I will say that the HS2 episode does show that Sunak isn’t good at media management.
“I’m not ready to make an announcement and I will tell you when I am” is all that needs to be said. In a slightly stronger tone if he is pushed again.
He is an adequate touchy-feely politician but under pressure he does not have the steel underneath. He just repeats the smiley, cheery, pound shop Blair woo.
You do wonder why he keeps doing these interviews, given that he knows they're going to ask him about HS2 and he's not prepared to answer. Does he go off-stage after repeatedly not answering the question, and beam at his aides, "Well, that went well. Should be worth another 5% in the polls, don't you think?"
As I've said before, I encountered people in Sunak's mould in consulting.
They start projects, set targets, do all the admin, beam and try to charm. And then they fail to hit their own targets. And are then replaced by those who know how to get things done.
Sadly, we're still at the 'fail to hit own targets' stage.
The backbenchers are the equivalent of consulting firm partners here. In a few weeks time, after the by elections, they'll start to get jittery and look for alternatives.
Because otherwise many of them will be out of a job, instead.
None of the last eight Tory leaders has won a majority at a general election and survived as prime minister to the next election.
In my travels I often hear people talk wistfully of moving to Preston
“Preston. If only. It’s just so…. Functional”
“Yes. Have you heard they’ve got another flyover?”
“Wow. It was already pretty damn perfect”
I don't know Preston but I do know sneering elitism when I see it.
What are you talking about?? Even on this Maldivian island people are talking excitedly about the functionality of Preston
Cheers
Also, to be more serious. Yes I’m mocking the ludicrous @BartholomewRoberts but you make a serious point - by mistake. Why is it elitist to ask for urban beauty? Why can’t the good people of Warrington and Preston have nice towns that emphasise people over cars and flyovers? Like the Dutch and the French?
Why do poor or average Britons get stuck with urban ugliness? THAT is the elitism
Fishergate (Preston City Centre's main drag) is pretty much a poster child for how to make a car-dominated, congested, unappealing, economically failing street into a pleasant pedestrian-dominated street where businesses want to locate. It really is a triumph of playing a not-particularly-strong hand (i.e. its architecture) very well (you don't actually notice the comparative ordinariness of the buildings; you notice the pleasantness of the spaces in between). Importantly, it's not simply pedestrianised - which can have a tendency to create urban areas which are unappealing after dark and potentially lacking in busy-ness - buses can still use it, and cars can still cross in some locations. If you are getting there by public transport, you get right to the door.
Well said. And multiple large car parks near Fishergate too so people can go shopping on the pedestrianised streets but still load their shopping into their car and drive home.
Rishi Sunak does not rule out Nigel Farage joining the Tory Party, saying the party is a “broad church”
Bloody hell.
It's going to be the big reveal tomorrow, isn't it?
Stupid idea, but stupid is as stupid does...
OK lets play this scenario forward. Sunak announces that he is welcoming Nigel Farage to the party, with a peerage and a cabinet seat.
I envisage that RefUK and ReFox and UKIP will huff and puff about betrayal. But many of their floating voters can be persuaded to come back to the Tories.
But - and its a very big but. Farage is Kryptonite. Vote Leave kept him on the end of a very long poll for precisely this reason. For every voter the Tories would add with Lird Farage they would lose two? Three?
Sunak has a glorious opportunity to reunify the party and lead it to a glorious and crushing defeat.
Rishi Sunak does not rule out Nigel Farage joining the Tory Party, saying the party is a “broad church”
Bloody hell.
It's going to be the big reveal tomorrow, isn't it?
Stupid idea, but stupid is as stupid does...
OK lets play this scenario forward. Sunak announces that he is welcoming Nigel Farage to the party, with a peerage and a cabinet seat.
I envisage that RefUK and ReFox and UKIP will huff and puff about betrayal. But many of their floating voters can be persuaded to come back to the Tories.
But - and its a very big but. Farage is Kryptonite. Vote Leave kept him on the end of a very long poll for precisely this reason. For every voter the Tories would add with Lird Farage they would lose two? Three?
Sunak has a glorious opportunity to reunify the party and lead it to a glorious and crushing defeat.
Farage has already rebuffed the idea. If anything that's even more humiliating. The Tories talking openly about him rejoining, and Farage saying no, they aren't good enough for him.
Aw, what a shame. Maybe he's playing hard to get. Peerage and a Cabinet seat at minimum.
Rishi Sunak does not rule out Nigel Farage joining the Tory Party, saying the party is a “broad church”
Bloody hell.
It's going to be the big reveal tomorrow, isn't it?
Stupid idea, but stupid is as stupid does...
OK lets play this scenario forward. Sunak announces that he is welcoming Nigel Farage to the party, with a peerage and a cabinet seat.
I envisage that RefUK and ReFox and UKIP will huff and puff about betrayal. But many of their floating voters can be persuaded to come back to the Tories.
But - and its a very big but. Farage is Kryptonite. Vote Leave kept him on the end of a very long poll for precisely this reason. For every voter the Tories would add with Lird Farage they would lose two? Three?
Sunak has a glorious opportunity to reunify the party and lead it to a glorious and crushing defeat.
If Rishi invites Farage into cabinet then he deserves the inevitable defenestration that will follow. I give it three months before Farage finds some wedge issue that gives him the ability to flounce and blame it all on Sunak, and ignite the next phase of the Tory Civil War.
What I would say (as intimated up thread) is that if Farage is invited into the Tory Party I have absolutely no doubt, if standing and winning a Commons seat, he would be the next LOTO. The Tory Party is slowly morphing into GOPUK and this would just be their Trump moment.
If only we had an anglosphere example of what life would be like if we built our cities for the car.
Oh, we do...
How about British cities that facilitate equally walking, cycling and driving all in harmony?
That's a new junction in Preston near the city centre with free flowing bikes, cars and pedestrians after the A59 flyover was recently built to relieve the car traffic. The green FYI is cycling paths that are physically segregated from cars (as you can see by the yellow lines if its not clear) and pedestrians too.
Of course our very own @Eabhal highlighted Preston as a city with high active travel, but quickly went quiet as a mouse when he realised why that is.
That looks awful – is that the sort of vision you have for Britain? Utterly soulless.
Train tracks are utterly soulless too.
Souls come from the people, not the ground.
Seeing it in action, free-flowing bikes, cars and pedestrians getting about their lives without being stuck in traffic or forced off the road by either congestion or fear is far better than any alternative.
Train tracks are the least soulless form of infrastructure. Usually bordered by greenery and wildlife, affording beautiful views and interesting insights into people's back gardens and fascinating Victorian trackside infrastructure. Plus of course trains, the most romantic thing every created by human hand.
Yes, but no opportuntiy for the 'motorist' to flick obscene gestures with his backless-gloved hand at maiden aunts on cycles, toddlers lisping their prayers, and little girls daring to tread on the Belisha crossing.
Rishi Sunak does not rule out Nigel Farage joining the Tory Party, saying the party is a “broad church”
Bloody hell.
It's going to be the big reveal tomorrow, isn't it?
Stupid idea, but stupid is as stupid does...
OK lets play this scenario forward. Sunak announces that he is welcoming Nigel Farage to the party, with a peerage and a cabinet seat.
I envisage that RefUK and ReFox and UKIP will huff and puff about betrayal. But many of their floating voters can be persuaded to come back to the Tories.
But - and its a very big but. Farage is Kryptonite. Vote Leave kept him on the end of a very long poll for precisely this reason. For every voter the Tories would add with Lird Farage they would lose two? Three?
Sunak has a glorious opportunity to reunify the party and lead it to a glorious and crushing defeat.
If Rishi invites Farage into cabinet then he deserves the inevitable defenestration that will follow. I give it three months before Farage finds some wedge issue that gives him the ability to flounce and blame it all on Sunak, and ignite the next phase of the Tory Civil War.
What I would say (as intimated up thread) is that if Farage is invited into the Tory Party I have absolutely no doubt, if standing and winning a Commons seat, he would be the next LOTO. The Tory Party is slowly morphing into GOPUK and this would just be their Trump moment.
He may have rebuffed it as a notional idea. But if Richy has asked him to come in, offered him ermine and a plumb cabinet role then lets see if he is big enough to rebuff that.
What job could he be given? Something currently occupied by a non-entity but is suitably Brexity for him? How about Home Secretary? He has spent a fair bit of time on a dinghy in the channel, make the Nigel responsible for sinking migrants.
She has just made a rip roaring speech castigating Labour for their failed immigration and law and order implementation. She has contrasted their failure in home affairs with policies she plans to impose after the next election. Awesome.
Sophy Ridge @SophyRidgeSky · 7m Content to one side - struck by how Suella Braverman has improved as a public speaker.
The sign of someone who is serious about a future leadership pitch
I noticed that too. It was extremely impressive whatever one thinks of the content.
Contrast that with Priti Patel, a previous holder of the Home Sec role, who also seems to have big leadership ambitions - it's Patel's public speaking that lets her down a bit. She's not bad, but certain parts of sentences are hurried and her speeches lose impact and punch. Braverman was excellent - every single part of the speech hit.
Sophy Ridge @SophyRidgeSky · 7m Content to one side - struck by how Suella Braverman has improved as a public speaker.
The sign of someone who is serious about a future leadership pitch
I noticed that too. It was extremely impressive whatever one thinks of the content.
Contrast that with Priti Patel, a previous holder of the Home Sec role, who also seems to have big leadership ambitions - it's Patel's public speaking that lets her down a bit. She's not bad, but certain parts of sentences are hurried and her speeches lose impact and punch. Braverman was excellent - every single part of the speech hit.
She's 10 on BF for next leader.
Looking like value to me given the direction the tories seem to be rapidly heading in.
It’s an over-engineered version of a standard Dutch roundabout. They do work really well. But this one (and the same design in Manchester) do look a bit like someone gave a Dutch blueprint to a bunch of HS2 engineers and said “here, build one of these”.
LOL! 😂
It probably can be done better, considering its an early adoption in the UK of what the Dutch have been doing for years no doubt it will evolve over time and future ones might be better.
But functionally? Its a good idea and works well.
The Dutch have nailed this for years. Build more roads, design well for active travel, everyone wins.
Its great to see parts of the UK adopting the Dutch approach. Hopefully more do over time. Evolving the aesthetics to look better is a secondary priority over functionality.
