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.
It is so bad there needs to be a public inquiry and maybe prosecutions. But I do not believe Labour have the cullions to do that, they are knee deep in this river of shit, as well
And WTAF are they now going to do with Euston? They’ve chopped down all the trees and dug up half of NW1 and there is an enormous big hole in the ground waiting for a railway which will, now, never arrive
What do they do with it? Sell it all off for flats? Leave it to rot?
➡️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
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.
The small boats are good for the Cons because it puts Migration & Strong Borders on the political agenda and this is a strong issue for the Right electorally.
The small boats are bad for the Cons because they've been long in government and despite the rhetoric are not solving the problem.
It's a matter of which of these is more true. I'd hope the second one but I'm really not 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
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.
A failure of 'our politics' or of Tory government?
Given that it's exactly the same failures as Crossrail and Thameslink 2000, it's not a party political problem.
Its both. Whilst we have proven over decades that this country is shit at infrastructure projects, there has to be blame for the people in office for the specifics. Every project has its own specific fuckwittery on top of the general incompetence and HS2 has it in spades. Since the original 2009 proposal we have seen an explosion in costs as all kinds of absurd factors are loaded onto the contractors. Hard to look past the DfT and the Treasury and the Tory MPs who have relentlessly campaigned against this.
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.
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.
The small boats are good for the Cons because it puts Migration & Strong Borders on the political agenda and this is a strong issue for the Right electorally.
The small boats are bad for the Cons because they've been long in government and despite the rhetoric are not solving the problem.
It's a matter of which of these is more true. I'd hope the second one but I'm really not sure.
it’s the second. I wish they had the backbone to actually sort the boats, but they don’t. It’s the second, and their spineless mendacity will soon be exposed. No one believes them. They are FUCKED
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
The people in the workhouse didn't have the vote.
Their modern successors do. And they are old enough to vote Tory.
➡️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
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
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.
It is so bad there needs to be a public inquiry and maybe prosecutions. But I do not believe Labour have the cullions to do that, they are knee deep in this river of shit, as well
And WTAF are they now going to do with Euston? They’ve chopped down all the trees and dug up half of NW1 and there is an enormous big hole in the ground waiting for a railway which will, now, never arrive
What do they do with it? Sell it all off for flats? Leave it to rot?
Rot. London had bomb sites for decades after the war awaiting redevelopment. That ugly scar through Camden will now sit there as protected development land. Can't be made pretty as £cost. Can't be completed as £cost. Can't be sold off because one say there will be lemon-soaked paper napkins.
Sorry Leon, your government have catastrofucked your local environment and now expect you vote for them in thanks.
➡️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.
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:
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.
It is so bad there needs to be a public inquiry and maybe prosecutions. But I do not believe Labour have the cullions to do that, they are knee deep in this river of shit, as well
And WTAF are they now going to do with Euston? They’ve chopped down all the trees and dug up half of NW1 and there is an enormous big hole in the ground waiting for a railway which will, now, never arrive
What do they do with it? Sell it all off for flats? Leave it to rot?
Presumably they can't do anything else with the land, in case the missing link gets built eventually. Maybe a nice car wash or something.
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.
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.
A failure of 'our politics' or of Tory government?
Given that it's exactly the same failures as Crossrail and Thameslink 2000, it's not a party political problem.
Its both. Whilst we have proven over decades that this country is shit at infrastructure projects, there has to be blame for the people in office for the specifics. Every project has its own specific fuckwittery on top of the general incompetence and HS2 has it in spades. Since the original 2009 proposal we have seen an explosion in costs as all kinds of absurd factors are loaded onto the contractors. Hard to look past the DfT and the Treasury and the Tory MPs who have relentlessly campaigned against this.
We used to be able to infrastructure just fine.....then we allowed civil servants to get involved and then it all went to shit because they can't resist meddling frankly is what I put it down to.....anecdote from being involved in more than one civil service inspired project where the original spec bid on was constantly tampered with even down to wanting changes on the day we were due to making a milestone release. We always got the impression it was down to people using the projects as various people using it as a proxy for internal manoeuvres rather than having any rational reason for the changes
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
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.
A failure of 'our politics' or of Tory government?
Given that it's exactly the same failures as Crossrail and Thameslink 2000, it's not a party political problem.
Its both. Whilst we have proven over decades that this country is shit at infrastructure projects, there has to be blame for the people in office for the specifics. Every project has its own specific fuckwittery on top of the general incompetence and HS2 has it in spades. Since the original 2009 proposal we have seen an explosion in costs as all kinds of absurd factors are loaded onto the contractors. Hard to look past the DfT and the Treasury and the Tory MPs who have relentlessly campaigned against this.
To be fair most countries are shit at infrastructure. Look at the Berlin Airport, or the too big Spanish trains.
"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.
My friend's pronunciation. Not the bloke in the video.
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.
It is so bad there needs to be a public inquiry and maybe prosecutions. But I do not believe Labour have the cullions to do that, they are knee deep in this river of shit, as well
And WTAF are they now going to do with Euston? They’ve chopped down all the trees and dug up half of NW1 and there is an enormous big hole in the ground waiting for a railway which will, now, never arrive
What do they do with it? Sell it all off for flats? Leave it to rot?
Rot. London had bomb sites for decades after the war awaiting redevelopment. That ugly scar through Camden will now sit there as protected development land. Can't be made pretty as £cost. Can't be completed as £cost. Can't be sold off because one say there will be lemon-soaked paper napkins.
Sorry Leon, your government have catastrofucked your local environment and now expect you vote for them in thanks.
Lol
Luckily it’s not that close to me, but if I was down near Somers Town or whatever, I’d be starting a riot
This is also Starmer’s constituency. Presumably he will say something shortly, and have decisions to make when PM. His voters will not be happy if half of his constituency is literally a big gaping hole
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.
"Elizabeth line could be be extended into Essex and Kent under ambitious new proposals"
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.
It is so bad there needs to be a public inquiry and maybe prosecutions. But I do not believe Labour have the cullions to do that, they are knee deep in this river of shit, as well
And WTAF are they now going to do with Euston? They’ve chopped down all the trees and dug up half of NW1 and there is an enormous big hole in the ground waiting for a railway which will, now, never arrive
What do they do with it? Sell it all off for flats? Leave it to rot?
Presumably they can't do anything else with the land, in case the missing link gets built eventually. Maybe a nice car wash or something.
A giant transgender clinic and surgical centre would be another option.
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.
A failure of 'our politics' or of Tory government?
Given that it's exactly the same failures as Crossrail and Thameslink 2000, it's not a party political problem.
Its both. Whilst we have proven over decades that this country is shit at infrastructure projects, there has to be blame for the people in office for the specifics. Every project has its own specific fuckwittery on top of the general incompetence and HS2 has it in spades. Since the original 2009 proposal we have seen an explosion in costs as all kinds of absurd factors are loaded onto the contractors. Hard to look past the DfT and the Treasury and the Tory MPs who have relentlessly campaigned against this.
To be fair most countries are shit at infrastructure. Look at the Berlin Airport, or the too big Spanish trains.
Also, this stuff is harder than it looks (most things are).
But the quibbling and cheese-paring, which always costs more in the end... That's a very British disease.
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
There is no solution.
What we are seeing is clash of the legalistic mindset - “all information required must be available to the court at its request” with the laws of mathematics.
