LAB extends lead in new “Red Wall” polling – politicalbetting.com
There’s a new poll out from R&W of forty ‘Red Wall’ seats. All but one of them went Tory at GE2019 with the only exception, Hartlepool, being gained in the 2020 by-election.
Almost all these seats were virtually always Labour until 2019 when they loaned Boris, note Boris not the Tories, their votes to get Brexit done and beat Corbyn. Now Boris and Corbyn have gone and Brexit has been done, no surprise they are returning to Labour.
However while the Tories are falling back in these working class seats under Sunak, Sunak is holding up better in the upper middle class Blue Wall.
So perhaps TSE might feel safe to vote Tory again now after voting LD since Cameron, given the average Tory voter is much posher and less common under Rishi than they were under Boris in 2019?
Even if Rishi loses the next general election he has at least made it safe for snobs to vote Tory again!!
Almost all these seats were virtually always Labour until 2019 when they loaned Boris, note Boris not the Tories, their votes to get Brexit done and beat Corbyn. Now Boris and Corbyn have gone and Brexit has been done, no surprise they are returning to Labour.
However while the Tories are falling back in these working class seats under Sunak, Sunak is holding up better in the upper middle class Blue Wall.
So perhaps TSE might feel safe to vote Tory again now after voting LD since Cameron, given the average Tory voter is much posher and less common under Rishi than they were under Boris in 2019?
Even if Rishi loses the next general election he has at least made it safe for snobs to vote Tory again!!
How on earth did you manage to read the thread, come up with a cogent and relatively lengthy response, and be first poster btl!?
Almost all these seats were virtually always Labour until 2019 when they loaned Boris, note Boris not the Tories, their votes to get Brexit done and beat Corbyn. Now Boris and Corbyn have gone and Brexit has been done, no surprise they are returning to Labour.
However while the Tories are falling back in these working class seats under Sunak, Sunak is holding up better in the upper middle class Blue Wall.
So perhaps TSE might feel safe to vote Tory again now after voting LD since Cameron, given the average Tory voter is much posher and less common under Rishi than they were under Boris in 2019?
Even if Rishi loses the next general election he has at least made it safe for snobs to vote Tory again!!
I can only admire your dedication to the cause HY.
Andrew Bridgen sues Matt Hancock for £100,000 over Covid vaccine row
Hancock accused Bridgen of spouting ‘anti-Semitic, anti-vax conspiracy theories’ after he compared effects of the vaccines to the Holocaust
According to the seven-page “letter before action”, Mr Bridgen wants Mr Hancock to “retract and delete the defamatory statement contained in the tweet complained of with immediate effect”.
It adds that he should “apologise for the tweet complained of - both orally in the House of Commons - and in writing on Mr Hancock's personal Twitter account”.
And he said Mr Hancock should “acknowledge full and final settlement of any prospective claim in the form of a payment of £100,000 - to be transferred into a legal fund on behalf of persons seeking collective redress for vaccine harms (under the UK Government's Vaccine Damages Payment Scheme)”.
Mr Bridgen's legal action is being funded by the Reclaim Party and the ‘Bad Law Project’.
Laurence Fox, the leader of Reclaim, said: “The Reclaim Party and the Bad Law Project is providing its full support to Mr Bridgen and we want a full apology from Mr Hancock.
Andrew Bridgen should be done for high treason, hanged, drawn and quartered.
For making us all endorse Matt Fucking Hancock.
This Bridgen ?
What value would you place on his reputation in the unlikely event he were to succeed in his lawsuit ? ...In April 2022, High Court Judge Brian Rawlings ruled against Bridgen, stating that he "lied under oath and behaved in an abusive, arrogant and aggressive manner", was "an unreliable and combative witness who tried to conceal his own misconduct", and "gave evasive and argumentative answers and tangential speeches that avoided answering the questions". ..
The funniest outcome in some ways would be for Hancock to lose but the judge to set damages at five pounds on the grounds Bridgen has no reputation worth more than that.
That would exasperate Hancock and bankrupt Bridgen.
I think he's being crowd (of numpties) funded.
He perhaps has a case which can be argued even if not won, since his complaint is about being associated with antisemitism.
Does equating his pet conspiracy theory with the Holocaust amount to antisemitism, or is it just offensive and imbecilic ?
Almost all these seats were virtually always Labour until 2019 when they loaned Boris, note Boris not the Tories, their votes to get Brexit done and beat Corbyn. Now Boris and Corbyn have gone and Brexit has been done, no surprise they are returning to Labour.
However while the Tories are falling back in these working class seats under Sunak, Sunak is holding up better in the upper middle class Blue Wall.
So perhaps TSE might feel safe to vote Tory again now after voting LD since Cameron, given the average Tory voter is much posher and less common under Rishi than they were under Boris in 2019?
Even if Rishi loses the next general election he has at least made it safe for snobs to vote Tory again!!
How on earth did you manage to read the thread, come up with a cogent and relatively lengthy response, and be first poster btl!?
Andrew Bridgen sues Matt Hancock for £100,000 over Covid vaccine row
Hancock accused Bridgen of spouting ‘anti-Semitic, anti-vax conspiracy theories’ after he compared effects of the vaccines to the Holocaust
According to the seven-page “letter before action”, Mr Bridgen wants Mr Hancock to “retract and delete the defamatory statement contained in the tweet complained of with immediate effect”.
It adds that he should “apologise for the tweet complained of - both orally in the House of Commons - and in writing on Mr Hancock's personal Twitter account”.
And he said Mr Hancock should “acknowledge full and final settlement of any prospective claim in the form of a payment of £100,000 - to be transferred into a legal fund on behalf of persons seeking collective redress for vaccine harms (under the UK Government's Vaccine Damages Payment Scheme)”.
Mr Bridgen's legal action is being funded by the Reclaim Party and the ‘Bad Law Project’.
Laurence Fox, the leader of Reclaim, said: “The Reclaim Party and the Bad Law Project is providing its full support to Mr Bridgen and we want a full apology from Mr Hancock.
Andrew Bridgen should be done for high treason, hanged, drawn and quartered.
For making us all endorse Matt Fucking Hancock.
This Bridgen ?
What value would you place on his reputation in the unlikely event he were to succeed in his lawsuit ? ...In April 2022, High Court Judge Brian Rawlings ruled against Bridgen, stating that he "lied under oath and behaved in an abusive, arrogant and aggressive manner", was "an unreliable and combative witness who tried to conceal his own misconduct", and "gave evasive and argumentative answers and tangential speeches that avoided answering the questions". ..
The funniest outcome in some ways would be for Hancock to lose but the judge to set damages at five pounds on the grounds Bridgen has no reputation worth more than that.
That would exasperate Hancock and bankrupt Bridgen.
I think he's being crowd (of numpties) funded.
He perhaps has a case which can be argued even if not won, since his complaint is about being associated with antisemitism.
Does equating his pet conspiracy theory with the Holocaust amount to antisemitism, or is it just offensive and imbecilic ?
And if there's a distinction, is it actionable ?
Yep, I agree. If this gets to court it could create very interesting precedent. My guess is that Hancock will get a lot of very high-profile and extremely credible witnesses from the Jewish community to testify for him.
Bridgen is becoming a US-style grifter, isn't he? Just a ruse to send out fundraising emails, get in far more cash than the case will cost, and then it doesn't matter if he wins or loses. (except that a loss will mean he can send out more emails asking for more cash)
Almost all these seats were virtually always Labour until 2019 when they loaned Boris, note Boris not the Tories, their votes to get Brexit done and beat Corbyn. Now Boris and Corbyn have gone and Brexit has been done, no surprise they are returning to Labour.
However while the Tories are falling back in these working class seats under Sunak, Sunak is holding up better in the upper middle class Blue Wall.
So perhaps TSE might feel safe to vote Tory again now after voting LD since Cameron, given the average Tory voter is much posher and less common under Rishi than they were under Boris in 2019?
Even if Rishi loses the next general election he has at least made it safe for snobs to vote Tory again!!
Edgbaston was always Tory until it fell by a fairly narrow margin in 1997. Since then, admittedly partly helped by demographic change and boundary movements, but mostly due to the hard work of Gisela Stewart and Preet Gill, plus a feeling Labour had delivered for them, it has become very safely Labour.
That is the kind of attitude the Tories needed in their new seats, and they haven't taken it up.
Almost all these seats were virtually always Labour until 2019 when they loaned Boris, note Boris not the Tories, their votes to get Brexit done and beat Corbyn. Now Boris and Corbyn have gone and Brexit has been done, no surprise they are returning to Labour.
However while the Tories are falling back in these working class seats under Sunak, Sunak is holding up better in the upper middle class Blue Wall.
So perhaps TSE might feel safe to vote Tory again now after voting LD since Cameron, given the average Tory voter is much posher and less common under Rishi than they were under Boris in 2019?
Even if Rishi loses the next general election he has at least made it safe for snobs to vote Tory again!!
How on earth did you manage to read the thread, come up with a cogent and relatively lengthy response, and be first poster btl!?
Almost all these seats were virtually always Labour until 2019 when they loaned Boris, note Boris not the Tories, their votes to get Brexit done and beat Corbyn. Now Boris and Corbyn have gone and Brexit has been done, no surprise they are returning to Labour.
However while the Tories are falling back in these working class seats under Sunak, Sunak is holding up better in the upper middle class Blue Wall.
So perhaps TSE might feel safe to vote Tory again now after voting LD since Cameron, given the average Tory voter is much posher and less common under Rishi than they were under Boris in 2019?
Even if Rishi loses the next general election he has at least made it safe for snobs to vote Tory again!!
How on earth did you manage to read the thread, come up with a cogent and relatively lengthy response, and be first poster btl!?
Hmmm... good question.
ChatGTP produces seemingly cogent but often deeply flawed bullshit responses in milliseconds, just sayin'.
Andrew Bridgen sues Matt Hancock for £100,000 over Covid vaccine row
Hancock accused Bridgen of spouting ‘anti-Semitic, anti-vax conspiracy theories’ after he compared effects of the vaccines to the Holocaust
According to the seven-page “letter before action”, Mr Bridgen wants Mr Hancock to “retract and delete the defamatory statement contained in the tweet complained of with immediate effect”.
It adds that he should “apologise for the tweet complained of - both orally in the House of Commons - and in writing on Mr Hancock's personal Twitter account”.
