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Why the local elections could bring some temporary respite to Sunak – politicalbetting.com
Why the local elections could bring some temporary respite to Sunak – politicalbetting.com
… the main reason for my new scepticism about massive Con losses is that while as shorthand it's acceptable to say the seats were last fought at the Tory high tide of 2021, that is a simplification. A third of the seats up in May were last fought in 2019, 2022 or 2023… 2/5
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I feel like the tories are so fucked out, brain-dead and exhausted that they can't even be bothered to oust Big Rish no matter what.
But I can’t see them retaining many of the mayoral seats - North Yorkshire is probably the only good news story they will get and that’s an expected win
Proceeds to PB.
(There's no rush about the line - just PM me, and it'll be good)
Mr Communication Skillz
After repeatedly denying that the fall in small boat crossings last year had anything to do with the weather, Rishi Sunak's spokesperson now blames rising small boat crossing numbers on... the weather.
https://twitter.com/AdamBienkov/status/1775119772365045955
SSI - Note that in late 1942 - early 1943, the Luffwaffe blamed "the weather" for their failure to supply the German 6th Army in Stalingrad.
Back then, the Wehrmacht was in roughly same strategic situation, that CUP HMG is dealing with (just as badly) in 2024.
If there’s any possible way of spinning May 2nd then he should go straight to the country in June.
If he doesn’t, and I’m not expecting him to have the courage, then I’m beginning to think they face Armageddon in the autumn.
AP (via Seattle Times) - Iowa woman sentenced in ballot box stuffing scheme to support husband
SIOUX CITY, Iowa (AP) — The wife of an Iowa county supervisor was sentenced Monday to four months in jail after being convicted in a scheme to stuff the ballot box to support her husband’s unsuccessful campaign for a congressional seat.
Kim Taylor also was ordered to serve four months’ home confinement following her release from prison and to pay $5,200, KTIV-TV reports.
Prosecutors said Taylor, a Vietnam native who was convicted in November of 52 counts related to voter fraud, approached numerous voters of Vietnamese heritage with limited English comprehension and filled out and signed election forms and ballots on behalf of them and their English-speaking children.
They said the scheme was designed to help her husband, Jeremy Taylor, a former Iowa House member, who finished a distant third in the 2020 race for the Republican nomination to run for Iowa’s 4th District congressional seat. Despite that loss, he ultimately won election to the Woodbury County Board of Supervisors that fall.
No one testified to seeing Kim Taylor personally sign any of the documents, but her presence in each voter’s home when the forms were filled out was the common thread through the case.
Jeremy Taylor, who met his wife while teaching in Vietnam, has not been charged but has been named as an unindicted co-conspirator.
SSI - Here are the results of the primary in question, note emphasizes the stupidity of the convicted election fraudster, seeing as how her hubby had even less chance of winning that primary than (for example) Hillary Clinton.
Republican 2020 Primary for US House, Iowa 4th Congressional District (source NYT)
Randy Feenstra
36,797 45.7%
Steve King (incumbent)
28,977 36.0
Jeremy Taylor
6,295 7.8
Bret Richards
5,983 7.4
Steven Reeder
2,463 3.1%
https://www.cell.com/cell/abstract/S0092-8674(24)00305-2
Accumulating evidence suggests that cardiovascular disease (CVD) is associated with an altered gut microbiome. Our understanding of the underlying mechanisms has been hindered by lack of matched multi-omic data with diagnostic biomarkers. To comprehensively profile gut microbiome contributions to CVD, we generated stool metagenomics and metabolomics from 1,429 Framingham Heart Study participants. We identified blood lipids and cardiovascular health measurements associated with microbiome and metabolome composition. Integrated analysis revealed microbial pathways implicated in CVD, including flavonoid, γ-butyrobetaine, and cholesterol metabolism. Species from the Oscillibacter genus were associated with decreased fecal and plasma cholesterol levels. Using functional prediction and in vitro characterization of multiple representative human gut Oscillibacter isolates, we uncovered conserved cholesterol-metabolizing capabilities, including glycosylation and dehydrogenation. These findings suggest that cholesterol metabolism is a broad property of phylogenetically diverse Oscillibacter spp., with potential benefits for lipid homeostasis and cardiovascular health...
On the face of it the LibDem doesn’t seem to be a good choice; a former London local government councillor. Industrial Lancashire isn’t, allegedly anyway, that friendly to people who speak Estuary, although I never had any problems in Manchester when I worked there 60 years ago.