“ Well the laws of Australia prevail in Australia, I can assure you of that. The laws of mathematics are very commendable, but the only law that applies in Australia is the law of Australia,"
The politicians I have spoken to on this over the years simply do not accept that unbreakable end to end encryption is inevitable - this is across parties.
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
There is no solution.
What we are seeing is clash of the legalistic mindset - “all information required must be available to the court at its request” with the laws of mathematics.
“ Well the laws of Australia prevail in Australia, I can assure you of that. The laws of mathematics are very commendable, but the only law that applies in Australia is the law of Australia,"
The politicians I have spoken to on this over the years simply do not accept that unbreakable end to end encryption is inevitable - this is across parties.
Because politicians sadly think anything they don't understand must be easy and assume when people are saying it's not possible they must be lying because its what they would do
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.
Stayed at a place in Cornwall. From talking to some people it turned out that a condition of building it was offering access to the pool and gun to locals at a reasonable rate. It was the only swimming pool (indoors) for miles.
➡️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.
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.
A failure of 'our politics' or of Tory government?
Given that it's exactly the same failures as Crossrail and Thameslink 2000, it's not a party political problem.
Its both. Whilst we have proven over decades that this country is shit at infrastructure projects, there has to be blame for the people in office for the specifics. Every project has its own specific fuckwittery on top of the general incompetence and HS2 has it in spades. Since the original 2009 proposal we have seen an explosion in costs as all kinds of absurd factors are loaded onto the contractors. Hard to look past the DfT and the Treasury and the Tory MPs who have relentlessly campaigned against this.
To be fair most countries are shit at infrastructure. Look at the Berlin Airport, or the too big Spanish trains.
None of the Spanish trains were actually built. The error was in the designs and that was picked up before any manufacturing began.
➡️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
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
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.
Not to mention the 33% dk/would not say. Not sure what the standard turnout for party leader elections is. Anyone know what it was for the Trussterfuck?
Looking unlikely right now, but imagine we have a hung parliament where the SNP hold the balance of power. Kate Forbes is leader of the SNP, whose economic and social views suggest she would very likely be a Tory voter had she been born south of the border. Labour refuses to accede to her demands for indyref2, but Rishi actually approaches Forbes and says he'd agree to if the SNP propped him up. Is it possible at all she would say yes and prop the Tories up?
➡️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
➡️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
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.
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.
A failure of 'our politics' or of Tory government?
Given that it's exactly the same failures as Crossrail and Thameslink 2000, it's not a party political problem.
Its both. Whilst we have proven over decades that this country is shit at infrastructure projects, there has to be blame for the people in office for the specifics. Every project has its own specific fuckwittery on top of the general incompetence and HS2 has it in spades. Since the original 2009 proposal we have seen an explosion in costs as all kinds of absurd factors are loaded onto the contractors. Hard to look past the DfT and the Treasury and the Tory MPs who have relentlessly campaigned against this.
To be fair most countries are shit at infrastructure. Look at the Berlin Airport, or the too big Spanish trains.
This is heading for £100bn
I can’t think of any equivalent calamity at home or abroad. And it is still a fucking great mess
It was never needed, it was always pointless, we are a small country geographically, we don’t need 250mph trains and if we need more capacity (do we???) build that some other way
Spend £10bn on the Northern Powerhouse, that DOES make sense
This government needs to be exterminated, not just defeated. Send them into Hell, for the rest of enduring time
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.
A failure of 'our politics' or of Tory government?
Given that it's exactly the same failures as Crossrail and Thameslink 2000, it's not a party political problem.
Its both. Whilst we have proven over decades that this country is shit at infrastructure projects, there has to be blame for the people in office for the specifics. Every project has its own specific fuckwittery on top of the general incompetence and HS2 has it in spades. Since the original 2009 proposal we have seen an explosion in costs as all kinds of absurd factors are loaded onto the contractors. Hard to look past the DfT and the Treasury and the Tory MPs who have relentlessly campaigned against this.
To be fair most countries are shit at infrastructure. Look at the Berlin Airport, or the too big Spanish trains.
Berlin airport is open. And is fab. The Spanish trains haven't been built, and will have their design altered. Even the Spanish AVE network which saw completed earthworks and bridges but no tracks has now been completed.
Here? Even when Labour take office, the CBA for the Euston leg will say don't do it. Without Euston a connection to the WCML makes no sense as OOC can't cope. Its a joke.
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
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.
It is so bad there needs to be a public inquiry and maybe prosecutions. But I do not believe Labour have the cullions to do that, they are knee deep in this river of shit, as well
And WTAF are they now going to do with Euston? They’ve chopped down all the trees and dug up half of NW1 and there is an enormous big hole in the ground waiting for a railway which will, now, never arrive
What do they do with it? Sell it all off for flats? Leave it to rot?
Rot. London had bomb sites for decades after the war awaiting redevelopment. That ugly scar through Camden will now sit there as protected development land. Can't be made pretty as £cost. Can't be completed as £cost. Can't be sold off because one say there will be lemon-soaked paper napkins.
Sorry Leon, your government have catastrofucked your local environment and now expect you vote for them in thanks.
Lol
Luckily it’s not that close to me, but if I was down near Somers Town or whatever, I’d be starting a riot
This is also Starmer’s constituency. Presumably he will say something shortly, and have decisions to make when PM. His voters will not be happy if half of his constituency is literally a big gaping hole
Air rights are worth £lots. How about Starmer privatising the Euston link construction in exchange for allowing the developer to build endless blocks on top of it. Its going to take something like that. Because if you just look at OOC to Euston by itself you can't make the case for building 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
There is no solution.
What we are seeing is clash of the legalistic mindset - “all information required must be available to the court at its request” with the laws of mathematics.
“ Well the laws of Australia prevail in Australia, I can assure you of that. The laws of mathematics are very commendable, but the only law that applies in Australia is the law of Australia,"
The politicians I have spoken to on this over the years simply do not accept that unbreakable end to end encryption is inevitable - this is across parties.
Because politicians sadly think anything they don't understand must be easy and assume when people are saying it's not possible they must be lying because its what they would do
More that there is a certain mindset.
I worked with a lawyer once. Who claimed
- that since testing can’t cover every possible branch of complex code, that all developers are incompetent - Accused me of insolence when I pointed out that a certain problem was actual The Travelling Salesman problem. And hence had no guaranteed perfect solution.
Essentially he thought that reality should do as it’s told.
Looking unlikely right now, but imagine we have a hung parliament where the SNP hold the balance of power. Kate Forbes is leader of the SNP, whose economic and social views suggest she would very likely be a Tory voter had she been born south of the border. Labour refuses to accede to her demands for indyref2, but Rishi actually approaches Forbes and says he'd agree to if the SNP propped him up. Is it possible at all she would say yes and prop the Tories up?
She might but Forbes is more rightwing than Sunak so she increases the chances of a Labour majority or at least enough seats to just need the LDs for a majority not the SNP. She would likely lose seats to Scottish Labour but gain most of the remaining SCon seats
➡️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
That is HYUFD level straw clutching. At the next GE the SNP are going to smash Starmer Labour out of the park.
All this hatred towards SKS because he's not dumb enough to say he'll immediately overturn Brexit once in No10 and give the Tories a lifeline.
Are you saying those people saying SKS is being economical with the actualité over his real EU intentions are correct?
I don't think you can overturn Brexit in a single term. It needs to be demonstrably shown it's shit no matter who is running the show.
