David Moyes is likely to be sacked by West Ham United if his side lose to Everton on Saturday, it was confirmed at a club board meeting today.
While senior figures at West Ham recognise the success the manager has enjoyed in his second spell at the club, their drop into the Premier League relegation zone after securing only one point from seven games has persuaded them that a change may be necessary.
The Markles rejection of an apology from @JeremyClarkson is evidence that humiliation is their intent, not reconciliation. A warning to @RoyalFamily that they are not dealing with normal, rational. reasonable people, but two hate fuelled, narcisstic monsters #SparePrinceHarry
Only a moron could see the target of that Clarkson article as the hate fuelled one.
If Clarkson really wished to apologise rather than pretending to apologise the apology would be in his Sun column the following week.
OT. I tried to send a cheque to a French bank today and was told that no mail was being sent abroad at the moment due to a Russian cyber attack. He said it had been out for a week and would be out till further notice.
Is this one for our resident stargazer or was he taking the piss.....?
Vigilant as always, a spokesman for the prime minister has weighed in on the public debate about whether people should take cakes into work or not.
"As to the government's official position, the prime minister's official spokesman said Rishi Sunak believed "personal choice should be baked into our approach". [blah] Mr Sunak's spokesman added that the prime minister was "very partial to a piece of cake" and most enjoyed carrot and red velvet cake." https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-64315384
If Mr Sunak enjoys a piece of cake, I for one will vote to keep him in Downing Street. Hurrah!
On a culinary note, Lindsay Hoyle and chocolate teapot are trending on Twitter.
I must admit I didn't bother to look for further details about the prime minister's favourite cake, beyond mentally noting that it sounded comfortably within the Western tradition of desserts.
In the santanic mills of western Pennsylvania back in the day, the Slavs & Italians who dominated the workforce at turn of 19th>20th-cen., called the English/Scots-Irish "native stock" workers and foremen "cake-eaters" because their wives would typically include a piece of cake in their lunch-boxes. Rich and rare behavior from perspective of eastern & southern European recent immigrants.
My take is, Rishi Sunak is placing himself comfortably within the British tradition of desserts?
With red velvet carrot cake being a modernizing twist?
BTW, intensive research (two minutes googling) revels that the KEY difference between red velvet versus devils food cakes, is . . . wait for it . . . cocoa versus chocolate.
There is a class (and consequently VAT) consequence to this.
Cakes are considered a necessary foodstuff, as part of a genteel afternoon tea, and are therefore exempt from VAT. Chocolate-covered biscuits are a wanton luxury, indulged in by the working class, and so consequently face the full rate of VAT at 20% to ensure that the workers are dissuaded from falling prey to their gluttonous instincts.
TBF many cakes are desserts and vv - pineapple upside down cake, Bakewell tart, etc. The demartcation might be whether one can have them with custards.
Though we often have shortbread with our rhubarb and cream for afters - yet that remains a biscuit.
'Dessert' is one of my most disliked words (along with 'horrid' and 'movie'). It always sounds a bit Hyacinth Bucket to me. I think it's because the stress is on the second syllable. Never trust a two-syllable word with the stress on the second syllable. I use 'pudding'. Interestingly, an Irish friend of mine finds it hilarious that I use the word 'pudding', thinking it tremendously posh, and finds 'dessert' very much the everyman option.
The Markles rejection of an apology from @JeremyClarkson is evidence that humiliation is their intent, not reconciliation. A warning to @RoyalFamily that they are not dealing with normal, rational. reasonable people, but two hate fuelled, narcisstic monsters #SparePrinceHarry
Only a moron could see the target of that Clarkson article as the hate fuelled one.
It is just possible that they could both be dislikable twats.
Sure.
But calling them hate fuelled whilst absolving Clarkson is a bit like blaming Ukraine for Russia invading them.
You got a like for the brazenly inappropriate analogy.
David Moyes is likely to be sacked by West Ham United if his side lose to Everton on Saturday, it was confirmed at a club board meeting today.
While senior figures at West Ham recognise the success the manager has enjoyed in his second spell at the club, their drop into the Premier League relegation zone after securing only one point from seven games has persuaded them that a change may be necessary.
David Moyes is likely to be sacked by West Ham United if his side lose to Everton on Saturday, it was confirmed at a club board meeting today.
While senior figures at West Ham recognise the success the manager has enjoyed in his second spell at the club, their drop into the Premier League relegation zone after securing only one point from seven games has persuaded them that a change may be necessary.
Legal Note: Lord Hope has said the Govt’s decision to invoke s35 is unlikely to be overturned because it’s reasonable. @LordCFalconer has said it’s politically wrong to use s35. These views are not incompatible. One is legal, the other political.
Politicians are bound by the rule of law. Law is not bound by the whim of politicians. The matter will be contested unpolitically through apolitical courts (whatever the Daily Mail and the SNP think). It is best to keep this matter as dull as it truly is. Nothing much to see here.
Will still have long term ramifications for break up of the union.
Vigilant as always, a spokesman for the prime minister has weighed in on the public debate about whether people should take cakes into work or not.
"As to the government's official position, the prime minister's official spokesman said Rishi Sunak believed "personal choice should be baked into our approach". [blah] Mr Sunak's spokesman added that the prime minister was "very partial to a piece of cake" and most enjoyed carrot and red velvet cake." https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-64315384
If Mr Sunak enjoys a piece of cake, I for one will vote to keep him in Downing Street. Hurrah!
On a culinary note, Lindsay Hoyle and chocolate teapot are trending on Twitter.
I must admit I didn't bother to look for further details about the prime minister's favourite cake, beyond mentally noting that it sounded comfortably within the Western tradition of desserts.
In the santanic mills of western Pennsylvania back in the day, the Slavs & Italians who dominated the workforce at turn of 19th>20th-cen., called the English/Scots-Irish "native stock" workers and foremen "cake-eaters" because their wives would typically include a piece of cake in their lunch-boxes. Rich and rare behavior from perspective of eastern & southern European recent immigrants.
My take is, Rishi Sunak is placing himself comfortably within the British tradition of desserts?
With red velvet carrot cake being a modernizing twist?
BTW, intensive research (two minutes googling) revels that the KEY difference between red velvet versus devils food cakes, is . . . wait for it . . . cocoa versus chocolate.
There is a class (and consequently VAT) consequence to this.
Cakes are considered a necessary foodstuff, as part of a genteel afternoon tea, and are therefore exempt from VAT. Chocolate-covered biscuits are a wanton luxury, indulged in by the working class, and so consequently face the full rate of VAT at 20% to ensure that the workers are dissuaded from falling prey to their gluttonous instincts.
TBF many cakes are desserts and vv - pineapple upside down cake, Bakewell tart, etc. The demartcation might be whether one can have them with custards.
Though we often have shortbread with our rhubarb and cream for afters - yet that remains a biscuit.
Any attempt by Westminster to tax shortbread would surely spell the end of the Union!
David Moyes is likely to be sacked by West Ham United if his side lose to Everton on Saturday, it was confirmed at a club board meeting today.
While senior figures at West Ham recognise the success the manager has enjoyed in his second spell at the club, their drop into the Premier League relegation zone after securing only one point from seven games has persuaded them that a change may be necessary.
I reckon Moyes will replace Lampard at some point this season.
Probably in Moyes' interest to lose to Everton. He will then be in a better position to save them from relegation when managing them in a few month's time.
Vigilant as always, a spokesman for the prime minister has weighed in on the public debate about whether people should take cakes into work or not.
"As to the government's official position, the prime minister's official spokesman said Rishi Sunak believed "personal choice should be baked into our approach". [blah] Mr Sunak's spokesman added that the prime minister was "very partial to a piece of cake" and most enjoyed carrot and red velvet cake." https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-64315384
If Mr Sunak enjoys a piece of cake, I for one will vote to keep him in Downing Street. Hurrah!
On a culinary note, Lindsay Hoyle and chocolate teapot are trending on Twitter.
I must admit I didn't bother to look for further details about the prime minister's favourite cake, beyond mentally noting that it sounded comfortably within the Western tradition of desserts.
In the santanic mills of western Pennsylvania back in the day, the Slavs & Italians who dominated the workforce at turn of 19th>20th-cen., called the English/Scots-Irish "native stock" workers and foremen "cake-eaters" because their wives would typically include a piece of cake in their lunch-boxes. Rich and rare behavior from perspective of eastern & southern European recent immigrants.
My take is, Rishi Sunak is placing himself comfortably within the British tradition of desserts?
With red velvet carrot cake being a modernizing twist?
BTW, intensive research (two minutes googling) revels that the KEY difference between red velvet versus devils food cakes, is . . . wait for it . . . cocoa versus chocolate.
There is a class (and consequently VAT) consequence to this.
Cakes are considered a necessary foodstuff, as part of a genteel afternoon tea, and are therefore exempt from VAT. Chocolate-covered biscuits are a wanton luxury, indulged in by the working class, and so consequently face the full rate of VAT at 20% to ensure that the workers are dissuaded from falling prey to their gluttonous instincts.
TBF many cakes are desserts and vv - pineapple upside down cake, Bakewell tart, etc. The demartcation might be whether one can have them with custards.
Though we often have shortbread with our rhubarb and cream for afters - yet that remains a biscuit.
'Dessert' is one of my most disliked words (along with 'horrid' and 'movie'). It always sounds a bit Hyacinth Bucket to me. I think it's because the stress is on the second syllable. Never trust a two-syllable word with the stress on the second syllable. I use 'pudding'. Interestingly, an Irish friend of mine finds it hilarious that I use the word 'pudding', thinking it tremendously posh, and finds 'dessert' very much the everyman option.
Does your friend call you "puddin'" as in [with mush-mouth, corn-pone Southern accent] "Would you like some more puddin', puddin'?"
Vigilant as always, a spokesman for the prime minister has weighed in on the public debate about whether people should take cakes into work or not.
"As to the government's official position, the prime minister's official spokesman said Rishi Sunak believed "personal choice should be baked into our approach". [blah] Mr Sunak's spokesman added that the prime minister was "very partial to a piece of cake" and most enjoyed carrot and red velvet cake." https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-64315384
If Mr Sunak enjoys a piece of cake, I for one will vote to keep him in Downing Street. Hurrah!
On a culinary note, Lindsay Hoyle and chocolate teapot are trending on Twitter.
I must admit I didn't bother to look for further details about the prime minister's favourite cake, beyond mentally noting that it sounded comfortably within the Western tradition of desserts.
In the santanic mills of western Pennsylvania back in the day, the Slavs & Italians who dominated the workforce at turn of 19th>20th-cen., called the English/Scots-Irish "native stock" workers and foremen "cake-eaters" because their wives would typically include a piece of cake in their lunch-boxes. Rich and rare behavior from perspective of eastern & southern European recent immigrants.
My take is, Rishi Sunak is placing himself comfortably within the British tradition of desserts?
With red velvet carrot cake being a modernizing twist?
BTW, intensive research (two minutes googling) revels that the KEY difference between red velvet versus devils food cakes, is . . . wait for it . . . cocoa versus chocolate.
There is a class (and consequently VAT) consequence to this.
Cakes are considered a necessary foodstuff, as part of a genteel afternoon tea, and are therefore exempt from VAT. Chocolate-covered biscuits are a wanton luxury, indulged in by the working class, and so consequently face the full rate of VAT at 20% to ensure that the workers are dissuaded from falling prey to their gluttonous instincts.
TBF many cakes are desserts and vv - pineapple upside down cake, Bakewell tart, etc. The demartcation might be whether one can have them with custards.
Though we often have shortbread with our rhubarb and cream for afters - yet that remains a biscuit.
Any attempt by Westminster to tax shortbread would surely spell the end of the Union!
A Jenga-style podium used by Liz Truss in her short-lived stint as prime minister cost taxpayers £4,175, it has emerged.
The lectern was compared to a Jenga tower, from the board game that results in total collapse, as it featured pieces of wood that resembled Jenga blocks ready to topple. It was specially made for the former prime minister who lasted 45 days in No 10.
The lectern was of the same style, although supposedly it wasn't the same actual lectern, as the one that was used at the Tory leadership announcement.
Liz Truss must really have liked that unusual style of lectern.
But I am sceptical about them being two different lecterns. Two questions: 1. where is the first one? 2. Did anyone spot any differences between them?
Angela Rayner, who uses w********t for good purposes (bless her), may know more than she lets on when she says "(Liz Truss's) choice of a Jenga design should have been a warning sign of the chaos she was about to unleash."
It was, Angela. I read the sign at the time.
The word "Jenga" comes from Swahili, but Jenga is a complete red herring.
Think of something closer to home:
Is it just me or is that an utterly baffling post?
Not just you.
Rosslyn Chapel in the photo. Freemasonry and Dan Brown sort of stuff.
The big Da Vinci Code mystery is of course how did such a terribly written book sell so many copies?
AI couldn't possibly do a worse job.
Seems to be a common criticism of popular books - the Harry Potter books get the same criticism - that they are poorly written.
I draw a few conclusions from this.
1. For most people the quality of a book lies with the quality of the story, rather than with the quality of the prose. Function being more important than form. 2. To be massively popular a book needs to be accessible. Intricate wordplay and obscure references might delight those similarly in the know, but won't encourage the average reader to recommend a book. The Da Vinci code might well have a smaller vocabulary and otherwise offend against purist sensibilities, but perhaps that makes it easier for it to tell its story. 3. There is much that is down to chance when it comes to book publishing.
I think there's a lot in that. The writing mustn't be clunky of course, but for a bestseller it should also not be too noticeable one way or the other. The story should just come out of the page in such a way that the reader forgets there was actually an author involved. Same with good action films or thrillers.
Much literary fiction writing is noticeable - you feel the author's voice and you know what you are reading was written by someone. That can sometimes be compelling especially when the quality of description is inventive or evocative, but it's a different experience from reading a page turner. So is bad writing. Some of the self-published non-fiction rubbish that I've accidentally ended up reading in the last couple of years is so obviously "written", and badly, that it makes it impossible to read. The viticultural world has a fair few examples.
Some quite good writers on here imo. A handful are very good.
Four seats up in 3 local by-elections tomorrow. Con defence in Staffordshire CC and Lab defence in Stevenage. In Staffordshire Moorlands there are 2 vacancies in one ward with Con and Ind defending.
OT. I tried to send a cheque to a French bank today and was told that no mail was being sent abroad at the moment due to a Russian cyber attack. He said it had been out for a week and would be out till further notice.
Is this one for our resident stargazer or was he taking the piss.....?
Similar situation for us - birthday cards to Netherlands. I don't think there's any other even vaguely reasonable cost option for sending letters to the EU (quick comparison sites ex Royal Mail got down to about £10 for a very slow service). Some couriers quoting £50 or so! Might be worthwhile for a cheque, depending on urgency and amount if there's no other means.
There clearly isn't* a low cost international (letters) mail option outside the Royal Mail. Not all that much demand, I guess and a few letters not worth the faff for other carriers.
"They say the first step in fixing a crisis is to recognise there is a problem. So let us give thanks for a Labour leader’s dismissal of the belief that Britain’s health service is the envy of the world — a deluded concept that, in the words of Sir Keir Starmer, is “plainly wrong”. Yes, he was adopting Blairite tactics to confound expectations with a bit of political cross-dressing, while also obviously aware of polls showing the drastic collapse of faith among voters in their once-worshiped NHS. His reform plans are rudimentary, his funding suggestions sketchy and his proposal to nationalise general practitioners seems ill-conceived. Yet this is still an important moment."
There is another part of that article that is worth quoting
"Britain has clung for so long to this weird comfort blanket, the risible idea that the rest of the world was looking with longing at a health system that has been in crisis for much of its 75-year history. For more than two decades I have argued that such blinkered worship of the NHS and deification of its staff was highly corrosive, since it frustrated reform, intimidated politicians and silenced criticism. The result has been a series of grotesque patient safety scandals — usually with agonising or fatal consequences affecting the most marginalised groups in society — and dire outcomes in many key areas, from cancer to infant mortality, compared with other rich nations."
If Starmer really does want to reform, he needs to start by recognising that "our NHS" is a vast bureaucracy not a benign deity. The next step is to recognise that there are a large part of the staff that put the maintenance of the myth and self-interest above the interest of patients. If he can do both, or even either of these things he stands a chance. If he just thinks it is about hosing taxpayers money at it, the NHS will continue to be burden to the UK and the laughing stock of the world.
Vigilant as always, a spokesman for the prime minister has weighed in on the public debate about whether people should take cakes into work or not.
"As to the government's official position, the prime minister's official spokesman said Rishi Sunak believed "personal choice should be baked into our approach". [blah] Mr Sunak's spokesman added that the prime minister was "very partial to a piece of cake" and most enjoyed carrot and red velvet cake." https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-64315384
If Mr Sunak enjoys a piece of cake, I for one will vote to keep him in Downing Street. Hurrah!
On a culinary note, Lindsay Hoyle and chocolate teapot are trending on Twitter.
I must admit I didn't bother to look for further details about the prime minister's favourite cake, beyond mentally noting that it sounded comfortably within the Western tradition of desserts.
