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The enthusiasm gap – politicalbetting.com
The enthusiasm gap – politicalbetting.com
Of course, with 58% unfavourable towards the Conservatives maybe it doesnt matter https://t.co/1K63vkJhwQ
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The manifesto is probably the last danger point for Labour. They need to get the balance right between not being too adventurous with not appearing too conservative.
Even I wouldn’t have been able to answer that I was confident Labour could provide it.
This country has too many problems for Labour to sort out for a very long time, if at all.
But that won’t decide the election. It won’t be a landslide because of enthusiasm for anything. It will be a landslide to kick the Conservatives out to touch, beyond the stands, and into the streets beyond.
Unless Starmer and his team step into the telephone box after election, they won’t be getting the extended honeymoon that Blair got. And to tackle the immense problems facing the country in any sort of meaningful way inevitably means upsetting some people, and it is far from clear that they have either the required insight, determination or stomach.
It is however good news for the minor parties, since opponents of the government in their key target seats will be more easily persuaded to vote tactically if those voters aren’t bursting to put their X against Labour in the first place, and just want to see the back of the Tories.
Says a Trump White House could impose a nationwide ban on abortion by enforcing the 1873 Comstock Act. No need for any new legislation to go through Congress.
"The Comstock Act, championed by anti-vice crusader Anthony Comstock and passed in 1873, made it a federal crime to send or receive any material deemed "obscene, lewd or lascivious". The statute makes specific mention of birth control and abortion, barring any materials designed or intended for "the prevention of conception or procuring of abortion"."
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-68580015
I'm too humble to name that poster, but it's one area that he's sad he was right about.
It's quite nice to have woken up at a normal-ish time for once.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cz9zqn77ezno
We've resisted the constant pleadings of our energy supplier to get a smart meter. So far, at least...
I would expect two terms as even a disappointing Starmer government is going to be preferred to a return of the Tory fiasco. The chances of a resurgent Tory party are negligible in the first term.
As it happens, I met the guy who instals them on the island, while he was doing some other electrical works, and he had some horror stories to share, including people cut off from supply altogether when the meter's comms failed to connect. He said he currently has as many jobs on hand to remove installed smart meters as he does to instal new ones.
We’ve discussed before that the electorate were uncertain about Blair until his win. The same will happen with Starmer, I expect.
I have refused to get one installed in my current flat on that basis.
I'd rather have sane people in charge than politicians. Or indeed civil servants.
Seeking high office is a contraindicator for having the sanity to exercise high office well. See Boris Johnson for an extreme example of this.
Also see Boris Johnson for an example of someone who rated badly but still won a big victory because his opponent rated a lot worse. The Kier:Rishi ratings are pretty similar to the Boris:Jez ones.
And in spite of, the sentiments there, a good morning to one and all!
Starmer looks to me the exact opposite of Sunak. Under-promise and over-deliver rather than over-promise and under-deliver.
Not 100% sure of course, could be AI...
Perhaps the manifesto will be bold and radical as Cleitophon says.
I cling to this idea more in hope than expectation: if I were a master tactician advising Starmer I’d have advised pretty much exactly what he has done so far - pull out all the stops to seem as unthreatening as you can to traditional Tory voters, embed the ‘no way back’ narrative for the Tories, before releasing a manifesto full of details in which you bury some pretty radical proposals, hoping that the ferocious Tory attacks on these radical proposals don’t land with the electorate because they’re no longer listening to the Tories.
The argument against this is Theresa May’s ‘dementia tax’. I imagine in Labour HQ there are currently pitched battles as to whether Starmer risks the equivalent ‘bold’ manifesto or keeps with the small target strategy. I hope for the former but accept I am hoping not expecting.
He makes a three day old bowl of dishwater seem like a crystal clear alpine stream.
See not only his destruction of Corbyn, but also of Johnson. Both of them put in positions where they destroyed themselves while Starmer did nothing to help them.
As for what happens next, I'm expecting a fair bit of using the rulebook correctly but fairly cynically to achieve his ends. And a rather wooly manifesto that turns out to provide cover for quite a lot.
I've said before- think of the magician who tells you to choose any card you like, but ensures you take the one he needs you to in order to make the trick work.
All manifesting a policy gets you is immunity from interference by the Lords, and that's only really valuable in the final year of your term.
The electric one saves me a lot of money as I can use great Octopus tariffs that need a smart meter.
The gas one is too far away from the hub that communicates with the company, so is in effect a dumb meter. This is annoying and I'm on a list to fix it, but all it means is that I have to read it and submit the readings once a month.
At the very least there will be a pool of competent Labour MPs for Starmer to choose from. And assuming he has a workable majority, he will also have strong support from his backbenchers for the 2024-2028 term.
Rishi Sunak has warned Oxford University against a “divisive” attempt to restrict the election of its next chancellor on the basis of age or sex, as Tory MPs accuse the university of making a “disastrous” move away from meritocracy.
After ministers privately raised fears of an attempt to stop the post of chancellor going to another older, white, male politician, MPs have said that the university risks endangering its reputation by allowing a “small committee of insiders” to decide who is allowed to stand.
They say that focusing on “principles of equality and diversity” puts Oxford at risk of imitating Harvard, whose first black president, Claudine Gay, was forced to resign earlier this year over accusations of plagiarism and equivocation over antisemitism.
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/tories-urge-oxford-university-not-to-restrict-its-election-of-chancellor-lpz5vrvqk
I doubt he will. He will be like the UKs Olaf Scholz. Dull, worthy and ineffective.