1st term - alignment 2nd term - increased agreements 3rd term - rejoin
The other important thing is "run things in a way that rejoin is a plausible option when we're ready to make that decision". Which will be about a decade from here.
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.
A failure of 'our politics' or of Tory government?
Given that it's exactly the same failures as Crossrail and Thameslink 2000, it's not a party political problem.
Its both. Whilst we have proven over decades that this country is shit at infrastructure projects, there has to be blame for the people in office for the specifics. Every project has its own specific fuckwittery on top of the general incompetence and HS2 has it in spades. Since the original 2009 proposal we have seen an explosion in costs as all kinds of absurd factors are loaded onto the contractors. Hard to look past the DfT and the Treasury and the Tory MPs who have relentlessly campaigned against this.
To be fair most countries are shit at infrastructure. Look at the Berlin Airport, or the too big Spanish trains.
Berlin airport is open. And is fab. The Spanish trains haven't been built, and will have their design altered. Even the Spanish AVE network which saw completed earthworks and bridges but no tracks has now been completed.
Here? Even when Labour take office, the CBA for the Euston leg will say don't do it. Without Euston a connection to the WCML makes no sense as OOC can't cope. Its a joke.
What are the chances Starmer kills it off completely?
He can say they will use the work done to increase present capacity. He can say they will recoup losses by selling land compulsorily purchased. He can say “I will build the Northern Power Line instead” and please his Red Wall
He can’t say NOTHING because that great big festering hole at Euston is literally his constituency. His office probably faces 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.
A failure of 'our politics' or of Tory government?
Given that it's exactly the same failures as Crossrail and Thameslink 2000, it's not a party political problem.
Its both. Whilst we have proven over decades that this country is shit at infrastructure projects, there has to be blame for the people in office for the specifics. Every project has its own specific fuckwittery on top of the general incompetence and HS2 has it in spades. Since the original 2009 proposal we have seen an explosion in costs as all kinds of absurd factors are loaded onto the contractors. Hard to look past the DfT and the Treasury and the Tory MPs who have relentlessly campaigned against this.
We used to be able to infrastructure just fine.....then we allowed civil servants to get involved and then it all went to shit because they can't resist meddling frankly is what I put it down to.....anecdote from being involved in more than one civil service inspired project where the original spec bid on was constantly tampered with even down to wanting changes on the day we were due to making a milestone release. We always got the impression it was down to people using the projects as various people using it as a proxy for internal manoeuvres rather than having any rational reason for the changes
We've suffered from fuckwittery for ages. The number of part built ends randomly road schemes which are still randomly ended decades later. Rail upgrades done on the cheap to save money now that cost far more in remedial work later. The shithousery around Heathrow vs Fatwick vs Boris Island where nothing gets built. Road or metro schemes of any description in places like Leeds.
What makes this one so acutely funny is that now we are part way through the business case for it has *genuinely* changed thanks to Covid. A redesign / rethink is perfectly sensible, but instead we will end up with an unusable stub fit for nothing. All the cost and more besides, none of the benefits,
➡️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
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.
A failure of 'our politics' or of Tory government?
Given that it's exactly the same failures as Crossrail and Thameslink 2000, it's not a party political problem.
Its both. Whilst we have proven over decades that this country is shit at infrastructure projects, there has to be blame for the people in office for the specifics. Every project has its own specific fuckwittery on top of the general incompetence and HS2 has it in spades. Since the original 2009 proposal we have seen an explosion in costs as all kinds of absurd factors are loaded onto the contractors. Hard to look past the DfT and the Treasury and the Tory MPs who have relentlessly campaigned against this.
We used to be able to infrastructure just fine.....then we allowed civil servants to get involved and then it all went to shit because they can't resist meddling frankly is what I put it down to.....anecdote from being involved in more than one civil service inspired project where the original spec bid on was constantly tampered with even down to wanting changes on the day we were due to making a milestone release. We always got the impression it was down to people using the projects as various people using it as a proxy for internal manoeuvres rather than having any rational reason for the changes
We've suffered from fuckwittery for ages. The number of part built ends randomly road schemes which are still randomly ended decades later. Rail upgrades done on the cheap to save money now that cost far more in remedial work later. The shithousery around Heathrow vs Fatwick vs Boris Island where nothing gets built. Road or metro schemes of any description in places like Leeds.
What makes this one so acutely funny is that now we are part way through the business case for it has *genuinely* changed thanks to Covid. A redesign / rethink is perfectly sensible, but instead we will end up with an unusable stub fit for nothing. All the cost and more besides, none of the benefits,
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
There is no solution.
What we are seeing is clash of the legalistic mindset - “all information required must be available to the court at its request” with the laws of mathematics.
“ Well the laws of Australia prevail in Australia, I can assure you of that. The laws of mathematics are very commendable, but the only law that applies in Australia is the law of Australia,"
The politicians I have spoken to on this over the years simply do not accept that unbreakable end to end encryption is inevitable - this is across parties.
Because politicians sadly think anything they don't understand must be easy and assume when people are saying it's not possible they must be lying because its what they would do
More that there is a certain mindset.
I worked with a lawyer once. Who claimed
- that since testing can’t cover every possible branch of complex code, that all developers are incompetent - Accused me of insolence when I pointed out that a certain problem was actual The Travelling Salesman problem. And hence had no guaranteed perfect solution.
Essentially he thought that reality should do as it’s told.
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.
Anyone expecting a 'Small Boat Bounce' takes an even dimmer view of the Great British public than I do. Braverman looks and sounds like a souped up Patel. The most unpopular member of an unpopulat government. Are people really attracted to those who seem to enjoy pulling the wings off flies?
➡️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
That is HYUFD level straw clutching. At the next GE the SNP are going to smash Starmer Labour out of the park.
All this hatred towards SKS because he's not dumb enough to say he'll immediately overturn Brexit once in No10 and give the Tories a lifeline.
Are you saying those people saying SKS is being economical with the actualité over his real EU intentions are correct?
I don't think you can overturn Brexit in a single term. It needs to be demonstrably shown it's shit no matter who is running the show.
1st term - alignment 2nd term - increased agreements 3rd term - rejoin
The other important thing is "run things in a way that rejoin is a plausible option when we're ready to make that decision". Which will be about a decade from here.
The EU need to be sure whatever a SKS government asked for wouldn't get overturned five years later under, say, PM Kemi Badenoch. This basically rules out membership of the customs union or single market in Labour's first term. The EU have to be sure that even the Tory party was at least open minded about re-joining before it would feel safe enough to enter into accession talks with the UK.
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.
Not to mention the 33% dk/would not say. Not sure what the standard turnout for party leader elections is. Anyone know what it was for the Trussterfuck?
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.
A failure of 'our politics' or of Tory government?
Given that it's exactly the same failures as Crossrail and Thameslink 2000, it's not a party political problem.
Its both. Whilst we have proven over decades that this country is shit at infrastructure projects, there has to be blame for the people in office for the specifics. Every project has its own specific fuckwittery on top of the general incompetence and HS2 has it in spades. Since the original 2009 proposal we have seen an explosion in costs as all kinds of absurd factors are loaded onto the contractors. Hard to look past the DfT and the Treasury and the Tory MPs who have relentlessly campaigned against this.
To be fair most countries are shit at infrastructure. Look at the Berlin Airport, or the too big Spanish trains.
Berlin airport is open. And is fab. The Spanish trains haven't been built, and will have their design altered. Even the Spanish AVE network which saw completed earthworks and bridges but no tracks has now been completed.
