The results in Australia and New Zealand, and what's happening to Trudeau in the polling in Canada right now, show just how fragile left-wing governments in the West can be - even ones that win a massive majority.
Not sure its a left v right issue, more that all governments can end up losing popularity. Which is the entire point of democracy of course.
Labour in New Zealand had been in power for two Parliamentary terms, while Trudeau has previously won three elections in a row.
It shows a continued pattern of incumbents who were in charge during COVID losing power. NZ Labour did particularly badly in Auckland, which had a long lockdown.
"Saudi Arabia is reported to have suspended normalisation talks with Israel, a source tells Agence France-Presse.
“Saudi Arabia has decided to pause discussion on possible normalisation and has informed US officials,” the source told AFP, which reports that the source spoke the same day US secretary of state Antony Blinken met in Riyadh with his Saudi counterpart, Faisal bin Farhan.
Following the meeting, the Saudi foreign ministry called for “an immediate ceasefire in Gaza and its surroundings” and the urgent delivery of humanitarian aid."
The results in Australia and New Zealand, and what's happening to Trudeau in the polling in Canada right now, show just how fragile left-wing governments in the West can be - even ones that win a massive majority.
Not sure its a left v right issue, more that all governments can end up losing popularity. Which is the entire point of democracy of course.
Labour in New Zealand had been in power for two Parliamentary terms, while Trudeau has previously won three elections in a row.
The result in Poland tomorrow will tell us more about whether it's just an incumbency thing.
The results in Australia and New Zealand, and what's happening to Trudeau in the polling in Canada right now, show just how fragile left-wing governments in the West can be - even ones that win a massive majority.
Not sure its a left v right issue, more that all governments can end up losing popularity. Which is the entire point of democracy of course.
Labour in New Zealand had been in power for two Parliamentary terms, while Trudeau has previously won three elections in a row.
The result in Poland tomorrow will tell us more about whether it's just an incumbency thing.
There is a lot turning on the result in Poland. The second most important support for Ukraine, the stability of the EU, oh, and the rule of law.
The results in Australia and New Zealand, and what's happening to Trudeau in the polling in Canada right now, show just how fragile left-wing governments in the West can be - even ones that win a massive majority.
Not sure its a left v right issue, more that all governments can end up losing popularity. Which is the entire point of democracy of course.
Labour in New Zealand had been in power for two Parliamentary terms, while Trudeau has previously won three elections in a row.
The result in Poland tomorrow will tell us more about whether it's just an incumbency thing.
There is a lot turning on the result in Poland. The second most important support for Ukraine, the stability of the EU, oh, and the rule of law.
I've not followed the election in Poland but it seems that both the parties leading in the polls have been quite pro-support for Ukraine?
There's the incumbent government, which has been very pro-support, and Tusk's opposition, which I believe has also been?
"Referendum mental health toll on First Nations communities won’t ‘miraculously’ ease on Saturday
Racism, trauma and an expectation First Nations peoples should educate others on the Voice referendum have led to increased psychological stress, an expert says."
That sounds unfortunate, though cynically it could be said if everyone is supposed to listen to first nation voices, wouldn't that naturally follow there is an expectation for them to educate others about it? Who would be doing the educating, white knights?
Referendums seem to be bad ideas in general, because of the divisiveness they encourage. Maybe it's better to allow decisions to be taken by elected politicians.
Well, as Leon suggested perhaps the Swiss are the only ones who seem able to get referendums right.
Though as much as I dislike conflict, division is not always a bad thing - sometimes political ideas are divisive and an issue needs to be settled.
USA has (so far) zero nationwide referenda (or intitiative) votes, but plenty of statewide ballot measures (though NOT in every state) starting in 1890s (Wisconsin).
Note that national movement for women's suffrage in USA in early 20th century was marked by number of successful statewide ballot measure campaigns granting women the vote.
In more recent times, voters in WA State upheld first civil unions, then gay marriage, via state referendums attempting to overturn recent legislative enactments. Victories that played a key part in subsequent federal court rulings establishing marriage equality from sea to shining sea.
The results in Australia and New Zealand, and what's happening to Trudeau in the polling in Canada right now, show just how fragile left-wing governments in the West can be - even ones that win a massive majority.
Not sure its a left v right issue, more that all governments can end up losing popularity. Which is the entire point of democracy of course.
Labour in New Zealand had been in power for two Parliamentary terms, while Trudeau has previously won three elections in a row.
The result in Poland tomorrow will tell us more about whether it's just an incumbency thing.
There is a lot turning on the result in Poland. The second most important support for Ukraine, the stability of the EU, oh, and the rule of law.
I've not followed the election in Poland but it seems that both the parties leading in the polls have been quite pro-support for Ukraine?
There's the incumbent government, which has been very pro-support, and Tusk's opposition, which I believe has also been?
So what's turning?
Poland and Ukraine have just had a massive diplomatic spat over grain supplies and Poland has now said it will stop supplying arms to Ukraine.
Weirdly, I haven’t seen any Australian posters on here. Would have been good to have a little insight instead of people spouting forth weird analogies to Brexit.
The failure of the referendum leaves an unresolved problem in Australian politics, how to ensure representation for a historically marginalised and dispossessed 3% of the population?
Having said that, 8/76 senators identify as Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander, and 3/151 MPs.
Do New Zealand have anything in place to ensure representation for the Indigenous peoples there?
Again- sorry I have to keep saying this but it is easy to be misconstrued on here - this is not a dig or anything but a genuine question as you are from there.
I have a cousin who emigrated to New Zealand and was for some years employed as a business consultant by one of the Maori groups to advise their young people on setting up businesses. AFAIR we came across several Maori run businesses.
Does it make a difference that the Maori are NOT indigenous to NZ and simply arrived a few hundred years earlier than Europeans which is a quite different situation to Australia (And elsewhere) ?
So far as we know, NZ is the last significant land mass to be occupied by humans. In this case the Maori. So they must be considered the indigenous population.
Shaping up to be a classic Saturday night on pb.com. Several people are already at the "touchy" stage of inebriation. Could be a bloodbath by 10pm.
I call for restraint. People have the right to express themselves but should do so within the parameters of civilized debate. No-one should be targeted unless they're asking for it.
The results in Australia and New Zealand, and what's happening to Trudeau in the polling in Canada right now, show just how fragile left-wing governments in the West can be - even ones that win a massive majority.
Not sure its a left v right issue, more that all governments can end up losing popularity. Which is the entire point of democracy of course.
Labour in New Zealand had been in power for two Parliamentary terms, while Trudeau has previously won three elections in a row.
The result in Poland tomorrow will tell us more about whether it's just an incumbency thing.
There is a lot turning on the result in Poland. The second most important support for Ukraine, the stability of the EU, oh, and the rule of law.
I've not followed the election in Poland but it seems that both the parties leading in the polls have been quite pro-support for Ukraine?
There's the incumbent government, which has been very pro-support, and Tusk's opposition, which I believe has also been?
So what's turning?
