Just like to congratulate the Greens on managing to get their election communication into my letter box just now, some seven hours after I actually voted.
SKS personal ratings are still pretty poor, given the circumstances, IMO.
This certainly isn't 1997 and he's not being swept into Downing St on a wave of goodwill like Blair was. There will be no years-long honeymoon and I think he'll be a very unpopular Prime Minister within a couple of years, personally.
SKS personal ratings are still pretty poor, given the circumstances, IMO.
This certainly isn't 1997 and he's not being swept into Downing St on a wave of goodwill like Blair was. There will be no years-long honeymoon and I think he'll be a very unpopular Prime Minister within a couple of years, personally.
Two thirds of your prospective vote feeling favourable towards you before you shit on their dreams is not a recipe for Sunshine und Roses
SKS personal ratings are still pretty poor, given the circumstances, IMO.
This certainly isn't 1997 and he's not being swept into Downing St on a wave of goodwill like Blair was. There will be no years-long honeymoon and I think he'll be a very unpopular Prime Minister within a couple of years, personally.
Boris Johnson was turned away from a polling station when trying to vote in the local elections after forgetting to bring acceptable photo ID.
Sky News understands polling station staff were forced to turn the former prime minister away after he initially failed to comply with legislation he introduced while he was in Downing Street.
SKS personal ratings are still pretty poor, given the circumstances, IMO.
This certainly isn't 1997 and he's not being swept into Downing St on a wave of goodwill like Blair was. There will be no, years-long honey moon and I think he'll be a very unpopular Prime Minister within a couple of years, personally.
Starmer simply changes his mind so often nobody can trust him to do as he says
The latest is the watering down of workers rights, including zero hours contracts, which I believe is the correct thing to do
He leaves me unimpressed and I do not expect he will take the difficult decision needed such as abolished the triple lock or accepting retirement age rises to over 70
And the biggest of all is the lack of any policy on social care which is fundamental to addressing the issues with the NHS
Notwithstanding, the conservatives, like the SNP, need to go into opposition and decide where their future lies and let Starmer and labour come under the intense 24/7 media scrutiny that is now the way of politics
Perhaps least unpopular would be slightly more accurate.
I see plenty think Starmer will swiftly plumb Sunakian levels of unpopularity once elected. Perhaps even Trussite or Johnsonian marks of unfavourability or it may just be because @isam doesn't like him.
MY feeling is after the election and presuming Starmer wins big, the vast majority will switch off from politics and just let him get on with it. There are plenty on the Conservative side who said in 1997 people would soon see through "phoney Tony" and the Conservatives would be back - didn't quite work out like that, did it?
I think Starmer will be a decent Prime Minister certainly by contrast with the no-marks of the last 15 years. He's no Blair and he's no Thatcher of course but that won't stop him doing a decent job and his most serious issues are likely to be internal Labour discipline but if he wins big and takes Labour back to power he'll be afforded plenty of slack.
Just like to congratulate the Greens on managing to get their election communication into my letter box just now, some seven hours after I actually voted.
Any mention of the environment, or all blokes in dresses and Gaza?
Further thoughts on Paris. It really depends where you go. The left bank is generally much better. The 6th and 7th look fine. Even around Gare Montparnasse it looks civilised
It’s as soon as you cross the Seine and it’s anywhere in and around the 1st and 2nd, and of course, the Gare du Nord
I’m about 300m from the Opera and I just saw a guy lying flat out on the bare sidewalk, face down, apparently comatose. Fentanyl or Tranq I presume
You just didn’t see shit like that 20 years ago. Maybe even 5 years ago
It’s particularly noticeable in Paris BECAUSE it was once so pristine - and always beautiful. Now she’s like a model that got beaten up and lost three teeth and potentially an eye
I don't think it would be fent. Even our govt has the good sense to be monitoring the sewage for it and I am sure if the french found it the press would be full of omg le fent en Europe stories
Excellent piece on what the us drug problem looks like in phoenix Arizona (doubly sad because phoenix Arizona features in the most feel good song ever written)
That's more of a feel-melancholy song imo. Also a good example of how the vastness and diversity of America gives them such a songwriting advantage.
By the time I get to Crawley she'll be ... well whatever she'll be doing it doesn't work at all, does it.
"I never thought it would happen with me & the girl from Clapham..."
I think the UK has decent songwriting scope. You have the Scottish Highlands, London, (think Baker Street, Waterloo Sunset). Sadly Wales and Cornwall haven't been successfully mined for pop songs.
London has a lot of songs. Including one of the most beautiful songs ever written:
A Nightingale Sang In Berkeley Square
I reckon the Tori Amos version from Good Omens is particularly fine
Hadn't come across that before - though it does sound familiar from somewhere. It is a fine song, anyway, and I shall add it to my summer playlist - it sits almost plum in the centre of the Cookie family taste venn diagram. A pedant would point out that at first listen it appears to be a love song rather than actually about home ('home is where I'm alone with you' - a fine sentiment, but one which actually hints that geography is unimportant, which is the opposite theme) - though it does have a chord structure hinting at themes of home. Anyway, it's lovely - thank you.
I'm pretty sure that I introduced PB to that a few months back
Boris Johnson was turned away from a polling station when trying to vote in the local elections after forgetting to bring acceptable photo ID.
Sky News understands polling station staff were forced to turn the former prime minister away after he initially failed to comply with legislation he introduced while he was in Downing Street.
I have to admit that having 28% of people like him is something of a triumph for Starmer. We really don't like any of our politicians, do we?
We are living through an era in which our politicians are either despised, disliked, or not heard of by the vast majority of people. This is not a good thing at all.
In terms of the header, Labour will be content that the four most 'liked' politicians belong to them.
(((Dan Hodges))) @DPJHodges · 6m For now all is calm. But remember, in three hours time everyone is going to be on here screaming about Rallings and Thrasher…
SKS personal ratings are still pretty poor, given the circumstances, IMO.
This certainly isn't 1997 and he's not being swept into Downing St on a wave of goodwill like Blair was. There will be no years-long honeymoon and I think he'll be a very unpopular Prime Minister within a couple of years, personally.
Two thirds of your prospective vote feeling favourable towards you before you shit on their dreams is not a recipe for Sunshine und Roses
Or fantastic expectation management.
Looking at the SKS hate on here while remembering the tumescent enthusiasm for Liz “surprise on the upside” Truss barely 2 years ago is instructive.
Perhaps least unpopular would be slightly more accurate.
I see plenty think Starmer will swiftly plumb Sunakian levels of unpopularity once elected. Perhaps even Trussite or Johnsonian marks of unfavourability or it may just be because @isam doesn't like him.
MY feeling is after the election and presuming Starmer wins big, the vast majority will switch off from politics and just let him get on with it. There are plenty on the Conservative side who said in 1997 people would soon see through "phoney Tony" and the Conservatives would be back - didn't quite work out like that, did it?
I think Starmer will be a decent Prime Minister certainly by contrast with the no-marks of the last 15 years. He's no Blair and he's no Thatcher of course but that won't stop him doing a decent job and his most serious issues are likely to be internal Labour discipline but if he wins big and takes Labour back to power he'll be afforded plenty of slack.
Or, he could just be a competent administrator like Sunak that fails to heed the zeitgeist or deliver on expectations and rapidly plumbs the same depths.
Perhaps least unpopular would be slightly more accurate.
I see plenty think Starmer will swiftly plumb Sunakian levels of unpopularity once elected. Perhaps even Trussite or Johnsonian marks of unfavourability or it may just be because @isam doesn't like him.
MY feeling is after the election and presuming Starmer wins big, the vast majority will switch off from politics and just let him get on with it. There are plenty on the Conservative side who said in 1997 people would soon see through "phoney Tony" and the Conservatives would be back - didn't quite work out like that, did it?