Here? Even when Labour take office, the CBA for the Euston leg will say don't do it. Without Euston a connection to the WCML makes no sense as OOC can't cope. Its a joke.
What are the chances Starmer kills it off completely?
He can say they will use the work done to increase present capacity. He can say they will recoup losses by selling land compulsorily purchased. He can say “I will build the Northern Power Line instead” and please his Red Wall
He can’t say NOTHING because that great big festering hole at Euston is literally his constituency. His office probably faces it
The business case has changed. Less business travel, more leisure travel. Despite anecdotage about empty trains the data shows that lack of capacity remains a problem, it's just that the types of flow and the timings are different. We also need to keep trying to transfer more and more freight off the roads which again is difficult because of capacity.
What I would do is hardball negotiation with the contractors. If we scrap the thing completely as you suggest then contractor consortia will end up losing a lot of cash. At the same time, what they are building isn't what we need.
So, pause the whole thing and: 1. Reengineer to a slower top speed. 200mph not 240mph. 2. Remove the contractual bullshit about how the contractor is responsible for a theoretical derailment in 2075. So much of the costs explosion has been from this. Build the infrastructure fit for purpose, not nuke-proof 3. Tie in the faffy bits like the Euston leg into redevelopment - the infrastructure runs underneath, developers make £lots and thus charge less
And so on. And if the consortia object to the changing of their contracts, threaten them with scrapping the whole thing and not meeting our contractual obligations. They'll say "nobody will ever build infrastructure again" and perhaps they won't. So have BuildCo do it as the rest of Europe do.
Looking unlikely right now, but imagine we have a hung parliament where the SNP hold the balance of power. Kate Forbes is leader of the SNP, whose economic and social views suggest she would very likely be a Tory voter had she been born south of the border. Labour refuses to accede to her demands for indyref2, but Rishi actually approaches Forbes and says he'd agree to if the SNP propped him up. Is it possible at all she would say yes and prop the Tories up?
SNP would never take action that led to a Tory government.
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
There is no solution.
What we are seeing is clash of the legalistic mindset - “all information required must be available to the court at its request” with the laws of mathematics.
“ Well the laws of Australia prevail in Australia, I can assure you of that. The laws of mathematics are very commendable, but the only law that applies in Australia is the law of Australia,"
The politicians I have spoken to on this over the years simply do not accept that unbreakable end to end encryption is inevitable - this is across parties.
Because politicians sadly think anything they don't understand must be easy and assume when people are saying it's not possible they must be lying because its what they would do
More that there is a certain mindset.
I worked with a lawyer once. Who claimed
- that since testing can’t cover every possible branch of complex code, that all developers are incompetent - Accused me of insolence when I pointed out that a certain problem was actual The Travelling Salesman problem. And hence had no guaranteed perfect solution.
Essentially he thought that reality should do as it’s told.
And most politicians are lawyers
This piece from 2019 (pre GE) claims the number of lawyers is decreasing, though still high obviously. More political bag carriers and fewer legal people I guess, so not really an improvement.
There is a long and logical tradition of kinship between lawyers and the legislature: the houses of parliament have on occasion been led by lawyers (David Lloyd George, Tony Blair) and are regularly topped up with lawyers: the current cohort of MPs from the general election in 2017 has an 11% lawyer intake, the second largest group after business (14%) outside politics. Those MPs are well known to us: Geoffrey Cox QC, Chuka Umunna, Dominic Grieve QC, Lucy Frazer QC, Keir Starmer QC, Helen Grant and so on and on.
But this percentage is down on the steady 15% lawyer-parliamentarians that has been the norm ever since the 1970s.
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.
Not to mention the 33% dk/would not say. Not sure what the standard turnout for party leader elections is. Anyone know what it was for the Trussterfuck?
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.
Anyone expecting a 'Small Boat Bounce' takes an even dimmer view of the Great British public than I do. Braverman looks and sounds like a souped up Patel. The most unpopular member of an unpopulat government. Are people really attracted to those who seem to enjoy pulling the wings off flies?
Seems 50% support Sunak on boats
Britain Elects
On banning migrants who come to the UK in small boats from ever re-entering the UK
Looking unlikely right now, but imagine we have a hung parliament where the SNP hold the balance of power. Kate Forbes is leader of the SNP, whose economic and social views suggest she would very likely be a Tory voter had she been born south of the border. Labour refuses to accede to her demands for indyref2, but Rishi actually approaches Forbes and says he'd agree to if the SNP propped him up. Is it possible at all she would say yes and prop the Tories up?
No. Nobody wiould trust the Tories after last time.
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.
A failure of 'our politics' or of Tory government?
Given that it's exactly the same failures as Crossrail and Thameslink 2000, it's not a party political problem.
Its both. Whilst we have proven over decades that this country is shit at infrastructure projects, there has to be blame for the people in office for the specifics. Every project has its own specific fuckwittery on top of the general incompetence and HS2 has it in spades. Since the original 2009 proposal we have seen an explosion in costs as all kinds of absurd factors are loaded onto the contractors. Hard to look past the DfT and the Treasury and the Tory MPs who have relentlessly campaigned against this.
To be fair most countries are shit at infrastructure. Look at the Berlin Airport, or the too big Spanish trains.
Berlin airport is open. And is fab. The Spanish trains haven't been built, and will have their design altered. Even the Spanish AVE network which saw completed earthworks and bridges but no tracks has now been completed.
Here? Even when Labour take office, the CBA for the Euston leg will say don't do it. Without Euston a connection to the WCML makes no sense as OOC can't cope. Its a joke.
What are the chances Starmer kills it off completely?
He can say they will use the work done to increase present capacity. He can say they will recoup losses by selling land compulsorily purchased. He can say “I will build the Northern Power Line instead” and please his Red Wall
He can’t say NOTHING because that great big festering hole at Euston is literally his constituency. His office probably faces it
The business case has changed. Less business travel, more leisure travel. Despite anecdotage about empty trains the data shows that lack of capacity remains a problem, it's just that the types of flow and the timings are different. We also need to keep trying to transfer more and more freight off the roads which again is difficult because of capacity.
What I would do is hardball negotiation with the contractors. If we scrap the thing completely as you suggest then contractor consortia will end up losing a lot of cash. At the same time, what they are building isn't what we need.
So, pause the whole thing and: 1. Reengineer to a slower top speed. 200mph not 240mph. 2. Remove the contractual bullshit about how the contractor is responsible for a theoretical derailment in 2075. So much of the costs explosion has been from this. Build the infrastructure fit for purpose, not nuke-proof 3. Tie in the faffy bits like the Euston leg into redevelopment - the infrastructure runs underneath, developers make £lots and thus charge less
And so on. And if the consortia object to the changing of their contracts, threaten them with scrapping the whole thing and not meeting our contractual obligations. They'll say "nobody will ever build infrastructure again" and perhaps they won't. So have BuildCo do it as the rest of Europe do.
Interesting. Starmer will have to say something and soon. He’s got angry Camden voters to answer, directly
Looking unlikely right now, but imagine we have a hung parliament where the SNP hold the balance of power. Kate Forbes is leader of the SNP, whose economic and social views suggest she would very likely be a Tory voter had she been born south of the border. Labour refuses to accede to her demands for indyref2, but Rishi actually approaches Forbes and says he'd agree to if the SNP propped him up. Is it possible at all she would say yes and prop the Tories up?
