I can't personally agree with the idea that the need for structure and order is the root of all evil, even though I would see myself broadly as a progressive rather than a conservative. To me this is another iteration of out current post-modern ideas, of there being no underlying order or meaning to things. I don't think that's right, myself.
I prefer a mixture of order and disorder. Freedom from structure helps you understand the value of structure, and too much structure helps you understand the importance of the spontaneous and unpredictable ;;) I think Pre-Hausmann Paris must have been the ultimate dynamic modern metropolis in the way people are discussing tonight, though. Some of that comes through in novelists like Zola.
Heretic! Burn Him!
In a practical sense, he’s right. You’re not going to get rid of planning and planners now, so it’s imperative to educate them in the principles of creating liveable urban spaces.
1/ Six Russian logistics officers have been found guilty of stealing more than 360 tons of aviation kerosene in the Irkutsk region. Each got off with fines equivalent to $627 or less, according to a regional Russian news outlet. https://twitter.com/ChrisO_wiki/status/1651966786345091072
One year before the 1997 election, after 1996 locals:
Con 4,276 Lab 10,929 Lib 5,078
How have the conservatives managed to hold on to so many local seats over 13 years of government? And if Starmer wins the general, how many more will they win from opposition?
2023 might be the year that Labour finally has more councillors than the Conservatives, after 13 years...
Whisper it but Conservatives are actually pretty good at local administration and delivering value for money?
I'd argue that in many cases the quality of the councillors is better than the parliamentarians.
"Learn to love ambiguity The need for structure and order is the root of evil
My three favourite cities in the world — London, Los Angeles, Bangkok — are defined by a lack of definition. There is no master plan, no architectural coherence, no telling from the look and atmosphere of one street what to brace for in the next. Next to me as I write this is a bottle from Burgundy, my favourite wine region not because it is the “best” but because it is so internally varied."
there is a psychic need for structure and order in a meaningless world. Not all of us feel it (more on that later). But those who do can feel it to the nth degree.
This is the real root of evil, isn’t it? Greed, yes, but for clarity, not for cash.
(See Leviathan by Hobbes for another example of this.)
Well yes and no. He's correct that it's an urge, but galactically incorrect that it's exclusively evil: order underpins good as well as bad. He says (inaccurately?) London, Los Angeles, Bangkok are inchoate but the roads will have standardised markings, the lights and the phones to defined standards, the police present and uniformly uniformed. We cannot cope with real chaos and impose order as best we can, sometimes for good, sometimes bad.
He sees a picture conveyed there by a car certified by an engineer to Ministry standards, built to safety standards, in a National Gallery commissioned by a Parliament, designed by an architect, and underpinned by a State. He sees the chaotic tree and ignores the ordered wood.
It is also very easy for wealthy people to enjoy disorder. They can enjoy the highs and have the resources to avoid the lows. Shocks are easily weathered. But for middle income folks, you need order to plan out your life and shocks can send you spinning. For the poor they can be devastating. Without the funds to enjoy wintering in Aspen and summering in Provence, you take pleasure in your roots, in the trusted rhythms of traditional life. The elite are far too sneering at it.
You guys are just going to love living in Lagos or Kinshasa!
A senior female MP was subjected to a social services investigation after an online troll tried to get her children taken from her with a vexatious complaint about her political views.
Stella Creasy was then told by police that they would not impose criminal sanctions on her harasser, who also bombarded her office with emails, because he was “entitled” to the view that her children should be taken into care.
Leicestershire police said that even though he lacked any evidence, the man had a legitimate right to make a social services referral because he disagreed with Creasy’s views on misogyny.
Creasy told The Times that the police’s reaction gave other trolls a “green light” to target the children of politicians and anyone in the public eye simply because they did not like them.
The harasser, who used the alias “Lance Jones” and had no personal connection to Creasy or her two young children, had complained about the MP’s campaigns against misogyny and violence against women and girls [VAWG], and her call to be allowed to take her breastfeeding baby into the voting chamber.
A senior female MP was subjected to a social services investigation after an online troll tried to get her children taken from her with a vexatious complaint about her political views.
Stella Creasy was then told by police that they would not impose criminal sanctions on her harasser, who also bombarded her office with emails, because he was “entitled” to the view that her children should be taken into care.
Leicestershire police said that even though he lacked any evidence, the man had a legitimate right to make a social services referral because he disagreed with Creasy’s views on misogyny.
Creasy told The Times that the police’s reaction gave other trolls a “green light” to target the children of politicians and anyone in the public eye simply because they did not like them.
The harasser, who used the alias “Lance Jones” and had no personal connection to Creasy or her two young children, had complained about the MP’s campaigns against misogyny and violence against women and girls [VAWG], and her call to be allowed to take her breastfeeding baby into the voting chamber.
A senior female MP was subjected to a social services investigation after an online troll tried to get her children taken from her with a vexatious complaint about her political views.
Stella Creasy was then told by police that they would not impose criminal sanctions on her harasser, who also bombarded her office with emails, because he was “entitled” to the view that her children should be taken into care.
Leicestershire police said that even though he lacked any evidence, the man had a legitimate right to make a social services referral because he disagreed with Creasy’s views on misogyny.
Creasy told The Times that the police’s reaction gave other trolls a “green light” to target the children of politicians and anyone in the public eye simply because they did not like them.
The harasser, who used the alias “Lance Jones” and had no personal connection to Creasy or her two young children, had complained about the MP’s campaigns against misogyny and violence against women and girls [VAWG], and her call to be allowed to take her breastfeeding baby into the voting chamber.
A senior female MP was subjected to a social services investigation after an online troll tried to get her children taken from her with a vexatious complaint about her political views.
Stella Creasy was then told by police that they would not impose criminal sanctions on her harasser, who also bombarded her office with emails, because he was “entitled” to the view that her children should be taken into care.
Leicestershire police said that even though he lacked any evidence, the man had a legitimate right to make a social services referral because he disagreed with Creasy’s views on misogyny.
Creasy told The Times that the police’s reaction gave other trolls a “green light” to target the children of politicians and anyone in the public eye simply because they did not like them.
The harasser, who used the alias “Lance Jones” and had no personal connection to Creasy or her two young children, had complained about the MP’s campaigns against misogyny and violence against women and girls [VAWG], and her call to be allowed to take her breastfeeding baby into the voting chamber.
This is what happens when poorly trained policeman interpret laws relating to ' rights '. Presumably there are no real crimes in that part of the world for the Police to investigate...
Private schools will not have to raise their fees to cover Labour’s VAT raid on independent education, the shadow education secretary has insisted, describing claims that the policy would result in widespread school closures as “bogus”.
Bridget Phillipson told The Times that private schools would be “more than able” to cover the cost of paying VAT without raising the cost to parents or being forced to close.
She further pledged that the £1.7 billion raised by imposing the tax would be invested in recruiting and retaining teachers particularly in Stem subjects where state schools had struggled to attract specialist graduates.
The party released figures showing that about half of all computer science lessons at state schools were being taught by staff who had no A-level or degree-level qualification in the subject.
At the same time more than one in four physics lessons were taught by non-specialists while one in ten maths teachers had no appropriate senior qualification.
Private schools will not have to raise their fees to cover Labour’s VAT raid on independent education, the shadow education secretary has insisted, describing claims that the policy would result in widespread school closures as “bogus”.
Bridget Phillipson told The Times that private schools would be “more than able” to cover the cost of paying VAT without raising the cost to parents or being forced to close.
She further pledged that the £1.7 billion raised by imposing the tax would be invested in recruiting and retaining teachers particularly in Stem subjects where state schools had struggled to attract specialist graduates.
The party released figures showing that about half of all computer science lessons at state schools were being taught by staff who had no A-level or degree-level qualification in the subject.
At the same time more than one in four physics lessons were taught by non-specialists while one in ten maths teachers had no appropriate senior qualification.
That frustrating moment when you realise the Opposition are just as clueless as the government about education.
There are many private schools that will not notice. Eton. Harrow. Roedean. Clifton. Cheltenham.
There are others that will certainly have to raise fees and may well go bust.
Almost all in poorer areas. Round here, Denstone may just about survive, but the rest won't.
Now that may be what is intended. And it's a legitimate debate to have although I think they're going about it the wrong way (you want to eliminate private schools? Cut class sizes in the state sector by a big number).
But if you take this blind approach to it then you won't prepare for the influx of pupils to a state sector already creaking at the seams. And that will cause far more problems for education than the existence of private schools did.
They are active right across the Sahel, from Mali to Sudan, partly fighting Islamists and partly profiteering from local governments. Often they are filling the gaps left by the European armies that are also deployed against the Islamists and people trafikers there.
It is a war that largely goes unreported. A friend of mine has a son who has done a few tours there with the Belgian Army. There is a fair amount of Pro-Putin feeling in the region as a result amongst those opposed to the Islamists.
A senior female MP was subjected to a social services investigation after an online troll tried to get her children taken from her with a vexatious complaint about her political views.
Stella Creasy was then told by police that they would not impose criminal sanctions on her harasser, who also bombarded her office with emails, because he was “entitled” to the view that her children should be taken into care.
Leicestershire police said that even though he lacked any evidence, the man had a legitimate right to make a social services referral because he disagreed with Creasy’s views on misogyny.
Creasy told The Times that the police’s reaction gave other trolls a “green light” to target the children of politicians and anyone in the public eye simply because they did not like them.
The harasser, who used the alias “Lance Jones” and had no personal connection to Creasy or her two young children, had complained about the MP’s campaigns against misogyny and violence against women and girls [VAWG], and her call to be allowed to take her breastfeeding baby into the voting chamber.
Private schools will not have to raise their fees to cover Labour’s VAT raid on independent education, the shadow education secretary has insisted, describing claims that the policy would result in widespread school closures as “bogus”.
Bridget Phillipson told The Times that private schools would be “more than able” to cover the cost of paying VAT without raising the cost to parents or being forced to close.
She further pledged that the £1.7 billion raised by imposing the tax would be invested in recruiting and retaining teachers particularly in Stem subjects where state schools had struggled to attract specialist graduates.
The party released figures showing that about half of all computer science lessons at state schools were being taught by staff who had no A-level or degree-level qualification in the subject.
At the same time more than one in four physics lessons were taught by non-specialists while one in ten maths teachers had no appropriate senior qualification.
That frustrating moment when you realise the Opposition are just as clueless as the government about education.
