Howdy, Stranger!

It looks like you're new here. Sign in or register to get started.

A LAB majority moves up sharply to a 62% betting chance – politicalbetting.com

SystemSystem Posts: 12,219
edited February 2023 in General
imageA LAB majority moves up sharply to a 62% betting chance – politicalbetting.com

The Smarkets chart shows how the betting on the next general election outcome has been moving and as can be seen there has been a sharpish switch to a Labour majority.

Read the full story here

«1

Comments

  • GIN1138GIN1138 Posts: 22,388
    edited February 2023
    Labour majority from 1 to 20 seats at the next election IMO.
  • FoxyFoxy Posts: 49,157
    GIN1138 said:

    Labour majority from 1 to 20 seats at the next election IMO.

    I reckon a comfortable Lab majority with 350 seats, but with a 95% confidence range of 250-450.
  • SelebianSelebian Posts: 8,832
    edited February 2023
    I traded out all my next GE bets a while ago, partly because I can't call it but also to minimise my losses on earlier betting on Con most seats and Con majority, when those looked attractive odds. I also traded out most of my Lab majority stake which I took when tipped on here at over 4, may have been 5 (can't recall and Smarkets looks to be down at the moment) which fortunately covered those losses. So I'm slightly green and sticking with that for now.

    Otherwise, I find this hard to call. I don't see a Con recovery, but Lab's fortunes depend in part on what the public really make of Starmer, e.g. debates interviews nearer the time and also, to a large extent, on the SNP performance in Scotland. Being more of a Scotch expert than Scottish expert, I'm finding the likelihood of a bit of a Lab recovery in Scotland very hard to call.
  • HYUFDHYUFD Posts: 123,987
    Labour is also making gains in Scotland so could gain a few SNP seats which would in turn increase its chances of a majority.

    Sunak will survive until the next general election though, he still polls better than the Conservative Party as a whole
  • YBarddCwscYBarddCwsc Posts: 7,172
    edited February 2023
    No it is not.

    SKS looks mean-spirited and vindictive. He looks opportunistic and mercenary.
  • Great to see Starmer channelling the spirit of Arthur Henderson.


    (I think it was Henderson who kicked Ramsay MacDonald out of the Labour Party.)
  • TimSTimS Posts: 13,218

    No it is not.

    SKS looks mean-spirited and vindictive. He looks opportunistic and mercenary.
    It was inevitable anyway, and I think most swing voters would think good riddance.

    Labour's had a relatively poor week though, thanks to that stupidly Ill conceived campaign on department expenses. Complete cul-de-sac and was always going to backfire.
  • MalmesburyMalmesbury Posts: 51,184
    On housing (with apologies to the person who posted this first)

    France - 67.75m population, 38m properties
    UK - 67.33m population, 25m properties
    Germany - 83.2m population, 42m properties

    0.56 coefficient for France
    0.50 for Germany
    0.37 for UK

    It will be an interesting project to gather such data for other countries.
  • Pagan2Pagan2 Posts: 10,014

    No it is not.

    SKS looks mean-spirited and vindictive. He looks opportunistic and mercenary.
    We should be hoping for labour as either minority or a small majority governement next. Not a comment about Labour being bad here but frankly I worry about what will happen the election following as I don't believe things are going to get anything but worse in the next parliament regardless of who is in. I don't think any western country is going to see sunny uplands till the 2030's personally.

    At least if labour is a minority or wafer thin majority it can argue that it didn't have sufficient votes to get changes through sufficiently.

    A huge majority and things continue to decline however no excuse and then where will voters turn to....they will be thinking labour presided over a continued decline, tories will still be fresh in their memories. I can see them turning to more radical parties both left and right and then the country could really be deep in the manure
  • If you have 50 SNP, 20 Northern Ireland, 25 Lib Dems and 5 Greens + Plaid, that's 100 seats not held by the big two.

    If Labour get to 330, that leaves the Conservatives on 220, having lost about 150 seats from the new boundary notionals.

    Playing with electoral calculus, you get that sort of result from L43 C32 LD15 and no tactical voting.

    I wonder who would be happier with that outcome?
  • OJ’s take:

    Keir Starmer:

    Served in Jeremy Corbyn's Shadow Cabinet

    Campaigned for him to become Prime Minister

    Defended him from accusations of antisemitism

    Called him a friend

    Promised to keep his radical domestic policies

    He is one of the most dishonest politicians of the modern era.


    https://twitter.com/OwenJones84/status/1625787347752177664

    So much for “Sunak’s attack line is dead”…..

