India is not fascist, it is the biggest democracy in the world unlike the authoritarian dictatorship in China.
It may have a conservative nationalist leader at the moment but India is also more capitalist than China too and it has a left liberal opposition party that has often been in power in the Congress party
Interesting stuff. Certainly made me think. Thanks to all so far. Plenty to ponder over. One minor thing which hasn't been commented on here. Because it's profoundly cultural. But is of interest to me because RL. ScoMo made great strides forward as a "man of the people". He's a genuine rugby league fan. Season ticket holder. Still seen at games whilst PM. And positively engaged too. Not just sitting there. He knows the sport. And the working class sport too. This helped cement his "battling Ocker" reputation. Against Shorten. But Labor responded with Albanese. A season ticket holder too. Who knows RL back to front. And can hold his own discussing the role of the second.pivot and the advantages and disadvantages of kicking on the third tackle quite as well as Morrison. This neutralised some of that appeal. But. What really did was club support. Sco Mo is a fan of Cronulla. A ritzy, wealthy area on the southern beaches. And not overly successful. Albanese. South Sydney Rabbitohs. The most working class of all the teams possibly excepting Wests. And historically the most successful. I am more average bloke than yow. And more successful, too. A bit like genuinely supporting Brighton or Sunderland. A really strange, very oddly minor, example of how an electorally advantageous quirk of character can become a net negative.
Worrying, but it's much less transmissable than SARS-CoV-2. It's the sort of thing where good contact tracing can knock an outbreak on the head. Fortunately, the UK Government has created a world-leading health security agency for just this sort of situation in UKHSA...
Johnson will survive, he avoided wipeout in the local elections and the poll rating for the Tories is not yet devastating.
He will have a harder time being re elected though, leftwingers on twitter predictably already saying Trump and Morrison now down and only Boris left to go. As of tomorrow when Albanese is sworn in as PM of Australia, Boris will be the only conservative leader left in the Anglosphere and G7 outside of Japan. At least until Italy votes next summer there is no prospect of that changing
Yes. There doesn't seem to be much serious attention paid to this trend. You and me have mentioned it a few times over the past several months. Do you have a theory why?
Edit. Why it is happening. Not why isn't being widely commented on.
I expect post Covid the need for continued state support for businesses and families is a factor, cultural overreach by some conservatives in the culture wars ignoring climate change etc and being too aggressive on immigration and trans (even if many swing voters have concerns about them).
As of tomorrow the West will have its greatest concentration of world leaders from the centre or liberal left since the late 1990s, when Blair, Schroder, Clinton, Clark, Chretien, Prodi and D'Alema and Jospin as French PM were in power (with Chirac as conservative President still).
Then Howard in Australia and Aznar in Spain defied the trend, now Spain and Australia also have centre left PMs with Boris left alone amongst the Scholz, Biden, Ardern, Trudeau, Conte, Macron, Sanchez and Albanese crowd of the liberal left
I think you're reading far too much into the Australian result. It was probably just that people were fed up with the Liberal coalition after 9 years in power.
But it isn't one result. It's a trend, like it or not.
It's also worth considering that in most Western countries the main parties of the Left are, economically much to the Right of where they would have been in 198x.
Which is what gets the Corbynistas so upset.
Some not all, Albanese for example will be the most leftwing Labor PM since Whitlam in the 1970s, he is certainly left of Hawke and Keating
Is he? His programme wasn't that radical. I suppose that's definition again. I mean his climate policies are timid by Boris' standards.
Notion that Albanese is the Red Menace is just recycled crap from Oz that didn't work there cause for reason you cite. Just typical of "true" Tories whistling into their own . . . err . . . wind.
Whatever he is, he made me a 50% return on the cash I plonked on him a couple of months back. Something you can't often say of a run of the mill Red Menace.
On the confusion of names: In discussing Australian politics, American journalists often use this odd formulation: the "conservative Liberal Party".
But we are confused here, too: A "progressive" in the United States generally favors social insurance policies like those pioneered by Bismark, bicycles, and trains, all from 19th century in the US. And, of course, windmills are far older. And a "progressive" is likely to oppose GMOs and adhere to what can fairly be caused nature worship, which dates back even further.
What's odd? Conservatives are often liberal too. That's a very common political position.
Conservatives normally need to win some liberals to win general elections, the same with Labour and socialists and social democrats
Xi’s China is unique because its antecedents are unique: a Stalinist autocracy that became a Habsburg-style authoritarian bureaucracy that then became a nationalist paternalist autocracy.
It’s going the way of Iran, but with the CCP taking the place of Shia Islam.
On the confusion of names: In discussing Australian politics, American journalists often use this odd formulation: the "conservative Liberal Party".
But we are confused here, too: A "progressive" in the United States generally favors social insurance policies like those pioneered by Bismark, bicycles, and trains, all from 19th century in the US. And, of course, windmills are far older. And a "progressive" is likely to oppose GMOs and adhere to what can fairly be caused nature worship, which dates back even further.
Liberal Party is clearly center-right while Australian Labor Party is center-left.
Historically, and unlike Canada, Australia did NOT have a Conservative Party, largely because traditional Brit Tories were about as popular as rabid dingoes Down Under.
Anyway "liberal" is a VERY liberally-used word, while "conservative" usage is something less than that!
Difficult to believe the Scottish government is presiding over the abolition of a third of all Scottish rail services, starting on Monday, after they failed to reach an agreement with the rail unions.
On the confusion of names: In discussing Australian politics, American journalists often use this odd formulation: the "conservative Liberal Party".
But we are confused here, too: A "progressive" in the United States generally favors social insurance policies like those pioneered by Bismark, bicycles, and trains, all from 19th century in the US. And, of course, windmills are far older. And a "progressive" is likely to oppose GMOs and adhere to what can fairly be caused nature worship, which dates back even further.
What's odd? Conservatives are often liberal too. That's a very common political position.
Conservatives normally need to win some liberals to win general elections, the same with Labour and socialists and social democrats
but my point is that its commonplace for ONE PERSON to be conservative and liberal at the same time
Interesting stuff. Certainly made me think. Thanks to all so far. Plenty to ponder over. One minor thing which hasn't been commented on here. Because it's profoundly cultural. But is of interest to me because RL. ScoMo made great strides forward as a "man of the people". He's a genuine rugby league fan. Season ticket holder. Still seen at games whilst PM. And positively engaged too. Not just sitting there. He knows the sport. And the working class sport too. This helped cement his "battling Ocker" reputation. Against Shorten. But Labor responded with Albanese. A season ticket holder too. Who knows RL back to front. And can hold his own discussing the role of the second.pivot and the advantages and disadvantages of kicking on the third tackle quite as well as Morrison. This neutralised some of that appeal. But. What really did was club support. Sco Mo is a fan of Cronulla. A ritzy, wealthy area on the southern beaches. And not overly successful. Albanese. South Sydney Rabbitohs. The most working class of all the teams possibly excepting Wests. And historically the most successful. I am more average bloke than yow. And more successful, too. A bit like genuinely supporting Brighton or Sunderland. A really strange, very oddly minor, example of how an electorally advantageous quirk of character can become a net negative.
Very interesting.
AND reminds me - in other direction - how Hillary Clinton infamously claimed to be a fan of both the NY Yankees AND the NY Mets!
