I don't know what Starmer is like or if he'll be any good, but he's not a Tory and all he has to do once he gets in is not fuck up anything anymore than it's been fucked up already. If he can manage that, we'll all win.
He'll fuck up my kids education and my families welfare.
I will wade through blood to stop him.
With respect, that's as full of shit as anything you accuse Dura Ace of. You'll do fuck all blood wading, and once he gets in, you'll just snark on the sidelines here like we all do.
Not to mention the last decade of 'fucking up' education for a rather more significant percentage of the country's kids.
Whoever is in government, I suspect the children of the top 1-2% of earners will do OK, whatever the travails visited on us by the likes of Starmer.
Labour strategists are cock-a-hoop with how the adverts have landed. The first advert tweeted has received 20.8 million views, making it arguably the most successful Labour attack in recent memory. A party insider said: “Nice doesn’t win elections. They have got used to Labour shirking the dirty stuff. That’s changed.”...
...The party is not going to stop there. According to senior Labour sources, one of the next attack ads will suggest the PM has “effectively decriminalised rape”.
It will claim that under the Tories “only 1.6 per cent of rapists have been charged”. A source said: “We aren’t talking to Twitter. We are talking to the vast majority of the country who want to see child rapists locked up and know the Tories have destroyed the criminal justice system. [Sunak] is leading the government that is responsible and he has got the man [Jeremy Hunt] who butchered the NHS as his chancellor.”
It is understood Labour drew up the messages some time ago and have been waiting for the right time to deploy them....
...It has even been claimed that a group of former Tory election staffers have turned against their own party and approached Labour to help formulate their election strategy.
This is all ultimately for nought if the Labour Party won't advance a viable alternative. As with all the rest of the myriad problems with public services, they need to formulate a plan to fix them and find from somewhere the colossal sums of money needed to pay for the plan.
It's where the money's meant to come from that's likely to prove their undoing, in the end. They can probably get away with a certain amount of borrowing to invest for infrastructure projects, albeit that they're going to have to be extremely careful not to repeat the mistakes of PFI and end up saddling public sector organisations with even more debt servicing obligations. However, ultimately they need to service the ongoing costs of, for example, paying more for care home places so the staff can be paid enough not to sod off to Aldi, and putting tens of thousands of extra police on the streets, by raising an awful lot of tax.
Low and middle income earners have already been bled white and there's no indication that Labour are willing to milk the obvious source of extra revenue which is asset wealth - residential and commercial property, stocks and shares. So where's the money to pay for all this stuff?
And there's no indication that increasing spending on public services would lead to an equivalent improvement in them.
189k more employed by the NHS than at the 2019GE yet we're continually told that the NHS is a disaster which is about to collapse.
Voters have one fairly simple comparator to call upon. The state of public services under the last Labour government vs those now. Unfortunately for the Tories that comparator is pretty stark. No need for theory - there’s empirical evidence aplenty.
So you cannot explain how Labour (or anyone else) is going to wave this magic wand and turn 'a disaster about to collapse' back into 'the envy of the world'.
Not that it was 'the envy of the world' before 2010 even without Stafford, Maidstone and all the other hospital scandals of that era.
Now perhaps relying on false nostalgia for some none existent golden age of public services is all that is needed before an election but it rapidly wears out once in government.
“As success in reducing long waits in the early part of this century continued, the Labour government raised the stakes by announcing a new, more comprehensive target in 2005 that no more than 10% of patients should wait longer than 18 weeks from referral by a GP to treatment in hospital. This meant another change in waiting list data in 2007 to better capture what would now become a more overarching measure of the complete waiting list/time experience.
“Within two years – by 2009 – the total waiting list had nearly halved to 2.3 million, and the 18-week target continued to be met up until 2017. But from around 2012 the waiting list started to rise, nearly doubling to 4.34 million by February 2020.”
Thanks for proving my point that the NHS wasn't the 'envy of the world' before 2010.
Now could you tell us how many more tens of billions of pounds and hundreds of thousands more employees the NHS requires to get to some predicted output metric ?
Again with this narrative that any change is impossible. We had a better NHS under Labour; the NHS has deteriorated under the Conservatives. Voters might, understandably, want to go back to how things were under Labour (or some other non-Conservative alternative).
These repeated claims that there’s nothing that can be done aren’t going to win the Tories the election.
But Labour can only plausibly offer an improved NHS if it throws more money at it, to cover all the costs of:
*Staff recruitment and retention *Building repair backlogs *Repair and replacement of expensive kit *Clearing massive treatment backlogs, and *Improving preventative medicine and public health
The fact that UK health spending per head is already relatively high doesn't help. The country is also rammed full of poor people, chronically ill people and extremely fat people (the three issues being intimately related,) which means that our costs are also relatively high. As with so many of the other deficient areas of the public sphere, more money must be found to put them right. Where is Labour going to get the money? That's what risks doing for them.
UK health spending isn't relatively high compared with most developed countries - it's actually relatively low. This is an interesting chart, as it also shows the balance of Government spending and private insurance in each country:
I was surprised how small a share of US health spending (which is of course humongous) is private - presumably the effect of Medicare for the elderly. As their life expectancy is much the same, they aren't getting much bang for their bucks.
I suspect a lot of the damage is done prior to people qualifying for Medicare for the elderly. At which point it's simply dealing as well as it can with the (relatively) unhealthy starting points it is given.
I find the US system to be the best argument t in favour of a centralised state run service. They have to spend loads anyway to support a massively inefficient private market. If you’re wealth, you get amazing treatment. But it’s massively inefficient over all.
I don't know what Starmer is like or if he'll be any good, but he's not a Tory and all he has to do once he gets in is not fuck up anything anymore than it's been fucked up already. If he can manage that, we'll all win.
He'll fuck up my kids education and my families welfare.
I will wade through blood to stop him.
No you won't - you will write a few letters and post somethings on line but you won't and will finally realize you can't do anything about it.
Now once upon a time you could have left to somewhere like Vienna but that isn't an option nowadays.
Lol. Such UTOA Remainer bullshit.
If I wanted to leave I'd go to Australia, Canada, the US or even the Middle East.
Don't give a fuck about Vienna. No-one does unless they want a classical music concert or a good mountain hiking holiday.
As I've explained to you before Venison was sold by a pub I went to where the landlords displayed Vote Green Party banners outside and refused to stock any meat, whatsoever, unless it was Venison. This has since spread and it has become the go to accepted meat of choice for vegans and Lefties, and therefore it's become Woke. Which has ruined it.
I used to like Vension - a lot. I ordered it from niche family butchers 15 years ago before it was cool.
These tossers have put me off. I'm not ordering or enjoying anything that encourages these detestable wankers.
Also worth bearing in mind that Labour intend to keep going with their negative attacks on Sunak. He is a very easy target and they should not let him off.
Mike might claim to disapprove of such things, which is mildly amusing to those of us who have seen the LibDems at work, but it's naivety that has cost Labour in the past and the tories are a disgusting mob who will stop at nothing.
p.s. not saying I approve of such things. But it's politics and it's going to be dirty.
The trouble is, even if we accept Labour must climb into the gutter, Sunak is the wrong target because no-one believes he wants armed gangs of child molesters to roam the land. It is the same mistake the Tories made when portraying Tony Blair with demonic eyes. Labour ought to be targeting Tory sleaze and corruption, especially around PPE during the Covid pandemic with its echoes of Partygate. Voters made sacrifices while Tories were throwing billions to their dodgy mates. Voters will be swayed by that because they are already halfway there.
Saying Labour will reduce crime is also good in itself, especially if there is some mechanism promised, such as rebuilding however many courts the Tories have closed, but the personal attacks on Rishi are likely to be unproductive or even counterproductive.
And the fact Labour is just talking about sentencing suggests there is no serious policy there either.
Indeed. You wonder what genius Labour strategy meeting debated all the issues that are worrying people right now, and came up with Sunak being supposedly soft on child abuse as the right one to target?
Where’s the positivity and the vision? 1995-era Blair had vision and positivity in spades.
Not that I’m persuaded by it, but Labour are positive that they’re not the Tories and they have a vision of the UK not being governed by gurning sociopaths. That’s enough to convince voters atm but who knows where the notoriously amnesiac great British public will be in a year’s time?
Labour appear to be offering their own core vote next to nothing, and the Conservative core vote a bad copy of the party that has been pinning them to the ground and stuffing their all-too-willing mouths full of gold for the last thirteen years. Their entire election strategy seems to have consisted of "look at the fat blond wanker, our wooden mannequin will offer some blessed relief." Now the Tories have found a marketable replacement for the fat blond wanker, Labour is flailing about for a response.
There's no big idea from Labour, no vision, no sense of direction, no meaningful program for change. This entirely explains the dissatisfaction of Labour voters with Starmer's leadership: the hardcore partisans may be willing to sing his praises regardless, but the softer flank of Labour's support thinks "You're offering me nothing of value."
Labour are running as the Not Tory party, and that's it. Where does that leave you once the Tories have mollified their ageing core vote and the remainder of the electorate is not actively repelled by the Prime Minister, and thinks that you offer no alternative to his platform? It leaves you stranded in the middle of nowhere.
Labour needs to convert a double negative into a positive IMO. The core themes of the long Conservative years in power are declining incomes for ordinary people and disintegrating public services. Labour saying they are not the Tories might imply they won't be so bad
People need to believe the positive - they will become wealthier and public services improve.
At the moment large numbers of middle-income people, currently making £30k or £40k - or with aspirations to make that much in the future - think that they’ll be the target for higher taxes. They won’t end up wealthier at all.
They are already paying higher taxes from last week.
And the voters are pissed at the Tories for that. But Labour saying "hold my pint" on tax rises is brave.
Which of course is why they won't admit it. But if you want better services, it is not going to come from Labour "efficiency drives". Because they are just Tory cuts, aren't they? It is not going to come from borrowing - the Truss Interregnum did for that possibility. So a suitably cynical voter will assess either a) nothing will improve under Labour or b) taxes will go up significantly under Labour with the not inconsiderable risk that nothing much will improve either under Labour.
Truss showed that you can’t borrow money on the basis of empty promises and fantasies. It hasn’t stopped all borrowing. The UK Government, of course, continues to borrow large amounts of money all the time. There is room for a Labour government, or indeed any govt, to borrow more.
One can debate whether govt should or should not borrow more, of course, and for what purposes. But it’s clearly an option.
We'll see. If the market is apolitical expect a run on the pound well ahead of that Truss faced.
Labour's first Budget is going to piss off somebody. Either the public sector, or those with money in this country.
As I've explained to you before Venison was sold by a pub I went to where the landlords displayed Vote Green Party banners outside and refused to stock any meat, whatsoever, unless it was Venison. This has since spread and it has become the go to accepted meat of choice for vegans and Lefties, and therefore it's become Woke. Which has ruined it.
I used to like Vension - a lot. I ordered it from niche family butchers 15 years ago before it was cool.
These tossers have put me off. I'm not ordering or enjoying anything that encourages these detestable wankers.
You do realise this sounds insane?
I very much like venison, and I wouldn’t care even if had been appropriated by the BNP.
I don't know what Starmer is like or if he'll be any good, but he's not a Tory and all he has to do once he gets in is not fuck up anything anymore than it's been fucked up already. If he can manage that, we'll all win.
He'll fuck up my kids education and my families welfare.
I will wade through blood to stop him.
Is this the second confirmed case of Starmer Derangement Syndrome on pb?
I've noted there are four variants: -The Corbynite variant - he betrayed the absolute Boy (epitomised by BJO) -The Remoaner variant - he isn't promising to take us back into the EU tomorrow (Mexicanpete, arguably) -The Nat variant - he's a YOON -The Tory variant - he lied to become Labour leader, so he's lying now (even though that it will technically mean he was telling the truth initially) and is going to nationalise everything and pay for it by robbing my children's inheritance (and place in private school)
Those attack posters seem fine to me. Neither Labour or the Tories can claim any moral high ground after the last decade of shenanigans, so watching them rip the shite out of each other is good sport. I actually didn't even know it was Easter today, until I ordered some plumbing fittings from screwfix, and it said I couldn't pick them up until tomorrow. I sort of knew Easter was this month, as overpriced egg shaped chocolate was for sale in the supermarkets and local Facebook groups were full of mums asking if there were any Easter egg hunts they could take their kids to (what?) but that was the limit of my interest. In all the limited bits I've seen on posts about Easter, none have mentioned the actual religious significance of the day. I'm not religious in the slightest, but even I found that bizarre.
It was on breakfast news this morning, and the church bells have been peeling here in my village today too. Also, I took my children to a Good Friday service with real donkeys and a (very British) Jesus where the vicar led an outside storytelling of The Passion and my 4-year refused to shout for the release of Barrubus. I also listened to some sublime music and hymns from Kings last night.
So, we've certainly had a little bit of the Easter message in our family. And it was delightful.
What on earth is a "very British" Jesus? And - perhaps my Biblical knowledge is lacking - did donkeys have any significant role to play in the Crucifixion?
This is the only one I can think of:
Donkey retires after the Triumphal entry into Jerusalem, a few days before.
BTW churches full round here this morning; mostly of normal people, few of them with two heads, from Mars or religious lunatics.
What's the text in the inscription, by the way? It seems to read in Greek
ALEZALIENOS SEBETE THEOU
but I can't make sense of it apart from the last word ('of God', probably).
Also worth bearing in mind that Labour intend to keep going with their negative attacks on Sunak. He is a very easy target and they should not let him off.
Mike might claim to disapprove of such things, which is mildly amusing to those of us who have seen the LibDems at work, but it's naivety that has cost Labour in the past and the tories are a disgusting mob who will stop at nothing.
p.s. not saying I approve of such things. But it's politics and it's going to be dirty.
