Very nice but I'd prefer my shellfish to taste of shellfish and not be lost in a sea of lime, soy and chilli. I've never quite understood foodies' fascination with food that does not taste of anything, like risotto, or on the other hand, food whose own flavour is ruthlessly masked.
Agree on the soy and chilli point, but it sounds as though you've never had a proper risotto.
Sir John Major is a man of principles and values who places integrity and honesty at the top of the priority list above partisanship and personal profit.
Such a man has no place in the amoral disgraceful modern Tory party as HY and the other remaining sycophants have no doubt already proven.
Fuck off. His “principles” extended to cancelling the vote of 17.4 million people, because “they got it wrong”, and having a second vote to reverse the first, without ever enacting the LEAVE vote. And he accuses Boris of generating “mistrust in democracy”? How much mistrust would be have generated if he’d managed to actually CANCEL democracy
The man is a rancid hypocrite. A c*nt of the lowest order. He should be ignored. He should not be in public life. He should fuck off at great speed to I-have-now-fucked-off-istan, and the government there should expel him to the tiny village of Fuck Off Again, whence he will be exiled into the surrounding FUCK OFF JOHN MAJOR RAINFOREST and hopefully eaten half to death by great big fuck off ants with faces like Nigel Farage
You won Brexit. Be pleased about it, own it but ffs stop going on about it so aggressively.
WTF??????
I’m not attacking anyone here. I’m attacking an ex prime minister who wanted to abolish democracy, and who now has the brass neck to lecture us about “breeding mistrust in democracy”
A little bit of ire is, to say the least, justified
"Abolish democracy"? We had a general election and a different slate of representatives were elected. How is a general election abolishing democracy? When people voted for Blair instead of Major was that abolishing their democratic will to have Major in 1992?
How would the 2nd Ref proposal to have VOTE of ALL THE ELECTORATE be abolishing democracy, for that matter?
Having such a second referendum (that is, with Remain on the ballot paper) would have been admitting that there's a right answer and a wrong answer, and if the electorate give the wrong answer you will ignore them. How is this democracy?
Ignoring the electorate would have been saying "f*ck it, you voted to leave the EU but we're not going to do anything about it - no article 50, no negotiations, carry on as if nothing had happened".
That patently did not happen.
Asking the electorate to approve the negotiated deal would have only enhanced democracy.
Of course the Tory government wouldn't do that because it knew its negotiated deal was such utter shit and likely to be judged as such by the electorate.
If - and only if - the other option on the ballot paper is "more negotiations".
Putting Remain back on the ballot paper would have invalidated the first vote, and would have meant that people who wanted to Leave would have had to win two referendums but people who wanted to Remain cound have done so by winning only one.
If you can't see that this is fundametally anithetical to democracy I cannot help you.
But that is *literally* our democratic system. I would be happy to join with you in condemning our electoral system - it needs blowing up and refounding. But it IS the system, one that amazingly enough puts a legally binding general election above an advisory referendum in terms of mandate.
If there had been no election in 2017 and it was the 2015 parliament trying to rerun a referendum I may have more sympathy towards your position. But the 2017 parliament was sovereign and could overturn every single law on the statute book if it wanted to.
The referendum result wasn't even law. And "leave the EU" isn't even a coherent position - EU was being interpreted as all kinds of things that were not the EU. That the 2017 parliament sought to find a workable position is absolutely democracy, and if it wanted to hold a fresh referendum with a clear question this time that is absolutely democracy.
So your position seems to be we don't actually live in a democracy. Which even if it's true isn't a reason to make it worse by ignoring a clear instruction from the people.
Our democratic system has major systematic problems. A few: 1 People vote for the named candidate. Yet so many voters incorrectly believe they vote for a party or a prime minister or a government. They do not. 2 People think their vote applies outside their constituency. It does not. There is no national election just 650 simultaneous local ones. So national vote tallies and percentages shares whilst interesting have zero bearing on the result no matter how passionately people believe they do
So when you say "clear instruction from the people" there are several obvious issues. People don't understand who they are instructing and how when it is a legally binding vote - an election. And when the referendum is advisory and not legally binding it is a basic error to believe it to be an instruction. It is not.
I voted to leave. I regret it hugely now with the route we have gone but you aren't talking to a remoaner. But I do understand our democratic system and you do not. Once you have a new general election and elect a new raft of MPs they have the legal political and literal mandate to do whatever they like. And if it is politically unsustainable people have the ability to vote differently in the next election.
In a democracy, if the government say before a referendum "we will implement whatever you decide" and "there will not be another referendum", it is reasonable to see the decision made by the public as a clear instruction. And the mandate from that doesn't just go away if you ignore it.
But it was a different government. The mandate of John Major's government didn't apply to Tony Blair's government.
Irrelevant. It was a direct mandate to HMG, regardless of whether the membership of such changed. You're confusing a direct mandate from a referendum with an indirect mandate given to a prime minister through a general election.
What you're suggesting isn't really democracy, more a dictatorship.
Wow.
Why wow? You said that an advisory vote in a previous parliament has overriding legal mandate that no law on the statute books has. That parliament cannot be sovereign regardless of what people vote for in an election.
This is the truth. Brexit will never be over because every parliament between now and the end of time will have the absolute right to revisit the issue. Yet you claim that an advisory vote in the 2015 parliament is somehow sacrosanct and cannot be touched, a "direct mandate to HMG regardless of whether the membership of such changed"
Wow, because the people being the highest authority is the exact opposite of a dictatorship.
I claim that the political and democratic instruction (even if legally it was technically only advice) from the 2015 referendum has now been implemented. Therefore if a future parliament wants to rejoin, it would be legitimate. It wouldn't even necessarily need a referendum. Everything changed the moment the politicians finally did what we told them (not advised them) to do.
I wasn't up for a 2nd vote on different grounds. With the 1st one being such a sapping, divisive exercise I found the notion of doing it again so soon to be both unpleasant and damaging. Two bads don't make a good. They make a double bad. But it wouldn't have been anti-democratic. That argument doesn't hold water. Another vote only had a chance of happening if there was a popular will for it. The GE of December 19 tested this proposition and the answer was clear. The desire to vote again on the issue wasn't there. If it had been, with a GE outcome indicating such, it would have been perfectly democratic to have another Referendum.
So it would have been "perfectly democratic" for people who wanted the UK to leave the EU to win two referendums, but for people who wanted it to remain to be able to do so by winning only one, but having two opportunities?
I find that a rather trite formulation of the issue. Also it doesn't follow. This is fundamentally about elections. If a party wins one with 'hold an in/out referendum on EU membership' as a firm commitment they should hold that referendum. Like Cameron did. By the same token if Labour had won GE19 on a ticket of holding another one, another one should have been held. And so on and so forth. There's no big democratic problem with this.
"I find that a rather trite formulation of the issue." translates as "I don't have an answer to it", doesn't it?
I disagree that it's fundamentally about elections. It's fundamentally about the politicians not asking the people questions if they aren't prepared to implement the "wrong" answer.
I never was a big Brexit fan, and the Brexit we have is clearly not optimal. But it's still better than the politicians rejecting the referendum result would have been.
It means exactly what it says - you were looking at the issue like a game of top trumps. And I did answer the point. That was my actual post! General elections aren't the entirety of our democracy but they are at the heart of it. A 2nd referendum was not a good idea - agree on that - but it wouldn't have been undemocratic if Labour had won a GE on that promise and then fulfilled it.
I have been doing this and that and occasionally updating on news and my impressions follow
Liz Truss does not look anything like a leader, but when people take pleasure in running her down and she is speaking in Russia against Russian aggression, then that criticism is disloyal and seemingly from those sorely hurt by Brexit who want to run the country down in a vain attempt to assuage their anger
Two photographs turn up on partygate, one of which is fake because they are not compatible, which raises the question of just how valid are the photographs provided to the Met and who is responsible for altering them and why
John Major launches an outspoken attack on Boris just as Boris is at Nato and in Europe, and shows all the bitterness of his 30 year feud with Boris egged on by the media and I am not at all sure the timing or the intervention is very helpful in seeing Boris leave, as many of his mps will have been aggravated by it
I remain hopeful that when mps return, and certainly on any news of Boris receiving a FPN, the 54 letters will be received by the 1922 and then we have to hope 181 of his mps vote him out
I am also hoping nominations to succeed Boris may include a few more names than Rishi and Truss, before the final two are nominated to the membership
I hadn't realised how precise the cosplay was. Is there some kind of instruction manual?