I feel the same will apply here. Maybe on a considered analysis, the local election results won’t be as bad as they could’ve been for the Tories, but that message won’t cut through. It will be “Tory losses” in the headlines. Headline writers and the public are not psephologists.
What the Tories will need to look good is something high-profile, which means Houchen and/or Street hanging on.
. . . . In the United States, the government sorts food into five categories: dairy, fruit, grains, protein and vegetables. Potatoes are classified as a vegetable.
But a federal government agency called the Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee is considering reclassifying potatoes as a grain when it updates its dietary guidelines for 2025.
U.S. senators from Washington and Idaho joined a group of 12 other national lawmakers to send a letter to that advisory committee, urging it to keep potatoes classified as vegetables.
enators Maria Cantwell, D-Wash.; James Risch, R-Idaho; and Mike Crapo, R-Idaho, all signed the letter showing opposition to reclassifying potatoes as grains.
“Since the inception of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, it has classified potatoes correctly as a vegetable,” the letter reads. “There is no debate about the physical characteristics of the potato and its horticultural scientific classification. Unlike grains, white potatoes are strong contributors of potassium, calcium, vitamin C, vitamin B6, and fiber.”
The group of 14 senators argued that reclassifying potatoes as grains would confuse consumers and retailers. . . .
The National Potato Council argued in the letter that potatoes offer more of a nutritional punch than wheat and other grains, noting that potatoes have more potassium than bananas. A medium baked potato contains 15% of the daily recommended value of dietary fiber, 27% of the daily recommended value of vitamin B6 and 28% of the daily recommended value of vitamin C, the letter reads.
State Sen. Mark Schoesler, R-Ritzville, is a farmer from Eastern Washington who says he has represented the state’s potato lobby for his entire political career. He called the conversation about reclassifying potatoes as a grain “idiotic and ignorant,” saying any government agency pushing to do so should be defunded.
“They have an ax to grind, a vendetta against potato producers,” Schoesler said. “Don’t they have something better to do?”
SSI - And who say's bipartisanship is dead in Washington DC or in WA State?
As you may already have guessed, WA is a major potato-growing state, with spuds coming from section of eastern WA around Moses Lake. But NOT as big a producer as neighboring Idaho, which for years has been (in)famous for the proud motto "Famous Potatoes" emblazoned on its auto license plates.
https://www.amazon.com/Replica-License-Potatoes-Embossed-Novelty/dp/B0BKLTP9NB?th=1
Although Lord Ben Houchen of Teesport Scandal pretends not to be a Tory, that lie is quite difficult to deliver.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Millionaire_Next_Door
"Most of the millionaire households that they profiled did not have the extravagant lifestyles that most people would assume. This finding is backed up by surveys indicating how little these millionaire households have spent on such things as cars, watches, clothing, and other luxury products/services. Most importantly, the book gives a list of reasons for why these people managed to accumulate so much wealth (the top one being that "They live below their means")."
(One finding that may amuse some of you: Scots families in the US were, at the time of the study, about twice as likely to be millionaires as English families.)
So, 2021 was a decent cycle for Labour in Greater Manchester, slipstreaming a little from an Andy Burnham at the peak of his powers and decent turnout
Conversely, in the West Midlands, I suspect the Tories over performed.
Will be interesting to say if such nuances slant the overall picture.
BREAKING: JK Rowling's comments about new hate crime laws "are not assessed to be criminal", police have said, as they confirmed no further action would be taken
Wondering how many other patients have been affected by suchlike?
For example . . .
Stir Crazy (1980) - Cover Your Jewels Scene
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XvnWjkHgWEw
Khan 44
Hall 26
Others single figs
And London Westminster
Lab 52
Con 21
LD 11
About 7.5% swing ConLab and 4% swing ConLD from 2019
They are root vegetables. In what way are they grains - even metaphorically ?
Perhaps worth noting that a million bucks today, just ain't what it used to be.
But no, trigger finger problems.
The legislation in question remains dreadful and it is no surprise that the police have decided that NFA is an excellent general-purpose response.
@DominoR87778
Number of people England who voted Labour at a GE
2017: Corbyn 11.4 mill
1997: Blair 11.3 mill
1992: Kinnock 9.6 mill
2019: Corbyn 9.2 mill
2001: Blair 9.1 mill
2015: Miliband 8.1 mill
2005: Blair 8.0 mill
2010: Brown 7.0 mill
Whilst against the whole establishment
Not because it had caused harm or to be awkward but because it must be a risk for future patients and should be fixed.