No. Nobody wiould trust the Tories after last time.
Resulting in more ammunition for the "the SNP don't actually want another referendum" crowd...
Yousaf now has 46 SNP MSPs and MPs backing him to just 12 for Forbes. Currently he seems to have a plurality of SNP members backing him but not a majority. So if Forbes did get a shock win thanks to Regan's preferences then the SNP would have the same problem the Tories had with Truss and IDS and Labour had with Corbyn.
Looking unlikely right now, but imagine we have a hung parliament where the SNP hold the balance of power. Kate Forbes is leader of the SNP, whose economic and social views suggest she would very likely be a Tory voter had she been born south of the border. Labour refuses to accede to her demands for indyref2, but Rishi actually approaches Forbes and says he'd agree to if the SNP propped him up. Is it possible at all she would say yes and prop the Tories up?
SNP would never take action that led to a Tory government.
Disappointing to see PBers still can't understand thje nature of causality, never mind the actual history of the time.
Even were Benpointer's interprtetation correct, you have to remember that Labour had massively reneged on thje referendum promise by counting the dead as No and imposing a minimum for Yes.
Looking unlikely right now, but imagine we have a hung parliament where the SNP hold the balance of power. Kate Forbes is leader of the SNP, whose economic and social views suggest she would very likely be a Tory voter had she been born south of the border. Labour refuses to accede to her demands for indyref2, but Rishi actually approaches Forbes and says he'd agree to if the SNP propped him up. Is it possible at all she would say yes and prop the Tories up?
She might but Forbes is more rightwing than Sunak so she increases the chances of a Labour majority or at least enough seats to just need the LDs for a majority not the SNP. She would likely lose seats to Scottish Labour but gain most of the remaining SCon seats
➡️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
That is HYUFD level straw clutching. At the next GE the SNP are going to smash Starmer Labour out of the park.
All this hatred towards SKS because he's not dumb enough to say he'll immediately overturn Brexit once in No10 and give the Tories a lifeline.
Are you saying those people saying SKS is being economical with the actualité over his real EU intentions are correct?
I don't think you can overturn Brexit in a single term. It needs to be demonstrably shown it's shit no matter who is running the show.
1st term - alignment 2nd term - increased agreements 3rd term - rejoin
The other important thing is "run things in a way that rejoin is a plausible option when we're ready to make that decision". Which will be about a decade from here.
The EU need to be sure whatever a SKS government asked for wouldn't get overturned five years later under, say, PM Kemi Badenoch. This basically rules out membership of the customs union or single market in Labour's first term. The EU have to be sure that even the Tory party was at least open minded about re-joining before it would feel safe enough to enter into accession talks with the UK.
Does it really make sense for a SKS government to pull out of the CPTPP, likely signed by then, with a dozen countries for slightly more access to the EU? Especially if the new NI agreement shows regulatory divergence can work?
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.
Anyone expecting a 'Small Boat Bounce' takes an even dimmer view of the Great British public than I do. Braverman looks and sounds like a souped up Patel. The most unpopular member of an unpopulat government. Are people really attracted to those who seem to enjoy pulling the wings off flies?
Seems 50% support Sunak on boats
Britain Elects
On banning migrants who come to the UK in small boats from ever re-entering the UK
I don't think many people deny that there is public support for doing very harsh things on this issue. It makes sense politically to try to go after that vote, even if overpromising could bite him severely in the arse. It's a question of whether it a) is lawful, b) reasonable, even as an extreme measure, c) would even work.
Looking unlikely right now, but imagine we have a hung parliament where the SNP hold the balance of power. Kate Forbes is leader of the SNP, whose economic and social views suggest she would very likely be a Tory voter had she been born south of the border. Labour refuses to accede to her demands for indyref2, but Rishi actually approaches Forbes and says he'd agree to if the SNP propped him up. Is it possible at all she would say yes and prop the Tories up?
She might but Forbes is more rightwing than Sunak so she increases the chances of a Labour majority or at least enough seats to just need the LDs for a majority not the SNP. She would likely lose seats to Scottish Labour but gain most of the remaining SCon seats
Is she a TORY even? Does she meet your criteria?
No. Doesn't believe in the UK. I'd have thought it was a rather big hint.
➡️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
That is HYUFD level straw clutching. At the next GE the SNP are going to smash Starmer Labour out of the park.
All this hatred towards SKS because he's not dumb enough to say he'll immediately overturn Brexit once in No10 and give the Tories a lifeline.
Are you saying those people saying SKS is being economical with the actualité over his real EU intentions are correct?
I don't think you can overturn Brexit in a single term. It needs to be demonstrably shown it's shit no matter who is running the show.
Rejoin needs a whole lot more than people thinking the current situation is shit.
Indeed. It needs at least 10-15 years for relations between the EU and the UK to calm down and stabilise (far from a certain prospect in itself, given the potential for a further spat over Northern Ireland, the boat people problem, or any number of other things.) Then it needs a stable majority of something like 2:1 in public opinion for re-entry, in the knowledge that the UK would be almost certain to end up as a bigger net contributor to the EU budget than before, would have to accept FoM again and would also be expected to join the Euro. It also requires unequivocal backing from all the main political parties - which means that the tiny rump of elderly Tory members have an effective veto over the entire process.
I'm not saying that the UK will never go back, but it would be a major surprise if it happened this side of 2050.
Yousaf now has 46 SNP MSPs and MPs backing him to just 12 for Forbes. Currently he seems to have a plurality of SNP members backing him but not a majority. So if Forbes did get a shock win thanks to Regan's preferences then the SNP would have the same problem the Tories had with Truss and IDS and Labour had with Corbyn.
Looking unlikely right now, but imagine we have a hung parliament where the SNP hold the balance of power. Kate Forbes is leader of the SNP, whose economic and social views suggest she would very likely be a Tory voter had she been born south of the border. Labour refuses to accede to her demands for indyref2, but Rishi actually approaches Forbes and says he'd agree to if the SNP propped him up. Is it possible at all she would say yes and prop the Tories up?
She might but Forbes is more rightwing than Sunak so she increases the chances of a Labour majority or at least enough seats to just need the LDs for a majority not the SNP. She would likely lose seats to Scottish Labour but gain most of the remaining SCon seats
Is she a TORY even? Does she meet your criteria?
Seems to be as she has not said she wants a republic unlike Yousaf, she has also not said she would back disestablishing the Church of England nor back scrapping the remaining hereditary peers in the Lords.
Forbes is also more of a tax cutter than Rishi and Hunt it seems and more socially conservative, opposing homosexual marriage and abortion. She even opposes women priests. On those issues she is right of both me and Rishi
Looking unlikely right now, but imagine we have a hung parliament where the SNP hold the balance of power. Kate Forbes is leader of the SNP, whose economic and social views suggest she would very likely be a Tory voter had she been born south of the border. Labour refuses to accede to her demands for indyref2, but Rishi actually approaches Forbes and says he'd agree to if the SNP propped him up. Is it possible at all she would say yes and prop the Tories up?
No. Nobody wiould trust the Tories after last time.
A Forbes led SNP would be the more rightwing element of a Sunak led minority government
Looking unlikely right now, but imagine we have a hung parliament where the SNP hold the balance of power. Kate Forbes is leader of the SNP, whose economic and social views suggest she would very likely be a Tory voter had she been born south of the border. Labour refuses to accede to her demands for indyref2, but Rishi actually approaches Forbes and says he'd agree to if the SNP propped him up. Is it possible at all she would say yes and prop the Tories up?