Lol
There's perhaps a bit of it going on, but perm any 4 from 100 Truss pics and any 4 from 1000 Thatcher pics and bingo. I'm not biting too much on this story.
Whoever was matching Megan against Diana though, whether M herself or a malign palace dresser, it was more uncanny and there seemed more to that one....
It's almost as if these are stereotypical poses that the photographers expect to see regardless of party affiliation, isn't it? Like the Olympians biting their medals.
So the crabs at Ministry of Crab are great and all that, and cost roughly a month’s salary for many Sri Lankans, but no one mentioned the incredible PRAWNS, the size of Novaya Zemlya, or the mangrove oysters that are served after being deep chilled for 6 hours then drenched with a mix of hot chili sauce, lime juice, and aged soy, in a shot glass
Very nice but I'd prefer my shellfish to taste of shellfish and not be lost in a sea of lime, soy and chilli. I've never quite understood foodies' fascination with food that does not taste of anything, like risotto, or on the other hand, food whose own flavour is ruthlessly masked.
I tend to agree. You can’t beat a Helford native or a Sydney Rock with just a hint of lemon, black pepper and maybe Tabasco, but tasting mainly of itself. Followed by a wild boar sausage like they do in Sheeks
But some PB-ears wanted a report on Colombo’s most famous restaurant, and there it is, for good or ill
My favourite was the fucking enormous prawn. Half the size of a rugby ball, yet deliciously delicate and nicely soused (but not overwhelmed) in garlicky butter. Mmm
The consequence of having an in-out referendum on membership of the EU continue to be appalling; as I predicted at the time, it will dominate political discourse for years on end.
And I was right. Even six years after the event, it is still a dominant topic of conversation on a significant proportion of PB threads. Six ******* years. Can't people let go?
Well, it's been a long time, and so far it has been uniformly disastrous, but that's about to change now: at last, Jacob Rees-Mogg is going to tell us what all the wonderful new opportunities are. I can't wait.
There are loads of opportunities for merchant bankers and the like. For other people however.... not so many
Not in terms of access to the single market, it was low paid workers in the Redwall and pensioners who won it for leave to reduce unskilled immigration and regain sovereignty, most of the City, especially the established firms, voted Remain.
Please see my earlier post of sovereignty. Please provide evidence of your certainty of your assertions.
UK Sovereignty is kept in ancient ceremonial trunk (once used by King Alfred for bed linens) that sits directly below the speakers chair in a chamber beneath the House of Commons. When bits of it were brought back from Brussels in a helicopter after Brexit was confirmed, it was added to the rest of the sovereignty held in the trunk. Sure, when bits of it was held in Brussels it gave us frictionless trade with EU, same passports freedom of movement and other stuff, many of us feel better, we feel much more free of diktat now we know sovereignty is whole again in the box under the commons. Nearly whole, we obviously still got bits of it still held by NATO, and other unions and bodies. And bits of it was “shaved off” for trade deals, using a ceremonial knife thing, one of the biggest shavers in UK political history is actually current Foreign Secretary Liz Truss - before she moved on to bigger things like fronting the Stop The War coalition to achieve world peace.
It’s about time remainers stopped worrying about the vote and love the freedoms.
Heart of the matter, I think. There are no *tangible* benefits of Brexit, it's all in the mind. Which is not to say not real. People say this & that about why they voted R or L but it boiled down to the presence or absence of a specific feeling. A deeply personal one. Yes, we were a sovereign nation inside the EU, this is a fact, but millions of people as they went about their daily lives nevertheless felt oppressed by 'Brussels', they felt 'we' were being bossed around by 'them' (foreigners), and these people voted to leave. Those of us who didn't have that feeling voted to remain.
As my mother robustly put it at the time, it's all very well voting not to be bossed around by awful little men in Brussels but you're just swapping them for equally awful little men in Whitehall.
The counter to that was yebbut we can get our own politicians out, which you have to laugh about given the FLSOJ's continued tenure in no 10.
Your Ma was acute there. Being governed by 'our own' has never looked a less appetizing proposition than right now.
Re: Right Hon. Liz Truss sporting a fur hat in Moscow, believe it was Harold Macmillan who began this trend, wowing both bemused locals and hardened journos by wearing a large white shapka. Which it turned out Super Mac had acquired decades before on a previous trip to the Soviet Union.
So the crabs at Ministry of Crab are great and all that, and cost roughly a month’s salary for many Sri Lankans, but no one mentioned the incredible PRAWNS, the size of Novaya Zemlya, or the mangrove oysters that are served after being deep chilled for 6 hours then drenched with a mix of hot chili sauce, lime juice, and aged soy, in a shot glass
She looks nice or have I been looking at too many photos of Truss?
"Met chief says stopping illegal parties was not job for police guarding No 10
In her interview with Eddie Nestor on BBC Radio London, Dame Cressida Dick, the Metropolitan police commissioner, said it was not the job of officers guarding Downing Street to prevent illegal parties."
So if someone had tried to get into Downing Street to illegally steal confidential material or the silver candlesticks or to illegally deliver a suitcase full of poison it was not their job to prevent that either??
That sounds to me like an admission that officers knew full well what was going on but did not pass any of the information onto other officers who could have stopped them.
My take is, they likely shared the information, it went up the chain, where a decision came back down not to act. That’s most likely what happened isn’t it?
The list of what the UK Police and CPS don't consider to worth investigating is interesting.
- Fraud with an international aspect - Burglary - Rape of minors on an industrial scale - Illegal parties in government offices - Lots more - ???
It seems an eclectic mix.
Almost all fraud.
Almost all mobile phone/device thefts.
They think they are doing you a huge favour by giving you a crime reference so you can claim on your insurance.
For them, once the crime reference number is given, case closed.
Tell them that your iPhone has “Find My” enabled, so you’ll pick up your shotgun and go get it back?
Keir's having a good week. He really seems to have discovered the confidence he needed to capitalise on the chaos in government.
Boris hoped the Ukraine crisis would give him and his government a way of looking statesmanlike and shut up the critics. Instead it's showing the opposition front bench at their best and will surely make some look up and wonder what if.
I for one am more than ready to listen to Labour. Johnson's manifest uselessness, and the pathetic inability of his party to get rid of him, is obviously relevant, but I'm also thoroughly fed up of the Government's constant featherbedding of wealthy asset holders at the expense of the rest of the population. It goes beyond prioritising the interest of the core vote: it's so obvious that it doesn't care about anyone else. Its entire strategy for trying to keep the lower income fraction of its voter coalition onboard is to repeat the same stale lines about Brexit over and over and over again, and hope that they don't notice that they keep getting poorer.
As far as I'm concerned, I'm now looking for Labour to propose a realistic platform for dealing with an era of higher public spending (which is unavoidable: the British population gets older and more clapped out with every passing year) without resorting to the Conservative formula of bleeding as much of the cost as possible from ordinary people's wages.
I might even be moved to go out and vote at the next election, despite the fact that the local Tory is so well entrenched that he survived the 1997 landslide with room to spare, and is therefore effectively immovable. I think it's just a matter now of trying to judge whether the reds or the yellows have the least remote chance of causing an upset.
Someone else has popped a pill. If this carries on I'll be sniffing around the odds for a Labour landslide.
They ain't there yet, and I'm keeping a close eye out for any relapse into far left nonsense. I'm interested in whether they can sell me bread and butter social democracy, not bleating about Palestinians, the wretched TERF wars and cancelling anyone who inadvertently deploys the wrong pronouns.
Reform of the tax base is crucial to this. In essence, I can cope with being soaked, just so long as a fair soaking is applied across the board. Rich people with big asset portfolios and elderly homeowners inhabiting expensive properties should not be spared all the pain whilst the rest of us keep on being squeezed harder and harder.
Your 1st para worries me. I sense even the tiniest amount of that will be seized on by you like a squirrel with a cobnut. And then you'll revert.
Re: Right Hon. Liz Truss sporting a fur hat in Moscow, believe it was Harold Macmillan who began this trend, wowing both bemused locals and hardened journos by wearing a large white shapka. Which it turned out Super Mac had acquired decades before on a previous trip to the Soviet Union.
We’re demonstrating the benefits of democracy by having a crooked blonde clown leading us at home while sending a female impressionist to represent us abroad?
Shalini. The lovely PR girl for the Min Crab restaurant empire.
