly what he said he'd do in the House? He's got rid of the people who were 'badly' advising him ...
If that was the strategy with the other three, the way in which it was done couldn't have backfired more disastrously. Surely the press should have been well and truly briefed about what was about to happen before the resignations went in. With Mirza announcing her resignation on a point of principle first, it gave the impression that Johnson's entire staff were walking out in protest at his behaviour. Probably a lot of people without too much interest in politics will still be left with that impression.
But I suppose if you sack all your advisers you're not likely to benefit from the best advice about how to go about it.
He hasn't sacked all his advisers; Carrie's still there.
In a way that's the point I'm making. Probably I should have said he's sacked all his advisers except his wife.
Bizarrely - and shamefully - announcing his divorce is one thing that would actually go down well with a lot of Tory members, judging from some of the comments you see from them
Definitely a lot of misogyny around but it's also because she's perceived as the one behind his left-wing green policies, amongst a load of other alleged character defects.
Johnson has managed to piss off the whole party. Not even Theresa May managed that.
Johnson has been consistently in the Green wing of the Conservative party for a number of years - even before Cameron was leader, IIRC
I don't know how anyone can apply the word consistent to Johnson on anything. He flits and flies at the merest whim.
Some of his policies appear green one week and others hard right the next. He's an assortment of populist demagogy and downright lies.
On the green agenda stuff he has been pushing the policies fairly steadily - faster end to ICE, more wind power etc
This is a continuation of various previous government policies, but there has been no slackening of the pace on this. If anything an acceleration.
I saw some convincing commentary that feet are being dragged on replacing the larger Green renovation schemes (the smaller one funded by the green levy has been very successful). These have been a series of disasters since 2010.
This is because of the Conservatives being cowards about taking the Owner Occupied bull by the horns and making OO people pay their way, and the Treasury not being put back in its toybox sufficiently.
If OO people have to pay their own way, landlords also need to pay their own way and that opens up a whole set of problems.
Interested to hear about that new set of problems. Seriously.
However, on Green issues, landlords are already largely paying their own way.
Statutory requirements for Private Rented Dwellings to meet increasing Energy standards were announced in I think 2012-2013, passed into law in 2015, and a rented dwelling now requires an EPC value of E or better since 2018.
That will be D or better in a couple of years. And will be C or better in 2028 or 2030. Not sure exactly where these dates are, but there was a consultation.
Which represents iirc roughly a halving of energy required in toto.
If a parallel measure had been brought in for owner occupied we would have had 10 years of progress, and a roadmap for the path to improvement from here.
Instead, the Govt ran away from tackling the issue, and are now sitting on their bottom in a puddle, scrabbling around looking for answers.
Remember that newbuild contribute a tiny % to housing emissions, and that older houses contribute the vast majority. And in the UK 65-70% of houses are owner occupied.
2-3 years ago the Private Rental Sector went ahead of the OO in Energy Efficiency Terms.
There are perhaps interesting issues about standards in socially owned lettings, and especially places that enforce their own "codes of practices" (eg Universities), that never seem to get much attention.
Was that Ed Daveys work in coalition years on energy efficiency in new builds for the rental sector?
On Alastair Meeks' count, hostile is up to 43... but friendly is up to 100. Still seems momentum is with Boris Johnson.
I suspect there is a lag in AM's data that may mean the friendlies are currently higher than they actually are. Were I a Tory MP I would be avoiding people at the weekend as you know what the conversations are going to be like.
I imagine we will see a slow but steady trickle of letters through until Monday when I would expect some sort of announcement.
Mps already know what their constituents think. It is now surely all about timing and positioning.
Another day breaks. Another day of Tory parliamentary majority wasted. And another day closer to the next election. There’s no refund on time, not that you would know it from the inaction of these gutless Tory MPs.
Two years is a long time in politics but I think the Conservatives may have already cooked their goose for 2024. Yesterday felt an awful lot like Black Wednesday. If you look at the polls from 1992 through 1994 when Blair took over, the damage to the Cons had already been done.
But at the moment I do have a begrudging respect for Rishi Sunak and I fear him. He's very capable and competent. I also liked his calm after the storm demeanour yesterday. Undoubtedly PM material but I think it's now or never.
Liz Truss would be my golden ticket.
No it didn't.
The Labour leads are still nothing like 1994 and absolutely nothing like the over 20% leads they had once Blair took over.
The Tories have also just won the Southern West by election with an increased voteshare on 2019. If the Tories were heading for a landslide defeat they would not have got 86% of the vote last night, no Labour and LD candidate or not
The site is, in my view, overpricing Partygate as an issue, and underpricing cost of living the same way.
If Johnson survives Partygate the call will be the storm is over, whereas in fact the storm for Johnson and all the tories will be just beginning.
Absolutely agree with this. Partygate will be meh for many. Meanwhile, I think the national expectation (whether justified or not) was for the good times to roll/roaring twenties post-pandemic.
Who did people expect was going to pay the costs of lockdowns they were demanding?
Fantastic comment and absolutely.
Public in favour of lockdowns. Public not in favour of tax rises.
*passes out in shock and surprise*
Public in favour of tax rises for the wealthy.
Where did that £8.7bn wasted on PPE go? It's sitting in somebody's bank accounts.
The public are always in favour of tax rises for the wealthy.
I did predict and bet on the over 80% band, though got turnout wrong at over 30%. So up on the contest modestly at the princely sum of £3.50.
The By-election in Evington (Leicester) is interesting, and shows the continuing problems of the Labour Party in the Leicester East Constituency following the Claudia Webbe fiasco. She was an unpopular imposition under Corbyn. It is in this constituency in nearby Humberstone that the city elected a Conservative councilor last year. He hasn't made much impact, turning up at 29% of expected attendances.
Evington is the poshest bit of the constituency, being mostly detached and semi detached housing around the Leicester General Hospital, and the best state schools in the city. It is mixed ethnically, mostly middle class. The sort of place where Sunak might be popular.
To keep perspective though, the LP has 52 of 54 Council seats, held this one, and the rest of the constituency is much more inner city working class of all ethnicities. Leicester East will stay Labour at the GE, unless the local Labour party does something seriously fratricidal.
It does seem that every week when there is a by-election and Labours performance is nowhere near their national polling position it is put down to local issues where the local labour party is doing some crazy things. Out of 3 by-elections counted last night, 2 of the very disappointing labour performances were put down to mad happenings in the local labour party. I know local politics can be odd but does labour have a particular problem?
Yes, I think so. A large part is lack of clarity on policy, having abandoned Corbynism it seems.
Either this is deliberate, to keep powder dry for the campaign, or simply vacuous. I am concerned that it may well be the latter.
There is a widespread feeling in the country that things are heading in the wrong direction, from the right as well as the left. There is though a dearth of real ideological coherence to the various suggestions. I suspect Sunak style deregulated capitalism will emerge as the winner on the right. Thatcher too started with tax rises, notably doubling VAT early on, but also reducing deductions and exemptions.
That will not be popular with either Red Wall voters wanting autarky, nor the centrist dads, nor the hard left, but it is a clear direction.
Some on the comments on Britain Elects regarding last nights results and Starmer are very similar to the anti Boris stuff on here. Starmer seems particularly hated by those on the left in the Labour Party.
