Telegraph reporting Sunak is considering a Oct/Nov 24 election which could even coincide with the US election in November 24
Could you imagine the media trying to cope with that scenario
Stuff the media, what about us?
The important thing though... Sunak won't go that late if he is confident of winning earlier. For all the excitement, Conservative ratings are still quite a way below where they were in April 2022, when everyone was hopping mad with BoJo.
Seems he has made up his mind and ruled out an earlier GE
Telegraph reporting Sunak is considering a Oct/Nov 24 election which could even coincide with the US election in November 24
Could you imagine the media trying to cope with that scenario
Is there any particular advantage to stalling that long, unless the downturn in the economy drags on and the Government is forced to play for time whilst it hopes for things to improve?
I'm sticking with my hunch that they'll announce giveaways in the Budget and then call a May election to capitalise.
Telegraph reporting Sunak is considering a Oct/Nov 24 election which could even coincide with the US election in November 24
Could you imagine the media trying to cope with that scenario
Is there any particular advantage to stalling that long, unless the downturn in the economy drags on and the Government is forced to play for time whilst it hopes for things to improve?
I'm sticking with my hunch that they'll announce giveaways in the Budget and then call a May election to capitalise.
There is always the question of whether, if Rishi has really decided on an election date, he would leak it to the Telegraph. However...
If things were going really well, I suspect we would be having a GE this spring (3.5 years isn't stupidly early after all, and it could be sold as seeking a democratic mandate). This autumn would be 4 years, which is the classic formula of Thatcher and Blair. But building an election-winning lead by then? Tricky.
That leaves next spring if the polls have improved sufficiently, next autumn if they haven't and January 2025 if the Conservatives hate everyone and don't care who knows any more.
Telegraph reporting Sunak is considering a Oct/Nov 24 election which could even coincide with the US election in November 24
Could you imagine the media trying to cope with that scenario
Is there any particular advantage to stalling that long, unless the downturn in the economy drags on and the Government is forced to play for time whilst it hopes for things to improve?
I'm sticking with my hunch that they'll announce giveaways in the Budget and then call a May election to capitalise.
Telegraph reporting Sunak is considering a Oct/Nov 24 election which could even coincide with the US election in November 24
Could you imagine the media trying to cope with that scenario
Stuff the media, what about us?
The important thing though... Sunak won't go that late if he is confident of winning earlier. For all the excitement, Conservative ratings are still quite a way below where they were in April 2022, when everyone was hopping mad with BoJo.
Seems he has made up his mind and ruled out an earlier GE
Another round of candle light vigils and pathetic platitudes to come .
Thoughts and prayers, thoughts and prayers.
(As a staunch atheist, I realise what utter bollocks that means, especially when its said by law makers. They basically mean, "Yeah, its not great, but we're NOT changing the law because we view these sort of deaths as 'acceptable casualties'.)
I expect the Greeks might be a bit pissed off if we offered them free tickets to see the Elgin Marbles in return for free tickets to see where the Parthenon Marbles used to be
The strange thing is that most Greeks don't give a flying fuck about the Elgin Marbles.
It's modern Greece they're interested in, and their claims to territory in the Dodecanese and the Balkans, not ancient Greece - which is more a Western obsession.
The Elgin Marbles belong in Greece, just as the Crown Jewels belong in London.
Also rather odd of CR to put his words in the mouth of the Greeks. Who give so much of a "flying fuck about the Elgin Marbles" they have built a nice new state of the art airconditioned museum with carefully calculated blank spaces for every single one of them, within sight of their original location on the Akropolis.
Because I know Greeks and have a Balkan wife. I've also read a lot of Balkan history. Of course, if you offer them to them they'll say yes, but it's about 487th on the list of things they care about.
This is a British obsession because it allows us to compete in a self-satisfied wank-off over our views on the Empire together.
It wasn't a British obsession which built that museum *in Athens*.
I expect the Greeks might be a bit pissed off if we offered them free tickets to see the Elgin Marbles in return for free tickets to see where the Parthenon Marbles used to be
The strange thing is that most Greeks don't give a flying fuck about the Elgin Marbles.
It's modern Greece they're interested in, and their claims to territory in the Dodecanese and the Balkans, not ancient Greece - which is more a Western obsession.
The Elgin Marbles belong in Greece, just as the Crown Jewels belong in London.
Also rather odd of CR to put his words in the mouth of the Greeks. Who give so much of a "flying fuck about the Elgin Marbles" they have built a nice new state of the art airconditioned museum with carefully calculated blank spaces for every single one of them, within sight of their original location on the Akropolis.
The main obstacle with returning the sculptures is probably the fear that it would trigger a flood of similar claims, and we'd end up with a situation in which all artefacts ended up on display in whatever state encompasses the territory of the ancient culture in which they were made or recovered (and, by extension, no museum in the world could hold major collections of artefacts from anywhere else.) If an agreement could be reached internationally that would define what objects were so important that they needed to go back, allowing the bulk of them to stay put in current collections, then it would be much easier to let go of a few marquee exhibits like this.
If that hurdle could be jumped and money were no object, then I'd advocate sending the Parthenon friezes back, and commissioning a team of British and Greek sculptors to carve a set of replicas, to be displayed in the vacated gallery back in the British Museum, in mint condition and decorated all over with bright paint as the ancient Athenians intended. They'd be quite something.
That objection is pretty minor. If it is a significant artefact then of course they want it back. And if it isn't then they're going to relax about it.
On the second para - just do 3-D laser scanning, fill in the chips, and run it through a digital chiselling machine.
Diagnosis: indy isn't happening for a generation. The SNP have fucked it up. The long hard road to recovery begins with a re-run of the leadership campaign, and the removal of Yousless, who is helplessly tainted and was, quite possibly, installed via a fraudulent process
Hard to argue with much of that
Rather liked this line: "He (Yousaf) dutifully showed his gratitude by unveiling a ministry that, in political terms, resembles a painting by Hieronymus Bosch."
However his solution, a re-run with Forbes and Regan duly elected, would only result in the ship splitting up altogether as the "progressives" headed for the liferafts. You have to remember that a huge segment of the SNP is extremely left-wing and would be aghast at a Forbes supremacy.
To get what they ultimately want a split may actually be necessary. Are the SNP ever going to build a solid and sustained majority amongst public opinion for secession if they spend all their time trying to appeal to left-leaning voters and denouncing the political right as evil?
The Wicked Tories rhetoric clearly plays very well in Greater Glasgow, but quite a lot of rural Scots still seem to like them. The current Scottish Government presides over a deeply divided country, and we can well guess at how resentful large parts of it could get if they somehow manage finally to secure that second referendum, win it narrowly and secession turns out to be really difficult. Brexit on a 52:48 vote has not been a particularly happy experience, after all, and splitting up the UK is going to be much more complex than that.
There were reports after the 2014 failure that SNP figures thought they needed to build that solid and and sustained majority for independence before having a second vote - 60% was a figure that did the rounds a lot. That seems reasonable: get a big enough lead for long enough and you can start to make the outcome seem like a fait accompli. What they seem to have failed to do since, however, is make any progress in working out how to get there. There seems to be no strategy at all - all they've come up with in the last nine years was a bit of caterwauling about Scotland being dragged out of the EU against its will, but it seems that Scotland didn't care enough about the EU to change its mind about independence after all. So, what now?
Perhaps its time for the SNP to consider whether the main obstacle to independence might just be the SNP?
There feels an element to them - from the outside - that likes the power and that the current status quo suits them very well: they keep onto the cushy jobs and can always blame Westminster for any problems.
Independence would have been a disaster for the SNP. As they have now, amazingly, admitted. "We have no idea how to achieve it and if we ever get it we have no idea how we could make it work". Says the new party president
The diagnosis of @malcolmg was entirely correct. The Sturgeonites never actually wanted indy. They wanted the gravy train of grievance to go on forever. Scottish voters of all stripes need to punish them severely
The diagnosis of @malcolmg was entirely correct. The Sturgeonites never actually wanted indy. They wanted the gravy train of grievance to go on forever. Scottish voters of all stripes need to punish them severely
The diagnosis of @malcolmg was entirely correct. The Sturgeonites never actually wanted indy. They wanted the gravy train of grievance to go on forever. Scottish voters of all stripes need to punish them severely
BoZo never really wanted Brexit
Indeed. He wanted power, wealth and most importantly self-aggrandisement. Selling the nation down the river was a price he was prepared to pay.