That was when she was running for US Senate from NY State in 2000. Which she won. But her absurdly-phony fandom was one indication of why & how she managed to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory in 2016.
Putin now taking precautions against a zombie invasion. https://mobile.twitter.com/EuromaidanPress/status/1528097201293078528 The 🇷🇺entry ban list includes the deceased: ex 🇺🇸senators John McCain, Harry Reid, Orrin Hatch; Rep. Alcee Hastings, Dep. Director Melissa Drisco, former US Army reservist Jeremy Sivits, judge Steven O’Neill ...
India is not fascist, it is the biggest democracy in the world unlike the authoritarian dictatorship in China.
It may have a conservative nationalist leader at the moment but India is also more capitalist than China too and it has a left liberal opposition party that has often been in power in the Congress party
I didn't say that India is a Fascist country. I said that the regime aspires to Fascism. That's the direction that Modi and his party would like to take India.
- €300M signing bonus - €100M a year salary AFTER tax - He will help to decide the coach. - He will have a say on the sporting director. - He can approve signings and sales
I don’t blame him, and in a way I don’t blame them. Mbappe is the best player of the world’s favourite sport
However, how on earth can this be squared with Financial Fair Play? Answer: it cannot. PSG makes nothing like this kind of money
If this passes UEFA then this is a green light to Saudi to spunk trillions on Newcastle
FFP is a Super League by other means. If the Saudis want to spend billions on NUFC let them. Protectionism of the Big Six isn't in anyone's interests but their own.
The new champions league structure is in many ways worse than the Super League idea.
I don't see how. Everyone has to qualify either through a domestic competition or winning the Europa League every year. The biggest objection to ESL was that the founder members could never be relegated. And ESL hasn't gone away - denigrating the CL changes plays into their hands.
And, whilst I'm on football, congrats @MoonRabbit!
Fascist meaning very bad? I'm not sure they fit the political definition of fascist.
Well they don't meet the definition of Communist either, of course. TimS may well be closer to its position, though I'm happy sticking with 'very bad'.
Difficult to believe the Scottish government is presiding over the abolition of a third of all Scottish rail services, starting on Monday, after they failed to reach an agreement with the rail unions.
I guess that's a third of total services, but on some routes it's more than that. At least half of those on the fast line between Edinburgh and Glasgow, for example. Penultimate train in the evening is at 20:15, and then the last train is at 22:15. Bonkers.
"Emperor" Xi has described the Chinese system as socialism, with Chinese characteristics. So, a sort of national socialism.
As I understand it he has increased the persecution of Christians in China (and Falun Gong) while relatively tolerating more traditional Chinese religions.
"Emperor" Xi has described the Chinese system as socialism, with Chinese characteristics. So, a sort of national socialism.
As I understand it he has increased the persecution of Christians in China (and Falun Gong) while relatively tolerating more traditional Chinese religions.
India is not fascist, it is the biggest democracy in the world unlike the authoritarian dictatorship in China.
It may have a conservative nationalist leader at the moment but India is also more capitalist than China too and it has a left liberal opposition party that has often been in power in the Congress party
I didn't say that India is a Fascist country. I said that the regime aspires to Fascism. That's the direction that Modi and his party would like to take India.
Are they invading other nations, banning opposition parties? No
India is not fascist, it is the biggest democracy in the world unlike the authoritarian dictatorship in China.
It may have a conservative nationalist leader at the moment but India is also more capitalist than China too and it has a left liberal opposition party that has often been in power in the Congress party
I didn't say that India is a Fascist country. I said that the regime aspires to Fascism. That's the direction that Modi and his party would like to take India.
Johnson will survive, he avoided wipeout in the local elections and the poll rating for the Tories is not yet devastating.
He will have a harder time being re elected though, leftwingers on twitter predictably already saying Trump and Morrison now down and only Boris left to go. As of tomorrow when Albanese is sworn in as PM of Australia, Boris will be the only conservative leader left in the Anglosphere and G7 outside of Japan. At least until Italy votes next summer there is no prospect of that changing
Yes. There doesn't seem to be much serious attention paid to this trend. You and me have mentioned it a few times over the past several months. Do you have a theory why?
Edit. Why it is happening. Not why isn't being widely commented on.
I expect post Covid the need for continued state support for businesses and families is a factor, cultural overreach by some conservatives in the culture wars ignoring climate change etc and being too aggressive on immigration and trans (even if many swing voters have concerns about them).
As of tomorrow the West will have its greatest concentration of world leaders from the centre or liberal left since the late 1990s, when Blair, Schroder, Clinton, Clark, Chretien, Prodi and D'Alema and Jospin as French PM were in power (with Chirac as conservative President still).
Then Howard in Australia and Aznar in Spain defied the trend, now Spain and Australia also have centre left PMs with Boris left alone amongst the Scholz, Biden, Ardern, Trudeau, Conte, Macron, Sanchez and Albanese crowd of the liberal left
I think you're reading far too much into the Australian result. It was probably just that people were fed up with the Liberal coalition after 9 years in power.
But it isn't one result. It's a trend, like it or not.
It's also worth considering that in most Western countries the main parties of the Left are, economically much to the Right of where they would have been in 198x.
Which is what gets the Corbynistas so upset.
Some not all, Albanese for example will be the most leftwing Labor PM since Whitlam in the 1970s, he is certainly left of Hawke and Keating
Is he? His programme wasn't that radical. I suppose that's definition again. I mean his climate policies are timid by Boris' standards.
Notion that Albanese is the Red Menace is just recycled crap from Oz that didn't work there cause for reason you cite. Just typical of "true" Tories whistling into their own . . . err . . . wind.
Whatever he is, he made me a 50% return on the cash I plonked on him a couple of months back. Something you can't often say of a run of the mill Red Menace.
You must have been sweating! Esp. since Albanese dropped more than one clanger along the campaign trail.
One detail you - and PB Blue Meanies - may find amusing, is the fact that Labor managed to LOSE a rock-solid seat, held by ALP for entire half-century since it's creation.
Namely Fowler, in very ethnically-diverse section of Sydney that is center of city's Vietnamese community. Incumbent retiring, Labor leadership got bright idea of parachuting in a former NSW ALP Premier, Kristina Keneally (wife of author Thomas Keneally).
This did NOT go over well with locals in general, and local Vietnamese in particular. Resulting in independent candidacy by Dai Le, herself Vietnamese and a former Liberal.
On EDay, Le trailed Keneally in the "primary vote" but more than caught up when votes originally for other candidates (including Liberal who was also Vietnamese) were transferred, resulting in 52.4% victory for Le, a swing of -18.6% against Labor, on same day ALP saw its Leader become the new Prime Minister.
"Emperor" Xi has described the Chinese system as socialism, with Chinese characteristics. So, a sort of national socialism.
As I understand it he has increased the persecution of Christians in China (and Falun Gong) while relatively tolerating more traditional Chinese religions.
And Muslim Uyghurs of course
The version of Han history Xi is selling is bizarre, plastic and nearly completely fake.
"Emperor" Xi has described the Chinese system as socialism, with Chinese characteristics. So, a sort of national socialism.
As I understand it he has increased the persecution of Christians in China (and Falun Gong) while relatively tolerating more traditional Chinese religions.