The Lewes town council result is interesting with Labour gaining the seat. Perhaps Starmer appeals more to the middle class than the normal labour base.
Reasons why Boris doesn't want to go now No 1 to 60million
Boris wants another 4-6 months to get past Brown and May - and he needs to avoid a VONC otherwise he isn't going to get there.
I still think Boris wins a VONC 55% to 45% or so for now
He'll probably beat Spencer Perceval. Unlikely he'll beat Gordon Brown.
Ah, Boris, you old duffer, it could all have been so different. You were played a hugely difficult hand - take over a party with no majority and with two wings in open rebellion, in different directions, deal with the most contentious constitutional issue of the post-war era, and then thrown off course by the biggest emergency of my lifetime. The first you managed with astonishing success, the second to no less dissatisfaction than anyone else would have achieved*, and the third better than many, with some brave calls along the way.
And then you threw it away on - what? Holding some not-very-good-parties? Evacuating someone's pets from Afghanistan? Owen Paterson? A distasteful jibe at PMQs?
I'm not trying to excuse Boris. I didn't want him in the first place and I certainly don't want him now. But he dealt with the really difficult issues quite well - certainly better than many. The first few months of his premiership when he took a fractious party without a majority which had recently polled below 10% in a national election to a landslide-ish majority was just astonishing.
He's played an astonishingly difficult hand with a surprising degree of success, and then made some really, really, really stupid and unnecessary unforced errors. Like the spy who finds the Macguffin, defeats three different sets of baddies, makes it home through no-mans land, then gets hilariously drunk on the train back from Dover, picks a fight with a bouncer and leaves the Macguffin on the tube.
*I can sense Remainer piss boiling from here when I write this. Sorry. It's hard to frame in a neutral way. But I stand by it - other solutions may or may not have been better; but any other solution would have pissed off at least as many people.
Quite a muscly Owen Jones piece here imo. His main point is we shouldn't be suckered by the Tory Party into thinking if Boris Johnson goes all is fine.
Owen must be weeping at how Starmer's star has risen
It is an all-too-common trait among too many who regarded Corbyn as the messiah. Basically they are willing Starmer to fail, gunning for him at every opportunity and as a consequence just consigning themselves to derision.
In the meantime, I am increasingly impressed with how not only Starmer but also the key players on the Labour front bench are stepping up to the mark. The opposition front bench under Starmer was initially a disappointment but since he rejigged it they seem to have got their collective act together.
I am right of centre but I have always rated Starmer. If he becomes PM, he will become the first PM in a very long time to have done a "proper job" outside of politics, and one that he has risen right to the very top in. He is a very smart cookie.
Yeah, you mean in the way he adopted a policy of "believe all victims" and so we had Carl Beech wreck people's lives? Yup, 'very smart cookie'
Is that the latest right wing nutter meme since the previous one backfired spectacularly on Big Clown? Yes he is a very smart cookie. You are too partisan to see it, or you are really not a very smart cookie, or perhaps both.
Ahem, if you are going to lob insults, it might be better to get your facts right. Who is disagreeing with the statement that Starmer instituted a policy of believe all victims at the CPS? What people are disagreeing with BJ on is that Starmer didn't prosecute Jimmy Saville.
I have no need to defend Starmer on detail. I am not a Labour supporter, and therefore will be able to disagree with him on lots of things. He is very smart though. The fact that you are still an apologist for the worst PM probably in history suggests that you are going to be more and more disappointed that Starmer outmanoeuvres him at every juncture. One of the important things in politics and life in general is not to underestimate your opponents. Smarter Tories are beginning to realise they need someone better than the fat blusterer to outsmart Starmer.
Yes, I see you didn't acknowledge you got your point wrong, did you? Never mind.
Oh dear, I didn't get a point wrong (although it has been known occasionally - well maybe about 1985ish perhaps?). I said Starmer is a smart cookie, which you took exception to because you are so absorbed with thinking that anyone that you disagree with is not effective. He is smart cookie, for you to pretend otherwise is just silly. Starmer is very very smart. That comes as a shock to swivel-eyed far right UKIPy/Johnson apologist Tories. Sorry to have to break it to you.
Starmer was responsible for a policy that wrecked people's lives in a very public way. As far as I am aware, he has never apologised or recognised what he did. That does not sound like a decent person.
As for the "He is smart cookie, for you to pretend otherwise is just silly." that is not a fact, it is your view just as it is my view that he has significant flaws. Just because you say something doesn't make it a fact (although I know that is a common attribute of the pub bore who likes to tell everyone how it is and how right they are).
On Alastair Meeks' count, hostile is up to 43... but friendly is up to 100. Still seems momentum is with Boris Johnson.
I suspect there is a lag in AM's data that may mean the friendlies are currently higher than they actually are. Were I a Tory MP I would be avoiding people at the weekend as you know what the conversations are going to be like.
I imagine we will see a slow but steady trickle of letters through until Monday when I would expect some sort of announcement.
Mps already know what their constituents think. It is now surely all about timing and positioning.
Another day breaks. Another day of Tory parliamentary majority wasted. And another day closer to the next election. There’s no refund on time, not that you would know it from the inaction of these gutless Tory MPs.
Two years is a long time in politics but I think the Conservatives may have already cooked their goose for 2024. Yesterday felt an awful lot like Black Wednesday. If you look at the polls from 1992 through 1994 when Blair took over, the damage to the Cons had already been done.
But at the moment I do have a begrudging respect for Rishi Sunak and I fear him. He's very capable and competent. I also liked his calm after the storm demeanour yesterday. Undoubtedly PM material but I think it's now or never.
Liz Truss would be my golden ticket.
No it didn't.
The Labour leads are still nothing like 1994 and absolutely nothing like the over 20% leads they had once Blair took over.
The Tories have also just won the Southern West by election with an increased voteshare on 2019. If the Tories were heading for a landslide defeat they would not have got 86% of the vote last night, no Labour and LD candidate or not
The site is, in my view, overpricing Partygate as an issue, and underpricing cost of living the same way.
If Johnson survives Partygate the call will be the storm is over, whereas in fact the storm for Johnson and all the tories will be just beginning.
Absolutely agree with this. Partygate will be meh for many. Meanwhile, I think the national expectation (whether justified or not) was for the good times to roll/roaring twenties post-pandemic.
Who did people expect was going to pay the costs of lockdowns they were demanding?
Fantastic comment and absolutely.
Public in favour of lockdowns. Public not in favour of tax rises.
*passes out in shock and surprise*
Public in favour of tax rises for the wealthy.
Where did that £8.7bn wasted on PPE go? It's sitting in somebody's bank accounts.
I'm not sure it was all wasted. Of course prices would be above cost during a pandemic.
On Alastair Meeks' count, hostile is up to 43... but friendly is up to 100. Still seems momentum is with Boris Johnson.
I suspect there is a lag in AM's data that may mean the friendlies are currently higher than they actually are. Were I a Tory MP I would be avoiding people at the weekend as you know what the conversations are going to be like.
I imagine we will see a slow but steady trickle of letters through until Monday when I would expect some sort of announcement.
Mps already know what their constituents think. It is now surely all about timing and positioning.
