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Opinium has Starmer with an 8% “Best PM” lead over Truss – politicalbetting.com

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  • dixiedeandixiedean Posts: 29,278

    Reports that the daughter of Alexander Dugin has been assassinated in Moscow.

    https://www.twitter.com/kamilkazani/status/1561098120506769410

    There are very strange things afoot in Russia. (Regardless of whether this particular thing turns out to be true or not).
    Too many peculiar events.
    Is there a possibility there is a rogue FSB anti-Puti n element at large?
    Seems a bit too much for Ukrainian (or other) special forces ?
    Thoughts?
  • rottenboroughrottenborough Posts: 61,648
    pigeon said:

    Roger said:

    Carnyx said:

    For goodness sake. Better of two. Neither of these.

    Does nobody learn grammar any more?

    The ghost of A. B. de P. Johnson grimaces at the inaugural feast.
    Possible explanations:

    The public like Starmer's plan, even if it came from the Lib Dems and undoubtedly has holes in it. (Getting away with plans with holes is one of the few perks of opposition.)

    The public don't like the government's lack of a plan. Possibly fixable, but the public demand and Truss's instincts go in opposite directions.

    The public have made their mind up about Truss, in which case it's going to be damn hard to persuade them otherwise.
    The 'vote switch' phenomena in Opinium is new, theyve not been finding this level of switch before. Its a reaction to plan vs no plan. Brady is a fucking idiot going for this interminably long shitshow.
    Choosing her over Sunak is a very odd choice. She's brings all the negative qualities to the Tory Party we thought we'd seen the back of when Thatcher went. I can't see a saving grace in her.

    The longer she's been on display the more crumpled the image has looked. Matthew Parris's description of "a planet-sized mass of overconfidence and ambition teetering upon a pinhead of a political brain" can't really be bettered

    She has nonetheless comfortably despatched the previously well regarded Sunak.

    She could do the same to Labour with her foolish populist prospectus.

    She scares the hell out of me, and she should scare the Labour Party.
    There is only so far even the Conservative Party can get with populism when the great mass of the people is getting noticeably poorer. Proposing, for arguments' sake, to solve the Channel migrant crisis by getting the navy to exterminate the boat people with machine guns mid-crossing would cause quite a lot of the ex-Kippers to spaff their kecks, but Truss has to keep the bulk of the 2019 voter coalition together to hold onto power.

    Telling middle-class pensioners facing heat or eat dilemmas this Winter that everything's actually wonderful because look, we rounded up a load of paedophiles and asylum seekers, shot them and burned their bodies to generate extra electricity, simply ain't going to cut it.
    The bread and circuses act falls down when there is no bread.

  • HYUFDHYUFD Posts: 121,308
    edited August 2022

    HYUFD said:

    Opinium also finds 25% prefer Boris as best PM to Starmer compared to 23% for Sunak and Truss. Boris only 6% behind Starmer as preferred PM while Truss is 8% behind Starmer.

    So what a complete waste of time those Tory MPs removing Boris was!!!

    https://twitter.com/GoodwinMJ/status/1561085536353361923?s=20&t=jKUOvr1NuQWFTw-Y8h3JTw

    You just do not get it do you
    I do get it. Thanks to the whinging of the likes of you the Conservatives have just lost their best general election winner for a generation!!!
  • HYUFD said:

    HYUFD said:

    Opinium also finds 25% prefer Boris as best PM to Starmer compared to 23% for Sunak and Truss. Boris only 6% behind Starmer as preferred PM while Truss is 8% behind Starmer.

    So what a complete waste of time those Tory MPs removing Boris was!!!

    https://twitter.com/GoodwinMJ/status/1561085536353361923?s=20&t=jKUOvr1NuQWFTw-Y8h3JTw

    You just do not get it do you
    I di get it. Thanks to the whinging of the likes of you the Conservatives have just lost their best general election winner for a generation!!!
    If I have played a small part in getting rid of Johnson then I wear that badge with pride
  • BenpointerBenpointer Posts: 34,385
    The Greens polling between 4% and 8% should further worry the Tories; 2 or 3% of that is likely to switch to the Lab or LD local challenger at a GE imo.
  • wooliedyedwooliedyed Posts: 9,946

    Here is the under the bonnet number that matters.

    13% of those who voted Tory at the last election say they will now vote Labour. This is *almost* 1997 levels of switching.

    https://twitter.com/chriscurtis94/status/1561067520932675584

    I'm struggling to understand how the Conservatives are down to 31% if only 13% of their voters are going to Labour. That poll would suggest they are losing 25% in total.
    They are and have been losing large numbers to undecided or will not vote
  • BenpointerBenpointer Posts: 34,385
    HYUFD said:

    HYUFD said:

    Opinium also finds 25% prefer Boris as best PM to Starmer compared to 23% for Sunak and Truss. Boris only 6% behind Starmer as preferred PM while Truss is 8% behind Starmer.

    So what a complete waste of time those Tory MPs removing Boris was!!!

    https://twitter.com/GoodwinMJ/status/1561085536353361923?s=20&t=jKUOvr1NuQWFTw-Y8h3JTw

    You just do not get it do you
    I do get it. Thanks to the whinging of the likes of you the Conservatives have just lost their best general election winner for a generation!!!
    Nothing to do with Johnson being the inept, lazy, lying, architect of his own downfall then?
  • HYUFDHYUFD Posts: 121,308

    HYUFD said:

    HYUFD said:

    Opinium also finds 25% prefer Boris as best PM to Starmer compared to 23% for Sunak and Truss. Boris only 6% behind Starmer as preferred PM while Truss is 8% behind Starmer.

    So what a complete waste of time those Tory MPs removing Boris was!!!

    https://twitter.com/GoodwinMJ/status/1561085536353361923?s=20&t=jKUOvr1NuQWFTw-Y8h3JTw

    You just do not get it do you
    I di get it. Thanks to the whinging of the likes of you the Conservatives have just lost their best general election winner for a generation!!!
    If I have played a small part in getting rid of Johnson then I wear that badge with pride
    And you will also be partly responsible for handing the next general election to Labour on a plate too
  • Andy_JSAndy_JS Posts: 31,507
    Does anyone know why the paper review contributions from journalists on BBC and Sky News are still being conducted remotely when they were always done in the studio before covid-19?
  • CarnyxCarnyx Posts: 42,479
    HYUFD said:

    HYUFD said:

    HYUFD said:

    Opinium also finds 25% prefer Boris as best PM to Starmer compared to 23% for Sunak and Truss. Boris only 6% behind Starmer as preferred PM while Truss is 8% behind Starmer.

    So what a complete waste of time those Tory MPs removing Boris was!!!

    https://twitter.com/GoodwinMJ/status/1561085536353361923?s=20&t=jKUOvr1NuQWFTw-Y8h3JTw

    You just do not get it do you
    I di get it. Thanks to the whinging of the likes of you the Conservatives have just lost their best general election winner for a generation!!!
    If I have played a small part in getting rid of Johnson then I wear that badge with pride
    And you will also be partly responsible for handing the next general election to Labour on a plate too
    Ooh, going full Dolchstoss are we? No siree, no fault pertains to Mr Johnson at all whatsoever. Not at all.
  • BenpointerBenpointer Posts: 34,385
    HYUFD said:

    HYUFD said:

    HYUFD said:

    Opinium also finds 25% prefer Boris as best PM to Starmer compared to 23% for Sunak and Truss. Boris only 6% behind Starmer as preferred PM while Truss is 8% behind Starmer.

    So what a complete waste of time those Tory MPs removing Boris was!!!

    https://twitter.com/GoodwinMJ/status/1561085536353361923?s=20&t=jKUOvr1NuQWFTw-Y8h3JTw

    You just do not get it do you
    I di get it. Thanks to the whinging of the likes of you the Conservatives have just lost their best general election winner for a generation!!!
    If I have played a small part in getting rid of Johnson then I wear that badge with pride
    And you will also be partly responsible for handing the next general election to Labour on a plate too
    Another plus then!
  • dixiedeandixiedean Posts: 29,278
    The Tory Party is split down the middle. I cannot see an Emergency Budget which unites them.
    They'll hold together for a while, of course. But their coalition of 2019, 2017 and 2015 is dead.
  • Cyclefree said:

    Cyclefree said:

    EXCL - Latest on Treasury plans to ease the cost of living crisis.

    GPs would be able to write prescriptions to give needy Brits money off their energy bills under proposals.

    The blueprint is one of a bunch of options No11 boffins are kicking around.

    What the fuck

    Try getting a GP appointment before the end of winter.
    My new GP is great. Registered with them earlier this year, haven't needed to see a GP in years before now, but needed to twice in recent months and both times got a same-day appointment and second time got a referral to see a physio the next week too. They've been really friendly, the receptionists even are friendly and helpful, its like going into a parallel universe from all the normal stereotypes.
    Good for you.

    Daughter currently has a painful internal infection. On antibiotics. They are not making it better. As this has happened repeatedly in recent months, the GP wants to do some tests and asked for a sample - provided.

    But no joy in getting a time to speak to the GP. The only times are when Daughter is working (she's doing a new job organising & running weddings and cannot simply drop everything to wait for the GP to call). So now the next phone appointment just to get the result of one test is 3 weeks away. Meanwhile she's in pain and God knows what's happening inside: a kidney infection? Appendicitis? Something else? Blood in urine is not a good sign.

    If we can't get to a GP it will have to be A&E.

    It is no use the NHS advising people to stay away from A&E if primary care can't do its job. The GPsare fine when you get to talk to them. But the whole administration seems not to realise that working patients can't drop everything to wait by the phone. It seems designed to make it as hard as possible to see a bloody doctor.

    By contrast seeing a vet is dead easy, quick & convenient.

    It's notable that on the 4 recent occasions when Husband and I have needed medical help we had to go to A&E because the GP simply was not available. No wonder A&E departments are under stress. But lecturing patients isn't the answer either.

    I am seriously considering finding a private GP.

    That's utterly awful.

    Have you got any alternative GPs in the area you could try to register with to see if they're any better or are they all like that where you are? The services really seem to vary from GP surgery to GP surgery, most of them seem to treat seeing patients as an inconvenience, but then you get the odd exceptions like the one I was lucky to find that actually seem to want to treat patients instead.

    Ridiculous that the GP can't even give the results. I had a blood test recently (routine screening upon turning 40, feel old being old enough to have reached the age of routine screenings) and the receptionist gave me my results. I don't understand what yours are playing at, if the results are clear, I don't understand why the receptionist can't give the results, and if the results aren't clear then the GP should find time to give them themselves if needed. Especially with the test already having been done, what are they playing at!
  • CarnyxCarnyx Posts: 42,479
    Andy_JS said:

    Does anyone know why the paper review contributions from journalists on BBC and Sky News are still being conducted remotely when they were always done in the studio before covid-19?