I think Starmer will be a decent Prime Minister certainly by contrast with the no-marks of the last 15 years. He's no Blair and he's no Thatcher of course but that won't stop him doing a decent job and his most serious issues are likely to be internal Labour discipline but if he wins big and takes Labour back to power he'll be afforded plenty of slack.
Or, he could just be a competent administrator like Sunak that fails to heed the zeitgeist or deliver on expectations and rapidly plumbs the same depths.
Where's the evidence for Sunak being a competent administrator? Better than Truss, better than Johnson, but there's still an awful lot of space between that and competence.
SKS personal ratings are still pretty poor, given the circumstances, IMO.
This certainly isn't 1997 and he's not being swept into Downing St on a wave of goodwill like Blair was. There will be no years-long honeymoon and I think he'll be a very unpopular Prime Minister within a couple of years, personally.
The interesting question is whether 1997-style ratings are even possible anymore given the fact we are a more atomised society and everything a politician says is combed over and bound to annoy someone.
For example, there's little doubt burying Corbynism as sharply as he has, has been a net positive for Starmer, but it has annoyed a significant tranche of people who now think he's awful.
Political leadership now may not be about being incredibly popular with a huge number of people but with the right people.
There maybe a parallel with Boris post-Brexit and pre-Partygate - who was unpopular in historical terms but had two things going for him that won him a healthy majority.
Firstly, he was up against the even more unpopular Corbyn, secondly, he tended to be most popular with exactly the non-university educated older males who the Tories knew were open to switching votes. Meanwhile, those who loathed him were either never voting Tory or hated Corbyn more.
Starmer may manage a similar trick in reverse by being appealing most to the kind of not very political middle-class, middle-aged dads and mums who used to split Tory as Labour were 'risky' but now have just stopped voting Tory after the past decade of dramas and stuck or falling living standards.
Perhaps least unpopular would be slightly more accurate.
I see plenty think Starmer will swiftly plumb Sunakian levels of unpopularity once elected. Perhaps even Trussite or Johnsonian marks of unfavourability or it may just be because @isam doesn't like him.
MY feeling is after the election and presuming Starmer wins big, the vast majority will switch off from politics and just let him get on with it. There are plenty on the Conservative side who said in 1997 people would soon see through "phoney Tony" and the Conservatives would be back - didn't quite work out like that, did it?
I think Starmer will be a decent Prime Minister certainly by contrast with the no-marks of the last 15 years. He's no Blair and he's no Thatcher of course but that won't stop him doing a decent job and his most serious issues are likely to be internal Labour discipline but if he wins big and takes Labour back to power he'll be afforded plenty of slack.
Or, he could just be a competent administrator like Sunak that fails to heed the zeitgeist or deliver on expectations and rapidly plumbs the same depths.
A loveless second marriage with a local business owner for the sake of the kids.
SKS personal ratings are still pretty poor, given the circumstances, IMO.
This certainly isn't 1997 and he's not being swept into Downing St on a wave of goodwill like Blair was. There will be no years-long honeymoon and I think he'll be a very unpopular Prime Minister within a couple of years, personally.
Two thirds of your prospective vote feeling favourable towards you before you shit on their dreams is not a recipe for Sunshine und Roses
Or fantastic expectation management.
Looking at the SKS hate on here while remembering the tumescent enthusiasm for Liz “surprise on the upside” Truss barely 2 years ago is instructive.
From memory it was only really @Luckyguy1983 and @Leon would thought Loopy Lizzie might surprise on the upside.
Everyone else thought she was as mad a box of frogs and saw the iceberg looming a mile off 😂
Just like to congratulate the Greens on managing to get their election communication into my letter box just now, some seven hours after I actually voted.
Any mention of the environment, or all blokes in dresses and Gaza?
Didn't read it for fear of being so enthused by it that I'd be suffering monumental regret at not having voted for them.
Trump: Look at Paris. Look at London. They're no longer recognizable. I'm going to get myself into a lot of trouble, but you know what? That's the fact, they are no longer recognizable. We can't let that happen here
I have to admit that having 28% of people like him is something of a triumph for Starmer. We really don't like any of our politicians, do we?
We are living through an era in which our politicians are either despised, disliked, or not heard of by the vast majority of people. This is not a good thing at all.
In terms of the header, Labour will be content that the four most 'liked' politicians belong to them.
While too many individual politicians are deservedly disliked its not an easy job given the British people expect continual increases in personal wealth, to be given money to ensure that, to pay lower taxes, for people they don't like to pay higher taxes, for things they buy to get cheaper, for their own houses to increase in value, for other people's houses to decrease in value and for public services to be perfect.
Trump: Look at Paris. Look at London. They're no longer recognizable. I'm going to get myself into a lot of trouble, but you know what? That's the fact, they are no longer recognizable. We can't let that happen here
Sounds like he can no longer recognise the Eiffel Tower or Palace of Westminster. His dementia is clearly getting worse.
I see the YouGov poll has attracted plenty of comment.
@MoonRabbit seems to think a deal will be done between Reform and the Conservatives and that will send all or nearly all the Reform support back to the Conservatives and I and others are wrong to think otherwise.
That's an opinion and @MoonRabbit is entitled to it - I don't really know what the Conservatives can offer Reform to do a deal. Indeed, one could argue the bigger the defeat for the Conservatives the more likely Reform will effect a hostile post-election takeover and basically merge the parties by stealth or wealth or both.
There's also the suggestion an avalanche of "good news" will bury any doubts and allow a re-invigorated Sunak to go to the country with confidence in early July. It's possible as are most things in this life but I fail to see how this damascene conversion of millions back to the Conservatives in the light of the last four years (and especially the last two) is going to happen.
It doesn't matter what any of us think - time will tell, it always does. I'd also offer the thought just because something has never happened doesn't mean it can't. Sunak COULD reverse a 20-point deficit, Corbyn nearly did in 2017 and the Conservatives could get below 100 seats (they weren't that far from it in 1997).
During the 2017 campaign, the Conservative rating didn't move that much. The big change was Corbyn uniting all the not-Conservative vote behind him.
I suppose that could happen a bit, if Reform walk off the field of play, but it seems unlikely. We all know who Rishi is, and most of us don't like him or his party much.
SKS personal ratings are still pretty poor, given the circumstances, IMO.
This certainly isn't 1997 and he's not being swept into Downing St on a wave of goodwill like Blair was. There will be no years-long honeymoon and I think he'll be a very unpopular Prime Minister within a couple of years, personally.
Two thirds of your prospective vote feeling favourable towards you before you shit on their dreams is not a recipe for Sunshine und Roses
Or fantastic expectation management.
Looking at the SKS hate on here while remembering the tumescent enthusiasm for Liz “surprise on the upside” Truss barely 2 years ago is instructive.
From memory it was only really @Luckyguy1983 and @Leon would thought Loopy Lizzie might surprise on the upside.
Everyone else thought she was as mad a box of frogs and saw the iceberg looming a mile off 😂
You don't have a very good memory then. I thought she was a disaster during the early part of the campaign; I was in favour of PM. She grew on me as the least poor alternative in a one on one with Sunak (or more accurately he shrunk on me), and it was her actions and way of conducting herself when in Government that impressed me.
Boris Johnson turned away from polling station as he forgot his ID.
"Sky News understands polling station staff were forced to turn the former prime minister away after he initially failed to comply with legislation he introduced while he was in Downing Street.
Mr Johnson, who introduced the Elections Act requiring photo ID in 2022, was attempting to cast his ballot in South Oxfordshire, where a police and crime commissioner for the Thames Valley is being selected."
Boris Johnson was turned away from a polling station when trying to vote in the local elections after forgetting to bring acceptable photo ID.