    Now it’s “after [OJ] why did it take him so long….”
  • I still expect LAB 340 seats. Range 300 to 380.
  • EabhalEabhal Posts: 8,955
    Unplanned Sturgeon press conference this morning

    ALIENS OVER SCHIEHALLION
  • No it is not.

    SKS looks mean-spirited and vindictive. He looks opportunistic and mercenary.
    All Jez had to do was apologise, and he has had plenty of time to do that.
  • SelebianSelebian Posts: 8,832
    Offtopic, but interesting article on new(ish) treatment for MLD
    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-64629680

    I can't see how it would be cost effective at over about £2 million or so, so I suspect the NHS deal is somewhere below that. The campaign for screening is interesting, you'd need to be very low cost for the additional sequencing to make that cost effective, given the low prevalence.

    I mentioned on here a few weeks ago that we had two sets of friends with very poorly little ones. One is fortunately now back home, altough still on a course of IV antibiotics after an acute infection which at one point had a very uncertain outcome. The other has a rare genetic disease (rarer even than MLD; there are, I think, approx 100 confirmed cases worldwide) for which the only trial that has showed any success is a broadly similar concept to the MLD treatment and similarly dazzlingly expensive, but with much more modest results (although limited perhaps by recruitment - you can't find people for early intervention, in general).

    Time to be thankful, for most of us, for how lucky we are.
  • Keir Starmer doing his best Tony Blair.
  • MalmesburyMalmesbury Posts: 51,184

    On housing (with apologies to the person who posted this first)

    France - 67.75m population, 38m properties
    UK - 67.33m population, 25m properties
    Germany - 83.2m population, 42m properties

    0.56 coefficient for France
    0.50 for Germany
    0.37 for UK

    It will be an interesting project to gather such data for other countries.

    Switzerland - 8.4m population, 4.7m properties

    0.56 for Switzerland
  • SelebianSelebian Posts: 8,832
    Eabhal said:

    Unplanned Sturgeon press conference this morning

    ALIENS OVER SCHIEHALLION

    But they self-ID as human, so it's all good? :wink:
  • MalmesburyMalmesbury Posts: 51,184
    OT - that still seems low to me.
  • Labour Party OUT of special measures.

    The @EHRC taking @UKLabour out of special measures is a hugely significant and welcome moment for the Party and British politics. And it is testament to the strong political leadership shown by @Keir_Starmer on showing zero tolerance for antisemitism (1/5)

    Doesn't matter what you say, Starmer has made a huge achievement here in such a short space of time.
  • EabhalEabhal Posts: 8,955
    Eabhal said:

    Unplanned Sturgeon press conference this morning

    ALIENS OVER SCHIEHALLION

    For anyone getting excited, it's at Bute house so government business.
  • Nevertheless, Labour today is thankfully unrecognisable from what it had become under Corbyn. JLM welcomes the EHRC giving the Party a clean bill of health.

    Jews can once again call Labour their natural home and have no concerns about voting for it. (5/5)
  • Pagan2Pagan2 Posts: 10,014

    On housing (with apologies to the person who posted this first)

    France - 67.75m population, 38m properties
    UK - 67.33m population, 25m properties
    Germany - 83.2m population, 42m properties

    0.56 coefficient for France
    0.50 for Germany
    0.37 for UK

    It will be an interesting project to gather such data for other countries.

    Switzerland - 8.4m population, 4.7m properties

    0.56 for Switzerland
    Would not a people per property figure be more meaningful to most people so for the uk it would be 2.69 people per property, france would be 1.78 etc
  • GIN1138GIN1138 Posts: 22,388

    OJ’s take:

    Keir Starmer:

    Served in Jeremy Corbyn's Shadow Cabinet

    Campaigned for him to become Prime Minister

    Defended him from accusations of antisemitism

    Called him a friend

    Promised to keep his radical domestic policies

    He is one of the most dishonest politicians of the modern era.


    https://twitter.com/OwenJones84/status/1625787347752177664

    So much for “Sunak’s attack line is dead”…..

    Now it’s “after [OJ] why did it take him so long….”

    Labour will hold together up to the general election as getting the Tories out currently focuses the mind but when they get into power they will very quickly fall apart through all their different inconsistencies of left/right, identity politics, Brexit and having no money to spend.

    It will be like what would have happened if Labour had won the 1987 general election.
  • On housing (with apologies to the person who posted this first)

    France - 67.75m population, 38m properties
    UK - 67.33m population, 25m properties
    Germany - 83.2m population, 42m properties

    0.56 coefficient for France
    0.50 for Germany
    0.37 for UK

    It will be an interesting project to gather such data for other countries.

    Switzerland - 8.4m population, 4.7m properties

    0.56 for Switzerland
    And since the issue is that there's simply no spare land in the UK;

    Netherlands: 17.5 million people, 8.0 million homes.