Poland and Ukraine have just had a massive diplomatic spat over grain supplies and Poland has now said it will stop supplying arms to Ukraine.
I think they have rowed back on the arms issue and once the election is out of the way then the Polish government can relax a bit about the grain issue. Bad timing on election and grain deal around the same time.
Weirdly, I haven’t seen any Australian posters on here. Would have been good to have a little insight instead of people spouting forth weird analogies to Brexit.
The failure of the referendum leaves an unresolved problem in Australian politics, how to ensure representation for a historically marginalised and dispossessed 3% of the population?
Having said that, 8/76 senators identify as Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander, and 3/151 MPs.
Do New Zealand have anything in place to ensure representation for the Indigenous peoples there?
Again- sorry I have to keep saying this but it is easy to be misconstrued on here - this is not a dig or anything but a genuine question as you are from there.
I have a cousin who emigrated to New Zealand and was for some years employed as a business consultant by one of the Maori groups to advise their young people on setting up businesses. AFAIR we came across several Maori run businesses.
Does it make a difference that the Maori are NOT indigenous to NZ and simply arrived a few hundred years earlier than Europeans which is a quite different situation to Australia (And elsewhere) ?
Not really no. The European nations based their claims to various bits of the world on their being the first ones to reach them. It kind of sets a massive precedent of first come first served and the Maori were (as far as we know) the first to reach New Zealand. Whether it was 1 year or 1 millennium doesn't really make much difference under the rules we have imposed on the world.
The results in Australia and New Zealand, and what's happening to Trudeau in the polling in Canada right now, show just how fragile left-wing governments in the West can be - even ones that win a massive majority.
Not sure its a left v right issue, more that all governments can end up losing popularity. Which is the entire point of democracy of course.
Labour in New Zealand had been in power for two Parliamentary terms, while Trudeau has previously won three elections in a row.
The result in Poland tomorrow will tell us more about whether it's just an incumbency thing.
There is a lot turning on the result in Poland. The second most important support for Ukraine, the stability of the EU, oh, and the rule of law.
I've not followed the election in Poland but it seems that both the parties leading in the polls have been quite pro-support for Ukraine?
There's the incumbent government, which has been very pro-support, and Tusk's opposition, which I believe has also been?
So what's turning?
Poland and Ukraine have just had a massive diplomatic spat over grain supplies and Poland has now said it will stop supplying arms to Ukraine.
I know they had the spat, but I thought that PiS had quickly backtracked and said they would continue to supply arms to Ukraine.
President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine exacerbated tensions by insinuating in a speech at the United Nations that Poland, by blocking grain deliveries, had aligned itself with Russia. And last month, Ukraine filed a complaint against Poland with the World Trade Organization over grain.
Infuriated by what it saw as Mr. Zelensky’s ingratitude, Poland denounced the Ukrainian president’s remark as “astonishing” and “unfair.” It also briefly suggested it was halting the delivery of weapons but, after an uproar, said arms would continue to flow.
Shaping up to be a classic Saturday night on pb.com. Several people are already at the "touchy" stage of inebriation. Could be a bloodbath by 10pm.
I call for restraint. People have the right to express themselves but should do so within the parameters of civilized debate. No-one should be targeted unless they're asking for it.
Weirdly, I haven’t seen any Australian posters on here. Would have been good to have a little insight instead of people spouting forth weird analogies to Brexit.
The failure of the referendum leaves an unresolved problem in Australian politics, how to ensure representation for a historically marginalised and dispossessed 3% of the population?
Having said that, 8/76 senators identify as Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander, and 3/151 MPs.
Do New Zealand have anything in place to ensure representation for the Indigenous peoples there?
Again- sorry I have to keep saying this but it is easy to be misconstrued on here - this is not a dig or anything but a genuine question as you are from there.
I have a cousin who emigrated to New Zealand and was for some years employed as a business consultant by one of the Maori groups to advise their young people on setting up businesses. AFAIR we came across several Maori run businesses.
Does it make a difference that the Maori are NOT indigenous to NZ and simply arrived a few hundred years earlier than Europeans which is a quite different situation to Australia (And elsewhere) ?
Not really no. The European nations based their claims to various bits of the world on their being the first ones to reach them. It kind of sets a massive precedent of first come first served and the Maori were (as far as we know) the first to reach New Zealand. Whether it was 1 year or 1 millennium doesn't really make much difference under the rules we have imposed on the world.
Eh ?
Everything controversial that's happened by European nations in the last thousand years has most distinctly arisen where Europeans were most certainly NOT the first that arrived.
The results in Australia and New Zealand, and what's happening to Trudeau in the polling in Canada right now, show just how fragile left-wing governments in the West can be - even ones that win a massive majority.
I mean, Trudeau has been in government for 8 years, Labour in NZ for 6, so wouldn't part of it simply be natural governmental churn?
Albanese has been in office for about 1.5 years, but on recent Aussie PM standards that's about half his expected time as premier!
Labour won a massive majority in NZ three years ago. And Albanese much more recently.
Shaping up to be a classic Saturday night on pb.com. Several people are already at the "touchy" stage of inebriation. Could be a bloodbath by 10pm.
I call for restraint. People have the right to express themselves but should do so within the parameters of civilized debate. No-one should be targeted unless they're asking for it.
Hahahaha.
My laugh is directed at myself not you guys. I am happily sat here chatting away with you all on various topics of interest and, until you mentioned it, it had competely escaped my attention that there was any ill feeling or touchiness going on at all. Shows how much attention I pay to stuff I suppose.
In looking at Sunak's tenure as PM I had a look at the reason the various PMs left office.
10 resigned due to illness
22 others resigned for other reasons (or wiki does not state)
8 were replaced (all 190+ years ago)
1 was assassinated
6 died
9 as a result of an election
On the face of it it makes focus on electoral mandates for PMs seem weird, since by the looks of it most PMs did not take over at an election but after someone else resigned or died. But in fairness the list is skewed by all the ones before we had proper democracy, and there will also have been people who were PM on non-consecutive occasions, so will have resigned/been replaced/lost as a result of an election which is not picked up, so that would not be a fair way of looking at it.
Keeping it to from 1945 and it looks like a balance of around 10 resigned and 8 lost at an election (Churchill and Wilson counted twice), so the non-mandate PMs take it, but then it has to be considered that we've had 4 PM resignations in the last 7 years, and that is pretty darn unusual, an without it those losing at an election would be top.
Then it has to be considered that of those taking over from someone who resigned, without their own mandate, 4 called an election within a year (and one never got a chance to do so).
So I guess that would mean only around 5 PMs in the last 75 years took over between elections and did not fairly quickly seek their own electorate mandate.
Which I still think makes the argument we get every single time a PM resigns about lack of mandate overblown, but would accept it is a reasonably rare occurrence in the modern era.
The results in Australia and New Zealand, and what's happening to Trudeau in the polling in Canada right now, show just how fragile left-wing governments in the West can be - even ones that win a massive majority.
Not sure its a left v right issue, more that all governments can end up losing popularity. Which is the entire point of democracy of course.
