So just voted for the Wilts PCC. Hope my vote helps.
Quick question for the hive mind. I was asked for my ID, which I provided, no issue. I asked if I could see the officers ID and was refused “you don’t need to see that”. Do I have a right to see their ID? Shouldn’t they have something on them? Or was I just being a dick? (I was polite about it)
Thoughts?
I don't think asking a mild question would be being a dick, but I also don't see why you would have a right to see their ID either - they are following the law requiring to see your ID for a specific purpose, what purpose would you or anyone have to see their ID? As long as they have been trained and authorised to do the job it doesn't matter who they are.
They probably did have something on them, but they wouldn't necessarily need one on them so maybe they didn't - after all, they probably were not voting (as would have postal voted).
I too voted for the Wilts PCC, so we've probably accounted for a significant sample sized of the miserably low turnout.
I found it an uninspiring election. Four candidates, the three main parties and an independent who I assume has done his 30 years in the force and wants some more. In the end I went with the lady from Labour as (a) not the dickish Tory and (b) the only female. Not sure when the count is.
Saturday. Blame Swindon, who have a 1/3 election to count tomorrow.
For those looking for wider implications, Swindon has been pretty swingy over the years, and last year the Tories got annihilated and lost nearly all the seats that were up and Labour gained control for the first time in about 20 years. With another dozen and more Tory seats up this time, expect a big shift to Labour again.
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."
Made my day.
I assume this is a joke. It can't be real.
I don't put it past Johnson to have done it as a deliberate stunt, in part to disarm criticism of the move as a vote suppression tactic. It hardly looks like the work of an evil mastermind when he's caught out by it himself.
Your argument falls down on the point that it would require planning and organisation by Johnson.
So just voted for the Wilts PCC. Hope my vote helps.
Quick question for the hive mind. I was asked for my ID, which I provided, no issue. I asked if I could see the officers ID and was refused “you don’t need to see that”. Do I have a right to see their ID? Shouldn’t they have something on them? Or was I just being a dick? (I was polite about it)
Thoughts?
Well I suspect they go through a lot of checks before being allowed to work at the polling stations so I wouldn’t have been worried and I wouldn’t ask them for ID but it’s not like you shot Bambi !
I think it’s an interesting one. I think you have the right to ask a police officer for ID, for instance. I would have thought there was something for the polling station officers. It’s not a big thing, but just struck me as I voted.
I think it reasonable to ask them to prove that they are a police constable or a polling officer, but I wouldn't expect to see personal ID. That would potentially open people up to interference.
So maybe my question was wrong - could they show me evidence that they were authorised to ask for my ID?
What on earth is going on with this new arena in Manchester?
They couldn't organise a pregnancy on a Salford council estate.
Apparently things were even falling off from the ceiling yesterday?
Whoever is in charge of this project needs to be fired.
I assume the venue has a safety certificate, like footy stadiums etc. So quite how they were able to very nearly open yesterday and at the same time have air conditioning falling off the ceiling boggles the mind.
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.
I admit the only song I've rediscovered today is another Miss Eclectech, which is a moderately rude send up of I'd Like to Teach the World to Sing, set in a Petting Zoo. I think I posted a different one the other day.
"John Cleese cut N-word from Fawlty Towers revival because people ‘don’t understand irony’ Speaking at launch for West End adaptation, Cleese complains about literal-minded viewers ‘not playing with a full deck’"
I mentioned this morning my astonishment at my Surrey tory friend’s newfound love-in for Keir Starmer. She thinks he’s great and ‘the next Boris Johnson’ by which she apparently means ‘a man of the people.’
I’m really surprised but maybe Starmer is cutting through.
I find him a lot less phoney than Tony. And I’m sure he will make a very good, solid, PM who will probably lead Labour to two election victories before stepping down.
Hubris. Poll leads can turn very quickly when the new government has the harsh spotlight of responsibility on them. They will blame the Tories for everything for as long as they can (both parties do this of course). But we are not very far on from Labour being on the ropes and talk (crazy talk, but talk none the less) of Labour never gaining power again. Labour will smash the next election but the problems the UK faces won’t be gone and the public will want answers, just as with Brexit. We voted for Brexit to make things better, they are not better, it’s your fault…
The 'last government' excuse can usually be made to work for a good 2 terms I think. Brown trying it after 13 years was a step too far, and Tories will have no luck if they try it after 14.
Depends how bad things get and whether it can be directly pinned on the new government or not.