And he said Mr Hancock should “acknowledge full and final settlement of any prospective claim in the form of a payment of £100,000 - to be transferred into a legal fund on behalf of persons seeking collective redress for vaccine harms (under the UK Government's Vaccine Damages Payment Scheme)”.
Mr Bridgen's legal action is being funded by the Reclaim Party and the ‘Bad Law Project’.
Laurence Fox, the leader of Reclaim, said: “The Reclaim Party and the Bad Law Project is providing its full support to Mr Bridgen and we want a full apology from Mr Hancock.
Andrew Bridgen should be done for high treason, hanged, drawn and quartered.
For making us all endorse Matt Fucking Hancock.
This Bridgen ?
What value would you place on his reputation in the unlikely event he were to succeed in his lawsuit ? ...In April 2022, High Court Judge Brian Rawlings ruled against Bridgen, stating that he "lied under oath and behaved in an abusive, arrogant and aggressive manner", was "an unreliable and combative witness who tried to conceal his own misconduct", and "gave evasive and argumentative answers and tangential speeches that avoided answering the questions". ..
The funniest outcome in some ways would be for Hancock to lose but the judge to set damages at five pounds on the grounds Bridgen has no reputation worth more than that.
That would exasperate Hancock and bankrupt Bridgen.
I think he's being crowd (of numpties) funded.
He perhaps has a case which can be argued even if not won, since his complaint is about being associated with antisemitism.
Does equating his pet conspiracy theory with the Holocaust amount to antisemitism, or is it just offensive and imbecilic ?
And if there's a distinction, is it actionable ?
Yep, I agree. If this gets to court it could create very interesting precedent. My guess is that Hancock will get a lot of very high-profile and extremely credible witnesses from the Jewish community to testify for him.
Andrew Bridgen sues Matt Hancock for £100,000 over Covid vaccine row
Hancock accused Bridgen of spouting ‘anti-Semitic, anti-vax conspiracy theories’ after he compared effects of the vaccines to the Holocaust
According to the seven-page “letter before action”, Mr Bridgen wants Mr Hancock to “retract and delete the defamatory statement contained in the tweet complained of with immediate effect”.
It adds that he should “apologise for the tweet complained of - both orally in the House of Commons - and in writing on Mr Hancock's personal Twitter account”.
And he said Mr Hancock should “acknowledge full and final settlement of any prospective claim in the form of a payment of £100,000 - to be transferred into a legal fund on behalf of persons seeking collective redress for vaccine harms (under the UK Government's Vaccine Damages Payment Scheme)”.
Mr Bridgen's legal action is being funded by the Reclaim Party and the ‘Bad Law Project’.
Laurence Fox, the leader of Reclaim, said: “The Reclaim Party and the Bad Law Project is providing its full support to Mr Bridgen and we want a full apology from Mr Hancock.
Andrew Bridgen should be done for high treason, hanged, drawn and quartered.
For making us all endorse Matt Fucking Hancock.
This Bridgen ?
What value would you place on his reputation in the unlikely event he were to succeed in his lawsuit ? ...In April 2022, High Court Judge Brian Rawlings ruled against Bridgen, stating that he "lied under oath and behaved in an abusive, arrogant and aggressive manner", was "an unreliable and combative witness who tried to conceal his own misconduct", and "gave evasive and argumentative answers and tangential speeches that avoided answering the questions". ..
The funniest outcome in some ways would be for Hancock to lose but the judge to set damages at five pounds on the grounds Bridgen has no reputation worth more than that.
That would exasperate Hancock and bankrupt Bridgen.
I think he's being crowd (of numpties) funded.
He perhaps has a case which can be argued even if not won, since his complaint is about being associated with antisemitism.
Does equating his pet conspiracy theory with the Holocaust amount to antisemitism, or is it just offensive and imbecilic ?
And if there's a distinction, is it actionable ?
It is interesting. If he was pro-vaccine then it's clearly antisemitic - vaccine is good and the holocause is like the vaccine - but if he sincerely believes vaccines cause a harm on the scale of the holocaust then perhaps it isn't, merely imbecilic.
Almost all these seats were virtually always Labour until 2019 when they loaned Boris, note Boris not the Tories, their votes to get Brexit done and beat Corbyn. Now Boris and Corbyn have gone and Brexit has been done, no surprise they are returning to Labour.
However while the Tories are falling back in these working class seats under Sunak, Sunak is holding up better in the upper middle class Blue Wall.
So perhaps TSE might feel safe to vote Tory again now after voting LD since Cameron, given the average Tory voter is much posher and less common under Rishi than they were under Boris in 2019?
Even if Rishi loses the next general election he has at least made it safe for snobs to vote Tory again!!
How on earth did you manage to read the thread, come up with a cogent and relatively lengthy response, and be first poster btl!?
Hmmm... good question.
ChatGTP produces seemingly cogent but often deeply flawed bullshit responses in milliseconds, just sayin'.
Do we know that he didn't write a random word to bagsy first, then edit the post to that length.
(I'm only joking. I don't think Hyufd would do that.)
Andrew Bridgen sues Matt Hancock for £100,000 over Covid vaccine row
Hancock accused Bridgen of spouting ‘anti-Semitic, anti-vax conspiracy theories’ after he compared effects of the vaccines to the Holocaust
According to the seven-page “letter before action”, Mr Bridgen wants Mr Hancock to “retract and delete the defamatory statement contained in the tweet complained of with immediate effect”.
It adds that he should “apologise for the tweet complained of - both orally in the House of Commons - and in writing on Mr Hancock's personal Twitter account”.
And he said Mr Hancock should “acknowledge full and final settlement of any prospective claim in the form of a payment of £100,000 - to be transferred into a legal fund on behalf of persons seeking collective redress for vaccine harms (under the UK Government's Vaccine Damages Payment Scheme)”.
Mr Bridgen's legal action is being funded by the Reclaim Party and the ‘Bad Law Project’.
Laurence Fox, the leader of Reclaim, said: “The Reclaim Party and the Bad Law Project is providing its full support to Mr Bridgen and we want a full apology from Mr Hancock.
Andrew Bridgen should be done for high treason, hanged, drawn and quartered.
For making us all endorse Matt Fucking Hancock.
This Bridgen ?
What value would you place on his reputation in the unlikely event he were to succeed in his lawsuit ? ...In April 2022, High Court Judge Brian Rawlings ruled against Bridgen, stating that he "lied under oath and behaved in an abusive, arrogant and aggressive manner", was "an unreliable and combative witness who tried to conceal his own misconduct", and "gave evasive and argumentative answers and tangential speeches that avoided answering the questions". ..
The funniest outcome in some ways would be for Hancock to lose but the judge to set damages at five pounds on the grounds Bridgen has no reputation worth more than that.
That would exasperate Hancock and bankrupt Bridgen.
I think he's being crowd (of numpties) funded.
He perhaps has a case which can be argued even if not won, since his complaint is about being associated with antisemitism.
Does equating his pet conspiracy theory with the Holocaust amount to antisemitism, or is it just offensive and imbecilic ?
And if there's a distinction, is it actionable ?
It is interesting. If he was pro-vaccine then it's clearly antisemitic - vaccine is good and the holocause is like the vaccine - but if he sincerely believes vaccines cause a harm on the scale of the holocaust then perhaps it isn't, merely imbecilic.
One could also argue that it's not unreasonable to associate belittling the Holocaust in this manner with antisemitism.
The legal test is what a reasonable person would hold, isn't it ? Since the anti-vax thing is a blatantly untrue conspiracy theory, equating it to a vastly well documented historical event lays you open to the charge.
Almost all these seats were virtually always Labour until 2019 when they loaned Boris, note Boris not the Tories, their votes to get Brexit done and beat Corbyn. Now Boris and Corbyn have gone and Brexit has been done, no surprise they are returning to Labour.
However while the Tories are falling back in these working class seats under Sunak, Sunak is holding up better in the upper middle class Blue Wall.
So perhaps TSE might feel safe to vote Tory again now after voting LD since Cameron, given the average Tory voter is much posher and less common under Rishi than they were under Boris in 2019?
Even if Rishi loses the next general election he has at least made it safe for snobs to vote Tory again!!
Edgbaston was always Tory until it fell by a fairly narrow margin in 1997. Since then, admittedly partly helped by demographic change and boundary movements, but mostly due to the hard work of Gisela Stewart and Preet Gill, plus a feeling Labour had delivered for them, it has become very safely Labour.
That is the kind of attitude the Tories needed in their new seats, and they haven't taken it up.
Albeit Labour still lost almost 100 seats in 2010 and more in 2019 in England and Wales.
We can't know until the next general election if any hardworking redwall MPs defy the trend like Stewart.
Andrew Bridgen sues Matt Hancock for £100,000 over Covid vaccine row
Hancock accused Bridgen of spouting ‘anti-Semitic, anti-vax conspiracy theories’ after he compared effects of the vaccines to the Holocaust
According to the seven-page “letter before action”, Mr Bridgen wants Mr Hancock to “retract and delete the defamatory statement contained in the tweet complained of with immediate effect”.
It adds that he should “apologise for the tweet complained of - both orally in the House of Commons - and in writing on Mr Hancock's personal Twitter account”.
And he said Mr Hancock should “acknowledge full and final settlement of any prospective claim in the form of a payment of £100,000 - to be transferred into a legal fund on behalf of persons seeking collective redress for vaccine harms (under the UK Government's Vaccine Damages Payment Scheme)”.
Mr Bridgen's legal action is being funded by the Reclaim Party and the ‘Bad Law Project’.
Laurence Fox, the leader of Reclaim, said: “The Reclaim Party and the Bad Law Project is providing its full support to Mr Bridgen and we want a full apology from Mr Hancock.
Andrew Bridgen should be done for high treason, hanged, drawn and quartered.
For making us all endorse Matt Fucking Hancock.
This Bridgen ?
What value would you place on his reputation in the unlikely event he were to succeed in his lawsuit ? ...In April 2022, High Court Judge Brian Rawlings ruled against Bridgen, stating that he "lied under oath and behaved in an abusive, arrogant and aggressive manner", was "an unreliable and combative witness who tried to conceal his own misconduct", and "gave evasive and argumentative answers and tangential speeches that avoided answering the questions". ..
The funniest outcome in some ways would be for Hancock to lose but the judge to set damages at five pounds on the grounds Bridgen has no reputation worth more than that.
That would exasperate Hancock and bankrupt Bridgen.