Treatment of Tibetans AND Uyghurs in China verging on genocide certainly in cultural sense.
Falun Gong & no doubt similar beyond the pale. Not sure about non-Uyghur Muslims.
With Christians depends I think on which denominations & sects & their degree of acquiescence with (and control by) the regime. Pope recently made compromises this direction NOT entirely supported by many Chinese Catholics (of course, any anywhere else IS many in China!)
"A senior Tory MP is caught up in allegations swirling around Westminster that he plied four victims with date-rape drugs.
It is claimed the man used the substance on a fellow Conservative MP, who awoke to find his nipples being licked. It is also said a Labour MP was abused after the man administered the drug to him – while the flatmate of another Tory MP claimed to friends he had a similar experience. A fourth man also claimed he had rebuffed his advances, and had suspicions his drink was spiked."
Difficult to believe the Scottish government is presiding over the abolition of a third of all Scottish rail services, starting on Monday, after they failed to reach an agreement with the rail unions.
But some people think that if British Rail is recreated then a wondrous era of rail travel will appear.
"A senior Tory MP is caught up in allegations swirling around Westminster that he plied four victims with date-rape drugs.
It is claimed the man used the substance on a fellow Conservative MP, who awoke to find his nipples being licked. It is also said a Labour MP was abused after the man administered the drug to him – while the flatmate of another Tory MP claimed to friends he had a similar experience. A fourth man also claimed he had rebuffed his advances, and had suspicions his drink was spiked."
"A senior Tory MP is caught up in allegations swirling around Westminster that he plied four victims with date-rape drugs.
It is claimed the man used the substance on a fellow Conservative MP, who awoke to find his nipples being licked. It is also said a Labour MP was abused after the man administered the drug to him – while the flatmate of another Tory MP claimed to friends he had a similar experience. A fourth man also claimed he had rebuffed his advances, and had suspicions his drink was spiked."
Difficult to believe the Scottish government is presiding over the abolition of a third of all Scottish rail services, starting on Monday, after they failed to reach an agreement with the rail unions.
But some people think that if British Rail is recreated then a wondrous era of rail travel will appear.
Presumably people who have forgotten British Rail.
India is not fascist, it is the biggest democracy in the world unlike the authoritarian dictatorship in China.
It may have a conservative nationalist leader at the moment but India is also more capitalist than China too and it has a left liberal opposition party that has often been in power in the Congress party
I didn't say that India is a Fascist country. I said that the regime aspires to Fascism. That's the direction that Modi and his party would like to take India.
Are they invading other nations, banning opposition parties? No
"A senior Tory MP is caught up in allegations swirling around Westminster that he plied four victims with date-rape drugs.
It is claimed the man used the substance on a fellow Conservative MP, who awoke to find his nipples being licked. It is also said a Labour MP was abused after the man administered the drug to him – while the flatmate of another Tory MP claimed to friends he had a similar experience. A fourth man also claimed he had rebuffed his advances, and had suspicions his drink was spiked."
India is not fascist, it is the biggest democracy in the world unlike the authoritarian dictatorship in China.
It may have a conservative nationalist leader at the moment but India is also more capitalist than China too and it has a left liberal opposition party that has often been in power in the Congress party
I didn't say that India is a Fascist country. I said that the regime aspires to Fascism. That's the direction that Modi and his party would like to take India.
Are they invading other nations, banning opposition parties? No
"A senior Tory MP is caught up in allegations swirling around Westminster that he plied four victims with date-rape drugs.
It is claimed the man used the substance on a fellow Conservative MP, who awoke to find his nipples being licked. It is also said a Labour MP was abused after the man administered the drug to him – while the flatmate of another Tory MP claimed to friends he had a similar experience. A fourth man also claimed he had rebuffed his advances, and had suspicions his drink was spiked."
Seems like Gray may have filled the can with concrete. Which cabinet minister will be the first to break their foot on it?
'A friend of Gray who has worked at a high level with her in the civil service said the report would make “gruesome” reading for both the prime minister and his most senior civil servants and that Gray was in no mood to be forced into watering down her findings.'
Putin now taking precautions against a zombie invasion. https://mobile.twitter.com/EuromaidanPress/status/1528097201293078528 The 🇷🇺entry ban list includes the deceased: ex 🇺🇸senators John McCain, Harry Reid, Orrin Hatch; Rep. Alcee Hastings, Dep. Director Melissa Drisco, former US Army reservist Jeremy Sivits, judge Steven O’Neill ...
Sad that John McCain is not around to enjoy his Russia ban. I'm sure he'd be proud.
India is not fascist, it is the biggest democracy in the world unlike the authoritarian dictatorship in China.
It may have a conservative nationalist leader at the moment but India is also more capitalist than China too and it has a left liberal opposition party that has often been in power in the Congress party
I didn't say that India is a Fascist country. I said that the regime aspires to Fascism. That's the direction that Modi and his party would like to take India.
Are they invading other nations, banning opposition parties? No
Recent escapades in Kashmir don't count?
Kashmir is as much Indian as Pakistani
Er, Kashmir is part of India. Part of Kashmir is occupied by Pakistan.
"A senior Tory MP is caught up in allegations swirling around Westminster that he plied four victims with date-rape drugs.
It is claimed the man used the substance on a fellow Conservative MP, who awoke to find his nipples being licked. It is also said a Labour MP was abused after the man administered the drug to him – while the flatmate of another Tory MP claimed to friends he had a similar experience. A fourth man also claimed he had rebuffed his advances, and had suspicions his drink was spiked."
I see the Aussies now have a Labor government. Disappointing, but looking on the bright side, hopefully they'll take Climate Change seriously now and hopefully the Liberals will refresh themselves in opposition.
India is not fascist, it is the biggest democracy in the world unlike the authoritarian dictatorship in China.
It may have a conservative nationalist leader at the moment but India is also more capitalist than China too and it has a left liberal opposition party that has often been in power in the Congress party
I didn't say that India is a Fascist country. I said that the regime aspires to Fascism. That's the direction that Modi and his party would like to take India.
Are they invading other nations, banning opposition parties? No
Recent escapades in Kashmir don't count?
Kashmir is as much Indian as Pakistani
Er, Kashmir is part of India. Part of Kashmir is occupied by Pakistan.
I see the Aussies now have a Labor government. Disappointing, but looking on the bright side, hopefully they'll take Climate Change seriously now and hopefully the Liberals will refresh themselves in opposition.
After the moderate Treasurer Josh Frydenberg lost his seat, the ultra conservative Peter Dutton is now favourite to lead the Coalition in Opposition to new PM Albanese and succeed Morrison as Liberal leader
"A senior Tory MP is caught up in allegations swirling around Westminster that he plied four victims with date-rape drugs.
It is claimed the man used the substance on a fellow Conservative MP, who awoke to find his nipples being licked. It is also said a Labour MP was abused after the man administered the drug to him – while the flatmate of another Tory MP claimed to friends he had a similar experience. A fourth man also claimed he had rebuffed his advances, and had suspicions his drink was spiked."
On Italy, it is always hard to assess amid the constant noise and fury of getting the least bit of government business through what is significant and what is chaff, but the gears appear now to be grinding towards a general election soon - whether before or after August break. Parliament is at 4 years, the polls have stabilised at levels that provide possibilities for most and an upcoming sizeable locals round will allow rune reading, the coalition is getting more fractious, and if it reaches a fairly natural shelf life, a new coalition is not going to be put together.
