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Not very big, and not very Cleverly – politicalbetting.com
Not very big, and not very Cleverly – politicalbetting.com
I asked the Prime Minister why 34% of children in Stockton North are living in poverty. The Home Secretary James Cleverly can apparently be heard saying it is a "sh**hole". This comment shames the Home Secretary, the Government and his party and he should apologise. pic.twitter.com/hgmCLBdqCx
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World's largest sneaker show to land in Seoul next year
https://m.koreatimes.co.kr/pages/article.asp?newsIdx=363651
Sneaker Con, arguably the world's largest convention show for shoe fanatics, is debuting in Seoul in October 2024.
Since its founding in New York City in 2009, the event has branded itself as one of the biggest and most influential platforms for exhibiting and trading limited-edition footwear for growing numbers of "sneakerheads" worldwide...
There are places in the UK where life is pretty rubbish, and this government hasn't really made things better. Lots of reasons for that, some of them insoluble. But the victors of 2016 made a lot of promises and a lot of people aren't seeing any progress in their lives. And 20 billion of unplanned real terms spending cuts won't help.
As for the unparliamentary rudery, I'd have made them sit in silence until someone owned up. Sorry Jeremy, I know you put a lot of work into your project, but we need to work out what just happened before you can share it with us.
What is it with that country?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yjrVfWcflJ8
https://twitter.com/PolitlcsUK/status/1727312268122276198
Obviously should keep a watch on it, and it shows that we should be learning science from the covid enquiry, rather than seeing who had the frutiest language about their colleagues.
Yes, the only conclusion to be drawn from the Covid inquiry so far, is that in the next emergency all of the decision-makers and senior officials will only communicate verbally, therefore making the whole process of responding to the crisis much less efficient.
The Opposition will accuse the Government of meanness, the Government will boast how profligate they are.
She is proposing a Labour policy on tax and spend that is so terrified of a 1992-style gotcha that it doesn’t add up. Either she’s not telling the real truth about their plans, or Labour is going to be presiding over a further hollowing out of public services.
And she doesn’t have the presentational skills to walk this tightrope in an interview. Too declaratory, not conversational enough.
And (b) they’ve had 13 years to improve things.
BTW I don’t disagree on the definition of ‘poverty’, which like ‘homeless’ doesn’t always mean what people immediately imagine it to mean (not necessarily, anyway) - however it does still bespeak inequality and the Tories will struggle in that particular political battlefield.
A judge-led inquiry featuring politicians and civil servants and covered by political journalists is the worst possible forum for learning useful lessons, but wonderful for political gossip and brilliant at wasting public money for a decade.
Stockton description is subjective. I think there are worse parts of the UK after 13 years of Tory rule
https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/uknews/yousaf-warns-of-quite-significant-job-cuts-as-oil-refinery-to-cease-operations/ar-AA1kmucp?ocid=entnewsntp&cvid=89dd3eb2948a46e986c890b8c7c0df43&ei=26
Cleverly and his party needs people in ‘shitholes’ to vote for him. Not only is it an unpleasant thing to say, but it is his and his party’s job to make places like Stockton not be a shithole.
In one remark he’s neatly encapsulated the contempt with which they hold the ‘red wall’, and the extent to which they’ve failed it.
The good news is that some regeneration of city centres - like in Manchester and Birmingham- has been pretty damn good, and almost all are surrounded by lovely countryside, towns and villages inside 45 minutes.
But some of our industrial era spring-ups?
Not exactly Poundbury.
They've learned that what they needed was one that truly terrifies: one that attacks children...
If we want to be richer, I suspect the way to do it involves more people working in cities- agglomeration and all that. Somewhere between five and ten of them. (I'd go roughly for the old regional ITV bases). Everywhere else is predominantly a dormitory town with a rail link to the big city.
But the local pride factors- Stockton doesn't want to be subservient to Newcastle, Portsmouth to Southampton, Romford to London- mean we daren't do that. And Red Wall Theory has probably made it harder.