There are many private schools that will not notice. Eton. Harrow. Roedean. Clifton. Cheltenham.
There are others that will certainly have to raise fees and may well go bust.
Almost all in poorer areas. Round here, Denstone may just about survive, but the rest won't.
Now that may be what is intended. And it's a legitimate debate to have although I think they're going about it the wrong way (you want to eliminate private schools? Cut class sizes in the state sector by a big number).
But if you take this blind approach to it then you won't prepare for the influx of pupils to a state sector already creaking at the seams. And that will cause far more problems for education than the existence of private schools did.
Surely they can just absorb the cost as "efficiency savings" like the state schools so successfully do. Oh, wait...
Russian is a criminal culture. This is a campaign of outright ethnic cleansing and genocide. There can be no peace deal except the 1991 borders because otherwise we are abandoning Ukrainians to this. I hope forcibly conscripted Ukrainians shoot their commanding officiers in the back of the head.
Russian is a criminal culture. This is a campaign of outright ethnic cleansing and genocide. There can be no peace deal except the 1991 borders because otherwise we are abandoning Ukrainians to this. I hope forcibly conscripted Ukrainians shoot their commanding officiers in the back of the head.
Can you please give "Russian is a criminal culture" a rest. Apart from it not even being proper English, it is just a silly thing to say and makes me ignore everything that follows.
Private schools will not have to raise their fees to cover Labour’s VAT raid on independent education, the shadow education secretary has insisted, describing claims that the policy would result in widespread school closures as “bogus”.
Bridget Phillipson told The Times that private schools would be “more than able” to cover the cost of paying VAT without raising the cost to parents or being forced to close.
She further pledged that the £1.7 billion raised by imposing the tax would be invested in recruiting and retaining teachers particularly in Stem subjects where state schools had struggled to attract specialist graduates.
The party released figures showing that about half of all computer science lessons at state schools were being taught by staff who had no A-level or degree-level qualification in the subject.
At the same time more than one in four physics lessons were taught by non-specialists while one in ten maths teachers had no appropriate senior qualification.
That frustrating moment when you realise the Opposition are just as clueless as the government about education.
There are many private schools that will not notice. Eton. Harrow. Roedean. Clifton. Cheltenham.
There are others that will certainly have to raise fees and may well go bust.
Almost all in poorer areas. Round here, Denstone may just about survive, but the rest won't.
Now that may be what is intended. And it's a legitimate debate to have although I think they're going about it the wrong way (you want to eliminate private schools? Cut class sizes in the state sector by a big number).
But if you take this blind approach to it then you won't prepare for the influx of pupils to a state sector already creaking at the seams. And that will cause far more problems for education than the existence of private schools did.
Surely they can just absorb the cost as "efficiency savings" like the state schools so successfully do. Oh, wait...
Trouble is twofold.
First, there's no answer to the problems in public services that doesn't involve spending more money or cutting whole services. Not teaching Year 9 for example. Changing the spending to expectations ratio isn't a sufficient answer, but it is a necessary ingredient.
Second, as an electorate, we've persuaded ourselves that tax rates must never increase. To even suggest it is Electoral Doom.
So we get gimmicks like this from Labour, or stealth rises from Sunak and Hunt. Not because they're good ways of getting money, but because politicians think they can sneak them past us.
Once again, we get the politicians we deserve, unfortunately.
A senior female MP was subjected to a social services investigation after an online troll tried to get her children taken from her with a vexatious complaint about her political views.
Stella Creasy was then told by police that, they would not impose criminal sanctions on her harasser, who also bombarded her office with emails because he was “entitled” to the view that her children should be taken into care.
Leicestershire police said that even though he lacked any evidence, the man had a legitimate right to make a social services referral because he disagreed with Creasy’s views on misogyny.
Creasy told The Times that the police’s reaction gave other trolls a “green light” to target the children of politicians and anyone in the public eye simply because they did not like them.
The harasser, who used the alias “Lance Jones” and had no personal connection to Creasy or her two young children, had complained about the MP’s campaigns against misogyny and violence against women and girls [VAWG], and her call to be allowed to take her breastfeeding baby into the voting chamber.
I think the point is that anyone can raise concerns to social services, and doing so is not a crime.
Though it sounds that only a cursory review by social services was needed.
If the quote is correct, that isn’t the case. “… Leicestershire police said that even though he lacked any evidence, the man had a legitimate right to make a social services referral because he disagreed with Creasy’s views on misogyny...”
Coupled with this “ …her harasser, who also bombarded her office with emails…”, there’s a clear patter of harassment.
The police might have been correct that the level of harassment didn’t meet the bar for a criminal prosecution, but they were absolutely wrong to say he had a “right” to make what seems very clearly to be a vexatious complaint.
And why did a social services investigation take place as a result of his complaint ?
Russian is a criminal culture. This is a campaign of outright ethnic cleansing and genocide. There can be no peace deal except the 1991 borders because otherwise we are abandoning Ukrainians to this. I hope forcibly conscripted Ukrainians shoot their commanding officiers in the back of the head.
Can you please give "Russian is a criminal culture" a rest. Apart from it not even being proper English, it is just a silly thing to say and makes me ignore everything that follows.
In contemporary Russian culture, criminality is pervasive.
We are at the beginning of the end of one such phenomenon. I think the cultural left peaked in 2020. Listen to the derisive connotation of the word “woke” now. Look at newspapers, once all-in on this stuff, edge back a bit.
A senior female MP was subjected to a social services investigation after an online troll tried to get her children taken from her with a vexatious complaint about her political views.
Stella Creasy was then told by police that, they would not impose criminal sanctions on her harasser, who also bombarded her office with emails because he was “entitled” to the view that her children should be taken into care.
Leicestershire police said that even though he lacked any evidence, the man had a legitimate right to make a social services referral because he disagreed with Creasy’s views on misogyny.
Creasy told The Times that the police’s reaction gave other trolls a “green light” to target the children of politicians and anyone in the public eye simply because they did not like them.
The harasser, who used the alias “Lance Jones” and had no personal connection to Creasy or her two young children, had complained about the MP’s campaigns against misogyny and violence against women and girls [VAWG], and her call to be allowed to take her breastfeeding baby into the voting chamber.
I think the point is that anyone can raise concerns to social services, and doing so is not a crime.
Though it sounds that only a cursory review by social services was needed.
If the quote is correct, that isn’t the case. “… Leicestershire police said that even though he lacked any evidence, the man had a legitimate right to make a social services referral because he disagreed with Creasy’s views on misogyny...”
Coupled with this “ …her harasser, who also bombarded her office with emails…”, there’s a clear patter of harassment.
The police might have been correct that the level of harassment didn’t meet the bar for a criminal prosecution, but they were absolutely wrong to say he had a “right” to make what seems very clearly to be a vexatious complaint.
And why did a social services investigation take place as a result of his complaint ?
There will always be a social services investigation with this kind of complaint, even if they can see that it is complete nonsense.
I think there's a case for having clear penalties for making this kind of complaint maliciously, as it can easily traumatise families (as well as wasting others' time). It sounds like this is a clear example of an entirely malicious complaint, so some penalty for the complainant seems entirely justified.
Russian is a criminal culture. This is a campaign of outright ethnic cleansing and genocide. There can be no peace deal except the 1991 borders because otherwise we are abandoning Ukrainians to this. I hope forcibly conscripted Ukrainians shoot their commanding officiers in the back of the head.
Can you please give "Russian is a criminal culture" a rest. Apart from it not even being proper English, it is just a silly thing to say and makes me ignore everything that follows.
In contemporary Russian culture, criminality is pervasive.
No doubt, but you could say that about any number of countries. The issue is surely the violence and war crimes committed by the state.
Private schools will not have to raise their fees to cover Labour’s VAT raid on independent education, the shadow education secretary has insisted, describing claims that the policy would result in widespread school closures as “bogus”.
Bridget Phillipson told The Times that private schools would be “more than able” to cover the cost of paying VAT without raising the cost to parents or being forced to close.
She further pledged that the £1.7 billion raised by imposing the tax would be invested in recruiting and retaining teachers particularly in Stem subjects where state schools had struggled to attract specialist graduates.
The party released figures showing that about half of all computer science lessons at state schools were being taught by staff who had no A-level or degree-level qualification in the subject.
At the same time more than one in four physics lessons were taught by non-specialists while one in ten maths teachers had no appropriate senior qualification.
We are at the beginning of the end of one such phenomenon. I think the cultural left peaked in 2020. Listen to the derisive connotation of the word “woke” now. Look at newspapers, once all-in on this stuff, edge back a bit.
Private schools will not have to raise their fees to cover Labour’s VAT raid on independent education, the shadow education secretary has insisted, describing claims that the policy would result in widespread school closures as “bogus”.
Bridget Phillipson told The Times that private schools would be “more than able” to cover the cost of paying VAT without raising the cost to parents or being forced to close.
She further pledged that the £1.7 billion raised by imposing the tax would be invested in recruiting and retaining teachers particularly in Stem subjects where state schools had struggled to attract specialist graduates.
The party released figures showing that about half of all computer science lessons at state schools were being taught by staff who had no A-level or degree-level qualification in the subject.
At the same time more than one in four physics lessons were taught by non-specialists while one in ten maths teachers had no appropriate senior qualification.
That frustrating moment when you realise the Opposition are just as clueless as the government about education.
There are many private schools that will not notice. Eton. Harrow. Roedean. Clifton. Cheltenham.
There are others that will certainly have to raise fees and may well go bust.
Almost all in poorer areas. Round here, Denstone may just about survive, but the rest won't.
Now that may be what is intended. And it's a legitimate debate to have although I think they're going about it the wrong way (you want to eliminate private schools? Cut class sizes in the state sector by a big number).
But if you take this blind approach to it then you won't prepare for the influx of pupils to a state sector already creaking at the seams. And that will cause far more problems for education than the existence of private schools did.
As far as Labour is concerned all private schools are Eton.
Russian is a criminal culture. This is a campaign of outright ethnic cleansing and genocide. There can be no peace deal except the 1991 borders because otherwise we are abandoning Ukrainians to this. I hope forcibly conscripted Ukrainians shoot their commanding officiers in the back of the head.
Can you please give "Russian is a criminal culture" a rest. Apart from it not even being proper English, it is just a silly thing to say and makes me ignore everything that follows.
In contemporary Russian culture, criminality is pervasive.
No doubt, but you could say that about any number of countries. The issue is surely the violence and war crimes committed by the state.