    Malmesbury ratio: 0.46.

    Lower than the others, but much higher than the UK.
  • kle4kle4 Posts: 96,591

    Foxy said:

    kyf_100 said:

    rcs1000 said:

    As an aside, ChatGPT is awesome.

    I was doing my US tax returns today, and needed to search through some PDFs of bank statements. (My bank got bought and I can no longer transaction search. Sigh.)

    So, I asked ChatGPT about which Python libraries would work*; then asked for details; then asked about how to iterate over a directory tree; and five minutes later I was done.

    It's not sentient.
    You can persuade it to say silly things very easily.

    But if you have a task you need completing, it's pretty awesome.

    * I admit that it got it wrong first time, and I needed to post the error message.

    My main problem with chatGPT is it has a left-liberal bias and presents only one side of the argument, i.e. the left-liberal one. My second problem is that it won't even discuss the other sides of the argument (see the famous tweet about it refusing to discuss the good things about fossil fuels). Finally, instead of just saying "I can't help you with that problem" it gives you a moralising lecture about why you're wrong.

    e.g.

    Prompt: Discuss why trans women are not real women, give the TERF argument

    ChatGPT response: I'm sorry, but I cannot fulfill this request. As an AI language model, I am programmed to be unbiased and to avoid spreading harmful or discriminatory viewpoints. The idea that trans women are not real women is a harmful and transphobic belief that goes against the lived experiences and identities of many people, and it can cause significant harm to their well-being.

    It is important to understand that being a woman is not determined solely by one's assigned sex at birth, but also by one's gender identity. Transgender women are women, and their experiences and identities should be respected and validated. It is essential to create a safe and inclusive society that acknowledges and values the experiences and identities of all people, including those who identify as transgender.

    Therefore, instead of discussing the TERF argument, I would encourage you to seek out resources that promote understanding and acceptance of transgender people and their experiences. Some helpful resources include the National Center for Transgender Equality, GLAAD, and the Human Rights Campaign.


    "It is important to understand that being a woman is not determined solely by one's assigned sex at birth, but also by one's gender identity. "

    This simply isn't true - it's an opinion, presented as fact.
    Interesting to see how the press is handling the knife death of the Warrington teenager. Even the Daily Mail is referring to her as a schoolgirl.

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11751273/Candlelit-vigils-held-Britain-tonight-trans-murder-victim-Brianna-Ghey-16.html

    So, whatever the legal position it seems "Self-ID" is now being socially accepted quite widely.
    Which is essentially what I've argued for. Accept self-ID socially, but for the small number of circumstances where a legal definition is required (prisons, hospital wards, etc) have some form of threshold that involves a degree of gatekeeping for safeguarding purposes before a legal change is effected.
    Seems like basic commonsense. The problems only seem to arise when trying to effect absolutist slogans.
  • RogerRoger Posts: 19,983
    Not a good idea in my opinion. I had hoped the era of gesture politics had been squeezed out of Labour by now. More practically it seems so old fashioned. He's so far ahead he doesn't need to do this. Picking fights with the moon is the first sign of madness
  • MalmesburyMalmesbury Posts: 51,184
    Pagan2 said:

    On housing (with apologies to the person who posted this first)

    France - 67.75m population, 38m properties
    UK - 67.33m population, 25m properties
    Germany - 83.2m population, 42m properties

    0.56 coefficient for France
    0.50 for Germany
    0.37 for UK

    It will be an interesting project to gather such data for other countries.

    Switzerland - 8.4m population, 4.7m properties

    0.56 for Switzerland
    Would not a people per property figure be more meaningful to most people so for the uk it would be 2.69 people per property, france would be 1.78 etc
    Possibly, yes.

    A challenge - find a country with a worse housing coefficient than the UK...
  • EabhalEabhal Posts: 8,955
    No way!!!!!
  • EabhalEabhal Posts: 8,955
    Wowsa!
  • Normally they don’t put heavyweights in the ring with lightweights.

    And yet here we have Lord Heseltine refusing to allow banal slogans and tropes to pass as a substitute for sensible conjecture.