Sky News understands polling station staff were forced to turn the former prime minister away after he initially failed to comply with legislation he introduced while he was in Downing Street.
Nice to know that even out of power and out of politics, Boris still remains a complete and total shambles! 😂
SKS personal ratings are still pretty poor, given the circumstances, IMO.
This certainly isn't 1997 and he's not being swept into Downing St on a wave of goodwill like Blair was. There will be no years-long honeymoon and I think he'll be a very unpopular Prime Minister within a couple of years, personally.
Not to mention that Blair became PM at about the easiest time during the entire 20th century.
Starmer will have a much harder job in a much more dangerous and unpredictable world.
So once the polls have closed and Houchen has secured the votes, it will be OK for the government to announce the cancellation of investment on Teesside.
Perhaps least unpopular would be slightly more accurate.
I see plenty think Starmer will swiftly plumb Sunakian levels of unpopularity once elected. Perhaps even Trussite or Johnsonian marks of unfavourability or it may just be because @isam doesn't like him.
MY feeling is after the election and presuming Starmer wins big, the vast majority will switch off from politics and just let him get on with it. There are plenty on the Conservative side who said in 1997 people would soon see through "phoney Tony" and the Conservatives would be back - didn't quite work out like that, did it?
I think Starmer will be a decent Prime Minister certainly by contrast with the no-marks of the last 15 years. He's no Blair and he's no Thatcher of course but that won't stop him doing a decent job and his most serious issues are likely to be internal Labour discipline but if he wins big and takes Labour back to power he'll be afforded plenty of slack.
Or, he could just be a competent administrator like Sunak that fails to heed the zeitgeist or deliver on expectations and rapidly plumbs the same depths.
Where's the evidence for Sunak being a competent administrator? Better than Truss, better than Johnson, but there's still an awful lot of space between that and competence.
Don't know if he's a competent administrator but if it's as bad as his political judgment it's lucky we haven't all fallen in the sea.
I see the YouGov poll has attracted plenty of comment.
@MoonRabbit seems to think a deal will be done between Reform and the Conservatives and that will send all or nearly all the Reform support back to the Conservatives and I and others are wrong to think otherwise.
That's an opinion and @MoonRabbit is entitled to it - I don't really know what the Conservatives can offer Reform to do a deal. Indeed, one could argue the bigger the defeat for the Conservatives the more likely Reform will effect a hostile post-election takeover and basically merge the parties by stealth or wealth or both.
There's also the suggestion an avalanche of "good news" will bury any doubts and allow a re-invigorated Sunak to go to the country with confidence in early July. It's possible as are most things in this life but I fail to see how this damascene conversion of millions back to the Conservatives in the light of the last four years (and especially the last two) is going to happen.
It doesn't matter what any of us think - time will tell, it always does. I'd also offer the thought just because something has never happened doesn't mean it can't. Sunak COULD reverse a 20-point deficit, Corbyn nearly did in 2017 and the Conservatives could get below 100 seats (they weren't that far from it in 1997).
During the 2017 campaign, the Conservative rating didn't move that much. The big change was Corbyn uniting all the not-Conservative vote behind him.
I suppose that could happen a bit, if Reform walk off the field of play, but it seems unlikely. We all know who Rishi is, and most of us don't like him or his party much.
I follow the express commentariat and they loathe Sunak and the tories. If Reform steps aside they will mainly stay home. To these characters conservative and Labour are simply the same "status quo" "consocialism". A deal will change nothing.
SKS personal ratings are still pretty poor, given the circumstances, IMO.
This certainly isn't 1997 and he's not being swept into Downing St on a wave of goodwill like Blair was. There will be no years-long honeymoon and I think he'll be a very unpopular Prime Minister within a couple of years, personally.
Two thirds of your prospective vote feeling favourable towards you before you shit on their dreams is not a recipe for Sunshine und Roses
Or fantastic expectation management.
Looking at the SKS hate on here while remembering the tumescent enthusiasm for Liz “surprise on the upside” Truss barely 2 years ago is instructive.
From memory it was only really @Luckyguy1983 and @Leon would thought Loopy Lizzie might surprise on the upside.
Everyone else thought she was as mad a box of frogs and saw the iceberg looming a mile off 😂
You don't have a very good memory then. I thought she was a disaster during the early part of the campaign; I was in favour of PM. She grew on me as the least poor alternative in a one on one with Sunak (or more accurately he shrunk on me), and it was her actions and way of conducting herself when in Government that impressed me.
OK, so it was just @Leon who thought she might surprise on the upside...
Perhaps least unpopular would be slightly more accurate.
I see plenty think Starmer will swiftly plumb Sunakian levels of unpopularity once elected. Perhaps even Trussite or Johnsonian marks of unfavourability or it may just be because @isam doesn't like him.
MY feeling is after the election and presuming Starmer wins big, the vast majority will switch off from politics and just let him get on with it. There are plenty on the Conservative side who said in 1997 people would soon see through "phoney Tony" and the Conservatives would be back - didn't quite work out like that, did it?
I think Starmer will be a decent Prime Minister certainly by contrast with the no-marks of the last 15 years. He's no Blair and he's no Thatcher of course but that won't stop him doing a decent job and his most serious issues are likely to be internal Labour discipline but if he wins big and takes Labour back to power he'll be afforded plenty of slack.
Or, he could just be a competent administrator like Sunak that fails to heed the zeitgeist or deliver on expectations and rapidly plumbs the same depths.
Of course. I think he's set some pretty low expectations so far - he may become more ambitious once elected (or not). I'm not sure what the zeitgeist is but I think you stay closer to it in Opposition than you do in Government and the longer any party stays in Government the further "removed" they get and the louder the accusations of being "out of touch".
Trump: Look at Paris. Look at London. They're no longer recognizable. I'm going to get myself into a lot of trouble, but you know what? That's the fact, they are no longer recognizable. We can't let that happen here
SKS personal ratings are still pretty poor, given the circumstances, IMO.
This certainly isn't 1997 and he's not being swept into Downing St on a wave of goodwill like Blair was. There will be no years-long honeymoon and I think he'll be a very unpopular Prime Minister within a couple of years, personally.
Two thirds of your prospective vote feeling favourable towards you before you shit on their dreams is not a recipe for Sunshine und Roses
Or fantastic expectation management.
Looking at the SKS hate on here while remembering the tumescent enthusiasm for Liz “surprise on the upside” Truss barely 2 years ago is instructive.
From memory it was only really @Luckyguy1983 and @Leon would thought Loopy Lizzie might surprise on the upside.
Everyone else thought she was as mad a box of frogs and saw the iceberg looming a mile off 😂
You don't have a very good memory then. I thought she was a disaster during the early part of the campaign; I was in favour of PM. She grew on me as the least poor alternative in a one on one with Sunak (or more accurately he shrunk on me), and it was her actions and way of conducting herself when in Government that impressed me.
OK, so it was just @Leon who thought she might surprise on the upside...
At least the weathers been okay for most parts today . Thats important this evening for Lab/Lib/Greens who will do better with those voting after work .
The Tories tend to do better earlier in the day given they’re now so reliant on pensioners.
Perhaps least unpopular would be slightly more accurate.
I see plenty think Starmer will swiftly plumb Sunakian levels of unpopularity once elected. Perhaps even Trussite or Johnsonian marks of unfavourability or it may just be because @isam doesn't like him.
MY feeling is after the election and presuming Starmer wins big, the vast majority will switch off from politics and just let him get on with it. There are plenty on the Conservative side who said in 1997 people would soon see through "phoney Tony" and the Conservatives would be back - didn't quite work out like that, did it?
