Without expressing a view for or against the verdict I am curious on part of the summing up maybe a lawyer could enlighten me
"A person commits manslaughter is he/she does an unlawful act that a sane and reasonable person would realise would inevitably expose another person to the risk of some harm ( and that other person dies as a result)"
I thought I understood this then looked at the verdict
The pedestrian stayed in the centre The pedestrian shouted and flapped her arm
Now to me while rude and abusive neither seems to me to be an actual unlawful act
If she pushed the cyclist that would be an unlawful act however no one seems to be claiming she did.
I may have it very wrong, but the CCTV looked as if the cyclist came to a halt but kept both feet on the pedals, and lost her balance at that point. If she had put a foot down she may have been fine. Were her feet in clips?
Which doesn't answer the question which is if manslaughter is "A person commits manslaughter is he/she does an unlawful act"
What exactly was the unlawful act? From what is reported she shouted and flapped her arm
does this mean if I prance down my road screaming like a sodomized goat doing my famous seagull impression and a cyclist falls off their bike laughing and dies I am guilty of manslaughter?
That is my question also. Surely manslaughter or not depends on the nature of the action?
Did she just shout and flap her arms? Did she obstruct the cyclists path to force them into the traffic?
It looks to be the same as if someone feigned to punch you, you jerked your head back and behind you was a meat hook which impaled itself in your head as you jerked back and killed you. Would that feign then be manslaughter? The jury said yes.
The gesture in this instance would very likely destabilise a 77-yr old and indeed did as we all saw. She "flinched" seeking to avoid she knew not what and veered into the road.
Doesn't matter whether it was a shared cycle path or not.
A luxury spa hotel in a rural Leicestershire village has closed to guests and cancelled existing bookings so it can provide accommodation for 250 asylum seekers.
The Best Western Premier Yew Lodge Hotel in Kegworth - which includes a Marco Pierre White New York Italian restaurant - stopped taking reservations two weeks ago after bosses signed an 'exclusive use contract' with the Home Office to house refugees.
Mother-of-two Elisabeth Shepherd, 53, said locals were given 'no notice' about their arrival, and said that people were 'frightened, including myself'.
She said: 'A lot of the villagers use the resources at the hotel such as the gym, pool and restaurant and now we've haven't got anything here to use and will have to turn elsewhere for these facilities.
'People found out about the asylum seekers moving into the hotel because their gym memberships were instantly cancelled.'
In what fucking universe is a Best Western a luxury hotel?
Yes, quite. These were all - I think - not manslaughter charges though. It was the decision to go after Grey for manslaughter which I seriously question.
I don't like the CCTV footage aspect either - what would have happened if there was no footage? A rhetorical question - the driver of the car would likely have been blamed.
I think the reason we have dangerous driving/careless driving laws is because people would refuse to convict drivers of manslaughter. Apparently the same does not apply to pedestrians.
Hence all the judges letting drivers off for killing people. It usually gets punted down to careless driving. It's a psychological condition.
Most of those (not the road rage ramming incident) are also due to not paying attention rather than getting angry or meaning any harm at all. No better for the victims, but which driver has never had a car, pedestrian, motorcyclist, cyclist etc 'appear from nowhere'. Any of us who have driven for a length of time have sometimes cocked up, so there's a reluctance to convict for death by dangerous driving except very clear cut as there's a feeling that "it could easily have been me".
Here, whatever the other rights and wrongs, the pedestrian was more than just careless, it was more than a lack of attention. She was angry with the cyclist and probably didn't care if the cyclist fell off and hurt herself (no intention of serious harm, I'm sure). That's one difference here. There would be no manslaughter charge if the cyclist had come up behind the pedestrian and the pedestrian, startled, had flung out an arm and knocked the cyclist into the traffic. Not even if the pedestrian had headphones in and was checking PB.com on her mobile phone.
I'm loathe to restart the cycling fracas we had a few days ago, but the sentencing remarks have been published in relation to the pedestrian v elderly cyclist thing:
My instinctive view is that the verdict is right but the punishment harsh.
That might be explained by my experience of the casual disregard motorists give to cyclists and pedestrians in Edinburgh, and the astonishing number of road casualties that result. They rarely get punished, so this pedestrian getting 3 years seems unfair.
"You resented the presence of an oncoming cyclist. The footage shows you shouting aggressively and waving your left arm. You do not stop, slow down or move to one side. You are territorial about the pavement and not worried for your own safety. After careful thought, I concluded these actions are not explained by your disabilities."
She has right of way even if a shared path, she never had a duty to stop or move to one side.
"The path at the point of collision 2.4 metres wide."
Her lawyers should be fact checking this one, it seems extremelely unlikely from the video provided. Indeed if that was the case the cyclist could have gone the non road side of her comfortably.
If the cyclist had dismounted and pushed her bike there would have been even less space to pass of course.
Not so. Bike could go in the gutter, or the cyclist could stop and wait with the handlebars turned.
The key issue is again whether it really was shared issue.
Plod wouldn't say.
Why didn't the defence ask for the town council to confirm it and to check the signage? 250m away, one of us said.
The bike went into the gutter, where it was hit by a passing car. The key issue is that an old lady was killed by someone else's belligerence. Whether the space was shared or not is second order, and in any case the judge said it was, and it seems like the cyclist would have ample reason to think it was (sign indicating shared usage a couple of minutes down the road, and there was no subsequent sign telling cyclists to use the road).
Yet how did the judge know it was shared, if plod couldn't tell him?
"This was, I think, a shared path for cyclists and pedestrians that allowed them to go around the busy ring road. The vital point is this: I am sure you knew cyclists used that path and you were not taken by surprise or in fear for your safety."
From that I read it as the judge saying it was a shared path "de facto" and that was more important than what the council intended but had not communicated clearly to either cyclists or pedestrians.
I don't have a problem with such conclusion, but am still very confused as to why the cyclist has right of way on a shared path.
It's a bi-directional path, so I don't so how right of way comes into it. All traffic, whether pedestrian or cyclist, would be expected to accommodate traffic coming in the opposite direction, i.e. to allow it to pass on one side, rather than occupying the centre of the path.
My interpretation of it, looking at the video, and also the BBC journalist being passed at the same spot by a different cyclist, is that by the lampost there is not sufficient room for them both to pass each other safely.
So one of them has to "give way". The judge clearly thinks it should be the pedestrian who should have stopped and criticises her for not doing so. I would have thought it should be the cyclist.
But the cyclist had given way, to the extent that one needs to give way on a bi-directional path; she'd slowed right down and moved to the side so that they could pass one another safely. The pedestrian, on the other hand, insisted on occupying the centre of the path and deliberately and unnecessarily obstructed the cyclist, causing her to lose control.
I guess this is where we see it differently. If she had done as you said, I fail to see how she ended up in the road without being pushed, in which case the sentence would be too light. She had not slowed with sufficient control for a safe pass. The pedestrian could have helped make it a safe pass, but it looks to me like the cyclist expected the pedestrian to do so.
As a driver I have no right to expect a cyclist to make my driving easier and have to be prepared for them doing things that I don't think likely. I think a cyclist has a similar duty passing a pedestrian on a pavement.
The Highway Code says cyclists should give way to pedestrians:-
Rule 62 ... Some cycle tracks shared with pedestrians will not be separated by such a feature. On such shared use routes, you should always take care when passing pedestrians, especially children, older or disabled people, and allow them plenty of room. Always be prepared to slow down and stop if necessary (see Rule H2). https://www.gov.uk/guidance/the-highway-code/rules-for-cyclists-59-to-82
Rule H2 ... Cyclists should give way to pedestrians on shared use cycle tracks
Those pictures make absolutely clear that a pedestrian and cyclist riding at a slow speed can easily pass in opposite directions with no danger to each other as long as neither occupies the centre of the path. It is not a narrow path.
Which is irrelevant there is nothing in the highway code that says pedestrians have to move from the centre of the path for oncoming cyclists. Is it polite to absolutely but there is no should or must about it.
I don't move out the centre if I have one of the lycra louts pedalling towards me because I have no idea which way they are likely to try and go round me so I just stop dead and let them figure it out
They will go around you on whatever the opposite side is to the direction you go in. It's not rocket science.
Highway Code rule 13 for pedestrians: "... Some routes shared with cyclists will not be separated by such a feature allowing cyclists and pedestrians to share the same space. Cyclists should respect your safety (see Rule 62) but you should also take care not to obstruct or endanger them. Always remain aware of your environment and avoid unnecessary distractions."
Worth pointing out that anything in the HC that says "should" is not underwritten by law. That would need the wording "must".
Yep - and this is causing lots of confusion for giving way at side roads. I think they should change that to "must" urgently because very few people (pedestrians or drivers) are going by it.
I thought the HC had been beefed up recently on this matter of giving pedestrians and cyclists lots of room?
I can’t believe they cut down all the trees at Euston
They were the only things that made the bleakness tolerable. They did it to “move a taxi rank” for HS2
Now look at it
Compared to the magnificence of St. Pancras, or Liverpool Street, you have to ask yourself, who turned Euston into something less appealing than a gents’ toilet in rural Turkey?
The station it replaced was kind of horrible too (from photographs and accounts I've read, never saw it IRL obvs). Certainly no St Pancras, or even Kings Cross. Even the much lamented arch was just your basic Victorian grandiosity. I don't mind Euston once you're inside. Piazzas don't really work here though, we lack the weather or light for it. Better to have big light internal spaces or a park.
“Basic Victorian Grandiosity” is about seven trillion times better than the shite we have now
Maybe. Having heard a lot about the Euston arch and being naturally inclined towards Victoria railway stations I was surprised when I first saw a picture of it, at how ugly it was. And people complained about how dark and dingy the original Euston was. I quite like the main concourse at Euston, but being an East Coast guy it's not a station I've used often, mostly for the sleeper.
Nearly all of that “ugliness” was pollution, however. By the 1950s the Euston Arch had endured 110 years of London smog and soot and it had never been cleaned. Like the Parthenon but dipped in ash
Here it is in its original Doric glory. Beautiful
I find that rather sinister, not totally sure why.
I feel slightly dirty, having just taken a taxi to Euston followed by a ride to the Midlands in a 2/3rds-empty train. If all this wanton destruction has been carried out for my convenience I really didn't need it. Will post-covid demand for train travel ever recover? If not, the entire premise of HS2 will turn out to be mistaken. There used to be three fast trains an hour to Birmingham, now there are only two and they are rarely, if ever, full.
I don't know about feeling dirty, but taking a Pendo when you could have had a Class 68 out of Marylebone was definitely the wrong decision!
A luxury spa hotel in a rural Leicestershire village has closed to guests and cancelled existing bookings so it can provide accommodation for 250 asylum seekers.
The Best Western Premier Yew Lodge Hotel in Kegworth - which includes a Marco Pierre White New York Italian restaurant - stopped taking reservations two weeks ago after bosses signed an 'exclusive use contract' with the Home Office to house refugees.
Mother-of-two Elisabeth Shepherd, 53, said locals were given 'no notice' about their arrival, and said that people were 'frightened, including myself'.
She said: 'A lot of the villagers use the resources at the hotel such as the gym, pool and restaurant and now we've haven't got anything here to use and will have to turn elsewhere for these facilities.
'People found out about the asylum seekers moving into the hotel because their gym memberships were instantly cancelled.'
In what fucking universe is a Best Western a luxury hotel?
Was my immediate reaction but also it does have an MPW restaurant but that is presumably the find them everywhere franchise rather than anything more fancy.
Without expressing a view for or against the verdict I am curious on part of the summing up maybe a lawyer could enlighten me
"A person commits manslaughter is he/she does an unlawful act that a sane and reasonable person would realise would inevitably expose another person to the risk of some harm ( and that other person dies as a result)"
I thought I understood this then looked at the verdict
The pedestrian stayed in the centre The pedestrian shouted and flapped her arm
Now to me while rude and abusive neither seems to me to be an actual unlawful act
If she pushed the cyclist that would be an unlawful act however no one seems to be claiming she did.
I may have it very wrong, but the CCTV looked as if the cyclist came to a halt but kept both feet on the pedals, and lost her balance at that point. If she had put a foot down she may have been fine. Were her feet in clips?
Which doesn't answer the question which is if manslaughter is "A person commits manslaughter is he/she does an unlawful act"
What exactly was the unlawful act? From what is reported she shouted and flapped her arm
does this mean if I prance down my road screaming like a sodomized goat doing my famous seagull impression and a cyclist falls off their bike laughing and dies I am guilty of manslaughter?
I know it's Wikipedia but maybe this sheds some light on it:
Involuntary manslaughter arises where the accused did not intend to cause death or serious injury but caused the death of another through recklessness or criminal negligence. For these purposes, recklessness is defined as a blatant disregard for the dangers of a particular situation.
See I have huge problems with that because who decides where the line is drawn for reckless here? For example I have been off with my mates to watch a chess match and our idol won we are all in high spirits. One of us blows a vuvezala in celebration on the train platform and it startles someone who steps backwards under a train...no way you could forsee that happening but some one would possibly try and make a case of it.
The quote from the summing up said it had to be unlawful behaviour that seems a better way to go for manslaughter because its an actual test that can be applied. Else you have someone doing something completely legal and it just happens to end in unforseen tragedy
A luxury spa hotel in a rural Leicestershire village has closed to guests and cancelled existing bookings so it can provide accommodation for 250 asylum seekers.
The Best Western Premier Yew Lodge Hotel in Kegworth - which includes a Marco Pierre White New York Italian restaurant - stopped taking reservations two weeks ago after bosses signed an 'exclusive use contract' with the Home Office to house refugees.
Mother-of-two Elisabeth Shepherd, 53, said locals were given 'no notice' about their arrival, and said that people were 'frightened, including myself'.
She said: 'A lot of the villagers use the resources at the hotel such as the gym, pool and restaurant and now we've haven't got anything here to use and will have to turn elsewhere for these facilities.
'People found out about the asylum seekers moving into the hotel because their gym memberships were instantly cancelled.'
In what fucking universe is a Best Western a luxury hotel?
A luxury spa hotel in a rural Leicestershire village has closed to guests and cancelled existing bookings so it can provide accommodation for 250 asylum seekers.
The Best Western Premier Yew Lodge Hotel in Kegworth - which includes a Marco Pierre White New York Italian restaurant - stopped taking reservations two weeks ago after bosses signed an 'exclusive use contract' with the Home Office to house refugees.
Mother-of-two Elisabeth Shepherd, 53, said locals were given 'no notice' about their arrival, and said that people were 'frightened, including myself'.
She said: 'A lot of the villagers use the resources at the hotel such as the gym, pool and restaurant and now we've haven't got anything here to use and will have to turn elsewhere for these facilities.
