UK heatwave prompts order to fire up coal plant to meet aircon demand National Grid asks for Ratcliffe-on-Soar plant to go on standby as Britons cope with 30C temperatures https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/jun/12/uk-heatwave-prompts-order-to-fire-up-coal-plant-to-meet-aircon-demand ...Temperatures broke 30C for the first time this year over the weekend and meteorologists forecast the chance of Britain experiencing a hot summer is now 45% – 2.3 times the typical figure.
The hot weather is expected to push up demand for power, as households and businesses switch on airconditioning systems and units. Air conditioning accounts for about a fifth of the total electricity used in buildings around the world.
The earliest the coal-fired plant would be able to connect to Great Britain’s electricity grid would be 2.25pm and it may not be needed. If it is connected to the network on Monday, it would end a 46-day run in which coal has not been used to generate electricity in Britain.
National Grid has suggested that consumers can improve the energy efficiency of air conditioning by changing or cleaning the machine’s reusable filter, closing windows and doors and by shutting curtains to block the sun’s light and heat coming into the home.
Last week, a fault was found on the 1,400 megawatt North Sea Link interconnector which carries power between Norway and the UK, cutting electricity supplies. The power flowing through the 450-mile subsea cable has been reduced by half while the fault, discovered at an onshore facility in Norway, is repaired...
I've emboldened the key part. I am always amazed at the number of houses that in 30c+ weather have all their windows and doors wide open. Particularly in modern houses as soon as the temperature outside is above that inside then everything should be closed up.
I do wonder if for new house builds we should be requiring shutters. They make a massive difference by keeping direct sun from even reaching windows.
A breezy 30c may be more comfortable than a stuffy 26c.
Why did HOLAC deny Nadine Dorries - a former Cabinet Minister - but seek fit to allow a peerage for a 29 year old who served barely six months fetching the coffees?
UK population pyramid 2020 (source: Wikipedia, from ONS)
Peak at around age 9 (will be around 12 now) then declining.
(Scary to note the male surplus in children there as well. One can draw their own conclusions as to why that might be the case, but I have my thoughts)
Biology is one reason. 105 males to 100 females is the natural ratio without any foul play.
In some countries and some cultures its much more skewed than that.
'Natural' ratio with modern medicine, to be fair: it compensates for the lesser survival chance of male children.
Actually and this is somewhat surprising, the male excess is entirely explained by natural reasons.
The ratio of male to female birth has not changed in the past century besides some natural variance.
All the female excess in that chart, was a male excess when they were born too.
Actually the rate of males born in WWII was higher than it has been in the past decade.
I've had a good look at UK births and deaths this morning. I'm trying to square the circle of what feels like insufficient death in the UK population to be perfectly honest. Since 1887 we've averaged 855,708 births. The maximum number of deaths recorded in any year (1918) is 715,246.
My suspicion is perhaps stillbirths haven't always been recorded correctly. But I can't prove that. I'll add some modelled figures maybe
Detailed deaths by age records only exist UK wide since 1974 (I think !) so there's a bit of a black hole in my spreadsheet as to when precisely everyone died. What does look nailed on, since (almost) everyone dies before 100 is good business for funeral directors since I think we must surely see - with life expectancy increases slowing drastically compared to the 20th C plenty more deaths in the next 20 or 30 years or so.
It seems that people are complaining that just because child safeguarding is no good the whole school gets an inadequate, or ineffective rating. So you can have a school which has cracking Maths and English Departments but is no good at safeguarding children and it seems people think it should receive a good or outstanding rating.
Reminds me of the NHS outperforming on all measures apart from health outcomes and saving lives.
The purpose of schools is to educate, especially in Maths and English, as saving lives is for hospitals, safeguarding is important too but not the purpose of school. Indeed 50 years ago most schools, state or private, didn't even do any safeguarding at all.
Indeed, back in the 1970s "safeguarding" involved beating a child with a cane.
And ten years ago a poll found 53% of voters would allow teachers to use the cane again in school with Conservative voters in particular pro caning
They probably mean that other people's children should be whacked. In any case, presumably the entire British cane-making industry closed down in the 1980s, not to mention we are still part of the ECHR. To be serious, what parents are saying is schools are not doing a very good job of preventing disruption, which brings us back to safeguarding, Ofsted and box-ticking.
Plenty of canes still made and used in Singapore and Singapore tops the PISA rankings.
While superficially frivolous, it’s clear evidence, to me, that even the true conservatives have given up.
They’re no longer serious about being in/staying in government.
I stick by my odds;
Evens, the tories never again win a majority.
4/1 they cease to be a meaningful electoral force within a decade.
Given I earlier posted a poll with 53% of UK voters backing restoring the cane in schools (even if 10 years ago) yet another example of leftwingers like you underestimating support for rightwing policies
Oh dear!
I suspect part of your Conservative populist soul died alongside Boris Johnson's career on Friday
Good morning
Just logging in after having spent a fantastic 24 hours at Liverpool's waterfront before we leave for the Isle Of Man later and read @HYUFD comment
Utterly luddite, almost shocking, and not acceptable to the vast majority of us
Re your last sentence I suspect far more than part of his populist soul died with the end of the malign and dreadful Johnson
Boris will be a relative liberal moderate compared to the likes of Braverman, Rees Mogg, Patel, Frost and Badenoch who will increasingly come to the fore of the Conservative Party in opposition if Sunak and Hunt lose the next general election.
With Silvio's passing left liberals used to think he was a rightwing populist extremist, now the Italian PM is the even more rightwing nationalist Meloni (albeit she is less friendly with Putin than he was)
Boris is over - get used to it
HY is the last redoubt apologist for a man that most people now realise was wholly unsuited to high office and it is a weakness of our system that he was ever allowed to get to where he did. He has done massive damage to the Conservative brand, more so than Corbyn did to Labour.
The repair of the Labour brand is in no small part down to Starmer. It's easy to forget how much trouble Labour were in just a few years ago.
Who is the Conservative Starmer? I don't think it's Sunak, and it looks like the Tories are likely to go down the Piddock or Burgon route if they lose the next election.
Mordaunt is the only one who could perhaps mend some bridges with the electorate. But I don’t think she’d be strong enough to take on the party at a time when it is going to be in civil war.
I suspect the next Tory PM isn’t in parliament yet.
It seems that people are complaining that just because child safeguarding is no good the whole school gets an inadequate, or ineffective rating. So you can have a school which has cracking Maths and English Departments but is no good at safeguarding children and it seems people think it should receive a good or outstanding rating.
Reminds me of the NHS outperforming on all measures apart from health outcomes and saving lives.
The purpose of schools is to educate, especially in Maths and English, as saving lives is for hospitals, safeguarding is important too but not the purpose of school. Indeed 50 years ago most schools, state or private, didn't even do any safeguarding at all.
Indeed, back in the 1970s "safeguarding" involved beating a child with a cane.
And ten years ago a poll found 53% of voters would allow teachers to use the cane again in school with Conservative voters in particular pro caning
They probably mean that other people's children should be whacked. In any case, presumably the entire British cane-making industry closed down in the 1980s, not to mention we are still part of the ECHR. To be serious, what parents are saying is schools are not doing a very good job of preventing disruption, which brings us back to safeguarding, Ofsted and box-ticking.
Plenty of canes still made and used in Singapore and Singapore tops the PISA rankings.
While superficially frivolous, it’s clear evidence, to me, that even the true conservatives have given up.
They’re no longer serious about being in/staying in government.
I stick by my odds;
Evens, the tories never again win a majority.
4/1 they cease to be a meaningful electoral force within a decade.
Given I earlier posted a poll with 53% of UK voters backing restoring the cane in schools (even if 10 years ago) yet another example of leftwingers like you underestimating support for rightwing policies
Oh dear!
I suspect part of your Conservative populist soul died alongside Boris Johnson's career on Friday
Good morning
Just logging in after having spent a fantastic 24 hours at Liverpool's waterfront before we leave for the Isle Of Man later and read @HYUFD comment
Utterly luddite, almost shocking, and not acceptable to the vast majority of us
Re your last sentence I suspect far more than part of his populist soul died with the end of the malign and dreadful Johnson
Boris will be a relative liberal moderate compared to the likes of Braverman, Rees Mogg, Patel, Frost and Badenoch who will increasingly come to the fore of the Conservative Party in opposition if Sunak and Hunt lose the next general election.
With Silvio's passing left liberals used to think he was a rightwing populist extremist, now the Italian PM is the even more rightwing nationalist Meloni (albeit she is less friendly with Putin than he was)
Boris is over - get used to it
HY is the last redoubt apologist for a man that most people now realise was wholly unsuited to high office and it is a weakness of our system that he was ever allowed to get to where he did. He has done massive damage to the Conservative brand, more so than Corbyn did to Labour.
The repair of the Labour brand is in no small part down to Starmer. It's easy to forget how much trouble Labour were in just a few years ago.
Who is the Conservative Starmer? I don't think it's Sunak, and it looks like the Tories are likely to go down the Piddock or Burgon route if they lose the next election.
That is my concern too, particularly as the Conservative Party was the victim of a reverse takeover by the Brexit Party with encouragement given from Johnson and the ERG meaning it is stuffed with a membership of right wing swivel-eyed loons.
It is possible that Penny Mordaunt may be the person to reverse teh Tory decline. She is more rightwing than I would like, but has considerably more personality than nice-but-dull Starmer and might just detox the Conservative brand enough to make a comeback after one term if Starmer doesn't win a commanding majority.
At the moment everyone's vote is worth the same. How do you address the problem you describe in a way that doesn't change that?
In theory yes, in practice no.
Look at my profile picture. How much value does my vote have, really? I could vote Labour, but Labour will win anyway, so does it matter if I don't vote. I could vote 'not' Labour, but Labour will still win anyway, so it still doesn't matter.
Of course, the power of your vote is really determined by:
1. The system of voting used (FPTP really does diminish the value of a vote - every vote after the winning one is wasted, and every vote for the losers are wasted too). 2. How many people can be bothered to vote, or not bothered to vote. The less people vote, the more powerful your own vote then becomes. 3. What you are voting for. (ie, are you electing a government, or is it a vote in the Kaiserreich, were the Kaiser simply overrules the 'government' anyway) - this isn't a problem in the UK usually.
The honest answer is: Everyone should vote. Imagine the vast changes in results if the 25% of those who don't vote suddenly did. The system should be fairer to avoid situations like Bootle.
I've no idea how to implement the first. Making it illegal to not vote seems (itself) undemocratic to me. As to the second, scrapping FPTP seems a logical move, but I don't claim to know what is better to replace it with.
If you take an ultra individualistic view of reality then no individual vote counts except in an election where the majority is exactly one.
But this view is false. On this hypothesis, my vote counts in this unique case because it makes an obvious difference. But the situation only arises because of the mass of other voters who happened, by the wisdom of crowds, on this result. So ALL their votes count in this case.
Which means that ALL the voters votes count in every case - each result, even in Bootle, being a totality.
So every result is the result of all the voters; my vote counts (even in Bootle) not because I am just one individual, but because I am part of the totality.
This has a feel of the Battle of the Bulge to it (one last throw of the dice).
Aleksandr Dugin appears to have entered some kind of delirium suggesting an asymmetric move to respond to the Ukrainian offensive. For instance, he suggests sending new forces to Kharkiv and Odesa. The denial is palpable. https://twitter.com/wartranslated/status/1668204733335519232
I fully support his proposal that their troops be removed from defending occupied territory and moved elsewhere. 👍
I thought this was quite telling:
What a shame that Xi disagrees, and the Russians have got almost nothing out of China in the past 18 months.
Xi is sensible enough, to know he doesn’t want to kick off WWIII, which is what will happen if the Chinese army ends up in Ukraine.
Why did HOLAC deny Nadine Dorries - a former Cabinet Minister - but seek fit to allow a peerage for a 29 year old who served barely six months fetching the coffees?
Something still doesn’t add up.
There was someone on R4 this morning who is some sort of constitutional expert explaining that HOLAC can’t decide on who is appropriate for the Lords, as in does that person have skills and ability that are a positive, they instead have a role of weeding out anyone who isn’t suitable by way of skeletons in cupboards, bad behaviour or dodgy links so couldn’t stop that appointment.
It seems that people are complaining that just because child safeguarding is no good the whole school gets an inadequate, or ineffective rating. So you can have a school which has cracking Maths and English Departments but is no good at safeguarding children and it seems people think it should receive a good or outstanding rating.
Reminds me of the NHS outperforming on all measures apart from health outcomes and saving lives.
The purpose of schools is to educate, especially in Maths and English, as saving lives is for hospitals, safeguarding is important too but not the purpose of school. Indeed 50 years ago most schools, state or private, didn't even do any safeguarding at all.
Indeed, back in the 1970s "safeguarding" involved beating a child with a cane.
And ten years ago a poll found 53% of voters would allow teachers to use the cane again in school with Conservative voters in particular pro caning
They probably mean that other people's children should be whacked. In any case, presumably the entire British cane-making industry closed down in the 1980s, not to mention we are still part of the ECHR. To be serious, what parents are saying is schools are not doing a very good job of preventing disruption, which brings us back to safeguarding, Ofsted and box-ticking.