In the santanic mills of western Pennsylvania back in the day, the Slavs & Italians who dominated the workforce at turn of 19th>20th-cen., called the English/Scots-Irish "native stock" workers and foremen "cake-eaters" because their wives would typically include a piece of cake in their lunch-boxes. Rich and rare behavior from perspective of eastern & southern European recent immigrants.
My take is, Rishi Sunak is placing himself comfortably within the British tradition of desserts?
With red velvet carrot cake being a modernizing twist?
BTW, intensive research (two minutes googling) revels that the KEY difference between red velvet versus devils food cakes, is . . . wait for it . . . cocoa versus chocolate.
There is a class (and consequently VAT) consequence to this.
Cakes are considered a necessary foodstuff, as part of a genteel afternoon tea, and are therefore exempt from VAT. Chocolate-covered biscuits are a wanton luxury, indulged in by the working class, and so consequently face the full rate of VAT at 20% to ensure that the workers are dissuaded from falling prey to their gluttonous instincts.
TBF many cakes are desserts and vv - pineapple upside down cake, Bakewell tart, etc. The demartcation might be whether one can have them with custards.
Though we often have shortbread with our rhubarb and cream for afters - yet that remains a biscuit.
Any attempt by Westminster to tax shortbread would surely spell the end of the Union!
Would be pitchfork time.
This has prompted me to check. I might be wrong, but perhaps understandably ...
Shortbread + caramel + choc = millionaire's s. = VAT free. Shortbread partly or wholly choc covered = VATable. Shortbread au naturel = apparently VAT free from looking at tourist tartan tin websites
Vigilant as always, a spokesman for the prime minister has weighed in on the public debate about whether people should take cakes into work or not.
"As to the government's official position, the prime minister's official spokesman said Rishi Sunak believed "personal choice should be baked into our approach". [blah] Mr Sunak's spokesman added that the prime minister was "very partial to a piece of cake" and most enjoyed carrot and red velvet cake." https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-64315384
If Mr Sunak enjoys a piece of cake, I for one will vote to keep him in Downing Street. Hurrah!
On a culinary note, Lindsay Hoyle and chocolate teapot are trending on Twitter.
I must admit I didn't bother to look for further details about the prime minister's favourite cake, beyond mentally noting that it sounded comfortably within the Western tradition of desserts.
In the santanic mills of western Pennsylvania back in the day, the Slavs & Italians who dominated the workforce at turn of 19th>20th-cen., called the English/Scots-Irish "native stock" workers and foremen "cake-eaters" because their wives would typically include a piece of cake in their lunch-boxes. Rich and rare behavior from perspective of eastern & southern European recent immigrants.
My take is, Rishi Sunak is placing himself comfortably within the British tradition of desserts?
With red velvet carrot cake being a modernizing twist?
BTW, intensive research (two minutes googling) revels that the KEY difference between red velvet versus devils food cakes, is . . . wait for it . . . cocoa versus chocolate.
There is a class (and consequently VAT) consequence to this.
Cakes are considered a necessary foodstuff, as part of a genteel afternoon tea, and are therefore exempt from VAT. Chocolate-covered biscuits are a wanton luxury, indulged in by the working class, and so consequently face the full rate of VAT at 20% to ensure that the workers are dissuaded from falling prey to their gluttonous instincts.
TBF many cakes are desserts and vv - pineapple upside down cake, Bakewell tart, etc. The demartcation might be whether one can have them with custards.
Though we often have shortbread with our rhubarb and cream for afters - yet that remains a biscuit.
Any attempt by Westminster to tax shortbread would surely spell the end of the Union!
Would be pitchfork time.
What about a tax on bagpipes?
Not many folk play them. It'd be as logical as Mrs T putting extra VAT on yachties to spite Ted Heath.
Vigilant as always, a spokesman for the prime minister has weighed in on the public debate about whether people should take cakes into work or not.
"As to the government's official position, the prime minister's official spokesman said Rishi Sunak believed "personal choice should be baked into our approach". [blah] Mr Sunak's spokesman added that the prime minister was "very partial to a piece of cake" and most enjoyed carrot and red velvet cake." https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-64315384
If Mr Sunak enjoys a piece of cake, I for one will vote to keep him in Downing Street. Hurrah!
On a culinary note, Lindsay Hoyle and chocolate teapot are trending on Twitter.
I must admit I didn't bother to look for further details about the prime minister's favourite cake, beyond mentally noting that it sounded comfortably within the Western tradition of desserts.
In the santanic mills of western Pennsylvania back in the day, the Slavs & Italians who dominated the workforce at turn of 19th>20th-cen., called the English/Scots-Irish "native stock" workers and foremen "cake-eaters" because their wives would typically include a piece of cake in their lunch-boxes. Rich and rare behavior from perspective of eastern & southern European recent immigrants.
My take is, Rishi Sunak is placing himself comfortably within the British tradition of desserts?
With red velvet carrot cake being a modernizing twist?
BTW, intensive research (two minutes googling) revels that the KEY difference between red velvet versus devils food cakes, is . . . wait for it . . . cocoa versus chocolate.
There is a class (and consequently VAT) consequence to this.
Cakes are considered a necessary foodstuff, as part of a genteel afternoon tea, and are therefore exempt from VAT. Chocolate-covered biscuits are a wanton luxury, indulged in by the working class, and so consequently face the full rate of VAT at 20% to ensure that the workers are dissuaded from falling prey to their gluttonous instincts.
TBF many cakes are desserts and vv - pineapple upside down cake, Bakewell tart, etc. The demartcation might be whether one can have them with custards.
Though we often have shortbread with our rhubarb and cream for afters - yet that remains a biscuit.
'Dessert' is one of my most disliked words (along with 'horrid' and 'movie'). It always sounds a bit Hyacinth Bucket to me. I think it's because the stress is on the second syllable. Never trust a two-syllable word with the stress on the second syllable. I use 'pudding'. Interestingly, an Irish friend of mine finds it hilarious that I use the word 'pudding', thinking it tremendously posh, and finds 'dessert' very much the everyman option.
Hmm, it's not a word I normally use - just realised it's because I have been trying to find apple turnovers on Morrisons website which uses that very term as a category - as opposed to bakery products.
On topic, Sunak's not very good at this, he's reminding us how he managed to lose to Liz Truss.
Truly the Alan Partridge PM.
I simply don't see what the MPs see in him. I still think May will see his premiership mortally wounded; the next political issue will see him replaced with someone less Eeyorish....
Speaking to a former Tory strategist the other day, they are convinced that Sunak is getting ousted the moment the committee votes to suspend Boris Johnson for lying to the House.
The moment there's no chance of Boris Johnson coming back as PM then Sunak's gone.
Odd that they think they think that imposing yet another new PM on the nation is theoretically less damaging than getting Boris back. Both outcomes are so incredibly crap that it hardly seems worth striving for one over the other.
And that both options are less damaging than continuing with the current incumbent. They're correct too.
The thing of it is that Sunak can be both charming and human in interviews. Why this doesn't translate into other aspects of his performance is a mystery.
Politician 101 in this instance is to look genuinely troubled at the human pain of this situation. Then to throw Boris under the bus. ("We've been performng terribly and [now, in this non-Boris future] we pledge to do better.")
Looking at the comings-and-goings among the Bournemouth, Christchurch & Poole (BCP) Councillors since 2019 and being aware of a couple of other instances, let me see what the views on here are:
If I join a political party, stand for election as a representative of that party and win, I join the group of Councillors representing the party on the Council.
After a year, for whatever reason, whether policy or personality, I leave the group and sit as an Independent but remain a member of the Party. At this point, unless it's something beyond the pale, I've done nothing to warrant expulsion from the Party - I have simply voluntarily left the Party group on the Council.
At the time of my next election, there are three options - I could seek to rejoin the Party and be re-selected as a Party candidate but given what's happened, would that be likely? I could run as an Independent but the party doesn't put up a candidate against me - I remain a Party member and support the Party at a GE but sit locally as an Independent.
The third option is the Party decides to put up a candidate against me - presumably IF I campaign against the Party candidate, that triggers my expulsion from the Party.
Let's say the third option happens and I win and a week after the local election, the Party Group changes leader and the new leader (whom I like and support) invites me to rejoin the Party Group and presumably the Party itself as I can't see it being possible for me to be a member of a Party Group without being a member of the Party.
Vigilant as always, a spokesman for the prime minister has weighed in on the public debate about whether people should take cakes into work or not.
"As to the government's official position, the prime minister's official spokesman said Rishi Sunak believed "personal choice should be baked into our approach". [blah] Mr Sunak's spokesman added that the prime minister was "very partial to a piece of cake" and most enjoyed carrot and red velvet cake." https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-64315384
If Mr Sunak enjoys a piece of cake, I for one will vote to keep him in Downing Street. Hurrah!
On a culinary note, Lindsay Hoyle and chocolate teapot are trending on Twitter.
I must admit I didn't bother to look for further details about the prime minister's favourite cake, beyond mentally noting that it sounded comfortably within the Western tradition of desserts.
In the santanic mills of western Pennsylvania back in the day, the Slavs & Italians who dominated the workforce at turn of 19th>20th-cen., called the English/Scots-Irish "native stock" workers and foremen "cake-eaters" because their wives would typically include a piece of cake in their lunch-boxes. Rich and rare behavior from perspective of eastern & southern European recent immigrants.
My take is, Rishi Sunak is placing himself comfortably within the British tradition of desserts?
With red velvet carrot cake being a modernizing twist?
BTW, intensive research (two minutes googling) revels that the KEY difference between red velvet versus devils food cakes, is . . . wait for it . . . cocoa versus chocolate.
There is a class (and consequently VAT) consequence to this.
Cakes are considered a necessary foodstuff, as part of a genteel afternoon tea, and are therefore exempt from VAT. Chocolate-covered biscuits are a wanton luxury, indulged in by the working class, and so consequently face the full rate of VAT at 20% to ensure that the workers are dissuaded from falling prey to their gluttonous instincts.
TBF many cakes are desserts and vv - pineapple upside down cake, Bakewell tart, etc. The demartcation might be whether one can have them with custards.
Though we often have shortbread with our rhubarb and cream for afters - yet that remains a biscuit.
'Dessert' is one of my most disliked words (along with 'horrid' and 'movie'). It always sounds a bit Hyacinth Bucket to me. I think it's because the stress is on the second syllable. Never trust a two-syllable word with the stress on the second syllable. I use 'pudding'. Interestingly, an Irish friend of mine finds it hilarious that I use the word 'pudding', thinking it tremendously posh, and finds 'dessert' very much the everyman option.
If you wish to be identified as plebeian, you could refer to that particular course as "afters".
Vigilant as always, a spokesman for the prime minister has weighed in on the public debate about whether people should take cakes into work or not.
"As to the government's official position, the prime minister's official spokesman said Rishi Sunak believed "personal choice should be baked into our approach". [blah] Mr Sunak's spokesman added that the prime minister was "very partial to a piece of cake" and most enjoyed carrot and red velvet cake." https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-64315384
If Mr Sunak enjoys a piece of cake, I for one will vote to keep him in Downing Street. Hurrah!
On a culinary note, Lindsay Hoyle and chocolate teapot are trending on Twitter.
I must admit I didn't bother to look for further details about the prime minister's favourite cake, beyond mentally noting that it sounded comfortably within the Western tradition of desserts.
In the santanic mills of western Pennsylvania back in the day, the Slavs & Italians who dominated the workforce at turn of 19th>20th-cen., called the English/Scots-Irish "native stock" workers and foremen "cake-eaters" because their wives would typically include a piece of cake in their lunch-boxes. Rich and rare behavior from perspective of eastern & southern European recent immigrants.
My take is, Rishi Sunak is placing himself comfortably within the British tradition of desserts?
With red velvet carrot cake being a modernizing twist?
BTW, intensive research (two minutes googling) revels that the KEY difference between red velvet versus devils food cakes, is . . . wait for it . . . cocoa versus chocolate.
There is a class (and consequently VAT) consequence to this.
Cakes are considered a necessary foodstuff, as part of a genteel afternoon tea, and are therefore exempt from VAT. Chocolate-covered biscuits are a wanton luxury, indulged in by the working class, and so consequently face the full rate of VAT at 20% to ensure that the workers are dissuaded from falling prey to their gluttonous instincts.
TBF many cakes are desserts and vv - pineapple upside down cake, Bakewell tart, etc. The demartcation might be whether one can have them with custards.
Though we often have shortbread with our rhubarb and cream for afters - yet that remains a biscuit.
'Dessert' is one of my most disliked words (along with 'horrid' and 'movie'). It always sounds a bit Hyacinth Bucket to me. I think it's because the stress is on the second syllable. Never trust a two-syllable word with the stress on the second syllable. I use 'pudding'. Interestingly, an Irish friend of mine finds it hilarious that I use the word 'pudding', thinking it tremendously posh, and finds 'dessert' very much the everyman option.
If you wish to be identified as plebeian, you could refer to that particular course as "afters".
Looking at the comings-and-goings among the Bournemouth, Christchurch & Poole (BCP) Councillors since 2019 and being aware of a couple of other instances, let me see what the views on here are:
If I join a political party, stand for election as a representative of that party and win, I join the group of Councillors representing the party on the Council.
After a year, for whatever reason, whether policy or personality, I leave the group and sit as an Independent but remain a member of the Party. At this point, unless it's something beyond the pale, I've done nothing to warrant expulsion from the Party - I have simply voluntarily left the Party group on the Council.
At the time of my next election, there are three options - I could seek to rejoin the Party and be re-selected as a Party candidate but given what's happened, would that be likely? I could run as an Independent but the party doesn't put up a candidate against me - I remain a Party member and support the Party at a GE but sit locally as an Independent.
The third option is the Party decides to put up a candidate against me - presumably IF I campaign against the Party candidate, that triggers my expulsion from the Party.
Let's say the third option happens and I win and a week after the local election, the Party Group changes leader and the new leader (whom I like and support) invites me to rejoin the Party Group and presumably the Party itself as I can't see it being possible for me to be a member of a Party Group without being a member of the Party.
What do we think of this?
Depends on the detail of the electoral pitch of the sometime Independent at the election for me. Suppose they stood on a specific policy where they disagreed with the previous leader of the party group - cutting down trees on the streets, say - and that policy was changed by the new party group leader. In that circumstance it seems their actions are consistent with how they presented themselves to the electorate.
If rejoining the party group was simply a matter of personality, but the pitch to the voters at election time had been focused on a difference of policy, then it would seem to me that the sometime Independent had misrepresented themselves. I'd think quite a few voters would want to recall them in that scenario, but not so much in the previous one.
A Jenga-style podium used by Liz Truss in her short-lived stint as prime minister cost taxpayers £4,175, it has emerged.
The lectern was compared to a Jenga tower, from the board game that results in total collapse, as it featured pieces of wood that resembled Jenga blocks ready to topple. It was specially made for the former prime minister who lasted 45 days in No 10.
The lectern was of the same style, although supposedly it wasn't the same actual lectern, as the one that was used at the Tory leadership announcement.
Liz Truss must really have liked that unusual style of lectern.
But I am sceptical about them being two different lecterns. Two questions: 1. where is the first one? 2. Did anyone spot any differences between them?
Angela Rayner, who uses w********t for good purposes (bless her), may know more than she lets on when she says "(Liz Truss's) choice of a Jenga design should have been a warning sign of the chaos she was about to unleash."
It was, Angela. I read the sign at the time.
The word "Jenga" comes from Swahili, but Jenga is a complete red herring.
Think of something closer to home:
Is it just me or is that an utterly baffling post?
Not just you.
Rosslyn Chapel in the photo. Freemasonry and Dan Brown sort of stuff.
The big Da Vinci Code mystery is of course how did such a terribly written book sell so many copies?
AI couldn't possibly do a worse job.
Seems to be a common criticism of popular books - the Harry Potter books get the same criticism - that they are poorly written.
I draw a few conclusions from this.
1. For most people the quality of a book lies with the quality of the story, rather than with the quality of the prose. Function being more important than form. 2. To be massively popular a book needs to be accessible. Intricate wordplay and obscure references might delight those similarly in the know, but won't encourage the average reader to recommend a book. The Da Vinci code might well have a smaller vocabulary and otherwise offend against purist sensibilities, but perhaps that makes it easier for it to tell its story. 3. There is much that is down to chance when it comes to book publishing.
I think there's a lot in that. The writing mustn't be clunky of course, but for a bestseller it should also not be too noticeable one way or the other. The story should just come out of the page in such a way that the reader forgets there was actually an author involved. Same with good action films or thrillers.
Much literary fiction writing is noticeable - you feel the author's voice and you know what you are reading was written by someone. That can sometimes be compelling especially when the quality of description is inventive or evocative, but it's a different experience from reading a page turner. So is bad writing. Some of the self-published non-fiction rubbish that I've accidentally ended up reading in the last couple of years is so obviously "written", and badly, that it makes it impossible to read. The viticultural world has a fair few examples.
Some quite good writers on here imo. A handful are very good.