I think he's being crowd (of numpties) funded.
He perhaps has a case which can be argued even if not won, since his complaint is about being associated with antisemitism.
Does equating his pet conspiracy theory with the Holocaust amount to antisemitism, or is it just offensive and imbecilic ?
And if there's a distinction, is it actionable ?
It is interesting. If he was pro-vaccine then it's clearly antisemitic - vaccine is good and the holocause is like the vaccine - but if he sincerely believes vaccines cause a harm on the scale of the holocaust then perhaps it isn't, merely imbecilic.
One could also argue that it's not unreasonable to associate belittling the Holocaust in this manner with antisemitism.
One could indeed. Bridgen will presumably have to try hard to prove that he is sufficiently stupid to believe equivalence and therefore wasn't belittling.
But yes - an interesting piece of law if it goes to court on whether Hancock's comments re antisemitism are held to be fair or not.
Governments crack and systems fall Coz unity is powerful Lights go out- walls come tumbling down
Alternatively:
It's coming home It's coming home The Red Wall's coming home
Labour lost the 'Red Wall' because they ignored Red Wallers for too long; there was an attitude of "who else will they vote for?". This was after they failed to learn the lessons from Glasgow a few years earlier. The Conservatives actually pretended to acknowledge Red Wallers existed.
The Red Wall are pi**ed off with the Tories at the moment, like most of the rest of the country. But Labour have a leader who seems to get a nosebleed if he goes outside the M25, and Red Wallers have realised they *can* vote for parties other than Labour. Many will turn back to Labour at the next GE, but unless Labour listens to them, the party will get punished in the future.
Up until now, the answer from ministers has been that it is not responsible for SPS operational matters on where prisoners are placed within the prison estate but the FM has now been able to reveal that "this prisoner" will not be incarcerated in Cornton Vale. #FMQs
Andrew Bridgen sues Matt Hancock for £100,000 over Covid vaccine row
Hancock accused Bridgen of spouting ‘anti-Semitic, anti-vax conspiracy theories’ after he compared effects of the vaccines to the Holocaust
According to the seven-page “letter before action”, Mr Bridgen wants Mr Hancock to “retract and delete the defamatory statement contained in the tweet complained of with immediate effect”.
It adds that he should “apologise for the tweet complained of - both orally in the House of Commons - and in writing on Mr Hancock's personal Twitter account”.
And he said Mr Hancock should “acknowledge full and final settlement of any prospective claim in the form of a payment of £100,000 - to be transferred into a legal fund on behalf of persons seeking collective redress for vaccine harms (under the UK Government's Vaccine Damages Payment Scheme)”.
Mr Bridgen's legal action is being funded by the Reclaim Party and the ‘Bad Law Project’.
Laurence Fox, the leader of Reclaim, said: “The Reclaim Party and the Bad Law Project is providing its full support to Mr Bridgen and we want a full apology from Mr Hancock.
Andrew Bridgen should be done for high treason, hanged, drawn and quartered.
For making us all endorse Matt Fucking Hancock.
This Bridgen ?
What value would you place on his reputation in the unlikely event he were to succeed in his lawsuit ? ...In April 2022, High Court Judge Brian Rawlings ruled against Bridgen, stating that he "lied under oath and behaved in an abusive, arrogant and aggressive manner", was "an unreliable and combative witness who tried to conceal his own misconduct", and "gave evasive and argumentative answers and tangential speeches that avoided answering the questions". ..
The funniest outcome in some ways would be for Hancock to lose but the judge to set damages at five pounds on the grounds Bridgen has no reputation worth more than that.
That would exasperate Hancock and bankrupt Bridgen.
I think he's being crowd (of numpties) funded.
He perhaps has a case which can be argued even if not won, since his complaint is about being associated with antisemitism.
Does equating his pet conspiracy theory with the Holocaust amount to antisemitism, or is it just offensive and imbecilic ?
And if there's a distinction, is it actionable ?
It is interesting. If he was pro-vaccine then it's clearly antisemitic - vaccine is good and the holocause is like the vaccine - but if he sincerely believes vaccines cause a harm on the scale of the holocaust then perhaps it isn't, merely imbecilic.
One could also argue that it's not unreasonable to associate belittling the Holocaust in this manner with antisemitism.
The legal test is what a reasonable person would hold, isn't it ? Since the anti-vax thing is a blatantly untrue conspiracy theory, equating it to a vastly well documented historical event lays you open to the charge.
I'm not sure Bridgen is clever enough to do that - his "thought processes", for want of a better phrase, surely didn't go past "what's the best known Bad Thing that I can equate this with?"
Andrew Bridgen sues Matt Hancock for £100,000 over Covid vaccine row
Hancock accused Bridgen of spouting ‘anti-Semitic, anti-vax conspiracy theories’ after he compared effects of the vaccines to the Holocaust
According to the seven-page “letter before action”, Mr Bridgen wants Mr Hancock to “retract and delete the defamatory statement contained in the tweet complained of with immediate effect”.
It adds that he should “apologise for the tweet complained of - both orally in the House of Commons - and in writing on Mr Hancock's personal Twitter account”.
And he said Mr Hancock should “acknowledge full and final settlement of any prospective claim in the form of a payment of £100,000 - to be transferred into a legal fund on behalf of persons seeking collective redress for vaccine harms (under the UK Government's Vaccine Damages Payment Scheme)”.
Mr Bridgen's legal action is being funded by the Reclaim Party and the ‘Bad Law Project’.
Laurence Fox, the leader of Reclaim, said: “The Reclaim Party and the Bad Law Project is providing its full support to Mr Bridgen and we want a full apology from Mr Hancock.
Andrew Bridgen should be done for high treason, hanged, drawn and quartered.
For making us all endorse Matt Fucking Hancock.
This Bridgen ?
What value would you place on his reputation in the unlikely event he were to succeed in his lawsuit ? ...In April 2022, High Court Judge Brian Rawlings ruled against Bridgen, stating that he "lied under oath and behaved in an abusive, arrogant and aggressive manner", was "an unreliable and combative witness who tried to conceal his own misconduct", and "gave evasive and argumentative answers and tangential speeches that avoided answering the questions". ..
The funniest outcome in some ways would be for Hancock to lose but the judge to set damages at five pounds on the grounds Bridgen has no reputation worth more than that.
That would exasperate Hancock and bankrupt Bridgen.
I think he's being crowd (of numpties) funded.
He perhaps has a case which can be argued even if not won, since his complaint is about being associated with antisemitism.
Does equating his pet conspiracy theory with the Holocaust amount to antisemitism, or is it just offensive and imbecilic ?
And if there's a distinction, is it actionable ?
It is interesting. If he was pro-vaccine then it's clearly antisemitic - vaccine is good and the holocause is like the vaccine - but if he sincerely believes vaccines cause a harm on the scale of the holocaust then perhaps it isn't, merely imbecilic.
One could also argue that it's not unreasonable to associate belittling the Holocaust in this manner with antisemitism.
One could indeed. Bridgen will presumably have to try hard to prove that he is sufficiently stupid to believe equivalence and therefore wasn't belittling.
But yes - an interesting piece of law if it goes to court on whether Hancock's comments re antisemitism are held to be fair or not.
I don't think Hancock called Bridgen an antisemite; rather that he had tweeted antisemitic arguments. In that case what Bridgen personally believed isn't really relevant.
Having thought it through, I thinks it's probably an Arkell v Pressdram case.
Governments crack and systems fall Coz unity is powerful Lights go out- walls come tumbling down
Alternatively:
It's coming home It's coming home The Red Wall's coming home
Labour lost the 'Red Wall' because they ignored Red Wallers for too long; there was an attitude of "who else will they vote for?". This was after they failed to learn the lessons from Glasgow a few years earlier. The Conservatives actually pretended to acknowledge Red Wallers existed.
The Red Wall are pi**ed off with the Tories at the moment, like most of the rest of the country. But Labour have a leader who seems to get a nosebleed if he goes outside the M25, and Red Wallers have realised they *can* vote for parties other than Labour. Many will turn back to Labour at the next GE, but unless Labour listens to them, the party will get punished in the future.
I think the red wall reversal the Tories are facing is similar to what befell the Lib Dems after 2010. A load of new voters with raised expectations having been promised change, who very quickly become extremely disillusioned. Failing to deliver on levelling up is the tuition fees equivalent.
Blue wall was always more Tory than the red wall so you can’t directly compare polling that easily. One big factor in the South East in 2019 was Corbyn toxicity so the simple unwinding of this and greater tactical voting efficiency should help the Lib Dems (and Labour) even if the swing isn’t as big as up North.
Almost all these seats were virtually always Labour until 2019 when they loaned Boris, note Boris not the Tories, their votes to get Brexit done and beat Corbyn. Now Boris and Corbyn have gone and Brexit has been done, no surprise they are returning to Labour.
However while the Tories are falling back in these working class seats under Sunak, Sunak is holding up better in the upper middle class Blue Wall.
So perhaps TSE might feel safe to vote Tory again now after voting LD since Cameron, given the average Tory voter is much posher and less common under Rishi than they were under Boris in 2019?
Even if Rishi loses the next general election he has at least made it safe for snobs to vote Tory again!!
Edgbaston was always Tory until it fell by a fairly narrow margin in 1997. Since then, admittedly partly helped by demographic change and boundary movements, but mostly due to the hard work of Gisela Stewart and Preet Gill, plus a feeling Labour had delivered for them, it has become very safely Labour.
That is the kind of attitude the Tories needed in their new seats, and they haven't taken it up.
Albeit Labour still lost almost 100 seats in 2010 and more in 2019 in England and Wales.
We can't know until the next general election if any hardworking redwall MPs defy the trend like Stewart.
I suspect a few will hold on in the Midlands, especially the east. Aaron Bell, late of this parish, will retain his seat I reckon, as will Ben Bradley. Both with room to spare.
Andrew Bridgen sues Matt Hancock for £100,000 over Covid vaccine row
Hancock accused Bridgen of spouting ‘anti-Semitic, anti-vax conspiracy theories’ after he compared effects of the vaccines to the Holocaust
According to the seven-page “letter before action”, Mr Bridgen wants Mr Hancock to “retract and delete the defamatory statement contained in the tweet complained of with immediate effect”.
It adds that he should “apologise for the tweet complained of - both orally in the House of Commons - and in writing on Mr Hancock's personal Twitter account”.
