They are normally super keen to claim everything as a Scottish invention. Yet not “southern fried chicken”
Not sure why. KFC giving it a bad name?
Done correctly it’s a fantastic dish. Spicy and crunchy and salty and umami. Mmm
I for one welcome Ishyvoo to the ranks of the PB Nats. We need more grumpiness.
Just didn't feel right. Shallow frying early on, when southern states being populated, yes. Industrial scale deep fat in Glasgow etc. late C19, yes. Modern deep fat frying on domestic cookers, yes. But the KFC story didn't ring true.
Some of us actually quite like historical accuracy ...
I don’t know if it’s true or not, but it still seems very possible to me.
The Scots will fry anything, the traditional oil was lard, you don’t need modern deep fat criers.
The Scots-Irish settled the Appalachians, taking with them whisky, country music, a propensity for evangelical religion, and fried chicken.
It’s entirely plausible.
Utter pish , very few in Scotland would have been able to afford chickens many moons ago. Stereotypical sh**e, may have been different in the Appalachians. Back then it would have been more likely to be oysters and French wine. Or even vegetarion, beans , pulse etc.
Boswell claimed to have had fried chicken in the Outer Hebrides so I am calling shite.
@Leon is right that this seems to have a struck a nerve, and I too cannot really understand why.
Cultural cringe about unhealthy Scottish cuisine
But I don’t see why. Scotland has a fine cuisine at its heart. Venison, salmon, noble angus beef. Wonderful shellfish etc
I read that quite a large number of migrants crossed the Channel today, after zero crossings this week (due, of course, to the triumph of the Rwandan policy). So how do we explain these crossings today? Is it because a) the Rwandan threat has begun to wane, or b) the wind direction has finally shifted from north-east to south-west? My money's strongly on b).
I agree. 250 crossed today, according to the Mail
So this is it. Patel’s test. She needs to fly quite a few people to Rwanda to deter others, unless of course her plan was all bluster…
If she fails, and they keep coming, I suggest her career is over. She can’t dodge the issue any more
Yep. One way ticket to Rwanda please. For the lot. It's the kindest thing to prevent future hordes of dinghys. It is a Benthamite policy.
“Notwithstanding Rwanda’s history, the world must be under no illusion as to the truth. Rwanda is hostage to the Kagame dictatorship and is more akin to a detention camp than a state where the people are sovereign.” Theogene Rudasingwa, Rwanda ambassador to USA 1996-9
If the whole place is like a detention camp, guess what sort of treatment displaced foreigners in actual detention camps can expect?
That doesn't invalidate your point of course, but then slowly torturing a few of them to death in Trafalgar Square would be quite a deterrent too, and might equally be "Benthamite" if you mean by that, reduce suffering overall.
Then you need to propose an alternative. I’ve not seen anything convincing beyond virtue signalling and vague hand waving, which amount to: let them all come
I saw a prediction just now that 60-70,000 might arrive this way, this year. If that is anywhere near correct it is insupportable. The numbers are tripling every year
If we don’t find a solution now this will end with the Navy shooting at the boats to deter them, and many many drownings. No nation can allow a total loss of control of its borders
I'm all for Quality Control on PB - but that's a rather high bar if a poster can't oppose this (imo silly and offensive) Rwanda plan unless they can solve the problem themselves.
Besides, there are an awful lot of ways that this scheme can fail to work- legal challenges, lack of capacity, or refugees vanishing into the night, off the top of my head. If that comes to pass, we're down in money and in wasting time on a dumb plan instead of a better one. (Cracking down on dodgy employers, say.)
In which case Just Doing Nothing (or to give it a classical spin, First Do No Harm) would be an improvement, from the point of view of government, if not politics.
So, again, just let them all in. That’s the extent of your solution.
At some point Labour will have to tell us exactly how they WOULD solve this problem, instead of sneering at every Tory attempt as “racist and offensive” yet offering no alternative
This could come back to bite Labour quite badly. If there is one way Starmer could lose, it’s the impression he is a nullity. A machine politician devoid of spark or ideas. A woke silhouette of a well meaning void
Negotiate a deal with France. We agree to take between 5 and 20k asylum seekers from them each year (and none from the Calais region) contingent on agreed annual targets for large reductions in the number of crossings.
Provides a strong incentive for the French to tackle the problem at source, and legal route for significant numbers into the UK only if illegal crossings drop, potentially reducing the incentive to pay for illegal crossings.
It's more likely to succeed than Patel's nonsense, and actually not immoral.
We can't let these people in. Some of them have vaginas. The PM can't restrain himself.
They are normally super keen to claim everything as a Scottish invention. Yet not “southern fried chicken”
Not sure why. KFC giving it a bad name?
Done correctly it’s a fantastic dish. Spicy and crunchy and salty and umami. Mmm
I for one welcome Ishyvoo to the ranks of the PB Nats. We need more grumpiness.
Just didn't feel right. Shallow frying early on, when southern states being populated, yes. Industrial scale deep fat in Glasgow etc. late C19, yes. Modern deep fat frying on domestic cookers, yes. But the KFC story didn't ring true.
Some of us actually quite like historical accuracy ...
I don’t know if it’s true or not, but it still seems very possible to me.
The Scots will fry anything, the traditional oil was lard, you don’t need modern deep fat criers.
The Scots-Irish settled the Appalachians, taking with them whisky, country music, a propensity for evangelical religion, and fried chicken.
It’s entirely plausible.
I provided early C19 recipes for Scottish shallow fat frying/broiling in breadcrumbs. That makes entire sense. Leon pointed out they were also used in England. Ditto.
What's the point of deep fat frying before Jewish immigrants and mass urban working classes needing quick f & c?
Edit: My mother used to make fried fish, in breadcrumbs. But it was always shallow fried. On one side, then turn over when golden.
I don’t ducking know, who do you think I am, Jane Grigson?
Those hillbillies got it from somewhere. The alternative theory was from black slaves, and history doesn’t exactly bestow them immense, lard-wasting wealth.
Edit: we seem to have got tangled up in deep fat frying. That does not seem to me essential to the invention of fried chicken.
Traditional fried chicken in USA - which historically was NOT confined to southern states - is NOT done via deep frying, but rather on a frying pan. Traditionally of cast iron.
Thus frying chicken (or any other critter) required a pan, some lard or similar, and a chicken (or whatever). Which I am guessing became more obtainable and less expensive as the Industrial Revolution got going.
In my view if Raynor did do as alleged it was a very funny and private joke. Good for her, and a very dismal thing for anyone to make capital out of it. If she didn't do as alleged then it's outrageous that it's been suggested.
Tories again looking bloody ridiculous, and from an an entirely unforced error.
Quite. They'd be well advised to move on.
"She knows she can't compete with his Oxford Union debating skills so she uses some skills he doesn't have."
Unpack that and puke.
You think it’s permissible for a shadow cabinet minister to flash her vagina at the prime minister so as to unsettle him?
No wonder you want people to move on from the topic
This cannot be simultaneously “a funny private joke if it happened” but “a totally outrageous slur if it didn’t happen”
We can all be pretty clear that she hasn't. But I do agree that these vagina-wielding fiends should be kept away from rampant stallions like the Big Dog.
One sniff of flange and he's off. You can't stop him, before you can say "you can't afford the child maintenance payments" he's already shagged it and knocked it up.
The evidence now suggests that she really did do this, and then joked about it. Read Isabel Oakeshott’s otherwise-sympathetic piece in the Spectator
Personally I find her cunning stunt mildly amusing, but I’m probably in a minority. More importantly, Labour made such a meal of the accusation being a vile piece of misogynist abuse they can’t now walk it back and say “oh well it was just a gag, isn’t she a card, let’s all move on”
The evidence? What fucking evidence. You have consumed too much sazerac.
Pretty clear she jokes about it. So all the self pitying feminist victimology was just bollocks.
Does she actually DO it? I’ve no idea. Nor do you
She jokes about it. After the Hate Mail wrote it and she decided to own their abuse.
Here's a radical idea. How about the neanderthal members of the cabinet maintain their ability to think and act rationally in proximity to women?
As ever in these situations, it's a good idea to swap genders and think if your reactions are the same. Would you have the same reaction to a male MP 'joking' privately about flashing their genitalia to distract a female opponent?
I'd also point out that no political party is free from such neandertals. You do not need to dig deep in the Conservatives, Labour, Lib Dems or the SNP to find prominent members who have had issues with the opposite sex.
As such - and I'm not excusing it - it is a symptom of a wider malaise in society.
I gave you the reverse angle. I was accused of only hiring hotties. Which I parodied by saying "I am Hugh Heffner" whenever anyone mentioned either the accusation or made reference to the person who made it.
Here the Daily Mail writes a smear - she wears clothes to try and distract poor Boris like Sharon Stone. She owns it by saying "yep, it's true".
And that's the point. Your suggestion that all parties are full of sleazeballs is exactly what the Tories are trying to suggest. To save a man who accidentally can't look at a woman without wanting to shag it.
Yet it's not him who gets the grief. Its the women.
Except her jokes came BEFORE the Daily Mail story, and the jokes kicked it all off
They are normally super keen to claim everything as a Scottish invention. Yet not “southern fried chicken”
Not sure why. KFC giving it a bad name?
Done correctly it’s a fantastic dish. Spicy and crunchy and salty and umami. Mmm
I for one welcome Ishyvoo to the ranks of the PB Nats. We need more grumpiness.
Just didn't feel right. Shallow frying early on, when southern states being populated, yes. Industrial scale deep fat in Glasgow etc. late C19, yes. Modern deep fat frying on domestic cookers, yes. But the KFC story didn't ring true.
Some of us actually quite like historical accuracy ...
I don’t know if it’s true or not, but it still seems very possible to me.
The Scots will fry anything, the traditional oil was lard, you don’t need modern deep fat criers.
The Scots-Irish settled the Appalachians, taking with them whisky, country music, a propensity for evangelical religion, and fried chicken.
It’s entirely plausible.
Utter pish , very few in Scotland would have been able to afford chickens many moons ago. Stereotypical sh**e, may have been different in the Appalachians. Back then it would have been more likely to be oysters and French wine. Or even vegetarion, beans , pulse etc.
Boswell claimed to have had fried chicken in the Outer Hebrides so I am calling shite.
@Leon is right that this seems to have a struck a nerve, and I too cannot really understand why.
Cultural cringe about unhealthy Scottish cuisine
But I don’t see why. Scotland has a fine cuisine at its heart. Venison, salmon, noble angus beef. Wonderful shellfish etc
Yes, you’re right. Sad. Get over it! I always eat well in Scotland.
The Tory flush is so busted they are only weeks away from John Redwood mounting a leadership coup surrounded by the customers from the bar in Star Wars.
In my view if Raynor did do as alleged it was a very funny and private joke. Good for her, and a very dismal thing for anyone to make capital out of it. If she didn't do as alleged then it's outrageous that it's been suggested.
Tories again looking bloody ridiculous, and from an an entirely unforced error.
Quite. They'd be well advised to move on.
"She knows she can't compete with his Oxford Union debating skills so she uses some skills he doesn't have."
Unpack that and puke.
You think it’s permissible for a shadow cabinet minister to flash her vagina at the prime minister so as to unsettle him?
No wonder you want people to move on from the topic
This cannot be simultaneously “a funny private joke if it happened” but “a totally outrageous slur if it didn’t happen”
Of course it can simultaneously be both. It's entirely possible for people to make self-deprecating jokes at themselves that would be utterly vile if others say of their own volition.
Eg hypothetically a woman might say she thinks she looks like a whale in a dress. I would not recommend you making that same comment to or about a woman though, or repeating it behind their back if you hear one saying it.
Indeed. You can hear her joking about it on Matt Forde's podcast a few months ago. She's making light in 'good sport' fashion of a meme that was going round. Her as Sharon Stone. It's not serious. She's blameless in every way. The Tories will kill this one off asap if they have any sense.
Which ones sorry? Are they happy to perjure themselves in court 🤣
This Tory campaign and their help from media friends is thick as mince. They made this outrageous claim against Rayner without any evidence or witnesses, at the start of a week, by end of the week a Tory MP resigns for watching porn whilst sat in the chamber amongst his colleagues. Worse, The Mail are determined to keep Partygate fresh in voters minds all the way up to election.
Far far worse than that, positive campaigning such as, “we are only having these elections and living normally not locked down in zero covid hell like China, because Boris got the big calls right.” “Full employment and best G7 growth becuase Boris and his team got the big calls right.” “Brexit delivered and painlessly, foundations laid good times on the way.” These positive headlines and stories would have won votes. Their negative campaign threw votes and credibility away.
Daily Mail editors and Tory Chairman and all at CCHQ are clueless idiots. Simples.
Without wanting to bore the thread, check out “Seeds of Albion”. Every region of the USA was populated by a different region of Britain (or France) and they took their “folkways” with them…the resonances are still abundant today…
In my view if Raynor did do as alleged it was a very funny and private joke. Good for her, and a very dismal thing for anyone to make capital out of it. If she didn't do as alleged then it's outrageous that it's been suggested.
Tories again looking bloody ridiculous, and from an an entirely unforced error.
Quite. They'd be well advised to move on.
"She knows she can't compete with his Oxford Union debating skills so she uses some skills he doesn't have."
Unpack that and puke.
You think it’s permissible for a shadow cabinet minister to flash her vagina at the prime minister so as to unsettle him?
No wonder you want people to move on from the topic
This cannot be simultaneously “a funny private joke if it happened” but “a totally outrageous slur if it didn’t happen”
We can all be pretty clear that she hasn't. But I do agree that these vagina-wielding fiends should be kept away from rampant stallions like the Big Dog.
One sniff of flange and he's off. You can't stop him, before you can say "you can't afford the child maintenance payments" he's already shagged it and knocked it up.
The evidence now suggests that she really did do this, and then joked about it. Read Isabel Oakeshott’s otherwise-sympathetic piece in the Spectator
Personally I find her cunning stunt mildly amusing, but I’m probably in a minority. More importantly, Labour made such a meal of the accusation being a vile piece of misogynist abuse they can’t now walk it back and say “oh well it was just a gag, isn’t she a card, let’s all move on”
The evidence? What fucking evidence. You have consumed too much sazerac.
Pretty clear she jokes about it. So all the self pitying feminist victimology was just bollocks.
Does she actually DO it? I’ve no idea. Nor do you
She jokes about it. After the Hate Mail wrote it and she decided to own their abuse.
Here's a radical idea. How about the neanderthal members of the cabinet maintain their ability to think and act rationally in proximity to women?
As ever in these situations, it's a good idea to swap genders and think if your reactions are the same. Would you have the same reaction to a male MP 'joking' privately about flashing their genitalia to distract a female opponent?
I'd also point out that no political party is free from such neandertals. You do not need to dig deep in the Conservatives, Labour, Lib Dems or the SNP to find prominent members who have had issues with the opposite sex.
As such - and I'm not excusing it - it is a symptom of a wider malaise in society.
I gave you the reverse angle. I was accused of only hiring hotties. Which I parodied by saying "I am Hugh Heffner" whenever anyone mentioned either the accusation or made reference to the person who made it.
Here the Daily Mail writes a smear - she wears clothes to try and distract poor Boris like Sharon Stone. She owns it by saying "yep, it's true".
And that's the point. Your suggestion that all parties are full of sleazeballs is exactly what the Tories are trying to suggest. To save a man who accidentally can't look at a woman without wanting to shag it.
Yet it's not him who gets the grief. Its the women.
Except her jokes came BEFORE the Daily Mail story, and the jokes kicked it all off
In my view if Raynor did do as alleged it was a very funny and private joke. Good for her, and a very dismal thing for anyone to make capital out of it. If she didn't do as alleged then it's outrageous that it's been suggested.
Tories again looking bloody ridiculous, and from an an entirely unforced error.
Quite. They'd be well advised to move on.
"She knows she can't compete with his Oxford Union debating skills so she uses some skills he doesn't have."
Unpack that and puke.
You think it’s permissible for a shadow cabinet minister to flash her vagina at the prime minister so as to unsettle him?
No wonder you want people to move on from the topic
This cannot be simultaneously “a funny private joke if it happened” but “a totally outrageous slur if it didn’t happen”
We can all be pretty clear that she hasn't. But I do agree that these vagina-wielding fiends should be kept away from rampant stallions like the Big Dog.
One sniff of flange and he's off. You can't stop him, before you can say "you can't afford the child maintenance payments" he's already shagged it and knocked it up.
The evidence now suggests that she really did do this, and then joked about it. Read Isabel Oakeshott’s otherwise-sympathetic piece in the Spectator
Personally I find her cunning stunt mildly amusing, but I’m probably in a minority. More importantly, Labour made such a meal of the accusation being a vile piece of misogynist abuse they can’t now walk it back and say “oh well it was just a gag, isn’t she a card, let’s all move on”
The evidence? What fucking evidence. You have consumed too much sazerac.
In my view if Raynor did do as alleged it was a very funny and private joke. Good for her, and a very dismal thing for anyone to make capital out of it. If she didn't do as alleged then it's outrageous that it's been suggested.
Tories again looking bloody ridiculous, and from an an entirely unforced error.
Quite. They'd be well advised to move on.
"She knows she can't compete with his Oxford Union debating skills so she uses some skills he doesn't have."
Unpack that and puke.
You think it’s permissible for a shadow cabinet minister to flash her vagina at the prime minister so as to unsettle him?
No wonder you want people to move on from the topic
This cannot be simultaneously “a funny private joke if it happened” but “a totally outrageous slur if it didn’t happen”
We can all be pretty clear that she hasn't. But I do agree that these vagina-wielding fiends should be kept away from rampant stallions like the Big Dog.
One sniff of flange and he's off. You can't stop him, before you can say "you can't afford the child maintenance payments" he's already shagged it and knocked it up.
The evidence now suggests that she really did do this, and then joked about it. Read Isabel Oakeshott’s otherwise-sympathetic piece in the Spectator
Personally I find her cunning stunt mildly amusing, but I’m probably in a minority. More importantly, Labour made such a meal of the accusation being a vile piece of misogynist abuse they can’t now walk it back and say “oh well it was just a gag, isn’t she a card, let’s all move on”
The evidence? What fucking evidence. You have consumed too much sazerac.
Pretty clear she jokes about it. So all the self pitying feminist victimology was just bollocks.
Does she actually DO it? I’ve no idea. Nor do you
She jokes about it. After the Hate Mail wrote it and she decided to own their abuse.
Here's a radical idea. How about the neanderthal members of the cabinet maintain their ability to think and act rationally in proximity to women?
As ever in these situations, it's a good idea to swap genders and think if your reactions are the same. Would you have the same reaction to a male MP 'joking' privately about flashing their genitalia to distract a female opponent?
I'd also point out that no political party is free from such neandertals. You do not need to dig deep in the Conservatives, Labour, Lib Dems or the SNP to find prominent members who have had issues with the opposite sex.
As such - and I'm not excusing it - it is a symptom of a wider malaise in society.
I gave you the reverse angle. I was accused of only hiring hotties. Which I parodied by saying "I am Hugh Heffner" whenever anyone mentioned either the accusation or made reference to the person who made it.
Here the Daily Mail writes a smear - she wears clothes to try and distract poor Boris like Sharon Stone. She owns it by saying "yep, it's true".
And that's the point. Your suggestion that all parties are full of sleazeballs is exactly what the Tories are trying to suggest. To save a man who accidentally can't look at a woman without wanting to shag it.
Yet it's not him who gets the grief. Its the women.
Except her jokes came BEFORE the Daily Mail story, and the jokes kicked it all off
Other than that, good point
The DM story in January? That's not how the timeline appears of you follow the Speccie story in April.
Jack Matthews @JackJmatt · Apr 30 Which English council is most dominated by a single party? Leicester City has 52/54 Labour councillors (1 each for LD and Con)
Election Maps UK @ElectionMapsUK · 1h Barking & Dagenham 50/51 Labour, the other seat is a vacancy so 100% Labour.