The trouble is, even if we accept Labour must climb into the gutter, Sunak is the wrong target because no-one believes he wants armed gangs of child molesters to roam the land. It is the same mistake the Tories made when portraying Tony Blair with demonic eyes. Labour ought to be targeting Tory sleaze and corruption, especially around PPE during the Covid pandemic with its echoes of Partygate. Voters made sacrifices while Tories were throwing billions to their dodgy mates. Voters will be swayed by that because they are already halfway there.
Saying Labour will reduce crime is also good in itself, especially if there is some mechanism promised, such as rebuilding however many courts the Tories have closed, but the personal attacks on Rishi are likely to be unproductive or even counterproductive.
And the fact Labour is just talking about sentencing suggests there is no serious policy there either.
Indeed. You wonder what genius Labour strategy meeting debated all the issues that are worrying people right now, and came up with Sunak being supposedly soft on child abuse as the right one to target?
Where’s the positivity and the vision? 1995-era Blair had vision and positivity in spades.
Not that I’m persuaded by it, but Labour are positive that they’re not the Tories and they have a vision of the UK not being governed by gurning sociopaths. That’s enough to convince voters atm but who knows where the notoriously amnesiac great British public will be in a year’s time?
Labour appear to be offering their own core vote next to nothing, and the Conservative core vote a bad copy of the party that has been pinning them to the ground and stuffing their all-too-willing mouths full of gold for the last thirteen years. Their entire election strategy seems to have consisted of "look at the fat blond wanker, our wooden mannequin will offer some blessed relief." Now the Tories have found a marketable replacement for the fat blond wanker, Labour is flailing about for a response.
There's no big idea from Labour, no vision, no sense of direction, no meaningful program for change. This entirely explains the dissatisfaction of Labour voters with Starmer's leadership: the hardcore partisans may be willing to sing his praises regardless, but the softer flank of Labour's support thinks "You're offering me nothing of value."
Labour are running as the Not Tory party, and that's it. Where does that leave you once the Tories have mollified their ageing core vote and the remainder of the electorate is not actively repelled by the Prime Minister, and thinks that you offer no alternative to his platform? It leaves you stranded in the middle of nowhere.
Labour needs to convert a double negative into a positive IMO. The core themes of the long Conservative years in power are declining incomes for ordinary people and disintegrating public services. Labour saying they are not the Tories might imply they won't be so bad
People need to believe the positive - they will become wealthier and public services improve.
At the moment large numbers of middle-income people, currently making £30k or £40k - or with aspirations to make that much in the future - think that they’ll be the target for higher taxes. They won’t end up wealthier at all.
They are already paying higher taxes from last week.
And the voters are pissed at the Tories for that. But Labour saying "hold my pint" on tax rises is brave.
Which of course is why they won't admit it. But if you want better services, it is not going to come from Labour "efficiency drives". Because they are just Tory cuts, aren't they? It is not going to come from borrowing - the Truss Interregnum did for that possibility. So a suitably cynical voter will assess either a) nothing will improve under Labour or b) taxes will go up significantly under Labour with the not inconsiderable risk that nothing much will improve either under Labour.
Truss showed that you can’t borrow money on the basis of empty promises and fantasies. It hasn’t stopped all borrowing. The UK Government, of course, continues to borrow large amounts of money all the time. There is room for a Labour government, or indeed any govt, to borrow more.
One can debate whether govt should or should not borrow more, of course, and for what purposes. But it’s clearly an option.
We'll see. If the market is apolitical expect a run on the pound well ahead of that Truss faced.
Labour's first Budget is going to piss off somebody. Either the public sector, or those with money in this country.
Talk about high on your own supply. A run on the pound indeed. Is this “run on the pound” in the room with you now?
I don't know what Starmer is like or if he'll be any good, but he's not a Tory and all he has to do once he gets in is not fuck up anything anymore than it's been fucked up already. If he can manage that, we'll all win.
He'll fuck up my kids education and my families welfare.
I will wade through blood to stop him.
With respect, that's as full of shit as anything you accuse Dura Ace of. You'll do fuck all blood wading, and once he gets in, you'll just snark on the sidelines here like we all do.
Not really. I do canvassing (despite hating it) and leafletting. I also donate.
Do you do any of those things?
I actually have a life, unlike you. Because I eat meat and don't spend all my time "meditating" I have the time and energy to do stuff.
Hope you enjoy the Grand National next weekend. Can't bloody wait £££.
I'm a Green party member and do my fair bit to help with leaflets and shit like that. I also have a life that doesn't revolve around God bothering and tormenting animals. I could always eat meat if I wanted, but you'll always be a c@#t. Now about that blood you're going to be wading through, who are you going you get to do the killing?
There's that c-word again.
Maybe eat some more vegetables?
That mediation obviously not working out for you.
As for your deep-seated mental health issues and misanthropy only a professional can help you with that.
Casino touches on a relevant point. Will Starmer screw up education? I tried to think why that would be but then I can hardly remember Starmer saying anything on education. There was the VAT exemption on private school fees issue. Is that what Casino means? Otherwise I am at a loss as to what Starmer thinks on the subject. Not very reassuring but hardly reason to fear the worst.
I don't know what Starmer is like or if he'll be any good, but he's not a Tory and all he has to do once he gets in is not fuck up anything anymore than it's been fucked up already. If he can manage that, we'll all win.
He'll fuck up my kids education and my families welfare.
I will wade through blood to stop him.
The mellow 'early Doombar in the garden on this glorious Easter Sunday' vibe seems to have dissipated.
Only because wankshaft features has started posting.
If I only ate vegetables and pleasured myself over moles, I think I'd be the same.
I don't know what Starmer is like or if he'll be any good, but he's not a Tory and all he has to do once he gets in is not fuck up anything anymore than it's been fucked up already. If he can manage that, we'll all win.
He'll fuck up my kids education and my families welfare.
I will wade through blood to stop him.
The mellow 'early Doombar in the garden on this glorious Easter Sunday' vibe seems to have dissipated.
Only because wankshaft features has started posting.
If I only ate vegetables and pleasured myself over moles, I think I'd be the same.
Wankshaft features. I like it.
Is that the central crankshaft in a Wankel engine?
I don't know what Starmer is like or if he'll be any good, but he's not a Tory and all he has to do once he gets in is not fuck up anything anymore than it's been fucked up already. If he can manage that, we'll all win.
He'll fuck up my kids education and my families welfare.
I will wade through blood to stop him.
The mellow 'early Doombar in the garden on this glorious Easter Sunday' vibe seems to have dissipated.
Only because wankshaft features has started posting.
If I only ate vegetables and pleasured myself over moles, I think I'd be the same.
We should be thankful the moles will never see it....
As I've explained to you before Venison was sold by a pub I went to where the landlords displayed Vote Green Party banners outside and refused to stock any meat, whatsoever, unless it was Venison. This has since spread and it has become the go to accepted meat of choice for vegans and Lefties, and therefore it's become Woke. Which has ruined it.
I used to like Vension - a lot. I ordered it from niche family butchers 15 years ago before it was cool.
These tossers have put me off. I'm not ordering or enjoying anything that encourages these detestable wankers.
You do realise this sounds insane?
I very much like venison, and I wouldn’t care even if had been appropriated by the BNP.
No. Version has been ruined by the Woke.
I hate the Woke and will be an agent of their destruction.
As I've explained to you before Venison was sold by a pub I went to where the landlords displayed Vote Green Party banners outside and refused to stock any meat, whatsoever, unless it was Venison. This has since spread and it has become the go to accepted meat of choice for vegans and Lefties, and therefore it's become Woke. Which has ruined it.
I used to like Vension - a lot. I ordered it from niche family butchers 15 years ago before it was cool.
These tossers have put me off. I'm not ordering or enjoying anything that encourages these detestable wankers.
I don't know what Starmer is like or if he'll be any good, but he's not a Tory and all he has to do once he gets in is not fuck up anything anymore than it's been fucked up already. If he can manage that, we'll all win.
He'll fuck up my kids education and my families welfare.
I will wade through blood to stop him.
No you won't - you will write a few letters and post somethings on line but you won't and will finally realize you can't do anything about it.
Now once upon a time you could have left to somewhere like Vienna but that isn't an option nowadays.
Lol. Such UTOA Remainer bullshit.
If I wanted to leave I'd go to Australia, Canada, the US or even the Middle East.
Don't give a fuck about Vienna. No-one does unless they want a classical music concert or a good mountain hiking holiday.
Given how project rules work in the US you best rule the USA option out then.
The projects I used to co-run there (we had the code, they provided the BA analysis and on-going support) were with minority owned firms based on the rules designed to ensure minorities were included in Government Projects.
And that included very Republican states such as Texas..
I don't know what Starmer is like or if he'll be any good, but he's not a Tory and all he has to do once he gets in is not fuck up anything anymore than it's been fucked up already. If he can manage that, we'll all win.
He'll fuck up my kids education and my families welfare.
I will wade through blood to stop him.
The mellow 'early Doombar in the garden on this glorious Easter Sunday' vibe seems to have dissipated.
Only because wankshaft features has started posting.
If I only ate vegetables and pleasured myself over moles, I think I'd be the same.
Wankshaft features. I like it.
Happy Easter, dickhead.
Now, I genuinely have to go and carve my delicious ROAST LAMB and enjoy the beautiful bordeaux I've opened to go with it.
Casino touches on a relevant point. Will Starmer screw up education? I tried to think why that would be but then I can hardly remember Starmer saying anything on education. There was the VAT exemption on private school fees issue. Is that what Casino means? Otherwise I am at a loss as to what Starmer thinks on the subject. Not very reassuring but hardly reason to fear the worst.
The reason HYUFD et al go berserk at the thought of doing something about private education is very simple. It's all about indoctrination. No wonder they have the same sort of reaction as the churches do to any threat to state subsidised sectarian education.
Casino touches on a relevant point. Will Starmer screw up education? I tried to think why that would be but then I can hardly remember Starmer saying anything on education. There was the VAT exemption on private school fees issue. Is that what Casino means? Otherwise I am at a loss as to what Starmer thinks on the subject. Not very reassuring but hardly reason to fear the worst.
Steady as it goes is the best plan - and the VAT charging issue will disappear into the long grass once the consequences are made clear (as they were back in 97/99).
I don't know what Starmer is like or if he'll be any good, but he's not a Tory and all he has to do once he gets in is not fuck up anything anymore than it's been fucked up already. If he can manage that, we'll all win.
He'll fuck up my kids education and my families welfare.
I will wade through blood to stop him.
With respect, that's as full of shit as anything you accuse Dura Ace of. You'll do fuck all blood wading, and once he gets in, you'll just snark on the sidelines here like we all do.
Not really. I do canvassing (despite hating it) and leafletting. I also donate.
Do you do any of those things?
I actually have a life, unlike you. Because I eat meat and don't spend all my time "meditating" I have the time and energy to do stuff.
Hope you enjoy the Grand National next weekend. Can't bloody wait £££.
I'm a Green party member and do my fair bit to help with leaflets and shit like that. I also have a life that doesn't revolve around God bothering and tormenting animals. I could always eat meat if I wanted, but you'll always be a c@#t. Now about that blood you're going to be wading through, who are you going you get to do the killing?
There's that c-word again.
Maybe eat some more vegetables?
That mediation obviously not working out for you.
As for your deep-seated mental health issues and misanthropy only a professional can help you with that.
Shit the bed, you genuinely are insane, aren't you? You have absolutely no idea who I am, nor what mental health issues I may have had. You're so...aggressive. Makes me all queasy.
As I've explained to you before Venison was sold by a pub I went to where the landlords displayed Vote Green Party banners outside and refused to stock any meat, whatsoever, unless it was Venison. This has since spread and it has become the go to accepted meat of choice for vegans and Lefties, and therefore it's become Woke. Which has ruined it.
I used to like Vension - a lot. I ordered it from niche family butchers 15 years ago before it was cool.
These tossers have put me off. I'm not ordering or enjoying anything that encourages these detestable wankers.
“ it has become the go to accepted meat of choice for vegans and Lefties”
Those attack posters seem fine to me. Neither Labour or the Tories can claim any moral high ground after the last decade of shenanigans, so watching them rip the shite out of each other is good sport. I actually didn't even know it was Easter today, until I ordered some plumbing fittings from screwfix, and it said I couldn't pick them up until tomorrow. I sort of knew Easter was this month, as overpriced egg shaped chocolate was for sale in the supermarkets and local Facebook groups were full of mums asking if there were any Easter egg hunts they could take their kids to (what?) but that was the limit of my interest. In all the limited bits I've seen on posts about Easter, none have mentioned the actual religious significance of the day. I'm not religious in the slightest, but even I found that bizarre.
It was on breakfast news this morning, and the church bells have been peeling here in my village today too. Also, I took my children to a Good Friday service with real donkeys and a (very British) Jesus where the vicar led an outside storytelling of The Passion and my 4-year refused to shout for the release of Barrubus. I also listened to some sublime music and hymns from Kings last night.
So, we've certainly had a little bit of the Easter message in our family. And it was delightful.
What on earth is a "very British" Jesus? And - perhaps my Biblical knowledge is lacking - did donkeys have any significant role to play in the Crucifixion?
This is the only one I can think of:
Donkey retires after the Triumphal entry into Jerusalem, a few days before.
BTW churches full round here this morning; mostly of normal people, few of them with two heads, from Mars or religious lunatics.
What's the text in the inscription, by the way? It seems to read in Greek
ALEZALIENOS SEBETE THEOU
but I can't make sense of it apart from the last word ('of God', probably).
Casino touches on a relevant point. Will Starmer screw up education? I tried to think why that would be but then I can hardly remember Starmer saying anything on education. There was the VAT exemption on private school fees issue. Is that what Casino means? Otherwise I am at a loss as to what Starmer thinks on the subject. Not very reassuring but hardly reason to fear the worst.