Another day breaks. Another day of Tory parliamentary majority wasted. And another day closer to the next election. There’s no refund on time, not that you would know it from the inaction of these gutless Tory MPs.
Two years is a long time in politics but I think the Conservatives may have already cooked their goose for 2024. Yesterday felt an awful lot like Black Wednesday. If you look at the polls from 1992 through 1994 when Blair took over, the damage to the Cons had already been done.
But at the moment I do have a begrudging respect for Rishi Sunak and I fear him. He's very capable and competent. I also liked his calm after the storm demeanour yesterday. Undoubtedly PM material but I think it's now or never.
Liz Truss would be my golden ticket.
No it didn't.
The Labour leads are still nothing like 1994 and absolutely nothing like the over 20% leads they had once Blair took over.
The Tories have also just won the Southern West by election with an increased voteshare on 2019. If the Tories were heading for a landslide defeat they would not have got 86% of the vote last night, no Labour and LD candidate or not
The site is, in my view, overpricing Partygate as an issue, and underpricing cost of living the same way.
If Johnson survives Partygate the call will be the storm is over, whereas in fact the storm for Johnson and all the tories will be just beginning.
Absolutely agree with this. Partygate will be meh for many. Meanwhile, I think the national expectation (whether justified or not) was for the good times to roll/roaring twenties post-pandemic.
Who did people expect was going to pay the costs of lockdowns they were demanding?
Fantastic comment and absolutely.
Public in favour of lockdowns. Public not in favour of tax rises.
*passes out in shock and surprise*
Public in favour of tax rises for the wealthy.
Where did that £8.7bn wasted on PPE go? It's sitting in somebody's bank accounts.
The public are always in favour of tax rises for the wealthy.
And wealthy always means those who have more than they do.
Quite a muscly Owen Jones piece here imo. His main point is we shouldn't be suckered by the Tory Party into thinking if Boris Johnson goes all is fine.
Owen must be weeping at how Starmer's star has risen
It is an all-too-common trait among too many who regarded Corbyn as the messiah. Basically they are willing Starmer to fail, gunning for him at every opportunity and as a consequence just consigning themselves to derision.
In the meantime, I am increasingly impressed with how not only Starmer but also the key players on the Labour front bench are stepping up to the mark. The opposition front bench under Starmer was initially a disappointment but since he rejigged it they seem to have got their collective act together.
I am right of centre but I have always rated Starmer. If he becomes PM, he will become the first PM in a very long time to have done a "proper job" outside of politics, and one that he has risen right to the very top in. He is a very smart cookie.
Starmer v Sunak, a privately educated former barrister and head of the CPS with an Oxford degree v a privately and Oxford and Stanford educated ex Goldman Sachs banker.
The most elitist general election ever? Definitely the end of populism then
Point of order: Starmer didn't go to Oxford for undergrad, he went to Leeds and did a BCL at Oxford.
He still has an Oxford degree, a postgraduate degree in law, even if he went to Leeds for undergrad.
No different to Bill Clinton who went to Georgetown for undergrad but Yale law school for postgrad or Obama who went to Occidental College and Columbia and Harvard law school or indeed Gerald Ford who went to Michigan University and Yale law school.
People who go to Oxford for a postgraduate degree are generally older, wiser and far more serious than the jeunesse dorée for whom the institution was originally intended. They must surely emerge with a jaundiced view of undergrads and all they stand for.
After attending the outstanding and world class Leeds University, he then did some postgraduate thing at some place near the Thames.
Quite a muscly Owen Jones piece here imo. His main point is we shouldn't be suckered by the Tory Party into thinking if Boris Johnson goes all is fine.
Owen must be weeping at how Starmer's star has risen
It is an all-too-common trait among too many who regarded Corbyn as the messiah. Basically they are willing Starmer to fail, gunning for him at every opportunity and as a consequence just consigning themselves to derision.
In the meantime, I am increasingly impressed with how not only Starmer but also the key players on the Labour front bench are stepping up to the mark. The opposition front bench under Starmer was initially a disappointment but since he rejigged it they seem to have got their collective act together.
I am right of centre but I have always rated Starmer. If he becomes PM, he will become the first PM in a very long time to have done a "proper job" outside of politics, and one that he has risen right to the very top in. He is a very smart cookie.
Yeah, you mean in the way he adopted a policy of "believe all victims" and so we had Carl Beech wreck people's lives? Yup, 'very smart cookie'
Is that the latest right wing nutter meme since the previous one backfired spectacularly on Big Clown? Yes he is a very smart cookie. You are too partisan to see it, or you are really not a very smart cookie, or perhaps both.
Ahem, if you are going to lob insults, it might be better to get your facts right. Who is disagreeing with the statement that Starmer instituted a policy of believe all victims at the CPS? What people are disagreeing with BJ on is that Starmer didn't prosecute Jimmy Saville.
I have no need to defend Starmer on detail. I am not a Labour supporter, and therefore will be able to disagree with him on lots of things. He is very smart though. The fact that you are still an apologist for the worst PM probably in history suggests that you are going to be more and more disappointed that Starmer outmanoeuvres him at every juncture. One of the important things in politics and life in general is not to underestimate your opponents. Smarter Tories are beginning to realise they need someone better than the fat blusterer to outsmart Starmer.
Yes, I see you didn't acknowledge you got your point wrong, did you? Never mind.
Oh dear, I didn't get a point wrong (although it has been known occasionally - well maybe about 1985ish perhaps?). I said Starmer is a smart cookie, which you took exception to because you are so absorbed with thinking that anyone that you disagree with is not effective. He is smart cookie, for you to pretend otherwise is just silly. Starmer is very very smart. That comes as a shock to swivel-eyed far right UKIPy/Johnson apologist Tories. Sorry to have to break it to you.
Starmer was responsible for a policy that wrecked people's lives in a very public way. As far as I am aware, he has never apologised or recognised what he did. That does not sound like a decent person.
As for the "He is smart cookie, for you to pretend otherwise is just silly." that is not a fact, it is your view just as it is my view that he has significant flaws. Just because you say something doesn't make it a fact (although I know that is a common attribute of the pub bore who likes to tell everyone how it is and how right they are).
If you're talking about the CPS stuff, he really wasn't. It's on record that Allison Saunders was the fuck up at CPS.
Quite a muscly Owen Jones piece here imo. His main point is we shouldn't be suckered by the Tory Party into thinking if Boris Johnson goes all is fine.
Owen must be weeping at how Starmer's star has risen
It is an all-too-common trait among too many who regarded Corbyn as the messiah. Basically they are willing Starmer to fail, gunning for him at every opportunity and as a consequence just consigning themselves to derision.
In the meantime, I am increasingly impressed with how not only Starmer but also the key players on the Labour front bench are stepping up to the mark. The opposition front bench under Starmer was initially a disappointment but since he rejigged it they seem to have got their collective act together.
I am right of centre but I have always rated Starmer. If he becomes PM, he will become the first PM in a very long time to have done a "proper job" outside of politics, and one that he has risen right to the very top in. He is a very smart cookie.
Yeah, you mean in the way he adopted a policy of "believe all victims" and so we had Carl Beech wreck people's lives? Yup, 'very smart cookie'
And sat on his hands in the Corbyn Shadow Cabinet as anti-semitism ran unchecked through his party. Just so he could get the top job himslef. Yeah, what a guy....