And he said Mr Hancock should “acknowledge full and final settlement of any prospective claim in the form of a payment of £100,000 - to be transferred into a legal fund on behalf of persons seeking collective redress for vaccine harms (under the UK Government's Vaccine Damages Payment Scheme)”.
Mr Bridgen's legal action is being funded by the Reclaim Party and the ‘Bad Law Project’.
Laurence Fox, the leader of Reclaim, said: “The Reclaim Party and the Bad Law Project is providing its full support to Mr Bridgen and we want a full apology from Mr Hancock.
Andrew Bridgen should be done for high treason, hanged, drawn and quartered.
For making us all endorse Matt Fucking Hancock.
This Bridgen ?
What value would you place on his reputation in the unlikely event he were to succeed in his lawsuit ? ...In April 2022, High Court Judge Brian Rawlings ruled against Bridgen, stating that he "lied under oath and behaved in an abusive, arrogant and aggressive manner", was "an unreliable and combative witness who tried to conceal his own misconduct", and "gave evasive and argumentative answers and tangential speeches that avoided answering the questions". ..
The funniest outcome in some ways would be for Hancock to lose but the judge to set damages at five pounds on the grounds Bridgen has no reputation worth more than that.
That would exasperate Hancock and bankrupt Bridgen.
I think he's being crowd (of numpties) funded.
He perhaps has a case which can be argued even if not won, since his complaint is about being associated with antisemitism.
Does equating his pet conspiracy theory with the Holocaust amount to antisemitism, or is it just offensive and imbecilic ?
And if there's a distinction, is it actionable ?
It is interesting. If he was pro-vaccine then it's clearly antisemitic - vaccine is good and the holocause is like the vaccine - but if he sincerely believes vaccines cause a harm on the scale of the holocaust then perhaps it isn't, merely imbecilic.
One could also argue that it's not unreasonable to associate belittling the Holocaust in this manner with antisemitism.
One could indeed. Bridgen will presumably have to try hard to prove that he is sufficiently stupid to believe equivalence and therefore wasn't belittling.
But yes - an interesting piece of law if it goes to court on whether Hancock's comments re antisemitism are held to be fair or not.
I don't think Hancock called Bridgen an antisemite; rather that he had tweeted antisemitic arguments. In that case what Bridgen personally believed isn't really relevant.
Having thought it through, I thinks it's probably an Arkell v Pressdram case.
Mrs BJ claims to have seen a parakeet fly over our house this morning.
I asked her how she knew it was a parakeet
She told me that at first she thought it could have been Donald Trump as they look the same have a similar IQ.
She realised it wasn't though as it was tweeting
This is why I married Mrs BJ
I see parakeets most days in suburban South Manchester. Five years ago, I saw my first one, and was astonished. In fact my then three year old saw it - 'parrot', she said. I didn't really believe her (although the noise it made was rather exotic) - but I looked, and yes, a parrot, or near enough. And now you see them most days. They nest in the Mersey Valley and flock in great numbers. The speed of their population growth is faintly alarming. Though we don't yet have as many here as I saw in Sefton Park in Liverpool. Bloody hundreds of them there.
On Topic what was Labour's lead in these seats in 2017?
Quite narrow, in many cases. Newcastle under Lyme was held by 34 votes, Bishop Auckland by 502, Dudley North by 22, Wakefield by just over 2000, Delyn by 1200.
Yes, there were some spectacular swings like Bassetlaw, North West Durham, Blyth Valley and Bridgend which had been safely Labour and fell to the Tories in 2019 but the unspoken story of the last 20 years has been the gradual creep of the Conservatives in semi-rural ex-industrial seats. Corbyn scored some spectacular successes in 2017 but that general trend was unchanged.
In fact, with a very modest change in campaigning focus to win a few thousand votes in just 50 seats May might well have won a majority analogous to Johnosn's.
Having my first holiday on my own for many a year. Based in Barry Island I am both trainhopping and groundhopping TFW app and Cymru football app are my best friends.
Mrs BJ claims to have seen a parakeet fly over our house this morning.
I asked her how she knew it was a parakeet
She told me that at first she thought it could have been Donald Trump as they look the same have a similar IQ.
She realised it wasn't though as it was tweeting
This is why I married Mrs BJ
I see parakeets most days in suburban South Manchester. Five years ago, I saw my first one, and was astonished. In fact my then three year old saw it - 'parrot', she said. I didn't really believe her (although the noise it made was rather exotic) - but I looked, and yes, a parrot, or near enough. And now you see them most days. They nest in the Mersey Valley and flock in great numbers. The speed of their population growth is faintly alarming. Though we don't yet have as many here as I saw in Sefton Park in Liverpool. Bloody hundreds of them there.
On Topic what was Labour's lead in these seats in 2017?
Quite narrow, in many cases. Newcastle under Lyme was held by 34 votes, Bishop Auckland by 502, Dudley North by 22, Wakefield by just over 2000, Delyn by 1200.
Yes, there were some spectacular swings like Bassetlaw, North West Durham, Blyth Valley and Bridgend which had been safely Labour and fell to the Tories in 2019 but the unspoken story of the last 20 years has been the gradual creep of the Conservatives in semi-rural ex-industrial seats. Corbyn scored some spectacular successes in 2017 but that general trend was unchanged.
In fact, with a very modest change in campaigning focus to win a few thousand votes in just 50 seats May might well have won a majority analogous to Johnosn's.
Or if Lab. HQ hadn't diverted money away from winnable marginals to safe favourite Blairite seats the opposite could have been true.
On Topic what was Labour's lead in these seats in 2017?
Quite narrow, in many cases. Newcastle under Lyme was held by 34 votes, Bishop Auckland by 502, Dudley North by 22, Wakefield by just over 2000, Delyn by 1200.
Yes, there were some spectacular swings like Bassetlaw, North West Durham, Blyth Valley and Bridgend which had been safely Labour and fell to the Tories in 2019 but the unspoken story of the last 20 years has been the gradual creep of the Conservatives in semi-rural ex-industrial seats. Corbyn scored some spectacular successes in 2017 but that general trend was unchanged.
In fact, with a very modest change in campaigning focus to win a few thousand votes in just 50 seats May might well have won a majority analogous to Johnosn's.
Or if Lab. HQ hadn't diverted money away from winnable marginals to safe favourite Blairite seats the opposite could have been true.
But hey its 2023 now and I am on holiday..
This has been proven to be false and in any case this didn’t happen in 2019 and Labour lost in a landslide, so please explain that?
Almost all these seats were virtually always Labour until 2019 when they loaned Boris, note Boris not the Tories, their votes to get Brexit done and beat Corbyn. Now Boris and Corbyn have gone and Brexit has been done, no surprise they are returning to Labour.
However while the Tories are falling back in these working class seats under Sunak, Sunak is holding up better in the upper middle class Blue Wall.
So perhaps TSE might feel safe to vote Tory again now after voting LD since Cameron, given the average Tory voter is much posher and less common under Rishi than they were under Boris in 2019?
Even if Rishi loses the next general election he has at least made it safe for snobs to vote Tory again!!
I’m not voting Tory.
I’m contemplating voting Labour.
I’m utterly sick of the sleaze, grift, and outright corruption this government has normalised.
There must come a a point when people accept that the Tory/Brexit/Johnson brand is kaput. That is to say unsalvageable. That means it's reached a point where nothing can resuscitate it. A point in a brands existence where no one would take the account without a complete change of corporate identity which will take years.
Off topic on the Hancock Bridgen barney - I struggle to see how this is anything other than vexatious. Mancock made a statement in parliament - legally bullet proof. He then tweets a video clip of his statement with a direct quote of his statement as he tweet.
I’m utterly sick of the sleaze, grift, and outright corruption this government has normalised.
Are you bored of Tory sleaze stories? Most Conservative MPs are. They’re fed up with the way their party keeps tripping over its own shoelaces, wearied of new revelations about senior figures and sums of money their constituents can’t even imagine.
But they also hope their voters are bored. “We aren’t being shouted at on the doorstep by our own supporters, like we were in the worst days of Boris,” says one MP, wanly. “I’m not sure many of them are paying attention or care about these latest rows,” says a senior backbencher, rather hopefully.
This is a pretty dismal situation for Conservatives to be in: hoping their voters are bored of their dysfunction or at least numbed to it.
Off topic on the Hancock Bridgen barney - I struggle to see how this is anything other than vexatious. Mancock made a statement in parliament - legally bullet proof. He then tweets a video clip of his statement with a direct quote of his statement as he tweet.
Qualified privilege m'lud.
What is the legal status of tweeting what was your own privileged statement ? It's not reporting; doesn't it amount to repeating the statement outside of Parliament ?
I’m utterly sick of the sleaze, grift, and outright corruption this government has normalised.
Are you bored of Tory sleaze stories? Most Conservative MPs are. They’re fed up with the way their party keeps tripping over its own shoelaces, wearied of new revelations about senior figures and sums of money their constituents can’t even imagine.
But they also hope their voters are bored. “We aren’t being shouted at on the doorstep by our own supporters, like we were in the worst days of Boris,” says one MP, wanly. “I’m not sure many of them are paying attention or care about these latest rows,” says a senior backbencher, rather hopefully.
This is a pretty dismal situation for Conservatives to be in: hoping their voters are bored of their dysfunction or at least numbed to it.
I’m utterly sick of the sleaze, grift, and outright corruption this government has normalised.
Are you bored of Tory sleaze stories? Most Conservative MPs are. They’re fed up with the way their party keeps tripping over its own shoelaces, wearied of new revelations about senior figures and sums of money their constituents can’t even imagine.
But they also hope their voters are bored. “We aren’t being shouted at on the doorstep by our own supporters, like we were in the worst days of Boris,” says one MP, wanly. “I’m not sure many of them are paying attention or care about these latest rows,” says a senior backbencher, rather hopefully.
This is a pretty dismal situation for Conservatives to be in: hoping their voters are bored of their dysfunction or at least numbed to it.
I'd like him to have a mahoosive victory party first.
But the problem is, there's a good chance that the war will not end like that. There needs to be a radical change in thinking within the Kremlin about how they treat the rest of the world, and especially their neighbours, or wit will just be another cold war, with the 'wall' hundreds of miles east of where it used to be. And that shift will not be NATOs fault, but Russia's.
And that change in thinking is something only the Russians can do; we cannot force it.
Also, the war is just the start for Ukraine. They are going to need a massive rebuilding and restructuring program, especially if they go back to the 2014 borders.