Steady as it goes is the best plan - and the VAT charging issue will disappear into the long grass once the consequences are made clear (as they were back in 97/99).
I don't know what Starmer is like or if he'll be any good, but he's not a Tory and all he has to do once he gets in is not fuck up anything anymore than it's been fucked up already. If he can manage that, we'll all win.
He'll fuck up my kids education and my families welfare.
I will wade through blood to stop him.
No you won't - you will write a few letters and post somethings on line but you won't and will finally realize you can't do anything about it.
Now once upon a time you could have left to somewhere like Vienna but that isn't an option nowadays.
Lol. Such UTOA Remainer bullshit.
If I wanted to leave I'd go to Australia, Canada, the US or even the Middle East.
Don't give a fuck about Vienna. No-one does unless they want a classical music concert or a good mountain hiking holiday.
Given how project rules work in the US you best rule the USA option out then.
The projects I used to co-run there (we had the code, they provided the BA analysis and on-going support) were with minority owned firms based on the rules designed to ensure minorities were included in Government Projects.
And that included very Republican states such as Texas..
Though, to be fair, the minority preference stuff for contracting has been absorbed into the corruption surrounding federal contracting.
Indeed it is a part of the system of layering, by which prices are inflated. And, because of the way that scan works the minorities in question see very little of the money.
I don't know what Starmer is like or if he'll be any good, but he's not a Tory and all he has to do once he gets in is not fuck up anything anymore than it's been fucked up already. If he can manage that, we'll all win.
He'll fuck up my kids education and my families welfare.
I will wade through blood to stop him.
With respect, that's as full of shit as anything you accuse Dura Ace of. You'll do fuck all blood wading, and once he gets in, you'll just snark on the sidelines here like we all do.
Not really. I do canvassing (despite hating it) and leafletting. I also donate.
Do you do any of those things?
I actually have a life, unlike you. Because I eat meat and don't spend all my time "meditating" I have the time and energy to do stuff.
Hope you enjoy the Grand National next weekend. Can't bloody wait £££.
I'm a Green party member and do my fair bit to help with leaflets and shit like that. I also have a life that doesn't revolve around God bothering and tormenting animals. I could always eat meat if I wanted, but you'll always be a c@#t. Now about that blood you're going to be wading through, who are you going you get to do the killing?
There's that c-word again.
Maybe eat some more vegetables?
That mediation obviously not working out for you.
As for your deep-seated mental health issues and misanthropy only a professional can help you with that.
Shit the bed, you genuinely are insane, aren't you? You have absolutely no idea who I am, nor what mental health issues I may have had. You're so...aggressive. Makes me all queasy.
And yet you're the one dropping the c-bomb and making it personal. I respond sure, particularly to highlight to others just how much bullshit your mung beans and med philosophy is for inner calm, but if you don't like it then don't provoke.
I don't know what Starmer is like or if he'll be any good, but he's not a Tory and all he has to do once he gets in is not fuck up anything anymore than it's been fucked up already. If he can manage that, we'll all win.
He'll fuck up my kids education and my families welfare.
I will wade through blood to stop him.
The mellow 'early Doombar in the garden on this glorious Easter Sunday' vibe seems to have dissipated.
Only because wankshaft features has started posting.
If I only ate vegetables and pleasured myself over moles, I think I'd be the same.
Wankshaft features. I like it.
Happy Easter, dickhead.
Now, I genuinely have to go and carve my delicious ROAST LAMB and enjoy the beautiful bordeaux I've opened to go with it.
Have fun xxx
You should have really spiced that up by talking about, post lunch, going for a bit of machine gunning foxes from the back of your personalised chariot, following by driving up Hampstead High Street playing Prodigy's 'Smack my Bitch up' at full blast.
I don't know what Starmer is like or if he'll be any good, but he's not a Tory and all he has to do once he gets in is not fuck up anything anymore than it's been fucked up already. If he can manage that, we'll all win.
He'll fuck up my kids education and my families welfare.
I will wade through blood to stop him.
No you won't - you will write a few letters and post somethings on line but you won't and will finally realize you can't do anything about it.
Now once upon a time you could have left to somewhere like Vienna but that isn't an option nowadays.
Lol. Such UTOA Remainer bullshit.
If I wanted to leave I'd go to Australia, Canada, the US or even the Middle East.
Don't give a fuck about Vienna. No-one does unless they want a classical music concert or a good mountain hiking holiday.
Given how project rules work in the US you best rule the USA option out then.
The projects I used to co-run there (we had the code, they provided the BA analysis and on-going support) were with minority owned firms based on the rules designed to ensure minorities were included in Government Projects.
And that included very Republican states such as Texas..
Though, to be fair, the minority preference stuff for contracting has been absorbed into the corruption surrounding federal contracting.
Indeed it is a part of the system of layering, by which prices are inflated. And, because of the way that scan works the minorities in question see very little of the money.
That was one reason we had a pick of the consultancies - we weren't nickel and dimeing them because (being great but clearly not American) we needed them way more than the other options might.
My point was however that given how much CR hates how things were going at his previous firm in the UK, he would really hate how his type of project works in the US.
I don't know what Starmer is like or if he'll be any good, but he's not a Tory and all he has to do once he gets in is not fuck up anything anymore than it's been fucked up already. If he can manage that, we'll all win.
He'll fuck up my kids education and my families welfare.
I will wade through blood to stop him.
The mellow 'early Doombar in the garden on this glorious Easter Sunday' vibe seems to have dissipated.
Only because wankshaft features has started posting.
If I only ate vegetables and pleasured myself over moles, I think I'd be the same.
Wankshaft features. I like it.
Is that the central crankshaft in a Wankel engine?
It's an "e-shaft" in a rotary. Mazda are bringing the rotary back but have made it Woke by putting it in a PHEV.
Casino touches on a relevant point. Will Starmer screw up education? I tried to think why that would be but then I can hardly remember Starmer saying anything on education. There was the VAT exemption on private school fees issue. Is that what Casino means? Otherwise I am at a loss as to what Starmer thinks on the subject. Not very reassuring but hardly reason to fear the worst.
The reason HYUFD et al go berserk at the thought of doing something about private education is very simple. It's all about indoctrination. No wonder they have the same sort of reaction as the churches do to any threat to state subsidised sectarian education.
If Starmer screws up private education but stops (some of) the rot in state education I reckon that’s a reasonable trade-off, CR’s sprogs notwithstanding.
I don't know what Starmer is like or if he'll be any good, but he's not a Tory and all he has to do once he gets in is not fuck up anything anymore than it's been fucked up already. If he can manage that, we'll all win.
He'll fuck up my kids education and my families welfare.
I will wade through blood to stop him.
The mellow 'early Doombar in the garden on this glorious Easter Sunday' vibe seems to have dissipated.
Only because wankshaft features has started posting.
If I only ate vegetables and pleasured myself over moles, I think I'd be the same.
Wankshaft features. I like it.
Happy Easter, dickhead.
Now, I genuinely have to go and carve my delicious ROAST LAMB and enjoy the beautiful bordeaux I've opened to go with it.
Have fun xxx
You should have really spiced that up by talking about, post lunch, going for a bit of machine gunning foxes from the back of your personalised chariot, following by driving up Hampstead High Street playing Prodigy's 'Smack my Bitch up' at full blast.
I don't know what Starmer is like or if he'll be any good, but he's not a Tory and all he has to do once he gets in is not fuck up anything anymore than it's been fucked up already. If he can manage that, we'll all win.
He'll fuck up my kids education and my families welfare.
I will wade through blood to stop him.
With respect, that's as full of shit as anything you accuse Dura Ace of. You'll do fuck all blood wading, and once he gets in, you'll just snark on the sidelines here like we all do.
Not really. I do canvassing (despite hating it) and leafletting. I also donate.
Do you do any of those things?
I actually have a life, unlike you. Because I eat meat and don't spend all my time "meditating" I have the time and energy to do stuff.
Hope you enjoy the Grand National next weekend. Can't bloody wait £££.
I'm a Green party member and do my fair bit to help with leaflets and shit like that. I also have a life that doesn't revolve around God bothering and tormenting animals. I could always eat meat if I wanted, but you'll always be a c@#t. Now about that blood you're going to be wading through, who are you going you get to do the killing?
There's that c-word again.
Maybe eat some more vegetables?
That mediation obviously not working out for you.
As for your deep-seated mental health issues and misanthropy only a professional can help you with that.
Shit the bed, you genuinely are insane, aren't you? You have absolutely no idea who I am, nor what mental health issues I may have had. You're so...aggressive. Makes me all queasy.
And yet you're the one dropping the c-bomb and making it personal. I respond sure, particularly to highlight to others just how much bullshit your mung beans and med philosophy is for inner calm, but if you don't like it then don't provoke.
I'd sooner vote Labour than Green, btw.
The Greens are the anti-Christ.
Personal? I was just commenting about how you're mocking Dura Ace about hyperbolic violent posts but then say you're going to wade through blood to stop Starmer, and then you start being beastly to me. You are insane, probably impotent and have a small todger. I'm off for a venison steak, us vegans love a bit of dead deer.
I don't know what Starmer is like or if he'll be any good, but he's not a Tory and all he has to do once he gets in is not fuck up anything anymore than it's been fucked up already. If he can manage that, we'll all win.
He'll fuck up my kids education and my families welfare.
I will wade through blood to stop him.
The mellow 'early Doombar in the garden on this glorious Easter Sunday' vibe seems to have dissipated.
Only because wankshaft features has started posting.
If I only ate vegetables and pleasured myself over moles, I think I'd be the same.
Wankshaft features. I like it.
Happy Easter, dickhead.
Now, I genuinely have to go and carve my delicious ROAST LAMB and enjoy the beautiful bordeaux I've opened to go with it.
Have fun xxx
You should have really spiced that up by talking about, post lunch, going for a bit of machine gunning foxes from the back of your personalised chariot, following by driving up Hampstead High Street playing Prodigy's 'Smack my Bitch up' at full blast.
Isn’t “Smack My Bitch Up” Woke?
It is because it a woman who commits all the violence in the video.
On topic, I hope for the country’s sake the Tories lose. Thirteen years would be enough for a superb government. This lot were out of ideas five years ago.
I hope for democracy’s sake that the Tories lose. One party states are a bad thing. We want a government with a modest majority and an opposition that seems to have a decent chance of replacing them and will keep them on their toes. The Coalition years were the first time we’d had that since the 1960s and the years since have not been notable for good governance.
Most of all I hope for the Tories’ sake that they lose. Five more years of this and they will suffer a shellacking they will never recover from.
The question remains “what will replace them”? I suspect Starmer is more radical than he presents himself as - which may, or may not, be a good thing.
I think the national mood has clearly shifted to “give the other lot a go and chuck the buggers out” - with Sunak though, it may be from a second floor window, not the tenth floor that Heathener daily prays for.
Unless Starmer can stoke another house price (and financial services) boom as per 1997-2007, he’ll find himself as fiscally constrained as the current government is.
I don't know what Starmer is like or if he'll be any good, but he's not a Tory and all he has to do once he gets in is not fuck up anything anymore than it's been fucked up already. If he can manage that, we'll all win.
He'll fuck up my kids education and my families welfare.
I will wade through blood to stop him.
With respect, that's as full of shit as anything you accuse Dura Ace of. You'll do fuck all blood wading, and once he gets in, you'll just snark on the sidelines here like we all do.
Not really. I do canvassing (despite hating it) and leafletting. I also donate.
Do you do any of those things?
I actually have a life, unlike you. Because I eat meat and don't spend all my time "meditating" I have the time and energy to do stuff.
Hope you enjoy the Grand National next weekend. Can't bloody wait £££.
I'm a Green party member and do my fair bit to help with leaflets and shit like that. I also have a life that doesn't revolve around God bothering and tormenting animals. I could always eat meat if I wanted, but you'll always be a c@#t. Now about that blood you're going to be wading through, who are you going you get to do the killing?
There's that c-word again.
Maybe eat some more vegetables?
That mediation obviously not working out for you.
As for your deep-seated mental health issues and misanthropy only a professional can help you with that.
Shit the bed, you genuinely are insane, aren't you? You have absolutely no idea who I am, nor what mental health issues I may have had. You're so...aggressive. Makes me all queasy.
And yet you're the one dropping the c-bomb and making it personal. I respond sure, particularly to highlight to others just how much bullshit your mung beans and med philosophy is for inner calm, but if you don't like it then don't provoke.
I'd sooner vote Labour than Green, btw.
The Greens are the anti-Christ.
Personal? I was just commenting about how you're mocking Dura Ace about hyperbolic violent posts but then say you're going to wade through blood to stop Starmer, and then you start being beastly to me. You are insane, probably impotent and have a small todger. I'm off for a venison steak, us vegans love a bit of dead deer.
I can't help contemplating (so to speak) the point that if you can be a firefighter on a diet of mung beans, there's a lot to be said for mung beans!
On topic, I hope for the country’s sake the Tories lose. Thirteen years would be enough for a superb government. This lot were out of ideas five years ago.
I hope for democracy’s sake that the Tories lose. One party states are a bad thing. We want a government with a modest majority and an opposition that seems to have a decent chance of replacing them and will keep them on their toes. The Coalition years were the first time we’d had that since the 1960s and the years since have not been notable for good governance.
Most of all I hope for the Tories’ sake that they lose. Five more years of this and they will suffer a shellacking they will never recover from.
The question remains “what will replace them”? I suspect Starmer is more radical than he presents himself as - which may, or may not, be a good thing.
I think the national mood has clearly shifted to “give the other lot a go and chuck the buggers out” - with Sunak though, it may be from a second floor window, not the tenth floor that Heathener daily prays for.
