Don't usually post this kind of thing but it seems to be down PB's street...
Mrs Flatlander has an annual dilemma on tax filling in day.
She has a namesake with the same date of birth and every year this namesake's details appear against her HMRC account, probably from an automatic records merger. The namesake is probably unaware that her account is screwed up as she is just about under the tax threshold and probably doesn't have to fill in a return. The data includes income, employment and in a previous year, the namesake's home address.
For the last 6 years Mrs Flatlander has dutifully rung HMRC and told them they are a bunch of wasters. Every year they promise to sort it out and every year they fail.
So, this year do we:
a) Try and delete the details and write a very snotty note in the comments which won't be read. b) Ring up HMRC again, have another pointless conversation where they promise to fix it, and watch it reappear next year. c) Inform ICO. d) Inform the namesake (who may or may not see this as the start of some scam) plus any of the above.
So British Gas have now sent me a bill, and are charging me for two months into one when they had already noted the charge for the previous month on the previous bill.
Claiming as a result that my account is £61 in credit instead of £190.
What a bunch of lunatic scumbags.
Which police force do I call about this, because I have had the fuck enough?
Have they charged the correct standing charges and usage? Months don't really matter.
You don't understand. They've taken the credit balance at the start of December, after November's usage had been taken off, and then included November's usage again to this bill and deducted that from the credit balance in December.
It's not about the rate they're charging. They've charged me twice.
Last week I paid an electricity bill of £1.30. I've no idea why it was so low. Perhaps there's a government subsidy or maybe I paid twice the last time or possibly they overcharged at some point. I just pay whatever bill they send and trust them to sort out any anomalies in their own good time.
Which is what many SPMs thought about Horizon.
A while ago I sued NPower because they lied about my meter reading.
They claimed that they had 15 minute data from the telephone line to the meter which was therefore indisputable.
The telephone line was not connected to the meter…
They still insisted on going to court. It took 6 hours of time and £6,000 in legal expenses…
I once had an argument with ScottishPower who said they would come after me for accruing fines relating to a meter. I couldn't understand it as everything was totally fine with it all. In frustration I asked about just closing my damn account with them and they said they'd pass me on to the department who dealt with that, which transferred me to a number which rang and then went dead.
When I rang back it was at the point where apparently the call centre switched over to some people in India. They were much more knowledgeable and helpful, and explained that the line went dead as that department will have gone home for the day already. The same chap then phoned me back on the Saturday and Sunday after looking into it to explain the original idiot (not his words) had been looking at details of a meter which had been replaced at my property 18 months before and the system assumed was still there, and the dude hadn't checked to see there was indeed another one perfectly fine and up to date.
So good employees sometimes manage to survive for a time at least.
There's ample evidence that there's a very well funded and organised set of people who've been working for the last two or three years to make sure that's not the pattern the second time round.
I would not assume that his second term will be anything like his first, should it come about.
Sure there are people around him that will seek to use Trump's presidency if he is elected. But imagine if Trump was actually politically motivated and capable, such a person would be far more dangerous. Someone like Nixon, who was a thousand times smarter than Trump, had plenty of big ideas, but could also be extremely rash at times, but now with untrammelled power. That's what a Trump reelection could enable in the future.
One of the few things that gives me solace about a possible Trump win is that he's so erratic. The people around him (for now) might have great, grand plans - and then he fires them all as traitors, or half implements their ideas, or does the reverse and claims he hasn't.
The US seems to be voting for the equivalent of the national lottery 'ping pong balls in a spinning tube' that we used to be treated to on a Saturday night. Fair game to them.
Back on Lee Anderson, I'm a bit flaggergasted that no one in No.10 will not have seen it coming. I mean, I think he lays it on a bit thick at times, a tad try hard in his persona, but he did have a bluff 'tell as it is' presentation. I get that may have felt like an asset when the upper echelons are seen as out of touch posh boys (and not in the Boris way which plenty liked), but it feels pretty inevitable something like this was going to crop up.
What struck me about the evidence given by the Fujitsu and Post Office CEOs is - apart from its content - how appallingly badly briefed and prepared they were.
Nick Read in particular is just useless: how can a CEO not know that a confidentiality clause in a settlement agreement = a Non-Disclosure Agreement?
To call these people third-rate is to compliment them.
I didn’t hear the question but I would argue that a settlement agreement with a confidentiality clause is *not* the same as a NDA.
One is a settlement agreement that includes a confidentiality agreement.
The other is limited to non-disclosure of defined information
NDAs are routinely used as part of settlement agreements to prevent the person accepting the settlement from talking about its terms or even its existence. That is exactly what the PO was doing - see the Griffiths case - and it is what it is accused of doing in relation to compensation offers now. It is trying to prevent SPMs getting legal advice, lying to them about what "Without Prejudice" means and generally seeking to abuse its power and these contractual terms.
His responses were both ignorant and disingenuous.
In fairness, bringing him back as Foreign Secretary was pretty shocking and its purpose rather unclear, since the government has hardly tacked suddenly to the centre nor gone as far to the right as some would like (not that going as far as some would like is really possible), in fact it's policies seem largely unchanged, which is to say mixed and confused. So adding in an extra - and rather creative - theory is not as completely absurd as it could be. Whilst still being staggeringly unlikely.
Hey, maybe he'll serve as temporary leader as Rishi might lose his seat. The problem, which she's either forgotten or thinks will be overcome, is that party rules say the Leader has to be among those elected to the Commons. So some quick rule changes would be needed.
But a lot of talk of plots and traitors comes across as a tad dramatic in any case. I don't think she's got much to worry about, the Tory base seem ready to go in the direction she would like following an eleciton loss.
I am enjoying the mental imagery of Cameron - Bobby Ewing-like - returning. Reversing out of the No.10 door, "tum-te-tum-te-tum" and we're back in the EU room.
... It was all just a dream - phew!
Then I remember how sh*t Dallas was the tories were and realise it's just a fever dream.
Then realise my fever dream was just.....
Last Sunday, on TV, Cameron said “I hated leaving the EU in 2016 but it was the right decision.” Anyone think he believes that?
What struck me about the evidence given by the Fujitsu and Post Office CEOs is - apart from its content - how appallingly badly briefed and prepared they were.
Nick Read in particular is just useless: how can a CEO not know that a confidentiality clause in a settlement agreement = a Non-Disclosure Agreement?
To call these people third-rate is to compliment them.
I didn’t hear the question but I would argue that a settlement agreement with a confidentiality clause is *not* the same as a NDA.
One is a settlement agreement that includes a confidentiality agreement.
The other is limited to non-disclosure of defined information
NDAs are routinely used as part of settlement agreements to prevent the person accepting the settlement from talking about its terms or even its existence. That is exactly what the PO was doing - see the Griffiths case - and it is what it is accused of doing in relation to compensation offers now. It is trying to prevent SPMs getting legal advice, lying to them about what "Without Prejudice" means and generally seeking to abuse its power and these contractual terms.
His responses were both ignorant and disingenuous.
These people bring a Brunel quote comes to mind - in a letter to a contractor…
“If you really were my obedient servant, I think I would begin with a little flogging”
In fairness, bringing him back as Foreign Secretary was pretty shocking and its purpose rather unclear, since the government has hardly tacked suddenly to the centre nor gone as far to the right as some would like (not that going as far as some would like is really possible), in fact it's policies seem largely unchanged, which is to say mixed and confused. So adding in an extra - and rather creative - theory is not as completely absurd as it could be. Whilst still being staggeringly unlikely.
Hey, maybe he'll serve as temporary leader as Rishi might lose his seat. The problem, which she's either forgotten or thinks will be overcome, is that party rules say the Leader has to be among those elected to the Commons. So some quick rule changes would be needed.
But a lot of talk of plots and traitors comes across as a tad dramatic in any case. I don't think she's got much to worry about, the Tory base seem ready to go in the direction she would like following an eleciton loss.
I am enjoying the mental imagery of Cameron - Bobby Ewing-like - returning. Reversing out of the No.10 door, "tum-te-tum-te-tum" and we're back in the EU room.
... It was all just a dream - phew!
Then I remember how sh*t Dallas was the tories were and realise it's just a fever dream.
Then realise my fever dream was just.....
Last Sunday, on TV, Cameron said “I hated leaving the EU in 2016 but it was the right decision.” Anyone think he believes that?
But since in reality Big Brother is not omnipotent and the party is not infallible, there is need for an unwearying, moment-to-moment flexibility in the treatment of facts. The keyword here is BLACKWHITE. Like so many Newspeak words, this word has two mutually contradictory meanings. Applied to an opponent, it means the habit of impudently claiming that black is white, in contradiction of the plain facts. Applied to a Party member, it means a loyal willingness to say that black is white when Party discipline demands this. But it means also the ability to BELIEVE that black is white, and more, to KNOW that black is white, and to forget that one has ever believed the contrary.
I was speaking to a colleague today who had been in contact with the office of a politician about a completely non-political matter.
'What election are they talking about in May?'
'May? Theres no elections in May. as far as I know'
'Yeah, I was speaking to such and such and they said they couldnt commit because of the election in May'
That politician will be most certainly be up for a seat at Westminster. As a result I've sold the house, took the proceeds and bet on the April to June option.....
In fairness, bringing him back as Foreign Secretary was pretty shocking and its purpose rather unclear, since the government has hardly tacked suddenly to the centre nor gone as far to the right as some would like (not that going as far as some would like is really possible), in fact it's policies seem largely unchanged, which is to say mixed and confused. So adding in an extra - and rather creative - theory is not as completely absurd as it could be. Whilst still being staggeringly unlikely.
Hey, maybe he'll serve as temporary leader as Rishi might lose his seat. The problem, which she's either forgotten or thinks will be overcome, is that party rules say the Leader has to be among those elected to the Commons. So some quick rule changes would be needed.
But a lot of talk of plots and traitors comes across as a tad dramatic in any case. I don't think she's got much to worry about, the Tory base seem ready to go in the direction she would like following an eleciton loss.
I am enjoying the mental imagery of Cameron - Bobby Ewing-like - returning. Reversing out of the No.10 door, "tum-te-tum-te-tum" and we're back in the EU room.
... It was all just a dream - phew!
Then I remember how sh*t Dallas was the tories were and realise it's just a fever dream.
Then realise my fever dream was just.....
Last Sunday, on TV, Cameron said “I hated leaving the EU in 2016 but it was the right decision.” Anyone think he believes that?
I think that comment was misinterpreted. He meant he hated leaving his job, not the EU.
No. Keir Starmer only wants to nationalise the failed railways which is incredibly popular and obviously the right thing to do. The cost of this policy is zero.
Starting a new energy provider from scratch is not nationalising anything. That is classic New Labour politics, taking old ideas and putting them into a modern setting.
Dude, the 'failed railways' are already nationalised. Labour could take the staff employed by the train operators and make them government employees but if you think that will make them cheaper or more efficient I have a bridge to sell you.
How dare you assume my gender, I identify as a Horse!
(whispers frantically) "Ninja", dude, it's "Ninja" this time, remember??
In fairness, bringing him back as Foreign Secretary was pretty shocking and its purpose rather unclear, since the government has hardly tacked suddenly to the centre nor gone as far to the right as some would like (not that going as far as some would like is really possible), in fact it's policies seem largely unchanged, which is to say mixed and confused. So adding in an extra - and rather creative - theory is not as completely absurd as it could be. Whilst still being staggeringly unlikely.
Hey, maybe he'll serve as temporary leader as Rishi might lose his seat. The problem, which she's either forgotten or thinks will be overcome, is that party rules say the Leader has to be among those elected to the Commons. So some quick rule changes would be needed.
But a lot of talk of plots and traitors comes across as a tad dramatic in any case. I don't think she's got much to worry about, the Tory base seem ready to go in the direction she would like following an eleciton loss.