Labour in New Zealand had been in power for two Parliamentary terms, while Trudeau has previously won three elections in a row.
Labour won an absolute majority in NZ and have bombed out in barely three years. And Trudeau was behind on votes even last time.
I don't think left-wing governments in Western countries have a particularly long shelf life these days, and Germany is another example.
Lessons for Starmer. I'll certainly be betting against his 10 years.
In looking at Sunak's tenure as PM I had a look at the reason the various PMs left office.
10 resigned due to illness
22 others resigned for other reasons (or wiki does not state)
8 were replaced (all 190+ years ago)
1 was assassinated
6 died
9 as a result of an election
On the face of it it makes focus on electoral mandates for PMs seem weird, since by the looks of it most PMs did not take over at an election but after someone else resigned or died. But in fairness the list is skewed by all the ones before we had proper democracy, and there will also have been people who were PM on non-consecutive occasions, so will have resigned/been replaced/lost as a result of an election which is not picked up, so that would not be a fair way of looking at it.
Keeping it to from 1945 and it looks like a balance of around 10 resigned and 8 lost at an election (Churchill and Wilson counted twice), so the non-mandate PMs take it, but then it has to be considered that we've had 4 PM resignations in the last 7 years, and that is pretty darn unusual, an without it those losing at an election would be top.
Then it has to be considered that of those taking over from someone who resigned, without their own mandate, 4 called an election within a year (and one never got a chance to do so).
So I guess that would mean only around 5 PMs in the last 75 years took over between elections and did not fairly quickly seek their own electorate mandate.
Which I still think makes the argument we get every single time a PM resigns about lack of mandate overblown, but would accept it is a reasonably rare occurrence in the modern era.
Surely. That's not "cancellation", that's Gross Misconduct.
It's a particularly vile form of racism, I don't understand what there would even be to discuss.
Agree. I suppose the lecturer isn’t Native American!
He has been suspended and lecturer may be a slight overstatement as he seems to have been some sort of instructor but I trust his career in academia is at an end.
The results in Australia and New Zealand, and what's happening to Trudeau in the polling in Canada right now, show just how fragile left-wing governments in the West can be - even ones that win a massive majority.
I mean, Trudeau has been in government for 8 years, Labour in NZ for 6, so wouldn't part of it simply be natural governmental churn?
Albanese has been in office for about 1.5 years, but on recent Aussie PM standards that's about half his expected time as premier!
Labour won a massive majority in NZ three years ago. And Albanese much more recently.
Johnson won a big majority for the Tories here at the end of 2019. Whereabouts is he now, and who, apart from, perhaps, HYUFD, expects that to be repeated?
The results in Australia and New Zealand, and what's happening to Trudeau in the polling in Canada right now, show just how fragile left-wing governments in the West can be - even ones that win a massive majority.
Not sure its a left v right issue, more that all governments can end up losing popularity. Which is the entire point of democracy of course.
Labour in New Zealand had been in power for two Parliamentary terms, while Trudeau has previously won three elections in a row.
The result in Poland tomorrow will tell us more about whether it's just an incumbency thing.
There is a lot turning on the result in Poland. The second most important support for Ukraine, the stability of the EU, oh, and the rule of law.
Well they must be in good hands with the Law and Justice Party then. I mean, truth in advertising, right?
Were the Beer Lovers Party not actually fans of beer?
The results in Australia and New Zealand, and what's happening to Trudeau in the polling in Canada right now, show just how fragile left-wing governments in the West can be - even ones that win a massive majority.
Not sure its a left v right issue, more that all governments can end up losing popularity. Which is the entire point of democracy of course.
Labour in New Zealand had been in power for two Parliamentary terms, while Trudeau has previously won three elections in a row.
The result in Poland tomorrow will tell us more about whether it's just an incumbency thing.
There is a lot turning on the result in Poland. The second most important support for Ukraine, the stability of the EU, oh, and the rule of law.
Well they must be in good hands with the Law and Justice Party then. I mean, truth in advertising, right?
Were the Beer Lovers Party not actually fans of beer?
Dog Lovers Party memories! If they still existed, I wonder what their XL Bully policy would be, given that XL Bullies go for other dogs? Its policy on Great Danes was, however, crystal clear.
The results in Australia and New Zealand, and what's happening to Trudeau in the polling in Canada right now, show just how fragile left-wing governments in the West can be - even ones that win a massive majority.
Not sure its a left v right issue, more that all governments can end up losing popularity. Which is the entire point of democracy of course.
Labour in New Zealand had been in power for two Parliamentary terms, while Trudeau has previously won three elections in a row.
The result in Poland tomorrow will tell us more about whether it's just an incumbency thing.
There is a lot turning on the result in Poland. The second most important support for Ukraine, the stability of the EU, oh, and the rule of law.
I've not followed the election in Poland but it seems that both the parties leading in the polls have been quite pro-support for Ukraine?
There's the incumbent government, which has been very pro-support, and Tusk's opposition, which I believe has also been?
So what's turning?
The current government has been much less pro Ukraine of late, mainly because they are upset about the EU deal re Ukraine grain which has underpriced their local farmers. I also think that they are increasingly going their own way on a variety of things, reflecting the confidence of a strongly growing nation.
The results in Australia and New Zealand, and what's happening to Trudeau in the polling in Canada right now, show just how fragile left-wing governments in the West can be - even ones that win a massive majority.
Not sure its a left v right issue, more that all governments can end up losing popularity. Which is the entire point of democracy of course.
Labour in New Zealand had been in power for two Parliamentary terms, while Trudeau has previously won three elections in a row.
The result in Poland tomorrow will tell us more about whether it's just an incumbency thing.
There is a lot turning on the result in Poland. The second most important support for Ukraine, the stability of the EU, oh, and the rule of law.
I've not followed the election in Poland but it seems that both the parties leading in the polls have been quite pro-support for Ukraine?
There's the incumbent government, which has been very pro-support, and Tusk's opposition, which I believe has also been?
So what's turning?
One of the potential coalition partners of the ruling party is anti Ukraine involvement.
It’s a filthy campaign (or joyous and civic as PB ****** experts love to say). A sample of some of the stuff going on which wraps up Jews, communism and African migration in one wholesome package.
The results in Australia and New Zealand, and what's happening to Trudeau in the polling in Canada right now, show just how fragile left-wing governments in the West can be - even ones that win a massive majority.
I mean, Trudeau has been in government for 8 years, Labour in NZ for 6, so wouldn't part of it simply be natural governmental churn?
Albanese has been in office for about 1.5 years, but on recent Aussie PM standards that's about half his expected time as premier!
Labour won a massive majority in NZ three years ago. And Albanese much more recently.
Johnson won a big majority for the Tories here at the end of 2019. Whereabouts is he now, and who, apart from, perhaps, HYUFD, expects that to be repeated?
Crikey, defending HYUFD twice in a day but he has been extremely realistic about Tory hopes for the election. As with everything he says what he sees , sometimes to his detriment as can be a bit cold and in-nuanced, more than what he hopes for. Now I believe Rishi is going to shock and surprise because I’m nuts but HYUFD is much more realistic.