    They found that they worked OK and were a lot cheaper?
  • FrankBoothFrankBooth Posts: 9,573
    dixiedean said:

    Reports that the daughter of Alexander Dugin has been assassinated in Moscow.

    https://www.twitter.com/kamilkazani/status/1561098120506769410

    There are very strange things afoot in Russia. (Regardless of whether this particular thing turns out to be true or not).
    Too many peculiar events.
    Is there a possibility there is a rogue FSB anti-Puti n element at large?
    Seems a bit too much for Ukrainian (or other) special forces ?
    Thoughts?
    She's hardly an obvious target. If Ukrainian special forces were to engage in such a risky operation surely they are more likely to target someone else?
  • dixiedeandixiedean Posts: 29,278
    Andy_JS said:

    Does anyone know why the paper review contributions from journalists on BBC and Sky News are still being conducted remotely when they were always done in the studio before covid-19?

    Travel expenses?
    Absolutely no reason why you need to be in a studio to do it.
  • HYUFD said:

    dixiedean said:

    HYUFD said:

    Opinium also finds 25% prefer Boris as best PM to Starmer compared to 23% for Sunak and Truss. Boris only 6% behind Starmer as preferred PM while Truss is 8% behind Starmer.

    So what a complete waste of time those Tory MPs removing Boris was!!!

    https://twitter.com/GoodwinMJ/status/1561085536353361923?s=20&t=jKUOvr1NuQWFTw-Y8h3JTw

    Boris removed himself.
    He was given a final written warning. Then pulled the same trick weeks later. Suggesting either.
    He's a sociopath incapable of learning.
    Or. He knew he wasn't up to what the winter would bring.
    Boris was the best and most charismatic election winning leader
    the Tories had. That is why non Tories like you wanted him gone. And the Tory MPs made the fatal error of giving into you and as a consequence more of them may now lose their seats
    The last time Boris led in the polls was 6th December - over 8 months ago.
  • kle4kle4 Posts: 95,037
    edited August 2022

    Roger said:

    Carnyx said:

    For goodness sake. Better of two. Neither of these.

    Does nobody learn grammar any more?

    The ghost of A. B. de P. Johnson grimaces at the inaugural feast.
    Possible explanations:

    The public like Starmer's plan, even if it came from the Lib Dems and undoubtedly has holes in it. (Getting away with plans with holes is one of the few perks of opposition.)

    The public don't like the government's lack of a plan. Possibly fixable, but the public demand and Truss's instincts go in opposite directions.

    The public have made their mind up about Truss, in which case it's going to be damn hard to persuade them otherwise.
    The 'vote switch' phenomena in Opinium is new, theyve not been finding this level of switch before. Its a reaction to plan vs no plan. Brady is a fucking idiot going for this interminably long shitshow.
    Choosing her over Sunak is a very odd choice. She's brings all the negative qualities to the Tory Party we thought we'd seen the back of when Thatcher went. I can't see a saving grace in her.

    The longer she's been on display the more crumpled the image has looked. Matthew Parris's description of "a planet-sized mass of overconfidence and ambition teetering upon a pinhead of a political brain" can't really be bettered

    She has nonetheless comfortably despatched the previously well regarded Sunak.

    She could do the same to Labour with her foolish populist prospectus.

    She scares the hell out of me, and she should scare the Labour Party.
    She scares the hell out of me, but because of the threat she poses to the country, not to Labour.
    She's a high risk strategy. Given the problems that are incoming which will make a defense on the government's records trickier, with people likely to be poorer and more upset, that might be what the party needed to win again.

    But that does rely on her high risk efforts working. Since even some of her backers seem to take a 'She's a maverick' approach, clearly they are not super confident it will work either.
  • FlannerFlanner Posts: 437
    HYUFD said:


    Boris was the best and most charismatic election winning leader the Tories had. That is why non Tories like you wanted him gone. And the Tory MPs made the fatal error of giving into you and as a consequence more of them may now lose their seats

    By the time Sunak was provoked into doing the assassination job, Johnson had become God's gift to all of us who believe the Tory party has spent the past 12 years destroying Britain and itself. I still believe the Tories were more likely to scrape through in 2024 under almost anyone but Johnson than they were as long as he continued his self-obsessed demolition job.

    But Truss's determination to alienate your party even further from British voters is astounding. You'd better pray she's as likely to change her mind on her policies over the next two years as she's been over the past 30
  • BartholomewRobertsBartholomewRoberts Posts: 21,541
    edited August 2022
    Andy_JS said:

    Does anyone know why the paper review contributions from journalists on BBC and Sky News are still being conducted remotely when they were always done in the studio before covid-19?

    Because its a perfectly logical thing that IT can work properly in and they've no reason to reverse back to the status quo ante.

    People don't need to have an expense travelling for 30 minutes work when they can just do it at home instead.
  • HYUFD said:

    HYUFD said:

    HYUFD said:

    Opinium also finds 25% prefer Boris as best PM to Starmer compared to 23% for Sunak and Truss. Boris only 6% behind Starmer as preferred PM while Truss is 8% behind Starmer.

    So what a complete waste of time those Tory MPs removing Boris was!!!

    https://twitter.com/GoodwinMJ/status/1561085536353361923?s=20&t=jKUOvr1NuQWFTw-Y8h3JTw

    You just do not get it do you
    I di get it. Thanks to the whinging of the likes of you the Conservatives have just lost their best general election winner for a generation!!!
    If I have played a small part in getting rid of Johnson then I wear that badge with pride
    And you will also be partly responsible for handing the next general election to Labour on a plate too
    Maybe and maybe the party need to go into opposition

    I do find it surprising that as a Christian you are able even to defend Johnson and his disgraceful behaviour since Paterson and partygate
  • Doesn't really suggest much of a Truss bounce is incoming.

    At what point do we accept this is the beginning of the end for this period of Tory Government? If it was Labour we'd not hesitate, they've had over a decade. Things come to an end.
  • HYUFD said:

    HYUFD said:

    HYUFD said:

    Opinium also finds 25% prefer Boris as best PM to Starmer compared to 23% for Sunak and Truss. Boris only 6% behind Starmer as preferred PM while Truss is 8% behind Starmer.

    So what a complete waste of time those Tory MPs removing Boris was!!!

    https://twitter.com/GoodwinMJ/status/1561085536353361923?s=20&t=jKUOvr1NuQWFTw-Y8h3JTw

    You just do not get it do you
    I di get it. Thanks to the whinging of the likes of you the Conservatives have just lost their best general election winner for a generation!!!
    If I have played a small part in getting rid of Johnson then I wear that badge with pride
    And you will also be partly responsible for handing the next general election to Labour on a plate too
    Maybe and maybe the party need to go into opposition

    I do find it surprising that as a Christian you are able even to defend Johnson and his disgraceful behaviour since Paterson and partygate
    What's Christianity got to do with it? There's no ethics in Christianity, certainly no consistent ones.

    Having hypocritical leaders and keeping their proles in their place as HYUFD wants has a long running history in Christendom.
  • The Greens polling between 4% and 8% should further worry the Tories; 2 or 3% of that is likely to switch to the Lab or LD local challenger at a GE imo.

    Labour pretty much at GE ceiling there, around 43%. To beat it would mean Starmer is more popular than Blair. Don't see that.
  • rottenboroughrottenborough Posts: 61,648
    kle4 said:

    Roger said:

    Carnyx said:

    For goodness sake. Better of two. Neither of these.

    Does nobody learn grammar any more?

    The ghost of A. B. de P. Johnson grimaces at the inaugural feast.
    Possible explanations:

    The public like Starmer's plan, even if it came from the Lib Dems and undoubtedly has holes in it. (Getting away with plans with holes is one of the few perks of opposition.)

    The public don't like the government's lack of a plan. Possibly fixable, but the public demand and Truss's instincts go in opposite directions.

    The public have made their mind up about Truss, in which case it's going to be damn hard to persuade them otherwise.
    The 'vote switch' phenomena in Opinium is new, theyve not been finding this level of switch before. Its a reaction to plan vs no plan. Brady is a fucking idiot going for this interminably long shitshow.
    Choosing her over Sunak is a very odd choice. She's brings all the negative qualities to the Tory Party we thought we'd seen the back of when Thatcher went. I can't see a saving grace in her.

    The longer she's been on display the more crumpled the image has looked. Matthew Parris's description of "a planet-sized mass of overconfidence and ambition teetering upon a pinhead of a political brain" can't really be bettered

    She has nonetheless comfortably despatched the previously well regarded Sunak.

    She could do the same to Labour with her foolish populist prospectus.

    She scares the hell out of me, and she should scare the Labour Party.
    She scares the hell out of me, but because of the threat she poses to the country, not to Labour.
    She's a high risk strategy. Given the problems that are incoming which will make a defense on the government's records trickier, with people likely to be poorer and more upset, that might be what the party needed to win again.

    But that does rely on her high risk efforts working. Since even some of her backers seem to take a 'She's a maverick' approach, clearly they are not super confident it will work either.
    The fact that Gove wants nothing to do with what's coming in next two years should make more thoughtful Tory members pause for a moment.

  • kle4kle4 Posts: 95,037
    ydoethur said:

    Scott_xP said:

    Andy_JS said:

    What do GPs have to do with energy bills?

    Maybe they could combine two terrible policies: If you miss your appointment another £10 gets added to your energy bill.
    https://twitter.com/Samfr/status/1561088498811244544
    A silly suggestion, as it implies you can get an appointment.
    I was told yesterday I couldn't get one until at least the 31st, and that they couldn't even start to book those until the 24th. I assume others have it much worse.
  • Doesn't really suggest much of a Truss bounce is incoming.

    At what point do we accept this is the beginning of the end for this period of Tory Government? If it was Labour we'd not hesitate, they've had over a decade. Things come to an end.

    10pm on election night when the exit poll comes out.

    All things come to an end, but it'll take more than Ed Miliband levels of opinion polling to confirm that. Especially before Truss has even had a single day in Downing Street, or a single Budget presented.
  • Luckyguy1983Luckyguy1983 Posts: 27,831

    Andy_JS said:

    https://twitter.com/kateferguson4/status/1561077534871228417

    EXCL - Latest on Treasury plans to ease the cost of living crisis.

    GPs would be able to write prescriptions to give needy Brits money off their energy bills under proposals.

    The blueprint is one of a bunch of options No11 boffins are kicking around.

    What do GPs have to do with energy bills?
    Some people are going to need shedloads of money to survive the winter. Think of a large number and double it. The only way that will be affordable for the government is to have some really heavy gatekeeping on the money, to keep the number of recipients as low as humanly possible. Which is where GPs will come in.

    I mean, it looks like a terrible plan, but I can see the logic that ends up here. Hopefully, this is just something on a postit note from a "there are no bad ideas" brainstorming session. Either that, or it's Truss seeking to discredit the Treasury.
    That's rude of her - they've proved themselves more than capable of that themselves thank you.
  • HYUFD said:

    Opinium also finds 25% prefer Boris as best PM to Starmer compared to 23% for Sunak and Truss. Boris only 6% behind Starmer as preferred PM while Truss is 8% behind Starmer.

    So what a complete waste of time those Tory MPs removing Boris was!!!

    https://twitter.com/GoodwinMJ/status/1561085536353361923?s=20&t=jKUOvr1NuQWFTw-Y8h3JTw

    Hi matey.