'People found out about the asylum seekers moving into the hotel because their gym memberships were instantly cancelled.'
In what fucking universe is a Best Western a luxury hotel?
Was my immediate reaction but also it does have an MPW restaurant but that is presumably the find them everywhere franchise rather than anything more fancy.
"Redfield & Wilton Strategies – whose poll on Wednesday gave No a nine-point lead over Yes – was called out for consistently spelling both the Scottish Health Secretary and Scottish Secretary’s name wrongly, among other issues.
Pollster Mark McGeoghegan said the firm also failed to include a Yes/No crossbreak in the tables. This would normally allow a glimpse into perceptions among people who voted for or against independence in 2014, but is missing from the Redfield & Wilton polling.
McGeoghegan further criticised the listing of the term “transgenderism” as a political issue. He said that such loaded language should not be used in polling."
Mark is a pollster and strategic communications researcher in Glasgow. He voted No in 2014, but since 2016 has been a member of the Scottish National Party and campaigner for Scottish independence.
Interesting the Nat Onal didn't find time to mention his extracurricular activities when explaining his credentials, but I'm glad to learn that spelling 'Alister' 'Alistair' creates a nine point lead for 'No'. Mind you, I can see why Mr McG is so concerned about spelling when he's got a name that sounds like someone plunging a sink.
Racist today, are we? It's pronounced very easily, in fact.
'Very easily'? I always thought it was more like 'McGeegan'
Put this pointy hat on your head and go sit on the stool in the corner
I'm loathe to restart the cycling fracas we had a few days ago, but the sentencing remarks have been published in relation to the pedestrian v elderly cyclist thing:
My instinctive view is that the verdict is right but the punishment harsh.
That might be explained by my experience of the casual disregard motorists give to cyclists and pedestrians in Edinburgh, and the astonishing number of road casualties that result. They rarely get punished, so this pedestrian getting 3 years seems unfair.
"You resented the presence of an oncoming cyclist. The footage shows you shouting aggressively and waving your left arm. You do not stop, slow down or move to one side. You are territorial about the pavement and not worried for your own safety. After careful thought, I concluded these actions are not explained by your disabilities."
She has right of way even if a shared path, she never had a duty to stop or move to one side.
"The path at the point of collision 2.4 metres wide."
Her lawyers should be fact checking this one, it seems extremelely unlikely from the video provided. Indeed if that was the case the cyclist could have gone the non road side of her comfortably.
If the cyclist had dismounted and pushed her bike there would have been even less space to pass of course.
Not so. Bike could go in the gutter, or the cyclist could stop and wait with the handlebars turned.
The key issue is again whether it really was shared issue.
Plod wouldn't say.
Why didn't the defence ask for the town council to confirm it and to check the signage? 250m away, one of us said.
The bike went into the gutter, where it was hit by a passing car. The key issue is that an old lady was killed by someone else's belligerence. Whether the space was shared or not is second order, and in any case the judge said it was, and it seems like the cyclist would have ample reason to think it was (sign indicating shared usage a couple of minutes down the road, and there was no subsequent sign telling cyclists to use the road).
Yet how did the judge know it was shared, if plod couldn't tell him?
"This was, I think, a shared path for cyclists and pedestrians that allowed them to go around the busy ring road. The vital point is this: I am sure you knew cyclists used that path and you were not taken by surprise or in fear for your safety."
From that I read it as the judge saying it was a shared path "de facto" and that was more important than what the council intended but had not communicated clearly to either cyclists or pedestrians.
I don't have a problem with such conclusion, but am still very confused as to why the cyclist has right of way on a shared path.
It's a bi-directional path, so I don't so how right of way comes into it. All traffic, whether pedestrian or cyclist, would be expected to accommodate traffic coming in the opposite direction, i.e. to allow it to pass on one side, rather than occupying the centre of the path.
My interpretation of it, looking at the video, and also the BBC journalist being passed at the same spot by a different cyclist, is that by the lampost there is not sufficient room for them both to pass each other safely.
So one of them has to "give way". The judge clearly thinks it should be the pedestrian who should have stopped and criticises her for not doing so. I would have thought it should be the cyclist.
But the cyclist had given way, to the extent that one needs to give way on a bi-directional path; she'd slowed right down and moved to the side so that they could pass one another safely. The pedestrian, on the other hand, insisted on occupying the centre of the path and deliberately and unnecessarily obstructed the cyclist, causing her to lose control.
I guess this is where we see it differently. If she had done as you said, I fail to see how she ended up in the road without being pushed, in which case the sentence would be too light. She had not slowed with sufficient control for a safe pass. The pedestrian could have helped make it a safe pass, but it looks to me like the cyclist expected the pedestrian to do so.
As a driver I have no right to expect a cyclist to make my driving easier and have to be prepared for them doing things that I don't think likely. I think a cyclist has a similar duty passing a pedestrian on a pavement.
The Highway Code says cyclists should give way to pedestrians:-
Rule 62 ... Some cycle tracks shared with pedestrians will not be separated by such a feature. On such shared use routes, you should always take care when passing pedestrians, especially children, older or disabled people, and allow them plenty of room. Always be prepared to slow down and stop if necessary (see Rule H2). https://www.gov.uk/guidance/the-highway-code/rules-for-cyclists-59-to-82
Rule H2 ... Cyclists should give way to pedestrians on shared use cycle tracks
Those pictures make absolutely clear that a pedestrian and cyclist riding at a slow speed can easily pass in opposite directions with no danger to each other as long as neither occupies the centre of the path. It is not a narrow path.
Which is irrelevant there is nothing in the highway code that says pedestrians have to move from the centre of the path for oncoming cyclists. Is it polite to absolutely but there is no should or must about it.
I don't move out the centre if I have one of the lycra louts pedalling towards me because I have no idea which way they are likely to try and go round me so I just stop dead and let them figure it out
They will go around you on whatever the opposite side is to the direction you go in. It's not rocket science.
Highway Code rule 13 for pedestrians: "... Some routes shared with cyclists will not be separated by such a feature allowing cyclists and pedestrians to share the same space. Cyclists should respect your safety (see Rule 62) but you should also take care not to obstruct or endanger them. Always remain aware of your environment and avoid unnecessary distractions."
Worth pointing out that anything in the HC that says "should" is not underwritten by law. That would need the wording "must".
Yep - and this is causing lots of confusion for giving way at side roads. I think they should change that to "must" urgently because very few people (pedestrians or drivers) are going by it.
I thought the HC had been beefed up recently on this matter of giving pedestrians and cyclists lots of room?
It has, but the side roads thing is a "should", so not a criminal offence if you don't give way.
I can’t believe they cut down all the trees at Euston
They were the only things that made the bleakness tolerable. They did it to “move a taxi rank” for HS2
Now look at it
Compared to the magnificence of St. Pancras, or Liverpool Street, you have to ask yourself, who turned Euston into something less appealing than a gents’ toilet in rural Turkey?
The station it replaced was kind of horrible too (from photographs and accounts I've read, never saw it IRL obvs). Certainly no St Pancras, or even Kings Cross. Even the much lamented arch was just your basic Victorian grandiosity. I don't mind Euston once you're inside. Piazzas don't really work here though, we lack the weather or light for it. Better to have big light internal spaces or a park.
“Basic Victorian Grandiosity” is about seven trillion times better than the shite we have now
Maybe. Having heard a lot about the Euston arch and being naturally inclined towards Victoria railway stations I was surprised when I first saw a picture of it, at how ugly it was. And people complained about how dark and dingy the original Euston was. I quite like the main concourse at Euston, but being an East Coast guy it's not a station I've used often, mostly for the sleeper.
Nearly all of that “ugliness” was pollution, however. By the 1950s the Euston Arch had endured 110 years of London smog and soot and it had never been cleaned. Like the Parthenon but dipped in ash
Here it is in its original Doric glory. Beautiful
The outer columns are squared, the inner ones Doric. Poor. The rhythm of the columns and gaps is not regular. Poor. The entablature, frize and architrave is far too heavy for the width of the facade. Very poor.
It's a mishmash of bits and pieces by someone with more enthusiasm than experience.
A luxury spa hotel in a rural Leicestershire village has closed to guests and cancelled existing bookings so it can provide accommodation for 250 asylum seekers.
The Best Western Premier Yew Lodge Hotel in Kegworth - which includes a Marco Pierre White New York Italian restaurant - stopped taking reservations two weeks ago after bosses signed an 'exclusive use contract' with the Home Office to house refugees.
Mother-of-two Elisabeth Shepherd, 53, said locals were given 'no notice' about their arrival, and said that people were 'frightened, including myself'.
She said: 'A lot of the villagers use the resources at the hotel such as the gym, pool and restaurant and now we've haven't got anything here to use and will have to turn elsewhere for these facilities.
'People found out about the asylum seekers moving into the hotel because their gym memberships were instantly cancelled.'
In what fucking universe is a Best Western a luxury hotel?
The universe of rural shires.
Nonsense. It's the universe of DM readers, most of whom i'd hazard to guess live in suburbia not the rural shires.
"Redfield & Wilton Strategies – whose poll on Wednesday gave No a nine-point lead over Yes – was called out for consistently spelling both the Scottish Health Secretary and Scottish Secretary’s name wrongly, among other issues.
Pollster Mark McGeoghegan said the firm also failed to include a Yes/No crossbreak in the tables. This would normally allow a glimpse into perceptions among people who voted for or against independence in 2014, but is missing from the Redfield & Wilton polling.
McGeoghegan further criticised the listing of the term “transgenderism” as a political issue. He said that such loaded language should not be used in polling."
Mark is a pollster and strategic communications researcher in Glasgow. He voted No in 2014, but since 2016 has been a member of the Scottish National Party and campaigner for Scottish independence.
Interesting the Nat Onal didn't find time to mention his extracurricular activities when explaining his credentials, but I'm glad to learn that spelling 'Alister' 'Alistair' creates a nine point lead for 'No'. Mind you, I can see why Mr McG is so concerned about spelling when he's got a name that sounds like someone plunging a sink.
Racist today, are we? It's pronounced very easily, in fact.
'Very easily'? I always thought it was more like 'McGeegan'
Put this pointy hat on your head and go sit on the stool in the corner
Ok, poor attempt at phonetic spelling from me, to be fair. It's more like "McGeoghegan", isn't it?
I do actually know a Scot with this surname - friend's husband; I'm assuming he pronounces it right and McGeegan doesn't quite capture it, to be sure (but is pretty much how she, English, says it)
A luxury spa hotel in a rural Leicestershire village has closed to guests and cancelled existing bookings so it can provide accommodation for 250 asylum seekers.
The Best Western Premier Yew Lodge Hotel in Kegworth - which includes a Marco Pierre White New York Italian restaurant - stopped taking reservations two weeks ago after bosses signed an 'exclusive use contract' with the Home Office to house refugees.
Mother-of-two Elisabeth Shepherd, 53, said locals were given 'no notice' about their arrival, and said that people were 'frightened, including myself'.
She said: 'A lot of the villagers use the resources at the hotel such as the gym, pool and restaurant and now we've haven't got anything here to use and will have to turn elsewhere for these facilities.
'People found out about the asylum seekers moving into the hotel because their gym memberships were instantly cancelled.'
In what fucking universe is a Best Western a luxury hotel?
The universe of rural shires.
Nonsense. It's the universe of DM readers, most of whom i'd hazard to guess live in suburbia not the rural shires.
It's the universe of grievance. If they were Premier Inns then they'd be 'top hotel' or similar.
Although, I have stayed in Best Westerns that are shabbier than your typical Premier Inn.
ETA: And, weren't they previously using Britannia Hotels quite a bit? Anything is a luxury hotel compared to that
A luxury spa hotel in a rural Leicestershire village has closed to guests and cancelled existing bookings so it can provide accommodation for 250 asylum seekers.
The Best Western Premier Yew Lodge Hotel in Kegworth - which includes a Marco Pierre White New York Italian restaurant - stopped taking reservations two weeks ago after bosses signed an 'exclusive use contract' with the Home Office to house refugees.
Mother-of-two Elisabeth Shepherd, 53, said locals were given 'no notice' about their arrival, and said that people were 'frightened, including myself'.
She said: 'A lot of the villagers use the resources at the hotel such as the gym, pool and restaurant and now we've haven't got anything here to use and will have to turn elsewhere for these facilities.
'People found out about the asylum seekers moving into the hotel because their gym memberships were instantly cancelled.'
In what fucking universe is a Best Western a luxury hotel?
Daily Mail Alternative Cosmos. You know, the black hole beside the galactic sidebar of shame.
A luxury spa hotel in a rural Leicestershire village has closed to guests and cancelled existing bookings so it can provide accommodation for 250 asylum seekers.
The Best Western Premier Yew Lodge Hotel in Kegworth - which includes a Marco Pierre White New York Italian restaurant - stopped taking reservations two weeks ago after bosses signed an 'exclusive use contract' with the Home Office to house refugees.
Mother-of-two Elisabeth Shepherd, 53, said locals were given 'no notice' about their arrival, and said that people were 'frightened, including myself'.
She said: 'A lot of the villagers use the resources at the hotel such as the gym, pool and restaurant and now we've haven't got anything here to use and will have to turn elsewhere for these facilities.
'People found out about the asylum seekers moving into the hotel because their gym memberships were instantly cancelled.'
In what fucking universe is a Best Western a luxury hotel?
Was my immediate reaction but also it does have an MPW restaurant but that is presumably the find them everywhere franchise rather than anything more fancy.
A luxury spa hotel in a rural Leicestershire village has closed to guests and cancelled existing bookings so it can provide accommodation for 250 asylum seekers.
The Best Western Premier Yew Lodge Hotel in Kegworth - which includes a Marco Pierre White New York Italian restaurant - stopped taking reservations two weeks ago after bosses signed an 'exclusive use contract' with the Home Office to house refugees.
Mother-of-two Elisabeth Shepherd, 53, said locals were given 'no notice' about their arrival, and said that people were 'frightened, including myself'.
She said: 'A lot of the villagers use the resources at the hotel such as the gym, pool and restaurant and now we've haven't got anything here to use and will have to turn elsewhere for these facilities.
'People found out about the asylum seekers moving into the hotel because their gym memberships were instantly cancelled.'
In what fucking universe is a Best Western a luxury hotel?
The universe of rural shires.
Nonsense. It's the universe of DM readers, most of whom i'd hazard to guess live in suburbia not the rural shires.
It's the universe of grievance. If they were Premier Inns then they'd be 'top hotel' or similar.
Although, I have stayed in Best Westerns that are shabbier than your typical Premier Inn.
I recall when Brown decided that the head of the Army needed chopping.