It's so nice to have a bit of consistent sunshine, albeit with sprinklings of rain too. It feels like finally, Spring is here.
Yes, today was a bit on the dull, wet side but the rest of the long weekend has been great around these parts. And it seems likely that we've seen the back of Winter, thank God. It felt like it was the coldest for years, and that plays havoc with my skin.
Personally, I've spent the day at Blackpool pleasure beach. A day of three thirds: first third breezy and springlike, second third WET, third third breezy and springlike. I'll take that. If you don't embrace the rain, you'll never leave the house, particularly in the North West.
Blackpool Pleasure Beach is, by the way, possibly my favourite theme park in the world. Lots of reasons, but they include: -Some genuinely world class rides. -The queues! You rarely seem to queue more than 20 minutes for anything. -The heritage aspect. Some rides predate WW2. I love wooden rollercoasters - so atmospheric. And I love doing things for fun that my grandfathers' generation would have done. -They have cleaned it up considerably since my youth, and you are unlikely nowadays to get pickpocketed or into a fight - but there is still an enjoyable louche disreputability about the place. An enjoyably large proportion of ride operators are missing teeth, for example. -A lot of rides on a very small site. Rollercoasters weave around each other. This also means that you are never more than a couple of minutes from the next thing you want to do. -Blackpool (the town). I like it more each time I go. You are right by the sea, and can see the Lake District from the top of the Big One. -You never really feel seriously that you are being gouged. -It's a theme park without a theme. One ride bears the name it has borne for 100 years, another is named after a sponsor. Things are scattered about organically with little rhyme or reason. As an example, there is a diorama of Noah's Ark as you enter, inexplicably livened up by a policeman, some dinosaurs and the odd ice floe. It's wonderfully eccentric.
The diagnosis of @malcolmg was entirely correct. The Sturgeonites never actually wanted indy. They wanted the gravy train of grievance to go on forever. Scottish voters of all stripes need to punish them severely
BoZo never really wanted Brexit
I suspect neither did Nigel Farage.... or at least, he didn't want it via a referendum.
Trying to understand the PB Tory logic here. Is it that overseas trips are some kind of decadence that only latte-sipping Islington lawyers would enjoy?
Or that Greek museums, rightly, can no longer count on subsidies from apprentices in the Midlands?
Both appear to be Alice-in-Wonderland delusions.
That middle class kids no longer get their holidays subsidised by tax payers
No-one wants an election in November, Rishi, you plank. You'll get a right spanking.
This falls under 'accepted wisdom on the basis of very shaky empirical evidence'. We may prefer the weather in May, but it's hardly the case that we refuse to leave the house in the darker months. This is Britain, not the Yukon.
Trying to understand the PB Tory logic here. Is it that overseas trips are some kind of decadence that only latte-sipping Islington lawyers would enjoy?
Or that Greek museums, rightly, can no longer count on subsidies from apprentices in the Midlands?
Both appear to be Alice-in-Wonderland delusions.
That middle class kids no longer get their holidays subsidised by tax payers
No-one wants an election in November, Rishi, you plank. You'll get a right spanking.
This falls under 'accepted wisdom on the basis of very shaky empirical evidence'. We may prefer the weather in May, but it's hardly the case that we refuse to leave the house in the darker months. This is Britain, not the Yukon.
Like most people, I will have to get up and leave the house to go to work. I just feel a great deal cheerier about going to the Polling Station at 7am on a sunny May morning.
I'm sure I read some theory about good weather favouring the incumbent, as people feel more positive about the present, but then May 1997 was sunny and the Tories got thrashed.
No-one wants an election in November, Rishi, you plank. You'll get a right spanking.
This falls under 'accepted wisdom on the basis of very shaky empirical evidence'. We may prefer the weather in May, but it's hardly the case that we refuse to leave the house in the darker months. This is Britain, not the Yukon.
Like most people, I will have to get up and leave the house to go to work. I just feel a great deal cheerier about going to the Polling Station at 7am on a sunny May morning.
I'm sure I read some theory about good weather favouring the incumbent, as people feel more positive about the present, but then May 1997 was sunny and the Tories got thrashed.
And the Tories did rather well in Dec 2019. There may be a relationship between time of year and success for one side or other. But it is quite hard to make on the basis of the empirical evidence.
The diagnosis of @malcolmg was entirely correct. The Sturgeonites never actually wanted indy. They wanted the gravy train of grievance to go on forever. Scottish voters of all stripes need to punish them severely
BoZo never really wanted Brexit
I know this is a favourite meme of yours but I can assure you he really did want Brexit. The fact that he benefited either way - win or lose - was merely a hugely generous by-product (one which most career politicians would have seized, in the circs)
It's so nice to have a bit of consistent sunshine, albeit with sprinklings of rain too. It feels like finally, Spring is here.
Yes, today was a bit on the dull, wet side but the rest of the long weekend has been great around these parts. And it seems likely that we've seen the back of Winter, thank God. It felt like it was the coldest for years, and that plays havoc with my skin.
Personally, I've spent the day at Blackpool pleasure beach. A day of three thirds: first third breezy and springlike, second third WET, third third breezy and springlike. I'll take that. If you don't embrace the rain, you'll never leave the house, particularly in the North West.
Blackpool Pleasure Beach is, by the way, possibly my favourite theme park in the world. Lots of reasons, but they include: -Some genuinely world class rides. -The queues! You rarely seem to queue more than 20 minutes for anything. -The heritage aspect. Some rides predate WW2. I love wooden rollercoasters - so atmospheric. And I love doing things for fun that my grandfathers' generation would have done. -They have cleaned it up considerably since my youth, and you are unlikely nowadays to get pickpocketed or into a fight - but there is still an enjoyable louche disreputability about the place. An enjoyably large proportion of ride operators are missing teeth, for example. -A lot of rides on a very small site. Rollercoasters weave around each other. This also means that you are never more than a couple of minutes from the next thing you want to do. -Blackpool (the town). I like it more each time I go. You are right by the sea, and can see the Lake District from the top of the Big One. -You never really feel seriously that you are being gouged. -It's a theme park without a theme. One ride bears the name it has borne for 100 years, another is named after a sponsor. Things are scattered about organically with little rhyme or reason. As an example, there is a diorama of Noah's Ark as you enter, inexplicably livened up by a policeman, some dinosaurs and the odd ice floe. It's wonderfully eccentric.
*warming to a theme now* - I mean - look at this. Madness.
Trying to understand the PB Tory logic here. Is it that overseas trips are some kind of decadence that only latte-sipping Islington lawyers would enjoy?
Or that Greek museums, rightly, can no longer count on subsidies from apprentices in the Midlands?
Both appear to be Alice-in-Wonderland delusions.
That middle class kids no longer get their holidays subsidised by tax payers
What a silly and depressing post.
However, it also reflects a wider reality, namely that many poor kids do not get a holiday at all so why should so much angst and grief be spilled over a fairly privileged minority who are using it to complain about Brexit.
Telegraph reporting Sunak is considering a Oct/Nov 24 election which could even coincide with the US election in November 24
Could you imagine the media trying to cope with that scenario
Is there any particular advantage to stalling that long, unless the downturn in the economy drags on and the Government is forced to play for time whilst it hopes for things to improve?
I'm sticking with my hunch that they'll announce giveaways in the Budget and then call a May election to capitalise.
Seems plausible - we've certainly been assuming that in my workplace (it affects what we can realistically press for before the election). A spirng election would only make sense if the Tories are only 2-3 points behind - people will be (rightly) cynical about a deathbed-repentance generous pre-election budget. Otherwise, why not enjoy 6 more months in office and hope something turns up?
