Regarding the issue of private schools, it goes well against the zeitgeist but I think they should be subsidised, and fees reduced significantly. Middle class people who live in poor areas should be able to access good education for their children without moving to a well to do area with good state schools. This is really about levelling up.
Wouldn't it be somewhat better if poor people in poor areas could access a first-rate education for their children, in state schools? (As many already do, of course.)
To get there from here though it makes sense to bring as many of the resources of the private school sector to bear as possible.
Not sure what you mean. If you mean money, then fine. If you mean teachers, then there's no evidence whatsoever that private school teachers are in any way better than state school teachers - although they do have a much easier job. If you mean the kids of wealthy parents, then yes, that resource would be better in the state sector.
Regarding the issue of private schools, it goes well against the zeitgeist but I think they should be subsidised, and fees reduced significantly. Middle class people who live in poor areas should be able to access good education for their children without moving to a well to do area with good state schools. This is really about levelling up.
Wouldn't it be somewhat better if poor people in poor areas could access a first-rate education for their children, in state schools? (As many already do, of course.)
Next you'll be wanting the poors to have access to a decent GP and having energy efficient homes.
Sam Freedman @Samfr · 7h The main reason I think Labour will strongly outperform uniform national swing is that their vote is going to be a lot more efficient than 2019. (Which is what MRPs are showing at the moment).
Regarding the issue of private schools, it goes well against the zeitgeist but I think they should be subsidised, and fees reduced significantly. Middle class people who live in poor areas should be able to access good education for their children without moving to a well to do area with good state schools. This is really about levelling up.
Wouldn't it be somewhat better if poor people in poor areas could access a first-rate education for their children, in state schools? (As many already do, of course.)
Next you'll be wanting the poors to have access to a decent GP and having energy efficient homes.
:: Reports you to Suella ::
Please don't. It would take a braver man than me to suffer that fate.
I'd love Hall to win. It would be a hoot in all sorts of ways. That's why I won't be voting tactically for Khan. I will vote Lib Dem for Blackie, even if it helps Hall to win.
London Mayor doesn't have much power in practice. It's a figurehead. And Hall as the Tory figurehead in London would just make me laugh. It would extend the Tory joke.
Ah the old “it would be funny if” line - a vote for the pointless Liberal is a vote for the Powellite loon. I thought better of you.
It would be funny. And it would extend the shame of the Tory party.
I've just watched LK3. The Truss episode. Now that's really funny. Tragic if you are a Tory. And Nadine Dorries ....
Sam Freedman @Samfr · 7h The main reason I think Labour will strongly outperform uniform national swing is that their vote is going to be a lot more efficient than 2019. (Which is what MRPs are showing at the moment).
IMO the charity sector is one that is ripe for serious investigation. Some of the big charities behave appallingly - both to their staff and those they are meant to help and emulate some of the worst practices of the corporate world.
Others have poor governance and due diligence and some smaller ones are little better than scams mainly designed to enrich those running them. Yet others are just a racket. I'm not at all convinced they deserve their tax privileges, especially when money is tight as it is now. Frankly, I'd remove them or place an upper limit on what they can claim.
I'd also widen the incidence of VAT. Too many goods and services are exempt.
I stopped donating to a quite big charity when _three_ different door knockers turned up on the same day asking me to set up a donation. Despite me already doing so. While I was explaining that to them another from the same charity was busy haranguing a neighbour who had almost no English and was having to translate through their ~7yr-old daughter. Proper guilt-tripping the poor wee girl who was almost in tears talking to the mother.
I realise they outsource some of this stuff. But really.
IMO the charity sector is one that is ripe for serious investigation. Some of the big charities behave appallingly - both to their staff and those they are meant to help and emulate some of the worst practices of the corporate world.
Others have poor governance and due diligence and some smaller ones are little better than scams mainly designed to enrich those running them. Yet others are just a racket. I'm not at all convinced they deserve their tax privileges, especially when money is tight as it is now. Frankly, I'd remove them or place an upper limit on what they can claim.
I'd also widen the incidence of VAT. Too many goods and services are exempt.
There should be a public enquiry into the operation of the charity sector. However, if the current government set one up, they would probably invite Hannah Ingram-Moore to chair it.
Interesting from the Lib Dems especially if they are in coalition with labour post GE24
Liberal Democrats oppose Labour’s VAT plan for private schools in fresh dividing line between parties
September 27, 2023 4:25 pm(Updated 6:32 pm)
The Liberal Democrats have opened a fresh dividing line with Labour by speaking out against the party’s policy of imposing VAT on private schools.
Sir Keir Starmer has suggested that the new levy on school fees will be one of his top priorities if he wins the next general election.
As i revealed this week, Labour intends to introduce the policy as soon as it takes power – raising the prospect that it would take effect as soon as next academic year.
But the Lib Dems said they opposed the policy, although they would support a review of charitable status among schools due to fears that some do little to help their local area.
A spokesman said: “The Liberal Democrats do not support ending the VAT exemption. We do think some private schools benefit from lower taxes due to charitable status even though they perform almost no charitable act on behalf of the community – so charitable status does need to be reviewed so that it only rewards schools that do real community work.”
Regarding the issue of private schools, it goes well against the zeitgeist but I think they should be subsidised, and fees reduced significantly. Middle class people who live in poor areas should be able to access good education for their children without moving to a well to do area with good state schools. This is really about levelling up.
Wouldn't it be somewhat better if poor people in poor areas could access a first-rate education for their children, in state schools? (As many already do, of course.)
Next you'll be wanting the poors to have access to a decent GP and having energy efficient homes.
:: Reports you to Suella ::
If the poors want better education, health service and housing they should pay more tax. I propose no tax free allowance, 40% on the next £20k of income, 20% on the next 20%, with all income over £40k tax free. In fact, I think I’ll suggest it as a Tory policy for the next election. I expect likes from HYUFD and Casino Royale, at least!
Regarding the issue of private schools, it goes well against the zeitgeist but I think they should be subsidised, and fees reduced significantly. Middle class people who live in poor areas should be able to access good education for their children without moving to a well to do area with good state schools. This is really about levelling up.
Wouldn't it be somewhat better if poor people in poor areas could access a first-rate education for their children, in state schools? (As many already do, of course.)
Maybe 'a good education' isn't quite the right description. I can only speak from my own experience. I sent my son to a good school (outstanding in 3 out of 4 areas), but we lived in an economically deprived town and the school was not in the gentrifying part. The other parents were generally anti-social and rude, a lot of the children had no social skills. Eventually after much upheaval we moved him to another area completely and enrolled him in a state school where the other parents were professionals, doctors, university lecturers etc. And of course it is much better. The only way we could access anything close to that in the old town was to send him to private school at £10-£15k a year. The reality of all this is that it makes more sense to move to a richer area, and that is what a lot of middle class people do, to the detriment of the town. If you kill of private schools it will just accellerate this process and make it more extreme.
I'd love Hall to win. It would be a hoot in all sorts of ways. That's why I won't be voting tactically for Khan. I will vote Lib Dem for Blackie, even if it helps Hall to win.
London Mayor doesn't have much power in practice. It's a figurehead. And Hall as the Tory figurehead in London would just make me laugh. It would extend the Tory joke.
"It'll be a laugh."
"The Labour candidate is past his sell by date."
"How much harm can they do?"
That's what a lot of us thought in 2008. Can I remind you how that ended?
Boris as Mayor was entertaining, though I agree he did waste a lot of money. I don't think Susan Hall will waste money though she will be entertaining in a different way.
Entertaining in so far as having a Powellite moron as mayor is entertaining’ ?
Sam Freedman @Samfr · 7h The main reason I think Labour will strongly outperform uniform national swing is that their vote is going to be a lot more efficient than 2019. (Which is what MRPs are showing at the moment).
Some interesting figures for swings in different demographic groups there - the most dramatic being 25% Con to Lab swing since 2019 among those who voted Leave in 2016.
For contrast, here's a big city mayor, who is succeeding: "Dallas, however, stands as an exception. Last month, Democratic Mayor Eric Johnson, 47, cruised unopposed to a second term, marking the first time that had happened here since 1967."
Why? According to columnist Karen Tumulty, because of his crime fighting success: "This [data-driven] approach can be polarizing, given that hot spots tend to be in communities of color. But statistics suggest it is working. Of the nation’s largest cities, Dallas appears to be the only one to buck the trend of rising crime; in each of the past two years, statistics for murders, rapes and aggravated assaults have gone down. What’s more, the Dallas Morning News noted, the number of arrests last year dropped by 19 percent." source$: https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/06/14/dallas-mayor-eric-johnson-crime/
The mayor's position is technically nonpartisan, but earlier Johnson was elected to the state legislature as a Democrat. He has announced a switch in parties, which is easier to do when you have a 77 percent approval rating, and a majority of Dallas voters think the city is headed in the right direction.
He can not run for another term, but with that record, I think it certain that he will try for a higher office -- and I hope he succeeds.
IMO the charity sector is one that is ripe for serious investigation. Some of the big charities behave appallingly - both to their staff and those they are meant to help and emulate some of the worst practices of the corporate world.
Others have poor governance and due diligence and some smaller ones are little better than scams mainly designed to enrich those running them. Yet others are just a racket. I'm not at all convinced they deserve their tax privileges, especially when money is tight as it is now. Frankly, I'd remove them or place an upper limit on what they can claim.
I'd also widen the incidence of VAT. Too many goods and services are exempt.
Now I'm almost fully retired from the trade I'd certainly welcome the extension of VAT to printed matter. It's a curious anomaly, dating back to Harold Wilson and his reluctance to tax the written word. This Great Movement Of Ours had a long, noble history of agitation through pamphlets and newspapers whereas That Grubby Movement Of Theirs had an equally long ignoble history of taxing them to oblivion. From the debates at the time it was apparent that Wislon and his ministers recalled Lord Liverpool's stamp duty as if it were yesterday and were determined not to revert to the 1810s in a fit of absent-mindedness. This may seem quaint to a generation that hasn't read a book or newspaper since gawdknowswhen.
I'd love Hall to win. It would be a hoot in all sorts of ways. That's why I won't be voting tactically for Khan. I will vote Lib Dem for Blackie, even if it helps Hall to win.
London Mayor doesn't have much power in practice. It's a figurehead. And Hall as the Tory figurehead in London would just make me laugh. It would extend the Tory joke.
Ah the old “it would be funny if” line - a vote for the pointless Liberal is a vote for the Powellite loon. I thought better of you.
You rightly got annoyed at the Putin shill comment on the previous thread, and then you come out with garbage like this which is really no better.
A vote for the Party A is a vote for the Party A, not for Party B.