The chances of anyone actually listening or changing their broken process must be pretty low though (one of the many problem with the NHS).
Interesting.
Simple stuff like slapping on a logo fools more folks and travels further
https://www.theregister.com/2024/04/02/microsoft_election_ai_fakes/
The procedure at the lab, was for staff to ask patients NOT just about their names BUT also for their date of birth.
Turned out that another guy also at the lab for tests, also had my same first and last name; but different DOB.
Thankfully they checked BOTH names AND birth dates.
This isn’t about something woke (as if I’d mind that). It’s a serious issue.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/68713327
Raphael Varane: Man Utd and France defender says heading has 'damaged his body’
My point was that for many of the country most PB commentator's lifestyles represent extravagance beyond imagination.
So what? For many in India, the lifestyle of those on the minimum wage represents the same thing.
And so on. I might think how bonkers to spend £100,000 on a watch. But someone who either values owning a smart watch more than me or who has a net worth higher than mine might think nothing of it.
Admittedly it is a low probability event to have 'twins' in the same hospital but as Mrs Flatlander will tell you (a saga with HMRC which I recounted on here a while back) there is still a non-zero chance of confusion.
I thought this was what patient wrist bands were for?
Pure metaphysics....
Yet another "why the numbers aren't the numbers" post in PB 🙄🙄🙄
Well you have done the study. More money will prevent someone putting the wrong name on a patient's notes.
I'm sure it would also prevent the eg contaminated blood scandal and suchlike.
The UK election will be the same online, but thankfully there isn’t the pervasive negative TV campaigning we see in the States.
Something
Something
Sir Keith “Kid Starver & Genocide” Starmer is the worst Blue Tory ever
Something
Do I win a cookie?
And "not high" chance of waking up with a missing leg . . . or whatever, ain't exactly reassuring.
We have seen big issues with institutional disregard in a variety of bodies: public, quasi-private (Post Office) and private (Boeing).
Quite often get my names reversed in hospital. I understand, and don’t get cross, until the ‘offending’ member of staff argues with me.
It’s Lysenkoist.
Mission accomplished.
At the center of the spud identity crisis lies one central question: Is it harmful to classify potatoes as a vegetable?
Those who say the answer to that question is “yes” argue that potatoes are nowhere near as nutrient-dense as other vegetables, and officially classifying them as such misleads people and gives them a spot on hundreds of thousands of public school lunch trays that would be better filled with something like broccoli or romaine lettuce.
In a study, Harvard’s School of Public Health compared potatoes’ effects on blood sugar to that of a can of soda or a handful of jelly beans.
“The roller-coaster-like effect of a high dietary glycemic load can result in people feeling hungry again soon after eating,” the study reads, “which may then lead to overeating.”
SSI - So blame the elitists who pahk their cahs in Hahvad Yahd . . .
ETA: I still call in a hit squad every time anyone calls me "Matt" though.
Don’t abuse science.
Possible third method of patient ID might be (for example) patient's address; OR in USA last four digits of social security number (or in UK the patient's NHS number?)
You may not like their politics, but Elliott (led the Brexit campaign) and Moynihan (entrepreneur who built up PA Consulting) are definitely not “no mark donors”
Porter is a classical SPAD appointment so a bit meh.
There is a lot of evidence the damage heading does to a footballer especially in later life
I was playing a football match in Edinburgh in 1962 when I was elbowed in the back of the neck
Apparently I played for another 10 minutes before collapsing on the field and an ambulance was called. In the ambulance I said to my now wife you are wearing an engagement ring and who are you engaged to, before collapsing back into unconsciousness
I woke about 3.00am in the trauma ward of Edinburgh Royal Infirmary being violently sick and had no idea what had happened
It took over 6 months to recall going out to the match and playing, and even today I cannot recall everything about that evening
I didn't play football again and this is one isolated incident
The time may come when heading is outlawed but the game would not be recognisable
Otherwise all went swimmingly.
Nice to know I am a Viking. All I know about my ancestors is they worked in pubs in London.
226 incidents of wrong site surgery in 2019-20. Some of these were wrong patient.
https://www.theguardian.com/society/2021/jun/03/wrong-woman-given-invasive-procedure-among-nhs-mixups
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ketchup_as_a_vegetable