Seriously HYUFD I should be charging more for running your PR/Crisis management.
Shaping up to be a classic Saturday night on pb.com. Several people are already at the "touchy" stage of inebriation. Could be a bloodbath by 10pm.
I'm looking at coverage of the pro Palestine march in central London.
Big banner with the following on it:
SOCIALIST WORKER End the Occupation VICTORY TO PALESTINE
Sorry, victory to the psychopaths who have committed unspeakable acts of barbarity this last week. Fuck them, and fuck the Jezbollah socialist worker Palestine Solidarity Campaign anti-semite wankers.
In looking at Sunak's tenure as PM I had a look at the reason the various PMs left office.
10 resigned due to illness
22 others resigned for other reasons (or wiki does not state)
8 were replaced (all 190+ years ago)
1 was assassinated
6 died
9 as a result of an election
On the face of it it makes focus on electoral mandates for PMs seem weird, since by the looks of it most PMs did not take over at an election but after someone else resigned or died. But in fairness the list is skewed by all the ones before we had proper democracy, and there will also have been people who were PM on non-consecutive occasions, so will have resigned/been replaced/lost as a result of an election which is not picked up, so that would not be a fair way of looking at it.
Keeping it to from 1945 and it looks like a balance of around 10 resigned and 8 lost at an election (Churchill and Wilson counted twice), so the non-mandate PMs take it, but then it has to be considered that we've had 4 PM resignations in the last 7 years, and that is pretty darn unusual, an without it those losing at an election would be top.
Then it has to be considered that of those taking over from someone who resigned, without their own mandate, 4 called an election within a year (and one never got a chance to do so).
So I guess that would mean only around 5 PMs in the last 75 years took over between elections and did not fairly quickly seek their own electorate mandate.
Which I still think makes the argument we get every single time a PM resigns about lack of mandate overblown, but would accept it is a reasonably rare occurrence in the modern era.
Wow. Those are remarkable figures.
I am relying on wiki to be accurate of course.
Being American President seems to be riskier though.
7/56 PMs have died in office, whereas 8/45 Presidents did. Half of those were assassinations versus only 1 PM assassination - I confess I had never heard of McKinley being assassinated.
Weirdly, I haven’t seen any Australian posters on here. Would have been good to have a little insight instead of people spouting forth weird analogies to Brexit.
The failure of the referendum leaves an unresolved problem in Australian politics, how to ensure representation for a historically marginalised and dispossessed 3% of the population?
Having said that, 8/76 senators identify as Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander, and 3/151 MPs.
Do New Zealand have anything in place to ensure representation for the Indigenous peoples there?
Again- sorry I have to keep saying this but it is easy to be misconstrued on here - this is not a dig or anything but a genuine question as you are from there.
I have a cousin who emigrated to New Zealand and was for some years employed as a business consultant by one of the Maori groups to advise their young people on setting up businesses. AFAIR we came across several Maori run businesses.
Does it make a difference that the Maori are NOT indigenous to NZ and simply arrived a few hundred years earlier than Europeans which is a quite different situation to Australia (And elsewhere) ?
Not really no. The European nations based their claims to various bits of the world on their being the first ones to reach them. It kind of sets a massive precedent of first come first served and the Maori were (as far as we know) the first to reach New Zealand. Whether it was 1 year or 1 millennium doesn't really make much difference under the rules we have imposed on the world.
Eh ?
Everything controversial that's happened by European nations in the last thousand years has most distinctly arisen where Europeans were most certainly NOT the first that arrived.
No you, miss my point. I was not defending the colonial actions in any way, just pointing out that, given that we imposed that principle over hundreds of years of colonialisation it wuld seem strange to suddenly aver when discussing earlier pre-European arrivals. We have defined 'indigenous' based on first occupatin so I was simply pointing out that it doesn't seem to me to make much difference whether that was 1 year or 1000 years before we turned up.
Bear in mind this was answering a specific point from you. If you folowed your initial question to its ultimate conclusion then no one is indigenous to anywhere except the East African Rift Valley.
Suggestions that Hamas are saying Israel have bombed one of the approved evac routes, Israel saying that they had no planes in the sky when the alleged attack took place and will provide proof of that. Israel suggesting that Hamas bombed the evac route to frame the IDF.
The results in Australia and New Zealand, and what's happening to Trudeau in the polling in Canada right now, show just how fragile left-wing governments in the West can be - even ones that win a massive majority.
I mean, Trudeau has been in government for 8 years, Labour in NZ for 6, so wouldn't part of it simply be natural governmental churn?
Albanese has been in office for about 1.5 years, but on recent Aussie PM standards that's about half his expected time as premier!
Labour won a massive majority in NZ three years ago. And Albanese much more recently.
Johnson won a big majority for the Tories here at the end of 2019. Whereabouts is he now, and who, apart from, perhaps, HYUFD, expects that to be repeated?
Crikey, defending HYUFD twice in a day but he has been extremely realistic about Tory hopes for the election.
That's why those thinking it will be a surprisingly decent outcome for the party need to wake up from that dream.
Weirdly, I haven’t seen any Australian posters on here. Would have been good to have a little insight instead of people spouting forth weird analogies to Brexit.
The failure of the referendum leaves an unresolved problem in Australian politics, how to ensure representation for a historically marginalised and dispossessed 3% of the population?
Having said that, 8/76 senators identify as Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander, and 3/151 MPs.
Do New Zealand have anything in place to ensure representation for the Indigenous peoples there?
Again- sorry I have to keep saying this but it is easy to be misconstrued on here - this is not a dig or anything but a genuine question as you are from there.
I have a cousin who emigrated to New Zealand and was for some years employed as a business consultant by one of the Maori groups to advise their young people on setting up businesses. AFAIR we came across several Maori run businesses.
Does it make a difference that the Maori are NOT indigenous to NZ and simply arrived a few hundred years earlier than Europeans which is a quite different situation to Australia (And elsewhere) ?
Not really no. The European nations based their claims to various bits of the world on their being the first ones to reach them. It kind of sets a massive precedent of first come first served and the Maori were (as far as we know) the first to reach New Zealand. Whether it was 1 year or 1 millennium doesn't really make much difference under the rules we have imposed on the world.
Eh ?
Everything controversial that's happened by European nations in the last thousand years has most distinctly arisen where Europeans were most certainly NOT the first that arrived.
No you, miss my point. I was not defending the colonial actions in any way, just pointing out that, given that we imposed that principle over hundreds of years of colonialisation it wuld seem strange to suddenly aver when discussing earlier pre-European arrivals. We have defined 'indigenous' based on first occupatin so I was simply pointing out that it doesn't seem to me to make much difference whether that was 1 year or 1000 years before we turned up.
Bear in mind this was answering a specific point from you. If you folowed your initial question to its ultimate conclusion then no one is indigenous to anywhere except the East African Rift Valley.