So a back bencher got up to question the expense of the CDS - apparently he had a taste for luxury restaurants.
A luxury spa hotel in a rural Leicestershire village has closed to guests and cancelled existing bookings so it can provide accommodation for 250 asylum seekers.
The Best Western Premier Yew Lodge Hotel in Kegworth - which includes a Marco Pierre White New York Italian restaurant - stopped taking reservations two weeks ago after bosses signed an 'exclusive use contract' with the Home Office to house refugees.
Mother-of-two Elisabeth Shepherd, 53, said locals were given 'no notice' about their arrival, and said that people were 'frightened, including myself'.
She said: 'A lot of the villagers use the resources at the hotel such as the gym, pool and restaurant and now we've haven't got anything here to use and will have to turn elsewhere for these facilities.
'People found out about the asylum seekers moving into the hotel because their gym memberships were instantly cancelled.'
In what fucking universe is a Best Western a luxury hotel?
Was my immediate reaction but also it does have an MPW restaurant but that is presumably the find them everywhere franchise rather than anything more fancy.
After a discussion with @HYUFD this morning, I thought I should try and get more evidence around movement in 2019 voters to see what effect Rishi is having over the past 4 months.
Short answer - nil, very little churn.
I have used the most recent polling data from Techne, PeoplePolling, Omnisis, YouGov and Redfield & Wilton, and compared with the polling data from each firm for the first week in November, just after Rishi became PM. I have averaged out the data from those 5 polling companies.
I did not include Deltapoll as their polling data is a bit threadbare and does not include don't knows which I think is important.
The only small movement in 2019 Conservative voters is an increase in Reform switchers and fewer don't knows, probably return back to Conservatives who have improved their retention.
Hardly any movement for 2019 Labour voters.
For 2019 Lib Dem voters, a reduction in Labour and Green switchers but an increase in don't knows and improved Lib Dem retention.
No sign at all of an increase of 2019 Lib Dem voters going Conservative.
The average of the headline polling figures also show little movement, a slight dip in Labour and an increase in Green and Reform voters.
So 1 in 5 ex-Con Don't Knows have switched to RefUK since October. Can't see that helping the Tories overmuch.
Is Suella Braverman to the left of the public on asylum and migration?
We're really in trouble if so.
Well, Labour is.
And Lineker might want to keep away from lamp-posts....
Labour will (I hope) stick to an attack on competence and allow the Cons to own the anti-migrant rhetoric space. It won't rescue the election and it just adds to the long term trashing of the brand.
"Redfield & Wilton Strategies – whose poll on Wednesday gave No a nine-point lead over Yes – was called out for consistently spelling both the Scottish Health Secretary and Scottish Secretary’s name wrongly, among other issues.
Pollster Mark McGeoghegan said the firm also failed to include a Yes/No crossbreak in the tables. This would normally allow a glimpse into perceptions among people who voted for or against independence in 2014, but is missing from the Redfield & Wilton polling.
McGeoghegan further criticised the listing of the term “transgenderism” as a political issue. He said that such loaded language should not be used in polling."
Mark is a pollster and strategic communications researcher in Glasgow. He voted No in 2014, but since 2016 has been a member of the Scottish National Party and campaigner for Scottish independence.
Interesting the Nat Onal didn't find time to mention his extracurricular activities when explaining his credentials, but I'm glad to learn that spelling 'Alister' 'Alistair' creates a nine point lead for 'No'. Mind you, I can see why Mr McG is so concerned about spelling when he's got a name that sounds like someone plunging a sink.
Racist today, are we? It's pronounced very easily, in fact.
'Very easily'? I always thought it was more like 'McGeegan'
Put this pointy hat on your head and go sit on the stool in the corner
Ok, poor attempt at phonetic spelling from me, to be fair. It's more like "McGeoghegan", isn't it?
I do actually know a Scot with this surname - friend's husband; I'm assuming he pronounces it right and McGeegan doesn't quite capture it, to be sure (but is pretty much how she, English, says it)
Knew a guy at Uni surnamed Geogehan.(no Mc). He pronounced it "Gaygun". But his family were Irish not Scots.
I can’t believe they cut down all the trees at Euston
They were the only things that made the bleakness tolerable. They did it to “move a taxi rank” for HS2
Now look at it
Compared to the magnificence of St. Pancras, or Liverpool Street, you have to ask yourself, who turned Euston into something less appealing than a gents’ toilet in rural Turkey?
The station it replaced was kind of horrible too (from photographs and accounts I've read, never saw it IRL obvs). Certainly no St Pancras, or even Kings Cross. Even the much lamented arch was just your basic Victorian grandiosity. I don't mind Euston once you're inside. Piazzas don't really work here though, we lack the weather or light for it. Better to have big light internal spaces or a park.
“Basic Victorian Grandiosity” is about seven trillion times better than the shite we have now
Maybe. Having heard a lot about the Euston arch and being naturally inclined towards Victoria railway stations I was surprised when I first saw a picture of it, at how ugly it was. And people complained about how dark and dingy the original Euston was. I quite like the main concourse at Euston, but being an East Coast guy it's not a station I've used often, mostly for the sleeper.
Nearly all of that “ugliness” was pollution, however. By the 1950s the Euston Arch had endured 110 years of London smog and soot and it had never been cleaned. Like the Parthenon but dipped in ash
Here it is in its original Doric glory. Beautiful
The outer columns are squared, the inner ones Doric. Poor. The rhythm of the columns and gaps is not regular. Poor. The entablature, frize and architrave is far too heavy for the width of the facade. Very poor.
It's a mishmash of bits and pieces by someone with more enthusiasm than experience.
Nonetheless its hugely better than what is there now....
"Redfield & Wilton Strategies – whose poll on Wednesday gave No a nine-point lead over Yes – was called out for consistently spelling both the Scottish Health Secretary and Scottish Secretary’s name wrongly, among other issues.
Pollster Mark McGeoghegan said the firm also failed to include a Yes/No crossbreak in the tables. This would normally allow a glimpse into perceptions among people who voted for or against independence in 2014, but is missing from the Redfield & Wilton polling.
McGeoghegan further criticised the listing of the term “transgenderism” as a political issue. He said that such loaded language should not be used in polling."
Mark is a pollster and strategic communications researcher in Glasgow. He voted No in 2014, but since 2016 has been a member of the Scottish National Party and campaigner for Scottish independence.
Interesting the Nat Onal didn't find time to mention his extracurricular activities when explaining his credentials, but I'm glad to learn that spelling 'Alister' 'Alistair' creates a nine point lead for 'No'. Mind you, I can see why Mr McG is so concerned about spelling when he's got a name that sounds like someone plunging a sink.
Racist today, are we? It's pronounced very easily, in fact.
'Very easily'? I always thought it was more like 'McGeegan'
Put this pointy hat on your head and go sit on the stool in the corner
Ok, poor attempt at phonetic spelling from me, to be fair. It's more like "McGeoghegan", isn't it?
I do actually know a Scot with this surname - friend's husband; I'm assuming he pronounces it right and McGeegan doesn't quite capture it, to be sure (but is pretty much how she, English, says it)
Knew a guy at Uni surnamed Geogehan.(no Mc). He pronounced it "Gaygun". But his family were Irish not Scots.
A luxury spa hotel in a rural Leicestershire village has closed to guests and cancelled existing bookings so it can provide accommodation for 250 asylum seekers.
The Best Western Premier Yew Lodge Hotel in Kegworth - which includes a Marco Pierre White New York Italian restaurant - stopped taking reservations two weeks ago after bosses signed an 'exclusive use contract' with the Home Office to house refugees.
Mother-of-two Elisabeth Shepherd, 53, said locals were given 'no notice' about their arrival, and said that people were 'frightened, including myself'.
She said: 'A lot of the villagers use the resources at the hotel such as the gym, pool and restaurant and now we've haven't got anything here to use and will have to turn elsewhere for these facilities.
'People found out about the asylum seekers moving into the hotel because their gym memberships were instantly cancelled.'
In what fucking universe is a Best Western a luxury hotel?
Was my immediate reaction but also it does have an MPW restaurant but that is presumably the find them everywhere franchise rather than anything more fancy.
A luxury spa hotel in a rural Leicestershire village has closed to guests and cancelled existing bookings so it can provide accommodation for 250 asylum seekers.
The Best Western Premier Yew Lodge Hotel in Kegworth - which includes a Marco Pierre White New York Italian restaurant - stopped taking reservations two weeks ago after bosses signed an 'exclusive use contract' with the Home Office to house refugees.
Mother-of-two Elisabeth Shepherd, 53, said locals were given 'no notice' about their arrival, and said that people were 'frightened, including myself'.
She said: 'A lot of the villagers use the resources at the hotel such as the gym, pool and restaurant and now we've haven't got anything here to use and will have to turn elsewhere for these facilities.
'People found out about the asylum seekers moving into the hotel because their gym memberships were instantly cancelled.'
In what fucking universe is a Best Western a luxury hotel?
Was my immediate reaction but also it does have an MPW restaurant but that is presumably the find them everywhere franchise rather than anything more fancy.
I find the whole "I'm too precious to use hotel X" a bit strange. Sure, an award winning cocktail bar is nice. But a hotel is just a place to sleep, ultimately. As long as it is clean and everything works, I don't mind.
Most expensive hotels achieve price but not quality. I've had some pretty rubbish cocktails in the bars of allegedly top hotels.
I can’t believe they cut down all the trees at Euston
They were the only things that made the bleakness tolerable. They did it to “move a taxi rank” for HS2
Now look at it
Compared to the magnificence of St. Pancras, or Liverpool Street, you have to ask yourself, who turned Euston into something less appealing than a gents’ toilet in rural Turkey?
The station it replaced was kind of horrible too (from photographs and accounts I've read, never saw it IRL obvs). Certainly no St Pancras, or even Kings Cross. Even the much lamented arch was just your basic Victorian grandiosity. I don't mind Euston once you're inside. Piazzas don't really work here though, we lack the weather or light for it. Better to have big light internal spaces or a park.
“Basic Victorian Grandiosity” is about seven trillion times better than the shite we have now
Maybe. Having heard a lot about the Euston arch and being naturally inclined towards Victoria railway stations I was surprised when I first saw a picture of it, at how ugly it was. And people complained about how dark and dingy the original Euston was. I quite like the main concourse at Euston, but being an East Coast guy it's not a station I've used often, mostly for the sleeper.
Nearly all of that “ugliness” was pollution, however. By the 1950s the Euston Arch had endured 110 years of London smog and soot and it had never been cleaned. Like the Parthenon but dipped in ash
Here it is in its original Doric glory. Beautiful
The outer columns are squared, the inner ones Doric. Poor. The rhythm of the columns and gaps is not regular. Poor. The entablature, frize and architrave is far too heavy for the width of the facade. Very poor.
It's a mishmash of bits and pieces by someone with more enthusiasm than experience.
Nonetheless its hugely better than what is there now....
Euston always feels third world to me.
King Charles time travelled and did the Euston Arch, ala Poundbury?
I can’t believe they cut down all the trees at Euston
They were the only things that made the bleakness tolerable. They did it to “move a taxi rank” for HS2
Now look at it
Compared to the magnificence of St. Pancras, or Liverpool Street, you have to ask yourself, who turned Euston into something less appealing than a gents’ toilet in rural Turkey?
The station it replaced was kind of horrible too (from photographs and accounts I've read, never saw it IRL obvs). Certainly no St Pancras, or even Kings Cross. Even the much lamented arch was just your basic Victorian grandiosity. I don't mind Euston once you're inside. Piazzas don't really work here though, we lack the weather or light for it. Better to have big light internal spaces or a park.
“Basic Victorian Grandiosity” is about seven trillion times better than the shite we have now
Maybe. Having heard a lot about the Euston arch and being naturally inclined towards Victoria railway stations I was surprised when I first saw a picture of it, at how ugly it was. And people complained about how dark and dingy the original Euston was. I quite like the main concourse at Euston, but being an East Coast guy it's not a station I've used often, mostly for the sleeper.
Nearly all of that “ugliness” was pollution, however. By the 1950s the Euston Arch had endured 110 years of London smog and soot and it had never been cleaned. Like the Parthenon but dipped in ash
Here it is in its original Doric glory. Beautiful
The outer columns are squared, the inner ones Doric. Poor. The rhythm of the columns and gaps is not regular. Poor. The entablature, frize and architrave is far too heavy for the width of the facade. Very poor.
It's a mishmash of bits and pieces by someone with more enthusiasm than experience.
Nonetheless its hugely better than what is there now....
Euston always feels third world to me.
May well be true, not sure I've ever been to Euston; if I have it would have been straight up from the underground (I presume the Underground is accessed within the station?) so the outside is a complete unknown to me.
A luxury spa hotel in a rural Leicestershire village has closed to guests and cancelled existing bookings so it can provide accommodation for 250 asylum seekers.
The Best Western Premier Yew Lodge Hotel in Kegworth - which includes a Marco Pierre White New York Italian restaurant - stopped taking reservations two weeks ago after bosses signed an 'exclusive use contract' with the Home Office to house refugees.
Mother-of-two Elisabeth Shepherd, 53, said locals were given 'no notice' about their arrival, and said that people were 'frightened, including myself'.
She said: 'A lot of the villagers use the resources at the hotel such as the gym, pool and restaurant and now we've haven't got anything here to use and will have to turn elsewhere for these facilities.
'People found out about the asylum seekers moving into the hotel because their gym memberships were instantly cancelled.'
In what fucking universe is a Best Western a luxury hotel?
Was my immediate reaction but also it does have an MPW restaurant but that is presumably the find them everywhere franchise rather than anything more fancy.
I find the whole "I'm too precious to use hotel X" a bit strange. Sure, an award winning cocktail bar is nice. But a hotel is just a place to sleep, ultimately. As long as it is clean and everything works, I don't mind.
Most expensive hotels achieve price but not quality. I've had some pretty rubbish cocktails in the bars of allegedly top hotels.
tbf it depends. If it is somewhere to sleep while you are doing X then yes absolutely - clean, hot and plentiful water, etc is just what you need. If you will be hanging out there for whatever reason then it's fair to want all that and a bit more.
A luxury spa hotel in a rural Leicestershire village has closed to guests and cancelled existing bookings so it can provide accommodation for 250 asylum seekers.
The Best Western Premier Yew Lodge Hotel in Kegworth - which includes a Marco Pierre White New York Italian restaurant - stopped taking reservations two weeks ago after bosses signed an 'exclusive use contract' with the Home Office to house refugees.
Mother-of-two Elisabeth Shepherd, 53, said locals were given 'no notice' about their arrival, and said that people were 'frightened, including myself'.