I'm sure when Labour went to MFI for a bailout in '76 they probably tried to pin it on Heath's government, perhaps with some success?
But when the Winter Of Discontent came along there was no one else they could pin the blame on...
"John Cleese cut N-word from Fawlty Towers revival because people ‘don’t understand irony’ Speaking at launch for West End adaptation, Cleese complains about literal-minded viewers ‘not playing with a full deck’"
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!
1970 had Northern Ireland heading towards civil war.
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!
1970 had Northern Ireland heading towards civil war.
The height of the cold war.
Inflation problems and about to get much worse.
Strike problems and about to get much worse.
Unemployment was circa 600,000 and the economy was growing at a reasonable rate. Inflation was circa 5%.
Yet despite all these miracles the 66-70 Labour government ranked as one of the most unpopular.
And that's without having to deal with all the 'events' that happened during the 1970s which steadily crippled Heath's government and then steadily crippled the subsequent Wilson/Callaghan government.
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!
1970 had Northern Ireland heading towards civil war.
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!
1970 had Northern Ireland heading towards civil war.
The height of the cold war.
Inflation problems and about to get much worse.
Strike problems and about to get much worse.
Unemployment was circa 600,000 and the economy was growing at a reasonable rate. Inflation was circa 5%.
Yet despite all these miracles the 66-70 Labour government ranked as one of the most unpopular.
And that's without having to deal with all the 'events' that happened during the 1970s which steadily crippled Heath's government and then steadily crippled the subsequent Wilson/Callaghan government.
It was very unpopular from Spring 1967 until mid- 1969 and suffered very heavy defeats at by elections and Local Elections. The May 68 results were disastrous for Labour- far worse than today's results are likely to prove for the Tories. The Tories captured virtually all the London Boroughs including Hackney, Islington and Lambeth. Despite that, Labour did recover strongly from Autumn 1969 and its defeat - in defiance of the polls - in June 1970 came as a great shock.
I have wondered about why that should have been a shock.
The London local elections only a few weeks earlier still showed an 11% Conservative lead over Labour.
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!
1970 had Northern Ireland heading towards civil war.
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!
1970 had Northern Ireland heading towards civil war.
The height of the cold war.
Inflation problems and about to get much worse.
Strike problems and about to get much worse.
Unemployment was circa 600,000 and the economy was growing at a reasonable rate. Inflation was circa 5%.
Yet despite all these miracles the 66-70 Labour government ranked as one of the most unpopular.
And that's without having to deal with all the 'events' that happened during the 1970s which steadily crippled Heath's government and then steadily crippled the subsequent Wilson/Callaghan government.
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!
1970 had Northern Ireland heading towards civil war.
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!
1970 had Northern Ireland heading towards civil war.
The height of the cold war.
Inflation problems and about to get much worse.
Strike problems and about to get much worse.
Unemployment was circa 600,000 and the economy was growing at a reasonable rate. Inflation was circa 5%.
Yet despite all these miracles the 66-70 Labour government ranked as one of the most unpopular.
And that's without having to deal with all the 'events' that happened during the 1970s which steadily crippled Heath's government and then steadily crippled the subsequent Wilson/Callaghan government.
It was very unpopular from Spring 1967 until mid- 1969 and suffered very heavy defeats at by elections and Local Elections. The May 68 results were disastrous for Labour- far worse than today's results are likely to prove for the Tories. The Tories captured virtually all the London Boroughs including Hackney, Islington and Lambeth. Despite that, Labour did recover strongly from Autumn 1969 and its defeat - in defiance of the polls - in June 1970 came as a great shock.
I have wondered about why that should have been a shock.
The London local elections only a few weeks earlier still showed an 11% Conservative lead over Labour.
Well the GLC and County Council elections held in April 1970 were not particularly encouraging for Labour - though the party did make gains at the GLC compared with their landslide defeat in 1967 and gained control of the Inner London Education Authority ILEA - which corresponded to the former LCC area. A few weeks later on May 7th Labour made unexpectedly big gains at the Urban and Borough electios - reversing their 1967 losses. A week later Gallup recorded a Labour lead of 7.5% - followed by other smaller Labour leads from various pollsters. Election speculation exploded and Wilson announced the GE on May 18th to be held on June 18th. It turned out to be Wilson's Waterloo!
Voted Lib Dems in the locals. The only ones who leafleted were Lib Dem and Tory and both candidates seemed like decent people. Met and been canvassed by both in the past 12 months which has never happened before either, if it wasn't for party I'd happily vote for either on an individual basis.