Yes, let’s all prioritise “functionality”. Eventually that way the whole of Britain can become a motorway and no one need ever get stuck in traffic because NO ONE WILL EVER WANT TO LIVE IN UGLY DEPRESSING BRITAIN
This is, by the way, exactly what happened to thousands of American downtowns. They prioritised the functionality of driving and parking. By destroying millions of lovely old buildings to make way for car lots and wide roads
Now no one wants to drive to the downtowns because they are hideous dystopias full of homeless people and empty car lots. = zero traffic. Problem solved
That's funny because towns like Warrington and cities like Preston that are facilitating both driving and active travel, along with getting new builds, are rapidly growing in population not shrinking.
Oh and home ownership rates are far higher than in miserably depressing London where most people have to work to pay rent with no hope of a home of their own.
And the roads are free flowing. As are the cycle paths. With plenty of trees also along the routes too, even if not shown at the junctions.
You have a very different idea of depressing to me. I find 21 people being forced into one two bedroom flat as they have nowhere else to live far more depressing: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-66941965
I'm sorry but no one wants to live in Warrington. That's why it's affordable, and why BTL landlords haven't come sniffing.
Most of the UK lives in towns like Warrington. Only there's hundreds of Warringtons dotted around the country each with a different name.
Its only a tiny minority that lives in cities (and even in cities most still drive).
Its an even smaller minority that lives in London, the only city where most have been forced off the road due to chronic overcrowding.
38% of the UK population lives in a city (defined as a populous urban area with a population over 500k people). Not a majority, but not tiny either. (Source: http://www.demographia.com/db-worldua.pdf )
We should neither ignore cities (which are, after all, the economic engines of the UK) nor ignore the majority of people who live in towns & the wider countryside.
She has just made a rip roaring speech castigating Labour for their failed immigration and law and order implementation. She has contrasted their failure in home affairs with policies she plans to impose after the next election. Awesome.
Their failures? They haven't been in office in 13 years.
She has just made a rip roaring speech castigating Labour for their failed immigration and law and order implementation. She has contrasted their failure in home affairs with policies she plans to impose after the next election. Awesome.
Their failures? They haven't been in office in 13 years.
Mr Cameron and the LDs are as good as Labour from the current Tory point of view?
She has just made a rip roaring speech castigating Labour for their failed immigration and law and order implementation. She has contrasted their failure in home affairs with policies she plans to impose after the next election. Awesome.
Their failures? They haven't been in office in 13 years.
Apparently the heckler who was removed from the hall was a Tory member of the GLA!
What heckler? What was said?
Just some shouting, don't know what was said. He was bundled out, and someone from GBNews followed him and recorded a short interview. I think it was Andrew Boff - that's a name I think I remember from Conhome in days gone by?
Just getting caught up on the conference drama. I saw a comment yesterday that mentioned the GOPification of the Tories and I think that's what we're seeing. Braverman talking about lefties having immigrants 'mowing their lawns' is a particularly jarring Americanism. 'Cutting their grass' is the correct phrase. Without indulging my conspiracy brain too much, it all makes me think that her speech has been cooked up by some shadowy Yankee right-wing think-tank.
Another point of worry is the Conservative Party railing against elites and the establishment. They're the Conservative Party, what are they for if not the establishment?
And all the guff about failed immigration policies and how shit everything is and that it's all Labour's fault - they've been in power for 13 years! My flabber is gasted at the gall of senior Tories making these kind of arguments.
Just getting caught up on the conference drama. I saw a comment yesterday that mentioned the GOPification of the Tories and I think that's what we're seeing. Braverman talking about lefties having immigrants 'mowing their lawns' is a particularly jarring Americanism. 'Cutting their grass' is the correct phrase. Without indulging my conspiracy brain too much, it all makes me think that her speech has been cooked up by some shadowy Yankee right-wing think-tank.
Another point of worry is the Conservative Party railing against elites and the establishment. They're the Conservative Party, what are they for if not the establishment?
And all the guff about failed immigration policies and how shit everything is and that it's all Labour's fault - they've been in power for 13 years! My flabber is gasted at the gall of senior Tories making these kind of arguments.
The first 5 years was Cameron and Clegg. Slightly different.
My vote would be Portugal...I have been to Lisbon, Porto, Silver Coast, down the Atlantic coast and across the Algarve, and its seems all you can get is Super Bock, Sagres, Cristal, and they are all bloody awful.
Its like if you went into a pub here and all you could buy was Carling.
Italy and Greece are pretty bad. But then they don’t really have beer cultures. They drink wine
They don't really drink anything in Italy, in my experience.
Yet at 6pm they're all sitting in cafes drinking Aperol Spritz
Just getting caught up on the conference drama. I saw a comment yesterday that mentioned the GOPification of the Tories and I think that's what we're seeing. Braverman talking about lefties having immigrants 'mowing their lawns' is a particularly jarring Americanism. 'Cutting their grass' is the correct phrase. Without indulging my conspiracy brain too much, it all makes me think that her speech has been cooked up by some shadowy Yankee right-wing think-tank.
Another point of worry is the Conservative Party railing against elites and the establishment. They're the Conservative Party, what are they for if not the establishment?
And all the guff about failed immigration policies and how shit everything is and that it's all Labour's fault - they've been in power for 13 years! My flabber is gasted at the gall of senior Tories making these kind of arguments.
The first 5 years was Cameron and Clegg. Slightly different.
It's Labour's "no border" implementation that Suella is vexed by. She isn't blaming the coalition.
Just getting caught up on the conference drama. I saw a comment yesterday that mentioned the GOPification of the Tories and I think that's what we're seeing. Braverman talking about lefties having immigrants 'mowing their lawns' is a particularly jarring Americanism. 'Cutting their grass' is the correct phrase. Without indulging my conspiracy brain too much, it all makes me think that her speech has been cooked up by some shadowy Yankee right-wing think-tank.
Another point of worry is the Conservative Party railing against elites and the establishment. They're the Conservative Party, what are they for if not the establishment?
And all the guff about failed immigration policies and how shit everything is and that it's all Labour's fault - they've been in power for 13 years! My flabber is gasted at the gall of senior Tories making these kind of arguments.
Hang on - is this a regional thing? Everyone I know in the South mows their lawn....
Just getting caught up on the conference drama. I saw a comment yesterday that mentioned the GOPification of the Tories and I think that's what we're seeing. Braverman talking about lefties having immigrants 'mowing their lawns' is a particularly jarring Americanism. 'Cutting their grass' is the correct phrase. Without indulging my conspiracy brain too much, it all makes me think that her speech has been cooked up by some shadowy Yankee right-wing think-tank.
Another point of worry is the Conservative Party railing against elites and the establishment. They're the Conservative Party, what are they for if not the establishment?
And all the guff about failed immigration policies and how shit everything is and that it's all Labour's fault - they've been in power for 13 years! My flabber is gasted at the gall of senior Tories making these kind of arguments.
Right wing parties railing against "elites" always carry a whiff of fash.
As he prepares for this weekend's RefUK conference, Richard Tice calls Rishi Sunak and Jeremy Hunt "consocialists" who he says are no different to the "socialist Labour Party".
He also expresses some sympathy for Liz Truss's "tax cutting, high-growth agenda", arguing that the short-lived Tory PM's mistake was not to link it to a plan to "cut wasteful government spending in order to pay for it". https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-66939798
I don't necessarily think that was her mistake. I think her mistakes were, in no particular order:
1. Timing the mini-budget to coincide with the start of the BOE's quantitive tightening/bond-selling programme. The minibudget should have been delayed for the effects of that programme on the value of bonds to play out.
2. The energy support guarantee was too generous (perhaps unavoidable politically), and should have been packaged with longer term supply side reforms in an 'emergency energy bill', with no unrelated economic measures included. Those reforms to have included lifting the fracking ban, new oil and gas licenses, lifting the onshore wind ban, and special powers for Government to accelerate power stations in development through the planning process, along with a consultation on other renewables like tidal, and looking at green levies. This would have stood a far higher chance of success as a set of emergency measures in response to the energy crisis.
3. If bond yields rise quickly in response to the Bank's sell off, insist that the Bank curtails its quantitive tightening and doesn’t sell bonds till they mature - the Bank held to account for its own actions.
4. Then bring the mini-budget, with an OBR forecast, but request methodology changes if there's good reason to suppose that the affect of tax cuts on increasing taxable behaviour are not being taken into account.
Of course, all very easy to say in hindsight.
The error was launching a spending only budget with no hint as to where the money was coming from. No detail matters beyond that.
Rishi Sunak does not rule out Nigel Farage joining the Tory Party, saying the party is a “broad church”
Bloody hell.
It's going to be the big reveal tomorrow, isn't it?
Stupid idea, but stupid is as stupid does...
OK lets play this scenario forward. Sunak announces that he is welcoming Nigel Farage to the party, with a peerage and a cabinet seat.
I envisage that RefUK and ReFox and UKIP will huff and puff about betrayal. But many of their floating voters can be persuaded to come back to the Tories.
But - and its a very big but. Farage is Kryptonite. Vote Leave kept him on the end of a very long poll for precisely this reason. For every voter the Tories would add with Lird Farage they would lose two? Three?
Sunak has a glorious opportunity to reunify the party and lead it to a glorious and crushing defeat.
It would be telling educated voters in the blue wall seats that the Tories don't want their support for the foreseeable.
Rishi Sunak does not rule out Nigel Farage joining the Tory Party, saying the party is a “broad church”
Bloody hell.
It's going to be the big reveal tomorrow, isn't it?
Stupid idea, but stupid is as stupid does...
OK lets play this scenario forward. Sunak announces that he is welcoming Nigel Farage to the party, with a peerage and a cabinet seat.
I envisage that RefUK and ReFox and UKIP will huff and puff about betrayal. But many of their floating voters can be persuaded to come back to the Tories.
But - and its a very big but. Farage is Kryptonite. Vote Leave kept him on the end of a very long poll for precisely this reason. For every voter the Tories would add with Lird Farage they would lose two? Three?
Sunak has a glorious opportunity to reunify the party and lead it to a glorious and crushing defeat.