    Do you think this is the beginning of the end for this period of Tory Gov?
  • dixiedeandixiedean Posts: 29,278

    dixiedean said:

    Reports that the daughter of Alexander Dugin has been assassinated in Moscow.

    https://www.twitter.com/kamilkazani/status/1561098120506769410

    There are very strange things afoot in Russia. (Regardless of whether this particular thing turns out to be true or not).
    Too many peculiar events.
    Is there a possibility there is a rogue FSB anti-Puti n element at large?
    Seems a bit too much for Ukrainian (or other) special forces ?
    Thoughts?
    She's hardly an obvious target. If Ukrainian special forces were to engage in such a risky operation surely they are more likely to target someone else?
    Exactly.
    Which suggests a mafia state at War with itself. The Ukrainians wouldn't be arsed. For any other actors far too risky. And rather futile.
    Leaves only internal dissent/factionalism/grudges.
    A regime imploding.

  • HYUFDHYUFD Posts: 121,308
    edited August 2022

    HYUFD said:

    Opinium also finds 25% prefer Boris as best PM to Starmer compared to 23% for Sunak and Truss. Boris only 6% behind Starmer as preferred PM while Truss is 8% behind Starmer.

    So what a complete waste of time those Tory MPs removing Boris was!!!

    https://twitter.com/GoodwinMJ/status/1561085536353361923?s=20&t=jKUOvr1NuQWFTw-Y8h3JTw

    Hi matey.

    Do you think this is the beginning of the end for this period of Tory Gov?
    Yes, no thanks to those Tory MPs who forced Boris out
  • kle4kle4 Posts: 95,037
    edited August 2022

    kle4 said:

    Roger said:

    Carnyx said:

    For goodness sake. Better of two. Neither of these.

    Does nobody learn grammar any more?

    The ghost of A. B. de P. Johnson grimaces at the inaugural feast.
    Possible explanations:

    The public like Starmer's plan, even if it came from the Lib Dems and undoubtedly has holes in it. (Getting away with plans with holes is one of the few perks of opposition.)

    The public don't like the government's lack of a plan. Possibly fixable, but the public demand and Truss's instincts go in opposite directions.

    The public have made their mind up about Truss, in which case it's going to be damn hard to persuade them otherwise.
    The 'vote switch' phenomena in Opinium is new, theyve not been finding this level of switch before. Its a reaction to plan vs no plan. Brady is a fucking idiot going for this interminably long shitshow.
    Choosing her over Sunak is a very odd choice. She's brings all the negative qualities to the Tory Party we thought we'd seen the back of when Thatcher went. I can't see a saving grace in her.

    The longer she's been on display the more crumpled the image has looked. Matthew Parris's description of "a planet-sized mass of overconfidence and ambition teetering upon a pinhead of a political brain" can't really be bettered

    She has nonetheless comfortably despatched the previously well regarded Sunak.

    She could do the same to Labour with her foolish populist prospectus.

    She scares the hell out of me, and she should scare the Labour Party.
    She scares the hell out of me, but because of the threat she poses to the country, not to Labour.
    She's a high risk strategy. Given the problems that are incoming which will make a defense on the government's records trickier, with people likely to be poorer and more upset, that might be what the party needed to win again.

    But that does rely on her high risk efforts working. Since even some of her backers seem to take a 'She's a maverick' approach, clearly they are not super confident it will work either.
    The fact that Gove wants nothing to do with what's coming in next two years should make more thoughtful Tory members pause for a moment.

    Given he was the only person sacked by Boris during the mass rebellion (and HYUFD should remember even his beloved 'loyal' Cabinet Members told Boris he had to go, so were not really loyal either - blame the people who told him the end was nigh, not non-Tories. Non-Tories will always demand the end of a PM, it's not their fault if the party agrees), and Truss is running on a platform of 'Boris was wonderful and should not have gone (also I will change everything he ever did economically, please ignore that)', Gove may simply be being realistic about getting a phone call from the new PM.
  • pigeonpigeon Posts: 4,813
    dixiedean said:

    The Tory Party is split down the middle. I cannot see an Emergency Budget which unites them.
    They'll hold together for a while, of course. But their coalition of 2019, 2017 and 2015 is dead.

    Yep. They're trying to appeal to a fairly broad income range, and the ones who remain comfortably off object, both on principle and out of self interest, to paying a penny to help bail out those who aren't.

    The Truss tax cuts are designed specifically to shore up the old core (directly through NI changes that will disproportionately benefit the wealthy, and indirectly through cutting taxes on corporate profits that will be recycled to the wealthy as higher shareholder dividends.) She'll try to hold onto the rest of the 2019 vote with propaganda exercises such as deliberately picking fights with the EU, but that'll only go so far towards keeping them on side when they're having to dress themselves and their kids in seven layers of clothes and are reduced to living off value brand tinned food, eaten cold because they can't afford to cook it.
  • Doesn't really suggest much of a Truss bounce is incoming.

    At what point do we accept this is the beginning of the end for this period of Tory Government? If it was Labour we'd not hesitate, they've had over a decade. Things come to an end.

    10pm on election night when the exit poll comes out.

    All things come to an end, but it'll take more than Ed Miliband levels of opinion polling to confirm that. Especially before Truss has even had a single day in Downing Street, or a single Budget presented.
    Ed M never tied on the economy.

    Or led Cameron for best PM.

    This is not Ed M again.
  • HYUFD said:

    HYUFD said:

    Opinium also finds 25% prefer Boris as best PM to Starmer compared to 23% for Sunak and Truss. Boris only 6% behind Starmer as preferred PM while Truss is 8% behind Starmer.

    So what a complete waste of time those Tory MPs removing Boris was!!!

    https://twitter.com/GoodwinMJ/status/1561085536353361923?s=20&t=jKUOvr1NuQWFTw-Y8h3JTw

    Hi matey.

    Do you think this is the beginning of the end for this period of Tory Gov?
    Yes, no thanks to those Tory MPs who forced Boris out
    Worth listening to, HYUFD is an astute poster and has a good sense of the political weather.
  • rottenboroughrottenborough Posts: 61,648

    The Greens polling between 4% and 8% should further worry the Tories; 2 or 3% of that is likely to switch to the Lab or LD local challenger at a GE imo.

    Especially in Con-Lab tight marginals.

  • dixiedean said:

    dixiedean said:

    Reports that the daughter of Alexander Dugin has been assassinated in Moscow.

    https://www.twitter.com/kamilkazani/status/1561098120506769410

    There are very strange things afoot in Russia. (Regardless of whether this particular thing turns out to be true or not).
    Too many peculiar events.
    Is there a possibility there is a rogue FSB anti-Puti n element at large?
    Seems a bit too much for Ukrainian (or other) special forces ?
    Thoughts?
    She's hardly an obvious target. If Ukrainian special forces were to engage in such a risky operation surely they are more likely to target someone else?
    Exactly.
    Which suggests a mafia state at War with itself. The Ukrainians wouldn't be arsed. For any other actors far too risky. And rather futile.
    Leaves only internal dissent/factionalism/grudges.
    A regime imploding.

    Alternatively she's been an actively networking aspiring politician in her own right.
    https://twitter.com/kamilkazani/status/1561098978808274944

    Putin doesn't like that and networking politicians in Putin's Russia have a habit of turning up dead. The regime doesn't like people who try to get above their station and might be a threat to the Dear Leader.
  • kle4kle4 Posts: 95,037
    Flanner said:

    HYUFD said:


    Boris was the best and most charismatic election winning leader the Tories had. That is why non Tories like you wanted him gone. And the Tory MPs made the fatal error of giving into you and as a consequence more of them may now lose their seats

    By the time Sunak was provoked into doing the assassination job, Johnson had become God's gift to all of us who believe the Tory party has spent the past 12 years destroying Britain and itself. I still believe the Tories were more likely to scrape through in 2024 under almost anyone but Johnson than they were as long as he continued his self-obsessed demolition job.

    But Truss's determination to alienate your party even further from British voters is astounding. You'd better pray she's as likely to change her mind on her policies over the next two years as she's been over the past 30
    Given his support for the non-Truss candidates I think he's just lashing out in frustration, given he is blaming non-Tories for the Tories getting rid of their leader, as if the opposition don't call for a PM resignation 20 times a year and if the leader is sound it is just ignored, and the complaint is therefore downright irrational.
  • HYUFDHYUFD Posts: 121,308
    edited August 2022

    HYUFD said:

    HYUFD said:

    HYUFD said:

    Opinium also finds 25% prefer Boris as best PM to Starmer compared to 23% for Sunak and Truss. Boris only 6% behind Starmer as preferred PM while Truss is 8% behind Starmer.

    So what a complete waste of time those Tory MPs removing Boris was!!!

    https://twitter.com/GoodwinMJ/status/1561085536353361923?s=20&t=jKUOvr1NuQWFTw-Y8h3JTw

    You just do not get it do you
    I di get it. Thanks to the whinging of the likes of you the Conservatives have just lost their best general election winner for a generation!!!
    If I have played a small part in getting rid of Johnson then I wear that badge with pride
    And you will also be partly responsible for handing the next general election to Labour on a plate too
    Maybe and maybe the party need to go into opposition

    I do find it surprising that as a Christian you are able even to defend Johnson and his disgraceful behaviour since Paterson and partygate
    What's Christianity got to do with it? There's no ethics in Christianity, certainly no consistent ones.

    Having hypocritical leaders and keeping their proles in their place as HYUFD wants has a long running history in Christendom.
    You need a Saint as Pope and Archbishop of Canterbury not as PM.

    Despite his colourful private life Boris has also delivered Brexit, beaten Corbyn, stood up for Ukraine against Putin and saved lives through the vaccine rollout.

    Boris having some cake was hardly crime of the century
  • rottenboroughrottenborough Posts: 61,648
    HYUFD said:

    HYUFD said:

    Opinium also finds 25% prefer Boris as best PM to Starmer compared to 23% for Sunak and Truss. Boris only 6% behind Starmer as preferred PM while Truss is 8% behind Starmer.

    So what a complete waste of time those Tory MPs removing Boris was!!!

    https://twitter.com/GoodwinMJ/status/1561085536353361923?s=20&t=jKUOvr1NuQWFTw-Y8h3JTw

    Hi matey.

    Do you think this is the beginning of the end for this period of Tory Gov?
    Yes, no thanks to those Tory MPs who forced Boris out
    Presumably you think Johnson would have regained at least some of his popularity over next two years? Because thanks to PartyGate he was no longer popular and the public aint laughing anymore.
  • MexicanpeteMexicanpete Posts: 27,580
    HYUFD said:

    dixiedean said:

    HYUFD said:

    Opinium also finds 25% prefer Boris as best PM to Starmer compared to 23% for Sunak and Truss. Boris only 6% behind Starmer as preferred PM while Truss is 8% behind Starmer.

    So what a complete waste of time those Tory MPs removing Boris was!!!

    https://twitter.com/GoodwinMJ/status/1561085536353361923?s=20&t=jKUOvr1NuQWFTw-Y8h3JTw

    Boris removed himself.
    He was given a final written warning. Then pulled the same trick weeks later. Suggesting either.
    He's a sociopath incapable of learning.
    Or. He knew he wasn't up to what the winter would bring.
    Boris was the best and most charismatic election winning leader
    the Tories had. That is why non Tories like you wanted him gone. And the Tory MPs made the fatal error of giving into you and as a consequence more of them may now lose their seats
    Johnson is an awful human being though HY. Surely that counts for something.
  • HYUFD said:

    HYUFD said:

    HYUFD said:

    HYUFD said:

    Opinium also finds 25% prefer Boris as best PM to Starmer compared to 23% for Sunak and Truss. Boris only 6% behind Starmer as preferred PM while Truss is 8% behind Starmer.