No. Nobody wiould trust the Tories after last time.
A Forbes led SNP would be the more rightwing element of a Sunak led minority government
I'm just looking forward to the Labour ads showing a tiny Sunak in Forbes's pocket
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
There is no solution.
What we are seeing is clash of the legalistic mindset - “all information required must be available to the court at its request” with the laws of mathematics.
“ Well the laws of Australia prevail in Australia, I can assure you of that. The laws of mathematics are very commendable, but the only law that applies in Australia is the law of Australia,"
The politicians I have spoken to on this over the years simply do not accept that unbreakable end to end encryption is inevitable - this is across parties.
Because politicians sadly think anything they don't understand must be easy and assume when people are saying it's not possible they must be lying because its what they would do
More that there is a certain mindset.
I worked with a lawyer once. Who claimed
- that since testing can’t cover every possible branch of complex code, that all developers are incompetent - Accused me of insolence when I pointed out that a certain problem was actual The Travelling Salesman problem. And hence had no guaranteed perfect solution.
Essentially he thought that reality should do as it’s told.
Was it you calling it "the travelling salesman problem" that caused an atmosphere?
Looking unlikely right now, but imagine we have a hung parliament where the SNP hold the balance of power. Kate Forbes is leader of the SNP, whose economic and social views suggest she would very likely be a Tory voter had she been born south of the border. Labour refuses to accede to her demands for indyref2, but Rishi actually approaches Forbes and says he'd agree to if the SNP propped him up. Is it possible at all she would say yes and prop the Tories up?
No. Nobody wiould trust the Tories after last time.
A Forbes led SNP would be the more rightwing element of a Sunak led minority government
I'm just looking forward to the Labour ads showing a tiny Sunak in Forbes's pocket
They won't have to mess about too much with the scales.
Looking unlikely right now, but imagine we have a hung parliament where the SNP hold the balance of power. Kate Forbes is leader of the SNP, whose economic and social views suggest she would very likely be a Tory voter had she been born south of the border. Labour refuses to accede to her demands for indyref2, but Rishi actually approaches Forbes and says he'd agree to if the SNP propped him up. Is it possible at all she would say yes and prop the Tories up?
SNP would never take action that led to a Tory government.
Disappointing to see PBers still can't understand thje nature of causality, never mind the actual history of the time.
Even were Benpointer's interprtetation correct, you have to remember that Labour had massively reneged on thje referendum promise by counting the dead as No and imposing a minimum for Yes.
I was teasing. I don't actually blame the SNP for letting Thatcher in: There was going to have to be an election within 6 months anyway; it was not certain that the Tories would win; the Liberals (remember them?) also voted No Confidence.
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
There is no solution.
What we are seeing is clash of the legalistic mindset - “all information required must be available to the court at its request” with the laws of mathematics.
“ Well the laws of Australia prevail in Australia, I can assure you of that. The laws of mathematics are very commendable, but the only law that applies in Australia is the law of Australia,"
The politicians I have spoken to on this over the years simply do not accept that unbreakable end to end encryption is inevitable - this is across parties.
Because politicians sadly think anything they don't understand must be easy and assume when people are saying it's not possible they must be lying because its what they would do
More that there is a certain mindset.
I worked with a lawyer once. Who claimed
- that since testing can’t cover every possible branch of complex code, that all developers are incompetent - Accused me of insolence when I pointed out that a certain problem was actual The Travelling Salesman problem. And hence had no guaranteed perfect solution.
Essentially he thought that reality should do as it’s told.
And most politicians are lawyers
This piece from 2019 (pre GE) claims the number of lawyers is decreasing, though still high obviously. More political bag carriers and fewer legal people I guess, so not really an improvement.
There is a long and logical tradition of kinship between lawyers and the legislature: the houses of parliament have on occasion been led by lawyers (David Lloyd George, Tony Blair) and are regularly topped up with lawyers: the current cohort of MPs from the general election in 2017 has an 11% lawyer intake, the second largest group after business (14%) outside politics. Those MPs are well known to us: Geoffrey Cox QC, Chuka Umunna, Dominic Grieve QC, Lucy Frazer QC, Keir Starmer QC, Helen Grant and so on and on.
But this percentage is down on the steady 15% lawyer-parliamentarians that has been the norm ever since the 1970s.
Exactly, there are more ex SPADs and political reserchers and councillors amongst MPs now than lawyers.
Less than 10% of newly elected MPs in 2019 were lawyers, over a third in all parties and over half in Labour and the SNP were councillors though. 9.3% of Tories and 9.5% of Labour and more than that of SNP and LDs were political researchers or SPADs.
Looking unlikely right now, but imagine we have a hung parliament where the SNP hold the balance of power. Kate Forbes is leader of the SNP, whose economic and social views suggest she would very likely be a Tory voter had she been born south of the border. Labour refuses to accede to her demands for indyref2, but Rishi actually approaches Forbes and says he'd agree to if the SNP propped him up. Is it possible at all she would say yes and prop the Tories up?
No. Nobody wiould trust the Tories after last time.
A Forbes led SNP would be the more rightwing element of a Sunak led minority government
Don't be silly. Forbes might be a social conservative but her SNP MPs are not in the main.
Looking unlikely right now, but imagine we have a hung parliament where the SNP hold the balance of power. Kate Forbes is leader of the SNP, whose economic and social views suggest she would very likely be a Tory voter had she been born south of the border. Labour refuses to accede to her demands for indyref2, but Rishi actually approaches Forbes and says he'd agree to if the SNP propped him up. Is it possible at all she would say yes and prop the Tories up?
SNP would never take action that led to a Tory government.
Disappointing to see PBers still can't understand thje nature of causality, never mind the actual history of the time.
Even were Benpointer's interprtetation correct, you have to remember that Labour had massively reneged on thje referendum promise by counting the dead as No and imposing a minimum for Yes.
I was teasing. I don't actually blame the SNP for letting Thatcher in: There was going to have to be an election within 6 months anyway; it was not certain that the Tories would win; the Liberals (remember them?) also voted No Confidence.
But the SNP knew that a Tory win was in their strategic interest and lured first the LibDems, and then Labour, into calling for election at precisely the worst time.
Looking unlikely right now, but imagine we have a hung parliament where the SNP hold the balance of power. Kate Forbes is leader of the SNP, whose economic and social views suggest she would very likely be a Tory voter had she been born south of the border. Labour refuses to accede to her demands for indyref2, but Rishi actually approaches Forbes and says he'd agree to if the SNP propped him up. Is it possible at all she would say yes and prop the Tories up?
No. Nobody wiould trust the Tories after last time.
A Forbes led SNP would be the more rightwing element of a Sunak led minority government
Don't be silly. Forbes might be a social conservative but her SNP MPs are not in the main.
Assuming most of them don't defect to the Scottish Greens if she becomes leader, unlike the Tories there is no mechanism for MSPs or MPs to remove an SNP leader without members support
Looking unlikely right now, but imagine we have a hung parliament where the SNP hold the balance of power. Kate Forbes is leader of the SNP, whose economic and social views suggest she would very likely be a Tory voter had she been born south of the border. Labour refuses to accede to her demands for indyref2, but Rishi actually approaches Forbes and says he'd agree to if the SNP propped him up. Is it possible at all she would say yes and prop the Tories up?