I know, even though his wife is Jewish. Obviously, a principled man who would be a vast improvement when it came to his personal behaviour...
That echo chamber must be a fun place to be.
It's a very big one but I must admit I do enjoy reading the far-right views of the Guardian and New Statesman when I get down to my reading.
I didn't realise they had colouring in sections
They do. I think they had you in the other week. Big fat pub bore in their 50s talking loudly about his golfing exploits and telling everyone how he had a chance with the barmaid. I particularly enjoyed colouring in your cheeks a deep shade of pink.
Quite a muscly Owen Jones piece here imo. His main point is we shouldn't be suckered by the Tory Party into thinking if Boris Johnson goes all is fine.
Owen must be weeping at how Starmer's star has risen
It is an all-too-common trait among too many who regarded Corbyn as the messiah. Basically they are willing Starmer to fail, gunning for him at every opportunity and as a consequence just consigning themselves to derision.
In the meantime, I am increasingly impressed with how not only Starmer but also the key players on the Labour front bench are stepping up to the mark. The opposition front bench under Starmer was initially a disappointment but since he rejigged it they seem to have got their collective act together.
I am right of centre but I have always rated Starmer. If he becomes PM, he will become the first PM in a very long time to have done a "proper job" outside of politics, and one that he has risen right to the very top in. He is a very smart cookie.
Starmer v Sunak, a privately educated former barrister and head of the CPS with an Oxford degree v a privately and Oxford and Stanford educated ex Goldman Sachs banker.
The most elitist general election ever? Definitely the end of populism then
And compare Boris Johnson, the beacon of populism, to both of those ? Clearly the son of a postman who pulled himself up by his bootstraps.
Likewise, Trump ? The son a multi-millionaire.
Up against Corbyn, who did not go to Oxford and did not do much outside politics so the poll holds in that both party leaders would be elitist (unlike 2019) and both Sunak and Starmer got 1st class degrees which neither Boris nor Corbyn got.
In the US Trump was rich but went to Pennsylvania not Harvard or Yale and was up against Biden in 2020 (who did not go to an Ivy League college) and Hillary in 2020 who did not go to a private high school
On Alastair Meeks' count, hostile is up to 43... but friendly is up to 100. Still seems momentum is with Boris Johnson.
I suspect there is a lag in AM's data that may mean the friendlies are currently higher than they actually are. Were I a Tory MP I would be avoiding people at the weekend as you know what the conversations are going to be like.
I imagine we will see a slow but steady trickle of letters through until Monday when I would expect some sort of announcement.
Mps already know what their constituents think. It is now surely all about timing and positioning.
Another day breaks. Another day of Tory parliamentary majority wasted. And another day closer to the next election. There’s no refund on time, not that you would know it from the inaction of these gutless Tory MPs.
Two years is a long time in politics but I think the Conservatives may have already cooked their goose for 2024. Yesterday felt an awful lot like Black Wednesday. If you look at the polls from 1992 through 1994 when Blair took over, the damage to the Cons had already been done.
But at the moment I do have a begrudging respect for Rishi Sunak and I fear him. He's very capable and competent. I also liked his calm after the storm demeanour yesterday. Undoubtedly PM material but I think it's now or never.
Liz Truss would be my golden ticket.
No it didn't.
The Labour leads are still nothing like 1994 and absolutely nothing like the over 20% leads they had once Blair took over.
The Tories have also just won the Southern West by election with an increased voteshare on 2019. If the Tories were heading for a landslide defeat they would not have got 86% of the vote last night, no Labour and LD candidate or not
The site is, in my view, overpricing Partygate as an issue, and underpricing cost of living the same way.
If Johnson survives Partygate the call will be the storm is over, whereas in fact the storm for Johnson and all the tories will be just beginning.
Absolutely agree with this. Partygate will be meh for many. Meanwhile, I think the national expectation (whether justified or not) was for the good times to roll/roaring twenties post-pandemic.
Who did people expect was going to pay the costs of lockdowns they were demanding?
Fantastic comment and absolutely.
Public in favour of lockdowns. Public not in favour of tax rises.
*passes out in shock and surprise*
Public in favour of tax rises for the wealthy.
Where did that £8.7bn wasted on PPE go? It's sitting in somebody's bank accounts.
Specifically, "Public in favour of tax rises for the wealthier than them".
Absolutely. Indeed the very definition of "Fair Taxes".
Doing my sums on the new NI surcharge, energy bills, rise in interest rates on my tracker mortgage, I reckon on being about £350 a month worse off in April.
Hopefully get some payrise, but likely to be sub inflationary. The public sector pay round could be one for industrial unrest, and not just in the NHS.
Has there even been a by-election before where spoilt ballots came second?
Not sure about a by-election, but there were more than a thousand spoilt ballots in a couple of constituencies in GE2015, though turnout was higher, so a smaller proportion of votes cast.
On Alastair Meeks' count, hostile is up to 43... but friendly is up to 100. Still seems momentum is with Boris Johnson.
I suspect there is a lag in AM's data that may mean the friendlies are currently higher than they actually are. Were I a Tory MP I would be avoiding people at the weekend as you know what the conversations are going to be like.
I imagine we will see a slow but steady trickle of letters through until Monday when I would expect some sort of announcement.
Mps already know what their constituents think. It is now surely all about timing and positioning.
Another day breaks. Another day of Tory parliamentary majority wasted. And another day closer to the next election. There’s no refund on time, not that you would know it from the inaction of these gutless Tory MPs.
Two years is a long time in politics but I think the Conservatives may have already cooked their goose for 2024. Yesterday felt an awful lot like Black Wednesday. If you look at the polls from 1992 through 1994 when Blair took over, the damage to the Cons had already been done.
But at the moment I do have a begrudging respect for Rishi Sunak and I fear him. He's very capable and competent. I also liked his calm after the storm demeanour yesterday. Undoubtedly PM material but I think it's now or never.
Liz Truss would be my golden ticket.
No it didn't.
The Labour leads are still nothing like 1994 and absolutely nothing like the over 20% leads they had once Blair took over.
The Tories have also just won the Southern West by election with an increased voteshare on 2019. If the Tories were heading for a landslide defeat they would not have got 86% of the vote last night, no Labour and LD candidate or not
The site is, in my view, overpricing Partygate as an issue, and underpricing cost of living the same way.
If Johnson survives Partygate the call will be the storm is over, whereas in fact the storm for Johnson and all the tories will be just beginning.
Absolutely agree with this. Partygate will be meh for many. Meanwhile, I think the national expectation (whether justified or not) was for the good times to roll/roaring twenties post-pandemic.
Who did people expect was going to pay the costs of lockdowns they were demanding?
Fantastic comment and absolutely.
Public in favour of lockdowns. Public not in favour of tax rises.
*passes out in shock and surprise*
Public in favour of tax rises for the wealthy.
Where did that £8.7bn wasted on PPE go? It's sitting in somebody's bank accounts.
The public are always in favour of tax rises for the wealthy.
And wealthy always means those who have more than they do.
Quite a muscly Owen Jones piece here imo. His main point is we shouldn't be suckered by the Tory Party into thinking if Boris Johnson goes all is fine.