And, of course, the Falklands/Malouines/Islas Malvinas question depends on first settlement by the British, at much the same era as the locals were being pushed aside in Australia.
Suggestions that Hamas are saying Israel have bombed one of the approved evac routes, Israel saying that they had no planes in the sky when the alleged attack took place and will provide proof of that. Israel suggesting that Hamas bombed the evac route to frame the IDF.
This could get messy.
Hamas want to slaughter as many Palestinian civilians as they can. Of course they will bomb the evacuation routes - they want their own people to die. The more who are martyred, the more that the evil Jew will get the blame, and the more that wankers will whine on about the "occupation".
Its a funny occupation, allowing the subjugated to fire thousands of missiles at you and then rape and slaughter thousands of your people.
Shaping up to be a classic Saturday night on pb.com. Several people are already at the "touchy" stage of inebriation. Could be a bloodbath by 10pm.
I'm looking at coverage of the pro Palestine march in central London.
Big banner with the following on it:
SOCIALIST WORKER End the Occupation VICTORY TO PALESTINE
Sorry, victory to the psychopaths who have committed unspeakable acts of barbarity this last week. Fuck them, and fuck the Jezbollah socialist worker Palestine Solidarity Campaign anti-semite wankers.
What you have to remember about Socialist Worker is that they aren't Socialists and they aren't workers.
Weirdly, I haven’t seen any Australian posters on here. Would have been good to have a little insight instead of people spouting forth weird analogies to Brexit.
The failure of the referendum leaves an unresolved problem in Australian politics, how to ensure representation for a historically marginalised and dispossessed 3% of the population?
Having said that, 8/76 senators identify as Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander, and 3/151 MPs.
Do New Zealand have anything in place to ensure representation for the Indigenous peoples there?
Again- sorry I have to keep saying this but it is easy to be misconstrued on here - this is not a dig or anything but a genuine question as you are from there.
I have a cousin who emigrated to New Zealand and was for some years employed as a business consultant by one of the Maori groups to advise their young people on setting up businesses. AFAIR we came across several Maori run businesses.
Does it make a difference that the Maori are NOT indigenous to NZ and simply arrived a few hundred years earlier than Europeans which is a quite different situation to Australia (And elsewhere) ?
So far as we know, NZ is the last significant land mass to be occupied by humans. In this case the Maori. So they must be considered the indigenous population.
At first it feels strange it could have been missed for so long, as far as we can tell, when it's bloody huge as far as Islands go, but it can be easy to forget how far away it is from Australia sometimes. I don't know how far it is from the other directions and the other countless small islands colonised, but these migrations do take time.
Suggestions that Hamas are saying Israel have bombed one of the approved evac routes, Israel saying that they had no planes in the sky when the alleged attack took place and will provide proof of that. Israel suggesting that Hamas bombed the evac route to frame the IDF.
This could get messy.
It's taken about 36 hours after Israel going on the offensive for everyone to have forgotten about the atrocities and for it to all be about them again.
Labour and the the Liberals deserve to lose in Mid Beds, thanks to their hubris of both going for the seat. They will hand a famous victory to Rishi there for nothing. Idiots. I’m betting on the Tories there. Hope to lose my money but I doubt I will.
Suggestions that Hamas are saying Israel have bombed one of the approved evac routes, Israel saying that they had no planes in the sky when the alleged attack took place and will provide proof of that. Israel suggesting that Hamas bombed the evac route to frame the IDF.
This could get messy.
Both sides are fucking liars so who knows, but I don't see how Israel can "prove" that they didn't. They could have hit it with a Delilah/Rampage from as far away as Haifa.
Suggestions that Hamas are saying Israel have bombed one of the approved evac routes, Israel saying that they had no planes in the sky when the alleged attack took place and will provide proof of that. Israel suggesting that Hamas bombed the evac route to frame the IDF.
This could get messy.
It's taken about 36 hours after Israel going on the offensive for everyone to have forgotten about the atrocities and for it to all be about them again.
People are so worried about their overreaction they in effect argue they shouldn't do anything*. That's obviously impossible for the Israeli government after facing 9/11 x 5 mere days ago, even if they were so inclined. Obviously outside voices will hope for as little civilian death as possible, but without getting bloodthirsty about it Israel cannot do nothing in response.
*well, we know from plenty of demonstrations that there are also many who are not worried about overreaction, they just support the massacres as an act of resistance
Alastair Meeks @AlastairMeeks · 1h I’m currently expecting them to hold both. This seems as good a place as any to record that expectation.
I like Labour for Mid Beds. Tamworth also. If the Cons hold both I'll have to revisit my confidence on Labour landslide. Labour winning one or both will reinforce it.
Labour and the the Liberals deserve to lose in Mid Beds, thanks to their hubris of both going for the seat. They will hand a famous victory to Rishi there for nothing. Idiots. I’m betting on the Tories there. Hope to lose my money but I doubt I will.
Why the hell should labour take a back seat for the entitled Lib Dems here
The results in Australia and New Zealand, and what's happening to Trudeau in the polling in Canada right now, show just how fragile left-wing governments in the West can be - even ones that win a massive majority.
I mean, Trudeau has been in government for 8 years, Labour in NZ for 6, so wouldn't part of it simply be natural governmental churn?
Albanese has been in office for about 1.5 years, but on recent Aussie PM standards that's about half his expected time as premier!
Labour won a massive majority in NZ three years ago. And Albanese much more recently.
Johnson won a big majority for the Tories here at the end of 2019. Whereabouts is he now, and who, apart from, perhaps, HYUFD, expects that to be repeated?
True, but that was after nearly ten years of Tory government and it was still winning by-elections off the opposition barely 2 years ago.
We heard so much about the Greater Jacinda Reich 3 years ago.
The expectations game for the Tories is such that holding 1 of the seats will be a great outcome. Holding two would be a magnicent outcome. I don't know if locals will pay attention, but maybe they will be bouyed by a great mass of Scottish Nationalists turning Conservative (ok, 1 disgruntled MP, but that's just details) and be more encouraged to turn out.
Alastair Meeks @AlastairMeeks · 1h I’m currently expecting them to hold both. This seems as good a place as any to record that expectation.
I like Labour for Mid Beds. Tamworth also. If the Cons hold both I'll have to revisit my confidence on Labour landslide. Labour winning one or both will reinforce it.
Labour and the the Liberals deserve to lose in Mid Beds, thanks to their hubris of both going for the seat. They will hand a famous victory to Rishi there for nothing. Idiots. I’m betting on the Tories there. Hope to lose my money but I doubt I will.
Why the hell should labour take a back seat for the entitled Lib Dems here
They shouldn’t, but should have done some sort of deal with the Libs. Absolutely ridiculous how they have mismanaged this. Confident I’ll win my bet on the Tories at 2.5.
Labour and the the Liberals deserve to lose in Mid Beds, thanks to their hubris of both going for the seat. They will hand a famous victory to Rishi there for nothing. Idiots. I’m betting on the Tories there. Hope to lose my money but I doubt I will.
Why the hell should labour take a back seat for the entitled Lib Dems here
And vice-versa.