Yes, she’s very pretty, Especially with the mask off. And charming and funny
We bonded over stories of Covid. The Sri Lankans had four major lockdowns - her worst was the 3rd. Her wedding was postponed 3 times, with increasing anguish. Sri Lanka experienced a lot of domestic violence during the lockdowns
It made me realise how much Covid is going to unite us as humans when it is all over (please God). All of us across the world, every human being, that has lived through this wretched time, we have endured it at the same time and in much the same way. We will be able to talk of it, to each other, from Brazil to Belgium, Shanghai to Sheffield, Canada to the Cameroons. We have all suffered, more or less. We have all faced a common and hateful enemy
Maybe that will be one slender but significant silver lining to the hellishness. We have come face to face with our common humanity
What greasy pole is Sturgeon trying to get to the top of? Your estimation that she's the best PM the UK never had is perhaps her last remaining target.
What greasy pole is Sturgeon trying to get to the top of? Your estimation that she's the best PM the UK never had is perhaps her last remaining target.
The consequence of having an in-out referendum on membership of the EU continue to be appalling; as I predicted at the time, it will dominate political discourse for years on end.
And I was right. Even six years after the event, it is still a dominant topic of conversation on a significant proportion of PB threads. Six ******* years. Can't people let go?
Well, it's been a long time, and so far it has been uniformly disastrous, but that's about to change now: at last, Jacob Rees-Mogg is going to tell us what all the wonderful new opportunities are. I can't wait.
There are loads of opportunities for merchant bankers and the like. For other people however.... not so many
Not in terms of access to the single market, it was low paid workers in the Redwall and pensioners who won it for leave to reduce unskilled immigration and regain sovereignty, most of the City, especially the established firms, voted Remain.
Please see my earlier post of sovereignty. Please provide evidence of your certainty of your assertions.
UK Sovereignty is kept in ancient ceremonial trunk (once used by King Alfred for bed linens) that sits directly below the speakers chair in a chamber beneath the House of Commons. When bits of it were brought back from Brussels in a helicopter after Brexit was confirmed, it was added to the rest of the sovereignty held in the trunk. Sure, when bits of it was held in Brussels it gave us frictionless trade with EU, same passports freedom of movement and other stuff, many of us feel better, we feel much more free of diktat now we know sovereignty is whole again in the box under the commons. Nearly whole, we obviously still got bits of it still held by NATO, and other unions and bodies. And bits of it was “shaved off” for trade deals, using a ceremonial knife thing, one of the biggest shavers in UK political history is actually current Foreign Secretary Liz Truss - before she moved on to bigger things like fronting the Stop The War coalition to achieve world peace.
It’s about time remainers stopped worrying about the vote and love the freedoms.
Heart of the matter, I think. There are no *tangible* benefits of Brexit, it's all in the mind. Which is not to say not real. People say this & that about why they voted R or L but it boiled down to the presence or absence of a specific feeling. A deeply personal one. Yes, we were a sovereign nation inside the EU, this is a fact, but millions of people as they went about their daily lives nevertheless felt oppressed by 'Brussels', they felt 'we' were being bossed around by 'them' (foreigners), and these people voted to leave. Those of us who didn't have that feeling voted to remain.
As my mother robustly put it at the time, it's all very well voting not to be bossed around by awful little men in Brussels but you're just swapping them for equally awful little men in Whitehall.
The counter to that was yebbut we can get our own politicians out, which you have to laugh about given the FLSOJ's continued tenure in no 10.
Your Ma was acute there. Being governed by 'our own' has never looked a less appetizing proposition than right now.
The FLSOJ will be gone in 8 weeks. Good luck trying to shift Ursula VDL.
What greasy pole is Sturgeon trying to get to the top of? Your estimation that she's the best PM the UK never had is perhaps her last remaining target.
President of the European Commission?
You think the Maggie wear would help with that? I know she was a big Euro fan before she went gaga but that's seems long forgotten by everyone.
What greasy pole is Sturgeon trying to get to the top of? Your estimation that she's the best PM the UK never had is perhaps her last remaining target.
President of the European Commission?
Surely she wants to actually get a referendum through to at least match Salmond?
I don't subscribe to the "she doesn't actually want one" meme.
NICOLA Sturgeon will lose an independence referendum if she links a Yes vote to Scotland going back into the European Union, a former SNP cabinet secretary has warned.
Alex Neil said said that if the First Minister wanted to win she would have to ditch a policy that combined the two issues in a “double referendum”.
I wonder if EUrosceptic and leave voter Alex has any personal axe to grind on this issue?
Regardless, there's little to suggest that "being dragged out of the EU against our will" has turned out to be the trump card that the Scottish Government clearly hoped that it would be.
Possibly because:
Voted to remain in EU: 1,661,191 Voted to remain in UK: 2,001,926
Very different turnouts, though, and so total percentages.
Perhaps because of very different saliences?
People care a lot more about one than the other.
If EU membership was so important to the SNP, why did they spend less campaigning to Remain than they did on a single by-election?
Everyone was knackered after 2014 and Scotland's europhilia was never in doubt. In hindsight it was a mistake not to push harder. Though it would have made no difference to the overall UK result, which was marginal enough alrteady.
What greasy pole is Sturgeon trying to get to the top of? Your estimation that she's the best PM the UK never had is perhaps her last remaining target.
President of the European Commission?
Surely she wants to actually get a referendum through to at least match Salmond?
I don't subscribe to the "she doesn't actually want one" meme.
I think it is a bit more nuanced than that.
It's more of a case she doesn't want one if she's not guaranteed to win it.
She knows if Yes loses again then that's it for better part of a half a century.
The consequence of having an in-out referendum on membership of the EU continue to be appalling; as I predicted at the time, it will dominate political discourse for years on end.
And I was right. Even six years after the event, it is still a dominant topic of conversation on a significant proportion of PB threads. Six ******* years. Can't people let go?
Well, it's been a long time, and so far it has been uniformly disastrous, but that's about to change now: at last, Jacob Rees-Mogg is going to tell us what all the wonderful new opportunities are. I can't wait.
There are loads of opportunities for merchant bankers and the like. For other people however.... not so many
Not in terms of access to the single market, it was low paid workers in the Redwall and pensioners who won it for leave to reduce unskilled immigration and regain sovereignty, most of the City, especially the established firms, voted Remain.
Please see my earlier post of sovereignty. Please provide evidence of your certainty of your assertions.
UK Sovereignty is kept in ancient ceremonial trunk (once used by King Alfred for bed linens) that sits directly below the speakers chair in a chamber beneath the House of Commons. When bits of it were brought back from Brussels in a helicopter after Brexit was confirmed, it was added to the rest of the sovereignty held in the trunk. Sure, when bits of it was held in Brussels it gave us frictionless trade with EU, same passports freedom of movement and other stuff, many of us feel better, we feel much more free of diktat now we know sovereignty is whole again in the box under the commons. Nearly whole, we obviously still got bits of it still held by NATO, and other unions and bodies. And bits of it was “shaved off” for trade deals, using a ceremonial knife thing, one of the biggest shavers in UK political history is actually current Foreign Secretary Liz Truss - before she moved on to bigger things like fronting the Stop The War coalition to achieve world peace.
It’s about time remainers stopped worrying about the vote and love the freedoms.
Heart of the matter, I think. There are no *tangible* benefits of Brexit, it's all in the mind. Which is not to say not real. People say this & that about why they voted R or L but it boiled down to the presence or absence of a specific feeling. A deeply personal one. Yes, we were a sovereign nation inside the EU, this is a fact, but millions of people as they went about their daily lives nevertheless felt oppressed by 'Brussels', they felt 'we' were being bossed around by 'them' (foreigners), and these people voted to leave. Those of us who didn't have that feeling voted to remain.
As my mother robustly put it at the time, it's all very well voting not to be bossed around by awful little men in Brussels but you're just swapping them for equally awful little men in Whitehall.
The counter to that was yebbut we can get our own politicians out, which you have to laugh about given the FLSOJ's continued tenure in no 10.
Your Ma was acute there. Being governed by 'our own' has never looked a less appetizing proposition than right now.
The FLSOJ will be gone in 8 weeks. Good luck trying to shift Ursula VDL.
But the only electorate he worries about is a few score right wing Tories and the editor of the Speccy.
What greasy pole is Sturgeon trying to get to the top of? Your estimation that she's the best PM the UK never had is perhaps her last remaining target.
President of the European Commission?
You think the Maggie wear would help with that? I know she was a big Euro fan before she went gaga but that's seems long forgotten by everyone.
Maggie's been dead for a while. They showed the funeral on BBC.