No. Nobody wiould trust the Tories after last time.
A Forbes led SNP would be the more rightwing element of a Sunak led minority government
I'm just looking forward to the Labour ads showing a tiny* Sunak in Forbes's pocket
Looking unlikely right now, but imagine we have a hung parliament where the SNP hold the balance of power. Kate Forbes is leader of the SNP, whose economic and social views suggest she would very likely be a Tory voter had she been born south of the border. Labour refuses to accede to her demands for indyref2, but Rishi actually approaches Forbes and says he'd agree to if the SNP propped him up. Is it possible at all she would say yes and prop the Tories up?
She might but Forbes is more rightwing than Sunak so she increases the chances of a Labour majority or at least enough seats to just need the LDs for a majority not the SNP. She would likely lose seats to Scottish Labour but gain most of the remaining SCon seats
Is she a TORY even? Does she meet your criteria?
No. Doesn't believe in the UK. I'd have thought it was a rather big hint.
The Tories existed even before the Act of Union, that simply means she isn't a Conservative and Unionist
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
Most of the residents of Britain's cities would happily swap their houses/flats for the most basic of Victorian grandiosity.
Yousaf now has 46 SNP MSPs and MPs backing him to just 12 for Forbes. Currently he seems to have a plurality of SNP members backing him but not a majority. So if Forbes did get a shock win thanks to Regan's preferences then the SNP would have the same problem the Tories had with Truss and IDS and Labour had with Corbyn.
Looking unlikely right now, but imagine we have a hung parliament where the SNP hold the balance of power. Kate Forbes is leader of the SNP, whose economic and social views suggest she would very likely be a Tory voter had she been born south of the border. Labour refuses to accede to her demands for indyref2, but Rishi actually approaches Forbes and says he'd agree to if the SNP propped him up. Is it possible at all she would say yes and prop the Tories up?
She might but Forbes is more rightwing than Sunak so she increases the chances of a Labour majority or at least enough seats to just need the LDs for a majority not the SNP. She would likely lose seats to Scottish Labour but gain most of the remaining SCon seats
Is she a TORY even? Does she meet your criteria?
No. Doesn't believe in the UK. I'd have thought it was a rather big hint.
But apart from that pesky matter he sounds like a fan. Course he could be trolling slightly. This is not to be ruled out.
Yousaf now has 46 SNP MSPs and MPs backing him to just 12 for Forbes. Currently he seems to have a plurality of SNP members backing him but not a majority. So if Forbes did get a shock win thanks to Regan's preferences then the SNP would have the same problem the Tories had with Truss and IDS and Labour had with Corbyn.
A party leader backed by the party's members but not its representatives in Parliament
Difference is that Ms Truss was not at all popular with the actual voters.
That was never tested.
What on earth do you think the result would have been aftwer the Kamikwazi Budget?!
She couldn't cope with the easy questions Fraser Nelson and Katy Balls threw at her in the Spectator interview. God knows how she would have coped on the campaign trail during a GE.
I have to admit this thought occurred to me when someone suggested the Tories taking on David Attenborough next as being a stupid idea (which it very much would be), due to comments he's made about the industrial revolution - whilst he may have thought through the implications of that, I do think it has an image problem which doesn't consider the good points.
Err not sure these two things are the same. The first counts as pure environmental degradation, the second was costly but had the upside of by far the biggest increase in human welfare in history.
Unfair to pick on this otherwise interesting post but it's a mistake that comes up surprisingly often. What do people think life would be like if we hadn't burnt fossil fuels? Like it is now, just no climate crisis? https://twitter.com/mrianleslie/status/1633845495595671552/photo/1
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
Just looks heavy and out of proportion to its surroundings to me. Nothing especially interesting or imaginative about it either. I'm not a huge fan of this kind of neoclassical stuff - St Paul's perhaps the exception. Doesn't seem a huge loss to London.
Chacun a son gout but
1. You’re an idiot
And
2. You’re wrong
And
3. Look what they replaced it with
In any case, those were built to look bloody permanent. Real fuck-you "we're here to stay" stuff. Like the Oxford Canal offices, only on a much larger scale. Confidence in the new company.
Not some local pub where you got the tickets over the bar, as in some of the early days of railways.
Quite so. Euston Arch said “Wow you’re going on a journey, it might go all the way to the Highlands of Scotland, welcome on board!”
It is architecture as theatre, as something that adds to the drama and excitement of life, as well as being agreeable to look at. The modern Euston says, “oh FFS, I guess you’re here to take another shitty train? - whatever, it probably goes to Northampton, who cares”
Have we found a town beginning with N you like less than you do Newent?
Will somebody make the case for Northampton?
Andybody?
Have to admit, I couldn't make a case for stopping there, even an hour. Unless it was to slow your ultimate arrival in Corby.
➡️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
That is HYUFD level straw clutching. At the next GE the SNP are going to smash Starmer Labour out of the park.
All this hatred towards SKS because he's not dumb enough to say he'll immediately overturn Brexit once in No10 and give the Tories a lifeline.
Are you saying those people saying SKS is being economical with the actualité over his real EU intentions are correct?
I don't think you can overturn Brexit in a single term. It needs to be demonstrably shown it's shit no matter who is running the show.
Rejoin needs a whole lot more than people thinking the current situation is shit.
Indeed. It needs at least 10-15 years for relations between the EU and the UK to calm down and stabilise (far from a certain prospect in itself, given the potential for a further spat over Northern Ireland, the boat people problem, or any number of other things.) Then it needs a stable majority of something like 2:1 in public opinion for re-entry, in the knowledge that the UK would be almost certain to end up as a bigger net contributor to the EU budget than before, would have to accept FoM again and would also be expected to join the Euro. It also requires unequivocal backing from all the main political parties - which means that the tiny rump of elderly Tory members have an effective veto over the entire process.
I'm not saying that the UK will never go back, but it would be a major surprise if it happened this side of 2050.
At which point the EU will be a mighty 9% of world GDP.
Looking unlikely right now, but imagine we have a hung parliament where the SNP hold the balance of power. Kate Forbes is leader of the SNP, whose economic and social views suggest she would very likely be a Tory voter had she been born south of the border. Labour refuses to accede to her demands for indyref2, but Rishi actually approaches Forbes and says he'd agree to if the SNP propped him up. Is it possible at all she would say yes and prop the Tories up?
She might but Forbes is more rightwing than Sunak so she increases the chances of a Labour majority or at least enough seats to just need the LDs for a majority not the SNP. She would likely lose seats to Scottish Labour but gain most of the remaining SCon seats
Is she a TORY even? Does she meet your criteria?
No. Doesn't believe in the UK. I'd have thought it was a rather big hint.
The Tories existed even before the Act of Union, that simply means she isn't a Conservative and Unionist
Which Act of Union? Don't go too far back or you'll end up implying only Sinn Fein are the real Tories.
Looking unlikely right now, but imagine we have a hung parliament where the SNP hold the balance of power. Kate Forbes is leader of the SNP, whose economic and social views suggest she would very likely be a Tory voter had she been born south of the border. Labour refuses to accede to her demands for indyref2, but Rishi actually approaches Forbes and says he'd agree to if the SNP propped him up. Is it possible at all she would say yes and prop the Tories up?
No. Nobody wiould trust the Tories after last time.