Here are some more convincing explanations:
https://www.realclearscience.com/blog/2020/02/18/why_do_new_disease_outbreaks_always_seem_to_start_in_china.html
South Central China is a noted "mixing vessel" for viruses, Dr. Peter Daszak, President of EcoHealth Alliance, told PBS in 2016. There's lots of livestock farming, particularly poultry and pigs, with limited sanitation and lax oversight. Farmers often bring their livestock to "wet markets" where they can come into contact with all sorts of exotic animals.
"Many Chinese people, even city dwellers, insist that freshly slaughtered poultry is tastier and more healthful than refrigerated or frozen meat," journalist Melinda Liu wrote for Smithsonian in 2017. "The public’s taste for freshly killed meat, and the conditions at live markets, create ample opportunity for humans to come in contact with these new mutations."
"Moreover, when stricken with an illness, many Chinese first seek out traditional Chinese medicine (TCM), where practitioners regularly misdiagnose symptoms, then offer acupuncture or ineffective herbal or animal-based remedies as treatments. This drastically increases death rates during outbreaks and allows infected individuals to return to the public where they can infect more people."
China is also notorious for its misinformation, secrecy, and censorship, which raises the chances that new diseases will fester and spread. Back in early January [2020], Chinese government officials told the public that the new infection's spread had been effectively halted. This was not true.
Despite their best efforts, parts of the town are indeed a shithole. But if you are the Tories who are doing better on Teesside than anywhere else in the red wall, why would you say that? Whose fault is it that the town is a shithole? And why would you vote for Matt Vickers if your town is so irrelevant that "because its a shithole" can be spat out by the Home Secretary?
https://www.dailyecho.co.uk/news/23777854.fawley-refinery-expansion-1-000-jobs-set-progress/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Petroleum_refining_in_the_United_Kingdom
Friday 22nd: JFK killed
Saturday 23rd: 1st episode of Dr Who
Sunday 24th: LHO killed.
There is no weekend of my childhood I recall so vividly. All elements of it are still avidly discussed.
He probably just intended an amusing quip and it's the kind of thing that in a different context is not taken seriously. Trouble is that politicians tend to get on their high horse and take literally what was only meant as a cheeky witticism and then we all have to take it seriously and start grave,y discussing whether Stockton really is the pits, and if so, why....and it all gets very ponderous and dull.
They all do it. Remember Liam Byrne and the letter about all the money having gone? He was having a larf, but of course somebody saw the opportunity to make a little political capital and suddenly it was all very earnest.
Cleverley should own up (If he did say it...I can't hear it) and admit it was a whimsical aside, and apologise to those people of Stockton who were genuinely offended - both of them.
Whatever might be lacking in Stockton, I doubt it includes a sense of humour, or proportion.
I said at the time that the Tories had to deliver change. Levelling up needed to be tangible, not a slogan. So not only have the Tories not levelled up these places, then now sneer that they are a shithole. And in their gut you have a community which still blames the Thatcher era for what happened to them.
Expect practically every single one of those seat to go Labour in May. Perhaps a solitary Tory will survive in the red wall. Perhaps not.
People in despair vote for populists who promise to improve their lives. But populism always makes things worse, because its prescriptions are harmful.
There might be exceptions, but I can't think of any.
Dutch election: Anti-Islam populist Geert Wilders wins dramatic victory
The 'win' involves winning 37 seats out of 150.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2023/11/23/israel-palestine-latest-news1/
The Tories would have expected to lose some, but a wipeout whilst also getting pressure in the Midlands and even the rural South? Nightmare scenario.
Conservatives most seats, but not able to form a government because they had no allies. Is that a win, or a defeat?
Only with knobs on.
Sadly levelling up was just a slogan. We are no better off than we were. Brexit was a vote to change the status quo, as you say. Problem is in areas like this since the financial crash we have literally had no growth, or negligible growth. It took nearly a decade for my home to be back to the value it was pre crash.