Geek alert - yours truly just acquired copy of Almanac of American Politics 2020, meaning now have entire biennial set 1972 through 2022. Including AoAP 1976 which I received as a Christmas present in 1975.
Sadly,AoAP is NOT today (IMHO) as authoritative or influential as it was back when it was launched on into it's pre-internet heyday circa 1992 or thereabouts. Suspect that most of recent editions go to filling library shelves, while candidates, campaigns, consultants, activists, academics, students, etc. are going on-line to research incumbents, districts & races of interest.
Whole set of Almanac of American Politics still provides a fascinating if myopic overview of US politics, government, society, economy & culture, as seen via a kaleidoscope of 50 states and 435 congressional districts (plus territories) across the past half-century.
What greasy pole is Sturgeon trying to get to the top of? Your estimation that she's the best PM the UK never had is perhaps her last remaining target.
President of the European Commission?
Surely she wants to actually get a referendum through to at least match Salmond?
I don't subscribe to the "she doesn't actually want one" meme.
I think it is a bit more nuanced than that.
It's more of a case she doesn't want one if she's not guaranteed to win it.
She knows if Yes loses again then that's it for better part of a half a century.
No such guarantee exists, I thought a gambler would know that.
What greasy pole is Sturgeon trying to get to the top of? Your estimation that she's the best PM the UK never had is perhaps her last remaining target.
President of the European Commission?
Surely she wants to actually get a referendum through to at least match Salmond?
I don't subscribe to the "she doesn't actually want one" meme.
I think it is a bit more nuanced than that.
It's more of a case she doesn't want one if she's not guaranteed to win it.
She knows if Yes loses again then that's it for better part of a half a century.
If that is really the case then the SNP need to think again.
We've been floating round 50:50 for ages, and that's despite Brexit/pandemic/cost of living.
What greasy pole is Sturgeon trying to get to the top of? Your estimation that she's the best PM the UK never had is perhaps her last remaining target.
President of the European Commission?
Surely she wants to actually get a referendum through to at least match Salmond?
I don't subscribe to the "she doesn't actually want one" meme.
I think it is a bit more nuanced than that.
It's more of a case she doesn't want one if she's not guaranteed to win it.
She knows if Yes loses again then that's it for better part of a half a century.
No such guarantee exists, I thought a gambler would know that.
So another 10 years of Unionist rule in Scotland then?
Happy days!
Although health and education will still be under the control of incompetent SNP Types.
What greasy pole is Sturgeon trying to get to the top of? Your estimation that she's the best PM the UK never had is perhaps her last remaining target.
President of the European Commission?
Surely she wants to actually get a referendum through to at least match Salmond?
I don't subscribe to the "she doesn't actually want one" meme.
I think it is a bit more nuanced than that.
It's more of a case she doesn't want one if she's not guaranteed to win it.
She knows if Yes loses again then that's it for better part of a half a century.
No such guarantee exists, I thought a gambler would know that.
I think she would have been a more forceful in holding indyref2 if the polling we saw during 2020 when Yes had leads of over 10% became the norm.
The consequence of having an in-out referendum on membership of the EU continue to be appalling; as I predicted at the time, it will dominate political discourse for years on end.
And I was right. Even six years after the event, it is still a dominant topic of conversation on a significant proportion of PB threads. Six ******* years. Can't people let go?
Well, it's been a long time, and so far it has been uniformly disastrous, but that's about to change now: at last, Jacob Rees-Mogg is going to tell us what all the wonderful new opportunities are. I can't wait.
There are loads of opportunities for merchant bankers and the like. For other people however.... not so many
Not in terms of access to the single market, it was low paid workers in the Redwall and pensioners who won it for leave to reduce unskilled immigration and regain sovereignty, most of the City, especially the established firms, voted Remain.
Please see my earlier post of sovereignty. Please provide evidence of your certainty of your assertions.
UK Sovereignty is kept in ancient ceremonial trunk (once used by King Alfred for bed linens) that sits directly below the speakers chair in a chamber beneath the House of Commons. When bits of it were brought back from Brussels in a helicopter after Brexit was confirmed, it was added to the rest of the sovereignty held in the trunk. Sure, when bits of it was held in Brussels it gave us frictionless trade with EU, same passports freedom of movement and other stuff, many of us feel better, we feel much more free of diktat now we know sovereignty is whole again in the box under the commons. Nearly whole, we obviously still got bits of it still held by NATO, and other unions and bodies. And bits of it was “shaved off” for trade deals, using a ceremonial knife thing, one of the biggest shavers in UK political history is actually current Foreign Secretary Liz Truss - before she moved on to bigger things like fronting the Stop The War coalition to achieve world peace.
It’s about time remainers stopped worrying about the vote and love the freedoms.
Heart of the matter, I think. There are no *tangible* benefits of Brexit, it's all in the mind. Which is not to say not real. People say this & that about why they voted R or L but it boiled down to the presence or absence of a specific feeling. A deeply personal one. Yes, we were a sovereign nation inside the EU, this is a fact, but millions of people as they went about their daily lives nevertheless felt oppressed by 'Brussels', they felt 'we' were being bossed around by 'them' (foreigners), and these people voted to leave. Those of us who didn't have that feeling voted to remain.
As my mother robustly put it at the time, it's all very well voting not to be bossed around by awful little men in Brussels but you're just swapping them for equally awful little men in Whitehall.
The counter to that was yebbut we can get our own politicians out, which you have to laugh about given the FLSOJ's continued tenure in no 10.
Your Ma was acute there. Being governed by 'our own' has never looked a less appetizing proposition than right now.
The FLSOJ will be gone in 8 weeks. Good luck trying to shift Ursula VDL.
Mind you, you could say the same of Biden in the US or Macron in France. In those cases, they're there for the term.
What greasy pole is Sturgeon trying to get to the top of? Your estimation that she's the best PM the UK never had is perhaps her last remaining target.
If Uk voters were offered tomorrow the choice of Sturgeon or the baffoon to lead the whole country, I sincerely doubt that there’d be any good betting opportunities on the odds on offer.
What greasy pole is Sturgeon trying to get to the top of? Your estimation that she's the best PM the UK never had is perhaps her last remaining target.
If Uk voters were offered tomorrow the choice of Sturgeon or the baffoon to lead the whole country, I sincerely doubt that there’d be any good betting opportunities on the odds on offer.
Thankfully it's people living in Scotland that will get to vote in indyef2 (3, 4 etc.)
What greasy pole is Sturgeon trying to get to the top of? Your estimation that she's the best PM the UK never had is perhaps her last remaining target.
President of the European Commission?
Surely she wants to actually get a referendum through to at least match Salmond?
I don't subscribe to the "she doesn't actually want one" meme.
I think it is a bit more nuanced than that.
It's more of a case she doesn't want one if she's not guaranteed to win it.
She knows if Yes loses again then that's it for better part of a half a century.
No such guarantee exists, I thought a gambler would know that.
I think she would have been a more forceful in holding indyref2 if the polling we saw during 2020 when Yes had leads of over 10% became the norm.
Weren't those fake polls?
After 12 years of Tories (and 2.5 with Boris) , this is pretty much the best time to go for it.
I’d think twice before heating anything up in that microwave, it don’t look safe.
We had a very early remote - about 1980-ish. It worked by sonar - basically sending a very high pitched noise to the telly which the telly interpreted. It had two buttons: 'channel' - which cycled through the four preset channels (anticipating Channel 4, I suppose), and 'mute'. It didn't actually work all that well, but we knew something was working because that cat ran out of the room in panic every time you pressed a button.
I think it was earlier; BBC Ceefax launched in around 1974, and people using that needed remotes.
I can't recall the date we had one, but it was years before the BBC Micro came out - and that was 1981.
What greasy pole is Sturgeon trying to get to the top of? Your estimation that she's the best PM the UK never had is perhaps her last remaining target.
If Uk voters were offered tomorrow the choice of Sturgeon or the baffoon to lead the whole country, I sincerely doubt that there’d be any good betting opportunities on the odds on offer.
Ha ha - there is No Fucking Way I'd vote for Sturgeon. I'd rather have Corbyn.
What greasy pole is Sturgeon trying to get to the top of? Your estimation that she's the best PM the UK never had is perhaps her last remaining target.
President of the European Commission?
Surely she wants to actually get a referendum through to at least match Salmond?
I don't subscribe to the "she doesn't actually want one" meme.