If Rishi invites Farage into cabinet then he deserves the inevitable defenestration that will follow. I give it three months before Farage finds some wedge issue that gives him the ability to flounce and blame it all on Sunak, and ignite the next phase of the Tory Civil War.
What I would say (as intimated up thread) is that if Farage is invited into the Tory Party I have absolutely no doubt, if standing and winning a Commons seat, he would be the next LOTO. The Tory Party is slowly morphing into GOPUK and this would just be their Trump moment.
He may have rebuffed it as a notional idea. But if Richy has asked him to come in, offered him ermine and a plumb cabinet role then lets see if he is big enough to rebuff that.
What job could he be given? Something currently occupied by a non-entity but is suitably Brexity for him? How about Home Secretary? He has spent a fair bit of time on a dinghy in the channel, make the Nigel responsible for sinking migrants.
Farage wouldn’t want to be Home Secretary. He is a smart enough cookie to realise the problems in that department can’t be surmounted by rhetoric alone (see Braverman, Suella). He is in a lose-lose situation in such a role. He would inevitably fail at it, and he would lose his alt-right sheen.
He would either want to be given a sinecure he could flounce from, or most likely if he ever was to join would simply be a blessing from the leadership to find him a safe seat for the next GE. In Parliament, he can be elected leader. That is the only role in the Tory Party he’d really want.
Apparently the heckler who was removed from the hall was a Tory member of the GLA!
What heckler? What was said?
Just some shouting, don't know what was said. He was bundled out, and someone from GBNews followed him and recorded a short interview. I think it was Andrew Boff - that's a name I think I remember from Conhome in days gone by?
Yes, quite prominent in his day. I was in the hall (no restrictions) and didn't see the incident.
She gave a full-bore populist speech ("Human Right Act? I'm surprised they didn't call it the Criminal Rights Act!"), well-delivered with lots of applause. At the end about 2/3 of the audience gave her a standing ovation, though most of the rest weren't applauding at all. Certainly cemented her claim to a good chance to succeed Sunak.
Chalk, before that, gave quite a decent speech on justice and rehabilitation - some routine Labour-bashing, but I thought he defended his brief well. Very little applause though - the crowd wanted more Trumpian oratory.
Just getting caught up on the conference drama. I saw a comment yesterday that mentioned the GOPification of the Tories and I think that's what we're seeing. Braverman talking about lefties having immigrants 'mowing their lawns' is a particularly jarring Americanism. 'Cutting their grass' is the correct phrase. Without indulging my conspiracy brain too much, it all makes me think that her speech has been cooked up by some shadowy Yankee right-wing think-tank.
Another point of worry is the Conservative Party railing against elites and the establishment. They're the Conservative Party, what are they for if not the establishment?
And all the guff about failed immigration policies and how shit everything is and that it's all Labour's fault - they've been in power for 13 years! My flabber is gasted at the gall of senior Tories making these kind of arguments.
The first 5 years was Cameron and Clegg. Slightly different.
Fair, but it's still a stretch to blame all the ills of the Country on the opposition, who have not held power for 13 years under a Constitutional system that gives said opposition essentially no power.
That said, running against the record of the post-2010 Labour Government might be the Conservative's best hope of winning the election. Though god knows why they'd want to do a thing like that.
It’s an over-engineered version of a standard Dutch roundabout. They do work really well. But this one (and the same design in Manchester) do look a bit like someone gave a Dutch blueprint to a bunch of HS2 engineers and said “here, build one of these”.
LOL! 😂
It probably can be done better, considering its an early adoption in the UK of what the Dutch have been doing for years no doubt it will evolve over time and future ones might be better.
But functionally? Its a good idea and works well.
The Dutch have nailed this for years. Build more roads, design well for active travel, everyone wins.
Its great to see parts of the UK adopting the Dutch approach. Hopefully more do over time. Evolving the aesthetics to look better is a secondary priority over functionality.
Yes, let’s all prioritise “functionality”. Eventually that way the whole of Britain can become a motorway and no one need ever get stuck in traffic because NO ONE WILL EVER WANT TO LIVE IN UGLY DEPRESSING BRITAIN
This is, by the way, exactly what happened to thousands of American downtowns. They prioritised the functionality of driving and parking. By destroying millions of lovely old buildings to make way for car lots and wide roads
Now no one wants to drive to the downtowns because they are hideous dystopias full of homeless people and empty car lots. = zero traffic. Problem solved
That's funny because towns like Warrington and cities like Preston that are facilitating both driving and active travel, along with getting new builds, are rapidly growing in population not shrinking.
Oh and home ownership rates are far higher than in miserably depressing London where most people have to work to pay rent with no hope of a home of their own.
And the roads are free flowing. As are the cycle paths. With plenty of trees also along the routes too, even if not shown at the junctions.
You have a very different idea of depressing to me. I find 21 people being forced into one two bedroom flat as they have nowhere else to live far more depressing: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-66941965
I'm sorry but no one wants to live in Warrington. That's why it's affordable, and why BTL landlords haven't come sniffing.
Most of the UK lives in towns like Warrington. Only there's hundreds of Warringtons dotted around the country each with a different name.
Its only a tiny minority that lives in cities (and even in cities most still drive).
Its an even smaller minority that lives in London, the only city where most have been forced off the road due to chronic overcrowding.
38% of the UK population lives in a city (defined as a populous urban area with a population over 500k people). Not a majority, but not tiny either. (Source: http://www.demographia.com/db-worldua.pdf )
We should neither ignore cities (which are, after all, the economic engines of the UK) nor ignore the majority of people who live in towns & the wider countryside.
That data is only that high by merging neighbouring towns into built up urban areas. Here is the real data:
Farage is a vote winner. But I can only see him coming back (into politics) as (Conservative) party leader.
He is both a vote winner and a vote repulser. The UKs version of a Le Pen. Plenty of people could vote for him, but plenty could be very easily persuaded to vote against him too, if they need to be persuaded at all.
My vote would be Portugal...I have been to Lisbon, Porto, Silver Coast, down the Atlantic coast and across the Algarve, and its seems all you can get is Super Bock, Sagres, Cristal, and they are all bloody awful.
Its like if you went into a pub here and all you could buy was Carling.
Italy and Greece are pretty bad. But then they don’t really have beer cultures. They drink wine
They don't really drink anything in Italy, in my experience.
Yet at 6pm they're all sitting in cafes drinking Aperol Spritz
And they make 1 last 3 hours. Very impressive skill.
Apparently the heckler who was removed from the hall was a Tory member of the GLA!
What heckler? What was said?
Just some shouting, don't know what was said. He was bundled out, and someone from GBNews followed him and recorded a short interview. I think it was Andrew Boff - that's a name I think I remember from Conhome in days gone by?
He's a bright, if somewhat eccentric guy, but has always managed to stay onside with his party. I wonder what his beef was?
Rishi Sunak does not rule out Nigel Farage joining the Tory Party, saying the party is a “broad church”
Bloody hell.
It's going to be the big reveal tomorrow, isn't it?
Stupid idea, but stupid is as stupid does...
OK lets play this scenario forward. Sunak announces that he is welcoming Nigel Farage to the party, with a peerage and a cabinet seat.
I envisage that RefUK and ReFox and UKIP will huff and puff about betrayal. But many of their floating voters can be persuaded to come back to the Tories.
But - and its a very big but. Farage is Kryptonite. Vote Leave kept him on the end of a very long poll for precisely this reason. For every voter the Tories would add with Lird Farage they would lose two? Three?
Sunak has a glorious opportunity to reunify the party and lead it to a glorious and crushing defeat.
If Rishi invites Farage into cabinet then he deserves the inevitable defenestration that will follow. I give it three months before Farage finds some wedge issue that gives him the ability to flounce and blame it all on Sunak, and ignite the next phase of the Tory Civil War.
What I would say (as intimated up thread) is that if Farage is invited into the Tory Party I have absolutely no doubt, if standing and winning a Commons seat, he would be the next LOTO. The Tory Party is slowly morphing into GOPUK and this would just be their Trump moment.
He may have rebuffed it as a notional idea. But if Richy has asked him to come in, offered him ermine and a plumb cabinet role then lets see if he is big enough to rebuff that.
What job could he be given? Something currently occupied by a non-entity but is suitably Brexity for him? How about Home Secretary? He has spent a fair bit of time on a dinghy in the channel, make the Nigel responsible for sinking migrants.
Farage wouldn’t want to be Home Secretary. He is a smart enough cookie to realise the problems in that department can’t be surmounted by rhetoric alone (see Braverman, Suella). He is in a lose-lose situation in such a role. He would inevitably fail at it, and he would lose his alt-right sheen.
He would either want to be given a sinecure he could flounce from, or most likely if he ever was to join would simply be a blessing from the leadership to find him a safe seat for the next GE. In Parliament, he can be elected leader. That is the only role in the Tory Party he’d really want.
I don't know why we're discussing this 'issue' - Farage is at the conference with GBNews. Rebel right wing Tories are welcoming him, and Rishi has been nice to him so he doesn't get a cob on and go back to Reform, which would certainly cost the Tories very dearly electorally. That's all. He's not joining the party let alone the Cabinet.
Farage is a vote winner. But I can only see him coming back (into politics) as (Conservative) party leader.
He is both a vote winner and a vote repulser. The UKs version of a Le Pen. Plenty of people could vote for him, but plenty could be persuaded to vote against him too.
He's more Jean Marie than Marine too. In fact he's more like Trump than either of those two. He is truly Britain Trump.
He's also, unlike even the more fashy of the Tory right wing, avowedly pro-Putin. I'm not sure that will go down well even with the RefUK-minded Tories.
It’s an over-engineered version of a standard Dutch roundabout. They do work really well. But this one (and the same design in Manchester) do look a bit like someone gave a Dutch blueprint to a bunch of HS2 engineers and said “here, build one of these”.
LOL! 😂
It probably can be done better, considering its an early adoption in the UK of what the Dutch have been doing for years no doubt it will evolve over time and future ones might be better.
But functionally? Its a good idea and works well.
The Dutch have nailed this for years. Build more roads, design well for active travel, everyone wins.
Its great to see parts of the UK adopting the Dutch approach. Hopefully more do over time. Evolving the aesthetics to look better is a secondary priority over functionality.