Not heard diddly squat from Labour who simply haven't bothered.
On a party basis I won't vote for Sunak's Tories while he stands in the way of getting enough construction done to solve the crisis we have as a country of a housing shortage. Had the LDs been NIMBY then I wouldn't have voted for them either, but there's been no NIMBYism so they got my vote.
A local LD not being NIMBY? A local any party not being NIMBY? I wish to move to this utopia you apparently reside in!
my local LD councillors are pro-building, so not that unusual. They just want the developments to be well designed for transport and include low cost housing. The NIMBYS are pretty much apolitical, at least in a party sense.
Why would the LibDems want low cost housing on new developments? Their middle class voters buying the executive homes won't want a load of chaos living across the street. Vote loser.
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!
1970 had Northern Ireland heading towards civil war.
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!
1970 had Northern Ireland heading towards civil war.
The height of the cold war.
Inflation problems and about to get much worse.
Strike problems and about to get much worse.
Unemployment was circa 600,000 and the economy was growing at a reasonable rate. Inflation was circa 5%.
Yet despite all these miracles the 66-70 Labour government ranked as one of the most unpopular.
And that's without having to deal with all the 'events' that happened during the 1970s which steadily crippled Heath's government and then steadily crippled the subsequent Wilson/Callaghan government.
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!
1970 had Northern Ireland heading towards civil war.
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!
1970 had Northern Ireland heading towards civil war.
The height of the cold war.
Inflation problems and about to get much worse.
Strike problems and about to get much worse.
Unemployment was circa 600,000 and the economy was growing at a reasonable rate. Inflation was circa 5%.
Yet despite all these miracles the 66-70 Labour government ranked as one of the most unpopular.
And that's without having to deal with all the 'events' that happened during the 1970s which steadily crippled Heath's government and then steadily crippled the subsequent Wilson/Callaghan government.
It was very unpopular from Spring 1967 until mid- 1969 and suffered very heavy defeats at by elections and Local Elections. The May 68 results were disastrous for Labour- far worse than today's results are likely to prove for the Tories. The Tories captured virtually all the London Boroughs including Hackney, Islington and Lambeth. Despite that, Labour did recover strongly from Autumn 1969 and its defeat - in defiance of the polls - in June 1970 came as a great shock.
I have wondered about why that should have been a shock.
The London local elections only a few weeks earlier still showed an 11% Conservative lead over Labour.
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!
1970 had Northern Ireland heading towards civil war.
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!
1970 had Northern Ireland heading towards civil war.
The height of the cold war.
Inflation problems and about to get much worse.
Strike problems and about to get much worse.
Unemployment was circa 600,000 and the economy was growing at a reasonable rate. Inflation was circa 5%.
Yet despite all these miracles the 66-70 Labour government ranked as one of the most unpopular.
And that's without having to deal with all the 'events' that happened during the 1970s which steadily crippled Heath's government and then steadily crippled the subsequent Wilson/Callaghan government.
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!
1970 had Northern Ireland heading towards civil war.
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!
1970 had Northern Ireland heading towards civil war.
The height of the cold war.
Inflation problems and about to get much worse.
Strike problems and about to get much worse.
Unemployment was circa 600,000 and the economy was growing at a reasonable rate. Inflation was circa 5%.
Yet despite all these miracles the 66-70 Labour government ranked as one of the most unpopular.
And that's without having to deal with all the 'events' that happened during the 1970s which steadily crippled Heath's government and then steadily crippled the subsequent Wilson/Callaghan government.
It was very unpopular from Spring 1967 until mid- 1969 and suffered very heavy defeats at by elections and Local Elections. The May 68 results were disastrous for Labour- far worse than today's results are likely to prove for the Tories. The Tories captured virtually all the London Boroughs including Hackney, Islington and Lambeth. Despite that, Labour did recover strongly from Autumn 1969 and its defeat - in defiance of the polls - in June 1970 came as a great shock.
I have wondered about why that should have been a shock.
The London local elections only a few weeks earlier still showed an 11% Conservative lead over Labour.
Well the GLC and County Council elections held in April 1970 were not particularly encouraging for Labour - thoug the party did make gains at the GLC compared with their landslide defeat in 1967 and gained control of the Inner London Education Authority ILEA - which corresponded to the former LCC area. A few weeks later on May 4th Labour made unexpectedly big gains at the Urban and Borough electios - reversing their 1967 losses. A week later Gallup recorded a Labour lead of 7.5% - followed by other smaller Labour leads from various pollsters. Election speculation exploded and Wilson announced the GE on May 18th to be held on June 18th. It turned out to be Wilson's Waterloo!