Regarding the issue of private schools, it goes well against the zeitgeist but I think they should be subsidised, and fees reduced significantly. Middle class people who live in poor areas should be able to access good education for their children without moving to a well to do area with good state schools. This is really about levelling up.
Wouldn't it be somewhat better if poor people in poor areas could access a first-rate education for their children, in state schools? (As many already do, of course.)
Next you'll be wanting the poors to have access to a decent GP and having energy efficient homes.
:: Reports you to Suella ::
If the poors want better education, health service and housing they should pay more tax. I propose no tax free allowance, 40% on the next £20k of income, 20% on the next 20%, with all income over £40k tax free. In fact, I think I’ll suggest it as a Tory policy for the next election. I expect likes from HYUFD and Casino Royale, at least!
I wonder if Suella Braverman has read Jonathan Swift's "A Modest Proposal".
A pedant notes: I don't think the London mayoral election can reasonably be called First Past the Post. There isn't a post - it's just whoever gets the most votes. A FPTP election implies a post - typically 50% + 1. That's exactly what we don't have. My understanding is that FPTP elections are so called because there is a 'winning post' at, in our case, 325 MPs at which party x can form a government - rather than describing the method of elections in individual constituencies. The latter wouldn't make sense.
No, FPTP refers to the method of election within a single seat. Nothing to do with the number of seats.
But that makes no sense whatsoever as a descriptor. It invites comparison with a race where a particular location is the winning line (like the 100m), but it's a race where who runs furthest wins (like the 1 hour). THERE IS NO POST. [To be clear, I'm not block capitals shouty with you, RobD, I'm block capitals shouty with this NONSENSICAL naming convention.]
I agree. It is only FPTP if there is a post.
Thank you Foxy. I feared I was on my own on this.
You raise a perfectly valid concern. For me, how to make sense of it is - the 'post' is the moment the count finishes. That's the post. At this point the 'race', the election, is over and the candidate who has the most votes is the winner. He or she is the first *at* the post, FATP, but then we substitute 'past' for 'at' to further cement that conceit/impression of an actual race involving bodies and motion through time. FPTP.
When voting stops is the finishing post. Whoever is first after (past) that is duly elected.
Counting is no different to reviewing the tape to see who was first. It doesn't determine the winner, the winner was determined at the end of the race (when the horse crossed the line/10pm election night).
Well you have to count to see who's won. Before then you don't know who it is. Eg if you never count you never have a winner. So the 'post' is when the count ends. Or, and this could happen, when the count is in process but somebody leads by miles. Then you can 'call it' - like they do in America. But we aren't talking about America.
Yes you have to count to see who's won, but that's outside of the race its not part of it.
I'm not a horse racing fan, if the stewards have to review the tape to see who was winner at the end of the race, or it goes to a stewards enquiry, then that's not a part of the race, the race ended when the finishing post was reached, its just determining who was first past it.
Just because you don't know who was first past the post yet, doesn't mean they're not already past it. If a horse race has gone to a stewards enquiry as two horses crossed about the same time and it needs settling does that mean the horses haven't reached the post yet?
They've haven't reached the post, no, because we're defining the post to be when there's a winner. FPTP.
That's not the definition, no.
The winner is whoever has the most votes after the the end of the race. The race ended at 10pm on election night, not when the result is declared by the Returning Officer.
Just because you don't know yet the result doesn't mean the race is still happening. The race ended at 10pm, after that its just finding out who won, but the voting has stopped.
You're trying to force an exact horse racing analogy. With a horse race the naked eye sees who's won, with only a small proportion needing photo review or a stewards, and even then you usually know.
A FPTP election here in the UK isn't like that. With an election you have to count to find the winner. So the count is the final part of the race. If you wish to dispute this you must address my original question. If the count never happens how can anybody be first past the post?
We're getting into philosophy here. Unexpected development.
No one is first past the post. Because there is no post. Based on what RobD posted earlier, we appear to have picked up a bit of nonsensical Australian idiom.
First-past-the-post voting (FPTP or FPP)[1] is an electoral system wherein voters cast a vote for a single candidate, and the candidate with the most votes wins the election. Analogous systems for multi-winner contests are known as plurality block voting or "block voting" systems; both FPTP and block voting are "plurality" systems in that the winner needs only a plurality (the greatest number) of the votes and not an absolute majority (greater than half). The term first-past-the-post is a metaphor from horse racing of the plurality-voted candidate winning such a race; the electoral system is formally called single-member plurality voting (SMP) when used in single-member districts, and informally called choose-one voting in contrast to ranked voting[2] or score voting.[3]
Well yes. My point is it's a terrible metaphor. If we're to compare it to a horse race, it would be a who-can-get-the-furthest-in-a-given time election. Because you don't know from the start how many votes you need to get, only that you need to go further than your opponents.
And of course it's not timed.
If we must use horses for an analogy, it ought to be a horse popularity contest. A which-horse-gets-the-most-votes. I propose we use the abbreviation WHGTMV in future.
(I never really accepted metaphors as a valid literary device.)
"not timed"?
So you can turn up to a polling station to vote at 10:01pm on election night can you?
The race ends at 10pm. At that point counting can start to see who won the race, which has finished when the polls closed.
Yes but that is not the sense in which most races - horse or otherwise - are timed, is it? The horse race will finish at 10pm and whichever horse is in the lead at that point will win? Uncommon. More conventional is that a race will be run toan agreed finishing point - a 'post', if you will - and the horse or human who gets there first, wins. This is in no respect what happens in an individual constituency in an election.
I'd love Hall to win. It would be a hoot in all sorts of ways. That's why I won't be voting tactically for Khan. I will vote Lib Dem for Blackie, even if it helps Hall to win.
London Mayor doesn't have much power in practice. It's a figurehead. And Hall as the Tory figurehead in London would just make me laugh. It would extend the Tory joke.
Ah the old “it would be funny if” line - a vote for the pointless Liberal is a vote for the Powellite loon. I thought better of you.
You rightly got annoyed at the Putin shill comment on the previous thread, and then you come out with garbage like this which is really no better.
A vote for the Party A is a vote for the Party A, not for Party B.
Unfortunately it is in London now, because the gerrymandering Boris changed the system to FPP for this election. It was AV or similar before, a much better, fairer, system.
More conventional is that a race will be run toan agreed finishing point - a 'post', if you will - and the horse or human who gets there first, wins. This is in no respect what happens in an individual constituency in an election.
The finishing post is an arbitrary point in space and time.
Whoever is in the lead when the race ends is the winner.
I'd love Hall to win. It would be a hoot in all sorts of ways. That's why I won't be voting tactically for Khan. I will vote Lib Dem for Blackie, even if it helps Hall to win.
London Mayor doesn't have much power in practice. It's a figurehead. And Hall as the Tory figurehead in London would just make me laugh. It would extend the Tory joke.
Ah the old “it would be funny if” line - a vote for the pointless Liberal is a vote for the Powellite loon. I thought better of you.
You rightly got annoyed at the Putin shill comment on the previous thread, and then you come out with garbage like this which is really no better.
A vote for the Party A is a vote for the Party A, not for Party B.
Unfortunately it is in London now, because the gerrymandering Boris changed the system to FPP for this election. It was AV or similar before, a much better, fairer, system.
I'm aware of the change but you're still wrong. Failing to support Ukraine/Labour is not the same as supporting Russia/Powellite loon.
Put it this way, if someone was saying they're either going to vote Lib Dem OR Powellite Loon but I'll let YOU, @Anabobazina make the final choice out of those two for me... which would you direct them to do?
I presume if you're being honest you'd tell them to vote Lib Dem because at least their vote wouldn't count for Powellite Loon, even if it fails to count for Khan.
More conventional is that a race will be run toan agreed finishing point - a 'post', if you will - and the horse or human who gets there first, wins. This is in no respect what happens in an individual constituency in an election.
The finishing post is an arbitrary point in space and time.
Whoever is in the lead when the race ends is the winner.
I'd love Hall to win. It would be a hoot in all sorts of ways. That's why I won't be voting tactically for Khan. I will vote Lib Dem for Blackie, even if it helps Hall to win.
London Mayor doesn't have much power in practice. It's a figurehead. And Hall as the Tory figurehead in London would just make me laugh. It would extend the Tory joke.
Ah the old “it would be funny if” line - a vote for the pointless Liberal is a vote for the Powellite loon. I thought better of you.
You rightly got annoyed at the Putin shill comment on the previous thread, and then you come out with garbage like this which is really no better.
A vote for the Party A is a vote for the Party A, not for Party B.
Unfortunately it is in London now, because the gerrymandering Boris changed the system to FPP for this election. It was AV or similar before, a much better, fairer, system.
I'm aware of the change but you're still wrong. Failing to support Ukraine/Labour is not the same as supporting Russia/Powellite loon.
Put it this way, if someone was saying they're either going to vote Lib Dem OR Powellite Loon but I'll let YOU, @Anabobazina make the final choice out of those two for me... which would you direct them to do?
I presume if you're being honest you'd tell them to vote Lib Dem because at least their vote wouldn't count for Powellite Loon, even if it fails to count for Khan.
Of course, but my point is what is the point wasting your vote on someone who has no chance of winning, when you are aware there is a real risk that by doing so you let in a Powellite loon?
Of course, @Barnesian wants that to happen because he is himself a loon who considers such an outcome “funny”.
I suspect you and I are more intelligent. I’d obviously do the same if the roles were reversed. I’d happily vote Liberal to keep out the odious Hall.
I'd love Hall to win. It would be a hoot in all sorts of ways. That's why I won't be voting tactically for Khan. I will vote Lib Dem for Blackie, even if it helps Hall to win.
London Mayor doesn't have much power in practice. It's a figurehead. And Hall as the Tory figurehead in London would just make me laugh. It would extend the Tory joke.
"It'll be a laugh."
"The Labour candidate is past his sell by date."
"How much harm can they do?"
That's what a lot of us thought in 2008. Can I remind you how that ended?
Boris as Mayor was entertaining, though I agree he did waste a lot of money. I don't think Susan Hall will waste money though she will be entertaining in a different way.
Entertaining in so far as having a Powellite moron as mayor is entertaining’ ?
Go to bed.
I believe Hall once liked a Tweet that Quoted Powell - that qualifies her as a bit stupid, not necessarily a Powell devotee.
A pedant notes: I don't think the London mayoral election can reasonably be called First Past the Post. There isn't a post - it's just whoever gets the most votes. A FPTP election implies a post - typically 50% + 1. That's exactly what we don't have. My understanding is that FPTP elections are so called because there is a 'winning post' at, in our case, 325 MPs at which party x can form a government - rather than describing the method of elections in individual constituencies. The latter wouldn't make sense.
No, FPTP refers to the method of election within a single seat. Nothing to do with the number of seats.