It is not hubris for either party to both be going hard for the seat.
It might make tactical sense to have one softpedal efforts for the other in such situations, but the simple fact is they are not in the same party and are not in an electoral alliance, they both want the Tories out but ostensibly have very different ideas on what is the best approach to political policy. So of course they should compete hard against each other.
The same argument about entitled LDs was made in Tiverton, which the LDs easily won. They probably won't here, but they've been criticised for being spoilers before when in fact they were absolutely correct to go for it. And conversely Labour shouldn't take Tiverton to mean they have no shot in Mid-Beds and should not try either.
One by-election outcome won't change the overall picture a great deal, it'll be fine.
There was an absolutely ridiculous post from @Barnesian the other day, whining that Labour didn’t soft pedal despite the fact the Libs were THIRD in the seat. Said he’d rather the Tories won than Labour.
No wonder lots of Labour and Tory people consider each other their opponent, the Liberals, their enemy.
The results in Australia and New Zealand, and what's happening to Trudeau in the polling in Canada right now, show just how fragile left-wing governments in the West can be - even ones that win a massive majority.
I mean, Trudeau has been in government for 8 years, Labour in NZ for 6, so wouldn't part of it simply be natural governmental churn?
Albanese has been in office for about 1.5 years, but on recent Aussie PM standards that's about half his expected time as premier!
Labour won a massive majority in NZ three years ago. And Albanese much more recently.
Johnson won a big majority for the Tories here at the end of 2019. Whereabouts is he now, and who, apart from, perhaps, HYUFD, expects that to be repeated?
True, but that was after nearly ten years of Tory government and it was still winning by-elections off the opposition barely 2 years ago.
We heard so much about the Greater Jacinda Reich 3 years ago.
All nonsense.
Yesterday’s vote is essentially an anti-Jacinda vote.
I feel like many New Zealanders hardly know the next Prime Minister, Chris Luxon, and few seem overly warm to him.
It’s going to be an interesting three years, as Labour leave a crap economic legacy and Luxon has promised lovely tax cuts for “kiwi battlers”, as they call the just-about-managing over there.
Labour and the the Liberals deserve to lose in Mid Beds, thanks to their hubris of both going for the seat. They will hand a famous victory to Rishi there for nothing. Idiots. I’m betting on the Tories there. Hope to lose my money but I doubt I will.
Why the hell should labour take a back seat for the entitled Lib Dems here
They shouldn’t, but should have done some sort of deal with the Libs. Absolutely ridiculous how they have mismanaged this. Confident I’ll win my bet on the Tories at 2.5.
I do not understand your point here. Surely a party ought to be trying to win every bye election as they believe they best represent that constituency? Your approach says the only desired result is to unseat the government. Labour and the lid dems are not two sides of the same coin. Parties should make their case to the electorate.
There was an absolutely ridiculous post from Barnesian the other day, whining that Labour didn’t soft pedal despite the fact the Libs were THIRD in the seat. Said he’d rather the Tories won than Labour.
No wonder lots of Labour and Tory people consider each other their opponent, the Liberals, their enemy.
As has been demonstrated in several seats the party in third can come through to win. That has even happend outside by-elections on occasion, though not from the sorts of distances seen in by-elections obviously.
Yet every time the LDs get called ridiculous for trying when they are in third place, despite proving they can win from there. Now, that doesn't mean them calling on the second place party to back out is not also ridiculous, it is, and in Mid Beds the math was even harder than in some of those big LD win seats so Labour had an even stronger pitch to be the main opponent and thus to argue peopel should not listen to the LDs this time.
But I do find the castigation of the LDs for being ambitious in by-election campaigns to be overblown, and there has even in the past been talk of them 'betraying' people by doing so.
Comiserations, Penddu. For a neutral*, it was a fantastic game. I love the RWC. All the QFs are close calls, but given Argentina's indifferent form in the group stages I thought this one the easiest to call - for Wales. But credit to Argentina, a massive step up from the team which was so undistinguished against England.
Can't wait for the 8 o'clock game now.
*Obviously I wanted Wales to win because Wales is 35 miles away. But not being actually Welsh, there's a natural desire to see an unexpected result.
Labour and the the Liberals deserve to lose in Mid Beds, thanks to their hubris of both going for the seat. They will hand a famous victory to Rishi there for nothing. Idiots. I’m betting on the Tories there. Hope to lose my money but I doubt I will.
Why the hell should labour take a back seat for the entitled Lib Dems here
They shouldn’t, but should have done some sort of deal with the Libs. Absolutely ridiculous how they have mismanaged this. Confident I’ll win my bet on the Tories at 2.5.
I do not understand your point here. Surely a party ought to be trying to win every bye election as they believe they best represent that constituency? Your approach says the only desired result is to unseat the government. Labour and the lid dems are not two sides of the same coin. Parties should make their case to the electorate.
In the current circumstances the main benefit both can offer is that they are not the Tories.....
Of course if Rishi was any good, and had spent his speech doing something other than cancelling HS2 and wittering on about maths and smoking, this defection might have been part of quite a nice narrative. But he isn't, and he didn't, so it just looks like an oddity.
How is it even possible to buy an entire dinosaur?
Come on, if you were a billionaire it would be worth the £20m to buy it and sneak it into your kid’s closet in the middle of the night with the door just wide enough for it to appear to be walking out. Priceless.
Suggestions that Hamas are saying Israel have bombed one of the approved evac routes, Israel saying that they had no planes in the sky when the alleged attack took place and will provide proof of that. Israel suggesting that Hamas bombed the evac route to frame the IDF.
This could get messy.
It's taken about 36 hours after Israel going on the offensive for everyone to have forgotten about the atrocities and for it to all be about them again.
People are so worried about their overreaction they in effect argue they shouldn't do anything*. That's obviously impossible for the Israeli government after facing 9/11 x 5 mere days ago, even if they were so inclined. Obviously outside voices will hope for as little civilian death as possible, but without getting bloodthirsty about it Israel cannot do nothing in response.
*well, we know from plenty of demonstrations that there are also many who are not worried about overreaction, they just support the massacres as an act of resistance
I know very well Israel have been nibbling at the West Bank for decades, and will continue to do so.
But, I'm not sure I care. I'm totally done with the Palestinians and I think much of it is a cloak for Islamism and very unpleasant antisemitism.
Comiserations, Penddu. For a neutral*, it was a fantastic game. I love the RWC. All the QFs are close calls, but given Argentina's indifferent form in the group stages I thought this one the easiest to call - for Wales. But credit to Argentina, a massive step up from the team which was so undistinguished against England.
Can't wait for the 8 o'clock game now.
*Obviously I wanted Wales to win because Wales is 35 miles away. But not being actually Welsh, there's a natural desire to see an unexpected result.
I think too many people underestimated Argentina because they believed England are crap so could only beat Argentina if Argentina were even more crap and wanted that to be the case instead of looking at what Argentina did during the Rugby Championship and considering that maybe England were not crap (not great) but managed to nullify and stall a good team and find a way to beat them.