Mrs BJ claims to have seen a parakeet fly over our house this morning.
I asked her how she knew it was a parakeet
She told me that at first she thought it could have been Donald Trump as they look the same have a similar IQ.
She realised it wasn't though as it was tweeting
This is why I married Mrs BJ
I see parakeets most days in suburban South Manchester. Five years ago, I saw my first one, and was astonished. In fact my then three year old saw it - 'parrot', she said. I didn't really believe her (although the noise it made was rather exotic) - but I looked, and yes, a parrot, or near enough. And now you see them most days. They nest in the Mersey Valley and flock in great numbers. The speed of their population growth is faintly alarming. Though we don't yet have as many here as I saw in Sefton Park in Liverpool. Bloody hundreds of them there.
I’m utterly sick of the sleaze, grift, and outright corruption this government has normalised.
Are you bored of Tory sleaze stories? Most Conservative MPs are. They’re fed up with the way their party keeps tripping over its own shoelaces, wearied of new revelations about senior figures and sums of money their constituents can’t even imagine.
But they also hope their voters are bored. “We aren’t being shouted at on the doorstep by our own supporters, like we were in the worst days of Boris,” says one MP, wanly. “I’m not sure many of them are paying attention or care about these latest rows,” says a senior backbencher, rather hopefully.
This is a pretty dismal situation for Conservatives to be in: hoping their voters are bored of their dysfunction or at least numbed to it.
The indifference may be because for a lot of loyal usually Tory voters there is now no question whatever of voting for them. The interesting questions have moved on: Is to safe to vote Labour? Can a Lab/LD alliance be voted in? What on earth to do about the SNP? Can anyone do a sane Brexit revisit? Is Richard Burgon an Avatar? Is Laura Pidcock extinct or merely hibernating? What does Ian Lavery use as a brain? Are the anti-semites just keeping quiet or have they been put away?
As voting Tory is not a current option on purely moral grounds (and a billion other reasons) suddenly these questions become interesting, and the Tories become yesterday's women (and men).
The indifference may be because for a lot of loyal usually Tory voters there is now no question whatever of voting for them. The interesting questions have moved on: Is to safe to vote Labour? Can a Lab/LD alliance be voted in? What on earth to do about the SNP? Can anyone do a sane Brexit revisit? Is Richard Burgon an Avatar? Is Laura Pidcock extinct or merely hibernating? What does Ian Lavery use as a brain? Are the anti-semites just keeping quiet or have they been put away?
As voting Tory is not a current option on purely moral grounds (and a billion other reasons) suddenly these questions become interesting, and the Tories become yesterday's women (and men).
I would be very interested to see the inbox of the local party chair of the Startford Upon Avon Conservative Association.
Never mind cabinet minister, or party chair, why is Zahawi still a candidate?
The indifference may be because for a lot of loyal usually Tory voters there is now no question whatever of voting for them. The interesting questions have moved on: Is to safe to vote Labour? Can a Lab/LD alliance be voted in? What on earth to do about the SNP? Can anyone do a sane Brexit revisit? Is Richard Burgon an Avatar? Is Laura Pidcock extinct or merely hibernating? What does Ian Lavery use as a brain? Are the anti-semites just keeping quiet or have they been put away?
As voting Tory is not a current option on purely moral grounds (and a billion other reasons) suddenly these questions become interesting, and the Tories become yesterday's women (and men).
I would be very interested to see the inbox of the local party chair of the Startford Upon Avon Conservative Association.
Never mind cabinet minister, or party chair, why is Zahawi still a candidate?
Stratford, you say ? Get thee glass eyes, and like a scurvy politician, seem to see the things thou dost not.
Make no mistake. This is a comprehensive defeat and singular humiliation for Sturgeon. All that "criminals won't try to get into female spaces", all that "most marginalised people", all that "be kind and respect a self declared identity" That house of cards just utterly collapsed
Mrs BJ claims to have seen a parakeet fly over our house this morning.
I asked her how she knew it was a parakeet
She told me that at first she thought it could have been Donald Trump as they look the same have a similar IQ.
She realised it wasn't though as it was tweeting
This is why I married Mrs BJ
I see parakeets most days in suburban South Manchester. Five years ago, I saw my first one, and was astonished. In fact my then three year old saw it - 'parrot', she said. I didn't really believe her (although the noise it made was rather exotic) - but I looked, and yes, a parrot, or near enough. And now you see them most days. They nest in the Mersey Valley and flock in great numbers. The speed of their population growth is faintly alarming. Though we don't yet have as many here as I saw in Sefton Park in Liverpool. Bloody hundreds of them there.
I'm a member at Chorlton Golf Club, loads seem to live there and at the neighbouring water park.
On Topic what was Labour's lead in these seats in 2017?
Quite narrow, in many cases. Newcastle under Lyme was held by 34 votes, Bishop Auckland by 502, Dudley North by 22, Wakefield by just over 2000, Delyn by 1200.
Yes, there were some spectacular swings like Bassetlaw, North West Durham, Blyth Valley and Bridgend which had been safely Labour and fell to the Tories in 2019 but the unspoken story of the last 20 years has been the gradual creep of the Conservatives in semi-rural ex-industrial seats. Corbyn scored some spectacular successes in 2017 but that general trend was unchanged.
In fact, with a very modest change in campaigning focus to win a few thousand votes in just 50 seats May might well have won a majority analogous to Johnosn's.
Oh if it wasn't for her political suicidal social care announcement she would have won a Bozo sized majority and we wouldn't be anywhere near the current mess.
Although equally she would have had to run a 5 year Parliament due to Covid which may have created problems for her in 2022.
Almost all these seats were virtually always Labour until 2019 when they loaned Boris, note Boris not the Tories, their votes to get Brexit done and beat Corbyn. Now Boris and Corbyn have gone and Brexit has been done, no surprise they are returning to Labour.
However while the Tories are falling back in these working class seats under Sunak, Sunak is holding up better in the upper middle class Blue Wall.
So perhaps TSE might feel safe to vote Tory again now after voting LD since Cameron, given the average Tory voter is much posher and less common under Rishi than they were under Boris in 2019?
Even if Rishi loses the next general election he has at least made it safe for snobs to vote Tory again!!
I’m not voting Tory.
I’m contemplating voting Labour.
I’m utterly sick of the sleaze, grift, and outright corruption this government has normalised.
Might you change your mind if we could persuade stooping Churchillian statesman and war hero Boris Johnson back into No 10?
This deal has been mentioned elsewhere months ago. Someone said it wasn't anything to do with the war in Ukraine, but Russia has a massive fondness for the Great Patriotic War, and many of the T34s they use for parades and such are in terrible condition. These are going to be used as spares, or to replace/expand the parade fleet.
It'd be like the RAF buying three Spitfires, or one Lancaster, for the BBMF.
Make no mistake. This is a comprehensive defeat and singular humiliation for Sturgeon. All that "criminals won't try to get into female spaces", all that "most marginalised people", all that "be kind and respect a self declared identity" That house of cards just utterly collapsed
Is it though? I haven't followed this very closely, but hasn't someone (apparently) trying to abuse self-ID to get sent to a women's prison just been denied that opportunity?
(Happy to be corrected if I'm wrong, but it seems to show (i) that yes, some people will try to take the piss, but (ii) that won't be permitted)
I’m utterly sick of the sleaze, grift, and outright corruption this government has normalised.
Are you bored of Tory sleaze stories? Most Conservative MPs are. They’re fed up with the way their party keeps tripping over its own shoelaces, wearied of new revelations about senior figures and sums of money their constituents can’t even imagine.
But they also hope their voters are bored. “We aren’t being shouted at on the doorstep by our own supporters, like we were in the worst days of Boris,” says one MP, wanly. “I’m not sure many of them are paying attention or care about these latest rows,” says a senior backbencher, rather hopefully.
This is a pretty dismal situation for Conservatives to be in: hoping their voters are bored of their dysfunction or at least numbed to it.
I suspect the seatbelt story being headline news has led to the numbing
I thought the seat belt issue was absurd nonsense.
The Johnson guarantee/ BBC issue should be an enormous scandal, I suspect that hasn't yet run its course. The Zahawi problem is a resigning matter but not even a patch on this latest Johnson scandal.
Make no mistake. This is a comprehensive defeat and singular humiliation for Sturgeon. All that "criminals won't try to get into female spaces", all that "most marginalised people", all that "be kind and respect a self declared identity" That house of cards just utterly collapsed
Is it though? I haven't followed this very closely, but hasn't someone (apparently) trying to abuse self-ID to get sent to a women's prison just been denied that opportunity?
(Happy to be corrected if I'm wrong, but it seems to show (i) that yes, some people will try to take the piss, but (ii) that won't be permitted)
1) Sturgeon said that the amendment to carry out an action was unacceptable. 2) Sturgeon used executive powers to carry out exactly the action that was stated to be unacceptable and would never be needed anyway.
Almost all these seats were virtually always Labour until 2019 when they loaned Boris, note Boris not the Tories, their votes to get Brexit done and beat Corbyn. Now Boris and Corbyn have gone and Brexit has been done, no surprise they are returning to Labour.
However while the Tories are falling back in these working class seats under Sunak, Sunak is holding up better in the upper middle class Blue Wall.
So perhaps TSE might feel safe to vote Tory again now after voting LD since Cameron, given the average Tory voter is much posher and less common under Rishi than they were under Boris in 2019?
Even if Rishi loses the next general election he has at least made it safe for snobs to vote Tory again!!
I’m not voting Tory.
I’m contemplating voting Labour.
I’m utterly sick of the sleaze, grift, and outright corruption this government has normalised.
Might you change your mind if we could persuade stooping Churchillian statesman and war hero Boris Johnson back into No 10?
I’ll campaigning for Labour if the Tories bring back Boris Johnson.
This deal has been mentioned elsewhere months ago. Someone said it wasn't anything to do with the war in Ukraine, but Russia has a massive fondness for the Great Patriotic War, and many of the T34s they use for parades and such are in terrible condition. These are going to be used as spares, or to replace/expand the parade fleet.
It'd be like the RAF buying three Spitfires, or one Lancaster, for the BBMF.
Is this all on the basis that a tank looks like a tank to Ivan Kuznetsov? ETA: Whereas most people can tell that there is a difference between a Eurofighter and a Spitfire.