In a way it doesn't matter what predicates the break down, just that it is coming. So whether it is a hawk / dove argument over arming Ukraine, an ousting of the foreign policy select committee that crossed hawk/dove lines, or a competition bill being made into a confidence matter, the arrows are pointing towards the winding up of Draghi's premiership.
To an election itself, one of the central things is how coalitions get put together for the FPTP portion. The right coalition (usually dubbed CDX) is very long standing and established and covers every significant party.
On the left, M5S have gravitated towards PD and run joint candidates for a majority, but not all, local mayor elections. Whether they have the organisational wherewithal and will to jump that way for a national election seems not yet in the bag, nor is whether all the smaller parties stay on board with M5S on (the needle between Renzi's Italia Viva splinter and M5S is particularly intense).
If you add up the polling, done by individual party, the right are a smidge above 45, the coalitionable left a smidge below.
If the left all unite, the election is very tight, if they fail, the right's resultant FPTP advantage will see them over the line (the proportional element deliberately does not rebalance the FPTP, unlike Germany or Scotland).
Any party that turns it's back on the left coalition loses getting its candidates onto the FPTP ticket and so risks total wilderness if they don't meet proportional threshold, so splitting is something of a suicide mission for parties with deputies already. But, it has been known.
On the confusion of names: In discussing Australian politics, American journalists often use this odd formulation: the "conservative Liberal Party".
But we are confused here, too: A "progressive" in the United States generally favors social insurance policies like those pioneered by Bismark, bicycles, and trains, all from 19th century in the US. And, of course, windmills are far older. And a "progressive" is likely to oppose GMOs and adhere to what can fairly be caused nature worship, which dates back even further.
Liberal Party is clearly center-right while Australian Labor Party is center-left.
Historically, and unlike Canada, Australia did NOT have a Conservative Party, largely because traditional Brit Tories were about as popular as rabid dingoes Down Under.
Anyway "liberal" is a VERY liberally-used word, while "conservative" usage is something less than that!
There's also a major timing issue, British parties date back to the 19th century and have roots back centuries earlier, while the Aussie parties only came into being in the 20th century (the original Commonwealth Liberal Party was founded in 1909), so they have had modern names and changes.
The "Tory" party had already died even in the UK before Australia became a country and liberal politics had already begun to merge with the Conservative Party even in the UK by then too.
The Liberal Unionist Party led by Chamberlain (Neville's father) split from the classic Liberal Party in the 19th century and was subsequently allied with and merged into the Conservative and Unionist Party by the early 20th Century.
By the 20th century the old politics of Whig versus Tory was dead or dying and the real 20th century divide was between illiberal socialism on the left and liberal conservativism on the right.
The Liberal name makes perfect sense for a party of the centre-right that is running against a socialist and illiberal party of the left, which is how 20th century politics was shaped and the environment the Australian parties were founded within.
I see the Aussies now have a Labor government. Disappointing, but looking on the bright side, hopefully they'll take Climate Change seriously now and hopefully the Liberals will refresh themselves in opposition.
After the moderate Treasurer Josh Frydenberg lost his seat, the ultra conservative Peter Dutton is now favourite to lead the Coalition in Opposition to new PM Albanese and succeed Morrison as Liberal leader
The Liberals can probably look forward to at least six and probably more years in Opposition to find a sensible leader to make them electable again.
Putin now taking precautions against a zombie invasion. https://mobile.twitter.com/EuromaidanPress/status/1528097201293078528 The 🇷🇺entry ban list includes the deceased: ex 🇺🇸senators John McCain, Harry Reid, Orrin Hatch; Rep. Alcee Hastings, Dep. Director Melissa Drisco, former US Army reservist Jeremy Sivits, judge Steven O’Neill ...
Sad that John McCain is not around to enjoy his Russia ban. I'm sure he'd be proud.
Even deceased John McCain is more of an irritant to Vladimir Putin than the likes of Donald Trump or Rand Paul.
I see the Aussies now have a Labor government. Disappointing, but looking on the bright side, hopefully they'll take Climate Change seriously now and hopefully the Liberals will refresh themselves in opposition.
After the moderate Treasurer Josh Frydenberg lost his seat, the ultra conservative Peter Dutton is now favourite to lead the Coalition in Opposition to new PM Albanese and succeed Morrison as Liberal leader
The Liberals can probably look forward to at least six and probably more years in Opposition to find a sensible leader to make them electable again.
Though people also said Tony Abbott was unelectable and Dutton is on the same hardline conservative wing as he is, Albanese is also from the left faction of the Labor Party. So it could well be neither party has a moderate leader.
Morrison of course was the moderate candidate in the last Liberal leadership spill against Dutton after the ultra moderate Turnbull was pushed out as Liberal PM. Albanese's predecessor as Labor leader, Bill Shorten, was from the moderate right wing of Labor by contrast
Rugby Union stat David Pocock poised to win federal seat in Australian Capital Territory as Independent backed by Climate 200, which elected numerous "Teal" Independents (predominately women) to House of Reps.
David Pocock and Liberal senator Zed Seselja are around 2000 votes apart in early ACT Senate vote counting, pointing to a potential historic upset and a changing of the guard in the representation for national capital.
Without Senator Seselja in the Parliament, there would be no Coalition representation at all for the territory.
Rugby great and Climate 200-backed independent, Mr Pocock, had received 22.08 per cent of primary votes, just 1786 votes behind of the Liberal ticket on 23.41 per cent of primary votes with 43 per cent of ballots counted at 11pm.
The Labor vote was firmly in front with 33.2 per cent of the primary vote count, ensuring Senator Katy Gallagher will be returned for another three-year term, as territory senators do not serve six-year terms like those representing Australia's states.
The Greens had 10.5 per cent of the primary vote late on Saturday night, a decline of more than 7 per cent on their 2019 result.
Professor Kim Rubenstein, who also ran as an independent with Climate 200 funding, will be the first major candidate to be knocked out, having just 4.5 per cent of the primary vote.
Mr Pocock, who was celebrating at QT Hotel in Canberra, said the rise of independents had made people reconsider the role of politics and what voters wanted for the ACT.
"Today has been a monumental day in Australian politics," Mr Pocock said of the national rise of independents.
The Liberal campaign in the ACT kicked out journalists covering their election night function before Zed Seselja arrived.
Only first preferences are counted on election night. It could be days or weeks before the final winner of the second Senate seat is known once preference flows are calculated. . . .
Mr Pocock used his last day of campaigning to condemn robocalls made by Advance Australia which circulated media outlets including the The Canberra Times were biased and favoured the independent candidate.
A key focus of Mr Pocock's campaign has been based on unseating Mr Seselja from the Senate, with both men crossing paths at the beginning of polling day.
On Friday night Advance Australia circulated robocalls across the ACT, polling if people thought The Canberra Times was biased.
Earlier in the campaign, ACM [Australian Community Media] investigated the origin of Advance Australia and found they had strong links to the Coalition and Senator Seselja. . . .
Difficult to believe the Scottish government is presiding over the abolition of a third of all Scottish rail services, starting on Monday, after they failed to reach an agreement with the rail unions.