The diagnosis of @malcolmg was entirely correct. The Sturgeonites never actually wanted indy. They wanted the gravy train of grievance to go on forever. Scottish voters of all stripes need to punish them severely
BoZo never really wanted Brexit
I know this is a favourite meme of yours but I can assure you he really did want Brexit. The fact that he benefited either way - win or lose - was merely a hugely generous by-product (one which most career politicians would have seized, in the circs)
Why the **** did he then write two letters? Because he didn't really give a **** either way. If he was to become PM by flying the flag for Remain, that is the flag he would have flown. He remains (an unfortunate word to use in the context of Johnson) a Brexiteer as the ERG remain his (failing) route back to Downing Street.
Trying to understand the PB Tory logic here. Is it that overseas trips are some kind of decadence that only latte-sipping Islington lawyers would enjoy?
Or that Greek museums, rightly, can no longer count on subsidies from apprentices in the Midlands?
Both appear to be Alice-in-Wonderland delusions.
That middle class kids no longer get their holidays subsidised by tax payers
What a silly and depressing post.
However, it also reflects a wider reality, namely that many poor kids do not get a holiday at all so why should so much angst and grief be spilled over a fairly privileged minority who are using it to complain about Brexit.
We're talking, in part, about school trips. Which have collapsed.
One reason for that is the sudden need for passports. Which arises because ...
In January 1956, nearly a year before the Suez crisis, Rab Butler let it be known that in his view Anthony Eden was “the best prime minister we have”. Butler, helpfully, declared he was very happy to “support the prime minister in all his difficulties”. Votes of confidence rarely come sharper than that.
Humza Yousaf has been first minister of Scotland for less than a fortnight but as matters stand he already has the smell of political death upon him. He is the SNP’s version of Henry McLeish: a figure no one previously considered first ministerial material who has by accident been lumbered with a job for which he is wholly unprepared and, worse, evidently unsuited.
As it happens, this is not merely my view. It is an opinion shared by many of Yousaf’s parliamentary colleagues. His first days in office could hardly have gone worse. Look on the bright side, I said to one prominent nationalist, things can only get better from here. “I wouldn’t make that bet,” they countered.
Trying to understand the PB Tory logic here. Is it that overseas trips are some kind of decadence that only latte-sipping Islington lawyers would enjoy?
Or that Greek museums, rightly, can no longer count on subsidies from apprentices in the Midlands?
Both appear to be Alice-in-Wonderland delusions.
That middle class kids no longer get their holidays subsidised by tax payers
What a silly and depressing post.
However, it also reflects a wider reality, namely that many poor kids do not get a holiday at all so why should so much angst and grief be spilled over a fairly privileged minority who are using it to complain about Brexit.
In Worcestershire we had the Field Centre in Malvern, paid for by the ratepayers of the county. When I went in 1974 some kids who came with me had never been on holiday before, and they loved it. Subsequently it was closed by a Tory administration. Huh, privileged minorities eh?
The diagnosis of @malcolmg was entirely correct. The Sturgeonites never actually wanted indy. They wanted the gravy train of grievance to go on forever. Scottish voters of all stripes need to punish them severely
BoZo never really wanted Brexit
I know this is a favourite meme of yours but I can assure you he really did want Brexit. The fact that he benefited either way - win or lose - was merely a hugely generous by-product (one which most career politicians would have seized, in the circs)
Why the **** did he then write two letters? Because he didn't really give a **** either way. If he was to become PM by flying the flag for Remain, that is the flag he would have flown. He remains (an unfortunate word to use in the context of Johnson) a Brexiteer as the ERG remain his (failing) route back to Downing Street.
Just a typical piece of Johnson whimsy. Which we only know about, of course, because he let it be known. So I don't think this is a gotcha moment. Though it must be said, anyone who can't also make a case for the other side in Brexit doesn't really deserve a place in the argument. If he really believed Brexit would be terrible for Britain but an acceptable price to pay for power, he'd have taken the opportunity to duck out of power 18 months in having delivered the vaccination programme before the terribleness he expectex materialised. But he didn't. Because he believed in Brexit.
Trying to understand the PB Tory logic here. Is it that overseas trips are some kind of decadence that only latte-sipping Islington lawyers would enjoy?
Or that Greek museums, rightly, can no longer count on subsidies from apprentices in the Midlands?
Both appear to be Alice-in-Wonderland delusions.
That middle class kids no longer get their holidays subsidised by tax payers
What a silly and depressing post.
However, it also reflects a wider reality, namely that many poor kids do not get a holiday at all so why should so much angst and grief be spilled over a fairly privileged minority who are using it to complain about Brexit.
In Worcestershire we had the Field Centre in Malvern, paid for by the ratepayers of the county. When I went in 1974 some kids who came with me had never been on holiday before, and they loved it. Subsequently it was closed by a Tory administration. Huh, privileged minorities eh?
Quite. Their own fault for being poor. Or so we are assured.
Trying to understand the PB Tory logic here. Is it that overseas trips are some kind of decadence that only latte-sipping Islington lawyers would enjoy?
Or that Greek museums, rightly, can no longer count on subsidies from apprentices in the Midlands?
Both appear to be Alice-in-Wonderland delusions.
That middle class kids no longer get their holidays subsidised by tax payers
What a silly and depressing post.
However, it also reflects a wider reality, namely that many poor kids do not get a holiday at all so why should so much angst and grief be spilled over a fairly privileged minority who are using it to complain about Brexit.
We're talking, in part, about school trips. Which have collapsed.
One reason for that is the sudden need for passports. Which arises because ...
Surely the need for passports to go abroad isn't a new thing?
The diagnosis of @malcolmg was entirely correct. The Sturgeonites never actually wanted indy. They wanted the gravy train of grievance to go on forever. Scottish voters of all stripes need to punish them severely
BoZo never really wanted Brexit
I know this is a favourite meme of yours but I can assure you he really did want Brexit. The fact that he benefited either way - win or lose - was merely a hugely generous by-product (one which most career politicians would have seized, in the circs)
Why the **** did he then write two letters? Because he didn't really give a **** either way. If he was to become PM by flying the flag for Remain, that is the flag he would have flown. He remains (an unfortunate word to use in the context of Johnson) a Brexiteer as the ERG remain his (failing) route back to Downing Street.
Just a typical piece of Johnson whimsy. Which we only know about, of course, because he let it be known. So I don't think this is a gotcha moment. Though it must be said, anyone who can't also make a case for the other side in Brexit doesn't really deserve a place in the argument. If he really believed Brexit would be terrible for Britain but an acceptable price to pay for power, he'd have taken the opportunity to duck out of power 18 months in having delivered the vaccination programme before the terribleness he expectex materialised. But he didn't. Because he believed in Brexit.
Can I interest you in a £64m whimsical invisible garden bridge?
No-one wants an election in November, Rishi, you plank. You'll get a right spanking.
This falls under 'accepted wisdom on the basis of very shaky empirical evidence'. We may prefer the weather in May, but it's hardly the case that we refuse to leave the house in the darker months. This is Britain, not the Yukon.
Agreed - we got by fine with a December election, and the circumstances were such the governing party faced no consequence. Would the lack of Brexit reasoning for a November election really impact things that much? I'd be very skeptical, and doubt it would affect turnout, differential or otherwise, one way or another.
Trying to understand the PB Tory logic here. Is it that overseas trips are some kind of decadence that only latte-sipping Islington lawyers would enjoy?
Or that Greek museums, rightly, can no longer count on subsidies from apprentices in the Midlands?
Both appear to be Alice-in-Wonderland delusions.
That middle class kids no longer get their holidays subsidised by tax payers
What a silly and depressing post.
However, it also reflects a wider reality, namely that many poor kids do not get a holiday at all so why should so much angst and grief be spilled over a fairly privileged minority who are using it to complain about Brexit.
We're talking, in part, about school trips. Which have collapsed.
One reason for that is the sudden need for passports. Which arises because ...
Surely the need for passports to go abroad isn't a new thing?
The diagnosis of @malcolmg was entirely correct. The Sturgeonites never actually wanted indy. They wanted the gravy train of grievance to go on forever. Scottish voters of all stripes need to punish them severely
BoZo never really wanted Brexit
I know this is a favourite meme of yours but I can assure you he really did want Brexit. The fact that he benefited either way - win or lose - was merely a hugely generous by-product (one which most career politicians would have seized, in the circs)
It will never be provable one way or another (not least since his word cannot be trusted). Given he would have benefit one way or another it is hard to dismiss.
