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The Mid Beds Independent who might be worth a punt – politicalbetting.com
The Mid Beds Independent who might be worth a punt – politicalbetting.com
This is just a quickie but I am hearing a fair bit from Mid-Beds that a name that keeps on coming up on the doorstep is the chairman of Central Bedfordshire Council, Gareth Mackey.
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Wrong colour?
Valid act by the school.
Wrong supplier?
Invalid act by the school.
@TheNewsAgents
In yesterday’s episode @peterkyle claimed the Lib Dems had made “deeply personal” attacks on the Mid Beds Labour candidate. Today, Lib Dem MP Christine Jardine responds.
https://global-player.onelink.me/Br0x/TNANewEpisode "
https://twitter.com/TheNewsAgents/status/1701989833806090476
Cripes, I'm steering well clear of this market.
And lose them both
Baldy Ben said the weapon (presumably Adder) was 'released' but 'malfunctioned'. If Old Mate had permission to splash the RJ then why didn't they fire another Adder, go in for an Archer/Alamo/guns kill or cue the wingman on to the bandit?
The only explanation that fits the paucity of available facts is that the Adder just fell off the pylon in flight - perhaps in maneuvering to get eyes on the RJ. That happens more than you think...
So long as he's not another bloody NIMBY, so no better than any of the others.
He'd sweep the board.
Bomber Command lost, what, 60,000 men I think off the top of my head, during the war. The Russians lost 80,000 men, that's dead not including casualties, during the attack on Berlin. Post-Dresden (which, at the risk of opening another Pandora's box, I think was entirely justified at the time) the bombing campaign was seen as having gone too far. But I think the price those 60,000 men paid should be recognised in the disproportionately large amount of resources they tied up, and how that helped to win the war.
Seems pretty ideal. Only been going 9 minutes tho
https://news.sky.com/story/botulism-outbreak-at-french-restaurant-british-diners-urged-to-contact-emergency-services-12961120
Andrew Teale useful write up:
https://medium.com/britainelects/previewing-the-six-council-by-elections-of-14th-september-2023-20af25df3e1d
Chorley Rural West, Lancashire County Council: C defence: C, L, LD
Croston, Mawdesley and Euxton South, Chorley Council: C defence:C, L, LD
Fazakarley East, Liverpool Council: L defence: C, L, LD, I, Liverpool Community I
Carholme, Lincolnshire County Council: L defence: C, L, LD, Ref UK, TUSC
Mayesbrook, Barking and Dagenham Council, L defence: C, L, LD, G
Minster Cliffs, Swale Council: C defence: C, L, LD, Swale I
https://metro.co.uk/2022/06/12/world-first-drone-killer-hits-aerial-threat-at-80-metres-per-second-16803417/
Lots of criticism of cover (frankly I don’t care) but contents are *incredibly well* put together.
Recent cliche has been left has the ideas. But seeing panel by Blair Institute on future of healthcare suggests not.
https://www.itv.com/news/london/2023-09-14/shocking-cctv-shows-the-moment-two-dogs-break-into-garden-and-kill-cat
"Shocking CCTV shows the moment two dogs break into garden and kill cat
CCTV footage shows the horrific moment two out-of-control dogs, believed to be XL bullies, break into a garden in Hounslow and, with no owner in sight, attack two cats.
While one was lucky to escape, Deepan Patel’s cat Dusty was caught, with the owner discovering the cat's body in the morning.
“The whole family is incredibly upset and my mother is in tears. The dogs should not be roaming freely and could easily have entered an open window or door and attacked a small person,” Mr Patel said.
After Mr Patel posted the CCTV on social media, other Hounslow residents shared their own stories of incidents with the dogs."
His page on the council website says he's a deputy cabinet member and chair of development control, which I suspect generate limited name awareness and local support.
Even in a by-election (maybe *especially* in a by-election with the might of national campaigns arriving), a non-aligned guy is gonna get lost in the yellow v red v blue bun-fight, surely?
I have read widely on Normandy (Sand and Steel most recently) and I remain convinced that it was only the success it was because of the bombing campaign. The defeat of the Luftwaffe was absolutely critical (just as defeating the RAF would have been for Sealion, although the Navy would have had something to say to that too). If you take Harris's line of trying to win the war from the air alone, then it was a failure, but taken in the round, horrific though it was, and I give thanks that I never had to get into a Lancaster to fly for 12 hours over occupied Europe, it has to be seen as part of the overall victory. It also allowed Churchill to postpone Overlord until 1944, under constant pressure from Stalin, who could rightly point to the death toll paid by Russians on the battlefields of the East.