Plenty of canes still made and used in Singapore and Singapore tops the PISA rankings.
While superficially frivolous, it’s clear evidence, to me, that even the true conservatives have given up.
They’re no longer serious about being in/staying in government.
I stick by my odds;
Evens, the tories never again win a majority.
4/1 they cease to be a meaningful electoral force within a decade.
Given I earlier posted a poll with 53% of UK voters backing restoring the cane in schools (even if 10 years ago) yet another example of leftwingers like you underestimating support for rightwing policies
Oh dear!
I suspect part of your Conservative populist soul died alongside Boris Johnson's career on Friday
Good morning
Just logging in after having spent a fantastic 24 hours at Liverpool's waterfront before we leave for the Isle Of Man later and read @HYUFD comment
Utterly luddite, almost shocking, and not acceptable to the vast majority of us
Re your last sentence I suspect far more than part of his populist soul died with the end of the malign and dreadful Johnson
Boris will be a relative liberal moderate compared to the likes of Braverman, Rees Mogg, Patel, Frost and Badenoch who will increasingly come to the fore of the Conservative Party in opposition if Sunak and Hunt lose the next general election.
With Silvio's passing left liberals used to think he was a rightwing populist extremist, now the Italian PM is the even more rightwing nationalist Meloni (albeit she is less friendly with Putin than he was)
Boris is over - get used to it
HY is the last redoubt apologist for a man that most people now realise was wholly unsuited to high office and it is a weakness of our system that he was ever allowed to get to where he did. He has done massive damage to the Conservative brand, more so than Corbyn did to Labour.
The repair of the Labour brand is in no small part down to Starmer. It's easy to forget how much trouble Labour were in just a few years ago.
Who is the Conservative Starmer? I don't think it's Sunak, and it looks like the Tories are likely to go down the Piddock or Burgon route if they lose the next election.
That is my concern too, particularly as the Conservative Party was the victim of a reverse takeover by the Brexit Party with encouragement given from Johnson and the ERG meaning it is stuffed with a membership of right wing swivel-eyed loons.
It is possible that Penny Mordaunt may be the person to reverse teh Tory decline. She is more rightwing than I would like, but has considerably more personality than nice-but-dull Starmer and might just detox the Conservative brand enough to make a comeback after one term if Starmer doesn't win a commanding majority.
Why did HOLAC deny Nadine Dorries - a former Cabinet Minister - but seek fit to allow a peerage for a 29 year old who served barely six months fetching the coffees?
Something still doesn’t add up.
I understand it was because the 4 mps were all sitting members but goodness knows about the 29 year old
UK population pyramid 2020 (source: Wikipedia, from ONS)
Peak at around age 9 (will be around 12 now) then declining.
(Scary to note the male surplus in children there as well. One can draw their own conclusions as to why that might be the case, but I have my thoughts)
Biology is one reason. 105 males to 100 females is the natural ratio without any foul play.
In some countries and some cultures its much more skewed than that.
'Natural' ratio with modern medicine, to be fair: it compensates for the lesser survival chance of male children.
Actually and this is somewhat surprising, the male excess is entirely explained by natural reasons.
The ratio of male to female birth has not changed in the past century besides some natural variance.
All the female excess in that chart, was a male excess when they were born too.
Actually the rate of males born in WWII was higher than it has been in the past decade.
I've had a good look at UK births and deaths this morning. I'm trying to square the circle of what feels like insufficient death in the UK population to be perfectly honest. Since 1887 we've averaged 855,708 births. The maximum number of deaths recorded in any year (1918) is 715,246.
My suspicion is perhaps stillbirths haven't always been recorded correctly. But I can't prove that. I'll add some modelled figures maybe
Detailed deaths by age records only exist UK wide since 1974 (I think !) so there's a bit of a black hole in my spreadsheet as to when precisely everyone died. What does look nailed on, since (almost) everyone dies before 100 is good business for funeral directors since I think we must surely see - with life expectancy increases slowing drastically compared to the 20th C plenty more deaths in the next 20 or 30 years or so.
Perhaps the problem arises from the fact that the UK population is not in a steady state?
Why did HOLAC deny Nadine Dorries - a former Cabinet Minister - but seek fit to allow a peerage for a 29 year old who served barely six months fetching the coffees?
Something still doesn’t add up.
There was someone on R4 this morning who is some sort of constitutional expert explaining that HOLAC can’t decide on who is appropriate for the Lords, as in does that person have skills and ability that are a positive, they instead have a role of weeding out anyone who isn’t suitable by way of skeletons in cupboards, bad behaviour or dodgy links so couldn’t stop that appointment.
This is Mike's site, and he can post what he likes on it. He is a LibDem supporter, and his header is a plug, which he is entitled to make. The LibDems did very poorly in the May council elections in Central Beds, and lost in the Bedford mayoral election, having held the post of elected mayor for 14 years. In Central Beds the independents swept to power, ousting many Tory candidates. They are a well organised group, and Gareth Mackey is a well known, popular and longstanding councillor in Flitwick, which is the largest centre of population in the Mid Beds constituency. He is standing as an independent, and backed by the independent group.
In my opinion, and I live locally, if anyone can beat the Tories it will be the independent candidate. I cannot yet find a betting market, but if I find one, I will be putting my money where my mouth is.
No, he will never get the backing or the organisation. The LDs should put former Mayor Dave up as candidate
At the moment everyone's vote is worth the same. How do you address the problem you describe in a way that doesn't change that?
In theory yes, in practice no.
Look at my profile picture. How much value does my vote have, really? I could vote Labour, but Labour will win anyway, so does it matter if I don't vote. I could vote 'not' Labour, but Labour will still win anyway, so it still doesn't matter.
Of course, the power of your vote is really determined by:
1. The system of voting used (FPTP really does diminish the value of a vote - every vote after the winning one is wasted, and every vote for the losers are wasted too). 2. How many people can be bothered to vote, or not bothered to vote. The less people vote, the more powerful your own vote then becomes. 3. What you are voting for. (ie, are you electing a government, or is it a vote in the Kaiserreich, were the Kaiser simply overrules the 'government' anyway) - this isn't a problem in the UK usually.
The honest answer is: Everyone should vote. Imagine the vast changes in results if the 25% of those who don't vote suddenly did. The system should be fairer to avoid situations like Bootle.
I've no idea how to implement the first. Making it illegal to not vote seems (itself) undemocratic to me. As to the second, scrapping FPTP seems a logical move, but I don't claim to know what is better to replace it with.
AIUI, in Australia, where voting is compulsory, one can put a blank ballot paper into the box or one with everyone voted for. Seems fair enough to me.
Pedant Alert: They have preferential voting, everyone's supposed to be voted for, its just the order that matters.
But yes, nothing unlawful about a deliberately spoilt ballot.
Do they list the candidates by party or in alphabetical order? IIRC there’s some evidence that alphabetical order makes a difference in constituencies where they’re more than two candidates to be elected.
The "Donkey Vote" has been estimated to be 1-2% of the vote in the past, thanks to the combination of preferential voting and compulsory voting.
Nowadays the Electoral Commission determines the order of candidates on the ballot paper randomly after close of nominations in order to make this fairer. But it still means an element of luck can change a swing seat.
Why did HOLAC deny Nadine Dorries - a former Cabinet Minister - but seek fit to allow a peerage for a 29 year old who served barely six months fetching the coffees?
It seems that people are complaining that just because child safeguarding is no good the whole school gets an inadequate, or ineffective rating. So you can have a school which has cracking Maths and English Departments but is no good at safeguarding children and it seems people think it should receive a good or outstanding rating.
Reminds me of the NHS outperforming on all measures apart from health outcomes and saving lives.
The purpose of schools is to educate, especially in Maths and English, as saving lives is for hospitals, safeguarding is important too but not the purpose of school. Indeed 50 years ago most schools, state or private, didn't even do any safeguarding at all.
Indeed, back in the 1970s "safeguarding" involved beating a child with a cane.
And ten years ago a poll found 53% of voters would allow teachers to use the cane again in school with Conservative voters in particular pro caning
They probably mean that other people's children should be whacked. In any case, presumably the entire British cane-making industry closed down in the 1980s, not to mention we are still part of the ECHR. To be serious, what parents are saying is schools are not doing a very good job of preventing disruption, which brings us back to safeguarding, Ofsted and box-ticking.
Plenty of canes still made and used in Singapore and Singapore tops the PISA rankings.
While superficially frivolous, it’s clear evidence, to me, that even the true conservatives have given up.
They’re no longer serious about being in/staying in government.
I stick by my odds;
Evens, the tories never again win a majority.
4/1 they cease to be a meaningful electoral force within a decade.
Given I earlier posted a poll with 53% of UK voters backing restoring the cane in schools (even if 10 years ago) yet another example of leftwingers like you underestimating support for rightwing policies
Oh dear!
I suspect part of your Conservative populist soul died alongside Boris Johnson's career on Friday
Good morning
Just logging in after having spent a fantastic 24 hours at Liverpool's waterfront before we leave for the Isle Of Man later and read @HYUFD comment
Utterly luddite, almost shocking, and not acceptable to the vast majority of us
Re your last sentence I suspect far more than part of his populist soul died with the end of the malign and dreadful Johnson
Boris will be a relative liberal moderate compared to the likes of Braverman, Rees Mogg, Patel, Frost and Badenoch who will increasingly come to the fore of the Conservative Party in opposition if Sunak and Hunt lose the next general election.
With Silvio's passing left liberals used to think he was a rightwing populist extremist, now the Italian PM is the even more rightwing nationalist Meloni (albeit she is less friendly with Putin than he was)
Boris is over - get used to it
HY is the last redoubt apologist for a man that most people now realise was wholly unsuited to high office and it is a weakness of our system that he was ever allowed to get to where he did. He has done massive damage to the Conservative brand, more so than Corbyn did to Labour.
The repair of the Labour brand is in no small part down to Starmer. It's easy to forget how much trouble Labour were in just a few years ago.
Who is the Conservative Starmer? I don't think it's Sunak, and it looks like the Tories are likely to go down the Piddock or Burgon route if they lose the next election.
That is my concern too, particularly as the Conservative Party was the victim of a reverse takeover by the Brexit Party with encouragement given from Johnson and the ERG meaning it is stuffed with a membership of right wing swivel-eyed loons.
It is possible that Penny Mordaunt may be the person to reverse teh Tory decline. She is more rightwing than I would like, but has considerably more personality than nice-but-dull Starmer and might just detox the Conservative brand enough to make a comeback after one term if Starmer doesn't win a commanding majority.
President Mordaunt, 2029.
Mordaunt pretty terrible. Look at her repeated blatant lies about Turkey joining the EU, and doubling-down on them Trump or Johnson-style when picked up on them. Enough of the shameless liars like Johnson or Mordaunt.
This has a feel of the Battle of the Bulge to it (one last throw of the dice).
Aleksandr Dugin appears to have entered some kind of delirium suggesting an asymmetric move to respond to the Ukrainian offensive. For instance, he suggests sending new forces to Kharkiv and Odesa. The denial is palpable. https://twitter.com/wartranslated/status/1668204733335519232
I fully support his proposal that their troops be removed from defending occupied territory and moved elsewhere. 👍
I thought this was quite telling:
Would they not first have to march through Russia ? What if they stopped half way.
Obviously they would not be leaving - wherever they ended up.
In a slightly more likely scenario - if a Russian collapse occurs, USSR style, would we care if China gets full control (in one way or another) over Eastern Siberia?
The joke about Vladivostok earlier was funny because it was entirely plausible.
Why did HOLAC deny Nadine Dorries - a former Cabinet Minister - but seek fit to allow a peerage for a 29 year old who served barely six months fetching the coffees?
Something still doesn’t add up.
There was someone on R4 this morning who is some sort of constitutional expert explaining that HOLAC can’t decide on who is appropriate for the Lords, as in does that person have skills and ability that are a positive, they instead have a role of weeding out anyone who isn’t suitable by way of skeletons in cupboards, bad behaviour or dodgy links so couldn’t stop that appointment.
No, that doesn’t work, because it requires Dorries, Sharma etc to have skeletons in cupboards, which I don’t think is right.
The suggestion upthread is that they either didn’t make it to HOLAC - which I think is Johnson’s contention? - or that they were ruled out because they were sitting MPs.
But since when were sitting MPs precluded from getting peerages?
Why did HOLAC deny Nadine Dorries - a former Cabinet Minister - but seek fit to allow a peerage for a 29 year old who served barely six months fetching the coffees?
Something still doesn’t add up.
There was someone on R4 this morning who is some sort of constitutional expert explaining that HOLAC can’t decide on who is appropriate for the Lords, as in does that person have skills and ability that are a positive, they instead have a role of weeding out anyone who isn’t suitable by way of skeletons in cupboards, bad behaviour or dodgy links so couldn’t stop that appointment.
No, that doesn’t work, because it requires Dorries, Sharma etc to have skeletons in cupboards, which I don’t think is right.
The suggestion upthread is that they either didn’t make it to HOLAC - which I think is Johnson’s contention? - or that they were ruled out because they were sitting MPs.
But since when were sitting MPs precluded from getting peerages?
I think HOLAC is said to have objected to their being awarded peerages, and allowed to defer them until the next election.