John Rentoul @JohnRentoul · 1h So it is. Barking and Dagenham the winner, then, I think
Newham is also 100% Labour.
No it isn't - it was but two Labour Councillors have resigned the whip following the re-selection of the Labour Mayoral candidate so it's currently 58 Labour and 2 Independent.
Strongly suspect it will be 66 Labour by this time next week.
People in the Deep South have an endearing habit of telling you profound gossip about their private lives as soon as you meet them
“Yes, I’m from Uber, get in, I guess you know my wife ran off with the neighbour? Yes. And I’ve only just recovered from six heart attacks in a row. How’s your day?”
Which ones sorry? Are they happy to perjure themselves in court 🤣
This Tory campaign and their help from media friends is thick as mince. They made this outrageous claim against Rayner without any evidence or witnesses, at the start of a week, by end of the week a Tory MP resigns for watching porn whilst sat in the chamber amongst his colleagues. Worse, The Mail are determined to keep Partygate fresh in voters minds all the way up to election.
Far far worse than that, positive campaigning such as, “we are only having these elections and living normally not locked down in zero covid hell like China, because Boris got the big calls right.” “Full employment and best G7 growth becuase Boris and his team got the big calls right.” “Brexit delivered and painlessly, foundations laid good times on the way.” These positive headlines and stories would have won votes. Their negative campaign threw votes and credibility away.
Daily Mail editors and Tory Chairman and all at CCHQ are clueless idiots. Simples.
Absolutely.
I posted earlier that I was skeptical about LD chances in T&H, but if the Tories carry on like this they are going to get mullered again.
In my view if Raynor did do as alleged it was a very funny and private joke. Good for her, and a very dismal thing for anyone to make capital out of it. If she didn't do as alleged then it's outrageous that it's been suggested.
Tories again looking bloody ridiculous, and from an an entirely unforced error.
Quite. They'd be well advised to move on.
"She knows she can't compete with his Oxford Union debating skills so she uses some skills he doesn't have."
Unpack that and puke.
You think it’s permissible for a shadow cabinet minister to flash her vagina at the prime minister so as to unsettle him?
No wonder you want people to move on from the topic
This cannot be simultaneously “a funny private joke if it happened” but “a totally outrageous slur if it didn’t happen”
We can all be pretty clear that she hasn't. But I do agree that these vagina-wielding fiends should be kept away from rampant stallions like the Big Dog.
One sniff of flange and he's off. You can't stop him, before you can say "you can't afford the child maintenance payments" he's already shagged it and knocked it up.
The evidence now suggests that she really did do this, and then joked about it. Read Isabel Oakeshott’s otherwise-sympathetic piece in the Spectator
Personally I find her cunning stunt mildly amusing, but I’m probably in a minority. More importantly, Labour made such a meal of the accusation being a vile piece of misogynist abuse they can’t now walk it back and say “oh well it was just a gag, isn’t she a card, let’s all move on”
The evidence? What fucking evidence. You have consumed too much sazerac.
Pretty clear she jokes about it. So all the self pitying feminist victimology was just bollocks.
Does she actually DO it? I’ve no idea. Nor do you
She jokes about it. After the Hate Mail wrote it and she decided to own their abuse.
Here's a radical idea. How about the neanderthal members of the cabinet maintain their ability to think and act rationally in proximity to women?
As ever in these situations, it's a good idea to swap genders and think if your reactions are the same. Would you have the same reaction to a male MP 'joking' privately about flashing their genitalia to distract a female opponent?
I'd also point out that no political party is free from such neandertals. You do not need to dig deep in the Conservatives, Labour, Lib Dems or the SNP to find prominent members who have had issues with the opposite sex.
As such - and I'm not excusing it - it is a symptom of a wider malaise in society.
I gave you the reverse angle. I was accused of only hiring hotties. Which I parodied by saying "I am Hugh Heffner" whenever anyone mentioned either the accusation or made reference to the person who made it.
Here the Daily Mail writes a smear - she wears clothes to try and distract poor Boris like Sharon Stone. She owns it by saying "yep, it's true".
And that's the point. Your suggestion that all parties are full of sleazeballs is exactly what the Tories are trying to suggest. To save a man who accidentally can't look at a woman without wanting to shag it.
Yet it's not him who gets the grief. Its the women.
Except her jokes came BEFORE the Daily Mail story, and the jokes kicked it all off
Other than that, good point
Which DM story? The origin of the meme looks like it was back in January. Timeline is here:
Jack Matthews @JackJmatt · Apr 30 Which English council is most dominated by a single party? Leicester City has 52/54 Labour councillors (1 each for LD and Con)
Election Maps UK @ElectionMapsUK · 1h Barking & Dagenham 50/51 Labour, the other seat is a vacancy so 100% Labour.
John Rentoul @JohnRentoul · 1h So it is. Barking and Dagenham the winner, then, I think
Newham is also 100% Labour.
No it isn't - it was but two Labour Councillors have resigned the whip following the re-selection of the Labour Mayoral candidate so it's currently 58 Labour and 2 Independent.
Strongly suspect it will be 66 Labour by this time next week.
My mistake. It was, and will be. Just momentarily not!
Another question which I posed yesterday. How do we break the naval blockade on Odessa?
Essentially it can't be done until the war is over.
You might, in theory, be able to supply Ukraine with sufficient super anti-ship missiles that they can sink all the Russian warships in the Black Sea, but there would still be ship mines to contend with, and Ukraine has no minesweepers.
One of the failures of the original Dardanelles campaign in WWI was the minesweepers not pushing forward under fire.
People have been arguing about the rights and wrongs of that for a 100 years…
What happens if a NATO ship starts minesweeping in international waters?
Well, I don't know whether Bulgaria or Romania have minesweepers in the Black Sea, but the straits are closed now, and I don't think Turkey opens them until the war is over.
In my view if Raynor did do as alleged it was a very funny and private joke. Good for her, and a very dismal thing for anyone to make capital out of it. If she didn't do as alleged then it's outrageous that it's been suggested.
Tories again looking bloody ridiculous, and from an an entirely unforced error.
Quite. They'd be well advised to move on.
"She knows she can't compete with his Oxford Union debating skills so she uses some skills he doesn't have."
Unpack that and puke.
You think it’s permissible for a shadow cabinet minister to flash her vagina at the prime minister so as to unsettle him?
No wonder you want people to move on from the topic
This cannot be simultaneously “a funny private joke if it happened” but “a totally outrageous slur if it didn’t happen”
We can all be pretty clear that she hasn't. But I do agree that these vagina-wielding fiends should be kept away from rampant stallions like the Big Dog.
One sniff of flange and he's off. You can't stop him, before you can say "you can't afford the child maintenance payments" he's already shagged it and knocked it up.
The evidence now suggests that she really did do this, and then joked about it. Read Isabel Oakeshott’s otherwise-sympathetic piece in the Spectator
Personally I find her cunning stunt mildly amusing, but I’m probably in a minority. More importantly, Labour made such a meal of the accusation being a vile piece of misogynist abuse they can’t now walk it back and say “oh well it was just a gag, isn’t she a card, let’s all move on”
The evidence? What fucking evidence. You have consumed too much sazerac.
In my view if Raynor did do as alleged it was a very funny and private joke. Good for her, and a very dismal thing for anyone to make capital out of it. If she didn't do as alleged then it's outrageous that it's been suggested.
Tories again looking bloody ridiculous, and from an an entirely unforced error.
Quite. They'd be well advised to move on.
"She knows she can't compete with his Oxford Union debating skills so she uses some skills he doesn't have."
Unpack that and puke.
You think it’s permissible for a shadow cabinet minister to flash her vagina at the prime minister so as to unsettle him?
No wonder you want people to move on from the topic
This cannot be simultaneously “a funny private joke if it happened” but “a totally outrageous slur if it didn’t happen”
We can all be pretty clear that she hasn't. But I do agree that these vagina-wielding fiends should be kept away from rampant stallions like the Big Dog.
One sniff of flange and he's off. You can't stop him, before you can say "you can't afford the child maintenance payments" he's already shagged it and knocked it up.
The evidence now suggests that she really did do this, and then joked about it. Read Isabel Oakeshott’s otherwise-sympathetic piece in the Spectator
Personally I find her cunning stunt mildly amusing, but I’m probably in a minority. More importantly, Labour made such a meal of the accusation being a vile piece of misogynist abuse they can’t now walk it back and say “oh well it was just a gag, isn’t she a card, let’s all move on”
The evidence? What fucking evidence. You have consumed too much sazerac.
Pretty clear she jokes about it. So all the self pitying feminist victimology was just bollocks.
Does she actually DO it? I’ve no idea. Nor do you
She jokes about it. After the Hate Mail wrote it and she decided to own their abuse.
Here's a radical idea. How about the neanderthal members of the cabinet maintain their ability to think and act rationally in proximity to women?
As ever in these situations, it's a good idea to swap genders and think if your reactions are the same. Would you have the same reaction to a male MP 'joking' privately about flashing their genitalia to distract a female opponent?
I'd also point out that no political party is free from such neandertals. You do not need to dig deep in the Conservatives, Labour, Lib Dems or the SNP to find prominent members who have had issues with the opposite sex.
As such - and I'm not excusing it - it is a symptom of a wider malaise in society.
I gave you the reverse angle. I was accused of only hiring hotties. Which I parodied by saying "I am Hugh Heffner" whenever anyone mentioned either the accusation or made reference to the person who made it.
Here the Daily Mail writes a smear - she wears clothes to try and distract poor Boris like Sharon Stone. She owns it by saying "yep, it's true".
And that's the point. Your suggestion that all parties are full of sleazeballs is exactly what the Tories are trying to suggest. To save a man who accidentally can't look at a woman without wanting to shag it.
Yet it's not him who gets the grief. Its the women.
Didn’t the Mail story say that she’d been heard saying it on the Commons’ terrace? I read that in the BBC report on the vile misogynistic story in the Mail last weekend. She was very prescient to joke about it in response to a story that hadn’t yet appeared.
People in the Deep South have an endearing habit of telling you profound gossip about their private lives as soon as you meet them
“Yes, I’m from Uber, get in, I guess you know my wife ran off with the neighbour? Yes. And I’ve only just recovered from six heart attacks in a row. How’s your day?”
The first man I met in New Orleans was a sweaty, morbidly obese man who told me he was a “bounty hunter” and was in town for a “bounty hunter’s convention”.
He spied a woman walking down the street and his eye followed her with what I can only describe as a rapist’s gaze.
Which ones sorry? Are they happy to perjure themselves in court 🤣
This Tory campaign and their help from media friends is thick as mince. They made this outrageous claim against Rayner without any evidence or witnesses, at the start of a week, by end of the week a Tory MP resigns for watching porn whilst sat in the chamber amongst his colleagues. Worse, The Mail are determined to keep Partygate fresh in voters minds all the way up to election.
Far far worse than that, positive campaigning such as, “we are only having these elections and living normally not locked down in zero covid hell like China, because Boris got the big calls right.” “Full employment and best G7 growth becuase Boris and his team got the big calls right.” “Brexit delivered and painlessly, foundations laid good times on the way.” These positive headlines and stories would have won votes. Their negative campaign threw votes and credibility away.
Daily Mail editors and Tory Chairman and all at CCHQ are clueless idiots. Simples.
This is the art of the rebuttal - most parties have individuals or teams whose sole purpose is to hit back hard and fast at any negative story.
In a sense, PB often functions as a rebuttal unit - some rebut for the Government, some for the Opposition parties but the point or art is to persuade someone (not sure who) the story is "good" for them and "bad" for their opponents.
It's thought within political campaigning if you don't get out and smother bad news stories or seek to spin them they will seep into the public consciousness and have an electoral impact.
I don't why we do it on here - most of us are fairly fixed in our view. As you suggest, it's often best to move the news cycle on to something more favourable.
In my view if Raynor did do as alleged it was a very funny and private joke. Good for her, and a very dismal thing for anyone to make capital out of it. If she didn't do as alleged then it's outrageous that it's been suggested.
Tories again looking bloody ridiculous, and from an an entirely unforced error.
Quite. They'd be well advised to move on.
"She knows she can't compete with his Oxford Union debating skills so she uses some skills he doesn't have."
Unpack that and puke.
You think it’s permissible for a shadow cabinet minister to flash her vagina at the prime minister so as to unsettle him?
No wonder you want people to move on from the topic
This cannot be simultaneously “a funny private joke if it happened” but “a totally outrageous slur if it didn’t happen”
We can all be pretty clear that she hasn't. But I do agree that these vagina-wielding fiends should be kept away from rampant stallions like the Big Dog.
One sniff of flange and he's off. You can't stop him, before you can say "you can't afford the child maintenance payments" he's already shagged it and knocked it up.
The evidence now suggests that she really did do this, and then joked about it. Read Isabel Oakeshott’s otherwise-sympathetic piece in the Spectator
Personally I find her cunning stunt mildly amusing, but I’m probably in a minority. More importantly, Labour made such a meal of the accusation being a vile piece of misogynist abuse they can’t now walk it back and say “oh well it was just a gag, isn’t she a card, let’s all move on”
The evidence? What fucking evidence. You have consumed too much sazerac.
Pretty clear she jokes about it. So all the self pitying feminist victimology was just bollocks.
Does she actually DO it? I’ve no idea. Nor do you
She jokes about it. After the Hate Mail wrote it and she decided to own their abuse.
Here's a radical idea. How about the neanderthal members of the cabinet maintain their ability to think and act rationally in proximity to women?
As ever in these situations, it's a good idea to swap genders and think if your reactions are the same. Would you have the same reaction to a male MP 'joking' privately about flashing their genitalia to distract a female opponent?
I'd also point out that no political party is free from such neandertals. You do not need to dig deep in the Conservatives, Labour, Lib Dems or the SNP to find prominent members who have had issues with the opposite sex.
As such - and I'm not excusing it - it is a symptom of a wider malaise in society.
I gave you the reverse angle. I was accused of only hiring hotties. Which I parodied by saying "I am Hugh Heffner" whenever anyone mentioned either the accusation or made reference to the person who made it.
Here the Daily Mail writes a smear - she wears clothes to try and distract poor Boris like Sharon Stone. She owns it by saying "yep, it's true".
And that's the point. Your suggestion that all parties are full of sleazeballs is exactly what the Tories are trying to suggest. To save a man who accidentally can't look at a woman without wanting to shag it.
Yet it's not him who gets the grief. Its the women.
Except her jokes came BEFORE the Daily Mail story, and the jokes kicked it all off
Other than that, good point
Which DM story? The origin of the meme looks like it was back in January. Timeline is here:
In my view if Raynor did do as alleged it was a very funny and private joke. Good for her, and a very dismal thing for anyone to make capital out of it. If she didn't do as alleged then it's outrageous that it's been suggested.
Tories again looking bloody ridiculous, and from an an entirely unforced error.
Quite. They'd be well advised to move on.
"She knows she can't compete with his Oxford Union debating skills so she uses some skills he doesn't have."
Unpack that and puke.
You think it’s permissible for a shadow cabinet minister to flash her vagina at the prime minister so as to unsettle him?
No wonder you want people to move on from the topic
This cannot be simultaneously “a funny private joke if it happened” but “a totally outrageous slur if it didn’t happen”
We can all be pretty clear that she hasn't. But I do agree that these vagina-wielding fiends should be kept away from rampant stallions like the Big Dog.
One sniff of flange and he's off. You can't stop him, before you can say "you can't afford the child maintenance payments" he's already shagged it and knocked it up.
The evidence now suggests that she really did do this, and then joked about it. Read Isabel Oakeshott’s otherwise-sympathetic piece in the Spectator
Personally I find her cunning stunt mildly amusing, but I’m probably in a minority. More importantly, Labour made such a meal of the accusation being a vile piece of misogynist abuse they can’t now walk it back and say “oh well it was just a gag, isn’t she a card, let’s all move on”
The evidence? What fucking evidence. You have consumed too much sazerac.
Pretty clear she jokes about it. So all the self pitying feminist victimology was just bollocks.
Does she actually DO it? I’ve no idea. Nor do you
She jokes about it. After the Hate Mail wrote it and she decided to own their abuse.
Here's a radical idea. How about the neanderthal members of the cabinet maintain their ability to think and act rationally in proximity to women?
As ever in these situations, it's a good idea to swap genders and think if your reactions are the same. Would you have the same reaction to a male MP 'joking' privately about flashing their genitalia to distract a female opponent?
I'd also point out that no political party is free from such neandertals. You do not need to dig deep in the Conservatives, Labour, Lib Dems or the SNP to find prominent members who have had issues with the opposite sex.
As such - and I'm not excusing it - it is a symptom of a wider malaise in society.
I gave you the reverse angle. I was accused of only hiring hotties. Which I parodied by saying "I am Hugh Heffner" whenever anyone mentioned either the accusation or made reference to the person who made it.
Here the Daily Mail writes a smear - she wears clothes to try and distract poor Boris like Sharon Stone. She owns it by saying "yep, it's true".
And that's the point. Your suggestion that all parties are full of sleazeballs is exactly what the Tories are trying to suggest. To save a man who accidentally can't look at a woman without wanting to shag it.
Yet it's not him who gets the grief. Its the women.
Except her jokes came BEFORE the Daily Mail story, and the jokes kicked it all off
Other than that, good point
Which DM story? The origin of the meme looks like it was back in January. Timeline is here:
In my view if Raynor did do as alleged it was a very funny and private joke. Good for her, and a very dismal thing for anyone to make capital out of it. If she didn't do as alleged then it's outrageous that it's been suggested.
Tories again looking bloody ridiculous, and from an an entirely unforced error.
Quite. They'd be well advised to move on.
"She knows she can't compete with his Oxford Union debating skills so she uses some skills he doesn't have."
Unpack that and puke.
You think it’s permissible for a shadow cabinet minister to flash her vagina at the prime minister so as to unsettle him?
No wonder you want people to move on from the topic
This cannot be simultaneously “a funny private joke if it happened” but “a totally outrageous slur if it didn’t happen”
We can all be pretty clear that she hasn't. But I do agree that these vagina-wielding fiends should be kept away from rampant stallions like the Big Dog.
One sniff of flange and he's off. You can't stop him, before you can say "you can't afford the child maintenance payments" he's already shagged it and knocked it up.
The evidence now suggests that she really did do this, and then joked about it. Read Isabel Oakeshott’s otherwise-sympathetic piece in the Spectator
Personally I find her cunning stunt mildly amusing, but I’m probably in a minority. More importantly, Labour made such a meal of the accusation being a vile piece of misogynist abuse they can’t now walk it back and say “oh well it was just a gag, isn’t she a card, let’s all move on”
The evidence? What fucking evidence. You have consumed too much sazerac.
Pretty clear she jokes about it. So all the self pitying feminist victimology was just bollocks.
Does she actually DO it? I’ve no idea. Nor do you
She jokes about it. After the Hate Mail wrote it and she decided to own their abuse.
Here's a radical idea. How about the neanderthal members of the cabinet maintain their ability to think and act rationally in proximity to women?
As ever in these situations, it's a good idea to swap genders and think if your reactions are the same. Would you have the same reaction to a male MP 'joking' privately about flashing their genitalia to distract a female opponent?
I'd also point out that no political party is free from such neandertals. You do not need to dig deep in the Conservatives, Labour, Lib Dems or the SNP to find prominent members who have had issues with the opposite sex.
As such - and I'm not excusing it - it is a symptom of a wider malaise in society.
I gave you the reverse angle. I was accused of only hiring hotties. Which I parodied by saying "I am Hugh Heffner" whenever anyone mentioned either the accusation or made reference to the person who made it.
Here the Daily Mail writes a smear - she wears clothes to try and distract poor Boris like Sharon Stone. She owns it by saying "yep, it's true".
And that's the point. Your suggestion that all parties are full of sleazeballs is exactly what the Tories are trying to suggest. To save a man who accidentally can't look at a woman without wanting to shag it.