🚨NEW: Rail minister admits settling dispute with @RMTunion cheaper than allowing strikes to continue
Huw Merriman made the admission to the Transport Select Committee when asked if it had cost more to the government and the economy to bankroll the dispute than settle it.
Vigilant as always, a spokesman for the prime minister has weighed in on the public debate about whether people should take cakes into work or not.
"As to the government's official position, the prime minister's official spokesman said Rishi Sunak believed "personal choice should be baked into our approach". [blah] Mr Sunak's spokesman added that the prime minister was "very partial to a piece of cake" and most enjoyed carrot and red velvet cake." https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-64315384
If Mr Sunak enjoys a piece of cake, I for one will vote to keep him in Downing Street. Hurrah!
On a culinary note, Lindsay Hoyle and chocolate teapot are trending on Twitter.
I must admit I didn't bother to look for further details about the prime minister's favourite cake, beyond mentally noting that it sounded comfortably within the Western tradition of desserts.
In the santanic mills of western Pennsylvania back in the day, the Slavs & Italians who dominated the workforce at turn of 19th>20th-cen., called the English/Scots-Irish "native stock" workers and foremen "cake-eaters" because their wives would typically include a piece of cake in their lunch-boxes. Rich and rare behavior from perspective of eastern & southern European recent immigrants.
My take is, Rishi Sunak is placing himself comfortably within the British tradition of desserts?
With red velvet carrot cake being a modernizing twist?
BTW, intensive research (two minutes googling) revels that the KEY difference between red velvet versus devils food cakes, is . . . wait for it . . . cocoa versus chocolate.
There is a class (and consequently VAT) consequence to this.
Cakes are considered a necessary foodstuff, as part of a genteel afternoon tea, and are therefore exempt from VAT. Chocolate-covered biscuits are a wanton luxury, indulged in by the working class, and so consequently face the full rate of VAT at 20% to ensure that the workers are dissuaded from falling prey to their gluttonous instincts.
TBF many cakes are desserts and vv - pineapple upside down cake, Bakewell tart, etc. The demartcation might be whether one can have them with custards.
Though we often have shortbread with our rhubarb and cream for afters - yet that remains a biscuit.
'Dessert' is one of my most disliked words (along with 'horrid' and 'movie'). It always sounds a bit Hyacinth Bucket to me. I think it's because the stress is on the second syllable. Never trust a two-syllable word with the stress on the second syllable. I use 'pudding'. Interestingly, an Irish friend of mine finds it hilarious that I use the word 'pudding', thinking it tremendously posh, and finds 'dessert' very much the everyman option.
Does your friend call you "puddin'" as in [with mush-mouth, corn-pone Southern accent] "Would you like some more puddin', puddin'?"
Having just watched the clip it didn't seem that bad from Sunak. However he needs to acknowledge the scale of the crisis (perhaps he feels he can't) and I don't think many people will see this as a result of the strikes.
Not sure what the value in quoting random people on twitter is.
A Jenga-style podium used by Liz Truss in her short-lived stint as prime minister cost taxpayers £4,175, it has emerged.
The lectern was compared to a Jenga tower, from the board game that results in total collapse, as it featured pieces of wood that resembled Jenga blocks ready to topple. It was specially made for the former prime minister who lasted 45 days in No 10.
The lectern was of the same style, although supposedly it wasn't the same actual lectern, as the one that was used at the Tory leadership announcement.
Liz Truss must really have liked that unusual style of lectern.
But I am sceptical about them being two different lecterns. Two questions: 1. where is the first one? 2. Did anyone spot any differences between them?
Angela Rayner, who uses w********t for good purposes (bless her), may know more than she lets on when she says "(Liz Truss's) choice of a Jenga design should have been a warning sign of the chaos she was about to unleash."
It was, Angela. I read the sign at the time.
The word "Jenga" comes from Swahili, but Jenga is a complete red herring.
Think of something closer to home:
Is it just me or is that an utterly baffling post?
Not just you.
Rosslyn Chapel in the photo. Freemasonry and Dan Brown sort of stuff.
The big Da Vinci Code mystery is of course how did such a terribly written book sell so many copies?
AI couldn't possibly do a worse job.
Seems to be a common criticism of popular books - the Harry Potter books get the same criticism - that they are poorly written.
I draw a few conclusions from this.
1. For most people the quality of a book lies with the quality of the story, rather than with the quality of the prose. Function being more important than form. 2. To be massively popular a book needs to be accessible. Intricate wordplay and obscure references might delight those similarly in the know, but won't encourage the average reader to recommend a book. The Da Vinci code might well have a smaller vocabulary and otherwise offend against purist sensibilities, but perhaps that makes it easier for it to tell its story. 3. There is much that is down to chance when it comes to book publishing.
Yes. I would add that quality prose is not the same as inherently difficult or inaccessible prose. Jane Austen reaches universal depth in an easy read like Emma, which on the face of it is simple and about virtually nothing at all. But top critics compete to write (often impenetrable) stuff about her genius.
Even Wuthering Heights (a candidate for the greatest work in English, alongside Lear etc) is not a terribly difficult or obscure read in terms of language and structure.
Far too many moderns from about 1910 onwards are too clever by half. Whoever read Ulysses late at night, breathlessly turning the page by lamplight to find out what happens next?
A Jenga-style podium used by Liz Truss in her short-lived stint as prime minister cost taxpayers £4,175, it has emerged.
The lectern was compared to a Jenga tower, from the board game that results in total collapse, as it featured pieces of wood that resembled Jenga blocks ready to topple. It was specially made for the former prime minister who lasted 45 days in No 10.
The lectern was of the same style, although supposedly it wasn't the same actual lectern, as the one that was used at the Tory leadership announcement.
Liz Truss must really have liked that unusual style of lectern.
But I am sceptical about them being two different lecterns. Two questions: 1. where is the first one? 2. Did anyone spot any differences between them?
Angela Rayner, who uses w********t for good purposes (bless her), may know more than she lets on when she says "(Liz Truss's) choice of a Jenga design should have been a warning sign of the chaos she was about to unleash."
It was, Angela. I read the sign at the time.
The word "Jenga" comes from Swahili, but Jenga is a complete red herring.
Think of something closer to home:
Is it just me or is that an utterly baffling post?
Not just you.
Rosslyn Chapel in the photo. Freemasonry and Dan Brown sort of stuff.
The big Da Vinci Code mystery is of course how did such a terribly written book sell so many copies?
AI couldn't possibly do a worse job.
Seems to be a common criticism of popular books - the Harry Potter books get the same criticism - that they are poorly written.
I draw a few conclusions from this.
1. For most people the quality of a book lies with the quality of the story, rather than with the quality of the prose. Function being more important than form. 2. To be massively popular a book needs to be accessible. Intricate wordplay and obscure references might delight those similarly in the know, but won't encourage the average reader to recommend a book. The Da Vinci code might well have a smaller vocabulary and otherwise offend against purist sensibilities, but perhaps that makes it easier for it to tell its story. 3. There is much that is down to chance when it comes to book publishing.
Yes. I would add that quality prose is not the same as inherently difficult or inaccessible prose. Jane Austen reaches universal depth in an easy read like Emma, which on the face of it is simple and about virtually nothing at all. But top critics compete to write (often impenetrable) stuff about her genius.
Even Wuthering Heights (a candidate for the greatest work in English, alongside Lear etc) is not a terribly difficult or obscure read in terms of language and structure.
Far too many moderns from about 1910 onwards are too clever by half. Whoever read Ulysses late at night, breathlessly turning the page by lamplight to find out what happens next?
A Jenga-style podium used by Liz Truss in her short-lived stint as prime minister cost taxpayers £4,175, it has emerged.
The lectern was compared to a Jenga tower, from the board game that results in total collapse, as it featured pieces of wood that resembled Jenga blocks ready to topple. It was specially made for the former prime minister who lasted 45 days in No 10.
The lectern was of the same style, although supposedly it wasn't the same actual lectern, as the one that was used at the Tory leadership announcement.
Liz Truss must really have liked that unusual style of lectern.
But I am sceptical about them being two different lecterns. Two questions: 1. where is the first one? 2. Did anyone spot any differences between them?
Angela Rayner, who uses w********t for good purposes (bless her), may know more than she lets on when she says "(Liz Truss's) choice of a Jenga design should have been a warning sign of the chaos she was about to unleash."
It was, Angela. I read the sign at the time.
The word "Jenga" comes from Swahili, but Jenga is a complete red herring.
Think of something closer to home:
Is it just me or is that an utterly baffling post?
Not just you.
Rosslyn Chapel in the photo. Freemasonry and Dan Brown sort of stuff.
The big Da Vinci Code mystery is of course how did such a terribly written book sell so many copies?
AI couldn't possibly do a worse job.
Seems to be a common criticism of popular books - the Harry Potter books get the same criticism - that they are poorly written.
I draw a few conclusions from this.
1. For most people the quality of a book lies with the quality of the story, rather than with the quality of the prose. Function being more important than form. 2. To be massively popular a book needs to be accessible. Intricate wordplay and obscure references might delight those similarly in the know, but won't encourage the average reader to recommend a book. The Da Vinci code might well have a smaller vocabulary and otherwise offend against purist sensibilities, but perhaps that makes it easier for it to tell its story. 3. There is much that is down to chance when it comes to book publishing.
Yes. I would add that quality prose is not the same as inherently difficult or inaccessible prose. Jane Austen reaches universal depth in an easy read like Emma, which on the face of it is simple and about virtually nothing at all. But top critics compete to write (often impenetrable) stuff about her genius.
Even Wuthering Heights (a candidate for the greatest work in English, alongside Lear etc) is not a terribly difficult or obscure read in terms of language and structure.
Far too many moderns from about 1910 onwards are too clever by half. Whoever read Ulysses late at night, breathlessly turning the page by lamplight to find out what happens next?
Looking at the comings-and-goings among the Bournemouth, Christchurch & Poole (BCP) Councillors since 2019 and being aware of a couple of other instances, let me see what the views on here are:
If I join a political party, stand for election as a representative of that party and win, I join the group of Councillors representing the party on the Council.
After a year, for whatever reason, whether policy or personality, I leave the group and sit as an Independent but remain a member of the Party. At this point, unless it's something beyond the pale, I've done nothing to warrant expulsion from the Party - I have simply voluntarily left the Party group on the Council.
At the time of my next election, there are three options - I could seek to rejoin the Party and be re-selected as a Party candidate but given what's happened, would that be likely? I could run as an Independent but the party doesn't put up a candidate against me - I remain a Party member and support the Party at a GE but sit locally as an Independent.
The third option is the Party decides to put up a candidate against me - presumably IF I campaign against the Party candidate, that triggers my expulsion from the Party.
Let's say the third option happens and I win and a week after the local election, the Party Group changes leader and the new leader (whom I like and support) invites me to rejoin the Party Group and presumably the Party itself as I can't see it being possible for me to be a member of a Party Group without being a member of the Party.
What do we think of this?
If you stood as an Independent against other Conservative candidates you are automatically expelled from the Conservative Party.
Humble Proposal for Funding the Much-Needed PB Special & General Election Bottle Bus -
PB Punters & Players Mobile Betting Shop and Breakfast Theatre!
Putting on (in a manner o' speaking) rousing performances based on dramatizations of Famous British By-Elections.
Imagine a refurbished tour bus touring the ups and downs (literally) of UK electoral history, brimming over with the wit, whimsy, whiskey (also whisky) and washing of say a dozen of PB's blither spirits?
Vigilant as always, a spokesman for the prime minister has weighed in on the public debate about whether people should take cakes into work or not.
"As to the government's official position, the prime minister's official spokesman said Rishi Sunak believed "personal choice should be baked into our approach". [blah] Mr Sunak's spokesman added that the prime minister was "very partial to a piece of cake" and most enjoyed carrot and red velvet cake." https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-64315384
If Mr Sunak enjoys a piece of cake, I for one will vote to keep him in Downing Street. Hurrah!
On a culinary note, Lindsay Hoyle and chocolate teapot are trending on Twitter.
I must admit I didn't bother to look for further details about the prime minister's favourite cake, beyond mentally noting that it sounded comfortably within the Western tradition of desserts.
In the santanic mills of western Pennsylvania back in the day, the Slavs & Italians who dominated the workforce at turn of 19th>20th-cen., called the English/Scots-Irish "native stock" workers and foremen "cake-eaters" because their wives would typically include a piece of cake in their lunch-boxes. Rich and rare behavior from perspective of eastern & southern European recent immigrants.
My take is, Rishi Sunak is placing himself comfortably within the British tradition of desserts?
With red velvet carrot cake being a modernizing twist?
BTW, intensive research (two minutes googling) revels that the KEY difference between red velvet versus devils food cakes, is . . . wait for it . . . cocoa versus chocolate.
There is a class (and consequently VAT) consequence to this.
Cakes are considered a necessary foodstuff, as part of a genteel afternoon tea, and are therefore exempt from VAT. Chocolate-covered biscuits are a wanton luxury, indulged in by the working class, and so consequently face the full rate of VAT at 20% to ensure that the workers are dissuaded from falling prey to their gluttonous instincts.
TBF many cakes are desserts and vv - pineapple upside down cake, Bakewell tart, etc. The demartcation might be whether one can have them with custards.
Though we often have shortbread with our rhubarb and cream for afters - yet that remains a biscuit.
'Dessert' is one of my most disliked words (along with 'horrid' and 'movie'). It always sounds a bit Hyacinth Bucket to me. I think it's because the stress is on the second syllable. Never trust a two-syllable word with the stress on the second syllable. I use 'pudding'. Interestingly, an Irish friend of mine finds it hilarious that I use the word 'pudding', thinking it tremendously posh, and finds 'dessert' very much the everyman option.
If you wish to be identified as plebeian, you could refer to that particular course as "afters".
Sweet.
Terms, please, for desert course -
- for the Equestrian Order - for the Patricians - for the head count
A Jenga-style podium used by Liz Truss in her short-lived stint as prime minister cost taxpayers £4,175, it has emerged.
The lectern was compared to a Jenga tower, from the board game that results in total collapse, as it featured pieces of wood that resembled Jenga blocks ready to topple. It was specially made for the former prime minister who lasted 45 days in No 10.
The lectern was of the same style, although supposedly it wasn't the same actual lectern, as the one that was used at the Tory leadership announcement.
Liz Truss must really have liked that unusual style of lectern.
But I am sceptical about them being two different lecterns. Two questions: 1. where is the first one? 2. Did anyone spot any differences between them?
Angela Rayner, who uses w********t for good purposes (bless her), may know more than she lets on when she says "(Liz Truss's) choice of a Jenga design should have been a warning sign of the chaos she was about to unleash."
It was, Angela. I read the sign at the time.
The word "Jenga" comes from Swahili, but Jenga is a complete red herring.
Think of something closer to home:
Is it just me or is that an utterly baffling post?
Not just you.
Rosslyn Chapel in the photo. Freemasonry and Dan Brown sort of stuff.
The big Da Vinci Code mystery is of course how did such a terribly written book sell so many copies?
AI couldn't possibly do a worse job.
Seems to be a common criticism of popular books - the Harry Potter books get the same criticism - that they are poorly written.
I draw a few conclusions from this.
1. For most people the quality of a book lies with the quality of the story, rather than with the quality of the prose. Function being more important than form. 2. To be massively popular a book needs to be accessible. Intricate wordplay and obscure references might delight those similarly in the know, but won't encourage the average reader to recommend a book. The Da Vinci code might well have a smaller vocabulary and otherwise offend against purist sensibilities, but perhaps that makes it easier for it to tell its story. 3. There is much that is down to chance when it comes to book publishing.
Yes. I would add that quality prose is not the same as inherently difficult or inaccessible prose. Jane Austen reaches universal depth in an easy read like Emma, which on the face of it is simple and about virtually nothing at all. But top critics compete to write (often impenetrable) stuff about her genius.
Even Wuthering Heights (a candidate for the greatest work in English, alongside Lear etc) is not a terribly difficult or obscure read in terms of language and structure.
Far too many moderns from about 1910 onwards are too clever by half. Whoever read Ulysses late at night, breathlessly turning the page by lamplight to find out what happens next?
I did. Didn't everyone?
Same here. The Steven Seagal film was even better, though.
Terrible scores for the Tories on Sunak's 5 pledges. This stands out.
The poll suggests Labour is seen as more likely to legislate to stop small boat crossing, and to swiftly remove people who arrive in the UK illegally, than the Conservative party.
Seems to be a common criticism of popular books - the Harry Potter books get the same criticism - that they are poorly written.
I draw a few conclusions from this.
1. For most people the quality of a book lies with the quality of the story, rather than with the quality of the prose. Function being more important than form. 2. To be massively popular a book needs to be accessible. Intricate wordplay and obscure references might delight those similarly in the know, but won't encourage the average reader to recommend a book. The Da Vinci code might well have a smaller vocabulary and otherwise offend against purist sensibilities, but perhaps that makes it easier for it to tell its story. 3. There is much that is down to chance when it comes to book publishing.
I'd say what matters most, in descending order is plot, then characterisation, then worldbuilding, and then quality of the prose.