But that makes no sense whatsoever as a descriptor. It invites comparison with a race where a particular location is the winning line (like the 100m), but it's a race where who runs furthest wins (like the 1 hour). THERE IS NO POST. [To be clear, I'm not block capitals shouty with you, RobD, I'm block capitals shouty with this NONSENSICAL naming convention.]
I agree. It is only FPTP if there is a post.
Thank you Foxy. I feared I was on my own on this.
You raise a perfectly valid concern. For me, how to make sense of it is - the 'post' is the moment the count finishes. That's the post. At this point the 'race', the election, is over and the candidate who has the most votes is the winner. He or she is the first *at* the post, FATP, but then we substitute 'past' for 'at' to further cement that conceit/impression of an actual race involving bodies and motion through time. FPTP.
When voting stops is the finishing post. Whoever is first after (past) that is duly elected.
Counting is no different to reviewing the tape to see who was first. It doesn't determine the winner, the winner was determined at the end of the race (when the horse crossed the line/10pm election night).
Well you have to count to see who's won. Before then you don't know who it is. Eg if you never count you never have a winner. So the 'post' is when the count ends. Or, and this could happen, when the count is in process but somebody leads by miles. Then you can 'call it' - like they do in America. But we aren't talking about America.
Yes you have to count to see who's won, but that's outside of the race its not part of it.
I'm not a horse racing fan, if the stewards have to review the tape to see who was winner at the end of the race, or it goes to a stewards enquiry, then that's not a part of the race, the race ended when the finishing post was reached, its just determining who was first past it.
Just because you don't know who was first past the post yet, doesn't mean they're not already past it. If a horse race has gone to a stewards enquiry as two horses crossed about the same time and it needs settling does that mean the horses haven't reached the post yet?
They've haven't reached the post, no, because we're defining the post to be when there's a winner. FPTP.
That's not the definition, no.
The winner is whoever has the most votes after the the end of the race. The race ended at 10pm on election night, not when the result is declared by the Returning Officer.
Just because you don't know yet the result doesn't mean the race is still happening. The race ended at 10pm, after that its just finding out who won, but the voting has stopped.
You're trying to force an exact horse racing analogy. With a horse race the naked eye sees who's won, with only a small proportion needing photo review or a stewards, and even then you usually know.
A FPTP election here in the UK isn't like that. With an election you have to count to find the winner. So the count is the final part of the race. If you wish to dispute this you must address my original question. If the count never happens how can anybody be first past the post?
We're getting into philosophy here. Unexpected development.
No one is first past the post. Because there is no post. Based on what RobD posted earlier, we appear to have picked up a bit of nonsensical Australian idiom.
First-past-the-post voting (FPTP or FPP)[1] is an electoral system wherein voters cast a vote for a single candidate, and the candidate with the most votes wins the election. Analogous systems for multi-winner contests are known as plurality block voting or "block voting" systems; both FPTP and block voting are "plurality" systems in that the winner needs only a plurality (the greatest number) of the votes and not an absolute majority (greater than half). The term first-past-the-post is a metaphor from horse racing of the plurality-voted candidate winning such a race; the electoral system is formally called single-member plurality voting (SMP) when used in single-member districts, and informally called choose-one voting in contrast to ranked voting[2] or score voting.[3]
Well yes. My point is it's a terrible metaphor. If we're to compare it to a horse race, it would be a who-can-get-the-furthest-in-a-given time election. Because you don't know from the start how many votes you need to get, only that you need to go further than your opponents.
And of course it's not timed.
If we must use horses for an analogy, it ought to be a horse popularity contest. A which-horse-gets-the-most-votes. I propose we use the abbreviation WHGTMV in future.
(I never really accepted metaphors as a valid literary device.)
"not timed"?
So you can turn up to a polling station to vote at 10:01pm on election night can you?
The race ends at 10pm. At that point counting can start to see who won the race, which has finished when the polls closed.
Yes but that is not the sense in which most races - horse or otherwise - are timed, is it? The horse race will finish at 10pm and whichever horse is in the lead at that point will win? Uncommon. More conventional is that a race will be run toan agreed finishing point - a 'post', if you will - and the horse or human who gets there first, wins. This is in no respect what happens in an individual constituency in an election.
I agree with you that it’s a silly name for the system for exactly the reasons you outline. Its official name is ‘single-member plurality voting’ but for obvious reasons the less precise horse-racing analogy caught on.
I'd love Hall to win. It would be a hoot in all sorts of ways. That's why I won't be voting tactically for Khan. I will vote Lib Dem for Blackie, even if it helps Hall to win.
London Mayor doesn't have much power in practice. It's a figurehead. And Hall as the Tory figurehead in London would just make me laugh. It would extend the Tory joke.
Ah the old “it would be funny if” line - a vote for the pointless Liberal is a vote for the Powellite loon. I thought better of you.
You rightly got annoyed at the Putin shill comment on the previous thread, and then you come out with garbage like this which is really no better.
A vote for the Party A is a vote for the Party A, not for Party B.
Unfortunately it is in London now, because the gerrymandering Boris changed the system to FPP for this election. It was AV or similar before, a much better, fairer, system.
I'm aware of the change but you're still wrong. Failing to support Ukraine/Labour is not the same as supporting Russia/Powellite loon.
Put it this way, if someone was saying they're either going to vote Lib Dem OR Powellite Loon but I'll let YOU, @Anabobazina make the final choice out of those two for me... which would you direct them to do?
I presume if you're being honest you'd tell them to vote Lib Dem because at least their vote wouldn't count for Powellite Loon, even if it fails to count for Khan.
Of course, but my point is what is the point wasting your vote on someone who has no chance of winning, when you are aware there is a real risk that by doing so you let in a Powellite loon?
Of course, @Barnesian wants that to happen because he is himself a loon who considers such an outcome “funny”.
I suspect you and I are more intelligent. I’d obviously do the same if the roles were reversed. I’d happily vote Liberal to keep out the odious Hall.
Well, that's the question. My own intention has changed on this over the last few years. I voted Lib Dem last time in a seat where they had no hope of winning. This time I'm inclined to vote tactically to kick the Tory out because by fuck they urgently need a good hiding. That's just my priority that's changed, though. If you really don't want either of the parties that's in with a shot (even assuming you live somewhere that's a two-horse pass-the-parcel) then that's absolutely ok. Your vote is a signal to all parties that there are policy priorities here you want to see adopted. It's not just about keeping Tweedledum out.
I'd love Hall to win. It would be a hoot in all sorts of ways. That's why I won't be voting tactically for Khan. I will vote Lib Dem for Blackie, even if it helps Hall to win.
London Mayor doesn't have much power in practice. It's a figurehead. And Hall as the Tory figurehead in London would just make me laugh. It would extend the Tory joke.
"It'll be a laugh."
"The Labour candidate is past his sell by date."
"How much harm can they do?"
That's what a lot of us thought in 2008. Can I remind you how that ended?
Boris as Mayor was entertaining, though I agree he did waste a lot of money. I don't think Susan Hall will waste money though she will be entertaining in a different way.
Entertaining in so far as having a Powellite moron as mayor is entertaining’ ?
Go to bed.
I believe Hall once liked a Tweet that Quoted Powell - that qualifies her as a bit stupid, not necessarily a Powell devotee.
If it walks like a duck, quacks like a duck, and comes complete with a bowl of orange sauce, your [edit] first reaction is to say it was one of those imitation vegan things you get in the supermarket? I really am startled.
I'd love Hall to win. It would be a hoot in all sorts of ways. That's why I won't be voting tactically for Khan. I will vote Lib Dem for Blackie, even if it helps Hall to win.
London Mayor doesn't have much power in practice. It's a figurehead. And Hall as the Tory figurehead in London would just make me laugh. It would extend the Tory joke.
"It'll be a laugh."
"The Labour candidate is past his sell by date."
"How much harm can they do?"
That's what a lot of us thought in 2008. Can I remind you how that ended?
Boris as Mayor was entertaining, though I agree he did waste a lot of money. I don't think Susan Hall will waste money though she will be entertaining in a different way.
Entertaining in so far as having a Powellite moron as mayor is entertaining’ ?
Go to bed.
I believe Hall once liked a Tweet that Quoted Powell - that qualifies her as a bit stupid, not necessarily a Powell devotee.
I'd love Hall to win. It would be a hoot in all sorts of ways. That's why I won't be voting tactically for Khan. I will vote Lib Dem for Blackie, even if it helps Hall to win.
London Mayor doesn't have much power in practice. It's a figurehead. And Hall as the Tory figurehead in London would just make me laugh. It would extend the Tory joke.
"It'll be a laugh."
"The Labour candidate is past his sell by date."
"How much harm can they do?"
That's what a lot of us thought in 2008. Can I remind you how that ended?
Boris as Mayor was entertaining, though I agree he did waste a lot of money. I don't think Susan Hall will waste money though she will be entertaining in a different way.
Entertaining in so far as having a Powellite moron as mayor is entertaining’ ?
Go to bed.
I believe Hall once liked a Tweet that Quoted Powell - that qualifies her as a bit stupid, not necessarily a Powell devotee.
Fair point. Let’s go with stupid loon.
No. LoonY is presumably what you mean. Loon is a word for a Scots farmworker or more generally a young man.
ON topic - I can distinctly remember sitting in the Groucho Club aged about 27 and across from me was Barry Norman, the then-famous BBC TV movie critc, and he was openly ogling - to the point of drooling obsession - the exposed golden thighs of my then-girlfriend, a hot TV presenter in her own right who was wearing long overknee socks that didn't meet the hem of her summer dress as was then the fashion
Has any other PB-er had their sexual partner ogled by a then-famous BBC broadcasting persona, now totally forgotten? Perhaps @NickPalmer once had his threesome partners perved at in the corner of a St John's Wood deli by a Radio 4 Archers personality in the mid 1970s?
I'd love Hall to win. It would be a hoot in all sorts of ways. That's why I won't be voting tactically for Khan. I will vote Lib Dem for Blackie, even if it helps Hall to win.
London Mayor doesn't have much power in practice. It's a figurehead. And Hall as the Tory figurehead in London would just make me laugh. It would extend the Tory joke.
"It'll be a laugh."
"The Labour candidate is past his sell by date."
"How much harm can they do?"
That's what a lot of us thought in 2008. Can I remind you how that ended?
Boris as Mayor was entertaining, though I agree he did waste a lot of money. I don't think Susan Hall will waste money though she will be entertaining in a different way.
Entertaining in so far as having a Powellite moron as mayor is entertaining’ ?
Go to bed.
I believe Hall once liked a Tweet that Quoted Powell - that qualifies her as a bit stupid, not necessarily a Powell devotee.
Despite claims by campaigners that 20mph limits do not affect journey times!