She said: 'A lot of the villagers use the resources at the hotel such as the gym, pool and restaurant and now we've haven't got anything here to use and will have to turn elsewhere for these facilities.
'People found out about the asylum seekers moving into the hotel because their gym memberships were instantly cancelled.'
In what fucking universe is a Best Western a luxury hotel?
You’re wrong. Best Western is a weird franchise, it’s generally mid mid market - good quality 3 stars - but it can vary wildly. And some properties are definitely in the luxe bracket, if not quite Claridges
Here’s a 5 star Best Western in Vietnam. Not a great booking.com rating but most Brits would call it luxury, for sure
After a discussion with @HYUFD this morning, I thought I should try and get more evidence around movement in 2019 voters to see what effect Rishi is having over the past 4 months.
Short answer - nil, very little churn.
I have used the most recent polling data from Techne, PeoplePolling, Omnisis, YouGov and Redfield & Wilton, and compared with the polling data from each firm for the first week in November, just after Rishi became PM. I have averaged out the data from those 5 polling companies.
I did not include Deltapoll as their polling data is a bit threadbare and does not include don't knows which I think is important.
The only small movement in 2019 Conservative voters is an increase in Reform switchers and fewer don't knows, probably return back to Conservatives who have improved their retention.
Hardly any movement for 2019 Labour voters.
For 2019 Lib Dem voters, a reduction in Labour and Green switchers but an increase in don't knows and improved Lib Dem retention.
No sign at all of an increase of 2019 Lib Dem voters going Conservative.
The average of the headline polling figures also show little movement, a slight dip in Labour and an increase in Green and Reform voters.
On that chart 5% of 2019 LDs now back the Tories with Rishi.
That compares to only 2% of 2019 LDs backing the Conservatives in the last Yougov before Truss resigned on 20 October last year and just 3% of 2019 LDs backing the Conservatives in the last Yougov in June last year before Boris resigned
The BBC find themselves in a lose lose situation now.
They either back Linekar and face down government ire or they sack him and are seen to be doing the government’s bidding.
Lots of heads hitting desks in Broadcasting House right about now I’d think.
Gary Lineker is the latest in a list of public figures whose name PBers find it impossible to spell.
See also, Sue "Fifty Shades Of" Gray, Angela "Red" Rayner, Owen "Badger" Paterson, Sir Keir "Royale" Starmer........
It's a form of sport - taking the piss out of their temporary celebrity status by getting their name wrong...
All celebrity is temporary - everyone but a handful of oddities (Beau Brummell, for example) fade from memory within less than a century.
But Lineker isn't doing too badly, as he's into at least his fourth decade of public recognition (even by those like me who don't give a damn about football).
I bumped into Gary Lineker on Portland Place once
He is absolutely tiny. Quite astonishingly small, or at least gives that impression. OR I met someone exactly like him but weirdly miniaturized
On Twitter I claimed that I had met “Gary Lineker’s bonsai doppelgänger”, a phrase which still pleases me and which became an internet meme for about, ooh, thirty five minutes. Fame is so fleeting, as you say
GARY LINEKER’S BONSAI DOPPLEGANGER
Even typing it out is fun
177.2cm, Google tells me. The 2mm insisted upon is a nice touch.
When was that measured though? We all shrink with age...
At a guess, someone read in an old Panini album that Gary Lineker stands 5 feet, 9 and 3/4 inches, and then converted it to metric because reasons and metric is lovely and that's where the .2 came from.
Has he got the boot yet?
The BBC must wish the Lineker row would just go away. If he does get the push, then people will be all over Andrew Neil, Alan Sugar and anyone else who has ever been on the BBC and expressed views stridently, but did not come to fame via their BBC work. And as others have pointed out, now the BBC is run by card-carrying Conservatives.
Bollocks.its just enforcing it's impartiality as it ought to have done. Just think back to how the luvvies were guzzling champers when Blair won in 97. If Lineker gets the boot, it will be no more than he deserves. He has after all been warned.. he is in the last chance saloon.
Lineker's remarks were from a tweet on his personal account, not voiced to camera on Match of the Day.
Which, according to the BBC social media rules, is irrelevant - I'm guessing in recognition of the fact that his status as a BBC presenter gets him followers.
Lineker is primarily famous as a footballer and not a BBC personality.
Not sure that's true for younger generations.
Anyway, Lineker expressing political opinions is fine and in line with other BBC personalities. What is unacceptable is the downplaying of the suffering of Jews in the 1930s at the hands of mass violence by comparisons to asylum restrictions. He shouldn't get fired for it, but he should be on notice.
On the topic of his tax affairs, why doesn't the BBC just have a policy of refusing to use freelancers for presenters on more than a million? They would all buckle.
We've been through this. It is the language of the nazis, by creating an "other" and calling those who don't agree with this othering "traitors".
The new act is not the action of the nazis, it is the language.
And I responded to this point. The Nazis openly referred to Jews as a barbarous race responsible for killing Germans, and also vermin to be exterminated. This language is not being used by Braverman, Sunak or anyone else in the Government. So your claim around language is also minimizing the atmosphere around German Jews.
The truth of the matter is that those on the left don't really care about the collective mental trauma suffered by Jews, as a long lasting legacy of the Nazi period. That is why you accepted Corbyn for so long.
I can’t believe they cut down all the trees at Euston
They were the only things that made the bleakness tolerable. They did it to “move a taxi rank” for HS2
Now look at it
Compared to the magnificence of St. Pancras, or Liverpool Street, you have to ask yourself, who turned Euston into something less appealing than a gents’ toilet in rural Turkey?
The station it replaced was kind of horrible too (from photographs and accounts I've read, never saw it IRL obvs). Certainly no St Pancras, or even Kings Cross. Even the much lamented arch was just your basic Victorian grandiosity. I don't mind Euston once you're inside. Piazzas don't really work here though, we lack the weather or light for it. Better to have big light internal spaces or a park.
“Basic Victorian Grandiosity” is about seven trillion times better than the shite we have now
Maybe. Having heard a lot about the Euston arch and being naturally inclined towards Victoria railway stations I was surprised when I first saw a picture of it, at how ugly it was. And people complained about how dark and dingy the original Euston was. I quite like the main concourse at Euston, but being an East Coast guy it's not a station I've used often, mostly for the sleeper.
Nearly all of that “ugliness” was pollution, however. By the 1950s the Euston Arch had endured 110 years of London smog and soot and it had never been cleaned. Like the Parthenon but dipped in ash
Here it is in its original Doric glory. Beautiful
The outer columns are squared, the inner ones Doric. Poor. The rhythm of the columns and gaps is not regular. Poor. The entablature, frize and architrave is far too heavy for the width of the facade. Very poor.
It's a mishmash of bits and pieces by someone with more enthusiasm than experience.
Nonetheless its hugely better than what is there now....
Euston always feels third world to me.
Gosh! When I lived there in the 80's, what on Earth would that have made King's Cross? Stone Age at least.
I can’t believe they cut down all the trees at Euston
They were the only things that made the bleakness tolerable. They did it to “move a taxi rank” for HS2
Now look at it
Compared to the magnificence of St. Pancras, or Liverpool Street, you have to ask yourself, who turned Euston into something less appealing than a gents’ toilet in rural Turkey?
The station it replaced was kind of horrible too (from photographs and accounts I've read, never saw it IRL obvs). Certainly no St Pancras, or even Kings Cross. Even the much lamented arch was just your basic Victorian grandiosity. I don't mind Euston once you're inside. Piazzas don't really work here though, we lack the weather or light for it. Better to have big light internal spaces or a park.
“Basic Victorian Grandiosity” is about seven trillion times better than the shite we have now
Maybe. Having heard a lot about the Euston arch and being naturally inclined towards Victoria railway stations I was surprised when I first saw a picture of it, at how ugly it was. And people complained about how dark and dingy the original Euston was. I quite like the main concourse at Euston, but being an East Coast guy it's not a station I've used often, mostly for the sleeper.
Nearly all of that “ugliness” was pollution, however. By the 1950s the Euston Arch had endured 110 years of London smog and soot and it had never been cleaned. Like the Parthenon but dipped in ash
Here it is in its original Doric glory. Beautiful
The outer columns are squared, the inner ones Doric. Poor. The rhythm of the columns and gaps is not regular. Poor. The entablature, frize and architrave is far too heavy for the width of the facade. Very poor.
It's a mishmash of bits and pieces by someone with more enthusiasm than experience.
Nonetheless its hugely better than what is there now....
Euston always feels third world to me.
King Charles time travelled and did the Euston Arch, ala Poundbury?
This thing? Note the cunning pre-antiquing effect on the boundary wall. ISTR that the propylaeum in the cemetery was also cleverly pre-ruined but that is just my memory of a visit a few years ago.
I can’t believe they cut down all the trees at Euston
They were the only things that made the bleakness tolerable. They did it to “move a taxi rank” for HS2
Now look at it
Compared to the magnificence of St. Pancras, or Liverpool Street, you have to ask yourself, who turned Euston into something less appealing than a gents’ toilet in rural Turkey?
The station it replaced was kind of horrible too (from photographs and accounts I've read, never saw it IRL obvs). Certainly no St Pancras, or even Kings Cross. Even the much lamented arch was just your basic Victorian grandiosity. I don't mind Euston once you're inside. Piazzas don't really work here though, we lack the weather or light for it. Better to have big light internal spaces or a park.
“Basic Victorian Grandiosity” is about seven trillion times better than the shite we have now
Maybe. Having heard a lot about the Euston arch and being naturally inclined towards Victoria railway stations I was surprised when I first saw a picture of it, at how ugly it was. And people complained about how dark and dingy the original Euston was. I quite like the main concourse at Euston, but being an East Coast guy it's not a station I've used often, mostly for the sleeper.
Nearly all of that “ugliness” was pollution, however. By the 1950s the Euston Arch had endured 110 years of London smog and soot and it had never been cleaned. Like the Parthenon but dipped in ash
Here it is in its original Doric glory. Beautiful
The outer columns are squared, the inner ones Doric. Poor. The rhythm of the columns and gaps is not regular. Poor. The entablature, frize and architrave is far too heavy for the width of the facade. Very poor.
It's a mishmash of bits and pieces by someone with more enthusiasm than experience.
Nonetheless its hugely better than what is there now....
Euston always feels third world to me.
May well be true, not sure I've ever been to Euston; if I have it would have been straight up from the underground (I presume the Underground is accessed within the station?) so the outside is a complete unknown to me.
Not sure if this has been done yet, but this week's YouGov poll was published by The Times Red Box this morning: Labour 45 (-2) Tory 23 (-2) LibDem 10 (-) Greens 7 (+1) Reform 7 (+2) SNP 4 (-) No polling dates were provided, but the previous week's (referenced in brackets) was 28th February and 1st March, so it's likely this one was conducted on Tuesday and Wednesday. If so, no Tory small boat bounce as yet.
"Redfield & Wilton Strategies – whose poll on Wednesday gave No a nine-point lead over Yes – was called out for consistently spelling both the Scottish Health Secretary and Scottish Secretary’s name wrongly, among other issues.
Pollster Mark McGeoghegan said the firm also failed to include a Yes/No crossbreak in the tables. This would normally allow a glimpse into perceptions among people who voted for or against independence in 2014, but is missing from the Redfield & Wilton polling.
McGeoghegan further criticised the listing of the term “transgenderism” as a political issue. He said that such loaded language should not be used in polling."
Mark is a pollster and strategic communications researcher in Glasgow. He voted No in 2014, but since 2016 has been a member of the Scottish National Party and campaigner for Scottish independence.
Interesting the Nat Onal didn't find time to mention his extracurricular activities when explaining his credentials, but I'm glad to learn that spelling 'Alister' 'Alistair' creates a nine point lead for 'No'. Mind you, I can see why Mr McG is so concerned about spelling when he's got a name that sounds like someone plunging a sink.
Racist today, are we? It's pronounced very easily, in fact.
'Very easily'? I always thought it was more like 'McGeegan'
Put this pointy hat on your head and go sit on the stool in the corner
Ok, poor attempt at phonetic spelling from me, to be fair. It's more like "McGeoghegan", isn't it?
I do actually know a Scot with this surname - friend's husband; I'm assuming he pronounces it right and McGeegan doesn't quite capture it, to be sure (but is pretty much how she, English, says it)
Knew a guy at Uni surnamed Geogehan.(no Mc). He pronounced it "Gaygun". But his family were Irish not Scots.
Yep, that's probably closer to what I've heard, but with the 'gun' (or 'gan') bit quite short, no emphasis.
But if it's Irish (which does make sense when you think about it) then maybe his pronunciation is not authentic either.
ETA: Like this guy (who is in fact the guy we were originally discussing, probably, given he describes himself as a polling expert) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MBNnf8LE7uw
I can’t believe they cut down all the trees at Euston
They were the only things that made the bleakness tolerable. They did it to “move a taxi rank” for HS2
Now look at it
Compared to the magnificence of St. Pancras, or Liverpool Street, you have to ask yourself, who turned Euston into something less appealing than a gents’ toilet in rural Turkey?
The station it replaced was kind of horrible too (from photographs and accounts I've read, never saw it IRL obvs). Certainly no St Pancras, or even Kings Cross. Even the much lamented arch was just your basic Victorian grandiosity. I don't mind Euston once you're inside. Piazzas don't really work here though, we lack the weather or light for it. Better to have big light internal spaces or a park.
“Basic Victorian Grandiosity” is about seven trillion times better than the shite we have now
Maybe. Having heard a lot about the Euston arch and being naturally inclined towards Victoria railway stations I was surprised when I first saw a picture of it, at how ugly it was. And people complained about how dark and dingy the original Euston was. I quite like the main concourse at Euston, but being an East Coast guy it's not a station I've used often, mostly for the sleeper.
Nearly all of that “ugliness” was pollution, however. By the 1950s the Euston Arch had endured 110 years of London smog and soot and it had never been cleaned. Like the Parthenon but dipped in ash
Here it is in its original Doric glory. Beautiful
The outer columns are squared, the inner ones Doric. Poor. The rhythm of the columns and gaps is not regular. Poor. The entablature, frize and architrave is far too heavy for the width of the facade. Very poor.
It's a mishmash of bits and pieces by someone with more enthusiasm than experience.
Nonetheless its hugely better than what is there now....
Euston always feels third world to me.
King Charles time travelled and did the Euston Arch, ala Poundbury?
This thing? Note the cunning pre-antiquing effect on the boundary wall. ISTR that the propylaeum in the cemetery was also cleverly pre-ruined but that is just my memory of a visit a few years ago.