Unless Starmer can stoke another house price (and financial services) boom as per 1997-2007, he’ll find himself as fiscally constrained as the current government is.
No, because he is not going to commit to reducing income tax and will allow borrowing for infra.
I don't know what Starmer is like or if he'll be any good, but he's not a Tory and all he has to do once he gets in is not fuck up anything anymore than it's been fucked up already. If he can manage that, we'll all win.
He'll fuck up my kids education and my families welfare.
I will wade through blood to stop him.
The mellow 'early Doombar in the garden on this glorious Easter Sunday' vibe seems to have dissipated.
Only because wankshaft features has started posting.
If I only ate vegetables and pleasured myself over moles, I think I'd be the same.
Wankshaft features. I like it.
Happy Easter, dickhead.
Now, I genuinely have to go and carve my delicious ROAST LAMB and enjoy the beautiful bordeaux I've opened to go with it.
Have fun xxx
You should have really spiced that up by talking about, post lunch, going for a bit of machine gunning foxes from the back of your personalised chariot, following by driving up Hampstead High Street playing Prodigy's 'Smack my Bitch up' at full blast.
The Prodigy are mine, C@#%sino Royale will only have Land of Hope and Glory on his Jag tape deck.
Those attack posters seem fine to me. Neither Labour or the Tories can claim any moral high ground after the last decade of shenanigans, so watching them rip the shite out of each other is good sport. I actually didn't even know it was Easter today, until I ordered some plumbing fittings from screwfix, and it said I couldn't pick them up until tomorrow. I sort of knew Easter was this month, as overpriced egg shaped chocolate was for sale in the supermarkets and local Facebook groups were full of mums asking if there were any Easter egg hunts they could take their kids to (what?) but that was the limit of my interest. In all the limited bits I've seen on posts about Easter, none have mentioned the actual religious significance of the day. I'm not religious in the slightest, but even I found that bizarre.
It was on breakfast news this morning, and the church bells have been peeling here in my village today too. Also, I took my children to a Good Friday service with real donkeys and a (very British) Jesus where the vicar led an outside storytelling of The Passion and my 4-year refused to shout for the release of Barrubus. I also listened to some sublime music and hymns from Kings last night.
So, we've certainly had a little bit of the Easter message in our family. And it was delightful.
I don't doubt that it was lovely for your family, but as someone who doesn't watch broadcast TV, it really hasn't registered for me at all. I live near a small country church and that didn't sound any different than it does on a bog standard Sunday (it does sound magnificent, even to my pagan ears). I just wonder at how the actual Christian message gets lost in all the rampant consumerism and Americanisation of our holidays and festivals. They all seem to roll into each other, with the supermarkets stacking the shelves with the next cash cow holiday products as soon as the last one is over. I find it a little saddening.
The next supermarket cash cow will of course be the coronation! "Souvenir "mugs, plates etc. And special offers on booze etc "so that you can enjoy the whole event! ".
As we’re not allowed special offers on booze in Scotland, does that explain the lack of enthusiasm for street parties?
The Labour justification for going dirty is that the Tories went dirty first, which is probably true. But it appears based on the premise that the Tories won't retaliate by getting even dirtier, or that Tories getting dirty doesn't work and Labour getting dirty does.
What if the Tories are more effective at grubbing around in the dirt?
Post May, the gutter is their manor. This is very foolish from Labour.
It’s the whole business about wrestling with a pig.
I don't know what Starmer is like or if he'll be any good, but he's not a Tory and all he has to do once he gets in is not fuck up anything anymore than it's been fucked up already. If he can manage that, we'll all win.
He'll fuck up my kids education and my families welfare.
I will wade through blood to stop him.
The mellow 'early Doombar in the garden on this glorious Easter Sunday' vibe seems to have dissipated.
Only because wankshaft features has started posting.
If I only ate vegetables and pleasured myself over moles, I think I'd be the same.
Wankshaft features. I like it.
Is that the central crankshaft in a Wankel engine?
It's an "e-shaft" in a rotary. Mazda are bringing the rotary back but have made it Woke by putting it in a PHEV.
What mpg does it do as a hybrid? 20mpg rather than the 15 it used to do..
I don't think Jesus would have approved of this level of conflict.
Matthew 10:34-36:
34 “Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I have not come to bring peace, but a sword. 35 For I have come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. 36 And a person's enemies will be those of his own household.
Those attack posters seem fine to me. Neither Labour or the Tories can claim any moral high ground after the last decade of shenanigans, so watching them rip the shite out of each other is good sport. I actually didn't even know it was Easter today, until I ordered some plumbing fittings from screwfix, and it said I couldn't pick them up until tomorrow. I sort of knew Easter was this month, as overpriced egg shaped chocolate was for sale in the supermarkets and local Facebook groups were full of mums asking if there were any Easter egg hunts they could take their kids to (what?) but that was the limit of my interest. In all the limited bits I've seen on posts about Easter, none have mentioned the actual religious significance of the day. I'm not religious in the slightest, but even I found that bizarre.
It was on breakfast news this morning, and the church bells have been peeling here in my village today too. Also, I took my children to a Good Friday service with real donkeys and a (very British) Jesus where the vicar led an outside storytelling of The Passion and my 4-year refused to shout for the release of Barrubus. I also listened to some sublime music and hymns from Kings last night.
So, we've certainly had a little bit of the Easter message in our family. And it was delightful.
I don't doubt that it was lovely for your family, but as someone who doesn't watch broadcast TV, it really hasn't registered for me at all. I live near a small country church and that didn't sound any different than it does on a bog standard Sunday (it does sound magnificent, even to my pagan ears). I just wonder at how the actual Christian message gets lost in all the rampant consumerism and Americanisation of our holidays and festivals. They all seem to roll into each other, with the supermarkets stacking the shelves with the next cash cow holiday products as soon as the last one is over. I find it a little saddening.
The next supermarket cash cow will of course be the coronation! "Souvenir "mugs, plates etc. And special offers on booze etc "so that you can enjoy the whole event! ".
As we’re not allowed special offers on booze in Scotland, does that explain the lack of enthusiasm for street parties?
Non post hoc ergo non propter hoc. The last few big Royalk events (ignoring the funeral) didn't attract any street parties to speak of ooutside Red Morningside and Orange Larkhall or wherever it was, IIRC. Well before the alcohol pricing controls. Edit: I know it's a joke, but there is an interesting issue there!
On topic, I hope for the country’s sake the Tories lose. Thirteen years would be enough for a superb government. This lot were out of ideas five years ago.
I hope for democracy’s sake that the Tories lose. One party states are a bad thing. We want a government with a modest majority and an opposition that seems to have a decent chance of replacing them and will keep them on their toes. The Coalition years were the first time we’d had that since the 1960s and the years since have not been notable for good governance.
Most of all I hope for the Tories’ sake that they lose. Five more years of this and they will suffer a shellacking they will never recover from.
The question remains “what will replace them”? I suspect Starmer is more radical than he presents himself as - which may, or may not, be a good thing.
I think the national mood has clearly shifted to “give the other lot a go and chuck the buggers out” - with Sunak though, it may be from a second floor window, not the tenth floor that Heathener daily prays for.
Unless Starmer can stoke another house price (and financial services) boom as per 1997-2007, he’ll find himself as fiscally constrained as the current government is.
No, because he is not going to commit to reducing income tax and will allow borrowing for infra.
I don't know what Starmer is like or if he'll be any good, but he's not a Tory and all he has to do once he gets in is not fuck up anything anymore than it's been fucked up already. If he can manage that, we'll all win.
He'll fuck up my kids education and my families welfare.
I will wade through blood to stop him.
The mellow 'early Doombar in the garden on this glorious Easter Sunday' vibe seems to have dissipated.
He should have been drinking an ale from his local microbrewery for increased mellowness. The Doombar will have given him dyspepsia.
Those attack posters seem fine to me. Neither Labour or the Tories can claim any moral high ground after the last decade of shenanigans, so watching them rip the shite out of each other is good sport. I actually didn't even know it was Easter today, until I ordered some plumbing fittings from screwfix, and it said I couldn't pick them up until tomorrow. I sort of knew Easter was this month, as overpriced egg shaped chocolate was for sale in the supermarkets and local Facebook groups were full of mums asking if there were any Easter egg hunts they could take their kids to (what?) but that was the limit of my interest. In all the limited bits I've seen on posts about Easter, none have mentioned the actual religious significance of the day. I'm not religious in the slightest, but even I found that bizarre.
It was on breakfast news this morning, and the church bells have been peeling here in my village today too. Also, I took my children to a Good Friday service with real donkeys and a (very British) Jesus where the vicar led an outside storytelling of The Passion and my 4-year refused to shout for the release of Barrubus. I also listened to some sublime music and hymns from Kings last night.
So, we've certainly had a little bit of the Easter message in our family. And it was delightful.
I don't doubt that it was lovely for your family, but as someone who doesn't watch broadcast TV, it really hasn't registered for me at all. I live near a small country church and that didn't sound any different than it does on a bog standard Sunday (it does sound magnificent, even to my pagan ears). I just wonder at how the actual Christian message gets lost in all the rampant consumerism and Americanisation of our holidays and festivals. They all seem to roll into each other, with the supermarkets stacking the shelves with the next cash cow holiday products as soon as the last one is over. I find it a little saddening.
The next supermarket cash cow will of course be the coronation! "Souvenir "mugs, plates etc. And special offers on booze etc "so that you can enjoy the whole event! ".
As we’re not allowed special offers on booze in Scotland, does that explain the lack of enthusiasm for street parties?
Can get some good discounts with a club card, especially on spirits.
I don't know what Starmer is like or if he'll be any good, but he's not a Tory and all he has to do once he gets in is not fuck up anything anymore than it's been fucked up already. If he can manage that, we'll all win.
He'll fuck up my kids education and my families welfare.
I will wade through blood to stop him.
With respect, that's as full of shit as anything you accuse Dura Ace of. You'll do fuck all blood wading, and once he gets in, you'll just snark on the sidelines here like we all do.
Not really. I do canvassing (despite hating it) and leafletting. I also donate.
Do you do any of those things?
I actually have a life, unlike you. Because I eat meat and don't spend all my time "meditating" I have the time and energy to do stuff.
Hope you enjoy the Grand National next weekend. Can't bloody wait £££.
I'm a Green party member and do my fair bit to help with leaflets and shit like that. I also have a life that doesn't revolve around God bothering and tormenting animals. I could always eat meat if I wanted, but you'll always be a c@#t. Now about that blood you're going to be wading through, who are you going you get to do the killing?
There's that c-word again.
Maybe eat some more vegetables?
That mediation obviously not working out for you.
As for your deep-seated mental health issues and misanthropy only a professional can help you with that.
Shit the bed, you genuinely are insane, aren't you? You have absolutely no idea who I am, nor what mental health issues I may have had. You're so...aggressive. Makes me all queasy.
And yet you're the one dropping the c-bomb and making it personal. I respond sure, particularly to highlight to others just how much bullshit your mung beans and med philosophy is for inner calm, but if you don't like it then don't provoke.
I'd sooner vote Labour than Green, btw.
The Greens are the anti-Christ.
Personal? I was just commenting about how you're mocking Dura Ace about hyperbolic violent posts but then say you're going to wade through blood to stop Starmer, and then you start being beastly to me. You are insane, probably impotent and have a small todger. I'm off for a venison steak, us vegans love a bit of dead deer.
The great thing about being impotent AND having a small todger is that no one can tell. I am told.
I don't know what Starmer is like or if he'll be any good, but he's not a Tory and all he has to do once he gets in is not fuck up anything anymore than it's been fucked up already. If he can manage that, we'll all win.
He'll fuck up my kids education and my families welfare.
I will wade through blood to stop him.
The mellow 'early Doombar in the garden on this glorious Easter Sunday' vibe seems to have dissipated.
Only because wankshaft features has started posting.
If I only ate vegetables and pleasured myself over moles, I think I'd be the same.
Wankshaft features. I like it.
Happy Easter, dickhead.
Now, I genuinely have to go and carve my delicious ROAST LAMB and enjoy the beautiful bordeaux I've opened to go with it.
Have fun xxx
You should have really spiced that up by talking about, post lunch, going for a bit of machine gunning foxes from the back of your personalised chariot, following by driving up Hampstead High Street playing Prodigy's 'Smack my Bitch up' at full blast.
Isn’t “Smack My Bitch Up” Woke?
It is because it a woman who commits all the violence in the video.
I don't know what Starmer is like or if he'll be any good, but he's not a Tory and all he has to do once he gets in is not fuck up anything anymore than it's been fucked up already. If he can manage that, we'll all win.
He'll fuck up my kids education and my families welfare.
I will wade through blood to stop him.
With respect, that's as full of shit as anything you accuse Dura Ace of. You'll do fuck all blood wading, and once he gets in, you'll just snark on the sidelines here like we all do.
Not really. I do canvassing (despite hating it) and leafletting. I also donate.
Do you do any of those things?
I actually have a life, unlike you. Because I eat meat and don't spend all my time "meditating" I have the time and energy to do stuff.
Hope you enjoy the Grand National next weekend. Can't bloody wait £££.
I'm a Green party member and do my fair bit to help with leaflets and shit like that. I also have a life that doesn't revolve around God bothering and tormenting animals. I could always eat meat if I wanted, but you'll always be a c@#t. Now about that blood you're going to be wading through, who are you going you get to do the killing?
There's that c-word again.
Maybe eat some more vegetables?
That mediation obviously not working out for you.
As for your deep-seated mental health issues and misanthropy only a professional can help you with that.
Shit the bed, you genuinely are insane, aren't you? You have absolutely no idea who I am, nor what mental health issues I may have had. You're so...aggressive. Makes me all queasy.