I think she wants one (or to be more precise, one she's pretty sure she'll win as TSE has said), but she's probably fairly content with how things are right now. She's constantly able to use 'we'll legislate for indyref2' as a policy and then blame the Tories for blocking it. This makes it very difficult for SLAB to recover electorally, letting her run Scotland as long as she wants.
Hailsham South - Wealden council - Con defence Eastleigh Central - Eastleigh council - LibDem defence Alcombe - Somerset West and Taunton council - Ind defence
What greasy pole is Sturgeon trying to get to the top of? Your estimation that she's the best PM the UK never had is perhaps her last remaining target.
President of the European Commission?
Surely she wants to actually get a referendum through to at least match Salmond?
I don't subscribe to the "she doesn't actually want one" meme.
I think it is a bit more nuanced than that.
It's more of a case she doesn't want one if she's not guaranteed to win it.
She knows if Yes loses again then that's it for better part of a half a century.
No such guarantee exists, I thought a gambler would know that.
I think she would have been a more forceful in holding indyref2 if the polling we saw during 2020 when Yes had leads of over 10% became the norm.
Weren't those fake polls?
After 12 years of Tories (and 2.5 with Boris) , this is pretty much the best time to go for it.
Nope, proper poll by the likes of ComRes, Panelbase, and Ipsos MORI.
What greasy pole is Sturgeon trying to get to the top of? Your estimation that she's the best PM the UK never had is perhaps her last remaining target.
President of the European Commission?
Surely she wants to actually get a referendum through to at least match Salmond?
I don't subscribe to the "she doesn't actually want one" meme.
I think it is a bit more nuanced than that.
It's more of a case she doesn't want one if she's not guaranteed to win it.
She knows if Yes loses again then that's it for better part of a half a century.
No such guarantee exists, I thought a gambler would know that.
So another 10 years of Unionist rule in Scotland then?
Happy days!
Although health and education will still be under the control of incompetent SNP Types.
What greasy pole is Sturgeon trying to get to the top of? Your estimation that she's the best PM the UK never had is perhaps her last remaining target.
President of the European Commission?
Surely she wants to actually get a referendum through to at least match Salmond?
I don't subscribe to the "she doesn't actually want one" meme.
I think it is a bit more nuanced than that.
It's more of a case she doesn't want one if she's not guaranteed to win it.
She knows if Yes loses again then that's it for better part of a half a century.
No such guarantee exists, I thought a gambler would know that.
I think she would have been a more forceful in holding indyref2 if the polling we saw during 2020 when Yes had leads of over 10% became the norm.
Weren't those fake polls?
After 12 years of Tories (and 2.5 with Boris) , this is pretty much the best time to go for it.
How? The Tories will just say No. As will Starmer. UDI would be a disaster. There is no route to indyref2 for the rest of the decade
What greasy pole is Sturgeon trying to get to the top of? Your estimation that she's the best PM the UK never had is perhaps her last remaining target.
President of the European Commission?
Surely she wants to actually get a referendum through to at least match Salmond?
I don't subscribe to the "she doesn't actually want one" meme.
I think it is a bit more nuanced than that.
It's more of a case she doesn't want one if she's not guaranteed to win it.
She knows if Yes loses again then that's it for better part of a half a century.
She wouldn't wait half a year and possibly not half a minute before starting the campaign for #indyref3...
What greasy pole is Sturgeon trying to get to the top of? Your estimation that she's the best PM the UK never had is perhaps her last remaining target.
President of the European Commission?
Surely she wants to actually get a referendum through to at least match Salmond?
I don't subscribe to the "she doesn't actually want one" meme.
I think she wants one (or to be more precise, one she's pretty sure she'll win as TSE has said), but she's probably fairly content with how things are right now. She's constantly able to use 'we'll legislate for indyref2' as a policy and then blame the Tories for blocking it. This makes it very difficult for SLAB to recover electorally, letting her run Scotland as long as she wants.
There's nothing more certain in politics than the Section 30 letter that will be sent to the PM during the term of Holyrood's parliament.
The last time they sent one was in the middle of a pandemic so it's pretty clear the coalition will send it whatever time happens to be best for them.
Thankfully the PM is able to post them a simple No letter. (let's hope Starmer is never in charge).
What greasy pole is Sturgeon trying to get to the top of? Your estimation that she's the best PM the UK never had is perhaps her last remaining target.
President of the European Commission?
Surely she wants to actually get a referendum through to at least match Salmond?
I don't subscribe to the "she doesn't actually want one" meme.
I think it is a bit more nuanced than that.
It's more of a case she doesn't want one if she's not guaranteed to win it.
She knows if Yes loses again then that's it for better part of a half a century.
No such guarantee exists, I thought a gambler would know that.
So another 10 years of Unionist rule in Scotland then?
Happy days!
Although health and education will still be under the control of incompetent SNP Types.
3 by-elections tonight. All down south. An Indy, Con and LD defence each.
"This is a LOCAL election for LOCAL people! There's nothing for YOU here!"
"I beg to differ, sir/madam/???, this is a local election of NATIONAL interest! Which is why the readers of "Flint-Knapper's Knews" have dispatched me here to the bright lights of Lower Cesspool."
Which can be trotted out for EVERY election (in this parish anyhow) AND also flatters the local yokels.
What greasy pole is Sturgeon trying to get to the top of? Your estimation that she's the best PM the UK never had is perhaps her last remaining target.
President of the European Commission?
Surely she wants to actually get a referendum through to at least match Salmond?
I don't subscribe to the "she doesn't actually want one" meme.
I think it is a bit more nuanced than that.
It's more of a case she doesn't want one if she's not guaranteed to win it.
She knows if Yes loses again then that's it for better part of a half a century.
No such guarantee exists, I thought a gambler would know that.
I think she would have been a more forceful in holding indyref2 if the polling we saw during 2020 when Yes had leads of over 10% became the norm.
Not sure how being more forceful in holding indyref2 would have expressed itself, particularly in the context of Covid and the unarguable truth that currently no binding referendum can take place without the permission of Westminster. Personally I think we've dodged a bullet, any referendum agreed over the last 2 years would have been a bin fire, subject to postponements at best or endless cries of irresponsibility from the usual suspects and boycotts at worst.
Fair play to Starmer for calling out Stop the War. They are a bunch of Marxist Woke Quislings
I don’t like Starmer very much, but he is becoming increasingly sort-of-tolerable if you squint
Yes, that's what I think. And then I remember he voluntarily serves under Corbyn, and his people's vote stance, and the kneeling, and the jnots he tied himself in over the trans issue... So still some way to go before he can convince me. But more forward steps than backward ones.
What greasy pole is Sturgeon trying to get to the top of? Your estimation that she's the best PM the UK never had is perhaps her last remaining target.
President of the European Commission?
Surely she wants to actually get a referendum through to at least match Salmond?
I don't subscribe to the "she doesn't actually want one" meme.
I think she wants one (or to be more precise, one she's pretty sure she'll win as TSE has said), but she's probably fairly content with how things are right now. She's constantly able to use 'we'll legislate for indyref2' as a policy and then blame the Tories for blocking it. This makes it very difficult for SLAB to recover electorally, letting her run Scotland as long as she wants.
There's nothing more certain in politics than the Section 30 letter that will be sent to the PM during the term of Holyrood's parliament.
The last time they sent one was in the middle of a pandemic so it's pretty clear the coalition will send it whatever time happens to be best for them.
Thankfully the PM is able to post them a simple No letter. (let's hope Starmer is never in charge).
If Labour don't need the SNP to govern (i.e. majority or Lab-LD deal), why would Starmer agree to a S.30? Ironically, the SNP are so strong electorally Labour are *less* likely to agree to indyref2 if Labour still actually had some MPs in Scotland. Labour don't really have anything else to lose by saying no. How many English voters would stop voting for Labour if Starmer said no to indyref2?
What greasy pole is Sturgeon trying to get to the top of? Your estimation that she's the best PM the UK never had is perhaps her last remaining target.
If Uk voters were offered tomorrow the choice of Sturgeon or the baffoon to lead the whole country, I sincerely doubt that there’d be any good betting opportunities on the odds on offer.
Ha ha - there is No Fucking Way I'd vote for Sturgeon. I'd rather have Corbyn.
It's not a great choice between Sturgeon and Johnson.
One is a landslide election winner with a dodgy haircut, who subverts their own rules, manages the country in a narrow, selfish sectarian interest focussed on increasing hate and division, who stands accused of subverting the judicial process and not telling the truth, and cannot quite account for large sums of money donated for reasons that remain rather unclear.