Owen must be weeping at how Starmer's star has risen
It is an all-too-common trait among too many who regarded Corbyn as the messiah. Basically they are willing Starmer to fail, gunning for him at every opportunity and as a consequence just consigning themselves to derision.
In the meantime, I am increasingly impressed with how not only Starmer but also the key players on the Labour front bench are stepping up to the mark. The opposition front bench under Starmer was initially a disappointment but since he rejigged it they seem to have got their collective act together.
I am right of centre but I have always rated Starmer. If he becomes PM, he will become the first PM in a very long time to have done a "proper job" outside of politics, and one that he has risen right to the very top in. He is a very smart cookie.
Starmer v Sunak, a privately educated former barrister and head of the CPS with an Oxford degree v a privately and Oxford and Stanford educated ex Goldman Sachs banker.
The most elitist general election ever? Definitely the end of populism then
Starmer wasn't privately educated. Passed 11+ and went to local Grammar School which at some point stopped being a real state school.
On Alastair Meeks' count, hostile is up to 43... but friendly is up to 100. Still seems momentum is with Boris Johnson.
I suspect there is a lag in AM's data that may mean the friendlies are currently higher than they actually are. Were I a Tory MP I would be avoiding people at the weekend as you know what the conversations are going to be like.
I imagine we will see a slow but steady trickle of letters through until Monday when I would expect some sort of announcement.
Mps already know what their constituents think. It is now surely all about timing and positioning.
Another day breaks. Another day of Tory parliamentary majority wasted. And another day closer to the next election. There’s no refund on time, not that you would know it from the inaction of these gutless Tory MPs.
Two years is a long time in politics but I think the Conservatives may have already cooked their goose for 2024. Yesterday felt an awful lot like Black Wednesday. If you look at the polls from 1992 through 1994 when Blair took over, the damage to the Cons had already been done.
But at the moment I do have a begrudging respect for Rishi Sunak and I fear him. He's very capable and competent. I also liked his calm after the storm demeanour yesterday. Undoubtedly PM material but I think it's now or never.
Liz Truss would be my golden ticket.
No it didn't.
The Labour leads are still nothing like 1994 and absolutely nothing like the over 20% leads they had once Blair took over.
The Tories have also just won the Southern West by election with an increased voteshare on 2019. If the Tories were heading for a landslide defeat they would not have got 86% of the vote last night, no Labour and LD candidate or not
The site is, in my view, overpricing Partygate as an issue, and underpricing cost of living the same way.
If Johnson survives Partygate the call will be the storm is over, whereas in fact the storm for Johnson and all the tories will be just beginning.
Absolutely agree with this. Partygate will be meh for many. Meanwhile, I think the national expectation (whether justified or not) was for the good times to roll/roaring twenties post-pandemic.
Who did people expect was going to pay the costs of lockdowns they were demanding?
Fantastic comment and absolutely.
Public in favour of lockdowns. Public not in favour of tax rises.
*passes out in shock and surprise*
Public in favour of tax rises for the wealthy.
Where did that £8.7bn wasted on PPE go? It's sitting in somebody's bank accounts.
The public are always in favour of tax rises for the wealthy.
And wealthy always means those who have more than they do.
I think it was the Economist who did a study on this years back. The definition of "Wealthy" as in "those guys who should pay more tax" was surprisingly constant
RichBastards >= X * (family earnings of person surveyed).
Thank you Nigel for that. I recently suggested that he was the worst PM in my lifetime (i.e. since Atlee) and got jumped on from a great height. Admittedly it was Hyufd but even so I was astonished to find that even in so broad a forum as PB there was anyone prepared to argue that he didn't rank lower than all predecessors since WW2.
But you go further. 'In history', you say? Hmmm. Boris....Lord North.....Lord North...Boris.
Quite a muscly Owen Jones piece here imo. His main point is we shouldn't be suckered by the Tory Party into thinking if Boris Johnson goes all is fine.
Owen must be weeping at how Starmer's star has risen
It is an all-too-common trait among too many who regarded Corbyn as the messiah. Basically they are willing Starmer to fail, gunning for him at every opportunity and as a consequence just consigning themselves to derision.
In the meantime, I am increasingly impressed with how not only Starmer but also the key players on the Labour front bench are stepping up to the mark. The opposition front bench under Starmer was initially a disappointment but since he rejigged it they seem to have got their collective act together.
I am right of centre but I have always rated Starmer. If he becomes PM, he will become the first PM in a very long time to have done a "proper job" outside of politics, and one that he has risen right to the very top in. He is a very smart cookie.
Yeah, you mean in the way he adopted a policy of "believe all victims" and so we had Carl Beech wreck people's lives? Yup, 'very smart cookie'
Is that the latest right wing nutter meme since the previous one backfired spectacularly on Big Clown? Yes he is a very smart cookie. You are too partisan to see it, or you are really not a very smart cookie, or perhaps both.
Ahem, if you are going to lob insults, it might be better to get your facts right. Who is disagreeing with the statement that Starmer instituted a policy of believe all victims at the CPS? What people are disagreeing with BJ on is that Starmer didn't prosecute Jimmy Saville.
I have no need to defend Starmer on detail. I am not a Labour supporter, and therefore will be able to disagree with him on lots of things. He is very smart though. The fact that you are still an apologist for the worst PM probably in history suggests that you are going to be more and more disappointed that Starmer outmanoeuvres him at every juncture. One of the important things in politics and life in general is not to underestimate your opponents. Smarter Tories are beginning to realise they need someone better than the fat blusterer to outsmart Starmer.
Yes, I see you didn't acknowledge you got your point wrong, did you? Never mind.
Oh dear, I didn't get a point wrong (although it has been known occasionally - well maybe about 1985ish perhaps?). I said Starmer is a smart cookie, which you took exception to because you are so absorbed with thinking that anyone that you disagree with is not effective. He is smart cookie, for you to pretend otherwise is just silly. Starmer is very very smart. That comes as a shock to swivel-eyed far right UKIPy/Johnson apologist Tories. Sorry to have to break it to you.
Starmer was responsible for a policy that wrecked people's lives in a very public way. As far as I am aware, he has never apologised or recognised what he did. That does not sound like a decent person.
As for the "He is smart cookie, for you to pretend otherwise is just silly." that is not a fact, it is your view just as it is my view that he has significant flaws. Just because you say something doesn't make it a fact (although I know that is a common attribute of the pub bore who likes to tell everyone how it is and how right they are).
If you're talking about the CPS stuff, he really wasn't. It's on record that Allison Saunders was the fuck up at CPS.
He really was. Read the Ashcroft biography, Starmer was very much responsible for the CPS adopting the policy.
It seems like the defenders of Starmer at the CPS are trying to have it both ways. If you bring up Saville, the defence is "he didn't have any responsibility even though he headed the CPS", with the Carl Beech episode, it's "well, he wasn't head of the CPS so he didn't have any responsibility for it even though he very much made the decision it should go ahead". It's either one or the other.
Reasons why Boris doesn't want to go now No 1 to 60million
Boris wants another 4-6 months to get past Brown and May - and he needs to avoid a VONC otherwise he isn't going to get there.