Yes, let’s all prioritise “functionality”. Eventually that way the whole of Britain can become a motorway and no one need ever get stuck in traffic because NO ONE WILL EVER WANT TO LIVE IN UGLY DEPRESSING BRITAIN
This is, by the way, exactly what happened to thousands of American downtowns. They prioritised the functionality of driving and parking. By destroying millions of lovely old buildings to make way for car lots and wide roads
Now no one wants to drive to the downtowns because they are hideous dystopias full of homeless people and empty car lots. = zero traffic. Problem solved
That's funny because towns like Warrington and cities like Preston that are facilitating both driving and active travel, along with getting new builds, are rapidly growing in population not shrinking.
Oh and home ownership rates are far higher than in miserably depressing London where most people have to work to pay rent with no hope of a home of their own.
And the roads are free flowing. As are the cycle paths. With plenty of trees also along the routes too, even if not shown at the junctions.
You have a very different idea of depressing to me. I find 21 people being forced into one two bedroom flat as they have nowhere else to live far more depressing: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-66941965
I'm sorry but no one wants to live in Warrington. That's why it's affordable, and why BTL landlords haven't come sniffing.
Most of the UK lives in towns like Warrington. Only there's hundreds of Warringtons dotted around the country each with a different name.
Its only a tiny minority that lives in cities (and even in cities most still drive).
Its an even smaller minority that lives in London, the only city where most have been forced off the road due to chronic overcrowding.
38% of the UK population lives in a city (defined as a populous urban area with a population over 500k people). Not a majority, but not tiny either. (Source: http://www.demographia.com/db-worldua.pdf )
We should neither ignore cities (which are, after all, the economic engines of the UK) nor ignore the majority of people who live in towns & the wider countryside.
That data is only that high by merging neighbouring towns into built up urban areas. Here is the real data:
Cities excluding London make up 6.9 million people in England and Wales.
The majority of England and Wales live in towns.
You can’t exclude the population of London from “people who live in cities in England & Wales”. Come on.
If you live in a “town” that’s been completely swallowed up by the conurbation of Birmingham then for planning & comparison purposes you’re a part of Birmingham, not the rural town you might have been part of back in 1935.
Apparently the heckler who was removed from the hall was a Tory member of the GLA!
What heckler? What was said?
Just some shouting, don't know what was said. He was bundled out, and someone from GBNews followed him and recorded a short interview. I think it was Andrew Boff - that's a name I think I remember from Conhome in days gone by?
He's a bright, if somewhat eccentric guy, but has always managed to stay onside with his party. I wonder what his beef was?
It was perceived transphobia. It is actually a bit odd as I don't have a distinct recollection of a gamey part of the speech about trans - it was obliquely referred to in the part about banning sex offenders from 'changing their identity' - but I could be misremembering. It'll be all over the news.
My vote would be Portugal...I have been to Lisbon, Porto, Silver Coast, down the Atlantic coast and across the Algarve, and its seems all you can get is Super Bock, Sagres, Cristal, and they are all bloody awful.
Its like if you went into a pub here and all you could buy was Carling.
Italy and Greece are pretty bad. But then they don’t really have beer cultures. They drink wine
They don't really drink anything in Italy, in my experience.
Yet at 6pm they're all sitting in cafes drinking Aperol Spritz
And they make 1 last 3 hours. Very impressive skill.
What are they thinking? Personally when I go out for a drink I'm seeking a quenching session brew or a refreshing substantial quaff. Sips... not for me.
"It’s official – Britain has lost its sense of humour We all now leap at the chance to smack people down for saying anything off colour, but surely intent has to count for something? Celia Walden"
Just getting caught up on the conference drama. I saw a comment yesterday that mentioned the GOPification of the Tories and I think that's what we're seeing. Braverman talking about lefties having immigrants 'mowing their lawns' is a particularly jarring Americanism. 'Cutting their grass' is the correct phrase. Without indulging my conspiracy brain too much, it all makes me think that her speech has been cooked up by some shadowy Yankee right-wing think-tank.
Another point of worry is the Conservative Party railing against elites and the establishment. They're the Conservative Party, what are they for if not the establishment?
And all the guff about failed immigration policies and how shit everything is and that it's all Labour's fault - they've been in power for 13 years! My flabber is gasted at the gall of senior Tories making these kind of arguments.
Hang on - is this a regional thing? Everyone I know in the South mows their lawn....
Oooh, maybe, I've only ever heard of people cutting the grass. I've heard of Lawn parties, but never really heard of anyone referring to their lawn.
If it is regional thing, I apologise for my slander towards Lawn-using southerners.
Rishi Sunak does not rule out Nigel Farage joining the Tory Party, saying the party is a “broad church”
Bloody hell.
It's going to be the big reveal tomorrow, isn't it?
Stupid idea, but stupid is as stupid does...
OK lets play this scenario forward. Sunak announces that he is welcoming Nigel Farage to the party, with a peerage and a cabinet seat.
I envisage that RefUK and ReFox and UKIP will huff and puff about betrayal. But many of their floating voters can be persuaded to come back to the Tories.
But - and its a very big but. Farage is Kryptonite. Vote Leave kept him on the end of a very long poll for precisely this reason. For every voter the Tories would add with Lird Farage they would lose two? Three?
Sunak has a glorious opportunity to reunify the party and lead it to a glorious and crushing defeat.
If Rishi invites Farage into cabinet then he deserves the inevitable defenestration that will follow. I give it three months before Farage finds some wedge issue that gives him the ability to flounce and blame it all on Sunak, and ignite the next phase of the Tory Civil War.
What I would say (as intimated up thread) is that if Farage is invited into the Tory Party I have absolutely no doubt, if standing and winning a Commons seat, he would be the next LOTO. The Tory Party is slowly morphing into GOPUK and this would just be their Trump moment.
He may have rebuffed it as a notional idea. But if Richy has asked him to come in, offered him ermine and a plumb cabinet role then lets see if he is big enough to rebuff that.
What job could he be given? Something currently occupied by a non-entity but is suitably Brexity for him? How about Home Secretary? He has spent a fair bit of time on a dinghy in the channel, make the Nigel responsible for sinking migrants.
If the "Conservatives" invite Farage in then that just proves how they need to have a UKIP night at the elections (and come out with zero MPs). IMO Farage makes pond-scum look good.
On second thoughts, Farage should fit right in to this current Tory Party...
Just getting caught up on the conference drama. I saw a comment yesterday that mentioned the GOPification of the Tories and I think that's what we're seeing. Braverman talking about lefties having immigrants 'mowing their lawns' is a particularly jarring Americanism. 'Cutting their grass' is the correct phrase. Without indulging my conspiracy brain too much, it all makes me think that her speech has been cooked up by some shadowy Yankee right-wing think-tank.
Another point of worry is the Conservative Party railing against elites and the establishment. They're the Conservative Party, what are they for if not the establishment?
And all the guff about failed immigration policies and how shit everything is and that it's all Labour's fault - they've been in power for 13 years! My flabber is gasted at the gall of senior Tories making these kind of arguments.
What? “Mowing the lawn” is an Americanism in which world? I mow the lawn at least once a week but never “cut the grass” unless in a wilder area with a strimmer. I don’t know any of my British friends who wouldn’t say “mow the lawn”.
Just getting caught up on the conference drama. I saw a comment yesterday that mentioned the GOPification of the Tories and I think that's what we're seeing. Braverman talking about lefties having immigrants 'mowing their lawns' is a particularly jarring Americanism. 'Cutting their grass' is the correct phrase. Without indulging my conspiracy brain too much, it all makes me think that her speech has been cooked up by some shadowy Yankee right-wing think-tank.
Another point of worry is the Conservative Party railing against elites and the establishment. They're the Conservative Party, what are they for if not the establishment?
And all the guff about failed immigration policies and how shit everything is and that it's all Labour's fault - they've been in power for 13 years! My flabber is gasted at the gall of senior Tories making these kind of arguments.
Really? 'mowing their lawns' is a particularly jarring Americanism. 'Cutting their grass' is the correct I've been mowing my lawn all my life and I'm from Wiltshire.
I don't disagree with your general point - there is a danger of the right of the Tory party believing that the way back is more extreme, when in reality, as Cameron showed, back to the centre is how you reconnect to reality the electorate.
It’s an over-engineered version of a standard Dutch roundabout. They do work really well. But this one (and the same design in Manchester) do look a bit like someone gave a Dutch blueprint to a bunch of HS2 engineers and said “here, build one of these”.
LOL! 😂
It probably can be done better, considering its an early adoption in the UK of what the Dutch have been doing for years no doubt it will evolve over time and future ones might be better.
But functionally? Its a good idea and works well.
The Dutch have nailed this for years. Build more roads, design well for active travel, everyone wins.
Its great to see parts of the UK adopting the Dutch approach. Hopefully more do over time. Evolving the aesthetics to look better is a secondary priority over functionality.
Yes, let’s all prioritise “functionality”. Eventually that way the whole of Britain can become a motorway and no one need ever get stuck in traffic because NO ONE WILL EVER WANT TO LIVE IN UGLY DEPRESSING BRITAIN
This is, by the way, exactly what happened to thousands of American downtowns. They prioritised the functionality of driving and parking. By destroying millions of lovely old buildings to make way for car lots and wide roads
Now no one wants to drive to the downtowns because they are hideous dystopias full of homeless people and empty car lots. = zero traffic. Problem solved
That's funny because towns like Warrington and cities like Preston that are facilitating both driving and active travel, along with getting new builds, are rapidly growing in population not shrinking.
Oh and home ownership rates are far higher than in miserably depressing London where most people have to work to pay rent with no hope of a home of their own.
And the roads are free flowing. As are the cycle paths. With plenty of trees also along the routes too, even if not shown at the junctions.
You have a very different idea of depressing to me. I find 21 people being forced into one two bedroom flat as they have nowhere else to live far more depressing: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-66941965
I'm sorry but no one wants to live in Warrington. That's why it's affordable, and why BTL landlords haven't come sniffing.
Most of the UK lives in towns like Warrington. Only there's hundreds of Warringtons dotted around the country each with a different name.
Its only a tiny minority that lives in cities (and even in cities most still drive).
Its an even smaller minority that lives in London, the only city where most have been forced off the road due to chronic overcrowding.