And yet you're the one dropping the c-bomb and making it personal. I respond sure, particularly to highlight to others just how much bullshit your mung beans and med philosophy is for inner calm, but if you don't like it then don't provoke.
I'd sooner vote Labour than Green, btw.
The Greens are the anti-Christ.
Personal? I was just commenting about how you're mocking Dura Ace about hyperbolic violent posts but then say you're going to wade through blood to stop Starmer, and then you start being beastly to me. You are insane, probably impotent and have a small todger. I'm off for a venison steak, us vegans love a bit of dead deer.
The great thing about being impotent AND having a small todger is that no one can tell. I am told.
Someone should tell Putin that no one knows, then.
I don't know what Starmer is like or if he'll be any good, but he's not a Tory and all he has to do once he gets in is not fuck up anything anymore than it's been fucked up already. If he can manage that, we'll all win.
He'll fuck up my kids education and my families welfare.
I will wade through blood to stop him.
The mellow 'early Doombar in the garden on this glorious Easter Sunday' vibe seems to have dissipated.
Only because wankshaft features has started posting.
If I only ate vegetables and pleasured myself over moles, I think I'd be the same.
Wankshaft features. I like it.
Happy Easter, dickhead.
Now, I genuinely have to go and carve my delicious ROAST LAMB and enjoy the beautiful bordeaux I've opened to go with it.
Have fun xxx
You should have really spiced that up by talking about, post lunch, going for a bit of machine gunning foxes from the back of your personalised chariot, following by driving up Hampstead High Street playing Prodigy's 'Smack my Bitch up' at full blast.
Isn’t “Smack My Bitch Up” Woke?
It is because it a woman who commits all the violence in the video.
I don't know what Starmer is like or if he'll be any good, but he's not a Tory and all he has to do once he gets in is not fuck up anything anymore than it's been fucked up already. If he can manage that, we'll all win.
He'll fuck up my kids education and my families welfare.
I will wade through blood to stop him.
The mellow 'early Doombar in the garden on this glorious Easter Sunday' vibe seems to have dissipated.
Only because wankshaft features has started posting.
If I only ate vegetables and pleasured myself over moles, I think I'd be the same.
Wankshaft features. I like it.
Is that the central crankshaft in a Wankel engine?
It's an "e-shaft" in a rotary. Mazda are bringing the rotary back but have made it Woke by putting it in a PHEV.
What mpg does it do as a hybrid? 20mpg rather than the 15 it used to do..
Wasn’t there a thing where, because insurance was based on engine volume (for many insurers) that you could get ridiculously cheap insurance on a rotary engined car? At least for a while.
As I've explained to you before Venison was sold by a pub I went to where the landlords displayed Vote Green Party banners outside and refused to stock any meat, whatsoever, unless it was Venison. This has since spread and it has become the go to accepted meat of choice for vegans and Lefties, and therefore it's become Woke. Which has ruined it.
I used to like Vension - a lot. I ordered it from niche family butchers 15 years ago before it was cool.
These tossers have put me off. I'm not ordering or enjoying anything that encourages these detestable wankers.
You do realise this sounds insane?
I very much like venison, and I wouldn’t care even if had been appropriated by the BNP.
No. Version has been ruined by the Woke.
I hate the Woke and will be an agent of their destruction.
If I eat venison with green vegetables does that make me a doubleplus bad person?
As I've explained to you before Venison was sold by a pub I went to where the landlords displayed Vote Green Party banners outside and refused to stock any meat, whatsoever, unless it was Venison. This has since spread and it has become the go to accepted meat of choice for vegans and Lefties, and therefore it's become Woke. Which has ruined it.
I used to like Vension - a lot. I ordered it from niche family butchers 15 years ago before it was cool.
These tossers have put me off. I'm not ordering or enjoying anything that encourages these detestable wankers.
You do realise this sounds insane?
I very much like venison, and I wouldn’t care even if had been appropriated by the BNP.
No. Version has been ruined by the Woke.
I hate the Woke and will be an agent of their destruction.
If I eat venison with green vegetables does that make me a doubleplus bad person?
I don't think Jesus would have approved of this level of conflict.
Matthew 10:34-36:
34 “Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I have not come to bring peace, but a sword. 35 For I have come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. 36 And a person's enemies will be those of his own household.
I don't know what Starmer is like or if he'll be any good, but he's not a Tory and all he has to do once he gets in is not fuck up anything anymore than it's been fucked up already. If he can manage that, we'll all win.
He'll fuck up my kids education and my families welfare.
I will wade through blood to stop him.
The mellow 'early Doombar in the garden on this glorious Easter Sunday' vibe seems to have dissipated.
Only because wankshaft features has started posting.
If I only ate vegetables and pleasured myself over moles, I think I'd be the same.
Wankshaft features. I like it.
Is that the central crankshaft in a Wankel engine?
It's an "e-shaft" in a rotary. Mazda are bringing the rotary back but have made it Woke by putting it in a PHEV.
What mpg does it do as a hybrid? 20mpg rather than the 15 it used to do..
Mazda (finally) sorted the apex seals on the Renesis 13b in RX-8 and those would do supposedly 30mpg in the short time before they inevitably broke down. A rotary is always going to be compromised on fuel efficiency by the suboptimal surface area to volume ratio of the combustion chamber compared to an Otto cycle piston engine. They have got a relatively high compression ratio (another traditional rotary weakness) in the new single rotor in the MX-30 so it'll no doubt be better.
As I've explained to you before Venison was sold by a pub I went to where the landlords displayed Vote Green Party banners outside and refused to stock any meat, whatsoever, unless it was Venison. This has since spread and it has become the go to accepted meat of choice for vegans and Lefties, and therefore it's become Woke. Which has ruined it.
I used to like Vension - a lot. I ordered it from niche family butchers 15 years ago before it was cool.
These tossers have put me off. I'm not ordering or enjoying anything that encourages these detestable wankers.
You do realise this sounds insane?
I very much like venison, and I wouldn’t care even if had been appropriated by the BNP.
No. Version has been ruined by the Woke.
I hate the Woke and will be an agent of their destruction.
SNP are determined to destroy themselves, having these lunatic Greens doing anything other than cleaning the toilets is madness. Their latest wheeze
Shoppers face price hikes on drinks by up to a third under the Scottish Government’s controversial drinks recycling scheme, which has been compared to a poll tax on the poor. The Sunday Mail can reveal the cost of common items such as beer, water and fizzy juice will soar way beyond the extra 20p-per-item recycling fee when the Deposit Return Scheme (DRS) is launched in August.
Former cabinet secretary for rural development Fergus Ewing said he was astonished by the latest revelation and launched a blistering attack on the SNP and Greens scheme.
Brilliant idea and tax beercans and wine bottkes macdonalds crap and coke bottles and anything people throw out of their cars. It would create an industry of auto cleanup.
will be a ponzi scheme for their pals running it and crooks who will get round it and claim the refund multiple times. Will also mean a severe drop in choice as manufacturers will not bother to sell in Scotland. Madness.
It says everything that the big companies like Coca Cola and AG Barr are pushing for this to be Prioritised by the new leader.
This is a good thread on it. Many nations have a DRS, none quite like this one.
Yes, we also already know that their chums "Non Profit" company that will run it has CEO on 400K a year before it even gets off the ground. Lots of gravy train jobs for certain.
The thing to watch for is this -
1) Headline company is non profit or low profit. 2) The operating expenses are a bit high 3) All the operations are contracted to a set of offshore companies, charging above the market rate.
It’s an old scheme - much used by a certain bearded chap who likes planes, trains, records and rockets.
guaranteed to be a money maker for them and their chums
Also worth bearing in mind that Labour intend to keep going with their negative attacks on Sunak. He is a very easy target and they should not let him off.
Mike might claim to disapprove of such things, which is mildly amusing to those of us who have seen the LibDems at work, but it's naivety that has cost Labour in the past and the tories are a disgusting mob who will stop at nothing.
p.s. not saying I approve of such things. But it's politics and it's going to be dirty.
The trouble is, even if we accept Labour must climb into the gutter, Sunak is the wrong target because no-one believes he wants armed gangs of child molesters to roam the land. It is the same mistake the Tories made when portraying Tony Blair with demonic eyes. Labour ought to be targeting Tory sleaze and corruption, especially around PPE during the Covid pandemic with its echoes of Partygate. Voters made sacrifices while Tories were throwing billions to their dodgy mates. Voters will be swayed by that because they are already halfway there.
Saying Labour will reduce crime is also good in itself, especially if there is some mechanism promised, such as rebuilding however many courts the Tories have closed, but the personal attacks on Rishi are likely to be unproductive or even counterproductive.
And the fact Labour is just talking about sentencing suggests there is no serious policy there either.
Indeed. You wonder what genius Labour strategy meeting debated all the issues that are worrying people right now, and came up with Sunak being supposedly soft on child abuse as the right one to target?
Where’s the positivity and the vision? 1995-era Blair had vision and positivity in spades.
Not that I’m persuaded by it, but Labour are positive that they’re not the Tories and they have a vision of the UK not being governed by gurning sociopaths. That’s enough to convince voters atm but who knows where the notoriously amnesiac great British public will be in a year’s time?
Labour appear to be offering their own core vote next to nothing, and the Conservative core vote a bad copy of the party that has been pinning them to the ground and stuffing their all-too-willing mouths full of gold for the last thirteen years. Their entire election strategy seems to have consisted of "look at the fat blond wanker, our wooden mannequin will offer some blessed relief." Now the Tories have found a marketable replacement for the fat blond wanker, Labour is flailing about for a response.
There's no big idea from Labour, no vision, no sense of direction, no meaningful program for change. This entirely explains the dissatisfaction of Labour voters with Starmer's leadership: the hardcore partisans may be willing to sing his praises regardless, but the softer flank of Labour's support thinks "You're offering me nothing of value."
Labour are running as the Not Tory party, and that's it. Where does that leave you once the Tories have mollified their ageing core vote and the remainder of the electorate is not actively repelled by the Prime Minister, and thinks that you offer no alternative to his platform? It leaves you stranded in the middle of nowhere.
Labour needs to convert a double negative into a positive IMO. The core themes of the long Conservative years in power are declining incomes for ordinary people and disintegrating public services. Labour saying they are not the Tories might imply they won't be so bad
People need to believe the positive - they will become wealthier and public services improve.
At the moment large numbers of middle-income people, currently making £30k or £40k - or with aspirations to make that much in the future - think that they’ll be the target for higher taxes. They won’t end up wealthier at all.
They are already paying higher taxes from last week.
And the voters are pissed at the Tories for that. But Labour saying "hold my pint" on tax rises is brave.
Which of course is why they won't admit it. But if you want better services, it is not going to come from Labour "efficiency drives". Because they are just Tory cuts, aren't they? It is not going to come from borrowing - the Truss Interregnum did for that possibility. So a suitably cynical voter will assess either a) nothing will improve under Labour or b) taxes will go up significantly under Labour with the not inconsiderable risk that nothing much will improve either under Labour.
Truss showed that you can’t borrow money on the basis of empty promises and fantasies. It hasn’t stopped all borrowing. The UK Government, of course, continues to borrow large amounts of money all the time. There is room for a Labour government, or indeed any govt, to borrow more.
One can debate whether govt should or should not borrow more, of course, and for what purposes. But it’s clearly an option.
We'll see. If the market is apolitical expect a run on the pound well ahead of that Truss faced.
Labour's first Budget is going to piss off somebody. Either the public sector, or those with money in this country.
It seems unlikely that Labour will seek to borrow money as ineptly as Truss and Kwarteng did. I presume they will lay out a rationale for why the investment sought will have a positive effect and be affordable, and they will go through the normal processes for a budget, including talking to the OBR.
SNP are determined to destroy themselves, having these lunatic Greens doing anything other than cleaning the toilets is madness. Their latest wheeze
Shoppers face price hikes on drinks by up to a third under the Scottish Government’s controversial drinks recycling scheme, which has been compared to a poll tax on the poor. The Sunday Mail can reveal the cost of common items such as beer, water and fizzy juice will soar way beyond the extra 20p-per-item recycling fee when the Deposit Return Scheme (DRS) is launched in August.
Former cabinet secretary for rural development Fergus Ewing said he was astonished by the latest revelation and launched a blistering attack on the SNP and Greens scheme.
Brilliant idea and tax beercans and wine bottkes macdonalds crap and coke bottles and anything people throw out of their cars. It would create an industry of auto cleanup.
will be a ponzi scheme for their pals running it and crooks who will get round it and claim the refund multiple times. Will also mean a severe drop in choice as manufacturers will not bother to sell in Scotland. Madness.
It says everything that the big companies like Coca Cola and AG Barr are pushing for this to be Prioritised by the new leader.
This is a good thread on it. Many nations have a DRS, none quite like this one.
Yes, we also already know that their chums "Non Profit" company that will run it has CEO on 400K a year before it even gets off the ground. Lots of gravy train jobs for certain.
The thing to watch for is this -
1) Headline company is non profit or low profit. 2) The operating expenses are a bit high 3) All the operations are contracted to a set of offshore companies, charging above the market rate.
It’s an old scheme - much used by a certain bearded chap who likes planes, trains, records and rockets.
guaranteed to be a money maker for them and their chums
I don't know what Starmer is like or if he'll be any good, but he's not a Tory and all he has to do once he gets in is not fuck up anything anymore than it's been fucked up already. If he can manage that, we'll all win.
He'll fuck up my kids education and my families welfare.
I will wade through blood to stop him.
The mellow 'early Doombar in the garden on this glorious Easter Sunday' vibe seems to have dissipated.
Only because wankshaft features has started posting.
If I only ate vegetables and pleasured myself over moles, I think I'd be the same.