Make no mistake. This is a comprehensive defeat and singular humiliation for Sturgeon. All that "criminals won't try to get into female spaces", all that "most marginalised people", all that "be kind and respect a self declared identity" That house of cards just utterly collapsed
Is it though? I haven't followed this very closely, but hasn't someone (apparently) trying to abuse self-ID to get sent to a women's prison just been denied that opportunity?
(Happy to be corrected if I'm wrong, but it seems to show (i) that yes, some people will try to take the piss, but (ii) that won't be permitted)
1) Sturgeon said that the amendment to carry out an action was unacceptable. 2) Sturgeon used executive powers to carry out exactly the action that was stated to be unacceptable and would never be needed anyway.
The exception made has not been for sex offenders in general, nor for rapists in particular - just for this one specific case, which had been providing days of inconvenient headlines for the Scottish government.
Mrs BJ claims to have seen a parakeet fly over our house this morning.
I asked her how she knew it was a parakeet
She told me that at first she thought it could have been Donald Trump as they look the same have a similar IQ.
She realised it wasn't though as it was tweeting
This is why I married Mrs BJ
I see parakeets most days in suburban South Manchester. Five years ago, I saw my first one, and was astonished. In fact my then three year old saw it - 'parrot', she said. I didn't really believe her (although the noise it made was rather exotic) - but I looked, and yes, a parrot, or near enough. And now you see them most days. They nest in the Mersey Valley and flock in great numbers. The speed of their population growth is faintly alarming. Though we don't yet have as many here as I saw in Sefton Park in Liverpool. Bloody hundreds of them there.
Parrots in the Midlands = canaries in the coal mines re: global warming?
In Emerald City of Seattle, also seeing more birds from more southerly climes more often, such as hummingbirds.
Make no mistake. This is a comprehensive defeat and singular humiliation for Sturgeon. All that "criminals won't try to get into female spaces", all that "most marginalised people", all that "be kind and respect a self declared identity" That house of cards just utterly collapsed
Is it though? I haven't followed this very closely, but hasn't someone (apparently) trying to abuse self-ID to get sent to a women's prison just been denied that opportunity?
(Happy to be corrected if I'm wrong, but it seems to show (i) that yes, some people will try to take the piss, but (ii) that won't be permitted)
1) Sturgeon said that the amendment to carry out an action was unacceptable. 2) Sturgeon used executive powers to carry out exactly the action that was stated to be unacceptable and would never be needed anyway.
Hmm, I can see that does look a bit embarassing.
ETA: Pending other input disputing this version, I do see the difference (and concern) here.
This deal has been mentioned elsewhere months ago. Someone said it wasn't anything to do with the war in Ukraine, but Russia has a massive fondness for the Great Patriotic War, and many of the T34s they use for parades and such are in terrible condition. These are going to be used as spares, or to replace/expand the parade fleet.
It'd be like the RAF buying three Spitfires, or one Lancaster, for the BBMF.
Is this all on the basis that a tank looks like a tank to Ivan Kuznetsov?
Probably; they are T34's, after all, even if later models. The BBMF's Lancaster was built right at the end of the war, and never saw combat. Both their Hurricanes were late models, and did not take part in the Battle of Britain. It's what they represent that matters to people, rather than the fact they took part in this or that battle.
It's probably the same with these tanks.
Incidentally, apparently the T34s were built in Czechoslovakia, so they're not even Russian in origin...
I don’t think Britain will Brejoin, although I concede it is likelier than I ever thought it might be.
As @Driver notes, nobody has really made the case for why the EU is better (apart from trade). There needs to be a hearts, not just minds, case.
For any Government the reason for Brejoin is easy - it allows you to pin all the troubles the Daily Mail write about on someone who isn't the Government and lives far away (in Brussels).
If the buck stops with you as PM, all the blame ends up with you as well - even if the thing is relatively minor.
Mrs BJ claims to have seen a parakeet fly over our house this morning.
I asked her how she knew it was a parakeet
She told me that at first she thought it could have been Donald Trump as they look the same have a similar IQ.
She realised it wasn't though as it was tweeting
This is why I married Mrs BJ
I see parakeets most days in suburban South Manchester. Five years ago, I saw my first one, and was astonished. In fact my then three year old saw it - 'parrot', she said. I didn't really believe her (although the noise it made was rather exotic) - but I looked, and yes, a parrot, or near enough. And now you see them most days. They nest in the Mersey Valley and flock in great numbers. The speed of their population growth is faintly alarming. Though we don't yet have as many here as I saw in Sefton Park in Liverpool. Bloody hundreds of them there.
I'm a member at Chorlton Golf Club, loads seem to live there and at the neighbouring water park.
Are you the fella who walked past my house with the golf trolley most days during lockdown?
Yes, that's where I had in mind - in particular just by Jackson's Bridge.
Make no mistake. This is a comprehensive defeat and singular humiliation for Sturgeon. All that "criminals won't try to get into female spaces", all that "most marginalised people", all that "be kind and respect a self declared identity" That house of cards just utterly collapsed
Make no mistake. This is a comprehensive defeat and singular humiliation for Sturgeon. All that "criminals won't try to get into female spaces", all that "most marginalised people", all that "be kind and respect a self declared identity" That house of cards just utterly collapsed
Is it though? I haven't followed this very closely, but hasn't someone (apparently) trying to abuse self-ID to get sent to a women's prison just been denied that opportunity?
(Happy to be corrected if I'm wrong, but it seems to show (i) that yes, some people will try to take the piss, but (ii) that won't be permitted)
1) Sturgeon said that the amendment to carry out an action was unacceptable. 2) Sturgeon used executive powers to carry out exactly the action that was stated to be unacceptable and would never be needed anyway.
Hmm, I can see that does look a bit embarassing.
Further, if the law hadn’t been blocked by the U.K. government, Sturgeon may not have had the power to carry out said action. @PBLawyers?
I don’t think Britain will Brejoin, although I concede it is likelier than I ever thought it might be.
As @Driver notes, nobody has really made the case for why the EU is better (apart from trade). There needs to be a hearts, not just minds, case.
For any Government the reason for Brejoin is easy - it allows you to pin all the troubles the Daily Mail write about on someone who isn't the Government and lives far away (in Brussels).
If the buck stops with you as PM, all the blame ends up with you as well - even if the thing is relatively minor.
And stopping that nonsense was one of the big reasons for voting Leave - in a democracy it's simply not good enough for a government that wants to do something unpopular to quietly get an EU directive passed and then say to the British voters "sorry, guv, I got no choice".
Just a couple of bets, Empoli to win at home versus Torino in Serie A at 3.35 (they've drawn away to Lazio and beaten Inter Milan recently), and Osasuna to beat Atletico Madrid in La Liga, at 3.8. The two sides are only 3 points apart so 3.8 for home win seems long.
This deal has been mentioned elsewhere months ago. Someone said it wasn't anything to do with the war in Ukraine, but Russia has a massive fondness for the Great Patriotic War, and many of the T34s they use for parades and such are in terrible condition. These are going to be used as spares, or to replace/expand the parade fleet.
It'd be like the RAF buying three Spitfires, or one Lancaster, for the BBMF.
Is this all on the basis that a tank looks like a tank to Ivan Kuznetsov? ETA: Whereas most people can tell that there is a difference between a Eurofighter and a Spitfire.
I'll admit that, in that MoD tweet the other day, I didn't know which was the Leopard and which the Challenger (sure there were indentifying national insignia, had I bothered to look closer; someone who knows tanks would of course known which was which from a glance).
Mrs BJ claims to have seen a parakeet fly over our house this morning.
I asked her how she knew it was a parakeet
She told me that at first she thought it could have been Donald Trump as they look the same have a similar IQ.
She realised it wasn't though as it was tweeting
This is why I married Mrs BJ
I see parakeets most days in suburban South Manchester. Five years ago, I saw my first one, and was astonished. In fact my then three year old saw it - 'parrot', she said. I didn't really believe her (although the noise it made was rather exotic) - but I looked, and yes, a parrot, or near enough. And now you see them most days. They nest in the Mersey Valley and flock in great numbers. The speed of their population growth is faintly alarming. Though we don't yet have as many here as I saw in Sefton Park in Liverpool. Bloody hundreds of them there.
Parrots in the Midlands = canaries in the coal mines re: global warming?
In Emerald City of Seattle, also seeing more birds from more southerly climes more often, such as hummingbirds.
Manchester is the North, not the Midlands.
Parakeets seem very adaptable to cold climates so it probably says more about the birds than the weather. They're also thriving in cold parts of the US:
I don’t think Britain will Brejoin, although I concede it is likelier than I ever thought it might be.
As @Driver notes, nobody has really made the case for why the EU is better (apart from trade). There needs to be a hearts, not just minds, case.
You’re right. It’ll come.
I was speaking to my niece and her fella, both born in 2000, at Xmas when they came to visit from Bristol. They’re both fucking livid that they can’t afford a house and, a close second, livid at Brexit. Pissed off they were too young to vote. Feel they’ve been betrayed by the Boomers on both issues. The heart thing seems ingrained with them. They want to be able to afford a house and they want freedom of movement, to be part of something bigger, something better than this right-wing shithole we’ve descended to. They’re not rich, or ‘woke’, just normal kids who feel betrayed.
I don’t think Britain will Brejoin, although I concede it is likelier than I ever thought it might be.
As @Driver notes, nobody has really made the case for why the EU is better (apart from trade). There needs to be a hearts, not just minds, case.
For any Government the reason for Brejoin is easy - it allows you to pin all the troubles the Daily Mail write about on someone who isn't the Government and lives far away (in Brussels).
If the buck stops with you as PM, all the blame ends up with you as well - even if the thing is relatively minor.
And stopping that nonsense was one of the big reasons for voting Leave - in a democracy it's simply not good enough for a government that wants to do something unpopular to quietly get an EU directive passed and then say to the British voters "sorry, guv, I got no choice".
The democratic case for Brexit was basically trashed by the actions of the Conservative government from 2016 onwards.
There has been no interest in restoring or reviving Britain’s democratic culture. Quite the reverse.
I don’t think Britain will Brejoin, although I concede it is likelier than I ever thought it might be.
As @Driver notes, nobody has really made the case for why the EU is better (apart from trade). There needs to be a hearts, not just minds, case.