I still think Boris wins a VONC 55% to 45% or so for now
He'll probably beat Spencer Perceval. Unlikely he'll beat Gordon Brown.
Ah, Boris, you old duffer, it could all have been so different. You were played a hugely difficult hand - take over a party with no majority and with two wings in open rebellion, in different directions, deal with the most contentious constitutional issue of the post-war era, and then thrown off course by the biggest emergency of my lifetime. The first you managed with astonishing success, the second to no less dissatisfaction than anyone else would have achieved*, and the third better than many, with some brave calls along the way.
And then you threw it away on - what? Holding some not-very-good-parties? Evacuating someone's pets from Afghanistan? Owen Paterson? A distasteful jibe at PMQs?
I'm not trying to excuse Boris. I didn't want him in the first place and I certainly don't want him now. But he dealt with the really difficult issues quite well - certainly better than many. The first few months of his premiership when he took a fractious party without a majority which had recently polled below 10% in a national election to a landslide-ish majority was just astonishing.
He's played an astonishingly difficult hand with a surprising degree of success, and then made some really, really, really stupid and unnecessary unforced errors. Like the spy who finds the Macguffin, defeats three different sets of baddies, makes it home through no-mans land, then gets hilariously drunk on the train back from Dover, picks a fight with a bouncer and leaves the Macguffin on the tube.
*I can sense Remainer piss boiling from here when I write this. Sorry. It's hard to frame in a neutral way. But I stand by it - other solutions may or may not have been better; but any other solution would have pissed off at least as many people.
Covid has been the elephant in the room in all this but I’m liable to think he would have been found wanting whatever had happened. However he had a lot of faith put in him and he could have actually delivered a transformative agenda. He had the majority for it. It will be one of the great wasted moments in British politics. Unfortunately the naysayers have been proved right that he is simply temperamentally unsuited for the job. I was willing to give him the benefit of the doubt in 2019, but no more.
Quite a muscly Owen Jones piece here imo. His main point is we shouldn't be suckered by the Tory Party into thinking if Boris Johnson goes all is fine.
Owen must be weeping at how Starmer's star has risen
It is an all-too-common trait among too many who regarded Corbyn as the messiah. Basically they are willing Starmer to fail, gunning for him at every opportunity and as a consequence just consigning themselves to derision.
In the meantime, I am increasingly impressed with how not only Starmer but also the key players on the Labour front bench are stepping up to the mark. The opposition front bench under Starmer was initially a disappointment but since he rejigged it they seem to have got their collective act together.
I am right of centre but I have always rated Starmer. If he becomes PM, he will become the first PM in a very long time to have done a "proper job" outside of politics, and one that he has risen right to the very top in. He is a very smart cookie.
Starmer v Sunak, a privately educated former barrister and head of the CPS with an Oxford degree v a privately and Oxford and Stanford educated ex Goldman Sachs banker.
The most elitist general election ever? Definitely the end of populism then
Starmer wasn't privately educated. Passed 11+ and went to local Grammar School which at some point stopped being a real state school.
It doesn't matter whether he did or not. This is post-facts politics now.
In general as DPP Starmer did a fairly good job aiui. There's a reason the Tories have struggled to go after his record, it's pretty good overall and his successor was absolutely terrible which paints him in an even better light.
If he came out and gave unequivocal support to women's rights campaigners I could vote for Labour with Starmer as leader. It's my last question mark.
Thank you Nigel for that. I recently suggested that he was the worst PM in my lifetime (i.e. since Atlee) and got jumped on from a great height. Admittedly it was Hyufd but even so I was astonished to find that even in so broad a forum as PB there was anyone prepared to argue that he didn't rank lower than all predecessors since WW2.
But you go further. 'In history', you say? Hmmm. Boris....Lord North.....Lord North...Boris.
It's close, I'll grant.
Absurd, Boris got Brexit done, won a landslide election win, delivered one of the most successful vaccination programmes in the world and unemployment still half the level Brown's Labour left in 2010.
After Blair and Thatcher in terms of delivery Boris is the most successful PM of the last 50 years
Quite a muscly Owen Jones piece here imo. His main point is we shouldn't be suckered by the Tory Party into thinking if Boris Johnson goes all is fine.
Owen must be weeping at how Starmer's star has risen
It is an all-too-common trait among too many who regarded Corbyn as the messiah. Basically they are willing Starmer to fail, gunning for him at every opportunity and as a consequence just consigning themselves to derision.
In the meantime, I am increasingly impressed with how not only Starmer but also the key players on the Labour front bench are stepping up to the mark. The opposition front bench under Starmer was initially a disappointment but since he rejigged it they seem to have got their collective act together.
I am right of centre but I have always rated Starmer. If he becomes PM, he will become the first PM in a very long time to have done a "proper job" outside of politics, and one that he has risen right to the very top in. He is a very smart cookie.
Yeah, you mean in the way he adopted a policy of "believe all victims" and so we had Carl Beech wreck people's lives? Yup, 'very smart cookie'
Andrew Lilico @andrew_lilico · 1h The BoE Governor has asked people not to seek wage rises in response to inflation. Such "2nd round effects" can make inflation more persistent & the cost of cutting it higher. Does the govt intend to bolster the Governor's stance by limiting public sector pay rises this year?
Quite a muscly Owen Jones piece here imo. His main point is we shouldn't be suckered by the Tory Party into thinking if Boris Johnson goes all is fine.
Owen must be weeping at how Starmer's star has risen
It is an all-too-common trait among too many who regarded Corbyn as the messiah. Basically they are willing Starmer to fail, gunning for him at every opportunity and as a consequence just consigning themselves to derision.
In the meantime, I am increasingly impressed with how not only Starmer but also the key players on the Labour front bench are stepping up to the mark. The opposition front bench under Starmer was initially a disappointment but since he rejigged it they seem to have got their collective act together.
I am right of centre but I have always rated Starmer. If he becomes PM, he will become the first PM in a very long time to have done a "proper job" outside of politics, and one that he has risen right to the very top in. He is a very smart cookie.
Starmer v Sunak, a privately educated former barrister and head of the CPS with an Oxford degree v a privately and Oxford and Stanford educated ex Goldman Sachs banker.
The most elitist general election ever? Definitely the end of populism then
Starmer wasn't privately educated. Passed 11+ and went to local Grammar School which at some point stopped being a real state school.
You'd think @HYUFD would be a supporter of an 11+ grammar school boy!
On Alastair Meeks' count, hostile is up to 43... but friendly is up to 100. Still seems momentum is with Boris Johnson.
I suspect there is a lag in AM's data that may mean the friendlies are currently higher than they actually are. Were I a Tory MP I would be avoiding people at the weekend as you know what the conversations are going to be like.
I imagine we will see a slow but steady trickle of letters through until Monday when I would expect some sort of announcement.
Mps already know what their constituents think. It is now surely all about timing and positioning.
Another day breaks. Another day of Tory parliamentary majority wasted. And another day closer to the next election. There’s no refund on time, not that you would know it from the inaction of these gutless Tory MPs.
Two years is a long time in politics but I think the Conservatives may have already cooked their goose for 2024. Yesterday felt an awful lot like Black Wednesday. If you look at the polls from 1992 through 1994 when Blair took over, the damage to the Cons had already been done.