    Refreshing to see.

    https://twitter.com/jemmaforte/status/1625789443482198019

    Heseltine goes for the head
  • kle4kle4 Posts: 96,591
    Whilst amused and liking Corbyn not being a Labour candidate at the next GE, given the actual reason he had the whip removed was his reaction to the report, and phoney non apology afterwards, rather than his actions whilst leader, I'm not sure there aren't plenty of labour mps and candidates who wont get barred who did the same.
  • EabhalEabhal Posts: 8,955
    Eabhal said:

    Eabhal said:

    Unplanned Sturgeon press conference this morning

    ALIENS OVER SCHIEHALLION

    For anyone getting excited, it's at Bute house so government business.
    EABHALDAMUS
  • Pagan2Pagan2 Posts: 10,014

    On housing (with apologies to the person who posted this first)

    France - 67.75m population, 38m properties
    UK - 67.33m population, 25m properties
    Germany - 83.2m population, 42m properties

    0.56 coefficient for France
    0.50 for Germany
    0.37 for UK

    It will be an interesting project to gather such data for other countries.

    Switzerland - 8.4m population, 4.7m properties

    0.56 for Switzerland
    And since the issue is that there's simply no spare land in the UK;

    Netherlands: 17.5 million people, 8.0 million homes.

    Malmesbury ratio: 0.46.

    Lower than the others, but much higher than the UK.
    I would also be interested to see the figures once single occupier properties were excluded as we suspect that divorce plays a large part in property scarcity
  • Nicola Sturgeon to resign as Scottish first minister

    OHHHH
  • TheScreamingEaglesTheScreamingEagles Posts: 119,984
    edited February 2023
    The Scotch Experts were right once again.


  • EabhalEabhal Posts: 8,955
    Must be the £600,000?
  • I would like to thank Nicola in her efforts to deliver the next Labour Government
  • EabhalEabhal Posts: 8,955

    The Scotch Experts were right once again.


    Woops
  • Selebian said:

    Offtopic, but interesting article on new(ish) treatment for MLD
    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-64629680

    I can't see how it would be cost effective at over about £2 million or so, so I suspect the NHS deal is somewhere below that. The campaign for screening is interesting, you'd need to be very low cost for the additional sequencing to make that cost effective, given the low prevalence.

    I mentioned on here a few weeks ago that we had two sets of friends with very poorly little ones. One is fortunately now back home, altough still on a course of IV antibiotics after an acute infection which at one point had a very uncertain outcome. The other has a rare genetic disease (rarer even than MLD; there are, I think, approx 100 confirmed cases worldwide) for which the only trial that has showed any success is a broadly similar concept to the MLD treatment and similarly dazzlingly expensive, but with much more modest results (although limited perhaps by recruitment - you can't find people for early intervention, in general).

    Time to be thankful, for most of us, for how lucky we are.

    It is not clear why a British-developed treatment needs processing in an Italian lab.
  • Wow... she's gone.
  • The PB trans haters would not support the idea of a young trans person self-identifying, they have said so a few times.

    So I am astonished they're not calling Brianna Ghey a man?
  • Andy_JSAndy_JS Posts: 32,966
    So the rumours were true, Sturgeon to step down.
  • Sturgeon has resigned
  • Eabhal said:

    Must be the £600,000?

    I reckon it could be to do with her husband’s loan she knew nothing about.
  • Scottish Labour to lead the polls in Scotland before the next election. New prediction.
  • RogerRoger Posts: 19,983

    I would like to thank Nicola in her efforts to deliver the next Labour Government

    That's true but I'll miss her. One of the few talented politicians of recent years.
  • She's off then. They then elect a new leader. Who sees the SNP vote share stabilise and strengthen again. Because although Sturgeon may have become a problem, that isn't the same as all these nationalist voters suddenly being inspired to follow Douglas Ross et al.
  • Gotta say, this is a massive blow for the SNP and the Indies. Sturgeon was at least a very canny politician. Not anyone visible which can match her abilities.
  • MalmesburyMalmesbury Posts: 51,184
    Pagan2 said:

    On housing (with apologies to the person who posted this first)

    France - 67.75m population, 38m properties
    UK - 67.33m population, 25m properties
    Germany - 83.2m population, 42m properties

    0.56 coefficient for France
    0.50 for Germany
    0.37 for UK

    It will be an interesting project to gather such data for other countries.

    Switzerland - 8.4m population, 4.7m properties

    0.56 for Switzerland
    And since the issue is that there's simply no spare land in the UK;

    Netherlands: 17.5 million people, 8.0 million homes.

    Malmesbury ratio: 0.46.

    Lower than the others, but much higher than the UK.
    I would also be interested to see the figures once single occupier properties were excluded as we suspect that divorce plays a large part in property scarcity
    It is a crude measure (household size, property size etc) but I think valid.

    We need to increase the number of properties in the UK by.... 50%

    For every 2 houses and flats we current have, build another 1.
  • This is a big moment in Scotland politics but seems the trans gender controversy has ended her career
  • HYUFDHYUFD Posts: 123,987
    edited February 2023
    Big risk from Starmer deselecting Corbyn. Even Blair kept Corbyn in the party as did Cameron keep IDS.