I am a convinced European; in 1975, I was pounding the streets for the Cause. I always felt Western Europe in particular had a considerable degree of shared history and culture and made sense as an economic and political union. I have to say I was less convinced by the addition of Eastern Europe and particularly South-eastern, but I was happy to go along with it. I didn’t work so hard in the referendum, due to old age, although I did contribute money and stand on street corners handing out leaflets. And I’d vote to Rejoin.
I don’t think Britain will Brejoin, although I concede it is likelier than I ever thought it might be.
As @Driver notes, nobody has really made the case for why the EU is better (apart from trade). There needs to be a hearts, not just minds, case.
I am a convinced European; in 1975, I was pounding the streets for the Cause. I always felt Western Europe in particular had a considerable degree of shared history and culture and made sense as an economic and political union. I have to say I was less convinced by the addition of Eastern Europe and particularly South-eastern, but I was happy to go along with it. I didn’t work so hard in the referendum, due to old age, although I did contribute money and stand on street corners handing out leaflets. And I’d vote to Rejoin.
Of course I would vote to Rejoin.
I am not in love with the EU, but it’s not possible to wish it away, and Britain’s only opportunity to push it in the most convivial direction is from the inside.
But I confess I don’t have a three word slogan to that effect.
Mrs BJ claims to have seen a parakeet fly over our house this morning.
I asked her how she knew it was a parakeet
She told me that at first she thought it could have been Donald Trump as they look the same have a similar IQ.
She realised it wasn't though as it was tweeting
This is why I married Mrs BJ
I see parakeets most days in suburban South Manchester. Five years ago, I saw my first one, and was astonished. In fact my then three year old saw it - 'parrot', she said. I didn't really believe her (although the noise it made was rather exotic) - but I looked, and yes, a parrot, or near enough. And now you see them most days. They nest in the Mersey Valley and flock in great numbers. The speed of their population growth is faintly alarming. Though we don't yet have as many here as I saw in Sefton Park in Liverpool. Bloody hundreds of them there.
There was a pirch invasion by parakeets at Leyton Orient recently.
I don’t think Britain will Brejoin, although I concede it is likelier than I ever thought it might be.
As @Driver notes, nobody has really made the case for why the EU is better (apart from trade). There needs to be a hearts, not just minds, case.
For any Government the reason for Brejoin is easy - it allows you to pin all the troubles the Daily Mail write about on someone who isn't the Government and lives far away (in Brussels).
If the buck stops with you as PM, all the blame ends up with you as well - even if the thing is relatively minor.
And stopping that nonsense was one of the big reasons for voting Leave - in a democracy it's simply not good enough for a government that wants to do something unpopular to quietly get an EU directive passed and then say to the British voters "sorry, guv, I got no choice".
The democratic case for Brexit was basically trashed by the actions of the Conservative government from 2016 onwards.
There has been no interest in restoring or reviving Britain’s democratic culture. Quite the reverse.
As may be. Certainly the actions of the opposition between 2016-19 didn't help either. But maybe Sir Keir will surprise us when he gets power.
I don’t think Britain will Brejoin, although I concede it is likelier than I ever thought it might be.
As @Driver notes, nobody has really made the case for why the EU is better (apart from trade). There needs to be a hearts, not just minds, case.
You’re right. It’ll come.
I was speaking to my niece and her fella, both born in 2000, at Xmas when they came to visit from Bristol. They’re both fucking livid that they can’t afford a house and, a close second, livid at Brexit. Pissed off they were too young to vote. Feel they’ve been betrayed by the Boomers on both issues. The heart thing seems ingrained with them. They want to be able to afford a house and they want freedom of movement, to be part of something bigger, something better than this right-wing shithole we’ve descended to. They’re not rich, or ‘woke’, just normal kids who feel betrayed.
I hope they’re representative of their age group.
I'd say freedom of movement across Europe is somewhat inimical to being able to afford a house in the UK.
Mrs BJ claims to have seen a parakeet fly over our house this morning.
I asked her how she knew it was a parakeet
She told me that at first she thought it could have been Donald Trump as they look the same have a similar IQ.
She realised it wasn't though as it was tweeting
This is why I married Mrs BJ
I see parakeets most days in suburban South Manchester. Five years ago, I saw my first one, and was astonished. In fact my then three year old saw it - 'parrot', she said. I didn't really believe her (although the noise it made was rather exotic) - but I looked, and yes, a parrot, or near enough. And now you see them most days. They nest in the Mersey Valley and flock in great numbers. The speed of their population growth is faintly alarming. Though we don't yet have as many here as I saw in Sefton Park in Liverpool. Bloody hundreds of them there.
Parrots in the Midlands = canaries in the coal mines re: global warming?
In Emerald City of Seattle, also seeing more birds from more southerly climes more often, such as hummingbirds.
How have the hummingbirds got there? The parakeets are descended from pets who have escaped/been released. It's probably an urban myth to suppose that it was all down to Jimi Hendrix, but it's fun nonetheless.
I don’t think Britain will Brejoin, although I concede it is likelier than I ever thought it might be.
As @Driver notes, nobody has really made the case for why the EU is better (apart from trade). There needs to be a hearts, not just minds, case.
For any Government the reason for Brejoin is easy - it allows you to pin all the troubles the Daily Mail write about on someone who isn't the Government and lives far away (in Brussels).
If the buck stops with you as PM, all the blame ends up with you as well - even if the thing is relatively minor.
And stopping that nonsense was one of the big reasons for voting Leave - in a democracy it's simply not good enough for a government that wants to do something unpopular to quietly get an EU directive passed and then say to the British voters "sorry, guv, I got no choice".
The democratic case for Brexit was basically trashed by the actions of the Conservative government from 2016 onwards.
There has been no interest in restoring or reviving Britain’s democratic culture. Quite the reverse.
There's been an acceleration of political debate and we've been through four prime ministers, so arguably a revival of Britain’s democratic culture is precisely what happened. That's a separate question from whether we've found the right answers.
I don’t think Britain will Brejoin, although I concede it is likelier than I ever thought it might be.
As @Driver notes, nobody has really made the case for why the EU is better (apart from trade). There needs to be a hearts, not just minds, case.
I am a convinced European; in 1975, I was pounding the streets for the Cause. I always felt Western Europe in particular had a considerable degree of shared history and culture and made sense as an economic and political union. I have to say I was less convinced by the addition of Eastern Europe and particularly South-eastern, but I was happy to go along with it. I didn’t work so hard in the referendum, due to old age, although I did contribute money and stand on street corners handing out leaflets. And I’d vote to Rejoin.
Of course I would vote to Rejoin.
I am not in love with the EU, but it’s not possible to wish it away, and Britain’s only opportunity to push it in the most convivial direction is from the inside.
But I confess I don’t have a three word slogan to that effect.
We'd been trying that for 40 years without success Arguably Britain had had some minor successes in seeing it not pushed too far in the wrong direction. But 'Join the EU and we can stop it becoming a Napoleonic superstate quite so fast' doesn't really cut the mustard as a compelling argument, whether you can make a three word slogan from it or not.
I don’t think Britain will Brejoin, although I concede it is likelier than I ever thought it might be.
As @Driver notes, nobody has really made the case for why the EU is better (apart from trade). There needs to be a hearts, not just minds, case.
For any Government the reason for Brejoin is easy - it allows you to pin all the troubles the Daily Mail write about on someone who isn't the Government and lives far away (in Brussels).
If the buck stops with you as PM, all the blame ends up with you as well - even if the thing is relatively minor.
And stopping that nonsense was one of the big reasons for voting Leave - in a democracy it's simply not good enough for a government that wants to do something unpopular to quietly get an EU directive passed and then say to the British voters "sorry, guv, I got no choice".
The democratic case for Brexit was basically trashed by the actions of the Conservative government from 2016 onwards.
There has been no interest in restoring or reviving Britain’s democratic culture. Quite the reverse.
There's been an acceleration of political debate and we've been through four prime ministers, so arguably a revival of Britain’s democratic culture is precisely what happened. That's a separate question from whether we've found the right answers.
I'm not even sure we've found the right questions yet.
I don’t think Britain will Brejoin, although I concede it is likelier than I ever thought it might be.
As @Driver notes, nobody has really made the case for why the EU is better (apart from trade). There needs to be a hearts, not just minds, case.
You’re right. It’ll come.
I was speaking to my niece and her fella, both born in 2000, at Xmas when they came to visit from Bristol. They’re both fucking livid that they can’t afford a house and, a close second, livid at Brexit. Pissed off they were too young to vote. Feel they’ve been betrayed by the Boomers on both issues. The heart thing seems ingrained with them. They want to be able to afford a house and they want freedom of movement, to be part of something bigger, something better than this right-wing shithole we’ve descended to. They’re not rich, or ‘woke’, just normal kids who feel betrayed.
I hope they’re representative of their age group.
I'd say freedom of movement across Europe is somewhat inimical to being able to afford a house in the UK.
Other way round, in part. Try finding builders, roofers, plumbers to maintain existing stock let alone build new stock.
I don’t think Britain will Brejoin, although I concede it is likelier than I ever thought it might be.
As @Driver notes, nobody has really made the case for why the EU is better (apart from trade). There needs to be a hearts, not just minds, case.
No one really though the EU was a fantastic fault -free organisation. And the bits I really liked, such as FoM where the bits everyone else hated.
The EU's single USP was membership is less sub optimal, and by a country mile, than non membership.
Not that I advocate rejoin. That ship sailed when Boris Johnson " done Brexit".
And that, of course, isn't a USP. If one side is saying "this is bad but that's worse" and the other side is saying "this is good", there's only one winner.
Mrs BJ claims to have seen a parakeet fly over our house this morning.
I asked her how she knew it was a parakeet
She told me that at first she thought it could have been Donald Trump as they look the same have a similar IQ.
She realised it wasn't though as it was tweeting
This is why I married Mrs BJ
I see parakeets most days in suburban South Manchester. Five years ago, I saw my first one, and was astonished. In fact my then three year old saw it - 'parrot', she said. I didn't really believe her (although the noise it made was rather exotic) - but I looked, and yes, a parrot, or near enough. And now you see them most days. They nest in the Mersey Valley and flock in great numbers. The speed of their population growth is faintly alarming. Though we don't yet have as many here as I saw in Sefton Park in Liverpool. Bloody hundreds of them there.
Parrots in the Midlands = canaries in the coal mines re: global warming?
In Emerald City of Seattle, also seeing more birds from more southerly climes more often, such as hummingbirds.