    So what a complete waste of time those Tory MPs removing Boris was!!!

    https://twitter.com/GoodwinMJ/status/1561085536353361923?s=20&t=jKUOvr1NuQWFTw-Y8h3JTw

    You just do not get it do you
    I di get it. Thanks to the whinging of the likes of you the Conservatives have just lost their best general election winner for a generation!!!
    If I have played a small part in getting rid of Johnson then I wear that badge with pride
    And you will also be partly responsible for handing the next general election to Labour on a plate too
    Maybe and maybe the party need to go into opposition

    I do find it surprising that as a Christian you are able even to defend Johnson and his disgraceful behaviour since Paterson and partygate
    What's Christianity got to do with it? There's no ethics in Christianity, certainly no consistent ones.

    Having hypocritical leaders and keeping their proles in their place as HYUFD wants has a long running history in Christendom.
    You need a Saint as Pope and Archbishop of Canterbury not as PM.

    Despite his colourful private life Boris has also delivered Brexit, beaten Corbyn, stood up for Ukraine against Putin and saved lives through the vaccine rollout.

    Boris having some cake was hardly crime of the century
    But lying about it was.
  • LeonLeon Posts: 53,722
    Cheer up everyone. I had a “chocolate martini” in the Piazza Della Signoria at 150-year-old Cafe Rivoire




  • dixiedeandixiedean Posts: 29,278

    dixiedean said:

    dixiedean said:

    Reports that the daughter of Alexander Dugin has been assassinated in Moscow.

    https://www.twitter.com/kamilkazani/status/1561098120506769410

    There are very strange things afoot in Russia. (Regardless of whether this particular thing turns out to be true or not).
    Too many peculiar events.
    Is there a possibility there is a rogue FSB anti-Puti n element at large?
    Seems a bit too much for Ukrainian (or other) special forces ?
    Thoughts?
    She's hardly an obvious target. If Ukrainian special forces were to engage in such a risky operation surely they are more likely to target someone else?
    Exactly.
    Which suggests a mafia state at War with itself. The Ukrainians wouldn't be arsed. For any other actors far too risky. And rather futile.
    Leaves only internal dissent/factionalism/grudges.
    A regime imploding.

    Alternatively she's been an actively networking aspiring politician in her own right.
    https://twitter.com/kamilkazani/status/1561098978808274944

    Putin doesn't like that and networking politicians in Putin's Russia have a habit of turning up dead. The regime doesn't like people who try to get above their station and might be a threat to the Dear Leader.
    Well yes. I don't pretend to fully understand the internal politics. But, if your view is correct, then what a terrible waste of time and effort if Putin is devoting efforts to rubbing out those.
    A mafia state at War with itself.
  • Doesn't really suggest much of a Truss bounce is incoming.

    At what point do we accept this is the beginning of the end for this period of Tory Government? If it was Labour we'd not hesitate, they've had over a decade. Things come to an end.

    10pm on election night when the exit poll comes out.

    All things come to an end, but it'll take more than Ed Miliband levels of opinion polling to confirm that. Especially before Truss has even had a single day in Downing Street, or a single Budget presented.
    Ed M never tied on the economy.

    Or led Cameron for best PM.

    This is not Ed M again.
    Nothing is ever X again, that's the problem HYUFD has always trying to overly pigeon-hole any event to an event that's previously happened and imply the same thing must happen again.

    The simply reality is that midterm polls mean the square root of the product of diddly and squat at the best of times. Midterm polls during an economic crisis that might or might not have passed before the next election, when we're guaranteed a new PM before the next election who hasn't even had their first Budget presented yet though . . . they're worth as much as second hand toilet paper.
  • Doesn't really suggest much of a Truss bounce is incoming.

    At what point do we accept this is the beginning of the end for this period of Tory Government? If it was Labour we'd not hesitate, they've had over a decade. Things come to an end.

    10pm on election night when the exit poll comes out.

    All things come to an end, but it'll take more than Ed Miliband levels of opinion polling to confirm that. Especially before Truss has even had a single day in Downing Street, or a single Budget presented.
    Ed M never tied on the economy.

    Or led Cameron for best PM.

    This is not Ed M again.
    Nothing is ever X again, that's the problem HYUFD has always trying to overly pigeon-hole any event to an event that's previously happened and imply the same thing must happen again.

    The simply reality is that midterm polls mean the square root of the product of diddly and squat at the best of times. Midterm polls during an economic crisis that might or might not have passed before the next election, when we're guaranteed a new PM before the next election who hasn't even had their first Budget presented yet though . . . they're worth as much as second hand toilet paper.
    If Labour was in power you'd be saying the opposite.

    Now you are bought and paid for by Truss and co your opinions sadly carry a lot less weight. What a shame.
  • rottenboroughrottenborough Posts: 61,648

    Rob Ford 💙💛
    @robfordmancs
    ·
    29m
    Still feels to me that drumbeat of anti-renewables policies this summer - no to onshore wind farms, no to large solar projects (to protect farming or something?), yes to NIMBY sabotage in all its manifold forms - is bizarre, restricting at every turn investment we need urgently
  • dixiedeandixiedean Posts: 29,278
    Leon said:

    Cheer up everyone. I had a “chocolate martini” in the Piazza Della Signoria at 150-year-old Cafe Rivoire




    Well that's OK then ;)
  • Big_G_NorthWalesBig_G_NorthWales Posts: 62,207
    edited August 2022
    HYUFD said:

    HYUFD said:

    HYUFD said:

    HYUFD said:

    Opinium also finds 25% prefer Boris as best PM to Starmer compared to 23% for Sunak and Truss. Boris only 6% behind Starmer as preferred PM while Truss is 8% behind Starmer.

    So what a complete waste of time those Tory MPs removing Boris was!!!

    https://twitter.com/GoodwinMJ/status/1561085536353361923?s=20&t=jKUOvr1NuQWFTw-Y8h3JTw

    You just do not get it do you
    I di get it. Thanks to the whinging of the likes of you the Conservatives have just lost their best general election winner for a generation!!!
    If I have played a small part in getting rid of Johnson then I wear that badge with pride
    And you will also be partly responsible for handing the next general election to Labour on a plate too
    Maybe and maybe the party need to go into opposition

    I do find it surprising that as a Christian you are able even to defend Johnson and his disgraceful behaviour since Paterson and partygate
    What's Christianity got to do with it? There's no ethics in Christianity, certainly no consistent ones.

    Having hypocritical leaders and keeping their proles in their place as HYUFD wants has a long running history in Christendom.
    You need a Saint as Pope and Archbishop of Canterbury not as PM.

    Despite his colourful private life Boris has also delivered Brexit, beaten Corbyn, stood up for Ukraine against Putin and saved lives through the vaccine rollout.

    Boris having some cake was hardly crime of the century
    Your last sentence sums up just how out of touch you are with millions of voters who were, and are still, furious with his sense of entitlement and lack of respect to others
  • FoxyFoxy Posts: 47,891
    kle4 said:

    ydoethur said:

    Scott_xP said:

    Andy_JS said:

    What do GPs have to do with energy bills?

    Maybe they could combine two terrible policies: If you miss your appointment another £10 gets added to your energy bill.
    https://twitter.com/Samfr/status/1561088498811244544
    A silly suggestion, as it implies you can get an appointment.
    I was told yesterday I couldn't get one until at least the 31st, and that they couldn't even start to book those until the 24th. I assume others have it much worse.
    Earliest appointment for me is 6th September.

  • Doesn't really suggest much of a Truss bounce is incoming.

    At what point do we accept this is the beginning of the end for this period of Tory Government? If it was Labour we'd not hesitate, they've had over a decade. Things come to an end.

    10pm on election night when the exit poll comes out.

    All things come to an end, but it'll take more than Ed Miliband levels of opinion polling to confirm that. Especially before Truss has even had a single day in Downing Street, or a single Budget presented.
    Ed M never tied on the economy.

    Or led Cameron for best PM.

    This is not Ed M again.
    Nothing is ever X again, that's the problem HYUFD has always trying to overly pigeon-hole any event to an event that's previously happened and imply the same thing must happen again.

    The simply reality is that midterm polls mean the square root of the product of diddly and squat at the best of times. Midterm polls during an economic crisis that might or might not have passed before the next election, when we're guaranteed a new PM before the next election who hasn't even had their first Budget presented yet though . . . they're worth as much as second hand toilet paper.
    If Labour was in power you'd be saying the opposite.

    Now you are bought and paid for by Truss and co your opinions sadly carry a lot less weight. What a shame.
    No I f***ing wouldn't.

    If Labour was in power I wouldn't count a single chicken until its hatched, the ballot boxes are closed and the voted are counted. As an LFC and England Cricket fan growing up in the 90s I learnt early on the lesson not to count anything and to be prepared for disappointment.

    Even in 2010 the votes being counted wasn't enough to be certain that Labour was going to be removed from office.

    Hope for the best but prepare for the worst is a good principle to live by. Simply saying "yeah we have this in the bag, its all over" achieves nothing but making disappointment more likely.
  • HYUFDHYUFD Posts: 121,308

    HYUFD said:

    HYUFD said:

    HYUFD said:

    HYUFD said:

    Opinium also finds 25% prefer Boris as best PM to Starmer compared to 23% for Sunak and Truss. Boris only 6% behind Starmer as preferred PM while Truss is 8% behind Starmer.

    So what a complete waste of time those Tory MPs removing Boris was!!!

    https://twitter.com/GoodwinMJ/status/1561085536353361923?s=20&t=jKUOvr1NuQWFTw-Y8h3JTw

    You just do not get it do you
    I di get it. Thanks to the whinging of the likes of you the Conservatives have just lost their best general election winner for a generation!!!
    If I have played a small part in getting rid of Johnson then I wear that badge with pride
    And you will also be partly responsible for handing the next general election to Labour on a plate too
    Maybe and maybe the party need to go into opposition

    I do find it surprising that as a Christian you are able even to defend Johnson and his disgraceful behaviour since Paterson and partygate
    What's Christianity got to do with it? There's no ethics in Christianity, certainly no consistent ones.

    Having hypocritical leaders and keeping their proles in their place as HYUFD wants has a long running history in Christendom.
    You need a Saint as Pope and Archbishop of Canterbury not as PM.

    Despite his colourful private life Boris has also delivered Brexit, beaten Corbyn, stood up for Ukraine against Putin and saved lives through the vaccine rollout.

    Boris having some cake was hardly crime of the century
    Your last sentence sums up just how out of touch you are with millions of voters who were, and are still, furious with his sense of entitlement and lack of respect to others
    Yet still more of them prefer Boris as PM to Sunak and Truss on tonight's Opinium
  • dixiedeandixiedean Posts: 29,278
    edited August 2022

    Doesn't really suggest much of a Truss bounce is incoming.