I can’t believe they cut down all the trees at Euston
They were the only things that made the bleakness tolerable. They did it to “move a taxi rank” for HS2
Now look at it
Compared to the magnificence of St. Pancras, or Liverpool Street, you have to ask yourself, who turned Euston into something less appealing than a gents’ toilet in rural Turkey?
The station it replaced was kind of horrible too (from photographs and accounts I've read, never saw it IRL obvs). Certainly no St Pancras, or even Kings Cross. Even the much lamented arch was just your basic Victorian grandiosity. I don't mind Euston once you're inside. Piazzas don't really work here though, we lack the weather or light for it. Better to have big light internal spaces or a park.
“Basic Victorian Grandiosity” is about seven trillion times better than the shite we have now
Maybe. Having heard a lot about the Euston arch and being naturally inclined towards Victoria railway stations I was surprised when I first saw a picture of it, at how ugly it was. And people complained about how dark and dingy the original Euston was. I quite like the main concourse at Euston, but being an East Coast guy it's not a station I've used often, mostly for the sleeper.
Nearly all of that “ugliness” was pollution, however. By the 1950s the Euston Arch had endured 110 years of London smog and soot and it had never been cleaned. Like the Parthenon but dipped in ash
Here it is in its original Doric glory. Beautiful
The outer columns are squared, the inner ones Doric. Poor. The rhythm of the columns and gaps is not regular. Poor. The entablature, frize and architrave is far too heavy for the width of the facade. Very poor.
It's a mishmash of bits and pieces by someone with more enthusiasm than experience.
Nonetheless its hugely better than what is there now....
Euston always feels third world to me.
King Charles time travelled and did the Euston Arch, ala Poundbury?
This thing? Note the cunning pre-antiquing effect on the boundary wall. ISTR that the propylaeum in the cemetery was also cleverly pre-ruined but that is just my memory of a visit a few years ago.
I can’t believe they cut down all the trees at Euston
They were the only things that made the bleakness tolerable. They did it to “move a taxi rank” for HS2
Now look at it
Compared to the magnificence of St. Pancras, or Liverpool Street, you have to ask yourself, who turned Euston into something less appealing than a gents’ toilet in rural Turkey?
The station it replaced was kind of horrible too (from photographs and accounts I've read, never saw it IRL obvs). Certainly no St Pancras, or even Kings Cross. Even the much lamented arch was just your basic Victorian grandiosity. I don't mind Euston once you're inside. Piazzas don't really work here though, we lack the weather or light for it. Better to have big light internal spaces or a park.
“Basic Victorian Grandiosity” is about seven trillion times better than the shite we have now
Maybe. Having heard a lot about the Euston arch and being naturally inclined towards Victoria railway stations I was surprised when I first saw a picture of it, at how ugly it was. And people complained about how dark and dingy the original Euston was. I quite like the main concourse at Euston, but being an East Coast guy it's not a station I've used often, mostly for the sleeper.
Nearly all of that “ugliness” was pollution, however. By the 1950s the Euston Arch had endured 110 years of London smog and soot and it had never been cleaned. Like the Parthenon but dipped in ash
Here it is in its original Doric glory. Beautiful
I find that rather sinister, not totally sure why.
I feel slightly dirty, having just taken a taxi to Euston followed by a ride to the Midlands in a 2/3rds-empty train. If all this wanton destruction has been carried out for my convenience I really didn't need it. Will post-covid demand for train travel ever recover? If not, the entire premise of HS2 will turn out to be mistaken. There used to be three fast trains an hour to Birmingham, now there are only two and they are rarely, if ever, full.
I don't know about feeling dirty, but taking a Pendo when you could have had a Class 68 out of Marylebone was definitely the wrong decision!
Is Suella Braverman to the left of the public on asylum and migration?
We're really in trouble if so.
Well, Labour is.
And Lineker might want to keep away from lamp-posts....
Labour will (I hope) stick to an attack on competence and allow the Cons to own the anti-migrant rhetoric space. It won't rescue the election and it just adds to the long term trashing of the brand.
The Cons have somehow engineered it such that Labour, if they desired, could reasonably promise to be both more liberal on asylum immigration (e.g. defining legal routes, processing onshore) and simultaneously more effective in controlling it.
Not sure if this has been done yet, but this week's YouGov poll was published by The Times Red Box this morning: Labour 45 (-2) Tory 23 (-2) LibDem 10 (-) Greens 7 (+1) Reform 7 (+2) SNP 4 (-) No polling dates were provided, but the previous week's (referenced in brackets) was 28th February and 1st March, so it's likely this one was conducted on Tuesday and Wednesday. If so, no Tory small boat bounce as yet.
Maybe a small boat bounce for Farage. Wouldn't that be funny?
The BBC find themselves in a lose lose situation now.
They either back Linekar and face down government ire or they sack him and are seen to be doing the government’s bidding.
Lots of heads hitting desks in Broadcasting House right about now I’d think.
Gary Lineker is the latest in a list of public figures whose name PBers find it impossible to spell.
See also, Sue "Fifty Shades Of" Gray, Angela "Red" Rayner, Owen "Badger" Paterson, Sir Keir "Royale" Starmer........
It's a form of sport - taking the piss out of their temporary celebrity status by getting their name wrong...
All celebrity is temporary - everyone but a handful of oddities (Beau Brummell, for example) fade from memory within less than a century.
But Lineker isn't doing too badly, as he's into at least his fourth decade of public recognition (even by those like me who don't give a damn about football).
I bumped into Gary Lineker on Portland Place once
He is absolutely tiny. Quite astonishingly small, or at least gives that impression. OR I met someone exactly like him but weirdly miniaturized
On Twitter I claimed that I had met “Gary Lineker’s bonsai doppelgänger”, a phrase which still pleases me and which became an internet meme for about, ooh, thirty five minutes. Fame is so fleeting, as you say
GARY LINEKER’S BONSAI DOPPLEGANGER
Even typing it out is fun
177.2cm, Google tells me. The 2mm insisted upon is a nice touch.
When was that measured though? We all shrink with age...
At a guess, someone read in an old Panini album that Gary Lineker stands 5 feet, 9 and 3/4 inches, and then converted it to metric because reasons and metric is lovely and that's where the .2 came from.
Has he got the boot yet?
The BBC must wish the Lineker row would just go away. If he does get the push, then people will be all over Andrew Neil, Alan Sugar and anyone else who has ever been on the BBC and expressed views stridently, but did not come to fame via their BBC work. And as others have pointed out, now the BBC is run by card-carrying Conservatives.
Bollocks.its just enforcing it's impartiality as it ought to have done. Just think back to how the luvvies were guzzling champers when Blair won in 97. If Lineker gets the boot, it will be no more than he deserves. He has after all been warned.. he is in the last chance saloon.
Lineker's remarks were from a tweet on his personal account, not voiced to camera on Match of the Day.
Which, according to the BBC social media rules, is irrelevant - I'm guessing in recognition of the fact that his status as a BBC presenter gets him followers.
Lineker is primarily famous as a footballer and not a BBC personality.
Not sure that's true for younger generations.
Anyway, Lineker expressing political opinions is fine and in line with other BBC personalities. What is unacceptable is the downplaying of the suffering of Jews in the 1930s at the hands of mass violence by comparisons to asylum restrictions. He shouldn't get fired for it, but he should be on notice.
On the topic of his tax affairs, why doesn't the BBC just have a policy of refusing to use freelancers for presenters on more than a million? They would all buckle.
We've been through this. It is the language of the nazis, by creating an "other" and calling those who don't agree with this othering "traitors".
The new act is not the action of the nazis, it is the language.
And I responded to this point. The Nazis openly referred to Jews as a barbarous race responsible for killing Germans, and also vermin to be exterminated. This language is not being used by Braverman, Sunak or anyone else in the Government. So your claim around language is also minimizing the atmosphere around German Jews.
The truth of the matter is that those on the left don't really care about the collective mental trauma suffered by Jews, as a long lasting legacy of the Nazi period. That is why you accepted Corbyn for so long.
Er yeah, big Corbyn supporter, me. Go Jezza.
You (Suella and the Cons) use the vernacular of othering and calling people traitors to their country. That is the point.
After a discussion with @HYUFD this morning, I thought I should try and get more evidence around movement in 2019 voters to see what effect Rishi is having over the past 4 months.
Short answer - nil, very little churn.
I have used the most recent polling data from Techne, PeoplePolling, Omnisis, YouGov and Redfield & Wilton, and compared with the polling data from each firm for the first week in November, just after Rishi became PM. I have averaged out the data from those 5 polling companies.
I did not include Deltapoll as their polling data is a bit threadbare and does not include don't knows which I think is important.
The only small movement in 2019 Conservative voters is an increase in Reform switchers and fewer don't knows, probably return back to Conservatives who have improved their retention.
Hardly any movement for 2019 Labour voters.
For 2019 Lib Dem voters, a reduction in Labour and Green switchers but an increase in don't knows and improved Lib Dem retention.
No sign at all of an increase of 2019 Lib Dem voters going Conservative.
The average of the headline polling figures also show little movement, a slight dip in Labour and an increase in Green and Reform voters.
On that chart 5% of 2019 LDs now back the Tories with Rishi.
That compares to only 2% of 2019 LDs backing the Conservatives in the last Yougov before Truss resigned on 20 October last year and just 3% of 2019 LDs backing the Conservatives in the last Yougov in June last year before Boris resigned
Yes, but 5% backed the Tories at the start of the Rishi reign. There is no evidence of any change in 2019 Lib Dem voters deciding to vote Tory as a result of Rishi. Over a four month period, nothing has happened.
A luxury spa hotel in a rural Leicestershire village has closed to guests and cancelled existing bookings so it can provide accommodation for 250 asylum seekers.
The Best Western Premier Yew Lodge Hotel in Kegworth - which includes a Marco Pierre White New York Italian restaurant - stopped taking reservations two weeks ago after bosses signed an 'exclusive use contract' with the Home Office to house refugees.
Mother-of-two Elisabeth Shepherd, 53, said locals were given 'no notice' about their arrival, and said that people were 'frightened, including myself'.
She said: 'A lot of the villagers use the resources at the hotel such as the gym, pool and restaurant and now we've haven't got anything here to use and will have to turn elsewhere for these facilities.
'People found out about the asylum seekers moving into the hotel because their gym memberships were instantly cancelled.'
In what fucking universe is a Best Western a luxury hotel?
You’re wrong. Best Western is a weird franchise, it’s generally mid mid market - good quality 3 stars - but it can vary wildly. And some properties are definitely in the luxe bracket, if not quite Claridges
Here’s a 5 star Best Western in Vietnam. Not a great booking.com rating but most Brits would call it luxury, for sure
I can’t believe they cut down all the trees at Euston
They were the only things that made the bleakness tolerable. They did it to “move a taxi rank” for HS2
Now look at it
Compared to the magnificence of St. Pancras, or Liverpool Street, you have to ask yourself, who turned Euston into something less appealing than a gents’ toilet in rural Turkey?
The station it replaced was kind of horrible too (from photographs and accounts I've read, never saw it IRL obvs). Certainly no St Pancras, or even Kings Cross. Even the much lamented arch was just your basic Victorian grandiosity. I don't mind Euston once you're inside. Piazzas don't really work here though, we lack the weather or light for it. Better to have big light internal spaces or a park.
“Basic Victorian Grandiosity” is about seven trillion times better than the shite we have now
Maybe. Having heard a lot about the Euston arch and being naturally inclined towards Victoria railway stations I was surprised when I first saw a picture of it, at how ugly it was. And people complained about how dark and dingy the original Euston was. I quite like the main concourse at Euston, but being an East Coast guy it's not a station I've used often, mostly for the sleeper.
Nearly all of that “ugliness” was pollution, however. By the 1950s the Euston Arch had endured 110 years of London smog and soot and it had never been cleaned. Like the Parthenon but dipped in ash
Here it is in its original Doric glory. Beautiful
The outer columns are squared, the inner ones Doric. Poor. The rhythm of the columns and gaps is not regular. Poor. The entablature, frize and architrave is far too heavy for the width of the facade. Very poor.
It's a mishmash of bits and pieces by someone with more enthusiasm than experience.
At the time of its destruction the Architectural Review certainly did not agree with you:
‘Its destruction is wanton and unnecessary – connived at by the British Transport Commission, its guardians, and by the London County Council and the Government, who are jointly responsible for safeguarding London's major architectural monuments, of which this is undoubtedly one. In spite of [...] being one of the outstanding architectural creations of the early nineteenth century and the most important – and visually satisfying – monument to the railway age which Britain pioneered, the united efforts of many organisations and individuals failed to save it in the face of official apathy and philistinism.’
A luxury spa hotel in a rural Leicestershire village has closed to guests and cancelled existing bookings so it can provide accommodation for 250 asylum seekers.
The Best Western Premier Yew Lodge Hotel in Kegworth - which includes a Marco Pierre White New York Italian restaurant - stopped taking reservations two weeks ago after bosses signed an 'exclusive use contract' with the Home Office to house refugees.
Mother-of-two Elisabeth Shepherd, 53, said locals were given 'no notice' about their arrival, and said that people were 'frightened, including myself'.
She said: 'A lot of the villagers use the resources at the hotel such as the gym, pool and restaurant and now we've haven't got anything here to use and will have to turn elsewhere for these facilities.
'People found out about the asylum seekers moving into the hotel because their gym memberships were instantly cancelled.'
In what fucking universe is a Best Western a luxury hotel?
You’re wrong. Best Western is a weird franchise, it’s generally mid mid market - good quality 3 stars - but it can vary wildly. And some properties are definitely in the luxe bracket, if not quite Claridges
Here’s a 5 star Best Western in Vietnam. Not a great booking.com rating but most Brits would call it luxury, for sure
A luxury spa hotel in a rural Leicestershire village has closed to guests and cancelled existing bookings so it can provide accommodation for 250 asylum seekers.
The Best Western Premier Yew Lodge Hotel in Kegworth - which includes a Marco Pierre White New York Italian restaurant - stopped taking reservations two weeks ago after bosses signed an 'exclusive use contract' with the Home Office to house refugees.
Mother-of-two Elisabeth Shepherd, 53, said locals were given 'no notice' about their arrival, and said that people were 'frightened, including myself'.
She said: 'A lot of the villagers use the resources at the hotel such as the gym, pool and restaurant and now we've haven't got anything here to use and will have to turn elsewhere for these facilities.
'People found out about the asylum seekers moving into the hotel because their gym memberships were instantly cancelled.'
In what fucking universe is a Best Western a luxury hotel?
You’re wrong. Best Western is a weird franchise, it’s generally mid mid market - good quality 3 stars - but it can vary wildly. And some properties are definitely in the luxe bracket, if not quite Claridges
Here’s a 5 star Best Western in Vietnam. Not a great booking.com rating but most Brits would call it luxury, for sure
A luxury spa hotel in a rural Leicestershire village has closed to guests and cancelled existing bookings so it can provide accommodation for 250 asylum seekers.
