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Letting ‘I dare not” wait upon ‘I would,’Like the poor cat i’ the adage – politicalbetting.com
Letting ‘I dare not” wait upon ‘I would,’Like the poor cat i’ the adage – politicalbetting.com
I have listened very carefully to the vision @JohnSwinney set out this morning for Scotland.I welcomed, and embrace, his commitment to ensure internal respect for robust and divergent debate in the party, which is the lifeblood of any democratic institution like the SNP. /1
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So basically the SNP stall for another two years. And then they'll be out of power so the pressure will be off. Indy is dead for a decade minimum. Well done, Sturgeon fans.
https://x.com/WingsScotland/status/1786030461317161376
As SNP leader in the early 2000s and more recently as Nicola Sturgeon's deputy, John Swinney has been at the heart of some of the SNP's most toxic policies.
How will going back to the future get the SNP out of the mess they're in?
K–––E–––I–––R.
I'd expect much better of you Sean!
How it started. How it's going.
"The deep-state dog bots on X mock Americans by selling my MUGAhat™ to fund bombs for Ukraine. But if even a single dollar from the sales of my hat reaches Ukraine, my lawyers will speak to you, and you'll regret it."
https://www.saintjavelin.com/products/muga-cap-pre-order
I agree with this and it is a lesson for the conservative party
Just as Swinney will take the hit so will Sunak, which can lay the foundation for new leaders and hopefully new direction post GE 24 and Holyrood 2026
One acquaintance of mine says a black journalist colleague of hers was sent to cover the protests. She'd never been racially abused before in her life, but during an afternoon there, she was called "N****r" 33 times (she made a note each time).
It's a good sign for the SNP that their internal divisions have not reached Game of Tories levels, where the losers are expelled from the party.
Can they convince the voters?
Therefore, although it’s possible that Swinney is sub-optimal for SINDY hopes, one must blame the voters themselves, rather than internal SNP decision-making.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jim_Crow_laws
So, I wouldn't use "Jim Crow" to describe requiring voter IDs, something found in many democratic nations.
Second, Republicans often accuse Democrats of vote fraud*; Democrats often accuse Repulicans of vote suppression. Both are sometimes right, but far less often than they claim.
And Democrats sometimes suppress votes, just as Republicans sometimes commit vote fraud.
I doubt whether TSE is old enough to have heard this classic American joke, but everyone interested in American election history should know it:
While Lyndon Johnson was president, he goes out on Lake Michigan in a small boat with then Vice President Hubert Humphrey and Chicago Mayor Richard Daley. A storm comes up. There is only one life jacket. The three agree to vote on who gets it. Johnson votes for himself, and Humphrey, our of loyalty, votes for Johnson, too.
When the votes are counted, they find that Daley won, 3-2.
(*As far as I can tell, now when vote fraud actually makes a difference in the outcome, it generally occurs in Democratic primaries, and is committed with postal ballots.)
PBers will need to forecast the three constituencies where:
(a) The Conservative vote falls the most in percentage terms
(b) The Conservative vote falls most in absolute number of voters
and
(c) Where the smallest percentage of Conservative votes is
Given boundary changes, (a) will be judged relative to notional vote shares (Electoral Calculus will do), (b) will be based only on seats where there is a clear successor, and (c) is easy.
The prize will be a MUGA hat, made in Ukraine.
Where's counting tonight? And where do we need to wait for tomorrow?
I mention this, because I'm flying to England today.
The tiebreaker is: what will Sunak's voteshare in Richmond be?
Polling shows a larger drop in support for the SNP than for independence, which rather suggests the opposite.
Which is no more likely than it has been since 2014
I love election day
SNP ‘faces point of difficulty’, says John Swinney as he launches leadership bid.
Speaking to Sky's @ConnorGillies, Mr Swinney refused to be drawn on whether his bid had the support of former SNP leader Nicola Sturgeon.
Nicola Sturgeon’s finance secretary has now backed Nicola Sturgeon’s deputy in the contest to succeed Nicola Surgeon’s health secretary as SNP leader.
This is a continuity government that will continue to campaign on independence and ignore the issues that really matter.
'Deutschunterricht, dat wor nix för mich
Denn ming Sproch, die jov et do nit
„Sprech ödentlich!“, hät de Mamm jesaht
„Di Zeuchnis, dat weed keine Hit“
Ich sprech doch nur ming eijene Sproch
Wuss nit, wat se vun mer will
Ejal, wat ich saachen dät, et wor verkeeht'
(Deutschunterricht, das war nichts für mich,
Denn meine Sprache, die gab es da nicht.