I am enjoying the mental imagery of Cameron - Bobby Ewing-like - returning. Reversing out of the No.10 door, "tum-te-tum-te-tum" and we're back in the EU room.
... It was all just a dream - phew!
Then I remember how sh*t Dallas was the tories were and realise it's just a fever dream.
Then realise my fever dream was just.....
Last Sunday, on TV, Cameron said “I hated leaving the EU in 2016 but it was the right decision.” Anyone think he believes that?
But since in reality Big Brother is not omnipotent and the party is not infallible, there is need for an unwearying, moment-to-moment flexibility in the treatment of facts. The keyword here is BLACKWHITE. Like so many Newspeak words, this word has two mutually contradictory meanings. Applied to an opponent, it means the habit of impudently claiming that black is white, in contradiction of the plain facts. Applied to a Party member, it means a loyal willingness to say that black is white when Party discipline demands this. But it means also the ability to BELIEVE that black is white, and more, to KNOW that black is white, and to forget that one has ever believed the contrary.
I don’t think Cameron did say that. He said he “hated leaving in 2016, but it was the right thing to do” which I took to mean leaving Downing St. it wouldn’t make sense any other way
In fairness, bringing him back as Foreign Secretary was pretty shocking and its purpose rather unclear, since the government has hardly tacked suddenly to the centre nor gone as far to the right as some would like (not that going as far as some would like is really possible), in fact it's policies seem largely unchanged, which is to say mixed and confused. So adding in an extra - and rather creative - theory is not as completely absurd as it could be. Whilst still being staggeringly unlikely.
Hey, maybe he'll serve as temporary leader as Rishi might lose his seat. The problem, which she's either forgotten or thinks will be overcome, is that party rules say the Leader has to be among those elected to the Commons. So some quick rule changes would be needed.
But a lot of talk of plots and traitors comes across as a tad dramatic in any case. I don't think she's got much to worry about, the Tory base seem ready to go in the direction she would like following an eleciton loss.
I am enjoying the mental imagery of Cameron - Bobby Ewing-like - returning. Reversing out of the No.10 door, "tum-te-tum-te-tum" and we're back in the EU room.
... It was all just a dream - phew!
Then I remember how sh*t Dallas was the tories were and realise it's just a fever dream.
Then realise my fever dream was just.....
Last Sunday, on TV, Cameron said “I hated leaving the EU in 2016 but it was the right decision.” Anyone think he believes that?
I think that comment was misinterpreted. He meant he hated leaving his job, not the EU.
No. Keir Starmer only wants to nationalise the failed railways which is incredibly popular and obviously the right thing to do. The cost of this policy is zero.
Starting a new energy provider from scratch is not nationalising anything. That is classic New Labour politics, taking old ideas and putting them into a modern setting.
Dude, the 'failed railways' are already nationalised. Labour could take the staff employed by the train operators and make them government employees but if you think that will make them cheaper or more efficient I have a bridge to sell you.
How dare you assume my gender, I identify as a Horse!
(whispers frantically) "Ninja", dude, it's "Ninja" this time, remember??
You’re unacquainted with equine ninjas ? Sheltered life you lead.
No. Keir Starmer only wants to nationalise the failed railways which is incredibly popular and obviously the right thing to do. The cost of this policy is zero.
Starting a new energy provider from scratch is not nationalising anything. That is classic New Labour politics, taking old ideas and putting them into a modern setting.
Dude, the 'failed railways' are already nationalised. Labour could take the staff employed by the train operators and make them government employees but if you think that will make them cheaper or more efficient I have a bridge to sell you.
How dare you assume my gender, I identify as a Horse!
(whispers frantically) "Ninja", dude, it's "Ninja" this time, remember??
You’re unacquainted with equine ninjas ? Sheltered life you lead.
I'm 100% certain now that Keir Starmer will be PM after the next election, because even a lot of Tories have had enough of the party after 14 years. But it could still be difficult for Lab to win a working majority for various reasons, one of which is the new boundaries.
Back on Lee Anderson, I'm a bit flaggergasted that no one in No.10 will not have seen it coming. I mean, I think he lays it on a bit thick at times, a tad try hard in his persona, but he did have a bluff 'tell as it is' presentation. I get that may have felt like an asset when the upper echelons are seen as out of touch posh boys (and not in the Boris way which plenty liked), but it feels pretty inevitable something like this was going to crop up.
Arguably one of Sunak's great flaws is doing things that appear to offer short-term political advantage without thinking forward to the fact that they not look so smart in the longer term.
The most obvious example being whatever deal he did with Braverman - someone whose intentions were obvious and who had just gifted any PM a reason to sideline her. But to avoid any potential Boris messiness he brought her back. Even though that was the one point he was probably strong enough to face down the right if he was brave enough.
Or the Rwanda policy itself. He seems to have swallowed his doubts about it because it offered a useful tool to bash Labour and placate his right. Neglecting that it carves out loads of space for Labour to be 'tough' while being more liberal than the Tories and thus retaining the left's support by scrapping it. That it doesn't tackle the problem it's meant to solve - thus wastes lots of time and energy you could spend on stuff that might. And that the Tory right are a pack of dishonest wolves who'll always come back for more even after you've given them 90% of what they demanded.
You could even say his whole strategy. Which doesn't seem to understand that if you're going to do "steady-handed competency is back" you actually have to tame the Tory party's Brexit-inspired id. Rather than unleashing it on an increasingly fed-up public and then wondering why relaunches pitching you as a grown-up moderate don't work.
What struck me about the evidence given by the Fujitsu and Post Office CEOs is - apart from its content - how appallingly badly briefed and prepared they were.
Nick Read in particular is just useless: how can a CEO not know that a confidentiality clause in a settlement agreement = a Non-Disclosure Agreement?
To call these people third-rate is to compliment them.
I didn’t hear the question but I would argue that a settlement agreement with a confidentiality clause is *not* the same as a NDA.
One is a settlement agreement that includes a confidentiality agreement.
The other is limited to non-disclosure of defined information
NDAs are routinely used as part of settlement agreements to prevent the person accepting the settlement from talking about its terms or even its existence. That is exactly what the PO was doing - see the Griffiths case - and it is what it is accused of doing in relation to compensation offers now. It is trying to prevent SPMs getting legal advice, lying to them about what "Without Prejudice" means and generally seeking to abuse its power and these contractual terms.
His responses were both ignorant and disingenuous.
I don’t disagree with the substance of what you say there.
But you criticised him for something which is not true.
And NDA and a settlement with a confidentiality clause both have confidentiality implications. But that doesn’t make the same thing. It’s like claiming that an alpaca = a llama
I'm 100% certain now that Keir Starmer will be PM after the next election, because even a lot of Tories have had enough of the party after 14 years. But it could still be difficult for Lab to win a working majority for various reasons, one of which is the new boundaries.
On the contrary, I think the boundary changes will help Labour because so many MPS will lose the advantage of incumbency in large portions of their constituencies.
This case is on X today because people are annoyed that the defendant is being described as a Woman, and fair enough in my opinion. But look past that and it is one of the most bizarre things I’ve ever known someone be arrested for
“ Taylor also faces a charge of outraging public decency, "by behaving in an indecent manner, namely by being inside a bin containing the waste of children, including with soiled nappies and disclosed garments and interacting with the soiled nappies in sight of the public".
Taylor is also charged with criminal damage, by smearing excrement on milk bottles "intended for consumption by small children" and on other parts of a nursery building, including the fire escape.
Taylor is also charged with breaching a criminal behaviour order imposed by Nottinghamshire Magistrates’ Court in April this year, by being within ten metres of a nursery without reasonable excuse, and/or "by removing items from a waste receptacle in direct contravention of said order".
The defendant also faces a charge of intentionally or recklessly causing a public nuisance between October 2022 and November 2023 "at South Tyneside, without reasonable excuse, did an act, namely by continuously dumping adult human waste and other materials on the street and at nursery premises and interfering with the contents of clinical waste bins containing faecal matter from children and babies and other similar behaviours”
"...so the factory has a cashflow problem but, fortunately, Sid has a budgie that can guess the winners in horse races."
Me and my Nan tried that with her budgies, one wet day in the summer holidays. True story. It was funny how it looked nervous and blankly at us watching it. but a horse name made it twitch and chirp. The first one came from nowhere to win at long odds. We were shocked into stunned silence.
The next six came absolutely nowhere. End of story. Carry on holidays.
"...so the factory has a cashflow problem but, fortunately, Sid has a budgie that can guess the winners in horse races."
Me and my Nan tried that with her budgies, one wet day in the summer holidays. True story. It was funny how it looked nervous and blankly at us watching it. but a horse name made it twitch and chirp. The first one came from nowhere to win at long odds. We were shocked into stunned silence.
The next six came absolutely nowhere. End of story. Carry on holidays.
I'm 100% certain now that Keir Starmer will be PM after the next election, because even a lot of Tories have had enough of the party after 14 years. But it could still be difficult for Lab to win a working majority for various reasons, one of which is the new boundaries.
I don't think the boundaries have much to do with anything. Basically, Labour lose a tiny handful of Welsh and inner city seats due to population change. The rest is all about what might have happened at the LAST election - which was very different to this one.
There were boundary changes in 1997 that notionally "helped" the Tories. Notional means nothing in a change election.
The only thing that will stop a significant Labour majority is a failure to break through against the SNP in Scotland, where the game is different. That seems unlikely to be an issue based on Rutherglen, but I admit I don't have much insight into that area at all.
No. Keir Starmer only wants to nationalise the failed railways which is incredibly popular and obviously the right thing to do. The cost of this policy is zero.
Starting a new energy provider from scratch is not nationalising anything. That is classic New Labour politics, taking old ideas and putting them into a modern setting.
Dude, the 'failed railways' are already nationalised. Labour could take the staff employed by the train operators and make them government employees but if you think that will make them cheaper or more efficient I have a bridge to sell you.
How dare you assume my gender, I identify as a Horse!
(whispers frantically) "Ninja", dude, it's "Ninja" this time, remember??
You’re unacquainted with equine ninjas ? Sheltered life you lead.
I'm 100% certain now that Keir Starmer will be PM after the next election, because even a lot of Tories have had enough of the party after 14 years. But it could still be difficult for Lab to win a working majority for various reasons, one of which is the new boundaries.
I don't think the boundaries have much to do with anything. Basically, Labour lose a tiny handful of Welsh and inner city seats due to population change. The rest is all about what might have happened at the LAST election - which was very different to this one.
There were boundary changes in 1997 that notionally "helped" the Tories. Notional means nothing in a change election.
The only thing that will stop a significant Labour majority is a failure to break through against the SNP in Scotland, where the game is different. That seems unlikely to be an issue based on Rutherglen, but I admit I don't have much insight into that area at all.
I would argue the Midlands seats are perhaps more important - the Stoke on Trents, Mansfield, Worcester, Nuneaton etc (loads of seats) are where Labour must win to get a decent majority - Scotland is the icing on the cake in terms of numbers. Agree about the boundary changes -
I'm 100% certain now that Keir Starmer will be PM after the next election, because even a lot of Tories have had enough of the party after 14 years. But it could still be difficult for Lab to win a working majority for various reasons, one of which is the new boundaries.
I don't think the boundaries have much to do with anything. Basically, Labour lose a tiny handful of Welsh and inner city seats due to population change. The rest is all about what might have happened at the LAST election - which was very different to this one.
There were boundary changes in 1997 that notionally "helped" the Tories. Notional means nothing in a change election.
The only thing that will stop a significant Labour majority is a failure to break through against the SNP in Scotland, where the game is different. That seems unlikely to be an issue based on Rutherglen, but I admit I don't have much insight into that area at all.
You're probably right. I was making too much of it.
"...so the factory has a cashflow problem but, fortunately, Sid has a budgie that can guess the winners in horse races."