Anything that pisses off the likes of Bastani is likely to be A Good Thing.
Humza Yousaf accused of disrespecting King for smirking as national anthem was booed
First Minister was at Scotland’s football international with England, where God Save the King was drowned out by heckling
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/09/14/scotland-vs-england-humza-yousaf-god-save-the-king-booing/
Keir Starmer is like a Ken doll because he has no balls, says Penny Mordaunt
Commons Leader was referencing previous ‘Inaction Man’ taunt Labour leader made at Rishi Sunak during Prime Minister’s Questions
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/09/14/sir-keir-starmer-penny-mordaunt-barbie-ken-ryan-gosling/
Somebody is advising Starmer well.
Home advantage.
We still beat them handsomely,
Ally McCoist speaks for Scotland.
https://oversight.house.gov/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/2023.09.12-SSCP-HPSCI-Letter-to-CIA-Re.-Origins-of-COVID.pdf
I’ve only recently started listening to the We Have Ways of Making You Talk podcast, where Al Murray (he of Pub Landlord fame) and James Holland the historian discuss all things WW2. I’d given it a miss ‘cos I wrongly assumed it would be all Spitfires and Tiger tanks, but it really is very good, very detailed, very wide-ranging. I think they themselves are going on a bit of a journey with their knowledge of the conflict because of what they’ve discussed. Highly recommended for all the WW2 buffs on here.
A motion from Plaid Cymru to alter the 20mph policy was successful in the Senedd, with 38 votes in favour and 15 against.
The motion from MS Heledd Fychan reads that "lowering speed limits where people and vehicles interact the most can save lives" and "exemptions are possible in locations deemed appropriate by local authorities".
It adds that "the importance of community support to any speed limit changes to ensure genuine concerns can be alleviated" and "more exemptions may be identified following the introduction of new limits".
Plaid's successful amendment explicitly calls on the Welsh Government to "continuously review the impact of new limits, empower local authorities to make any further exemptions and provide local authorities with adequate funding to facilitate the introduction of new limits,"
"I have always recognised the eventual benefits of a Crematorium facility to residents of Central Bedfordshire. However, my main concern here is the location proposed. CBC has seemed to be virulently opposed to any discussion which seeks to address the location, refusing all overtures to seek compromise. The site in question, insensitively located behind Steppingley Hospital and Orchard Lawns Care Home is plainly less than ideal.... effect of a cortège moving through a busy Town Centre... Could this site not be added to the holdings of local farmers..." and so on.
Sounds classic NIMBY councillor - essentially, I'd love a crematorium, just not in my ward/yard.
Incidentally, I'd have thought having a crematorium conveniently located between a hospital and care home isn't such a bad thing, but there we are.
Anyone know why the LDs are weak, btw?
I named my youngest Alistair so my Mum had a Pakistani name to call him by.
I have become such a buff on account of a book I am putting together which focuses largely on the North Africa campaign, Desert Rats and all that.
If any PBers have a similar preoccupation or want to assist can they please PM me.
Today I exited a side road onto a another road (all 30mph limit, residential, though I dont' think that's important). I was turning right. There was no traffic visible to left (limited visibility, but to the distance I could see) and to the right there was a car indicating to turn left into my road, a cyclist behind that and a bus behind the cyclist. I waited to ensure the car was turning left into my road (i.e. significant slow down to add to indicator) and pulled out. At this point, the cyclist has not caught up with the slowing down car and is continuing a normal pace, say 100m still from where I'm exiting). Once I've turned on to main road, I see the bus has started to overtake the cyclist, heading towards me partially in my lane. Bus driver bails on the overtake, perhaps 50-60m from me and pulls back in behind the cyclist (I'm also pulling to one side and slowing down to make space). The bus had not started to overtake nor indicated as I started to leave the side road (I'm pretty sure of this, as the bus or other vehicles overtaking was in my mind, but I did a last check left where the visibility is poor - and just to the left is a 60mph limit, so sometimes cars come into the 30 fast - just before I pulled out, so there's a chance the indicator started a moment before I started to move).
Who was right there? If the bus was already overtaking or even indicating and would still be out of lane before reaching me I should yield and not come out of the side road, I think. But if I've started to come out, then the bus should not begin the overtake. I think... But it struck me as not entirely clear cut.
Anyway, the bus driver didn't indicate any annoyance, cyclist was safe etc as we could all three have sqeezed past. Just wondering whether I should have waited anyway for the possibility of an overtaking move.