They beat Australia and lost to South Africa by one point in July so they aren’t mugs.
These people are nuts, or at the very least utterly incapable of serving within a legislative assembly. They seem to view doing anything as antithetical to their purpose.
How is it even possible to buy an entire dinosaur?
What the matter. Are you some kind of socialist ?
There’s entire Egyptian tombs for sale here. And Rembrandts. And chunks of medieval church. And world famous world maps from the 16th C. And iconic Chagalls
I kinda love the fact that you can simply buy these things. That they are not ALL hoarded in museums
How is it even possible to buy an entire dinosaur?
Is it an actual skeleton or a reconstruction?
I have absolutely no idea a priori. As I understand it, some dinoskeletons etc are complete except for trivial repairs. But a lot of those things are a mixture of original bone, and modern plastic where some bones are incomplete or missing or damaged (e.g. before burial). Also, sometimes the bones used to complete the skeleton come from a different indivudual or individuals. But I am speaking generally. I have no idea what the situation is here.
The salesperson/sales documentation should make that clear, anyway, like with restored vintage cars.
'Having taken nearly three years to remove the bones from the ground, Chomper is approximately 55% complete and its skull is more than 90% complete. Above and beyond the industry standard, David Aaron gallery provides a bone map that allows collectors to see the percentage completeness of each bone. “In this case it’s just a very complete specimen,” Aaron says.'
Watching ITV news between matches and it’s leading with Hamas saying that 70 killed by Israeli missile etc. it’s quite a contrast where when I listen to BBC news about a Russian attack in Ukraine where they state “this has not been independently verified”. I never watch tv news so not sure if this is standard but not great.
How is it even possible to buy an entire dinosaur?
Come on, if you were a billionaire it would be worth the £20m to buy it and sneak it into your kid’s closet in the middle of the night with the door just wide enough for it to appear to be walking out. Priceless.
Way better than some super yacht you only go on 2-3 times a year.
How is it even possible to buy an entire dinosaur?
Same reason one of the Microsoft guys has a replica of the Babbage Analytical Engine in his living room. For LOLs.
IIRC, he funded the construction of the printer which Babbage had designed, for the Science Museum, and got them to make a replica of both printer and Engine for him as part ion the funding deal.
How is it even possible to buy an entire dinosaur?
Come on, if you were a billionaire it would be worth the £20m to buy it and sneak it into your kid’s closet in the middle of the night with the door just wide enough for it to appear to be walking out. Priceless.
Way better than some super yacht you only go on 2-3 times a year.
I'd probably buy it if I was a billionaire. Great centre-piece for the entrance hall in your Chateux
Suggestions that Hamas are saying Israel have bombed one of the approved evac routes, Israel saying that they had no planes in the sky when the alleged attack took place and will provide proof of that. Israel suggesting that Hamas bombed the evac route to frame the IDF.
This could get messy.
It's taken about 36 hours after Israel going on the offensive for everyone to have forgotten about the atrocities and for it to all be about them again.
People are so worried about their overreaction they in effect argue they shouldn't do anything*. That's obviously impossible for the Israeli government after facing 9/11 x 5 mere days ago, even if they were so inclined. Obviously outside voices will hope for as little civilian death as possible, but without getting bloodthirsty about it Israel cannot do nothing in response.
*well, we know from plenty of demonstrations that there are also many who are not worried about overreaction, they just support the massacres as an act of resistance
I know very well Israel have been nibbling at the West Bank for decades, and will continue to do so.
But, I'm not sure I care. I'm totally done with the Palestinians and I think much of it is a cloak for Islamism and very unpleasant antisemitism.
I support Israel finishing the job in Gaza.
A week ago I supported the Israelis 100%. As the week has progressed, it seems that it is a conflict between two sets of terrorists, Hamas and Likud, with innocent Jews (both Israeli and elsewhere) and Palestinians (both within Palestine and Gaza and elsewhere) the innocent victims. Both sides are supported by useful idiots; people like Jeremy Corbyn for Hamas and Leon for Likud. Edit: deleting useful in respect of Leon.
The results in Australia and New Zealand, and what's happening to Trudeau in the polling in Canada right now, show just how fragile left-wing governments in the West can be - even ones that win a massive majority.
Not sure its a left v right issue, more that all governments can end up losing popularity. Which is the entire point of democracy of course.
Labour in New Zealand had been in power for two Parliamentary terms, while Trudeau has previously won three elections in a row.
Labour won an absolute majority in NZ and have bombed out in barely three years. And Trudeau was behind on votes even last time.
I don't think left-wing governments in Western countries have a particularly long shelf life these days, and Germany is another example.
Lessons for Starmer. I'll certainly be betting against his 10 years.
Is it a left v right issue though? Tories here won a massive absolute majority last time and were bombed out within three years too.
Prior to Labour winning in NZ, the Nationals were in office themselves for 8 years, so no real difference.
How is it even possible to buy an entire dinosaur?
Same reason one of the Microsoft guys has a replica of the Babbage Analytical Engine in his living room. For LOLs.
IIRC, he funded the construction of the printer which Babbage had designed, for the Science Museum, and got them to make a replica of both printer and Engine for him as part ion the funding deal.
Is that the same printer that Leon was complaining about last night?
Comments
"Saudi Arabia is reported to have suspended normalisation talks with Israel, a source tells Agence France-Presse.
“Saudi Arabia has decided to pause discussion on possible normalisation and has informed US officials,” the source told AFP, which reports that the source spoke the same day US secretary of state Antony Blinken met in Riyadh with his Saudi counterpart, Faisal bin Farhan.
Following the meeting, the Saudi foreign ministry called for “an immediate ceasefire in Gaza and its surroundings” and the urgent delivery of humanitarian aid."
Ok I am claiming that.
There's the incumbent government, which has been very pro-support, and Tusk's opposition, which I believe has also been?
So what's turning?
Note that national movement for women's suffrage in USA in early 20th century was marked by number of successful statewide ballot measure campaigns granting women the vote.
In more recent times, voters in WA State upheld first civil unions, then gay marriage, via state referendums attempting to overturn recent legislative enactments. Victories that played a key part in subsequent federal court rulings establishing marriage equality from sea to shining sea.
Edit: Link added
https://news.sky.com/story/why-polands-unwavering-support-of-ukraine-has-reached-breaking-point-12966256
Alastair Meeks
@AlastairMeeks
·
1h
I’m currently expecting them to hold both. This seems as good a place as any to record that expectation.
President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine exacerbated tensions by insinuating in a speech at the United Nations that Poland, by blocking grain deliveries, had aligned itself with Russia. And last month, Ukraine filed a complaint against Poland with the World Trade Organization over grain.
Infuriated by what it saw as Mr. Zelensky’s ingratitude, Poland denounced the Ukrainian president’s remark as “astonishing” and “unfair.” It also briefly suggested it was halting the delivery of weapons but, after an uproar, said arms would continue to flow.