Yet it's not him who gets the grief. Its the women.
"Your suggestion that all parties are full of sleazeballs is exactly what the Tories are trying to suggest."
I didn't say 'full of sleazeballs'. I said that no party is free from such people. It's what anyone who actually cares about this topic, and not wanting to play some stupid political point about it, try to suggest.
I could do a quick google and find you the relevant stories, but it's so easy I'll let you do it.
In my view if Raynor did do as alleged it was a very funny and private joke. Good for her, and a very dismal thing for anyone to make capital out of it. If she didn't do as alleged then it's outrageous that it's been suggested.
Tories again looking bloody ridiculous, and from an an entirely unforced error.
Quite. They'd be well advised to move on.
"She knows she can't compete with his Oxford Union debating skills so she uses some skills he doesn't have."
Unpack that and puke.
You think it’s permissible for a shadow cabinet minister to flash her vagina at the prime minister so as to unsettle him?
No wonder you want people to move on from the topic
This cannot be simultaneously “a funny private joke if it happened” but “a totally outrageous slur if it didn’t happen”
We can all be pretty clear that she hasn't. But I do agree that these vagina-wielding fiends should be kept away from rampant stallions like the Big Dog.
One sniff of flange and he's off. You can't stop him, before you can say "you can't afford the child maintenance payments" he's already shagged it and knocked it up.
The evidence now suggests that she really did do this, and then joked about it. Read Isabel Oakeshott’s otherwise-sympathetic piece in the Spectator
Personally I find her cunning stunt mildly amusing, but I’m probably in a minority. More importantly, Labour made such a meal of the accusation being a vile piece of misogynist abuse they can’t now walk it back and say “oh well it was just a gag, isn’t she a card, let’s all move on”
The evidence? What fucking evidence. You have consumed too much sazerac.
Pretty clear she jokes about it. So all the self pitying feminist victimology was just bollocks.
Does she actually DO it? I’ve no idea. Nor do you
She jokes about it. After the Hate Mail wrote it and she decided to own their abuse.
Here's a radical idea. How about the neanderthal members of the cabinet maintain their ability to think and act rationally in proximity to women?
As ever in these situations, it's a good idea to swap genders and think if your reactions are the same. Would you have the same reaction to a male MP 'joking' privately about flashing their genitalia to distract a female opponent?
I'd also point out that no political party is free from such neandertals. You do not need to dig deep in the Conservatives, Labour, Lib Dems or the SNP to find prominent members who have had issues with the opposite sex.
As such - and I'm not excusing it - it is a symptom of a wider malaise in society.
I gave you the reverse angle. I was accused of only hiring hotties. Which I parodied by saying "I am Hugh Heffner" whenever anyone mentioned either the accusation or made reference to the person who made it.
Here the Daily Mail writes a smear - she wears clothes to try and distract poor Boris like Sharon Stone. She owns it by saying "yep, it's true".
And that's the point. Your suggestion that all parties are full of sleazeballs is exactly what the Tories are trying to suggest. To save a man who accidentally can't look at a woman without wanting to shag it.
Yet it's not him who gets the grief. Its the women.
Didn’t the Mail story say that she’d been heard saying it on the Commons’ terrace? I read that in the BBC report on the vile misogynistic story in the Mail last weekend. She was very prescient to joke about it in response to a story that hadn’t yet appeared.
Amanda Platell wrote this on the 7th January "No wonder Boris Johnson got in a fluster at this week's Prime Minister's Questions when confronted by Angela Rayner (right), standing in for serial Covid patient Sir Keir Starmer.
Wearing a chic dress that showed off her thighs, the Labour deputy leader was channelling her inner Sharon Stone.
Boris has always had a tendresse for women with basic instincts."
In my view if Raynor did do as alleged it was a very funny and private joke. Good for her, and a very dismal thing for anyone to make capital out of it. If she didn't do as alleged then it's outrageous that it's been suggested.
Tories again looking bloody ridiculous, and from an an entirely unforced error.
Quite. They'd be well advised to move on.
"She knows she can't compete with his Oxford Union debating skills so she uses some skills he doesn't have."
Unpack that and puke.
You think it’s permissible for a shadow cabinet minister to flash her vagina at the prime minister so as to unsettle him?
No wonder you want people to move on from the topic
This cannot be simultaneously “a funny private joke if it happened” but “a totally outrageous slur if it didn’t happen”
We can all be pretty clear that she hasn't. But I do agree that these vagina-wielding fiends should be kept away from rampant stallions like the Big Dog.
One sniff of flange and he's off. You can't stop him, before you can say "you can't afford the child maintenance payments" he's already shagged it and knocked it up.
The evidence now suggests that she really did do this, and then joked about it. Read Isabel Oakeshott’s otherwise-sympathetic piece in the Spectator
Personally I find her cunning stunt mildly amusing, but I’m probably in a minority. More importantly, Labour made such a meal of the accusation being a vile piece of misogynist abuse they can’t now walk it back and say “oh well it was just a gag, isn’t she a card, let’s all move on”
The evidence? What fucking evidence. You have consumed too much sazerac.
Pretty clear she jokes about it. So all the self pitying feminist victimology was just bollocks.
Does she actually DO it? I’ve no idea. Nor do you
She jokes about it. After the Hate Mail wrote it and she decided to own their abuse.
Here's a radical idea. How about the neanderthal members of the cabinet maintain their ability to think and act rationally in proximity to women?
As ever in these situations, it's a good idea to swap genders and think if your reactions are the same. Would you have the same reaction to a male MP 'joking' privately about flashing their genitalia to distract a female opponent?
I'd also point out that no political party is free from such neandertals. You do not need to dig deep in the Conservatives, Labour, Lib Dems or the SNP to find prominent members who have had issues with the opposite sex.
As such - and I'm not excusing it - it is a symptom of a wider malaise in society.
I gave you the reverse angle. I was accused of only hiring hotties. Which I parodied by saying "I am Hugh Heffner" whenever anyone mentioned either the accusation or made reference to the person who made it.
Here the Daily Mail writes a smear - she wears clothes to try and distract poor Boris like Sharon Stone. She owns it by saying "yep, it's true".
And that's the point. Your suggestion that all parties are full of sleazeballs is exactly what the Tories are trying to suggest. To save a man who accidentally can't look at a woman without wanting to shag it.
Yet it's not him who gets the grief. Its the women.
Didn’t the Mail story say that she’d been heard saying it on the Commons’ terrace? I read that in the BBC report on the vile misogynistic story in the Mail last weekend. She was very prescient to joke about it in response to a story that hadn’t yet appeared.
There are two DM stories. The ones back in January had their writer dub her Sharon Stone. She then adopted the jibe as her own. Which the Speccie then covered and then the DM again
In my view if Raynor did do as alleged it was a very funny and private joke. Good for her, and a very dismal thing for anyone to make capital out of it. If she didn't do as alleged then it's outrageous that it's been suggested.
Tories again looking bloody ridiculous, and from an an entirely unforced error.
Quite. They'd be well advised to move on.
"She knows she can't compete with his Oxford Union debating skills so she uses some skills he doesn't have."
Unpack that and puke.
You think it’s permissible for a shadow cabinet minister to flash her vagina at the prime minister so as to unsettle him?
No wonder you want people to move on from the topic
This cannot be simultaneously “a funny private joke if it happened” but “a totally outrageous slur if it didn’t happen”
We can all be pretty clear that she hasn't. But I do agree that these vagina-wielding fiends should be kept away from rampant stallions like the Big Dog.
One sniff of flange and he's off. You can't stop him, before you can say "you can't afford the child maintenance payments" he's already shagged it and knocked it up.
The evidence now suggests that she really did do this, and then joked about it. Read Isabel Oakeshott’s otherwise-sympathetic piece in the Spectator
Personally I find her cunning stunt mildly amusing, but I’m probably in a minority. More importantly, Labour made such a meal of the accusation being a vile piece of misogynist abuse they can’t now walk it back and say “oh well it was just a gag, isn’t she a card, let’s all move on”
The evidence? What fucking evidence. You have consumed too much sazerac.
Pretty clear she jokes about it. So all the self pitying feminist victimology was just bollocks.
Does she actually DO it? I’ve no idea. Nor do you
She jokes about it. After the Hate Mail wrote it and she decided to own their abuse.
Here's a radical idea. How about the neanderthal members of the cabinet maintain their ability to think and act rationally in proximity to women?
As ever in these situations, it's a good idea to swap genders and think if your reactions are the same. Would you have the same reaction to a male MP 'joking' privately about flashing their genitalia to distract a female opponent?
I'd also point out that no political party is free from such neandertals. You do not need to dig deep in the Conservatives, Labour, Lib Dems or the SNP to find prominent members who have had issues with the opposite sex.
As such - and I'm not excusing it - it is a symptom of a wider malaise in society.
I gave you the reverse angle. I was accused of only hiring hotties. Which I parodied by saying "I am Hugh Heffner" whenever anyone mentioned either the accusation or made reference to the person who made it.
Here the Daily Mail writes a smear - she wears clothes to try and distract poor Boris like Sharon Stone. She owns it by saying "yep, it's true".
And that's the point. Your suggestion that all parties are full of sleazeballs is exactly what the Tories are trying to suggest. To save a man who accidentally can't look at a woman without wanting to shag it.
Yet it's not him who gets the grief. Its the women.
Except her jokes came BEFORE the Daily Mail story, and the jokes kicked it all off
Other than that, good point
Which DM story? The origin of the meme looks like it was back in January. Timeline is here:
In my view if Raynor did do as alleged it was a very funny and private joke. Good for her, and a very dismal thing for anyone to make capital out of it. If she didn't do as alleged then it's outrageous that it's been suggested.
Tories again looking bloody ridiculous, and from an an entirely unforced error.
Quite. They'd be well advised to move on.
"She knows she can't compete with his Oxford Union debating skills so she uses some skills he doesn't have."
Unpack that and puke.
You think it’s permissible for a shadow cabinet minister to flash her vagina at the prime minister so as to unsettle him?
No wonder you want people to move on from the topic
This cannot be simultaneously “a funny private joke if it happened” but “a totally outrageous slur if it didn’t happen”
We can all be pretty clear that she hasn't. But I do agree that these vagina-wielding fiends should be kept away from rampant stallions like the Big Dog.
One sniff of flange and he's off. You can't stop him, before you can say "you can't afford the child maintenance payments" he's already shagged it and knocked it up.
The evidence now suggests that she really did do this, and then joked about it. Read Isabel Oakeshott’s otherwise-sympathetic piece in the Spectator
Personally I find her cunning stunt mildly amusing, but I’m probably in a minority. More importantly, Labour made such a meal of the accusation being a vile piece of misogynist abuse they can’t now walk it back and say “oh well it was just a gag, isn’t she a card, let’s all move on”
The evidence? What fucking evidence. You have consumed too much sazerac.
Pretty clear she jokes about it. So all the self pitying feminist victimology was just bollocks.
Does she actually DO it? I’ve no idea. Nor do you
She jokes about it. After the Hate Mail wrote it and she decided to own their abuse.
Here's a radical idea. How about the neanderthal members of the cabinet maintain their ability to think and act rationally in proximity to women?
As ever in these situations, it's a good idea to swap genders and think if your reactions are the same. Would you have the same reaction to a male MP 'joking' privately about flashing their genitalia to distract a female opponent?
I'd also point out that no political party is free from such neandertals. You do not need to dig deep in the Conservatives, Labour, Lib Dems or the SNP to find prominent members who have had issues with the opposite sex.
As such - and I'm not excusing it - it is a symptom of a wider malaise in society.
I gave you the reverse angle. I was accused of only hiring hotties. Which I parodied by saying "I am Hugh Heffner" whenever anyone mentioned either the accusation or made reference to the person who made it.
Here the Daily Mail writes a smear - she wears clothes to try and distract poor Boris like Sharon Stone. She owns it by saying "yep, it's true".
And that's the point. Your suggestion that all parties are full of sleazeballs is exactly what the Tories are trying to suggest. To save a man who accidentally can't look at a woman without wanting to shag it.
Yet it's not him who gets the grief. Its the women.
Except her jokes came BEFORE the Daily Mail story, and the jokes kicked it all off
Other than that, good point
Which DM story? The origin of the meme looks like it was back in January. Timeline is here:
In my view if Raynor did do as alleged it was a very funny and private joke. Good for her, and a very dismal thing for anyone to make capital out of it. If she didn't do as alleged then it's outrageous that it's been suggested.
Tories again looking bloody ridiculous, and from an an entirely unforced error.
Quite. They'd be well advised to move on.
"She knows she can't compete with his Oxford Union debating skills so she uses some skills he doesn't have."
Unpack that and puke.
You think it’s permissible for a shadow cabinet minister to flash her vagina at the prime minister so as to unsettle him?
No wonder you want people to move on from the topic
This cannot be simultaneously “a funny private joke if it happened” but “a totally outrageous slur if it didn’t happen”
We can all be pretty clear that she hasn't. But I do agree that these vagina-wielding fiends should be kept away from rampant stallions like the Big Dog.
One sniff of flange and he's off. You can't stop him, before you can say "you can't afford the child maintenance payments" he's already shagged it and knocked it up.
The evidence now suggests that she really did do this, and then joked about it. Read Isabel Oakeshott’s otherwise-sympathetic piece in the Spectator
Personally I find her cunning stunt mildly amusing, but I’m probably in a minority. More importantly, Labour made such a meal of the accusation being a vile piece of misogynist abuse they can’t now walk it back and say “oh well it was just a gag, isn’t she a card, let’s all move on”
The evidence? What fucking evidence. You have consumed too much sazerac.
Pretty clear she jokes about it. So all the self pitying feminist victimology was just bollocks.
Does she actually DO it? I’ve no idea. Nor do you
She jokes about it. After the Hate Mail wrote it and she decided to own their abuse.
Here's a radical idea. How about the neanderthal members of the cabinet maintain their ability to think and act rationally in proximity to women?
As ever in these situations, it's a good idea to swap genders and think if your reactions are the same. Would you have the same reaction to a male MP 'joking' privately about flashing their genitalia to distract a female opponent?
I'd also point out that no political party is free from such neandertals. You do not need to dig deep in the Conservatives, Labour, Lib Dems or the SNP to find prominent members who have had issues with the opposite sex.
As such - and I'm not excusing it - it is a symptom of a wider malaise in society.
I gave you the reverse angle. I was accused of only hiring hotties. Which I parodied by saying "I am Hugh Heffner" whenever anyone mentioned either the accusation or made reference to the person who made it.
Here the Daily Mail writes a smear - she wears clothes to try and distract poor Boris like Sharon Stone. She owns it by saying "yep, it's true".
And that's the point. Your suggestion that all parties are full of sleazeballs is exactly what the Tories are trying to suggest. To save a man who accidentally can't look at a woman without wanting to shag it.
Yet it's not him who gets the grief. Its the women.
Except her jokes came BEFORE the Daily Mail story, and the jokes kicked it all off
Other than that, good point
Which DM story? The origin of the meme looks like it was back in January. Timeline is here:
In my view if Raynor did do as alleged it was a very funny and private joke. Good for her, and a very dismal thing for anyone to make capital out of it. If she didn't do as alleged then it's outrageous that it's been suggested.
Tories again looking bloody ridiculous, and from an an entirely unforced error.
Quite. They'd be well advised to move on.
"She knows she can't compete with his Oxford Union debating skills so she uses some skills he doesn't have."
Unpack that and puke.
You think it’s permissible for a shadow cabinet minister to flash her vagina at the prime minister so as to unsettle him?
No wonder you want people to move on from the topic
This cannot be simultaneously “a funny private joke if it happened” but “a totally outrageous slur if it didn’t happen”
We can all be pretty clear that she hasn't. But I do agree that these vagina-wielding fiends should be kept away from rampant stallions like the Big Dog.
One sniff of flange and he's off. You can't stop him, before you can say "you can't afford the child maintenance payments" he's already shagged it and knocked it up.
The evidence now suggests that she really did do this, and then joked about it. Read Isabel Oakeshott’s otherwise-sympathetic piece in the Spectator
Personally I find her cunning stunt mildly amusing, but I’m probably in a minority. More importantly, Labour made such a meal of the accusation being a vile piece of misogynist abuse they can’t now walk it back and say “oh well it was just a gag, isn’t she a card, let’s all move on”
The evidence? What fucking evidence. You have consumed too much sazerac.
Pretty clear she jokes about it. So all the self pitying feminist victimology was just bollocks.
Does she actually DO it? I’ve no idea. Nor do you
She jokes about it. After the Hate Mail wrote it and she decided to own their abuse.
Here's a radical idea. How about the neanderthal members of the cabinet maintain their ability to think and act rationally in proximity to women?
As ever in these situations, it's a good idea to swap genders and think if your reactions are the same. Would you have the same reaction to a male MP 'joking' privately about flashing their genitalia to distract a female opponent?
I'd also point out that no political party is free from such neandertals. You do not need to dig deep in the Conservatives, Labour, Lib Dems or the SNP to find prominent members who have had issues with the opposite sex.
As such - and I'm not excusing it - it is a symptom of a wider malaise in society.
I gave you the reverse angle. I was accused of only hiring hotties. Which I parodied by saying "I am Hugh Heffner" whenever anyone mentioned either the accusation or made reference to the person who made it.
Here the Daily Mail writes a smear - she wears clothes to try and distract poor Boris like Sharon Stone. She owns it by saying "yep, it's true".
And that's the point. Your suggestion that all parties are full of sleazeballs is exactly what the Tories are trying to suggest. To save a man who accidentally can't look at a woman without wanting to shag it.
Yet it's not him who gets the grief. Its the women.
Except her jokes came BEFORE the Daily Mail story, and the jokes kicked it all off
Other than that, good point
Which DM story? The origin of the meme looks like it was back in January. Timeline is here:
In my view if Raynor did do as alleged it was a very funny and private joke. Good for her, and a very dismal thing for anyone to make capital out of it. If she didn't do as alleged then it's outrageous that it's been suggested.
Tories again looking bloody ridiculous, and from an an entirely unforced error.
Quite. They'd be well advised to move on.
"She knows she can't compete with his Oxford Union debating skills so she uses some skills he doesn't have."
Unpack that and puke.
You think it’s permissible for a shadow cabinet minister to flash her vagina at the prime minister so as to unsettle him?
No wonder you want people to move on from the topic
This cannot be simultaneously “a funny private joke if it happened” but “a totally outrageous slur if it didn’t happen”
We can all be pretty clear that she hasn't. But I do agree that these vagina-wielding fiends should be kept away from rampant stallions like the Big Dog.
One sniff of flange and he's off. You can't stop him, before you can say "you can't afford the child maintenance payments" he's already shagged it and knocked it up.
The evidence now suggests that she really did do this, and then joked about it. Read Isabel Oakeshott’s otherwise-sympathetic piece in the Spectator
Personally I find her cunning stunt mildly amusing, but I’m probably in a minority. More importantly, Labour made such a meal of the accusation being a vile piece of misogynist abuse they can’t now walk it back and say “oh well it was just a gag, isn’t she a card, let’s all move on”
The evidence? What fucking evidence. You have consumed too much sazerac.
Pretty clear she jokes about it. So all the self pitying feminist victimology was just bollocks.
Does she actually DO it? I’ve no idea. Nor do you
She jokes about it. After the Hate Mail wrote it and she decided to own their abuse.
Here's a radical idea. How about the neanderthal members of the cabinet maintain their ability to think and act rationally in proximity to women?
As ever in these situations, it's a good idea to swap genders and think if your reactions are the same. Would you have the same reaction to a male MP 'joking' privately about flashing their genitalia to distract a female opponent?
I'd also point out that no political party is free from such neandertals. You do not need to dig deep in the Conservatives, Labour, Lib Dems or the SNP to find prominent members who have had issues with the opposite sex.
As such - and I'm not excusing it - it is a symptom of a wider malaise in society.