    At what point do we accept this is the beginning of the end for this period of Tory Government? If it was Labour we'd not hesitate, they've had over a decade. Things come to an end.

    10pm on election night when the exit poll comes out.

    All things come to an end, but it'll take more than Ed Miliband levels of opinion polling to confirm that. Especially before Truss has even had a single day in Downing Street, or a single Budget presented.
    Ed M never tied on the economy.

    Or led Cameron for best PM.

    This is not Ed M again.
    Nothing is ever X again, that's the problem HYUFD has always trying to overly pigeon-hole any event to an event that's previously happened and imply the same thing must happen again.

    The simply reality is that midterm polls mean the square root of the product of diddly and squat at the best of times. Midterm polls during an economic crisis that might or might not have passed before the next election, when we're guaranteed a new PM before the next election who hasn't even had their first Budget presented yet though . . . they're worth as much as second hand toilet paper.

    This is true. But there is no Budget which can satisfy all parts of the Tory coalition.
  • LeonLeon Posts: 53,722
    dixiedean said:

    Leon said:

    Cheer up everyone. I had a “chocolate martini” in the Piazza Della Signoria at 150-year-old Cafe Rivoire




    Well that's OK then ;)
    I just felt we needed some context. Yes millions of proles will die of gnawing hunger this winter, and the prospect of a brutal war menaces much of Europe, but I’m having a really nice time drinking fancy cocktails in Florence

    Sometimes a little perspective is necessary

  • rottenboroughrottenborough Posts: 61,648
    Foxy said:

    kle4 said:

    ydoethur said:

    Scott_xP said:

    Andy_JS said:

    What do GPs have to do with energy bills?

    Maybe they could combine two terrible policies: If you miss your appointment another £10 gets added to your energy bill.
    https://twitter.com/Samfr/status/1561088498811244544
    A silly suggestion, as it implies you can get an appointment.
    I was told yesterday I couldn't get one until at least the 31st, and that they couldn't even start to book those until the 24th. I assume others have it much worse.
    Earliest appointment for me is 6th September.

    I'm beginning to think my practice is so out of kilter with everywhere else that something really bad is about to happen.

    I can phone on Monday or Tuesday, say, and get a telephone appt with my named, regular GP by Thursday. If following that need to come in and be seen then usually a day or two after.

    Had a minor emergency the other week with my wife's condition - needed a face to face exam. Phoned at 11am. In by 1pm.

    I suspect this may be to do with the practice switching to totally telephone first appointments.

  • LeonLeon Posts: 53,722
    Moreover, if you ARE worried about resorting to food banks this winter, as energy costs rip through the £10,000 cap threatening us all with hypothermia - and who isn’t worried about this - then a £40 “chocolate martini” complete with “micro choux bun” in the most beautiful square in Europe suddenly makes everything seem less scary

    We will cope. It won’t be easy. But we’ll cope
  • Foxy said:

    kle4 said:

    ydoethur said:

    Scott_xP said:

    Andy_JS said:

    What do GPs have to do with energy bills?

    Maybe they could combine two terrible policies: If you miss your appointment another £10 gets added to your energy bill.
    https://twitter.com/Samfr/status/1561088498811244544
    A silly suggestion, as it implies you can get an appointment.
    I was told yesterday I couldn't get one until at least the 31st, and that they couldn't even start to book those until the 24th. I assume others have it much worse.
    Earliest appointment for me is 6th September.

    I'm beginning to think my practice is so out of kilter with everywhere else that something really bad is about to happen.

    I can phone on Monday or Tuesday, say, and get a telephone appt with my named, regular GP by Thursday. If following that need to come in and be seen then usually a day or two after.

    Had a minor emergency the other week with my wife's condition - needed a face to face exam. Phoned at 11am. In by 1pm.

    I suspect this may be to do with the practice switching to totally telephone first appointments.

    That's what mine is like and yes mine does telephone first appointments too, which I think is a very good idea.

    Being able to answer a phone call at a certain time is far better than having to travel in then spend a while waiting with other people, many of whom are possibly sick, waiting to be called in to an office to discuss what could be done over the phone.

    If face to face is needed, then that should be able to be figured out after a phone call.
  • HYUFD said:

    HYUFD said:

    HYUFD said:

    HYUFD said:

    HYUFD said:

    Opinium also finds 25% prefer Boris as best PM to Starmer compared to 23% for Sunak and Truss. Boris only 6% behind Starmer as preferred PM while Truss is 8% behind Starmer.

    So what a complete waste of time those Tory MPs removing Boris was!!!

    https://twitter.com/GoodwinMJ/status/1561085536353361923?s=20&t=jKUOvr1NuQWFTw-Y8h3JTw

    You just do not get it do you
    I di get it. Thanks to the whinging of the likes of you the Conservatives have just lost their best general election winner for a generation!!!
    If I have played a small part in getting rid of Johnson then I wear that badge with pride
    And you will also be partly responsible for handing the next general election to Labour on a plate too
    Maybe and maybe the party need to go into opposition

    I do find it surprising that as a Christian you are able even to defend Johnson and his disgraceful behaviour since Paterson and partygate
    What's Christianity got to do with it? There's no ethics in Christianity, certainly no consistent ones.

    Having hypocritical leaders and keeping their proles in their place as HYUFD wants has a long running history in Christendom.
    You need a Saint as Pope and Archbishop of Canterbury not as PM.

    Despite his colourful private life Boris has also delivered Brexit, beaten Corbyn, stood up for Ukraine against Putin and saved lives through the vaccine rollout.

    Boris having some cake was hardly crime of the century
    Your last sentence sums up just how out of touch you are with millions of voters who were, and are still, furious with his sense of entitlement and lack of respect to others
    Yet still more of them prefer Boris as PM to Sunak and Truss on tonight's Opinium
    25% for Johnson v 46% Truss and Sunak
  • dixiedeandixiedean Posts: 29,278
    Leon said:

    dixiedean said:

    Leon said:

    Cheer up everyone. I had a “chocolate martini” in the Piazza Della Signoria at 150-year-old Cafe Rivoire




    Well that's OK then ;)
    I just felt we needed some context. Yes millions of proles will die of gnawing hunger this winter, and the prospect of a brutal war menaces much of Europe, but I’m having a really nice time drinking fancy cocktails in Florence

    Sometimes a little perspective is necessary

    I've had a lovely day catching up with a dozen or so friends. A couple of whom I haven't seen since the pandemic. Am now thoroughly pissed after a very early, for me, start.
    Plus. Been invited on holiday by mi putative Julie.
    So. Yeah.
    Come friendly bombs. It ain't all bad.
    And it's kiparooni Sunday to come.
  • HYUFDHYUFD Posts: 121,308
    edited August 2022

    HYUFD said:

    HYUFD said:

    HYUFD said:

    HYUFD said:

    HYUFD said:

    Opinium also finds 25% prefer Boris as best PM to Starmer compared to 23% for Sunak and Truss. Boris only 6% behind Starmer as preferred PM while Truss is 8% behind Starmer.

    So what a complete waste of time those Tory MPs removing Boris was!!!

    https://twitter.com/GoodwinMJ/status/1561085536353361923?s=20&t=jKUOvr1NuQWFTw-Y8h3JTw

    You just do not get it do you
    I di get it. Thanks to the whinging of the likes of you the Conservatives have just lost their best general election winner for a generation!!!
    If I have played a small part in getting rid of Johnson then I wear that badge with pride
    And you will also be partly responsible for handing the next general election to Labour on a plate too
    Maybe and maybe the party need to go into opposition

    I do find it surprising that as a Christian you are able even to defend Johnson and his disgraceful behaviour since Paterson and partygate
    What's Christianity got to do with it? There's no ethics in Christianity, certainly no consistent ones.

    Having hypocritical leaders and keeping their proles in their place as HYUFD wants has a long running history in Christendom.
    You need a Saint as Pope and Archbishop of Canterbury not as PM.

    Despite his colourful private life Boris has also delivered Brexit, beaten Corbyn, stood up for Ukraine against Putin and saved lives through the vaccine rollout.

    Boris having some cake was hardly crime of the century
    Your last sentence sums up just how out of touch you are with millions of voters who were, and are still, furious with his sense of entitlement and lack of respect to others
    Yet still more of them prefer Boris as PM to Sunak and Truss on tonight's Opinium
    25% for Johnson v 46% Truss and Sunak
    No 25% for Johnson v Starmer compared to 23% for Truss or Sunak v Starmer
  • kinabalukinabalu Posts: 41,387
    HYUFD said:

    HYUFD said:

    HYUFD said:

    HYUFD said:

    HYUFD said:

    Opinium also finds 25% prefer Boris as best PM to Starmer compared to 23% for Sunak and Truss. Boris only 6% behind Starmer as preferred PM while Truss is 8% behind Starmer.

    So what a complete waste of time those Tory MPs removing Boris was!!!

    https://twitter.com/GoodwinMJ/status/1561085536353361923?s=20&t=jKUOvr1NuQWFTw-Y8h3JTw

    You just do not get it do you
    I di get it. Thanks to the whinging of the likes of you the Conservatives have just lost their best general election winner for a generation!!!
    If I have played a small part in getting rid of Johnson then I wear that badge with pride
    And you will also be partly responsible for handing the next general election to Labour on a plate too
    Maybe and maybe the party need to go into opposition

    I do find it surprising that as a Christian you are able even to defend Johnson and his disgraceful behaviour since Paterson and partygate
    What's Christianity got to do with it? There's no ethics in Christianity, certainly no consistent ones.

    Having hypocritical leaders and keeping their proles in their place as HYUFD wants has a long running history in Christendom.
    You need a Saint as Pope and Archbishop of Canterbury not as PM.

    Despite his colourful private life Boris has also delivered Brexit, beaten Corbyn, stood up for Ukraine against Putin and saved lives through the vaccine rollout.

    Boris having some cake was hardly crime of the century
    Your last sentence sums up just how out of touch you are with millions of voters who were, and are still, furious with his sense of entitlement and lack of respect to others
    Yet still more of them prefer Boris as PM to Sunak and Truss on tonight's Opinium
    You'd have had more chance at the GE with him imo. It's gone now.

    Still, 2 years left in which to try and tackle some of the country's deep-seated problems before handing over. It's not all about winning elections.

  • Rob Ford 💙💛
    @robfordmancs
    ·
    29m
    Still feels to me that drumbeat of anti-renewables policies this summer - no to onshore wind farms, no to large solar projects (to protect farming or something?), yes to NIMBY sabotage in all its manifold forms - is bizarre, restricting at every turn investment we need urgently

    Totally agreed.

    @CorrectHorseBattery may think I've "bought and paid for" by Truss just because I don't think the votes are cast in the next election yet, and I actually liked Truss even before she was popular and don't agree with the groupthink that she's a disaster waiting to happen . . . but I've repeatedly called out Truss and Sunak for their NIMBYism in this leadership campaign.

    Their appeals to NIMBYism are terrible and not a good thing, though its a shame there's no better alternative.