Trying to understand the PB Tory logic here. Is it that overseas trips are some kind of decadence that only latte-sipping Islington lawyers would enjoy?
Or that Greek museums, rightly, can no longer count on subsidies from apprentices in the Midlands?
Both appear to be Alice-in-Wonderland delusions.
That middle class kids no longer get their holidays subsidised by tax payers
What a silly and depressing post.
However, it also reflects a wider reality, namely that many poor kids do not get a holiday at all so why should so much angst and grief be spilled over a fairly privileged minority who are using it to complain about Brexit.
We're talking, in part, about school trips. Which have collapsed.
One reason for that is the sudden need for passports. Which arises because ...
Surely the need for passports to go abroad isn't a new thing?
Aparrently so. Previously, EU identity cards were accepted for entry into the UK, now they aren't, because they are insecure and abused;
In January 1956, nearly a year before the Suez crisis, Rab Butler let it be known that in his view Anthony Eden was “the best prime minister we have”. Butler, helpfully, declared he was very happy to “support the prime minister in all his difficulties”. Votes of confidence rarely come sharper than that.
Humza Yousaf has been first minister of Scotland for less than a fortnight but as matters stand he already has the smell of political death upon him. He is the SNP’s version of Henry McLeish: a figure no one previously considered first ministerial material who has by accident been lumbered with a job for which he is wholly unprepared and, worse, evidently unsuited.
As it happens, this is not merely my view. It is an opinion shared by many of Yousaf’s parliamentary colleagues. His first days in office could hardly have gone worse. Look on the bright side, I said to one prominent nationalist, things can only get better from here. “I wouldn’t make that bet,” they countered.
In January 1956, nearly a year before the Suez crisis, Rab Butler let it be known that in his view Anthony Eden was “the best prime minister we have”. Butler, helpfully, declared he was very happy to “support the prime minister in all his difficulties”. Votes of confidence rarely come sharper than that.
Humza Yousaf has been first minister of Scotland for less than a fortnight but as matters stand he already has the smell of political death upon him. He is the SNP’s version of Henry McLeish: a figure no one previously considered first ministerial material who has by accident been lumbered with a job for which he is wholly unprepared and, worse, evidently unsuited.
As it happens, this is not merely my view. It is an opinion shared by many of Yousaf’s parliamentary colleagues. His first days in office could hardly have gone worse. Look on the bright side, I said to one prominent nationalist, things can only get better from here. “I wouldn’t make that bet,” they countered.
Must be very tough to become a party leader thesedays. If you crush all opposition so you are acclaimed without a contest the members whinge and any slip up is blamed on your cutting off all the talent that wasn't in your faction. If you win a contest but it is close then people have a lined up opponent if you slip up. If you offer that person a job you're weak, if you don't your arrogant. And if you don't immediately see an improvement (even if you were in a good position) then they don't even wait weeks before trying to take you down now.
Must be very tough to become a party leader thesedays.
It is probably hard for a competent and charismatic individual.
For a serial disaster who only got the job as the least dangerous continuity candidate it's harder, especially when the regime you tied your self to sinks like a rock.
Trying to understand the PB Tory logic here. Is it that overseas trips are some kind of decadence that only latte-sipping Islington lawyers would enjoy?
Or that Greek museums, rightly, can no longer count on subsidies from apprentices in the Midlands?
Both appear to be Alice-in-Wonderland delusions.
That middle class kids no longer get their holidays subsidised by tax payers
People will have to forget just how bad they thought the Conservatives to be (and still think them to be), for the Conservatives to overturn the Labour lead.
Is that likely?
Lots of voters have done very well indeed out of the last thirteen years.
Of the remainder, it only takes a sufficient number to dislike or distrust the Tories a smidgen less than Labour to make up the numbers.
Once again I emphasise that, given the Conservatives have been in power for a long time, how many people have been economically immiserated in recent years, and that a decent chunk of the population has repented of Brexit, I'm not expecting them actually to win - but I don't think the scenario is wholly implausible either.
Most people's haven't done particularly well in past 13 years relative either to previous periods or countries we might compare ourselves with. There are specific things the Conservative government has done to make them relatively poorer: austerity, Brexit and poor handling of COVID economics.
Absolutely true, but the Conservatives have a large client vote of better-off older people and the heirs to their estates, who have either been substantially enriched already, or are looking forward to a huge, life-changing, tax-free inheritance windfall at some point in the not-too-distant future. The cumulative effects of spiralling house prices and retirees benefiting from older-style workplace pensions and the triple lock at the same time have created a lot of winners - and in demographics that are more likely to turn out to vote in the first place.
That's my point: the Tories only need to top up the client vote with a minority of the losers, if they can be persuaded that Labour would make no difference or cause things to get worse, and they're right back in the game.
Stoking a house price boom was a winning strategy for Labour in 2001 and 2005 (and probably mitigated defeat in 2010) but it boosted the Tories subsequently.
People will have to forget just how bad they thought the Conservatives to be (and still think them to be), for the Conservatives to overturn the Labour lead.
Is that likely?
Lots of voters have done very well indeed out of the last thirteen years.
Of the remainder, it only takes a sufficient number to dislike or distrust the Tories a smidgen less than Labour to make up the numbers.
Once again I emphasise that, given the Conservatives have been in power for a long time, how many people have been economically immiserated in recent years, and that a decent chunk of the population has repented of Brexit, I'm not expecting them actually to win - but I don't think the scenario is wholly implausible either.
Most people's haven't done particularly well in past 13 years relative either to previous periods or countries we might compare ourselves with. There are specific things the Conservative government has done to make them relatively poorer: austerity, Brexit and poor handling of COVID economics.
Absolutely true, but the Conservatives have a large client vote of better-off older people and the heirs to their estates, who have either been substantially enriched already, or are looking forward to a huge, life-changing, tax-free inheritance windfall at some point in the not-too-distant future. The cumulative effects of spiralling house prices and retirees benefiting from older-style workplace pensions and the triple lock at the same time have created a lot of winners - and in demographics that are more likely to turn out to vote in the first place.
That's my point: the Tories only need to top up the client vote with a minority of the losers, if they can be persuaded that Labour would make no difference or cause things to get worse, and they're right back in the game.
Trying to understand the PB Tory logic here. Is it that overseas trips are some kind of decadence that only latte-sipping Islington lawyers would enjoy?
Or that Greek museums, rightly, can no longer count on subsidies from apprentices in the Midlands?
Both appear to be Alice-in-Wonderland delusions.
Some EU countries seem to have decided to make life difficult for UK tourists
After a time adapting, the UK tourists will take the paths of least resistance
Those countries in the EU offering less resistant paths will get more UK tourists
The countries making things difficult may be glad to see the back of us, or they may make things less difficult for us
It's a pain now, but that's what we voted for
FWIW, and bearing in mind the commentary about Crete below, apparently the Greek tourism industry is rubbing its hands in glee at the number of British visitors descending upon it this year. I'm quite sure I read somewhere that we've replaced the Germans as their biggest customers.
Of course, most of those visitors won't be going primarily for the archaeological sites, and many of those who are will be affluent enough not to care too much about entry fees.
Most would be sampling the delights of Malia resort.
Diagnosis: indy isn't happening for a generation. The SNP have fucked it up. The long hard road to recovery begins with a re-run of the leadership campaign, and the removal of Yousless, who is helplessly tainted and was, quite possibly, installed via a fraudulent process
Hard to argue with much of that
Rather liked this line: "He (Yousaf) dutifully showed his gratitude by unveiling a ministry that, in political terms, resembles a painting by Hieronymus Bosch."
However his solution, a re-run with Forbes and Regan duly elected, would only result in the ship splitting up altogether as the "progressives" headed for the liferafts. You have to remember that a huge segment of the SNP is extremely left-wing and would be aghast at a Forbes supremacy.
To get what they ultimately want a split may actually be necessary. Are the SNP ever going to build a solid and sustained majority amongst public opinion for secession if they spend all their time trying to appeal to left-leaning voters and denouncing the political right as evil?