What I don't understand was the success of writers like Sidney Sheldon, E. L. James, and Harold Robbins, whose plots were dreadful, and whose characterisation, worldbuilding, and prose were even worse than their plotting.
WRT Harry Potter, the first three books are excellent, classics of childrens' literature on a par with The Hobbit. The last four books suffered from the perennial problem of fantasy writers who have become so successful that they can defy their editors - namely bloat.
Interesting discussion that goes beyond the "no accounting for taste" point. Points 1 and 2 very much speak to my taste, though i like some description and characterisation rather than pure he-did-this-then-she-said-that stuff (like Harold Robbins' books). I struggled to get through Nicholas Shakespeare's The Sandpit even though I'm interested in the themes (fusion and espionage) and I know the location well (Summertown, Oxford), because the plot grinds to a halt for half the book while the hero weighs up his options with diverse literary flourishes. It came recommended by William Boyd, which should have warned me that it had more serious literary pretensions than I thought.
Ideally, I think that books need to smuggle in literary quality to be popular - the ones that indulge in elaborate artifices and draw attention to their cleverness are off-putting to us ordinary folk.
A Jenga-style podium used by Liz Truss in her short-lived stint as prime minister cost taxpayers £4,175, it has emerged.
The lectern was compared to a Jenga tower, from the board game that results in total collapse, as it featured pieces of wood that resembled Jenga blocks ready to topple. It was specially made for the former prime minister who lasted 45 days in No 10.
The lectern was of the same style, although supposedly it wasn't the same actual lectern, as the one that was used at the Tory leadership announcement.
Liz Truss must really have liked that unusual style of lectern.
But I am sceptical about them being two different lecterns. Two questions: 1. where is the first one? 2. Did anyone spot any differences between them?
Angela Rayner, who uses w********t for good purposes (bless her), may know more than she lets on when she says "(Liz Truss's) choice of a Jenga design should have been a warning sign of the chaos she was about to unleash."
It was, Angela. I read the sign at the time.
The word "Jenga" comes from Swahili, but Jenga is a complete red herring.
Think of something closer to home:
Is it just me or is that an utterly baffling post?
Not just you.
Rosslyn Chapel in the photo. Freemasonry and Dan Brown sort of stuff.
The big Da Vinci Code mystery is of course how did such a terribly written book sell so many copies?
AI couldn't possibly do a worse job.
Seems to be a common criticism of popular books - the Harry Potter books get the same criticism - that they are poorly written.
I draw a few conclusions from this.
1. For most people the quality of a book lies with the quality of the story, rather than with the quality of the prose. Function being more important than form. 2. To be massively popular a book needs to be accessible. Intricate wordplay and obscure references might delight those similarly in the know, but won't encourage the average reader to recommend a book. The Da Vinci code might well have a smaller vocabulary and otherwise offend against purist sensibilities, but perhaps that makes it easier for it to tell its story. 3. There is much that is down to chance when it comes to book publishing.
Yes. I would add that quality prose is not the same as inherently difficult or inaccessible prose. Jane Austen reaches universal depth in an easy read like Emma, which on the face of it is simple and about virtually nothing at all. But top critics compete to write (often impenetrable) stuff about her genius.
Even Wuthering Heights (a candidate for the greatest work in English, alongside Lear etc) is not a terribly difficult or obscure read in terms of language and structure.
Far too many moderns from about 1910 onwards are too clever by half. Whoever read Ulysses late at night, breathlessly turning the page by lamplight to find out what happens next?
For me, a key quality that gets me to read a book again and again is layers of meaning, plot and detail. Depth. I especially like works your can read in different ways as the mood takes you.
Vigilant as always, a spokesman for the prime minister has weighed in on the public debate about whether people should take cakes into work or not.
"As to the government's official position, the prime minister's official spokesman said Rishi Sunak believed "personal choice should be baked into our approach". [blah] Mr Sunak's spokesman added that the prime minister was "very partial to a piece of cake" and most enjoyed carrot and red velvet cake." https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-64315384
If Mr Sunak enjoys a piece of cake, I for one will vote to keep him in Downing Street. Hurrah!
On a culinary note, Lindsay Hoyle and chocolate teapot are trending on Twitter.
I must admit I didn't bother to look for further details about the prime minister's favourite cake, beyond mentally noting that it sounded comfortably within the Western tradition of desserts.
In the santanic mills of western Pennsylvania back in the day, the Slavs & Italians who dominated the workforce at turn of 19th>20th-cen., called the English/Scots-Irish "native stock" workers and foremen "cake-eaters" because their wives would typically include a piece of cake in their lunch-boxes. Rich and rare behavior from perspective of eastern & southern European recent immigrants.
My take is, Rishi Sunak is placing himself comfortably within the British tradition of desserts?
With red velvet carrot cake being a modernizing twist?
BTW, intensive research (two minutes googling) revels that the KEY difference between red velvet versus devils food cakes, is . . . wait for it . . . cocoa versus chocolate.
There is a class (and consequently VAT) consequence to this.
Cakes are considered a necessary foodstuff, as part of a genteel afternoon tea, and are therefore exempt from VAT. Chocolate-covered biscuits are a wanton luxury, indulged in by the working class, and so consequently face the full rate of VAT at 20% to ensure that the workers are dissuaded from falling prey to their gluttonous instincts.
TBF many cakes are desserts and vv - pineapple upside down cake, Bakewell tart, etc. The demartcation might be whether one can have them with custards.
Though we often have shortbread with our rhubarb and cream for afters - yet that remains a biscuit.
'Dessert' is one of my most disliked words (along with 'horrid' and 'movie'). It always sounds a bit Hyacinth Bucket to me. I think it's because the stress is on the second syllable. Never trust a two-syllable word with the stress on the second syllable. I use 'pudding'. Interestingly, an Irish friend of mine finds it hilarious that I use the word 'pudding', thinking it tremendously posh, and finds 'dessert' very much the everyman option.
If you wish to be identified as plebeian, you could refer to that particular course as "afters".
Sweet.
Terms, please, for desert course -
- for the Equestrian Order - for the Patricians - for the head count
A desert course? Sounds like something you serve in a caravanserai.
Looking at the comings-and-goings among the Bournemouth, Christchurch & Poole (BCP) Councillors since 2019 and being aware of a couple of other instances, let me see what the views on here are:
If I join a political party, stand for election as a representative of that party and win, I join the group of Councillors representing the party on the Council.
After a year, for whatever reason, whether policy or personality, I leave the group and sit as an Independent but remain a member of the Party. At this point, unless it's something beyond the pale, I've done nothing to warrant expulsion from the Party - I have simply voluntarily left the Party group on the Council.
At the time of my next election, there are three options - I could seek to rejoin the Party and be re-selected as a Party candidate but given what's happened, would that be likely? I could run as an Independent but the party doesn't put up a candidate against me - I remain a Party member and support the Party at a GE but sit locally as an Independent.
The third option is the Party decides to put up a candidate against me - presumably IF I campaign against the Party candidate, that triggers my expulsion from the Party.
Let's say the third option happens and I win and a week after the local election, the Party Group changes leader and the new leader (whom I like and support) invites me to rejoin the Party Group and presumably the Party itself as I can't see it being possible for me to be a member of a Party Group without being a member of the Party.
What do we think of this?
If you stood as an Independent against other Conservative candidates you are automatically expelled from the Conservative Party.
Indeed and that's what would happen with most other parties.
However, if I was a member of the Party and supported the Party candidate at the GE and the Party group on the Council yet chose to sit as an Independent in my Ward/Division, would you support me by ot running a candidate against me and would the door, in effect, be open should I ever choose to join the Party group locally?
Sadiq Khan to permanently end free morning peak travel for pensioners - Freedom Pass restrictions brought in on short-term basis as money-saving step during pandemic to be made permanent
Latest election news, is apology of NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet, leader of the state Liberal Party (center right) and local Liberal-National Coalition, for having dressed up (or rather down) as a Nazi for his 21st birthday, back when that was.
Hardly the kiss of political death, but not a good look either.
However, Perrottet & Coalition have a LOT bigger problems to worry about, as the wiki blurb shows.
My own fearless forecast: NSW will be yet another victory for the ALP in the wonderful land of Oz.
Vigilant as always, a spokesman for the prime minister has weighed in on the public debate about whether people should take cakes into work or not.
"As to the government's official position, the prime minister's official spokesman said Rishi Sunak believed "personal choice should be baked into our approach". [blah] Mr Sunak's spokesman added that the prime minister was "very partial to a piece of cake" and most enjoyed carrot and red velvet cake." https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-64315384
If Mr Sunak enjoys a piece of cake, I for one will vote to keep him in Downing Street. Hurrah!
On a culinary note, Lindsay Hoyle and chocolate teapot are trending on Twitter.
I must admit I didn't bother to look for further details about the prime minister's favourite cake, beyond mentally noting that it sounded comfortably within the Western tradition of desserts.
In the santanic mills of western Pennsylvania back in the day, the Slavs & Italians who dominated the workforce at turn of 19th>20th-cen., called the English/Scots-Irish "native stock" workers and foremen "cake-eaters" because their wives would typically include a piece of cake in their lunch-boxes. Rich and rare behavior from perspective of eastern & southern European recent immigrants.
My take is, Rishi Sunak is placing himself comfortably within the British tradition of desserts?
With red velvet carrot cake being a modernizing twist?
BTW, intensive research (two minutes googling) revels that the KEY difference between red velvet versus devils food cakes, is . . . wait for it . . . cocoa versus chocolate.
There is a class (and consequently VAT) consequence to this.
Cakes are considered a necessary foodstuff, as part of a genteel afternoon tea, and are therefore exempt from VAT. Chocolate-covered biscuits are a wanton luxury, indulged in by the working class, and so consequently face the full rate of VAT at 20% to ensure that the workers are dissuaded from falling prey to their gluttonous instincts.
TBF many cakes are desserts and vv - pineapple upside down cake, Bakewell tart, etc. The demartcation might be whether one can have them with custards.
Though we often have shortbread with our rhubarb and cream for afters - yet that remains a biscuit.
'Dessert' is one of my most disliked words (along with 'horrid' and 'movie'). It always sounds a bit Hyacinth Bucket to me. I think it's because the stress is on the second syllable. Never trust a two-syllable word with the stress on the second syllable. I use 'pudding'. Interestingly, an Irish friend of mine finds it hilarious that I use the word 'pudding', thinking it tremendously posh, and finds 'dessert' very much the everyman option.
Does your friend call you "puddin'" as in [with mush-mouth, corn-pone Southern accent] "Would you like some more puddin', puddin'?"
Might take the elitist edge off!
Pud.
Warning! IF you are in Southern US, and someone refers to you as "Pud" it is NOT necessarily an endearment!
Sadiq Khan to permanently end free morning peak travel for pensioners - Freedom Pass restrictions brought in on short-term basis as money-saving step during pandemic to be made permanent
Good they don't deserve a handout I don't get one
You mean you don't get that handout in particular or don't get any at all? I suppose tax allowances don't count, nor does free (to the parents) education, as that doesn't fit under the present tense.
Looking at the comings-and-goings among the Bournemouth, Christchurch & Poole (BCP) Councillors since 2019 and being aware of a couple of other instances, let me see what the views on here are:
If I join a political party, stand for election as a representative of that party and win, I join the group of Councillors representing the party on the Council.
After a year, for whatever reason, whether policy or personality, I leave the group and sit as an Independent but remain a member of the Party. At this point, unless it's something beyond the pale, I've done nothing to warrant expulsion from the Party - I have simply voluntarily left the Party group on the Council.
At the time of my next election, there are three options - I could seek to rejoin the Party and be re-selected as a Party candidate but given what's happened, would that be likely? I could run as an Independent but the party doesn't put up a candidate against me - I remain a Party member and support the Party at a GE but sit locally as an Independent.
The third option is the Party decides to put up a candidate against me - presumably IF I campaign against the Party candidate, that triggers my expulsion from the Party.
Let's say the third option happens and I win and a week after the local election, the Party Group changes leader and the new leader (whom I like and support) invites me to rejoin the Party Group and presumably the Party itself as I can't see it being possible for me to be a member of a Party Group without being a member of the Party.
What do we think of this?
If you stood as an Independent against other Conservative candidates you are automatically expelled from the Conservative Party.
Also (although it depends on the competence of the local association) a councillor that resigned the whip but attempted to remain a member of the association would be expelled under the usual fallback of "bringing the Party into disrepute".
Sadiq Khan to permanently end free morning peak travel for pensioners - Freedom Pass restrictions brought in on short-term basis as money-saving step during pandemic to be made permanent
Good they don't deserve a handout I don't get one
Why free peak travel for people who probably aren’t working, and so can shift their travel to avoid peak times?
Sadiq Khan to permanently end free morning peak travel for pensioners - Freedom Pass restrictions brought in on short-term basis as money-saving step during pandemic to be made permanent
Good they don't deserve a handout I don't get one
You mean you don't get that handout in particular or don't get any at all? I suppose tax allowances don't count, nor does free (to the parents) education, as that doesn't fit under the present tense.
If you're a pensioner you should be paying for the tube just like the rest of us
Looking at the comings-and-goings among the Bournemouth, Christchurch & Poole (BCP) Councillors since 2019 and being aware of a couple of other instances, let me see what the views on here are:
If I join a political party, stand for election as a representative of that party and win, I join the group of Councillors representing the party on the Council.
After a year, for whatever reason, whether policy or personality, I leave the group and sit as an Independent but remain a member of the Party. At this point, unless it's something beyond the pale, I've done nothing to warrant expulsion from the Party - I have simply voluntarily left the Party group on the Council.
At the time of my next election, there are three options - I could seek to rejoin the Party and be re-selected as a Party candidate but given what's happened, would that be likely? I could run as an Independent but the party doesn't put up a candidate against me - I remain a Party member and support the Party at a GE but sit locally as an Independent.
The third option is the Party decides to put up a candidate against me - presumably IF I campaign against the Party candidate, that triggers my expulsion from the Party.
Let's say the third option happens and I win and a week after the local election, the Party Group changes leader and the new leader (whom I like and support) invites me to rejoin the Party Group and presumably the Party itself as I can't see it being possible for me to be a member of a Party Group without being a member of the Party.
What do we think of this?
If you stood as an Independent against other Conservative candidates you are automatically expelled from the Conservative Party.
Also (although it depends on the competence of the local association) a councillor that resigned the whip but attempted to remain a member of the association would be expelled under the usual fallback of "bringing the Party into disrepute".
Hard to imagine anyone could impose that with a straight face after Johnson and Truss.
Looking at the comings-and-goings among the Bournemouth, Christchurch & Poole (BCP) Councillors since 2019 and being aware of a couple of other instances, let me see what the views on here are:
If I join a political party, stand for election as a representative of that party and win, I join the group of Councillors representing the party on the Council.
After a year, for whatever reason, whether policy or personality, I leave the group and sit as an Independent but remain a member of the Party. At this point, unless it's something beyond the pale, I've done nothing to warrant expulsion from the Party - I have simply voluntarily left the Party group on the Council.
At the time of my next election, there are three options - I could seek to rejoin the Party and be re-selected as a Party candidate but given what's happened, would that be likely? I could run as an Independent but the party doesn't put up a candidate against me - I remain a Party member and support the Party at a GE but sit locally as an Independent.
The third option is the Party decides to put up a candidate against me - presumably IF I campaign against the Party candidate, that triggers my expulsion from the Party.
Let's say the third option happens and I win and a week after the local election, the Party Group changes leader and the new leader (whom I like and support) invites me to rejoin the Party Group and presumably the Party itself as I can't see it being possible for me to be a member of a Party Group without being a member of the Party.
What do we think of this?
If you stood as an Independent against other Conservative candidates you are automatically expelled from the Conservative Party.
Indeed and that's what would happen with most other parties.
However, if I was a member of the Party and supported the Party candidate at the GE and the Party group on the Council yet chose to sit as an Independent in my Ward/Division, would you support me by ot running a candidate against me and would the door, in effect, be open should I ever choose to join the Party group locally?
I have known Independents who have joined the Conservative Party, not Independents who left the Conservative Party and stood against it and were allowed to rejoin
Sadiq Khan to permanently end free morning peak travel for pensioners - Freedom Pass restrictions brought in on short-term basis as money-saving step during pandemic to be made permanent
Good they don't deserve a handout I don't get one
You mean you don't get that handout in particular or don't get any at all? I suppose tax allowances don't count, nor does free (to the parents) education, as that doesn't fit under the present tense.
If you're a pensioner you should be paying for the tube just like the rest of us
I pay whenever I visit London, so don't you worry there.
But your previous posting is worryingly open-ended ...
Looking at the comings-and-goings among the Bournemouth, Christchurch & Poole (BCP) Councillors since 2019 and being aware of a couple of other instances, let me see what the views on here are:
If I join a political party, stand for election as a representative of that party and win, I join the group of Councillors representing the party on the Council.
After a year, for whatever reason, whether policy or personality, I leave the group and sit as an Independent but remain a member of the Party. At this point, unless it's something beyond the pale, I've done nothing to warrant expulsion from the Party - I have simply voluntarily left the Party group on the Council.