He should not have tried to make La Haye, even though the Sun shone.
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.
London is a great city . With different cultures mixing and very little problems on that front . I love going up for the day , it has a great buzz and I love the diversity . Sadly the same can’t be said for Paris . I love France generally and have spent lots of time there , months at a time but I tend to avoid Paris now.
Why do you "avoid Paris now"?
I can’t be arsed with it. Too much drama to get into , the Metro is a total dump and nothing like the London Underground where I’ve never felt unsafe . From afar Paris looks beautiful and there will be some iconic settings for the Olympic events . The Parisians though are generally stuck up and no one outside of Paris likes them .
I had a place close to the Pyrenees not far from Lourdes and the people were just lovely . I also had many French friends when I lived in London and they said it was far superior and much more laid back than Paris .
Interesting, and thankyou
To my mind Paris has a sinister edge almost entirely absent in London. It's not as simple as "Paris is more violent" - I'm not remotely sure it is. It's more to do with native Gallic rudeness mixing unhappily with high levels of migration, from certain quite attitudinal areas - the Maghreb in particular
You get this weird surliness which pervades, tho outbreaks of smiley friendliness can leaven it, but not often enough
That was my main impression when I returned home today. London is jollier, and cheerier, even tho Paris is much more beautiful
But before I start cheer eading for London I have to say, again, that I think levels of migration are now so high we are destined for some brutal hard right governments, right across Europe (Britain likely included) unless we see a remarkable turnaround
[insert AI clause here: as in: none of this applies if AI changes the world, as it well might]
What on earth is going on with this new arena in Manchester?
They couldn't organise a pregnancy on a Salford council estate.
Apparently things were even falling off from the ceiling yesterday?
Whoever is in charge of this project needs to be fired.
I assume the venue has a safety certificate, like footy stadiums etc. So quite how they were able to very nearly open yesterday and at the same time have air conditioning falling off the ceiling boggles the mind.
Never underestimate the frequency and depth of incompetence that can be found on any complex matter.
What on earth is going on with this new arena in Manchester?
They couldn't organise a pregnancy on a Salford council estate.
Apparently things were even falling off from the ceiling yesterday?
Whoever is in charge of this project needs to be fired.
I assume the venue has a safety certificate, like footy stadiums etc. So quite how they were able to very nearly open yesterday and at the same time have air conditioning falling off the ceiling boggles the mind.
You’d think after all the deliberations over Arena that the licensing Authorities in Manchester would have been more ‘controlling’! They come across as disorganised and casual.
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?
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.
Turn again, Whittington!
London is now 15-20% Muslim, and that has happened in a couple of decades. The idea this isn't a massive cultural revolution is insane, of course it is
It is probably the biggest, quickest cultural change since London was refounded by the Normans in 1066
And I'd love to believe London is some harmonious cultural melting pot leading the way - I adore my home town - I just don't think it is true. Sadly. I feel about immigration the way I felt about Brexit in, say, 2006. The powers-that-be are ignoring all the massive warning signs (this is true across the West, this isn't a British thing) and they are powering on with their great immigration experiment, and I feel it will end in the same tragic rupture as Brexit. We will see hard right governments elected across Europe and they will be brutal and cruel
Of course this could still be averted with a total clampdown on migration, and some serious attempts at assimilation, but it won't happen, the elite is too invested in the Project. It grieves me
This Government are having a go with Rwanda.
But they need to tighten up on legal migration too.
The dependent visas take the absolute piss. It's a backdoor in via joker courses and it shouldn't be allowed.
We've had 14 years of Tory government and they have done fuck all. Fuck them. They got a stern ticking off with the Brexit vote, and what did they do? Increase immigration by extraordinary amounts, unprecedented in our history. They are useless and despicable, I hope they die
As I read French history, the comparisons with the end of the Ancien Regime are quite stunning. The tin-eared stupidity, the embedded hypocrisy, the frenetic emphasis on status amongst a tiny elite, even as the lower orders mutiny and prepare the guiillotine. The role of the church is replaced by the role of the Woke, paying obeisance to an insane God only they can see
We are headed for civil strife and terrible turmoil, in Europe
Weren't you calling for the return of free movement from the EU recently ?
The mistake the government made on immigration was not enforcing a high enough minimum earnings for migrants.
High earning migrants are good because that means they're high skilled.