The Wicked Tories rhetoric clearly plays very well in Greater Glasgow, but quite a lot of rural Scots still seem to like them. The current Scottish Government presides over a deeply divided country, and we can well guess at how resentful large parts of it could get if they somehow manage finally to secure that second referendum, win it narrowly and secession turns out to be really difficult. Brexit on a 52:48 vote has not been a particularly happy experience, after all, and splitting up the UK is going to be much more complex than that.
There were reports after the 2014 failure that SNP figures thought they needed to build that solid and and sustained majority for independence before having a second vote - 60% was a figure that did the rounds a lot. That seems reasonable: get a big enough lead for long enough and you can start to make the outcome seem like a fait accompli. What they seem to have failed to do since, however, is make any progress in working out how to get there. There seems to be no strategy at all - all they've come up with in the last nine years was a bit of caterwauling about Scotland being dragged out of the EU against its will, but it seems that Scotland didn't care enough about the EU to change its mind about independence after all. So, what now?
Perhaps its time for the SNP to consider whether the main obstacle to independence might just be the SNP?
There feels an element to them - from the outside - that likes the power and that the current status quo suits them very well: they keep onto the cushy jobs and can always blame Westminster for any problems.
Independence would have been a disaster for the SNP. As they have now, amazingly, admitted. "We have no idea how to achieve it and if we ever get it we have no idea how we could make it work". Says the new party president
The diagnosis of @malcolmg was entirely correct. The Sturgeonites never actually wanted indy. They wanted the gravy train of grievance to go on forever. Scottish voters of all stripes need to punish them severely
True. But what next? Kate Forbes, the obvious successor who is a lucky general - so lucky to just lose this election - faces a problem.
She is honest and really really wants independence. Apart from this one ludicrous flaw she is decent, good and talented.
She is going to be the leader. Independence isn't going to happen. And if it did it would be destructive chaos. But unlike all the others she isn't just a politician on the make.
This is slightly sad.
Kate and Kemi would make a fine new Tory team to turn us into Finland or Norway or somewhere.
The diagnosis of @malcolmg was entirely correct. The Sturgeonites never actually wanted indy. They wanted the gravy train of grievance to go on forever. Scottish voters of all stripes need to punish them severely
BoZo never really wanted Brexit
PB quiz question: who warned against voting for Ed Miliband before the 2015 election because "If you want to quit the EU, putting Ed in No 10 is not rational. It is monumental self-harm."
People will have to forget just how bad they thought the Conservatives to be (and still think them to be), for the Conservatives to overturn the Labour lead.
Is that likely?
Lots of voters have done very well indeed out of the last thirteen years.
Of the remainder, it only takes a sufficient number to dislike or distrust the Tories a smidgen less than Labour to make up the numbers.
Once again I emphasise that, given the Conservatives have been in power for a long time, how many people have been economically immiserated in recent years, and that a decent chunk of the population has repented of Brexit, I'm not expecting them actually to win - but I don't think the scenario is wholly implausible either.
Most people's haven't done particularly well in past 13 years relative either to previous periods or countries we might compare ourselves with. There are specific things the Conservative government has done to make them relatively poorer: austerity, Brexit and poor handling of COVID economics.
Absolutely true, but the Conservatives have a large client vote of better-off older people and the heirs to their estates, who have either been substantially enriched already, or are looking forward to a huge, life-changing, tax-free inheritance windfall at some point in the not-too-distant future. The cumulative effects of spiralling house prices and retirees benefiting from older-style workplace pensions and the triple lock at the same time have created a lot of winners - and in demographics that are more likely to turn out to vote in the first place.
That's my point: the Tories only need to top up the client vote with a minority of the losers, if they can be persuaded that Labour would make no difference or cause things to get worse, and they're right back in the game.
You have a very cynical view of politics.
So do the Conservative Party. And it might well deliver to them another five years in power.
I suspect this may be due to falling gas prices - whether the public realise it or not. When it comes to the economy and public finances, things aren't as bad as people were expecting.
The diagnosis of @malcolmg was entirely correct. The Sturgeonites never actually wanted indy. They wanted the gravy train of grievance to go on forever. Scottish voters of all stripes need to punish them severely
BoZo never really wanted Brexit
PB quiz question: who warned against voting for Ed Miliband before the 2015 election because "If you want to quit the EU, putting Ed in No 10 is not rational. It is monumental self-harm."
"If you want to quit the EU, putting Ed in No 10 is not rational. It is monumental self-harm."
"If you want to quit the EU, you are not rational. It is monumental self-harm."
Do you regret telling Brexiteers not to vote UKIP because it might let Ed Miliband in?
The people I have no sympathy with are all those business leaders who were horrified about a possible Prime minister Ed Miliband and then got very animated about us leaving the EU - having encouraged a vote for referendum promising David Cameron in 2015. What were they thinking?
The diagnosis of @malcolmg was entirely correct. The Sturgeonites never actually wanted indy. They wanted the gravy train of grievance to go on forever. Scottish voters of all stripes need to punish them severely
BoZo never really wanted Brexit
PB quiz question: who warned against voting for Ed Miliband before the 2015 election because "If you want to quit the EU, putting Ed in No 10 is not rational. It is monumental self-harm."
Diagnosis: indy isn't happening for a generation. The SNP have fucked it up. The long hard road to recovery begins with a re-run of the leadership campaign, and the removal of Yousless, who is helplessly tainted and was, quite possibly, installed via a fraudulent process
Hard to argue with much of that
Rather liked this line: "He (Yousaf) dutifully showed his gratitude by unveiling a ministry that, in political terms, resembles a painting by Hieronymus Bosch."
However his solution, a re-run with Forbes and Regan duly elected, would only result in the ship splitting up altogether as the "progressives" headed for the liferafts. You have to remember that a huge segment of the SNP is extremely left-wing and would be aghast at a Forbes supremacy.
To get what they ultimately want a split may actually be necessary. Are the SNP ever going to build a solid and sustained majority amongst public opinion for secession if they spend all their time trying to appeal to left-leaning voters and denouncing the political right as evil?
The Wicked Tories rhetoric clearly plays very well in Greater Glasgow, but quite a lot of rural Scots still seem to like them. The current Scottish Government presides over a deeply divided country, and we can well guess at how resentful large parts of it could get if they somehow manage finally to secure that second referendum, win it narrowly and secession turns out to be really difficult. Brexit on a 52:48 vote has not been a particularly happy experience, after all, and splitting up the UK is going to be much more complex than that.
There were reports after the 2014 failure that SNP figures thought they needed to build that solid and and sustained majority for independence before having a second vote - 60% was a figure that did the rounds a lot. That seems reasonable: get a big enough lead for long enough and you can start to make the outcome seem like a fait accompli. What they seem to have failed to do since, however, is make any progress in working out how to get there. There seems to be no strategy at all - all they've come up with in the last nine years was a bit of caterwauling about Scotland being dragged out of the EU against its will, but it seems that Scotland didn't care enough about the EU to change its mind about independence after all. So, what now?
Perhaps its time for the SNP to consider whether the main obstacle to independence might just be the SNP?
There feels an element to them - from the outside - that likes the power and that the current status quo suits them very well: they keep onto the cushy jobs and can always blame Westminster for any problems.
Independence would have been a disaster for the SNP. As they have now, amazingly, admitted. "We have no idea how to achieve it and if we ever get it we have no idea how we could make it work". Says the new party president
The diagnosis of @malcolmg was entirely correct. The Sturgeonites never actually wanted indy. They wanted the gravy train of grievance to go on forever. Scottish voters of all stripes need to punish them severely
True. But what next? Kate Forbes, the obvious successor who is a lucky general - so lucky to just lose this election - faces a problem.
She is honest and really really wants independence. Apart from this one ludicrous flaw she is decent, good and talented.
She is going to be the leader. Independence isn't going to happen. And if it did it would be destructive chaos. But unlike all the others she isn't just a politician on the make.
This is slightly sad.
Kate and Kemi would make a fine new Tory team to turn us into Finland or Norway or somewhere.
We now have Kate Forbes and Keith Brown the current Deputy Leader of the SNP sitting on the backbenches, Humza Yousaf will come to regret that decision when he formed his first Cabinet. He is also trying to copy Nicola Sturgeon's cult of personality leadership style when he should be trying to create more collective Cabinet accountability, at the moment we now have key Ministers hiding from media interviews while he seems to be trying to make himself the only public face of his Government..