A lot of people (not just teenagers) don't rate the right to vote much - they correctly judge that they will probably never make an individual difference in their entire lives, plus they think politics is pretty seedy and uninteresting anyway. After all, a "good" turnout is 75%, and I don't believe the other 25% are all dead or incapacitated. Nor are all the 75% really that niterested - it's just something one does.
Not endorsing any of that, of course, but it's sadly reality. Fits with the polls showing large minorities would welcome a Strong Man sorting things out.
A positive spin on this is that we need to explain to teenagers that social media can be very effective in politics, particularly for local elections.
You need to be funny and acerbic, with some good video editing
Vladimir Putin understands this. He found it very useful in 2016.
TBH asking anyone 'would you rather give up your right to vote, or [thing you enjoy and/or rely on on a daily basis]', it doesn't surprise me that more choose the latter.
It's a silly question and a silly poll that infers a golden age of democratic engagement that has never existed. TBH I'm surprised the number wasn't higher.
This is Mike's site, and he can post what he likes on it. He is a LibDem supporter, and his header is a plug, which he is entitled to make. The LibDems did very poorly in the May council elections in Central Beds, and lost in the Bedford mayoral election, having held the post of elected mayor for 14 years. In Central Beds the independents swept to power, ousting many Tory candidates. They are a well organised group, and Gareth Mackey is a well known, popular and longstanding councillor in Flitwick, which is the largest centre of population in the Mid Beds constituency. He is standing as an independent, and backed by the independent group.
In my opinion, and I live locally, if anyone can beat the Tories it will be the independent candidate. I cannot yet find a betting market, but if I find one, I will be putting my money where my mouth is.
The Conservatives gaining the Bedford mayoralty was one of the strangest results of the elections.
Very close, and the main swings were Lib to Lab and lack of UKIP to Con.
Presumably the Lib to Lab voters dinnae ken the effect of their switch under FPTP instead of SV.
It seems that people are complaining that just because child safeguarding is no good the whole school gets an inadequate, or ineffective rating. So you can have a school which has cracking Maths and English Departments but is no good at safeguarding children and it seems people think it should receive a good or outstanding rating.
Reminds me of the NHS outperforming on all measures apart from health outcomes and saving lives.
The purpose of schools is to educate, especially in Maths and English, as saving lives is for hospitals, safeguarding is important too but not the purpose of school. Indeed 50 years ago most schools, state or private, didn't even do any safeguarding at all.
Indeed, back in the 1970s "safeguarding" involved beating a child with a cane.
And ten years ago a poll found 53% of voters would allow teachers to use the cane again in school with Conservative voters in particular pro caning
They probably mean that other people's children should be whacked. In any case, presumably the entire British cane-making industry closed down in the 1980s, not to mention we are still part of the ECHR. To be serious, what parents are saying is schools are not doing a very good job of preventing disruption, which brings us back to safeguarding, Ofsted and box-ticking.
Plenty of canes still made and used in Singapore and Singapore tops the PISA rankings.
While superficially frivolous, it’s clear evidence, to me, that even the true conservatives have given up.
They’re no longer serious about being in/staying in government.
I stick by my odds;
Evens, the tories never again win a majority.
4/1 they cease to be a meaningful electoral force within a decade.
Given I earlier posted a poll with 53% of UK voters backing restoring the cane in schools (even if 10 years ago) yet another example of leftwingers like you underestimating support for rightwing policies
Oh dear!
I suspect part of your Conservative populist soul died alongside Boris Johnson's career on Friday
Good morning
Just logging in after having spent a fantastic 24 hours at Liverpool's waterfront before we leave for the Isle Of Man later and read @HYUFD comment
Utterly luddite, almost shocking, and not acceptable to the vast majority of us
Re your last sentence I suspect far more than part of his populist soul died with the end of the malign and dreadful Johnson
Boris will be a relative liberal moderate compared to the likes of Braverman, Rees Mogg, Patel, Frost and Badenoch who will increasingly come to the fore of the Conservative Party in opposition if Sunak and Hunt lose the next general election.
With Silvio's passing left liberals used to think he was a rightwing populist extremist, now the Italian PM is the even more rightwing nationalist Meloni (albeit she is less friendly with Putin than he was)
Boris is over - get used to it
HY is the last redoubt apologist for a man that most people now realise was wholly unsuited to high office and it is a weakness of our system that he was ever allowed to get to where he did. He has done massive damage to the Conservative brand, more so than Corbyn did to Labour.
The repair of the Labour brand is in no small part down to Starmer. It's easy to forget how much trouble Labour were in just a few years ago.
Who is the Conservative Starmer? I don't think it's Sunak, and it looks like the Tories are likely to go down the Piddock or Burgon route if they lose the next election.
That is my concern too, particularly as the Conservative Party was the victim of a reverse takeover by the Brexit Party with encouragement given from Johnson and the ERG meaning it is stuffed with a membership of right wing swivel-eyed loons.
It is possible that Penny Mordaunt may be the person to reverse teh Tory decline. She is more rightwing than I would like, but has considerably more personality than nice-but-dull Starmer and might just detox the Conservative brand enough to make a comeback after one term if Starmer doesn't win a commanding majority.
President Mordaunt, 2029.
Mordaunt pretty terrible. Look at her repeated blatant lies about Turkey joining the EU, and doubling-down on them Trump or Johnson-style when picked up on them. Enough of the shameless liars like Johnson or Mordaunt.
Also probably can't pass the alt-right fucc boi purity test of "What is a woman?".
PM4PM is the herpes of British politics. A painful and disfiguring condition that won't go away and yet never kills the patient.
It seems that people are complaining that just because child safeguarding is no good the whole school gets an inadequate, or ineffective rating. So you can have a school which has cracking Maths and English Departments but is no good at safeguarding children and it seems people think it should receive a good or outstanding rating.
Reminds me of the NHS outperforming on all measures apart from health outcomes and saving lives.
The purpose of schools is to educate, especially in Maths and English, as saving lives is for hospitals, safeguarding is important too but not the purpose of school. Indeed 50 years ago most schools, state or private, didn't even do any safeguarding at all.
Indeed, back in the 1970s "safeguarding" involved beating a child with a cane.
And ten years ago a poll found 53% of voters would allow teachers to use the cane again in school with Conservative voters in particular pro caning
They probably mean that other people's children should be whacked. In any case, presumably the entire British cane-making industry closed down in the 1980s, not to mention we are still part of the ECHR. To be serious, what parents are saying is schools are not doing a very good job of preventing disruption, which brings us back to safeguarding, Ofsted and box-ticking.
Plenty of canes still made and used in Singapore and Singapore tops the PISA rankings.
While superficially frivolous, it’s clear evidence, to me, that even the true conservatives have given up.
They’re no longer serious about being in/staying in government.
I stick by my odds;
Evens, the tories never again win a majority.
4/1 they cease to be a meaningful electoral force within a decade.
Given I earlier posted a poll with 53% of UK voters backing restoring the cane in schools (even if 10 years ago) yet another example of leftwingers like you underestimating support for rightwing policies
Oh dear!
I suspect part of your Conservative populist soul died alongside Boris Johnson's career on Friday
Good morning
Just logging in after having spent a fantastic 24 hours at Liverpool's waterfront before we leave for the Isle Of Man later and read @HYUFD comment
Utterly luddite, almost shocking, and not acceptable to the vast majority of us
Re your last sentence I suspect far more than part of his populist soul died with the end of the malign and dreadful Johnson
Boris will be a relative liberal moderate compared to the likes of Braverman, Rees Mogg, Patel, Frost and Badenoch who will increasingly come to the fore of the Conservative Party in opposition if Sunak and Hunt lose the next general election.
With Silvio's passing left liberals used to think he was a rightwing populist extremist, now the Italian PM is the even more rightwing nationalist Meloni (albeit she is less friendly with Putin than he was)
Boris is over - get used to it
HY is the last redoubt apologist for a man that most people now realise was wholly unsuited to high office and it is a weakness of our system that he was ever allowed to get to where he did. He has done massive damage to the Conservative brand, more so than Corbyn did to Labour.
The repair of the Labour brand is in no small part down to Starmer. It's easy to forget how much trouble Labour were in just a few years ago.
Who is the Conservative Starmer? I don't think it's Sunak, and it looks like the Tories are likely to go down the Piddock or Burgon route if they lose the next election.
That is my concern too, particularly as the Conservative Party was the victim of a reverse takeover by the Brexit Party with encouragement given from Johnson and the ERG meaning it is stuffed with a membership of right wing swivel-eyed loons.
It is possible that Penny Mordaunt may be the person to reverse teh Tory decline. She is more rightwing than I would like, but has considerably more personality than nice-but-dull Starmer and might just detox the Conservative brand enough to make a comeback after one term if Starmer doesn't win a commanding majority.
President Mordaunt, 2029.
Mordaunt pretty terrible. Look at her repeated blatant lies about Turkey joining the EU, and doubling-down on them Trump or Johnson-style when picked up on them. Enough of the shameless liars like Johnson or Mordaunt.
Oh don't be silly. These attacks on her have the credibility and desperation of the Tory attacks on Starmer for being in Corbyn's cabinet. I am sure she has said some silly things, but tell me a politician that hasn't. Suggesting she is in the same league as Johnson or Trump is infantile.
Why did HOLAC deny Nadine Dorries - a former Cabinet Minister - but seek fit to allow a peerage for a 29 year old who served barely six months fetching the coffees?
Something still doesn’t add up.
There was someone on R4 this morning who is some sort of constitutional expert explaining that HOLAC can’t decide on who is appropriate for the Lords, as in does that person have skills and ability that are a positive, they instead have a role of weeding out anyone who isn’t suitable by way of skeletons in cupboards, bad behaviour or dodgy links so couldn’t stop that appointment.
No, that doesn’t work, because it requires Dorries, Sharma etc to have skeletons in cupboards, which I don’t think is right.
The suggestion upthread is that they either didn’t make it to HOLAC - which I think is Johnson’s contention? - or that they were ruled out because they were sitting MPs.
But since when were sitting MPs precluded from getting peerages?
I think HOLAC is said to have objected to their being awarded peerages, and allowed to defer them until the next election.
Not unreasonably.
That's what Tim Shipman says happened in S Times. The MPs failed to understand that they had to resign their seats in order to get to be a peer. As they had not indicated they understood this they were scratched off the list.
Why did HOLAC deny Nadine Dorries - a former Cabinet Minister - but seek fit to allow a peerage for a 29 year old who served barely six months fetching the coffees?
Something still doesn’t add up.
There was someone on R4 this morning who is some sort of constitutional expert explaining that HOLAC can’t decide on who is appropriate for the Lords, as in does that person have skills and ability that are a positive, they instead have a role of weeding out anyone who isn’t suitable by way of skeletons in cupboards, bad behaviour or dodgy links so couldn’t stop that appointment.
No, that doesn’t work, because it requires Dorries, Sharma etc to have skeletons in cupboards, which I don’t think is right.
The suggestion upthread is that they either didn’t make it to HOLAC - which I think is Johnson’s contention? - or that they were ruled out because they were sitting MPs.
But since when were sitting MPs precluded from getting peerages?
I was answering your question about why they were ok with the 29 year old.
As far as I can tell Dorries and co weren’t on the list that went across as there were issues around them having to have confirmed they would resign as MPs and those reassurances weren’t there and so could not be submitted.
Hence the talk that Johnson tried to get Sunak to confirm he would enable them another time if they didn’t go on list that time.
Boris Johnson, Nadine Dorries and Nigel Adams have yet to formally resign
Resigning MPs have to apply to Treasury to become Steward of the Chiltern Hundreds or Bailiff of the Manor of Northstead
Means writ for the three by-elections won't be moved today…
It also raises the question of whether Boris Johnson will still technically be an MP when the Privileges Committee delivers its verdict, which is expected tomorrow.
UK population pyramid 2020 (source: Wikipedia, from ONS)
Peak at around age 9 (will be around 12 now) then declining.
(Scary to note the male surplus in children there as well. One can draw their own conclusions as to why that might be the case, but I have my thoughts)
Biology is one reason. 105 males to 100 females is the natural ratio without any foul play.
In some countries and some cultures its much more skewed than that.
'Natural' ratio with modern medicine, to be fair: it compensates for the lesser survival chance of male children.
Actually and this is somewhat surprising, the male excess is entirely explained by natural reasons.
The ratio of male to female birth has not changed in the past century besides some natural variance.
All the female excess in that chart, was a male excess when they were born too.
Actually the rate of males born in WWII was higher than it has been in the past decade.
I've had a good look at UK births and deaths this morning. I'm trying to square the circle of what feels like insufficient death in the UK population to be perfectly honest. Since 1887 we've averaged 855,708 births. The maximum number of deaths recorded in any year (1918) is 715,246.
My suspicion is perhaps stillbirths haven't always been recorded correctly. But I can't prove that. I'll add some modelled figures maybe
Detailed deaths by age records only exist UK wide since 1974 (I think !) so there's a bit of a black hole in my spreadsheet as to when precisely everyone died. What does look nailed on, since (almost) everyone dies before 100 is good business for funeral directors since I think we must surely see - with life expectancy increases slowing drastically compared to the 20th C plenty more deaths in the next 20 or 30 years or so.