What excuses were they using before September?
Sheep on the road.
It’s now clear that THE DRAKE is a national hero of Wales. A father. A scholar. A leader of men. Some call him simply THE DRAKE. Others speak not his name, preferring to raise their eyes and hands to the sky in recognition of his omniscience. Yet most are as humble as he. They take a filled glass and point it towards Cardiff Bay: their eyes wet, they utter, in hushed tones, only “friend”.
Regarding the issue of private schools, it goes well against the zeitgeist but I think they should be subsidised, and fees reduced significantly. Middle class people who live in poor areas should be able to access good education for their children without moving to a well to do area with good state schools. This is really about levelling up.
Wouldn't it be somewhat better if poor people in poor areas could access a first-rate education for their children, in state schools? (As many already do, of course.)
Next you'll be wanting the poors to have access to a decent GP and having energy efficient homes.
:: Reports you to Suella ::
If the poors want better education, health service and housing they should pay more tax. I propose no tax free allowance, 40% on the next £20k of income, 20% on the next 20%, with all income over £40k tax free. In fact, I think I’ll suggest it as a Tory policy for the next election. I expect likes from HYUFD and Casino Royale, at least!
Already been invented. The poll tax, and for that matter ther council tax, certainly at the higher end of property values.
Regarding the issue of private schools, it goes well against the zeitgeist but I think they should be subsidised, and fees reduced significantly. Middle class people who live in poor areas should be able to access good education for their children without moving to a well to do area with good state schools. This is really about levelling up.
Wouldn't it be somewhat better if poor people in poor areas could access a first-rate education for their children, in state schools? (As many already do, of course.)
Next you'll be wanting the poors to have access to a decent GP and having energy efficient homes.
:: Reports you to Suella ::
If the poors want better education, health service and housing they should pay more tax. I propose no tax free allowance, 40% on the next £20k of income, 20% on the next 20%, with all income over £40k tax free. In fact, I think I’ll suggest it as a Tory policy for the next election. I expect likes from HYUFD and Casino Royale, at least!
Already been invented. The poll tax, and for that matter ther council tax, certainly at the higher end of property values.
Interesting from the Lib Dems especially if they are in coalition with labour post GE24
Liberal Democrats oppose Labour’s VAT plan for private schools in fresh dividing line between parties
September 27, 2023 4:25 pm(Updated 6:32 pm)
The Liberal Democrats have opened a fresh dividing line with Labour by speaking out against the party’s policy of imposing VAT on private schools.
Sir Keir Starmer has suggested that the new levy on school fees will be one of his top priorities if he wins the next general election.
As i revealed this week, Labour intends to introduce the policy as soon as it takes power – raising the prospect that it would take effect as soon as next academic year.
But the Lib Dems said they opposed the policy, although they would support a review of charitable status among schools due to fears that some do little to help their local area.
A spokesman said: “The Liberal Democrats do not support ending the VAT exemption. We do think some private schools benefit from lower taxes due to charitable status even though they perform almost no charitable act on behalf of the community – so charitable status does need to be reviewed so that it only rewards schools that do real community work.”
Three words.
University.
Tuition.
Fees.
To which they plan to add VAT?
I've recently listened to a report on a Focus group on the Lib Dems.
There was good news and bad news.
The bad news was that they didn't know what then Lib Dems stood for.
The good news was that they didn't know what the Lib Dems stood for.
A clean sheet. What an opportunity.
I think general elections are decided on the public's view of the respective leaders. The rest is chaff. If the public have a view of Ed Davey I suspect that it is that he is a decent chap with a sense of humour. That's a start.
Regarding the issue of private schools, it goes well against the zeitgeist but I think they should be subsidised, and fees reduced significantly. Middle class people who live in poor areas should be able to access good education for their children without moving to a well to do area with good state schools. This is really about levelling up.
Wouldn't it be somewhat better if poor people in poor areas could access a first-rate education for their children, in state schools? (As many already do, of course.)
Next you'll be wanting the poors to have access to a decent GP and having energy efficient homes.
:: Reports you to Suella ::
If the poors want better education, health service and housing they should pay more tax. I propose no tax free allowance, 40% on the next £20k of income, 20% on the next 20%, with all income over £40k tax free. In fact, I think I’ll suggest it as a Tory policy for the next election. I expect likes from HYUFD and Casino Royale, at least!
Already been invented. The poll tax, and for that matter ther council tax, certainly at the higher end of property values.
The Licence Fee is even worse than that.
That's true, but then so is VAT on essentials such as clothing. Even on school uniforms (for older children I think?). Likewise toilet paper, sticking plasters ...
Regarding the issue of private schools, it goes well against the zeitgeist but I think they should be subsidised, and fees reduced significantly. Middle class people who live in poor areas should be able to access good education for their children without moving to a well to do area with good state schools. This is really about levelling up.
Wouldn't it be somewhat better if poor people in poor areas could access a first-rate education for their children, in state schools? (As many already do, of course.)
Next you'll be wanting the poors to have access to a decent GP and having energy efficient homes.
:: Reports you to Suella ::
If the poors want better education, health service and housing they should pay more tax. I propose no tax free allowance, 40% on the next £20k of income, 20% on the next 20%, with all income over £40k tax free. In fact, I think I’ll suggest it as a Tory policy for the next election. I expect likes from HYUFD and Casino Royale, at least!
Already been invented. The poll tax, and for that matter ther council tax, certainly at the higher end of property values.
The Licence Fee is even worse than that.
That's true, but then so is VAT on essentials such as clothing. Even on school uniforms (for older children I think?). Likewise toilet paper, sticking plasters ...
VAT's regressive but less regressive as people spend more goods and services (even on essentials, even on toilet paper) if they earn more.
More conventional is that a race will be run toan agreed finishing point - a 'post', if you will - and the horse or human who gets there first, wins. This is in no respect what happens in an individual constituency in an election.
The finishing post is an arbitrary point in space and time.
Whoever is in the lead when the race ends is the winner.
This is true of horses and elections
The finishing point is normally an arbitrary point in space, but not in time. Time is the variable you are measuring. In almost all races, the finishing point is an arbitrary point in space, and whoever gets there in the shortest time wins. In a very few, the finishing point is an arbitrary point in time (the 1 hour being an example; the Le Mans 24 hours another). But this second sort doesn't have a 'post' because a post marks a location in space, not time. In the latter case, yes, who is in the lead when the race ends is the winner - but there is no post. There is no post because the post marks a point in space, not time.
Regarding the issue of private schools, it goes well against the zeitgeist but I think they should be subsidised, and fees reduced significantly. Middle class people who live in poor areas should be able to access good education for their children without moving to a well to do area with good state schools. This is really about levelling up.
Wouldn't it be somewhat better if poor people in poor areas could access a first-rate education for their children, in state schools? (As many already do, of course.)
Next you'll be wanting the poors to have access to a decent GP and having energy efficient homes.
:: Reports you to Suella ::
If the poors want better education, health service and housing they should pay more tax. I propose no tax free allowance, 40% on the next £20k of income, 20% on the next 20%, with all income over £40k tax free. In fact, I think I’ll suggest it as a Tory policy for the next election. I expect likes from HYUFD and Casino Royale, at least!
Already been invented. The poll tax, and for that matter ther council tax, certainly at the higher end of property values.
The Licence Fee is even worse than that.
That's true, but then so is VAT on essentials such as clothing. Even on school uniforms (for older children I think?). Likewise toilet paper, sticking plasters ...
VAT's regressive but less regressive as people spend more goods and services (even on essentials, even on toilet paper) if they earn more.
Well you don't want to be buying the same loo roll as the the hoi polloi.
I'd love Hall to win. It would be a hoot in all sorts of ways. That's why I won't be voting tactically for Khan. I will vote Lib Dem for Blackie, even if it helps Hall to win.
London Mayor doesn't have much power in practice. It's a figurehead. And Hall as the Tory figurehead in London would just make me laugh. It would extend the Tory joke.
Ah the old “it would be funny if” line - a vote for the pointless Liberal is a vote for the Powellite loon. I thought better of you.
You rightly got annoyed at the Putin shill comment on the previous thread, and then you come out with garbage like this which is really no better.
A vote for the Party A is a vote for the Party A, not for Party B.
Unfortunately it is in London now, because the gerrymandering Boris changed the system to FPP for this election. It was AV or similar before, a much better, fairer, system.
I'm aware of the change but you're still wrong. Failing to support Ukraine/Labour is not the same as supporting Russia/Powellite loon.
Put it this way, if someone was saying they're either going to vote Lib Dem OR Powellite Loon but I'll let YOU, @Anabobazina make the final choice out of those two for me... which would you direct them to do?
I presume if you're being honest you'd tell them to vote Lib Dem because at least their vote wouldn't count for Powellite Loon, even if it fails to count for Khan.
Of course, but my point is what is the point wasting your vote on someone who has no chance of winning, when you are aware there is a real risk that by doing so you let in a Powellite loon?
Of course, @Barnesian wants that to happen because he is himself a loon who considers such an outcome “funny”.
I suspect you and I are more intelligent. I’d obviously do the same if the roles were reversed. I’d happily vote Liberal to keep out the odious Hall.
Hall can't do much harm as Mayor. It will expose her for what she is, and further damage the Tory party. It's a farce. You can laugh or you can cry. I choose to laugh. Or I would cry.
The problem with Hall is not just Powell. It's a multitude .
I'd love Hall to win. It would be a hoot in all sorts of ways. That's why I won't be voting tactically for Khan. I will vote Lib Dem for Blackie, even if it helps Hall to win.
London Mayor doesn't have much power in practice. It's a figurehead. And Hall as the Tory figurehead in London would just make me laugh. It would extend the Tory joke.
"It'll be a laugh."
"The Labour candidate is past his sell by date."
"How much harm can they do?"
That's what a lot of us thought in 2008. Can I remind you how that ended?
Boris as Mayor was entertaining, though I agree he did waste a lot of money. I don't think Susan Hall will waste money though she will be entertaining in a different way.
Entertaining in so far as having a Powellite moron as mayor is entertaining’ ?
Go to bed.
I believe Hall once liked a Tweet that Quoted Powell - that qualifies her as a bit stupid, not necessarily a Powell devotee.
Powell said plenty of smart things. Unfortunately, he also said a number of very foolish things.
A pedant notes: I don't think the London mayoral election can reasonably be called First Past the Post. There isn't a post - it's just whoever gets the most votes. A FPTP election implies a post - typically 50% + 1. That's exactly what we don't have. My understanding is that FPTP elections are so called because there is a 'winning post' at, in our case, 325 MPs at which party x can form a government - rather than describing the method of elections in individual constituencies. The latter wouldn't make sense.