38% of the UK population lives in a city (defined as a populous urban area with a population over 500k people). Not a majority, but not tiny either. (Source: http://www.demographia.com/db-worldua.pdf )
We should neither ignore cities (which are, after all, the economic engines of the UK) nor ignore the majority of people who live in towns & the wider countryside.
That data is only that high by merging neighbouring towns into built up urban areas. Here is the real data:
Just getting caught up on the conference drama. I saw a comment yesterday that mentioned the GOPification of the Tories and I think that's what we're seeing. Braverman talking about lefties having immigrants 'mowing their lawns' is a particularly jarring Americanism. 'Cutting their grass' is the correct phrase. Without indulging my conspiracy brain too much, it all makes me think that her speech has been cooked up by some shadowy Yankee right-wing think-tank.
Another point of worry is the Conservative Party railing against elites and the establishment. They're the Conservative Party, what are they for if not the establishment?
And all the guff about failed immigration policies and how shit everything is and that it's all Labour's fault - they've been in power for 13 years! My flabber is gasted at the gall of senior Tories making these kind of arguments.
What? “Mowing the lawn” is an Americanism in which world? I mow the lawn at least once a week but never “cut the grass” unless in a wilder area with a strimmer. I don’t know any of my British friends who wouldn’t say “mow the lawn”.
Agree. I think it's a question of scale and/or level of manicure. If you have a large, or very well tended bit of grass, you're mowing the lawn. If you have a backyard patch of grass, or an orchard or paddock, you cut the grass.
Just getting caught up on the conference drama. I saw a comment yesterday that mentioned the GOPification of the Tories and I think that's what we're seeing. Braverman talking about lefties having immigrants 'mowing their lawns' is a particularly jarring Americanism. 'Cutting their grass' is the correct phrase. Without indulging my conspiracy brain too much, it all makes me think that her speech has been cooked up by some shadowy Yankee right-wing think-tank.
Another point of worry is the Conservative Party railing against elites and the establishment. They're the Conservative Party, what are they for if not the establishment?
And all the guff about failed immigration policies and how shit everything is and that it's all Labour's fault - they've been in power for 13 years! My flabber is gasted at the gall of senior Tories making these kind of arguments.
Hang on - is this a regional thing? Everyone I know in the South mows their lawn....
The heckler was hardly loud or disruptive. Very odd - being he’s an actual Tory - thought it was ridiculously heavy handed.
Party looks to be heading to a split as it morphs into UKIP. People will generally be repelled from voting for it. Such niche issues as well - I mean, our public services are crumbling and they’re talking about woke ideology in science
Rishi Sunak does not rule out Nigel Farage joining the Tory Party, saying the party is a “broad church”
Bloody hell.
It's going to be the big reveal tomorrow, isn't it?
Stupid idea, but stupid is as stupid does...
OK lets play this scenario forward. Sunak announces that he is welcoming Nigel Farage to the party, with a peerage and a cabinet seat.
I envisage that RefUK and ReFox and UKIP will huff and puff about betrayal. But many of their floating voters can be persuaded to come back to the Tories.
But - and its a very big but. Farage is Kryptonite. Vote Leave kept him on the end of a very long poll for precisely this reason. For every voter the Tories would add with Lird Farage they would lose two? Three?
Sunak has a glorious opportunity to reunify the party and lead it to a glorious and crushing defeat.
If Rishi invites Farage into cabinet then he deserves the inevitable defenestration that will follow. I give it three months before Farage finds some wedge issue that gives him the ability to flounce and blame it all on Sunak, and ignite the next phase of the Tory Civil War.
What I would say (as intimated up thread) is that if Farage is invited into the Tory Party I have absolutely no doubt, if standing and winning a Commons seat, he would be the next LOTO. The Tory Party is slowly morphing into GOPUK and this would just be their Trump moment.
He may have rebuffed it as a notional idea. But if Richy has asked him to come in, offered him ermine and a plumb cabinet role then lets see if he is big enough to rebuff that.
What job could he be given? Something currently occupied by a non-entity but is suitably Brexity for him? How about Home Secretary? He has spent a fair bit of time on a dinghy in the channel, make the Nigel responsible for sinking migrants.
Farage wouldn’t want to be Home Secretary. He is a smart enough cookie to realise the problems in that department can’t be surmounted by rhetoric alone (see Braverman, Suella). He is in a lose-lose situation in such a role. He would inevitably fail at it, and he would lose his alt-right sheen.
He would either want to be given a sinecure he could flounce from, or most likely if he ever was to join would simply be a blessing from the leadership to find him a safe seat for the next GE. In Parliament, he can be elected leader. That is the only role in the Tory Party he’d really want.
I don't know why we're discussing this 'issue' - Farage is at the conference with GBNews. Rebel right wing Tories are welcoming him, and Rishi has been nice to him so he doesn't get a cob on and go back to Reform, which would certainly cost the Tories very dearly electorally. That's all. He's not joining the party let alone the Cabinet.
He isn’t, yet. And I scoffed at this very thought only a few months back.
But if there is one thing this conference is showing, there is a clear, inexporable shift to the populist right continuing in the Tory Party. Some of the things leading Tory figures come out with now, we just wouldn’t have predicted or seen even in 2019.
This is not a party that is going to react to defeat by shifting back to the centre (as much as I would love it to and give me a comfortable home again). I simply cannot see anything other than, to use a phrase I’m not tremendously fond of, a “hard right” attitude prevailing in the coming years. It is fertile ground for populist gobsh*tes like Farage to take control.
Just getting caught up on the conference drama. I saw a comment yesterday that mentioned the GOPification of the Tories and I think that's what we're seeing. Braverman talking about lefties having immigrants 'mowing their lawns' is a particularly jarring Americanism. 'Cutting their grass' is the correct phrase. Without indulging my conspiracy brain too much, it all makes me think that her speech has been cooked up by some shadowy Yankee right-wing think-tank.
Another point of worry is the Conservative Party railing against elites and the establishment. They're the Conservative Party, what are they for if not the establishment?
And all the guff about failed immigration policies and how shit everything is and that it's all Labour's fault - they've been in power for 13 years! My flabber is gasted at the gall of senior Tories making these kind of arguments.
Hang on - is this a regional thing? Everyone I know in the South mows their lawn....
In Norway, they all have robot lawn mowers, homes, hotels, the lot. Years ahead of us.
Apparently the heckler who was removed from the hall was a Tory member of the GLA!
What heckler? What was said?
Just some shouting, don't know what was said. He was bundled out, and someone from GBNews followed him and recorded a short interview. I think it was Andrew Boff - that's a name I think I remember from Conhome in days gone by?
Yes, quite prominent in his day. I was in the hall (no restrictions) and didn't see the incident.
She gave a full-bore populist speech ("Human Right Act? I'm surprised they didn't call it the Criminal Rights Act!"), well-delivered with lots of applause. At the end about 2/3 of the audience gave her a standing ovation, though most of the rest weren't applauding at all. Certainly cemented her claim to a good chance to succeed Sunak.
Chalk, before that, gave quite a decent speech on justice and rehabilitation - some routine Labour-bashing, but I thought he defended his brief well. Very little applause though - the crowd wanted more Trumpian oratory.
Chalk was quite impressive on the Radio earlier. In the Sunak mould but good with it. Suella's speech was very well-delivered indeed.
Just getting caught up on the conference drama. I saw a comment yesterday that mentioned the GOPification of the Tories and I think that's what we're seeing. Braverman talking about lefties having immigrants 'mowing their lawns' is a particularly jarring Americanism. 'Cutting their grass' is the correct phrase. Without indulging my conspiracy brain too much, it all makes me think that her speech has been cooked up by some shadowy Yankee right-wing think-tank.
Another point of worry is the Conservative Party railing against elites and the establishment. They're the Conservative Party, what are they for if not the establishment?
And all the guff about failed immigration policies and how shit everything is and that it's all Labour's fault - they've been in power for 13 years! My flabber is gasted at the gall of senior Tories making these kind of arguments.
What? “Mowing the lawn” is an Americanism in which world? I mow the lawn at least once a week but never “cut the grass” unless in a wilder area with a strimmer. I don’t know any of my British friends who wouldn’t say “mow the lawn”.
Agree. I think it's a question of scale and/or level of manicure. If you have a large, or very well tended bit of grass, you're mowing the lawn. If you have a backyard patch of grass, or an orchard or paddock, you cut the grass.
I don't think so, I think its more likely regional. A bit like the name for a bread roll across the nation (baps, rolls, barms etc).
Just getting caught up on the conference drama. I saw a comment yesterday that mentioned the GOPification of the Tories and I think that's what we're seeing. Braverman talking about lefties having immigrants 'mowing their lawns' is a particularly jarring Americanism. 'Cutting their grass' is the correct phrase. Without indulging my conspiracy brain too much, it all makes me think that her speech has been cooked up by some shadowy Yankee right-wing think-tank.
Another point of worry is the Conservative Party railing against elites and the establishment. They're the Conservative Party, what are they for if not the establishment?
And all the guff about failed immigration policies and how shit everything is and that it's all Labour's fault - they've been in power for 13 years! My flabber is gasted at the gall of senior Tories making these kind of arguments.
Really? 'mowing their lawns' is a particularly jarring Americanism. 'Cutting their grass' is the correct I've been mowing my lawn all my life and I'm from Wiltshire.
I don't disagree with your general point - there is a danger of the right of the Tory party believing that the way back is more extreme, when in reality, as Cameron showed, back to the centre is how you reconnect to reality the electorate.
"I've been mowing my lawn all my life and I'm from Wiltshire." It sounds like your back garden is the WHOLE of Wiltshire
Just getting caught up on the conference drama. I saw a comment yesterday that mentioned the GOPification of the Tories and I think that's what we're seeing. Braverman talking about lefties having immigrants 'mowing their lawns' is a particularly jarring Americanism. 'Cutting their grass' is the correct phrase. Without indulging my conspiracy brain too much, it all makes me think that her speech has been cooked up by some shadowy Yankee right-wing think-tank.
Another point of worry is the Conservative Party railing against elites and the establishment. They're the Conservative Party, what are they for if not the establishment?
And all the guff about failed immigration policies and how shit everything is and that it's all Labour's fault - they've been in power for 13 years! My flabber is gasted at the gall of senior Tories making these kind of arguments.