I think Starmer will be a decent Prime Minister certainly by contrast with the no-marks of the last 15 years. He's no Blair and he's no Thatcher of course but that won't stop him doing a decent job and his most serious issues are likely to be internal Labour discipline but if he wins big and takes Labour back to power he'll be afforded plenty of slack.
Or, he could just be a competent administrator like Sunak that fails to heed the zeitgeist or deliver on expectations and rapidly plumbs the same depths.
Of course. I think he's set some pretty low expectations so far - he may become more ambitious once elected (or not). I'm not sure what the zeitgeist is but I think you stay closer to it in Opposition than you do in Government and the longer any party stays in Government the further "removed" they get and the louder the accusations of being "out of touch".
To paraphrase Blair:
We were elected with no ambition. We will govern with no ambition.
Trump: Look at Paris. Look at London. They're no longer recognizable. I'm going to get myself into a lot of trouble, but you know what? That's the fact, they are no longer recognizable. We can't let that happen here
He's entirely right. The demographic shift in London is incredible. It was 80-90% native white British within living memory, just two or three decades? Now native whites are a minority. You can, of course, argue whether this is good or bad, or a mix, but has it happened? Yes
Trying to deny it will make Dems looks stupid. Don't do it
Further thoughts on Paris. It really depends where you go. The left bank is generally much better. The 6th and 7th look fine. Even around Gare Montparnasse it looks civilised
It’s as soon as you cross the Seine and it’s anywhere in and around the 1st and 2nd, and of course, the Gare du Nord
I’m about 300m from the Opera and I just saw a guy lying flat out on the bare sidewalk, face down, apparently comatose. Fentanyl or Tranq I presume
You just didn’t see shit like that 20 years ago. Maybe even 5 years ago
It’s particularly noticeable in Paris BECAUSE it was once so pristine - and always beautiful. Now she’s like a model that got beaten up and lost three teeth and potentially an eye
I don't think it would be fent. Even our govt has the good sense to be monitoring the sewage for it and I am sure if the french found it the press would be full of omg le fent en Europe stories
Excellent piece on what the us drug problem looks like in phoenix Arizona (doubly sad because phoenix Arizona features in the most feel good song ever written)
That's more of a feel-melancholy song imo. Also a good example of how the vastness and diversity of America gives them such a songwriting advantage.
By the time I get to Crawley she'll be ... well whatever she'll be doing it doesn't work at all, does it.
"I never thought it would happen with me & the girl from Clapham..."
I think the UK has decent songwriting scope. You have the Scottish Highlands, London, (think Baker Street, Waterloo Sunset). Sadly Wales and Cornwall haven't been successfully mined for pop songs.
London has a lot of songs. Including one of the most beautiful songs ever written:
A Nightingale Sang In Berkeley Square
I reckon the Tori Amos version from Good Omens is particularly fine
Hadn't come across that before - though it does sound familiar from somewhere. It is a fine song, anyway, and I shall add it to my summer playlist - it sits almost plum in the centre of the Cookie family taste venn diagram. A pedant would point out that at first listen it appears to be a love song rather than actually about home ('home is where I'm alone with you' - a fine sentiment, but one which actually hints that geography is unimportant, which is the opposite theme) - though it does have a chord structure hinting at themes of home. Anyway, it's lovely - thank you.
I'm pretty sure that I introduced PB to that a few months back
That will be where I got the inspiration to buy the album from in 2010 when it came out. Thanks for the tip.
A queue had formed to vote in the polling station when I voted a few minutes ago.
Yes same here, longest I've ever had to wait to vote, probably in the queue for about 7 minutes. But luckily they thought my out of date driving licence still looked like me
SKS personal ratings are still pretty poor, given the circumstances, IMO.
This certainly isn't 1997 and he's not being swept into Downing St on a wave of goodwill like Blair was. There will be no years-long honeymoon and I think he'll be a very unpopular Prime Minister within a couple of years, personally.
Two thirds of your prospective vote feeling favourable towards you before you shit on their dreams is not a recipe for Sunshine und Roses
Or fantastic expectation management.
Looking at the SKS hate on here while remembering the tumescent enthusiasm for Liz “surprise on the upside” Truss barely 2 years ago is instructive.
From memory it was only really @Luckyguy1983 and @Leon would thought Loopy Lizzie might surprise on the upside.
Everyone else thought she was as mad a box of frogs and saw the iceberg looming a mile off 😂
You don't have a very good memory then. I thought she was a disaster during the early part of the campaign; I was in favour of PM. She grew on me as the least poor alternative in a one on one with Sunak (or more accurately he shrunk on me), and it was her actions and way of conducting herself when in Government that impressed me.
Perhaps least unpopular would be slightly more accurate.
I see plenty think Starmer will swiftly plumb Sunakian levels of unpopularity once elected. Perhaps even Trussite or Johnsonian marks of unfavourability or it may just be because @isam doesn't like him.
MY feeling is after the election and presuming Starmer wins big, the vast majority will switch off from politics and just let him get on with it. There are plenty on the Conservative side who said in 1997 people would soon see through "phoney Tony" and the Conservatives would be back - didn't quite work out like that, did it?
I think Starmer will be a decent Prime Minister certainly by contrast with the no-marks of the last 15 years. He's no Blair and he's no Thatcher of course but that won't stop him doing a decent job and his most serious issues are likely to be internal Labour discipline but if he wins big and takes Labour back to power he'll be afforded plenty of slack.
Or, he could just be a competent administrator like Sunak that fails to heed the zeitgeist or deliver on expectations and rapidly plumbs the same depths.
Where's the evidence for Sunak being a competent administrator? Better than Truss, better than Johnson, but there's still an awful lot of space between that and competence.
These things seem pretty competent - either as policies or administration - and based on compromises in difficult situations:
The NI reductions funded by income tax allowance freezes.
The Northern Ireland political administration and trade solution.
The level of financial help for energy bills.
Agreeing the last round of public sector pay claims.
Perhaps least unpopular would be slightly more accurate.
I see plenty think Starmer will swiftly plumb Sunakian levels of unpopularity once elected. Perhaps even Trussite or Johnsonian marks of unfavourability or it may just be because @isam doesn't like him.
MY feeling is after the election and presuming Starmer wins big, the vast majority will switch off from politics and just let him get on with it. There are plenty on the Conservative side who said in 1997 people would soon see through "phoney Tony" and the Conservatives would be back - didn't quite work out like that, did it?
I think Starmer will be a decent Prime Minister certainly by contrast with the no-marks of the last 15 years. He's no Blair and he's no Thatcher of course but that won't stop him doing a decent job and his most serious issues are likely to be internal Labour discipline but if he wins big and takes Labour back to power he'll be afforded plenty of slack.
Or, he could just be a competent administrator like Sunak that fails to heed the zeitgeist or deliver on expectations and rapidly plumbs the same depths.
Where's the evidence for Sunak being a competent administrator? Better than Truss, better than Johnson, but there's still an awful lot of space between that and competence.
These things seem pretty competent - either as policies or administration - and based on compromises in difficult situations:
The NI reductions funded by income tax allowance freezes.
The Northern Ireland political administration and trade solution.
The level of financial help for energy bills.
Agreeing the last round of public sector pay claims.
The change to migrants minimum earnings.
Sunak’s energy support (as BJ's Chancellor) could have been classified as a discount on fuel, so would have been counterinflationary, but was classified as a benefit (or similar) driving inflation upward. That's an example of basic incompetence in delivering that support, that you wouldn't expect from someone who understood the issues.
Trump: Look at Paris. Look at London. They're no longer recognizable. I'm going to get myself into a lot of trouble, but you know what? That's the fact, they are no longer recognizable. We can't let that happen here
He's entirely right. The demographic shift in London is incredible. It was 80-90% native white British within living memory, just two or three decades? Now native whites are a minority. You can, of course, argue whether this is good or bad, or a mix, but has it happened? Yes
Trying to deny it will make Dems looks stupid. Don't do it
Historically, looking at London since 1066 (at least) it’s been mostly migrant.