Wankshaft features. I like it.
Happy Easter, dickhead.
Now, I genuinely have to go and carve my delicious ROAST LAMB and enjoy the beautiful bordeaux I've opened to go with it.
Have fun xxx
You should have really spiced that up by talking about, post lunch, going for a bit of machine gunning foxes from the back of your personalised chariot, following by driving up Hampstead High Street playing Prodigy's 'Smack my Bitch up' at full blast.
Isn’t “Smack My Bitch Up” Woke?
The video was one of the early examples of sexual equality played out in contemporary dance music. Or it was highly violent and misogynistic, depending on your point of view.
Malcolm is doing us a favour in reminding us that party leaders covering up problems only lead to them being uncovered later. I rather wonder whether the SNP will get a real hammering in in any elections in the near future, to the probable advantage of the Labour Party. However, he also says, I think, that the LibDems are very prounionist. I seem to remember that the old Liberal party was very pro-devolution and wonder why policies have changed. There is no reason in principle, why both Wales and Scotland, and indeed those parts of England, which wish it should not have as much self-government as they can manage.
Are we not seeing right now, the limit of how much self-government can be managed in Scotland?
No. I think it demonstrates that there is some stuff that works better at a UK or EU level. A confident, independent Scotland would (hopefully) recognise this and work with others to implement policies like:
- the census - bottle scheme - defence - large infrastructure projects (HS2 to Glasgow)
Nothing will happen at a UK level if Scotland terminates the UK. Independence = divorce. That is the entire point.
An arrangement encompassing joint infrastructure projects, common defence, an invisible border with seamless trade, and an internal market with common standards (and, presumably, a common currency to remove transaction costs,) sounds suspiciously like a federation. Or a union.
You're not wrong! That's why I voted No, then Remain.
I think there is room for a bit more devolution to Scotland, and reworking of the Fiscal Framework and so on. But we should also sort out the relationship between the SG and Local Authorities.
the power is nearly all retained to England and given they are 85%+ they will always favour England to get re-elected so devolution will never help Scotland, it will only continue to be a backwater having to toe the line of it's big "partner". Get a backbone and think how a real country works, you sound like the typical beggars looking for crumbs from the table.
Labour strategists are cock-a-hoop with how the adverts have landed. The first advert tweeted has received 20.8 million views, making it arguably the most successful Labour attack in recent memory. A party insider said: “Nice doesn’t win elections. They have got used to Labour shirking the dirty stuff. That’s changed.”...
...The party is not going to stop there. According to senior Labour sources, one of the next attack ads will suggest the PM has “effectively decriminalised rape”.
It will claim that under the Tories “only 1.6 per cent of rapists have been charged”. A source said: “We aren’t talking to Twitter. We are talking to the vast majority of the country who want to see child rapists locked up and know the Tories have destroyed the criminal justice system. [Sunak] is leading the government that is responsible and he has got the man [Jeremy Hunt] who butchered the NHS as his chancellor.”
It is understood Labour drew up the messages some time ago and have been waiting for the right time to deploy them....
...It has even been claimed that a group of former Tory election staffers have turned against their own party and approached Labour to help formulate their election strategy.
This is all ultimately for nought if the Labour Party won't advance a viable alternative. As with all the rest of the myriad problems with public services, they need to formulate a plan to fix them and find from somewhere the colossal sums of money needed to pay for the plan.
It's where the money's meant to come from that's likely to prove their undoing, in the end. They can probably get away with a certain amount of borrowing to invest for infrastructure projects, albeit that they're going to have to be extremely careful not to repeat the mistakes of PFI and end up saddling public sector organisations with even more debt servicing obligations. However, ultimately they need to service the ongoing costs of, for example, paying more for care home places so the staff can be paid enough not to sod off to Aldi, and putting tens of thousands of extra police on the streets, by raising an awful lot of tax.
Low and middle income earners have already been bled white and there's no indication that Labour are willing to milk the obvious source of extra revenue which is asset wealth - residential and commercial property, stocks and shares. So where's the money to pay for all this stuff?
We can’t afford to bring alleged rapists to trial is really not going to cut the mustard. I am pretty sure people will take additional taxes on wealth to sort the criminal justice system out.
The fundamental issue is that the PFI spending from the Blair/Brown government is now coming due. All they did was spending today’s money yesterday.
Today we have to cover the bills for both periods.
I don't know what Starmer is like or if he'll be any good, but he's not a Tory and all he has to do once he gets in is not fuck up anything anymore than it's been fucked up already. If he can manage that, we'll all win.
He'll fuck up my kids education and my families welfare.
I will wade through blood to stop him.
With respect, that's as full of shit as anything you accuse Dura Ace of. You'll do fuck all blood wading, and once he gets in, you'll just snark on the sidelines here like we all do.
Not really. I do canvassing (despite hating it) and leafletting. I also donate.
Do you do any of those things?
I actually have a life, unlike you. Because I eat meat and don't spend all my time "meditating" I have the time and energy to do stuff.
Hope you enjoy the Grand National next weekend. Can't bloody wait £££.
I'm a Green party member and do my fair bit to help with leaflets and shit like that. I also have a life that doesn't revolve around God bothering and tormenting animals. I could always eat meat if I wanted, but you'll always be a c@#t. Now about that blood you're going to be wading through, who are you going you get to do the killing?
There's that c-word again.
Maybe eat some more vegetables?
That mediation obviously not working out for you.
As for your deep-seated mental health issues and misanthropy only a professional can help you with that.
Shit the bed, you genuinely are insane, aren't you? You have absolutely no idea who I am, nor what mental health issues I may have had. You're so...aggressive. Makes me all queasy.
And yet you're the one dropping the c-bomb and making it personal. I respond sure, particularly to highlight to others just how much bullshit your mung beans and med philosophy is for inner calm, but if you don't like it then don't provoke.
I'd sooner vote Labour than Green, btw.
The Greens are the anti-Christ.
Personal? I was just commenting about how you're mocking Dura Ace about hyperbolic violent posts but then say you're going to wade through blood to stop Starmer, and then you start being beastly to me. You are insane, probably impotent and have a small todger. I'm off for a venison steak, us vegans love a bit of dead deer.
I can't help contemplating (so to speak) the point that if you can be a firefighter on a diet of mung beans, there's a lot to be said for mung beans!
That's nothing, I know a few old fellas who were firefighters on nowt but fags, booze, Maxwell House, chocolate digestives and the odd bacon sarnie. The diet of champions.
I don't know what Starmer is like or if he'll be any good, but he's not a Tory and all he has to do once he gets in is not fuck up anything anymore than it's been fucked up already. If he can manage that, we'll all win.
He'll fuck up my kids education and my families welfare.
I will wade through blood to stop him.
The mellow 'early Doombar in the garden on this glorious Easter Sunday' vibe seems to have dissipated.
Only because wankshaft features has started posting.
If I only ate vegetables and pleasured myself over moles, I think I'd be the same.
Wankshaft features. I like it.
Is that the central crankshaft in a Wankel engine?
It's an "e-shaft" in a rotary. Mazda are bringing the rotary back but have made it Woke by putting it in a PHEV.
What mpg does it do as a hybrid? 20mpg rather than the 15 it used to do..
Mazda (finally) sorted the apex seals on the Renesis 13b in RX-8 and those would do supposedly 30mpg in the short time before they inevitably broke down. A rotary is always going to be compromised on fuel efficiency by the suboptimal surface area to volume ratio of the combustion chamber compared to an Otto cycle piston engine. They have got a relatively high compression ratio (another traditional rotary weakness) in the new single rotor in the MX-30 so it'll no doubt be better.
Mazda rotaries are like Range Rovers. When they’re good, they’re really good - but after they’re a few years old, you’d better have at least two if you want one to be available!
Malcolm is doing us a favour in reminding us that party leaders covering up problems only lead to them being uncovered later. I rather wonder whether the SNP will get a real hammering in in any elections in the near future, to the probable advantage of the Labour Party. However, he also says, I think, that the LibDems are very prounionist. I seem to remember that the old Liberal party was very pro-devolution and wonder why policies have changed. There is no reason in principle, why both Wales and Scotland, and indeed those parts of England, which wish it should not have as much self-government as they can manage.
Are we not seeing right now, the limit of how much self-government can be managed in Scotland?
No. I think it demonstrates that there is some stuff that works better at a UK or EU level. A confident, independent Scotland would (hopefully) recognise this and work with others to implement policies like:
- the census - bottle scheme - defence - large infrastructure projects (HS2 to Glasgow)
Nothing will happen at a UK level if Scotland terminates the UK. Independence = divorce. That is the entire point.
An arrangement encompassing joint infrastructure projects, common defence, an invisible border with seamless trade, and an internal market with common standards (and, presumably, a common currency to remove transaction costs,) sounds suspiciously like a federation. Or a union.
You're not wrong! That's why I voted No, then Remain.
I think there is room for a bit more devolution to Scotland, and reworking of the Fiscal Framework and so on. But we should also sort out the relationship between the SG and Local Authorities.
We should also sort out the SG itself.
But no one's going to talk about that .
Proof if ever that Scotland needs independence, will never prosper as a colony with Little Englander attitudes. You don't seem able to grasp that when you treat people liek shit they tend to resent it.
Labour strategists are cock-a-hoop with how the adverts have landed. The first advert tweeted has received 20.8 million views, making it arguably the most successful Labour attack in recent memory. A party insider said: “Nice doesn’t win elections. They have got used to Labour shirking the dirty stuff. That’s changed.”...
...The party is not going to stop there. According to senior Labour sources, one of the next attack ads will suggest the PM has “effectively decriminalised rape”.
It will claim that under the Tories “only 1.6 per cent of rapists have been charged”. A source said: “We aren’t talking to Twitter. We are talking to the vast majority of the country who want to see child rapists locked up and know the Tories have destroyed the criminal justice system. [Sunak] is leading the government that is responsible and he has got the man [Jeremy Hunt] who butchered the NHS as his chancellor.”
It is understood Labour drew up the messages some time ago and have been waiting for the right time to deploy them....
...It has even been claimed that a group of former Tory election staffers have turned against their own party and approached Labour to help formulate their election strategy.
This is all ultimately for nought if the Labour Party won't advance a viable alternative. As with all the rest of the myriad problems with public services, they need to formulate a plan to fix them and find from somewhere the colossal sums of money needed to pay for the plan.
It's where the money's meant to come from that's likely to prove their undoing, in the end. They can probably get away with a certain amount of borrowing to invest for infrastructure projects, albeit that they're going to have to be extremely careful not to repeat the mistakes of PFI and end up saddling public sector organisations with even more debt servicing obligations. However, ultimately they need to service the ongoing costs of, for example, paying more for care home places so the staff can be paid enough not to sod off to Aldi, and putting tens of thousands of extra police on the streets, by raising an awful lot of tax.
Low and middle income earners have already been bled white and there's no indication that Labour are willing to milk the obvious source of extra revenue which is asset wealth - residential and commercial property, stocks and shares. So where's the money to pay for all this stuff?
We can’t afford to bring alleged rapists to trial is really not going to cut the mustard. I am pretty sure people will take additional taxes on wealth to sort the criminal justice system out.
The fundamental issue is that the PFI spending from the Blair/Brown government is now coming due. All they did was spending today’s money yesterday.
Today we have to cover the bills for both periods.
There really isn’t much money left.
If a party was standing on a PFI-was-a-mistake platform, I’d be interested. (We should just have spent Govt money the old fashioned way.) But the Conservatives still embrace the same sort of approach to funding.
Pleasant family Easter Sunday here. My family is ludicrously female dominated. Presently I am the only bearer of a y-chromosome among nine of us. Also present are wife, three daughters, moþer in law, sister in law, sister in law's partner, and niece. Not even attempting to get a word in edgeways.
Balance may be restored to some extent shortly by the arrival of brother in law and nephew, along with sister-in-law-in-law.
Pie in the oven and Easter eggs all ready to be hunted by the youngest generation.
On topic, I hope for the country’s sake the Tories lose. Thirteen years would be enough for a superb government. This lot were out of ideas five years ago.
I hope for democracy’s sake that the Tories lose. One party states are a bad thing. We want a government with a modest majority and an opposition that seems to have a decent chance of replacing them and will keep them on their toes. The Coalition years were the first time we’d had that since the 1960s and the years since have not been notable for good governance.
Most of all I hope for the Tories’ sake that they lose. Five more years of this and they will suffer a shellacking they will never recover from.
The Conservatives were corrupt in 1997, after 18 years in office. Labour were corrupt in 2010, after 13 years in office. The Conservatives are now corrupt , after 13 years in office. We probably need more frequent changes in government.
The ideal result at the next election would be something like Labour 335 seats, Conservatives 250, Lib Dems 20, Others 45.
I don't want Labour to have a majority.
Labour on 300 seats and Lib Dems on 30 and the Conservatives on 275 seats would suit me. They'd have to drop the batshit and do vote by vote deals, and there'd be an even present threat of LDs/Tories combining to outvote and block Labour.
My fear is that, dependent on LDs and SNPs, the tendency would be to more bstshit rather than less.
I don't think the SNP should feature.
The LDs absolute priority would be europhilia but we saw under Cameron how little influence they had on foreign policy even in a formal coalition with double the seats.
I think the LDs absolute priority would be electoral reform. That would also suit most of the Labour Party and transform Britain, even if the subject is boring to a lot of electors.
Are you suggesting there should be electoral reform without a Referendum on it?
Seems entirely proper under our representational system. Particularly if they started at a lower level. Its already been mentioned the Tories did that, without even being in the manifesto (there was some vague words about defending FPTP only, nothing specific iirc).
Not really
Westminster can change the rules for police commissioners or local government (or abolish them if they like) because it is delegated authority which fundamentally resides at Westminster.