What greasy pole is Sturgeon trying to get to the top of? Your estimation that she's the best PM the UK never had is perhaps her last remaining target.
President of the European Commission?
Surely she wants to actually get a referendum through to at least match Salmond?
I don't subscribe to the "she doesn't actually want one" meme.
I think she wants one (or to be more precise, one she's pretty sure she'll win as TSE has said), but she's probably fairly content with how things are right now. She's constantly able to use 'we'll legislate for indyref2' as a policy and then blame the Tories for blocking it. This makes it very difficult for SLAB to recover electorally, letting her run Scotland as long as she wants.
There's nothing more certain in politics than the Section 30 letter that will be sent to the PM during the term of Holyrood's parliament.
The last time they sent one was in the middle of a pandemic so it's pretty clear the coalition will send it whatever time happens to be best for them.
Thankfully the PM is able to post them a simple No letter. (let's hope Starmer is never in charge).
If there was any danger of the PM saying "OK, bring it on", would they dare to send the letter?
What greasy pole is Sturgeon trying to get to the top of? Your estimation that she's the best PM the UK never had is perhaps her last remaining target.
President of the European Commission?
Surely she wants to actually get a referendum through to at least match Salmond?
I don't subscribe to the "she doesn't actually want one" meme.
I think it is a bit more nuanced than that.
It's more of a case she doesn't want one if she's not guaranteed to win it.
She knows if Yes loses again then that's it for better part of a half a century.
No such guarantee exists, I thought a gambler would know that.
I think she would have been a more forceful in holding indyref2 if the polling we saw during 2020 when Yes had leads of over 10% became the norm.
Weren't those fake polls?
After 12 years of Tories (and 2.5 with Boris) , this is pretty much the best time to go for it.
How? The Tories will just say No. As will Starmer. UDI would be a disaster. There is no route to indyref2 for the rest of the decade
Exactly, as long as this Tory government remains in power it will of course refuse a legal indyref2. Sturgeon has even ruled out Catalan UDI so no change unless a Labour government reliant on SNP confidence and supply in a hung parliament, when indyref2 would be likely
What greasy pole is Sturgeon trying to get to the top of? Your estimation that she's the best PM the UK never had is perhaps her last remaining target.
President of the European Commission?
Surely she wants to actually get a referendum through to at least match Salmond?
I don't subscribe to the "she doesn't actually want one" meme.
I think she wants one (or to be more precise, one she's pretty sure she'll win as TSE has said), but she's probably fairly content with how things are right now. She's constantly able to use 'we'll legislate for indyref2' as a policy and then blame the Tories for blocking it. This makes it very difficult for SLAB to recover electorally, letting her run Scotland as long as she wants.
I can think of other reasons for SLAB having recovery difficulties.
What greasy pole is Sturgeon trying to get to the top of? Your estimation that she's the best PM the UK never had is perhaps her last remaining target.
President of the European Commission?
Surely she wants to actually get a referendum through to at least match Salmond?
I don't subscribe to the "she doesn't actually want one" meme.
I think she wants one (or to be more precise, one she's pretty sure she'll win as TSE has said), but she's probably fairly content with how things are right now. She's constantly able to use 'we'll legislate for indyref2' as a policy and then blame the Tories for blocking it. This makes it very difficult for SLAB to recover electorally, letting her run Scotland as long as she wants.
There's nothing more certain in politics than the Section 30 letter that will be sent to the PM during the term of Holyrood's parliament.
The last time they sent one was in the middle of a pandemic so it's pretty clear the coalition will send it whatever time happens to be best for them.
Thankfully the PM is able to post them a simple No letter. (let's hope Starmer is never in charge).
If Labour don't need the SNP to govern (i.e. majority or Lab-LD deal), why would Starmer agree to a S.30? Ironically, the SNP are so strong electorally Labour are *less* likely to agree to indyref2 if Labour still actually had some MPs in Scotland. Labour don't really have anything else to lose by saying no. How many English voters would stop voting for Labour if Starmer said no to indyref2?
At the moment Labour would likely win most seats on current polls. So Starmer could refuse indyref2.
Polls show however if Sunak became PM the Tories would win most seats in a hung parliament but Labour could still make Starmer PM with SNP support.
So at present the likeliest route to indyref2 is a Sunak premiership followed by a Starmer premiership
I see that today is going to be the day that Major's adultery is going to be used as an excuse for not listening to or thinking about any of the points he makes.
Since none us is perfect - or, if you prefer, without sin - we can never criticise anyone else at all, let alone Boris. Which is very convenient for him.
A bit of a bummer in a democracy, mind you. Oh well.
When has anyone said that we shouldn't listen to his points? Someone on here explicitly held him up as a paragon of virtue. Which clearly he isn't, given he cheated on his wife, something decent people don't do.
And I criticize Boris all the time, and have called for him to be removed multiple times, so you seem to be living in some fantasy world.
Same here. Rochdale Pioneers was holding him up as a man of virtue too good for modern day politics. Hence my comment.
Fair play to Starmer for calling out Stop the War. They are a bunch of Marxist Woke Quislings
I don’t like Starmer very much, but he is becoming increasingly sort-of-tolerable if you squint
Yes, that's what I think. And then I remember he voluntarily serves under Corbyn, and his people's vote stance, and the kneeling, and the jnots he tied himself in over the trans issue... So still some way to go before he can convince me. But more forward steps than backward ones.
While that's true, he did also get rid of Corbyn once he held the reins of power.
What greasy pole is Sturgeon trying to get to the top of? Your estimation that she's the best PM the UK never had is perhaps her last remaining target.
If Uk voters were offered tomorrow the choice of Sturgeon or the baffoon to lead the whole country, I sincerely doubt that there’d be any good betting opportunities on the odds on offer.
Ha ha - there is No Fucking Way I'd vote for Sturgeon. I'd rather have Corbyn.
It's not a great choice between Sturgeon and Johnson.
One is a landslide election winner with a dodgy haircut, who subverts their own rules, manages the country in a narrow, selfish sectarian interest focussed on increasing hate and division, who stands accused of subverting the judicial process and not telling the truth, and cannot quite account for large sums of money donated for reasons that remain rather unclear.
And even worse, the other is Boris Johnson.
Ha ha - indeed.
Boris at least, if he despises me, does so in private. And he isn't attempting to regulate my thoughts. If he's attempting to government via a cult of personality he's going about it oddly. And he isn't forcing me to wear masks pointlessly just to differentiate himself from his neighbour. And even Boris hasn't proposed anything as mad as cutting the bottom off doors.
The consequence of having an in-out referendum on membership of the EU continue to be appalling; as I predicted at the time, it will dominate political discourse for years on end.
And I was right. Even six years after the event, it is still a dominant topic of conversation on a significant proportion of PB threads. Six ******* years. Can't people let go?
Well, it's been a long time, and so far it has been uniformly disastrous, but that's about to change now: at last, Jacob Rees-Mogg is going to tell us what all the wonderful new opportunities are. I can't wait.
There are loads of opportunities for merchant bankers and the like. For other people however.... not so many
Not in terms of access to the single market, it was low paid workers in the Redwall and pensioners who won it for leave to reduce unskilled immigration and regain sovereignty, most of the City, especially the established firms, voted Remain.
Please see my earlier post of sovereignty. Please provide evidence of your certainty of your assertions.
UK Sovereignty is kept in ancient ceremonial trunk (once used by King Alfred for bed linens) that sits directly below the speakers chair in a chamber beneath the House of Commons. When bits of it were brought back from Brussels in a helicopter after Brexit was confirmed, it was added to the rest of the sovereignty held in the trunk. Sure, when bits of it was held in Brussels it gave us frictionless trade with EU, same passports freedom of movement and other stuff, many of us feel better, we feel much more free of diktat now we know sovereignty is whole again in the box under the commons. Nearly whole, we obviously still got bits of it still held by NATO, and other unions and bodies. And bits of it was “shaved off” for trade deals, using a ceremonial knife thing, one of the biggest shavers in UK political history is actually current Foreign Secretary Liz Truss - before she moved on to bigger things like fronting the Stop The War coalition to achieve world peace.
It’s about time remainers stopped worrying about the vote and love the freedoms.
make sure you keep up that repeat prescription
I love it when the site lets me have some of the cheek usually reserved for Leon or Bart 😆
What greasy pole is Sturgeon trying to get to the top of? Your estimation that she's the best PM the UK never had is perhaps her last remaining target.
President of the European Commission?
Surely she wants to actually get a referendum through to at least match Salmond?