A Forbes led SNP would be the more rightwing element of a Sunak led minority government
I'm just looking forward to the Labour ads showing a tiny Sunak in Forbes's pocket
Comments
And WTAF are they now going to do with Euston? They’ve chopped down all the trees and dug up half of NW1 and there is an enormous big hole in the ground waiting for a railway which will, now, never arrive
What do they do with it? Sell it all off for flats? Leave it to rot?
Who will be leading the SNP?
On a more serious note, in Scotland it’s Sarwar Labour.
The small boats are bad for the Cons because they've been long in government and despite the rhetoric are not solving the problem.
It's a matter of which of these is more true. I'd hope the second one but I'm really not sure.
Their modern successors do. And they are old enough to vote Tory.
Sorry Leon, your government have catastrofucked your local environment and now expect you vote for them in thanks.
Luckily it’s not that close to me, but if I was down near Somers Town or whatever, I’d be starting a riot
This is also Starmer’s constituency. Presumably he will say something shortly, and have decisions to make when PM. His voters will not be happy if half of his constituency is literally a big gaping hole
https://www.msn.com/en-gb/travel/news/elizabeth-line-could-be-be-extended-into-essex-and-kent-under-ambitious-new-proposals/ar-AA18moYa?ocid=msedgntp&cvid=eb31db9121b34be99f472bdc17cdf715&ei=18
But the quibbling and cheese-paring, which always costs more in the end... That's a very British disease.
What we are seeing is clash of the legalistic mindset - “all information required must be available to the court at its request” with the laws of mathematics.
“ Well the laws of Australia prevail in Australia, I can assure you of that. The laws of mathematics are very commendable, but the only law that applies in Australia is the law of Australia,"
The politicians I have spoken to on this over the years simply do not accept that unbreakable end to end encryption is inevitable - this is across parties.
Recently JohnO and myself had lunch there.
Last time I stayed in Claridge's it led to a divorce, not mine.
Not sure what the standard turnout for party leader elections is. Anyone know what it was for the Trussterfuck?
Labour refuses to accede to her demands for indyref2, but Rishi actually approaches Forbes and says he'd agree to if the SNP propped him up.
Is it possible at all she would say yes and prop the Tories up?
Favourability of Political Parties in Scotland:
LAB: +10% (+3)
SNP: -1% (-13)
LDM: -13% (-1)
GRN: -17% (-6)
CON: -34% (+4)
REF: -34% (=)
ALBA: -47% (-8)
Via @RedfieldWilton
, On 2-5 March,
Changes w/ 26-27 November 2022.
https://twitter.com/electpoliticsuk/status/1633532296920719361
2nd term - increased agreements
3rd term - rejoin
I can’t think of any equivalent calamity at home or abroad. And it is still a fucking great mess
It was never needed, it was always pointless, we are a small country geographically, we don’t need 250mph trains and if we need more capacity (do we???) build that some other way
Spend £10bn on the Northern Powerhouse, that DOES make sense
This government needs to be exterminated, not just defeated. Send them into Hell, for the rest of enduring time
Here? Even when Labour take office, the CBA for the Euston leg will say don't do it. Without Euston a connection to the WCML makes no sense as OOC can't cope. Its a joke.
@Mexicanpete said:
...
At the next GE the SNP are going to smash Starmer Labour out of the park.
I worked with a lawyer once. Who claimed
- that since testing can’t cover every possible branch of complex code, that all developers are incompetent
- Accused me of insolence when I pointed out that a certain problem was actual The Travelling Salesman problem. And hence had no guaranteed perfect solution.
Essentially he thought that reality should do as it’s told.
He can say they will use the work done to increase present capacity. He can say they will recoup losses by selling land compulsorily purchased. He can say “I will build the Northern Power Line instead” and please his Red Wall
He can’t say NOTHING because that great big festering hole at Euston is literally his constituency. His office probably faces it
What makes this one so acutely funny is that now we are part way through the business case for it has *genuinely* changed thanks to Covid. A redesign / rethink is perfectly sensible, but instead we will end up with an unusable stub fit for nothing. All the cost and more besides, none of the benefits,
What I would do is hardball negotiation with the contractors. If we scrap the thing completely as you suggest then contractor consortia will end up losing a lot of cash. At the same time, what they are building isn't what we need.
So, pause the whole thing and:
1. Reengineer to a slower top speed. 200mph not 240mph.
2. Remove the contractual bullshit about how the contractor is responsible for a theoretical derailment in 2075. So much of the costs explosion has been from this. Build the infrastructure fit for purpose, not nuke-proof
3. Tie in the faffy bits like the Euston leg into redevelopment - the infrastructure runs underneath, developers make £lots and thus charge less
And so on. And if the consortia object to the changing of their contracts, threaten them with scrapping the whole thing and not meeting our contractual obligations. They'll say "nobody will ever build infrastructure again" and perhaps they won't. So have BuildCo do it as the rest of Europe do.
Oh, wait... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1979_vote_of_no_confidence_in_the_Callaghan_ministry#Vote
There is a long and logical tradition of kinship between lawyers and the legislature: the houses of parliament have on occasion been led by lawyers (David Lloyd George, Tony Blair) and are regularly topped up with lawyers: the current cohort of MPs from the general election in 2017 has an 11% lawyer intake, the second largest group after business (14%) outside politics. Those MPs are well known to us: Geoffrey Cox QC, Chuka Umunna, Dominic Grieve QC, Lucy Frazer QC, Keir Starmer QC, Helen Grant and so on and on.
But this percentage is down on the steady 15% lawyer-parliamentarians that has been the norm ever since the 1970s.
https://www.legalcheek.com/2019/07/law-and-politics-is-the-romance-finally-over/
However, solicitors vs barristers have been increasing it seems
https://researchbriefings.files.parliament.uk/documents/CBP-7483/CBP-7483.pdf
Britain Elects
On banning migrants who come to the UK in small boats from ever re-entering the UK
Support: 50%
Oppose: 36%
via
@YouGov
YouGov are currently polling weekly for the Times - the last poll had fieldwork of 28 Feb - 1 Mar so it's probable this was Tuesday and yesterday.
It's a GB poll with a sample of round 2,000 and the sub-samples are always interesting though not to be taken too seriously.
Even were Benpointer's interprtetation correct, you have to remember that Labour had massively reneged on thje referendum promise by counting the dead as No and imposing a minimum for Yes.
I'm not saying that the UK will never go back, but it would be a major surprise if it happened this side of 2050.
Forbes is also more of a tax cutter than Rishi and Hunt it seems and more socially conservative, opposing homosexual marriage and abortion. She even opposes women priests. On those issues she is right of both me and Rishi
https://youtube.com/watch?v=pbOiXmMnyw4
Well worth watching, even if you don’t agree with their perspectives.
Less than 10% of newly elected MPs in 2019 were lawyers, over a third in all parties and over half in Labour and the SNP were councillors though. 9.3% of Tories and 9.5% of Labour and more than that of SNP and LDs were political researchers or SPADs.
25% of new Conservative MPs worked in Business to just 8% who were lawyers
https://researchbriefings.files.parliament.uk/documents/CBP-7483/CBP-7483.pdf
Err not sure these two things are the same. The first counts as pure environmental degradation, the second was costly but had the upside of by far the biggest increase in human welfare in history.
Unfair to pick on this otherwise interesting post but it's a mistake that comes up surprisingly often. What do people think life would be like if we hadn't burnt fossil fuels? Like it is now, just no climate crisis?
https://twitter.com/mrianleslie/status/1633845495595671552/photo/1