The underlying logic of what @SouthamObserver is saying is that Parliament could change to rules to say there would be no new general election for 50 years and that would be ok.
MPs can’t change the fundamentals of how they are chosen without authority from the voters.
On topic, I hope for the country’s sake the Tories lose. Thirteen years would be enough for a superb government. This lot were out of ideas five years ago.
I hope for democracy’s sake that the Tories lose. One party states are a bad thing. We want a government with a modest majority and an opposition that seems to have a decent chance of replacing them and will keep them on their toes. The Coalition years were the first time we’d had that since the 1960s and the years since have not been notable for good governance.
Most of all I hope for the Tories’ sake that they lose. Five more years of this and they will suffer a shellacking they will never recover from.
The Conservatives were corrupt in 1997, after 18 years in office. Labour were corrupt in 2010, after 13 years in office. The Conservatives are now corrupt , after 13 years in office. We probably need more frequent changes in government.
The ideal result at the next election would be something like Labour 335 seats, Conservatives 250, Lib Dems 20, Others 45.
I don't want Labour to have a majority.
Labour on 300 seats and Lib Dems on 30 and the Conservatives on 275 seats would suit me. They'd have to drop the batshit and do vote by vote deals, and there'd be an even present threat of LDs/Tories combining to outvote and block Labour.
My fear is that, dependent on LDs and SNPs, the tendency would be to more bstshit rather than less.
I don't think the SNP should feature.
The LDs absolute priority would be europhilia but we saw under Cameron how little influence they had on foreign policy even in a formal coalition with double the seats.
I think the LDs absolute priority would be electoral reform. That would also suit most of the Labour Party and transform Britain, even if the subject is boring to a lot of electors.
Are you suggesting there should be electoral reform without a Referendum on it?
Seems entirely proper under our representational system. Particularly if they started at a lower level. Its already been mentioned the Tories did that, without even being in the manifesto (there was some vague words about defending FPTP only, nothing specific iirc).
Not really
Westminster can change the rules for police commissioners or local government (or abolish them if they like) because it is delegated authority which fundamentally resides at Westminster.
The underlying logic of what @SouthamObserver is saying is that Parliament could change to rules to say there would be no new general election for 50 years and that would be ok...
I don't know what Starmer is like or if he'll be any good, but he's not a Tory and all he has to do once he gets in is not fuck up anything anymore than it's been fucked up already. If he can manage that, we'll all win.
He'll fuck up my kids education and my families welfare.
I will wade through blood to stop him.
The mellow 'early Doombar in the garden on this glorious Easter Sunday' vibe seems to have dissipated.
Only because wankshaft features has started posting.
If I only ate vegetables and pleasured myself over moles, I think I'd be the same.
Wankshaft features. I like it.
Is that the central crankshaft in a Wankel engine?
It's an "e-shaft" in a rotary. Mazda are bringing the rotary back but have made it Woke by putting it in a PHEV.
What mpg does it do as a hybrid? 20mpg rather than the 15 it used to do..
Wasn’t there a thing where, because insurance was based on engine volume (for many insurers) that you could get ridiculously cheap insurance on a rotary engined car? At least for a while.
I think it had a lot to do with how Japanese road tax and car rules worked.
On topic, I hope for the country’s sake the Tories lose. Thirteen years would be enough for a superb government. This lot were out of ideas five years ago.
I hope for democracy’s sake that the Tories lose. One party states are a bad thing. We want a government with a modest majority and an opposition that seems to have a decent chance of replacing them and will keep them on their toes. The Coalition years were the first time we’d had that since the 1960s and the years since have not been notable for good governance.
Most of all I hope for the Tories’ sake that they lose. Five more years of this and they will suffer a shellacking they will never recover from.
The Conservatives were corrupt in 1997, after 18 years in office. Labour were corrupt in 2010, after 13 years in office. The Conservatives are now corrupt , after 13 years in office. We probably need more frequent changes in government.
The ideal result at the next election would be something like Labour 335 seats, Conservatives 250, Lib Dems 20, Others 45.
I don't want Labour to have a majority.
Labour on 300 seats and Lib Dems on 30 and the Conservatives on 275 seats would suit me. They'd have to drop the batshit and do vote by vote deals, and there'd be an even present threat of LDs/Tories combining to outvote and block Labour.
My fear is that, dependent on LDs and SNPs, the tendency would be to more bstshit rather than less.
I don't think the SNP should feature.
The LDs absolute priority would be europhilia but we saw under Cameron how little influence they had on foreign policy even in a formal coalition with double the seats.
I think the LDs absolute priority would be electoral reform. That would also suit most of the Labour Party and transform Britain, even if the subject is boring to a lot of electors.
Are you suggesting there should be electoral reform without a Referendum on it?
Seems entirely proper under our representational system. Particularly if they started at a lower level. Its already been mentioned the Tories did that, without even being in the manifesto (there was some vague words about defending FPTP only, nothing specific iirc).
Not really
Westminster can change the rules for police commissioners or local government (or abolish them if they like) because it is delegated authority which fundamentally resides at Westminster.
The underlying logic of what @SouthamObserver is saying is that Parliament could change to rules to say there would be no new general election for 50 years and that would be ok.
MPs can’t change the fundamentals of how they are chosen without authority from the voters.
Does that authority have to come from a referendum? I note that the 1832 Great Reform Act, the Second Reform Act 1867, the Representation of the People Act 1918, the 1928 Act, the 1948 Act, the 1969 Act, and the House of Lords Act 1999 all didn’t have a referendum.
We've never got to the bottom of the Darroch leak. Amazingly David Davis quoted as saying that the police response was heavy-handed and journalists should be allowed to report things in the public interest. Quite what the pressing public interest in the case of the Darroch emails I don't know. If they were acceptable to leak then I imagine pretty much all diplomatic cables would be other than the 'what the President had for breakfast' kind.
I don't know what Starmer is like or if he'll be any good, but he's not a Tory and all he has to do once he gets in is not fuck up anything anymore than it's been fucked up already. If he can manage that, we'll all win.
He'll fuck up my kids education and my families welfare.
I will wade through blood to stop him.
The mellow 'early Doombar in the garden on this glorious Easter Sunday' vibe seems to have dissipated.
Only because wankshaft features has started posting.
If I only ate vegetables and pleasured myself over moles, I think I'd be the same.
Wankshaft features. I like it.
Is that the central crankshaft in a Wankel engine?
It's an "e-shaft" in a rotary. Mazda are bringing the rotary back but have made it Woke by putting it in a PHEV.
What mpg does it do as a hybrid? 20mpg rather than the 15 it used to do..
Mazda (finally) sorted the apex seals on the Renesis 13b in RX-8 and those would do supposedly 30mpg in the short time before they inevitably broke down. A rotary is always going to be compromised on fuel efficiency by the suboptimal surface area to volume ratio of the combustion chamber compared to an Otto cycle piston engine. They have got a relatively high compression ratio (another traditional rotary weakness) in the new single rotor in the MX-30 so it'll no doubt be better.
As someone who's family owned 3 NSU RO80's, I concur !
Those attack posters seem fine to me. Neither Labour or the Tories can claim any moral high ground after the last decade of shenanigans, so watching them rip the shite out of each other is good sport. I actually didn't even know it was Easter today, until I ordered some plumbing fittings from screwfix, and it said I couldn't pick them up until tomorrow. I sort of knew Easter was this month, as overpriced egg shaped chocolate was for sale in the supermarkets and local Facebook groups were full of mums asking if there were any Easter egg hunts they could take their kids to (what?) but that was the limit of my interest. In all the limited bits I've seen on posts about Easter, none have mentioned the actual religious significance of the day. I'm not religious in the slightest, but even I found that bizarre.
It was on breakfast news this morning, and the church bells have been peeling here in my village today too. Also, I took my children to a Good Friday service with real donkeys and a (very British) Jesus where the vicar led an outside storytelling of The Passion and my 4-year refused to shout for the release of Barrubus. I also listened to some sublime music and hymns from Kings last night.
So, we've certainly had a little bit of the Easter message in our family. And it was delightful.
I don't doubt that it was lovely for your family, but as someone who doesn't watch broadcast TV, it really hasn't registered for me at all. I live near a small country church and that didn't sound any different than it does on a bog standard Sunday (it does sound magnificent, even to my pagan ears). I just wonder at how the actual Christian message gets lost in all the rampant consumerism and Americanisation of our holidays and festivals. They all seem to roll into each other, with the supermarkets stacking the shelves with the next cash cow holiday products as soon as the last one is over. I find it a little saddening.
The next supermarket cash cow will of course be the coronation! "Souvenir "mugs, plates etc. And special offers on booze etc "so that you can enjoy the whole event! ".
As we’re not allowed special offers on booze in Scotland, does that explain the lack of enthusiasm for street parties?
Fairlie, NO , they are only for Royal Bawbags and their anniversaries and as we don't like teh tossers we tend not to give a monkey's chuff about "celebrating" them. Maybe if they put them on a bonfire it would be popular.
I don't think Jesus would have approved of this level of conflict.
Matthew 10:34-36:
34 “Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I have not come to bring peace, but a sword. 35 For I have come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. 36 And a person's enemies will be those of his own household.
Doesn't say anything about posting to PB though does it.
Those attack posters seem fine to me. Neither Labour or the Tories can claim any moral high ground after the last decade of shenanigans, so watching them rip the shite out of each other is good sport. I actually didn't even know it was Easter today, until I ordered some plumbing fittings from screwfix, and it said I couldn't pick them up until tomorrow. I sort of knew Easter was this month, as overpriced egg shaped chocolate was for sale in the supermarkets and local Facebook groups were full of mums asking if there were any Easter egg hunts they could take their kids to (what?) but that was the limit of my interest. In all the limited bits I've seen on posts about Easter, none have mentioned the actual religious significance of the day. I'm not religious in the slightest, but even I found that bizarre.
It was on breakfast news this morning, and the church bells have been peeling here in my village today too. Also, I took my children to a Good Friday service with real donkeys and a (very British) Jesus where the vicar led an outside storytelling of The Passion and my 4-year refused to shout for the release of Barrubus. I also listened to some sublime music and hymns from Kings last night.
So, we've certainly had a little bit of the Easter message in our family. And it was delightful.
I don't doubt that it was lovely for your family, but as someone who doesn't watch broadcast TV, it really hasn't registered for me at all. I live near a small country church and that didn't sound any different than it does on a bog standard Sunday (it does sound magnificent, even to my pagan ears). I just wonder at how the actual Christian message gets lost in all the rampant consumerism and Americanisation of our holidays and festivals. They all seem to roll into each other, with the supermarkets stacking the shelves with the next cash cow holiday products as soon as the last one is over. I find it a little saddening.
The next supermarket cash cow will of course be the coronation! "Souvenir "mugs, plates etc. And special offers on booze etc "so that you can enjoy the whole event! ".
As we’re not allowed special offers on booze in Scotland, does that explain the lack of enthusiasm for street parties?
Can get some good discounts with a club card, especially on spirits.
Yes but no BOGOF's allowed due to nanny state and you cannot buy booze till 12pm on a Sunday , that will really save lots of alcoholics. The clowns get paid a fortune to come up with these great ideas.
I don't know what Starmer is like or if he'll be any good, but he's not a Tory and all he has to do once he gets in is not fuck up anything anymore than it's been fucked up already. If he can manage that, we'll all win.
He'll fuck up my kids education and my families welfare.
I will wade through blood to stop him.
With respect, that's as full of shit as anything you accuse Dura Ace of. You'll do fuck all blood wading, and once he gets in, you'll just snark on the sidelines here like we all do.
Not really. I do canvassing (despite hating it) and leafletting. I also donate.
Do you do any of those things?
I actually have a life, unlike you. Because I eat meat and don't spend all my time "meditating" I have the time and energy to do stuff.
Hope you enjoy the Grand National next weekend. Can't bloody wait £££.
I'm a Green party member and do my fair bit to help with leaflets and shit like that. I also have a life that doesn't revolve around God bothering and tormenting animals. I could always eat meat if I wanted, but you'll always be a c@#t. Now about that blood you're going to be wading through, who are you going you get to do the killing?
There's that c-word again.
Maybe eat some more vegetables?
That mediation obviously not working out for you.
As for your deep-seated mental health issues and misanthropy only a professional can help you with that.
Shit the bed, you genuinely are insane, aren't you? You have absolutely no idea who I am, nor what mental health issues I may have had. You're so...aggressive. Makes me all queasy.
And yet you're the one dropping the c-bomb and making it personal. I respond sure, particularly to highlight to others just how much bullshit your mung beans and med philosophy is for inner calm, but if you don't like it then don't provoke.
I'd sooner vote Labour than Green, btw.
The Greens are the anti-Christ.
Personal? I was just commenting about how you're mocking Dura Ace about hyperbolic violent posts but then say you're going to wade through blood to stop Starmer, and then you start being beastly to me. You are insane, probably impotent and have a small todger. I'm off for a venison steak, us vegans love a bit of dead deer.
My todger is so tiny you can barely see it, it's true.
I don't know what Starmer is like or if he'll be any good, but he's not a Tory and all he has to do once he gets in is not fuck up anything anymore than it's been fucked up already. If he can manage that, we'll all win.
He'll fuck up my kids education and my families welfare.
I will wade through blood to stop him.
With respect, that's as full of shit as anything you accuse Dura Ace of. You'll do fuck all blood wading, and once he gets in, you'll just snark on the sidelines here like we all do.
Not really. I do canvassing (despite hating it) and leafletting. I also donate.
Do you do any of those things?
I actually have a life, unlike you. Because I eat meat and don't spend all my time "meditating" I have the time and energy to do stuff.