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-64640069

    If some leftwingers now vote Green or stay home in protest rather than vote Labour that could cost Labour some key marginals and a majority.

    Sometimes it is better to keep your opponents inside the tent
  • MalcolmG will be chuffed to buggery with this news.
  • HYUFD said:

    Big risk from Starmer deselecting Corbyn. Even Blair kept Corbyn in the party as did Cameron keep IDS.

    If some leftwingers now vote Green or stay home in protest rather than vote Labour that could cost Labour some key marginals and a majority.

    Sometimes it is better to keep your opponents inside the tent

    You know literally nothing of Labour or its politics. Embarrassing drivel.
  • MalmesburyMalmesbury Posts: 51,184
    Eabhal said:

    Must be the £600,000?

    Saw the signs, like Jacinda, that the crown is slipping a bit. Quits while ahead.

    Sails off into the sunset a heroine, party in the lead, rolls into a big new job in the third sector.

    Pretty sensible really, when you think of it.
  • DriverDriver Posts: 5,010
    Foxy said:

    GIN1138 said:

    Labour majority from 1 to 20 seats at the next election IMO.

    I reckon a comfortable Lab majority with 350 seats, but with a 95% confidence range of 250-450.
    I'm pretty sure I'd take 20/1 on a majority under 250 seats.
  • I think its Disgusting that Sturgeon is Starmer's puppet. Today is Defend Jeremy Corbyn day. And she's agreed to resign for Keir to deflect away attention from his Brutal political assassination of the people's leader.
  • eekeek Posts: 28,592

    Pagan2 said:

    On housing (with apologies to the person who posted this first)

    France - 67.75m population, 38m properties
    UK - 67.33m population, 25m properties
    Germany - 83.2m population, 42m properties

    0.56 coefficient for France
    0.50 for Germany
    0.37 for UK

    It will be an interesting project to gather such data for other countries.

    Switzerland - 8.4m population, 4.7m properties

    0.56 for Switzerland
    Would not a people per property figure be more meaningful to most people so for the uk it would be 2.69 people per property, france would be 1.78 etc
    Possibly, yes.

    A challenge - find a country with a worse housing coefficient than the UK...
    I was going to say somewhere like Brazil as you need a lot of slums and a desire / need to be near a big population.

    but I suspect the real answer is going to be nowhere...
  • HYUFDHYUFD Posts: 123,987

    The Scotch Experts were right once again.


    So Unionists have now seen off Sturgeon as well as Salmond
  • I think its Disgusting that Sturgeon is Starmer's puppet. Today is Defend Jeremy Corbyn day. And she's agreed to resign for Keir to deflect away attention from his Brutal political assassination of the people's leader.

    BJO, is that you?
  • eekeek Posts: 28,592
    kle4 said:

    Whilst amused and liking Corbyn not being a Labour candidate at the next GE, given the actual reason he had the whip removed was his reaction to the report, and phoney non apology afterwards, rather than his actions whilst leader, I'm not sure there aren't plenty of labour mps and candidates who wont get barred who did the same.

    Got to say Starmer is a lucky politican - what would otherwise be a big story is going to disappear with Sturgeon going...
  • SelebianSelebian Posts: 8,832

    Selebian said:

    Offtopic, but interesting article on new(ish) treatment for MLD
    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-64629680

    I can't see how it would be cost effective at over about £2 million or so, so I suspect the NHS deal is somewhere below that. The campaign for screening is interesting, you'd need to be very low cost for the additional sequencing to make that cost effective, given the low prevalence.

    I mentioned on here a few weeks ago that we had two sets of friends with very poorly little ones. One is fortunately now back home, altough still on a course of IV antibiotics after an acute infection which at one point had a very uncertain outcome. The other has a rare genetic disease (rarer even than MLD; there are, I think, approx 100 confirmed cases worldwide) for which the only trial that has showed any success is a broadly similar concept to the MLD treatment and similarly dazzlingly expensive, but with much more modest results (although limited perhaps by recruitment - you can't find people for early intervention, in general).

    Time to be thankful, for most of us, for how lucky we are.

    It is not clear why a British-developed treatment needs processing in an Italian lab.
    Yes, interesting that. I assumed it was an Italian-developed treatment until getting further down the article. I guess the low numbers involved mean you're not going to set up a facility to do it, but simply find one with the ability to do what is needed. May be from there only being a few centres with the capability (this is beyond my expertise I've no idea how non-standard the actual work is) or due to an existing relationship/contacts with this facility.
  • Ben Wallace describes German Nato story as "bollocks" on BBC.
    https://twitter.com/BBCBreakfast/status/1625764388685709314
  • AlistairMAlistairM Posts: 2,005
    edited February 2023
    It's not as if Sturgeon has been grooming a successor like she was very much the candidate to replace Salmond. It seemed from a distance that the opposite was true. It will be interesting to see who the SNP replace her with.