Absolutely - which is what I was trying to get at with 'pervasive'. But you're probably correct that such condensations aren't particularly meaningful.
Well, this is is twisted. Russia has a new program to take demobilized Russian soldiers from the war in Ukraine, give them 4 days of basic psychiatric support and training on how to be a mentor for kids, then sending them to Russian schools. /1 https://twitter.com/MassDara/status/1652032013518381066
Russian is a criminal culture. This is a campaign of outright ethnic cleansing and genocide. There can be no peace deal except the 1991 borders because otherwise we are abandoning Ukrainians to this. I hope forcibly conscripted Ukrainians shoot their commanding officiers in the back of the head.
Can you please give "Russian is a criminal culture" a rest. Apart from it not even being proper English, it is just a silly thing to say and makes me ignore everything that follows.
In contemporary Russian culture, criminality is pervasive.
Russian is a criminal culture. This is a campaign of outright ethnic cleansing and genocide. There can be no peace deal except the 1991 borders because otherwise we are abandoning Ukrainians to this. I hope forcibly conscripted Ukrainians shoot their commanding officiers in the back of the head.
Can you please give "Russian is a criminal culture" a rest. Apart from it not even being proper English, it is just a silly thing to say and makes me ignore everything that follows.
In contemporary Russian culture, criminality is pervasive.
Yes, there are many characteristics of organised crime in the way the Russian state is run. I’d say it’s a closer match than fascism in some ways, though there are certainly plenty of elements of that too.
- the causal connection between wealth and control of weapons - income comes through the control and exploitation of one specific commodity - The pervasive use of blackmail and the fear of revenge as a tactic - The amoral and largely ideology free nature of power - Use of extreme violence to intimidate and cow members of the public - Doling out of “punishment beatings” to teach opponents a lesson - the ideology of turf and sphere of influence - Attempts to corrupt and subvert the machinery of (international) law
Yet just 10% of 2019 Conservative voters are voting Labour too, a significantly lower Conservative to Labour switch than Blair was getting in 1997
That’s just one pollster saying that, other pollsters are saying different - 15%. Our rough chalkboard work this week suggested Blair got less than 15% in 1997 - 15% and lots of tactical voting and a degree of previous Tories going d/k on the way to in the end not even bothering to show up, caused the Tory cataclysm of 1997.
That was our rough chalkboard answer on basis 1997 Tories lost 4.5M Labour gained just 2M - it would be great if there were some official studies into % of switchers at each election and what it done to the result.
Blair in 1997 got 2 million more votes than Kinnock did in 1992. Given the LD vote was down 700,000 on 1992 and the Tory vote was down 4.4 million we can say that almost all those extra Labour votes came from the Conservatives. 2 million being about 14% of the Conservatives 14 million voters in 1992 (the rest staying home or going Referendum Party/UKIP given Major only got 9.6 million votes in 1997).
Certainly on the Yougov figures then Starmer's gain of 10% of 2019 Conservative voters is less than Blair's gain of 14% of 1992 Conservative voters in 1997
That’s an excellent reply. I have to agree Yougovs 10% is short of Blair’s 14%. But then other pollsters put it at 15% hence Stodge did some back of race card calculus and came to the same 14% you have come to for Blair in 1997.
As I added, that alone didn’t make it bad for Major in 1997, it needed precision tactical voting too. And 1992 Tory voters not voting at all. What % of ‘92 Tory voters does your calculation suggest stayed home?
14% is at the very top of the plausible range of answers here, because 14% of the 14m 1992 Con 1992 votes is 1.96m of Labours 1.99m net gains.
It says that almost zero Labour net vote gains came either from (a) abstaining 2992 Labour tending voters who didn't like the look of Kinnock or (b) any net gain of 1992 LD voters, given they lost 700k votes - remember the distribution of LD voters was nowhere near as stark as it is now: many solid Labour seats had a 15-20% pool of Lib Dems from which to fish.
It's possible - I say net gain because there will have been BJO types who voted Labour in 1992 and not in 1997, hell there may even have been Lab -> Con switchers, but to think the net directions from LD or DNVs was away from Blair and didn't make up a worthwhile minority of those Labour gained votes is optimistic. I'd cap net Con->Lab switching at 12% of 1992Con tops (1.68m of the 2m votes gained), and indeed argue that a figure just under 10% is probably more likely than it reaching 14%.
It’s a great post, and I’m not going to disagree. But a gut instinct, if we weren’t such tuned in psephologist, and didn’t know better, is one of the most dramatic nights in UK elections, a “meteor hitting the Tory earth wiping out half of all life”, where Paddy Ashdown suddenly has a brand new hat, magicked from out of nowhere (and hopefully made of tofu), can only be caused by such a small % of switchers? You see what I mean? Hence HY’s original post? And polling showing Starmer’s Lab have 15% of 2019 Tory vote, might not be as underperforming as we thought.
The psephologist in me wonders if this is because our politics has so long been measured on the swings, particularly swings between the two main protagonists, yet there has never been swings in playgrounds, just roundabouts.
Russian is a criminal culture. This is a campaign of outright ethnic cleansing and genocide. There can be no peace deal except the 1991 borders because otherwise we are abandoning Ukrainians to this. I hope forcibly conscripted Ukrainians shoot their commanding officiers in the back of the head.
Can you please give "Russian is a criminal culture" a rest. Apart from it not even being proper English, it is just a silly thing to say and makes me ignore everything that follows.
In contemporary Russian culture, criminality is pervasive.
Russian is a criminal culture. This is a campaign of outright ethnic cleansing and genocide. There can be no peace deal except the 1991 borders because otherwise we are abandoning Ukrainians to this. I hope forcibly conscripted Ukrainians shoot their commanding officiers in the back of the head.
Can you please give "Russian is a criminal culture" a rest. Apart from it not even being proper English, it is just a silly thing to say and makes me ignore everything that follows.
In contemporary Russian culture, criminality is pervasive.
Yes, there are many characteristics of organised crime in the way the Russian state is run. I’d say it’s a closer match than fascism in some ways, though there are certainly plenty of elements of that too.
- the causal connection between wealth and control of weapons - income comes through the control and exploitation of one specific commodity - The pervasive use of blackmail and the fear of revenge as a tactic - The amoral and largely ideology free nature of power - Use of extreme violence to intimidate and cow members of the public - Doling out of “punishment beatings” to teach opponents a lesson - the ideology of turf and sphere of influence - Attempts to corrupt and subvert the machinery of (international) law
- The use of law purely in service of state power, rather than as any kind of check on it.
We are at the beginning of the end of one such phenomenon. I think the cultural left peaked in 2020. Listen to the derisive connotation of the word “woke” now. Look at newspapers, once all-in on this stuff, edge back a bit.
We are at the beginning of the end of one such phenomenon. I think the cultural left peaked in 2020. Listen to the derisive connotation of the word “woke” now. Look at newspapers, once all-in on this stuff, edge back a bit.
Fans of Family Guy may be entertained by the Freisler of Guantanamo Bay having a press secretary called Bryan Griffin. He sounds like the MAGA version of the pompous, self important, woke Brian.
What happened in 1997 was that in many seats, the anti-Tory party won. In a good number that was the LibDems. In most it was Labour. Many previous Tory voters just stayed at home because Blair wasn’t scary enough to vote against.
Looking at the current polling, Lab+LD+Green is taking well over 55% of the vote. Tory+Reform is 35% at best. That’s why it’s hard to see the Tories winning the next GE.
The locals will tell us less about the mechanics of GE tactical voting because it’s worth voting Green, LD and Independent at local level, but will be helpful in confirming whether the general block sizes the polls indicate are there on the ground.
We are at the beginning of the end of one such phenomenon. I think the cultural left peaked in 2020. Listen to the derisive connotation of the word “woke” now. Look at newspapers, once all-in on this stuff, edge back a bit.
Search “Learn to love ambiguity” if you’re not a subscriber
Several intelligent people on the Left have made this journey, Matthew Syed, Trevor Phillips and now Janan Ganesh.
There will be others.
The cultural left 'peaked' in 2020 in the sense that this was the point it essentially won; IE it became the establishment/status quo.
People may look for ways of defining themselves against the establishment/status quo, but that isn't the same is the power of the status/quo establishment fading, to the contrary; in many ways it is getting more entrenched.
I'm not sure this doesn't help rather than harm Haley ?
DeSantis allies go to war with an unlikely foe: Nikki Haley https://www.politico.com/news/2023/04/28/desantis-nikki-haley-2024-election-00094496 ...DeSantis is comfortably in second place in most surveys, trailing Trump but well ahead of the other Republicans in the field. But in recent weeks, he has lost ground, with Trump picking up endorsements from several Republican Congress members in Florida and with some major donors expressing reservations about the Florida governor. Two recent polls of South Carolina GOP voters showed Trump far ahead of the pack and Haley only narrowly behind DeSantis. A survey conducted earlier this month by National Public Affairs, a Republican firm co-founded by Clark, found DeSantis at 21 percent, with Haley at 19 percent. A Winthrop University poll taken several weeks earlier showed similar results, with DeSantis at 20 percent and Haley at 18 percent...
Perhaps. But Netflix do have a 'documentary' featuring a black Cleopatra.
I'm aware quite a few cultural depictions, in drama, art and documentary form, of a very northern European looking Jesus. No one on the right gets all het up about those. Funny that.
We are at the beginning of the end of one such phenomenon. I think the cultural left peaked in 2020. Listen to the derisive connotation of the word “woke” now. Look at newspapers, once all-in on this stuff, edge back a bit.
Search “Learn to love ambiguity” if you’re not a subscriber
Several intelligent people on the Left have made this journey, Matthew Syed, Trevor Phillips and now Janan Ganesh.
There will be others.
The cultural left 'peaked' in 2020 in the sense that this was the point it essentially won; IE it became the establishment/status quo.
People may look for ways of defining themselves against the establishment/status quo, but that isn't the same is the power of the status/quo establishment fading, to the contrary; in many ways it is getting more entrenched.
It peaked, boy oh boy was 2020 a shit year, but it's now starting to corrode.
We are at the beginning of the end of one such phenomenon. I think the cultural left peaked in 2020. Listen to the derisive connotation of the word “woke” now. Look at newspapers, once all-in on this stuff, edge back a bit.
Search “Learn to love ambiguity” if you’re not a subscriber
Several intelligent people on the Left have made this journey, Matthew Syed, Trevor Phillips and now Janan Ganesh.