Hope you enjoy the Grand National next weekend. Can't bloody wait £££.
I'm a Green party member and do my fair bit to help with leaflets and shit like that. I also have a life that doesn't revolve around God bothering and tormenting animals. I could always eat meat if I wanted, but you'll always be a c@#t. Now about that blood you're going to be wading through, who are you going you get to do the killing?
There's that c-word again.
Maybe eat some more vegetables?
That mediation obviously not working out for you.
As for your deep-seated mental health issues and misanthropy only a professional can help you with that.
Shit the bed, you genuinely are insane, aren't you? You have absolutely no idea who I am, nor what mental health issues I may have had. You're so...aggressive. Makes me all queasy.
And yet you're the one dropping the c-bomb and making it personal. I respond sure, particularly to highlight to others just how much bullshit your mung beans and med philosophy is for inner calm, but if you don't like it then don't provoke.
I'd sooner vote Labour than Green, btw.
The Greens are the anti-Christ.
Personal? I was just commenting about how you're mocking Dura Ace about hyperbolic violent posts but then say you're going to wade through blood to stop Starmer, and then you start being beastly to me. You are insane, probably impotent and have a small todger. I'm off for a venison steak, us vegans love a bit of dead deer.
I can't help contemplating (so to speak) the point that if you can be a firefighter on a diet of mung beans, there's a lot to be said for mung beans!
That's nothing, I know a few old fellas who were firefighters on nowt but fags, booze, Maxwell House, chocolate digestives and the odd bacon sarnie. The diet of champions.
Those attack posters seem fine to me. Neither Labour or the Tories can claim any moral high ground after the last decade of shenanigans, so watching them rip the shite out of each other is good sport. I actually didn't even know it was Easter today, until I ordered some plumbing fittings from screwfix, and it said I couldn't pick them up until tomorrow. I sort of knew Easter was this month, as overpriced egg shaped chocolate was for sale in the supermarkets and local Facebook groups were full of mums asking if there were any Easter egg hunts they could take their kids to (what?) but that was the limit of my interest. In all the limited bits I've seen on posts about Easter, none have mentioned the actual religious significance of the day. I'm not religious in the slightest, but even I found that bizarre.
It was on breakfast news this morning, and the church bells have been peeling here in my village today too. Also, I took my children to a Good Friday service with real donkeys and a (very British) Jesus where the vicar led an outside storytelling of The Passion and my 4-year refused to shout for the release of Barrubus. I also listened to some sublime music and hymns from Kings last night.
So, we've certainly had a little bit of the Easter message in our family. And it was delightful.
What on earth is a "very British" Jesus? And - perhaps my Biblical knowledge is lacking - did donkeys have any significant role to play in the Crucifixion?
This is the only one I can think of:
Donkeys had a very significant role in the Easter story - they are the whole reason why Allenby walked into Jerusalem rather than rode a white horse like Kaiser Bill. They are the symbol of Christ’s humility.
And I would imagine a “very British” Jesus had an implausibly posh British accent
Labour strategists are cock-a-hoop with how the adverts have landed. The first advert tweeted has received 20.8 million views, making it arguably the most successful Labour attack in recent memory. A party insider said: “Nice doesn’t win elections. They have got used to Labour shirking the dirty stuff. That’s changed.”...
...The party is not going to stop there. According to senior Labour sources, one of the next attack ads will suggest the PM has “effectively decriminalised rape”.
It will claim that under the Tories “only 1.6 per cent of rapists have been charged”. A source said: “We aren’t talking to Twitter. We are talking to the vast majority of the country who want to see child rapists locked up and know the Tories have destroyed the criminal justice system. [Sunak] is leading the government that is responsible and he has got the man [Jeremy Hunt] who butchered the NHS as his chancellor.”
It is understood Labour drew up the messages some time ago and have been waiting for the right time to deploy them....
...It has even been claimed that a group of former Tory election staffers have turned against their own party and approached Labour to help formulate their election strategy.
This is all ultimately for nought if the Labour Party won't advance a viable alternative. As with all the rest of the myriad problems with public services, they need to formulate a plan to fix them and find from somewhere the colossal sums of money needed to pay for the plan.
It's where the money's meant to come from that's likely to prove their undoing, in the end. They can probably get away with a certain amount of borrowing to invest for infrastructure projects, albeit that they're going to have to be extremely careful not to repeat the mistakes of PFI and end up saddling public sector organisations with even more debt servicing obligations. However, ultimately they need to service the ongoing costs of, for example, paying more for care home places so the staff can be paid enough not to sod off to Aldi, and putting tens of thousands of extra police on the streets, by raising an awful lot of tax.
Low and middle income earners have already been bled white and there's no indication that Labour are willing to milk the obvious source of extra revenue which is asset wealth - residential and commercial property, stocks and shares. So where's the money to pay for all this stuff?
We can’t afford to bring alleged rapists to trial is really not going to cut the mustard. I am pretty sure people will take additional taxes on wealth to sort the criminal justice system out.
The fundamental issue is that the PFI spending from the Blair/Brown government is now coming due. All they did was spending today’s money yesterday.
Today we have to cover the bills for both periods.
There really isn’t much money left.
If a party was standing on a PFI-was-a-mistake platform, I’d be interested. (We should just have spent Govt money the old fashioned way.) But the Conservatives still embrace the same sort of approach to funding.
It makes sense for many things. But not for schools’n’hospitals
On topic, I hope for the country’s sake the Tories lose. Thirteen years would be enough for a superb government. This lot were out of ideas five years ago.
I hope for democracy’s sake that the Tories lose. One party states are a bad thing. We want a government with a modest majority and an opposition that seems to have a decent chance of replacing them and will keep them on their toes. The Coalition years were the first time we’d had that since the 1960s and the years since have not been notable for good governance.
Most of all I hope for the Tories’ sake that they lose. Five more years of this and they will suffer a shellacking they will never recover from.
The Conservatives were corrupt in 1997, after 18 years in office. Labour were corrupt in 2010, after 13 years in office. The Conservatives are now corrupt , after 13 years in office. We probably need more frequent changes in government.
The ideal result at the next election would be something like Labour 335 seats, Conservatives 250, Lib Dems 20, Others 45.
I don't want Labour to have a majority.
Labour on 300 seats and Lib Dems on 30 and the Conservatives on 275 seats would suit me. They'd have to drop the batshit and do vote by vote deals, and there'd be an even present threat of LDs/Tories combining to outvote and block Labour.
My fear is that, dependent on LDs and SNPs, the tendency would be to more bstshit rather than less.
I don't think the SNP should feature.
The LDs absolute priority would be europhilia but we saw under Cameron how little influence they had on foreign policy even in a formal coalition with double the seats.
I think the LDs absolute priority would be electoral reform. That would also suit most of the Labour Party and transform Britain, even if the subject is boring to a lot of electors.
Are you suggesting there should be electoral reform without a Referendum on it?
Seems entirely proper under our representational system. Particularly if they started at a lower level. Its already been mentioned the Tories did that, without even being in the manifesto (there was some vague words about defending FPTP only, nothing specific iirc).
Not really
Westminster can change the rules for police commissioners or local government (or abolish them if they like) because it is delegated authority which fundamentally resides at Westminster.
The underlying logic of what @SouthamObserver is saying is that Parliament could change to rules to say there would be no new general election for 50 years and that would be ok...
I don't think Jesus would have approved of this level of conflict.
Matthew 10:34-36:
34 “Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I have not come to bring peace, but a sword. 35 For I have come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. 36 And a person's enemies will be those of his own household.
Labour strategists are cock-a-hoop with how the adverts have landed. The first advert tweeted has received 20.8 million views, making it arguably the most successful Labour attack in recent memory. A party insider said: “Nice doesn’t win elections. They have got used to Labour shirking the dirty stuff. That’s changed.”...
...The party is not going to stop there. According to senior Labour sources, one of the next attack ads will suggest the PM has “effectively decriminalised rape”.
It will claim that under the Tories “only 1.6 per cent of rapists have been charged”. A source said: “We aren’t talking to Twitter. We are talking to the vast majority of the country who want to see child rapists locked up and know the Tories have destroyed the criminal justice system. [Sunak] is leading the government that is responsible and he has got the man [Jeremy Hunt] who butchered the NHS as his chancellor.”
It is understood Labour drew up the messages some time ago and have been waiting for the right time to deploy them....
...It has even been claimed that a group of former Tory election staffers have turned against their own party and approached Labour to help formulate their election strategy.
This is all ultimately for nought if the Labour Party won't advance a viable alternative. As with all the rest of the myriad problems with public services, they need to formulate a plan to fix them and find from somewhere the colossal sums of money needed to pay for the plan.
It's where the money's meant to come from that's likely to prove their undoing, in the end. They can probably get away with a certain amount of borrowing to invest for infrastructure projects, albeit that they're going to have to be extremely careful not to repeat the mistakes of PFI and end up saddling public sector organisations with even more debt servicing obligations. However, ultimately they need to service the ongoing costs of, for example, paying more for care home places so the staff can be paid enough not to sod off to Aldi, and putting tens of thousands of extra police on the streets, by raising an awful lot of tax.
Low and middle income earners have already been bled white and there's no indication that Labour are willing to milk the obvious source of extra revenue which is asset wealth - residential and commercial property, stocks and shares. So where's the money to pay for all this stuff?
We can’t afford to bring alleged rapists to trial is really not going to cut the mustard. I am pretty sure people will take additional taxes on wealth to sort the criminal justice system out.
The fundamental issue is that the PFI spending from the Blair/Brown government is now coming due. All they did was spending today’s money yesterday.
Today we have to cover the bills for both periods.
There really isn’t much money left.
If a party was standing on a PFI-was-a-mistake platform, I’d be interested. (We should just have spent Govt money the old fashioned way.) But the Conservatives still embrace the same sort of approach to funding.
It makes sense for many things. But not for schools’n’hospitals
Comments
Whoever is in government, I suspect the children of the top 1-2% of earners will do OK, whatever the travails visited on us by the likes of Starmer.
I used to like Vension - a lot. I ordered it from niche family butchers 15 years ago before it was cool.
These tossers have put me off. I'm not ordering or enjoying anything that encourages these detestable wankers.
Labour's first Budget is going to piss off somebody. Either the public sector, or those with money in this country.
I very much like venison, and I wouldn’t care even if had been appropriated by the BNP.
-The Corbynite variant - he betrayed the absolute Boy (epitomised by BJO)
-The Remoaner variant - he isn't promising to take us back into the EU tomorrow (Mexicanpete, arguably)
-The Nat variant - he's a YOON
-The Tory variant - he lied to become Labour leader, so he's lying now (even though that it will technically mean he was telling the truth initially) and is going to nationalise everything and pay for it by robbing my children's inheritance (and place in private school)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexamenos_graffito
According to that Wikipedia article, the inscription is read as:
"ALEXAMENOS SEBETE THEON"
meaning
"Alexamenos worships God".
A run on the pound indeed. Is this “run on the pound” in the room with you now?
Maybe eat some more vegetables?
That mediation obviously not working out for you.
As for your deep-seated mental health issues and misanthropy only a professional can help you with that.
I hate the Woke and will be an agent of their destruction.
The projects I used to co-run there (we had the code, they provided the BA analysis and on-going support) were with minority owned firms based on the rules designed to ensure minorities were included in Government Projects.
And that included very Republican states such as Texas..
Now, I genuinely have to go and carve my delicious ROAST LAMB and enjoy the beautiful bordeaux I've opened to go with it.
Have fun xxx
https://www.theguardian.com/education/2023/apr/08/going-to-private-school-makes-you-twice-as-likely-to-vote-tory-study-finds
WTAF
Indeed it is a part of the system of layering, by which prices are inflated. And, because of the way that scan works the minorities in question see very little of the money.
I'd sooner vote Labour than Green, btw.
The Greens are the anti-Christ.
My point was however that given how much CR hates how things were going at his previous firm in the UK, he would really hate how his type of project works in the US.
On the way I'll check the water quality of the local burn, report the landowner for raptor persecution, and deflate some SUV tyres.
Happy Easter!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opinion_polling_for_the_next_United_Kingdom_general_election
If Starmer screws up private education but stops (some of) the rot in state education I reckon that’s a reasonable trade-off, CR’s sprogs notwithstanding.
You are insane, probably impotent and have a small todger. I'm off for a venison steak, us vegans love a bit of dead deer.
34 “Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I have not come to bring peace, but a sword. 35 For I have come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. 36 And a person's enemies will be those of his own household.
I am told.
Get a backbone and think how a real country works, you sound like the typical beggars looking for crumbs from the table.
Today we have to cover the bills for both periods.
There really isn’t much money left.
Not even attempting to get a word in edgeways.
Balance may be restored to some extent shortly by the arrival of brother in law and nephew, along with sister-in-law-in-law.
Pie in the oven and Easter eggs all ready to be hunted by the youngest generation.
Westminster can change the rules for police commissioners or local government (or abolish them if they like) because it is delegated authority which fundamentally resides at Westminster.
The underlying logic of what @SouthamObserver is saying is that Parliament could change to rules to say there would be no new general election for 50 years and that would be ok.
MPs can’t change the fundamentals of how they are chosen without authority from the voters.
NEW THREAD
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2022/07/31/counter-terror-police-wrecked-life-looking-sir-kim-darroch-leaker/
We've never got to the bottom of the Darroch leak. Amazingly David Davis quoted as saying that the police response was heavy-handed and journalists should be allowed to report things in the public interest. Quite what the pressing public interest in the case of the Darroch emails I don't know. If they were acceptable to leak then I imagine pretty much all diplomatic cables would be other than the 'what the President had for breakfast' kind.
Beautiful cars, BUT ....
Fascinating.
And I would imagine a “very British” Jesus had an implausibly posh British accent