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/10/13/world/europe/poland-elections-ukraine.html
I thought it was just the obscure Confederation which was anti-Ukraine and that's polling below 10% it seems.
Everything controversial that's happened by European nations in the last thousand years has most distinctly arisen where Europeans were most certainly NOT the first that arrived.
My laugh is directed at myself not you guys. I am happily sat here chatting away with you all on various topics of interest and, until you mentioned it, it had competely escaped my attention that there was any ill feeling or touchiness going on at all. Shows how much attention I pay to stuff I suppose.
- 10 resigned due to illness
- 22 others resigned for other reasons (or wiki does not state)
- 8 were replaced (all 190+ years ago)
- 1 was assassinated
- 6 died
- 9 as a result of an election
On the face of it it makes focus on electoral mandates for PMs seem weird, since by the looks of it most PMs did not take over at an election but after someone else resigned or died. But in fairness the list is skewed by all the ones before we had proper democracy, and there will also have been people who were PM on non-consecutive occasions, so will have resigned/been replaced/lost as a result of an election which is not picked up, so that would not be a fair way of looking at it.Keeping it to from 1945 and it looks like a balance of around 10 resigned and 8 lost at an election (Churchill and Wilson counted twice), so the non-mandate PMs take it, but then it has to be considered that we've had 4 PM resignations in the last 7 years, and that is pretty darn unusual, an without it those losing at an election would be top.
Then it has to be considered that of those taking over from someone who resigned, without their own mandate, 4 called an election within a year (and one never got a chance to do so).
So I guess that would mean only around 5 PMs in the last 75 years took over between elections and did not fairly quickly seek their own electorate mandate.
Which I still think makes the argument we get every single time a PM resigns about lack of mandate overblown, but would accept it is a reasonably rare occurrence in the modern era.
I don't think left-wing governments in Western countries have a particularly long shelf life these days, and Germany is another example.
Lessons for Starmer. I'll certainly be betting against his 10 years.
#Rishiscomingback
Were the Beer Lovers Party not actually fans of beer?
It’s a filthy campaign (or joyous and civic as PB ****** experts love to say).
A sample of some of the stuff going on which wraps up Jews, communism and African migration in one wholesome package.
Seriously HYUFD I should be charging more for running your PR/Crisis management.
Tamworth a toss up. I have a mate who lives in the seat. A place called Dosthills. He’s a labour shill but admits it Tory central,there
Big banner with the following on it:
SOCIALIST WORKER
End the Occupation
VICTORY TO PALESTINE
Sorry, victory to the psychopaths who have committed unspeakable acts of barbarity this last week. Fuck them, and fuck the Jezbollah socialist worker Palestine Solidarity Campaign anti-semite wankers.
Being American President seems to be riskier though.
7/56 PMs have died in office, whereas 8/45 Presidents did. Half of those were assassinations versus only 1 PM assassination - I confess I had never heard of McKinley being assassinated.
Bear in mind this was answering a specific point from you. If you folowed your initial question to its ultimate conclusion then no one is indigenous to anywhere except the East African Rift Valley.
This could get messy.
Don't cry for me Wales.
Its a funny occupation, allowing the subjugated to fire thousands of missiles at you and then rape and slaughter thousands of your people.
How sad
Never mind
It's not been a good year for the civic and joyous Nats.
Now for my second team...Fiji
It might lead to a slight drifting in Labour's overall majority price, which I'd then buy.
*well, we know from plenty of demonstrations that there are also many who are not worried about overreaction, they just support the massacres as an act of resistance
We heard so much about the Greater Jacinda Reich 3 years ago.
All nonsense.
It is not hubris for either party to both be going hard for the seat.
It might make tactical sense to have one softpedal efforts for the other in such situations, but the simple fact is they are not in the same party and are not in an electoral alliance, they both want the Tories out but ostensibly have very different ideas on what is the best approach to political policy. So of course they should compete hard against each other.
The same argument about entitled LDs was made in Tiverton, which the LDs easily won. They probably won't here, but they've been criticised for being spoilers before when in fact they were absolutely correct to go for it. And conversely Labour shouldn't take Tiverton to mean they have no shot in Mid-Beds and should not try either.
One by-election outcome won't change the overall picture a great deal, it'll be fine.
No wonder lots of Labour and Tory people consider each other their opponent, the Liberals, their enemy.
I feel like many New Zealanders hardly know the next Prime Minister, Chris Luxon, and few seem overly warm to him.
It’s going to be an interesting three years, as Labour leave a crap economic legacy and Luxon has promised lovely tax cuts for “kiwi battlers”, as they call the just-about-managing over there.
Yet every time the LDs get called ridiculous for trying when they are in third place, despite proving they can win from there. Now, that doesn't mean them calling on the second place party to back out is not also ridiculous, it is, and in Mid Beds the math was even harder than in some of those big LD win seats so Labour had an even stronger pitch to be the main opponent and thus to argue peopel should not listen to the LDs this time.
But I do find the castigation of the LDs for being ambitious in by-election campaigns to be overblown, and there has even in the past been talk of them 'betraying' people by doing so.
Customer: “I’m sorry I have a quick question. How much is the juvenile T Rex?”
Gallery person: “Twenty million.”
Customer [thoughtfully, unfazed]: “Twenty million. Hmm.”
How is it even possible to buy an entire dinosaur?
For a neutral*, it was a fantastic game. I love the RWC. All the QFs are close calls, but given Argentina's indifferent form in the group stages I thought this one the easiest to call - for Wales. But credit to Argentina, a massive step up from the team which was so undistinguished against England.
Can't wait for the 8 o'clock game now.
*Obviously I wanted Wales to win because Wales is 35 miles away. But not being actually Welsh, there's a natural desire to see an unexpected result.
But, I'm not sure I care. I'm totally done with the Palestinians and I think much of it is a cloak for Islamism and very unpleasant antisemitism.
I support Israel finishing the job in Gaza.
Are you some kind of socialist ?
They beat Australia and lost to South Africa by one point in July so they aren’t mugs.
I kinda love the fact that you can simply buy these things. That they are not ALL hoarded in museums
The salesperson/sales documentation should make that clear, anyway, like with restored vintage cars.
Ah - here we are.
https://www.theartnewspaper.com/2023/10/10/baby-t-rex-at-frieze-masters-seeks-new-home
'Having taken nearly three years to remove the bones from the ground, Chomper is approximately 55% complete and its skull is more than 90% complete. Above and beyond the industry standard, David Aaron gallery provides a bone map that allows collectors to see the percentage completeness of each bone. “In this case it’s just a very complete specimen,” Aaron says.'
IIRC, he funded the construction of the printer which Babbage had designed, for the Science Museum, and got them to make a replica of both printer and Engine for him as part ion the funding deal.
https://twitter.com/SamCoatesSky/status/1713219489595011193?t=DvU7aZVztRD85teFgiVPng&s=19
Edit: deleting useful in respect of Leon.
Prior to Labour winning in NZ, the Nationals were in office themselves for 8 years, so no real difference.
https://drouot.com/en/v/142229-barry-la-renaissance