No, FPTP refers to the method of election within a single seat. Nothing to do with the number of seats.
But that makes no sense whatsoever as a descriptor. It invites comparison with a race where a particular location is the winning line (like the 100m), but it's a race where who runs furthest wins (like the 1 hour). THERE IS NO POST. [To be clear, I'm not block capitals shouty with you, RobD, I'm block capitals shouty with this NONSENSICAL naming convention.]
I agree. It is only FPTP if there is a post.
Thank you Foxy. I feared I was on my own on this.
You raise a perfectly valid concern. For me, how to make sense of it is - the 'post' is the moment the count finishes. That's the post. At this point the 'race', the election, is over and the candidate who has the most votes is the winner. He or she is the first *at* the post, FATP, but then we substitute 'past' for 'at' to further cement that conceit/impression of an actual race involving bodies and motion through time. FPTP.
When voting stops is the finishing post. Whoever is first after (past) that is duly elected.
Counting is no different to reviewing the tape to see who was first. It doesn't determine the winner, the winner was determined at the end of the race (when the horse crossed the line/10pm election night).
Well you have to count to see who's won. Before then you don't know who it is. Eg if you never count you never have a winner. So the 'post' is when the count ends. Or, and this could happen, when the count is in process but somebody leads by miles. Then you can 'call it' - like they do in America. But we aren't talking about America.
Yes you have to count to see who's won, but that's outside of the race its not part of it.
I'm not a horse racing fan, if the stewards have to review the tape to see who was winner at the end of the race, or it goes to a stewards enquiry, then that's not a part of the race, the race ended when the finishing post was reached, its just determining who was first past it.
Just because you don't know who was first past the post yet, doesn't mean they're not already past it. If a horse race has gone to a stewards enquiry as two horses crossed about the same time and it needs settling does that mean the horses haven't reached the post yet?
They've haven't reached the post, no, because we're defining the post to be when there's a winner. FPTP.
That's not the definition, no.
The winner is whoever has the most votes after the the end of the race. The race ended at 10pm on election night, not when the result is declared by the Returning Officer.
Just because you don't know yet the result doesn't mean the race is still happening. The race ended at 10pm, after that its just finding out who won, but the voting has stopped.
You're trying to force an exact horse racing analogy. With a horse race the naked eye sees who's won, with only a small proportion needing photo review or a stewards, and even then you usually know.
A FPTP election here in the UK isn't like that. With an election you have to count to find the winner. So the count is the final part of the race. If you wish to dispute this you must address my original question. If the count never happens how can anybody be first past the post?
We're getting into philosophy here. Unexpected development.
No one is first past the post. Because there is no post. Based on what RobD posted earlier, we appear to have picked up a bit of nonsensical Australian idiom.
First-past-the-post voting (FPTP or FPP)[1] is an electoral system wherein voters cast a vote for a single candidate, and the candidate with the most votes wins the election. Analogous systems for multi-winner contests are known as plurality block voting or "block voting" systems; both FPTP and block voting are "plurality" systems in that the winner needs only a plurality (the greatest number) of the votes and not an absolute majority (greater than half). The term first-past-the-post is a metaphor from horse racing of the plurality-voted candidate winning such a race; the electoral system is formally called single-member plurality voting (SMP) when used in single-member districts, and informally called choose-one voting in contrast to ranked voting[2] or score voting.[3]
Well yes. My point is it's a terrible metaphor. If we're to compare it to a horse race, it would be a who-can-get-the-furthest-in-a-given time election. Because you don't know from the start how many votes you need to get, only that you need to go further than your opponents.
And of course it's not timed.
If we must use horses for an analogy, it ought to be a horse popularity contest. A which-horse-gets-the-most-votes. I propose we use the abbreviation WHGTMV in future.
(I never really accepted metaphors as a valid literary device.)
"not timed"?
So you can turn up to a polling station to vote at 10:01pm on election night can you?
The race ends at 10pm. At that point counting can start to see who won the race, which has finished when the polls closed.
Yes but that is not the sense in which most races - horse or otherwise - are timed, is it? The horse race will finish at 10pm and whichever horse is in the lead at that point will win? Uncommon. More conventional is that a race will be run toan agreed finishing point - a 'post', if you will - and the horse or human who gets there first, wins. This is in no respect what happens in an individual constituency in an election.
I agree with you that it’s a silly name for the system for exactly the reasons you outline. Its official name is ‘single-member plurality voting’ but for obvious reasons the less precise horse-racing analogy caught on.
Right. From here on, I am adopting a poster-quirk (a la Morris Dancer refusing to use the 'like' button). I've passed 10,000 posts now so I think I'm allowed. I will refer to what most people refer to as 'FPTP' as 'SMPV'. Anyone else is welcome to join me.
Regarding the issue of private schools, it goes well against the zeitgeist but I think they should be subsidised, and fees reduced significantly. Middle class people who live in poor areas should be able to access good education for their children without moving to a well to do area with good state schools. This is really about levelling up.
Wouldn't it be somewhat better if poor people in poor areas could access a first-rate education for their children, in state schools? (As many already do, of course.)
Next you'll be wanting the poors to have access to a decent GP and having energy efficient homes.
:: Reports you to Suella ::
If the poors want better education, health service and housing they should pay more tax. I propose no tax free allowance, 40% on the next £20k of income, 20% on the next 20%, with all income over £40k tax free. In fact, I think I’ll suggest it as a Tory policy for the next election. I expect likes from HYUFD and Casino Royale, at least!
Already been invented. The poll tax, and for that matter ther council tax, certainly at the higher end of property values.
The Licence Fee is even worse than that.
That's true, but then so is VAT on essentials such as clothing. Even on school uniforms (for older children I think?). Likewise toilet paper, sticking plasters ...
VAT's regressive but less regressive as people spend more goods and services (even on essentials, even on toilet paper) if they earn more.
Well you don't want to be buying the same loo roll as the the hoi polloi.
More conventional is that a race will be run toan agreed finishing point - a 'post', if you will - and the horse or human who gets there first, wins. This is in no respect what happens in an individual constituency in an election.
The finishing post is an arbitrary point in space and time.
Whoever is in the lead when the race ends is the winner.
This is true of horses and elections
The finishing point is normally an arbitrary point in space, but not in time.
Of course it is. You can't predict the time at which the race will end.
And the winner is whoever is in the lead regardless of the time
I'd love Hall to win. It would be a hoot in all sorts of ways. That's why I won't be voting tactically for Khan. I will vote Lib Dem for Blackie, even if it helps Hall to win.
London Mayor doesn't have much power in practice. It's a figurehead. And Hall as the Tory figurehead in London would just make me laugh. It would extend the Tory joke.
"It'll be a laugh."
"The Labour candidate is past his sell by date."
"How much harm can they do?"
That's what a lot of us thought in 2008. Can I remind you how that ended?
Boris as Mayor was entertaining, though I agree he did waste a lot of money. I don't think Susan Hall will waste money though she will be entertaining in a different way.
Entertaining in so far as having a Powellite moron as mayor is entertaining’ ?
Go to bed.
I believe Hall once liked a Tweet that Quoted Powell - that qualifies her as a bit stupid, not necessarily a Powell devotee.
Powell said plenty of smart things. Unfortunately, he also said a number of very foolish things.
The last 25 years have been a bit of a golden age for him
ON topic - I can distinctly remember sitting in the Groucho Club aged about 27 and across from me was Barry Norman, the then-famous BBC TV movie critc, and he was openly ogling - to the point of drooling obsession - the exposed golden thighs of my then-girlfriend, a hot TV presenter in her own right who was wearing long overknee socks that didn't meet the hem of her summer dress as was then the fashion
Has any other PB-er had their sexual partner ogled by a then-famous BBC broadcasting persona, now totally forgotten? Perhaps @NickPalmer once had his threesome partners perved at in the corner of a St John's Wood deli by a Radio 4 Archers personality in the mid 1970s?
I knew some guys with a music shop in Portobello Road. The bane of their lives were identikit rock legends who wandered in, strummed a bar or two on a 10-grand Les Paul, then asked them to send it to their hotel suite. In desperation they had T-shirts printed with the legend 'even if you're famous you still have to tell us who you are'.
I CANNOT believe no one has replied to my comment, which was both germane, and acutely pointed, in the context of the ongoing discussion re the London mayoralty
Regarding the issue of private schools, it goes well against the zeitgeist but I think they should be subsidised, and fees reduced significantly. Middle class people who live in poor areas should be able to access good education for their children without moving to a well to do area with good state schools. This is really about levelling up.
Wouldn't it be somewhat better if poor people in poor areas could access a first-rate education for their children, in state schools? (As many already do, of course.)
Next you'll be wanting the poors to have access to a decent GP and having energy efficient homes.
:: Reports you to Suella ::
If the poors want better education, health service and housing they should pay more tax. I propose no tax free allowance, 40% on the next £20k of income, 20% on the next 20%, with all income over £40k tax free. In fact, I think I’ll suggest it as a Tory policy for the next election. I expect likes from HYUFD and Casino Royale, at least!
Already been invented. The poll tax, and for that matter ther council tax, certainly at the higher end of property values.
The Licence Fee is even worse than that.
That's true, but then so is VAT on essentials such as clothing. Even on school uniforms (for older children I think?). Likewise toilet paper, sticking plasters ...
VAT's regressive but less regressive as people spend more goods and services (even on essentials, even on toilet paper) if they earn more.
Well you don't want to be buying the same loo roll as the the hoi polloi.
Regarding the issue of private schools, it goes well against the zeitgeist but I think they should be subsidised, and fees reduced significantly. Middle class people who live in poor areas should be able to access good education for their children without moving to a well to do area with good state schools. This is really about levelling up.
Wouldn't it be somewhat better if poor people in poor areas could access a first-rate education for their children, in state schools? (As many already do, of course.)
Next you'll be wanting the poors to have access to a decent GP and having energy efficient homes.
:: Reports you to Suella ::
If the poors want better education, health service and housing they should pay more tax. I propose no tax free allowance, 40% on the next £20k of income, 20% on the next 20%, with all income over £40k tax free. In fact, I think I’ll suggest it as a Tory policy for the next election. I expect likes from HYUFD and Casino Royale, at least!
Already been invented. The poll tax, and for that matter ther council tax, certainly at the higher end of property values.
The Licence Fee is even worse than that.
That's true, but then so is VAT on essentials such as clothing. Even on school uniforms (for older children I think?). Likewise toilet paper, sticking plasters ...
VAT's regressive but less regressive as people spend more goods and services (even on essentials, even on toilet paper) if they earn more.
Well you don't want to be buying the same loo roll as the the hoi polloi.
Having a wee protest against the PB grammarians, I see.