"Sprech ordentlich!", hat die Mama gesagt,
"Das Zeugnis, das wird kein Hit"
Ich spreche doch nur meine eigene Sprache
Ich wusste nicht, was sie von mir will
Egal, was ich gesagt habe, es war verkehrt)
also would c) include Northern Ireland, or constituencies where they don't have a candidate (Speaker?)
Shropshire North (Greatest vote number drop & %)
Riverside (Abs lowest) I assume we're excluding NI & Speaker.
Sunak Richmond 40%
You cannot buy comedy gold like that.
https://www.meidastouch.com/news/summary-of-trump-contempt-hearing
...Blanche then complained about several of Cohen's social media posts about Trump, including one where he said that he wouldn't put any money in his prison commissary and one where he referred to Trump as "Vonshitzenpants," which resulted in laugher from the audience in the courtroom. He then argued that Cohen is going on TikTok every night disparaging Trump and making money off it. He closed by saying, "This is not a man who needs protection from a gag order."
Merchan then wanted Blanche to focus his arguments on the violation about the jury that he seemed most concerned about. Blanche argued that since Trump was talking about the jury as a whole instead of one particular juror, then it isn't a violation. Merchan seemed incredulous at that argument. ..
Having read the comments, I'm changing the competition very slightly:
(a) The Conservatice vote drop in percentage points
(b) The proportionally largest Conservative vote drop
(c) The absolute Conservative vote drop (in terms of number of votes)
and
(d) The smallest percentage of Conservative votes
Obv, excluding Northern Ireland, the Speaker, and any other seats where there is no Conservative candidate.
But this is the spanner party of limited brain
He'd previously lost the right to be taken seriously by the judge. How much lower can he plumb?
'A government spokesperson said it was the intention to add the veterans’ card to the list of accepted ID and that defence identity cards for serving armed forces members were already accepted. “We are already consulting on this,” they said.'
https://x.com/agathedemarais/status/1786063323743596988
Anorak detail from the HoCL here: https://commonslibrary.parliament.uk/how-do-constituencies-get-their-names/
Anyway, here’s Keir Starmer’s answer when he was asked who should play up front for England
https://x.com/fistedaway/status/1575413214111834113?s=46&t=CW4pL-mMpTqsJXCdjW0Z6Q
"I recently reread my statement ... and it suddenly occurred to me that I wasn't in charge at the time."
This is not a joke.
https://twitter.com/lordbonkers/status/1785410487401816359
The "winning" seats may very well be ones that don't currently exist.
For what it is worth compass point after makes more sense to me, since if you were looking at them in a list it would make alll the ones for a county (at least those including the county name) easier to find.
“You can have freedom of speech. But, I cannot guarantee freedom after speech.”
If Labour do not win every seat in the country I think it shows that people are not that keen on Keir Starmer.
Too much for a Tory spokesman?
Edit: the two obvious ones on PB - absent any old enough to be National Servicemen - split 50:50, indeed.
In fairness, Trump's 'never concede anything' style is putting many defences and tactics off limits for his lawyers.
Baker made two County Championship appearances this season, the last against Durham at Kidderminster in April.
The left-armer made his first-class debut in 2021 and played 47 games in all formats, taking 70 wickets.
"The news of Josh’s passing has left us all devastated," said Worcestershire chief executive Ashley Giles.
The club has not said how Baker died.
He played in a county second XI fixture this week against Somerset at Bromsgrove School, taking three wickets on Wednesday after wet conditions meant no play was possible on the first two days.
Worcestershire's first XI do not have a County Championship fixture this week.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/cricket/articles/cpegzx4kz5xo
This could be the key to it: Starmer hesitates on England team selection - he's blown the election hasn't he?
Our polling station (in the C of E church): Turnout brisk - a mixture of oldies and the first of the after-work crowd.
Polling station in town (community centre sort of place): Turnout steady - a couple of oldies, one of whom looked like an old Trot, and a bloke wearing a tie, so probably all voting Conservative.
Lovely late afternoon for a walk too. Fine weather benefiting Labour?
You *can* buy comedy gold like that. It cost the SNP about £100k.
I defy anyone not to be absolutely amazed.
Thankfully, she bottled it , played the Westminster game and the moment passed. I don’t think it will come again in my lifetime.