There will be others.
No! No not having it.
I suggested Ganesh was intelligent person of the left on PB, and I got torn to shreds thinking he was ever of the left. I havn’t forgotten that. If there is any justice in this world you need to be torn to shreds right now.
We know None of Syed, Phillips or even long time darling of the right Ganesh are voting Starmer at the next election?
What happened in 1997 was that in many seats, the anti-Tory party won. In a good number that was the LibDems. In most it was Labour. Many previous Tory voters just stayed at home because Blair wasn’t scary enough to vote against.
Looking at the current polling, Lab+LD+Green is taking well over 55% of the vote. Tory+Reform is 35% at best. That’s why it’s hard to see the Tories winning the next GE.
The locals will tell us less about the mechanics of GE tactical voting because it’s worth voting Green, LD and Independent at local level, but will be helpful in confirming whether the general block sizes the polls indicate are there on the ground.
Perhaps. But Netflix do have a 'documentary' featuring a black Cleopatra.
I'm aware quite a few cultural depictions, in drama, art and documentary form, of a very northern European looking Jesus. No one on the right gets all het up about those. Funny that.
Though doesn’t Blake’s Jerusalem suggest he may have come from Lancashire?
We are at the beginning of the end of one such phenomenon. I think the cultural left peaked in 2020. Listen to the derisive connotation of the word “woke” now. Look at newspapers, once all-in on this stuff, edge back a bit.
Search “Learn to love ambiguity” if you’re not a subscriber
Several intelligent people on the Left have made this journey, Matthew Syed, Trevor Phillips and now Janan Ganesh.
There will be others.
'Several intelligent people on the Left have made this journey'? You make it sound like the rest of us have yet to see the light.
The truth is that most (the vast majority) on the left have never bought into the more ridiculous examples of 'cultural left' dogma (e.g. 'sanitising' Roald Dahl books) any more than most on the right don't buy in to the more ridiculous examples of 'cultural right' dogma (e.g. banning Michelangelo's David).
But it suits us both, left and right, to highlight the idiocies of the others side's extemists.
Perhaps. But Netflix do have a 'documentary' featuring a black Cleopatra.
I'm aware quite a few cultural depictions, in drama, art and documentary form, of a very northern European looking Jesus. No one on the right gets all het up about those. Funny that.
Its becoming more of a thing to show a more plausible Jesus. And proponents of Arian jesus cannot reasonably push back if people point out it's not very plausible. But the black Cleopatra's are trying to say its plausible, on the flimsy basis of 'well its possible as we dont know who her mum was'.
It's a case where an attempted justification for what was, as with blonde jesus, an entirely artistic choice, draws attention and makes it flimsier. Just go like that Mary Queen of Scot film and race blind casting.
We are at the beginning of the end of one such phenomenon. I think the cultural left peaked in 2020. Listen to the derisive connotation of the word “woke” now. Look at newspapers, once all-in on this stuff, edge back a bit.
Search “Learn to love ambiguity” if you’re not a subscriber
It's a great article, enjoyed it, thanks to Andy_JS for pointing it out.
Of course, none of us on PB are driven to embrace political dogma - oh no, like the author, we are all so much the other way ;-)
The mild irony of the embrace of 'learn to love ambiguity' by our warriors against woke is also pleasing.
I think you are right. Surely need for structure and order in a meaningless world is right wing and very very Conservative. The living like caveman alternative is just so 1960s hippies dropped out on weed?
In fairness they are in something of a bind on what to do next given Westminster intransigence, but isn't this 'rethink' the same strategy as before?
In a rethink of strategy, Scotland's First Minister and the new SNP leader Humza Yousaf wants to focus on making the case for independence because he knows pushing for a vote immediately will be rejected<\i> https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-65425495
Well, it's solid data that Season 3 *was* more popular than 2, but there's nothing in the data to say *why* that is, just speculation from the writer of the article.
We are at the beginning of the end of one such phenomenon. I think the cultural left peaked in 2020. Listen to the derisive connotation of the word “woke” now. Look at newspapers, once all-in on this stuff, edge back a bit.
Search “Learn to love ambiguity” if you’re not a subscriber
It's a great article, enjoyed it, thanks to Andy_JS for pointing it out.
Of course, none of us on PB are driven to embrace political dogma - oh no, like the author, we are all so much the other way ;-)
The mild irony of the embrace of 'learn to love ambiguity' by our warriors against woke is also pleasing.
I think you are right. Surely need for structure and order in a meaningless world is right wing and very very Conservative. The living like caveman alternative is just so 1960s hippies dropped out on weed?
Libertarians on the right (admittedly a minority) are interested only in the structure they build around themselves, and the untrammelled freedom to do so. They don't want anyone else involved.
Private schools will not have to raise their fees to cover Labour’s VAT raid on independent education, the shadow education secretary has insisted, describing claims that the policy would result in widespread school closures as “bogus”.
Bridget Phillipson told The Times that private schools would be “more than able” to cover the cost of paying VAT without raising the cost to parents or being forced to close.
She further pledged that the £1.7 billion raised by imposing the tax would be invested in recruiting and retaining teachers particularly in Stem subjects where state schools had struggled to attract specialist graduates.
The party released figures showing that about half of all computer science lessons at state schools were being taught by staff who had no A-level or degree-level qualification in the subject.
At the same time more than one in four physics lessons were taught by non-specialists while one in ten maths teachers had no appropriate senior qualification.
We are at the beginning of the end of one such phenomenon. I think the cultural left peaked in 2020. Listen to the derisive connotation of the word “woke” now. Look at newspapers, once all-in on this stuff, edge back a bit.
Search “Learn to love ambiguity” if you’re not a subscriber
Several intelligent people on the Left have made this journey, Matthew Syed, Trevor Phillips and now Janan Ganesh.
There will be others.
'Several intelligent people on the Left have made this journey'? You make it sound like the rest of us have yet to see the light.
The truth is that most (the vast majority) on the left have never bought into the more ridiculous examples of 'cultural left' dogma (e.g. 'sanitising' Roald Dahl books) any more than most on the right don't buy in to the more ridiculous examples of 'cultural right' dogma (e.g. banning Michelangelo's David).
But it suits us both, left and right, to highlight the idiocies of the others side's extemists.
It does, but there is also sense to doing so even in a partisan basis. Hopefully it forces those on a particular side to recognise and reject the more extreme idiocies on their side rather than act like some insane stuff is no big deal and adopt it by stealth.
Left and right need each other as they - they will claim anodyne stuff is crazy, but they'll also claim crazy stuff is crazy. Without that the crazy feeds on itself.
(Sadly that is about 70% true - the rest things are so far gone pointing out the crazy just makes a side defend it harder.
Fans of Family Guy may be entertained by the Freisler of Guantanamo Bay having a press secretary called Bryan Griffin. He sounds like the MAGA version of the pompous, self important, woke Brian.
‘Love God, Limit Government’
De Santis clearly making links with the right of the Conservative Party. Only really Farage still backs Trump in the UK though
Fans of Family Guy may be entertained by the Freisler of Guantanamo Bay having a press secretary called Bryan Griffin. He sounds like the MAGA version of the pompous, self important, woke Brian.
‘Love God, Limit Government’
DeSantis is an all-out fascist who wants to dictate what universities teach, uses the law in subservience to state power, and tramples over any groups he doesn’t like. Badenoch should be embarrassed to be in the same room as him.
Private schools will not have to raise their fees to cover Labour’s VAT raid on independent education, the shadow education secretary has insisted, describing claims that the policy would result in widespread school closures as “bogus”.
Bridget Phillipson told The Times that private schools would be “more than able” to cover the cost of paying VAT without raising the cost to parents or being forced to close.
She further pledged that the £1.7 billion raised by imposing the tax would be invested in recruiting and retaining teachers particularly in Stem subjects where state schools had struggled to attract specialist graduates.
The party released figures showing that about half of all computer science lessons at state schools were being taught by staff who had no A-level or degree-level qualification in the subject.
At the same time more than one in four physics lessons were taught by non-specialists while one in ten maths teachers had no appropriate senior qualification.
Perhaps. But Netflix do have a 'documentary' featuring a black Cleopatra.
I'm aware quite a few cultural depictions, in drama, art and documentary form, of a very northern European looking Jesus. No one on the right gets all het up about those. Funny that.
Its becoming more of a thing to show a more plausible Jesus. And proponents of Arian jesus cannot reasonably push back if people point out it's not very plausible. But the black Cleopatra's are trying to say its plausible, on the flimsy basis of 'well its possible as we dont know who her mum was'.
It's a case where an attempted justification for what was, as with blonde jesus, an entirely artistic choice, draws attention and makes it flimsier. Just go like that Mary Queen of Scot film and race blind casting.
I was telling everyone the right take on this the other day at a cocktail party, as I do. There’s been colour blindness in casting on the stage, such as in Shakespeare from RSC, a long time, and no problem at all with it. A Black Romeo with a proper lunchbox will get rave reviews for all the right reasons.
So is anyone attempting to say, Winston Churchill in film Darkest Hour could not have been played by a Pakistani? Why on Earth not?
Private schools will not have to raise their fees to cover Labour’s VAT raid on independent education, the shadow education secretary has insisted, describing claims that the policy would result in widespread school closures as “bogus”.
Bridget Phillipson told The Times that private schools would be “more than able” to cover the cost of paying VAT without raising the cost to parents or being forced to close.
She further pledged that the £1.7 billion raised by imposing the tax would be invested in recruiting and retaining teachers particularly in Stem subjects where state schools had struggled to attract specialist graduates.
The party released figures showing that about half of all computer science lessons at state schools were being taught by staff who had no A-level or degree-level qualification in the subject.
At the same time more than one in four physics lessons were taught by non-specialists while one in ten maths teachers had no appropriate senior qualification.
That frustrating moment when you realise the Opposition are just as clueless as the government about education.
There are many private schools that will not notice. Eton. Harrow. Roedean. Clifton. Cheltenham.
There are others that will certainly have to raise fees and may well go bust.
Almost all in poorer areas. Round here, Denstone may just about survive, but the rest won't.
Now that may be what is intended. And it's a legitimate debate to have although I think they're going about it the wrong way (you want to eliminate private schools? Cut class sizes in the state sector by a big number).
But if you take this blind approach to it then you won't prepare for the influx of pupils to a state sector already creaking at the seams. And that will cause far more problems for education than the existence of private schools did.