I gave you the reverse angle. I was accused of only hiring hotties. Which I parodied by saying "I am Hugh Heffner" whenever anyone mentioned either the accusation or made reference to the person who made it.
Here the Daily Mail writes a smear - she wears clothes to try and distract poor Boris like Sharon Stone. She owns it by saying "yep, it's true".
And that's the point. Your suggestion that all parties are full of sleazeballs is exactly what the Tories are trying to suggest. To save a man who accidentally can't look at a woman without wanting to shag it.
Yet it's not him who gets the grief. Its the women.
Didn’t the Mail story say that she’d been heard saying it on the Commons’ terrace? I read that in the BBC report on the vile misogynistic story in the Mail last weekend. She was very prescient to joke about it in response to a story that hadn’t yet appeared.
Amanda Platell wrote this on the 7th January "No wonder Boris Johnson got in a fluster at this week's Prime Minister's Questions when confronted by Angela Rayner (right), standing in for serial Covid patient Sir Keir Starmer.
Wearing a chic dress that showed off her thighs, the Labour deputy leader was channelling her inner Sharon Stone.
Boris has always had a tendresse for women with basic instincts."
Which ones sorry? Are they happy to perjure themselves in court 🤣
This Tory campaign and their help from media friends is thick as mince. They made this outrageous claim against Rayner without any evidence or witnesses, at the start of a week, by end of the week a Tory MP resigns for watching porn whilst sat in the chamber amongst his colleagues. Worse, The Mail are determined to keep Partygate fresh in voters minds all the way up to election.
Far far worse than that, positive campaigning such as, “we are only having these elections and living normally not locked down in zero covid hell like China, because Boris got the big calls right.” “Full employment and best G7 growth becuase Boris and his team got the big calls right.” “Brexit delivered and painlessly, foundations laid good times on the way.” These positive headlines and stories would have won votes. Their negative campaign threw votes and credibility away.
Daily Mail editors and Tory Chairman and all at CCHQ are clueless idiots. Simples.
Absolutely.
I posted earlier that I was skeptical about LD chances in T&H, but if the Tories carry on like this they are going to get mullered again.
Where are the positive vote winning news stories across the Tory press in build up to elections? If they got the big calls right and have this fantastic platform to campaign on, fantastic platform being laid to build an economy and global Britain on, why don’t they just go out there and campaign on it? The only true antidote to Partygate is, but he got the big calls right for us.
With things like the attack on Rayner there comes a point to present your evidence we need to hear your “supposed” witnesses or you get laughed out of town as bullshitters. Why not attack Red Rayner on calling Tories scum whilst having left wing views? I actually feel a bit sorry for PB Tories obliged to weigh in behind these convoluted unprovable arguments, when really campaigning here could have just been oats so simple. This strange attack seems an odd punch to try and pull off when just sticking to a jab on Rayner and Labour is likely to do the trick.
The very hapless and negative nature of this Tory campaign actually adds another reason onto the list of reasons to get rid of Team Boris after these locals - their negative vote losing campaigning is becoming “the news story”.
Had a fairly apolitical few days. One thing I've noticed today is that people who aren't into politics aren't very interested in the porn story, and several find it amusing. Political friends (not just Labour) are outraged, but others seem to think MPs are probably up to all sorts, and Parish was just unlucky, Is that what others are hearing, or do I judst have unusually cynical friends?
Surely on any objective level partygate is far more serious. I'm just thinking back to lockdown, and not being able to see dying close family members. These regulations were harmful, and that they were being ignored by the PM is a disaster. I don't think that looking at porn at work is good, but who is really being harmed by it? Are the tory MP's who are forcing him out really saying that it the offence caused by this indecency is 'worse' than the harm caused by these extreme draconian regulations that Johnson was ignoring, and then lying about? The priorities don't make any sense. It is the inconsistency of the Conservative party which is worse than any of the misbehaviour in this case. The air of puritanism is also a bit troubling.
However re: American settlement, demographic and cultural impact - Germany says hello.
Ditto Dutch, Swedes, Finns and of course French (already mentioned), Spanish and (lest we forget) Indians. Plus Africans, who had to adapt the most to the ways & whims of others, but in the process put their own twist on things in ways much copied from then to now.
BTW, my guess is that the quintessential American food is . . . wait for it . . . fruit pie.
"Violence is as American as cherry pie." - Rap Brown
Just spent a wonderful family day in Southwold. A bit chillier than I would have liked, but fun. It was also bittersweet: my parents are getting older and noticeably frailer now. Where once they would have walked from the pier to the harbour and back, they now drive.
Thank goodness Covid is essentially over, so we can at least spend these more of these precious moments together.
Have they considered an electrically-aided bike? My mum used that and finds it wonderfully helpful
Had a fairly apolitical few days. One thing I've noticed today is that people who aren't into politics aren't very interested in the porn story, and several find it amusing. Political friends (not just Labour) are outraged, but others seem to think MPs are probably up to all sorts, and Parish was just unlucky, Is that what others are hearing, or do I judst have unusually cynical friends?
The media is being very puritanical about it compared to the public. That's my impression.
Had a fairly apolitical few days. One thing I've noticed today is that people who aren't into politics aren't very interested in the porn story, and several find it amusing. Political friends (not just Labour) are outraged, but others seem to think MPs are probably up to all sorts, and Parish was just unlucky, Is that what others are hearing, or do I judst have unusually cynical friends?
Surely on any objective level partygate is far more serious. I'm just thinking back to lockdown, and not being able to see dying close family members. These regulations were harmful, and that they were being ignored by the PM is a disaster. I don't think that looking at porn at work is good, but who is really being harmed by it? Are the tory MP's who are forcing him out really saying that it the offence caused by this indecency is 'worse' than the harm caused by these extreme draconian regulations that Johnson was ignoring, and then lying about? The priorities don't make any sense. It is the inconsistency of the Conservative party which is worse than any of the misbehaviour in this case. The air of puritanism is also a bit troubling.
It's traditional for them, though. Don't you recall Major's 'back to basics' and how it prompted a series of petty, but credibility destroying scandals ?
It would seem that Labour's slogan for the local elections is On Your Side.
What do people reckon? It's obviously short and fairly meaningless, as these things tend to be. But I reckon it's not bad tactically as a contrast with current Tory woes.
In my view if Raynor did do as alleged it was a very funny and private joke. Good for her, and a very dismal thing for anyone to make capital out of it. If she didn't do as alleged then it's outrageous that it's been suggested.
Tories again looking bloody ridiculous, and from an an entirely unforced error.
Quite. They'd be well advised to move on.
"She knows she can't compete with his Oxford Union debating skills so she uses some skills he doesn't have."
Unpack that and puke.
You think it’s permissible for a shadow cabinet minister to flash her vagina at the prime minister so as to unsettle him?
No wonder you want people to move on from the topic
This cannot be simultaneously “a funny private joke if it happened” but “a totally outrageous slur if it didn’t happen”
We can all be pretty clear that she hasn't. But I do agree that these vagina-wielding fiends should be kept away from rampant stallions like the Big Dog.
One sniff of flange and he's off. You can't stop him, before you can say "you can't afford the child maintenance payments" he's already shagged it and knocked it up.
The evidence now suggests that she really did do this, and then joked about it. Read Isabel Oakeshott’s otherwise-sympathetic piece in the Spectator
Personally I find her cunning stunt mildly amusing, but I’m probably in a minority. More importantly, Labour made such a meal of the accusation being a vile piece of misogynist abuse they can’t now walk it back and say “oh well it was just a gag, isn’t she a card, let’s all move on”
The evidence? What fucking evidence. You have consumed too much sazerac.
Pretty clear she jokes about it. So all the self pitying feminist victimology was just bollocks.
Does she actually DO it? I’ve no idea. Nor do you
She jokes about it. After the Hate Mail wrote it and she decided to own their abuse.
Here's a radical idea. How about the neanderthal members of the cabinet maintain their ability to think and act rationally in proximity to women?
As ever in these situations, it's a good idea to swap genders and think if your reactions are the same. Would you have the same reaction to a male MP 'joking' privately about flashing their genitalia to distract a female opponent?
I'd also point out that no political party is free from such neandertals. You do not need to dig deep in the Conservatives, Labour, Lib Dems or the SNP to find prominent members who have had issues with the opposite sex.
As such - and I'm not excusing it - it is a symptom of a wider malaise in society.
I gave you the reverse angle. I was accused of only hiring hotties. Which I parodied by saying "I am Hugh Heffner" whenever anyone mentioned either the accusation or made reference to the person who made it.
Here the Daily Mail writes a smear - she wears clothes to try and distract poor Boris like Sharon Stone. She owns it by saying "yep, it's true".
And that's the point. Your suggestion that all parties are full of sleazeballs is exactly what the Tories are trying to suggest. To save a man who accidentally can't look at a woman without wanting to shag it.
Yet it's not him who gets the grief. Its the women.
Didn’t the Mail story say that she’d been heard saying it on the Commons’ terrace? I read that in the BBC report on the vile misogynistic story in the Mail last weekend. She was very prescient to joke about it in response to a story that hadn’t yet appeared.
Amanda Platell wrote this on the 7th January "No wonder Boris Johnson got in a fluster at this week's Prime Minister's Questions when confronted by Angela Rayner (right), standing in for serial Covid patient Sir Keir Starmer.
Wearing a chic dress that showed off her thighs, the Labour deputy leader was channelling her inner Sharon Stone.
Boris has always had a tendresse for women with basic instincts."
So an article notes that the Big Dog can't help shagging women. And then every Tory tries to blame the woman.
Sounds like the original intention was to put it about that Boris's virility is the reason why he's crap at debates. What's the timeline with the porn bloke? Was the story later revived to distract from him?
Makes them sound like a very un-serious political party.
I don't think they should be dismissed as 'un-serious'. This type of thinking is extremely dangerous. One of the few good things about the war in Ukraine is that it reveals this for what it is.
In my view if Raynor did do as alleged it was a very funny and private joke. Good for her, and a very dismal thing for anyone to make capital out of it. If she didn't do as alleged then it's outrageous that it's been suggested.
Tories again looking bloody ridiculous, and from an an entirely unforced error.
Quite. They'd be well advised to move on.
"She knows she can't compete with his Oxford Union debating skills so she uses some skills he doesn't have."
Unpack that and puke.
You think it’s permissible for a shadow cabinet minister to flash her vagina at the prime minister so as to unsettle him?
No wonder you want people to move on from the topic
This cannot be simultaneously “a funny private joke if it happened” but “a totally outrageous slur if it didn’t happen”
We can all be pretty clear that she hasn't. But I do agree that these vagina-wielding fiends should be kept away from rampant stallions like the Big Dog.
One sniff of flange and he's off. You can't stop him, before you can say "you can't afford the child maintenance payments" he's already shagged it and knocked it up.
The evidence now suggests that she really did do this, and then joked about it. Read Isabel Oakeshott’s otherwise-sympathetic piece in the Spectator
Personally I find her cunning stunt mildly amusing, but I’m probably in a minority. More importantly, Labour made such a meal of the accusation being a vile piece of misogynist abuse they can’t now walk it back and say “oh well it was just a gag, isn’t she a card, let’s all move on”
The evidence? What fucking evidence. You have consumed too much sazerac.
Pretty clear she jokes about it. So all the self pitying feminist victimology was just bollocks.
Does she actually DO it? I’ve no idea. Nor do you
She jokes about it. After the Hate Mail wrote it and she decided to own their abuse.
Here's a radical idea. How about the neanderthal members of the cabinet maintain their ability to think and act rationally in proximity to women?
As ever in these situations, it's a good idea to swap genders and think if your reactions are the same. Would you have the same reaction to a male MP 'joking' privately about flashing their genitalia to distract a female opponent?
I'd also point out that no political party is free from such neandertals. You do not need to dig deep in the Conservatives, Labour, Lib Dems or the SNP to find prominent members who have had issues with the opposite sex.
As such - and I'm not excusing it - it is a symptom of a wider malaise in society.
I gave you the reverse angle. I was accused of only hiring hotties. Which I parodied by saying "I am Hugh Heffner" whenever anyone mentioned either the accusation or made reference to the person who made it.
Here the Daily Mail writes a smear - she wears clothes to try and distract poor Boris like Sharon Stone. She owns it by saying "yep, it's true".
And that's the point. Your suggestion that all parties are full of sleazeballs is exactly what the Tories are trying to suggest. To save a man who accidentally can't look at a woman without wanting to shag it.
Yet it's not him who gets the grief. Its the women.
Except her jokes came BEFORE the Daily Mail story, and the jokes kicked it all off
Other than that, good point
Which DM story? The origin of the meme looks like it was back in January. Timeline is here:
In my view if Raynor did do as alleged it was a very funny and private joke. Good for her, and a very dismal thing for anyone to make capital out of it. If she didn't do as alleged then it's outrageous that it's been suggested.
Tories again looking bloody ridiculous, and from an an entirely unforced error.
Quite. They'd be well advised to move on.
"She knows she can't compete with his Oxford Union debating skills so she uses some skills he doesn't have."
Unpack that and puke.
You think it’s permissible for a shadow cabinet minister to flash her vagina at the prime minister so as to unsettle him?
No wonder you want people to move on from the topic
This cannot be simultaneously “a funny private joke if it happened” but “a totally outrageous slur if it didn’t happen”
We can all be pretty clear that she hasn't. But I do agree that these vagina-wielding fiends should be kept away from rampant stallions like the Big Dog.
One sniff of flange and he's off. You can't stop him, before you can say "you can't afford the child maintenance payments" he's already shagged it and knocked it up.
The evidence now suggests that she really did do this, and then joked about it. Read Isabel Oakeshott’s otherwise-sympathetic piece in the Spectator
Personally I find her cunning stunt mildly amusing, but I’m probably in a minority. More importantly, Labour made such a meal of the accusation being a vile piece of misogynist abuse they can’t now walk it back and say “oh well it was just a gag, isn’t she a card, let’s all move on”
The evidence? What fucking evidence. You have consumed too much sazerac.
Pretty clear she jokes about it. So all the self pitying feminist victimology was just bollocks.
Does she actually DO it? I’ve no idea. Nor do you
She jokes about it. After the Hate Mail wrote it and she decided to own their abuse.
Here's a radical idea. How about the neanderthal members of the cabinet maintain their ability to think and act rationally in proximity to women?
As ever in these situations, it's a good idea to swap genders and think if your reactions are the same. Would you have the same reaction to a male MP 'joking' privately about flashing their genitalia to distract a female opponent?
I'd also point out that no political party is free from such neandertals. You do not need to dig deep in the Conservatives, Labour, Lib Dems or the SNP to find prominent members who have had issues with the opposite sex.
As such - and I'm not excusing it - it is a symptom of a wider malaise in society.
I gave you the reverse angle. I was accused of only hiring hotties. Which I parodied by saying "I am Hugh Heffner" whenever anyone mentioned either the accusation or made reference to the person who made it.
Here the Daily Mail writes a smear - she wears clothes to try and distract poor Boris like Sharon Stone. She owns it by saying "yep, it's true".
And that's the point. Your suggestion that all parties are full of sleazeballs is exactly what the Tories are trying to suggest. To save a man who accidentally can't look at a woman without wanting to shag it.
Yet it's not him who gets the grief. Its the women.
Except her jokes came BEFORE the Daily Mail story, and the jokes kicked it all off
Other than that, good point
Which DM story? The origin of the meme looks like it was back in January. Timeline is here:
Fair enough. That does look like it started with the Mail, not Rayner. I withdraw my VILE SLUR
I’m a tiny bit disappointed it’s probably untrue. As I say, I quite like Rayner - and this matches my estimation of her as being feisty and sassy
She is all that. And proper northern and gobby and loud. And smarter than she looks and sounds. Which drives the Tories nuts.
But flashing at the PM? A smear made up by the Mail. Owned by her. Then adopted as another smear.
As has been pointe doubt above this is an absurd final week for the Tories. They really have not no clue what they are doing any more.
I’m certainly not going to argue that the Tories are looking impressive. They give all the signals of a government out of energy and, maybe, basic lust for power
They need a period in opposition.
I’m just depressed that the incoming Labour govt looks so utterly uninspiring. At least when Blair got in he brought a real sense of optimism. I was not immune to it myself. Keir Starmer does not do that
However re: American settlement, demographic and cultural impact - Germany says hello.
Ditto Dutch, Swedes, Finns and of course French (already mentioned), Spanish and (lest we forget) Indians. Plus Africans, who had to adapt the most to the ways & whims of others, but in the process put their own twist on things in ways much copied from then to now.
BTW, my guess is that the quintessential American food is . . . wait for it . . . fruit pie.
"Violence is as American as cherry pie." - Rap Brown
It's a great book. No driving narrative; lots of long lists of facts and stats - but genuinely interesting.
It would seem that Labour's slogan for the local elections is On Your Side.
What do people reckon? It's obviously short and fairly meaningless, as these things tend to be. But I reckon it's not bad tactically as a contrast with current Tory woes.
People in the Deep South have an endearing habit of telling you profound gossip about their private lives as soon as you meet them
“Yes, I’m from Uber, get in, I guess you know my wife ran off with the neighbour? Yes. And I’ve only just recovered from six heart attacks in a row. How’s your day?”
The first man I met in New Orleans was a sweaty, morbidly obese man who told me he was a “bounty hunter” and was in town for a “bounty hunter’s convention”.
He spied a woman walking down the street and his eye followed her with what I can only describe as a rapist’s gaze.
Only in America!
New Orleans IS a place where Americans - especially from elsewhere - really do think they can let it all hang out.
For example, the traditional way that women can (and do) acquire more beads during Mardi Gras.
Once visited the French Quarter with a guy I know pretty slightly from school, he was there to attend the Sugar Bowl. We went into a bar, had a couple drinks - and he started TOUCHING one of the somewhat scantily-dressed women working there. The bouncer was NOT pleased to put it mildly, took my smoothest apologizing for this idiot to get us out in one piece.
Milking tourists & other out-of-towners for all their worth, is of course THE leading industry in the Crescent City and has been for a LONG time, certainly before Abe Lincoln landed their via flat-boat, and walked back to the Midwest via . . . wait for it . . . the Natchez Trace.
Generally locals want this to be as enjoyable and painless for visitors as possible.
Does breed a certain level of what you might call contempt for outsiders who are birds of passage. For example, a restaurant noted for having tour buses out front or in the parking lot, is NOT likely to attract the locals. Leastways not back in the day.
Which ones sorry? Are they happy to perjure themselves in court 🤣
This Tory campaign and their help from media friends is thick as mince. They made this outrageous claim against Rayner without any evidence or witnesses, at the start of a week, by end of the week a Tory MP resigns for watching porn whilst sat in the chamber amongst his colleagues. Worse, The Mail are determined to keep Partygate fresh in voters minds all the way up to election.
Far far worse than that, positive campaigning such as, “we are only having these elections and living normally not locked down in zero covid hell like China, because Boris got the big calls right.” “Full employment and best G7 growth becuase Boris and his team got the big calls right.” “Brexit delivered and painlessly, foundations laid good times on the way.” These positive headlines and stories would have won votes. Their negative campaign threw votes and credibility away.
Daily Mail editors and Tory Chairman and all at CCHQ are clueless idiots. Simples.
This is the art of the rebuttal - most parties have individuals or teams whose sole purpose is to hit back hard and fast at any negative story.
In a sense, PB often functions as a rebuttal unit - some rebut for the Government, some for the Opposition parties but the point or art is to persuade someone (not sure who) the story is "good" for them and "bad" for their opponents.
It's thought within political campaigning if you don't get out and smother bad news stories or seek to spin them they will seep into the public consciousness and have an electoral impact.
I don't why we do it on here - most of us are fairly fixed in our view. As you suggest, it's often best to move the news cycle on to something more favourable.