People will have to forget just how bad they thought the Conservatives to be (and still think them to be), for the Conservatives to overturn the Labour lead.
Is that likely?
Lots of voters have done very well indeed out of the last thirteen years.
Of the remainder, it only takes a sufficient number to dislike or distrust the Tories a smidgen less than Labour to make up the numbers.
Once again I emphasise that, given the Conservatives have been in power for a long time, how many people have been economically immiserated in recent years, and that a decent chunk of the population has repented of Brexit, I'm not expecting them actually to win - but I don't think the scenario is wholly implausible either.
Most people's haven't done particularly well in past 13 years relative either to previous periods or countries we might compare ourselves with. There are specific things the Conservative government has done to make them relatively poorer: austerity, Brexit and poor handling of COVID economics.
Absolutely true, but the Conservatives have a large client vote of better-off older people and the heirs to their estates, who have either been substantially enriched already, or are looking forward to a huge, life-changing, tax-free inheritance windfall at some point in the not-too-distant future. The cumulative effects of spiralling house prices and retirees benefiting from older-style workplace pensions and the triple lock at the same time have created a lot of winners - and in demographics that are more likely to turn out to vote in the first place.
That's my point: the Tories only need to top up the client vote with a minority of the losers, if they can be persuaded that Labour would make no difference or cause things to get worse, and they're right back in the game.
The diagnosis of @malcolmg was entirely correct. The Sturgeonites never actually wanted indy. They wanted the gravy train of grievance to go on forever. Scottish voters of all stripes need to punish them severely
BoZo never really wanted Brexit
PB quiz question: who warned against voting for Ed Miliband before the 2015 election because "If you want to quit the EU, putting Ed in No 10 is not rational. It is monumental self-harm."
That is completely consistent with the current posts by Scott XP. If you thought you found an inconsistency you didn't understand Scott P's post.
The irony is that Scott was incredibly zealous about helping Cameron win a majority.
I recall that he was. I suspect many Conservatives were on board with a Referendum to put the EU issue to bed once and for all, Cameron for one. He didn't believe he could lose an EU Referendum, if he did he wouldn't have called one, or at the very least the question would have been opaque enough to win.
Trying to understand the PB Tory logic here. Is it that overseas trips are some kind of decadence that only latte-sipping Islington lawyers would enjoy?
Or that Greek museums, rightly, can no longer count on subsidies from apprentices in the Midlands?
Both appear to be Alice-in-Wonderland delusions.
That middle class kids no longer get their holidays subsidised by tax payers
What a silly and depressing post.
However, it also reflects a wider reality, namely that many poor kids do not get a holiday at all so why should so much angst and grief be spilled over a fairly privileged minority who are using it to complain about Brexit.
In Worcestershire we had the Field Centre in Malvern, paid for by the ratepayers of the county. When I went in 1974 some kids who came with me had never been on holiday before, and they loved it. Subsequently it was closed by a Tory administration. Huh, privileged minorities eh?
Not exactly a like for like comparison and not much to do with the argument either...
People will have to forget just how bad they thought the Conservatives to be (and still think them to be), for the Conservatives to overturn the Labour lead.
Is that likely?
Lots of voters have done very well indeed out of the last thirteen years.
Of the remainder, it only takes a sufficient number to dislike or distrust the Tories a smidgen less than Labour to make up the numbers.
Once again I emphasise that, given the Conservatives have been in power for a long time, how many people have been economically immiserated in recent years, and that a decent chunk of the population has repented of Brexit, I'm not expecting them actually to win - but I don't think the scenario is wholly implausible either.
Most people's haven't done particularly well in past 13 years relative either to previous periods or countries we might compare ourselves with. There are specific things the Conservative government has done to make them relatively poorer: austerity, Brexit and poor handling of COVID economics.
Absolutely true, but the Conservatives have a large client vote of better-off older people and the heirs to their estates, who have either been substantially enriched already, or are looking forward to a huge, life-changing, tax-free inheritance windfall at some point in the not-too-distant future. The cumulative effects of spiralling house prices and retirees benefiting from older-style workplace pensions and the triple lock at the same time have created a lot of winners - and in demographics that are more likely to turn out to vote in the first place.
That's my point: the Tories only need to top up the client vote with a minority of the losers, if they can be persuaded that Labour would make no difference or cause things to get worse, and they're right back in the game.
The Tories didn’t have any discernible ideological convictions, besides the laffer curve.
It was just: shrink the state, pay off the client vote, cut taxes, pray for growth, pander to Dacre’s social agenda, demonise labour and hope to get re-elected.
The most cynical view of politics, possible. Nothing positive in there at all.
Trying to understand the PB Tory logic here. Is it that overseas trips are some kind of decadence that only latte-sipping Islington lawyers would enjoy?
Or that Greek museums, rightly, can no longer count on subsidies from apprentices in the Midlands?
Both appear to be Alice-in-Wonderland delusions.
That middle class kids no longer get their holidays subsidised by tax payers
What a silly and depressing post.
However, it also reflects a wider reality, namely that many poor kids do not get a holiday at all so why should so much angst and grief be spilled over a fairly privileged minority who are using it to complain about Brexit.
In Worcestershire we had the Field Centre in Malvern, paid for by the ratepayers of the county. When I went in 1974 some kids who came with me had never been on holiday before, and they loved it. Subsequently it was closed by a Tory administration. Huh, privileged minorities eh?
Not exactly a like for like comparison and not much to do with the argument either...
I've addressed your post head on. If you are changing the terms and conditions of debate, I'll retire from the fray.
Diagnosis: indy isn't happening for a generation. The SNP have fucked it up. The long hard road to recovery begins with a re-run of the leadership campaign, and the removal of Yousless, who is helplessly tainted and was, quite possibly, installed via a fraudulent process
Hard to argue with much of that
Rather liked this line: "He (Yousaf) dutifully showed his gratitude by unveiling a ministry that, in political terms, resembles a painting by Hieronymus Bosch."
However his solution, a re-run with Forbes and Regan duly elected, would only result in the ship splitting up altogether as the "progressives" headed for the liferafts. You have to remember that a huge segment of the SNP is extremely left-wing and would be aghast at a Forbes supremacy.
To get what they ultimately want a split may actually be necessary. Are the SNP ever going to build a solid and sustained majority amongst public opinion for secession if they spend all their time trying to appeal to left-leaning voters and denouncing the political right as evil?
The Wicked Tories rhetoric clearly plays very well in Greater Glasgow, but quite a lot of rural Scots still seem to like them. The current Scottish Government presides over a deeply divided country, and we can well guess at how resentful large parts of it could get if they somehow manage finally to secure that second referendum, win it narrowly and secession turns out to be really difficult. Brexit on a 52:48 vote has not been a particularly happy experience, after all, and splitting up the UK is going to be much more complex than that.
There were reports after the 2014 failure that SNP figures thought they needed to build that solid and and sustained majority for independence before having a second vote - 60% was a figure that did the rounds a lot. That seems reasonable: get a big enough lead for long enough and you can start to make the outcome seem like a fait accompli. What they seem to have failed to do since, however, is make any progress in working out how to get there. There seems to be no strategy at all - all they've come up with in the last nine years was a bit of caterwauling about Scotland being dragged out of the EU against its will, but it seems that Scotland didn't care enough about the EU to change its mind about independence after all. So, what now?
Perhaps its time for the SNP to consider whether the main obstacle to independence might just be the SNP?
There feels an element to them - from the outside - that likes the power and that the current status quo suits them very well: they keep onto the cushy jobs and can always blame Westminster for any problems.
Independence would have been a disaster for the SNP. As they have now, amazingly, admitted. "We have no idea how to achieve it and if we ever get it we have no idea how we could make it work". Says the new party president
The diagnosis of @malcolmg was entirely correct. The Sturgeonites never actually wanted indy. They wanted the gravy train of grievance to go on forever. Scottish voters of all stripes need to punish them severely
True. But what next? Kate Forbes, the obvious successor who is a lucky general - so lucky to just lose this election - faces a problem.