At the time of my next election, there are three options - I could seek to rejoin the Party and be re-selected as a Party candidate but given what's happened, would that be likely? I could run as an Independent but the party doesn't put up a candidate against me - I remain a Party member and support the Party at a GE but sit locally as an Independent.
The third option is the Party decides to put up a candidate against me - presumably IF I campaign against the Party candidate, that triggers my expulsion from the Party.
Let's say the third option happens and I win and a week after the local election, the Party Group changes leader and the new leader (whom I like and support) invites me to rejoin the Party Group and presumably the Party itself as I can't see it being possible for me to be a member of a Party Group without being a member of the Party.
What do we think of this?
If you stood as an Independent against other Conservative candidates you are automatically expelled from the Conservative Party.
Indeed and that's what would happen with most other parties.
However, if I was a member of the Party and supported the Party candidate at the GE and the Party group on the Council yet chose to sit as an Independent in my Ward/Division, would you support me by ot running a candidate against me and would the door, in effect, be open should I ever choose to join the Party group locally?
I have known Independents who have joined the Conservative Party, not Independents who left the Conservative Party and stood against it and were allowed to rejoin
I have, the latter. Very common in local government elections in the Scottish country areas, and not the kind of Independent you are always complaining about. It's a good way to escape the taint of the Tories, or to stay on the council even if one has had a row with the Tories, or simply gain by splitting the vote and targeting slightly different electorates - the result is pretty Tory either way. A recent by election happened because of the demise or resignation of someone who had beem an Independent, then a Tory, then an Independent IIRC - made it very hard to interpret the votes in the resulng by election if you didn't know what had happened.
"They say the first step in fixing a crisis is to recognise there is a problem. So let us give thanks for a Labour leader’s dismissal of the belief that Britain’s health service is the envy of the world — a deluded concept that, in the words of Sir Keir Starmer, is “plainly wrong”. Yes, he was adopting Blairite tactics to confound expectations with a bit of political cross-dressing, while also obviously aware of polls showing the drastic collapse of faith among voters in their once-worshiped NHS. His reform plans are rudimentary, his funding suggestions sketchy and his proposal to nationalise general practitioners seems ill-conceived. Yet this is still an important moment."
There is another part of that article that is worth quoting
"Britain has clung for so long to this weird comfort blanket, the risible idea that the rest of the world was looking with longing at a health system that has been in crisis for much of its 75-year history. For more than two decades I have argued that such blinkered worship of the NHS and deification of its staff was highly corrosive, since it frustrated reform, intimidated politicians and silenced criticism. The result has been a series of grotesque patient safety scandals — usually with agonising or fatal consequences affecting the most marginalised groups in society — and dire outcomes in many key areas, from cancer to infant mortality, compared with other rich nations."
If Starmer really does want to reform, he needs to start by recognising that "our NHS" is a vast bureaucracy not a benign deity. The next step is to recognise that there are a large part of the staff that put the maintenance of the myth and self-interest above the interest of patients. If he can do both, or even either of these things he stands a chance. If he just thinks it is about hosing taxpayers money at it, the NHS will continue to be burden to the UK and the laughing stock of the world.
It's worse than that.
Factor in healthcare cost inflation (new medicines and healthcare equipment) and the increasing number of elderly citizens (a depressing statistic is that 75% of your lifetime healthcare costs occur in the last few months of life) and you can be sure that the NHS is unsustainable.
It's not a question of if it collapses but when. As a (disillusioned) NHS administrator told me over 20 years ago.
We could move to a European style system (relying on insurance companies and co-payments) - either a Belgian/French mutuelle model - or a Scandi private fund model with guarantees for the poor and elderly. (Hell - it could also provide a real shot in the arm to private sector union membership if you could also join the union pension fund).
But the pension fund administrators have done such a poor job with private pensions that nobody would ever accept it.
Looking at the comings-and-goings among the Bournemouth, Christchurch & Poole (BCP) Councillors since 2019 and being aware of a couple of other instances, let me see what the views on here are:
If I join a political party, stand for election as a representative of that party and win, I join the group of Councillors representing the party on the Council.
After a year, for whatever reason, whether policy or personality, I leave the group and sit as an Independent but remain a member of the Party. At this point, unless it's something beyond the pale, I've done nothing to warrant expulsion from the Party - I have simply voluntarily left the Party group on the Council.
At the time of my next election, there are three options - I could seek to rejoin the Party and be re-selected as a Party candidate but given what's happened, would that be likely? I could run as an Independent but the party doesn't put up a candidate against me - I remain a Party member and support the Party at a GE but sit locally as an Independent.
The third option is the Party decides to put up a candidate against me - presumably IF I campaign against the Party candidate, that triggers my expulsion from the Party.
Let's say the third option happens and I win and a week after the local election, the Party Group changes leader and the new leader (whom I like and support) invites me to rejoin the Party Group and presumably the Party itself as I can't see it being possible for me to be a member of a Party Group without being a member of the Party.
What do we think of this?
If you stood as an Independent against other Conservative candidates you are automatically expelled from the Conservative Party.
Indeed and that's what would happen with most other parties.
However, if I was a member of the Party and supported the Party candidate at the GE and the Party group on the Council yet chose to sit as an Independent in my Ward/Division, would you support me by ot running a candidate against me and would the door, in effect, be open should I ever choose to join the Party group locally?
I have known Independents who have joined the Conservative Party, not Independents who left the Conservative Party and stood against it and were allowed to rejoin
Okay then, simple question - do you stand candidates against all non-Conservative Councillors (Labour, LD, Green and Independent) ?
Looking at the comings-and-goings among the Bournemouth, Christchurch & Poole (BCP) Councillors since 2019 and being aware of a couple of other instances, let me see what the views on here are:
If I join a political party, stand for election as a representative of that party and win, I join the group of Councillors representing the party on the Council.
After a year, for whatever reason, whether policy or personality, I leave the group and sit as an Independent but remain a member of the Party. At this point, unless it's something beyond the pale, I've done nothing to warrant expulsion from the Party - I have simply voluntarily left the Party group on the Council.
At the time of my next election, there are three options - I could seek to rejoin the Party and be re-selected as a Party candidate but given what's happened, would that be likely? I could run as an Independent but the party doesn't put up a candidate against me - I remain a Party member and support the Party at a GE but sit locally as an Independent.
The third option is the Party decides to put up a candidate against me - presumably IF I campaign against the Party candidate, that triggers my expulsion from the Party.
Let's say the third option happens and I win and a week after the local election, the Party Group changes leader and the new leader (whom I like and support) invites me to rejoin the Party Group and presumably the Party itself as I can't see it being possible for me to be a member of a Party Group without being a member of the Party.
What do we think of this?
If you stood as an Independent against other Conservative candidates you are automatically expelled from the Conservative Party.
Indeed and that's what would happen with most other parties.
However, if I was a member of the Party and supported the Party candidate at the GE and the Party group on the Council yet chose to sit as an Independent in my Ward/Division, would you support me by ot running a candidate against me and would the door, in effect, be open should I ever choose to join the Party group locally?
Really depends on the circumstances. If the Councillor was consistently supporting the party in the chamber and was popular locally in their Ward/Division, I’d be inclined to give them a free run in the hope they would eventually return to the Group, the more so if the seat was potentially marginal.
Looking at the comings-and-goings among the Bournemouth, Christchurch & Poole (BCP) Councillors since 2019 and being aware of a couple of other instances, let me see what the views on here are:
If I join a political party, stand for election as a representative of that party and win, I join the group of Councillors representing the party on the Council.
After a year, for whatever reason, whether policy or personality, I leave the group and sit as an Independent but remain a member of the Party. At this point, unless it's something beyond the pale, I've done nothing to warrant expulsion from the Party - I have simply voluntarily left the Party group on the Council.
At the time of my next election, there are three options - I could seek to rejoin the Party and be re-selected as a Party candidate but given what's happened, would that be likely? I could run as an Independent but the party doesn't put up a candidate against me - I remain a Party member and support the Party at a GE but sit locally as an Independent.
The third option is the Party decides to put up a candidate against me - presumably IF I campaign against the Party candidate, that triggers my expulsion from the Party.
Let's say the third option happens and I win and a week after the local election, the Party Group changes leader and the new leader (whom I like and support) invites me to rejoin the Party Group and presumably the Party itself as I can't see it being possible for me to be a member of a Party Group without being a member of the Party.
What do we think of this?
If you stood as an Independent against other Conservative candidates you are automatically expelled from the Conservative Party.
Indeed and that's what would happen with most other parties.
However, if I was a member of the Party and supported the Party candidate at the GE and the Party group on the Council yet chose to sit as an Independent in my Ward/Division, would you support me by ot running a candidate against me and would the door, in effect, be open should I ever choose to join the Party group locally?
I have known Independents who have joined the Conservative Party, not Independents who left the Conservative Party and stood against it and were allowed to rejoin
I have, the latter. Very common in local government elections in the Scottish country areas, and not the kind of Independent you are always complaining about. It's a good way to escape the taint of the Tories, or to stay on the council even if one has had a row with the Tories, or simply gain by splitting the vote and targeting slightly different electorates - the result is pretty Tory either way. A recent by election happened because of the demise or resignation of someone who had beem an Independent, then a Tory, then an Independent IIRC - made it very hard to interpret the votes in the resulng by election if you didn't know what had happened.
Yes but were they allowed to rejoin and stand again as Tories having left the Tories and stood as Independents against official Conservative candidates?
Once you leave the Tories and stand against Tory candidates down here that is it in terms of the English part of the UK party
Sadiq Khan to permanently end free morning peak travel for pensioners - Freedom Pass restrictions brought in on short-term basis as money-saving step during pandemic to be made permanent
Good they don't deserve a handout I don't get one
But we have paid our stamp all our lives, fought in two world wars to defend the liberties you take for granted, etc etc
Apropos of absolutely nothing but what football team does Jeremy Corbyn support?
[Arsenal FC] have been made aware of two disturbing incidents over the weekend involving anti-semitism which are now under investigation.
There was an incident at the North London derby on Sunday involving Arsenal supporters in which one of our fans overheard grossly offensive anti-semitic statements made by another Arsenal fan.
On the same afternoon, we were appalled to hear of an incident at The Cally pub in Islington, involving other anti-semitic chants.
Looking at the comings-and-goings among the Bournemouth, Christchurch & Poole (BCP) Councillors since 2019 and being aware of a couple of other instances, let me see what the views on here are:
If I join a political party, stand for election as a representative of that party and win, I join the group of Councillors representing the party on the Council.
After a year, for whatever reason, whether policy or personality, I leave the group and sit as an Independent but remain a member of the Party. At this point, unless it's something beyond the pale, I've done nothing to warrant expulsion from the Party - I have simply voluntarily left the Party group on the Council.
At the time of my next election, there are three options - I could seek to rejoin the Party and be re-selected as a Party candidate but given what's happened, would that be likely? I could run as an Independent but the party doesn't put up a candidate against me - I remain a Party member and support the Party at a GE but sit locally as an Independent.
The third option is the Party decides to put up a candidate against me - presumably IF I campaign against the Party candidate, that triggers my expulsion from the Party.
Let's say the third option happens and I win and a week after the local election, the Party Group changes leader and the new leader (whom I like and support) invites me to rejoin the Party Group and presumably the Party itself as I can't see it being possible for me to be a member of a Party Group without being a member of the Party.
What do we think of this?
If you stood as an Independent against other Conservative candidates you are automatically expelled from the Conservative Party.
Indeed and that's what would happen with most other parties.
However, if I was a member of the Party and supported the Party candidate at the GE and the Party group on the Council yet chose to sit as an Independent in my Ward/Division, would you support me by ot running a candidate against me and would the door, in effect, be open should I ever choose to join the Party group locally?
I have known Independents who have joined the Conservative Party, not Independents who left the Conservative Party and stood against it and were allowed to rejoin
I have. (And also leaving to join another party, then returning to the fold).
If the Independent looks likely to keep on winning as an Indy, or costing the party the seat at least, the practical choice for a party if they wish to rejoin is pretty obvious.
Parties can be pretty generous on these things, it's why so many go for option 2 and don't stand against the former party member even if they don't let them rejoin, or put up a paper candidate only (not that paper candidates don't sometimes win).
Looking at the comings-and-goings among the Bournemouth, Christchurch & Poole (BCP) Councillors since 2019 and being aware of a couple of other instances, let me see what the views on here are:
If I join a political party, stand for election as a representative of that party and win, I join the group of Councillors representing the party on the Council.
After a year, for whatever reason, whether policy or personality, I leave the group and sit as an Independent but remain a member of the Party. At this point, unless it's something beyond the pale, I've done nothing to warrant expulsion from the Party - I have simply voluntarily left the Party group on the Council.
At the time of my next election, there are three options - I could seek to rejoin the Party and be re-selected as a Party candidate but given what's happened, would that be likely? I could run as an Independent but the party doesn't put up a candidate against me - I remain a Party member and support the Party at a GE but sit locally as an Independent.
The third option is the Party decides to put up a candidate against me - presumably IF I campaign against the Party candidate, that triggers my expulsion from the Party.
Let's say the third option happens and I win and a week after the local election, the Party Group changes leader and the new leader (whom I like and support) invites me to rejoin the Party Group and presumably the Party itself as I can't see it being possible for me to be a member of a Party Group without being a member of the Party.
What do we think of this?
If you stood as an Independent against other Conservative candidates you are automatically expelled from the Conservative Party.
Indeed and that's what would happen with most other parties.
However, if I was a member of the Party and supported the Party candidate at the GE and the Party group on the Council yet chose to sit as an Independent in my Ward/Division, would you support me by ot running a candidate against me and would the door, in effect, be open should I ever choose to join the Party group locally?
I have known Independents who have joined the Conservative Party, not Independents who left the Conservative Party and stood against it and were allowed to rejoin
I have, the latter. Very common in local government elections in the Scottish country areas, and not the kind of Independent you are always complaining about. It's a good way to escape the taint of the Tories, or to stay on the council even if one has had a row with the Tories, or simply gain by splitting the vote and targeting slightly different electorates - the result is pretty Tory either way. A recent by election happened because of the demise or resignation of someone who had beem an Independent, then a Tory, then an Independent IIRC - made it very hard to interpret the votes in the resulng by election if you didn't know what had happened.
Yes but were they allowed to rejoin and stand again as Tories having left the Tories and stood as Independents against official Conservative candidates?
Once you leave the Tories and stand against Tory candidates down here that is it in terms of the English part of the UK party
Here's an example (probably the very one I was thinking of, but I got it the wrong way round). As good Unionists who don't believe in devolution, this shouldn't be happening if you are right?
Looking at the comings-and-goings among the Bournemouth, Christchurch & Poole (BCP) Councillors since 2019 and being aware of a couple of other instances, let me see what the views on here are:
If I join a political party, stand for election as a representative of that party and win, I join the group of Councillors representing the party on the Council.
After a year, for whatever reason, whether policy or personality, I leave the group and sit as an Independent but remain a member of the Party. At this point, unless it's something beyond the pale, I've done nothing to warrant expulsion from the Party - I have simply voluntarily left the Party group on the Council.
At the time of my next election, there are three options - I could seek to rejoin the Party and be re-selected as a Party candidate but given what's happened, would that be likely? I could run as an Independent but the party doesn't put up a candidate against me - I remain a Party member and support the Party at a GE but sit locally as an Independent.
The third option is the Party decides to put up a candidate against me - presumably IF I campaign against the Party candidate, that triggers my expulsion from the Party.
Let's say the third option happens and I win and a week after the local election, the Party Group changes leader and the new leader (whom I like and support) invites me to rejoin the Party Group and presumably the Party itself as I can't see it being possible for me to be a member of a Party Group without being a member of the Party.
What do we think of this?
If you stood as an Independent against other Conservative candidates you are automatically expelled from the Conservative Party.
Indeed and that's what would happen with most other parties.
However, if I was a member of the Party and supported the Party candidate at the GE and the Party group on the Council yet chose to sit as an Independent in my Ward/Division, would you support me by ot running a candidate against me and would the door, in effect, be open should I ever choose to join the Party group locally?
I have known Independents who have joined the Conservative Party, not Independents who left the Conservative Party and stood against it and were allowed to rejoin
Okay then, simple question - do you stand candidates against all non-Conservative Councillors (Labour, LD, Green and Independent) ?
In Epping Forest at district and county level yes, certainly in the last few cycles
Sadiq Khan to permanently end free morning peak travel for pensioners - Freedom Pass restrictions brought in on short-term basis as money-saving step during pandemic to be made permanent
Good they don't deserve a handout I don't get one
You mean you don't get that handout in particular or don't get any at all? I suppose tax allowances don't count, nor does free (to the parents) education, as that doesn't fit under the present tense.
If you're a pensioner you should be paying for the tube just like the rest of us
When my folks go to the Smoke they catch the busses as they have free bus passes. Why use the Tube?
Latest election news, is apology of NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet, leader of the state Liberal Party (center right) and local Liberal-National Coalition, for having dressed up (or rather down) as a Nazi for his 21st birthday, back when that was.