SKS personal ratings are still pretty poor, given the circumstances, IMO.
This certainly isn't 1997 and he's not being swept into Downing St on a wave of goodwill like Blair was. There will be no years-long honeymoon and I think he'll be a very unpopular Prime Minister within a couple of years, personally.
The interesting question is whether 1997-style ratings are even possible anymore given the fact we are a more atomised society and everything a politician says is combed over and bound to annoy someone.
For example, there's little doubt burying Corbynism as sharply as he has, has been a net positive for Starmer, but it has annoyed a significant tranche of people who now think he's awful.
Political leadership now may not be about being incredibly popular with a huge number of people but with the right people.
There maybe a parallel with Boris post-Brexit and pre-Partygate - who was unpopular in historical terms but had two things going for him that won him a healthy majority.
Firstly, he was up against the even more unpopular Corbyn, secondly, he tended to be most popular with exactly the non-university educated older males who the Tories knew were open to switching votes. Meanwhile, those who loathed him were either never voting Tory or hated Corbyn more.
Starmer may manage a similar trick in reverse by being appealing most to the kind of not very political middle-class, middle-aged dads and mums who used to split Tory as Labour were 'risky' but now have just stopped voting Tory after the past decade of dramas and stuck or falling living standards.
Agree. This is an election with some interesting factors. The first is that Labour is back to a position of seeking to win from the centre, and this is unambiguous. The old leader is an MP but not for Labour. We forget how odd this all is.
Secondly, the most recent Tory purge was of the centre, not the extreme. Gauke and co. This sad once great party is trying to win from two distinct articulations, populist grunting, and Hunt style poor man's Ken Clarke. Neither is done well.
Neither party has an articulate programme; conditions are such that a realistic manifesto is not possible if you want to keep the voter onside.
But Labour only have to be positioned as fairly safe; the Tories can't do this. They have been in power since 2010 and safe we are not.
Question. I booked a hotel a couple of days ago through Hotels.com, and used PayPal as payment. My friend subsequently cancelled the event so I cancelled the hotel through the hotels app. The payment is now going out for the original booking, pending... I assume the refund will follow about a week later ?
(((Dan Hodges))) @DPJHodges · 6m For now all is calm. But remember, in three hours time everyone is going to be on here screaming about Rallings and Thrasher…
Question. I booked a hotel a couple of days ago through Hotels.com, and used PayPal as payment. My friend subsequently cancelled the event so I cancelled the hotel through the hotels app. The payment is now going out for the original booking, pending... I assume the refund will follow about a week later ?
Perhaps least unpopular would be slightly more accurate.
I see plenty think Starmer will swiftly plumb Sunakian levels of unpopularity once elected. Perhaps even Trussite or Johnsonian marks of unfavourability or it may just be because @isam doesn't like him.
MY feeling is after the election and presuming Starmer wins big, the vast majority will switch off from politics and just let him get on with it. There are plenty on the Conservative side who said in 1997 people would soon see through "phoney Tony" and the Conservatives would be back - didn't quite work out like that, did it?
I think Starmer will be a decent Prime Minister certainly by contrast with the no-marks of the last 15 years. He's no Blair and he's no Thatcher of course but that won't stop him doing a decent job and his most serious issues are likely to be internal Labour discipline but if he wins big and takes Labour back to power he'll be afforded plenty of slack.
Or, he could just be a competent administrator like Sunak that fails to heed the zeitgeist or deliver on expectations and rapidly plumbs the same depths.
Where's the evidence for Sunak being a competent administrator? Better than Truss, better than Johnson, but there's still an awful lot of space between that and competence.
These things seem pretty competent - either as policies or administration - and based on compromises in difficult situations:
The NI reductions funded by income tax allowance freezes.
The Northern Ireland political administration and trade solution.
The level of financial help for energy bills.
Agreeing the last round of public sector pay claims.
The change to migrants minimum earnings.
Sunak’s energy support (as BJ's Chancellor) could have been classified as a discount on fuel, so would have been counterinflationary, but was classified as a benefit (or similar) driving inflation upward. That's an example of basic incompetence in delivering that support, that you wouldn't expect from someone who understood the issues.
Giving it as a benefit allowed people to spend it as they thought best.
The amount of support was about right in helping people generally, helping the vulnerable more and also encouraging energy efficiency.
Now doubtless I'm in a minority but the changes to my energy usage I've made will allow permanent improved energy efficiency and overall cost savings.
Trump: Look at Paris. Look at London. They're no longer recognizable. I'm going to get myself into a lot of trouble, but you know what? That's the fact, they are no longer recognizable. We can't let that happen here
He's entirely right. The demographic shift in London is incredible. It was 80-90% native white British within living memory, just two or three decades? Now native whites are a minority. You can, of course, argue whether this is good or bad, or a mix, but has it happened? Yes
Trying to deny it will make Dems looks stupid. Don't do it
There's a slight difference between London and Paris though, which Trump wouldn't know or care about, which is that hardly anyone in London cares about race because most people get along fine 99% of the time. That isn't the impression one gets in Paris.
I see the YouGov poll has attracted plenty of comment.
@MoonRabbit seems to think a deal will be done between Reform and the Conservatives and that will send all or nearly all the Reform support back to the Conservatives and I and others are wrong to think otherwise.
That's an opinion and @MoonRabbit is entitled to it - I don't really know what the Conservatives can offer Reform to do a deal. Indeed, one could argue the bigger the defeat for the Conservatives the more likely Reform will effect a hostile post-election takeover and basically merge the parties by stealth or wealth or both.
There's also the suggestion an avalanche of "good news" will bury any doubts and allow a re-invigorated Sunak to go to the country with confidence in early July. It's possible as are most things in this life but I fail to see how this damascene conversion of millions back to the Conservatives in the light of the last four years (and especially the last two) is going to happen.
It doesn't matter what any of us think - time will tell, it always does. I'd also offer the thought just because something has never happened doesn't mean it can't. Sunak COULD reverse a 20-point deficit, Corbyn nearly did in 2017 and the Conservatives could get below 100 seats (they weren't that far from it in 1997).
During the 2017 campaign, the Conservative rating didn't move that much. The big change was Corbyn uniting all the not-Conservative vote behind him.
I suppose that could happen a bit, if Reform walk off the field of play, but it seems unlikely. We all know who Rishi is, and most of us don't like him or his party much.
what I’m pointing out is not based on “most”,
you are underestimating the polling potential to dramatically change once starting gun fired - for obvious elephant in room you won’t acknowledge. We are getting misled by a diet of smorgasbord polling, we need more forced choice polling taken at same time. I think it’s only Delta who does it.
The polling what matters to whole electorate, showing Labour ahead on all measures, bin it. For recovery to 34% Tories will focus on what matters to voters still leaning to them - it doesn’t matter a jot for every extra badger shot, 68% want Tories out even more, if Cons move from 24% to 32% and beyond targetting swingback. Tories have shipped about 10% to Reform in only 18 months, these are clearly softish votes. What do these recent reform voters, and those 2019 Tory Don’t Knows often in Mikes and TSE headers, need to hear during a campaign to be tempted back?
Yes. how polls moved in 2017 and 2019 in campaign. Who saw it coming? Every GE becomes a “forced choice” because support for minor parties like Reforms manifesto of unicorns, comes under pressure. One candidate wins FPTP in large constituency’s, this usually reduces voter option to 2 candidates who can win the seat. Conservative or Starmer, or waste your vote nearly everywhere - love it or hate it, you can’t deny FPTP does do this. And Voters know how painful letting in a horrible government and PM they get stuck with for 5 years, most will use their vote wisely not chuck it away. When I see this smorgasbord polling “choose your preferred unicorn” I shout at the screen: that mountain of deliberately wasted votes just won’t happen! It never does in a UK GE, so why now?