She is honest and really really wants independence. Apart from this one ludicrous flaw she is decent, good and talented.
She is going to be the leader. Independence isn't going to happen. And if it did it would be destructive chaos. But unlike all the others she isn't just a politician on the make.
This is slightly sad.
Kate and Kemi would make a fine new Tory team to turn us into Finland or Norway or somewhere.
We now have Kate Forbes and Keith Brown the current Deputy Leader of the SNP sitting on the backbenches, Humza Yousaf will come to regret that decision when he formed his first Cabinet. He is also trying to copy Nicola Sturgeon's cult of personality leadership style when he should be trying to create more collective Cabinet accountability, at the moment we now have key Ministers hiding from media interviews while he seems to be trying to make himself the only public face of his Government..
And a rule designed to stop Joanna Cherry moving from Westminster to Holyrood also prevents MPs who are better and more competent than her from moving.
Trying to understand the PB Tory logic here. Is it that overseas trips are some kind of decadence that only latte-sipping Islington lawyers would enjoy?
Or that Greek museums, rightly, can no longer count on subsidies from apprentices in the Midlands?
Both appear to be Alice-in-Wonderland delusions.
That middle class kids no longer get their holidays subsidised by tax payers
What a silly and depressing post.
Why? The original poster said that he was quite happy to pay €48 but would have preferred it to be free.
Sure.
But who would pay that €48? The tax payer. And those taxes would be better spent helping people who need it than subsidising access to middle class people to visit museums
(I have no issue with cultural support grants - I’m a fan. But people should also make their own contributions)
Trying to understand the PB Tory logic here. Is it that overseas trips are some kind of decadence that only latte-sipping Islington lawyers would enjoy?
Or that Greek museums, rightly, can no longer count on subsidies from apprentices in the Midlands?
Both appear to be Alice-in-Wonderland delusions.
That middle class kids no longer get their holidays subsidised by tax payers
What a silly and depressing post.
Why? The original poster said that he was quite happy to pay €48 but would have preferred it to be free.
Sure.
But who would pay that €48? The tax payer. And those taxes would be better spent helping people who need it than subsidising access to middle class people to visit museums
(I have no issue with cultural support grants - I’m a fan. But people should also make their own contributions)
As I said earlier, it’s amazing how keen PB Tories are to defend Greek taxpayers from the supposedly middle class British.
Trying to understand the PB Tory logic here. Is it that overseas trips are some kind of decadence that only latte-sipping Islington lawyers would enjoy?
Or that Greek museums, rightly, can no longer count on subsidies from apprentices in the Midlands?
Both appear to be Alice-in-Wonderland delusions.
That middle class kids no longer get their holidays subsidised by tax payers
What a silly and depressing post.
However, it also reflects a wider reality, namely that many poor kids do not get a holiday at all so why should so much angst and grief be spilled over a fairly privileged minority who are using it to complain about Brexit.
In Worcestershire we had the Field Centre in Malvern, paid for by the ratepayers of the county. When I went in 1974 some kids who came with me had never been on holiday before, and they loved it. Subsequently it was closed by a Tory administration. Huh, privileged minorities eh?
Not exactly a like for like comparison and not much to do with the argument either...
I've addressed your post head on. If you are changing the terms and conditions of debate, I'll retire from the fray.
Diagnosis: indy isn't happening for a generation. The SNP have fucked it up. The long hard road to recovery begins with a re-run of the leadership campaign, and the removal of Yousless, who is helplessly tainted and was, quite possibly, installed via a fraudulent process
Hard to argue with much of that
Rather liked this line: "He (Yousaf) dutifully showed his gratitude by unveiling a ministry that, in political terms, resembles a painting by Hieronymus Bosch."
However his solution, a re-run with Forbes and Regan duly elected, would only result in the ship splitting up altogether as the "progressives" headed for the liferafts. You have to remember that a huge segment of the SNP is extremely left-wing and would be aghast at a Forbes supremacy.
To get what they ultimately want a split may actually be necessary. Are the SNP ever going to build a solid and sustained majority amongst public opinion for secession if they spend all their time trying to appeal to left-leaning voters and denouncing the political right as evil?
The Wicked Tories rhetoric clearly plays very well in Greater Glasgow, but quite a lot of rural Scots still seem to like them. The current Scottish Government presides over a deeply divided country, and we can well guess at how resentful large parts of it could get if they somehow manage finally to secure that second referendum, win it narrowly and secession turns out to be really difficult. Brexit on a 52:48 vote has not been a particularly happy experience, after all, and splitting up the UK is going to be much more complex than that.
There were reports after the 2014 failure that SNP figures thought they needed to build that solid and and sustained majority for independence before having a second vote - 60% was a figure that did the rounds a lot. That seems reasonable: get a big enough lead for long enough and you can start to make the outcome seem like a fait accompli. What they seem to have failed to do since, however, is make any progress in working out how to get there. There seems to be no strategy at all - all they've come up with in the last nine years was a bit of caterwauling about Scotland being dragged out of the EU against its will, but it seems that Scotland didn't care enough about the EU to change its mind about independence after all. So, what now?
Perhaps its time for the SNP to consider whether the main obstacle to independence might just be the SNP?
There feels an element to them - from the outside - that likes the power and that the current status quo suits them very well: they keep onto the cushy jobs and can always blame Westminster for any problems.
Independence would have been a disaster for the SNP. As they have now, amazingly, admitted. "We have no idea how to achieve it and if we ever get it we have no idea how we could make it work". Says the new party president
The diagnosis of @malcolmg was entirely correct. The Sturgeonites never actually wanted indy. They wanted the gravy train of grievance to go on forever. Scottish voters of all stripes need to punish them severely
True. But what next? Kate Forbes, the obvious successor who is a lucky general - so lucky to just lose this election - faces a problem.
She is honest and really really wants independence. Apart from this one ludicrous flaw she is decent, good and talented.
She is going to be the leader. Independence isn't going to happen. And if it did it would be destructive chaos. But unlike all the others she isn't just a politician on the make.
This is slightly sad.
Kate and Kemi would make a fine new Tory team to turn us into Finland or Norway or somewhere.
To be fair, her other ludicrous flaws include being to the right of the Tories on polarising social matters, in a political party whose hegemony relies on convincing the under-50s that they are better than Labour. And not even polarising but winnable issues like trans, polarising and unwinnable issues like rejecting gay marriage.
Trying to understand the PB Tory logic here. Is it that overseas trips are some kind of decadence that only latte-sipping Islington lawyers would enjoy?
Or that Greek museums, rightly, can no longer count on subsidies from apprentices in the Midlands?
Both appear to be Alice-in-Wonderland delusions.
That middle class kids no longer get their holidays subsidised by tax payers
What a silly and depressing post.
However, it also reflects a wider reality, namely that many poor kids do not get a holiday at all so why should so much angst and grief be spilled over a fairly privileged minority who are using it to complain about Brexit.
We're talking, in part, about school trips. Which have collapsed.
One reason for that is the sudden need for passports. Which arises because ...
I’m not sure why you think needing passports is a new thing for school trips: I’ve been on dozens and losing a passport was a major pain, as I know from personal experience.
Trying to understand the PB Tory logic here. Is it that overseas trips are some kind of decadence that only latte-sipping Islington lawyers would enjoy?
Or that Greek museums, rightly, can no longer count on subsidies from apprentices in the Midlands?
Both appear to be Alice-in-Wonderland delusions.
That middle class kids no longer get their holidays subsidised by tax payers
What a silly and depressing post.
However, it also reflects a wider reality, namely that many poor kids do not get a holiday at all so why should so much angst and grief be spilled over a fairly privileged minority who are using it to complain about Brexit.
We're talking, in part, about school trips. Which have collapsed.
One reason for that is the sudden need for passports. Which arises because ...
I’m not sure why you think needing passports is a new thing for school trips: I’ve been on dozens and losing a passport was a major pain, as I know from personal experience.
Edited to change tense.
He is talking about european children who often dont have passport because they dont travel outside europe.
Trying to understand the PB Tory logic here. Is it that overseas trips are some kind of decadence that only latte-sipping Islington lawyers would enjoy?
Or that Greek museums, rightly, can no longer count on subsidies from apprentices in the Midlands?