What? “Mowing the lawn” is an Americanism in which world? I mow the lawn at least once a week but never “cut the grass” unless in a wilder area with a strimmer. I don’t know any of my British friends who wouldn’t say “mow the lawn”.
Agree. I think it's a question of scale and/or level of manicure. If you have a large, or very well tended bit of grass, you're mowing the lawn. If you have a backyard patch of grass, or an orchard or paddock, you cut the grass.
Embarrassingly, I appear to have outed myself as not having a large or well tended bit of grass...
Just getting caught up on the conference drama. I saw a comment yesterday that mentioned the GOPification of the Tories and I think that's what we're seeing. Braverman talking about lefties having immigrants 'mowing their lawns' is a particularly jarring Americanism. 'Cutting their grass' is the correct phrase. Without indulging my conspiracy brain too much, it all makes me think that her speech has been cooked up by some shadowy Yankee right-wing think-tank.
Another point of worry is the Conservative Party railing against elites and the establishment. They're the Conservative Party, what are they for if not the establishment?
And all the guff about failed immigration policies and how shit everything is and that it's all Labour's fault - they've been in power for 13 years! My flabber is gasted at the gall of senior Tories making these kind of arguments.
Hang on - is this a regional thing? Everyone I know in the South mows their lawn....
Oooh, maybe, I've only ever heard of people cutting the grass. I've heard of Lawn parties, but never really heard of anyone referring to their lawn.
If it is regional thing, I apologise for my slander towards Lawn-using southerners.
It is those pesky elites that have lawns to cut......
Just getting caught up on the conference drama. I saw a comment yesterday that mentioned the GOPification of the Tories and I think that's what we're seeing. Braverman talking about lefties having immigrants 'mowing their lawns' is a particularly jarring Americanism. 'Cutting their grass' is the correct phrase. Without indulging my conspiracy brain too much, it all makes me think that her speech has been cooked up by some shadowy Yankee right-wing think-tank.
Another point of worry is the Conservative Party railing against elites and the establishment. They're the Conservative Party, what are they for if not the establishment?
And all the guff about failed immigration policies and how shit everything is and that it's all Labour's fault - they've been in power for 13 years! My flabber is gasted at the gall of senior Tories making these kind of arguments.
Hang on - is this a regional thing? Everyone I know in the South mows their lawn....
In Norway, they all have robot lawn mowers, homes, hotels, the lot. Years ahead of us.
Down the road from me each night is a van with "Never mow your lawn again" on the side - they sell robot mowers. Must be a chore to take the ferry to Norway and back every day...
It’s an over-engineered version of a standard Dutch roundabout. They do work really well. But this one (and the same design in Manchester) do look a bit like someone gave a Dutch blueprint to a bunch of HS2 engineers and said “here, build one of these”.
LOL! 😂
It probably can be done better, considering its an early adoption in the UK of what the Dutch have been doing for years no doubt it will evolve over time and future ones might be better.
But functionally? Its a good idea and works well.
The Dutch have nailed this for years. Build more roads, design well for active travel, everyone wins.
Its great to see parts of the UK adopting the Dutch approach. Hopefully more do over time. Evolving the aesthetics to look better is a secondary priority over functionality.
Yes, let’s all prioritise “functionality”. Eventually that way the whole of Britain can become a motorway and no one need ever get stuck in traffic because NO ONE WILL EVER WANT TO LIVE IN UGLY DEPRESSING BRITAIN
This is, by the way, exactly what happened to thousands of American downtowns. They prioritised the functionality of driving and parking. By destroying millions of lovely old buildings to make way for car lots and wide roads
Now no one wants to drive to the downtowns because they are hideous dystopias full of homeless people and empty car lots. = zero traffic. Problem solved
That's funny because towns like Warrington and cities like Preston that are facilitating both driving and active travel, along with getting new builds, are rapidly growing in population not shrinking.
Oh and home ownership rates are far higher than in miserably depressing London where most people have to work to pay rent with no hope of a home of their own.
And the roads are free flowing. As are the cycle paths. With plenty of trees also along the routes too, even if not shown at the junctions.
You have a very different idea of depressing to me. I find 21 people being forced into one two bedroom flat as they have nowhere else to live far more depressing: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-66941965
I'm sorry but no one wants to live in Warrington. That's why it's affordable, and why BTL landlords haven't come sniffing.
Most of the UK lives in towns like Warrington. Only there's hundreds of Warringtons dotted around the country each with a different name.
Its only a tiny minority that lives in cities (and even in cities most still drive).
Its an even smaller minority that lives in London, the only city where most have been forced off the road due to chronic overcrowding.
38% of the UK population lives in a city (defined as a populous urban area with a population over 500k people). Not a majority, but not tiny either. (Source: http://www.demographia.com/db-worldua.pdf )
We should neither ignore cities (which are, after all, the economic engines of the UK) nor ignore the majority of people who live in towns & the wider countryside.
That data is only that high by merging neighbouring towns into built up urban areas. Here is the real data:
Cities excluding London make up 6.9 million people in England and Wales.
The majority of England and Wales live in towns.
You can’t exclude the population of London from “people who live in cities in England & Wales”. Come on.
Fair but even including London you only get to 17m people (correction exc London is 8m, I copied off wrong column).
Whereas 32.9 million live in towns.
Towns dramatically exceed cities in England, nearly 2:1, not that you'd know it from our city based correspondents and media.
For planning purposes, those areas that are contiguously built up with no rural / agricultural land around a city are really part of the city though. Hence my point that, according to a measure of those areas 38% of the UK population live in them.
You might (reasonably) argue that these hinterlands have differing needs to the city cores & I wouldn’t argue with that, but I would argue that they are not going to be the same as rural towns, so lumping them in with the rural town population & calling them “non city” residents seems wrong to me.
Rishi Sunak does not rule out Nigel Farage joining the Tory Party, saying the party is a “broad church”
Bloody hell.
It's going to be the big reveal tomorrow, isn't it?
Stupid idea, but stupid is as stupid does...
OK lets play this scenario forward. Sunak announces that he is welcoming Nigel Farage to the party, with a peerage and a cabinet seat.
I envisage that RefUK and ReFox and UKIP will huff and puff about betrayal. But many of their floating voters can be persuaded to come back to the Tories.
But - and its a very big but. Farage is Kryptonite. Vote Leave kept him on the end of a very long poll for precisely this reason. For every voter the Tories would add with Lird Farage they would lose two? Three?
Sunak has a glorious opportunity to reunify the party and lead it to a glorious and crushing defeat.
If Rishi invites Farage into cabinet then he deserves the inevitable defenestration that will follow. I give it three months before Farage finds some wedge issue that gives him the ability to flounce and blame it all on Sunak, and ignite the next phase of the Tory Civil War.
What I would say (as intimated up thread) is that if Farage is invited into the Tory Party I have absolutely no doubt, if standing and winning a Commons seat, he would be the next LOTO. The Tory Party is slowly morphing into GOPUK and this would just be their Trump moment.
He may have rebuffed it as a notional idea. But if Richy has asked him to come in, offered him ermine and a plumb cabinet role then lets see if he is big enough to rebuff that.
What job could he be given? Something currently occupied by a non-entity but is suitably Brexity for him? How about Home Secretary? He has spent a fair bit of time on a dinghy in the channel, make the Nigel responsible for sinking migrants.
Farage wouldn’t want to be Home Secretary. He is a smart enough cookie to realise the problems in that department can’t be surmounted by rhetoric alone (see Braverman, Suella). He is in a lose-lose situation in such a role. He would inevitably fail at it, and he would lose his alt-right sheen.
He would either want to be given a sinecure he could flounce from, or most likely if he ever was to join would simply be a blessing from the leadership to find him a safe seat for the next GE. In Parliament, he can be elected leader. That is the only role in the Tory Party he’d really want.
I don't know why we're discussing this 'issue' - Farage is at the conference with GBNews. Rebel right wing Tories are welcoming him, and Rishi has been nice to him so he doesn't get a cob on and go back to Reform, which would certainly cost the Tories very dearly electorally. That's all. He's not joining the party let alone the Cabinet.
He isn’t, yet. And I scoffed at this very thought only a few months back.
But if there is one thing this conference is showing, there is a clear, inexporable shift to the populist right continuing in the Tory Party. Some of the things leading Tory figures come out with now, we just wouldn’t have predicted or seen even in 2019.
This is not a party that is going to react to defeat by shifting back to the centre (as much as I would love it to and give me a comfortable home again). I simply cannot see anything other than, to use a phrase I’m not tremendously fond of, a “hard right” attitude prevailing in the coming years. It is fertile ground for populist gobsh*tes like Farage to take control.
Just getting caught up on the conference drama. I saw a comment yesterday that mentioned the GOPification of the Tories and I think that's what we're seeing. Braverman talking about lefties having immigrants 'mowing their lawns' is a particularly jarring Americanism. 'Cutting their grass' is the correct phrase. Without indulging my conspiracy brain too much, it all makes me think that her speech has been cooked up by some shadowy Yankee right-wing think-tank.
Another point of worry is the Conservative Party railing against elites and the establishment. They're the Conservative Party, what are they for if not the establishment?
And all the guff about failed immigration policies and how shit everything is and that it's all Labour's fault - they've been in power for 13 years! My flabber is gasted at the gall of senior Tories making these kind of arguments.
Hang on - is this a regional thing? Everyone I know in the South mows their lawn....
In Norway, they all have robot lawn mowers, homes, hotels, the lot. Years ahead of us.
Just getting caught up on the conference drama. I saw a comment yesterday that mentioned the GOPification of the Tories and I think that's what we're seeing. Braverman talking about lefties having immigrants 'mowing their lawns' is a particularly jarring Americanism. 'Cutting their grass' is the correct phrase. Without indulging my conspiracy brain too much, it all makes me think that her speech has been cooked up by some shadowy Yankee right-wing think-tank.
Another point of worry is the Conservative Party railing against elites and the establishment. They're the Conservative Party, what are they for if not the establishment?
And all the guff about failed immigration policies and how shit everything is and that it's all Labour's fault - they've been in power for 13 years! My flabber is gasted at the gall of senior Tories making these kind of arguments.
What? “Mowing the lawn” is an Americanism in which world? I mow the lawn at least once a week but never “cut the grass” unless in a wilder area with a strimmer. I don’t know any of my British friends who wouldn’t say “mow the lawn”.