Perhaps the problem arises from the fact that the UK population is not in a steady state?
When someone emigrates then it's -1 off the death figure at some point in the future. However someone migrating here is +1 to the death figure (Perhaps further than the -1 of the emigrant ?) also at some point in the future. But we've experienced net migration inward since well forever, the age profile of emigrants would have to be markedly higher (Perhaps it is) in order for migration to decrease the death statistics.
This has a feel of the Battle of the Bulge to it (one last throw of the dice).
Aleksandr Dugin appears to have entered some kind of delirium suggesting an asymmetric move to respond to the Ukrainian offensive. For instance, he suggests sending new forces to Kharkiv and Odesa. The denial is palpable. https://twitter.com/wartranslated/status/1668204733335519232
I fully support his proposal that their troops be removed from defending occupied territory and moved elsewhere. 👍
I thought this was quite telling:
I saw this on AlternativeHistory.com.
It was hilarious. The idea that China will lend 3 million troops to Russia. I'm sure they will.
They'll say, "Look, we'll relieve your troops in the Russian Far East, and use our troops to guard your own border with us. No, no, it'll be fine. Haishenwai will be perfectly safe with our troops....."
Russia - Haishenwai? You mean Vladivostock?
China - Ha ha! Yes. Haishenwai..... perfectly safe. Now off you pop.
Genuine LOL! 😁
China carrying out military ‘exercises’ close to their border with Russia would be hillarious, and anything that takes Russian resources and focus away from Ukraine would obviously be more than welcome.
Why did HOLAC deny Nadine Dorries - a former Cabinet Minister - but seek fit to allow a peerage for a 29 year old who served barely six months fetching the coffees?
Something still doesn’t add up.
There was someone on R4 this morning who is some sort of constitutional expert explaining that HOLAC can’t decide on who is appropriate for the Lords, as in does that person have skills and ability that are a positive, they instead have a role of weeding out anyone who isn’t suitable by way of skeletons in cupboards, bad behaviour or dodgy links so couldn’t stop that appointment.
No, that doesn’t work, because it requires Dorries, Sharma etc to have skeletons in cupboards, which I don’t think is right.
The suggestion upthread is that they either didn’t make it to HOLAC - which I think is Johnson’s contention? - or that they were ruled out because they were sitting MPs.
But since when were sitting MPs precluded from getting peerages?
I was answering your question about why they were ok with the 29 year old.
As far as I can tell Dorries and co weren’t on the list that went across as there were issues around them having to have confirmed they would resign as MPs and those reassurances weren’t there and so could not be submitted.
Hence the talk that Johnson tried to get Sunak to confirm he would enable them another time if they didn’t go on list that time.
A lot of people (not just teenagers) don't rate the right to vote much - they correctly judge that they will probably never make an individual difference in their entire lives, plus they think politics is pretty seedy and uninteresting anyway. After all, a "good" turnout is 75%, and I don't believe the other 25% are all dead or incapacitated. Nor are all the 75% really that niterested - it's just something one does.
Not endorsing any of that, of course, but it's sadly reality. Fits with the polls showing large minorities would welcome a Strong Man sorting things out.
A positive spin on this is that we need to explain to teenagers that social media can be very effective in politics, particularly for local elections.
You need to be funny and acerbic, with some good video editing
Vladimir Putin understands this. He found it very useful in 2016.
TBH asking anyone 'would you rather give up your right to vote, or [thing you enjoy and/or rely on on a daily basis]', it doesn't surprise me that more choose the latter.
It's a silly question and a silly poll that infers a golden age of democratic engagement that has never existed. TBH I'm surprised the number wasn't higher.
Yeah. There are various things I'd give up my personal right to vote to obtain or retain; rather fewer I'd keep in exchange for disenfranchisement of a large lump of the population.
Incidentally many people who migrate to live overseas either temporarily or permanently is trading away a right to vote for other benefits. So it's not a pure hypothetical.
It seems that people are complaining that just because child safeguarding is no good the whole school gets an inadequate, or ineffective rating. So you can have a school which has cracking Maths and English Departments but is no good at safeguarding children and it seems people think it should receive a good or outstanding rating.
Reminds me of the NHS outperforming on all measures apart from health outcomes and saving lives.
The purpose of schools is to educate, especially in Maths and English, as saving lives is for hospitals, safeguarding is important too but not the purpose of school. Indeed 50 years ago most schools, state or private, didn't even do any safeguarding at all.
Indeed, back in the 1970s "safeguarding" involved beating a child with a cane.
And ten years ago a poll found 53% of voters would allow teachers to use the cane again in school with Conservative voters in particular pro caning
They probably mean that other people's children should be whacked. In any case, presumably the entire British cane-making industry closed down in the 1980s, not to mention we are still part of the ECHR. To be serious, what parents are saying is schools are not doing a very good job of preventing disruption, which brings us back to safeguarding, Ofsted and box-ticking.
Plenty of canes still made and used in Singapore and Singapore tops the PISA rankings.
While superficially frivolous, it’s clear evidence, to me, that even the true conservatives have given up.
They’re no longer serious about being in/staying in government.
I stick by my odds;
Evens, the tories never again win a majority.
4/1 they cease to be a meaningful electoral force within a decade.
Given I earlier posted a poll with 53% of UK voters backing restoring the cane in schools (even if 10 years ago) yet another example of leftwingers like you underestimating support for rightwing policies
Oh dear!
I suspect part of your Conservative populist soul died alongside Boris Johnson's career on Friday
Good morning
Just logging in after having spent a fantastic 24 hours at Liverpool's waterfront before we leave for the Isle Of Man later and read @HYUFD comment
Utterly luddite, almost shocking, and not acceptable to the vast majority of us
Re your last sentence I suspect far more than part of his populist soul died with the end of the malign and dreadful Johnson
Boris will be a relative liberal moderate compared to the likes of Braverman, Rees Mogg, Patel, Frost and Badenoch who will increasingly come to the fore of the Conservative Party in opposition if Sunak and Hunt lose the next general election.
With Silvio's passing left liberals used to think he was a rightwing populist extremist, now the Italian PM is the even more rightwing nationalist Meloni (albeit she is less friendly with Putin than he was)
Boris is over - get used to it
HY is the last redoubt apologist for a man that most people now realise was wholly unsuited to high office and it is a weakness of our system that he was ever allowed to get to where he did. He has done massive damage to the Conservative brand, more so than Corbyn did to Labour.
The repair of the Labour brand is in no small part down to Starmer. It's easy to forget how much trouble Labour were in just a few years ago.
Who is the Conservative Starmer? I don't think it's Sunak, and it looks like the Tories are likely to go down the Piddock or Burgon route if they lose the next election.
That is my concern too, particularly as the Conservative Party was the victim of a reverse takeover by the Brexit Party with encouragement given from Johnson and the ERG meaning it is stuffed with a membership of right wing swivel-eyed loons.
It is possible that Penny Mordaunt may be the person to reverse teh Tory decline. She is more rightwing than I would like, but has considerably more personality than nice-but-dull Starmer and might just detox the Conservative brand enough to make a comeback after one term if Starmer doesn't win a commanding majority.
President Mordaunt, 2029.
Mordaunt pretty terrible. Look at her repeated blatant lies about Turkey joining the EU, and doubling-down on them Trump or Johnson-style when picked up on them. Enough of the shameless liars like Johnson or Mordaunt.
More importantly, for the Tory audience, look at how she blantantly had Stonewall write new equalities legislation as a mininster, and then lie about it when challenged in the last leadership election.
Why did HOLAC deny Nadine Dorries - a former Cabinet Minister - but seek fit to allow a peerage for a 29 year old who served barely six months fetching the coffees?
Something still doesn’t add up.
There was someone on R4 this morning who is some sort of constitutional expert explaining that HOLAC can’t decide on who is appropriate for the Lords, as in does that person have skills and ability that are a positive, they instead have a role of weeding out anyone who isn’t suitable by way of skeletons in cupboards, bad behaviour or dodgy links so couldn’t stop that appointment.
Why did HOLAC deny Nadine Dorries - a former Cabinet Minister - but seek fit to allow a peerage for a 29 year old who served barely six months fetching the coffees?
Something still doesn’t add up.
I understand it was because the 4 mps were all sitting members but goodness knows about the 29 year old
The Lord Eabhal has a nice ring to it. I am, apparently, more than qualified.
Minister for cycle infrastructure, access rights, video gaming and banning plastic grass.
Why did HOLAC deny Nadine Dorries - a former Cabinet Minister - but seek fit to allow a peerage for a 29 year old who served barely six months fetching the coffees?
Something still doesn’t add up.
There was someone on R4 this morning who is some sort of constitutional expert explaining that HOLAC can’t decide on who is appropriate for the Lords, as in does that person have skills and ability that are a positive, they instead have a role of weeding out anyone who isn’t suitable by way of skeletons in cupboards, bad behaviour or dodgy links so couldn’t stop that appointment.
No, that doesn’t work, because it requires Dorries, Sharma etc to have skeletons in cupboards, which I don’t think is right.
The suggestion upthread is that they either didn’t make it to HOLAC - which I think is Johnson’s contention? - or that they were ruled out because they were sitting MPs.
But since when were sitting MPs precluded from getting peerages?
I think HOLAC is said to have objected to their being awarded peerages, and allowed to defer them until the next election.
Boris Johnson, Nadine Dorries and Nigel Adams have yet to formally resign
Resigning MPs have to apply to Treasury to become Steward of the Chiltern Hundreds or Bailiff of the Manor of Northstead
Means writ for the three by-elections won't be moved today…
It also raises the question of whether Boris Johnson will still technically be an MP when the Privileges Committee delivers its verdict, which is expected tomorrow.
It seems that people are complaining that just because child safeguarding is no good the whole school gets an inadequate, or ineffective rating. So you can have a school which has cracking Maths and English Departments but is no good at safeguarding children and it seems people think it should receive a good or outstanding rating.
Reminds me of the NHS outperforming on all measures apart from health outcomes and saving lives.
The purpose of schools is to educate, especially in Maths and English, as saving lives is for hospitals, safeguarding is important too but not the purpose of school. Indeed 50 years ago most schools, state or private, didn't even do any safeguarding at all.
Indeed, back in the 1970s "safeguarding" involved beating a child with a cane.
And ten years ago a poll found 53% of voters would allow teachers to use the cane again in school with Conservative voters in particular pro caning
They probably mean that other people's children should be whacked. In any case, presumably the entire British cane-making industry closed down in the 1980s, not to mention we are still part of the ECHR. To be serious, what parents are saying is schools are not doing a very good job of preventing disruption, which brings us back to safeguarding, Ofsted and box-ticking.
Plenty of canes still made and used in Singapore and Singapore tops the PISA rankings.
While superficially frivolous, it’s clear evidence, to me, that even the true conservatives have given up.
They’re no longer serious about being in/staying in government.
I stick by my odds;
Evens, the tories never again win a majority.
4/1 they cease to be a meaningful electoral force within a decade.
Given I earlier posted a poll with 53% of UK voters backing restoring the cane in schools (even if 10 years ago) yet another example of leftwingers like you underestimating support for rightwing policies
Oh dear!
I suspect part of your Conservative populist soul died alongside Boris Johnson's career on Friday
Good morning
Just logging in after having spent a fantastic 24 hours at Liverpool's waterfront before we leave for the Isle Of Man later and read @HYUFD comment
Utterly luddite, almost shocking, and not acceptable to the vast majority of us
Re your last sentence I suspect far more than part of his populist soul died with the end of the malign and dreadful Johnson
Boris will be a relative liberal moderate compared to the likes of Braverman, Rees Mogg, Patel, Frost and Badenoch who will increasingly come to the fore of the Conservative Party in opposition if Sunak and Hunt lose the next general election.
With Silvio's passing left liberals used to think he was a rightwing populist extremist, now the Italian PM is the even more rightwing nationalist Meloni (albeit she is less friendly with Putin than he was)
Boris is over - get used to it
HY is the last redoubt apologist for a man that most people now realise was wholly unsuited to high office and it is a weakness of our system that he was ever allowed to get to where he did. He has done massive damage to the Conservative brand, more so than Corbyn did to Labour.
The repair of the Labour brand is in no small part down to Starmer. It's easy to forget how much trouble Labour were in just a few years ago.
Who is the Conservative Starmer? I don't think it's Sunak, and it looks like the Tories are likely to go down the Piddock or Burgon route if they lose the next election.
That is my concern too, particularly as the Conservative Party was the victim of a reverse takeover by the Brexit Party with encouragement given from Johnson and the ERG meaning it is stuffed with a membership of right wing swivel-eyed loons.
It is possible that Penny Mordaunt may be the person to reverse teh Tory decline. She is more rightwing than I would like, but has considerably more personality than nice-but-dull Starmer and might just detox the Conservative brand enough to make a comeback after one term if Starmer doesn't win a commanding majority.
President Mordaunt, 2029.
Mordaunt pretty terrible. Look at her repeated blatant lies about Turkey joining the EU, and doubling-down on them Trump or Johnson-style when picked up on them. Enough of the shameless liars like Johnson or Mordaunt.