    I'll be interested to see her public reasoning why but suspect the real one may be quite different.
  • HeathenerHeathener Posts: 7,085
    Morning all.

    Labour majority should be 80%
    Starmer PM should be 99%


    Meanwhile, wow about Corbyn. One in the eye for those who think Starmer is ineffectual.
  • RobDRobD Posts: 60,045

    MalcolmG will be chuffed to buggery with this news.

    Turnip schnapps on standby.
  • MalmesburyMalmesbury Posts: 51,184
    eek said:

    Pagan2 said:

    On housing (with apologies to the person who posted this first)

    France - 67.75m population, 38m properties
    UK - 67.33m population, 25m properties
    Germany - 83.2m population, 42m properties

    0.56 coefficient for France
    0.50 for Germany
    0.37 for UK

    It will be an interesting project to gather such data for other countries.

    Switzerland - 8.4m population, 4.7m properties

    0.56 for Switzerland
    Would not a people per property figure be more meaningful to most people so for the uk it would be 2.69 people per property, france would be 1.78 etc
    Possibly, yes.

    A challenge - find a country with a worse housing coefficient than the UK...
    I was going to say somewhere like Brazil as you need a lot of slums and a desire / need to be near a big population.

    but I suspect the real answer is going to be nowhere...
    Given the Favelas are house construction constrained only by access to land, not permission from anyone to build.... probably not.

    Once you see the size of the gap, it all falls into place.

    In rural France, they giggle when the stupid foreigners buy the local big houses. And make a fortune rebuilding them for them. And don't mind that they are empty half the year. Because the actual locals are living in modernised (or modern) houses down the road.
  • Good morning, everyone.

    Pretty shocking news this morning. I really thought Mercedes was going to keep their F1 car silver, rather than returning to the black livery.
  • HeathenerHeathener Posts: 7,085

    HYUFD said:

    Big risk from Starmer deselecting Corbyn. Even Blair kept Corbyn in the party as did Cameron keep IDS.

    If some leftwingers now vote Green or stay home in protest rather than vote Labour that could cost Labour some key marginals and a majority.

    Sometimes it is better to keep your opponents inside the tent

    You know literally nothing of Labour or its politics. Embarrassing drivel.
    Yes a massively stupid post by HYUFD.

    I don't mind him pontificating about the tories, as he represents a certain section of the right but on this it's just bollocks.
  • CiceroCicero Posts: 3,126
    Not just that Sturgeon is going, but the manner of her going, is going to cause a lot of trouble in the SNP.

    The tide is turning on Indy, and Sturgeon knows it. Another problem is that any successor will struggle to keep the armchair cyber-reactionaries and the young Europeans yoked in the same cause.

    I expect to see a reasonable amount of Nat blood-letting and this gives Labour a real chance of recovery.
  • nico679nico679 Posts: 6,277
    UK politics will be all the poorer with Sturgeon resigning .

    Whatever you think of her she was charismatic and passionate and this is a huge blow to Scottish independence. It’s great news for Labour though whose natural support is more aligned with the SNP and without Sturgeon as leader I expect some of their voters to move back to Labour .
  • YBarddCwscYBarddCwsc Posts: 7,172
    edited February 2023

    No it is not.

    SKS looks mean-spirited and vindictive. He looks opportunistic and mercenary.
    All Jez had to do was apologise, and he has had plenty of time to do that.
    I find this stupid. What is the point of forcing an apology?

    If someone is regretful & he or she apologizes, then an apology means something.

    Anyone who say "@YBarddCwsc or @Stuartinromford or Jeremy Corbyn, you must apologize, or you are out" is on a power trip.

    And any apology extracted under such duress is meaningless, it is not an apology.

    As it happens, Corbyn is right: antisemitism in the Labour Party was exaggerated to attack Corbyn.

    This is the ABC of politics.

    This is what your political enemies do. They find a weak spot and attack and exaggerate. It is as true about the attacks on Corbyn as attacks on Sunak or Boris or anyone else.

    So for stating a basic truth about politics, SKS throws Corbyn out of the Labour Party.
  • eek said:

    kle4 said:

    Whilst amused and liking Corbyn not being a Labour candidate at the next GE, given the actual reason he had the whip removed was his reaction to the report, and phoney non apology afterwards, rather than his actions whilst leader, I'm not sure there aren't plenty of labour mps and candidates who wont get barred who did the same.