    I'm hoping this NIMBY crap is dumped the second the election is over. If it isn't, I'll stand by saying its the wrong thing to do.
  • rottenboroughrottenborough Posts: 61,648

    Foxy said:

    kle4 said:

    ydoethur said:

    Scott_xP said:

    Andy_JS said:

    What do GPs have to do with energy bills?

    Maybe they could combine two terrible policies: If you miss your appointment another £10 gets added to your energy bill.
    https://twitter.com/Samfr/status/1561088498811244544
    A silly suggestion, as it implies you can get an appointment.
    I was told yesterday I couldn't get one until at least the 31st, and that they couldn't even start to book those until the 24th. I assume others have it much worse.
    Earliest appointment for me is 6th September.

    I'm beginning to think my practice is so out of kilter with everywhere else that something really bad is about to happen.

    I can phone on Monday or Tuesday, say, and get a telephone appt with my named, regular GP by Thursday. If following that need to come in and be seen then usually a day or two after.

    Had a minor emergency the other week with my wife's condition - needed a face to face exam. Phoned at 11am. In by 1pm.

    I suspect this may be to do with the practice switching to totally telephone first appointments.

    That's what mine is like and yes mine does telephone first appointments too, which I think is a very good idea.

    Being able to answer a phone call at a certain time is far better than having to travel in then spend a while waiting with other people, many of whom are possibly sick, waiting to be called in to an office to discuss what could be done over the phone.

    If face to face is needed, then that should be able to be figured out after a phone call.
    It's a funny old world. I clearly remember four years ago asking reception at the same GP's practice to organize a telephone appointment for me because, for reasons I wont bore you all with, I couldn't physically get to the surgery.

    What a fuss!!

    "We don't do those. I will have to ask. We'll get back to you" etc etc etc.
  • JonathanJonathan Posts: 21,406
    Dips into PB, discovers one of messiest chaotic threads in a long time.

    Truss
    Trump

    Kryptonite for debate. We’re screwed.
  • kinabalukinabalu Posts: 41,387
    Leon said:

    Cheer up everyone. I had a “chocolate martini” in the Piazza Della Signoria at 150-year-old Cafe Rivoire


    That sounds revolting.

  • Rob Ford 💙💛
    @robfordmancs
    ·
    29m
    Still feels to me that drumbeat of anti-renewables policies this summer - no to onshore wind farms, no to large solar projects (to protect farming or something?), yes to NIMBY sabotage in all its manifold forms - is bizarre, restricting at every turn investment we need urgently

    Totally agreed.

    @CorrectHorseBattery may think I've "bought and paid for" by Truss just because I don't think the votes are cast in the next election yet, and I actually liked Truss even before she was popular and don't agree with the groupthink that she's a disaster waiting to happen . . . but I've repeatedly called out Truss and Sunak for their NIMBYism in this leadership campaign.

    Their appeals to NIMBYism are terrible and not a good thing, though its a shame there's no better alternative.

    I'm hoping this NIMBY crap is dumped the second the election is over. If it isn't, I'll stand by saying its the wrong thing to do.
    I find it unnecessary to suggest anyone is bought and paid for by a political party for commenting on this forum
  • BartholomewRobertsBartholomewRoberts Posts: 21,541
    edited August 2022

    Foxy said:

    kle4 said:

    ydoethur said:

    Scott_xP said:

    Andy_JS said:

    What do GPs have to do with energy bills?

    Maybe they could combine two terrible policies: If you miss your appointment another £10 gets added to your energy bill.
    https://twitter.com/Samfr/status/1561088498811244544
    A silly suggestion, as it implies you can get an appointment.
    I was told yesterday I couldn't get one until at least the 31st, and that they couldn't even start to book those until the 24th. I assume others have it much worse.
    Earliest appointment for me is 6th September.

    I'm beginning to think my practice is so out of kilter with everywhere else that something really bad is about to happen.

    I can phone on Monday or Tuesday, say, and get a telephone appt with my named, regular GP by Thursday. If following that need to come in and be seen then usually a day or two after.

    Had a minor emergency the other week with my wife's condition - needed a face to face exam. Phoned at 11am. In by 1pm.

    I suspect this may be to do with the practice switching to totally telephone first appointments.

    That's what mine is like and yes mine does telephone first appointments too, which I think is a very good idea.

    Being able to answer a phone call at a certain time is far better than having to travel in then spend a while waiting with other people, many of whom are possibly sick, waiting to be called in to an office to discuss what could be done over the phone.

    If face to face is needed, then that should be able to be figured out after a phone call.
    It's a funny old world. I clearly remember four years ago asking reception at the same GP's practice to organize a telephone appointment for me because, for reasons I wont bore you all with, I couldn't physically get to the surgery.

    What a fuss!!

    "We don't do those. I will have to ask. We'll get back to you" etc etc etc.
    Yes. My last GP surgery elsewhere in town was nowhere near as good as my new one either. Recall trying to book an appointment a few years ago, called up and "sorry all our appointments for today are gone, please call back tomorrow at 8am" - "I don't want to call tomorrow at 8am, it doesn't work well for the hours I'm working, and don't want an appointment for today, please just get me your next available appointment whenever that is, I'm happy to wait" - "I'm sorry all our appointments for today are gone, please call back tomorrow at 8am". Gah!

    I swear most of the GP receptionists in this country were hired from Dante's Inferno, there must be a special circle of hell for them to have come from.
  • TheuniondivvieTheuniondivvie Posts: 41,551


    Rob Ford 💙💛
    @robfordmancs
    ·
    29m
    Still feels to me that drumbeat of anti-renewables policies this summer - no to onshore wind farms, no to large solar projects (to protect farming or something?), yes to NIMBY sabotage in all its manifold forms - is bizarre, restricting at every turn investment we need urgently

    Totally agreed.

    @CorrectHorseBattery may think I've "bought and paid for" by Truss just because I don't think the votes are cast in the next election yet, and I actually liked Truss even before she was popular and don't agree with the groupthink that she's a disaster waiting to happen . . . but I've repeatedly called out Truss and Sunak for their NIMBYism in this leadership campaign.

    Their appeals to NIMBYism are terrible and not a good thing, though its a shame there's no better alternative.

    I'm hoping this NIMBY crap is dumped the second the election is over. If it isn't, I'll stand by saying its the wrong thing to do.
    I find it unnecessary to suggest anyone is bought and paid for by a political party for commenting on this forum
    Yep, who would pay for that sort of drivel?
    Not singling out Barty btw. Well, not very much.
  • dixiedeandixiedean Posts: 29,278


    Rob Ford 💙💛
    @robfordmancs
    ·
    29m
    Still feels to me that drumbeat of anti-renewables policies this summer - no to onshore wind farms, no to large solar projects (to protect farming or something?), yes to NIMBY sabotage in all its manifold forms - is bizarre, restricting at every turn investment we need urgently

    Totally agreed.

    @CorrectHorseBattery may think I've "bought and paid for" by Truss just because I don't think the votes are cast in the next election yet, and I actually liked Truss even before she was popular and don't agree with the groupthink that she's a disaster waiting to happen . . . but I've repeatedly called out Truss and Sunak for their NIMBYism in this leadership campaign.

    Their appeals to NIMBYism are terrible and not a good thing, though its a shame there's no better alternative.

    I'm hoping this NIMBY crap is dumped the second the election is over. If it isn't, I'll stand by saying its the wrong thing to do.
    Thing is.
    The Nimby is a huge part of the coalition. To govern is to choose. Boris managed to spin all the plates for a while.
  • LeonLeon Posts: 53,722
    edited August 2022
    kinabalu said:

    Leon said:

    Cheer up everyone. I had a “chocolate martini” in the Piazza Della Signoria at 150-year-old Cafe Rivoire


    That sounds revolting.
    To be honest that was my expectation. I don’t even like cocktails. But I was in an effervescent mood - having a very fun time in Florence - so I had a cocktail. This one




    And it was totally YUM. So I thought: why not try the absurd “chocolate martini”? The Cafe Rivoire is famous for its chocolate. And… it was actually quite nice. And very pleasingly decadent

  • pigeonpigeon Posts: 4,813

    Ridiculous that the GP can't even give the results. I had a blood test recently (routine screening upon turning 40, feel old being old enough to have reached the age of routine screenings) and the receptionist gave me my results. I don't understand what yours are playing at, if the results are clear, I don't understand why the receptionist can't give the results, and if the results aren't clear then the GP should find time to give them themselves if needed. Especially with the test already having been done, what are they playing at!

    The proximate answer to these kinds of failings is, most likely, that there are too many patients chasing too few doctors, and that the doctors are therefore incapable of dealing with their workload in a prompt fashion. It would be interesting to understand what the underlying causes of that problem are though.

    World Bank figures published for 2019, i.e. immediately before the pandemic, suggest that UK health spending as a percentage of GDP is comparable with that in the Netherlands. It is not especially low. Therefore, if countries like the Netherlands, or Denmark (slightly worse funded,) or Norway (slightly better funded) aren't all suffering from the same problems of ludicrous waits for treatment, inaccessible GPs and disintegrating ambulance services, then what is going wrong specifically in the UK?

    This tends towards the conclusion that either the NHS is shit at allocating resources efficiently, or that the British population is more clapped out than that of our neighbours, or it's down to some combination of the two. There's an argument to be had over whether continental healthcare systems, reliant as they typically are on insurance rather than a gigantic state-operated monolith, are better administered. What we can say for definite is that the UK has an unusually high proportion of obese people by Western European standards, most likely accompanied by correspondingly lower levels of physical activity.

    It'd be fascinating to know how much of that is down to people dependent on meagre benefits and/or crap wages, and often living in ruinously expensive accommodation to boot, who consequently can't afford to go very far, do very much, or feed themselves on anything except the cheapest and least nutritious food. Keeping a large chunk of your population in poverty is a false economy: they're liable to end up costing you more in the long run through being a burden on health and social services than you save through your initial tight-fistedness.
  • dixiedean said:


    Rob Ford 💙💛
    @robfordmancs
    ·
    29m
    Still feels to me that drumbeat of anti-renewables policies this summer - no to onshore wind farms, no to large solar projects (to protect farming or something?), yes to NIMBY sabotage in all its manifold forms - is bizarre, restricting at every turn investment we need urgently

    Totally agreed.

    @CorrectHorseBattery may think I've "bought and paid for" by Truss just because I don't think the votes are cast in the next election yet, and I actually liked Truss even before she was popular and don't agree with the groupthink that she's a disaster waiting to happen . . . but I've repeatedly called out Truss and Sunak for their NIMBYism in this leadership campaign.

    Their appeals to NIMBYism are terrible and not a good thing, though its a shame there's no better alternative.

    I'm hoping this NIMBY crap is dumped the second the election is over. If it isn't, I'll stand by saying its the wrong thing to do.
    Thing is.
    The Nimby is a huge part of the coalition. To govern is to choose. Boris managed to spin all the plates for a while.
    Indeed and that's why I've said I don't especially care if the Tories win the next election or not. If they win it by doing stuff I don't want, then why should I want them to win?

    People may mock that as wanting "purity" but if there's nothing in it for us, why vote for them? I despise NIMBYism so if the Party is standing by NIMBYs while jacking up taxes on working people like Sunak wants then what is there left that is there for me to vote for?