Agree. I think it's a question of scale and/or level of manicure. If you have a large, or very well tended bit of grass, you're mowing the lawn. If you have a backyard patch of grass, or an orchard or paddock, you cut the grass.
Embarrassingly, I appear to have outed myself as not having a large or well tended bit of grass...
No, I'd see it as more casual self-effacement. A greater solecism imo would be to have small, rough patch of grass and state that you were off to 'mow the lawn'. Like having a pond and calling it a lake.
Apparently the heckler who was removed from the hall was a Tory member of the GLA!
What heckler? What was said?
Just some shouting, don't know what was said. He was bundled out, and someone from GBNews followed him and recorded a short interview. I think it was Andrew Boff - that's a name I think I remember from Conhome in days gone by?
He's a bright, if somewhat eccentric guy, but has always managed to stay onside with his party. I wonder what his beef was?
It was perceived transphobia. It is actually a bit odd as I don't have a distinct recollection of a gamey part of the speech about trans - it was obliquely referred to in the part about banning sex offenders from 'changing their identity' - but I could be misremembering. It'll be all over the news.
It's, just, on BBC news channel at 1545, when Cruella launches into a Lyon-style anti-woke rant, but you only glimpse Boff being marched out; we don't hear his interjection. There's a later piece when he's being marched away outside the hall on YouTube; despite his fifty years of loyal service I suspect he's just burned a rather big bridge.
The heckler was hardly loud or disruptive. Very odd - being he’s an actual Tory - thought it was ridiculously heavy handed.
Party looks to be heading to a split as it morphs into UKIP. People will generally be repelled from voting for it. Such niche issues as well - I mean, our public services are crumbling and they’re talking about woke ideology in science
"That's why we're going to take on the powerful elites who..." [shouting from audience] "SEIZE HIM!"
He’s so on his way to a camp in Rwanda right now to be corrected.
Just getting caught up on the conference drama. I saw a comment yesterday that mentioned the GOPification of the Tories and I think that's what we're seeing. Braverman talking about lefties having immigrants 'mowing their lawns' is a particularly jarring Americanism. 'Cutting their grass' is the correct phrase. Without indulging my conspiracy brain too much, it all makes me think that her speech has been cooked up by some shadowy Yankee right-wing think-tank.
Another point of worry is the Conservative Party railing against elites and the establishment. They're the Conservative Party, what are they for if not the establishment?
And all the guff about failed immigration policies and how shit everything is and that it's all Labour's fault - they've been in power for 13 years! My flabber is gasted at the gall of senior Tories making these kind of arguments.
What? “Mowing the lawn” is an Americanism in which world? I mow the lawn at least once a week but never “cut the grass” unless in a wilder area with a strimmer. I don’t know any of my British friends who wouldn’t say “mow the lawn”.
Agree. I think it's a question of scale and/or level of manicure. If you have a large, or very well tended bit of grass, you're mowing the lawn. If you have a backyard patch of grass, or an orchard or paddock, you cut the grass.
Embarrassingly, I appear to have outed myself as not having a large or well tended bit of grass...
No grass here at Maison Carnyx - all given over to flowers for the bees and insects. So no idea what I say!
Just getting caught up on the conference drama. I saw a comment yesterday that mentioned the GOPification of the Tories and I think that's what we're seeing. Braverman talking about lefties having immigrants 'mowing their lawns' is a particularly jarring Americanism. 'Cutting their grass' is the correct phrase. Without indulging my conspiracy brain too much, it all makes me think that her speech has been cooked up by some shadowy Yankee right-wing think-tank.
Another point of worry is the Conservative Party railing against elites and the establishment. They're the Conservative Party, what are they for if not the establishment?
And all the guff about failed immigration policies and how shit everything is and that it's all Labour's fault - they've been in power for 13 years! My flabber is gasted at the gall of senior Tories making these kind of arguments.
What? “Mowing the lawn” is an Americanism in which world? I mow the lawn at least once a week but never “cut the grass” unless in a wilder area with a strimmer. I don’t know any of my British friends who wouldn’t say “mow the lawn”.
Agree. I think it's a question of scale and/or level of manicure. If you have a large, or very well tended bit of grass, you're mowing the lawn. If you have a backyard patch of grass, or an orchard or paddock, you cut the grass.
Embarrassingly, I appear to have outed myself as not having a large or well tended bit of grass...
No, I'd see it as more casual self-effacement. A greater solecism imo would be to have small, rough patch of grass and state that you were off to 'mow the lawn'. Like having a pond and calling it a lake.
As solecisms go, 'mow the lawns' would be even more impressive.
It’s an over-engineered version of a standard Dutch roundabout. They do work really well. But this one (and the same design in Manchester) do look a bit like someone gave a Dutch blueprint to a bunch of HS2 engineers and said “here, build one of these”.
LOL! 😂
It probably can be done better, considering its an early adoption in the UK of what the Dutch have been doing for years no doubt it will evolve over time and future ones might be better.
But functionally? Its a good idea and works well.
The Dutch have nailed this for years. Build more roads, design well for active travel, everyone wins.
Its great to see parts of the UK adopting the Dutch approach. Hopefully more do over time. Evolving the aesthetics to look better is a secondary priority over functionality.
Yes, let’s all prioritise “functionality”. Eventually that way the whole of Britain can become a motorway and no one need ever get stuck in traffic because NO ONE WILL EVER WANT TO LIVE IN UGLY DEPRESSING BRITAIN
This is, by the way, exactly what happened to thousands of American downtowns. They prioritised the functionality of driving and parking. By destroying millions of lovely old buildings to make way for car lots and wide roads
Now no one wants to drive to the downtowns because they are hideous dystopias full of homeless people and empty car lots. = zero traffic. Problem solved
That's funny because towns like Warrington and cities like Preston that are facilitating both driving and active travel, along with getting new builds, are rapidly growing in population not shrinking.
Oh and home ownership rates are far higher than in miserably depressing London where most people have to work to pay rent with no hope of a home of their own.
And the roads are free flowing. As are the cycle paths. With plenty of trees also along the routes too, even if not shown at the junctions.
You have a very different idea of depressing to me. I find 21 people being forced into one two bedroom flat as they have nowhere else to live far more depressing: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-66941965
I'm sorry but no one wants to live in Warrington. That's why it's affordable, and why BTL landlords haven't come sniffing.
Most of the UK lives in towns like Warrington. Only there's hundreds of Warringtons dotted around the country each with a different name.
Its only a tiny minority that lives in cities (and even in cities most still drive).
Its an even smaller minority that lives in London, the only city where most have been forced off the road due to chronic overcrowding.
38% of the UK population lives in a city (defined as a populous urban area with a population over 500k people). Not a majority, but not tiny either. (Source: http://www.demographia.com/db-worldua.pdf )
We should neither ignore cities (which are, after all, the economic engines of the UK) nor ignore the majority of people who live in towns & the wider countryside.
That data is only that high by merging neighbouring towns into built up urban areas. Here is the real data:
Just getting caught up on the conference drama. I saw a comment yesterday that mentioned the GOPification of the Tories and I think that's what we're seeing. Braverman talking about lefties having immigrants 'mowing their lawns' is a particularly jarring Americanism. 'Cutting their grass' is the correct phrase. Without indulging my conspiracy brain too much, it all makes me think that her speech has been cooked up by some shadowy Yankee right-wing think-tank.
Another point of worry is the Conservative Party railing against elites and the establishment. They're the Conservative Party, what are they for if not the establishment?
And all the guff about failed immigration policies and how shit everything is and that it's all Labour's fault - they've been in power for 13 years! My flabber is gasted at the gall of senior Tories making these kind of arguments.
What? “Mowing the lawn” is an Americanism in which world? I mow the lawn at least once a week but never “cut the grass” unless in a wilder area with a strimmer. I don’t know any of my British friends who wouldn’t say “mow the lawn”.
Agree. I think it's a question of scale and/or level of manicure. If you have a large, or very well tended bit of grass, you're mowing the lawn. If you have a backyard patch of grass, or an orchard or paddock, you cut the grass.
Embarrassingly, I appear to have outed myself as not having a large or well tended bit of grass...
No, I'd see it as more casual self-effacement. A greater solecism imo would be to have small, rough patch of grass and state that you were off to 'mow the lawn'. Like having a pond and calling it a lake.
As solecisms go, 'mow the lawns' would be even more impressive.
Lawns makes perfect sense if you have more than one e.g. front and back, or either side of the privacy fence.
Apparently the heckler who was removed from the hall was a Tory member of the GLA!
What heckler? What was said?
Just some shouting, don't know what was said. He was bundled out, and someone from GBNews followed him and recorded a short interview. I think it was Andrew Boff - that's a name I think I remember from Conhome in days gone by?
He's a bright, if somewhat eccentric guy, but has always managed to stay onside with his party. I wonder what his beef was?
It was perceived transphobia. It is actually a bit odd as I don't have a distinct recollection of a gamey part of the speech about trans - it was obliquely referred to in the part about banning sex offenders from 'changing their identity' - but I could be misremembering. It'll be all over the news.
It's, just, on BBC news channel at 1545, when Cruella launches into a Lyon-style anti-woke rant, but you only glimpse Boff being marched out; we don't hear his interjection. There's a later piece when he's being marched away outside the hall on YouTube; despite his fifty years of loyal service I suspect he's just burned a rather big bridge.
I wonder if they'll have to ask GBNews if they can use their footage.
Just getting caught up on the conference drama. I saw a comment yesterday that mentioned the GOPification of the Tories and I think that's what we're seeing. Braverman talking about lefties having immigrants 'mowing their lawns' is a particularly jarring Americanism. 'Cutting their grass' is the correct phrase. Without indulging my conspiracy brain too much, it all makes me think that her speech has been cooked up by some shadowy Yankee right-wing think-tank.
Another point of worry is the Conservative Party railing against elites and the establishment. They're the Conservative Party, what are they for if not the establishment?
And all the guff about failed immigration policies and how shit everything is and that it's all Labour's fault - they've been in power for 13 years! My flabber is gasted at the gall of senior Tories making these kind of arguments.
Hang on - is this a regional thing? Everyone I know in the South mows their lawn....
In Norway, they all have robot lawn mowers, homes, hotels, the lot. Years ahead of us.