Also probably can't pass the alt-right fucc boi purity test of "What is a woman?".
PM4PM is the herpes of British politics. A painful and disfiguring condition that won't go away and yet never kills the patient.
Ah, of course we must take account of your view as you are a very independent thinker. We must admire (or perhaps not) a person that is a Putin apologist and is such a military expert that he was forecasting the certain demise of Ukraine.
Fundamentally, I personally would take your view of Ms Mordaunt as seriously as I would of David Icke if he issued a fatwa against her.
Utterly off topic, but I've just listened to Wasps in a Jam Jar (R4/BBC Sounds). Very highly recommended. I think all political anoraks (that is, you lot) would enjoy it.
It's a dramatisation of the Howes' (Elspeth and Geoffrey, with the focus more on the former) role in the demise of Thatcher (played beautifully by Harriet Walter). It's entertaining and quite witty, with some lovely vignettes from other leading characters of the time. It's also a reminder of how long the EEC/EU has plagued the Tory Party, and how important cricket metaphors are to UK politics.
“In the face of recent events, it's important to remember that no formal allegations or charges have been made at this point. Nonetheless, as a party and as individuals in positions of leadership, we should always strive to uphold the highest standards of integrity and accountability. In the spirit of transparency and to ensure the smooth functioning of our party during this time of uncertainty, it would be advisable for Nicola Sturgeon to consider temporarily stepping aside from her party responsibilities until matters are clarified.” – Ash Regan MSP
A lot of people (not just teenagers) don't rate the right to vote much - they correctly judge that they will probably never make an individual difference in their entire lives, plus they think politics is pretty seedy and uninteresting anyway. After all, a "good" turnout is 75%, and I don't believe the other 25% are all dead or incapacitated. Nor are all the 75% really that niterested - it's just something one does.
Not endorsing any of that, of course, but it's sadly reality. Fits with the polls showing large minorities would welcome a Strong Man sorting things out.
A positive spin on this is that we need to explain to teenagers that social media can be very effective in politics, particularly for local elections.
You need to be funny and acerbic, with some good video editing
Vladimir Putin understands this. He found it very useful in 2016.
TBH asking anyone 'would you rather give up your right to vote, or [thing you enjoy and/or rely on on a daily basis]', it doesn't surprise me that more choose the latter.
It's a silly question and a silly poll that infers a golden age of democratic engagement that has never existed. TBH I'm surprised the number wasn't higher.
Indeed, if referring to the original post, it a silly question, probably designed by a reactionary boomer who wants to show how frivolous the younger generation have become. It was ever thus.
My comment referred to the ability to manipulate social media for political purposes if one understands its marketing potential
It seems that people are complaining that just because child safeguarding is no good the whole school gets an inadequate, or ineffective rating. So you can have a school which has cracking Maths and English Departments but is no good at safeguarding children and it seems people think it should receive a good or outstanding rating.
Reminds me of the NHS outperforming on all measures apart from health outcomes and saving lives.
The purpose of schools is to educate, especially in Maths and English, as saving lives is for hospitals, safeguarding is important too but not the purpose of school. Indeed 50 years ago most schools, state or private, didn't even do any safeguarding at all.
Indeed, back in the 1970s "safeguarding" involved beating a child with a cane.
And ten years ago a poll found 53% of voters would allow teachers to use the cane again in school with Conservative voters in particular pro caning
They probably mean that other people's children should be whacked. In any case, presumably the entire British cane-making industry closed down in the 1980s, not to mention we are still part of the ECHR. To be serious, what parents are saying is schools are not doing a very good job of preventing disruption, which brings us back to safeguarding, Ofsted and box-ticking.
Plenty of canes still made and used in Singapore and Singapore tops the PISA rankings.
While superficially frivolous, it’s clear evidence, to me, that even the true conservatives have given up.
They’re no longer serious about being in/staying in government.
I stick by my odds;
Evens, the tories never again win a majority.
4/1 they cease to be a meaningful electoral force within a decade.
Given I earlier posted a poll with 53% of UK voters backing restoring the cane in schools (even if 10 years ago) yet another example of leftwingers like you underestimating support for rightwing policies
Oh dear!
I suspect part of your Conservative populist soul died alongside Boris Johnson's career on Friday
Good morning
Just logging in after having spent a fantastic 24 hours at Liverpool's waterfront before we leave for the Isle Of Man later and read @HYUFD comment
Utterly luddite, almost shocking, and not acceptable to the vast majority of us
Re your last sentence I suspect far more than part of his populist soul died with the end of the malign and dreadful Johnson
Boris will be a relative liberal moderate compared to the likes of Braverman, Rees Mogg, Patel, Frost and Badenoch who will increasingly come to the fore of the Conservative Party in opposition if Sunak and Hunt lose the next general election.
With Silvio's passing left liberals used to think he was a rightwing populist extremist, now the Italian PM is the even more rightwing nationalist Meloni (albeit she is less friendly with Putin than he was)
Boris is over - get used to it
HY is the last redoubt apologist for a man that most people now realise was wholly unsuited to high office and it is a weakness of our system that he was ever allowed to get to where he did. He has done massive damage to the Conservative brand, more so than Corbyn did to Labour.
The repair of the Labour brand is in no small part down to Starmer. It's easy to forget how much trouble Labour were in just a few years ago.
Who is the Conservative Starmer? I don't think it's Sunak, and it looks like the Tories are likely to go down the Piddock or Burgon route if they lose the next election.
That is my concern too, particularly as the Conservative Party was the victim of a reverse takeover by the Brexit Party with encouragement given from Johnson and the ERG meaning it is stuffed with a membership of right wing swivel-eyed loons.
It is possible that Penny Mordaunt may be the person to reverse teh Tory decline. She is more rightwing than I would like, but has considerably more personality than nice-but-dull Starmer and might just detox the Conservative brand enough to make a comeback after one term if Starmer doesn't win a commanding majority.
President Mordaunt, 2029.
Mordaunt pretty terrible. Look at her repeated blatant lies about Turkey joining the EU, and doubling-down on them Trump or Johnson-style when picked up on them. Enough of the shameless liars like Johnson or Mordaunt.
Also probably can't pass the alt-right fucc boi purity test of "What is a woman?".
PM4PM is the herpes of British politics. A painful and disfiguring condition that won't go away and yet never kills the patient.
Ah, of course we must take account of your view as you are a very independent thinker. We must admire (or perhaps not) a person that is a Putin apologist and is such a military expert that he was forecasting the certain demise of Ukraine.
Fundamentally, I personally would take your view of Ms Mordaunt as seriously as I would of David Icke if he issued a fatwa against her.
It is still laughable that the swivel eyed Remainers regard it as a lie to describe Turkey, a country in the formal application process of joining the EU, as joining the EU. These people are mental.
Why did HOLAC deny Nadine Dorries - a former Cabinet Minister - but seek fit to allow a peerage for a 29 year old who served barely six months fetching the coffees?
Something still doesn’t add up.
I saw Michael Howard yesterday defending HOLAC as some sort of 'whiter than white' organisation that would block appointments that didn't make sense or were for people who were unethical.
Both Alan Cummings and Isobel Oakenshott(!) were rolling their eyes at the suggestion HOLAC was independent and conducted scrutiny of candidates. I'm afraid, I rather sided with them than Michael Howard.
It seems that people are complaining that just because child safeguarding is no good the whole school gets an inadequate, or ineffective rating. So you can have a school which has cracking Maths and English Departments but is no good at safeguarding children and it seems people think it should receive a good or outstanding rating.
Reminds me of the NHS outperforming on all measures apart from health outcomes and saving lives.
The purpose of schools is to educate, especially in Maths and English, as saving lives is for hospitals, safeguarding is important too but not the purpose of school. Indeed 50 years ago most schools, state or private, didn't even do any safeguarding at all.
Indeed, back in the 1970s "safeguarding" involved beating a child with a cane.
And ten years ago a poll found 53% of voters would allow teachers to use the cane again in school with Conservative voters in particular pro caning
They probably mean that other people's children should be whacked. In any case, presumably the entire British cane-making industry closed down in the 1980s, not to mention we are still part of the ECHR. To be serious, what parents are saying is schools are not doing a very good job of preventing disruption, which brings us back to safeguarding, Ofsted and box-ticking.
Plenty of canes still made and used in Singapore and Singapore tops the PISA rankings.
While superficially frivolous, it’s clear evidence, to me, that even the true conservatives have given up.
They’re no longer serious about being in/staying in government.
I stick by my odds;
Evens, the tories never again win a majority.
4/1 they cease to be a meaningful electoral force within a decade.
Given I earlier posted a poll with 53% of UK voters backing restoring the cane in schools (even if 10 years ago) yet another example of leftwingers like you underestimating support for rightwing policies
Oh dear!
I suspect part of your Conservative populist soul died alongside Boris Johnson's career on Friday
Good morning
Just logging in after having spent a fantastic 24 hours at Liverpool's waterfront before we leave for the Isle Of Man later and read @HYUFD comment
Utterly luddite, almost shocking, and not acceptable to the vast majority of us
Re your last sentence I suspect far more than part of his populist soul died with the end of the malign and dreadful Johnson
Boris will be a relative liberal moderate compared to the likes of Braverman, Rees Mogg, Patel, Frost and Badenoch who will increasingly come to the fore of the Conservative Party in opposition if Sunak and Hunt lose the next general election.
With Silvio's passing left liberals used to think he was a rightwing populist extremist, now the Italian PM is the even more rightwing nationalist Meloni (albeit she is less friendly with Putin than he was)
Boris is over - get used to it
HY is the last redoubt apologist for a man that most people now realise was wholly unsuited to high office and it is a weakness of our system that he was ever allowed to get to where he did. He has done massive damage to the Conservative brand, more so than Corbyn did to Labour.
The repair of the Labour brand is in no small part down to Starmer. It's easy to forget how much trouble Labour were in just a few years ago.
Who is the Conservative Starmer? I don't think it's Sunak, and it looks like the Tories are likely to go down the Piddock or Burgon route if they lose the next election.
That is my concern too, particularly as the Conservative Party was the victim of a reverse takeover by the Brexit Party with encouragement given from Johnson and the ERG meaning it is stuffed with a membership of right wing swivel-eyed loons.
It is possible that Penny Mordaunt may be the person to reverse teh Tory decline. She is more rightwing than I would like, but has considerably more personality than nice-but-dull Starmer and might just detox the Conservative brand enough to make a comeback after one term if Starmer doesn't win a commanding majority.
President Mordaunt, 2029.
Mordaunt pretty terrible. Look at her repeated blatant lies about Turkey joining the EU, and doubling-down on them Trump or Johnson-style when picked up on them. Enough of the shameless liars like Johnson or Mordaunt.
Also probably can't pass the alt-right fucc boi purity test of "What is a woman?".
PM4PM is the herpes of British politics. A painful and disfiguring condition that won't go away and yet never kills the patient.
Ah, of course we must take account of your view as you are a very independent thinker. We must admire (or perhaps not) a person that is a Putin apologist and is such a military expert that he was forecasting the certain demise of Ukraine.
Fundamentally, I personally would take your view of Ms Mordaunt as seriously as I would of David Icke if he issued a fatwa against her.
It is still laughable that the swivel eyed Remainers regard it as a lie to describe Turkey, a country in the formal application process of joining the EU, as joining the EU. These people are mental.
So presumably Mordaunt was telling the truth when she repeatedly claimed the UK had no veto on Turkey joining the EU?
It seems that people are complaining that just because child safeguarding is no good the whole school gets an inadequate, or ineffective rating. So you can have a school which has cracking Maths and English Departments but is no good at safeguarding children and it seems people think it should receive a good or outstanding rating.
Reminds me of the NHS outperforming on all measures apart from health outcomes and saving lives.
The purpose of schools is to educate, especially in Maths and English, as saving lives is for hospitals, safeguarding is important too but not the purpose of school. Indeed 50 years ago most schools, state or private, didn't even do any safeguarding at all.
Indeed, back in the 1970s "safeguarding" involved beating a child with a cane.
And ten years ago a poll found 53% of voters would allow teachers to use the cane again in school with Conservative voters in particular pro caning
They probably mean that other people's children should be whacked. In any case, presumably the entire British cane-making industry closed down in the 1980s, not to mention we are still part of the ECHR. To be serious, what parents are saying is schools are not doing a very good job of preventing disruption, which brings us back to safeguarding, Ofsted and box-ticking.
Plenty of canes still made and used in Singapore and Singapore tops the PISA rankings.
While superficially frivolous, it’s clear evidence, to me, that even the true conservatives have given up.
They’re no longer serious about being in/staying in government.
I stick by my odds;
Evens, the tories never again win a majority.
4/1 they cease to be a meaningful electoral force within a decade.
Given I earlier posted a poll with 53% of UK voters backing restoring the cane in schools (even if 10 years ago) yet another example of leftwingers like you underestimating support for rightwing policies
Oh dear!