Me and my Nan tried that with her budgies, one wet day in the summer holidays. True story. It was funny how it looked nervous and blankly at us watching it. but a horse name made it twitch and chirp. The first one came from nowhere to win at long odds. We were shocked into stunned silence.
The next six came absolutely nowhere. End of story. Carry on holidays.
It seems to me that the most obvious political solution for the Conservative party is to move to the 'far right', defining itself as being against the progressive consensus and coming up with some radical solutions to political problems. It seems to me that this is where they will probably go out of necessity and the likelihood of success depends on their ability to outperform others acting in this space like 'reform' and 'reclaim'. A lot would depend on finding the right leader, if they can find someone young and who looks like the future then they are in with a shot; but they still have to be accountable to their aging voter base who act as an obstacle as well as an asset.
The evidence so far is that this isn't going to happen. Let's assume that 'far right' means something consistent with multi party democracy, capacity to lose etc, so we aren't talking about Trump or totalitarians or authoritarians; nor are we talking about the populism which suggests simple answers to complex problems.
Within those constraints, what are the big ideas swirling around in radical conservative circles, costed (so not Trussism), thought out, deliverable, which are so different from the generality of the Overton Window. If they were around, would we not be talking about them?
The era we live in is quite chaotic, the overton window can shift and 'unthinkable' ideas come in to play, similar to how the statism of the Johnson era contrasted with decades of neoliberalism. The Rwanda idea is fairly mainstream in Europe after Britain being an outlier for a while.
If you think that things have to change then unthinkable solutions come in to play. It is like in Germany where politicians claiming 'we can do this' in 2015 (bringing in millions of refugees) are replaced in 2024 by politicians promising to deport millions of refugees.
What I can say for sure is politicians are so entrenched in ideology that they have become out of touch with real life outside the demands of their activist base. IE Councils devoting resources to being a 'Borough of sanctuary' for asylum seekers, providing immigrants with housing etc, when they themselves have massive waiting lists and people at their wits end with no housing, teenage single mothers being housed 200 miles away from family etc. Things like this get corrected in the fullness of time.
Whilst I get what you mean and largely agree that the bit in bold is councils stretching beyond what residents are likely to put up with for long, I’d suggest it actually shows a decent grasp of the real world, just that it’s the real world beyond these shores/Europe.
I think this is quite subjective really. I think I am the only poster on PB to have been critical about the policy towards granting asylum for Ukrainian refugees. This may in the long run turn out to be a form of enabling genocide - the same reason I recall you cited recently as to why middle eastern countries don't take in refugees from Gaza.
I agree it is subjective, or at least highly dependent on whether you start from a position that councils have any ethical responsibility for non-residents. I’d argue they do, but am very happy to acknowledge mine is a minority position and am quite content as a democrat to be outvoted.
I don’t recall your specific arguments but I think there were good reasons to argue against granting preferential asylum for Ukrainians, and i say this despite having taken in a refugee myself.
It’s a good challenge RE enabling genocide. I feel there is a difference because refugees from Ukraine were not males of fighting age and so, if it turns out that it is possible to defend Ukraine against Russia, taking in refugees won’t have harmed that fight and in fact would have helped it by reducing civilian casualties from friendly fire.
Nevertheless I can see there are also similarities, which is causing me to think quite hard about what my position in both cases is, so thank you.
@maxh . Thanks for this. Just to clarify, I am not making these comments because I don't think Council's should support refugees. I am just observing that they tend to take on these policies at the behest of their activist base because it is 'overwhelmingly the right thing to do' and are then oblivious to the possible political consequences over time (almost like a microcosm of the Germany situation I described earlier in the thread). Without some over-riding explanatory framework of world events channelled through a compliant media, western populations seem destined to repeat this process again and again, policy driven by different extremes of emotive reaction without any strategic direction.
Back on Lee Anderson, I'm a bit flaggergasted that no one in No.10 will not have seen it coming. I mean, I think he lays it on a bit thick at times, a tad try hard in his persona, but he did have a bluff 'tell as it is' presentation. I get that may have felt like an asset when the upper echelons are seen as out of touch posh boys (and not in the Boris way which plenty liked), but it feels pretty inevitable something like this was going to crop up.
He’s al ready paid more by GB News than he gets as an MP; so possibly he is relaxed about his future career…
I was speaking to a colleague today who had been in contact with the office of a politician about a completely non-political matter.
'What election are they talking about in May?'
'May? Theres no elections in May. as far as I know'
'Yeah, I was speaking to such and such and they said they couldnt commit because of the election in May'
That politician will be most certainly be up for a seat at Westminster. As a result I've sold the house, took the proceeds and bet on the April to June option.....
They have been told to keep their diaries free in case there is an election in May. Indeed some LibDem MPs seem to think there’s a chance of April. But it could just as easily be the autumn; don’t risk your life savings on it!
(*Arguably a bit harsh on the Ukrainian efforts a decade back.)
Good God, that's rather impressive! Well done Biden!
The Guardian actually reported it at the time, but no one noticed.
Will coupmongers stop Guatemala’s president from taking office? https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/dec/18/guatemala-president-bernardo-arevalo-democracy … The Biden administration also played a critical role. Although during the cold war the United States did Guatemalan democracy much harm – and Donald Trump had no qualms with Giammattei’s more recent democratic backsliding – Biden administration officials applied unrelenting pressure and rallied partners to defend the election results. The administration imposed sanctions on hundreds of politicians and businesspeople allegedly involved in the coup, including members of the country’s wealthiest families. A powerful business association called for respecting the election results. The Organization of American States and the European Union added pressure, too.
On 13 December, the coup coalition started crumbling. After 100 of congress’s 160 members lost their US visas, they failed to muster the votes to pack the electoral tribunal with compliant magistrates who would annul the election results. The next day, Guatemala’s constitutional court issued a ruling ordering congress to respect Arévalo’s right to take office...
And last week.
Can Guatemala’s new president turn the tide on years of corruption? https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/jan/11/guatemala-president-bernardo-arevalo-change-hope … Ahead of the first round of the 2023 elections, the situation appeared bleak. The justice system continued to be a tool through which the powerful could attack their opponents, as illustrated by the six-year prison sentence given to the prominent journalist José Rubén Zamora in June. And the electoral playing field was unequal, with three high-profile, anti-system presidential candidates barred from competing on dubious grounds.
Arévalo was allowed to remain on the ballot paper because he was polling so badly. Then, in the run-up to the first-round vote in June, popular discontent unexpectedly coalesced around Semilla’s promise to clean up politics. Arévalo finished second, qualifying him for August’s runoff against the ex-first lady Sandra Torres, which he won by a landslide.
“Arévalo is a glitch in the matrix. Because at the end of the day, when people are angry and desperate, they vote for a Nayib Bukele, for a Javier Milei, for populists like them,” said Ortiz, referring to the leaders of El Salvador and Argentina. “They don’t usually vote for a Bernardo Arévalo – a sixtysomething-year-old sociologist.”..
If Trump is elected again, I don’t have great hope for US influence remaining so positive.
Question is whether Ron DeSantis will pull out before his expected tonking in New Hampshire, where he is polling in single figures. Now is his chance to go out as someone who beat Haley.
So British Gas have now sent me a bill, and are charging me for two months into one when they had already noted the charge for the previous month on the previous bill.
Claiming as a result that my account is £61 in credit instead of £190.
What a bunch of lunatic scumbags.
Which police force do I call about this, because I have had the fuck enough?
Have they charged the correct standing charges and usage? Months don't really matter.
You don't understand. They've taken the credit balance at the start of December, after November's usage had been taken off, and then included November's usage again to this bill and deducted that from the credit balance in December.
It's not about the rate they're charging. They've charged me twice.
Last week I paid an electricity bill of £1.30. I've no idea why it was so low. Perhaps there's a government subsidy or maybe I paid twice the last time or possibly they overcharged at some point. I just pay whatever bill they send and trust them to sort out any anomalies in their own good time.
Which is what many SPMs thought about Horizon.
A while ago I sued NPower because they lied about my meter reading.
They claimed that they had 15 minute data from the telephone line to the meter which was therefore indisputable.
The telephone line was not connected to the meter…
They still insisted on going to court. It took 6 hours of time and £6,000 in legal expenses…
I once had an argument with ScottishPower who said they would come after me for accruing fines relating to a meter. I couldn't understand it as everything was totally fine with it all. In frustration I asked about just closing my damn account with them and they said they'd pass me on to the department who dealt with that, which transferred me to a number which rang and then went dead.
When I rang back it was at the point where apparently the call centre switched over to some people in India. They were much more knowledgeable and helpful, and explained that the line went dead as that department will have gone home for the day already. The same chap then phoned me back on the Saturday and Sunday after looking into it to explain the original idiot (not his words) had been looking at details of a meter which had been replaced at my property 18 months before and the system assumed was still there, and the dude hadn't checked to see there was indeed another one perfectly fine and up to date.
So good employees sometimes manage to survive for a time at least.
After I changed my tariff with EDF and had confirmation of the change by email, they carried on billing me at the old tariff. Nothing could get it corrected - phone calls, emails, or a formal complaint. I had to go to the ombudsman and then it was finally corrected.
The only explanation I can think of for such bone-headedness is that utility companies have made a calculation that in the absence of any punitive element, it is cheaper for them just not to pay for the staff necessary to correct errors and deal adequately with complaints. In effect, they seem to be treating the ombudsman as a free complaints department that they don't have to pay for.
So British Gas have now sent me a bill, and are charging me for two months into one when they had already noted the charge for the previous month on the previous bill.
Claiming as a result that my account is £61 in credit instead of £190.
What a bunch of lunatic scumbags.
Which police force do I call about this, because I have had the fuck enough?
Have they charged the correct standing charges and usage? Months don't really matter.
You don't understand. They've taken the credit balance at the start of December, after November's usage had been taken off, and then included November's usage again to this bill and deducted that from the credit balance in December.
It's not about the rate they're charging. They've charged me twice.
Last week I paid an electricity bill of £1.30. I've no idea why it was so low. Perhaps there's a government subsidy or maybe I paid twice the last time or possibly they overcharged at some point. I just pay whatever bill they send and trust them to sort out any anomalies in their own good time.
Which is what many SPMs thought about Horizon.
A while ago I sued NPower because they lied about my meter reading.
They claimed that they had 15 minute data from the telephone line to the meter which was therefore indisputable.
The telephone line was not connected to the meter…
They still insisted on going to court. It took 6 hours of time and £6,000 in legal expenses…
I once had an argument with ScottishPower who said they would come after me for accruing fines relating to a meter. I couldn't understand it as everything was totally fine with it all. In frustration I asked about just closing my damn account with them and they said they'd pass me on to the department who dealt with that, which transferred me to a number which rang and then went dead.
When I rang back it was at the point where apparently the call centre switched over to some people in India. They were much more knowledgeable and helpful, and explained that the line went dead as that department will have gone home for the day already. The same chap then phoned me back on the Saturday and Sunday after looking into it to explain the original idiot (not his words) had been looking at details of a meter which had been replaced at my property 18 months before and the system assumed was still there, and the dude hadn't checked to see there was indeed another one perfectly fine and up to date.
So good employees sometimes manage to survive for a time at least.
After I changed my tariff with EDF and had confirmation of the change by email, they carried on billing me at the old tariff. Nothing could get it corrected - phone calls, emails, or a formal complaint. I had to go to the ombudsman and then it was finally corrected.
The only explanation I can think of for such bone-headedness is that utility companies have made a calculation that in the absence of any punitive element, it is cheaper for them just not to pay for the staff necessary to correct errors and deal adequately with complaints. In effect, they seem to be treating the ombudsman as a free complaints department that they don't have to pay for.
But that's utter bollocks.