I don't subscribe to the "she doesn't actually want one" meme.
I think it is a bit more nuanced than that.
It's more of a case she doesn't want one if she's not guaranteed to win it.
She knows if Yes loses again then that's it for better part of a half a century.
No such guarantee exists, I thought a gambler would know that.
I think she would have been a more forceful in holding indyref2 if the polling we saw during 2020 when Yes had leads of over 10% became the norm.
Weren't those fake polls?
After 12 years of Tories (and 2.5 with Boris) , this is pretty much the best time to go for it.
Nope, proper poll by the likes of ComRes, Panelbase, and Ipsos MORI.
What greasy pole is Sturgeon trying to get to the top of? Your estimation that she's the best PM the UK never had is perhaps her last remaining target.
If Uk voters were offered tomorrow the choice of Sturgeon or the baffoon to lead the whole country, I sincerely doubt that there’d be any good betting opportunities on the odds on offer.
Ha ha - there is No Fucking Way I'd vote for Sturgeon. I'd rather have Corbyn.
It's not a great choice between Sturgeon and Johnson.
One is a landslide election winner with a dodgy haircut, who subverts their own rules, manages the country in a narrow, selfish sectarian interest focussed on increasing hate and division, who stands accused of subverting the judicial process and not telling the truth, and cannot quite account for large sums of money donated for reasons that remain rather unclear.
And even worse, the other is Boris Johnson.
Ha ha - indeed.
Boris at least, if he despises me, does so in private. And he isn't attempting to regulate my thoughts. If he's attempting to government via a cult of personality he's going about it oddly. And he isn't forcing me to wear masks pointlessly just to differentiate himself from his neighbour. And even Boris hasn't proposed anything as mad as cutting the bottom off doors.
That one hasn't gone far. I think it's one saner people saw wouldn't work.
What greasy pole is Sturgeon trying to get to the top of? Your estimation that she's the best PM the UK never had is perhaps her last remaining target.
If Uk voters were offered tomorrow the choice of Sturgeon or the baffoon to lead the whole country, I sincerely doubt that there’d be any good betting opportunities on the odds on offer.
Ha ha - there is No Fucking Way I'd vote for Sturgeon. I'd rather have Corbyn.
It's not a great choice between Sturgeon and Johnson.
One is a landslide election winner with a dodgy haircut, who subverts their own rules, manages the country in a narrow, selfish sectarian interest focussed on increasing hate and division, who stands accused of subverting the judicial process and not telling the truth, and cannot quite account for large sums of money donated for reasons that remain rather unclear.
And even worse, the other is Boris Johnson.
Ha ha - indeed.
Boris at least, if he despises me, does so in private. And he isn't attempting to regulate my thoughts. If he's attempting to government via a cult of personality he's going about it oddly. And he isn't forcing me to wear masks pointlessly just to differentiate himself from his neighbour. And even Boris hasn't proposed anything as mad as cutting the bottom off doors.
I hadn't realised that you lived in Scotland and the SG had control over your life.
Fair play to Starmer for calling out Stop the War. They are a bunch of Marxist Woke Quislings
I don’t like Starmer very much, but he is becoming increasingly sort-of-tolerable if you squint
Doubt you're growing on him though.
Indeed. Never the twain shall meet. My loathing for the Left and the Woke is too deep for me ever to vote for them, barring something seismic and indescribable
HOWEVER if a cynical old right winger like me is finding Starmer more papabile, that means more amenable centre-right types are probably being actually won over. So this is good news for you. You’re welcome
What greasy pole is Sturgeon trying to get to the top of? Your estimation that she's the best PM the UK never had is perhaps her last remaining target.
President of the European Commission?
You think the Maggie wear would help with that? I know she was a big Euro fan before she went gaga but that's seems long forgotten by everyone.
Maggie's been dead for a while. They showed the funeral on BBC.
Fair play to Starmer for calling out Stop the War. They are a bunch of Marxist Woke Quislings
I don’t like Starmer very much, but he is becoming increasingly sort-of-tolerable if you squint
Yes, that's what I think. And then I remember he voluntarily serves under Corbyn, and his people's vote stance, and the kneeling, and the jnots he tied himself in over the trans issue... So still some way to go before he can convince me. But more forward steps than backward ones.
He's won me over. Quite remarkable how quickly he has purged Corbynism.
And those supposed misjudgements - relative to Johnson they are minor. It's just signalling, in the end. Making the right noises to keep the base on board.
What greasy pole is Sturgeon trying to get to the top of? Your estimation that she's the best PM the UK never had is perhaps her last remaining target.
President of the European Commission?
You think the Maggie wear would help with that? I know she was a big Euro fan before she went gaga but that's seems long forgotten by everyone.
Maggie's been dead for a while. They showed the funeral on BBC.
Yes, I remember dancing on her grave. 😉
I didn't think Royal Chelsea Hospital allowed that kind of thing.
What greasy pole is Sturgeon trying to get to the top of? Your estimation that she's the best PM the UK never had is perhaps her last remaining target.
President of the European Commission?
You think the Maggie wear would help with that? I know she was a big Euro fan before she went gaga but that's seems long forgotten by everyone.
Maggie's been dead for a while. They showed the funeral on BBC.
Yes, I remember dancing on her grave. 😉
It was very interesting how many people lined the streets for her funeral. Anyone that was daft enough to do anything other than pay their respects wasn't so stupid as to try the mood.
Fair play to Starmer for calling out Stop the War. They are a bunch of Marxist Woke Quislings
I don’t like Starmer very much, but he is becoming increasingly sort-of-tolerable if you squint
Yes, that's what I think. And then I remember he voluntarily serves under Corbyn, and his people's vote stance, and the kneeling, and the jnots he tied himself in over the trans issue... So still some way to go before he can convince me. But more forward steps than backward ones.
Also worth noticing that, whilst Starmer’s latest few PMQ appearances haven’t wowed the daily commentators, he’s been pressing the government on the economy, cost of living, and crime - areas where Labour has typically been considered weak against the Tories. That the clown’s responses have been so lacklustre is helping Starmer play the long game and map out some promising territory on which to take on the Tories in their own usually strong policy areas.
What greasy pole is Sturgeon trying to get to the top of? Your estimation that she's the best PM the UK never had is perhaps her last remaining target.
If Uk voters were offered tomorrow the choice of Sturgeon or the baffoon to lead the whole country, I sincerely doubt that there’d be any good betting opportunities on the odds on offer.
Ha ha - there is No Fucking Way I'd vote for Sturgeon. I'd rather have Corbyn.
It's not a great choice between Sturgeon and Johnson.
One is a landslide election winner with a dodgy haircut, who subverts their own rules, manages the country in a narrow, selfish sectarian interest focussed on increasing hate and division, who stands accused of subverting the judicial process and not telling the truth, and cannot quite account for large sums of money donated for reasons that remain rather unclear.
And even worse, the other is Boris Johnson.
Ha ha - indeed.
Boris at least, if he despises me, does so in private. And he isn't attempting to regulate my thoughts. If he's attempting to government via a cult of personality he's going about it oddly. And he isn't forcing me to wear masks pointlessly just to differentiate himself from his neighbour. And even Boris hasn't proposed anything as mad as cutting the bottom off doors.
I hadn't realised that you lived in Scotland and the SG had control over your life.
No, I don't. I live in England, which is governed by an unpredictable buffoon, which is, I think, still preferable to a hypothetical situation in which Nicola Sturgeon was in charge.
The consequence of having an in-out referendum on membership of the EU continue to be appalling; as I predicted at the time, it will dominate political discourse for years on end.
And I was right. Even six years after the event, it is still a dominant topic of conversation on a significant proportion of PB threads. Six ******* years. Can't people let go?
Well, it's been a long time, and so far it has been uniformly disastrous, but that's about to change now: at last, Jacob Rees-Mogg is going to tell us what all the wonderful new opportunities are. I can't wait.
There are loads of opportunities for merchant bankers and the like. For other people however.... not so many
Not in terms of access to the single market, it was low paid workers in the Redwall and pensioners who won it for leave to reduce unskilled immigration and regain sovereignty, most of the City, especially the established firms, voted Remain.
Please see my earlier post of sovereignty. Please provide evidence of your certainty of your assertions.