Only “Forced choice” polling from now gives us more realistic GE prediction. last forced choice poll I noted was by Delta in March, Lab just 11 points ahead 42% to 31%. Tories already polling in 30’s before start of campaigning, before two party emphasis and squeezing others gets serious.If forced choice polls taken exactly same time as normal one is completely different, and all have Tories in the 30+%, you will instantly see I’m right, too much full options polling like todays Yougov is misleading us.
Achieving the change around I’m forecasting Lab 39 Con 33 as early as 4th of July 2024, Tories are ignoring 68% voters - that’s elephant in room you won’t acknowledge.
you have to factor in how Tories and and the media will behave during the election - for the party who has given us one of the most corrupt governments clearly loves to set the police on opponents to investigate next to nothing. If you think Kinnock had a hard time in 1992, you ain’t seen nothing yet. Tories - outright power in the land last 14 years - hand in hand with their client media, even tried to stitch Ed Davey up with the entire post office scandal!
It’s a perfect thread header to debate this underneath.
There are now tent protests at many British universities, calling for divestment from Israel and an end to arming it. What they need is a unifying slogan. "BDS" (boycott, divestment, sanctions) would be one.
Protests are bound to spread and be stepped up if the Israeli army assaults Rafah as seems likely.
Perhaps least unpopular would be slightly more accurate.
I see plenty think Starmer will swiftly plumb Sunakian levels of unpopularity once elected. Perhaps even Trussite or Johnsonian marks of unfavourability or it may just be because @isam doesn't like him.
MY feeling is after the election and presuming Starmer wins big, the vast majority will switch off from politics and just let him get on with it. There are plenty on the Conservative side who said in 1997 people would soon see through "phoney Tony" and the Conservatives would be back - didn't quite work out like that, did it?
I think Starmer will be a decent Prime Minister certainly by contrast with the no-marks of the last 15 years. He's no Blair and he's no Thatcher of course but that won't stop him doing a decent job and his most serious issues are likely to be internal Labour discipline but if he wins big and takes Labour back to power he'll be afforded plenty of slack.
Or, he could just be a competent administrator like Sunak that fails to heed the zeitgeist or deliver on expectations and rapidly plumbs the same depths.
Of course. I think he's set some pretty low expectations so far - he may become more ambitious once elected (or not). I'm not sure what the zeitgeist is but I think you stay closer to it in Opposition than you do in Government and the longer any party stays in Government the further "removed" they get and the louder the accusations of being "out of touch".
To paraphrase Blair:
We were elected with no ambition. We will govern with no ambition.
What would an ambitious Labour manifesto say, and with what generic conclusions, about borrowing, debt, deficit, interest rates, tax and increasing spending?
Trump: Look at Paris. Look at London. They're no longer recognizable. I'm going to get myself into a lot of trouble, but you know what? That's the fact, they are no longer recognizable. We can't let that happen here
He's entirely right. The demographic shift in London is incredible. It was 80-90% native white British within living memory, just two or three decades? Now native whites are a minority. You can, of course, argue whether this is good or bad, or a mix, but has it happened? Yes
Trying to deny it will make Dems looks stupid. Don't do it
There's a slight difference between London and Paris though, which Trump wouldn't know or care about, which is that hardly anyone in London cares about race because most people get along fine 99% of the time. That isn't the impression one gets in Paris.
Worth noting that Trump's native city has been dominated demographically by immigrants for nearly 200 years.
SKS personal ratings are still pretty poor, given the circumstances, IMO.
This certainly isn't 1997 and he's not being swept into Downing St on a wave of goodwill like Blair was. There will be no years-long honeymoon and I think he'll be a very unpopular Prime Minister within a couple of years, personally.
The interesting question is whether 1997-style ratings are even possible anymore given the fact we are a more atomised society and everything a politician says is combed over and bound to annoy someone.
For example, there's little doubt burying Corbynism as sharply as he has, has been a net positive for Starmer, but it has annoyed a significant tranche of people who now think he's awful.
Political leadership now may not be about being incredibly popular with a huge number of people but with the right people.
There maybe a parallel with Boris post-Brexit and pre-Partygate - who was unpopular in historical terms but had two things going for him that won him a healthy majority.
Firstly, he was up against the even more unpopular Corbyn, secondly, he tended to be most popular with exactly the non-university educated older males who the Tories knew were open to switching votes. Meanwhile, those who loathed him were either never voting Tory or hated Corbyn more.
Starmer may manage a similar trick in reverse by being appealing most to the kind of not very political middle-class, middle-aged dads and mums who used to split Tory as Labour were 'risky' but now have just stopped voting Tory after the past decade of dramas and stuck or falling living standards.
Agree. This is an election with some interesting factors. The first is that Labour is back to a position of seeking to win from the centre, and this is unambiguous. The old leader is an MP but not for Labour. We forget how odd this all is.
Secondly, the most recent Tory purge was of the centre, not the extreme. Gauke and co. This sad once great party is trying to win from two distinct articulations, populist grunting, and Hunt style poor man's Ken Clarke. Neither is done well.
Neither party has an articulate programme; conditions are such that a realistic manifesto is not possible if you want to keep the voter onside.
But Labour only have to be positioned as fairly safe; the Tories can't do this. They have been in power since 2010 and safe we are not.
The people 'purged' from the Conservatives were not of the centre but extreme EUphiles.
There are now tent protests at many British universities, calling for divestment from Israel and an end to arming it. What they need is a unifying slogan. "BDS" (boycott, divestment, sanctions) would be one.
What they need is stop being so self serving, get off the fat arse of their sitting, and help the charities helping war torn people everywhere - not just Palestinians they see on their news, but the Sudanese and others they don’t.
Trump: Look at Paris. Look at London. They're no longer recognizable. I'm going to get myself into a lot of trouble, but you know what? That's the fact, they are no longer recognizable. We can't let that happen here
He's entirely right. The demographic shift in London is incredible. It was 80-90% native white British within living memory, just two or three decades? Now native whites are a minority. You can, of course, argue whether this is good or bad, or a mix, but has it happened? Yes
Trying to deny it will make Dems looks stupid. Don't do it
It's very Donald Chump: dog whistle, pea brain, delusional, a hint of Manifest Destiny, and racist just beneath the surface. Like much of his support base.
There are now tent protests at many British universities, calling for divestment from Israel and an end to arming it. What they need is a unifying slogan. "BDS" (boycott, divestment, sanctions) would be one.
Protests are bound to spread and be stepped up if the Israeli army assaults Rafah as seems likely.
There are now tent protests at many British universities, calling for divestment from Israel and an end to arming it. What they need is a unifying slogan. "BDS" (boycott, divestment, sanctions) would be one.
What they need is stop being so self serving, get off the fat arse of their sitting, and help the charities helping war torn people everywhere - not just Palestinians they see on their news, but the Sudanese and others they can’t.
Any word on your efforts on behalf of the Sudanese and others?
Are there many results tonight, or is it going to be dragged out?
Never seen our polling station so quiet, but just PCC here and that is so pointless that I barely bothered myself. Just did my best to reduce the Tory NEV.
Trump: Look at Paris. Look at London. They're no longer recognizable. I'm going to get myself into a lot of trouble, but you know what? That's the fact, they are no longer recognizable. We can't let that happen here
He's entirely right. The demographic shift in London is incredible. It was 80-90% native white British within living memory, just two or three decades? Now native whites are a minority. You can, of course, argue whether this is good or bad, or a mix, but has it happened? Yes
Trying to deny it will make Dems looks stupid. Don't do it
There's a slight difference between London and Paris though, which Trump wouldn't know or care about, which is that hardly anyone in London cares about race because most people get along fine 99% of the time. That isn't the impression one gets in Paris.