    To govern is to choose, and hopefully Truss chooses wisely.
  • LeonLeon Posts: 53,722
    dixiedean said:

    Leon said:

    dixiedean said:

    Leon said:

    Cheer up everyone. I had a “chocolate martini” in the Piazza Della Signoria at 150-year-old Cafe Rivoire




    Well that's OK then ;)
    I just felt we needed some context. Yes millions of proles will die of gnawing hunger this winter, and the prospect of a brutal war menaces much of Europe, but I’m having a really nice time drinking fancy cocktails in Florence

    Sometimes a little perspective is necessary

    I've had a lovely day catching up with a dozen or so friends. A couple of whom I haven't seen since the pandemic. Am now thoroughly pissed after a very early, for me, start.
    Plus. Been invited on holiday by mi putative Julie.
    So. Yeah.
    Come friendly bombs. It ain't all bad.
    And it's kiparooni Sunday to come.
    Sarcasm and satire aside it is important to remember that life can still be REALLY fun. We are in danger of talking ourselves into an apocalyptic recession
  • NigelbNigelb Posts: 69,050

    HYUFD said:

    HYUFD said:

    HYUFD said:

    HYUFD said:

    Opinium also finds 25% prefer Boris as best PM to Starmer compared to 23% for Sunak and Truss. Boris only 6% behind Starmer as preferred PM while Truss is 8% behind Starmer.

    So what a complete waste of time those Tory MPs removing Boris was!!!

    https://twitter.com/GoodwinMJ/status/1561085536353361923?s=20&t=jKUOvr1NuQWFTw-Y8h3JTw

    You just do not get it do you
    I di get it. Thanks to the whinging of the likes of you the Conservatives have just lost their best general election winner for a generation!!!
    If I have played a small part in getting rid of Johnson then I wear that badge with pride
    And you will also be partly responsible for handing the next general election to Labour on a plate too
    Maybe and maybe the party need to go into opposition

    I do find it surprising that as a Christian you are able even to defend Johnson and his disgraceful behaviour since Paterson and partygate
    What's Christianity got to do with it? There's no ethics in Christianity, certainly no consistent ones.

    Having hypocritical leaders and keeping their proles in their place as HYUFD wants has a long running history in Christendom.
    You need a Saint as Pope and Archbishop of Canterbury not as PM.

    Despite his colourful private life Boris has also delivered Brexit, beaten Corbyn, stood up for Ukraine against Putin and saved lives through the vaccine rollout.

    Boris having some cake was hardly crime of the century
    Your last sentence sums up just how out of touch you are with millions of voters who were, and are still, furious with his sense of entitlement and lack of respect to others
    i think he inhabits a fantasy world where Boris is still popular.

    Though it’s possible that getting booted out before maximum shit hits the fan might have salvaged something of his public regard in years to come, when conservatives look back through their nostalgia spectacles.
  • HYUFDHYUFD Posts: 121,308
    edited August 2022
    Boris at least enjoying himself, sunbathing topless on a boat near a Greek island with Carrie

    https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/19569386/boris-johnson-carrie-greece-topless/
  • pigeon said:

    Ridiculous that the GP can't even give the results. I had a blood test recently (routine screening upon turning 40, feel old being old enough to have reached the age of routine screenings) and the receptionist gave me my results. I don't understand what yours are playing at, if the results are clear, I don't understand why the receptionist can't give the results, and if the results aren't clear then the GP should find time to give them themselves if needed. Especially with the test already having been done, what are they playing at!

    The proximate answer to these kinds of failings is, most likely, that there are too many patients chasing too few doctors, and that the doctors are therefore incapable of dealing with their workload in a prompt fashion. It would be interesting to understand what the underlying causes of that problem are though.

    World Bank figures published for 2019, i.e. immediately before the pandemic, suggest that UK health spending as a percentage of GDP is comparable with that in the Netherlands. It is not especially low. Therefore, if countries like the Netherlands, or Denmark (slightly worse funded,) or Norway (slightly better funded) aren't all suffering from the same problems of ludicrous waits for treatment, inaccessible GPs and disintegrating ambulance services, then what is going wrong specifically in the UK?

    This tends towards the conclusion that either the NHS is shit at allocating resources efficiently, or that the British population is more clapped out than that of our neighbours, or it's down to some combination of the two. There's an argument to be had over whether continental healthcare systems, reliant as they typically are on insurance rather than a gigantic state-operated monolith, are better administered. What we can say for definite is that the UK has an unusually high proportion of obese people by Western European standards, most likely accompanied by correspondingly lower levels of physical activity.

    It'd be fascinating to know how much of that is down to people dependent on meagre benefits and/or crap wages, and often living in ruinously expensive accommodation to boot, who consequently can't afford to go very far, do very much, or feed themselves on anything except the cheapest and least nutritious food. Keeping a large chunk of your population in poverty is a false economy: they're liable to end up costing you more in the long run through being a burden on health and social services than you save through your initial tight-fistedness.
    I think part of the problem is our NHS system panders to hypochondriacs and malingerers.

    If anyone who can't be bothered to go into work can go to the GP to say they're "stressed" to get some time off work, or any time someone has the sniffles [even pre-Covid] they go to the GP expecting to get antibiotics then there's no wise allocation of resources going to people who actually need it.
  • HYUFD said:

    Boris at least enjoying himself, sunbathing topless on a boat in Greece with Carrie

    https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/19569386/boris-johnson-carrie-greece-topless/

    Lies, Carrie isn't topless.
  • HYUFDHYUFD Posts: 121,308

    HYUFD said:

    Boris at least enjoying himself, sunbathing topless on a boat in Greece with Carrie

    https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/19569386/boris-johnson-carrie-greece-topless/

    Lies, Carrie isn't topless.
    I never said she was
  • dixiedeandixiedean Posts: 29,278
    Leon said:

    dixiedean said:

    Leon said:

    dixiedean said:

    Leon said:

    Cheer up everyone. I had a “chocolate martini” in the Piazza Della Signoria at 150-year-old Cafe Rivoire




    Well that's OK then ;)
    I just felt we needed some context. Yes millions of proles will die of gnawing hunger this winter, and the prospect of a brutal war menaces much of Europe, but I’m having a really nice time drinking fancy cocktails in Florence

    Sometimes a little perspective is necessary

    I've had a lovely day catching up with a dozen or so friends. A couple of whom I haven't seen since the pandemic. Am now thoroughly pissed after a very early, for me, start.
    Plus. Been invited on holiday by mi putative Julie.
    So. Yeah.
    Come friendly bombs. It ain't all bad.
    And it's kiparooni Sunday to come.
    Sarcasm and satire aside it is important to remember that life can still be REALLY fun. We are in danger of talking ourselves into an apocalyptic recession
    Oh sure.
    On the other hand. It's not a great situation.
    I prefer the middle way.
  • Andy_JSAndy_JS Posts: 31,507
    Leon said:

    kinabalu said:

    Leon said:

    Cheer up everyone. I had a “chocolate martini” in the Piazza Della Signoria at 150-year-old Cafe Rivoire


    That sounds revolting.
    To be honest that was my expectation. I don’t even like cocktails. But I was in an effervescent mood - having a very fun time in Florence - so I had a cocktail. This one




    And it was totally YUM. So I thought: why not try the absurd “chocolate martini”? The Cafe Rivoire is famous for its chocolate. And… it was actually quite nice. And very pleasingly decadent

    Not too many tourists, I hope.
  • HYUFD said:

    Boris at least enjoying himself, sunbathing topless on a boat near a Greek island with Carrie

    https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/19569386/boris-johnson-carrie-greece-topless/

    Just exactly what the public do not want to see - if you cannot see how ill judged this is then you are not in touch with reality
  • LeonLeon Posts: 53,722
    Andy_JS said:

    Leon said:

    kinabalu said:

    Leon said:

    Cheer up everyone. I had a “chocolate martini” in the Piazza Della Signoria at 150-year-old Cafe Rivoire


    That sounds revolting.
    To be honest that was my expectation. I don’t even like cocktails. But I was in an effervescent mood - having a very fun time in Florence - so I had a cocktail. This one




    And it was totally YUM. So I thought: why not try the absurd “chocolate martini”? The Cafe Rivoire is famous for its chocolate. And… it was actually quite nice. And very pleasingly decadent

    Not too many tourists, I hope.
    Florence is, as always, OVERRUN with tourists. But it somehow maintains its incredible charm. It is such a timeless, beautiful city, it has seen everything. It will survive the day trippers and it will survive this coming winter

    It survived the Black Death, after all

  • HYUFDHYUFD Posts: 121,308

    HYUFD said:

    Boris at least enjoying himself, sunbathing topless on a boat near a Greek island with Carrie

    https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/19569386/boris-johnson-carrie-greece-topless/

    Just exactly what the public do not want to see - if you cannot see how ill judged this is then you are not in touch with reality
    He is as entitled to a holiday as anyone else and he cannot introduce any new policies anyway, that is for the next PM
  • pigeonpigeon Posts: 4,813

    Foxy said:

    kle4 said:

    ydoethur said:

    Scott_xP said:

    Andy_JS said:

    What do GPs have to do with energy bills?

    Maybe they could combine two terrible policies: If you miss your appointment another £10 gets added to your energy bill.
    https://twitter.com/Samfr/status/1561088498811244544
    A silly suggestion, as it implies you can get an appointment.
    I was told yesterday I couldn't get one until at least the 31st, and that they couldn't even start to book those until the 24th. I assume others have it much worse.
    Earliest appointment for me is 6th September.

    I'm beginning to think my practice is so out of kilter with everywhere else that something really bad is about to happen.

    I can phone on Monday or Tuesday, say, and get a telephone appt with my named, regular GP by Thursday. If following that need to come in and be seen then usually a day or two after.

    Had a minor emergency the other week with my wife's condition - needed a face to face exam. Phoned at 11am. In by 1pm.

    I suspect this may be to do with the practice switching to totally telephone first appointments.

    That's what mine is like and yes mine does telephone first appointments too, which I think is a very good idea.

    Being able to answer a phone call at a certain time is far better than having to travel in then spend a while waiting with other people, many of whom are possibly sick, waiting to be called in to an office to discuss what could be done over the phone.

    If face to face is needed, then that should be able to be figured out after a phone call.
    It's a funny old world. I clearly remember four years ago asking reception at the same GP's practice to organize a telephone appointment for me because, for reasons I wont bore you all with, I couldn't physically get to the surgery.

    What a fuss!!

    "We don't do those. I will have to ask. We'll get back to you" etc etc etc.
    Yes. My last GP surgery elsewhere in town was nowhere near as good as my new one either. Recall trying to book an appointment a few years ago, called up and "sorry all our appointments for today are gone, please call back tomorrow at 8am" - "I don't want to call tomorrow at 8am, it doesn't work well for the hours I'm working, and don't want an appointment for today, please just get me your next available appointment whenever that is, I'm happy to wait" - "I'm sorry all our appointments for today are gone, please call back tomorrow at 8am". Gah!