The Best Western Premier Yew Lodge Hotel in Kegworth - which includes a Marco Pierre White New York Italian restaurant - stopped taking reservations two weeks ago after bosses signed an 'exclusive use contract' with the Home Office to house refugees.
Mother-of-two Elisabeth Shepherd, 53, said locals were given 'no notice' about their arrival, and said that people were 'frightened, including myself'.
She said: 'A lot of the villagers use the resources at the hotel such as the gym, pool and restaurant and now we've haven't got anything here to use and will have to turn elsewhere for these facilities.
'People found out about the asylum seekers moving into the hotel because their gym memberships were instantly cancelled.'
In what fucking universe is a Best Western a luxury hotel?
You’re wrong. Best Western is a weird franchise, it’s generally mid mid market - good quality 3 stars - but it can vary wildly. And some properties are definitely in the luxe bracket, if not quite Claridges
Here’s a 5 star Best Western in Vietnam. Not a great booking.com rating but most Brits would call it luxury, for sure
After a discussion with @HYUFD this morning, I thought I should try and get more evidence around movement in 2019 voters to see what effect Rishi is having over the past 4 months.
Short answer - nil, very little churn.
I have used the most recent polling data from Techne, PeoplePolling, Omnisis, YouGov and Redfield & Wilton, and compared with the polling data from each firm for the first week in November, just after Rishi became PM. I have averaged out the data from those 5 polling companies.
I did not include Deltapoll as their polling data is a bit threadbare and does not include don't knows which I think is important.
The only small movement in 2019 Conservative voters is an increase in Reform switchers and fewer don't knows, probably return back to Conservatives who have improved their retention.
Hardly any movement for 2019 Labour voters.
For 2019 Lib Dem voters, a reduction in Labour and Green switchers but an increase in don't knows and improved Lib Dem retention.
No sign at all of an increase of 2019 Lib Dem voters going Conservative.
The average of the headline polling figures also show little movement, a slight dip in Labour and an increase in Green and Reform voters.
On that chart 5% of 2019 LDs now back the Tories with Rishi.
That compares to only 2% of 2019 LDs backing the Conservatives in the last Yougov before Truss resigned on 20 October last year and just 3% of 2019 LDs backing the Conservatives in the last Yougov in June last year before Boris resigned
I hope this is true here too Giving someone the middle finger is a “God-given” right that belongs to all Canadians, a Quebec judge said as he recently acquitted a Montreal-area man of criminal harassment and uttering threats.
LEADERSHIP candidates Kate Forbes and Ash Regan both called out “serial hustings attendees” at Wednesday night's event.
The pair were joined by their other rival Humza Yousaf at Johnstone Town Hall as they bid to win the hearts of SNP members.
But they were both quick to point out that they recognised a few faces in the room from previous hustings, which sparked some backlash online with members struggling to secure seats at the eight in-person events.
"Redfield & Wilton Strategies – whose poll on Wednesday gave No a nine-point lead over Yes – was called out for consistently spelling both the Scottish Health Secretary and Scottish Secretary’s name wrongly, among other issues.
Pollster Mark McGeoghegan said the firm also failed to include a Yes/No crossbreak in the tables. This would normally allow a glimpse into perceptions among people who voted for or against independence in 2014, but is missing from the Redfield & Wilton polling.
McGeoghegan further criticised the listing of the term “transgenderism” as a political issue. He said that such loaded language should not be used in polling."
Mark is a pollster and strategic communications researcher in Glasgow. He voted No in 2014, but since 2016 has been a member of the Scottish National Party and campaigner for Scottish independence.
Interesting the Nat Onal didn't find time to mention his extracurricular activities when explaining his credentials, but I'm glad to learn that spelling 'Alister' 'Alistair' creates a nine point lead for 'No'. Mind you, I can see why Mr McG is so concerned about spelling when he's got a name that sounds like someone plunging a sink.
Racist today, are we? It's pronounced very easily, in fact.
'Very easily'? I always thought it was more like 'McGeegan'
Put this pointy hat on your head and go sit on the stool in the corner
Ok, poor attempt at phonetic spelling from me, to be fair. It's more like "McGeoghegan", isn't it?
I do actually know a Scot with this surname - friend's husband; I'm assuming he pronounces it right and McGeegan doesn't quite capture it, to be sure (but is pretty much how she, English, says it)
Knew a guy at Uni surnamed Geogehan.(no Mc). He pronounced it "Gaygun". But his family were Irish not Scots.
Yep, that's probably closer to what I've heard, but with the 'gun' (or 'gan') bit quite short, no emphasis.
But if it's Irish (which does make sense when you think about it) then maybe his pronunciation is not authentic either.
ETA: Like this guy (who is in fact the guy we were originally discussing, probably, given he describes himself as a polling expert) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MBNnf8LE7uw
Yeah. That's pretty spot on his pronunciation of it.
Looking like hs2 is going to end up as a very expensive railway from Birmingham/Solihull to Ealing and probably not much more.
We wouldn’t have bothered with it at all, had that been the plan ~15 years ago, would we?
It’s a failure of our politics.
Yes - early in the project someone says “let’s save some money”. Later, when it’s decided to complete the project everyone is shocked to discover it will now be more expensive to complete. The attention span of a goldfish.
"Redfield & Wilton Strategies – whose poll on Wednesday gave No a nine-point lead over Yes – was called out for consistently spelling both the Scottish Health Secretary and Scottish Secretary’s name wrongly, among other issues.
Pollster Mark McGeoghegan said the firm also failed to include a Yes/No crossbreak in the tables. This would normally allow a glimpse into perceptions among people who voted for or against independence in 2014, but is missing from the Redfield & Wilton polling.
McGeoghegan further criticised the listing of the term “transgenderism” as a political issue. He said that such loaded language should not be used in polling."
Mark is a pollster and strategic communications researcher in Glasgow. He voted No in 2014, but since 2016 has been a member of the Scottish National Party and campaigner for Scottish independence.
Interesting the Nat Onal didn't find time to mention his extracurricular activities when explaining his credentials, but I'm glad to learn that spelling 'Alister' 'Alistair' creates a nine point lead for 'No'. Mind you, I can see why Mr McG is so concerned about spelling when he's got a name that sounds like someone plunging a sink.
Racist today, are we? It's pronounced very easily, in fact.
'Very easily'? I always thought it was more like 'McGeegan'
Put this pointy hat on your head and go sit on the stool in the corner
Ok, poor attempt at phonetic spelling from me, to be fair. It's more like "McGeoghegan", isn't it?
I do actually know a Scot with this surname - friend's husband; I'm assuming he pronounces it right and McGeegan doesn't quite capture it, to be sure (but is pretty much how she, English, says it)
Knew a guy at Uni surnamed Geogehan.(no Mc). He pronounced it "Gaygun". But his family were Irish not Scots.
Yep, that's probably closer to what I've heard, but with the 'gun' (or 'gan') bit quite short, no emphasis.
But if it's Irish (which does make sense when you think about it) then maybe his pronunciation is not authentic either.
ETA: Like this guy (who is in fact the guy we were originally discussing, probably, given he describes himself as a polling expert) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MBNnf8LE7uw
Yeah. That's pretty spot on his pronunciation of it.
I guess the govt will have to u-turn over whatsapp but if not I wonder if it may have an impact on turnout of younger voters.
If there's no Whatsapp, how will they even find out there's an election on?
(Yes, I know - Whatsapp is probably only for old - over 30 - people, right?)
Does anybody have a solution to the actual problem, though. All I hear is lofty principles and denial of the problem.
We can’t have the most sickening abuse content being openly - and securely - shared. We owe it to the victims to stop it, surely?
And we can’t have the government reading everyone’s private communications.
What is the solution?
It is a solution that is worse that the problem tbh. The politicians have been told often enough that you put everyone at risk by weakening encryption however they, and the civil service have their eye on the holy grail....full data on everyone. Whats the betting that important people will get exemptions to have proper encryption
Not sure if this has been done yet, but this week's YouGov poll was published by The Times Red Box this morning: Labour 45 (-2) Tory 23 (-2) LibDem 10 (-) Greens 7 (+1) Reform 7 (+2) SNP 4 (-) No polling dates were provided, but the previous week's (referenced in brackets) was 28th February and 1st March, so it's likely this one was conducted on Tuesday and Wednesday. If so, no Tory small boat bounce as yet.
Maybe a small boat bounce for Farage. Wouldn't that be funny?
Funny, but not that crazy.
Braverman's announcement reminds us all that there is still a small boat problem. And since her solution doesn't involve sharks with laser beams being released in the Channel, it's insufficiently red meat for the hardcore ten percent who are into that sort of thing.
SNP ministers have said they would have a “serious problem” serving in a Kate Forbes government after she attacked her main leadership rival’s record and competence
I guess the govt will have to u-turn over whatsapp but if not I wonder if it may have an impact on turnout of younger voters.
If there's no Whatsapp, how will they even find out there's an election on?
(Yes, I know - Whatsapp is probably only for old - over 30 - people, right?)
Does anybody have a solution to the actual problem, though. All I hear is lofty principles and denial of the problem.
We can’t have the most sickening abuse content being openly - and securely - shared. We owe it to the victims to stop it, surely?
And we can’t have the government reading everyone’s private communications.
What is the solution?
There are plenty of secure means of communicating and sharing files, ones that are beyond government reach. This will not change.
So, you either nobble whatsapp and co and manage to catch more stupid/lazy criminals while destroying privacy for everyone else, or you don't. If you nobble Whatsapp then the privacy conscious and competent criminal will find other means.
It would be interesting to see stats on convictions for e.g. child pornography. How much is due to electronic surveillance and how much due to following other intelligence, whistleblowers etc? That could help to inform the debate.
It would also be interesting to know how much of this is really due to child pronography etc concerns and how much to ease of mass surveillance.
There's no simple solution, we have to make a choice.
(You could have end to end security and something client side that used AI or similar to flag potentially problematic content and share that automatically, but anonymously, to the authorities or someone else for review, with removal of anonimity only after confirmation of something bad - but that would likely mean your pics of your toddler plaing naked in the garden in summer being sent off for analysis while the criminals simply move to another platform)
ETA: The 'mass surveillance' thing not intended to be too tin-foil-hat. We know there has been large scale surveillance of electronic communications for picking up terror chatter etc, which is again a balance.
A luxury spa hotel in a rural Leicestershire village has closed to guests and cancelled existing bookings so it can provide accommodation for 250 asylum seekers.
The Best Western Premier Yew Lodge Hotel in Kegworth - which includes a Marco Pierre White New York Italian restaurant - stopped taking reservations two weeks ago after bosses signed an 'exclusive use contract' with the Home Office to house refugees.
Mother-of-two Elisabeth Shepherd, 53, said locals were given 'no notice' about their arrival, and said that people were 'frightened, including myself'.
She said: 'A lot of the villagers use the resources at the hotel such as the gym, pool and restaurant and now we've haven't got anything here to use and will have to turn elsewhere for these facilities.
'People found out about the asylum seekers moving into the hotel because their gym memberships were instantly cancelled.'
In what fucking universe is a Best Western a luxury hotel?
You’re wrong. Best Western is a weird franchise, it’s generally mid mid market - good quality 3 stars - but it can vary wildly. And some properties are definitely in the luxe bracket, if not quite Claridges
Here’s a 5 star Best Western in Vietnam. Not a great booking.com rating but most Brits would call it luxury, for sure
I’ve stayed in a Best Western in Naples which has THE best view of the Bay - one of the most famous views in the world
I’m staying in Claridge’s for three nights this summer.
I’ll do a review of the Best Western in Kegworth afterwards.
I once stayed in a Best Western in Bath, on expenses. It was very nice indeed, and far more upmarket than I would have stayed in were I paying for it myself. If not luxury, it caters for at worst the top 10% of society, probably the top 5%. Though I suspect Best Western Kegworth caters primarily for customers of East Midlands Airport.
EXCLUSIVE POLL: Kate Forbes is in the lead as the public’s choice to replace Nicola Sturgeon as first minister of Scotland - with Humza Yousaf and Forbes neck-and-neck among SNP voters.
The BBC find themselves in a lose lose situation now.
They either back Linekar and face down government ire or they sack him and are seen to be doing the government’s bidding.
Lots of heads hitting desks in Broadcasting House right about now I’d think.
Gary Lineker is the latest in a list of public figures whose name PBers find it impossible to spell.
See also, Sue "Fifty Shades Of" Gray, Angela "Red" Rayner, Owen "Badger" Paterson, Sir Keir "Royale" Starmer........
It's a form of sport - taking the piss out of their temporary celebrity status by getting their name wrong...
All celebrity is temporary - everyone but a handful of oddities (Beau Brummell, for example) fade from memory within less than a century.
But Lineker isn't doing too badly, as he's into at least his fourth decade of public recognition (even by those like me who don't give a damn about football).
I bumped into Gary Lineker on Portland Place once
He is absolutely tiny. Quite astonishingly small, or at least gives that impression. OR I met someone exactly like him but weirdly miniaturized
On Twitter I claimed that I had met “Gary Lineker’s bonsai doppelgänger”, a phrase which still pleases me and which became an internet meme for about, ooh, thirty five minutes. Fame is so fleeting, as you say
GARY LINEKER’S BONSAI DOPPLEGANGER
Even typing it out is fun
177.2cm, Google tells me. The 2mm insisted upon is a nice touch.
When was that measured though? We all shrink with age...
At a guess, someone read in an old Panini album that Gary Lineker stands 5 feet, 9 and 3/4 inches, and then converted it to metric because reasons and metric is lovely and that's where the .2 came from.
Has he got the boot yet?
The BBC must wish the Lineker row would just go away. If he does get the push, then people will be all over Andrew Neil, Alan Sugar and anyone else who has ever been on the BBC and expressed views stridently, but did not come to fame via their BBC work. And as others have pointed out, now the BBC is run by card-carrying Conservatives.
Bollocks.its just enforcing it's impartiality as it ought to have done. Just think back to how the luvvies were guzzling champers when Blair won in 97. If Lineker gets the boot, it will be no more than he deserves. He has after all been warned.. he is in the last chance saloon.
Lineker's remarks were from a tweet on his personal account, not voiced to camera on Match of the Day.
Which, according to the BBC social media rules, is irrelevant - I'm guessing in recognition of the fact that his status as a BBC presenter gets him followers.
Lineker is primarily famous as a footballer and not a BBC personality.
Not sure that's true for younger generations.