Yep absolutely.
My impression from living in London is the number of areas with a bad reputation has steadily declined. Gentrification and development has expanded the number of areas desirable to one age group or another.
The ethnic composition is not remarked upon by Londoners who actually spend most their time in London.
There are now tent protests at many British universities, calling for divestment from Israel and an end to arming it. What they need is a unifying slogan. "BDS" (boycott, divestment, sanctions) would be one.
Protests are bound to spread and be stepped up if the Israeli army assaults Rafah as seems likely.
I thought that these Hamas apologists already had a slogan. Something about a river and the sea.
There are now tent protests at many British universities, calling for divestment from Israel and an end to arming it. What they need is a unifying slogan. "BDS" (boycott, divestment, sanctions) would be one.
Protests are bound to spread and be stepped up if the Israeli army assaults Rafah as seems likely.
What monkey sees monkey does.
It is cringeworthy. Our students can't even come up with a homegrown cause to get their knickers in a twist about.
There are now tent protests at many British universities, calling for divestment from Israel and an end to arming it. What they need is a unifying slogan. "BDS" (boycott, divestment, sanctions) would be one.
Protests are bound to spread and be stepped up if the Israeli army assaults Rafah as seems likely.
I thought that these Hamas apologists already had a slogan. Something about a river and the sea.
There are now tent protests at many British universities, calling for divestment from Israel and an end to arming it. What they need is a unifying slogan. "BDS" (boycott, divestment, sanctions) would be one.
Protests are bound to spread and be stepped up if the Israeli army assaults Rafah as seems likely.
What monkey sees monkey does.
What an asinine comment. If you knew anything about social psychology, you'd know that good Samaritanism can spread fast once the first person does some. Doesn't apply much to pickpocketing.
I got an email from one of the universities I'm an alumnus of telling me about the tent protest there. This is clearly expected to spread.
Perhaps least unpopular would be slightly more accurate.
I see plenty think Starmer will swiftly plumb Sunakian levels of unpopularity once elected. Perhaps even Trussite or Johnsonian marks of unfavourability or it may just be because @isam doesn't like him.
MY feeling is after the election and presuming Starmer wins big, the vast majority will switch off from politics and just let him get on with it. There are plenty on the Conservative side who said in 1997 people would soon see through "phoney Tony" and the Conservatives would be back - didn't quite work out like that, did it?
I think Starmer will be a decent Prime Minister certainly by contrast with the no-marks of the last 15 years. He's no Blair and he's no Thatcher of course but that won't stop him doing a decent job and his most serious issues are likely to be internal Labour discipline but if he wins big and takes Labour back to power he'll be afforded plenty of slack.
Or, he could just be a competent administrator like Sunak that fails to heed the zeitgeist or deliver on expectations and rapidly plumbs the same depths.
Of course. I think he's set some pretty low expectations so far - he may become more ambitious once elected (or not). I'm not sure what the zeitgeist is but I think you stay closer to it in Opposition than you do in Government and the longer any party stays in Government the further "removed" they get and the louder the accusations of being "out of touch".
To paraphrase Blair:
We were elected with no ambition. We will govern with no ambition.
What would an ambitious Labour manifesto say, and with what generic conclusions, about borrowing, debt, deficit, interest rates, tax and increasing spending?
We'd be daft to put all that scary stuff in the manifesto. Just crack on with the Socialism once elected.
Further thoughts on Paris. It really depends where you go. The left bank is generally much better. The 6th and 7th look fine. Even around Gare Montparnasse it looks civilised
It’s as soon as you cross the Seine and it’s anywhere in and around the 1st and 2nd, and of course, the Gare du Nord
I’m about 300m from the Opera and I just saw a guy lying flat out on the bare sidewalk, face down, apparently comatose. Fentanyl or Tranq I presume
You just didn’t see shit like that 20 years ago. Maybe even 5 years ago
It’s particularly noticeable in Paris BECAUSE it was once so pristine - and always beautiful. Now she’s like a model that got beaten up and lost three teeth and potentially an eye
I don't think it would be fent. Even our govt has the good sense to be monitoring the sewage for it and I am sure if the french found it the press would be full of omg le fent en Europe stories
Excellent piece on what the us drug problem looks like in phoenix Arizona (doubly sad because phoenix Arizona features in the most feel good song ever written)
That's more of a feel-melancholy song imo. Also a good example of how the vastness and diversity of America gives them such a songwriting advantage.
By the time I get to Crawley she'll be ... well whatever she'll be doing it doesn't work at all, does it.
"I never thought it would happen with me & the girl from Clapham..."
I think the UK has decent songwriting scope. You have the Scottish Highlands, London, (think Baker Street, Waterloo Sunset). Sadly Wales and Cornwall haven't been successfully mined for pop songs.
London has a lot of songs. Including one of the most beautiful songs ever written:
A Nightingale Sang In Berkeley Square
I reckon the Tori Amos version from Good Omens is particularly fine
Hadn't come across that before - though it does sound familiar from somewhere. It is a fine song, anyway, and I shall add it to my summer playlist - it sits almost plum in the centre of the Cookie family taste venn diagram. A pedant would point out that at first listen it appears to be a love song rather than actually about home ('home is where I'm alone with you' - a fine sentiment, but one which actually hints that geography is unimportant, which is the opposite theme) - though it does have a chord structure hinting at themes of home. Anyway, it's lovely - thank you.
I'm pretty sure that I introduced PB to that a few months back
That will be where I got the inspiration to buy the album from in 2010 when it came out. Thanks for the tip.
As soon as I saw their NPR Music Tiny Desk concert, I posted about it here
SKS personal ratings are still pretty poor, given the circumstances, IMO.
This certainly isn't 1997 and he's not being swept into Downing St on a wave of goodwill like Blair was. There will be no years-long honeymoon and I think he'll be a very unpopular Prime Minister within a couple of years, personally.
Not to mention that Blair became PM at about the easiest time during the entire 20th century.
Starmer will have a much harder job in a much more dangerous and unpredictable world.
SKS personal ratings are still pretty poor, given the circumstances, IMO.
This certainly isn't 1997 and he's not being swept into Downing St on a wave of goodwill like Blair was. There will be no years-long honeymoon and I think he'll be a very unpopular Prime Minister within a couple of years, personally.
Not to mention that Blair became PM at about the easiest time during the entire 20th century.
Starmer will have a much harder job in a much more dangerous and unpredictable world.
I disagree. Ted Heath had a better inheritance in June 1970. He was bequeathed both a Balance of Payments surplus and a Fiscal surplus. No departing Tory government since World War 2 has managed either!
Comments
This certainly isn't 1997 and he's not being swept into Downing St on a wave of goodwill like Blair was. There will be no years-long honeymoon and I think he'll be a very unpopular Prime Minister within a couple of years, personally.
Sky News understands polling station staff were forced to turn the former prime minister away after he initially failed to comply with legislation he introduced while he was in Downing Street.
The latest is the watering down of workers rights, including zero hours contracts, which I believe is the correct thing to do
He leaves me unimpressed and I do not expect he will take the difficult decision needed such as abolished the triple lock or accepting retirement age rises to over 70
And the biggest of all is the lack of any policy on social care which is fundamental to addressing the issues with the NHS
Notwithstanding, the conservatives, like the SNP, need to go into opposition and decide where their future lies and let Starmer and labour come under the intense 24/7 media scrutiny that is now the way of politics
The added bonus of seeing politicians publicly get complacent then be pipped at the post, or panic only to come home comfortably in the end.