I suspect part of your Conservative populist soul died alongside Boris Johnson's career on Friday
Good morning
Just logging in after having spent a fantastic 24 hours at Liverpool's waterfront before we leave for the Isle Of Man later and read @HYUFD comment
Utterly luddite, almost shocking, and not acceptable to the vast majority of us
Re your last sentence I suspect far more than part of his populist soul died with the end of the malign and dreadful Johnson
Boris will be a relative liberal moderate compared to the likes of Braverman, Rees Mogg, Patel, Frost and Badenoch who will increasingly come to the fore of the Conservative Party in opposition if Sunak and Hunt lose the next general election.
With Silvio's passing left liberals used to think he was a rightwing populist extremist, now the Italian PM is the even more rightwing nationalist Meloni (albeit she is less friendly with Putin than he was)
Boris is over - get used to it
HY is the last redoubt apologist for a man that most people now realise was wholly unsuited to high office and it is a weakness of our system that he was ever allowed to get to where he did. He has done massive damage to the Conservative brand, more so than Corbyn did to Labour.
The repair of the Labour brand is in no small part down to Starmer. It's easy to forget how much trouble Labour were in just a few years ago.
Who is the Conservative Starmer? I don't think it's Sunak, and it looks like the Tories are likely to go down the Piddock or Burgon route if they lose the next election.
That is my concern too, particularly as the Conservative Party was the victim of a reverse takeover by the Brexit Party with encouragement given from Johnson and the ERG meaning it is stuffed with a membership of right wing swivel-eyed loons.
It is possible that Penny Mordaunt may be the person to reverse teh Tory decline. She is more rightwing than I would like, but has considerably more personality than nice-but-dull Starmer and might just detox the Conservative brand enough to make a comeback after one term if Starmer doesn't win a commanding majority.
President Mordaunt, 2029.
Mordaunt pretty terrible. Look at her repeated blatant lies about Turkey joining the EU, and doubling-down on them Trump or Johnson-style when picked up on them. Enough of the shameless liars like Johnson or Mordaunt.
More importantly, for the Tory audience, look at how she blantantly had Stonewall write new equalities legislation as a mininster, and then lie about it when challenged in the last leadership election.
Boris Johnson, Nadine Dorries and Nigel Adams have yet to formally resign
Resigning MPs have to apply to Treasury to become Steward of the Chiltern Hundreds or Bailiff of the Manor of Northstead
Means writ for the three by-elections won't be moved today…
It also raises the question of whether Boris Johnson will still technically be an MP when the Privileges Committee delivers its verdict, which is expected tomorrow.
Do have to ask what he is doing? The flounce was to avoid the report being published. A "kangaroo court" that has convicted him (despite doing no such thing) so he has t o go as he has been forced out.
The report now could be published and he could be still an MP when it is - madness.
Even madder idea - what if in a blaze of publicity he now *doesn't* resign...?
Utterly off topic, but I've just listened to Wasps in a Jam Jar (R4/BBC Sounds). Very highly recommended. I think all political anoraks (that is, you lot) would enjoy it.
It's a dramatisation of the Howes' (Elspeth and Geoffrey, with the focus more on the former) role in the demise of Thatcher (played beautifully by Harriet Walter). It's entertaining and quite witty, with some lovely vignettes from other leading characters of the time. It's also a reminder of how long the EEC/EU has plagued the Tory Party, and how important cricket metaphors are to UK politics.
It seems that people are complaining that just because child safeguarding is no good the whole school gets an inadequate, or ineffective rating. So you can have a school which has cracking Maths and English Departments but is no good at safeguarding children and it seems people think it should receive a good or outstanding rating.
Reminds me of the NHS outperforming on all measures apart from health outcomes and saving lives.
The purpose of schools is to educate, especially in Maths and English, as saving lives is for hospitals, safeguarding is important too but not the purpose of school. Indeed 50 years ago most schools, state or private, didn't even do any safeguarding at all.
Indeed, back in the 1970s "safeguarding" involved beating a child with a cane.
And ten years ago a poll found 53% of voters would allow teachers to use the cane again in school with Conservative voters in particular pro caning
They probably mean that other people's children should be whacked. In any case, presumably the entire British cane-making industry closed down in the 1980s, not to mention we are still part of the ECHR. To be serious, what parents are saying is schools are not doing a very good job of preventing disruption, which brings us back to safeguarding, Ofsted and box-ticking.
Plenty of canes still made and used in Singapore and Singapore tops the PISA rankings.
While superficially frivolous, it’s clear evidence, to me, that even the true conservatives have given up.
They’re no longer serious about being in/staying in government.
I stick by my odds;
Evens, the tories never again win a majority.
4/1 they cease to be a meaningful electoral force within a decade.
Given I earlier posted a poll with 53% of UK voters backing restoring the cane in schools (even if 10 years ago) yet another example of leftwingers like you underestimating support for rightwing policies
Oh dear!
I suspect part of your Conservative populist soul died alongside Boris Johnson's career on Friday
Good morning
Just logging in after having spent a fantastic 24 hours at Liverpool's waterfront before we leave for the Isle Of Man later and read @HYUFD comment
Utterly luddite, almost shocking, and not acceptable to the vast majority of us
Re your last sentence I suspect far more than part of his populist soul died with the end of the malign and dreadful Johnson
Boris will be a relative liberal moderate compared to the likes of Braverman, Rees Mogg, Patel, Frost and Badenoch who will increasingly come to the fore of the Conservative Party in opposition if Sunak and Hunt lose the next general election.
With Silvio's passing left liberals used to think he was a rightwing populist extremist, now the Italian PM is the even more rightwing nationalist Meloni (albeit she is less friendly with Putin than he was)
Boris is over - get used to it
HY is the last redoubt apologist for a man that most people now realise was wholly unsuited to high office and it is a weakness of our system that he was ever allowed to get to where he did. He has done massive damage to the Conservative brand, more so than Corbyn did to Labour.
The repair of the Labour brand is in no small part down to Starmer. It's easy to forget how much trouble Labour were in just a few years ago.
Who is the Conservative Starmer? I don't think it's Sunak, and it looks like the Tories are likely to go down the Piddock or Burgon route if they lose the next election.
That is my concern too, particularly as the Conservative Party was the victim of a reverse takeover by the Brexit Party with encouragement given from Johnson and the ERG meaning it is stuffed with a membership of right wing swivel-eyed loons.
It is possible that Penny Mordaunt may be the person to reverse teh Tory decline. She is more rightwing than I would like, but has considerably more personality than nice-but-dull Starmer and might just detox the Conservative brand enough to make a comeback after one term if Starmer doesn't win a commanding majority.
President Mordaunt, 2029.
Mordaunt pretty terrible. Look at her repeated blatant lies about Turkey joining the EU, and doubling-down on them Trump or Johnson-style when picked up on them. Enough of the shameless liars like Johnson or Mordaunt.
Also probably can't pass the alt-right fucc boi purity test of "What is a woman?".
PM4PM is the herpes of British politics. A painful and disfiguring condition that won't go away and yet never kills the patient.
Ah, of course we must take account of your view as you are a very independent thinker. We must admire (or perhaps not) a person that is a Putin apologist and is such a military expert that he was forecasting the certain demise of Ukraine.
Fundamentally, I personally would take your view of Ms Mordaunt as seriously as I would of David Icke if he issued a fatwa against her.
It is still laughable that the swivel eyed Remainers regard it as a lie to describe Turkey, a country in the formal application process of joining the EU, as joining the EU. These people are mental.
Prior to the 'SMA', would you have said that Ukraine was joining NATO?
It seems that people are complaining that just because child safeguarding is no good the whole school gets an inadequate, or ineffective rating. So you can have a school which has cracking Maths and English Departments but is no good at safeguarding children and it seems people think it should receive a good or outstanding rating.
Reminds me of the NHS outperforming on all measures apart from health outcomes and saving lives.
The purpose of schools is to educate, especially in Maths and English, as saving lives is for hospitals, safeguarding is important too but not the purpose of school. Indeed 50 years ago most schools, state or private, didn't even do any safeguarding at all.
Indeed, back in the 1970s "safeguarding" involved beating a child with a cane.
And ten years ago a poll found 53% of voters would allow teachers to use the cane again in school with Conservative voters in particular pro caning
They probably mean that other people's children should be whacked. In any case, presumably the entire British cane-making industry closed down in the 1980s, not to mention we are still part of the ECHR. To be serious, what parents are saying is schools are not doing a very good job of preventing disruption, which brings us back to safeguarding, Ofsted and box-ticking.
Plenty of canes still made and used in Singapore and Singapore tops the PISA rankings.
While superficially frivolous, it’s clear evidence, to me, that even the true conservatives have given up.
They’re no longer serious about being in/staying in government.
I stick by my odds;
Evens, the tories never again win a majority.
4/1 they cease to be a meaningful electoral force within a decade.
Given I earlier posted a poll with 53% of UK voters backing restoring the cane in schools (even if 10 years ago) yet another example of leftwingers like you underestimating support for rightwing policies
Oh dear!
I suspect part of your Conservative populist soul died alongside Boris Johnson's career on Friday
Good morning
Just logging in after having spent a fantastic 24 hours at Liverpool's waterfront before we leave for the Isle Of Man later and read @HYUFD comment
Utterly luddite, almost shocking, and not acceptable to the vast majority of us
Re your last sentence I suspect far more than part of his populist soul died with the end of the malign and dreadful Johnson
Boris will be a relative liberal moderate compared to the likes of Braverman, Rees Mogg, Patel, Frost and Badenoch who will increasingly come to the fore of the Conservative Party in opposition if Sunak and Hunt lose the next general election.
With Silvio's passing left liberals used to think he was a rightwing populist extremist, now the Italian PM is the even more rightwing nationalist Meloni (albeit she is less friendly with Putin than he was)
Boris is over - get used to it
HY is the last redoubt apologist for a man that most people now realise was wholly unsuited to high office and it is a weakness of our system that he was ever allowed to get to where he did. He has done massive damage to the Conservative brand, more so than Corbyn did to Labour.
The repair of the Labour brand is in no small part down to Starmer. It's easy to forget how much trouble Labour were in just a few years ago.
Who is the Conservative Starmer? I don't think it's Sunak, and it looks like the Tories are likely to go down the Piddock or Burgon route if they lose the next election.
That is my concern too, particularly as the Conservative Party was the victim of a reverse takeover by the Brexit Party with encouragement given from Johnson and the ERG meaning it is stuffed with a membership of right wing swivel-eyed loons.
It is possible that Penny Mordaunt may be the person to reverse teh Tory decline. She is more rightwing than I would like, but has considerably more personality than nice-but-dull Starmer and might just detox the Conservative brand enough to make a comeback after one term if Starmer doesn't win a commanding majority.
President Mordaunt, 2029.
Mordaunt pretty terrible. Look at her repeated blatant lies about Turkey joining the EU, and doubling-down on them Trump or Johnson-style when picked up on them. Enough of the shameless liars like Johnson or Mordaunt.
Also probably can't pass the alt-right fucc boi purity test of "What is a woman?".
PM4PM is the herpes of British politics. A painful and disfiguring condition that won't go away and yet never kills the patient.
Ah, of course we must take account of your view as you are a very independent thinker. We must admire (or perhaps not) a person that is a Putin apologist and is such a military expert that he was forecasting the certain demise of Ukraine.
Fundamentally, I personally would take your view of Ms Mordaunt as seriously as I would of David Icke if he issued a fatwa against her.
It is still laughable that the swivel eyed Remainers regard it as a lie to describe Turkey, a country in the formal application process of joining the EU, as joining the EU. These people are mental.
I quite like Penny, but you ought to check out my views on Brexit lol. I am not one of the people you might regard as in the "sane" camp.
These people are laughable. They don’t even have a trace of the political skill or intellect that made Thatcher such a titan. Truss tried this shtick too and ended up embarrassing herself. Don’t imagine Keegan would be any different.
LBC have to maintain a balance across all their presenters. About as objective as James O'Brien I'd suggest.
Doing balance by having a variety of voices each one unable to evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of their own and other positions is extraordinarily dull except maybe for the slightly dim. James O'Brien leads the pack but is not alone.
Doing balance by prioritising the voices of people who hold positions but can weigh them up and understand other views is so much more interesting.
Boris Johnson, Nadine Dorries and Nigel Adams have yet to formally resign
Resigning MPs have to apply to Treasury to become Steward of the Chiltern Hundreds or Bailiff of the Manor of Northstead
Means writ for the three by-elections won't be moved today…
It also raises the question of whether Boris Johnson will still technically be an MP when the Privileges Committee delivers its verdict, which is expected tomorrow.
Does this mean we'll have the shortest ever tenure of the Chiltern Hundreds or the Manor of Northstead? How exciting.
I don't think so - we had 7 people appointed Stewards of the Manor of Northstead on 17th December 1985 (The Northern Irish Unionists all resigned en-bloc in protest at the Anglo-Irish Agreement as I understand it)
It seems that people are complaining that just because child safeguarding is no good the whole school gets an inadequate, or ineffective rating. So you can have a school which has cracking Maths and English Departments but is no good at safeguarding children and it seems people think it should receive a good or outstanding rating.
Reminds me of the NHS outperforming on all measures apart from health outcomes and saving lives.
The purpose of schools is to educate, especially in Maths and English, as saving lives is for hospitals, safeguarding is important too but not the purpose of school. Indeed 50 years ago most schools, state or private, didn't even do any safeguarding at all.