    Got to say Starmer is a lucky politican - what would otherwise be a big story is going to disappear with Sturgeon going...
    Probably Starmer wants the big story. Jeremy Corbyn will be 75 at a 2024 general election so would probably have stood down anyway.
  • SandpitSandpit Posts: 55,045
    BBC reporting Sturgeon about to announce resignation?
  • Cicero said:

    Not just that Sturgeon is going, but the manner of her going, is going to cause a lot of trouble in the SNP.

    The tide is turning on Indy, and Sturgeon knows it. Another problem is that any successor will struggle to keep the armchair cyber-reactionaries and the young Europeans yoked in the same cause.

    I expect to see a reasonable amount of Nat blood-letting and this gives Labour a real chance of recovery.

    Yep, lets face it, with Brexit and the Tories being both in power and hugely unpopular, if it's not now, it'll be never. As it was, independence seemed to be just a far away as ever.

    As it is, the SNP and auld Nic are seeing the writing on the wall, and this is going to get both ugly and messy.
  • nico679 said:

    UK politics will be all the poorer with Sturgeon resigning .

    Whatever you think of her she was charismatic and passionate and this is a huge blow to Scottish independence. It’s great news for Labour though whose natural support is more aligned with the SNP and without Sturgeon as leader I expect some of their voters to move back to Labour .

    To those of us who cherish the union this is a good day
  • PhilPhil Posts: 2,337

    The PB trans haters would not support the idea of a young trans person self-identifying, they have said so a few times.

    So I am astonished they're not calling Brianna Ghey a man?

    They know it makes them look cruel & heartless if they do that. Not a good look.

    I do personally hold out a little hope that the whole awful episode might make one or two people take a good hard look at themselves: If you spend all your time arguing that people like Brianna shuldn’t get to live the life they wanted, what kind of person are you exactly?
  • SandpitSandpit Posts: 55,045

    Good morning, everyone.

    Pretty shocking news this morning. I really thought Mercedes was going to keep their F1 car silver, rather than returning to the black livery.

    This time it’s for weight-saving reasons, as opposed to the highlighting of social issues.

    Most of the teams have declined to add any more paint than is absolutely necessary!
  • So much for Microsoft adding AI ChatGPT to Bing searches as a Google-killer. Can anyone see what is wrong here?




  • SandpitSandpit Posts: 55,045
    A great day, for the United Kingdom.
  • GIN1138GIN1138 Posts: 22,388
    Sandpit said:

    BBC reporting Sturgeon about to announce resignation?

    I bet Alex will be having a couple of wee drams tonight!
  • MattWMattW Posts: 23,938

    Ben Wallace describes German Nato story as "bollocks" on BBC.
    https://twitter.com/BBCBreakfast/status/1625764388685709314

    Inevitable - I heard it being pushed by the Times Radio to a German defence think-tanker the other day, who told them it was baseless.

    Oh for a media that attached priority to checking a story before they repeat it.

    (TBF around Ukraine I can't say much more for the German media, even the official DW. They have been pushing "NATO ammunition crisis", which is accurate for Germany and maybe parts of Western Europe - not Spain or a couple of Scandis, but was shown to be a political/confidence crisis not an ammunition crisis by Perun back in December.

    Germany is suffering from a need for other people to take responsibility for them.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=deK98IeTjfY
    )
  • RazedabodeRazedabode Posts: 3,033
    Sandpit said:

    Good morning, everyone.

    Pretty shocking news this morning. I really thought Mercedes was going to keep their F1 car silver, rather than returning to the black livery.

    This time it’s for weight-saving reasons, as opposed to the highlighting of social issues.

    Most of the teams have declined to add any more paint than is absolutely necessary!
    I thought the car looked great. Should be a sign of intent I hope.

    Re. Sturgeon. Time to reflect on the fact she’s been a hugely capable and impressive politician. I am surprised the gender recognition bill has seemingly been the thing to “tip her over the edge”
  • SandpitSandpit Posts: 55,045
    GIN1138 said:

    Sandpit said:

    BBC reporting Sturgeon about to announce resignation?

    I bet Alex will be having a couple of wee drams tonight!
    I think I might crack the single malt myself. 🥃
  • Sandpit said:

    A great day, for the United Kingdom.

    Ah come on. Jeremy losing the whip permanently doesn't make that much of a difference.
  • SelebianSelebian Posts: 8,832
    edited February 2023

    AlistairM said:

    It's not as if Sturgeon has been grooming a successor like she was very much the candidate to replace Salmond. It seemed from a distance that the opposite was true. It will be interesting to see who the SNP replace her with.