But at the moment I do have a begrudging respect for Rishi Sunak and I fear him. He's very capable and competent. I also liked his calm after the storm demeanour yesterday. Undoubtedly PM material but I think it's now or never.
Liz Truss would be my golden ticket.
No it didn't.
The Labour leads are still nothing like 1994 and absolutely nothing like the over 20% leads they had once Blair took over.
The Tories have also just won the Southern West by election with an increased voteshare on 2019. If the Tories were heading for a landslide defeat they would not have got 86% of the vote last night, no Labour and LD candidate or not
The site is, in my view, overpricing Partygate as an issue, and underpricing cost of living the same way.
If Johnson survives Partygate the call will be the storm is over, whereas in fact the storm for Johnson and all the tories will be just beginning.
Absolutely agree with this. Partygate will be meh for many. Meanwhile, I think the national expectation (whether justified or not) was for the good times to roll/roaring twenties post-pandemic.
Who did people expect was going to pay the costs of lockdowns they were demanding?
Fantastic comment and absolutely.
Public in favour of lockdowns. Public not in favour of tax rises.
*passes out in shock and surprise*
Public in favour of tax rises for the wealthy.
Where did that £8.7bn wasted on PPE go? It's sitting in somebody's bank accounts.
The public are always in favour of tax rises for the wealthy.
And wealthy always means those who have more than they do.
I think it was the Economist who did a study on this years back. The definition of "Wealthy" as in "those guys who should pay more tax" was surprisingly constant
RichBastards >= X * (family earnings of person surveyed).
Quite a muscly Owen Jones piece here imo. His main point is we shouldn't be suckered by the Tory Party into thinking if Boris Johnson goes all is fine.
Owen must be weeping at how Starmer's star has risen
It is an all-too-common trait among too many who regarded Corbyn as the messiah. Basically they are willing Starmer to fail, gunning for him at every opportunity and as a consequence just consigning themselves to derision.
In the meantime, I am increasingly impressed with how not only Starmer but also the key players on the Labour front bench are stepping up to the mark. The opposition front bench under Starmer was initially a disappointment but since he rejigged it they seem to have got their collective act together.
I am right of centre but I have always rated Starmer. If he becomes PM, he will become the first PM in a very long time to have done a "proper job" outside of politics, and one that he has risen right to the very top in. He is a very smart cookie.
Starmer v Sunak, a privately educated former barrister and head of the CPS with an Oxford degree v a privately and Oxford and Stanford educated ex Goldman Sachs banker.
The most elitist general election ever? Definitely the end of populism then
Starmer wasn't privately educated. Passed 11+ and went to local Grammar School which at some point stopped being a real state school.
So still privately educated then, it was a private school before he left it.
Quite a muscly Owen Jones piece here imo. His main point is we shouldn't be suckered by the Tory Party into thinking if Boris Johnson goes all is fine.
Owen must be weeping at how Starmer's star has risen
It is an all-too-common trait among too many who regarded Corbyn as the messiah. Basically they are willing Starmer to fail, gunning for him at every opportunity and as a consequence just consigning themselves to derision.
In the meantime, I am increasingly impressed with how not only Starmer but also the key players on the Labour front bench are stepping up to the mark. The opposition front bench under Starmer was initially a disappointment but since he rejigged it they seem to have got their collective act together.
I am right of centre but I have always rated Starmer. If he becomes PM, he will become the first PM in a very long time to have done a "proper job" outside of politics, and one that he has risen right to the very top in. He is a very smart cookie.
Yeah, you mean in the way he adopted a policy of "believe all victims" and so we had Carl Beech wreck people's lives? Yup, 'very smart cookie'
Is that the latest right wing nutter meme since the previous one backfired spectacularly on Big Clown? Yes he is a very smart cookie. You are too partisan to see it, or you are really not a very smart cookie, or perhaps both.
Ahem, if you are going to lob insults, it might be better to get your facts right. Who is disagreeing with the statement that Starmer instituted a policy of believe all victims at the CPS? What people are disagreeing with BJ on is that Starmer didn't prosecute Jimmy Saville.
I have no need to defend Starmer on detail. I am not a Labour supporter, and therefore will be able to disagree with him on lots of things. He is very smart though. The fact that you are still an apologist for the worst PM probably in history suggests that you are going to be more and more disappointed that Starmer outmanoeuvres him at every juncture. One of the important things in politics and life in general is not to underestimate your opponents. Smarter Tories are beginning to realise they need someone better than the fat blusterer to outsmart Starmer.
Yes, I see you didn't acknowledge you got your point wrong, did you? Never mind.
Oh dear, I didn't get a point wrong (although it has been known occasionally - well maybe about 1985ish perhaps?). I said Starmer is a smart cookie, which you took exception to because you are so absorbed with thinking that anyone that you disagree with is not effective. He is smart cookie, for you to pretend otherwise is just silly. Starmer is very very smart. That comes as a shock to swivel-eyed far right UKIPy/Johnson apologist Tories. Sorry to have to break it to you.
Starmer was responsible for a policy that wrecked people's lives in a very public way. As far as I am aware, he has never apologised or recognised what he did. That does not sound like a decent person.
As for the "He is smart cookie, for you to pretend otherwise is just silly." that is not a fact, it is your view just as it is my view that he has significant flaws. Just because you say something doesn't make it a fact (although I know that is a common attribute of the pub bore who likes to tell everyone how it is and how right they are).
If you're talking about the CPS stuff, he really wasn't. It's on record that Allison Saunders was the fuck up at CPS.
He really was. Read the Ashcroft biography, Starmer was very much responsible for the CPS adopting the policy.
It seems like the defenders of Starmer at the CPS are trying to have it both ways. If you bring up Saville, the defence is "he didn't have any responsibility even though he headed the CPS", with the Carl Beech episode, it's "well, he wasn't head of the CPS so he didn't have any responsibility for it even though he very much made the decision it should go ahead". It's either one or the other.
Point of information, but wasn't Starmer knighted by Cameron for his work at the DPP?
Comments
The most elitist general election ever? Definitely the end of populism then
"True but, as you said, there was an option of they could do shockingly badly. I'm not claiming this is a good result for BJ, what I am saying is that a few MPs who are sitting on the fence may see this result and waver about sending in the letter. If the result had been shockingly bad, there was a big incentive to move against him. It wasn't."
This is not about whether it was a good result or not, it's about whether a few MPs will look at the result and think that it might be best not to send in the letter yet.
Average 10% or above I win
Average below 10%, you do
A tenner to keep it frugal as befits the mood
For comparison, there were 170 in the 'uncontested' Batley & Spen
They're like the Japanese holdouts refusing the surrender in the 1970s lol!
Politics works slower than that. I don't think the end result is in much doubt.
Sunak, on the other hand, is actually very good at giving serious and empathetic answers to difficult questions on how ordinary people are being affected, explaining clearly what he is doing, not belittling the problems which he can't address, and being very clear on the limits of what can be done. It won't satisfy everyone, obviously, and the government is going to be unpopular whatever it does, but I reckon Sunak is better placed than almost any other potential candidate, except perhaps Jeremy Hunt, to mitigate the damage to the party from the economic travails to come.