UK Sovereignty is kept in ancient ceremonial trunk (once used by King Alfred for bed linens) that sits directly below the speakers chair in a chamber beneath the House of Commons. When bits of it were brought back from Brussels in a helicopter after Brexit was confirmed, it was added to the rest of the sovereignty held in the trunk. Sure, when bits of it was held in Brussels it gave us frictionless trade with EU, same passports freedom of movement and other stuff, many of us feel better, we feel much more free of diktat now we know sovereignty is whole again in the box under the commons. Nearly whole, we obviously still got bits of it still held by NATO, and other unions and bodies. And bits of it was “shaved off” for trade deals, using a ceremonial knife thing, one of the biggest shavers in UK political history is actually current Foreign Secretary Liz Truss - before she moved on to bigger things like fronting the Stop The War coalition to achieve world peace.
It’s about time remainers stopped worrying about the vote and love the freedoms.
make sure you keep up that repeat prescription
I love it when the site lets me have some of the cheek usually reserved for Leon or Bart 😆
Come on. That excellent stream of consciousness was about 27 MilliLeons on the Outrageous Offence Scale.
Edit: 1 Leon is a unit a bit like the Farad. Too big to be practical in normal circumstances and frankly bloody dangerous.
I'll be disappointed in the media if there's no 'The Wrath of Khan' headlines.
Does Khan have the power to hire and fire the Met CC?
Not in theory. But in practice as Johnson himself showed, the Commissioner can't operate effectively if the Mayor decides they are incapable of carrying out their duties.
One thing we can be fairly sure of is it will not be somebody sane and competent. The days when Joynson-Hicks could see the Met in meltdown under Horwood and import a capable and respected figure like Viscount Byng (very much over his own objections) to do a cleanup are gone.
Comments
https://www.indy100.com/viral/margaret-thatcher-nicola-sturgeon-photos-similarities-referendum-scottish-photo-7662596
I got my fingers burnt at the GE 2019 guess the date game so I won't be playing again.
I guess my top combo might be Truss in the Matrix Carrie-Ann Moss style.
Thatcher was celebrated for saying No; Sturgeon wants her people to vote Yes.
I have been doing this and that and occasionally updating on news and my impressions follow
Liz Truss does not look anything like a leader, but when people take pleasure in running her down and she is speaking in Russia against Russian aggression, then that criticism is disloyal and seemingly from those sorely hurt by Brexit who want to run the country down in a vain attempt to assuage their anger
Two photographs turn up on partygate, one of which is fake because they are not compatible, which raises the question of just how valid are the photographs provided to the Met and who is responsible for altering them and why
John Major launches an outspoken attack on Boris just as Boris is at Nato and in Europe, and shows all the bitterness of his 30 year feud with Boris egged on by the media and I am not at all sure the timing or the intervention is very helpful in seeing Boris leave, as many of his mps will have been aggravated by it
I remain hopeful that when mps return, and certainly on any news of Boris receiving a FPN, the 54 letters will be received by the 1922 and then we have to hope 181 of his mps vote him out
I am also hoping nominations to succeed Boris may include a few more names than Rishi and Truss, before the final two are nominated to the membership
Whoever was matching Megan against Diana though, whether M herself or a malign palace dresser, it was more uncanny and there seemed more to that one....
I forgot about Layla
But some PB-ears wanted a report on Colombo’s most famous restaurant, and there it is, for good or ill
My favourite was the fucking enormous prawn. Half the size of a rugby ball, yet deliciously delicate and nicely soused (but not overwhelmed) in garlicky butter. Mmm
https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/harold-macmillan-was-prime-minister-of-britain-from-1957-news-photo/90764942
Yes, she’s very pretty, Especially with the mask off. And charming and funny
We bonded over stories of Covid. The Sri Lankans had four major lockdowns - her worst was the 3rd. Her wedding was postponed 3 times, with increasing anguish. Sri Lanka experienced a lot of domestic violence during the lockdowns
It made me realise how much Covid is going to unite us as humans when it is all over (please God). All of us across the world, every human being, that has lived through this wretched time, we have endured it at the same time and in much the same way. We will be able to talk of it, to each other, from Brazil to Belgium, Shanghai to Sheffield, Canada to the Cameroons. We have all suffered, more or less. We have all faced a common and hateful enemy
Maybe that will be one slender but significant silver lining to the hellishness. We have come face to face with our common humanity
Your estimation that she's the best PM the UK never had is perhaps her last remaining target.
I don't subscribe to the "she doesn't actually want one" meme.
It's more of a case she doesn't want one if she's not guaranteed to win it.
She knows if Yes loses again then that's it for better part of a half a century.
Sadly,AoAP is NOT today (IMHO) as authoritative or influential as it was back when it was launched on into it's pre-internet heyday circa 1992 or thereabouts. Suspect that most of recent editions go to filling library shelves, while candidates, campaigns, consultants, activists, academics, students, etc. are going on-line to research incumbents, districts & races of interest.
Whole set of Almanac of American Politics still provides a fascinating if myopic overview of US politics, government, society, economy & culture, as seen via a kaleidoscope of 50 states and 435 congressional districts (plus territories) across the past half-century.
What a wild ride!
We've been floating round 50:50 for ages, and that's despite Brexit/pandemic/cost of living.
Need to find 5% somewhere.
An Indy, Con and LD defence each.
Happy days!
Although health and education will still be under the control of incompetent SNP Types.
After 12 years of Tories (and 2.5 with Boris) , this is pretty much the best time to go for it.
I can't recall the date we had one, but it was years before the BBC Micro came out - and that was 1981.
I don’t like Starmer very much, but he is becoming increasingly sort-of-tolerable if you squint
Hailsham South - Wealden council - Con defence
Eastleigh Central - Eastleigh council - LibDem defence
Alcombe - Somerset West and Taunton council - Ind defence
https://www.scottishdailyexpress.co.uk/news/politics/snp-councillor-mocked-saying-jimmy-26160880
"An SNP councillor has weighed into the Jimmy Carr joke controversy with calls for both the comedian and his audience to be prosecuted".
Aside from one's unionism - the thought-crime aspect of the SNP is deeply troubling.
The last time they sent one was in the middle of a pandemic so it's pretty clear the coalition will send it whatever time happens to be best for them.
Thankfully the PM is able to post them a simple No letter. (let's hope Starmer is never in charge).
What are they guilty of? I genuinely would be interested to know....
Which can be trotted out for EVERY election (in this parish anyhow) AND also flatters the local yokels.
And then I remember he voluntarily serves under Corbyn, and his people's vote stance, and the kneeling, and the jnots he tied himself in over the trans issue...
So still some way to go before he can convince me. But more forward steps than backward ones.
Ironically, the SNP are so strong electorally Labour are *less* likely to agree to indyref2 if Labour still actually had some MPs in Scotland. Labour don't really have anything else to lose by saying no. How many English voters would stop voting for Labour if Starmer said no to indyref2?
One is a landslide election winner with a dodgy haircut, who subverts their own rules, manages the country in a narrow, selfish sectarian interest focussed on increasing hate and division, who stands accused of subverting the judicial process and not telling the truth, and cannot quite account for large sums of money donated for reasons that remain rather unclear.
And even worse, the other is Boris Johnson.
Polls show however if Sunak became PM the Tories would win most seats in a hung parliament but Labour could still make Starmer PM with SNP support.
So at present the likeliest route to indyref2 is a Sunak premiership followed by a Starmer premiership
Boris at least, if he despises me, does so in private. And he isn't attempting to regulate my thoughts. If he's attempting to government via a cult of personality he's going about it oddly. And he isn't forcing me to wear masks pointlessly just to differentiate himself from his neighbour. And even Boris hasn't proposed anything as mad as cutting the bottom off doors.
https://comresglobal.com/polls/scottish-elections-tracker-11-february/
JUST IN: Senior Home Office source says "Cressida Dick is gone.. Sadiq pulled the plug..
https://twitter.com/MrHarryCole/status/1491846976194887685
Well done for a decisive and brilliant act of coitus interruptus.
HOWEVER if a cynical old right winger like me is finding Starmer more papabile, that means more amenable centre-right types are probably being actually won over. So this is good news for you. You’re welcome
And those supposed misjudgements - relative to Johnson they are minor. It's just signalling, in the end. Making the right noises to keep the base on board.
And a golden hello at her next job. On the taxpayer.
And a pay rise. On the taxpayer.
While boarding an aeroplane powered by a rubber band.
Edit: 1 Leon is a unit a bit like the Farad. Too big to be practical in normal circumstances and frankly bloody dangerous.
Just publicly withdraw confidence in the Commissioner and they are gone.
https://twitter.com/GraemeDemianyk/status/1491849841525334020