Robot lawn mowers and dog poo covered English lawns (or some from that bloody fox that keeps energetically shagging in the woods with that hell noise, EEE gads, what does the fox say, indeed).
I don't know what wild animals come of the fjord tops in Norway, but perhaps the robot mower is a safer pursuit there.
EDIT: come to think of it, what does the fox say was Norwegian. Perhaps they don't know.
Just getting caught up on the conference drama. I saw a comment yesterday that mentioned the GOPification of the Tories and I think that's what we're seeing. Braverman talking about lefties having immigrants 'mowing their lawns' is a particularly jarring Americanism. 'Cutting their grass' is the correct phrase. Without indulging my conspiracy brain too much, it all makes me think that her speech has been cooked up by some shadowy Yankee right-wing think-tank.
Another point of worry is the Conservative Party railing against elites and the establishment. They're the Conservative Party, what are they for if not the establishment?
And all the guff about failed immigration policies and how shit everything is and that it's all Labour's fault - they've been in power for 13 years! My flabber is gasted at the gall of senior Tories making these kind of arguments.
What? “Mowing the lawn” is an Americanism in which world? I mow the lawn at least once a week but never “cut the grass” unless in a wilder area with a strimmer. I don’t know any of my British friends who wouldn’t say “mow the lawn”.
Agree. I think it's a question of scale and/or level of manicure. If you have a large, or very well tended bit of grass, you're mowing the lawn. If you have a backyard patch of grass, or an orchard or paddock, you cut the grass.
Nah. The orchard gets strimmed. A paddock would be grazed. The back garden grass gets mown even though it it definitely not a lawn.
Just getting caught up on the conference drama. I saw a comment yesterday that mentioned the GOPification of the Tories and I think that's what we're seeing. Braverman talking about lefties having immigrants 'mowing their lawns' is a particularly jarring Americanism. 'Cutting their grass' is the correct phrase. Without indulging my conspiracy brain too much, it all makes me think that her speech has been cooked up by some shadowy Yankee right-wing think-tank.
Another point of worry is the Conservative Party railing against elites and the establishment. They're the Conservative Party, what are they for if not the establishment?
And all the guff about failed immigration policies and how shit everything is and that it's all Labour's fault - they've been in power for 13 years! My flabber is gasted at the gall of senior Tories making these kind of arguments.
Hang on - is this a regional thing? Everyone I know in the South mows their lawn....
In Norway, they all have robot lawn mowers, homes, hotels, the lot. Years ahead of us.
Robot hotel mowers? Is this new weaponry? Or are they hotels for robot lawns perhaps?
Just getting caught up on the conference drama. I saw a comment yesterday that mentioned the GOPification of the Tories and I think that's what we're seeing. Braverman talking about lefties having immigrants 'mowing their lawns' is a particularly jarring Americanism. 'Cutting their grass' is the correct phrase. Without indulging my conspiracy brain too much, it all makes me think that her speech has been cooked up by some shadowy Yankee right-wing think-tank.
Another point of worry is the Conservative Party railing against elites and the establishment. They're the Conservative Party, what are they for if not the establishment?
And all the guff about failed immigration policies and how shit everything is and that it's all Labour's fault - they've been in power for 13 years! My flabber is gasted at the gall of senior Tories making these kind of arguments.
What? “Mowing the lawn” is an Americanism in which world? I mow the lawn at least once a week but never “cut the grass” unless in a wilder area with a strimmer. I don’t know any of my British friends who wouldn’t say “mow the lawn”.
Agree. I think it's a question of scale and/or level of manicure. If you have a large, or very well tended bit of grass, you're mowing the lawn. If you have a backyard patch of grass, or an orchard or paddock, you cut the grass.
Nah. The orchard gets strimmed. A paddock would be grazed. The back garden grass gets mown even though it it definitely not a lawn.
The only time I would cut grass is with a scythe.
Not necessarily in either case. You could do an orchard on a ride on if you had wide enough gaps. And not every paddock/field has enough cattle or ponies on to keep the grass down without cutting it. You wouldn't say you were 'mowing the lawn' doing these things. I wouldn't anyway.
Comments
Everyone wins.
I envisage that RefUK and ReFox and UKIP will huff and puff about betrayal. But many of their floating voters can be persuaded to come back to the Tories.
But - and its a very big but. Farage is Kryptonite. Vote Leave kept him on the end of a very long poll for precisely this reason. For every voter the Tories would add with Lird Farage they would lose two? Three?
Sunak has a glorious opportunity to reunify the party and lead it to a glorious and crushing defeat.
What I would say (as intimated up thread) is that if Farage is invited into the Tory Party I have absolutely no doubt, if standing and winning a Commons seat, he would be the next LOTO. The Tory Party is slowly morphing into GOPUK and this would just be their Trump moment.
She went to Oxford and is in the fecking Cabinet.
@SophyRidgeSky
·
25m
Home Secretary Suella Braverman says there’s a “hurricane” of mass migration coming
Sophy Ridge
@SophyRidgeSky
·
7m
Content to one side - struck by how Suella Braverman has improved as a public speaker.
The sign of someone who is serious about a future leadership pitch
What job could he be given? Something currently occupied by a non-entity but is suitably Brexity for him? How about Home Secretary? He has spent a fair bit of time on a dinghy in the channel, make the Nigel responsible for sinking migrants.
She has just made a rip roaring speech castigating Labour for their failed immigration and law and order implementation. She has contrasted their failure in home affairs with policies she plans to impose after the next election. Awesome.
A family member told me months ago that Tories will win next election because of migration.
Their entire election campaign will be based on that he reckons.
Contrast that with Priti Patel, a previous holder of the Home Sec role, who also seems to have big leadership ambitions - it's Patel's public speaking that lets her down a bit. She's not bad, but certain parts of sentences are hurried and her speeches lose impact and punch. Braverman was excellent - every single part of the speech hit.
Looking like value to me given the direction the tories seem to be rapidly heading in.
We should neither ignore cities (which are, after all, the economic engines of the UK) nor ignore the majority of people who live in towns & the wider countryside.
Another point of worry is the Conservative Party railing against elites and the establishment. They're the Conservative Party, what are they for if not the establishment?
And all the guff about failed immigration policies and how shit everything is and that it's all Labour's fault - they've been in power for 13 years! My flabber is gasted at the gall of senior Tories making these kind of arguments.
"How can anyone govern a nation that has two hundred and forty-six different kinds of cheese?"
https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/charles_de_gaulle_398023
(France now has about a thousand varieties.)
Denial is not just a river in Egypt.
https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/average-age-ukraine-soldiers-front-over-40
He would either want to be given a sinecure he could flounce from, or most likely if he ever was to join would simply be a blessing from the leadership to find him a safe seat for the next GE. In Parliament, he can be elected leader. That is the only role in the Tory Party he’d really want.
She gave a full-bore populist speech ("Human Right Act? I'm surprised they didn't call it the Criminal Rights Act!"), well-delivered with lots of applause. At the end about 2/3 of the audience gave her a standing ovation, though most of the rest weren't applauding at all. Certainly cemented her claim to a good chance to succeed Sunak.
Chalk, before that, gave quite a decent speech on justice and rehabilitation - some routine Labour-bashing, but I thought he defended his brief well. Very little applause though - the crowd wanted more Trumpian oratory.
Katalin Karikó and Drew Weissman, Penn’s historic mRNA vaccine research team, win 2023
https://twitter.com/Penn/status/1708786785877156020
That said, running against the record of the post-2010 Labour Government might be the Conservative's best hope of winning the election. Though god knows why they'd want to do a thing like that.
https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/populationandmigration/populationestimates/articles/understandingtownsinenglandandwalespopulationanddemographicanalysis/2021-02-24
Cities excluding London make up 6.9 million people in England and Wales.
The majority of England and Wales live in towns.
He's also, unlike even the more fashy of the Tory right wing, avowedly pro-Putin. I'm not sure that will go down well even with the RefUK-minded Tories.
If you live in a “town” that’s been completely swallowed up by the conurbation of Birmingham then for planning & comparison purposes you’re a part of Birmingham, not the rural town you might have been part of back in 1935.
"It’s official – Britain has lost its sense of humour
We all now leap at the chance to smack people down for saying anything off colour, but surely intent has to count for something?
Celia Walden"
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/columnists/2023/10/03/robbie-williams-twitter-joke-sense-of-humour/
If it is regional thing, I apologise for my slander towards Lawn-using southerners.
On second thoughts, Farage should fit right in to this current Tory Party...
I've been mowing my lawn all my life and I'm from Wiltshire.
I don't disagree with your general point - there is a danger of the right of the Tory party believing that the way back is more extreme, when in reality, as Cameron showed, back to the centre is how you reconnect to
realitythe electorate.Whereas 32.9 million live in towns.
Towns dramatically exceed cities in England, nearly 2:1, not that you'd know it from our city based correspondents and media.
Party looks to be heading to a split as it morphs into UKIP. People will generally be repelled from voting for it. Such niche issues as well - I mean, our public services are crumbling and they’re talking about woke ideology in science
But if there is one thing this conference is showing, there is a clear, inexporable shift to the populist right continuing in the Tory Party. Some of the things leading Tory figures come out with now, we just wouldn’t have predicted or seen even in 2019.
This is not a party that is going to react to defeat by shifting back to the centre (as much as I would love it to and give me a comfortable home again). I simply cannot see anything other than, to use a phrase I’m not tremendously fond of, a “hard right” attitude prevailing in the coming years. It is fertile ground for populist gobsh*tes like Farage to take control.
You might (reasonably) argue that these hinterlands have differing needs to the city cores & I wouldn’t argue with that, but I would argue that they are not going to be the same as rural towns, so lumping them in with the rural town population & calling them “non city” residents seems wrong to me.
(It would be instructive to try and estimate GDP/capita for this town / city split too.)
I don't know what wild animals come of the fjord tops in Norway, but perhaps the robot mower is a safer pursuit there.
EDIT: come to think of it, what does the fox say was Norwegian. Perhaps they don't know.
The only time I would cut grass is with a scythe.
https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/rural-population-and-migration/rural-population-and-migration
Note that the %ages under each subheading sum to that entry, so those under ”all rural areas” sum to 17.1%.
I can see why they have not caught on over here.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-66997076