No different to Bill Clinton who went to Georgetown for undergrad but Yale law school for postgrad or Obama who went to Occidental College and Columbia and Harvard law school or indeed Gerald Ford who went to Michigan University and Yale law school.
Salah vs Mane in the final.
I agree on Edmonton and Tottenham, even Cameron did not win those seats, though he did win Enfield Southgate.
Alternatively it was just to muddle people's memories on boris + bus - on much the same principle.
It is difficult to see any rational explanation otherwise. Unless he was making it for Wilfred, who was far too young at the time anyway IIRC.
However, on Green issues, landlords are already largely paying their own way.
Statutory requirements for Private Rented Dwellings to meet increasing Energy standards were announced in I think 2012-2013, passed into law in 2015, and a rented dwelling now requires an EPC value of E or better since 2018.
That will be D or better in a couple of years. And will be C or better in 2028 or 2030. Not sure exactly where these dates are, but there was a consultation.
Which represents iirc roughly a halving of energy required in toto.
If a parallel measure had been brought in for owner occupied we would have had 10 years of progress, and a roadmap for the path to improvement from here.
Instead, the Govt ran away from tackling the issue, and are now sitting on their bottom in a puddle, scrabbling around looking for answers.
Remember that newbuild contribute a tiny % to housing emissions, and that older houses contribute the vast majority. And in the UK 65-70% of houses are owner occupied.
2-3 years ago the Private Rental Sector went ahead of the OO in Energy Efficiency Terms.
There are perhaps interesting issues about standards in socially owned lettings, and especially places that enforce their own "codes of practices" (eg Universities), that never seem to get much attention.
It was that gloriously bad I wish there was an NFT of it.
Likewise, Trump ? The son a multi-millionaire.
Either this is deliberate, to keep powder dry for the campaign, or simply vacuous. I am concerned that it may well be the latter.
There is a widespread feeling in the country that things are heading in the wrong direction, from the right as well as the left. There is though a dearth of real ideological coherence to the various suggestions. I suspect Sunak style deregulated capitalism will emerge as the winner on the right. Thatcher too started with tax rises, notably doubling VAT early on, but also reducing deductions and exemptions.
That will not be popular with either Red Wall voters wanting autarky, nor the centrist dads, nor the hard left, but it is a clear direction.
Public in favour of lockdowns. Public not in favour of tax rises.
*passes out in shock and amazement*
Which is why I see Bozo continuing in power and the party as a whole being destroyed as inflation kicks off and Bozo shifts from being a PM for all people (because they see hope in what he appears to / could offer) to a PM for absolutely no-one (as over 4 years he's managed to upset absolutely everyone).
https://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/legislature/article/National-Butterfly-Center-closing-indefinitely-16826463.php
...The National Butterfly Center on the Texas border is closing “for the immediate future” after conspiracy-fueled attacks against the center on social media escalated in recent days.
The butterfly sanctuary, part of the North American Butterfly Association, made the announcement Wednesday. The decision came just days after GOP operatives descended on the site, reviving baseless and false conspiracy theories linking the center to sex trafficking...
...The butterfly center has been the target of far-right conspiracy theories for years, after the sanctuary in 2017 sued over the Trump administration’s plans to build a border wall through the 100-acre nature preserve.
Where did that £8.7bn wasted on PPE go? It's sitting in somebody's bank accounts.
Great word!
Of course, eventually one of these predictions will be true, but how to tell the difference ahead of time?
The Lewes town council result is interesting with Labour gaining the seat. Perhaps Starmer appeals more to the middle class than the normal labour base.
Ah, Boris, you old duffer, it could all have been so different. You were played a hugely difficult hand - take over a party with no majority and with two wings in open rebellion, in different directions, deal with the most contentious constitutional issue of the post-war era, and then thrown off course by the biggest emergency of my lifetime. The first you managed with astonishing success, the second to no less dissatisfaction than anyone else would have achieved*, and the third better than many, with some brave calls along the way.
And then you threw it away on - what? Holding some not-very-good-parties? Evacuating someone's pets from Afghanistan? Owen Paterson? A distasteful jibe at PMQs?
I'm not trying to excuse Boris. I didn't want him in the first place and I certainly don't want him now.
But he dealt with the really difficult issues quite well - certainly better than many. The first few months of his premiership when he took a fractious party without a majority which had recently polled below 10% in a national election to a landslide-ish majority was just astonishing.
He's played an astonishingly difficult hand with a surprising degree of success, and then made some really, really, really stupid and unnecessary unforced errors. Like the spy who finds the Macguffin, defeats three different sets of baddies, makes it home through no-mans land, then gets hilariously drunk on the train back from Dover, picks a fight with a bouncer and leaves the Macguffin on the tube.
*I can sense Remainer piss boiling from here when I write this. Sorry. It's hard to frame in a neutral way. But I stand by it - other solutions may or may not have been better; but any other solution would have pissed off at least as many people.
As for the "He is smart cookie, for you to pretend otherwise is just silly." that is not a fact, it is your view just as it is my view that he has significant flaws. Just because you say something doesn't make it a fact (although I know that is a common attribute of the pub bore who likes to tell everyone how it is and how right they are).
In the US Trump was rich but went to Pennsylvania not Harvard or Yale and was up against Biden in 2020 (who did not go to an Ivy League college) and Hillary in 2020 who did not go to a private high school
Doing my sums on the new NI surcharge, energy bills, rise in interest rates on my tracker mortgage, I reckon on being about £350 a month worse off in April.
Hopefully get some payrise, but likely to be sub inflationary. The public sector pay round could be one for industrial unrest, and not just in the NHS.
https://www.votenone.org.uk/spoilt-ballot-results-2015.html
Here's one. Total 339 all out. 60 Extras.
https://www.espncricinfo.com/series/england-tour-of-west-indies-2003-04-61746/west-indies-vs-england-1st-test-64077/full-scorecard
RichBastards >= X * (family earnings of person surveyed).
I forget the value of X....
"...The worst PM probably in history..."
Thank you Nigel for that. I recently suggested that he was the worst PM in my lifetime (i.e. since Atlee) and got jumped on from a great height. Admittedly it was Hyufd but even so I was astonished to find that even in so broad a forum as PB there was anyone prepared to argue that he didn't rank lower than all predecessors since WW2.
But you go further. 'In history', you say? Hmmm. Boris....Lord North.....Lord North...Boris.
It's close, I'll grant.
It seems like the defenders of Starmer at the CPS are trying to have it both ways. If you bring up Saville, the defence is "he didn't have any responsibility even though he headed the CPS", with the Carl Beech episode, it's "well, he wasn't head of the CPS so he didn't have any responsibility for it even though he very much made the decision it should go ahead". It's either one or the other.
If he came out and gave unequivocal support to women's rights campaigners I could vote for Labour with Starmer as leader. It's my last question mark.
After Blair and Thatcher in terms of delivery Boris is the most successful PM of the last 50 years
@andrew_lilico
·
1h
The BoE Governor has asked people not to seek wage rises in response to inflation. Such "2nd round effects" can make inflation more persistent & the cost of cutting it higher. Does the govt intend to bolster the Governor's stance by limiting public sector pay rises this year?
https://twitter.com/andrew_lilico