Dissatisfaction with Sunak up 12pts to 49% in his 2nd month, while unhappiness with Govt as a whole also historically poor at 8 in 10. Rare for a PM to hit negative scores so quickly in their tenure in Ipsos records (tho' both Johnson and Truss did, with varying results…). 2/7 pic.twitter.com/mV2Xc1HBw3
Comments
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opinion_polling_for_the_next_United_Kingdom_general_election#Graphical_summary
Edit: Well if that's not a bad omen, what is?
And they have changed their methodology this year from 2019.
Otherwise we're just saying something like: Usain Bolt is about to run 100m - that's the length of two 50m swimming pools. Which I don't think is a particularly helpful or enjoyable way to paint a picture.
https://twitter.com/joekennedy/status/1604831420773457921?s=20&t=x-p4EsKF0b60orwkZ0-01w
got in 2019 then!
Which makes me consider... What are the Seven Wonders of the Modern World?
Here goes:
1. The Internet (of course)
2. Wikipedia (because... I already said so)
3. Smartphones
4. DNA sequencing
5. GPS
6. Diversity & Inclusion (I knew you'd like that one)
7. English sparkling wine
You're all welcome!
Most Tories would have bitten your hand off for such a result at the end of October when they really were facing worse than 1997 wipeout
"doing a good job for those Tories by their standards"
with
"doing a good job for me by my standards".
(Er, perhaps they equate in your case, but you weren't asked.) {Edited to remove unintended possible mean ing of personal insult.]
A Departmental Minister can and should focus on one area at a time. A PM should however be able to rev up multiple engines.
In some ways its strange how off-putting Truss was to a lot of traditional Tory voters. She had a chronic inability to project seriousness, which is ironic given that she followed Boris, but he had a different kind of charisma and ability to connect with people.
The point I was making is that it appears many in the comedy community are being straight up hypocritical, they are literally saying this is unacceptable for a joke as it involves demeaning and encouraging violence, but the same people were out in force to defend Brand when lots of people made similar observations about her "joke" at a time when Farage was being attacked.
Sometimes the German or French Wikipedia will have more on a topic than the English. Likely others too, but my abilities to read any other than those are limited!
I'd say that debt-leveraged buyouts are a wonder of the modern world, where companies borrow money to buy themselves on behalf of one chancer or another. Every time another one happens I find myself filled with awe afresh.
I quite often use reddit's country/region-specific pages too. Can be quite handy when you see a headline of 'Shocking Statement from Politician in Somewhereland' then go to /r/somewhereland and there's a lot of eye-rolling and 'oh, it's that twat again. he's a running joke even in his own party. god, this is embarrassing.'
And you can’t add your own swingback from shy Tories to that poll either, they’ve already done that.
Who was the last PM we had who could juggle well, though? Dave?
New polling from Ipsos MORI continues to show the dire state of Rishi Sunak’s party. The poll puts Labour’s lead at 26%, up 7% on November, with the Conservatives’ trust on the economy falling. On public trust to secure economic growth specifically, Rishi’s ratings are now significantly lower than Liz Truss managed. Liz had a lead of 15% over Labour, Rishi is level.
Economic statistics paint a similar picture. The economy outperformed other months in October, registering 0.5% growth in the one month Liz was PM. It seems the public had good reason to initially back Liz’s pro-growth message. Guido increasingly senses a widespread loss of morale from all classes and not just from the usual perennial gloomsters…
https://order-order.com/2022/12/19/public-backed-liz-to-grow-the-economy-over-rishi/
I expect there are plenty of enterprising GOPers in the States selling anti-liberal counselling/pharmaceuticals
Impressive because it had the touch-pad technology that showed you actually what your time and finishing position was when you hit it at the end of your swim, which was actually a bit of a rarity in junior swimming competitions.
A lot of the time you did your swim and had no idea what happened or where you placed unless you won a medal to tell you.
More to the point I don't remember them featuring much anyway, except in the lives of door to door salesmen. Generally if you were interested in the French Revolution you went and got a book about the French Revolution rather than look up the F volume of Britannica.
I also can't remember whether they were footnoted at all. Even if they were, who was ever going to look up the footnotes? The glory of wikipedia is clickable links to sources.
Is there any sector not mired by Brexit? ~AA
https://schoolsweek.co.uk/qualified-teacher-status-overseas-teachers-hire/
(I assume the "~AA" means this is an uncredited posting of a tweet from "Best for Britain"?)
But then why be fair, when we can paint everything as down to Brexit?
Only 2% for REF which means only 25% REFCON. Ouch.
Interesting commentary on the use of phone polling too:
https://twitter.com/JMagosh/status/1604847763778404354?s=20&t=MFHVTnAt5qHZIXYlrZi5-A
Would explain the low green vote too. Essentially people you get on the phone are more "normie" than the politically engaged online ones.
(1) https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Link_rot
(2) https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:All_articles_with_dead_external_links
“Just pretending to be shocked” you say? Because “everyone knew” it was a Game of Thrones reference you say. Bullshit. All bullshit. Newsflash - not everyone watched the show (I didn’t) and I’ve no f’in clue what you’re talking about. I’m guessing from context there was a scene in this early medieval themed fantasy television show where something like he describes happened? Great. If that was the case why not say so (eg “I wish she was treated like that famous scene in GoT”) but he didn’t. He wanted to make it as graphic as possible for all concerned.