How have the hummingbirds got there? The parakeets are descended from pets who have escaped/been released. It's probably an urban myth to suppose that it was all down to Jimi Hendrix, but it's fun nonetheless.
I occasionally seen the flock of parakeets that inhabits Hampstead Heath. They are definitely the descendants of escaped pets but I doubt JH was involved. They are quite spectacular in flight.
You can tell they are not indiginous but they seem to co-exist hppily enough with the locals.
Mrs BJ claims to have seen a parakeet fly over our house this morning.
I asked her how she knew it was a parakeet
She told me that at first she thought it could have been Donald Trump as they look the same have a similar IQ.
She realised it wasn't though as it was tweeting
This is why I married Mrs BJ
I see parakeets most days in suburban South Manchester. Five years ago, I saw my first one, and was astonished. In fact my then three year old saw it - 'parrot', she said. I didn't really believe her (although the noise it made was rather exotic) - but I looked, and yes, a parrot, or near enough. And now you see them most days. They nest in the Mersey Valley and flock in great numbers. The speed of their population growth is faintly alarming. Though we don't yet have as many here as I saw in Sefton Park in Liverpool. Bloody hundreds of them there.
There was a pirch invasion by parakeets at Leyton Orient recently.
Comments
However while the Tories are falling back in these working class seats under Sunak, Sunak is holding up better in the upper middle class Blue Wall.
So perhaps TSE might feel safe to vote Tory again now after voting LD since Cameron, given the average Tory voter is much posher and less common under Rishi than they were under Boris in 2019?
Even if Rishi loses the next general election he has at least made it safe for snobs to vote Tory again!!
He perhaps has a case which can be argued even if not won, since his complaint is about being associated with antisemitism.
Does equating his pet conspiracy theory with the Holocaust amount to antisemitism, or is it just offensive and imbecilic ?
And if there's a distinction, is it actionable ?
Governments crack and systems fall
Coz unity is powerful
Lights go out- walls come tumbling down
Alternatively:
It's coming home
It's coming home
The Red Wall's coming home
That is the kind of attitude the Tories needed in their new seats, and they haven't taken it up.
ChatGTP produces seemingly cogent but often deeply flawed bullshit responses in milliseconds, just sayin'.
(I'm only joking. I don't think Hyufd would do that.)
The legal test is what a reasonable person would hold, isn't it ?
Since the anti-vax thing is a blatantly untrue conspiracy theory, equating it to a vastly well documented historical event lays you open to the charge.
We can't know until the next general election if any hardworking redwall MPs defy the trend like Stewart.
But yes - an interesting piece of law if it goes to court on whether Hancock's comments re antisemitism are held to be fair or not.
The Red Wall are pi**ed off with the Tories at the moment, like most of the rest of the country. But Labour have a leader who seems to get a nosebleed if he goes outside the M25, and Red Wallers have realised they *can* vote for parties other than Labour. Many will turn back to Labour at the next GE, but unless Labour listens to them, the party will get punished in the future.
https://twitter.com/holyroodmandy/status/1618581083989377025
Of course, under Scottish Prison Guidelines since 2014they still could be….and who is politically responsible for those guidelines?
Having thought it through, I thinks it's probably an Arkell v Pressdram case.
So Keith is Crap.
Blue wall was always more Tory than the red wall so you can’t directly compare polling that easily. One big factor in the South East in 2019 was Corbyn toxicity so the simple unwinding of this and greater tactical voting efficiency should help the Lib Dems (and Labour) even if the swing isn’t as big as up North.
I asked her how she knew it was a parakeet
She told me that at first she thought it could have been Donald Trump as they look the same have a similar IQ.
She realised it wasn't though as it was tweeting
This is why I married Mrs BJ
Five years ago, I saw my first one, and was astonished. In fact my then three year old saw it - 'parrot', she said. I didn't really believe her (although the noise it made was rather exotic) - but I looked, and yes, a parrot, or near enough. And now you see them most days. They nest in the Mersey Valley and flock in great numbers. The speed of their population growth is faintly alarming. Though we don't yet have as many here as I saw in Sefton Park in Liverpool. Bloody hundreds of them there.
Yes, there were some spectacular swings like Bassetlaw, North West Durham, Blyth Valley and Bridgend which had been safely Labour and fell to the Tories in 2019 but the unspoken story of the last 20 years has been the gradual creep of the Conservatives in semi-rural ex-industrial seats. Corbyn scored some spectacular successes in 2017 but that general trend was unchanged.
In fact, with a very modest change in campaigning focus to win a few thousand votes in just 50 seats May might well have won a majority analogous to Johnosn's.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feral_parakeets_in_Great_Britain
"The moment @ZelenskyyUa 's found out Germany was sending Leopard 2s to Ukraine."
https://twitter.com/walter_report/status/1618316719445143552
But hey its 2023 now and I am on holiday..
Hopefully, he will get one soon.
I’m contemplating voting Labour.
I’m utterly sick of the sleaze, grift, and outright corruption this government has normalised.
That's where the Tories are.
Qualified privilege m'lud.
But they also hope their voters are bored. “We aren’t being shouted at on the doorstep by our own supporters, like we were in the worst days of Boris,” says one MP, wanly. “I’m not sure many of them are paying attention or care about these latest rows,” says a senior backbencher, rather hopefully.
This is a pretty dismal situation for Conservatives to be in: hoping their voters are bored of their dysfunction or at least numbed to it.
https://www.standard.co.uk/comment/tory-sleaze-problem-govern-b1055824.html
It's not reporting; doesn't it amount to repeating the statement outside of Parliament ?
And even then actively celebrating their own corruption and venality is unlikely to have quite the same electoral appeal in the UK.
But the problem is, there's a good chance that the war will not end like that. There needs to be a radical change in thinking within the Kremlin about how they treat the rest of the world, and especially their neighbours, or wit will just be another cold war, with the 'wall' hundreds of miles east of where it used to be. And that shift will not be NATOs fault, but Russia's.
And that change in thinking is something only the Russians can do; we cannot force it.
Also, the war is just the start for Ukraine. They are going to need a massive rebuilding and restructuring program, especially if they go back to the 2014 borders.
As voting Tory is not a current option on purely moral grounds (and a billion other reasons) suddenly these questions become interesting, and the Tories become yesterday's women (and men).
Never mind cabinet minister, or party chair, why is Zahawi still a candidate?
https://twitter.com/Gerashchenko_en/status/1618564448582774784
Get thee glass eyes, and like a scurvy politician, seem to see the things thou dost not.
That house of cards just utterly collapsed
https://twitter.com/jebadoo2/status/1618591781410729989
Although equally she would have had to run a 5 year Parliament due to Covid which may have created problems for her in 2022.
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/83/IWM-KID-772-Covenanter.jpg
This deal has been mentioned elsewhere months ago. Someone said it wasn't anything to do with the war in Ukraine, but Russia has a massive fondness for the Great Patriotic War, and many of the T34s they use for parades and such are in terrible condition. These are going to be used as spares, or to replace/expand the parade fleet.
It'd be like the RAF buying three Spitfires, or one Lancaster, for the BBMF.
(Happy to be corrected if I'm wrong, but it seems to show (i) that yes, some people will try to take the piss, but (ii) that won't be permitted)
The Johnson guarantee/ BBC issue should be an enormous scandal, I suspect that hasn't yet run its course. The Zahawi problem is a resigning matter but not even a patch on this latest Johnson scandal.
As @Driver notes, nobody has really made the case for why the EU is better (apart from trade). There needs to be a hearts, not just minds, case.
2) Sturgeon used executive powers to carry out exactly the action that was stated to be unacceptable and would never be needed anyway.
In Emerald City of Seattle, also seeing more birds from more southerly climes more often, such as hummingbirds.
ETA: Pending other input disputing this version, I do see the difference (and concern) here.
It's probably the same with these tanks.
Incidentally, apparently the T34s were built in Czechoslovakia, so they're not even Russian in origin...
If the buck stops with you as PM, all the blame ends up with you as well - even if the thing is relatively minor.
Yes, that's where I had in mind - in particular just by Jackson's Bridge.
Of Nippy's career...
Betting Post
Good afternoon, everyone.
https://enormo-haddock.blogspot.com/2023/01/everything-but-epl-26-january-2023.html
Just a couple of bets, Empoli to win at home versus Torino in Serie A at 3.35 (they've drawn away to Lazio and beaten Inter Milan recently), and Osasuna to beat Atletico Madrid in La Liga, at 3.8. The two sides are only 3 points apart so 3.8 for home win seems long.
Parakeets seem very adaptable to cold climates so it probably says more about the birds than the weather. They're also thriving in cold parts of the US:
https://news.uchicago.edu/story/escaped-pet-parrots-are-now-naturalized-23-us-states-study-finds
I was speaking to my niece and her fella, both born in 2000, at Xmas when they came to visit from Bristol. They’re both fucking livid that they can’t afford a house and, a close second, livid at Brexit. Pissed off they were too young to vote. Feel they’ve been betrayed by the Boomers on both issues. The heart thing seems ingrained with them. They want to be able to afford a house and they want freedom of movement, to be part of something bigger, something better than this right-wing shithole we’ve descended to. They’re not rich, or ‘woke’, just normal kids who feel betrayed.
I hope they’re representative of their age group.
There has been no interest in restoring or reviving Britain’s democratic culture. Quite the reverse.
I didn’t work so hard in the referendum, due to old age, although I did contribute money and stand on street corners handing out leaflets.
And I’d vote to Rejoin.
I am not in love with the EU, but it’s not possible to wish it away, and Britain’s only opportunity to push it in the most convivial direction is from the inside.
But I confess I don’t have a three word slogan to that effect.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lnrOggdSoi8
The EU's single USP was membership is less sub optimal, and by a country mile, than non membership.
Not that I advocate rejoin. That ship sailed when Boris Johnson " done Brexit".
The parakeets are descended from pets who have escaped/been released. It's probably an urban myth to suppose that it was all down to Jimi Hendrix, but it's fun nonetheless.
Arguably Britain had had some minor successes in seeing it not pushed too far in the wrong direction. But 'Join the EU and we can stop it becoming a Napoleonic superstate quite so fast' doesn't really cut the mustard as a compelling argument, whether you can make a three word slogan from it or not.
That’s why left-leaning groups tend to support membership.
But, that may not always be the case.
You can tell they are not indiginous but they seem to co-exist hppily enough with the locals.
Who'd have thought it a swan and a lion?