What about low-earning but highly skilled migrants? We have Phd's who graduate and are being made to leave as they haven't found a high-paid job in time.
Highly skilled in what ?
Obviously not in finding themselves a job in time.
Even though we've had full employment and are continually told that we need more immigrants to fill all the jobs.
Still there's nothing to stop them applying for jobs after they've left - if they can ever sort themselves out.
Lowest common denominator migration policies have failed.
Voted Lib Dems in the locals. The only ones who leafleted were Lib Dem and Tory and both candidates seemed like decent people. Met and been canvassed by both in the past 12 months which has never happened before either, if it wasn't for party I'd happily vote for either on an individual basis.
Not heard diddly squat from Labour who simply haven't bothered.
On a party basis I won't vote for Sunak's Tories while he stands in the way of getting enough construction done to solve the crisis we have as a country of a housing shortage. Had the LDs been NIMBY then I wouldn't have voted for them either, but there's been no NIMBYism so they got my vote.
A local LD not being NIMBY? A local any party not being NIMBY? I wish to move to this utopia you apparently reside in!
my local LD councillors are pro-building, so not that unusual. They just want the developments to be well designed for transport and include low cost housing. The NIMBYS are pretty much apolitical, at least in a party sense.
Why would the LibDems want low cost housing on new developments? Their middle class voters buying the executive homes won't want a load of chaos living across the street. Vote loser.
They get regularly re elected, so are popular. Examine your prejudices. The LD vote is remarkably evenly spread by age and demographics. Indeed that is one of our problems.
Voted Lib Dems in the locals. The only ones who leafleted were Lib Dem and Tory and both candidates seemed like decent people. Met and been canvassed by both in the past 12 months which has never happened before either, if it wasn't for party I'd happily vote for either on an individual basis.
Not heard diddly squat from Labour who simply haven't bothered.
On a party basis I won't vote for Sunak's Tories while he stands in the way of getting enough construction done to solve the crisis we have as a country of a housing shortage. Had the LDs been NIMBY then I wouldn't have voted for them either, but there's been no NIMBYism so they got my vote.
A local LD not being NIMBY? A local any party not being NIMBY? I wish to move to this utopia you apparently reside in!
my local LD councillors are pro-building, so not that unusual. They just want the developments to be well designed for transport and include low cost housing. The NIMBYS are pretty much apolitical, at least in a party sense.
Why would the LibDems want low cost housing on new developments? Their middle class voters buying the executive homes won't want a load of chaos living across the street. Vote loser.
They get regularly re elected, so are popular. Examine your prejudices. The LD vote is remarkably evenly spread by age and demographics. Indeed that is one of our problems.
In Scotland, they are astonishingly NIMBY. Basically an arm of the Residents' Associations.
Voted Lib Dems in the locals. The only ones who leafleted were Lib Dem and Tory and both candidates seemed like decent people. Met and been canvassed by both in the past 12 months which has never happened before either, if it wasn't for party I'd happily vote for either on an individual basis.
Not heard diddly squat from Labour who simply haven't bothered.
On a party basis I won't vote for Sunak's Tories while he stands in the way of getting enough construction done to solve the crisis we have as a country of a housing shortage. Had the LDs been NIMBY then I wouldn't have voted for them either, but there's been no NIMBYism so they got my vote.
A local LD not being NIMBY? A local any party not being NIMBY? I wish to move to this utopia you apparently reside in!
my local LD councillors are pro-building, so not that unusual. They just want the developments to be well designed for transport and include low cost housing. The NIMBYS are pretty much apolitical, at least in a party sense.
Why would the LibDems want low cost housing on new developments? Their middle class voters buying the executive homes won't want a load of chaos living across the street. Vote loser.
To help keep a balanced community.
There is no point in having a community of waelthy bankers, lawyers and flint-knappers if there is nobody near to fix the gas leaks....
I have to disagree with the header on net ratings. As long as there aren’t too many don’t knows, I believe the gross positive number is more important.
If the leaders of the two main parties scores were
41-42 & 33-29
I would rather be the one on 41 with a net minus
That said, in this case 28 isn’t that great a GP; just shows how unpopular politicians are that 28 is the highest GP of the current bunch, and I’d take even money that Sir Keir’s will be lower than that come the GE
What on earth is going on with this new arena in Manchester?
They couldn't organise a pregnancy on a Salford council estate.
Apparently things were even falling off from the ceiling yesterday?
Whoever is in charge of this project needs to be fired.