Exactly, Labour's policy won't hit the grand public schools like Eton, Harrow, Winchester and Charterhouse and Westminster where the parents are mainly multi millionaires and the foreign super rich.
What it will hit is smaller private schools which survive on a tight budget and whose parents are small business owners, police officers, teachers themselves etc who scrimp and save and avoid foreign holidays and new cars to pay the fees
I'm not sure this doesn't help rather than harm Haley ?
DeSantis allies go to war with an unlikely foe: Nikki Haley https://www.politico.com/news/2023/04/28/desantis-nikki-haley-2024-election-00094496 ...DeSantis is comfortably in second place in most surveys, trailing Trump but well ahead of the other Republicans in the field. But in recent weeks, he has lost ground, with Trump picking up endorsements from several Republican Congress members in Florida and with some major donors expressing reservations about the Florida governor. Two recent polls of South Carolina GOP voters showed Trump far ahead of the pack and Haley only narrowly behind DeSantis. A survey conducted earlier this month by National Public Affairs, a Republican firm co-founded by Clark, found DeSantis at 21 percent, with Haley at 19 percent. A Winthrop University poll taken several weeks earlier showed similar results, with DeSantis at 20 percent and Haley at 18 percent...
Haley seems like a much more plausible candidate to take on Trump than DeSantis. She has a proper contrast with Trump because she looks young and different, but also she negotiated the Trump era quite cannily and she can still appeal to people who liked Trump but think it's time for a change.
Also her state is primary #3, which is a good position to be in: The non-Trump field will probably need Iowa and NH to consolidate since there's one Trump and many non-Trumps, so it's going to be hard for any challenger to score a win over Trump until then.
Private schools will not have to raise their fees to cover Labour’s VAT raid on independent education, the shadow education secretary has insisted, describing claims that the policy would result in widespread school closures as “bogus”.
Bridget Phillipson told The Times that private schools would be “more than able” to cover the cost of paying VAT without raising the cost to parents or being forced to close.
She further pledged that the £1.7 billion raised by imposing the tax would be invested in recruiting and retaining teachers particularly in Stem subjects where state schools had struggled to attract specialist graduates.
The party released figures showing that about half of all computer science lessons at state schools were being taught by staff who had no A-level or degree-level qualification in the subject.
At the same time more than one in four physics lessons were taught by non-specialists while one in ten maths teachers had no appropriate senior qualification.
Private schools aren't businesses and most typically operate on very tight margins where they just about break even.
Where do the think the extra 20% is coming from if not from the school's reserves or the patents? Thin air?
Same old Labour.
Because private schools are Bad, and are Hoarding Gold like Smaug, and therefore any additional levies can be imposed with no consequences. I think that's basically the thinking. That was how it worked 97-2010, anyway.
Fans of Family Guy may be entertained by the Freisler of Guantanamo Bay having a press secretary called Bryan Griffin. He sounds like the MAGA version of the pompous, self important, woke Brian.
‘Love God, Limit Government’
DeSantis is an all-out fascist who wants to dictate what universities teach, uses the law in subservience to state power, and tramples over any groups he doesn’t like. Badenoch should be embarrassed to be in the same room as him.
Pound to a penny says that she isn't, though.
Seriously - where is the point that KB would get off the de Santis bus?
Perhaps. But Netflix do have a 'documentary' featuring a black Cleopatra.
I'm aware quite a few cultural depictions, in drama, art and documentary form, of a very northern European looking Jesus. No one on the right gets all het up about those. Funny that.
Its becoming more of a thing to show a more plausible Jesus. And proponents of Arian jesus cannot reasonably push back if people point out it's not very plausible. But the black Cleopatra's are trying to say its plausible, on the flimsy basis of 'well its possible as we dont know who her mum was'.
It's a case where an attempted justification for was, as with blonde jesus, an entirely artistic choice, draws attention and makes it flimsier.
We went to the (very good) RSC adaptation of Maggie O'Farrell's Hamnet this week.
Shakespeare's wife and three children were all played by actors who appeared to be mixed race or black. Clearly, that's not historically correct but weirdly it made a lot of sense because in the book the character of Agnes (Anne) Hathaway is very much that of an 'outsider', a person who is 'different' or 'other'.
Initially, I assumed it was an example of colour-blind casting but on reflection, I think it was a conscious choice by the director.
I am pretty sure the RSC are not suggesting the historical Anne Hathaway was mixed-raced though.
Private schools will not have to raise their fees to cover Labour’s VAT raid on independent education, the shadow education secretary has insisted, describing claims that the policy would result in widespread school closures as “bogus”.
Bridget Phillipson told The Times that private schools would be “more than able” to cover the cost of paying VAT without raising the cost to parents or being forced to close.
She further pledged that the £1.7 billion raised by imposing the tax would be invested in recruiting and retaining teachers particularly in Stem subjects where state schools had struggled to attract specialist graduates.
The party released figures showing that about half of all computer science lessons at state schools were being taught by staff who had no A-level or degree-level qualification in the subject.
At the same time more than one in four physics lessons were taught by non-specialists while one in ten maths teachers had no appropriate senior qualification.
That frustrating moment when you realise the Opposition are just as clueless as the government about education.
There are many private schools that will not notice. Eton. Harrow. Roedean. Clifton. Cheltenham.
There are others that will certainly have to raise fees and may well go bust.
Almost all in poorer areas. Round here, Denstone may just about survive, but the rest won't.
Now that may be what is intended. And it's a legitimate debate to have although I think they're going about it the wrong way (you want to eliminate private schools? Cut class sizes in the state sector by a big number).
But if you take this blind approach to it then you won't prepare for the influx of pupils to a state sector already creaking at the seams. And that will cause far more problems for education than the existence of private schools did.
Exactly, Labour's policy won't hit the grand public schools like Eton, Harrow, Winchester and Charterhouse and Westminster where the parents are mainly multi millionaires and the foreign super rich.
What it will hit is smaller private schools which survive on a tight budget and whose parents are small business owners, police officers, teachers themselves etc who scrimp and save and avoid foreign holidays and new cars to pay the fees
If your lot hadn’t crashed the economy there might be money for this subsidy, but there isn’t.
Mr. Royale, quite. I, for one, was shocked that Will Smith's wife was not faithful. To history.
It’s a real slap in the face for those who want realistic historical depictions.
I dont care how realistic a depiction is, unless the makers are claiming realism or theres a cultural trend to so called realistic casting which causes mini scandals like a gay character (not even a real person) being played by a straight actor or vice versa, in which case you need a strong basis for what is claimed.
If you want to just have creative freedom to do what you want then all the better. Just say so.
We are at the beginning of the end of one such phenomenon. I think the cultural left peaked in 2020. Listen to the derisive connotation of the word “woke” now. Look at newspapers, once all-in on this stuff, edge back a bit.
Search “Learn to love ambiguity” if you’re not a subscriber
Several intelligent people on the Left have made this journey, Matthew Syed, Trevor Phillips and now Janan Ganesh.
There will be others.
'Several intelligent people on the Left have made this journey'? You make it sound like the rest of us have yet to see the light.
The truth is that most (the vast majority) on the left have never bought into the more ridiculous examples of 'cultural left' dogma (e.g. 'sanitising' Roald Dahl books) any more than most on the right don't buy in to the more ridiculous examples of 'cultural right' dogma (e.g. banning Michelangelo's David).
But it suits us both, left and right, to highlight the idiocies of the others side's extemists.
It has been quite interesting to see, in many ways people just get blown around with cultural winds. The most revealing example was around the Scottish trans prisoner case, all of a sudden transphobia (towards a certain kind of trans person) became acceptable, but no one really thought through about how this impacted on what they believed before, it just got instantly redefined in a cultural moment.
The right are fighting back and I would expect they will have the insurgents momentum for some time to come.
Fans of Family Guy may be entertained by the Freisler of Guantanamo Bay having a press secretary called Bryan Griffin. He sounds like the MAGA version of the pompous, self important, woke Brian.
‘Love God, Limit Government’
DeSantis is an all-out fascist who wants to dictate what universities teach, uses the law in subservience to state power, and tramples over any groups he doesn’t like. Badenoch should be embarrassed to be in the same room as him.
Morning everybody!
There are some very unpleasant people, with rather terrifying views, on the right in American politics. I hope, but I fear it’s a forlorn hope,that the British right will not get entangled with them.
We are at the beginning of the end of one such phenomenon. I think the cultural left peaked in 2020. Listen to the derisive connotation of the word “woke” now. Look at newspapers, once all-in on this stuff, edge back a bit.
Search “Learn to love ambiguity” if you’re not a subscriber
Several intelligent people on the Left have made this journey, Matthew Syed, Trevor Phillips and now Janan Ganesh.
There will be others.
'Several intelligent people on the Left have made this journey'? You make it sound like the rest of us have yet to see the light.
The truth is that most (the vast majority) on the left have never bought into the more ridiculous examples of 'cultural left' dogma (e.g. 'sanitising' Roald Dahl books) any more than most on the right don't buy in to the more ridiculous examples of 'cultural right' dogma (e.g. banning Michelangelo's David).
But it suits us both, left and right, to highlight the idiocies of the others side's extemists.
I think this is an example of Margaret Thatcher's maxim that whenever you challenge a consensus you will be fought viciously and opposed every step of the way, until the change occurs, following which it becomes embedded and exactly the same people say it was inevitable and would have happened anyway.
It requires intellectual self-confidence to go against the consensus of your peers. The difference is Janan is leading the way. Others are following in its wake.
Private schools will not have to raise their fees to cover Labour’s VAT raid on independent education, the shadow education secretary has insisted, describing claims that the policy would result in widespread school closures as “bogus”.
Bridget Phillipson told The Times that private schools would be “more than able” to cover the cost of paying VAT without raising the cost to parents or being forced to close.
She further pledged that the £1.7 billion raised by imposing the tax would be invested in recruiting and retaining teachers particularly in Stem subjects where state schools had struggled to attract specialist graduates.
The party released figures showing that about half of all computer science lessons at state schools were being taught by staff who had no A-level or degree-level qualification in the subject.
At the same time more than one in four physics lessons were taught by non-specialists while one in ten maths teachers had no appropriate senior qualification.
Private schools aren't businesses and most typically operate on very tight margins where they just about break even.
Where do the think the extra 20% is coming from if not from the school's reserves or the patents? Thin air?
Same old Labour.