Every time that a complaint goes to the ombudsman the energy company has to pay £500 to the ombudsman for the associated costs even if they find in favour of the energy company.
William ‘could cut ties with Church of England’ as king
Unlike his grandmother, Queen Elizabeth, who regularly attended church with a bank note in her handbag for the collection, the Prince of Wales is not known for his Sunday attendance.
Now a biography has gone further, saying that Prince William could become the first British monarch to break official ties with the Church of England. William is also said to want to make his coronation service “less spiritual”, “shorter” by cutting it to about an hour and ten minutes, and “more discreet”.
The revelations feature in a book, Charles III: The Inside Story, by the journalist Robert Hardman. He writes: “In royal circles, it is no secret that [the Prince of Wales] does not share the King’s sense of the spiritual, let alone the late Queen’s unshakeable devotion to the Anglican church.”
First inflation increase for ten months, as CPI rises to 4.0%
Fuel prices. And there’s more to come…
Tobacco duty increase.
If the Middle East mess continues, then it will start going up again - even if oil prices stay stable, shipping rates have doubled (maintained, that's about 0.7% on annual inflation).
I'm 100% certain now that Keir Starmer will be PM after the next election, because even a lot of Tories have had enough of the party after 14 years. But it could still be difficult for Lab to win a working majority for various reasons, one of which is the new boundaries.
The assumption that the Tories will benefit from the boundary changes is weakened by the scaleof apparent change in voting intention since the last election.
The only thing that can help the Tories in many seats will be a split opposition.
William ‘could cut ties with Church of England’ as king
Unlike his grandmother, Queen Elizabeth, who regularly attended church with a bank note in her handbag for the collection, the Prince of Wales is not known for his Sunday attendance.
Now a biography has gone further, saying that Prince William could become the first British monarch to break official ties with the Church of England. William is also said to want to make his coronation service “less spiritual”, “shorter” by cutting it to about an hour and ten minutes, and “more discreet”.
The revelations feature in a book, Charles III: The Inside Story, by the journalist Robert Hardman. He writes: “In royal circles, it is no secret that [the Prince of Wales] does not share the King’s sense of the spiritual, let alone the late Queen’s unshakeable devotion to the Anglican church.”
So British Gas have now sent me a bill, and are charging me for two months into one when they had already noted the charge for the previous month on the previous bill.
Claiming as a result that my account is £61 in credit instead of £190.
What a bunch of lunatic scumbags.
Which police force do I call about this, because I have had the fuck enough?
Have they charged the correct standing charges and usage? Months don't really matter.
You don't understand. They've taken the credit balance at the start of December, after November's usage had been taken off, and then included November's usage again to this bill and deducted that from the credit balance in December.
It's not about the rate they're charging. They've charged me twice.
Last week I paid an electricity bill of £1.30. I've no idea why it was so low. Perhaps there's a government subsidy or maybe I paid twice the last time or possibly they overcharged at some point. I just pay whatever bill they send and trust them to sort out any anomalies in their own good time.
Which is what many SPMs thought about Horizon.
A while ago I sued NPower because they lied about my meter reading.
They claimed that they had 15 minute data from the telephone line to the meter which was therefore indisputable.
The telephone line was not connected to the meter…
They still insisted on going to court. It took 6 hours of time and £6,000 in legal expenses…
I once had an argument with ScottishPower who said they would come after me for accruing fines relating to a meter. I couldn't understand it as everything was totally fine with it all. In frustration I asked about just closing my damn account with them and they said they'd pass me on to the department who dealt with that, which transferred me to a number which rang and then went dead.
When I rang back it was at the point where apparently the call centre switched over to some people in India. They were much more knowledgeable and helpful, and explained that the line went dead as that department will have gone home for the day already. The same chap then phoned me back on the Saturday and Sunday after looking into it to explain the original idiot (not his words) had been looking at details of a meter which had been replaced at my property 18 months before and the system assumed was still there, and the dude hadn't checked to see there was indeed another one perfectly fine and up to date.
So good employees sometimes manage to survive for a time at least.
After I changed my tariff with EDF and had confirmation of the change by email, they carried on billing me at the old tariff. Nothing could get it corrected - phone calls, emails, or a formal complaint. I had to go to the ombudsman and then it was finally corrected.
The only explanation I can think of for such bone-headedness is that utility companies have made a calculation that in the absence of any punitive element, it is cheaper for them just not to pay for the staff necessary to correct errors and deal adequately with complaints. In effect, they seem to be treating the ombudsman as a free complaints department that they don't have to pay for.
But that's utter bollocks.
Every time that a complaint goes to the ombudsman the energy company has to pay £500 to the ombudsman for the associated costs even if they find in favour of the energy company.
That sounds like "not very much" to me, after all it costs tens of thousands to employ someone.
William ‘could cut ties with Church of England’ as king
Unlike his grandmother, Queen Elizabeth, who regularly attended church with a bank note in her handbag for the collection, the Prince of Wales is not known for his Sunday attendance.
Now a biography has gone further, saying that Prince William could become the first British monarch to break official ties with the Church of England. William is also said to want to make his coronation service “less spiritual”, “shorter” by cutting it to about an hour and ten minutes, and “more discreet”.
The revelations feature in a book, Charles III: The Inside Story, by the journalist Robert Hardman. He writes: “In royal circles, it is no secret that [the Prince of Wales] does not share the King’s sense of the spiritual, let alone the late Queen’s unshakeable devotion to the Anglican church.”
So British Gas have now sent me a bill, and are charging me for two months into one when they had already noted the charge for the previous month on the previous bill.
Claiming as a result that my account is £61 in credit instead of £190.
What a bunch of lunatic scumbags.
Which police force do I call about this, because I have had the fuck enough?
Have they charged the correct standing charges and usage? Months don't really matter.
You don't understand. They've taken the credit balance at the start of December, after November's usage had been taken off, and then included November's usage again to this bill and deducted that from the credit balance in December.
It's not about the rate they're charging. They've charged me twice.
Last week I paid an electricity bill of £1.30. I've no idea why it was so low. Perhaps there's a government subsidy or maybe I paid twice the last time or possibly they overcharged at some point. I just pay whatever bill they send and trust them to sort out any anomalies in their own good time.
Which is what many SPMs thought about Horizon.
A while ago I sued NPower because they lied about my meter reading.
They claimed that they had 15 minute data from the telephone line to the meter which was therefore indisputable.
The telephone line was not connected to the meter…
They still insisted on going to court. It took 6 hours of time and £6,000 in legal expenses…
I once had an argument with ScottishPower who said they would come after me for accruing fines relating to a meter. I couldn't understand it as everything was totally fine with it all. In frustration I asked about just closing my damn account with them and they said they'd pass me on to the department who dealt with that, which transferred me to a number which rang and then went dead.
When I rang back it was at the point where apparently the call centre switched over to some people in India. They were much more knowledgeable and helpful, and explained that the line went dead as that department will have gone home for the day already. The same chap then phoned me back on the Saturday and Sunday after looking into it to explain the original idiot (not his words) had been looking at details of a meter which had been replaced at my property 18 months before and the system assumed was still there, and the dude hadn't checked to see there was indeed another one perfectly fine and up to date.
So good employees sometimes manage to survive for a time at least.
After I changed my tariff with EDF and had confirmation of the change by email, they carried on billing me at the old tariff. Nothing could get it corrected - phone calls, emails, or a formal complaint. I had to go to the ombudsman and then it was finally corrected.
The only explanation I can think of for such bone-headedness is that utility companies have made a calculation that in the absence of any punitive element, it is cheaper for them just not to pay for the staff necessary to correct errors and deal adequately with complaints. In effect, they seem to be treating the ombudsman as a free complaints department that they don't have to pay for.
But that's utter bollocks.
Every time that a complaint goes to the ombudsman the energy company has to pay £500 to the ombudsman for the associated costs even if they find in favour of the energy company.
That sounds like "not very much" to me, after all it costs tens of thousands to employ someone.
But they have to employ a specialist department to deal with the ombudsman which costs more.
I'm 100% certain now that Keir Starmer will be PM after the next election, because even a lot of Tories have had enough of the party after 14 years. But it could still be difficult for Lab to win a working majority for various reasons, one of which is the new boundaries.
The assumption that the Tories will benefit from the boundary changes is weakened by the scaleof apparent change in voting intention since the last election.
The only thing that can help the Tories in many seats will be a split opposition.
The flaw in the assessment of the new boundaries is that they work from the result last time.
It would be interesting to see a comparison of the results from old and new boundaries at a range of polling outcomes, including the current national VI.
I'm 100% certain now that Keir Starmer will be PM after the next election, because even a lot of Tories have had enough of the party after 14 years. But it could still be difficult for Lab to win a working majority for various reasons, one of which is the new boundaries.
The assumption that the Tories will benefit from the boundary changes is weakened by the scaleof apparent change in voting intention since the last election.
The only thing that can help the Tories in many seats will be a split opposition.
The tactical voting battles will be more complex with boundary changes. It’ll be harder for voters to work out who the main challenger is in many cases.
Given the importance of incumbency and past second places to the Lib Dems you’d think this will probably hinder their chances. The one counter to this being that in areas where Labour were second in the old seats last time but with no record on the new one, and Lib Dems are strong on the local council in those wards, tgis potentially helps with the bar charts.
It seems to me that the most obvious political solution for the Conservative party is to move to the 'far right', defining itself as being against the progressive consensus and coming up with some radical solutions to political problems. It seems to me that this is where they will probably go out of necessity and the likelihood of success depends on their ability to outperform others acting in this space like 'reform' and 'reclaim'. A lot would depend on finding the right leader, if they can find someone young and who looks like the future then they are in with a shot; but they still have to be accountable to their aging voter base who act as an obstacle as well as an asset.
The evidence so far is that this isn't going to happen. Let's assume that 'far right' means something consistent with multi party democracy, capacity to lose etc, so we aren't talking about Trump or totalitarians or authoritarians; nor are we talking about the populism which suggests simple answers to complex problems.
Within those constraints, what are the big ideas swirling around in radical conservative circles, costed (so not Trussism), thought out, deliverable, which are so different from the generality of the Overton Window. If they were around, would we not be talking about them?
The era we live in is quite chaotic, the overton window can shift and 'unthinkable' ideas come in to play, similar to how the statism of the Johnson era contrasted with decades of neoliberalism. The Rwanda idea is fairly mainstream in Europe after Britain being an outlier for a while.
If you think that things have to change then unthinkable solutions come in to play. It is like in Germany where politicians claiming 'we can do this' in 2015 (bringing in millions of refugees) are replaced in 2024 by politicians promising to deport millions of refugees.
What I can say for sure is politicians are so entrenched in ideology that they have become out of touch with real life outside the demands of their activist base. IE Councils devoting resources to being a 'Borough of sanctuary' for asylum seekers, providing immigrants with housing etc, when they themselves have massive waiting lists and people at their wits end with no housing, teenage single mothers being housed 200 miles away from family etc. Things like this get corrected in the fullness of time.
Whilst I get what you mean and largely agree that the bit in bold is councils stretching beyond what residents are likely to put up with for long, I’d suggest it actually shows a decent grasp of the real world, just that it’s the real world beyond these shores/Europe.
I think this is quite subjective really. I think I am the only poster on PB to have been critical about the policy towards granting asylum for Ukrainian refugees. This may in the long run turn out to be a form of enabling genocide - the same reason I recall you cited recently as to why middle eastern countries don't take in refugees from Gaza.
I agree it is subjective, or at least highly dependent on whether you start from a position that councils have any ethical responsibility for non-residents. I’d argue they do, but am very happy to acknowledge mine is a minority position and am quite content as a democrat to be outvoted.
I don’t recall your specific arguments but I think there were good reasons to argue against granting preferential asylum for Ukrainians, and i say this despite having taken in a refugee myself.