Didn't have to worry about data protection and EU laws on such in the 30s/40s with Mussolini and Hitler, of course
It’s literally the last thing you want by a hospital / OAP home..
https://order-order.com/2023/09/13/left-of-centre-think-tanks-dwarf-tufton-street-in-terms-of-money-and-manpower/
But I still think the LibDems win.
Backlog has risen every single month this year – as waiting times soar for victims and defendants
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/court-backlog-record-high-england-b2411465.html
I'm not as radical in my disdain for the NIMBY as Bart. Sometimes the practical reality of wanting to be re-elected means councillors or MPs pay lip-service to objectors in the full knowledge that the actual decision is out of their hands. If they are not the decision maker, their objections carry limited weight anyway, so they play to the gallery knowing it ultimately won't change the outcome. It's not admirable conduct, but I can understand discretion being the better part of valour sometimes. Maybe that was the case for Mackey and the crematorium... but it's hard to read it as anything other than NIMBY.
Essentially the LibDems need massive tactical voting in this sort of seat, starting on 12.6%, a long way behind Labour and over 40% behind the Tories. Because there's only been one poll, showing Labour leading, and Labour fighting it flat out, there is no realistic chance of the LibDems getting much tactical support, unless there's some amazing poll between now and polling day.
Obviously there will be leaflets in election week where everyone claims they're just 2% behind, one more heave! But I think they'll cancel each other out.
Can't see the Indie troubling the scorers much, but might soak up some "anyone but Tory" voters who can't quite bring themselves to vote Lab or LD.
There's a really good account on Twitter called African Stalingrad (@Tunisia_1943) who goes over the old battlefields towards the end of the campaign, posting pics and vids. Fascinating how much of the trenches and stuff remains, lots of it have basically not been touched since the battles ended. Worth a look.
Would love to assist, I'll PM you.
But yes, I tend to agree that I probably should have waited, just interested in the balance of views on that. Would be interesting to review, had it been recorded, to be certain on the sequencing.
She didn't take it.
Sometimes things are strange next to each other, but a crematorium near a hospital is entirely reasonable.
When we went to my nan's funeral on the drive to the crematorium, almost next to it is a Toby Carvery restaurant. On the drive over nobody said anything about it, everyone was quite emotional. On the drive back though it broke the ice and laughter erupted.
There, almost next to the crematorium, where we'd just cremated my nan, is a big Toby Carvery sign saying "Home of the Roast".
Is there a market on his losing his deposit?
Hypothetical question for the PB brains trust.
Imagine a byelection where 50 candidates stood, and the votes were so widely distributed that the winner failed to reach the 5% threshold.
Would they both become an MP, and lose their deposit?
We’ve been several times, I’m sorry to say.
Nor is there anything to say that someone who tops the poll isn't elected unless they pass some threshold of vote percentage, and indeed several MPs have been elected on quite low shares (albeit nowhere near 5%).
Unless you all screeched to a halt, had a huge scrap in the middle of the road, and @MattW posts the footage of it there really is nothing to discuss.
More seriously, if something happens when I drive/cycle where I think I might have got it wrong then I tend to have a think about it (and often conclude one way or the other whether I was wrong). Here it wasn't very clear to me, but I think I'd act differently next time.
Anyone who denies this is now an idiot, or some perverse ideologue, the argument is not worth having
Whatever happened to "Smirking Starmer"?
It was all the rage in the Tory supporting Press some months ago.
Did someone, somewhere twig it was effing nonsense?
Not fitting, nor amusing.
But if his concern was visibility of mourners from the intensive care unit as you hypothesise, that's not actually an objection to the location, but rather an argument for making the approval conditional on planting some leylandii (which indeed a lot of crematoriums have anyway for the privacy of mourners).
Was Oracle that big a beneficiary of the digitization of the NHS? The big contracts for digitisation of medical records went to - IIRC - Fujitsu and iSoft. Sure, they probably had backend Oracle databases, but I don't think they were a particularly important supplier.
If the objection is seeing it, then just put some screening tree, problem solved.
People object to crematoriums too far away from towns, and if they are too close, you cannot win, which is why decisions are based on policy and evidence, not the 'feels'. Like a legal decision sometimes emotion needs to be taken out of things, since it would just paralyse everything, and without wishing to be too cold, someone looking out a window when upset and getting more upset is not a compelling reason for someone exercising the functions of a local planning authority - not if they want to resist successful appeals.