On the confusion of names: In discussing Australian politics, American journalists often use this odd formulation: the "conservative Liberal Party".
But we are confused here, too: A "progressive" in the United States generally favors social insurance policies like those pioneered by Bismark, bicycles, and trains, all from 19th century in the US. And, of course, windmills are far older. And a "progressive" is likely to oppose GMOs and adhere to what can fairly be caused nature worship, which dates back even further.
Liberal Party is clearly center-right while Australian Labor Party is center-left.
Historically, and unlike Canada, Australia did NOT have a Conservative Party, largely because traditional Brit Tories were about as popular as rabid dingoes Down Under.
Anyway "liberal" is a VERY liberally-used word, while "conservative" usage is something less than that!
There's also a major timing issue, British parties date back to the 19th century and have roots back centuries earlier, while the Aussie parties only came into being in the 20th century (the original Commonwealth Liberal Party was founded in 1909), so they have had modern names and changes.
The "Tory" party had already died even in the UK before Australia became a country and liberal politics had already begun to merge with the Conservative Party even in the UK by then too.
The Liberal Unionist Party led by Chamberlain (Neville's father) split from the classic Liberal Party in the 19th century and was subsequently allied with and merged into the Conservative and Unionist Party by the early 20th Century.
By the 20th century the old politics of Whig versus Tory was dead or dying and the real 20th century divide was between illiberal socialism on the left and liberal conservativism on the right.
The Liberal name makes perfect sense for a party of the centre-right that is running against a socialist and illiberal party of the left, which is how 20th century politics was shaped and the environment the Australian parties were founded within.
Australia followed that logic, and also eventually (with some interesting twists and turns) British Columbia, which has virtually no provincial Conservative Party, the federal conservatives being mostly BC Liberals, provincial party separate (or all bu) from federal Liberal Party.
Putin now taking precautions against a zombie invasion. https://mobile.twitter.com/EuromaidanPress/status/1528097201293078528 The 🇷🇺entry ban list includes the deceased: ex 🇺🇸senators John McCain, Harry Reid, Orrin Hatch; Rep. Alcee Hastings, Dep. Director Melissa Drisco, former US Army reservist Jeremy Sivits, judge Steven O’Neill ...
Sad that John McCain is not around to enjoy his Russia ban. I'm sure he'd be proud.
Even deceased John McCain is more of an irritant to Vladimir Putin than the likes of Donald Trump or Rand Paul.
Vlad the Invader sees neither 45 or Rand as irritants, major or minor. Instead, dupes and enablers.
Good evening from a pizza emporium in Stockton. As a bisexual (married) man it's all off limits but have been propositioned twice in botj directions whilst I await my pizza
On the confusion of names: In discussing Australian politics, American journalists often use this odd formulation: the "conservative Liberal Party".
But we are confused here, too: A "progressive" in the United States generally favors social insurance policies like those pioneered by Bismark, bicycles, and trains, all from 19th century in the US. And, of course, windmills are far older. And a "progressive" is likely to oppose GMOs and adhere to what can fairly be caused nature worship, which dates back even further.
Liberal Party is clearly center-right while Australian Labor Party is center-left.
Historically, and unlike Canada, Australia did NOT have a Conservative Party, largely because traditional Brit Tories were about as popular as rabid dingoes Down Under.
Anyway "liberal" is a VERY liberally-used word, while "conservative" usage is something less than that!
There's also a major timing issue, British parties date back to the 19th century and have roots back centuries earlier, while the Aussie parties only came into being in the 20th century (the original Commonwealth Liberal Party was founded in 1909), so they have had modern names and changes.
The "Tory" party had already died even in the UK before Australia became a country and liberal politics had already begun to merge with the Conservative Party even in the UK by then too.
The Liberal Unionist Party led by Chamberlain (Neville's father) split from the classic Liberal Party in the 19th century and was subsequently allied with and merged into the Conservative and Unionist Party by the early 20th Century.
By the 20th century the old politics of Whig versus Tory was dead or dying and the real 20th century divide was between illiberal socialism on the left and liberal conservativism on the right.
The Liberal name makes perfect sense for a party of the centre-right that is running against a socialist and illiberal party of the left, which is how 20th century politics was shaped and the environment the Australian parties were founded within.
Australia followed that logic, and also eventually (with some interesting twists and turns) British Columbia, which has virtually no provincial Conservative Party, the federal conservatives being mostly BC Liberals, provincial party separate (or all bu) from federal Liberal Party.
The Conservatives won 13 seats in British Colombia to 15 for the Liberals in the 2021 Federal Canadian election.
In Australia if as is likely the hard right Peter Dutton becomes Liberal leader it will effectively be the Conservative Party of Australia and certainly a long way from the genuine Liberal Party of former leaders like Turnbull or Fraser that was just in coalition with the conservative rural National Party. The loss of so many wealthy, liberal urban constituencies by the Australian Liberal Party to Independents will shift what remains of it further to the right
Good evening from a pizza emporium in Stockton. As a bisexual (married) man it's all off limits but have been propositioned twice in botj directions whilst I await my pizza
Good evening from a pizza emporium in Stockton. As a bisexual (married) man it's all off limits but have been propositioned twice in botj directions whilst I await my pizza
never too late for a humble brag
Just imagine who you might have been approached by if you were at a pizza emporium in Woking.
Good evening from a pizza emporium in Stockton. As a bisexual (married) man it's all off limits but have been propositioned twice in botj directions whilst I await my pizza
By "both directions" you mean a pineapple fan and a non-pineapple fan?
Good evening from a pizza emporium in Stockton. As a bisexual (married) man it's all off limits but have been propositioned twice in botj directions whilst I await my pizza
"Do you want a pineapple ring on top of that, big boy?"
Good evening from a pizza emporium in Stockton. As a bisexual (married) man it's all off limits but have been propositioned twice in botj directions whilst I await my pizza
By "both directions" you mean a pineapple fan and a non-pineapple fan?
Good evening from a pizza emporium in Stockton. As a bisexual (married) man it's all off limits but have been propositioned twice in botj directions whilst I await my pizza
never too late for a humble brag
Just imagine who you might have been approached by if you were at a pizza emporium in Woking.
At least one can enjoy one's piece (or slice) in peace in Wanker's Corner, Oregon.
As a former Prime Minister once said, I take full responsibility for what happened and that is why the individual responsible has been sacked.
Greater love hath no man than this, that he should lay down his friends for his life.
Said Jeremy Thorpe in 1963...
But Boris can't do that, because he doesn't have (m)any friends. Mostly minions.
I suppose the bigger question is the Donald Trump one- is there anything that Boris could do which would bring down sufficient wrath to eject him from the Premiership before the next General Election?
And if push comes to shove, is he petulant enough to push the next GE into 2025, even if it means campaigning over Christmas?
It has been reported that Boris favours autumn/winter elections.
Johnson will survive, he avoided wipeout in the local elections and the poll rating for the Tories is not yet devastating.
He will have a harder time being re elected though, leftwingers on twitter predictably already saying Trump and Morrison now down and only Boris left to go. As of tomorrow when Albanese is sworn in as PM of Australia, Boris will be the only conservative leader left in the Anglosphere and G7 outside of Japan. At least until Italy votes next summer there is no prospect of that changing
Yes. There doesn't seem to be much serious attention paid to this trend. You and me have mentioned it a few times over the past several months. Do you have a theory why?