Anyway, Lineker expressing political opinions is fine and in line with other BBC personalities. What is unacceptable is the downplaying of the suffering of Jews in the 1930s at the hands of mass violence by comparisons to asylum restrictions. He shouldn't get fired for it, but he should be on notice.
On the topic of his tax affairs, why doesn't the BBC just have a policy of refusing to use freelancers for presenters on more than a million? They would all buckle.
How does that work then if you are a freelancer? If you are a proper freelancer (ie not a pretend one to avoid tax/ni) you can't not be one. It's a bit like telling a cat it has to be a dog. It means they could never sign up any big names for anything who also work for other organisations.
➡️Labour seen more favourably (+10) than SNP (-1) ➡️SCon vote holding up in polls ➡️SNP vote dropping to 39% (-6)(GE) ➡️ScotGov performance net negative on all voter priorities ➡️Starmer has positive approval among 2019 SNP voters
SNP ministers have said they would have a “serious problem” serving in a Kate Forbes government after she attacked her main leadership rival’s record and competence
I’m sure, should Kate win “On reflection, I am happy to accept a position…..
People are pulling out some tired old lines, which would make them look very silly if there is not then even hint of a split (and really why would there be? She doesn't seem to be proposing to change all that much, does she?) The SNP’s Deputy Westminster leader Mhairi Black, who backs Humza Yousaf for the party leadership, has said if Kate Forbes wins the contest, she could cause the SNP to split.
You do get some amusingly strident views online of course. This person in reply to the above story goes as far as to say Forbes is an out and out fascist.
Forbes is a fascist bigot. Yousaf is better but imo someone claiming any religious affiliation should automatically bar them from holding any kind of public office. Cultists are dangerous full stop.
A luxury spa hotel in a rural Leicestershire village has closed to guests and cancelled existing bookings so it can provide accommodation for 250 asylum seekers.
The Best Western Premier Yew Lodge Hotel in Kegworth - which includes a Marco Pierre White New York Italian restaurant - stopped taking reservations two weeks ago after bosses signed an 'exclusive use contract' with the Home Office to house refugees.
Mother-of-two Elisabeth Shepherd, 53, said locals were given 'no notice' about their arrival, and said that people were 'frightened, including myself'.
She said: 'A lot of the villagers use the resources at the hotel such as the gym, pool and restaurant and now we've haven't got anything here to use and will have to turn elsewhere for these facilities.
'People found out about the asylum seekers moving into the hotel because their gym memberships were instantly cancelled.'
In what fucking universe is a Best Western a luxury hotel?
You’re wrong. Best Western is a weird franchise, it’s generally mid mid market - good quality 3 stars - but it can vary wildly. And some properties are definitely in the luxe bracket, if not quite Claridges
Here’s a 5 star Best Western in Vietnam. Not a great booking.com rating but most Brits would call it luxury, for sure
I’ve stayed in a Best Western in Naples which has THE best view of the Bay - one of the most famous views in the world
I’m staying in Claridge’s for three nights this summer.
I’ll do a review of the Best Western in Kegworth afterwards.
I once stayed in a Best Western in Bath, on expenses. It was very nice indeed, and far more upmarket than I would have stayed in were I paying for it myself. If not luxury, it caters for at worst the top 10% of society, probably the top 5%. Though I suspect Best Western Kegworth caters primarily for customers of East Midlands Airport.
Yes, Best Westerns can be very plez
Definitely upmarket of Premier Inn, sometimes properly luxurious
EXCLUSIVE POLL: Kate Forbes is in the lead as the public’s choice to replace Nicola Sturgeon as first minister of Scotland - with Humza Yousaf and Forbes neck-and-neck among SNP voters.
If you intend spending any time in a hotel, fine. Pay for luxury. If you're using it as a place to sleep, quiet, comfy, clean bathroom. That's all you need. Why pay for more?
If you intend spending any time in a hotel, fine. Pay for luxury. If you're using it as a place to sleep, quiet, comfy, clean bathroom. That's all you need. Why pay for more?
A luxury spa hotel in a rural Leicestershire village has closed to guests and cancelled existing bookings so it can provide accommodation for 250 asylum seekers.
The Best Western Premier Yew Lodge Hotel in Kegworth - which includes a Marco Pierre White New York Italian restaurant - stopped taking reservations two weeks ago after bosses signed an 'exclusive use contract' with the Home Office to house refugees.
Mother-of-two Elisabeth Shepherd, 53, said locals were given 'no notice' about their arrival, and said that people were 'frightened, including myself'.
She said: 'A lot of the villagers use the resources at the hotel such as the gym, pool and restaurant and now we've haven't got anything here to use and will have to turn elsewhere for these facilities.
'People found out about the asylum seekers moving into the hotel because their gym memberships were instantly cancelled.'
In what fucking universe is a Best Western a luxury hotel?
You’re wrong. Best Western is a weird franchise, it’s generally mid mid market - good quality 3 stars - but it can vary wildly. And some properties are definitely in the luxe bracket, if not quite Claridges
Here’s a 5 star Best Western in Vietnam. Not a great booking.com rating but most Brits would call it luxury, for sure
I’ve stayed in a Best Western in Naples which has THE best view of the Bay - one of the most famous views in the world
I’m staying in Claridge’s for three nights this summer.
I’ll do a review of the Best Western in Kegworth afterwards.
I once stayed in a Best Western in Bath, on expenses. It was very nice indeed, and far more upmarket than I would have stayed in were I paying for it myself. If not luxury, it caters for at worst the top 10% of society, probably the top 5%. Though I suspect Best Western Kegworth caters primarily for customers of East Midlands Airport.
That type of hotel can play a surprisingly important role in the local community because people rely on the amenities.
EXCLUSIVE POLL: Kate Forbes is in the lead as the public’s choice to replace Nicola Sturgeon as first minister of Scotland - with Humza Yousaf and Forbes neck-and-neck among SNP voters.
Difficult, because of the confidentiality issue. I can't see how anyone could get a proper sample (and would be very suspicious of any poll that claimed to have done so).
The BBC find themselves in a lose lose situation now.
They either back Linekar and face down government ire or they sack him and are seen to be doing the government’s bidding.
Lots of heads hitting desks in Broadcasting House right about now I’d think.
Gary Lineker is the latest in a list of public figures whose name PBers find it impossible to spell.
See also, Sue "Fifty Shades Of" Gray, Angela "Red" Rayner, Owen "Badger" Paterson, Sir Keir "Royale" Starmer........
It's a form of sport - taking the piss out of their temporary celebrity status by getting their name wrong...
All celebrity is temporary - everyone but a handful of oddities (Beau Brummell, for example) fade from memory within less than a century.
But Lineker isn't doing too badly, as he's into at least his fourth decade of public recognition (even by those like me who don't give a damn about football).
I bumped into Gary Lineker on Portland Place once
He is absolutely tiny. Quite astonishingly small, or at least gives that impression. OR I met someone exactly like him but weirdly miniaturized
On Twitter I claimed that I had met “Gary Lineker’s bonsai doppelgänger”, a phrase which still pleases me and which became an internet meme for about, ooh, thirty five minutes. Fame is so fleeting, as you say
GARY LINEKER’S BONSAI DOPPLEGANGER
Even typing it out is fun
177.2cm, Google tells me. The 2mm insisted upon is a nice touch.
When was that measured though? We all shrink with age...
At a guess, someone read in an old Panini album that Gary Lineker stands 5 feet, 9 and 3/4 inches, and then converted it to metric because reasons and metric is lovely and that's where the .2 came from.
Has he got the boot yet?
The BBC must wish the Lineker row would just go away. If he does get the push, then people will be all over Andrew Neil, Alan Sugar and anyone else who has ever been on the BBC and expressed views stridently, but did not come to fame via their BBC work. And as others have pointed out, now the BBC is run by card-carrying Conservatives.
Bollocks.its just enforcing it's impartiality as it ought to have done. Just think back to how the luvvies were guzzling champers when Blair won in 97. If Lineker gets the boot, it will be no more than he deserves. He has after all been warned.. he is in the last chance saloon.
Lineker's remarks were from a tweet on his personal account, not voiced to camera on Match of the Day.
Which, according to the BBC social media rules, is irrelevant - I'm guessing in recognition of the fact that his status as a BBC presenter gets him followers.
Lineker is primarily famous as a footballer and not a BBC personality.
Not sure that's true for younger generations.
Anyway, Lineker expressing political opinions is fine and in line with other BBC personalities. What is unacceptable is the downplaying of the suffering of Jews in the 1930s at the hands of mass violence by comparisons to asylum restrictions. He shouldn't get fired for it, but he should be on notice.
On the topic of his tax affairs, why doesn't the BBC just have a policy of refusing to use freelancers for presenters on more than a million? They would all buckle.
How does that work then if you are a freelancer? If you are a proper freelancer (ie not a pretend one to avoid tax/ni) you can't not be one. It's a bit like telling a cat it has to be a dog. It means they could never sign up any big names for anything who also work for other organisations.
My best mate from school has worked for the Beeb for 25 years plus. He's the face and voice of a quite niche sport. There simply isn't enough for him to do on a contracted basis. He can't not be a freelancer.
EXCLUSIVE POLL: Kate Forbes is in the lead as the public’s choice to replace Nicola Sturgeon as first minister of Scotland - with Humza Yousaf and Forbes neck-and-neck among SNP voters.
Do have to howl with laughter at the HS2 fiasco. What they have just announced:
1 OOC to Euston delayed, Heartlands delta to Handsacre (WCML) delayed 2 Which leaves Birmingham Curzon Street to London OOC as the initial phase 3 OOC Interchange isn't designed to operate as a terminus, either from a trains or passenger perspective. As its already under construction it will need to be redesigned 4 The Elizabeth line cannot cope with HS2 traffic dumped onto it, which will mean a restriction on the number of HS2 trains run 5 Infrastructure was designed for 240mph, already announced a max speed of 225mph, but energy costs soar exponentially at the top end. With the need to cap capacity watch them opt initially for a slower train. Think 140mph EMUs like on HS1
A line from Birmingham No Connection to London Do Not Alight Here. With a small number of services trundling 100mph slower than the vastly over-specced infrastructure can cope with.
Global Britain at its finest. Bravo, Tories, Bravo.
➡️Labour seen more favourably (+10) than SNP (-1) ➡️SCon vote holding up in polls ➡️SNP vote dropping to 39% (-6)(GE) ➡️ScotGov performance net negative on all voter priorities ➡️Starmer has positive approval among 2019 SNP voters
EXCLUSIVE POLL: Kate Forbes is in the lead as the public’s choice to replace Nicola Sturgeon as first minister of Scotland - with Humza Yousaf and Forbes neck-and-neck among SNP voters.
EXCLUSIVE POLL: Kate Forbes is in the lead as the public’s choice to replace Nicola Sturgeon as first minister of Scotland - with Humza Yousaf and Forbes neck-and-neck among SNP voters.
As a hypothesis, given SNP voters are more pro Humza than gen pop, it’s possible members are more pro-Humzah too - especially given the weight of the SNP machine being thrown behind him.
Edit - a poll a week ago suggests this is the case:
A luxury spa hotel in a rural Leicestershire village has closed to guests and cancelled existing bookings so it can provide accommodation for 250 asylum seekers.
The Best Western Premier Yew Lodge Hotel in Kegworth - which includes a Marco Pierre White New York Italian restaurant - stopped taking reservations two weeks ago after bosses signed an 'exclusive use contract' with the Home Office to house refugees.
Mother-of-two Elisabeth Shepherd, 53, said locals were given 'no notice' about their arrival, and said that people were 'frightened, including myself'.
She said: 'A lot of the villagers use the resources at the hotel such as the gym, pool and restaurant and now we've haven't got anything here to use and will have to turn elsewhere for these facilities.
'People found out about the asylum seekers moving into the hotel because their gym memberships were instantly cancelled.'
In what fucking universe is a Best Western a luxury hotel?
You’re wrong. Best Western is a weird franchise, it’s generally mid mid market - good quality 3 stars - but it can vary wildly. And some properties are definitely in the luxe bracket, if not quite Claridges
Here’s a 5 star Best Western in Vietnam. Not a great booking.com rating but most Brits would call it luxury, for sure
I’ve stayed in a Best Western in Naples which has THE best view of the Bay - one of the most famous views in the world
I’m staying in Claridge’s for three nights this summer.
I’ll do a review of the Best Western in Kegworth afterwards.
First they came for the Best Westerns, and I did not speak out because I wouldn't be seen dead in a Best Western...
I got married in a Best Western. It was very nice, including the honeymoon suite. But the brand as a whole is the most variable I've ever come across (followed closely by Park Inn).
After a discussion with @HYUFD this morning, I thought I should try and get more evidence around movement in 2019 voters to see what effect Rishi is having over the past 4 months.
Short answer - nil, very little churn.
I have used the most recent polling data from Techne, PeoplePolling, Omnisis, YouGov and Redfield & Wilton, and compared with the polling data from each firm for the first week in November, just after Rishi became PM. I have averaged out the data from those 5 polling companies.
I did not include Deltapoll as their polling data is a bit threadbare and does not include don't knows which I think is important.
The only small movement in 2019 Conservative voters is an increase in Reform switchers and fewer don't knows, probably return back to Conservatives who have improved their retention.
Hardly any movement for 2019 Labour voters.
For 2019 Lib Dem voters, a reduction in Labour and Green switchers but an increase in don't knows and improved Lib Dem retention.
No sign at all of an increase of 2019 Lib Dem voters going Conservative.
The average of the headline polling figures also show little movement, a slight dip in Labour and an increase in Green and Reform voters.
On that chart 5% of 2019 LDs now back the Tories with Rishi.
That compares to only 2% of 2019 LDs backing the Conservatives in the last Yougov before Truss resigned on 20 October last year and just 3% of 2019 LDs backing the Conservatives in the last Yougov in June last year before Boris resigned
Good idea, compare an average with an individual poll, and make sure you choose the particular individual poll that supports your case.
No, he was comparing with polls the week AFTER Truss had resigned and Rishi was already PM elect in all but name.
Every poll if you look at the ones now compared to the ones before Truss resigned and before Boris resigned show the same trend. Rishi has gained more 2019 LD voters than they did but lost more 2019 Conservatives to RefUK.
Rishi has reduced leakage of 2019 Conservative voters to Labour than Truss was but is still leaking more to Labour than Boris was
A luxury spa hotel in a rural Leicestershire village has closed to guests and cancelled existing bookings so it can provide accommodation for 250 asylum seekers.
The Best Western Premier Yew Lodge Hotel in Kegworth - which includes a Marco Pierre White New York Italian restaurant - stopped taking reservations two weeks ago after bosses signed an 'exclusive use contract' with the Home Office to house refugees.