Indeed, back in the 1970s "safeguarding" involved beating a child with a cane.
And ten years ago a poll found 53% of voters would allow teachers to use the cane again in school with Conservative voters in particular pro caning
They probably mean that other people's children should be whacked. In any case, presumably the entire British cane-making industry closed down in the 1980s, not to mention we are still part of the ECHR. To be serious, what parents are saying is schools are not doing a very good job of preventing disruption, which brings us back to safeguarding, Ofsted and box-ticking.
Plenty of canes still made and used in Singapore and Singapore tops the PISA rankings.
While superficially frivolous, it’s clear evidence, to me, that even the true conservatives have given up.
They’re no longer serious about being in/staying in government.
I stick by my odds;
Evens, the tories never again win a majority.
4/1 they cease to be a meaningful electoral force within a decade.
Given I earlier posted a poll with 53% of UK voters backing restoring the cane in schools (even if 10 years ago) yet another example of leftwingers like you underestimating support for rightwing policies
Oh dear!
I suspect part of your Conservative populist soul died alongside Boris Johnson's career on Friday
Good morning
Just logging in after having spent a fantastic 24 hours at Liverpool's waterfront before we leave for the Isle Of Man later and read @HYUFD comment
Utterly luddite, almost shocking, and not acceptable to the vast majority of us
Re your last sentence I suspect far more than part of his populist soul died with the end of the malign and dreadful Johnson
Boris will be a relative liberal moderate compared to the likes of Braverman, Rees Mogg, Patel, Frost and Badenoch who will increasingly come to the fore of the Conservative Party in opposition if Sunak and Hunt lose the next general election.
With Silvio's passing left liberals used to think he was a rightwing populist extremist, now the Italian PM is the even more rightwing nationalist Meloni (albeit she is less friendly with Putin than he was)
Boris is over - get used to it
HY is the last redoubt apologist for a man that most people now realise was wholly unsuited to high office and it is a weakness of our system that he was ever allowed to get to where he did. He has done massive damage to the Conservative brand, more so than Corbyn did to Labour.
The repair of the Labour brand is in no small part down to Starmer. It's easy to forget how much trouble Labour were in just a few years ago.
Who is the Conservative Starmer? I don't think it's Sunak, and it looks like the Tories are likely to go down the Piddock or Burgon route if they lose the next election.
That is my concern too, particularly as the Conservative Party was the victim of a reverse takeover by the Brexit Party with encouragement given from Johnson and the ERG meaning it is stuffed with a membership of right wing swivel-eyed loons.
It is possible that Penny Mordaunt may be the person to reverse teh Tory decline. She is more rightwing than I would like, but has considerably more personality than nice-but-dull Starmer and might just detox the Conservative brand enough to make a comeback after one term if Starmer doesn't win a commanding majority.
President Mordaunt, 2029.
Mordaunt pretty terrible. Look at her repeated blatant lies about Turkey joining the EU, and doubling-down on them Trump or Johnson-style when picked up on them. Enough of the shameless liars like Johnson or Mordaunt.
Also probably can't pass the alt-right fucc boi purity test of "What is a woman?".
PM4PM is the herpes of British politics. A painful and disfiguring condition that won't go away and yet never kills the patient.
Ah, of course we must take account of your view as you are a very independent thinker. We must admire (or perhaps not) a person that is a Putin apologist and is such a military expert that he was forecasting the certain demise of Ukraine.
Fundamentally, I personally would take your view of Ms Mordaunt as seriously as I would of David Icke if he issued a fatwa against her.
It is still laughable that the swivel eyed Remainers regard it as a lie to describe Turkey, a country in the formal application process of joining the EU, as joining the EU. These people are mental.
It’s nearly as much of a lie, as suggesting that the Director of Public Prosecutions is in overall charge of those making decisions on whether or not to prosecute people.
It seems that people are complaining that just because child safeguarding is no good the whole school gets an inadequate, or ineffective rating. So you can have a school which has cracking Maths and English Departments but is no good at safeguarding children and it seems people think it should receive a good or outstanding rating.
Reminds me of the NHS outperforming on all measures apart from health outcomes and saving lives.
The purpose of schools is to educate, especially in Maths and English, as saving lives is for hospitals, safeguarding is important too but not the purpose of school. Indeed 50 years ago most schools, state or private, didn't even do any safeguarding at all.
Indeed, back in the 1970s "safeguarding" involved beating a child with a cane.
And ten years ago a poll found 53% of voters would allow teachers to use the cane again in school with Conservative voters in particular pro caning
They probably mean that other people's children should be whacked. In any case, presumably the entire British cane-making industry closed down in the 1980s, not to mention we are still part of the ECHR. To be serious, what parents are saying is schools are not doing a very good job of preventing disruption, which brings us back to safeguarding, Ofsted and box-ticking.
Plenty of canes still made and used in Singapore and Singapore tops the PISA rankings.
While superficially frivolous, it’s clear evidence, to me, that even the true conservatives have given up.
They’re no longer serious about being in/staying in government.
I stick by my odds;
Evens, the tories never again win a majority.
4/1 they cease to be a meaningful electoral force within a decade.
Given I earlier posted a poll with 53% of UK voters backing restoring the cane in schools (even if 10 years ago) yet another example of leftwingers like you underestimating support for rightwing policies
Oh dear!
I suspect part of your Conservative populist soul died alongside Boris Johnson's career on Friday
Good morning
Just logging in after having spent a fantastic 24 hours at Liverpool's waterfront before we leave for the Isle Of Man later and read @HYUFD comment
Utterly luddite, almost shocking, and not acceptable to the vast majority of us
Re your last sentence I suspect far more than part of his populist soul died with the end of the malign and dreadful Johnson
Boris will be a relative liberal moderate compared to the likes of Braverman, Rees Mogg, Patel, Frost and Badenoch who will increasingly come to the fore of the Conservative Party in opposition if Sunak and Hunt lose the next general election.
With Silvio's passing left liberals used to think he was a rightwing populist extremist, now the Italian PM is the even more rightwing nationalist Meloni (albeit she is less friendly with Putin than he was)
Boris is over - get used to it
HY is the last redoubt apologist for a man that most people now realise was wholly unsuited to high office and it is a weakness of our system that he was ever allowed to get to where he did. He has done massive damage to the Conservative brand, more so than Corbyn did to Labour.
The repair of the Labour brand is in no small part down to Starmer. It's easy to forget how much trouble Labour were in just a few years ago.
Who is the Conservative Starmer? I don't think it's Sunak, and it looks like the Tories are likely to go down the Piddock or Burgon route if they lose the next election.
That is my concern too, particularly as the Conservative Party was the victim of a reverse takeover by the Brexit Party with encouragement given from Johnson and the ERG meaning it is stuffed with a membership of right wing swivel-eyed loons.
It is possible that Penny Mordaunt may be the person to reverse teh Tory decline. She is more rightwing than I would like, but has considerably more personality than nice-but-dull Starmer and might just detox the Conservative brand enough to make a comeback after one term if Starmer doesn't win a commanding majority.
President Mordaunt, 2029.
Mordaunt pretty terrible. Look at her repeated blatant lies about Turkey joining the EU, and doubling-down on them Trump or Johnson-style when picked up on them. Enough of the shameless liars like Johnson or Mordaunt.
Oh don't be silly. These attacks on her have the credibility and desperation of the Tory attacks on Starmer for being in Corbyn's cabinet. I am sure she has said some silly things, but tell me a politician that hasn't. Suggesting she is in the same league as Johnson or Trump is infantile.
She's not in the same league - yet. And Johnson isn't in the same leagues as Trump in terms of the malignancy of his lies. But some people enter politics at least partly out of a genuine desire to make the world better, even if they eventually get corrupted by power and the reality of having to do deals, and even if I disagree with how they go about it. Others are only in it for themselves - Trump and Johnson are examples, and Mordaunt gives me the impression of being similar. Of course this is no bar to doing well in politics, but you have been warned!
It seems that people are complaining that just because child safeguarding is no good the whole school gets an inadequate, or ineffective rating. So you can have a school which has cracking Maths and English Departments but is no good at safeguarding children and it seems people think it should receive a good or outstanding rating.
Reminds me of the NHS outperforming on all measures apart from health outcomes and saving lives.
The purpose of schools is to educate, especially in Maths and English, as saving lives is for hospitals, safeguarding is important too but not the purpose of school. Indeed 50 years ago most schools, state or private, didn't even do any safeguarding at all.
Indeed, back in the 1970s "safeguarding" involved beating a child with a cane.
And ten years ago a poll found 53% of voters would allow teachers to use the cane again in school with Conservative voters in particular pro caning
They probably mean that other people's children should be whacked. In any case, presumably the entire British cane-making industry closed down in the 1980s, not to mention we are still part of the ECHR. To be serious, what parents are saying is schools are not doing a very good job of preventing disruption, which brings us back to safeguarding, Ofsted and box-ticking.
Plenty of canes still made and used in Singapore and Singapore tops the PISA rankings.
While superficially frivolous, it’s clear evidence, to me, that even the true conservatives have given up.
They’re no longer serious about being in/staying in government.
I stick by my odds;
Evens, the tories never again win a majority.
4/1 they cease to be a meaningful electoral force within a decade.
Given I earlier posted a poll with 53% of UK voters backing restoring the cane in schools (even if 10 years ago) yet another example of leftwingers like you underestimating support for rightwing policies
Oh dear!
I suspect part of your Conservative populist soul died alongside Boris Johnson's career on Friday
Good morning
Just logging in after having spent a fantastic 24 hours at Liverpool's waterfront before we leave for the Isle Of Man later and read @HYUFD comment
Utterly luddite, almost shocking, and not acceptable to the vast majority of us
Re your last sentence I suspect far more than part of his populist soul died with the end of the malign and dreadful Johnson
Boris will be a relative liberal moderate compared to the likes of Braverman, Rees Mogg, Patel, Frost and Badenoch who will increasingly come to the fore of the Conservative Party in opposition if Sunak and Hunt lose the next general election.
With Silvio's passing left liberals used to think he was a rightwing populist extremist, now the Italian PM is the even more rightwing nationalist Meloni (albeit she is less friendly with Putin than he was)
Boris is over - get used to it
HY is the last redoubt apologist for a man that most people now realise was wholly unsuited to high office and it is a weakness of our system that he was ever allowed to get to where he did. He has done massive damage to the Conservative brand, more so than Corbyn did to Labour.
The repair of the Labour brand is in no small part down to Starmer. It's easy to forget how much trouble Labour were in just a few years ago.
Who is the Conservative Starmer? I don't think it's Sunak, and it looks like the Tories are likely to go down the Piddock or Burgon route if they lose the next election.
That is my concern too, particularly as the Conservative Party was the victim of a reverse takeover by the Brexit Party with encouragement given from Johnson and the ERG meaning it is stuffed with a membership of right wing swivel-eyed loons.
It is possible that Penny Mordaunt may be the person to reverse teh Tory decline. She is more rightwing than I would like, but has considerably more personality than nice-but-dull Starmer and might just detox the Conservative brand enough to make a comeback after one term if Starmer doesn't win a commanding majority.
President Mordaunt, 2029.
Mordaunt pretty terrible. Look at her repeated blatant lies about Turkey joining the EU, and doubling-down on them Trump or Johnson-style when picked up on them. Enough of the shameless liars like Johnson or Mordaunt.
Also probably can't pass the alt-right fucc boi purity test of "What is a woman?".
PM4PM is the herpes of British politics. A painful and disfiguring condition that won't go away and yet never kills the patient.
Ah, of course we must take account of your view as you are a very independent thinker. We must admire (or perhaps not) a person that is a Putin apologist and is such a military expert that he was forecasting the certain demise of Ukraine.
Fundamentally, I personally would take your view of Ms Mordaunt as seriously as I would of David Icke if he issued a fatwa against her.
It is still laughable that the swivel eyed Remainers regard it as a lie to describe Turkey, a country in the formal application process of joining the EU, as joining the EU. These people are mental.
tbh if you think Turkey IS joining the EU, then maybe you are the one who should check your mental health.
Boris Johnson, Nadine Dorries and Nigel Adams have yet to formally resign
Resigning MPs have to apply to Treasury to become Steward of the Chiltern Hundreds or Bailiff of the Manor of Northstead
Means writ for the three by-elections won't be moved today…
It also raises the question of whether Boris Johnson will still technically be an MP when the Privileges Committee delivers its verdict, which is expected tomorrow.
Does this mean we'll have the shortest ever tenure of the Chiltern Hundreds or the Manor of Northstead? How exciting.
I don't think so - we had 7 people appointed Stewards of the Manor of Northstead on 17th December 1985 (The Northern Irish Unionists all resigned en-bloc in protest at the Anglo-Irish Agreement as I understand it)
Full marks to you for having that kind of detail to hand!
Boris Johnson, Nadine Dorries and Nigel Adams have yet to formally resign
Resigning MPs have to apply to Treasury to become Steward of the Chiltern Hundreds or Bailiff of the Manor of Northstead
Means writ for the three by-elections won't be moved today…
It also raises the question of whether Boris Johnson will still technically be an MP when the Privileges Committee delivers its verdict, which is expected tomorrow.