In London and the South East they raced ahead. The country became more uneven. I remember a town hall in Newcastle on Brexit and one of the panel said something along the lines of "don't vote brexit, it will jeopardise our economic growth" to which one of the audience said "it's your growth, it is not ours"
I said at the time to friends and colleagues alot of people who supported it in red wall areas were doing so on the promise of prosperity and improved economic circumstances and heaven help the Tories if that does not come to pass.
Forget Thatcher, they really will have someone to blame.
The starting point for the whole mess appears to have been a disagreement (to put it mildly) among the engineers working on ChatGPT. It’s not clear if that disagreement is any closer to being resolved.
All rather intriguing.
https://slashdot.org/story/23/11/23/0130213/openai-researchers-warned-board-of-ai-breakthrough-ahead-of-ceo-ouster
Now, if it were Fawley....
Thankfully (for you) the main Opposition in the UK is of the centre left, rather than to the right of the incumbents.
https://tfl.gov.uk/modes/london-cable-car/
Then there are regional capitals, with more to them, more heritage and culture, nice restaurants. They needn't be so well connected to elsewhere because they are more self-sufficient. But they need a decent hinterland.
Germany manages very well with a large number of smaller cities all close by and connected to each other, especially in the North West. France and Italy are quite good at pretty regional capitals, though they have their fair share of Stocktons too.
I understand Leicester does OK, economically. It's pretty well located and accessible on the motorway network. Just not a beauty spot.
This is where central and local government can help. Rail and road infrastructure that turns isolated nothing towns into parts of larger conurbations, and regional industrial strategy (including devolved tax) that encourages mid sized industry to locate outside the commuter belt.
I did say that the only overriding explanation for the chaos was that OpenAI had got near to - or had achieved - something that could be described as AGI
Many examples in history of course, with the most recent being the massive food price inflation leading up to the Arab Spring.
Doesn't bode well for the Tories, but also doesn't bode hugely well for Biden.
Our Rwanda policy is a joke, nonetheless the EU needs to get its act together over offshoring asylum claims from small boat people as much as we do.
The influx of economic migrants is another reason cutting international development aid is not as clever as a certain brand of Tory believe it to be.
None of that explains Argentina of course.
I have declined the sheep’s brain tho last night I did eat congealed pig’s blood. Its fairly disgusting
Now to see if the stall where I bought a dried frog, two decades ago, still exists
I love Phnom Penh. I love Cambodia
c.1950. That results in instability.
You're confident that Alprazolam will be legit? Brave Foolish.
++++
Are you joking? I’ve been buying benzos around the world for 35 years
It’s legit
These pills are now so cheap and easy to make there is no point in faking them
I bought a load last year virtually same place same price. Legit
Conclusion: Cleverly was not acting very cleverly.
But why do you need them?
See also what I suspect is coming re the AFD in Germany.
They import a lot for a sizeable French expat community: the old colonial link. There were French people in the liquor store as I strolled about. Lots of restaurants have good French wine as well
And wine is really cheap in Cambodia - incredibly
cheap compared to Thailand (which is the opposite)
Everything is the universe has upsides and downsides. So when the government sells the Happy Shiny Future, and your life doesn't match, there is this strange tendency not to trust the government. When the entire political class sells the same, the trust in the political class goes down. Strangely.
Have to be careful tho. A Xanax habit is an extremely tenacious thing and the withdrawal is one of the worst in the pharmacopeia
The bigger instability in the west is another toxic mix. The birthrate within the long term population has plummeted, the west, exemplified by the UK, relies on ever increasing total populations through migration to sustain bits of the basic infrastructure and at the same time has to pretend it is hostile to its own policy for political reasons - hence the boat people nonsense when there isn't anyone to pick fruit and harvest leeks.
BTW why have we had 'tax cuts' when we are borrowing over £100bn annually?
The Netherlands is different, of course, but here the perception from the voters is that The Usual Suspects have ambled along in the kind of incompetence that we see here. They have a benefits scandal, for example, that matches the Post Office disaster in many ways. And effected many thousands of people.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dutch_childcare_benefits_scandal