Because private schools are Bad, and are Hoarding Gold like Smaug, and therefore any additional levies can be imposed with no consequences. I think that's basically the thinking. That was how it worked 97-2010, anyway.
1997-2010 was a golden period compared to the last 13 years of ineptitude, chaos, scandal, decline and stagnation.
Well, it's solid data that Season 3 *was* more popular than 2, but there's nothing in the data to say *why* that is, just speculation from the writer of the article.
Sure, but in determining why you look at what was different and draw a conclusion that some or all of those differences was behind it, so it's not an unreasonable speculation.
Yet just 10% of 2019 Conservative voters are voting Labour too, a significantly lower Conservative to Labour switch than Blair was getting in 1997
That’s just one pollster saying that, other pollsters are saying different - 15%. Our rough chalkboard work this week suggested Blair got less than 15% in 1997 - 15% and lots of tactical voting and a degree of previous Tories going d/k on the way to in the end not even bothering to show up, caused the Tory cataclysm of 1997.
That was our rough chalkboard answer on basis 1997 Tories lost 4.5M Labour gained just 2M - it would be great if there were some official studies into % of switchers at each election and what it done to the result.
Blair in 1997 got 2 million more votes than Kinnock did in 1992. Given the LD vote was down 700,000 on 1992 and the Tory vote was down 4.4 million we can say that almost all those extra Labour votes came from the Conservatives. 2 million being about 14% of the Conservatives 14 million voters in 1992 (the rest staying home or going Referendum Party/UKIP given Major only got 9.6 million votes in 1997).
Certainly on the Yougov figures then Starmer's gain of 10% of 2019 Conservative voters is less than Blair's gain of 14% of 1992 Conservative voters in 1997
That’s an excellent reply. I have to agree Yougovs 10% is short of Blair’s 14%. But then other pollsters put it at 15% hence Stodge did some back of race card calculus and came to the same 14% you have come to for Blair in 1997.
As I added, that alone didn’t make it bad for Major in 1997, it needed precision tactical voting too. And 1992 Tory voters not voting at all. What % of ‘92 Tory voters does your calculation suggest stayed home?
14% is at the very top of the plausible range of answers here, because 14% of the 14m 1992 Con 1992 votes is 1.96m of Labours 1.99m net gains.
It says that almost zero Labour net vote gains came either from (a) abstaining 2992 Labour tending voters who didn't like the look of Kinnock or (b) any net gain of 1992 LD voters, given they lost 700k votes - remember the distribution of LD voters was nowhere near as stark as it is now: many solid Labour seats had a 15-20% pool of Lib Dems from which to fish.
It's possible - I say net gain because there will have been BJO types who voted Labour in 1992 and not in 1997, hell there may even have been Lab -> Con switchers, but to think the net directions from LD or DNVs was away from Blair and didn't make up a worthwhile minority of those Labour gained votes is optimistic. I'd cap net Con->Lab switching at 12% of 1992Con tops (1.68m of the 2m votes gained), and indeed argue that a figure just under 10% is probably more likely than it reaching 14%.
You only get to 12% if you have significant LD to Labour switching from 1992 to 1997 and even then 12% switching from Tory in 1992 to Blair's New Labour in 1997 is more than the 10% who have switched from Conservative in 2019 to Starmer Labour.
Indeed more have switched to RefUK than switched to the Referendum Party in 1997 and Tory voters just staying home could be even more of a problem for Rishi than it was for Major.
Starmer does not turn off moderate Conservatives like Kinnock or Corbyn did but he isn't a leader they have much great enthusiasm for either like many of them did for Blair. Indeed for many small c Conservative voters usually Blair was and still is the only Labour leader they have ever voted for.
Mr. kle4, that's the problem. The Netflix numpties are calling it a documentary and having a Macedonian portrayed as black, when the Egyptians aren't even black.
Mr. Seal, without getting all Byzantine on you, when a character becomes a religious figure you'd be amazed at all not necessarily historically accurate views people have about them....
Private schools will not have to raise their fees to cover Labour’s VAT raid on independent education, the shadow education secretary has insisted, describing claims that the policy would result in widespread school closures as “bogus”.
Bridget Phillipson told The Times that private schools would be “more than able” to cover the cost of paying VAT without raising the cost to parents or being forced to close.
She further pledged that the £1.7 billion raised by imposing the tax would be invested in recruiting and retaining teachers particularly in Stem subjects where state schools had struggled to attract specialist graduates.
The party released figures showing that about half of all computer science lessons at state schools were being taught by staff who had no A-level or degree-level qualification in the subject.
At the same time more than one in four physics lessons were taught by non-specialists while one in ten maths teachers had no appropriate senior qualification.
That frustrating moment when you realise the Opposition are just as clueless as the government about education.
There are many private schools that will not notice. Eton. Harrow. Roedean. Clifton. Cheltenham.
There are others that will certainly have to raise fees and may well go bust.
Almost all in poorer areas. Round here, Denstone may just about survive, but the rest won't.
Now that may be what is intended. And it's a legitimate debate to have although I think they're going about it the wrong way (you want to eliminate private schools? Cut class sizes in the state sector by a big number).
But if you take this blind approach to it then you won't prepare for the influx of pupils to a state sector already creaking at the seams. And that will cause far more problems for education than the existence of private schools did.
Exactly, Labour's policy won't hit the grand public schools like Eton, Harrow, Winchester and Charterhouse and Westminster where the parents are mainly multi millionaires and the foreign super rich.
What it will hit is smaller private schools which survive on a tight budget and whose parents are small business owners, police officers, teachers themselves etc who scrimp and save and avoid foreign holidays and new cars to pay the fees
Like my daughter's school - which has sent out a letter to all parents about the threat and it's concerns on the impact on the school, to manage expectations.
It's a downright idiotic policy, typical of Starmer's tactical triangulation rather than proper leadership, and means Labour are a clear and present danger to my family.
Private schools will not have to raise their fees to cover Labour’s VAT raid on independent education, the shadow education secretary has insisted, describing claims that the policy would result in widespread school closures as “bogus”.
Bridget Phillipson told The Times that private schools would be “more than able” to cover the cost of paying VAT without raising the cost to parents or being forced to close.
She further pledged that the £1.7 billion raised by imposing the tax would be invested in recruiting and retaining teachers particularly in Stem subjects where state schools had struggled to attract specialist graduates.
The party released figures showing that about half of all computer science lessons at state schools were being taught by staff who had no A-level or degree-level qualification in the subject.
At the same time more than one in four physics lessons were taught by non-specialists while one in ten maths teachers had no appropriate senior qualification.
That frustrating moment when you realise the Opposition are just as clueless as the government about education.
There are many private schools that will not notice. Eton. Harrow. Roedean. Clifton. Cheltenham.
There are others that will certainly have to raise fees and may well go bust.
Almost all in poorer areas. Round here, Denstone may just about survive, but the rest won't.
Now that may be what is intended. And it's a legitimate debate to have although I think they're going about it the wrong way (you want to eliminate private schools? Cut class sizes in the state sector by a big number).
But if you take this blind approach to it then you won't prepare for the influx of pupils to a state sector already creaking at the seams. And that will cause far more problems for education than the existence of private schools did.
Exactly, Labour's policy won't hit the grand public schools like Eton, Harrow, Winchester and Charterhouse and Westminster where the parents are mainly multi millionaires and the foreign super rich.
What it will hit is smaller private schools which survive on a tight budget and whose parents are small business owners, police officers, teachers themselves etc who scrimp and save and avoid foreign holidays and new cars to pay the fees
If your lot hadn’t crashed the economy there might be money for this subsidy, but there isn’t.
It was under the premiership of the comprehensive educated Liz Truss that the economy crashed of course
Perhaps. But Netflix do have a 'documentary' featuring a black Cleopatra.
I'm aware quite a few cultural depictions, in drama, art and documentary form, of a very northern European looking Jesus. No one on the right gets all het up about those. Funny that.
Its becoming more of a thing to show a more plausible Jesus. And proponents of Arian jesus cannot reasonably push back if people point out it's not very plausible. But the black Cleopatra's are trying to say its plausible, on the flimsy basis of 'well its possible as we dont know who her mum was'.
It's a case where an attempted justification for what was, as with blonde jesus, an entirely artistic choice, draws attention and makes it flimsier. Just go like that Mary Queen of Scot film and race blind casting.
I was telling everyone the right take on this the other day at a cocktail party, as I do. There’s been colour blindness in casting on the stage, such as in Shakespeare from RSC, a long time, and no problem at all with it. A Black Romeo with a proper lunchbox will get rave reviews for all the right reasons.
So is anyone attempting to say, Winston Churchill in film Darkest Hour could not have been played by a Pakistani? Why on Earth not?
Some people are just not comfortable with loving ambiguity.
I'm not sure this doesn't help rather than harm Haley ?
DeSantis allies go to war with an unlikely foe: Nikki Haley https://www.politico.com/news/2023/04/28/desantis-nikki-haley-2024-election-00094496 ...DeSantis is comfortably in second place in most surveys, trailing Trump but well ahead of the other Republicans in the field. But in recent weeks, he has lost ground, with Trump picking up endorsements from several Republican Congress members in Florida and with some major donors expressing reservations about the Florida governor. Two recent polls of South Carolina GOP voters showed Trump far ahead of the pack and Haley only narrowly behind DeSantis. A survey conducted earlier this month by National Public Affairs, a Republican firm co-founded by Clark, found DeSantis at 21 percent, with Haley at 19 percent. A Winthrop University poll taken several weeks earlier showed similar results, with DeSantis at 20 percent and Haley at 18 percent...
Haley seems like a much more plausible candidate to take on Trump than DeSantis. She has a proper contrast with Trump because she looks young and different, but also she negotiated the Trump era quite cannily and she can still appeal to people who liked Trump but think it's time for a change.
Also her state is primary #3, which is a good position to be in: The non-Trump field will probably need Iowa and NH to consolidate since there's one Trump and many non-Trumps, so it's going to be hard for any challenger to score a win over Trump until then.
Haley has about as much chance of winning the GOP nomination next year as Jeremy Hunt does of being the next Conservative leader. She also doesn't have the appeal to evangelicals in Iowa Pence does if you want a non Trump non De Santis candidate
Private schools will not have to raise their fees to cover Labour’s VAT raid on independent education, the shadow education secretary has insisted, describing claims that the policy would result in widespread school closures as “bogus”.