It’s a good challenge RE enabling genocide. I feel there is a difference because refugees from Ukraine were not males of fighting age and so, if it turns out that it is possible to defend Ukraine against Russia, taking in refugees won’t have harmed that fight and in fact would have helped it by reducing civilian casualties from friendly fire.
Nevertheless I can see there are also similarities, which is causing me to think quite hard about what my position in both cases is, so thank you.
@maxh . Thanks for this. Just to clarify, I am not making these comments because I don't think Council's should support refugees. I am just observing that they tend to take on these policies at the behest of their activist base because it is 'overwhelmingly the right thing to do' and are then oblivious to the possible political consequences over time (almost like a microcosm of the Germany situation I described earlier in the thread). Without some over-riding explanatory framework of world events channelled through a compliant media, western populations seem destined to repeat this process again and again, policy driven by different extremes of emotive reaction without any strategic direction.
@darkage i took us off on a tangent (sorry) but I saw that this was your central point and largely agree with it.
One counterpoint: in some cases I think policy can lead and change ‘default’ public opinion by normalising a change, particularly over a generation. I think, perhaps, this is what happened with attitudes towards homosexuality.
But I doubt this will happen with refugees as rhey are almost perfectly set up to remain the ‘other’ in uk society.
There is an EFL club that keeps a database designed to monitor the progress of its future head coaches. It is succession planning, a means of identifying the next best candidate before the search is even required to begin.
Individuals are marked and categorised; ones to watch and others to forget. A new tab has recently been created beneath those head coaches who are deemed unworthy of consideration, though. It is labelled “Joey Barton”. Do not touch.
The anecdote is relayed after one senior figure at the club was asked last week if Barton, sacked as manager of Bristol Rovers in October, would ever be considered for one of their managerial vacancies. “Not a chance,” they say.
Barton is unlikely to care. Not publicly, at least. After his playing career was held back by acts of violence and self-sabotage, the 41-year-old is now setting fire to his prospects of finding further opportunities as a football manager.
An industry that has provided Barton with no end of second chances – after prison, after an 18-month gambling ban and after multiple arrests – is finally seeing its patience expire thanks to a series of furious social media posts against female pundits and commentators.
They seem to have closed off any possible return to the game he claims to be defending. There might be other plans, such as his Common Sense show due to launch on Meta next month, but management was what Barton had considered his calling. As recently as October, he was studying for his UEFA Pro Licence. “I always wanted to be a footballer but I knew I’d be even better as a coach,” he once said.
That claim appears far-fetched after five years in charge of Fleetwood Town and Bristol Rovers when he never finished higher than sixth in League One. Any chance of proving it now appears to have been extinguished by his own vitriol. That pursuit of being ‘edgy’, a man who (he claims) says things others do not dare, has finally made Barton the pariah he spent 20 years threatening to become.
“He was damaged goods before this but he’s burned his boats now,” says one League One director who, like everyone in this report, is far too concerned for his safety to include his name.
Barton is not just a loudmouth. He is far more dangerous.
I'm 100% certain now that Keir Starmer will be PM after the next election, because even a lot of Tories have had enough of the party after 14 years. But it could still be difficult for Lab to win a working majority for various reasons, one of which is the new boundaries.
The assumption that the Tories will benefit from the boundary changes is weakened by the scaleof apparent change in voting intention since the last election.
The only thing that can help the Tories in many seats will be a split opposition.
The flaw in the assessment of the new boundaries is that they work from the result last time.
It would be interesting to see a comparison of the results from old and new boundaries at a range of polling outcomes, including the current national VI.
Playing round with electoral calculus - the first seat Reform wins is 30p Lee (Anderson)'s in Ashfield.
I'm 100% certain now that Keir Starmer will be PM after the next election, because even a lot of Tories have had enough of the party after 14 years. But it could still be difficult for Lab to win a working majority for various reasons, one of which is the new boundaries.
The assumption that the Tories will benefit from the boundary changes is weakened by the scaleof apparent change in voting intention since the last election.
The only thing that can help the Tories in many seats will be a split opposition.
The tactical voting battles will be more complex with boundary changes. It’ll be harder for voters to work out who the main challenger is in many cases.
Given the importance of incumbency and past second places to the Lib Dems you’d think this will probably hinder their chances. The one counter to this being that in areas where Labour were second in the old seats last time but with no record on the new one, and Lib Dems are strong on the local council in those wards, tgis potentially helps with the bar charts.
That is where I think Carol Vorderman comes in - I think her telling people who to vote for will ensure a fair few votes end up going in the direction she suggests.
I'm 100% certain now that Keir Starmer will be PM after the next election, because even a lot of Tories have had enough of the party after 14 years. But it could still be difficult for Lab to win a working majority for various reasons, one of which is the new boundaries.
The assumption that the Tories will benefit from the boundary changes is weakened by the scaleof apparent change in voting intention since the last election.
The only thing that can help the Tories in many seats will be a split opposition.
The flaw in the assessment of the new boundaries is that they work from the result last time.
It would be interesting to see a comparison of the results from old and new boundaries at a range of polling outcomes, including the current national VI.
Playing round with electoral calculus - the first seat Reform wins is 30p Lee (Anderson)'s in Ashfield.
@Zero_4 Tory MP Michael Tomlinson: “I don’t watch box sets. Ask me one on sport…”
#KayBurley: “What’s your favourite football team?”
MT: “I don’t have one but once went to Bournemouth where lots of goals were scored”
KB: “What was the score?
MT: “1-1”
Tragic
Played minor counties cricket so guess he was hoping for a cricket question......although weirdly it was just one match where he didnt bat, listed at 11, or bowl or keep wicket so might just have been doing them a favour by turning up!
I'm 100% certain now that Keir Starmer will be PM after the next election, because even a lot of Tories have had enough of the party after 14 years. But it could still be difficult for Lab to win a working majority for various reasons, one of which is the new boundaries.
The assumption that the Tories will benefit from the boundary changes is weakened by the scaleof apparent change in voting intention since the last election.
The only thing that can help the Tories in many seats will be a split opposition.
The tactical voting battles will be more complex with boundary changes. It’ll be harder for voters to work out who the main challenger is in many cases.
Given the importance of incumbency and past second places to the Lib Dems you’d think this will probably hinder their chances. The one counter to this being that in areas where Labour were second in the old seats last time but with no record on the new one, and Lib Dems are strong on the local council in those wards, tgis potentially helps with the bar charts.
That is where I think Carol Vorderman comes in - I think her telling people who to vote for will ensure a fair few votes end up going in the direction she suggests.
Really, apart from a few on twitter/social media who hang on her every word and were not likely to vote Tory anyway, will it really make a difference. She needs to influence people who are not receptive to her message and she comes over as somewhat unhinged in her posts.
There is an EFL club that keeps a database designed to monitor the progress of its future head coaches. It is succession planning, a means of identifying the next best candidate before the search is even required to begin.
Individuals are marked and categorised; ones to watch and others to forget. A new tab has recently been created beneath those head coaches who are deemed unworthy of consideration, though. It is labelled “Joey Barton”. Do not touch.
The anecdote is relayed after one senior figure at the club was asked last week if Barton, sacked as manager of Bristol Rovers in October, would ever be considered for one of their managerial vacancies. “Not a chance,” they say.
Barton is unlikely to care. Not publicly, at least. After his playing career was held back by acts of violence and self-sabotage, the 41-year-old is now setting fire to his prospects of finding further opportunities as a football manager.
An industry that has provided Barton with no end of second chances – after prison, after an 18-month gambling ban and after multiple arrests – is finally seeing its patience expire thanks to a series of furious social media posts against female pundits and commentators.
They seem to have closed off any possible return to the game he claims to be defending. There might be other plans, such as his Common Sense show due to launch on Meta next month, but management was what Barton had considered his calling. As recently as October, he was studying for his UEFA Pro Licence. “I always wanted to be a footballer but I knew I’d be even better as a coach,” he once said.
That claim appears far-fetched after five years in charge of Fleetwood Town and Bristol Rovers when he never finished higher than sixth in League One. Any chance of proving it now appears to have been extinguished by his own vitriol. That pursuit of being ‘edgy’, a man who (he claims) says things others do not dare, has finally made Barton the pariah he spent 20 years threatening to become.
“He was damaged goods before this but he’s burned his boats now,” says one League One director who, like everyone in this report, is far too concerned for his safety to include his name.
Barton is not just a loudmouth. He is far more dangerous.
There is an EFL club that keeps a database designed to monitor the progress of its future head coaches. It is succession planning, a means of identifying the next best candidate before the search is even required to begin.
Individuals are marked and categorised; ones to watch and others to forget. A new tab has recently been created beneath those head coaches who are deemed unworthy of consideration, though. It is labelled “Joey Barton”. Do not touch.
The anecdote is relayed after one senior figure at the club was asked last week if Barton, sacked as manager of Bristol Rovers in October, would ever be considered for one of their managerial vacancies. “Not a chance,” they say.
Barton is unlikely to care. Not publicly, at least. After his playing career was held back by acts of violence and self-sabotage, the 41-year-old is now setting fire to his prospects of finding further opportunities as a football manager.
An industry that has provided Barton with no end of second chances – after prison, after an 18-month gambling ban and after multiple arrests – is finally seeing its patience expire thanks to a series of furious social media posts against female pundits and commentators.
They seem to have closed off any possible return to the game he claims to be defending. There might be other plans, such as his Common Sense show due to launch on Meta next month, but management was what Barton had considered his calling. As recently as October, he was studying for his UEFA Pro Licence. “I always wanted to be a footballer but I knew I’d be even better as a coach,” he once said.
That claim appears far-fetched after five years in charge of Fleetwood Town and Bristol Rovers when he never finished higher than sixth in League One. Any chance of proving it now appears to have been extinguished by his own vitriol. That pursuit of being ‘edgy’, a man who (he claims) says things others do not dare, has finally made Barton the pariah he spent 20 years threatening to become.
“He was damaged goods before this but he’s burned his boats now,” says one League One director who, like everyone in this report, is far too concerned for his safety to include his name.
Barton is not just a loudmouth. He is far more dangerous.
I'm 100% certain now that Keir Starmer will be PM after the next election, because even a lot of Tories have had enough of the party after 14 years. But it could still be difficult for Lab to win a working majority for various reasons, one of which is the new boundaries.
The assumption that the Tories will benefit from the boundary changes is weakened by the scaleof apparent change in voting intention since the last election.
The only thing that can help the Tories in many seats will be a split opposition.
The tactical voting battles will be more complex with boundary changes. It’ll be harder for voters to work out who the main challenger is in many cases.
Given the importance of incumbency and past second places to the Lib Dems you’d think this will probably hinder their chances. The one counter to this being that in areas where Labour were second in the old seats last time but with no record on the new one, and Lib Dems are strong on the local council in those wards, tgis potentially helps with the bar charts.
That is where I think Carol Vorderman comes in - I think her telling people who to vote for will ensure a fair few votes end up going in the direction she suggests.
Really, apart from a few on twitter/social media who hang on her every word and were not likely to vote Tory anyway, will it really make a difference. She needs to influence people who are not receptive to her message and she comes over as somewhat unhinged in her posts.
I cannot see it.
She may come over as unhinged, but that isn't necessarily a problem, as large parts of the electorate are as unhinged. It is a matter of directing their anger at the real elite rather than some made up confection.
My point about more to come on fuel is simple. The Suez Canal is effectively shut, with ships diverting around the cape. We also have the Middle East boiling over into various spats. That means higher fuel prices and much much higher shipping costs.
Happily we are increasingly producing energy via wind and solar…
I'm 100% certain now that Keir Starmer will be PM after the next election, because even a lot of Tories have had enough of the party after 14 years. But it could still be difficult for Lab to win a working majority for various reasons, one of which is the new boundaries.