Hardly the kiss of political death, but not a good look either.
However, Perrottet & Coalition have a LOT bigger problems to worry about, as the wiki blurb shows.
My own fearless forecast: NSW will be yet another victory for the ALP in the wonderful land of Oz.
There's not much polling - the latest Roy Morgan gives the Coalition a narrow lead on the primary vote but the second preference is 52-48 to Labor, so the reverse of the 2019 result.
The swing from the Coalition to Labor is about 3%. Interesting to see the Labor leader in the most marginal seat (only needs a 0.1% swing to see him beaten). Can you imagine if Starmer or Sunak were in real marginal seats?
The Greens are up and the phenomenon of the "teal independents" could yet deny Labor an absolute majority in the NSW State Parliament. Another group which might be influential are the "Shooters, Fishers & Farmers" Party who stand on a platform of Green Conservatism - perhaps that may be the way forward if the Conservatives here get a hammering next time.
Looking at the comings-and-goings among the Bournemouth, Christchurch & Poole (BCP) Councillors since 2019 and being aware of a couple of other instances, let me see what the views on here are:
If I join a political party, stand for election as a representative of that party and win, I join the group of Councillors representing the party on the Council.
After a year, for whatever reason, whether policy or personality, I leave the group and sit as an Independent but remain a member of the Party. At this point, unless it's something beyond the pale, I've done nothing to warrant expulsion from the Party - I have simply voluntarily left the Party group on the Council.
At the time of my next election, there are three options - I could seek to rejoin the Party and be re-selected as a Party candidate but given what's happened, would that be likely? I could run as an Independent but the party doesn't put up a candidate against me - I remain a Party member and support the Party at a GE but sit locally as an Independent.
The third option is the Party decides to put up a candidate against me - presumably IF I campaign against the Party candidate, that triggers my expulsion from the Party.
Let's say the third option happens and I win and a week after the local election, the Party Group changes leader and the new leader (whom I like and support) invites me to rejoin the Party Group and presumably the Party itself as I can't see it being possible for me to be a member of a Party Group without being a member of the Party.
What do we think of this?
If you stood as an Independent against other Conservative candidates you are automatically expelled from the Conservative Party.
Indeed and that's what would happen with most other parties.
However, if I was a member of the Party and supported the Party candidate at the GE and the Party group on the Council yet chose to sit as an Independent in my Ward/Division, would you support me by ot running a candidate against me and would the door, in effect, be open should I ever choose to join the Party group locally?
I have known Independents who have joined the Conservative Party, not Independents who left the Conservative Party and stood against it and were allowed to rejoin
I have.
If the Independent looks likely to keep on winning as an Indy, or costing the party the seat at least, the practical choice for a party if they wish to rejoin is pretty obvious.
Parties can be pretty generous on these things, it's why so many go for option 2 and don't stand against the former party member even if they don't let them rejoin, or put up a paper candidate only (not that paper candidates don't sometimes win).
You are saying what you think should be the case.
CCHQ rules are once you leave the party and stand against Tory candidates you are automatically expelled
Looking at the comings-and-goings among the Bournemouth, Christchurch & Poole (BCP) Councillors since 2019 and being aware of a couple of other instances, let me see what the views on here are:
If I join a political party, stand for election as a representative of that party and win, I join the group of Councillors representing the party on the Council.
After a year, for whatever reason, whether policy or personality, I leave the group and sit as an Independent but remain a member of the Party. At this point, unless it's something beyond the pale, I've done nothing to warrant expulsion from the Party - I have simply voluntarily left the Party group on the Council.
At the time of my next election, there are three options - I could seek to rejoin the Party and be re-selected as a Party candidate but given what's happened, would that be likely? I could run as an Independent but the party doesn't put up a candidate against me - I remain a Party member and support the Party at a GE but sit locally as an Independent.
The third option is the Party decides to put up a candidate against me - presumably IF I campaign against the Party candidate, that triggers my expulsion from the Party.
Let's say the third option happens and I win and a week after the local election, the Party Group changes leader and the new leader (whom I like and support) invites me to rejoin the Party Group and presumably the Party itself as I can't see it being possible for me to be a member of a Party Group without being a member of the Party.
What do we think of this?
If you stood as an Independent against other Conservative candidates you are automatically expelled from the Conservative Party.
Indeed and that's what would happen with most other parties.
However, if I was a member of the Party and supported the Party candidate at the GE and the Party group on the Council yet chose to sit as an Independent in my Ward/Division, would you support me by ot running a candidate against me and would the door, in effect, be open should I ever choose to join the Party group locally?
I have known Independents who have joined the Conservative Party, not Independents who left the Conservative Party and stood against it and were allowed to rejoin
Okay then, simple question - do you stand candidates against all non-Conservative Councillors (Labour, LD, Green and Independent) ?
In Epping Forest at district and county level yes, certainly in the last few cycles
Thanks - that's fair enough and entirely credible.
If there’s any scandal there at all, it’s with the boring accountant who decided to replace it.
Every PM (of late) gets their own unique design
Exactly. It had nothing to do with Truss, and if anyone should be criticised for this it's the Civil Service. As if she even had anything to do with the hideous thing.
CCHQ not the civil service, aiui. Party not government.
If a candidate claims to be an "Independent" "Local Resident" "Ratepayer" or similar, it is safest to assume that they are a closet Tory and vote against the bugger.
Vigilant as always, a spokesman for the prime minister has weighed in on the public debate about whether people should take cakes into work or not.
"As to the government's official position, the prime minister's official spokesman said Rishi Sunak believed "personal choice should be baked into our approach". [blah] Mr Sunak's spokesman added that the prime minister was "very partial to a piece of cake" and most enjoyed carrot and red velvet cake." https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-64315384
If Mr Sunak enjoys a piece of cake, I for one will vote to keep him in Downing Street. Hurrah!
On a culinary note, Lindsay Hoyle and chocolate teapot are trending on Twitter.
I must admit I didn't bother to look for further details about the prime minister's favourite cake, beyond mentally noting that it sounded comfortably within the Western tradition of desserts.
In the santanic mills of western Pennsylvania back in the day, the Slavs & Italians who dominated the workforce at turn of 19th>20th-cen., called the English/Scots-Irish "native stock" workers and foremen "cake-eaters" because their wives would typically include a piece of cake in their lunch-boxes. Rich and rare behavior from perspective of eastern & southern European recent immigrants.
My take is, Rishi Sunak is placing himself comfortably within the British tradition of desserts?
With red velvet carrot cake being a modernizing twist?
BTW, intensive research (two minutes googling) revels that the KEY difference between red velvet versus devils food cakes, is . . . wait for it . . . cocoa versus chocolate.
There is a class (and consequently VAT) consequence to this.
Cakes are considered a necessary foodstuff, as part of a genteel afternoon tea, and are therefore exempt from VAT. Chocolate-covered biscuits are a wanton luxury, indulged in by the working class, and so consequently face the full rate of VAT at 20% to ensure that the workers are dissuaded from falling prey to their gluttonous instincts.
TBF many cakes are desserts and vv - pineapple upside down cake, Bakewell tart, etc. The demartcation might be whether one can have them with custards.
Though we often have shortbread with our rhubarb and cream for afters - yet that remains a biscuit.
'Dessert' is one of my most disliked words (along with 'horrid' and 'movie'). It always sounds a
bit Hyacinth Bucket to me. I think it's because the stress is on the second syllable. Never trust a two-syllable word with the stress on the second syllable. I use 'pudding'. Interestingly, an Irish friend of mine finds it hilarious that I use the word 'pudding', thinking it tremendously posh, and finds 'dessert' very much the everyman option.
Looking at the comings-and-goings among the Bournemouth, Christchurch & Poole (BCP) Councillors since 2019 and being aware of a couple of other instances, let me see what the views on here are:
If I join a political party, stand for election as a representative of that party and win, I join the group of Councillors representing the party on the Council.
After a year, for whatever reason, whether policy or personality, I leave the group and sit as an Independent but remain a member of the Party. At this point, unless it's something beyond the pale, I've done nothing to warrant expulsion from the Party - I have simply voluntarily left the Party group on the Council.
At the time of my next election, there are three options - I could seek to rejoin the Party and be re-selected as a Party candidate but given what's happened, would that be likely? I could run as an Independent but the party doesn't put up a candidate against me - I remain a Party member and support the Party at a GE but sit locally as an Independent.
The third option is the Party decides to put up a candidate against me - presumably IF I campaign against the Party candidate, that triggers my expulsion from the Party.
Let's say the third option happens and I win and a week after the local election, the Party Group changes leader and the new leader (whom I like and support) invites me to rejoin the Party Group and presumably the Party itself as I can't see it being possible for me to be a member of a Party Group without being a member of the Party.
What do we think of this?
If you stood as an Independent against other Conservative candidates you are automatically expelled from the Conservative Party.
Indeed and that's what would happen with most other parties.
However, if I was a member of the Party and supported the Party candidate at the GE and the Party group on the Council yet chose to sit as an Independent in my Ward/Division, would you support me by ot running a candidate against me and would the door, in effect, be open should I ever choose to join the Party group locally?
I have known Independents who have joined the Conservative Party, not Independents who left the Conservative Party and stood against it and were allowed to rejoin
I have, the latter. Very common in local government elections in the Scottish country areas, and not the kind of Independent you are always complaining about. It's a good way to escape the taint of the Tories, or to stay on the council even if one has had a row with the Tories, or simply gain by splitting the vote and targeting slightly different electorates - the result is pretty Tory either way. A recent by election happened because of the demise or resignation of someone who had beem an Independent, then a Tory, then an Independent IIRC - made it very hard to interpret the votes in the resulng by election if you didn't know what had happened.
Yes but were they allowed to rejoin and stand again as Tories having left the Tories and stood as Independents against official Conservative candidates?
Once you leave the Tories and stand against Tory candidates down here that is it in terms of the English part of the UK party
Here's an example (probably the very one I was thinking of, but I got it the wrong way round). As good Unionists who don't believe in devolution, this shouldn't be happening if you are right?
Vigilant as always, a spokesman for the prime minister has weighed in on the public debate about whether people should take cakes into work or not.
"As to the government's official position, the prime minister's official spokesman said Rishi Sunak believed "personal choice should be baked into our approach". [blah] Mr Sunak's spokesman added that the prime minister was "very partial to a piece of cake" and most enjoyed carrot and red velvet cake." https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-64315384
If Mr Sunak enjoys a piece of cake, I for one will vote to keep him in Downing Street. Hurrah!
On a culinary note, Lindsay Hoyle and chocolate teapot are trending on Twitter.
I must admit I didn't bother to look for further details about the prime minister's favourite cake, beyond mentally noting that it sounded comfortably within the Western tradition of desserts.
In the santanic mills of western Pennsylvania back in the day, the Slavs & Italians who dominated the workforce at turn of 19th>20th-cen., called the English/Scots-Irish "native stock" workers and foremen "cake-eaters" because their wives would typically include a piece of cake in their lunch-boxes. Rich and rare behavior from perspective of eastern & southern European recent immigrants.
My take is, Rishi Sunak is placing himself comfortably within the British tradition of desserts?
With red velvet carrot cake being a modernizing twist?
BTW, intensive research (two minutes googling) revels that the KEY difference between red velvet versus devils food cakes, is . . . wait for it . . . cocoa versus chocolate.
There is a class (and consequently VAT) consequence to this.
Cakes are considered a necessary foodstuff, as part of a genteel afternoon tea, and are therefore exempt from VAT. Chocolate-covered biscuits are a wanton luxury, indulged in by the working class, and so consequently face the full rate of VAT at 20% to ensure that the workers are dissuaded from falling prey to their gluttonous instincts.
TBF many cakes are desserts and vv - pineapple upside down cake, Bakewell tart, etc. The demartcation might be whether one can have them with custards.
Though we often have shortbread with our rhubarb and cream for afters - yet that remains a biscuit.
Not sure if it is true but I was told the way it is defined is that a cake gets hard when it goes stale and a biscuit gets soft. I believe this was the criteria used for defining Jaffa cakes as cake rather than biscuit during the infamous VAT court case.
If a candidate claims to be an "Independent" "Local Resident" "Ratepayer" or similar, it is safest to assume that they are a closet Tory and vote against the bugger.
In Loughton RA candidates range from borderline Marxists to hardline Tories so not really true
Vigilant as always, a spokesman for the prime minister has weighed in on the public debate about whether people should take cakes into work or not.
"As to the government's official position, the prime minister's official spokesman said Rishi Sunak believed "personal choice should be baked into our approach". [blah] Mr Sunak's spokesman added that the prime minister was "very partial to a piece of cake" and most enjoyed carrot and red velvet cake." https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-64315384
If Mr Sunak enjoys a piece of cake, I for one will vote to keep him in Downing Street. Hurrah!
On a culinary note, Lindsay Hoyle and chocolate teapot are trending on Twitter.
I must admit I didn't bother to look for further details about the prime minister's favourite cake, beyond mentally noting that it sounded comfortably within the Western tradition of desserts.
In the santanic mills of western Pennsylvania back in the day, the Slavs & Italians who dominated the workforce at turn of 19th>20th-cen., called the English/Scots-Irish "native stock" workers and foremen "cake-eaters" because their wives would typically include a piece of cake in their lunch-boxes. Rich and rare behavior from perspective of eastern & southern European recent immigrants.
My take is, Rishi Sunak is placing himself comfortably within the British tradition of desserts?
With red velvet carrot cake being a modernizing twist?
BTW, intensive research (two minutes googling) revels that the KEY difference between red velvet versus devils food cakes, is . . . wait for it . . . cocoa versus chocolate.
There is a class (and consequently VAT) consequence to this.
Cakes are considered a necessary foodstuff, as part of a genteel afternoon tea, and are therefore exempt from VAT. Chocolate-covered biscuits are a wanton luxury, indulged in by the working class, and so consequently face the full rate of VAT at 20% to ensure that the workers are dissuaded from falling prey to their gluttonous instincts.
TBF many cakes are desserts and vv - pineapple upside down cake, Bakewell tart, etc. The demartcation might be whether one can have them with custards.
Though we often have shortbread with our rhubarb and cream for afters - yet that remains a biscuit.
'Dessert' is one of my most disliked words (along with 'horrid' and 'movie'). It always sounds a
bit Hyacinth Bucket to me. I think it's because the stress is on the second syllable. Never trust a two-syllable word with the stress on the second syllable. I use 'pudding'. Interestingly, an Irish friend of mine finds it hilarious that I use the word 'pudding', thinking it tremendously posh, and finds 'dessert' very much the everyman option.
Looking at the comings-and-goings among the Bournemouth, Christchurch & Poole (BCP) Councillors since 2019 and being aware of a couple of other instances, let me see what the views on here are:
If I join a political party, stand for election as a representative of that party and win, I join the group of Councillors representing the party on the Council.
After a year, for whatever reason, whether policy or personality, I leave the group and sit as an Independent but remain a member of the Party. At this point, unless it's something beyond the pale, I've done nothing to warrant expulsion from the Party - I have simply voluntarily left the Party group on the Council.
At the time of my next election, there are three options - I could seek to rejoin the Party and be re-selected as a Party candidate but given what's happened, would that be likely? I could run as an Independent but the party doesn't put up a candidate against me - I remain a Party member and support the Party at a GE but sit locally as an Independent.
The third option is the Party decides to put up a candidate against me - presumably IF I campaign against the Party candidate, that triggers my expulsion from the Party.
Let's say the third option happens and I win and a week after the local election, the Party Group changes leader and the new leader (whom I like and support) invites me to rejoin the Party Group and presumably the Party itself as I can't see it being possible for me to be a member of a Party Group without being a member of the Party.
What do we think of this?
If you stood as an Independent against other Conservative candidates you are automatically expelled from the Conservative Party.
Indeed and that's what would happen with most other parties.
However, if I was a member of the Party and supported the Party candidate at the GE and the Party group on the Council yet chose to sit as an Independent in my Ward/Division, would you support me by ot running a candidate against me and would the door, in effect, be open should I ever choose to join the Party group locally?
I have known Independents who have joined the Conservative Party, not Independents who left the Conservative Party and stood against it and were allowed to rejoin
I have, the latter. Very common in local government elections in the Scottish country areas, and not the kind of Independent you are always complaining about. It's a good way to escape the taint of the Tories, or to stay on the council even if one has had a row with the Tories, or simply gain by splitting the vote and targeting slightly different electorates - the result is pretty Tory either way. A recent by election happened because of the demise or resignation of someone who had beem an Independent, then a Tory, then an Independent IIRC - made it very hard to interpret the votes in the resulng by election if you didn't know what had happened.
Yes but were they allowed to rejoin and stand again as Tories having left the Tories and stood as Independents against official Conservative candidates?
Once you leave the Tories and stand against Tory candidates down here that is it in terms of the English part of the UK party
Here's an example (probably the very one I was thinking of, but I got it the wrong way round). As good Unionists who don't believe in devolution, this shouldn't be happening if you are right?
Conservatives standing against Independents and nothing about a former Tory turned Independent being allowed back in
I did say to look out for Mr Baxter.