Bridget Phillipson told The Times that private schools would be “more than able” to cover the cost of paying VAT without raising the cost to parents or being forced to close.
She further pledged that the £1.7 billion raised by imposing the tax would be invested in recruiting and retaining teachers particularly in Stem subjects where state schools had struggled to attract specialist graduates.
The party released figures showing that about half of all computer science lessons at state schools were being taught by staff who had no A-level or degree-level qualification in the subject.
At the same time more than one in four physics lessons were taught by non-specialists while one in ten maths teachers had no appropriate senior qualification.
That frustrating moment when you realise the Opposition are just as clueless as the government about education.
There are many private schools that will not notice. Eton. Harrow. Roedean. Clifton. Cheltenham.
There are others that will certainly have to raise fees and may well go bust.
Almost all in poorer areas. Round here, Denstone may just about survive, but the rest won't.
Now that may be what is intended. And it's a legitimate debate to have although I think they're going about it the wrong way (you want to eliminate private schools? Cut class sizes in the state sector by a big number).
But if you take this blind approach to it then you won't prepare for the influx of pupils to a state sector already creaking at the seams. And that will cause far more problems for education than the existence of private schools did.
Exactly, Labour's policy won't hit the grand public schools like Eton, Harrow, Winchester and Charterhouse and Westminster where the parents are mainly multi millionaires and the foreign super rich.
What it will hit is smaller private schools which survive on a tight budget and whose parents are small business owners, police officers, teachers themselves etc who scrimp and save and avoid foreign holidays and new cars to pay the fees
Like my daughter's school - which has sent out a letter to all parents about the threat and it's concerns on the impact on the school, to manage expectations.
It's a downright idiotic policy, typical of Starmer's tactical triangulation rather than proper leadership, and means Labour are a clear and present danger to my family.
Private education is like alternative medicine. By all means choose it if you want, but don’t expect the state to subsidise it. With the public finances in such a state, there are other priorities.
Private schools will not have to raise their fees to cover Labour’s VAT raid on independent education, the shadow education secretary has insisted, describing claims that the policy would result in widespread school closures as “bogus”.
Bridget Phillipson told The Times that private schools would be “more than able” to cover the cost of paying VAT without raising the cost to parents or being forced to close.
She further pledged that the £1.7 billion raised by imposing the tax would be invested in recruiting and retaining teachers particularly in Stem subjects where state schools had struggled to attract specialist graduates.
The party released figures showing that about half of all computer science lessons at state schools were being taught by staff who had no A-level or degree-level qualification in the subject.
At the same time more than one in four physics lessons were taught by non-specialists while one in ten maths teachers had no appropriate senior qualification.
Private schools aren't businesses and most typically operate on very tight margins where they just about break even.
Where do the think the extra 20% is coming from if not from the school's reserves or the patents? Thin air?
Same old Labour.
They couldn't run a whelk stall. They have no ides about business.
At least they don’t want to f*** business, however.
Outside of the Brexit controversies the Tories are very supportive of business.
The cultural/values stuff is properly a bigger barrier than the microeconomics these days, to be honest, but to some extent there's an overlap between the two - and it's a polarising one.
Business needs to navigate this better, as do politicians.
We are at the beginning of the end of one such phenomenon. I think the cultural left peaked in 2020. Listen to the derisive connotation of the word “woke” now. Look at newspapers, once all-in on this stuff, edge back a bit.
Search “Learn to love ambiguity” if you’re not a subscriber
Several intelligent people on the Left have made this journey, Matthew Syed, Trevor Phillips and now Janan Ganesh.
There will be others.
'Several intelligent people on the Left have made this journey'? You make it sound like the rest of us have yet to see the light.
The truth is that most (the vast majority) on the left have never bought into the more ridiculous examples of 'cultural left' dogma (e.g. 'sanitising' Roald Dahl books) any more than most on the right don't buy in to the more ridiculous examples of 'cultural right' dogma (e.g. banning Michelangelo's David).
But it suits us both, left and right, to highlight the idiocies of the others side's extemists.
It does, but there is also sense to doing so even in a partisan basis. Hopefully it forces those on a particular side to recognise and reject the more extreme idiocies on their side rather than act like some insane stuff is no big deal and adopt it by stealth.
Left and right need each other as they - they will claim anodyne stuff is crazy, but they'll also claim crazy stuff is crazy. Without that the crazy feeds on itself.
(Sadly that is about 70% true - the rest things are so far gone pointing out the crazy just makes a side defend it harder.
It might be that most people in the left don't buy into the craziness, but the craziness still happens. Despite 13 years of Tory PMs, the cultural left is more and more prominent. God knows where we will go once the left are in government again, but Scotland and Wales guve us some clues.
We are at the beginning of the end of one such phenomenon. I think the cultural left peaked in 2020. Listen to the derisive connotation of the word “woke” now. Look at newspapers, once all-in on this stuff, edge back a bit.
Well, it's solid data that Season 3 *was* more popular than 2, but there's nothing in the data to say *why* that is, just speculation from the writer of the article.
He literally answers that in the very same article - too many characters, poor development, competing and confusing arcs and boring plots. Etc.
We are at the beginning of the end of one such phenomenon. I think the cultural left peaked in 2020. Listen to the derisive connotation of the word “woke” now. Look at newspapers, once all-in on this stuff, edge back a bit.
Search “Learn to love ambiguity” if you’re not a subscriber
Several intelligent people on the Left have made this journey, Matthew Syed, Trevor Phillips and now Janan Ganesh.
There will be others.
'Several intelligent people on the Left have made this journey'? You make it sound like the rest of us have yet to see the light.
The truth is that most (the vast majority) on the left have never bought into the more ridiculous examples of 'cultural left' dogma (e.g. 'sanitising' Roald Dahl books) any more than most on the right don't buy in to the more ridiculous examples of 'cultural right' dogma (e.g. banning Michelangelo's David).
But it suits us both, left and right, to highlight the idiocies of the others side's extemists.
I think this is an example of Margaret Thatcher's maxim that whenever you challenge a consensus you will be fought viciously and opposed every step of the way, until the change occurs, following which it becomes embedded and exactly the same people say it was inevitable and would have happened anyway.
It requires intellectual self-confidence to go against the consensus of your peers. The difference is Janan is leading the way. Others are following in its wake.
We are at the beginning of the end of one such phenomenon. I think the cultural left peaked in 2020. Listen to the derisive connotation of the word “woke” now. Look at newspapers, once all-in on this stuff, edge back a bit.
Search “Learn to love ambiguity” if you’re not a subscriber
Several intelligent people on the Left have made this journey, Matthew Syed, Trevor Phillips and now Janan Ganesh.
There will be others.
'Several intelligent people on the Left have made this journey'? You make it sound like the rest of us have yet to see the light.
The truth is that most (the vast majority) on the left have never bought into the more ridiculous examples of 'cultural left' dogma (e.g. 'sanitising' Roald Dahl books) any more than most on the right don't buy in to the more ridiculous examples of 'cultural right' dogma (e.g. banning Michelangelo's David).
But it suits us both, left and right, to highlight the idiocies of the others side's extemists.
It has been quite interesting to see, in many ways people just get blown around with cultural winds. The most revealing example was around the Scottish trans prisoner case, all of a sudden transphobia (towards a certain kind of trans person) became acceptable, but no one really thought through about how this impacted on what they believed before, it just got instantly redefined in a cultural moment.
The right are fighting back and I would expect they will have the insurgents momentum for some time to come.
Since they seem to have most of HMG and the gamey end of the British press on their side, I'm not sure how far the insurgent tag goes.
Mr. Pointer, I believe the terms used at the time were longest/deepest.
Are you disputing that Labour ended their last period of office shortly after the biggest recession we've ever had? How would you assess that recession?
Fans of Family Guy may be entertained by the Freisler of Guantanamo Bay having a press secretary called Bryan Griffin. He sounds like the MAGA version of the pompous, self important, woke Brian.
‘Love God, Limit Government’
De Santis clearly making links with the right of the Conservative Party. Only really Farage still backs Trump in the UK though
Yep, it’s notable that the freedom-loving Tory right this week embraced both De Santis and Meloni when they made visits here. The National Conservative movement also seems to be gaining a lot of ground, with its interesting views about freedom and democracy. The next Tory leadership contest will be fascinating.
We are at the beginning of the end of one such phenomenon. I think the cultural left peaked in 2020. Listen to the derisive connotation of the word “woke” now. Look at newspapers, once all-in on this stuff, edge back a bit.
Search “Learn to love ambiguity” if you’re not a subscriber
Several intelligent people on the Left have made this journey, Matthew Syed, Trevor Phillips and now Janan Ganesh.
There will be others.
No! No not having it.
I suggested Ganesh was intelligent person of the left on PB, and I got torn to shreds thinking he was ever of the left. I havn’t forgotten that. If there is any justice in this world you need to be torn to shreds right now.
We know None of Syed, Phillips or even long time darling of the right Ganesh are voting Starmer at the next election?
Some of your posts I find deeply confusing, containing attempts at seriousness, sarcasm and humour all in one mish-mash.
What you think in your head doesn't always come out clearly in what you write in your posts.
Comments
Though the pun flew right past me.
You’re not going to get rid of planning and planners now, so it’s imperative to educate them in the principles of creating liveable urban spaces.
https://twitter.com/EuromaidanPress/status/1652151216951148544
(Although it may also help them hide what they're selling to other countries such as India and China, and on the black market.)
Thread.
1/ Six Russian logistics officers have been found guilty of stealing more than 360 tons of aviation kerosene in the Irkutsk region. Each got off with fines equivalent to $627 or less, according to a regional Russian news outlet.
https://twitter.com/ChrisO_wiki/status/1651966786345091072
https://twitter.com/_Dan_Austin/status/1652049378016632844
A senior female MP was subjected to a social services investigation after an online troll tried to get her children taken from her with a vexatious complaint about her political views.
Stella Creasy was then told by police that they would not impose criminal sanctions on her harasser, who also bombarded her office with emails, because he was “entitled” to the view that her children should be taken into care.
Leicestershire police said that even though he lacked any evidence, the man had a legitimate right to make a social services referral because he disagreed with Creasy’s views on misogyny.
Creasy told The Times that the police’s reaction gave other trolls a “green light” to target the children of politicians and anyone in the public eye simply because they did not like them.