The assumption that the Tories will benefit from the boundary changes is weakened by the scaleof apparent change in voting intention since the last election.
The only thing that can help the Tories in many seats will be a split opposition.
The flaw in the assessment of the new boundaries is that they work from the result last time.
It would be interesting to see a comparison of the results from old and new boundaries at a range of polling outcomes, including the current national VI.
Playing round with electoral calculus - the first seat Reform wins is 30p Lee (Anderson)'s in Ashfield.
You can see why he is so concerned about Reform - because it's his seat (yet very few others)..
They might keep their deposit on a good day!
Don’t be so sure. Events dear boy. If 30p decides that defecting to ReFUK is good for his media career then he’ll do it. And it is. And he has more chance of winning on a Farage platform than he does a Sunak one.
I'm 100% certain now that Keir Starmer will be PM after the next election, because even a lot of Tories have had enough of the party after 14 years. But it could still be difficult for Lab to win a working majority for various reasons, one of which is the new boundaries.
The assumption that the Tories will benefit from the boundary changes is weakened by the scaleof apparent change in voting intention since the last election.
The only thing that can help the Tories in many seats will be a split opposition.
The tactical voting battles will be more complex with boundary changes. It’ll be harder for voters to work out who the main challenger is in many cases.
Given the importance of incumbency and past second places to the Lib Dems you’d think this will probably hinder their chances. The one counter to this being that in areas where Labour were second in the old seats last time but with no record on the new one, and Lib Dems are strong on the local council in those wards, tgis potentially helps with the bar charts.
That is where I think Carol Vorderman comes in - I think her telling people who to vote for will ensure a fair few votes end up going in the direction she suggests.
@Zero_4 Tory MP Michael Tomlinson: “I don’t watch box sets. Ask me one on sport…”
#KayBurley: “What’s your favourite football team?”
MT: “I don’t have one but once went to Bournemouth where lots of goals were scored”
KB: “What was the score?
MT: “1-1”
Tragic
Played minor counties cricket so guess he was hoping for a cricket question......although weirdly it was just one match where he didnt bat, listed at 11, or bowl or keep wicket so might just have been doing them a favour by turning up!
Michael Tomlinson was my secondary school headmaster’s son. I stayed at his house one Christmas (the choristers were housed with day boys’ parents during the run up to Christmas and Easter). He was in the year below me I think.
I'm 100% certain now that Keir Starmer will be PM after the next election, because even a lot of Tories have had enough of the party after 14 years. But it could still be difficult for Lab to win a working majority for various reasons, one of which is the new boundaries.
The assumption that the Tories will benefit from the boundary changes is weakened by the scaleof apparent change in voting intention since the last election.
The only thing that can help the Tories in many seats will be a split opposition.
The tactical voting battles will be more complex with boundary changes. It’ll be harder for voters to work out who the main challenger is in many cases.
Given the importance of incumbency and past second places to the Lib Dems you’d think this will probably hinder their chances. The one counter to this being that in areas where Labour were second in the old seats last time but with no record on the new one, and Lib Dems are strong on the local council in those wards, tgis potentially helps with the bar charts.
That is where I think Carol Vorderman comes in - I think her telling people who to vote for will ensure a fair few votes end up going in the direction she suggests.
Really, apart from a few on twitter/social media who hang on her every word and were not likely to vote Tory anyway, will it really make a difference. She needs to influence people who are not receptive to her message and she comes over as somewhat unhinged in her posts.
I cannot see it.
She may come over as unhinged, but that isn't necessarily a problem, as large parts of the electorate are as unhinged. It is a matter of directing their anger at the real elite rather than some made up confection.
"... as large parts of the electorate are as unhinged. "
This sort of comment amuses me. The person who says it always, of course, puts themselves on the 'unhinged' side.
I'm 100% certain now that Keir Starmer will be PM after the next election, because even a lot of Tories have had enough of the party after 14 years. But it could still be difficult for Lab to win a working majority for various reasons, one of which is the new boundaries.
The assumption that the Tories will benefit from the boundary changes is weakened by the scaleof apparent change in voting intention since the last election.
The only thing that can help the Tories in many seats will be a split opposition.
The tactical voting battles will be more complex with boundary changes. It’ll be harder for voters to work out who the main challenger is in many cases.
Given the importance of incumbency and past second places to the Lib Dems you’d think this will probably hinder their chances. The one counter to this being that in areas where Labour were second in the old seats last time but with no record on the new one, and Lib Dems are strong on the local council in those wards, tgis potentially helps with the bar charts.
That is where I think Carol Vorderman comes in - I think her telling people who to vote for will ensure a fair few votes end up going in the direction she suggests.
Really, apart from a few on twitter/social media who hang on her every word and were not likely to vote Tory anyway, will it really make a difference. She needs to influence people who are not receptive to her message and she comes over as somewhat unhinged in her posts.
I cannot see it.
She may come over as unhinged, but that isn't necessarily a problem, as large parts of the electorate are as unhinged. It is a matter of directing their anger at the real elite rather than some made up confection.
Carol Vorderman coming out for the Lib Dems, is likely to save a couple of dozen Tory seats in the “blue wall”.
William ‘could cut ties with Church of England’ as king
Unlike his grandmother, Queen Elizabeth, who regularly attended church with a bank note in her handbag for the collection, the Prince of Wales is not known for his Sunday attendance.
Now a biography has gone further, saying that Prince William could become the first British monarch to break official ties with the Church of England. William is also said to want to make his coronation service “less spiritual”, “shorter” by cutting it to about an hour and ten minutes, and “more discreet”.
The revelations feature in a book, Charles III: The Inside Story, by the journalist Robert Hardman. He writes: “In royal circles, it is no secret that [the Prince of Wales] does not share the King’s sense of the spiritual, let alone the late Queen’s unshakeable devotion to the Anglican church.”
Excellent. If that means I don’t have to play for another sodding let’s-venerate-the-Royals service then I’m 100% up for it.
I got sufficiently hacked off with the stream of them last year that I ended up playing Howells’ Psalm Prelude ‘de Profundis’ as the voluntary for the service marking Ol’ Big Ears’ coronation. It is not a joyful piece.
"...so the factory has a cashflow problem but, fortunately, Sid has a budgie that can guess the winners in horse races."
Me and my Nan tried that with her budgies, one wet day in the summer holidays. True story. It was funny how it looked nervous and blankly at us watching it. but a horse name made it twitch and chirp. The first one came from nowhere to win at long odds. We were shocked into stunned silence.
The next six came absolutely nowhere. End of story. Carry on holidays.
I'm 100% certain now that Keir Starmer will be PM after the next election, because even a lot of Tories have had enough of the party after 14 years. But it could still be difficult for Lab to win a working majority for various reasons, one of which is the new boundaries.
The assumption that the Tories will benefit from the boundary changes is weakened by the scaleof apparent change in voting intention since the last election.
The only thing that can help the Tories in many seats will be a split opposition.
The tactical voting battles will be more complex with boundary changes. It’ll be harder for voters to work out who the main challenger is in many cases.
Given the importance of incumbency and past second places to the Lib Dems you’d think this will probably hinder their chances. The one counter to this being that in areas where Labour were second in the old seats last time but with no record on the new one, and Lib Dems are strong on the local council in those wards, tgis potentially helps with the bar charts.
That is where I think Carol Vorderman comes in - I think her telling people who to vote for will ensure a fair few votes end up going in the direction she suggests.
Really, apart from a few on twitter/social media who hang on her every word and were not likely to vote Tory anyway, will it really make a difference. She needs to influence people who are not receptive to her message and she comes over as somewhat unhinged in her posts.
@Zero_4 Tory MP Michael Tomlinson: “I don’t watch box sets. Ask me one on sport…”
#KayBurley: “What’s your favourite football team?”
MT: “I don’t have one but once went to Bournemouth where lots of goals were scored”
KB: “What was the score?
MT: “1-1”
Tragic
Played minor counties cricket so guess he was hoping for a cricket question......although weirdly it was just one match where he didnt bat, listed at 11, or bowl or keep wicket so might just have been doing them a favour by turning up!
Why didn't he just say his game was cricket, then?
@sturdyAlex MINISTER MEDIA TRAINING, DAY 1: When a journalist suggests the gov’t is about to collapse, don’t go “well, not quite yet”.
@BestForBritain More of immigration minister' car crash. Claims no third reading of the #RwandaBill today was always the plan and his party is totally united.🤣
Burley: "The PM might have to collapse the gov't."
Tomlinson: "Well, no, I think we're getting a little bit ahead of ourselves." ~AA
"...so the factory has a cashflow problem but, fortunately, Sid has a budgie that can guess the winners in horse races."
Me and my Nan tried that with her budgies, one wet day in the summer holidays. True story. It was funny how it looked nervous and blankly at us watching it. but a horse name made it twitch and chirp. The first one came from nowhere to win at long odds. We were shocked into stunned silence.
The next six came absolutely nowhere. End of story. Carry on holidays.
Before too may get too exited about a massive Labour majority, some people like me who are fed up with this Govt will still vote Conservative to make sure there isn't a massive Labour majority imho. Labour will win but I doubt it will be Blair territory. Voters know what happens when Govts get massive majorities...
William ‘could cut ties with Church of England’ as king
Unlike his grandmother, Queen Elizabeth, who regularly attended church with a bank note in her handbag for the collection, the Prince of Wales is not known for his Sunday attendance.
Now a biography has gone further, saying that Prince William could become the first British monarch to break official ties with the Church of England. William is also said to want to make his coronation service “less spiritual”, “shorter” by cutting it to about an hour and ten minutes, and “more discreet”.
The revelations feature in a book, Charles III: The Inside Story, by the journalist Robert Hardman. He writes: “In royal circles, it is no secret that [the Prince of Wales] does not share the King’s sense of the spiritual, let alone the late Queen’s unshakeable devotion to the Anglican church.”
Excellent. If that means I don’t have to play for another sodding let’s-venerate-the-Royals service then I’m 100% up for it.
I got sufficiently hacked off with the stream of them last year that I ended up playing Howells’ Psalm Prelude ‘de Profundis’ as the voluntary for the service marking Ol’ Big Ears’ coronation. It is not a joyful piece.
Interesting thought, the coronation equivalent of a registrar's wedding.
I'm 100% certain now that Keir Starmer will be PM after the next election, because even a lot of Tories have had enough of the party after 14 years. But it could still be difficult for Lab to win a working majority for various reasons, one of which is the new boundaries.
The assumption that the Tories will benefit from the boundary changes is weakened by the scaleof apparent change in voting intention since the last election.
The only thing that can help the Tories in many seats will be a split opposition.
The tactical voting battles will be more complex with boundary changes. It’ll be harder for voters to work out who the main challenger is in many cases.
Given the importance of incumbency and past second places to the Lib Dems you’d think this will probably hinder their chances. The one counter to this being that in areas where Labour were second in the old seats last time but with no record on the new one, and Lib Dems are strong on the local council in those wards, tgis potentially helps with the bar charts.
That is where I think Carol Vorderman comes in - I think her telling people who to vote for will ensure a fair few votes end up going in the direction she suggests.
Really, apart from a few on twitter/social media who hang on her every word and were not likely to vote Tory anyway, will it really make a difference. She needs to influence people who are not receptive to her message and she comes over as somewhat unhinged in her posts.
I cannot see it.
She may come over as unhinged, but that isn't necessarily a problem, as large parts of the electorate are as unhinged. It is a matter of directing their anger at the real elite rather than some made up confection.
Carol Vorderman coming out for the Lib Dems, is likely to save a couple of dozen Tory seats in the “blue wall”.
She’s gone totally bonkers.
You assume people read social media - many don’t, and for a lot of people - Carol Vorderman is just good at maths
What I expect to see is a tactical voting website with her face all over it, enter your postcode and it says vote lib dem / Labour.