' In 2012 the Independent councillor, Donald Cameron, opted not to re-contest. I can’t actually determine whether this is the Donald Cameron that went on to be a Highlands & Islands Conservative MSP, but I’m going to assume it’s not. [NB this is another sign of the frequency of Tory/Indep flips that the compiler says this.] In his place, 2007’s definitely Conservative candidate Andrew Baxter stood as an Independent and was successfully elected, joined by the previous election’s second most popular Independent Thomas MacLennan. He displaced the Lib Dem councillors, whilst the SNP and Labour held their seats.[...] MacLennan didn’t stand again in 2017, and Baxter emerged as by far the most popular of the two Independents standing this time, doubling his share compared to 2012. Labour meanwhile did very poorly and lost their seat, with the two vacancies then being filled by a second SNP councillor and Ramon as Conservative. By the time of his sad passing, the ward had become two SNP, two Conservative, as Baxter returned to his roots and joined the Conservatives.'
On topic, Sunak's not very good at this, he's reminding us how he managed to lose to Liz Truss.
Truly the Alan Partridge PM.
I simply don't see what the MPs see in him. I still think May will see his premiership mortally wounded; the next political issue will see him replaced with someone less Eeyorish....
Speaking to a former Tory strategist the other day, they are convinced that Sunak is getting ousted the moment the committee votes to suspend Boris Johnson for lying to the House.
The moment there's no chance of Boris Johnson coming back as PM then Sunak's gone.
Odd that they think they think that imposing yet another new PM on the nation is theoretically less damaging than getting Boris back. Both outcomes are so incredibly crap that it hardly seems worth striving for one over the other.
And that both options are less damaging than continuing with the current incumbent. They're correct too.
The thing of it is that Sunak can be both charming and human in interviews. Why this doesn't translate into other aspects of his performance is a mystery.
Politician 101 in this instance is to look genuinely troubled at the human pain of this situation. Then to throw Boris under the bus. ("We've been performng terribly and [now, in this non-Boris future] we pledge to do better.")
It is probably because Prime Ministers are extensively coached before each week's PMQs and they are still using the Boris playbook of deflect and rant with scripted insults after Starmer's sixth and final question.
Sadiq Khan to permanently end free morning peak travel for pensioners - Freedom Pass restrictions brought in on short-term basis as money-saving step during pandemic to be made permanent
Good they don't deserve a handout I don't get one
You mean you don't get that handout in particular or don't get any at all? I suppose tax allowances don't count, nor does free (to the parents) education, as that doesn't fit under the present tense.
If you're a pensioner you should be paying for the tube just like the rest of us
I pay whenever I visit London, so don't you worry there.
But your previous posting is worryingly open-ended ...
Free travel for pensioners makes sense in some circumstances - that is, where capacity significantly exceeds supply. The additional cost to the supplier of carrying pensioners for free is marginal, and it a) keeps them off the road, whuch is a benefit to other drivers, b) keeps them active, which is a benefit to the health service, and c) gets them out and about, which is a benefit to them. It doesn't necessarily make sense this service at peak hours - though it probably did during the post-covid period when peak demand was still recovering.
"They say the first step in fixing a crisis is to recognise there is a problem. So let us give thanks for a Labour leader’s dismissal of the belief that Britain’s health service is the envy of the world — a deluded concept that, in the words of Sir Keir Starmer, is “plainly wrong”. Yes, he was adopting Blairite tactics to confound expectations with a bit of political cross-dressing, while also obviously aware of polls showing the drastic collapse of faith among voters in their once-worshiped NHS. His reform plans are rudimentary, his funding suggestions sketchy and his proposal to nationalise general practitioners seems ill-conceived. Yet this is still an important moment."
I'm skeptical of the idea the main reason the NHS is struggling is it got too used to being worshipped like a god and called the envy of the world. It's becoming a trope, this, imo. People keep saying it because other people keep saying it and it sounds a little bit detached and muscular and worldly.
The truth is, the NHS was a genuine towering achievement - being poor no longer meant little or no access to healthcare - but for quite some time now it's been underinvested in and not run in a way to maximize the returns (in outcomes) on that (inadequate) investment. And this fact is not whispered behind palms for fear of offending. It's a nonsense to suggest that.
Money is tight unless we're prepared to pay more tax - I sense we aren't - and there's no chance of the basic model being overhauled - too hard and too risky - so any material improvement in the foreseeable future will have to come from running it better. On that score the only way is up after this government. You truly can't trust the Tories with the NHS. Not these Tories anyway. It's not an original slogan but I suggest Starmer brings it back.
But whatever government we have I think we must get away from the noddy mantra about 'more doctors and nurses' and 'too many managers'. It's management that more needs to be beefed up. Esp re the integration with social care. You need top class bureaucracy to make that work. So I'd have this as a slogan too. "NHS. Less Nurses, More Managers!" Except I wouldn't, obviously, if I want to get elected.
Sadiq Khan to permanently end free morning peak travel for pensioners - Freedom Pass restrictions brought in on short-term basis as money-saving step during pandemic to be made permanent
Good they don't deserve a handout I don't get one
Odd, because the cost of the scheme falls to the Boroughs, yet he thinks he can nab the saving?
Looking at the comings-and-goings among the Bournemouth, Christchurch & Poole (BCP) Councillors since 2019 and being aware of a couple of other instances, let me see what the views on here are:
If I join a political party, stand for election as a representative of that party and win, I join the group of Councillors representing the party on the Council.
After a year, for whatever reason, whether policy or personality, I leave the group and sit as an Independent but remain a member of the Party. At this point, unless it's something beyond the pale, I've done nothing to warrant expulsion from the Party - I have simply voluntarily left the Party group on the Council.
At the time of my next election, there are three options - I could seek to rejoin the Party and be re-selected as a Party candidate but given what's happened, would that be likely? I could run as an Independent but the party doesn't put up a candidate against me - I remain a Party member and support the Party at a GE but sit locally as an Independent.
The third option is the Party decides to put up a candidate against me - presumably IF I campaign against the Party candidate, that triggers my expulsion from the Party.
Let's say the third option happens and I win and a week after the local election, the Party Group changes leader and the new leader (whom I like and support) invites me to rejoin the Party Group and presumably the Party itself as I can't see it being possible for me to be a member of a Party Group without being a member of the Party.
What do we think of this?
If you stood as an Independent against other Conservative candidates you are automatically expelled from the Conservative Party.
Indeed and that's what would happen with most other parties.
However, if I was a member of the Party and supported the Party candidate at the GE and the Party group on the Council yet chose to sit as an Independent in my Ward/Division, would you support me by ot running a candidate against me and would the door, in effect, be open should I ever choose to join the Party group locally?
I have known Independents who have joined the Conservative Party, not Independents who left the Conservative Party and stood against it and were allowed to rejoin
I have.
If the Independent looks likely to keep on winning as an Indy, or costing the party the seat at least, the practical choice for a party if they wish to rejoin is pretty obvious.
Parties can be pretty generous on these things, it's why so many go for option 2 and don't stand against the former party member even if they don't let them rejoin, or put up a paper candidate only (not that paper candidates don't sometimes win).
You are saying what you think should be the case.
CCHQ rules are once you leave the party and stand against Tory candidates you are automatically expelled
I am not saying what I think should be the case. I did not say that someone would not face expulsion in that situation - I assume that is indeed in the rules as you say. I was explicitly talking about rejoining.
But you said you'd not seen someone 'allowed to rejoin' after leaving and standing against the party. And I have seen that. The party obviously allows people to rejoin, though how much time they leave between is probably flexible.
For example, though this is involving standing for another party not independent it is illustrative of how parties are happy to allow rejoiners (and I know you are going to say it is not an independent-Tory switch up, but please read the rest, this is not meant to be a direct example, but an indication of flexibility), see a case here where a councillor stood for and was elected to the LDs, defeating a Tory candidate, then joined the Tories only weeks after their election - and whilst that particular story does not mention it, he had previously been a Conservative and then Independent candidate at various points, within the 6 years of that story. A Tory turned independent turned LD turned Tory. They stood at the next election as a Conservative.
You obviously know how to read, so I really don't know why you miss key words like 'rejoin'. I even followed it with another scenario you must have seen, where someone does not rejoin but the party goes easy on them (though I agree the Tories rarely seem to give someone a completely free run, which LDs seem to do more often).
If a candidate claims to be an "Independent" "Local Resident" "Ratepayer" or similar, it is safest to assume that they are a closet Tory and vote against the bugger.
In Loughton RA candidates range from borderline Marxists to hardline Tories so not really true
Agree. Ratepayers were often more conservative than conservatives, but that often isn't true now. In Guildford the Indy's are a real mixture. They are anti the local Tories and went into alliance with the LDs, however this was all on local issues. Some are ex Tories and not necessarily on the left of the Tories, some ex LDs and some of no obvious persuasion.
On topic, Sunak's not very good at this, he's reminding us how he managed to lose to Liz Truss.
Truly the Alan Partridge PM.
I simply don't see what the MPs see in him. I still think May will see his premiership mortally wounded; the next political issue will see him replaced with someone less Eeyorish....
Speaking to a former Tory strategist the other day, they are convinced that Sunak is getting ousted the moment the committee votes to suspend Boris Johnson for lying to the House.
The moment there's no chance of Boris Johnson coming back as PM then Sunak's gone.
Odd that they think they think that imposing yet another new PM on the nation is theoretically less damaging than getting Boris back. Both outcomes are so incredibly crap that it hardly seems worth striving for one over the other.
And that both options are less damaging than continuing with the current incumbent. They're correct too.
The thing of it is that Sunak can be both charming and human in interviews. Why this doesn't translate into other aspects of his performance is a mystery.
Politician 101 in this instance is to look genuinely troubled at the human pain of this situation. Then to throw Boris under the bus. ("We've been performng terribly and [now, in this non-Boris future] we pledge to do better.")
It is probably because Prime Ministers are extensively coached before each week's PMQs and they are still using the Boris playbook of deflect and rant with scripted insults after Starmer's sixth and final question.
That’s my feeling. Sunak needs to find his own style, and would do better to try and answer the questions in a more straightforward and honest way, rather than attempt the Johnson deflect-deny-smear approach.
Just like Truss with her dismissal of ‘abacus economics’, hubristically thinking she was all-powerful, the cadre of politicians who gained preferment under Johnson have been learning the wrong lessons from watching him in action. And so his poison seeps through our politics, still.
Amusingly, I have seem several Tories succesfully challenge expulsion from the party by their local association after they formed their own grouping seperate to other Tories on their council due to internal disputes (basically the proper process was not followed), though they did not go on to fight the next election of their own volition anyway.
Yes, things are not always straightforward even in the petty world of local party politics.
If a candidate claims to be an "Independent" "Local Resident" "Ratepayer" or similar, it is safest to assume that they are a closet Tory and vote against the bugger.
Depends on the electoral cycle sometimes. Around the latter period of the coalition I knew of a lot of LDs turned Independents for example.
Vigilant as always, a spokesman for the prime minister has weighed in on the public debate about whether people should take cakes into work or not.
"As to the government's official position, the prime minister's official spokesman said Rishi Sunak believed "personal choice should be baked into our approach". [blah] Mr Sunak's spokesman added that the prime minister was "very partial to a piece of cake" and most enjoyed carrot and red velvet cake." https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-64315384
If Mr Sunak enjoys a piece of cake, I for one will vote to keep him in Downing Street. Hurrah!
On a culinary note, Lindsay Hoyle and chocolate teapot are trending on Twitter.
I must admit I didn't bother to look for further details about the prime minister's favourite cake, beyond mentally noting that it sounded comfortably within the Western tradition of desserts.
In the santanic mills of western Pennsylvania back in the day, the Slavs & Italians who dominated the workforce at turn of 19th>20th-cen., called the English/Scots-Irish "native stock" workers and foremen "cake-eaters" because their wives would typically include a piece of cake in their lunch-boxes. Rich and rare behavior from perspective of eastern & southern European recent immigrants.
My take is, Rishi Sunak is placing himself comfortably within the British tradition of desserts?
With red velvet carrot cake being a modernizing twist?
BTW, intensive research (two minutes googling) revels that the KEY difference between red velvet versus devils food cakes, is . . . wait for it . . . cocoa versus chocolate.
There is a class (and consequently VAT) consequence to this.
Cakes are considered a necessary foodstuff, as part of a genteel afternoon tea, and are therefore exempt from VAT. Chocolate-covered biscuits are a wanton luxury, indulged in by the working class, and so consequently face the full rate of VAT at 20% to ensure that the workers are dissuaded from falling prey to their gluttonous instincts.
TBF many cakes are desserts and vv - pineapple upside down cake, Bakewell tart, etc. The demartcation might be whether one can have them with custards.
Though we often have shortbread with our rhubarb and cream for afters - yet that remains a biscuit.
Not sure if it is true but I was told the way it is defined is that a cake gets hard when it goes stale and a biscuit gets soft. I believe this was the criteria used for defining Jaffa cakes as cake rather than biscuit during the infamous VAT court case.
It's as good a rule of thumb as any taxonomical dispute.
If a candidate claims to be an "Independent" "Local Resident" "Ratepayer" or similar, it is safest to assume that they are a closet Tory and vote against the bugger.
In Loughton RA candidates range from borderline Marxists to hardline Tories so not really true
Agree. Ratepayers were often more conservative than conservatives, but that often isn't true now. In Guildford the Indy's are a real mixture. They are anti the local Tories and went into alliance with the LDs, however this was all on local issues. Some are ex Tories and not necessarily on the left of the Tories, some ex LDs and some of no obvious persuasion.
If a candidate claims to be an "Independent" "Local Resident" "Ratepayer" or similar, it is safest to assume that they are a closet Tory and vote against the bugger.
In Loughton RA candidates range from borderline Marxists to hardline Tories so not really true
Agree. Ratepayers were often more conservative than conservatives, but that often isn't true now. In Guildford the Indy's are a real mixture. They are anti the local Tories and went into alliance with the LDs, however this was all on local issues. Some are ex Tories and not necessarily on the left of the Tories, some ex LDs and some of no obvious persuasion.
What does unite Ratepayers is they are all NIMBY!
Would that it were only they who were NIMBY. At election time it's a competition to see who is the most NIMBYish - usually made easier for the non-ruling group candidate, if as is usually the case those running the council bow to national legal requirements to allocate land for housing, over objections of the local councillor.
Edit: Of course, none are against development on principle, nossir, this is just not the right place for it, there are too many issues etc etc.
On topic, Sunak's not very good at this, he's reminding us how he managed to lose to Liz Truss.
Truly the Alan Partridge PM.
I simply don't see what the MPs see in him. I still think May will see his premiership mortally wounded; the next political issue will see him replaced with someone less Eeyorish....
Speaking to a former Tory strategist the other day, they are convinced that Sunak is getting ousted the moment the committee votes to suspend Boris Johnson for lying to the House.
The moment there's no chance of Boris Johnson coming back as PM then Sunak's gone.
Odd that they think they think that imposing yet another new PM on the nation is theoretically less damaging than getting Boris back. Both outcomes are so incredibly crap that it hardly seems worth striving for one over the other.
And that both options are less damaging than continuing with the current incumbent. They're correct too.
The thing of it is that Sunak can be both charming and human in interviews. Why this doesn't translate into other aspects of his performance is a mystery.
Politician 101 in this instance is to look genuinely troubled at the human pain of this situation. Then to throw Boris under the bus. ("We've been performng terribly and [now, in this non-Boris future] we pledge to do better.")
He cannot throw Boris under the bus until the party is doing better under his leadership because the Borisite faction will eat him alive, but he cannot do better until he can move on from Boris either. He's trapped.
If a candidate claims to be an "Independent" "Local Resident" "Ratepayer" or similar, it is safest to assume that they are a closet Tory and vote against the bugger.
In Loughton RA candidates range from borderline Marxists to hardline Tories so not really true
Agree. Ratepayers were often more conservative than conservatives, but that often isn't true now. In Guildford the Indy's are a real mixture. They are anti the local Tories and went into alliance with the LDs, however this was all on local issues. Some are ex Tories and not necessarily on the left of the Tories, some ex LDs and some of no obvious persuasion.
I like when you get more than one group of Independents. Often these are your ratepayer types and easily split into geographically distinct independent groups, but sometimes it is just multiple different ones.
If a candidate claims to be an "Independent" "Local Resident" "Ratepayer" or similar, it is safest to assume that they are a closet Tory and vote against the bugger.
In Loughton RA candidates range from borderline Marxists to hardline Tories so not really true
Agree. Ratepayers were often more conservative than conservatives, but that often isn't true now. In Guildford the Indy's are a real mixture. They are anti the local Tories and went into alliance with the LDs, however this was all on local issues. Some are ex Tories and not necessarily on the left of the Tories, some ex LDs and some of no obvious persuasion.
What does unite Ratepayers is they are all NIMBY!
Would that it were only they who were NIMBY. At election time it's a competition to see who is the most NIMBYish - usually made easier for the non-ruling group candidate, if as is usually the case those running the council bow to national legal requirements to allocate land for housing, over objections of the local councillor.