The harasser, who used the alias “Lance Jones” and had no personal connection to Creasy or her two young children, had complained about the MP’s campaigns against misogyny and violence against women and girls [VAWG], and her call to be allowed to take her breastfeeding baby into the voting chamber.
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/stella-creasy-online-troll-called-social-services-on-mp-he-disagreed-with-2pdfrd2cd
Between this and rocketing apartment blocks Putin really knows how to win hearts and minds.
For those who haven't yet seen the report from Stacey Dooley on the Ukranians training here, I highly recommend it.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/bbcthree/article/fcb44c76-a54d-4f12-84f9-1a900de09364
F1: interesting pole yesterday. Can't recall Leclerc's odds but I think they were double figures.
The French, like the Bourbons, have learnt nothing and forgotten nothing.
The children of the very stupid police officer who decided to take no action. Anyone who thinks that behaviour is OK is a risk to children.
Bridget Phillipson told The Times that private schools would be “more than able” to cover the cost of paying VAT without raising the cost to parents or being forced to close.
She further pledged that the £1.7 billion raised by imposing the tax would be invested in recruiting and retaining teachers particularly in Stem subjects where state schools had struggled to attract specialist graduates.
The party released figures showing that about half of all computer science lessons at state schools were being taught by staff who had no A-level or degree-level qualification in the subject.
At the same time more than one in four physics lessons were taught by non-specialists while one in ten maths teachers had no appropriate senior qualification.
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/private-schools-can-absorb-vat-without-higher-fees-say-labour-s5c22x0vq
There are many private schools that will not notice. Eton. Harrow. Roedean. Clifton. Cheltenham.
There are others that will certainly have to raise fees and may well go bust.
Almost all in poorer areas. Round here, Denstone may just about survive, but the rest won't.
Now that may be what is intended. And it's a legitimate debate to have although I think they're going about it the wrong way (you want to eliminate private schools? Cut class sizes in the state sector by a big number).
But if you take this blind approach to it then you won't prepare for the influx of pupils to a state sector already creaking at the seams. And that will cause far more problems for education than the existence of private schools did.
https://twitter.com/Tatarigami_UA/status/1649471015183851525?t=tkpc7XLBxVrhX7P9qZdzpA&s=19
It is a war that largely goes unreported. A friend of mine has a son who has done a few tours there with the Belgian Army. There is a fair amount of Pro-Putin feeling in the region as a result amongst those opposed to the Islamists.
Though it sounds that only a cursory review by social services was needed.
First, there's no answer to the problems in public services that doesn't involve spending more money or cutting whole services. Not teaching Year 9 for example. Changing the spending to expectations ratio isn't a sufficient answer, but it is a necessary ingredient.
Second, as an electorate, we've persuaded ourselves that tax rates must never increase. To even suggest it is Electoral Doom.
So we get gimmicks like this from Labour, or stealth rises from Sunak and Hunt. Not because they're good ways of getting money, but because politicians think they can sneak them past us.
Once again, we get the politicians we deserve, unfortunately.
“… Leicestershire police said that even though he lacked any evidence, the man had a legitimate right to make a social services referral because he disagreed with Creasy’s views on misogyny...”
Coupled with this “ …her harasser, who also bombarded her office with emails…”, there’s a clear patter of harassment.
The police might have been correct that the level of harassment didn’t meet the bar for a criminal prosecution, but they were absolutely wrong to say he had a “right” to make what seems very clearly to be a vexatious complaint.
And why did a social services investigation take place as a result of his complaint ?
We are at the beginning of the end of one such phenomenon. I think the cultural left peaked in 2020. Listen to the derisive connotation of the word “woke” now. Look at newspapers, once all-in on this stuff, edge back a bit.
https://www.ft.com/content/56b5c04c-6e68-448e-ac9d-3eb6e112fc79
Search “Learn to love ambiguity” if you’re not a subscriber
I think there's a case for having clear penalties for making this kind of complaint maliciously, as it can easily traumatise families (as well as wasting others' time). It sounds like this is a clear example of an entirely malicious complaint, so some penalty for the complainant seems entirely justified.
Private schools aren't businesses and most typically operate on very tight margins where they just about break even.
Where do the think the extra 20% is coming from if not from the school's reserves or the patents? Thin air?
Same old Labour.
There will be others.
It shows just how clueless they are.
Perhaps. But Netflix do have a 'documentary' featuring a black Cleopatra.
https://twitter.com/MassDara/status/1652032013518381066
Precisely the wrong way to go about it.
- the causal connection between wealth and control of weapons
- income comes through the control and exploitation of one specific commodity
- The pervasive use of blackmail and the fear of revenge as a tactic
- The amoral and largely ideology free nature of power
- Use of extreme violence to intimidate and cow members of the public
- Doling out of “punishment beatings” to teach opponents a lesson
- the ideology of turf and sphere of influence
- Attempts to corrupt and subvert the machinery of (international) law
The psephologist in me wonders if this is because our politics has so long been measured on the swings, particularly swings between the two main protagonists, yet there has never been swings in playgrounds, just roundabouts.
Of course, none of us on PB are driven to embrace political dogma - oh no, like the author, we are all so much the other way ;-)
‘Love God, Limit Government’
Looking at the current polling, Lab+LD+Green is taking well over 55% of the vote. Tory+Reform is 35% at best. That’s why it’s hard to see the Tories winning the next GE.
The locals will tell us less about the mechanics of GE tactical voting because it’s worth voting Green, LD and Independent at local level, but will be helpful in confirming whether the general block sizes the polls indicate are there on the ground.
People may look for ways of defining themselves against the establishment/status quo, but that isn't the same is the power of the status/quo establishment fading, to the contrary; in many ways it is getting more entrenched.
DeSantis allies go to war with an unlikely foe: Nikki Haley
https://www.politico.com/news/2023/04/28/desantis-nikki-haley-2024-election-00094496
...DeSantis is comfortably in second place in most surveys, trailing Trump but well ahead of the other Republicans in the field. But in recent weeks, he has lost ground, with Trump picking up endorsements from several Republican Congress members in Florida and with some major donors expressing reservations about the Florida governor. Two recent polls of South Carolina GOP voters showed Trump far ahead of the pack and Haley only narrowly behind DeSantis. A survey conducted earlier this month by National Public Affairs, a Republican firm co-founded by Clark, found DeSantis at 21 percent, with Haley at 19 percent. A Winthrop University poll taken several weeks earlier showed similar results, with DeSantis at 20 percent and Haley at 18 percent...
https://www.theringer.com/tv/2023/4/21/23692833/picard-season-3-star-trek-nostalgia-fan-reviews-turnaround
Things can both change and unchange.
I suggested Ganesh was intelligent person of the left on PB, and I got torn to shreds thinking he was ever of the left. I havn’t forgotten that. If there is any justice in this world you need to be torn to shreds right now.
We know None of Syed, Phillips or even long time darling of the right Ganesh are voting Starmer at the next election?
The truth is that most (the vast majority) on the left have never bought into the more ridiculous examples of 'cultural left' dogma (e.g. 'sanitising' Roald Dahl books) any more than most on the right don't buy in to the more ridiculous examples of 'cultural right' dogma (e.g. banning Michelangelo's David).
But it suits us both, left and right, to highlight the idiocies of the others side's extemists.
It's a case where an attempted justification for what was, as with blonde jesus, an entirely artistic choice, draws attention and makes it flimsier. Just go like that Mary Queen of Scot film and race blind casting.
In a rethink of strategy, Scotland's First Minister and the new SNP leader Humza Yousaf wants to focus on making the case for independence because he knows pushing for a vote immediately will be rejected<\i>
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-65425495
Left and right need each other as they - they will claim anodyne stuff is crazy, but they'll also claim crazy stuff is crazy. Without that the crazy feeds on itself.
(Sadly that is about 70% true - the rest things are so far gone pointing out the crazy just makes a side defend it harder.
So is anyone attempting to say, Winston Churchill in film Darkest Hour could not have been played by a Pakistani? Why on Earth not?
What it will hit is smaller private schools which survive on a tight budget and whose parents are small business owners, police officers, teachers themselves etc who scrimp and save and avoid foreign holidays and new cars to pay the fees
Also her state is primary #3, which is a good position to be in: The non-Trump field will probably need Iowa and NH to consolidate since there's one Trump and many non-Trumps, so it's going to be hard for any challenger to score a win over Trump until then.
I think that's basically the thinking. That was how it worked 97-2010, anyway.
Seriously - where is the point that KB would get off the de Santis bus?
Shakespeare's wife and three children were all played by actors who appeared to be mixed race or black. Clearly, that's not historically correct but weirdly it made a lot of sense because in the book the character of Agnes (Anne) Hathaway is very much that of an 'outsider', a person who is 'different' or 'other'.
Initially, I assumed it was an example of colour-blind casting but on reflection, I think it was a conscious choice by the director.
I am pretty sure the RSC are not suggesting the historical Anne Hathaway was mixed-raced though.
If you want to just have creative freedom to do what you want then all the better. Just say so.
The right are fighting back and I would expect they will have the insurgents momentum for some time to come.
There are some very unpleasant people, with rather terrifying views, on the right in American politics. I hope, but I fear it’s a forlorn hope,that the British right will not get entangled with them.
It requires intellectual self-confidence to go against the consensus of your peers. The difference is Janan is leading the way. Others are following in its wake.
You don't have it.
Indeed more have switched to RefUK than switched to the Referendum Party in 1997 and Tory voters just staying home could be even more of a problem for Rishi than it was for Major.
Starmer does not turn off moderate Conservatives like Kinnock or Corbyn did but he isn't a leader they have much great enthusiasm for either like many of them did for Blair. Indeed for many small c Conservative voters usually Blair was and still is the only Labour leader they have ever voted for.
Mr. Seal, without getting all Byzantine on you, when a character becomes a religious figure you'd be amazed at all not necessarily historically accurate views people have about them....
It's a downright idiotic policy, typical of Starmer's tactical triangulation rather than proper leadership, and means Labour are a clear and present danger to my family.
Tbh I don't give a f*ck about private schools. I do care about people on the minimum wage who spend most of their income on food, energy and rent.
The cultural/values stuff is properly a bigger barrier than the microeconomics these days, to be honest, but to some extent there's an overlap between the two - and it's a polarising one.
Business needs to navigate this better, as do politicians.
But maybe that is the point.
Are you disputing that Labour ended their last period of office shortly after the biggest recession we've ever had? How would you assess that recession?
What you think in your head doesn't always come out clearly in what you write in your posts.