No, I couldn't bring myself to leave the English article out because, whilst correct, it sounds so ugly. So I doubled up to signal my understanding that it's wrong but to allow for a pleasing cadence.
More conventional is that a race will be run toan agreed finishing point - a 'post', if you will - and the horse or human who gets there first, wins. This is in no respect what happens in an individual constituency in an election.
The finishing post is an arbitrary point in space and time.
Whoever is in the lead when the race ends is the winner.
This is true of horses and elections
The finishing point is normally an arbitrary point in space, but not in time.
Of course it is. You can't predict the time at which the race will end.
And the winner is whoever is in the lead regardless of the time
The race ends at the point in time that someone passes the arbitrary point in space. The point in time therefore isn't arbitrary.
I CANNOT believe no one has replied to my comment, which was both germane, and acutely pointed, in the context of the ongoing discussion re the London mayoralty
Nobody wants to go near you since you admitted that everyone you know is exploding, deflating, or turning mauve.
ON topic - I can distinctly remember sitting in the Groucho Club aged about 27 and across from me was Barry Norman, the then-famous BBC TV movie critc, and he was openly ogling - to the point of drooling obsession - the exposed golden thighs of my then-girlfriend, a hot TV presenter in her own right who was wearing long overknee socks that didn't meet the hem of her summer dress as was then the fashion
Has any other PB-er had their sexual partner ogled by a then-famous BBC broadcasting persona, now totally forgotten? Perhaps @NickPalmer once had his threesome partners perved at in the corner of a St John's Wood deli by a Radio 4 Archers personality in the mid 1970s?
I knew some guys with a music shop in Portobello Road. The bane of their lives were identikit rock legends who wandered in, strummed a bar or two on a 10-grand Les Paul, then asked them to send it to their hotel suite. In desperation they had T-shirts printed with the legend 'even if you're famous you still have to tell us who you are'.
Well, thanks for replying anyway, but this doesn't really fit the bill of "an anecdote about having your sexual partner ogled but untouched by a now-forgotten BBC broadcasting star somewhere moderately chic in London at least three and a half decades ago" which is very much the theme of the thread, to date
I'd love Hall to win. It would be a hoot in all sorts of ways. That's why I won't be voting tactically for Khan. I will vote Lib Dem for Blackie, even if it helps Hall to win.
London Mayor doesn't have much power in practice. It's a figurehead. And Hall as the Tory figurehead in London would just make me laugh. It would extend the Tory joke.
"It'll be a laugh."
"The Labour candidate is past his sell by date."
"How much harm can they do?"
That's what a lot of us thought in 2008. Can I remind you how that ended?
Boris as Mayor was entertaining, though I agree he did waste a lot of money. I don't think Susan Hall will waste money though she will be entertaining in a different way.
Entertaining in so far as having a Powellite moron as mayor is entertaining’ ?
Go to bed.
I believe Hall once liked a Tweet that Quoted Powell - that qualifies her as a bit stupid, not necessarily a Powell devotee.
If it walks like a duck, quacks like a duck, and comes complete with a bowl of orange sauce, your [edit] first reaction is to say it was one of those imitation vegan things you get in the supermarket? I really am startled.
I don't know much about Hall's background, but she seems fairly outspoken on social media, so I suspect if she was a died in the wool Powell fan (as opposed to someone who got overexcited by some gamey Tweets), we'd have seen more quacking than we have.
More conventional is that a race will be run toan agreed finishing point - a 'post', if you will - and the horse or human who gets there first, wins. This is in no respect what happens in an individual constituency in an election.
The finishing post is an arbitrary point in space and time.
Whoever is in the lead when the race ends is the winner.
This is true of horses and elections
The finishing point is normally an arbitrary point in space, but not in time.
Of course it is. You can't predict the time at which the race will end.
And the winner is whoever is in the lead regardless of the time
I'd love Hall to win. It would be a hoot in all sorts of ways. That's why I won't be voting tactically for Khan. I will vote Lib Dem for Blackie, even if it helps Hall to win.
London Mayor doesn't have much power in practice. It's a figurehead. And Hall as the Tory figurehead in London would just make me laugh. It would extend the Tory joke.
"It'll be a laugh."
"The Labour candidate is past his sell by date."
"How much harm can they do?"
That's what a lot of us thought in 2008. Can I remind you how that ended?
Boris as Mayor was entertaining, though I agree he did waste a lot of money. I don't think Susan Hall will waste money though she will be entertaining in a different way.
Entertaining in so far as having a Powellite moron as mayor is entertaining’ ?
Go to bed.
I believe Hall once liked a Tweet that Quoted Powell - that qualifies her as a bit stupid, not necessarily a Powell devotee.
Powell said plenty of smart things. Unfortunately, he also said a number of very foolish things.
The last 25 years have been a bit of a golden age for him
In that he hasn't said anything foolish in that time?
Regarding the issue of private schools, it goes well against the zeitgeist but I think they should be subsidised, and fees reduced significantly. Middle class people who live in poor areas should be able to access good education for their children without moving to a well to do area with good state schools. This is really about levelling up.
Wouldn't it be somewhat better if poor people in poor areas could access a first-rate education for their children, in state schools? (As many already do, of course.)
Next you'll be wanting the poors to have access to a decent GP and having energy efficient homes.
:: Reports you to Suella ::
If the poors want better education, health service and housing they should pay more tax. I propose no tax free allowance, 40% on the next £20k of income, 20% on the next 20%, with all income over £40k tax free. In fact, I think I’ll suggest it as a Tory policy for the next election. I expect likes from HYUFD and Casino Royale, at least!
Already been invented. The poll tax, and for that matter ther council tax, certainly at the higher end of property values.
The Licence Fee is even worse than that.
That's true, but then so is VAT on essentials such as clothing. Even on school uniforms (for older children I think?). Likewise toilet paper, sticking plasters ...
VAT's regressive but less regressive as people spend more goods and services (even on essentials, even on toilet paper) if they earn more.
Well you don't want to be buying the same loo roll as the the hoi polloi.
Having a wee protest against the PB grammarians, I see.
What is his boggle with the 3 seashells, anyway?
You have to pay extra for Penrose tessellation, so as your child does a sort of Third Policeman and bicycle with the bumf and gets an A in A level maths. That last bit not VAT taxable yet, as we have seen passim today.
More conventional is that a race will be run toan agreed finishing point - a 'post', if you will - and the horse or human who gets there first, wins. This is in no respect what happens in an individual constituency in an election.
The finishing post is an arbitrary point in space and time.
Whoever is in the lead when the race ends is the winner.
This is true of horses and elections
The finishing point is normally an arbitrary point in space, but not in time.
Of course it is. You can't predict the time at which the race will end.
And the winner is whoever is in the lead regardless of the time
The race ends at the point in time that someone passes the arbitrary point in space. The point in time therefore isn't arbitrary.
I'd love Hall to win. It would be a hoot in all sorts of ways. That's why I won't be voting tactically for Khan. I will vote Lib Dem for Blackie, even if it helps Hall to win.
London Mayor doesn't have much power in practice. It's a figurehead. And Hall as the Tory figurehead in London would just make me laugh. It would extend the Tory joke.
"It'll be a laugh."
"The Labour candidate is past his sell by date."
"How much harm can they do?"
That's what a lot of us thought in 2008. Can I remind you how that ended?
Boris as Mayor was entertaining, though I agree he did waste a lot of money. I don't think Susan Hall will waste money though she will be entertaining in a different way.
Entertaining in so far as having a Powellite moron as mayor is entertaining’ ?
Go to bed.
I believe Hall once liked a Tweet that Quoted Powell - that qualifies her as a bit stupid, not necessarily a Powell devotee.
If it walks like a duck, quacks like a duck, and comes complete with a bowl of orange sauce, your [edit] first reaction is to say it was one of those imitation vegan things you get in the supermarket? I really am startled.
I don't know much about Hall's background, but she seems fairly outspoken on social media, so I suspect if she was a died in the wool Powell fan (as opposed to someone who got overexcited by some gamey Tweets), we'd have seen more quacking than we have.
Seems to have been a fair bit already, but that may be a canard for all I know.
I'd love Hall to win. It would be a hoot in all sorts of ways. That's why I won't be voting tactically for Khan. I will vote Lib Dem for Blackie, even if it helps Hall to win.
London Mayor doesn't have much power in practice. It's a figurehead. And Hall as the Tory figurehead in London would just make me laugh. It would extend the Tory joke.
"It'll be a laugh."
"The Labour candidate is past his sell by date."
"How much harm can they do?"
That's what a lot of us thought in 2008. Can I remind you how that ended?
Boris as Mayor was entertaining, though I agree he did waste a lot of money. I don't think Susan Hall will waste money though she will be entertaining in a different way.
Entertaining in so far as having a Powellite moron as mayor is entertaining’ ?
Go to bed.
I believe Hall once liked a Tweet that Quoted Powell - that qualifies her as a bit stupid, not necessarily a Powell devotee.
Powell said plenty of smart things. Unfortunately, he also said a number of very foolish things.
The last 25 years have been a bit of a golden age for him
In that he hasn't said anything foolish in that time?
Yes, his average has gone way up since he had his last, disappointing, lunch.
ON topic - I can distinctly remember sitting in the Groucho Club aged about 27 and across from me was Barry Norman, the then-famous BBC TV movie critc, and he was openly ogling - to the point of drooling obsession - the exposed golden thighs of my then-girlfriend, a hot TV presenter in her own right who was wearing long overknee socks that didn't meet the hem of her summer dress as was then the fashion
Has any other PB-er had their sexual partner ogled by a then-famous BBC broadcasting persona, now totally forgotten? Perhaps @NickPalmer once had his threesome partners perved at in the corner of a St John's Wood deli by a Radio 4 Archers personality in the mid 1970s?
I knew some guys with a music shop in Portobello Road. The bane of their lives were identikit rock legends who wandered in, strummed a bar or two on a 10-grand Les Paul, then asked them to send it to their hotel suite. In desperation they had T-shirts printed with the legend 'even if you're famous you still have to tell us who you are'.
Well, thanks for replying anyway, but this doesn't really fit the bill of "an anecdote about having your sexual partner ogled but untouched by a now-forgotten BBC broadcasting star somewhere moderately chic in London at least three and a half decades ago" which is very much the theme of the thread, to date
Just trying to raise the tone but, as ever, it's a slog. On topic, Barry Norman must have been quite a catch in his day.
I'd love Hall to win. It would be a hoot in all sorts of ways. That's why I won't be voting tactically for Khan. I will vote Lib Dem for Blackie, even if it helps Hall to win.
London Mayor doesn't have much power in practice. It's a figurehead. And Hall as the Tory figurehead in London would just make me laugh. It would extend the Tory joke.
"It'll be a laugh."