Having a Residents Associations-run council instead of a Conservative one hasn't made that much difference here in Greater Romford. Partly because you have to be a NIMBY to get elected, partly because there is no flex to sensibly change your budget priorities, which boil down to "throw what you can at Social Care and hope for the best". (There are things you can do, like make commercial investments with borrowed money, but they are fundamentally not sensible.)
OT. I tried to send a cheque to a French bank today and was told that no mail was being sent abroad at the moment due to a Russian cyber attack. He said it had been out for a week and would be out till further notice.
Is this one for our resident stargazer or was he taking the piss.....?
If there’s any scandal there at all, it’s with the boring accountant who decided to replace it.
Every PM (of late) gets their own unique design
Exactly. It had nothing to do with Truss, and if anyone should be criticised for this it's the Civil Service. As if she even had anything to do with the hideous thing.
CCHQ not the civil service, aiui. Party not government.
I don't see how. It's not the Tory Party's job to intervene on what podium to put out, and if it was a party political decision, it wouldn't be the taxpayer forking out. I would imagine it was the Cabinet Office.
How ridiculous to start comparing bringing in a cake to the office to celebrate someone’s birthday to passive smoking . These health fascists need to STFU .
If a candidate claims to be an "Independent" "Local Resident" "Ratepayer" or similar, it is safest to assume that they are a closet Tory and vote against the bugger.
In Loughton RA candidates range from borderline Marxists to hardline Tories so not really true
Agree. Ratepayers were often more conservative than conservatives, but that often isn't true now. In Guildford the Indy's are a real mixture. They are anti the local Tories and went into alliance with the LDs, however this was all on local issues. Some are ex Tories and not necessarily on the left of the Tories, some ex LDs and some of no obvious persuasion.
What does unite Ratepayers is they are all NIMBY!
Would that it were only they who were NIMBY. At election time it's a competition to see who is the most NIMBYish - usually made easier for the non-ruling group candidate, if as is usually the case those running the council bow to national legal requirements to allocate land for housing, over objections of the local councillor.
Having a Residents Associations-run council instead of a Conservative one hasn't made that much difference here in Greater Romford. Partly because you have to be a NIMBY to get elected, partly because there is no flex to sensibly change your budget priorities, which boil down to "throw what you can at Social Care and hope for the best". (There are things you can do, like make commercial investments with borrowed money, but they are fundamentally not sensible.)
It's the lack of self awareness that gets me. There was this local media rabble rouser I once knew who got onto their parish council, then immediately started saying and doing the same things they had spent years criticising, without any hint of explanation as to why they now realised there had been sound reasons for the things that had been going on.
Of course, people on the other side did the same thing in reverse.
If a candidate claims to be an "Independent" "Local Resident" "Ratepayer" or similar, it is safest to assume that they are a closet Tory and vote against the bugger.
In Loughton RA candidates range from borderline Marxists to hardline Tories so not really true
Agree. Ratepayers were often more conservative than conservatives, but that often isn't true now. In Guildford the Indy's are a real mixture. They are anti the local Tories and went into alliance with the LDs, however this was all on local issues. Some are ex Tories and not necessarily on the left of the Tories, some ex LDs and some of no obvious persuasion.
What does unite Ratepayers is they are all NIMBY!
My father is turning in his grave. He was a Ratepayer councillor on Wythall Parish Council. I don't think nimbies were a thing in the late 1960s and early 70s. Oh, and he never voted Conservative in his 87 years.
If a candidate claims to be an "Independent" "Local Resident" "Ratepayer" or similar, it is safest to assume that they are a closet Tory and vote against the bugger.
In Loughton RA candidates range from borderline Marxists to hardline Tories so not really true
Agree. Ratepayers were often more conservative than conservatives, but that often isn't true now. In Guildford the Indy's are a real mixture. They are anti the local Tories and went into alliance with the LDs, however this was all on local issues. Some are ex Tories and not necessarily on the left of the Tories, some ex LDs and some of no obvious persuasion.
What does unite Ratepayers is they are all NIMBY!
Would that it were only they who were NIMBY. At election time it's a competition to see who is the most NIMBYish - usually made easier for the non-ruling group candidate, if as is usually the case those running the council bow to national legal requirements to allocate land for housing, over objections of the local councillor.
Having a Residents Associations-run council instead of a Conservative one hasn't made that much difference here in Greater Romford. Partly because you have to be a NIMBY to get elected, partly because there is no flex to sensibly change your budget priorities, which boil down to "throw what you can at Social Care and hope for the best". (There are things you can do, like make commercial investments with borrowed money, but they are fundamentally not sensible.)
When I was politically active, I'd occasionally hear the argument "local politics shouldn't be about political parties". To an extent, the party machines drove the RA/Independents out of Councils across much of the country but recently I've noticed a turning of the tide.
Some RA groups have embraced social media campaigning and out-thought the party machines on that. The groups who did well in Guildford in 2019 benefited from a hugely unpopular Conservative council but at the same time were able to attract support from those of all political stripes and none. The strapline was opposition to the proposed local plan but it developed from that (again strongly using social media and local groups to get the messages over) to pick up wider Council issues.
Instead of putting 50 leaflets down a street you find the street group and communicate with them via email or whatever and you reach more people than leaflets ever did. It's remarkably effective.
Comments
Interestingly, an Irish friend of mine finds it hilarious that I use the word 'pudding', thinking it tremendously posh, and finds 'dessert' very much the everyman option.
With Newcastle United, Chelsea and Tottenham Hotspur to come after Everton, Moyes must avoid defeat on Saturday to keep his job.
Might take the elitist edge off!
Only joking HY.
There clearly isn't* a low cost international (letters) mail option outside the Royal Mail. Not all that much demand, I guess and a few letters not worth the faff for other carriers.
*I think, would be very interested/happy if wrong
"Britain has clung for so long to this weird comfort blanket, the risible idea that the rest of the world was looking with longing at a health system that has been in crisis for much of its 75-year history. For more than two decades I have argued that such blinkered worship of the NHS and deification of its staff was highly corrosive, since it frustrated reform, intimidated politicians and silenced criticism. The result has been a series of grotesque patient safety scandals — usually with agonising or fatal consequences affecting the most marginalised groups in society — and dire outcomes in many key areas, from cancer to infant mortality, compared with other rich nations."
If Starmer really does want to reform, he needs to start by recognising that "our NHS" is a vast bureaucracy not a benign deity. The next step is to recognise that there are a large part of the staff that put the maintenance of the myth and self-interest above the interest of patients. If he can do both, or even either of these things he stands a chance. If he just thinks it is about hosing taxpayers money at it, the NHS will continue to be burden to the UK and the laughing stock of the world.
Shortbread + caramel + choc = millionaire's s. = VAT free.
Shortbread partly or wholly choc covered = VATable.
Shortbread au naturel = apparently VAT free from looking at tourist tartan tin websites
No, I don't understand eithe
Politician 101 in this instance is to look genuinely troubled at the human pain of this situation. Then to throw Boris under the bus. ("We've been performng terribly and [now, in this non-Boris future] we pledge to do better.")
If I join a political party, stand for election as a representative of that party and win, I join the group of Councillors representing the party on the Council.
After a year, for whatever reason, whether policy or personality, I leave the group and sit as an Independent but remain a member of the Party. At this point, unless it's something beyond the pale, I've done nothing to warrant expulsion from the Party - I have simply voluntarily left the Party group on the Council.
At the time of my next election, there are three options - I could seek to rejoin the Party and be re-selected as a Party candidate but given what's happened, would that be likely? I could run as an Independent but the party doesn't put up a candidate against me - I remain a Party member and support the Party at a GE but sit locally as an Independent.
The third option is the Party decides to put up a candidate against me - presumably IF I campaign against the Party candidate, that triggers my expulsion from the Party.
Let's say the third option happens and I win and a week after the local election, the Party Group changes leader and the new leader (whom I like and support) invites me to rejoin the Party Group and presumably the Party itself as I can't see it being possible for me to be a member of a Party Group without being a member of the Party.
What do we think of this?
If rejoining the party group was simply a matter of personality, but the pitch to the voters at election time had been focused on a difference of policy, then it would seem to me that the sometime Independent had misrepresented themselves. I'd think quite a few voters would want to recall them in that scenario, but not so much in the previous one.
Huw Merriman made the admission to the Transport Select Committee when asked if it had cost more to the government and the economy to bankroll the dispute than settle it.
Weak and weird Sunak strikes again
Not sure what the value in quoting random people on twitter is.
Even Wuthering Heights (a candidate for the greatest work in English, alongside Lear etc) is not a terribly difficult or obscure read in terms of language and structure.
Far too many moderns from about 1910 onwards are too clever by half. Whoever read Ulysses late at night, breathlessly turning the page by lamplight to find out what happens next?
PB Punters & Players Mobile Betting Shop and Breakfast Theatre!
Putting on (in a manner o' speaking) rousing performances based on dramatizations of Famous British By-Elections.
Imagine a refurbished tour bus touring the ups and downs (literally) of UK electoral history, brimming over with the wit, whimsy, whiskey (also whisky) and washing of say a dozen of PB's blither spirits?
- for the Equestrian Order
- for the Patricians
- for the head count
This stands out.
The poll suggests Labour is seen as more likely to legislate to stop small boat crossing, and to swiftly remove people who arrive in the UK illegally, than the Conservative party.
https://www.ipsos.com/en-uk/public-sceptical-rishi-sunak-can-deliver-5-key-pledges
Tl:DR. The public thinks a Labour government would be better at achieving them than the Tories.
Ideally, I think that books need to smuggle in literary quality to be popular - the ones that indulge in elaborate artifices and draw attention to their cleverness are off-putting to us ordinary folk.
However, if I was a member of the Party and supported the Party candidate at the GE and the Party group on the Council yet chose to sit as an Independent in my Ward/Division, would you support me by ot running a candidate against me and would the door, in effect, be open should I ever choose to join the Party group locally?
Good they don't deserve a handout I don't get one
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2023_New_South_Wales_state_election
Latest election news, is apology of NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet, leader of the state Liberal Party (center right) and local Liberal-National Coalition, for having dressed up (or rather down) as a Nazi for his 21st birthday, back when that was.
Hardly the kiss of political death, but not a good look either.
However, Perrottet & Coalition have a LOT bigger problems to worry about, as the wiki blurb shows.
My own fearless forecast: NSW will be yet another victory for the ALP in the wonderful land of Oz.
But your previous posting is worryingly open-ended ...
Factor in healthcare cost inflation (new medicines and healthcare equipment) and the increasing number of elderly citizens (a depressing statistic is that 75% of your lifetime healthcare costs occur in the last few months of life) and you can be sure that the NHS is unsustainable.
It's not a question of if it collapses but when. As a (disillusioned) NHS administrator told me over 20 years ago.
We could move to a European style system (relying on insurance companies and co-payments) - either a Belgian/French mutuelle model - or a Scandi private fund model with guarantees for the poor and elderly. (Hell - it could also provide a real shot in the arm to private sector union membership if you could also join the union pension fund).
But the pension fund administrators have done such a poor job with private pensions that nobody would ever accept it.
But it has become
Once you leave the Tories and stand against Tory candidates down here that is it in terms of the English part of the UK party
[Arsenal FC] have been made aware of two disturbing incidents over the weekend involving anti-semitism which are now under investigation.
There was an incident at the North London derby on Sunday involving Arsenal supporters in which one of our fans overheard grossly offensive anti-semitic statements made by another Arsenal fan.
On the same afternoon, we were appalled to hear of an incident at The Cally pub in Islington, involving other anti-semitic chants.
https://www.arsenal.com/news/club-statement-antisemitism
Shame on Arsenal for turning into Chelsea and the Spanners.
If the Independent looks likely to keep on winning as an Indy, or costing the party the seat at least, the practical choice for a party if they wish to rejoin is pretty obvious.
Parties can be pretty generous on these things, it's why so many go for option 2 and don't stand against the former party member even if they don't let them rejoin, or put up a paper candidate only (not that paper candidates don't sometimes win).
https://ballotbox.scot/fwa-by-election-2021 (look out for Baxter
https://ballotbox.scot/by-election-result-fwa
https://www.roymorgan.com/findings/9138-roy-morgan-survey-on-nsw-voting-intention-november-2022
The swing from the Coalition to Labor is about 3%. Interesting to see the Labor leader in the most marginal seat (only needs a 0.1% swing to see him beaten). Can you imagine if Starmer or Sunak were in real marginal seats?
The Greens are up and the phenomenon of the "teal independents" could yet deny Labor an absolute majority in the NSW State Parliament. Another group which might be influential are the "Shooters, Fishers & Farmers" Party who stand on a platform of Green Conservatism - perhaps that may be the way forward if the Conservatives here get a hammering next time.
CCHQ rules are once you leave the party and stand against Tory candidates you are automatically expelled
It’s pudding.
' In 2012 the Independent councillor, Donald Cameron, opted not to re-contest. I can’t actually determine whether this is the Donald Cameron that went on to be a Highlands & Islands Conservative MSP, but I’m going to assume it’s not. [NB this is another sign of the frequency of Tory/Indep flips that the compiler says this.] In his place, 2007’s definitely Conservative candidate Andrew Baxter stood as an Independent and was successfully elected, joined by the previous election’s second most popular Independent Thomas MacLennan. He displaced the Lib Dem councillors, whilst the SNP and Labour held their seats.[...] MacLennan didn’t stand again in 2017, and Baxter emerged as by far the most popular of the two Independents standing this time, doubling his share compared to 2012. Labour meanwhile did very poorly and lost their seat, with the two vacancies then being filled by a second SNP councillor and Ramon as Conservative. By the time of his sad passing, the ward had become two SNP, two Conservative, as Baxter returned to his roots and joined the Conservatives.'
https://twitter.com/Cartoon4sale/status/1615777628140486671/photo/1
It doesn't necessarily make sense this service at peak hours - though it probably did during the post-covid period when peak demand was still recovering.
The truth is, the NHS was a genuine towering achievement - being poor no longer meant little or no access to healthcare - but for quite some time now it's been underinvested in and not run in a way to maximize the returns (in outcomes) on that (inadequate) investment. And this fact is not whispered behind palms for fear of offending. It's a nonsense to suggest that.
Money is tight unless we're prepared to pay more tax - I sense we aren't - and there's no chance of the basic model being overhauled - too hard and too risky - so any material improvement in the foreseeable future will have to come from running it better. On that score the only way is up after this government. You truly can't trust the Tories with the NHS. Not these Tories anyway. It's not an original slogan but I suggest Starmer brings it back.
But whatever government we have I think we must get away from the noddy mantra about 'more doctors and nurses' and 'too many managers'. It's management that more needs to be beefed up. Esp re the integration with social care. You need top class bureaucracy to make that work. So I'd have this as a slogan too. "NHS. Less Nurses, More Managers!" Except I wouldn't, obviously, if I want to get elected.
But you said you'd not seen someone 'allowed to rejoin' after leaving and standing against the party. And I have seen that. The party obviously allows people to rejoin, though how much time they leave between is probably flexible.
For example, though this is involving standing for another party not independent it is illustrative of how parties are happy to allow rejoiners (and I know you are going to say it is not an independent-Tory switch up, but please read the rest, this is not meant to be a direct example, but an indication of flexibility), see a case here where a councillor stood for and was elected to the LDs, defeating a Tory candidate, then joined the Tories only weeks after their election - and whilst that particular story does not mention it, he had previously been a Conservative and then Independent candidate at various points, within the 6 years of that story. A Tory turned independent turned LD turned Tory. They stood at the next election as a Conservative.
https://www.wiltshiretimes.co.uk/news/10529771.rival-hits-out-as-trowbridge-councillor-swops-parties/
You obviously know how to read, so I really don't know why you miss key words like 'rejoin'. I even followed it with another scenario you must have seen, where someone does not rejoin but the party goes easy on them (though I agree the Tories rarely seem to give someone a completely free run, which LDs seem to do more often).
Just like Truss with her dismissal of ‘abacus economics’, hubristically thinking she was all-powerful, the cadre of politicians who gained preferment under Johnson have been learning the wrong lessons from watching him in action. And so his poison seeps through our politics, still.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/jan/18/the-guardian-view-on-scotlands-gender-reform-bill-understand-more-condemn-less
Yes, things are not always straightforward even in the petty world of local party politics.
Edit: Of course, none are against development on principle, nossir, this is just not the right place for it, there are too many issues etc etc.
What does it cover then? Their security is insured, yes? Or do they just make it up as they go along?
"Out till further notice"? FFS!
Of course, people on the other side did the same thing in reverse.
Some RA groups have embraced social media campaigning and out-thought the party machines on that. The groups who did well in Guildford in 2019 benefited from a hugely unpopular Conservative council but at the same time were able to attract support from those of all political stripes and none. The strapline was opposition to the proposed local plan but it developed from that (again strongly using social media and local groups to get the messages over) to pick up wider Council issues.
Instead of putting 50 leaflets down a street you find the street group and communicate with them via email or whatever and you reach more people than leaflets ever did. It's remarkably effective.