Mother-of-two Elisabeth Shepherd, 53, said locals were given 'no notice' about their arrival, and said that people were 'frightened, including myself'.
She said: 'A lot of the villagers use the resources at the hotel such as the gym, pool and restaurant and now we've haven't got anything here to use and will have to turn elsewhere for these facilities.
'People found out about the asylum seekers moving into the hotel because their gym memberships were instantly cancelled.'
In what fucking universe is a Best Western a luxury hotel?
You’re wrong. Best Western is a weird franchise, it’s generally mid mid market - good quality 3 stars - but it can vary wildly. And some properties are definitely in the luxe bracket, if not quite Claridges
Here’s a 5 star Best Western in Vietnam. Not a great booking.com rating but most Brits would call it luxury, for sure
State pension, minimum wage and benefits all up 10% under this government
Which is why I won't be voting for them.
Benefits up, taxes up, pay for those who don't work up, pay for those who do work down.
If that's the Tories idea of Government, we might as well have Labour in office.
Yes, bring back the Workhouse, as a true classical Liberal you no doubt would have approved, it was after all the Whigs in the 19th century who brought in the workhouses to replace the previous system of poor relief not the Tories.
In reality those on minimum wage are also getting a 10% rise along with those on benefits and the state pension ie the poorest in society and even then only in line with inflation
"Redfield & Wilton Strategies – whose poll on Wednesday gave No a nine-point lead over Yes – was called out for consistently spelling both the Scottish Health Secretary and Scottish Secretary’s name wrongly, among other issues.
Pollster Mark McGeoghegan said the firm also failed to include a Yes/No crossbreak in the tables. This would normally allow a glimpse into perceptions among people who voted for or against independence in 2014, but is missing from the Redfield & Wilton polling.
McGeoghegan further criticised the listing of the term “transgenderism” as a political issue. He said that such loaded language should not be used in polling."
Mark is a pollster and strategic communications researcher in Glasgow. He voted No in 2014, but since 2016 has been a member of the Scottish National Party and campaigner for Scottish independence.
Interesting the Nat Onal didn't find time to mention his extracurricular activities when explaining his credentials, but I'm glad to learn that spelling 'Alister' 'Alistair' creates a nine point lead for 'No'. Mind you, I can see why Mr McG is so concerned about spelling when he's got a name that sounds like someone plunging a sink.
Racist today, are we? It's pronounced very easily, in fact.
'Very easily'? I always thought it was more like 'McGeegan'
Put this pointy hat on your head and go sit on the stool in the corner
Ok, poor attempt at phonetic spelling from me, to be fair. It's more like "McGeoghegan", isn't it?
I do actually know a Scot with this surname - friend's husband; I'm assuming he pronounces it right and McGeegan doesn't quite capture it, to be sure (but is pretty much how she, English, says it)
Knew a guy at Uni surnamed Geogehan.(no Mc). He pronounced it "Gaygun". But his family were Irish not Scots.
Yep, that's probably closer to what I've heard, but with the 'gun' (or 'gan') bit quite short, no emphasis.
But if it's Irish (which does make sense when you think about it) then maybe his pronunciation is not authentic either.
ETA: Like this guy (who is in fact the guy we were originally discussing, probably, given he describes himself as a polling expert) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MBNnf8LE7uw
Yeah. That's pretty spot on his pronunciation of it.
Is it? Without going all blue dress, gold dress, it sounded to me like the chap in the video had an extra syllable, more like "Mc gay again" said very quickly.
Comments
The gesture in this instance would very likely destabilise a 77-yr old and indeed did as we all saw. She "flinched" seeking to avoid she knew not what and veered into the road.
Doesn't matter whether it was a shared cycle path or not.
Here, whatever the other rights and wrongs, the pedestrian was more than just careless, it was more than a lack of attention. She was angry with the cyclist and probably didn't care if the cyclist fell off and hurt herself (no intention of serious harm, I'm sure). That's one difference here. There would be no manslaughter charge if the cyclist had come up behind the pedestrian and the pedestrian, startled, had flung out an arm and knocked the cyclist into the traffic. Not even if the pedestrian had headphones in and was checking PB.com on her mobile phone.
The quote from the summing up said it had to be unlawful behaviour that seems a better way to go for manslaughter because its an actual test that can be applied. Else you have someone doing something completely legal and it just happens to end in unforseen tragedy
The rhythm of the columns and gaps is not regular. Poor.
The entablature, frize and architrave is far too heavy for the width of the facade. Very poor.
It's a mishmash of bits and pieces by someone with more enthusiasm than experience.
I do actually know a Scot with this surname - friend's husband; I'm assuming he pronounces it right and McGeegan doesn't quite capture it, to be sure (but is pretty much how she, English, says it)
Although, I have stayed in Best Westerns that are shabbier than your typical Premier Inn.
ETA: And, weren't they previously using Britannia Hotels quite a bit? Anything is a luxury hotel compared to that
…
So a back bencher got up to question the expense of the CDS - apparently he had a taste for luxury restaurants.
Actually Aske - a pizza and pasta chain....
IIRC from visiting that village years ago it's practically under the flightpath for East Midlands Airport. Which suggests ...
He pronounced it "Gaygun". But his family were Irish not Scots.
Euston always feels third world to me.
Most expensive hotels achieve price but not quality. I've had some pretty rubbish cocktails in the bars of allegedly top hotels.
Here’s a 5 star Best Western in Vietnam. Not a great booking.com rating but most Brits would call it luxury, for sure
https://www.booking.com/Share-y0MY5G
I’ve stayed in a Best Western in Naples which has THE best view of the Bay - one of the most famous views in the world
That compares to only 2% of 2019 LDs backing the Conservatives in the last Yougov before Truss resigned on 20 October last year and just 3% of 2019 LDs backing the Conservatives in the last Yougov in June last year before Boris resigned
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opinion_polling_for_the_next_United_Kingdom_general_election#Graphical_summary
The truth of the matter is that those on the left don't really care about the collective mental trauma suffered by Jews, as a long lasting legacy of the Nazi period. That is why you accepted Corbyn for so long.
Stone Age at least.
https://www.google.com/maps/@50.7181992,-2.4545532,3a,75y,177.63h,95.72t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1srvJmYxmdlO51ItPHEoo1YA!2e0!7i13312!8i6656
Used to live in Bloomsbury.
KC/St. P are fab.
Euston makes Stuttgart Central look glam.
Labour 45 (-2)
Tory 23 (-2)
LibDem 10 (-)
Greens 7 (+1)
Reform 7 (+2)
SNP 4 (-)
No polling dates were provided, but the previous week's (referenced in brackets) was 28th February and 1st March, so it's likely this one was conducted on Tuesday and Wednesday. If so, no Tory small boat bounce as yet.
After a year of 10% inflation on the old figures.
That's hardly super generous.
But if it's Irish (which does make sense when you think about it) then maybe his pronunciation is not authentic either.
ETA: Like this guy (who is in fact the guy we were originally discussing, probably, given he describes himself as a polling expert) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MBNnf8LE7uw
https://goo.gl/maps/L91pySssk6NEL8n87
"To the Men and Women of London and North Western, and London Midland and Scottish Railways"
And more royals in the street names than a 1960s Cub Scout scrapbook for the first badge.
That is an achievement in itself.
You (Suella and the Cons) use the vernacular of othering and calling people traitors to their country. That is the point.
I’ll do a review of the Best Western in Kegworth afterwards.
I guess the govt will have to u-turn over whatsapp but if not I wonder if it may have an impact on turnout of younger voters.
‘Its destruction is wanton and unnecessary – connived at by the British Transport Commission, its guardians, and by the London County Council and the Government, who are jointly responsible for safeguarding London's major architectural monuments, of which this is undoubtedly one. In spite of [...] being one of the outstanding architectural creations of the early nineteenth century and the most important – and visually satisfying – monument to the railway age which Britain pioneered, the united efforts of many organisations and individuals failed to save it in the face of official apathy and philistinism.’
So you’re talking bollocks
Upstairs at Rules is better.
Benefits up, taxes up, pay for those who don't work up, pay for those who do work down.
If that's the Tories idea of Government, we might as well have Labour in office.
We wouldn’t have bothered with it at all, had that been the plan ~15 years ago, would we?
It’s a failure of our politics.
(Yes, I know - Whatsapp is probably only for old - over 30 - people, right?)
We can’t have the most sickening abuse content being openly - and securely - shared. We owe it to the victims to stop it, surely?
And we can’t have the government reading everyone’s private communications.
What is the solution?
Giving someone the middle finger is a “God-given” right that belongs to all Canadians, a Quebec judge said as he recently acquitted a Montreal-area man of criminal harassment and uttering threats.
https://montrealgazette.com/news/local-news/giving-the-middle-finger-is-a-god-given-right-says-quebec-judge
All those beautiful trees in Euston chopped down - this week - for no fucking reason at all
https://twitter.com/steven_swinford/status/1633871522342531072?s=61&t=GGp3Vs1t1kTWDiyA-odnZg
People should go to prison for this tragic scale of incompetence
The pair were joined by their other rival Humza Yousaf at Johnstone Town Hall as they bid to win the hearts of SNP members.
But they were both quick to point out that they recognised a few faces in the room from previous hustings, which sparked some backlash online with members struggling to secure seats at the eight in-person events.
https://www.thenational.scot/news/23373968.watch-kate-forbes-ash-regan-call-serial-hustings-attendees/
Something in our psyche stops us spending more now so that the future will benefit. Politicians just ride that wave.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geoghegan#:~:text=In Irish it is Mag,McGeoghegan was formerly much used.
Braverman's announcement reminds us all that there is still a small boat problem. And since her solution doesn't involve sharks with laser beams being released in the Channel, it's insufficiently red meat for the hardcore ten percent who are into that sort of thing.
SNP ministers have said they would have a “serious problem” serving in a Kate Forbes government after she attacked her main leadership rival’s record and competence
https://twitter.com/timesscotland/status/1633762283175247873?s=20
I’m sure, should Kate win “On reflection, I am happy to accept a position…..
Similarly, don't bother talking about your 'aspirational' targets in a project. We know it means 'not going to happen'.
So, you either nobble whatsapp and co and manage to catch more stupid/lazy criminals while destroying privacy for everyone else, or you don't. If you nobble Whatsapp then the privacy conscious and competent criminal will find other means.
It would be interesting to see stats on convictions for e.g. child pornography. How much is due to electronic surveillance and how much due to following other intelligence, whistleblowers etc? That could help to inform the debate.
It would also be interesting to know how much of this is really due to child pronography etc concerns and how much to ease of mass surveillance.
There's no simple solution, we have to make a choice.
(You could have end to end security and something client side that used AI or similar to flag potentially problematic content and share that automatically, but anonymously, to the authorities or someone else for review, with removal of anonimity only after confirmation of something bad - but that would likely mean your pics of your toddler plaing naked in the garden in summer being sent off for analysis while the criminals simply move to another platform)
ETA: The 'mass surveillance' thing not intended to be too tin-foil-hat. We know there has been large scale surveillance of electronic communications for picking up terror chatter etc, which is again a balance.
Though I suspect Best Western Kegworth caters primarily for customers of East Midlands Airport.
EXCLUSIVE POLL: Kate Forbes is in the lead as the public’s choice to replace Nicola Sturgeon as first minister of Scotland - with Humza Yousaf and Forbes neck-and-neck among SNP voters.
https://twitter.com/Channel4News/status/1633778510056521730?s=20
➡️Labour seen more favourably (+10) than SNP (-1)
➡️SCon vote holding up in polls
➡️SNP vote dropping to 39% (-6)(GE)
➡️ScotGov performance net negative on all voter priorities
➡️Starmer has positive approval among 2019 SNP voters
https://twitter.com/deanmthomson/status/1633834095917797379
The SNP’s Deputy Westminster leader Mhairi Black, who backs Humza Yousaf for the party leadership, has said if Kate Forbes wins the contest, she could cause the SNP to split.
You do get some amusingly strident views online of course. This person in reply to the above story goes as far as to say Forbes is an out and out fascist.
Forbes is a fascist bigot. Yousaf is better but imo someone claiming any religious affiliation should automatically bar them from holding any kind of public office. Cultists are dangerous full stop.
https://twitter.com/D_Funk187/status/1633828287414947843
Definitely upmarket of Premier Inn, sometimes properly luxurious
If you're using it as a place to sleep, quiet, comfy, clean bathroom. That's all you need. Why pay for more?
Good prices if you think these are the only two possibles.
He's the face and voice of a quite niche sport. There simply isn't enough for him to do on a contracted basis. He can't not be a freelancer.
https://sotn.newstatesman.com/2023/03/win-snp-leadership-election
1 OOC to Euston delayed, Heartlands delta to Handsacre (WCML) delayed
2 Which leaves Birmingham Curzon Street to London OOC as the initial phase
3 OOC Interchange isn't designed to operate as a terminus, either from a trains or passenger perspective. As its already under construction it will need to be redesigned
4 The Elizabeth line cannot cope with HS2 traffic dumped onto it, which will mean a restriction on the number of HS2 trains run
5 Infrastructure was designed for 240mph, already announced a max speed of 225mph, but energy costs soar exponentially at the top end. With the need to cap capacity watch them opt initially for a slower train. Think 140mph EMUs like on HS1
A line from Birmingham No Connection to London Do Not Alight Here. With a small number of services trundling 100mph slower than the vastly over-specced infrastructure can cope with.
Global Britain at its finest. Bravo, Tories, Bravo.
The race is too close to call between Yousaf and Forbes when looking at the views of SNP voters from the last Scottish Parliament election.
33% say that Humza Yousaf would make the best First Minister while 32% say the same of Kate Forbes. Ash Regan takes third place with 10%.
https://twitter.com/Channel4News/status/1633778782917087238?s=20
As a hypothesis, given SNP voters are more pro Humza than gen pop, it’s possible members are more pro-Humzah too - especially given the weight of the SNP machine being thrown behind him.
Edit - a poll a week ago suggests this is the case:
https://www.heraldscotland.com/news/23362228.first-poll-snp-members-puts-yousaf-narrowly-ahead-forbes/
Every poll if you look at the ones now compared to the ones before Truss resigned and before Boris resigned show the same trend. Rishi has gained more 2019 LD voters than they did but lost more 2019 Conservatives to RefUK.
Rishi has reduced leakage of 2019 Conservative voters to Labour than Truss was but is still leaking more to Labour than Boris was
(Last time I stayed in Claridges I was with Terence Stamp, Angelica Huston and Lauren Becall. Just to annoy malcy....)
In reality those on minimum wage are also getting a 10% rise along with those on benefits and the state pension ie the poorest in society and even then only in line with inflation