Really Stodge? But the way Labour played unfussy straight bat this week to the “reopen beergate” hysterics has worked for them brilliantly hasn’t it? The exasperated sigh, “politicians up and down the land were campaigning hard and having a late working supper that week, hence the police statement there’s nothing for them to investigate” with the look at the interviewer to make the interviewer look embarrassed for raising it, it’s worked brilliantly for them.
Sometimes less is more. That’s the call they made about how to deal with it. Certainly in leadership, the confident “nothing to see here, now let’s get on with proper stuff” vibe works well. Very artful in itself.
In my view if Raynor did do as alleged it was a very funny and private joke. Good for her, and a very dismal thing for anyone to make capital out of it. If she didn't do as alleged then it's outrageous that it's been suggested.
Tories again looking bloody ridiculous, and from an an entirely unforced error.
Quite. They'd be well advised to move on.
"She knows she can't compete with his Oxford Union debating skills so she uses some skills he doesn't have."
Unpack that and puke.
You think it’s permissible for a shadow cabinet minister to flash her vagina at the prime minister so as to unsettle him?
No wonder you want people to move on from the topic
This cannot be simultaneously “a funny private joke if it happened” but “a totally outrageous slur if it didn’t happen”
We can all be pretty clear that she hasn't. But I do agree that these vagina-wielding fiends should be kept away from rampant stallions like the Big Dog.
One sniff of flange and he's off. You can't stop him, before you can say "you can't afford the child maintenance payments" he's already shagged it and knocked it up.
The evidence now suggests that she really did do this, and then joked about it. Read Isabel Oakeshott’s otherwise-sympathetic piece in the Spectator
Personally I find her cunning stunt mildly amusing, but I’m probably in a minority. More importantly, Labour made such a meal of the accusation being a vile piece of misogynist abuse they can’t now walk it back and say “oh well it was just a gag, isn’t she a card, let’s all move on”
The evidence? What fucking evidence. You have consumed too much sazerac.
Pretty clear she jokes about it. So all the self pitying feminist victimology was just bollocks.
Does she actually DO it? I’ve no idea. Nor do you
She jokes about it. After the Hate Mail wrote it and she decided to own their abuse.
Here's a radical idea. How about the neanderthal members of the cabinet maintain their ability to think and act rationally in proximity to women?
As ever in these situations, it's a good idea to swap genders and think if your reactions are the same. Would you have the same reaction to a male MP 'joking' privately about flashing their genitalia to distract a female opponent?
I'd also point out that no political party is free from such neandertals. You do not need to dig deep in the Conservatives, Labour, Lib Dems or the SNP to find prominent members who have had issues with the opposite sex.
As such - and I'm not excusing it - it is a symptom of a wider malaise in society.
I gave you the reverse angle. I was accused of only hiring hotties. Which I parodied by saying "I am Hugh Heffner" whenever anyone mentioned either the accusation or made reference to the person who made it.
Here the Daily Mail writes a smear - she wears clothes to try and distract poor Boris like Sharon Stone. She owns it by saying "yep, it's true".
And that's the point. Your suggestion that all parties are full of sleazeballs is exactly what the Tories are trying to suggest. To save a man who accidentally can't look at a woman without wanting to shag it.
Yet it's not him who gets the grief. Its the women.
Except her jokes came BEFORE the Daily Mail story, and the jokes kicked it all off
Other than that, good point
Which DM story? The origin of the meme looks like it was back in January. Timeline is here:
In my view if Raynor did do as alleged it was a very funny and private joke. Good for her, and a very dismal thing for anyone to make capital out of it. If she didn't do as alleged then it's outrageous that it's been suggested.
Tories again looking bloody ridiculous, and from an an entirely unforced error.
Quite. They'd be well advised to move on.
"She knows she can't compete with his Oxford Union debating skills so she uses some skills he doesn't have."
Unpack that and puke.
You think it’s permissible for a shadow cabinet minister to flash her vagina at the prime minister so as to unsettle him?
No wonder you want people to move on from the topic
This cannot be simultaneously “a funny private joke if it happened” but “a totally outrageous slur if it didn’t happen”
We can all be pretty clear that she hasn't. But I do agree that these vagina-wielding fiends should be kept away from rampant stallions like the Big Dog.
One sniff of flange and he's off. You can't stop him, before you can say "you can't afford the child maintenance payments" he's already shagged it and knocked it up.
The evidence now suggests that she really did do this, and then joked about it. Read Isabel Oakeshott’s otherwise-sympathetic piece in the Spectator
Personally I find her cunning stunt mildly amusing, but I’m probably in a minority. More importantly, Labour made such a meal of the accusation being a vile piece of misogynist abuse they can’t now walk it back and say “oh well it was just a gag, isn’t she a card, let’s all move on”
The evidence? What fucking evidence. You have consumed too much sazerac.
Pretty clear she jokes about it. So all the self pitying feminist victimology was just bollocks.
Does she actually DO it? I’ve no idea. Nor do you
She jokes about it. After the Hate Mail wrote it and she decided to own their abuse.
Here's a radical idea. How about the neanderthal members of the cabinet maintain their ability to think and act rationally in proximity to women?
As ever in these situations, it's a good idea to swap genders and think if your reactions are the same. Would you have the same reaction to a male MP 'joking' privately about flashing their genitalia to distract a female opponent?
I'd also point out that no political party is free from such neandertals. You do not need to dig deep in the Conservatives, Labour, Lib Dems or the SNP to find prominent members who have had issues with the opposite sex.
As such - and I'm not excusing it - it is a symptom of a wider malaise in society.
I gave you the reverse angle. I was accused of only hiring hotties. Which I parodied by saying "I am Hugh Heffner" whenever anyone mentioned either the accusation or made reference to the person who made it.
Here the Daily Mail writes a smear - she wears clothes to try and distract poor Boris like Sharon Stone. She owns it by saying "yep, it's true".
And that's the point. Your suggestion that all parties are full of sleazeballs is exactly what the Tories are trying to suggest. To save a man who accidentally can't look at a woman without wanting to shag it.
Yet it's not him who gets the grief. Its the women.
Except her jokes came BEFORE the Daily Mail story, and the jokes kicked it all off
Other than that, good point
Which DM story? The origin of the meme looks like it was back in January. Timeline is here:
Fair enough. That does look like it started with the Mail, not Rayner. I withdraw my VILE SLUR
I’m a tiny bit disappointed it’s probably untrue. As I say, I quite like Rayner - and this matches my estimation of her as being feisty and sassy
She is all that. And proper northern and gobby and loud. And smarter than she looks and sounds. Which drives the Tories nuts.
But flashing at the PM? A smear made up by the Mail. Owned by her. Then adopted as another smear.
As has been pointe doubt above this is an absurd final week for the Tories. They really have not no clue what they are doing any more.
Stuff the effect on the Conservatives. The really funny bit has been the effect on The Mail.
For most of my lifetime, they have skilfully walked a line of being the Decent Peoples' Paper whilst being pretty indecent themselves. But always with just enough plausible deniability to remain respectable.
With both Growler(not)gate and Beer(not)gate, they have overstepped the line and been called out on it. Hence the shouty denials and accusations. It won't make much difference to anything, but it is amusing to see.
Just spent a wonderful family day in Southwold. A bit chillier than I would have liked, but fun. It was also bittersweet: my parents are getting older and noticeably frailer now. Where once they would have walked from the pier to the harbour and back, they now drive.
Thank goodness Covid is essentially over, so we can at least spend these more of these precious moments together.
@Jossiasjessop To be fair that is not an insignificant walk. My wife and dog returned from our Southwold house today. She escaped from me for a week as now I am on crutches and can get about and look after myself. But no point in me going there if not mobile.
Where do you stay? My wife was looking at rental prices today and they are ridiculous.
In my view if Raynor did do as alleged it was a very funny and private joke. Good for her, and a very dismal thing for anyone to make capital out of it. If she didn't do as alleged then it's outrageous that it's been suggested.
Tories again looking bloody ridiculous, and from an an entirely unforced error.
Quite. They'd be well advised to move on.
"She knows she can't compete with his Oxford Union debating skills so she uses some skills he doesn't have."
Unpack that and puke.
You think it’s permissible for a shadow cabinet minister to flash her vagina at the prime minister so as to unsettle him?
No wonder you want people to move on from the topic
This cannot be simultaneously “a funny private joke if it happened” but “a totally outrageous slur if it didn’t happen”
We can all be pretty clear that she hasn't. But I do agree that these vagina-wielding fiends should be kept away from rampant stallions like the Big Dog.
One sniff of flange and he's off. You can't stop him, before you can say "you can't afford the child maintenance payments" he's already shagged it and knocked it up.
The evidence now suggests that she really did do this, and then joked about it. Read Isabel Oakeshott’s otherwise-sympathetic piece in the Spectator
Personally I find her cunning stunt mildly amusing, but I’m probably in a minority. More importantly, Labour made such a meal of the accusation being a vile piece of misogynist abuse they can’t now walk it back and say “oh well it was just a gag, isn’t she a card, let’s all move on”
The evidence? What fucking evidence. You have consumed too much sazerac.
Pretty clear she jokes about it. So all the self pitying feminist victimology was just bollocks.
Does she actually DO it? I’ve no idea. Nor do you
She jokes about it. After the Hate Mail wrote it and she decided to own their abuse.
Here's a radical idea. How about the neanderthal members of the cabinet maintain their ability to think and act rationally in proximity to women?
As ever in these situations, it's a good idea to swap genders and think if your reactions are the same. Would you have the same reaction to a male MP 'joking' privately about flashing their genitalia to distract a female opponent?
I'd also point out that no political party is free from such neandertals. You do not need to dig deep in the Conservatives, Labour, Lib Dems or the SNP to find prominent members who have had issues with the opposite sex.
As such - and I'm not excusing it - it is a symptom of a wider malaise in society.
I gave you the reverse angle. I was accused of only hiring hotties. Which I parodied by saying "I am Hugh Heffner" whenever anyone mentioned either the accusation or made reference to the person who made it.
Here the Daily Mail writes a smear - she wears clothes to try and distract poor Boris like Sharon Stone. She owns it by saying "yep, it's true".
And that's the point. Your suggestion that all parties are full of sleazeballs is exactly what the Tories are trying to suggest. To save a man who accidentally can't look at a woman without wanting to shag it.
Yet it's not him who gets the grief. Its the women.
Except her jokes came BEFORE the Daily Mail story, and the jokes kicked it all off
Other than that, good point
Which DM story? The origin of the meme looks like it was back in January. Timeline is here:
In my view if Raynor did do as alleged it was a very funny and private joke. Good for her, and a very dismal thing for anyone to make capital out of it. If she didn't do as alleged then it's outrageous that it's been suggested.
Tories again looking bloody ridiculous, and from an an entirely unforced error.
Quite. They'd be well advised to move on.
"She knows she can't compete with his Oxford Union debating skills so she uses some skills he doesn't have."
Unpack that and puke.
You think it’s permissible for a shadow cabinet minister to flash her vagina at the prime minister so as to unsettle him?
No wonder you want people to move on from the topic
This cannot be simultaneously “a funny private joke if it happened” but “a totally outrageous slur if it didn’t happen”
We can all be pretty clear that she hasn't. But I do agree that these vagina-wielding fiends should be kept away from rampant stallions like the Big Dog.
One sniff of flange and he's off. You can't stop him, before you can say "you can't afford the child maintenance payments" he's already shagged it and knocked it up.
The evidence now suggests that she really did do this, and then joked about it. Read Isabel Oakeshott’s otherwise-sympathetic piece in the Spectator
Personally I find her cunning stunt mildly amusing, but I’m probably in a minority. More importantly, Labour made such a meal of the accusation being a vile piece of misogynist abuse they can’t now walk it back and say “oh well it was just a gag, isn’t she a card, let’s all move on”
The evidence? What fucking evidence. You have consumed too much sazerac.
Pretty clear she jokes about it. So all the self pitying feminist victimology was just bollocks.
Does she actually DO it? I’ve no idea. Nor do you
She jokes about it. After the Hate Mail wrote it and she decided to own their abuse.
Here's a radical idea. How about the neanderthal members of the cabinet maintain their ability to think and act rationally in proximity to women?
As ever in these situations, it's a good idea to swap genders and think if your reactions are the same. Would you have the same reaction to a male MP 'joking' privately about flashing their genitalia to distract a female opponent?
I'd also point out that no political party is free from such neandertals. You do not need to dig deep in the Conservatives, Labour, Lib Dems or the SNP to find prominent members who have had issues with the opposite sex.
As such - and I'm not excusing it - it is a symptom of a wider malaise in society.
I gave you the reverse angle. I was accused of only hiring hotties. Which I parodied by saying "I am Hugh Heffner" whenever anyone mentioned either the accusation or made reference to the person who made it.
Here the Daily Mail writes a smear - she wears clothes to try and distract poor Boris like Sharon Stone. She owns it by saying "yep, it's true".
And that's the point. Your suggestion that all parties are full of sleazeballs is exactly what the Tories are trying to suggest. To save a man who accidentally can't look at a woman without wanting to shag it.
Yet it's not him who gets the grief. Its the women.
Except her jokes came BEFORE the Daily Mail story, and the jokes kicked it all off
Other than that, good point
Which DM story? The origin of the meme looks like it was back in January. Timeline is here:
Fair enough. That does look like it started with the Mail, not Rayner. I withdraw my VILE SLUR
I’m a tiny bit disappointed it’s probably untrue. As I say, I quite like Rayner - and this matches my estimation of her as being feisty and sassy
She is all that. And proper northern and gobby and loud. And smarter than she looks and sounds. Which drives the Tories nuts.
But flashing at the PM? A smear made up by the Mail. Owned by her. Then adopted as another smear.
As has been pointe doubt above this is an absurd final week for the Tories. They really have not no clue what they are doing any more.
I’m certainly not going to argue that the Tories are looking impressive. They give all the signals of a government out of energy and, maybe, basic lust for power
They need a period in opposition.
I’m just depressed that the incoming Labour govt looks so utterly uninspiring. At least when Blair got in he brought a real sense of optimism. I was not immune to it myself. Keir Starmer does not do that
Some elements of truth in that but Blair disappointed on the down side - he left office as a war criminal. Even the disingenuous fat fornicator will not leave on such a low.
Just spent a wonderful family day in Southwold. A bit chillier than I would have liked, but fun. It was also bittersweet: my parents are getting older and noticeably frailer now. Where once they would have walked from the pier to the harbour and back, they now drive.
Thank goodness Covid is essentially over, so we can at least spend these more of these precious moments together.
Have they considered an electrically-aided bike? My mum used that and finds it wonderfully helpful
They are all the rage in Seattle, in large part due to our hills. Most definitely should wear a helmet!
In my view if Raynor did do as alleged it was a very funny and private joke. Good for her, and a very dismal thing for anyone to make capital out of it. If she didn't do as alleged then it's outrageous that it's been suggested.
Tories again looking bloody ridiculous, and from an an entirely unforced error.
Quite. They'd be well advised to move on.
"She knows she can't compete with his Oxford Union debating skills so she uses some skills he doesn't have."
Unpack that and puke.
You think it’s permissible for a shadow cabinet minister to flash her vagina at the prime minister so as to unsettle him?
No wonder you want people to move on from the topic
This cannot be simultaneously “a funny private joke if it happened” but “a totally outrageous slur if it didn’t happen”
We can all be pretty clear that she hasn't. But I do agree that these vagina-wielding fiends should be kept away from rampant stallions like the Big Dog.
One sniff of flange and he's off. You can't stop him, before you can say "you can't afford the child maintenance payments" he's already shagged it and knocked it up.
The evidence now suggests that she really did do this, and then joked about it. Read Isabel Oakeshott’s otherwise-sympathetic piece in the Spectator
Personally I find her cunning stunt mildly amusing, but I’m probably in a minority. More importantly, Labour made such a meal of the accusation being a vile piece of misogynist abuse they can’t now walk it back and say “oh well it was just a gag, isn’t she a card, let’s all move on”
The evidence? What fucking evidence. You have consumed too much sazerac.
Pretty clear she jokes about it. So all the self pitying feminist victimology was just bollocks.
Does she actually DO it? I’ve no idea. Nor do you
She jokes about it. After the Hate Mail wrote it and she decided to own their abuse.
Here's a radical idea. How about the neanderthal members of the cabinet maintain their ability to think and act rationally in proximity to women?
As ever in these situations, it's a good idea to swap genders and think if your reactions are the same. Would you have the same reaction to a male MP 'joking' privately about flashing their genitalia to distract a female opponent?
I'd also point out that no political party is free from such neandertals. You do not need to dig deep in the Conservatives, Labour, Lib Dems or the SNP to find prominent members who have had issues with the opposite sex.
As such - and I'm not excusing it - it is a symptom of a wider malaise in society.
I gave you the reverse angle. I was accused of only hiring hotties. Which I parodied by saying "I am Hugh Heffner" whenever anyone mentioned either the accusation or made reference to the person who made it.
Here the Daily Mail writes a smear - she wears clothes to try and distract poor Boris like Sharon Stone. She owns it by saying "yep, it's true".
And that's the point. Your suggestion that all parties are full of sleazeballs is exactly what the Tories are trying to suggest. To save a man who accidentally can't look at a woman without wanting to shag it.
Yet it's not him who gets the grief. Its the women.
Except her jokes came BEFORE the Daily Mail story, and the jokes kicked it all off
Other than that, good point
Which DM story? The origin of the meme looks like it was back in January. Timeline is here:
In my view if Raynor did do as alleged it was a very funny and private joke. Good for her, and a very dismal thing for anyone to make capital out of it. If she didn't do as alleged then it's outrageous that it's been suggested.
Tories again looking bloody ridiculous, and from an an entirely unforced error.
Quite. They'd be well advised to move on.
"She knows she can't compete with his Oxford Union debating skills so she uses some skills he doesn't have."
Unpack that and puke.
You think it’s permissible for a shadow cabinet minister to flash her vagina at the prime minister so as to unsettle him?
No wonder you want people to move on from the topic
This cannot be simultaneously “a funny private joke if it happened” but “a totally outrageous slur if it didn’t happen”
We can all be pretty clear that she hasn't. But I do agree that these vagina-wielding fiends should be kept away from rampant stallions like the Big Dog.
One sniff of flange and he's off. You can't stop him, before you can say "you can't afford the child maintenance payments" he's already shagged it and knocked it up.
The evidence now suggests that she really did do this, and then joked about it. Read Isabel Oakeshott’s otherwise-sympathetic piece in the Spectator
Personally I find her cunning stunt mildly amusing, but I’m probably in a minority. More importantly, Labour made such a meal of the accusation being a vile piece of misogynist abuse they can’t now walk it back and say “oh well it was just a gag, isn’t she a card, let’s all move on”
The evidence? What fucking evidence. You have consumed too much sazerac.
Pretty clear she jokes about it. So all the self pitying feminist victimology was just bollocks.
Does she actually DO it? I’ve no idea. Nor do you
She jokes about it. After the Hate Mail wrote it and she decided to own their abuse.
Here's a radical idea. How about the neanderthal members of the cabinet maintain their ability to think and act rationally in proximity to women?
As ever in these situations, it's a good idea to swap genders and think if your reactions are the same. Would you have the same reaction to a male MP 'joking' privately about flashing their genitalia to distract a female opponent?
I'd also point out that no political party is free from such neandertals. You do not need to dig deep in the Conservatives, Labour, Lib Dems or the SNP to find prominent members who have had issues with the opposite sex.
As such - and I'm not excusing it - it is a symptom of a wider malaise in society.
I gave you the reverse angle. I was accused of only hiring hotties. Which I parodied by saying "I am Hugh Heffner" whenever anyone mentioned either the accusation or made reference to the person who made it.
Here the Daily Mail writes a smear - she wears clothes to try and distract poor Boris like Sharon Stone. She owns it by saying "yep, it's true".
And that's the point. Your suggestion that all parties are full of sleazeballs is exactly what the Tories are trying to suggest. To save a man who accidentally can't look at a woman without wanting to shag it.
Yet it's not him who gets the grief. Its the women.