Both appear to be Alice-in-Wonderland delusions.
That middle class kids no longer get their holidays subsidised by tax payers
What a silly and depressing post.
Why? The original poster said that he was quite happy to pay €48 but would have preferred it to be free.
Sure.
But who would pay that €48? The tax payer. And those taxes would be better spent helping people who need it than subsidising access to middle class people to visit museums
(I have no issue with cultural support grants - I’m a fan. But people should also make their own contributions)
As I said earlier, it’s amazing how keen PB Tories are to defend Greek taxpayers from the supposedly middle class British.
It’s utter tripe of course.
Also highly revealing that PB Tories think only middle class people are interested in museums.
Trying to understand the PB Tory logic here. Is it that overseas trips are some kind of decadence that only latte-sipping Islington lawyers would enjoy?
Or that Greek museums, rightly, can no longer count on subsidies from apprentices in the Midlands?
Both appear to be Alice-in-Wonderland delusions.
That middle class kids no longer get their holidays subsidised by tax payers
What a silly and depressing post.
However, it also reflects a wider reality, namely that many poor kids do not get a holiday at all so why should so much angst and grief be spilled over a fairly privileged minority who are using it to complain about Brexit.
We're talking, in part, about school trips. Which have collapsed.
One reason for that is the sudden need for passports. Which arises because ...
I’m not sure why you think needing passports is a new thing for school trips: I’ve been on dozens and losing a passport was a major pain, as I know from personal experience.
Edited to change tense.
He is talking about european children who often dont have passport because they dont travel outside europe.
Indeed. They're going to Malta or Ireland instead. Like I've said, cutting British children off from other young Europeans is very much part of the Brexit project.
Comments
I'm sticking with my hunch that they'll announce giveaways in the Budget and then call a May election to capitalise.
If things were going really well, I suspect we would be having a GE this spring (3.5 years isn't stupidly early after all, and it could be sold as seeking a democratic mandate). This autumn would be 4 years, which is the classic formula of Thatcher and Blair. But building an election-winning lead by then? Tricky.
That leaves next spring if the polls have improved sufficiently, next autumn if they haven't and January 2025 if the Conservatives hate everyone and don't care who knows any more.
This is the article but behind the paywall
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2023/04/10/rishi-sunak-general-election-autumn-2024/
(As a staunch atheist, I realise what utter bollocks that means, especially when its said by law makers. They basically mean, "Yeah, its not great, but we're NOT changing the law because we view these sort of deaths as 'acceptable casualties'.)
@BritainElects
Westminster voting intention:
LAB: 44% (-1)
CON: 30% (+2)
LDEM: 10% (-2)
REF: 6% (+1)
GRN: 5% (+1)
via @RedfieldWilton
, 09 Apr"
https://twitter.com/BritainElects/status/1645507411019530254
On the second para - just do 3-D laser scanning, fill in the chips, and run it through a digital chiselling machine.
The diagnosis of @malcolmg was entirely correct. The Sturgeonites never actually wanted indy. They wanted the gravy train of grievance to go on forever. Scottish voters of all stripes need to punish them severely
https://www.metoffice.gov.uk/research/climate/maps-and-data/uk-actual-and-anomaly-maps
It just felt cold because we had tge heating off as much as possible.
Personally, I've spent the day at Blackpool pleasure beach. A day of three thirds: first third breezy and springlike, second third WET, third third breezy and springlike. I'll take that. If you don't embrace the rain, you'll never leave the house, particularly in the North West.
Blackpool Pleasure Beach is, by the way, possibly my favourite theme park in the world. Lots of reasons, but they include:
-Some genuinely world class rides.
-The queues! You rarely seem to queue more than 20 minutes for anything.
-The heritage aspect. Some rides predate WW2. I love wooden rollercoasters - so atmospheric. And I love doing things for fun that my grandfathers' generation would have done.
-They have cleaned it up considerably since my youth, and you are unlikely nowadays to get pickpocketed or into a fight - but there is still an enjoyable louche disreputability about the place. An enjoyably large proportion of ride operators are missing teeth, for example.
-A lot of rides on a very small site. Rollercoasters weave around each other. This also means that you are never more than a couple of minutes from the next thing you want to do.
-Blackpool (the town). I like it more each time I go. You are right by the sea, and can see the Lake District from the top of the Big One.
-You never really feel seriously that you are being gouged.
-It's a theme park without a theme. One ride bears the name it has borne for 100 years, another is named after a sponsor. Things are scattered about organically with little rhyme or reason. As an example, there is a diorama of Noah's Ark as you enter, inexplicably livened up by a policeman, some dinosaurs and the odd ice floe. It's wonderfully eccentric.
That middle class kids no longer get their holidays subsidised by tax payers
Given how much I abhor him, and despise his party, and loathe his cause, that means all of these things must be suffering quite badly
I'm sure I read some theory about good weather favouring the incumbent, as people feel more positive about the present, but then May 1997 was sunny and the Tories got thrashed.
There may be a relationship between time of year and success for one side or other. But it is quite hard to make on the basis of the empirical evidence.
One reason for that is the sudden need for passports. Which arises because ...
Humza Yousaf has been first minister of Scotland for less than a fortnight but as matters stand he already has the smell of political death upon him. He is the SNP’s version of Henry McLeish: a figure no one previously considered first ministerial material who has by accident been lumbered with a job for which he is wholly unprepared and, worse, evidently unsuited.
As it happens, this is not merely my view. It is an opinion shared by many of Yousaf’s parliamentary colleagues. His first days in office could hardly have gone worse. Look on the bright side, I said to one prominent nationalist, things can only get better from here. “I wouldn’t make that bet,” they countered.
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/smell-of-political-death-already-upon-yousaf-cmfwjwjrq
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11957405/Pub-landlady-defies-police-orders-puts-five-golliwogs-display.html
Though it must be said, anyone who can't also make a case for the other side in Brexit doesn't really deserve a place in the argument.
If he really believed Brexit would be terrible for Britain but an acceptable price to pay for power, he'd have taken the opportunity to duck out of power 18 months in having delivered the vaccination programme before the terribleness he expectex materialised. But he didn't. Because he believed in Brexit.
Ben Riley-Smith@benrileysmith·8m
Exclusive
Downing Street has provisionally pencilled in October / November 2024 for the next general election.
Going long boosts chances of the economy improving and small boat numbers dropping.
https://twitter.com/benrileysmith/status/1645537737359982593
The Telegraph - Rishi Sunak plans autumn 2024 general election in hope of shock victory
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2023/04/10/rishi-sunak-general-election-autumn-2024/
He knew Brexit would be a shitshow, he just won't say it.
History will.
And BoZo didn't quit cos he thinks he's Churchill, not Eden.
https://www.gov.uk/government/news/insecure-id-cards-phased-out-as-travel-document-to-strengthen-uk-borders
We didn't notice, because we have neither an ID card system, or the old get them at the Post Office Visitors Passports (remember them?)
But we do have some degree of control of our borders.
For a serial disaster who only got the job as the least dangerous continuity candidate it's harder, especially when the regime you tied your self to sinks like a rock.
She is honest and really really wants independence. Apart from this one ludicrous flaw she is decent, good and talented.
She is going to be the leader. Independence isn't going to happen. And if it did it would be destructive chaos. But unlike all the others she isn't just a politician on the make.
This is slightly sad.
Kate and Kemi would make a fine new Tory team to turn us into Finland or Norway or somewhere.
https://vf.politicalbetting.com/discussion/comment/483177#Comment_483177
@pigeon ‘s post is basically correct.
It was even more cynical, pre 2019, though.
The Tories didn’t have any discernible ideological convictions, besides the laffer curve.
The most cynical view of politics, possible. Nothing positive in there at all.
Sure.
But who would pay that €48? The tax payer. And those taxes would be better spent helping people who need it than subsidising access to middle class people to visit museums
(I have no issue with cultural support grants - I’m a fan. But people should also make their own contributions)
It’s utter tripe of course.
https://twitter.com/evanhill/status/1645564870534782977?s=46&t=L9g_woCIqbo1MTuBFCK0xg
Egypt is supposedly a key U.S. ally.
Edited to change tense.