"The Labour candidate is past his sell by date."
"How much harm can they do?"
That's what a lot of us thought in 2008. Can I remind you how that ended?
Boris as Mayor was entertaining, though I agree he did waste a lot of money. I don't think Susan Hall will waste money though she will be entertaining in a different way.
Entertaining in so far as having a Powellite moron as mayor is entertaining’ ?
Go to bed.
I believe Hall once liked a Tweet that Quoted Powell - that qualifies her as a bit stupid, not necessarily a Powell devotee.
Powell said plenty of smart things. Unfortunately, he also said a number of very foolish things.
The last 25 years have been a bit of a golden age for him
Enoch was right.
The darkie has the whip hand over whites in London, Scotland, and the UK with all three countries/city ruled by Asian heritage chaps.
I'd love Hall to win. It would be a hoot in all sorts of ways. That's why I won't be voting tactically for Khan. I will vote Lib Dem for Blackie, even if it helps Hall to win.
London Mayor doesn't have much power in practice. It's a figurehead. And Hall as the Tory figurehead in London would just make me laugh. It would extend the Tory joke.
"It'll be a laugh."
"The Labour candidate is past his sell by date."
"How much harm can they do?"
That's what a lot of us thought in 2008. Can I remind you how that ended?
Boris as Mayor was entertaining, though I agree he did waste a lot of money. I don't think Susan Hall will waste money though she will be entertaining in a different way.
Entertaining in so far as having a Powellite moron as mayor is entertaining’ ?
Go to bed.
I believe Hall once liked a Tweet that Quoted Powell - that qualifies her as a bit stupid, not necessarily a Powell devotee.
If it walks like a duck, quacks like a duck, and comes complete with a bowl of orange sauce, your [edit] first reaction is to say it was one of those imitation vegan things you get in the supermarket? I really am startled.
I don't know much about Hall's background, but she seems fairly outspoken on social media, so I suspect if she was a died in the wool Powell fan (as opposed to someone who got overexcited by some gamey Tweets), we'd have seen more quacking than we have.
Seems to have been a fair bit already, but that may be a canard for all I know.
Let's hope that there aren't any more hoisin-ous Twitter reveals in the offing.
ON topic - I can distinctly remember sitting in the Groucho Club aged about 27 and across from me was Barry Norman, the then-famous BBC TV movie critc, and he was openly ogling - to the point of drooling obsession - the exposed golden thighs of my then-girlfriend, a hot TV presenter in her own right who was wearing long overknee socks that didn't meet the hem of her summer dress as was then the fashion
Has any other PB-er had their sexual partner ogled by a then-famous BBC broadcasting persona, now totally forgotten? Perhaps @NickPalmer once had his threesome partners perved at in the corner of a St John's Wood deli by a Radio 4 Archers personality in the mid 1970s?
No but I am halfway through an episode of Gideon, directed in 1964 by Barry Norman's father.
"ChatGPT can now browse the internet to provide you with current and authoritative information, complete with direct links to sources. It is no longer limited to data before September 2021."
I'd love Hall to win. It would be a hoot in all sorts of ways. That's why I won't be voting tactically for Khan. I will vote Lib Dem for Blackie, even if it helps Hall to win.
London Mayor doesn't have much power in practice. It's a figurehead. And Hall as the Tory figurehead in London would just make me laugh. It would extend the Tory joke.
"It'll be a laugh."
"The Labour candidate is past his sell by date."
"How much harm can they do?"
That's what a lot of us thought in 2008. Can I remind you how that ended?
Boris as Mayor was entertaining, though I agree he did waste a lot of money. I don't think Susan Hall will waste money though she will be entertaining in a different way.
Entertaining in so far as having a Powellite moron as mayor is entertaining’ ?
Go to bed.
I believe Hall once liked a Tweet that Quoted Powell - that qualifies her as a bit stupid, not necessarily a Powell devotee.
If it walks like a duck, quacks like a duck, and comes complete with a bowl of orange sauce, your [edit] first reaction is to say it was one of those imitation vegan things you get in the supermarket? I really am startled.
I don't know much about Hall's background, but she seems fairly outspoken on social media, so I suspect if she was a died in the wool Powell fan (as opposed to someone who got overexcited by some gamey Tweets), we'd have seen more quacking than we have.
This whole "like" thing is OTT imo, whether applied to Susan Hall or Jeremy Corbyn. Some take a more partisan view.
"ChatGPT can now browse the internet to provide you with current and authoritative information, complete with direct links to sources. It is no longer limited to data before September 2021."
Tell us when it's better than this:
This is the night mail crossing the Border, Bringing the cheque and the postal order,
Letters for the rich, letters for the poor, The shop at the corner, the girl next door.
Pulling up Beattock, a steady climb: The gradient's against her, but she's on time.
Past cotton-grass and moorland boulder Shovelling white steam over her shoulder,
Snorting noisily as she passes Silent miles of wind-bent grasses.
ON topic - I can distinctly remember sitting in the Groucho Club aged about 27 and across from me was Barry Norman, the then-famous BBC TV movie critc, and he was openly ogling - to the point of drooling obsession - the exposed golden thighs of my then-girlfriend, a hot TV presenter in her own right who was wearing long overknee socks that didn't meet the hem of her summer dress as was then the fashion
Has any other PB-er had their sexual partner ogled by a then-famous BBC broadcasting persona, now totally forgotten? Perhaps @NickPalmer once had his threesome partners perved at in the corner of a St John's Wood deli by a Radio 4 Archers personality in the mid 1970s?
I knew some guys with a music shop in Portobello Road. The bane of their lives were identikit rock legends who wandered in, strummed a bar or two on a 10-grand Les Paul, then asked them to send it to their hotel suite. In desperation they had T-shirts printed with the legend 'even if you're famous you still have to tell us who you are'.
OK then, my wife's uncle had a French punk girlfriend in the early 80s: newly arrived in London from Lyon and wide-eyed with awe at the vivacity of the place. A courtship ensues. One day the pair are walking down Ladbroke Grove* and new French punk girlfriend gestures urgently and points - there's Elvis Costello! Ah, London is so full of famous and exciting people! At which Elvis Costello hears the commotion, looks over, spots wife's uncle and shouts 'Andy!' (i.e. wife's uncle's name). New French punk girlfriend has never been more impressed or agog in her life. Elvis Costello was pretty much the only famous person he knew at that point (or more importantly who knew him). But still - new French punk girlfriend subsequently became French punk wife.
ON topic - I can distinctly remember sitting in the Groucho Club aged about 27 and across from me was Barry Norman, the then-famous BBC TV movie critc, and he was openly ogling - to the point of drooling obsession - the exposed golden thighs of my then-girlfriend, a hot TV presenter in her own right who was wearing long overknee socks that didn't meet the hem of her summer dress as was then the fashion
I'd love Hall to win. It would be a hoot in all sorts of ways. That's why I won't be voting tactically for Khan. I will vote Lib Dem for Blackie, even if it helps Hall to win.
London Mayor doesn't have much power in practice. It's a figurehead. And Hall as the Tory figurehead in London would just make me laugh. It would extend the Tory joke.
"It'll be a laugh."
"The Labour candidate is past his sell by date."
"How much harm can they do?"
That's what a lot of us thought in 2008. Can I remind you how that ended?
Boris as Mayor was entertaining, though I agree he did waste a lot of money. I don't think Susan Hall will waste money though she will be entertaining in a different way.
Entertaining in so far as having a Powellite moron as mayor is entertaining’ ?
Go to bed.
I believe Hall once liked a Tweet that Quoted Powell - that qualifies her as a bit stupid, not necessarily a Powell devotee.
Powell said plenty of smart things. Unfortunately, he also said a number of very foolish things.
The last 25 years have been a bit of a golden age for him
Enoch was right.
The darkie has the whip hand over whites in London, Scotland, and the UK with all three countries/city ruled by Asian heritage chaps.
Greek heritage doesn't count surely? Defo wrong side of the tracks, or rather the Dardanelles.
More conventional is that a race will be run toan agreed finishing point - a 'post', if you will - and the horse or human who gets there first, wins. This is in no respect what happens in an individual constituency in an election.
The finishing post is an arbitrary point in space and time.
Whoever is in the lead when the race ends is the winner.
This is true of horses and elections
The finishing point is normally an arbitrary point in space, but not in time.
Of course it is. You can't predict the time at which the race will end.
And the winner is whoever is in the lead regardless of the time
The race ends at the point in time that someone passes the arbitrary point in space. The point in time therefore isn't arbitrary.
That's pretty much the definition of arbitrary
Arbitrary: based on random choice or personal whim, rather than any reason or system.
The physical location of the end of a race is an arbitrary location. The time of the end of the race is for a reason i.e. when someone passes the post.
Alternatively, in the example of the Le Mans 24 hour, 24 hours is an arbitrary time - but the physical location where the winner is at the end is not arbitrary - it is a result of the arbitrarily chosen time and the outcome of the race.
I'd love Hall to win. It would be a hoot in all sorts of ways. That's why I won't be voting tactically for Khan. I will vote Lib Dem for Blackie, even if it helps Hall to win.
London Mayor doesn't have much power in practice. It's a figurehead. And Hall as the Tory figurehead in London would just make me laugh. It would extend the Tory joke.
"It'll be a laugh."
"The Labour candidate is past his sell by date."
"How much harm can they do?"
That's what a lot of us thought in 2008. Can I remind you how that ended?
Boris as Mayor was entertaining, though I agree he did waste a lot of money. I don't think Susan Hall will waste money though she will be entertaining in a different way.
Entertaining in so far as having a Powellite moron as mayor is entertaining’ ?
Go to bed.
I believe Hall once liked a Tweet that Quoted Powell - that qualifies her as a bit stupid, not necessarily a Powell devotee.
If it walks like a duck, quacks like a duck, and comes complete with a bowl of orange sauce, your [edit] first reaction is to say it was one of those imitation vegan things you get in the supermarket? I really am startled.
I don't know much about Hall's background, but she seems fairly outspoken on social media, so I suspect if she was a died in the wool Powell fan (as opposed to someone who got overexcited by some gamey Tweets), we'd have seen more quacking than we have.
Seems to have been a fair bit already, but that may be a canard for all I know.
Let's hope that there aren't any more hoisin-ous Twitter reveals in the offing.
"ChatGPT can now browse the internet to provide you with current and authoritative information, complete with direct links to sources. It is no longer limited to data before September 2021."
Tell us when it's better than this:
This is the night mail crossing the Border, Bringing the cheque and the postal order,
Letters for the rich, letters for the poor, The shop at the corner, the girl next door.
Pulling up Beattock, a steady climb: The gradient's against her, but she's on time.