Except her jokes came BEFORE the Daily Mail story, and the jokes kicked it all off
Other than that, good point
Which DM story? The origin of the meme looks like it was back in January. Timeline is here:
Fair enough. That does look like it started with the Mail, not Rayner. I withdraw my VILE SLUR
I’m a tiny bit disappointed it’s probably untrue. As I say, I quite like Rayner - and this matches my estimation of her as being feisty and sassy
She is all that. And proper northern and gobby and loud. And smarter than she looks and sounds. Which drives the Tories nuts.
But flashing at the PM? A smear made up by the Mail. Owned by her. Then adopted as another smear.
As has been pointe doubt above this is an absurd final week for the Tories. They really have not no clue what they are doing any more.
I’m certainly not going to argue that the Tories are looking impressive. They give all the signals of a government out of energy and, maybe, basic lust for power
They need a period in opposition.
I’m just depressed that the incoming Labour govt looks so utterly uninspiring. At least when Blair got in he brought a real sense of optimism. I was not immune to it myself. Keir Starmer does not do that
In my view if Raynor did do as alleged it was a very funny and private joke. Good for her, and a very dismal thing for anyone to make capital out of it. If she didn't do as alleged then it's outrageous that it's been suggested.
Tories again looking bloody ridiculous, and from an an entirely unforced error.
Quite. They'd be well advised to move on.
"She knows she can't compete with his Oxford Union debating skills so she uses some skills he doesn't have."
Unpack that and puke.
You think it’s permissible for a shadow cabinet minister to flash her vagina at the prime minister so as to unsettle him?
No wonder you want people to move on from the topic
This cannot be simultaneously “a funny private joke if it happened” but “a totally outrageous slur if it didn’t happen”
We can all be pretty clear that she hasn't. But I do agree that these vagina-wielding fiends should be kept away from rampant stallions like the Big Dog.
One sniff of flange and he's off. You can't stop him, before you can say "you can't afford the child maintenance payments" he's already shagged it and knocked it up.
The evidence now suggests that she really did do this, and then joked about it. Read Isabel Oakeshott’s otherwise-sympathetic piece in the Spectator
Personally I find her cunning stunt mildly amusing, but I’m probably in a minority. More importantly, Labour made such a meal of the accusation being a vile piece of misogynist abuse they can’t now walk it back and say “oh well it was just a gag, isn’t she a card, let’s all move on”
The evidence? What fucking evidence. You have consumed too much sazerac.
Pretty clear she jokes about it. So all the self pitying feminist victimology was just bollocks.
Does she actually DO it? I’ve no idea. Nor do you
She jokes about it. After the Hate Mail wrote it and she decided to own their abuse.
Here's a radical idea. How about the neanderthal members of the cabinet maintain their ability to think and act rationally in proximity to women?
As ever in these situations, it's a good idea to swap genders and think if your reactions are the same. Would you have the same reaction to a male MP 'joking' privately about flashing their genitalia to distract a female opponent?
I'd also point out that no political party is free from such neandertals. You do not need to dig deep in the Conservatives, Labour, Lib Dems or the SNP to find prominent members who have had issues with the opposite sex.
As such - and I'm not excusing it - it is a symptom of a wider malaise in society.
I gave you the reverse angle. I was accused of only hiring hotties. Which I parodied by saying "I am Hugh Heffner" whenever anyone mentioned either the accusation or made reference to the person who made it.
Here the Daily Mail writes a smear - she wears clothes to try and distract poor Boris like Sharon Stone. She owns it by saying "yep, it's true".
And that's the point. Your suggestion that all parties are full of sleazeballs is exactly what the Tories are trying to suggest. To save a man who accidentally can't look at a woman without wanting to shag it.
Yet it's not him who gets the grief. Its the women.
Except her jokes came BEFORE the Daily Mail story, and the jokes kicked it all off
Other than that, good point
Which DM story? The origin of the meme looks like it was back in January. Timeline is here:
In my view if Raynor did do as alleged it was a very funny and private joke. Good for her, and a very dismal thing for anyone to make capital out of it. If she didn't do as alleged then it's outrageous that it's been suggested.
Tories again looking bloody ridiculous, and from an an entirely unforced error.
Quite. They'd be well advised to move on.
"She knows she can't compete with his Oxford Union debating skills so she uses some skills he doesn't have."
Unpack that and puke.
You think it’s permissible for a shadow cabinet minister to flash her vagina at the prime minister so as to unsettle him?
No wonder you want people to move on from the topic
This cannot be simultaneously “a funny private joke if it happened” but “a totally outrageous slur if it didn’t happen”
We can all be pretty clear that she hasn't. But I do agree that these vagina-wielding fiends should be kept away from rampant stallions like the Big Dog.
One sniff of flange and he's off. You can't stop him, before you can say "you can't afford the child maintenance payments" he's already shagged it and knocked it up.
The evidence now suggests that she really did do this, and then joked about it. Read Isabel Oakeshott’s otherwise-sympathetic piece in the Spectator
Personally I find her cunning stunt mildly amusing, but I’m probably in a minority. More importantly, Labour made such a meal of the accusation being a vile piece of misogynist abuse they can’t now walk it back and say “oh well it was just a gag, isn’t she a card, let’s all move on”
The evidence? What fucking evidence. You have consumed too much sazerac.
Pretty clear she jokes about it. So all the self pitying feminist victimology was just bollocks.
Does she actually DO it? I’ve no idea. Nor do you
She jokes about it. After the Hate Mail wrote it and she decided to own their abuse.
Here's a radical idea. How about the neanderthal members of the cabinet maintain their ability to think and act rationally in proximity to women?
As ever in these situations, it's a good idea to swap genders and think if your reactions are the same. Would you have the same reaction to a male MP 'joking' privately about flashing their genitalia to distract a female opponent?
I'd also point out that no political party is free from such neandertals. You do not need to dig deep in the Conservatives, Labour, Lib Dems or the SNP to find prominent members who have had issues with the opposite sex.
As such - and I'm not excusing it - it is a symptom of a wider malaise in society.
I gave you the reverse angle. I was accused of only hiring hotties. Which I parodied by saying "I am Hugh Heffner" whenever anyone mentioned either the accusation or made reference to the person who made it.
Here the Daily Mail writes a smear - she wears clothes to try and distract poor Boris like Sharon Stone. She owns it by saying "yep, it's true".
And that's the point. Your suggestion that all parties are full of sleazeballs is exactly what the Tories are trying to suggest. To save a man who accidentally can't look at a woman without wanting to shag it.
Yet it's not him who gets the grief. Its the women.
Except her jokes came BEFORE the Daily Mail story, and the jokes kicked it all off
Other than that, good point
Which DM story? The origin of the meme looks like it was back in January. Timeline is here:
Fair enough. That does look like it started with the Mail, not Rayner. I withdraw my VILE SLUR
I’m a tiny bit disappointed it’s probably untrue. As I say, I quite like Rayner - and this matches my estimation of her as being feisty and sassy
She is all that. And proper northern and gobby and loud. And smarter than she looks and sounds. Which drives the Tories nuts.
But flashing at the PM? A smear made up by the Mail. Owned by her. Then adopted as another smear.
As has been pointe doubt above this is an absurd final week for the Tories. They really have not no clue what they are doing any more.
Stuff the effect on the Conservatives. The really funny bit has been the effect on The Mail.
For most of my lifetime, they have skilfully walked a line of being the Decent Peoples' Paper whilst being pretty indecent themselves. But always with just enough plausible deniability to remain respectable.
With both Growler(not)gate and Beer(not)gate, they have overstepped the line and been called out on it. Hence the shouty denials and accusations. It won't make much difference to anything, but it is amusing to see.
The Mail could have shut their problem down last Monday, but they decided to dig themselves deeper into the hole. Just a bad call from their editorial gang.
Didn’t Piers Morgan get sacked from a paper for deciding to double down on a similar stupid mistake?
Makes them sound like a very un-serious political party.
Great news for Libdems 😇
Well indeed. In my view, climate change is up there with nuclear war as an existential, if longer term, threat to the human race. When I lived in Germany, I happily voted Green for this reason, but the UK Greens are, sadly, indeed not a serious political party. So I vote Lib Dem in the UK (and have even run the tiny risk of being elected a councillor for them) since they take climate change and environmental degradation seriously but aren't (usually) away with the fairies.
In my view if Raynor did do as alleged it was a very funny and private joke. Good for her, and a very dismal thing for anyone to make capital out of it. If she didn't do as alleged then it's outrageous that it's been suggested.
Tories again looking bloody ridiculous, and from an an entirely unforced error.
Quite. They'd be well advised to move on.
"She knows she can't compete with his Oxford Union debating skills so she uses some skills he doesn't have."
Unpack that and puke.
You think it’s permissible for a shadow cabinet minister to flash her vagina at the prime minister so as to unsettle him?
No wonder you want people to move on from the topic
This cannot be simultaneously “a funny private joke if it happened” but “a totally outrageous slur if it didn’t happen”
We can all be pretty clear that she hasn't. But I do agree that these vagina-wielding fiends should be kept away from rampant stallions like the Big Dog.
One sniff of flange and he's off. You can't stop him, before you can say "you can't afford the child maintenance payments" he's already shagged it and knocked it up.
The evidence now suggests that she really did do this, and then joked about it. Read Isabel Oakeshott’s otherwise-sympathetic piece in the Spectator
Personally I find her cunning stunt mildly amusing, but I’m probably in a minority. More importantly, Labour made such a meal of the accusation being a vile piece of misogynist abuse they can’t now walk it back and say “oh well it was just a gag, isn’t she a card, let’s all move on”
The evidence? What fucking evidence. You have consumed too much sazerac.
Pretty clear she jokes about it. So all the self pitying feminist victimology was just bollocks.
Does she actually DO it? I’ve no idea. Nor do you
She jokes about it. After the Hate Mail wrote it and she decided to own their abuse.
Here's a radical idea. How about the neanderthal members of the cabinet maintain their ability to think and act rationally in proximity to women?
As ever in these situations, it's a good idea to swap genders and think if your reactions are the same. Would you have the same reaction to a male MP 'joking' privately about flashing their genitalia to distract a female opponent?
I'd also point out that no political party is free from such neandertals. You do not need to dig deep in the Conservatives, Labour, Lib Dems or the SNP to find prominent members who have had issues with the opposite sex.
As such - and I'm not excusing it - it is a symptom of a wider malaise in society.
I gave you the reverse angle. I was accused of only hiring hotties. Which I parodied by saying "I am Hugh Heffner" whenever anyone mentioned either the accusation or made reference to the person who made it.
Here the Daily Mail writes a smear - she wears clothes to try and distract poor Boris like Sharon Stone. She owns it by saying "yep, it's true".
And that's the point. Your suggestion that all parties are full of sleazeballs is exactly what the Tories are trying to suggest. To save a man who accidentally can't look at a woman without wanting to shag it.
Yet it's not him who gets the grief. Its the women.
Except her jokes came BEFORE the Daily Mail story, and the jokes kicked it all off
Other than that, good point
Which DM story? The origin of the meme looks like it was back in January. Timeline is here:
In my view if Raynor did do as alleged it was a very funny and private joke. Good for her, and a very dismal thing for anyone to make capital out of it. If she didn't do as alleged then it's outrageous that it's been suggested.
Tories again looking bloody ridiculous, and from an an entirely unforced error.
Quite. They'd be well advised to move on.
"She knows she can't compete with his Oxford Union debating skills so she uses some skills he doesn't have."
Unpack that and puke.
You think it’s permissible for a shadow cabinet minister to flash her vagina at the prime minister so as to unsettle him?
No wonder you want people to move on from the topic
This cannot be simultaneously “a funny private joke if it happened” but “a totally outrageous slur if it didn’t happen”
We can all be pretty clear that she hasn't. But I do agree that these vagina-wielding fiends should be kept away from rampant stallions like the Big Dog.
One sniff of flange and he's off. You can't stop him, before you can say "you can't afford the child maintenance payments" he's already shagged it and knocked it up.
The evidence now suggests that she really did do this, and then joked about it. Read Isabel Oakeshott’s otherwise-sympathetic piece in the Spectator
Personally I find her cunning stunt mildly amusing, but I’m probably in a minority. More importantly, Labour made such a meal of the accusation being a vile piece of misogynist abuse they can’t now walk it back and say “oh well it was just a gag, isn’t she a card, let’s all move on”
The evidence? What fucking evidence. You have consumed too much sazerac.
Pretty clear she jokes about it. So all the self pitying feminist victimology was just bollocks.
Does she actually DO it? I’ve no idea. Nor do you
She jokes about it. After the Hate Mail wrote it and she decided to own their abuse.
Here's a radical idea. How about the neanderthal members of the cabinet maintain their ability to think and act rationally in proximity to women?
As ever in these situations, it's a good idea to swap genders and think if your reactions are the same. Would you have the same reaction to a male MP 'joking' privately about flashing their genitalia to distract a female opponent?
I'd also point out that no political party is free from such neandertals. You do not need to dig deep in the Conservatives, Labour, Lib Dems or the SNP to find prominent members who have had issues with the opposite sex.
As such - and I'm not excusing it - it is a symptom of a wider malaise in society.
I gave you the reverse angle. I was accused of only hiring hotties. Which I parodied by saying "I am Hugh Heffner" whenever anyone mentioned either the accusation or made reference to the person who made it.
Here the Daily Mail writes a smear - she wears clothes to try and distract poor Boris like Sharon Stone. She owns it by saying "yep, it's true".
And that's the point. Your suggestion that all parties are full of sleazeballs is exactly what the Tories are trying to suggest. To save a man who accidentally can't look at a woman without wanting to shag it.
Yet it's not him who gets the grief. Its the women.
Except her jokes came BEFORE the Daily Mail story, and the jokes kicked it all off
Other than that, good point
Which DM story? The origin of the meme looks like it was back in January. Timeline is here:
Fair enough. That does look like it started with the Mail, not Rayner. I withdraw my VILE SLUR
I’m a tiny bit disappointed it’s probably untrue. As I say, I quite like Rayner - and this matches my estimation of her as being feisty and sassy
She is all that. And proper northern and gobby and loud. And smarter than she looks and sounds. Which drives the Tories nuts.
But flashing at the PM? A smear made up by the Mail. Owned by her. Then adopted as another smear.
As has been pointe doubt above this is an absurd final week for the Tories. They really have not no clue what they are doing any more.
I’m certainly not going to argue that the Tories are looking impressive. They give all the signals of a government out of energy and, maybe, basic lust for power
They need a period in opposition.
I’m just depressed that the incoming Labour govt looks so utterly uninspiring. At least when Blair got in he brought a real sense of optimism. I was not immune to it myself. Keir Starmer does not do that
Some elements of truth in that but Blair disappointed on the down side - he left office as a war criminal. Even the disingenuous fat fornicator will not leave on such a low.
In my view if Raynor did do as alleged it was a very funny and private joke. Good for her, and a very dismal thing for anyone to make capital out of it. If she didn't do as alleged then it's outrageous that it's been suggested.
Tories again looking bloody ridiculous, and from an an entirely unforced error.
Quite. They'd be well advised to move on.
"She knows she can't compete with his Oxford Union debating skills so she uses some skills he doesn't have."
Unpack that and puke.
You think it’s permissible for a shadow cabinet minister to flash her vagina at the prime minister so as to unsettle him?
No wonder you want people to move on from the topic
This cannot be simultaneously “a funny private joke if it happened” but “a totally outrageous slur if it didn’t happen”
We can all be pretty clear that she hasn't. But I do agree that these vagina-wielding fiends should be kept away from rampant stallions like the Big Dog.
One sniff of flange and he's off. You can't stop him, before you can say "you can't afford the child maintenance payments" he's already shagged it and knocked it up.
The evidence now suggests that she really did do this, and then joked about it. Read Isabel Oakeshott’s otherwise-sympathetic piece in the Spectator
Personally I find her cunning stunt mildly amusing, but I’m probably in a minority. More importantly, Labour made such a meal of the accusation being a vile piece of misogynist abuse they can’t now walk it back and say “oh well it was just a gag, isn’t she a card, let’s all move on”
The evidence? What fucking evidence. You have consumed too much sazerac.
Pretty clear she jokes about it. So all the self pitying feminist victimology was just bollocks.
Does she actually DO it? I’ve no idea. Nor do you
Barty Bobbins has the correct interpretation above.
He does. We all do bar "old school feminist" Leon. It's pretty obvious how this developed.
Desperate desperate Tories and Leon.
And that bloke from the Mail who keeps going on about it - Hodges.
Desperate Dan.
Whose article about it read like he was being held hostage somewhere by Lord Rothermere.
Quite. With minions pulling out every one of his pubic hairs with pliers, carefully isolating each individual one and extracting it, till he provides the needful tweet.
At 34%, this is a record high for Sinn Féin in a Red C poll since they began polling in 2003. Quote Tweet Next Irish General Election @NextIrishGE · 23h POLL - Dáil Éireann
Could be worse for Fine Gael I suppose but Sinn Fein does seem to have a completely solid third of the vote.
I think the possibility of a Sinn Fein-Fianna Fail coalition in 2025 is probably undervalued unless Sinn Fein can get over 35% of the vote and get close to 70 seats.
It's probably quite deep for a Sunday evening on PB but I wonder if the ruling class in Russia is suffering from a form of post-Imperial psychosis. Many countries who have enjoyed periods of "greatness" and who have then found themselves reduced have struggled to come to terms with the change, the loss of status, the loss of global importance.
To name but four, Spain, France, Germany and the United Kingdom have all had periods of being if not the dominant global power then certainly one of the leading powers. For France, I'd argue the defeat of 1940 and for Germany the defeat of 1945 shattered the final illusions of great power- they were physically humbled, ruined an conquered.
For Britain, it's been different - victory in 1945 left us bankrupt and Suez further confirmed the fact we were no longer at the top table. I'd argue much of our history since then has been a struggle for identity and purpose and we are still going through that to some degree.
For Russia, they were from 1945-89, one of the two dominant global powers. Then, within 18 months, it was gone with barely a shot fired. 30 years on, they can see the US and China moving ahead economically and militarily and while they still have nuclear weapons (as do we and the French), the truth (and Ukraine has brutally exposed this to the world if not the Russians themselves) is they are declining in world affairs. Yes, they are a significant regional power but the new bi-polar world order sits with Washington and Beijing. They can hook themselves to Beijing and become effectively a vassal of China or re-align to the West.
That's the internal struggle now within Russia - they have the power to ruin the world but not the power to restore the influence they once enjoyed. The world is moving away from their resources, their wealth and their influence. They face the marginalisation of irrelevance and that's what they struggle to accept.
On topic, I have arrived at the Nawlins Jazz fest (“no firearms allowed”) which looks like a total hoot
Except that I have no cash and no one takes cards (America, sort this out)
This is the line for the ATM
Yours truly last (and first) attended the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival in the late '70s. At same location as today, the Fairgrounds. Aside from the weather not being too hot (in a good way!) only remember two things:
> when you parked your car, a Black kid would immediately ask you, Mister, if you pay me $5 I'll watch your car. Proper answer by was, yes. This being a poor neighborhood, and was established means for local kids to get some money, legitimately. Because was also well-established, that the kid you gave the five-spot to, would, if need be, defend your car to the death. As a matter of honor.
> when I got in, plenty of great acts, but only one I remember was Doc Watson, who was fantastic. Toward the end of his set, he asked the crowd, what shall we do next? So people started shouting out their favorites. So I began bellowing out - "TENNESSEE STUD! TENNESSEE STUD!" And next thing, the band started playing . . . "Tennessee Stud"
It's probably quite deep for a Sunday evening on PB but I wonder if the ruling class in Russia is suffering from a form of post-Imperial psychosis. Many countries who have enjoyed periods of "greatness" and who have then found themselves reduced have struggled to come to terms with the change, the loss of status, the loss of global importance.