Start with an immediate 7am download of postal ballots to get the ball rolling.
I see plenty think Starmer will swiftly plumb Sunakian levels of unpopularity once elected. Perhaps even Trussite or Johnsonian marks of unfavourability or it may just be because @isam doesn't like him.
MY feeling is after the election and presuming Starmer wins big, the vast majority will switch off from politics and just let him get on with it. There are plenty on the Conservative side who said in 1997 people would soon see through "phoney Tony" and the Conservatives would be back - didn't quite work out like that, did it?
I think Starmer will be a decent Prime Minister certainly by contrast with the no-marks of the last 15 years. He's no Blair and he's no Thatcher of course but that won't stop him doing a decent job and his most serious issues are likely to be internal Labour discipline but if he wins big and takes Labour back to power he'll be afforded plenty of slack.
The blind folks aren't going to install street lights, are they?
In terms of the header, Labour will be content that the four most 'liked' politicians belong to them.
(((Dan Hodges)))
@DPJHodges
·
6m
For now all is calm. But remember, in three hours time everyone is going to be on here screaming about Rallings and Thrasher…
Looking at the SKS hate on here while remembering the tumescent enthusiasm for Liz “surprise on the upside” Truss barely 2 years ago is instructive.
A good benchmark for outperforming expectations or not.
Not that 450 losses can be hailed as a triumph.
For example, there's little doubt burying Corbynism as sharply as he has, has been a net positive for Starmer, but it has annoyed a significant tranche of people who now think he's awful.
Political leadership now may not be about being incredibly popular with a huge number of people but with the right people.
There maybe a parallel with Boris post-Brexit and pre-Partygate - who was unpopular in historical terms but had two things going for him that won him a healthy majority.
Firstly, he was up against the even more unpopular Corbyn, secondly, he tended to be most popular with exactly the non-university educated older males who the Tories knew were open to switching votes. Meanwhile, those who loathed him were either never voting Tory or hated Corbyn more.
Starmer may manage a similar trick in reverse by being appealing most to the kind of not very political middle-class, middle-aged dads and mums who used to split Tory as Labour were 'risky' but now have just stopped voting Tory after the past decade of dramas and stuck or falling living standards.
Everyone else thought she was as mad a box of frogs and saw the iceberg looming a mile off 😂
https://x.com/bidenhq/status/1785759162783224174
Trump: Look at Paris. Look at London. They're no longer recognizable. I'm going to get myself into a lot of trouble, but you know what? That's the fact, they are no longer recognizable. We can't let that happen here
I suppose that could happen a bit, if Reform walk off the field of play, but it seems unlikely. We all know who Rishi is, and most of us don't like him or his party much.
"Sky News understands polling station staff were forced to turn the former prime minister away after he initially failed to comply with legislation he introduced while he was in Downing Street.
Mr Johnson, who introduced the Elections Act requiring photo ID in 2022, was attempting to cast his ballot in South Oxfordshire, where a police and crime commissioner for the Thames Valley is being selected."
Made my day.
Starmer will have a much harder job in a much more dangerous and unpredictable world.
Just a hunch.
Not for lack of trying, my postal vote (which I usually deliver in person) got lost in all my travels
For the record I would have voted against the awful Khan, dunno who for tho. Possibly binface
The Tories tend to do better earlier in the day given they’re now so reliant on pensioners.
We were elected with no ambition. We will govern with no ambition.
Trying to deny it will make Dems looks stupid. Don't do it
Did the lazy fckr return with appropriate ID?
The NI reductions funded by income tax allowance freezes.
The Northern Ireland political administration and trade solution.
The level of financial help for energy bills.
Agreeing the last round of public sector pay claims.
The change to migrants minimum earnings.
493 would be more than half the contested seats they currently hold.
657 would be more than two thirds.
It's revealing that much more attention is on how many seats the Tories will lose than how many Labour will win.
This feels like the turnout equivalent of the various types of "going" at racecourses.
Question is, will they return for the General Election?
Turn again, Whittington!
Secondly, the most recent Tory purge was of the centre, not the extreme. Gauke and co. This sad once great party is trying to win from two distinct articulations, populist grunting, and Hunt style poor man's Ken Clarke. Neither is done well.
Neither party has an articulate programme; conditions are such that a realistic manifesto is not possible if you want to keep the voter onside.
But Labour only have to be positioned as fairly safe; the Tories can't do this. They have been in power since 2010 and safe we are not.
The amount of support was about right in helping people generally, helping the vulnerable more and also encouraging energy efficiency.
Now doubtless I'm in a minority but the changes to my energy usage I've made will allow permanent improved energy efficiency and overall cost savings.
you are underestimating the polling potential to dramatically change once starting gun fired - for obvious elephant in room you won’t acknowledge. We are getting misled by a diet of smorgasbord polling, we need more forced choice polling taken at same time. I think it’s only Delta who does it.
The polling what matters to whole electorate, showing Labour ahead on all measures, bin it. For recovery to 34% Tories will focus on what matters to voters still leaning to them - it doesn’t matter a jot for every extra badger shot, 68% want Tories out even more, if Cons move from 24% to 32% and beyond targetting swingback. Tories have shipped about 10% to Reform in only 18 months, these are clearly softish votes. What do these recent reform voters, and those 2019 Tory Don’t Knows often in Mikes and TSE headers, need to hear during a campaign to be tempted back?
Yes. how polls moved in 2017 and 2019 in campaign. Who saw it coming? Every GE becomes a “forced choice” because support for minor parties like Reforms manifesto of unicorns, comes under pressure. One candidate wins FPTP in large constituency’s, this usually reduces voter option to 2 candidates who can win the seat. Conservative or Starmer, or waste your vote nearly everywhere - love it or hate it, you can’t deny FPTP does do this. And Voters know how painful letting in a horrible government and PM they get stuck with for 5 years, most will use their vote wisely not chuck it away. When I see this smorgasbord polling “choose your preferred unicorn” I shout at the screen: that mountain of deliberately wasted votes just won’t happen! It never does in a UK GE, so why now?
Only “Forced choice” polling from now gives us more realistic GE prediction. last forced choice poll I noted was by Delta in March, Lab just 11 points ahead 42% to 31%. Tories already polling in 30’s before start of campaigning, before two party emphasis and squeezing others gets serious.If forced choice polls taken exactly same time as normal one is completely different, and all have Tories in the 30+%, you will instantly see I’m right, too much full options polling like todays Yougov is misleading us.
Achieving the change around I’m forecasting Lab 39 Con 33 as early as 4th of July 2024, Tories are ignoring 68% voters - that’s elephant in room you won’t acknowledge.
you have to factor in how Tories and and the media will behave during the election - for the party who has given us one of the most corrupt governments clearly loves to set the police on opponents to investigate next to nothing. If you think Kinnock had a hard time in 1992, you ain’t seen nothing yet. Tories - outright power in the land last 14 years - hand in hand with their client media, even tried to stitch Ed Davey up with the entire post office scandal!
It’s a perfect thread header to debate this underneath.
Protests are bound to spread and be stepped up if the Israeli army assaults Rafah as seems likely.
Never seen our polling station so quiet, but just PCC here and that is so pointless that I barely bothered myself. Just did my best to reduce the Tory NEV.
My impression from living in London is the number of areas with a bad reputation has steadily declined. Gentrification and development has expanded the number of areas desirable to one age group or another.
The ethnic composition is not remarked upon by Londoners who actually spend most their time in London.
If you knew anything about social psychology, you'd know that good Samaritanism can spread fast once the first person does some. Doesn't apply much to pickpocketing.
I got an email from one of the universities I'm an alumnus of telling me about the tent protest there. This is clearly expected to spread.
And hopefully none of the New Towns shite.
You waited fourteen years, you selfish git