Edit. Why it is happening. Not why isn't being widely commented on.
I expect post Covid the need for continued state support for businesses and families is a factor, cultural overreach by some conservatives in the culture wars ignoring climate change etc and being too aggressive on immigration and trans (even if many swing voters have concerns about them).
As of tomorrow the West will have its greatest concentration of world leaders from the centre or liberal left since the late 1990s, when Blair, Schroder, Clinton, Clark, Chretien, Prodi and D'Alema and Jospin as French PM were in power (with Chirac as conservative President still).
Then Howard in Australia and Aznar in Spain defied the trend, now Spain and Australia also have centre left PMs with Boris left alone amongst the Scholz, Biden, Ardern, Trudeau, Conte, Macron, Sanchez and Albanese crowd of the liberal left
I think you're reading far too much into the Australian result. It was probably just that people were fed up with the Liberal coalition after 9 years in power.
But it isn't one result. It's a trend, like it or not.
It's also worth considering that in most Western countries the main parties of the Left are, economically much to the Right of where they would have been in 198x.
Which is what gets the Corbynistas so upset.
Some not all, Albanese for example will be the most leftwing Labor PM since Whitlam in the 1970s, he is certainly left of Hawke and Keating
Is he? His programme wasn't that radical. I suppose that's definition again. I mean his climate policies are timid by Boris' standards.
He wants to go on a spending spree such that it will lead to a $4.7 billion rise in the Australian deficit, that is certainly way left of Keating's fiscally conservative budgets in the 1980s.
His government is also closely linked to the unions and will impose fines for anti competitive behaviour and crack down on tax avoidance and give an Indigenous peoples' 'Voice' in Parliament and Albanese unlike Boris has called bans on trans players in sports 'cynical and divisive'
Fines for anti-competitive behaviour sounds like supporting capitalism, and A$4.7 billion is not that much, given there are roughly two A$ to the pound.
Boris Johnson is trying to shoe-horn in the Scotland Yard chief who presided over the disastrous VIP child sex abuse inquiry as head of the National Crime Agency, Britain’s equivalent of the FBI.
"A senior Tory MP is caught up in allegations swirling around Westminster that he plied four victims with date-rape drugs.
It is claimed the man used the substance on a fellow Conservative MP, who awoke to find his nipples being licked. It is also said a Labour MP was abused after the man administered the drug to him – while the flatmate of another Tory MP claimed to friends he had a similar experience. A fourth man also claimed he had rebuffed his advances, and had suspicions his drink was spiked."
1 - Criminal allegations. No date of alleged offences supplied.
2 - Daily Mirror focusing on how many have been 'accused', not how many have been found to have offended.
3 - Somewhat encouraging that this is not just a Daily Mirror Tory-bashing piece - some context provided involving a Lab MP alleged back in 2017 to have done the same thing.
4 - Another gaping hole in the prevalent 'sexual harassment in Parliament is all about misogyny' narrative, promoted by various MPs, following on from the female frontbencher and the male former frontbencher who a fortnight (3 weeks?) ago were found by the ICGS authority to have sexually harassed a young male staffer.
5 - Not mentioned in the so-called "Pestminster" spreadsheet from 2017 afaics.
"A senior Tory MP is caught up in allegations swirling around Westminster that he plied four victims with date-rape drugs.
It is claimed the man used the substance on a fellow Conservative MP, who awoke to find his nipples being licked. It is also said a Labour MP was abused after the man administered the drug to him – while the flatmate of another Tory MP claimed to friends he had a similar experience. A fourth man also claimed he had rebuffed his advances, and had suspicions his drink was spiked."
1 - Criminal allegations. No date of alleged offences supplied.
2 - Daily Mirror focusing on how many have been 'accused', not how many have been found to have offended.
3 - Somewhat encouraging that this is not just a Daily Mirror Tory-bashing piece - some context provided involving a Lab MP alleged back in 2017 to have done the same thing.
4 - Another gaping hole in the prevalent 'sexual harassment in Parliament is all about misogyny' narrative, promoted by various MPs, following on from the female frontbencher and the male former frontbencher who a fortnight (3 weeks?) ago were found by the ICGS authority to have sexually harassed a young male staffer.
5 - Not mentioned in the so-called "Pestminster" spreadsheet from 2017 afaics.
It depends how you read the story. Re point 2, surely the Mirror is counting victims? And is the Labour MP with no complaints made a separate attacker or one of the victims?
Johnson will survive, he avoided wipeout in the local elections and the poll rating for the Tories is not yet devastating.
He will have a harder time being re elected though, leftwingers on twitter predictably already saying Trump and Morrison now down and only Boris left to go. As of tomorrow when Albanese is sworn in as PM of Australia, Boris will be the only conservative leader left in the Anglosphere and G7 outside of Japan. At least until Italy votes next summer there is no prospect of that changing
Yes. There doesn't seem to be much serious attention paid to this trend. You and me have mentioned it a few times over the past several months. Do you have a theory why?
Edit. Why it is happening. Not why isn't being widely commented on.
I expect post Covid the need for continued state support for businesses and families is a factor, cultural overreach by some conservatives in the culture wars ignoring climate change etc and being too aggressive on immigration and trans (even if many swing voters have concerns about them).
As of tomorrow the West will have its greatest concentration of world leaders from the centre or liberal left since the late 1990s, when Blair, Schroder, Clinton, Clark, Chretien, Prodi and D'Alema and Jospin as French PM were in power (with Chirac as conservative President still).
Then Howard in Australia and Aznar in Spain defied the trend, now Spain and Australia also have centre left PMs with Boris left alone amongst the Scholz, Biden, Ardern, Trudeau, Conte, Macron, Sanchez and Albanese crowd of the liberal left
I think you're reading far too much into the Australian result. It was probably just that people were fed up with the Liberal coalition after 9 years in power.
But it isn't one result. It's a trend, like it or not.
It's also worth considering that in most Western countries the main parties of the Left are, economically much to the Right of where they would have been in 198x.
Which is what gets the Corbynistas so upset.
Some not all, Albanese for example will be the most leftwing Labor PM since Whitlam in the 1970s, he is certainly left of Hawke and Keating
Is he? His programme wasn't that radical. I suppose that's definition again. I mean his climate policies are timid by Boris' standards.
He wants to go on a spending spree such that it will lead to a $4.7 billion rise in the Australian deficit, that is certainly way left of Keating's fiscally conservative budgets in the 1980s.
His government is also closely linked to the unions and will impose fines for anti competitive behaviour and crack down on tax avoidance and give an Indigenous peoples' 'Voice' in Parliament and Albanese unlike Boris has called bans on trans players in sports 'cynical and divisive'
Fines for anti-competitive behaviour sounds like supporting capitalism, and A$4.7 billion is not that much, given there are roughly two A$ to the pound.
< i>Labor says the party’s decision to post $7.4bn in higher deficits than forecast over the next four years was not “made lightly”, but the spending is necessary to grow the economy.