Past cotton-grass and moorland boulder Shovelling white steam over her shoulder,
Snorting noisily as she passes Silent miles of wind-bent grasses.
A train delayed, the minutes stretch and strain, As commuters sigh in weary lament, Their patience tested by the tracks' disdain, In this moment, time feels malcontent.
The platform's edge, a stage for tales untold, Where restless souls, like actors, fret and frown, While on the tracks, the wheels remain controlled, In limbo, 'twixt the city and the town.
Yet in this pause, a chance for brief respite, To ponder dreams or lost, forgotten schemes, As fleeting moments pass, like birds in flight, And time, in stillness, whispers secret dreams.
Though trains delay, and schedules go awry, Life's journeys teach us patience, by and by.
Regarding the issue of private schools, it goes well against the zeitgeist but I think they should be subsidised, and fees reduced significantly. Middle class people who live in poor areas should be able to access good education for their children without moving to a well to do area with good state schools. This is really about levelling up.
Wouldn't it be somewhat better if poor people in poor areas could access a first-rate education for their children, in state schools? (As many already do, of course.)
Next you'll be wanting the poors to have access to a decent GP and having energy efficient homes.
:: Reports you to Suella ::
If the poors want better education, health service and housing they should pay more tax. I propose no tax free allowance, 40% on the next £20k of income, 20% on the next 20%, with all income over £40k tax free. In fact, I think I’ll suggest it as a Tory policy for the next election. I expect likes from HYUFD and Casino Royale, at least!
Already been invented. The poll tax, and for that matter ther council tax, certainly at the higher end of property values.
The Licence Fee is even worse than that.
That's true, but then so is VAT on essentials such as clothing. Even on school uniforms (for older children I think?). Likewise toilet paper, sticking plasters ...
VAT's regressive but less regressive as people spend more goods and services (even on essentials, even on toilet paper) if they earn more.
VAT on rent would raise a pretty penny, speaking of regressive.
ON topic - I can distinctly remember sitting in the Groucho Club aged about 27 and across from me was Barry Norman, the then-famous BBC TV movie critc, and he was openly ogling - to the point of drooling obsession - the exposed golden thighs of my then-girlfriend, a hot TV presenter in her own right who was wearing long overknee socks that didn't meet the hem of her summer dress as was then the fashion
Has any other PB-er had their sexual partner ogled by a then-famous BBC broadcasting persona, now totally forgotten? Perhaps @NickPalmer once had his threesome partners perved at in the corner of a St John's Wood deli by a Radio 4 Archers personality in the mid 1970s?
I knew some guys with a music shop in Portobello Road. The bane of their lives were identikit rock legends who wandered in, strummed a bar or two on a 10-grand Les Paul, then asked them to send it to their hotel suite. In desperation they had T-shirts printed with the legend 'even if you're famous you still have to tell us who you are'.
OK then, my wife's uncle had a French punk girlfriend in the early 80s: newly arrived in London from Lyon and wide-eyed with awe at the vivacity of the place. A courtship ensues. One day the pair are walking down Ladbroke Grove* and new French punk girlfriend gestures urgently and points - there's Elvis Costello! Ah, London is so full of famous and exciting people! At which Elvis Costello hears the commotion, looks over, spots wife's uncle and shouts 'Andy!' (i.e. wife's uncle's name). New French punk girlfriend has never been more impressed or agog in her life. Elvis Costello was pretty much the only famous person he knew at that point (or more importantly who knew him). But still - new French punk girlfriend subsequently became French punk wife.
*may not have been Ladbroke Grove
That doesn't quite fit the bill but it's VERY good, so it does
Comments
Laurence Fox
@LozzaFox
·
52m
Every day I am stopped repeatedly in the street, in cafes or on the tube by people who say (often tearfully)
“Keep going. We are behind you. You speak for the silent majority.”
Today I asked myself for the first time ever.
What is the point in speaking for a silent majority?
https://twitter.com/peterboghossian/status/1707105419854807047
:: Reports you to Suella ::
Sam Freedman
@Samfr
·
7h
The main reason I think Labour will strongly outperform uniform national swing is that their vote is going to be a lot more efficient than 2019. (Which is what MRPs are showing at the moment).
https://twitter.com/Samfr/status/1706998163238797397
I've just watched LK3. The Truss episode. Now that's really funny. Tragic if you are a Tory. And Nadine Dorries ....
For Centrist Dads, 2019 was Alien-Predator, it was Iran-Iraq "why can't they both lose"?
I realise they outsource some of this stuff. But really.
Provider Arriva announces a 'large-scale review' as the new speed restriction wrecks timetables and lengthens journey times
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/09/27/welsh-20mph-makes-buses-late-arriva-timetables-changes/ (£££)
Despite claims by campaigners that 20mph limits do not affect journey times!
I expect likes from HYUFD and Casino Royale, at least!
Go to bed.
"Dallas, however, stands as an exception. Last month, Democratic Mayor Eric Johnson, 47, cruised unopposed to a second term, marking the first time that had happened here since 1967."
Why? According to columnist Karen Tumulty, because of his crime fighting success:
"This [data-driven] approach can be polarizing, given that hot spots tend to be in communities of color. But statistics suggest it is working. Of the nation’s largest cities, Dallas appears to be the only one to buck the trend of rising crime; in each of the past two years, statistics for murders, rapes and aggravated assaults have gone down. What’s more, the Dallas Morning News noted, the number of arrests last year dropped by 19 percent."
source$: https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/06/14/dallas-mayor-eric-johnson-crime/
The mayor's position is technically nonpartisan, but earlier Johnson was elected to the state legislature as a Democrat. He has announced a switch in parties, which is easier to do when you have a 77 percent approval rating, and a majority of Dallas voters think the city is headed in the right direction.
He can not run for another term, but with that record, I think it certain that he will try for a higher office -- and I hope he succeeds.
Dallas: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dallas (The metropolitan population of the Dallas/Forth Worth area is 7.5 million.)
Eric Johnson: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eric_Johnson_(Texas_politician)
A vote for the Party A is a vote for the Party A, not for Party B.
This is in no respect what happens in an individual constituency in an election.
Whoever is in the lead when the race ends is the winner.
This is true of horses and elections
Put it this way, if someone was saying they're either going to vote Lib Dem OR Powellite Loon but I'll let YOU, @Anabobazina make the final choice out of those two for me... which would you direct them to do?
I presume if you're being honest you'd tell them to vote Lib Dem because at least their vote wouldn't count for Powellite Loon, even if it fails to count for Khan.
Of course, @Barnesian wants that to happen because he is himself a loon who considers such an outcome “funny”.
I suspect you and I are more intelligent. I’d obviously do the same if the roles were reversed. I’d happily vote Liberal to keep out the odious Hall.
That's just my priority that's changed, though. If you really don't want either of the parties that's in with a shot (even assuming you live somewhere that's a two-horse pass-the-parcel) then that's absolutely ok. Your vote is a signal to all parties that there are policy priorities here you want to see adopted. It's not just about keeping Tweedledum out.
2nd BartholomewRoberts
3rd Cookie
Distances: nose and 10 lengths
Tote dividends: £1.50, £2.75, £5.25
Has any other PB-er had their sexual partner ogled by a then-famous BBC broadcasting persona, now totally forgotten? Perhaps @NickPalmer once had his threesome partners perved at in the corner of a St John's Wood deli by a Radio 4 Archers personality in the mid 1970s?
40 mph squared: 50mph squared = ratio of 16:25. Not counting the additional reduction from being able to decelerate to a still lower speed.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uRa2e-T2LSE
I'd have believed you were capable of making a ewe turn.
There was good news and bad news.
The bad news was that they didn't know what then Lib Dems stood for.
The good news was that they didn't know what the Lib Dems stood for.
A clean sheet. What an opportunity.
I think general elections are decided on the public's view of the respective leaders. The rest is chaff. If the public have a view of Ed Davey I suspect that it is that he is a decent chap with a sense of humour. That's a start.
I spoil you people, I really do.
In almost all races, the finishing point is an arbitrary point in space, and whoever gets there in the shortest time wins.
In a very few, the finishing point is an arbitrary point in time (the 1 hour being an example; the Le Mans 24 hours another). But this second sort doesn't have a 'post' because a post marks a location in space, not time.
In the latter case, yes, who is in the lead when the race ends is the winner - but there is no post. There is no post because the post marks a point in space, not time.
The true upper classes have an alternative to bog roll.
The problem with Hall is not just Powell. It's a multitude .
And the winner is whoever is in the lead regardless of the time
I really do spoil you people.
There's a fine depiction of one opposite QE 2 on the Canadian dollar coin: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loonie
https://collection.sciencemuseumgroup.org.uk/objects/co439558/pack-of-four-rolls-quilted-toilet-paper-with-penrose-tiling-packaging-toilet-paper
The darkie has the whip hand over whites in London, Scotland, and the UK with all three countries/city ruled by Asian heritage chaps.
"ChatGPT can now browse the internet to provide you with current and authoritative information, complete with direct links to sources. It is no longer limited to data before September 2021."
Spot on with Uruguay, well done!
This is the night mail crossing the Border,
Bringing the cheque and the postal order,
Letters for the rich, letters for the poor,
The shop at the corner, the girl next door.
Pulling up Beattock, a steady climb:
The gradient's against her, but she's on time.
Past cotton-grass and moorland boulder
Shovelling white steam over her shoulder,
Snorting noisily as she passes
Silent miles of wind-bent grasses.
At which Elvis Costello hears the commotion, looks over, spots wife's uncle and shouts 'Andy!' (i.e. wife's uncle's name).
New French punk girlfriend has never been more impressed or agog in her life.
Elvis Costello was pretty much the only famous person he knew at that point (or more importantly who knew him). But still - new French punk girlfriend subsequently became French punk wife.
*may not have been Ladbroke Grove
Edit: else it'd be 4 out of 4.
The physical location of the end of a race is an arbitrary location.
The time of the end of the race is for a reason i.e. when someone passes the post.
Alternatively, in the example of the Le Mans 24 hour, 24 hours is an arbitrary time - but the physical location where the winner is at the end is not arbitrary - it is a result of the arbitrarily chosen time and the outcome of the race.
As commuters sigh in weary lament,
Their patience tested by the tracks' disdain,
In this moment, time feels malcontent.
The platform's edge, a stage for tales untold,
Where restless souls, like actors, fret and frown,
While on the tracks, the wheels remain controlled,
In limbo, 'twixt the city and the town.
Yet in this pause, a chance for brief respite,
To ponder dreams or lost, forgotten schemes,
As fleeting moments pass, like birds in flight,
And time, in stillness, whispers secret dreams.
Though trains delay, and schedules go awry,
Life's journeys teach us patience, by and by.
--ChatGPT
This is it. Skynet
BRACE