To name but four, Spain, France, Germany and the United Kingdom have all had periods of being if not the dominant global power then certainly one of the leading powers. For France, I'd argue the defeat of 1940 and for Germany the defeat of 1945 shattered the final illusions of great power- they were physically humbled, ruined an conquered.
For Britain, it's been different - victory in 1945 left us bankrupt and Suez further confirmed the fact we were no longer at the top table. I'd argue much of our history since then has been a struggle for identity and purpose and we are still going through that to some degree.
For Russia, they were from 1945-89, one of the two dominant global powers. Then, within 18 months, it was gone with barely a shot fired. 30 years on, they can see the US and China moving ahead economically and militarily and while they still have nuclear weapons (as do we and the French), the truth (and Ukraine has brutally exposed this to the world if not the Russians themselves) is they are declining in world affairs. Yes, they are a significant regional power but the new bi-polar world order sits with Washington and Beijing. They can hook themselves to Beijing and become effectively a vassal of China or re-align to the West.
That's the internal struggle now within Russia - they have the power to ruin the world but not the power to restore the influence they once enjoyed. The world is moving away from their resources, their wealth and their influence. They face the marginalisation of irrelevance and that's what they struggle to accept.
The crazy bit is just how unnecessary the whole Ukraine war thing is.
Russia was the regional hegemon. It had a seat on the Security Council. Europe (and perhaps China in time) were dependent on its gas.
They could bully their near neighbours, and ensure (largely) compliant regimes.
And then they went and - quite literally - blew themselves up.
The best possible scenario is that the Ukrainian government sues for peace and gives up Crimea and the Donbas.
But even in this scenario, Europe is diversifying its energy sources, a broad set of sanctions will continue, and previously neutral countries will be signing up to the hated NATO.
And that's the best case scenario.
Oh yeah, and Russia's army and weapons look weak and powerless against modern Western kit.
It's bang for buck innit. If they can take out 'ard men like @Heathener@BartholomewRoberts and @Aslan all at once, Putin shills like me is just collateral damage
I do wish we hadn't bothered with all those Murmansk convoys though
Just spent a wonderful family day in Southwold. A bit chillier than I would have liked, but fun. It was also bittersweet: my parents are getting older and noticeably frailer now. Where once they would have walked from the pier to the harbour and back, they now drive.
Thank goodness Covid is essentially over, so we can at least spend these more of these precious moments together.
@Jossiasjessop To be fair that is not an insignificant walk. My wife and dog returned from our Southwold house today. She escaped from me for a week as now I am on crutches and can get about and look after myself. But no point in me going there if not mobile.
Where do you stay? My wife was looking at rental prices today and they are ridiculous.
We don't stay. Mum and dad are in their caravan further inland (still caravanning in their eighties!), whilst we nipped up for the day - two hours there, two hours back.
I love Southwold. On my walk twenty years ago, I walked down the coast from Edinburgh, and Southwold was the first 'perfect' seaside resort I came across. It really is pocket-sized magnificence.
I can see why people want to live there.
Mrs J is always worried about me going to the seaside, as she's worried I'll do another lap. It's tempting, but life won't allow it.
At 34%, this is a record high for Sinn Féin in a Red C poll since they began polling in 2003. Quote Tweet Next Irish General Election @NextIrishGE · 23h POLL - Dáil Éireann
Could be worse for Fine Gael I suppose but Sinn Fein does seem to have a completely solid third of the vote.
I think the possibility of a Sinn Fein-Fianna Fail coalition in 2025 is probably undervalued unless Sinn Fein can get over 35% of the vote and get close to 70 seats.
Oi.
You are Gary. And I banned you. And you've refused to engage with me over email.
Please send me a message now rcs1000 at gmail.com.
In my view if Raynor did do as alleged it was a very funny and private joke. Good for her, and a very dismal thing for anyone to make capital out of it. If she didn't do as alleged then it's outrageous that it's been suggested.
Tories again looking bloody ridiculous, and from an an entirely unforced error.
Quite. They'd be well advised to move on.
"She knows she can't compete with his Oxford Union debating skills so she uses some skills he doesn't have."
Unpack that and puke.
You think it’s permissible for a shadow cabinet minister to flash her vagina at the prime minister so as to unsettle him?
No wonder you want people to move on from the topic
This cannot be simultaneously “a funny private joke if it happened” but “a totally outrageous slur if it didn’t happen”
We can all be pretty clear that she hasn't. But I do agree that these vagina-wielding fiends should be kept away from rampant stallions like the Big Dog.
One sniff of flange and he's off. You can't stop him, before you can say "you can't afford the child maintenance payments" he's already shagged it and knocked it up.
The evidence now suggests that she really did do this, and then joked about it. Read Isabel Oakeshott’s otherwise-sympathetic piece in the Spectator
Personally I find her cunning stunt mildly amusing, but I’m probably in a minority. More importantly, Labour made such a meal of the accusation being a vile piece of misogynist abuse they can’t now walk it back and say “oh well it was just a gag, isn’t she a card, let’s all move on”
The evidence? What fucking evidence. You have consumed too much sazerac.
Pretty clear she jokes about it. So all the self pitying feminist victimology was just bollocks.
Does she actually DO it? I’ve no idea. Nor do you
She jokes about it. After the Hate Mail wrote it and she decided to own their abuse.
Here's a radical idea. How about the neanderthal members of the cabinet maintain their ability to think and act rationally in proximity to women?
As ever in these situations, it's a good idea to swap genders and think if your reactions are the same. Would you have the same reaction to a male MP 'joking' privately about flashing their genitalia to distract a female opponent?
I'd also point out that no political party is free from such neandertals. You do not need to dig deep in the Conservatives, Labour, Lib Dems or the SNP to find prominent members who have had issues with the opposite sex.
As such - and I'm not excusing it - it is a symptom of a wider malaise in society.
I gave you the reverse angle. I was accused of only hiring hotties. Which I parodied by saying "I am Hugh Heffner" whenever anyone mentioned either the accusation or made reference to the person who made it.
Here the Daily Mail writes a smear - she wears clothes to try and distract poor Boris like Sharon Stone. She owns it by saying "yep, it's true".
And that's the point. Your suggestion that all parties are full of sleazeballs is exactly what the Tories are trying to suggest. To save a man who accidentally can't look at a woman without wanting to shag it.
Yet it's not him who gets the grief. Its the women.
Except her jokes came BEFORE the Daily Mail story, and the jokes kicked it all off
Other than that, good point
Which DM story? The origin of the meme looks like it was back in January. Timeline is here:
In my view if Raynor did do as alleged it was a very funny and private joke. Good for her, and a very dismal thing for anyone to make capital out of it. If she didn't do as alleged then it's outrageous that it's been suggested.
Tories again looking bloody ridiculous, and from an an entirely unforced error.
Quite. They'd be well advised to move on.
"She knows she can't compete with his Oxford Union debating skills so she uses some skills he doesn't have."
Unpack that and puke.
You think it’s permissible for a shadow cabinet minister to flash her vagina at the prime minister so as to unsettle him?
No wonder you want people to move on from the topic
This cannot be simultaneously “a funny private joke if it happened” but “a totally outrageous slur if it didn’t happen”
We can all be pretty clear that she hasn't. But I do agree that these vagina-wielding fiends should be kept away from rampant stallions like the Big Dog.
One sniff of flange and he's off. You can't stop him, before you can say "you can't afford the child maintenance payments" he's already shagged it and knocked it up.
The evidence now suggests that she really did do this, and then joked about it. Read Isabel Oakeshott’s otherwise-sympathetic piece in the Spectator
Personally I find her cunning stunt mildly amusing, but I’m probably in a minority. More importantly, Labour made such a meal of the accusation being a vile piece of misogynist abuse they can’t now walk it back and say “oh well it was just a gag, isn’t she a card, let’s all move on”
The evidence? What fucking evidence. You have consumed too much sazerac.
Pretty clear she jokes about it. So all the self pitying feminist victimology was just bollocks.
Does she actually DO it? I’ve no idea. Nor do you
She jokes about it. After the Hate Mail wrote it and she decided to own their abuse.
Here's a radical idea. How about the neanderthal members of the cabinet maintain their ability to think and act rationally in proximity to women?
As ever in these situations, it's a good idea to swap genders and think if your reactions are the same. Would you have the same reaction to a male MP 'joking' privately about flashing their genitalia to distract a female opponent?
I'd also point out that no political party is free from such neandertals. You do not need to dig deep in the Conservatives, Labour, Lib Dems or the SNP to find prominent members who have had issues with the opposite sex.
As such - and I'm not excusing it - it is a symptom of a wider malaise in society.
I gave you the reverse angle. I was accused of only hiring hotties. Which I parodied by saying "I am Hugh Heffner" whenever anyone mentioned either the accusation or made reference to the person who made it.
Here the Daily Mail writes a smear - she wears clothes to try and distract poor Boris like Sharon Stone. She owns it by saying "yep, it's true".
And that's the point. Your suggestion that all parties are full of sleazeballs is exactly what the Tories are trying to suggest. To save a man who accidentally can't look at a woman without wanting to shag it.
Yet it's not him who gets the grief. Its the women.
Except her jokes came BEFORE the Daily Mail story, and the jokes kicked it all off
Other than that, good point
Which DM story? The origin of the meme looks like it was back in January. Timeline is here:
Fair enough. That does look like it started with the Mail, not Rayner. I withdraw my VILE SLUR
I’m a tiny bit disappointed it’s probably untrue. As I say, I quite like Rayner - and this matches my estimation of her as being feisty and sassy
She is all that. And proper northern and gobby and loud. And smarter than she looks and sounds. Which drives the Tories nuts.
But flashing at the PM? A smear made up by the Mail. Owned by her. Then adopted as another smear.
As has been pointe doubt above this is an absurd final week for the Tories. They really have not no clue what they are doing any more.
I’m certainly not going to argue that the Tories are looking impressive. They give all the signals of a government out of energy and, maybe, basic lust for power
They need a period in opposition.
I’m just depressed that the incoming Labour govt looks so utterly uninspiring. At least when Blair got in he brought a real sense of optimism. I was not immune to it myself. Keir Starmer does not do that
Some elements of truth in that but Blair disappointed on the down side - he left office as a war criminal. Even the disingenuous fat fornicator will not leave on such a low.
Point of detail - Blair did not leave office 'as a war criminal'.
In my view if Raynor did do as alleged it was a very funny and private joke. Good for her, and a very dismal thing for anyone to make capital out of it. If she didn't do as alleged then it's outrageous that it's been suggested.
Tories again looking bloody ridiculous, and from an an entirely unforced error.
Quite. They'd be well advised to move on.
"She knows she can't compete with his Oxford Union debating skills so she uses some skills he doesn't have."
Unpack that and puke.
You think it’s permissible for a shadow cabinet minister to flash her vagina at the prime minister so as to unsettle him?
No wonder you want people to move on from the topic
This cannot be simultaneously “a funny private joke if it happened” but “a totally outrageous slur if it didn’t happen”
We can all be pretty clear that she hasn't. But I do agree that these vagina-wielding fiends should be kept away from rampant stallions like the Big Dog.
One sniff of flange and he's off. You can't stop him, before you can say "you can't afford the child maintenance payments" he's already shagged it and knocked it up.
The evidence now suggests that she really did do this, and then joked about it. Read Isabel Oakeshott’s otherwise-sympathetic piece in the Spectator
Personally I find her cunning stunt mildly amusing, but I’m probably in a minority. More importantly, Labour made such a meal of the accusation being a vile piece of misogynist abuse they can’t now walk it back and say “oh well it was just a gag, isn’t she a card, let’s all move on”
The evidence? What fucking evidence. You have consumed too much sazerac.
Pretty clear she jokes about it. So all the self pitying feminist victimology was just bollocks.
Does she actually DO it? I’ve no idea. Nor do you
She jokes about it. After the Hate Mail wrote it and she decided to own their abuse.
Here's a radical idea. How about the neanderthal members of the cabinet maintain their ability to think and act rationally in proximity to women?
As ever in these situations, it's a good idea to swap genders and think if your reactions are the same. Would you have the same reaction to a male MP 'joking' privately about flashing their genitalia to distract a female opponent?
I'd also point out that no political party is free from such neandertals. You do not need to dig deep in the Conservatives, Labour, Lib Dems or the SNP to find prominent members who have had issues with the opposite sex.
As such - and I'm not excusing it - it is a symptom of a wider malaise in society.
I gave you the reverse angle. I was accused of only hiring hotties. Which I parodied by saying "I am Hugh Heffner" whenever anyone mentioned either the accusation or made reference to the person who made it.
Here the Daily Mail writes a smear - she wears clothes to try and distract poor Boris like Sharon Stone. She owns it by saying "yep, it's true".
And that's the point. Your suggestion that all parties are full of sleazeballs is exactly what the Tories are trying to suggest. To save a man who accidentally can't look at a woman without wanting to shag it.
Yet it's not him who gets the grief. Its the women.
Except her jokes came BEFORE the Daily Mail story, and the jokes kicked it all off
Other than that, good point
Which DM story? The origin of the meme looks like it was back in January. Timeline is here:
In my view if Raynor did do as alleged it was a very funny and private joke. Good for her, and a very dismal thing for anyone to make capital out of it. If she didn't do as alleged then it's outrageous that it's been suggested.
Tories again looking bloody ridiculous, and from an an entirely unforced error.
Quite. They'd be well advised to move on.
"She knows she can't compete with his Oxford Union debating skills so she uses some skills he doesn't have."
Unpack that and puke.
You think it’s permissible for a shadow cabinet minister to flash her vagina at the prime minister so as to unsettle him?
No wonder you want people to move on from the topic
This cannot be simultaneously “a funny private joke if it happened” but “a totally outrageous slur if it didn’t happen”
We can all be pretty clear that she hasn't. But I do agree that these vagina-wielding fiends should be kept away from rampant stallions like the Big Dog.
One sniff of flange and he's off. You can't stop him, before you can say "you can't afford the child maintenance payments" he's already shagged it and knocked it up.
The evidence now suggests that she really did do this, and then joked about it. Read Isabel Oakeshott’s otherwise-sympathetic piece in the Spectator
Personally I find her cunning stunt mildly amusing, but I’m probably in a minority. More importantly, Labour made such a meal of the accusation being a vile piece of misogynist abuse they can’t now walk it back and say “oh well it was just a gag, isn’t she a card, let’s all move on”
The evidence? What fucking evidence. You have consumed too much sazerac.
Pretty clear she jokes about it. So all the self pitying feminist victimology was just bollocks.
Does she actually DO it? I’ve no idea. Nor do you
She jokes about it. After the Hate Mail wrote it and she decided to own their abuse.
Here's a radical idea. How about the neanderthal members of the cabinet maintain their ability to think and act rationally in proximity to women?
As ever in these situations, it's a good idea to swap genders and think if your reactions are the same. Would you have the same reaction to a male MP 'joking' privately about flashing their genitalia to distract a female opponent?
I'd also point out that no political party is free from such neandertals. You do not need to dig deep in the Conservatives, Labour, Lib Dems or the SNP to find prominent members who have had issues with the opposite sex.
As such - and I'm not excusing it - it is a symptom of a wider malaise in society.
I gave you the reverse angle. I was accused of only hiring hotties. Which I parodied by saying "I am Hugh Heffner" whenever anyone mentioned either the accusation or made reference to the person who made it.
Here the Daily Mail writes a smear - she wears clothes to try and distract poor Boris like Sharon Stone. She owns it by saying "yep, it's true".
And that's the point. Your suggestion that all parties are full of sleazeballs is exactly what the Tories are trying to suggest. To save a man who accidentally can't look at a woman without wanting to shag it.
Yet it's not him who gets the grief. Its the women.
Except her jokes came BEFORE the Daily Mail story, and the jokes kicked it all off
Other than that, good point
Which DM story? The origin of the meme looks like it was back in January. Timeline is here:
Fair enough. That does look like it started with the Mail, not Rayner. I withdraw my VILE SLUR
I’m a tiny bit disappointed it’s probably untrue. As I say, I quite like Rayner - and this matches my estimation of her as being feisty and sassy
She is all that. And proper northern and gobby and loud. And smarter than she looks and sounds. Which drives the Tories nuts.
But flashing at the PM? A smear made up by the Mail. Owned by her. Then adopted as another smear.
As has been pointe doubt above this is an absurd final week for the Tories. They really have not no clue what they are doing any more.
I’m certainly not going to argue that the Tories are looking impressive. They give all the signals of a government out of energy and, maybe, basic lust for power
They need a period in opposition.
I’m just depressed that the incoming Labour govt looks so utterly uninspiring. At least when Blair got in he brought a real sense of optimism. I was not immune to it myself. Keir Starmer does not do that
Because 384 warheads are rather less than 3750 and they think they might not survive being hit by the latter number?
Quite so. We are sitting here thinking, if Russia unleashes tactical nukes on Ukraine, do we pretend we care enough to retaliate? I am absolutely confident that the average Joe in the USA is thinking, if they nuke London...
At 34%, this is a record high for Sinn Féin in a Red C poll since they began polling in 2003. Quote Tweet Next Irish General Election @NextIrishGE · 23h POLL - Dáil Éireann
Could be worse for Fine Gael I suppose but Sinn Fein does seem to have a completely solid third of the vote.
I think the possibility of a Sinn Fein-Fianna Fail coalition in 2025 is probably undervalued unless Sinn Fein can get over 35% of the vote and get close to 70 seats.
Upcoming Northern Ireland Assembly election results & aftermath will impact voting in the Republic, maybe not by huge % but as you point out small plus OR minus could end up making big difference.
Certainly certain number of independents - a sizable contingent in this AND next Dail - will be willing to support SF government or even join it, if the numbers suggest AND allow.
On topic, I have arrived at the Nawlins Jazz fest (“no firearms allowed”) which looks like a total hoot
Except that I have no cash and no one takes cards (America, sort this out)
This is the line for the ATM
Yours truly last (and first) attended the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival in the late '70s. At same location as today, the Fairgrounds. Aside from the weather not being too hot (in a good way!) only remember two things:
> when you parked your car, a Black kid would immediately ask you, Mister, if you pay me $5 I'll watch your car. Proper answer by was, yes. This being a poor neighborhood, and was established means for local kids to get some money, legitimately. Because was also well-established, that the kid you gave the five-spot to, would, if need be, defend your car to the death. As a matter of honor.
> when I got in, plenty of great acts, but only one I remember was Doc Watson, who was fantastic. Toward the end of his set, he asked the crowd, what shall we do next? So people started shouting out their favorites. So I began bellowing out - "TENNESSEE STUD! TENNESSEE STUD!" And next thing, the band started playing . . . "Tennessee Stud"
Because 384 warheads are rather less than 3750 and they think they might not survive being hit by the latter number?
Quite so. We are sitting here thinking, if Russia unleashes tactical nukes on Ukraine, do we pretend we care enough to retaliate? I am absolutely confident that the average Joe in the USA is thinking, if they nuke London...
I live in the USA and follow politics here closely. Unless Trump is in charge, there is absolute zero percent chance that the US would respond to a nuke on London with anything less than full nuclear attacks on every Russian city.
Because 384 warheads are rather less than 3750 and they think they might not survive being hit by the latter number?
Quite so. We are sitting here thinking, if Russia unleashes tactical nukes on Ukraine, do we pretend we care enough to retaliate? I am absolutely confident that the average Joe in the USA is thinking, if they nuke London...
Is the thinking that the British Subs would've already nuked back?
That way the US doesn't have to get its hands dirty.
Because 384 warheads are rather less than 3750 and they think they might not survive being hit by the latter number?
Quite so. We are sitting here thinking, if Russia unleashes tactical nukes on Ukraine, do we pretend we care enough to retaliate? I am absolutely confident that the average Joe in the USA is thinking, if they nuke London...
I live in the USA and follow politics here closely. Unless Trump is in charge, there is absolute zero percent chance that the US would respond to a nuke on London with anything less than full nuclear attacks on every Russian city.