In fairness, it would be HM Treasury cocking it up as it is they, not Johnson, who need to publish the notice in the London Gazette appointing him and the other MPs as steward and bailiff of the Chiltern Hundreds (or Manor of Northstead - it alternates).
It does normally take three or four days, so not massively surprising.
Also, technically they don't need to "apply". This was briefly a matter of debate when either Martin McGuiness or Gerry Adams (I forget which) resigned a decade or so ago. Cameron made a jibe to the effect they'd applied for an office under the Crown (not an ideal look in the Irish republican movement) but later had to clarify they'd simply asked to resign - the mechanism the Chancellor uses is appointment to one of those roles, but the person doesn't need to request it and the Sinn Fein person hadn't done so. Quite a technical distinction, but it does mean the MPs haven't failed to fill in a form or something - this is purely HMT process.
Boris Johnson, Nadine Dorries and Nigel Adams have yet to formally resign
Resigning MPs have to apply to Treasury to become Steward of the Chiltern Hundreds or Bailiff of the Manor of Northstead
Means writ for the three by-elections won't be moved today…
It also raises the question of whether Boris Johnson will still technically be an MP when the Privileges Committee delivers its verdict, which is expected tomorrow.
Do have to ask what he is doing? The flounce was to avoid the report being published. A "kangaroo court" that has convicted him (despite doing no such thing) so he has t o go as he has been forced out.
The report now could be published and he could be still an MP when it is - madness.
Even madder idea - what if in a blaze of publicity he now *doesn't* resign...?
Maybe he's hoping the committee will assume he has resigned, so won't recommend suspending him as unable to do so when he's not an MP, and then he doesn't resign and - ta-da! - he escapes the recall process and remains an MP?
Like I said when he "resigned", he's such a toddler. This is exactly the behaviour you'd expect from a toddler who threatens to do something like hold their breath until they get their way.
It seems that people are complaining that just because child safeguarding is no good the whole school gets an inadequate, or ineffective rating. So you can have a school which has cracking Maths and English Departments but is no good at safeguarding children and it seems people think it should receive a good or outstanding rating.
Reminds me of the NHS outperforming on all measures apart from health outcomes and saving lives.
The purpose of schools is to educate, especially in Maths and English, as saving lives is for hospitals, safeguarding is important too but not the purpose of school. Indeed 50 years ago most schools, state or private, didn't even do any safeguarding at all.
Indeed, back in the 1970s "safeguarding" involved beating a child with a cane.
And ten years ago a poll found 53% of voters would allow teachers to use the cane again in school with Conservative voters in particular pro caning
They probably mean that other people's children should be whacked. In any case, presumably the entire British cane-making industry closed down in the 1980s, not to mention we are still part of the ECHR. To be serious, what parents are saying is schools are not doing a very good job of preventing disruption, which brings us back to safeguarding, Ofsted and box-ticking.
Plenty of canes still made and used in Singapore and Singapore tops the PISA rankings.
While superficially frivolous, it’s clear evidence, to me, that even the true conservatives have given up.
They’re no longer serious about being in/staying in government.
I stick by my odds;
Evens, the tories never again win a majority.
4/1 they cease to be a meaningful electoral force within a decade.
Given I earlier posted a poll with 53% of UK voters backing restoring the cane in schools (even if 10 years ago) yet another example of leftwingers like you underestimating support for rightwing policies
Oh dear!
I suspect part of your Conservative populist soul died alongside Boris Johnson's career on Friday
Good morning
Just logging in after having spent a fantastic 24 hours at Liverpool's waterfront before we leave for the Isle Of Man later and read @HYUFD comment
Utterly luddite, almost shocking, and not acceptable to the vast majority of us
Re your last sentence I suspect far more than part of his populist soul died with the end of the malign and dreadful Johnson
Boris will be a relative liberal moderate compared to the likes of Braverman, Rees Mogg, Patel, Frost and Badenoch who will increasingly come to the fore of the Conservative Party in opposition if Sunak and Hunt lose the next general election.
With Silvio's passing left liberals used to think he was a rightwing populist extremist, now the Italian PM is the even more rightwing nationalist Meloni (albeit she is less friendly with Putin than he was)
Boris is over - get used to it
HY is the last redoubt apologist for a man that most people now realise was wholly unsuited to high office and it is a weakness of our system that he was ever allowed to get to where he did. He has done massive damage to the Conservative brand, more so than Corbyn did to Labour.
The repair of the Labour brand is in no small part down to Starmer. It's easy to forget how much trouble Labour were in just a few years ago.
Who is the Conservative Starmer? I don't think it's Sunak, and it looks like the Tories are likely to go down the Piddock or Burgon route if they lose the next election.
That is my concern too, particularly as the Conservative Party was the victim of a reverse takeover by the Brexit Party with encouragement given from Johnson and the ERG meaning it is stuffed with a membership of right wing swivel-eyed loons.
It is possible that Penny Mordaunt may be the person to reverse teh Tory decline. She is more rightwing than I would like, but has considerably more personality than nice-but-dull Starmer and might just detox the Conservative brand enough to make a comeback after one term if Starmer doesn't win a commanding majority.
President Mordaunt, 2029.
Mordaunt pretty terrible. Look at her repeated blatant lies about Turkey joining the EU, and doubling-down on them Trump or Johnson-style when picked up on them. Enough of the shameless liars like Johnson or Mordaunt.
Oh don't be silly. These attacks on her have the credibility and desperation of the Tory attacks on Starmer for being in Corbyn's cabinet. I am sure she has said some silly things, but tell me a politician that hasn't. Suggesting she is in the same league as Johnson or Trump is infantile.
You forget that hypocrisy is only allowed on the left, be it sending their kids to private/grammar schools or supporting an antisemitic leadership.
Extremely bitter and generation spanning boundary disputes are the pain quotidien of life in rural Breizh as none of the plots are properly surveyed and there isn't really anything else to do. My parents had a house in Kerluan and my father used to spend his entire summer holiday arguing the toss with semi pissed Breton farmers about who owned what field and the position of hedges, etc.
Extremely bitter and generation spanning boundary disputes are the pain quotidien of life in rural Breizh as none of the plots are properly surveyed and there isn't really anything else to do. My parents had a house in Kerluan and my father used to spend his entire summer holiday arguing the toss with semi pissed Breton farmers about who owned what field and the position of hedges, etc.
Extremely bitter and generation spanning boundary disputes are the pain quotidien of life in rural Breizh as none of the plots are properly surveyed and there isn't really anything else to do. My parents had a house in Kerluan and my father used to spend his entire summer holiday arguing the toss with semi pissed Breton farmers about who owned what field and the position of hedges, etc.
Wasn't he a diplomat, though ?
He was a Political Attaché for most of his career. A job that always seemed to have very vague duties and no notion of any measurable output.
The delay in calling the Mid Beds election is an enormous advantage to the independent candidate Councillor Gareth Mackey as it gives him, and the independent group who now run the Central Bedfordshire Council to get organised. Their fundraising is going well, but extra time helps them much more that anyone else. For the Lib Dems, getting a negligible vote in Uxbridge won't encourage people elsewhere to vote for them.
Comments
Something still doesn’t add up.
Since 1887 we've averaged 855,708 births. The maximum number of deaths recorded in any year (1918) is 715,246.
My suspicion is perhaps stillbirths haven't always been recorded correctly. But I can't prove that. I'll add some modelled figures maybe
Detailed deaths by age records only exist UK wide since 1974 (I think !) so there's a bit of a black hole in my spreadsheet as to when precisely everyone died.
What does look nailed on, since (almost) everyone dies before 100 is good business for funeral directors since I think we must surely see - with life expectancy increases slowing drastically compared to the 20th C plenty more deaths in the next 20 or 30 years or so.
I suspect the next Tory PM isn’t in parliament yet.
It is possible that Penny Mordaunt may be the person to reverse teh Tory decline. She is more rightwing than I would like, but has considerably more personality than nice-but-dull Starmer and might just detox the Conservative brand enough to make a comeback after one term if Starmer doesn't win a commanding majority.
They could still conceivably change their minds.
But this view is false. On this hypothesis, my vote counts in this unique case because it makes an obvious difference. But the situation only arises because of the mass of other voters who happened, by the wisdom of crowds, on this result. So ALL their votes count in this case.
Which means that ALL the voters votes count in every case - each result, even in Bootle, being a totality.
So every result is the result of all the voters; my vote counts (even in Bootle) not because I am just one individual, but because I am part of the totality.
Xi is sensible enough, to know he doesn’t want to kick off WWIII, which is what will happen if the Chinese army ends up in Ukraine.
I will give him some kudos for inching towards this. Remains to be seen if he has the guts to finish the job though.
'He's not a naughty boy, and he's not the Messiah either'
Nowadays the Electoral Commission determines the order of candidates on the ballot paper randomly after close of nominations in order to make this fairer. But it still means an element of luck can change a swing seat.
I'm very disappointed that they have yet to add Francis Suarez.
https://www.politico.com/news/2023/06/11/miami-mayor-suarez-presidential-field-00101429
In a slightly more likely scenario - if a Russian collapse occurs, USSR style, would we care if China gets full control (in one way or another) over Eastern Siberia?
The joke about Vladivostok earlier was funny because it was entirely plausible.
The suggestion upthread is that they either didn’t make it to HOLAC - which I think is Johnson’s contention? - or that they were ruled out because they were sitting MPs.
But since when were sitting MPs precluded from getting peerages?
Not unreasonably.
It's a silly question and a silly poll that infers a golden age of democratic engagement that has never existed. TBH I'm surprised the number wasn't higher.
Presumably the Lib to Lab voters dinnae ken the effect of their switch under FPTP instead of SV.
Well, they ken the noo, as the preacher said.
https://twitter.com/redhistorian/status/1668191638571581442?s=46&t=L9g_woCIqbo1MTuBFCK0xg
PM4PM is the herpes of British politics. A painful and disfiguring condition that won't go away and yet never kills the patient.
As far as I can tell Dorries and co weren’t on the list that went across as there were issues around them having to have confirmed they would resign as MPs and those reassurances weren’t there and so could not be submitted.
Hence the talk that Johnson tried to get Sunak to confirm he would enable them another time if they didn’t go on list that time.
Exclusive:
Boris Johnson, Nadine Dorries and Nigel Adams have yet to formally resign
Resigning MPs have to apply to Treasury to become Steward of the Chiltern Hundreds or Bailiff of the Manor of Northstead
Means writ for the three by-elections won't be moved today…
It also raises the question of whether Boris Johnson will still technically be an MP when the Privileges Committee delivers its verdict, which is expected tomorrow.
https://twitter.com/steven_swinford/status/1668179102916833281
But we've experienced net migration inward since well forever, the age profile of emigrants would have to be markedly higher (Perhaps it is) in order for migration to decrease the death statistics.
China carrying out military ‘exercises’ close to their border with Russia would be hillarious, and anything that takes Russian resources and focus away from Ukraine would obviously be more than welcome.
https://twitter.com/LBC/status/1667975836908093441
Incidentally many people who migrate to live overseas either temporarily or permanently is trading away a right to vote for other benefits. So it's not a pure hypothetical.
Minister for cycle infrastructure, access rights, video gaming and banning plastic grass.
Fundamentally, I personally would take your view of Ms Mordaunt as seriously as I would of David Icke if he issued a fatwa against her.
It's a dramatisation of the Howes' (Elspeth and Geoffrey, with the focus more on the former) role in the demise of Thatcher (played beautifully by Harriet Walter). It's entertaining and quite witty, with some lovely vignettes from other leading characters of the time. It's also a reminder of how long the EEC/EU has plagued the Tory Party, and how important cricket metaphors are to UK politics.
– Ash Regan MSP
https://twitter.com/AshReganSNP/status/1668197085760438272?s=20
My comment referred to the ability to manipulate social media for political purposes if one understands its marketing potential
Gillian Keegan to appeal to the Tory Right and present herself as heir to Thatcher
https://twitter.com/christopherhope/status/1668205993929457664
Both Alan Cummings and Isobel Oakenshott(!) were rolling their eyes at the suggestion HOLAC was independent and conducted scrutiny of candidates.
I'm afraid, I rather sided with them than Michael Howard.
The report now could be published and he could be still an MP when it is - madness.
Even madder idea - what if in a blaze of publicity he now *doesn't* resign...?
Doing balance by prioritising the voices of people who hold positions but can weigh them up and understand other views is so much more interesting.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-65874063
NEW: Humza Yousaf: I will not suspend Nicola Sturgeon from SNP after arrest
It does normally take three or four days, so not massively surprising.
Also, technically they don't need to "apply". This was briefly a matter of debate when either Martin McGuiness or Gerry Adams (I forget which) resigned a decade or so ago. Cameron made a jibe to the effect they'd applied for an office under the Crown (not an ideal look in the Irish republican movement) but later had to clarify they'd simply asked to resign - the mechanism the Chancellor uses is appointment to one of those roles, but the person doesn't need to request it and the Sinn Fein person hadn't done so. Quite a technical distinction, but it does mean the MPs haven't failed to fill in a form or something - this is purely HMT process.
https://www.thepinknews.com/2022/10/27/gillian-keegan-education-lgbtq-trans/
NEW THREAD