The reality is you're getting a smart meter whether you want one or not, the older (classic) meters are coming to the end of their certification period and the companies who made them now just make smart meters.
At best you'll get a smart meter put in dumb mode* as some areas cannot have them due to coverage or they live close to certain RAF bases but those are growing smaller.
*Putting a smart meter in dumb mode is that it acts like a classic meter but isn't a long term solution.
FWIW - I've had a smart meter since 2014 and never had problems, I was recently upgraded to SMETS2 version which is even better.
Buy now, get Nicola Sturgeon’s memoir next year
Families of coronavirus victims have questioned how she could write the book yet fail to produce any pandemic diaries
For those who cannot wait to secure their copy, Nicola Sturgeon’s memoir is on sale more than a year before its official publication date.
The former first minister’s account of her political career, for which she is thought to have been paid £300,000, has been made available for pre-order.
Readers are being asked to pay up to £28 (the recommended retail price) for the book, due to be published in August next year, even though it has yet to be finished and there is no guarantee it will deal with the tumultuous months following her shock resignation as SNP leader in February last year.
The memoir is already being criticised by families of coronavirus victims, who are questioning how Sturgeon could write a book about the past three decades yet fail to produce any pandemic diaries for the UK Covid-19 Inquiry.
The Scottish Covid Bereaved group has written to Humza Yousaf, her successor as first minister, asking for an explanation.
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/buy-now-get-nicola-sturgeons-memoir-next-year-2kpls98td
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/world-us-canada-68663071
(To be clear (and to avoid my premature death): the chips are almost certainly not the issue. The systems they are designed to go in are very complex and a very different matter.)
(Edit . It is the nation's largest port facilities for specialized cargo (roll-on/roll-off ships)
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Port_of_Baltimore
That is going to cause problems.
...During the third quarter of 2017, the Port of Baltimore had a 15% increase in general cargo tons from the third quarter in 2016. Since 2014, the Port has become the fourth fastest-growing port in North America with a 9.8% increase in the amount of cargo handled from the previous year. It is currently ranked 8th of 36 US ports for gross tonnage and 7th in dollar value.[18][19]
The Port handles one-fourth of the country's coal exports...
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/02/22/world/asia/china-bridge-collapse-ship.html
It also looks as though the entire bridge, aside from one of the approach viaducts, has collapsed.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ports_in_the_United_States
By value much higher, as European car imports got through it.
If I were Starmer and co and have won the GE, I’d prefer to go in on the back of low expectations - the Tories have set the bar so low, it will be hard to look as bad and to deliver as little. There are relatively quick wins available: basic competence, an end to relentless culture war, moving closer to the EU, a degree of backbench stability plus the prospects of a slowly improving economy and lower immigration. Then there will be the absolute carnage of a Tory leadership campaign fought largely on GBNews.
Of course, it can all go pear-shaped very quickly on the back of events and mistakes, but under-promise and over-deliver seems a decent starting strategy to me.
https://x.com/Conservatives/status/1772321715713982730?s=20
I would have thought the 50p was too expensive let alone £28.00
I see quite a few people with 'smart meter' issues at Citizens Advice. So far everyone has turned out to the client's mistake (usually not appreciating how much energy prices have gone up).
My smart meter has allowed me to take advantage of Octopus's variable rate charging - saving us £40 pm atm - you luddites are welcome to give that benefit a miss.
https://www.theguardian.com/society/2024/mar/26/my-child-was-drowning-life-and-death-on-an-english-maternity-ward
It's supposed to be a piss take, but a rather dangerous minority will take it seriously. The 15-minute/ULEZ/anti- vaxx/5G/Facebook group are already blowing stuff up in London.
I don't think it's hysterical to say it puts Khan in a little more danger than he already is. It's what leads to stuff like this:
BBC News - Road closures: Workers facing knives, machetes and guns
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-surrey-68633010
I don't buy that.
https://twitter.com/abierkhatib/status/1772222434734686212?s=42&t=a8w_iZEdCb52zK_FrBw3IA
"Is it me, or does this look deliberate?" etc, etc.
It will not have been deliberate. Factors could vary through gross human error, machinery/technology failure, design/procedural failures, or even just dumb bad luck. But it will not have been deliberate.
(I assume a pilot would have been on board, as well as the normal crew.)
Even something like the Hythe Pier strike was not deliberate.
https://www.dailyecho.co.uk/news/23891006.dredger-destroyed-part-hythe-pier-causing-300k-damage/
https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/547c70cce5274a42900000d3/Donald_Redford.pdf
Goebbels localised for British humour.
Starmer has no vision and no charisma, unlike Blair who could hide under some illusory rapport with moderates and a growing economy. So I think the most likely scenario for the probable next government is a short honeymoon, then popularity in the toilet for the same reason as the current one - a diverse coalition with incompatible goals, combined with a poor economy.
The Baltimore bridge is built pretty well on the spot where he watched "the rockets' red glare".
Labour won't need enthusiasm even at the following election unless Conservatives sort themselves out by then.
It's also comically untrue. Murders are falling, gun crime is falling, and London has one of the lowest rates of antisocial behaviour in the country.
Lies are all the Tories have left.
That Conservative advert is ridiculous. I'm not a Khan fan (the beach body ready nonsense was pathetic puritanism) but winning an election is not 'seizing power'. Hyperbolic slurs exaggerating what could be legitimate criticisms are wretched.
A shift from nuance to absolutes and extremes is something we saw during the Peloponnesian War and see in the current US political arena. Mindless tribalism is not something I regard well in sport, and even less so in politics.