Oh good. As long as you have the nuclear football I will sleep easy.
Just had Cazort of Wisdom - somebody needs to start writing the scenario & script for new Austin Powers movie, but with Mr Evil = Vladimir Putin, and AP playing Boris Johnson.
With Martin Sheen in the role of . . . wait for it . . . Joe Biden.
Ireland isn't due to vote again until 2025 so plenty of time for things to change.
The current FG, FF and Green coalition has 82 seats in the Dail and won 50.2% of the vote last time. They are now down to 41% with SF gaining most of that to be up 10 points to 34% in the latest Red C poll.
That would give SF more than 50 seats in the next Dail.
The Telegraph (so it must be true) are telling us there are 500,000 fewer 50-70 year olds in the workplace now compared with 2019.
I've not seen any recent figures but might this not explain the "full employment" anecdotes we hear from some on here? The truth is fewer people are working because more are deciding to voluntarily become economically inactive.
On topic, I have arrived at the Nawlins Jazz fest (“no firearms allowed”) which looks like a total hoot
Except that I have no cash and no one takes cards (America, sort this out)
This is the line for the ATM
Yours truly last (and first) attended the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival in the late '70s. At same location as today, the Fairgrounds. Aside from the weather not being too hot (in a good way!) only remember two things:
> when you parked your car, a Black kid would immediately ask you, Mister, if you pay me $5 I'll watch your car. Proper answer by was, yes. This being a poor neighborhood, and was established means for local kids to get some money, legitimately. Because was also well-established, that the kid you gave the five-spot to, would, if need be, defend your car to the death. As a matter of honor.
> when I got in, plenty of great acts, but only one I remember was Doc Watson, who was fantastic. Toward the end of his set, he asked the crowd, what shall we do next? So people started shouting out their favorites. So I began bellowing out - "TENNESSEE STUD! TENNESSEE STUD!" And next thing, the band started playing . . . "Tennessee Stud"
I’m drinking crap wine, eating a crawfish sausage po-boy, listening to Cajun bluegrass (in French)
I hope you’re suitably impressed by my authenticity
Cheers!
Sounds good to me, though I'd go for a cold can of Dixie beer with that. Weather looks great, web say 82F with 61% humidity, not too bad for mid-afternoon. Crowd does NOT look too crowded either.
It would be surprising if the Kremlin has not been deeply rattled by the past few days. Not just the HQ strike which "got" Gerasimov, but the growing Ukrainian break out from Kharkiv and big problems between the Kadyrovtsi and other units in the South.
Most likely the regime is going to up the ante and make brutal threats and probably do many more blood curdling things. It is getting close to the point of maximum danger. I do not think that the NATO announcement of arming French, American and British attack submarines on the Clyde and American and British attack submarines at Gibraltar has been made accidentally or lightly. These are the most advanced attack submarines in the fleet. Clearly it assessed that there is a risk that Moscow will give an order to launch and even a "demonstration" shot in the Atlantic takes us to Defcon 1.
In my view if Raynor did do as alleged it was a very funny and private joke. Good for her, and a very dismal thing for anyone to make capital out of it. If she didn't do as alleged then it's outrageous that it's been suggested.
Tories again looking bloody ridiculous, and from an an entirely unforced error.
Quite. They'd be well advised to move on.
"She knows she can't compete with his Oxford Union debating skills so she uses some skills he doesn't have."
Unpack that and puke.
You think it’s permissible for a shadow cabinet minister to flash her vagina at the prime minister so as to unsettle him?
No wonder you want people to move on from the topic
This cannot be simultaneously “a funny private joke if it happened” but “a totally outrageous slur if it didn’t happen”
We can all be pretty clear that she hasn't. But I do agree that these vagina-wielding fiends should be kept away from rampant stallions like the Big Dog.
One sniff of flange and he's off. You can't stop him, before you can say "you can't afford the child maintenance payments" he's already shagged it and knocked it up.
The evidence now suggests that she really did do this, and then joked about it. Read Isabel Oakeshott’s otherwise-sympathetic piece in the Spectator
Personally I find her cunning stunt mildly amusing, but I’m probably in a minority. More importantly, Labour made such a meal of the accusation being a vile piece of misogynist abuse they can’t now walk it back and say “oh well it was just a gag, isn’t she a card, let’s all move on”
The evidence? What fucking evidence. You have consumed too much sazerac.
It’s entirely plausible that - as oakeshott says in her article - that it was “daft banter over a fag”. Rather less likely that it actually happened
It's probably quite deep for a Sunday evening on PB but I wonder if the ruling class in Russia is suffering from a form of post-Imperial psychosis. Many countries who have enjoyed periods of "greatness" and who have then found themselves reduced have struggled to come to terms with the change, the loss of status, the loss of global importance.
To name but four, Spain, France, Germany and the United Kingdom have all had periods of being if not the dominant global power then certainly one of the leading powers. For France, I'd argue the defeat of 1940 and for Germany the defeat of 1945 shattered the final illusions of great power- they were physically humbled, ruined an conquered.
For Britain, it's been different - victory in 1945 left us bankrupt and Suez further confirmed the fact we were no longer at the top table. I'd argue much of our history since then has been a struggle for identity and purpose and we are still going through that to some degree.
For Russia, they were from 1945-89, one of the two dominant global powers. Then, within 18 months, it was gone with barely a shot fired. 30 years on, they can see the US and China moving ahead economically and militarily and while they still have nuclear weapons (as do we and the French), the truth (and Ukraine has brutally exposed this to the world if not the Russians themselves) is they are declining in world affairs. Yes, they are a significant regional power but the new bi-polar world order sits with Washington and Beijing. They can hook themselves to Beijing and become effectively a vassal of China or re-align to the West.
That's the internal struggle now within Russia - they have the power to ruin the world but not the power to restore the influence they once enjoyed. The world is moving away from their resources, their wealth and their influence. They face the marginalisation of irrelevance and that's what they struggle to accept.
Other examples also come to mind. Hungarian national identity struggles from the fact it was a major empire in Eastern Empire and is now reduced to being a small state. That is a major reason for the appeal of Orbanism. I also think Islamist ideology is rooted in an insecurity among Muslims that they used to have a Caliphate stretching from Spain to India, and in the last century still had it from Morocco to Iraq, but now are mainly third rate countries.
For what it's worth, I think Britain has dealt with its rapid imperial decline pretty well. Yes, Suez was a shambles, but that is an isolated example. The country gave independence to virtually all it's colonies peacefully after 1945, without getting involved in bloody messes like the French in Algeria or the Portuguese in Angola. It also openly accepted becoming a junior partner to the USA, recognizing a superpower hegemon that shared its values was the best situation possible.
It would be surprising if the Kremlin has not been deeply rattled by the past few days. Not just the HQ strike which "got" Gerasimov, but the growing Ukrainian break out from Kharkiv and big problems between the Kadyrovtsi and other units in the South.
Most likely the regime is going to up the ante and make brutal threats and probably do many more blood curdling things. It is getting close to the point of maximum danger. I do not think that the NATO announcement of arming French, American and British attack submarines on the Clyde and American and British attack submarines at Gibraltar has been made accidentally or lightly. These are the most advanced attack submarines in the fleet. Clearly it assessed that there is a risk that Moscow will give an order to launch and even a "demonstration" shot in the Atlantic takes us to Defcon 1.
Comments
(And no English aristos)
But I don’t see why. Scotland has a fine cuisine at its heart. Venison, salmon, noble angus beef. Wonderful shellfish etc
Thus frying chicken (or any other critter) required a pan, some lard or similar, and a chicken (or whatever). Which I am guessing became more obtainable and less expensive as the Industrial Revolution got going.
Other than that, good point
I always eat well in Scotland.
This Tory campaign and their help from media friends is thick as mince. They made this outrageous claim against Rayner without any evidence or witnesses, at the start of a week, by end of the week a Tory MP resigns for watching porn whilst sat in the chamber amongst his colleagues. Worse, The Mail are determined to keep Partygate fresh in voters minds all the way up to election.
Far far worse than that, positive campaigning such as, “we are only having these elections and living normally not locked down in zero covid hell like China, because Boris got the big calls right.” “Full employment and best G7 growth becuase Boris and his team got the big calls right.” “Brexit delivered and painlessly, foundations laid good times on the way.” These positive headlines and stories would have won votes. Their negative campaign threw votes and credibility away.
Daily Mail editors and Tory Chairman and all at CCHQ are clueless idiots. Simples.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-10380287/PATELLS-PEOPLE-Meghan-Markles-lawyer-insulted-career-women.html
Desperate Dan.
Boris Johnson raised a beer in celebration inside pub…a week after Starmer ‘lockdown dinner’
https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/politics/boris-johnson-celebrated-beer-indoors-26838978
Strongly suspect it will be 66 Labour by this time next week.
“Yes, I’m from Uber, get in, I guess you know my wife ran off with the neighbour? Yes. And I’ve only just recovered from six heart attacks in a row. How’s your day?”
I posted earlier that I was skeptical about LD chances in T&H, but if the Tories carry on like this they are going to get mullered again.
https://twitter.com/Martha_Gill/status/1520786219982020608?t=5DH2Oubj36xaYyHJoPQTLg&s=19
Both sides have photos etc.
Green party co-leader Adrian Ramsay confirms that the party would like the UK to leave Nato, but not until the Ukraine war is over.
https://mobile.twitter.com/HugoGye/status/1520678457100935169
He spied a woman walking down the street and his eye followed her with what I can only describe as a rapist’s gaze.
Only in America!
In a sense, PB often functions as a rebuttal unit - some rebut for the Government, some for the Opposition parties but the point or art is to persuade someone (not sure who) the story is "good" for them and "bad" for their opponents.
It's thought within political campaigning if you don't get out and smother bad news stories or seek to spin them they will seep into the public consciousness and have an electoral impact.
I don't why we do it on here - most of us are fairly fixed in our view. As you suggest, it's often best to move the news cycle on to something more favourable.
I’m a tiny bit disappointed it’s probably untrue. As I say, I quite like Rayner - and this matches my estimation of her as being feisty and sassy
I didn't say 'full of sleazeballs'. I said that no party is free from such people. It's what anyone who actually cares about this topic, and not wanting to play some stupid political point about it, try to suggest.
I could do a quick google and find you the relevant stories, but it's so easy I'll let you do it.
"No wonder Boris Johnson got in a fluster at this week's Prime Minister's Questions when confronted by Angela Rayner (right), standing in for serial Covid patient Sir Keir Starmer.
Wearing a chic dress that showed off her thighs, the Labour deputy leader was channelling her inner Sharon Stone.
Boris has always had a tendresse for women with basic instincts."
From: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-10380287/PATELLS-PEOPLE-Meghan-Markles-lawyer-insulted-career-women.html
But flashing at the PM? A smear made up by the Mail. Owned by her. Then adopted as another smear.
As has been pointe doubt above this is an absurd final week for the Tories. They really have not no clue what they are doing any more.
With things like the attack on Rayner there comes a point to present your evidence we need to hear your “supposed” witnesses or you get laughed out of town as bullshitters. Why not attack Red Rayner on calling Tories scum whilst having left wing views? I actually feel a bit sorry for PB Tories obliged to weigh in behind these convoluted unprovable arguments, when really campaigning here could have just been oats so simple. This strange attack seems an odd punch to try and pull off when just sticking to a jab on Rayner and Labour is likely to do the trick.
The very hapless and negative nature of this Tory campaign actually adds another reason onto the list of reasons to get rid of Team Boris after these locals - their negative vote losing campaigning is becoming “the news story”.
However re: American settlement, demographic and cultural impact - Germany says hello.
Ditto Dutch, Swedes, Finns and of course French (already mentioned), Spanish and (lest we forget) Indians. Plus Africans, who had to adapt the most to the ways & whims of others, but in the process put their own twist on things in ways much copied from then to now.
BTW, my guess is that the quintessential American food is . . . wait for it . . . fruit pie.
"Violence is as American as cherry pie." - Rap Brown
Don't you recall Major's 'back to basics' and how it prompted a series of petty, but credibility destroying scandals ?
Except that it makes the Tories like misogynistic dinosaurs. And the Partygate story comes straight back afterwards when they start fining him again.
What do people reckon? It's obviously short and fairly meaningless, as these things tend to be. But I reckon it's not bad tactically as a contrast with current Tory woes.
They need a period in opposition.
I’m just depressed that the incoming Labour govt looks so utterly uninspiring. At least when Blair got in he brought a real sense of optimism. I was not immune to it myself. Keir Starmer does not do that
No driving narrative; lots of long lists of facts and stats - but genuinely interesting.
For example, the traditional way that women can (and do) acquire more beads during Mardi Gras.
Once visited the French Quarter with a guy I know pretty slightly from school, he was there to attend the Sugar Bowl. We went into a bar, had a couple drinks - and he started TOUCHING one of the somewhat scantily-dressed women working there. The bouncer was NOT pleased to put it mildly, took my smoothest apologizing for this idiot to get us out in one piece.
Milking tourists & other out-of-towners for all their worth, is of course THE leading industry in the Crescent City and has been for a LONG time, certainly before Abe Lincoln landed their via flat-boat, and walked back to the Midwest via . . . wait for it . . . the Natchez Trace.
Generally locals want this to be as enjoyable and painless for visitors as possible.
Does breed a certain level of what you might call contempt for outsiders who are birds of passage. For example, a restaurant noted for having tour buses out front or in the parking lot, is NOT likely to attract the locals. Leastways not back in the day.
Sometimes less is more. That’s the call they made about how to deal with it. Certainly in leadership, the confident “nothing to see here, now let’s get on with proper stuff” vibe works well. Very artful in itself.
For most of my lifetime, they have skilfully walked a line of being the Decent Peoples' Paper whilst being pretty indecent themselves. But always with just enough plausible deniability to remain respectable.
With both Growler(not)gate and Beer(not)gate, they have overstepped the line and been called out on it. Hence the shouty denials and accusations. It won't make much difference to anything, but it is amusing to see.
Where do you stay? My wife was looking at rental prices today and they are ridiculous.
Except that I have no cash and no one takes cards (America, sort this out)
This is the line for the ATM
Didn’t Piers Morgan get sacked from a paper for deciding to double down on a similar stupid mistake?
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/live/snooker/58002783
The shadow cabinet looks pretty decent to me - Cooper, Reeves, Nandy, Streeting and even Lammy.
Keir might be dull but so was Attlee and that government was probably the most impactful on British domestic policy of any to date.
Shame the headline promises much more than the reality.
https://twitter.com/francis_scarr/status/1520846423629213699
Quote Tweet
Next Irish General Election
@NextIrishGE
· 23h
POLL - Dáil Éireann
Red C / Sunday Business Post
SF: 34% (+1)
FG: 21% (+2)
FF: 16% (nc)
SD: 5% (nc)
GP: 4% (-1)
LP: 4% (-1)
PBP/S: 3% (nc)
AÚ: 2% (nc)
I/O: 11% (-1)
22nd-27th April 2022
+/- March 2022
Sample: 1,014
Could be worse for Fine Gael I suppose but Sinn Fein does seem to have a completely solid third of the vote.
I think the possibility of a Sinn Fein-Fianna Fail coalition in 2025 is probably undervalued unless Sinn Fein can get over 35% of the vote and get close to 70 seats.
To name but four, Spain, France, Germany and the United Kingdom have all had periods of being if not the dominant global power then certainly one of the leading powers. For France, I'd argue the defeat of 1940 and for Germany the defeat of 1945 shattered the final illusions of great power- they were physically humbled, ruined an conquered.
For Britain, it's been different - victory in 1945 left us bankrupt and Suez further confirmed the fact we were no longer at the top table. I'd argue much of our history since then has been a struggle for identity and purpose and we are still going through that to some degree.
For Russia, they were from 1945-89, one of the two dominant global powers. Then, within 18 months, it was gone with barely a shot fired. 30 years on, they can see the US and China moving ahead economically and militarily and while they still have nuclear weapons (as do we and the French), the truth (and Ukraine has brutally exposed this to the world if not the Russians themselves) is they are declining in world affairs. Yes, they are a significant regional power but the new bi-polar world order sits with Washington and Beijing. They can hook themselves to Beijing and become effectively a vassal of China or re-align to the West.
That's the internal struggle now within Russia - they have the power to ruin the world but not the power to restore the influence they once enjoyed. The world is moving away from their resources, their wealth and their influence. They face the marginalisation of irrelevance and that's what they struggle to accept.
> when you parked your car, a Black kid would immediately ask you, Mister, if you pay me $5 I'll watch your car. Proper answer by was, yes. This being a poor neighborhood, and was established means for local kids to get some money, legitimately. Because was also well-established, that the kid you gave the five-spot to, would, if need be, defend your car to the death. As a matter of honor.
> when I got in, plenty of great acts, but only one I remember was Doc Watson, who was fantastic. Toward the end of his set, he asked the crowd, what shall we do next? So people started shouting out their favorites. So I began bellowing out - "TENNESSEE STUD! TENNESSEE STUD!" And next thing, the band started playing . . . "Tennessee Stud"
Tennessee Stud - Doc Watson (written by Jimmy Driftwood)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S1fCDDpWenM
Russia was the regional hegemon. It had a seat on the Security Council. Europe (and perhaps China in time) were dependent on its gas.
They could bully their near neighbours, and ensure (largely) compliant regimes.
And then they went and - quite literally - blew themselves up.
The best possible scenario is that the Ukrainian government sues for peace and gives up Crimea and the Donbas.
But even in this scenario, Europe is diversifying its energy sources, a broad set of sanctions will continue, and previously neutral countries will be signing up to the hated NATO.
And that's the best case scenario.
Oh yeah, and Russia's army and weapons look weak and powerless against modern Western kit.
I do wish we hadn't bothered with all those Murmansk convoys though
I love Southwold. On my walk twenty years ago, I walked down the coast from Edinburgh, and Southwold was the first 'perfect' seaside resort I came across. It really is pocket-sized magnificence.
I can see why people want to live there.
Mrs J is always worried about me going to the seaside, as she's worried I'll do another lap. It's tempting, but life won't allow it.
Yet....
Hope your leg(s) get better soon.
You are Gary. And I banned you. And you've refused to engage with me over email.
Please send me a message now rcs1000 at gmail.com.
https://twitter.com/MrKovalenko/status/1520757617437683713
But a large number of casualties in the attack on the HQ, including another general.
Certainly certain number of independents - a sizable contingent in this AND next Dail - will be willing to support SF government or even join it, if the numbers suggest AND allow.
I hope you’re suitably impressed by my authenticity
Cheers!
That way the US doesn't have to get its hands dirty.
With Martin Sheen in the role of . . . wait for it . . . Joe Biden.
The current FG, FF and Green coalition has 82 seats in the Dail and won 50.2% of the vote last time. They are now down to 41% with SF gaining most of that to be up 10 points to 34% in the latest Red C poll.
That would give SF more than 50 seats in the next Dail.
I've not seen any recent figures but might this not explain the "full employment" anecdotes we hear from some on here? The truth is fewer people are working because more are deciding to voluntarily become economically inactive.
What's ticket price?
Most likely the regime is going to up the ante and make brutal threats and probably do many more blood curdling things. It is getting close to the point of maximum danger. I do not think that the NATO announcement of arming French, American and British attack submarines on the Clyde and American and British attack submarines at Gibraltar has been made accidentally or lightly. These are the most advanced attack submarines in the fleet. Clearly it assessed that there is a risk that Moscow will give an order to launch and even a "demonstration" shot in the Atlantic takes us to Defcon 1.
For what it's worth, I think Britain has dealt with its rapid imperial decline pretty well. Yes, Suez was a shambles, but that is an isolated example. The country gave independence to virtually all it's colonies peacefully after 1945, without getting involved in bloody messes like the French in Algeria or the Portuguese in Angola. It also openly accepted becoming a junior partner to the USA, recognizing a superpower hegemon that shared its values was the best situation possible.