And the Lib Dems will be making great use of it on their leaflets because hey where is the harm when seeking any Tory votes
I'm 100% certain now that Keir Starmer will be PM after the next election, because even a lot of Tories have had enough of the party after 14 years. But it could still be difficult for Lab to win a working majority for various reasons, one of which is the new boundaries.
The assumption that the Tories will benefit from the boundary changes is weakened by the scaleof apparent change in voting intention since the last election.
The only thing that can help the Tories in many seats will be a split opposition.
The tactical voting battles will be more complex with boundary changes. It’ll be harder for voters to work out who the main challenger is in many cases.
Given the importance of incumbency and past second places to the Lib Dems you’d think this will probably hinder their chances. The one counter to this being that in areas where Labour were second in the old seats last time but with no record on the new one, and Lib Dems are strong on the local council in those wards, tgis potentially helps with the bar charts.
That is where I think Carol Vorderman comes in - I think her telling people who to vote for will ensure a fair few votes end up going in the direction she suggests.
Really, apart from a few on twitter/social media who hang on her every word and were not likely to vote Tory anyway, will it really make a difference. She needs to influence people who are not receptive to her message and she comes over as somewhat unhinged in her posts.
I cannot see it.
She may come over as unhinged, but that isn't necessarily a problem, as large parts of the electorate are as unhinged. It is a matter of directing their anger at the real elite rather than some made up confection.
"... as large parts of the electorate are as unhinged. "
This sort of comment amuses me. The person who says it always, of course, puts themselves on the 'unhinged' side.
Incoherent rage is a common political feeling at present, and many have political views that don't fit neatly into boxes, including me. Eclectic might be a polite term for it. An interesting article here:
I'm 100% certain now that Keir Starmer will be PM after the next election, because even a lot of Tories have had enough of the party after 14 years. But it could still be difficult for Lab to win a working majority for various reasons, one of which is the new boundaries.
The assumption that the Tories will benefit from the boundary changes is weakened by the scaleof apparent change in voting intention since the last election.
The only thing that can help the Tories in many seats will be a split opposition.
The tactical voting battles will be more complex with boundary changes. It’ll be harder for voters to work out who the main challenger is in many cases.
Given the importance of incumbency and past second places to the Lib Dems you’d think this will probably hinder their chances. The one counter to this being that in areas where Labour were second in the old seats last time but with no record on the new one, and Lib Dems are strong on the local council in those wards, tgis potentially helps with the bar charts.
That is where I think Carol Vorderman comes in - I think her telling people who to vote for will ensure a fair few votes end up going in the direction she suggests.
Really, apart from a few on twitter/social media who hang on her every word and were not likely to vote Tory anyway, will it really make a difference. She needs to influence people who are not receptive to her message and she comes over as somewhat unhinged in her posts.
I cannot see it.
Carol Vorderman has joined LBC.
How would she get on if she stood for Mayor? I doubt she would win, but given the long list of candidates I suspect she could be one from the top and five from the bottom.
So British Gas have now sent me a bill, and are charging me for two months into one when they had already noted the charge for the previous month on the previous bill.
Claiming as a result that my account is £61 in credit instead of £190.
What a bunch of lunatic scumbags.
Which police force do I call about this, because I have had the fuck enough?
Have they charged the correct standing charges and usage? Months don't really matter.
You don't understand. They've taken the credit balance at the start of December, after November's usage had been taken off, and then included November's usage again to this bill and deducted that from the credit balance in December.
It's not about the rate they're charging. They've charged me twice.
Last week I paid an electricity bill of £1.30. I've no idea why it was so low. Perhaps there's a government subsidy or maybe I paid twice the last time or possibly they overcharged at some point. I just pay whatever bill they send and trust them to sort out any anomalies in their own good time.
Which is what many SPMs thought about Horizon.
A while ago I sued NPower because they lied about my meter reading.
They claimed that they had 15 minute data from the telephone line to the meter which was therefore indisputable.
The telephone line was not connected to the meter…
They still insisted on going to court. It took 6 hours of time and £6,000 in legal expenses…
I once had an argument with ScottishPower who said they would come after me for accruing fines relating to a meter. I couldn't understand it as everything was totally fine with it all. In frustration I asked about just closing my damn account with them and they said they'd pass me on to the department who dealt with that, which transferred me to a number which rang and then went dead.
When I rang back it was at the point where apparently the call centre switched over to some people in India. They were much more knowledgeable and helpful, and explained that the line went dead as that department will have gone home for the day already. The same chap then phoned me back on the Saturday and Sunday after looking into it to explain the original idiot (not his words) had been looking at details of a meter which had been replaced at my property 18 months before and the system assumed was still there, and the dude hadn't checked to see there was indeed another one perfectly fine and up to date.
So good employees sometimes manage to survive for a time at least.
After I changed my tariff with EDF and had confirmation of the change by email, they carried on billing me at the old tariff. Nothing could get it corrected - phone calls, emails, or a formal complaint. I had to go to the ombudsman and then it was finally corrected.
The only explanation I can think of for such bone-headedness is that utility companies have made a calculation that in the absence of any punitive element, it is cheaper for them just not to pay for the staff necessary to correct errors and deal adequately with complaints. In effect, they seem to be treating the ombudsman as a free complaints department that they don't have to pay for.
But that's utter bollocks.
Every time that a complaint goes to the ombudsman the energy company has to pay £500 to the ombudsman for the associated costs even if they find in favour of the energy company.
That sounds like "not very much" to me, after all it costs tens of thousands to employ someone.
But they have to employ a specialist department to deal with the ombudsman which costs more.
Which is why if you have an issue with such a company you should always be escalating.
I'm 100% certain now that Keir Starmer will be PM after the next election, because even a lot of Tories have had enough of the party after 14 years. But it could still be difficult for Lab to win a working majority for various reasons, one of which is the new boundaries.
The assumption that the Tories will benefit from the boundary changes is weakened by the scaleof apparent change in voting intention since the last election.
The only thing that can help the Tories in many seats will be a split opposition.
The tactical voting battles will be more complex with boundary changes. It’ll be harder for voters to work out who the main challenger is in many cases.
Given the importance of incumbency and past second places to the Lib Dems you’d think this will probably hinder their chances. The one counter to this being that in areas where Labour were second in the old seats last time but with no record on the new one, and Lib Dems are strong on the local council in those wards, tgis potentially helps with the bar charts.
That is where I think Carol Vorderman comes in - I think her telling people who to vote for will ensure a fair few votes end up going in the direction she suggests.
Really, apart from a few on twitter/social media who hang on her every word and were not likely to vote Tory anyway, will it really make a difference. She needs to influence people who are not receptive to her message and she comes over as somewhat unhinged in her posts.
I cannot see it.
She may come over as unhinged, but that isn't necessarily a problem, as large parts of the electorate are as unhinged. It is a matter of directing their anger at the real elite rather than some made up confection.
"... as large parts of the electorate are as unhinged. "
This sort of comment amuses me. The person who says it always, of course, puts themselves on the 'unhinged' side.
Incoherent rage is a common political feeling at present, and many have political views that don't fit neatly into boxes, including me. Eclectic might be a polite term for it. An interesting article here:
Long time Apple denier and Android enthusiast here. A need to step up my video editing capabilities meant switching to a Macbook Pro. Its good. Very good. So I decided to go All In and now have an iPhone 15 Pro Max, Watch and Buds.
What amazes me is the seamless integration between them. Android / Google used to be able to do this, but it got progressively clunky in recent years. Yes there are still a few why-is-it-doing-that moments. But mostly I'm very happy having defected to the dark side...
"...so the factory has a cashflow problem but, fortunately, Sid has a budgie that can guess the winners in horse races."
Me and my Nan tried that with her budgies, one wet day in the summer holidays. True story. It was funny how it looked nervous and blankly at us watching it. but a horse name made it twitch and chirp. The first one came from nowhere to win at long odds. We were shocked into stunned silence.
The next six came absolutely nowhere. End of story. Carry on holidays.
"Carry on at Your Convenience" was a bit of a flop at the box office, but remains one of my favourites from the series. The strike stopping for the works outing to the seaside is sublime.
I'm 100% certain now that Keir Starmer will be PM after the next election, because even a lot of Tories have had enough of the party after 14 years. But it could still be difficult for Lab to win a working majority for various reasons, one of which is the new boundaries.
The assumption that the Tories will benefit from the boundary changes is weakened by the scaleof apparent change in voting intention since the last election.
The only thing that can help the Tories in many seats will be a split opposition.
The tactical voting battles will be more complex with boundary changes. It’ll be harder for voters to work out who the main challenger is in many cases.
Given the importance of incumbency and past second places to the Lib Dems you’d think this will probably hinder their chances. The one counter to this being that in areas where Labour were second in the old seats last time but with no record on the new one, and Lib Dems are strong on the local council in those wards, tgis potentially helps with the bar charts.
That is where I think Carol Vorderman comes in - I think her telling people who to vote for will ensure a fair few votes end up going in the direction she suggests.
Really, apart from a few on twitter/social media who hang on her every word and were not likely to vote Tory anyway, will it really make a difference. She needs to influence people who are not receptive to her message and she comes over as somewhat unhinged in her posts.
I cannot see it.
She may come over as unhinged, but that isn't necessarily a problem, as large parts of the electorate are as unhinged. It is a matter of directing their anger at the real elite rather than some made up confection.
Carol Vorderman coming out for the Lib Dems, is likely to save a couple of dozen Tory seats in the “blue wall”.
She’s gone totally bonkers.
Nah.
No one outside of the media and PB pays any attention to “influencers” like her
Vorderman isn’t going to make any impact or difference to the GE. She preaches to the already converted. She has also, as I noted the other day, gone completely off the deep end.
Vorderman isn’t going to make any impact or difference to the GE. She preaches to the already converted. She has also, as I noted the other day, gone completely off the deep end.
Preaching to the converted is not pointless or without impact. It is a key part of getting out the vote.
She has 947 000 followers on twitter. That is half of Farage, but not insignificant.
Comments
Guatemala Just Ran January 6th In Reverse
It’s the most successful pro-democracy movement* of the 21st century. So why has nobody heard of it?l
https://www.persuasion.community/p/guatemala-just-ran-january-6th-in
(*Arguably a bit harsh on the Ukrainian efforts a decade back.)
When I rang back it was at the point where apparently the call centre switched over to some people in India. They were much more knowledgeable and helpful, and explained that the line went dead as that department will have gone home for the day already. The same chap then phoned me back on the Saturday and Sunday after looking into it to explain the original idiot (not his words) had been looking at details of a meter which had been replaced at my property 18 months before and the system assumed was still there, and the dude hadn't checked to see there was indeed another one perfectly fine and up to date.
So good employees sometimes manage to survive for a time at least.
The US seems to be voting for the equivalent of the national lottery 'ping pong balls in a spinning tube' that we used to be treated to on a Saturday night. Fair game to them.
His responses were both ignorant and disingenuous.
“If you really were my obedient servant, I think I would begin with a little flogging”
'What election are they talking about in May?'
'May? Theres no elections in May. as far as I know'
'Yeah, I was speaking to such and such and they said they couldnt commit because of the election in May'
That politician will be most certainly be up for a seat at Westminster. As a result I've sold the house, took the proceeds and bet on the April to June option.....
I don’t think Cameron did say that. He said he “hated leaving in 2016, but it was the right thing to do” which I took to mean leaving Downing St. it wouldn’t make sense any other way
Sheltered life you lead.
The unemployment rate last month was 3.7%. It's been under 4% for 24 straight months. The unemployment rate in 2023 was the lowest in the past half century..
https://jabberwocking.com/the-unemployment-rate-is-at-its-lowest-in-half-a-century/
A mark of just how little credit the administration gets on the economy is that half of Democrats believe the same thing.