The (now) opposition claim that those numbers are unaudited by the budget authority, the package seems to involve reductions to public spending/investment (choose your word) on top, and it is entirely unclear from the piece whether that is a one year or a four year number ("over the next four years"?):
Labor says the party’s decision to post $7.4bn in higher deficits than forecast over the next four years was not “made lightly”, but the spending is necessary to grow the economy.
In general terms the published numbers are still quite small.
Johnson will survive, he avoided wipeout in the local elections and the poll rating for the Tories is not yet devastating.
He will have a harder time being re elected though, leftwingers on twitter predictably already saying Trump and Morrison now down and only Boris left to go. As of tomorrow when Albanese is sworn in as PM of Australia, Boris will be the only conservative leader left in the Anglosphere and G7 outside of Japan. At least until Italy votes next summer there is no prospect of that changing
Yes. There doesn't seem to be much serious attention paid to this trend. You and me have mentioned it a few times over the past several months. Do you have a theory why?
Edit. Why it is happening. Not why isn't being widely commented on.
I expect post Covid the need for continued state support for businesses and families is a factor, cultural overreach by some conservatives in the culture wars ignoring climate change etc and being too aggressive on immigration and trans (even if many swing voters have concerns about them).
As of tomorrow the West will have its greatest concentration of world leaders from the centre or liberal left since the late 1990s, when Blair, Schroder, Clinton, Clark, Chretien, Prodi and D'Alema and Jospin as French PM were in power (with Chirac as conservative President still).
Then Howard in Australia and Aznar in Spain defied the trend, now Spain and Australia also have centre left PMs with Boris left alone amongst the Scholz, Biden, Ardern, Trudeau, Conte, Macron, Sanchez and Albanese crowd of the liberal left
I think you're reading far too much into the Australian result. It was probably just that people were fed up with the Liberal coalition after 9 years in power.
But it isn't one result. It's a trend, like it or not.
It's also worth considering that in most Western countries the main parties of the Left are, economically much to the Right of where they would have been in 198x.
Which is what gets the Corbynistas so upset.
Some not all, Albanese for example will be the most leftwing Labor PM since Whitlam in the 1970s, he is certainly left of Hawke and Keating
Is he? His programme wasn't that radical. I suppose that's definition again. I mean his climate policies are timid by Boris' standards.
He wants to go on a spending spree such that it will lead to a $4.7 billion rise in the Australian deficit, that is certainly way left of Keating's fiscally conservative budgets in the 1980s.
His government is also closely linked to the unions and will impose fines for anti competitive behaviour and crack down on tax avoidance and give an Indigenous peoples' 'Voice' in Parliament and Albanese unlike Boris has called bans on trans players in sports 'cynical and divisive'
Fines for anti-competitive behaviour sounds like supporting capitalism, and A$4.7 billion is not that much, given there are roughly two A$ to the pound.
< i>Labor says the party’s decision to post $7.4bn in higher deficits than forecast over the next four years was not “made lightly”, but the spending is necessary to grow the economy.
The (now) opposition claim that those numbers are unaudited by the budget authority, the package seems to involve reductions to public spending/investment (choose your word) on top, and it is entirely unclear from the piece whether that is a one year or a four year number ("over the next four years"?):
Labor says the party’s decision to post $7.4bn in higher deficits than forecast over the next four years was not “made lightly”, but the spending is necessary to grow the economy.
In general terms the published numbers are still quite small.
No, I am clearly talking about Australian dollars, hence A$ and two to the pound, although I did mistype 7.4 as 4.7.
Comments
Tho it really is unique, in truth. Simplistic western models no longer apply
First Minister @NicolaSturgeon kicks off the new campaign for independence with an essay on why we need to decide Scotland’s future now
https://twitter.com/scotnational/status/1528112145120038920
It may have a conservative nationalist leader at the moment but India is also more capitalist than China too and it has a left liberal opposition party that has often been in power in the Congress party
One minor thing which hasn't been commented on here. Because it's profoundly cultural. But is of interest to me because RL.
ScoMo made great strides forward as a "man of the people". He's a genuine rugby league fan. Season ticket holder. Still seen at games whilst PM. And positively engaged too. Not just sitting there. He knows the sport. And the working class sport too. This helped cement his "battling Ocker" reputation. Against Shorten.
But Labor responded with Albanese. A season ticket holder too. Who knows RL back to front. And can hold his own discussing the role of the second.pivot and the advantages and disadvantages of kicking on the third tackle quite as well as Morrison.
This neutralised some of that appeal.
But. What really did was club support. Sco Mo is a fan of Cronulla. A ritzy, wealthy area on the southern beaches. And not overly successful.
Albanese. South Sydney Rabbitohs. The most working class of all the teams possibly excepting Wests. And historically the most successful.
I am more average bloke than yow. And more successful, too. A bit like genuinely supporting Brighton or Sunderland.
A really strange, very oddly minor, example of how an electorally advantageous quirk of character can become a net negative.
Oh, yes, and then they slashed the budget...
Something you can't often say of a run of the mill Red Menace.
It’s going the way of Iran, but with the CCP taking the place of Shia Islam.
Historically, and unlike Canada, Australia did NOT have a Conservative Party, largely because traditional Brit Tories were about as popular as rabid dingoes Down Under.
Anyway "liberal" is a VERY liberally-used word, while "conservative" usage is something less than that!
AND reminds me - in other direction - how Hillary Clinton infamously claimed to be a fan of both the NY Yankees AND the NY Mets!
That was when she was running for US Senate from NY State in 2000. Which she won. But her absurdly-phony fandom was one indication of why & how she managed to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory in 2016.
https://mobile.twitter.com/EuromaidanPress/status/1528097201293078528
The 🇷🇺entry ban list includes the deceased: ex 🇺🇸senators John McCain, Harry Reid, Orrin Hatch; Rep. Alcee Hastings, Dep. Director Melissa Drisco, former US Army reservist Jeremy Sivits, judge Steven O’Neill ...
And, whilst I'm on football, congrats @MoonRabbit!
As I understand it he has increased the persecution of Christians in China (and Falun Gong) while relatively tolerating more traditional Chinese religions.
One detail you - and PB Blue Meanies - may find amusing, is the fact that Labor managed to LOSE a rock-solid seat, held by ALP for entire half-century since it's creation.
Namely Fowler, in very ethnically-diverse section of Sydney that is center of city's Vietnamese community. Incumbent retiring, Labor leadership got bright idea of parachuting in a former NSW ALP Premier, Kristina Keneally (wife of author Thomas Keneally).
This did NOT go over well with locals in general, and local Vietnamese in particular. Resulting in independent candidacy by Dai Le, herself Vietnamese and a former Liberal.
On EDay, Le trailed Keneally in the "primary vote" but more than caught up when votes originally for other candidates (including Liberal who was also Vietnamese) were transferred, resulting in 52.4% victory for Le, a swing of -18.6% against Labor, on same day ALP saw its Leader become the new Prime Minister.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/elections/federal/2022/guide/fowl
Reminds me of this
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Falun Gong & no doubt similar beyond the pale. Not sure about non-Uyghur Muslims.
With Christians depends I think on which denominations & sects & their degree of acquiescence with (and control by) the regime. Pope recently made compromises this direction NOT entirely supported by many Chinese Catholics (of course, any anywhere else IS many in China!)