Try replacing crossing out “Meghan” in his article at replacing it with “Diana”, “Kate” or “Camilla” and see how offensive *you* would find it.
I think big mistake for PM to getting involved like this, it a) brings attention to
Neville grandstanding b) keeps the story going as Neville will now respond, c) makes it us vs them, rather than football fan eye rolling about Gary hypocrisy...and d) are you going to respond to every celeb who has an anti-government rant, cos if you are, it will be a daily occurrence.
And as I said, I think both have quite rightly been criticised. If you are going to go down that route for jokes, its a very fine line. Jimmy Carr regularly walks that tight rope.
That will narrow the gap, culture wars will win the election!
The internet: newfangled technology for academics and nerds, to something nobody can live without
Wikipedia (file within "internet")
Smartphones: expensive business collaboration and productivity tool (e.g. psion) turned basic human right
DNA sequencing: dolly the sheep to rapid tracing of new Covid variants
GPS: thing used by the US military and mountain climbers, now tracking every move of anyone with a smartphone
D&I: a talk someone came to give every year or so to a core feature of all recruitment, retention and HR processes
English sparkling wine: novel talking point to regular on the supermarket shelves
The rest is clearly old Nick Gibb having had even more than usual of whatever it is he smokes.
If the celeb keeps ranting, they quickly look unhinged.
What margin do people think England will lose by tomorrow?
I'm thinking 19 runs.
(Admittedly it was a state school when he started.)
It's a little heralded wonder of the modern world that they manage to create estimates of public opinion that bear some relation to reality, given the odds stacked against them. Truly, the mathematicians behind modern opinion polling are titans of this age.
I think more valid criticism is some life decisions during his adult life and is he now able to fully understand people's every day problems.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-64029040
I’ve just found out that a woman I vaguely knew, and had a big impact on the world, has died.
Georgina Medcalf had Tuberous Sclerosis, a rare genetic condition affecting about 1 in 10,000 births. When she was born, there was very little information or understanding about this condition, which results in small calcium(?) tubours growing on various organs in the body. It’s life limiting and typically causes epilepsy, learning difficulties, kidney problems and a characteristic rash on the face.
Her family were brilliant. Her mum, Janet, especially, pushed hard through the tuberous sclerosis association for fundraising and research into the condition for many years before her death.
Through her leadership they managed to get Philip Schofield on board to help raise awareness and fundraising - and grew and professionalised the organisation into what it has become today. There have been some great improvements in the screening, diagnosis and management of the condition in the last couple of decades which have resulted in significant improvements in the quality of life for sufferers - and their life expectancy.
My family came into contact with Janet and Georgina fifteen years, or so, after Georgina was born - when my brother was diagnosed, out of the blue, with this horrible condition.
RIP Georgina.
There probably won’t be obituaries written about you, but you and your family really did make the world a better place.
How many people can say that?
I strongly suspect OpenAI is using the “new dealer with a great new drug” approach to business. You hand it out for free until everyone is addicted and reliant. Then jack up the prices. And people will pay
Leaving aside you are falsely equating 'school attended' with 'economic background' they are both leading private schools. Which is where we started.
Ultimately, Sunak and Starmer (and Truss and Corbyn for the matter of that) are all from the upper echelons of the middle class. The key difference now is that Sunak subsequently married somebody very rich.
Worth remembering that Microsoft have put billions into OpenAI, I am sure they will want their pound of flesh back. People forget that although OpenAI started as a not for profit outfit, that ship has long since sailed, they do still have a not for profit research arm, but also a for profit business (that Microsoft is heavily invested in).
https://www.reigategrammar.org/admissions/fees/
The next election will be the first general election both the leader of the Conservative and Labour parties attended a private school for secondary education since Macmillan (Eton) v Gaitskell (Winchester) in 1959.
Starmer having replaced the grammar educated Corbyn and Sunak the comprehensive educated Truss
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Headmasters'_and_Headmistresses'_Conference
Government to sue Mone-linked PPE firm for £122m
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-64029040
Equally, Sunak is a muppet part 174b:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/uk-64007371?ns_mchannel=social&ns_source=twitter&ns_campaign=bbc_live&ns_linkname=63a07c4711d49175f77b5507&WATCH: Sending illegal arrivals to safe country is 'common sense' - PM&2022-12-19T15:40:16.465Z&ns_fee=0&pinned_post_locator=urn:asset:95e6d1fe-a749-42ee-a221-7ac771aa6594&pinned_post_asset_id=63a07c4711d49175f77b5507&pinned_post_type=share
The first company to really exploit the commercial potential of the new AI will make $$$$$. They will be the new Google, or maybe bigger
If I had to guess, its probably more Google is a very large unwieldly organisation and they are safety first on these things with meetings about meetings about meetings on how to best make use of it. They are also probably quite rightly worried about people getting around safety they put on it and it spewing racist, sexist, every ist under the sun and damaging their reputation. They don't want it going full Jeremy Clarkson....