The most obvious example being whatever deal he did with Braverman - someone whose intentions were obvious and who had just gifted any PM a reason to sideline her. But to avoid any potential Boris messiness he brought her back. Even though that was the one point he was probably strong enough to face down the right if he was brave enough.
Or the Rwanda policy itself. He seems to have swallowed his doubts about it because it offered a useful tool to bash Labour and placate his right. Neglecting that it carves out loads of space for Labour to be 'tough' while being more liberal than the Tories and thus retaining the left's support by scrapping it. That it doesn't tackle the problem it's meant to solve - thus wastes lots of time and energy you could spend on stuff that might. And that the Tory right are a pack of dishonest wolves who'll always come back for more even after you've given them 90% of what they demanded.
You could even say his whole strategy. Which doesn't seem to understand that if you're going to do "steady-handed competency is back" you actually have to tame the Tory party's Brexit-inspired id. Rather than unleashing it on an increasingly fed-up public and then wondering why relaunches pitching you as a grown-up moderate don't work.
But you criticised him for something which is not true.
And NDA and a settlement with a confidentiality clause both have confidentiality implications. But that doesn’t make the same thing. It’s like claiming that an alpaca = a llama
The first one came from nowhere to win at long odds. We were shocked into stunned silence.
The next six came absolutely nowhere. End of story. Carry on holidays.
There were boundary changes in 1997 that notionally "helped" the Tories. Notional means nothing in a change election.
The only thing that will stop a significant Labour majority is a failure to break through against the SNP in Scotland, where the game is different. That seems unlikely to be an issue based on Rutherglen, but I admit I don't have much insight into that area at all.
My sheep are honestly brighter than the PB herd. And far less pedantic about gramma and punctuation.
Will coupmongers stop Guatemala’s president from taking office?
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/dec/18/guatemala-president-bernardo-arevalo-democracy
… The Biden administration also played a critical role. Although during the cold war the United States did Guatemalan democracy much harm – and Donald Trump had no qualms with Giammattei’s more recent democratic backsliding – Biden administration officials applied unrelenting pressure and rallied partners to defend the election results. The administration imposed sanctions on hundreds of politicians and businesspeople allegedly involved in the coup, including members of the country’s wealthiest families. A powerful business association called for respecting the election results. The Organization of American States and the European Union added pressure, too.
On 13 December, the coup coalition started crumbling. After 100 of congress’s 160 members lost their US visas, they failed to muster the votes to pack the electoral tribunal with compliant magistrates who would annul the election results. The next day, Guatemala’s constitutional court issued a ruling ordering congress to respect Arévalo’s right to take office...
And last week.
Can Guatemala’s new president turn the tide on years of corruption?
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/jan/11/guatemala-president-bernardo-arevalo-change-hope
… Ahead of the first round of the 2023 elections, the situation appeared bleak. The justice system continued to be a tool through which the powerful could attack their opponents, as illustrated by the six-year prison sentence given to the prominent journalist José Rubén Zamora in June. And the electoral playing field was unequal, with three high-profile, anti-system presidential candidates barred from competing on dubious grounds.
Arévalo was allowed to remain on the ballot paper because he was polling so badly. Then, in the run-up to the first-round vote in June, popular discontent unexpectedly coalesced around Semilla’s promise to clean up politics. Arévalo finished second, qualifying him for August’s runoff against the ex-first lady Sandra Torres, which he won by a landslide.
“Arévalo is a glitch in the matrix. Because at the end of the day, when people are angry and desperate, they vote for a Nayib Bukele, for a Javier Milei, for populists like them,” said Ortiz, referring to the leaders of El Salvador and Argentina. “They don’t usually vote for a Bernardo Arévalo – a sixtysomething-year-old sociologist.”..
If Trump is elected again, I don’t have great hope for US influence remaining so positive.
The only explanation I can think of for such bone-headedness is that utility companies have made a calculation that in the absence of any punitive element, it is cheaper for them just not to pay for the staff necessary to correct errors and deal adequately with complaints. In effect, they seem to be treating the ombudsman as a free complaints department that they don't have to pay for.
Every time that a complaint goes to the ombudsman the energy company has to pay £500 to the ombudsman for the associated costs even if they find in favour of the energy company.
William ‘could cut ties with Church of England’ as king
Unlike his grandmother, Queen Elizabeth, who regularly attended church with a bank note in her handbag for the collection, the Prince of Wales is not known for his Sunday attendance.
Now a biography has gone further, saying that Prince William could become the first British monarch to break official ties with the Church of England. William is also said to want to make his coronation service “less spiritual”, “shorter” by cutting it to about an hour and ten minutes, and “more discreet”.
The revelations feature in a book, Charles III: The Inside Story, by the journalist Robert Hardman. He writes: “In royal circles, it is no secret that [the Prince of Wales] does not share the King’s sense of the spiritual, let alone the late Queen’s unshakeable devotion to the Anglican church.”
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/prince-william-church-of-england-break-ties-7dsgjrzth
If the Middle East mess continues, then it will start going up again - even if oil prices stay stable, shipping rates have doubled (maintained, that's about 0.7% on annual inflation).
The only thing that can help the Tories in many seats will be a split opposition.
"It is safe to say the rise in inflation in December is a big shock to economists. It was widely forecast to fall further to 3.7%.
So what is to blame? Cigarettes and booze, according to the Office for National Statistics.
It says that tobacco and alcohol had the biggest impact on prices rises.
We will bring you more as we delve deeper into the figures."
Fuel prices, certainly round here, are currently falling and oil and gas prices seem unmoved by what is going on in the Middle East.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/business-67998084
Edit - Surely it will trigger a certain poster more that the Queen used cash?
It would be interesting to see a comparison of the results from old and new boundaries at a range of polling outcomes, including the current national VI.
Given the importance of incumbency and past second places to the Lib Dems you’d think this will probably hinder their chances. The one counter to this being that in areas where Labour were second in the old seats last time but with no record on the new one, and Lib Dems are strong on the local council in those wards, tgis potentially helps with the bar charts.
Fuel and Energy prices are falling, and if Oil continues its downward trajectory more relief ahead.
One counterpoint: in some cases I think policy can lead and change ‘default’ public opinion by normalising a change, particularly over a generation. I think,
perhaps, this is what happened with attitudes towards homosexuality.
But I doubt this will happen with refugees as rhey are almost perfectly set up to remain the ‘other’ in uk society.
Individuals are marked and categorised; ones to watch and others to forget. A new tab has recently been created beneath those head coaches who are deemed unworthy of consideration, though. It is labelled “Joey Barton”. Do not touch.
The anecdote is relayed after one senior figure at the club was asked last week if Barton, sacked as manager of Bristol Rovers in October, would ever be considered for one of their managerial vacancies. “Not a chance,” they say.
Barton is unlikely to care. Not publicly, at least. After his playing career was held back by acts of violence and self-sabotage, the 41-year-old is now setting fire to his prospects of finding further opportunities as a football manager.
An industry that has provided Barton with no end of second chances – after prison, after an 18-month gambling ban and after multiple arrests – is finally seeing its patience expire thanks to a series of furious social media posts against female pundits and commentators.
They seem to have closed off any possible return to the game he claims to be defending. There might be other plans, such as his Common Sense show due to launch on Meta next month, but management was what Barton had considered his calling. As recently as October, he was studying for his UEFA Pro Licence. “I always wanted to be a footballer but I knew I’d be even better as a coach,” he once said.
That claim appears far-fetched after five years in charge of Fleetwood Town and Bristol Rovers when he never finished higher than sixth in League One. Any chance of proving it now appears to have been extinguished by his own vitriol. That pursuit of being ‘edgy’, a man who (he claims) says things others do not dare, has finally made Barton the pariah he spent 20 years threatening to become.
“He was damaged goods before this but he’s burned his boats now,” says one League One director who, like everyone in this report, is far too concerned for his safety to include his name.
Barton is not just a loudmouth. He is far more dangerous.
https://theathletic.com/5205522/2024/01/17/joey-barton-toxic-football/
https://www.electoralcalculus.co.uk/fcgi-bin/usercode.py?scotcontrol=Y&CON=21&LAB=46&LIB=10&Reform=14&Green=5&UKIP=&TVCON=&TVLAB=&TVLIB=&TVReform=&TVGreen=&TVUKIP=&SCOTCON=16&SCOTLAB=33.1&SCOTLIB=6&SCOTReform=1.5&SCOTGreen=2.5&SCOTUKIP=&SCOTNAT=36.9&display=AllChanged&regorseat=(none)&boundary=2019base
You can see why he is so concerned about Reform - because it's his seat (yet very few others)..
Gas and electric of course sneaked up in January but the current prediction seems to be for a 14% fall in April.
Tory MP Michael Tomlinson: “I don’t watch box sets. Ask me one on sport…”
#KayBurley: “What’s your favourite football team?”
MT: “I don’t have one but once went to Bournemouth where lots of goals were scored”
KB: “What was the score?
MT: “1-1”
Tragic
I do expect the MPC to hit their target quite quickly simply based on the money supply.
I cannot see it.
https://youtu.be/ZgVZLuJ6Skk?si=2dSjL3a_C1abYPzO
My point about more to come on fuel is simple. The Suez Canal is effectively shut, with ships diverting around the cape. We also have the Middle East boiling over into various spats. That means higher fuel prices and much much higher shipping costs.
Happily we are increasingly producing energy via wind and solar…
Apple tops Samsung for first time in global smartphone shipments
https://www.theverge.com/2024/1/16/24039830/apple-bestselling-phone-manufacturer-2023-samsung-idc-canalys-research
I do recall him being pretty good at Cricket.
This sort of comment amuses me. The person who says it always, of course, puts themselves on the 'unhinged' side.
She’s gone totally bonkers.
I got sufficiently hacked off with the stream of them last year that I ended up playing Howells’ Psalm Prelude ‘de Profundis’ as the voluntary for the service marking Ol’ Big Ears’ coronation. It is not a joyful piece.
'Our plan to bring inflation down is working'.
Chancellor Jeremy Hunt talks about the 4% increase in inflation for December.
MINISTER MEDIA TRAINING, DAY 1: When a journalist suggests the gov’t is about to collapse, don’t go “well, not quite yet”.
@BestForBritain
More of immigration minister' car crash. Claims no third reading of the #RwandaBill today was always the plan and his party is totally united.🤣
Burley: "The PM might have to collapse the gov't."
Tomlinson: "Well, no, I think we're getting a little bit ahead of ourselves." ~AA
Excl: The minister who'll be in charge of ignoring Rule 39 orders himself warned that doing so would breach international law:
What I expect to see is a tactical voting website with her face all over it, enter your postcode and it says vote lib dem / Labour.
And the Lib Dems will be making great use of it on their leaflets because hey where is the harm when seeking any Tory votes
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2024/jan/17/british-politics-chaos-red-wall-voters-world
What amazes me is the seamless integration between them. Android / Google used to be able to do this, but it got progressively clunky in recent years. Yes there are still a few why-is-it-doing-that moments. But mostly I'm very happy having defected to the dark side...
No one outside of the media and PB pays any attention to “influencers” like her
🚨NEW Westminster Voting Intention
📈17pt Labour lead.
🌹Lab 44 (-1)
🌳Con 27 (+1)
🔶LD 11 (+1)
➡️Reform 7 (-1)
🌍Green 4 (-1)
🎗️SNP 3 (=)
⬜️Other 4 (=)
2,148 UK adults, 12-14 January
(chg 5-7 Jan)
She has 947 000 followers on twitter. That is half of Farage, but not insignificant.
Asked how long it will take to get flights off ground after Bill passes Parliament, the minister says 'it's not a matter of days or weeks'
So, does that mean it will take months?
"No, it is not days or weeks".