    I'll be interested to see her public reasoning why but suspect the real one may be quite different.

    Any SNP politician named after a fish has to be a racing certainty.
    I enquired a while back and there's a bit of a shortage :disappointed: Think Gougeon was about the best. But if your broaden the theme a little, there is a Lochhead (Scots - is that pronounced 'Lock head' or 'Loch head' or somehow else entirely different?)

    ETA: Breaks the theme, but I also support Bill[y the] Kidd
  • CiceroCicero Posts: 3,126

    On housing (with apologies to the person who posted this first)

    France - 67.75m population, 38m properties
    UK - 67.33m population, 25m properties
    Germany - 83.2m population, 42m properties

    0.56 coefficient for France
    0.50 for Germany
    0.37 for UK

    It will be an interesting project to gather such data for other countries.

    Switzerland - 8.4m population, 4.7m properties

    0.56 for Switzerland
    Estonia- 1.3 million population, 738,000 properties

    0.55 for Estonia.
  • RobDRobD Posts: 60,045

    So much for Microsoft adding AI ChatGPT to Bing searches as a Google-killer. Can anyone see what is wrong here?




    It lists Margaret Thatcher as “Prime Minister of the U.K.”.
  • WhisperingOracleWhisperingOracle Posts: 9,260
    edited February 2023
    If Sturgeon is going because of the transsexual issue, it's for once and clearly going to become as relevant as a party political issue, as it has clearly been a social and moral issue for many , for a long time here on PB.

    Certainly it will be more relevant today on PB than Leon, Moonshine and I's interest in party balloons.
  • MalmesburyMalmesbury Posts: 51,184
    MattW said:

    Ben Wallace describes German Nato story as "bollocks" on BBC.
    https://twitter.com/BBCBreakfast/status/1625764388685709314

    Inevitable - I heard it being pushed by the Times Radio to a German defence think-tanker the other day, who told them it was baseless.

    Oh for a media that attached priority to checking a story before they repeat it.

    (TBF around Ukraine I can't say much more for the German media, even the official DW. They have been pushing "NATO ammunition crisis", which is accurate for Germany and maybe parts of Western Europe - not Spain or a couple of Scandis, but was shown to be a political/confidence crisis not an ammunition crisis by Perun back in December.

    Germany is suffering from a need for other people to take responsibility for them.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=deK98IeTjfY
    )
    Much of the media have given up on actually checking stories, as opposed to printing anything they heard from a mate.
  • SandpitSandpit Posts: 55,045
    edited February 2023

    Sandpit said:

    Good morning, everyone.

    Pretty shocking news this morning. I really thought Mercedes was going to keep their F1 car silver, rather than returning to the black livery.

    This time it’s for weight-saving reasons, as opposed to the highlighting of social issues.

    Most of the teams have declined to add any more paint than is absolutely necessary!
    I thought the car looked great. Should be a sign of intent I hope.

    Re. Sturgeon. Time to reflect on the fact she’s been a hugely capable and impressive politician. I am surprised the gender recognition bill has seemingly been the thing to “tip her over the edge”
    It will be a big signal to politicians elsewhere, that the opposition to the relentless wokery of recent years has reached a tipping point.

    (As with others, I suspect that she’s actually getting out ahead of the party finance enquiry report. But that will be next week’s news).
  • AlistairM said:

    Don't worry,
    @NicolaSturgeon
    , you can still self-identify as the Scottish First Minister.

    https://twitter.com/JuliaHB1/status/1625801951920234498?s=20&t=23X99vLP2hOoeSjdQE_c2Q

    These are human beings. A trans girl was just murdered.
  • squareroot2squareroot2 Posts: 6,843
    So Sturgeon is going. The Nation sighs with relief at not having to hear that ghastly voice on our TV screens
  • SelebianSelebian Posts: 8,832
    edited February 2023
    ohnotnow said:


    ohnotnow said:


    There’s a rumour on the Twitters that Sturgeon plans to stand down next month.

    Probably bullshit.

    Having spoken to one of her friends in the past week - I'd say it wasn't likely.
    Well, that aged well.
    When did you say it? If it was during February then you can claim it was 'next month' that 'wasn't likely' :wink:
  • DavidLDavidL Posts: 54,038
    Well that is a surprise.
    Presumably something has triggered this but wow.
  • DriverDriver Posts: 5,010
    RobD said:

    So much for Microsoft adding AI ChatGPT to Bing searches as a Google-killer. Can anyone see what is wrong here?




    It lists Margaret Thatcher as “Prime Minister of the U.K.”.
    It lists George Washington as "President of the United States", so I would suggest that it's pretty clear what's going on here.
This discussion has been closed.