It is claimed the man used the substance on a fellow Conservative MP, who awoke to find his nipples being licked. It is also said a Labour MP was abused after the man administered the drug to him – while the flatmate of another Tory MP claimed to friends he had a similar experience. A fourth man also claimed he had rebuffed his advances, and had suspicions his drink was spiked."
https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/politics/top-tory-mp-faces-drink-27030008
Tens of thousands of people have rallied in Turkey's largest city of Istanbul in support of the leading opposition figure, Canan Kaftancioglu...
She has received a criminal conviction for insulting President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and the Turkish state...
Some of the charges relate to messages published on Twitter 10 years ago.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-61538980
'A friend of Gray who has worked at a high level with her in the civil service said the report would make “gruesome” reading for both the prime minister and his most senior civil servants and that Gray was in no mood to be forced into watering down her findings.'
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2022/may/21/boris-johnson-to-sacrifice-top-official-over-partygate-to-save-himself
In a way it doesn't matter what predicates the break down, just that it is coming. So whether it is a hawk / dove argument over arming Ukraine, an ousting of the foreign policy select committee that crossed hawk/dove lines, or a competition bill being made into a confidence matter, the arrows are pointing towards the winding up of Draghi's premiership.
To an election itself, one of the central things is how coalitions get put together for the FPTP portion. The right coalition (usually dubbed CDX) is very long standing and established and covers every significant party.
On the left, M5S have gravitated towards PD and run joint candidates for a majority, but not all, local mayor elections. Whether they have the organisational wherewithal and will to jump that way for a national election seems not yet in the bag, nor is whether all the smaller parties stay on board with M5S on (the needle between Renzi's Italia Viva splinter and M5S is particularly intense).
If you add up the polling, done by individual party, the right are a smidge above 45, the coalitionable left a smidge below.
If the left all unite, the election is very tight, if they fail, the right's resultant FPTP advantage will see them over the line (the proportional element deliberately does not rebalance the FPTP, unlike Germany or Scotland).
Any party that turns it's back on the left coalition loses getting its candidates onto the FPTP ticket and so risks total wilderness if they don't meet proportional threshold, so splitting is something of a suicide mission for parties with deputies already. But, it has been known.
The "Tory" party had already died even in the UK before Australia became a country and liberal politics had already begun to merge with the Conservative Party even in the UK by then too.
The Liberal Unionist Party led by Chamberlain (Neville's father) split from the classic Liberal Party in the 19th century and was subsequently allied with and merged into the Conservative and Unionist Party by the early 20th Century.
By the 20th century the old politics of Whig versus Tory was dead or dying and the real 20th century divide was between illiberal socialism on the left and liberal conservativism on the right.
The Liberal name makes perfect sense for a party of the centre-right that is running against a socialist and illiberal party of the left, which is how 20th century politics was shaped and the environment the Australian parties were founded within.
Morrison of course was the moderate candidate in the last Liberal leadership spill against Dutton after the ultra moderate Turnbull was pushed out as Liberal PM. Albanese's predecessor as Labor leader, Bill Shorten, was from the moderate right wing of Labor by contrast
https://www.northernbeachesreview.com.au/story/7747908/strong-showing-from-pocock-puts-seseljas-act-senate-seat-at-great-risk/?cs=27218
David Pocock and Liberal senator Zed Seselja are around 2000 votes apart in early ACT Senate vote counting, pointing to a potential historic upset and a changing of the guard in the representation for national capital.
Without Senator Seselja in the Parliament, there would be no Coalition representation at all for the territory.
Rugby great and Climate 200-backed independent, Mr Pocock, had received 22.08 per cent of primary votes, just 1786 votes behind of the Liberal ticket on 23.41 per cent of primary votes with 43 per cent of ballots counted at 11pm.
The Labor vote was firmly in front with 33.2 per cent of the primary vote count, ensuring Senator Katy Gallagher will be returned for another three-year term, as territory senators do not serve six-year terms like those representing Australia's states.
The Greens had 10.5 per cent of the primary vote late on Saturday night, a decline of more than 7 per cent on their 2019 result.
Professor Kim Rubenstein, who also ran as an independent with Climate 200 funding, will be the first major candidate to be knocked out, having just 4.5 per cent of the primary vote.
Mr Pocock, who was celebrating at QT Hotel in Canberra, said the rise of independents had made people reconsider the role of politics and what voters wanted for the ACT.
"Today has been a monumental day in Australian politics," Mr Pocock said of the national rise of independents.
The Liberal campaign in the ACT kicked out journalists covering their election night function before Zed Seselja arrived.
Only first preferences are counted on election night. It could be days or weeks before the final winner of the second Senate seat is known once preference flows are calculated. . . .
Mr Pocock used his last day of campaigning to condemn robocalls made by Advance Australia which circulated media outlets including the The Canberra Times were biased and favoured the independent candidate.
A key focus of Mr Pocock's campaign has been based on unseating Mr Seselja from the Senate, with both men crossing paths at the beginning of polling day.
On Friday night Advance Australia circulated robocalls across the ACT, polling if people thought The Canberra Times was biased.
Earlier in the campaign, ACM [Australian Community Media] investigated the origin of Advance Australia and found they had strong links to the Coalition and Senator Seselja. . . .
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-61525780
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/2021_Canadian_federal_election
In Australia if as is likely the hard right Peter Dutton becomes Liberal leader it will effectively be the Conservative Party of Australia and certainly a long way from the genuine Liberal Party of former leaders like Turnbull or Fraser that was just in coalition with the conservative rural National Party. The loss of so many wealthy, liberal urban constituencies by the Australian Liberal Party to Independents will shift what remains of it further to the right
Lord Hogan-Howe is still being considered for director-general of the NCA even though he failed to make it into the final round of candidates. In a move likely to raise questions of cronyism, No 10 is understood to have knocked back two highly qualified police chiefs interviewed by Priti Patel, the home secretary.
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/boris-johnson-backs-lord-hogan-howe-to-run-national-crime-agency-pwqjvhjxw (£££)
1 - Criminal allegations. No date of alleged offences supplied.
2 - Daily Mirror focusing on how many have been 'accused', not how many have been found to have offended.
3 - Somewhat encouraging that this is not just a Daily Mirror Tory-bashing piece - some context provided involving a Lab MP alleged back in 2017 to have done the same thing.
4 - Another gaping hole in the prevalent 'sexual harassment in Parliament is all about misogyny' narrative, promoted by various MPs, following on from the female frontbencher and the male former frontbencher who a fortnight (3 weeks?) ago were found by the ICGS authority to have sexually harassed a young male staffer.
5 - Not mentioned in the so-called "Pestminster" spreadsheet from 2017 afaics.
It seems to be $7.4 billion ASD:
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2022/may/19/labor-defends-74bn-increase-in-deficit-to-fund-election-promises
< i>Labor says the party’s decision to post $7.4bn in higher deficits than forecast over the next four years was not “made lightly”, but the spending is necessary to grow the economy.
The (now) opposition claim that those numbers are unaudited by the budget authority, the package seems to involve reductions to public spending/investment (choose your word) on top, and it is entirely unclear from the piece whether that is a one year or a four year number ("over the next four years"?):
Labor says the party’s decision to post $7.4bn in higher deficits than forecast over the next four years was not “made lightly”, but the spending is necessary to grow the economy.
In general terms the published numbers are still quite small.