    I swear most of the GP receptionists in this country were hired from Dante's Inferno, there must be a special circle of hell for them to have come from.
    I suspect that the whole 8am cavalry charge is a mechanism designed to demoralize people into giving up altogether or presenting at A&E (i.e. becoming someone else's problem,) although I do understand it up to a point. If NHS surgeries offered up their (obviously free) GP appointments for advance booking, then all that pent up demand would flood the system and the available slots would soon be bunged up for months in advance.

    Without the need to pay anything to book those appointments, nor the risk of a cancellation fee for not showing up to them, half the patients would then be no shows (because their conditions got better on their own, they were too trivial to require attention in the first place, or they were too lazy to attend,) and the net result would be that access for the truly needy would be even worse than before - as would be the numbers going to hospital out of desperation.

    The only workable solution is very large numbers of new GPs, and nobody wants to pay for that even if the required personnel were available for recruitment in the first place.
  • dixiedeandixiedean Posts: 29,278

    pigeon said:

    Ridiculous that the GP can't even give the results. I had a blood test recently (routine screening upon turning 40, feel old being old enough to have reached the age of routine screenings) and the receptionist gave me my results. I don't understand what yours are playing at, if the results are clear, I don't understand why the receptionist can't give the results, and if the results aren't clear then the GP should find time to give them themselves if needed. Especially with the test already having been done, what are they playing at!

    The proximate answer to these kinds of failings is, most likely, that there are too many patients chasing too few doctors, and that the doctors are therefore incapable of dealing with their workload in a prompt fashion. It would be interesting to understand what the underlying causes of that problem are though.

    World Bank figures published for 2019, i.e. immediately before the pandemic, suggest that UK health spending as a percentage of GDP is comparable with that in the Netherlands. It is not especially low. Therefore, if countries like the Netherlands, or Denmark (slightly worse funded,) or Norway (slightly better funded) aren't all suffering from the same problems of ludicrous waits for treatment, inaccessible GPs and disintegrating ambulance services, then what is going wrong specifically in the UK?

    This tends towards the conclusion that either the NHS is shit at allocating resources efficiently, or that the British population is more clapped out than that of our neighbours, or it's down to some combination of the two. There's an argument to be had over whether continental healthcare systems, reliant as they typically are on insurance rather than a gigantic state-operated monolith, are better administered. What we can say for definite is that the UK has an unusually high proportion of obese people by Western European standards, most likely accompanied by correspondingly lower levels of physical activity.

    It'd be fascinating to know how much of that is down to people dependent on meagre benefits and/or crap wages, and often living in ruinously expensive accommodation to boot, who consequently can't afford to go very far, do very much, or feed themselves on anything except the cheapest and least nutritious food. Keeping a large chunk of your population in poverty is a false economy: they're liable to end up costing you more in the long run through being a burden on health and social services than you save through your initial tight-fistedness.
    I think part of the problem is our NHS system panders to hypochondriacs and malingerers.

    If anyone who can't be bothered to go into work can go to the GP to say they're "stressed" to get some time off work, or any time someone has the sniffles [even pre-Covid] they go to the GP expecting to get antibiotics then there's no wise allocation of resources going to people who actually need it.
    There were certainly some who saw a visit to the GP as the pinnacle of their social life. Evidenced by the fall in visits during the pandemic. They perhaps needed a counsellor. Or friends.
  • LeonLeon Posts: 53,722
    Firenze this morning. Trillions of tourists at 8am. But, still, look at it




  • HYUFD said:

    HYUFD said:

    Boris at least enjoying himself, sunbathing topless on a boat near a Greek island with Carrie

    https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/19569386/boris-johnson-carrie-greece-topless/

    Just exactly what the public do not want to see - if you cannot see how ill judged this is then you are not in touch with reality
    He is as entitled to a holiday as anyone else and he cannot introduce any new policies anyway, that is for the next PM
    How many holidays has he had just this month let alone this year and the optics are dreadful
  • LeonLeon Posts: 53,722

    HYUFD said:

    HYUFD said:

    Boris at least enjoying himself, sunbathing topless on a boat near a Greek island with Carrie

    https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/19569386/boris-johnson-carrie-greece-topless/

    Just exactly what the public do not want to see - if you cannot see how ill judged this is then you are not in touch with reality
    He is as entitled to a holiday as anyone else and he cannot introduce any new policies anyway, that is for the next PM
    How many holidays has he had just this month let alone this year and the optics are dreadful

    No one gives a fuck. It’s Boris, and he’s resigned anyway
  • HYUFDHYUFD Posts: 121,308
    edited August 2022
    For Leon. Florida Governor Ron De Santis 'We must fight the Woke in our schools. We must fight the Woke in our businesses. We must fight the Woke in government agencies. We must never, ever surrender to Woke ideology. The state of Florida is where Woke goes to die.'

    https://twitter.com/thehill/status/1561043132614995968?s=20&t=g1LL7LyfLpxKR5ww5ht5Xw
  • LeonLeon Posts: 53,722
    HYUFD said:

    For Leon. Florida Governor Ron De Santis 'We must fight the Woke in our schools. We must fight the Woke in our businesses. We must fight the Woke in out government agencies. We must never, ever surrender to Woke ideology. Florida is the state Woke comes to die.'

    https://twitter.com/thehill/status/1561043132614995968?s=20&t=g1LL7LyfLpxKR5ww5ht5Xw

    I really hope De Santis wins the GOP Nom. That would save us from the horror of Trump 2.0 and he’d thrash the Dems
  • dixiedeandixiedean Posts: 29,278
    Right. Kiparooni Sunday time.
  • kinabalu said:

    Leon said:

    Cheer up everyone. I had a “chocolate martini” in the Piazza Della Signoria at 150-year-old Cafe Rivoire


    That sounds revolting.
    But it sounds ostentatiously expensive.

    Some things are meant to be eaten and some to be talked about.

    Its post-food food.
  • TheuniondivvieTheuniondivvie Posts: 41,551
    Ok lads, we’ve got something to make up for Sadowitz being cancelled.



    https://twitter.com/sunpolitics/status/1561092384141754368?s=21&t=2ogukd59y8MvcVWC-7GTQg
  • pigeon said:

    Ridiculous that the GP can't even give the results. I had a blood test recently (routine screening upon turning 40, feel old being old enough to have reached the age of routine screenings) and the receptionist gave me my results. I don't understand what yours are playing at, if the results are clear, I don't understand why the receptionist can't give the results, and if the results aren't clear then the GP should find time to give them themselves if needed. Especially with the test already having been done, what are they playing at!

    The proximate answer to these kinds of failings is, most likely, that there are too many patients chasing too few doctors, and that the doctors are therefore incapable of dealing with their workload in a prompt fashion. It would be interesting to understand what the underlying causes of that problem are though.

    World Bank figures published for 2019, i.e. immediately before the pandemic, suggest that UK health spending as a percentage of GDP is comparable with that in the Netherlands. It is not especially low. Therefore, if countries like the Netherlands, or Denmark (slightly worse funded,) or Norway (slightly better funded) aren't all suffering from the same problems of ludicrous waits for treatment, inaccessible GPs and disintegrating ambulance services, then what is going wrong specifically in the UK?

    This tends towards the conclusion that either the NHS is shit at allocating resources efficiently, or that the British population is more clapped out than that of our neighbours, or it's down to some combination of the two. There's an argument to be had over whether continental healthcare systems, reliant as they typically are on insurance rather than a gigantic state-operated monolith, are better administered. What we can say for definite is that the UK has an unusually high proportion of obese people by Western European standards, most likely accompanied by correspondingly lower levels of physical activity.

    It'd be fascinating to know how much of that is down to people dependent on meagre benefits and/or crap wages, and often living in ruinously expensive accommodation to boot, who consequently can't afford to go very far, do very much, or feed themselves on anything except the cheapest and least nutritious food. Keeping a large chunk of your population in poverty is a false economy: they're liable to end up costing you more in the long run through being a burden on health and social services than you save through your initial tight-fistedness.
    It'd be fascinating to know how much of that is down to people dependent on meagre benefits and/or crap wages, and often living in ruinously expensive accommodation to boot, who consequently can't afford to go very far, do very much, or feed themselves on anything except the cheapest and least nutritious food.

    Well they might be.

    But its much more likely to be that they're greedy slobs.
  • Leon said:

    HYUFD said:

    For Leon. Florida Governor Ron De Santis 'We must fight the Woke in our schools. We must fight the Woke in our businesses. We must fight the Woke in out government agencies. We must never, ever surrender to Woke ideology. Florida is the state Woke comes to die.'

    https://twitter.com/thehill/status/1561043132614995968?s=20&t=g1LL7LyfLpxKR5ww5ht5Xw

    I really hope De Santis wins the GOP Nom. That would save us from the horror of Trump 2.0 and he’d thrash the Dems
    So why are you in Florence ?

    Have you ever seen Brian Sewell's Grand Tour series:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=88hACXWd58A

    If you've got a spare six months you could do an updated version.
  • HYUFD said:

    HYUFD said:

    Boris at least enjoying himself, sunbathing topless on a boat near a Greek island with Carrie

    https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/19569386/boris-johnson-carrie-greece-topless/

    Just exactly what the public do not want to see - if you cannot see how ill judged this is then you are not in touch with reality
    He is as entitled to a holiday as anyone else and he cannot introduce any new policies anyway, that is for the next PM
    Its a pity he didn't take his responsibility to follow covid regulations like anyone else as he does to take holidays like anyone else.
  • LeonLeon Posts: 53,722

    Leon said:

    HYUFD said:

    For Leon. Florida Governor Ron De Santis 'We must fight the Woke in our schools. We must fight the Woke in our businesses. We must fight the Woke in out government agencies. We must never, ever surrender to Woke ideology. Florida is the state Woke comes to die.'

    https://twitter.com/thehill/status/1561043132614995968?s=20&t=g1LL7LyfLpxKR5ww5ht5Xw

    I really hope De Santis wins the GOP Nom. That would save us from the horror of Trump 2.0 and he’d thrash the Dems
    So why are you in Florence ?

    Have you ever seen Brian Sewell's Grand Tour series:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=88hACXWd58A

    If you've got a spare six months you could do an updated version.
    I’ve brought one of my kids on hols to try and impress upon her the importance of the Renaissance. Not sure she’s that into the frescos but she’s enjoying the gelati and we’re having a blast so 👍👍

    Buona notte, PB
  • Leon said:

    Leon said:

    HYUFD said:

    For Leon. Florida Governor Ron De Santis 'We must fight the Woke in our schools. We must fight the Woke in our businesses. We must fight the Woke in out government agencies. We must never, ever surrender to Woke ideology. Florida is the state Woke comes to die.'

    https://twitter.com/thehill/status/1561043132614995968?s=20&t=g1LL7LyfLpxKR5ww5ht5Xw

    I really hope De Santis wins the GOP Nom. That would save us from the horror of Trump 2.0 and he’d thrash the Dems
    So why are you in Florence ?

    Have you ever seen Brian Sewell's Grand Tour series:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=88hACXWd58A

    If you've got a spare six months you could do an updated version.
    I’ve brought one of my kids on hols to try and impress upon her the importance of the Renaissance. Not sure she’s that into the frescos but she’s enjoying the gelati and we’re having a blast so 👍👍

    Buona notte, PB
    San Gimignano is a fun place to go.
This discussion has been closed.