I assume the venue has a safety certificate, like footy stadiums etc. So quite how they were able to very nearly open yesterday and at the same time have air conditioning falling off the ceiling boggles the mind.
China. I'm sure of it. Or aliens. China or aliens. Or China and aliens.
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!
1970 had Northern Ireland heading towards civil war.
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!
1970 had Northern Ireland heading towards civil war.
The height of the cold war.
Inflation problems and about to get much worse.
Strike problems and about to get much worse.
Unemployment was circa 600,000 and the economy was growing at a reasonable rate. Inflation was circa 5%.
Yet despite all these miracles the 66-70 Labour government ranked as one of the most unpopular.
And that's without having to deal with all the 'events' that happened during the 1970s which steadily crippled Heath's government and then steadily crippled the subsequent Wilson/Callaghan government.
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!
1970 had Northern Ireland heading towards civil war.
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!
1970 had Northern Ireland heading towards civil war.
The height of the cold war.
Inflation problems and about to get much worse.
Strike problems and about to get much worse.
Unemployment was circa 600,000 and the economy was growing at a reasonable rate. Inflation was circa 5%.
Yet despite all these miracles the 66-70 Labour government ranked as one of the most unpopular.
And that's without having to deal with all the 'events' that happened during the 1970s which steadily crippled Heath's government and then steadily crippled the subsequent Wilson/Callaghan government.
It was very unpopular from Spring 1967 until mid- 1969 and suffered very heavy defeats at by elections and Local Elections. The May 68 results were disastrous for Labour- far worse than today's results are likely to prove for the Tories. The Tories captured virtually all the London Boroughs including Hackney, Islington and Lambeth. Despite that, Labour did recover strongly from Autumn 1969 and its defeat - in defiance of the polls - in June 1970 came as a great shock.
I have wondered about why that should have been a shock.
The London local elections only a few weeks earlier still showed an 11% Conservative lead over Labour.
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!
1970 had Northern Ireland heading towards civil war.
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!
1970 had Northern Ireland heading towards civil war.
The height of the cold war.
Inflation problems and about to get much worse.
Strike problems and about to get much worse.
Unemployment was circa 600,000 and the economy was growing at a reasonable rate. Inflation was circa 5%.
Yet despite all these miracles the 66-70 Labour government ranked as one of the most unpopular.
And that's without having to deal with all the 'events' that happened during the 1970s which steadily crippled Heath's government and then steadily crippled the subsequent Wilson/Callaghan government.
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!
1970 had Northern Ireland heading towards civil war.
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!
1970 had Northern Ireland heading towards civil war.
The height of the cold war.
Inflation problems and about to get much worse.
Strike problems and about to get much worse.
Unemployment was circa 600,000 and the economy was growing at a reasonable rate. Inflation was circa 5%.
Yet despite all these miracles the 66-70 Labour government ranked as one of the most unpopular.
And that's without having to deal with all the 'events' that happened during the 1970s which steadily crippled Heath's government and then steadily crippled the subsequent Wilson/Callaghan government.
It was very unpopular from Spring 1967 until mid- 1969 and suffered very heavy defeats at by elections and Local Elections. The May 68 results were disastrous for Labour- far worse than today's results are likely to prove for the Tories. The Tories captured virtually all the London Boroughs including Hackney, Islington and Lambeth. Despite that, Labour did recover strongly from Autumn 1969 and its defeat - in defiance of the polls - in June 1970 came as a great shock.
I have wondered about why that should have been a shock.
The London local elections only a few weeks earlier still showed an 11% Conservative lead over Labour.
Well the GLC and County Council elections held in April 1970 were not particularly encouraging for Labour - though the party did make gains at the GLC compared with their landslide defeat in 1967 and gained control of the Inner London Education Authority ILEA - which corresponded to the former LCC area. A few weeks later on May 7th Labour made unexpectedly big gains at the Urban and Borough electios - reversing their 1967 losses. A week later Gallup recorded a Labour lead of 7.5% - followed by other smaller Labour leads from various pollsters. Election speculation exploded and Wilson announced the GE on May 18th to be held on June 18th. It turned out to be Wilson's Waterloo!
Wiki is unusually light on details on the 1970 local elections with the exception of London.
2 + 2 = 4. My guess is that China sees that Boeing is in trouble (of Boeing's own devising) and China has leapt on this opportunity, perhaps sabotaging the odd plane, and killing the odd whistleblower, so as to roil Boeing and send it spinning into oblivion
I do NOT believe that Boeing is murdering whistleblowers, so could it be Beijing? yes
And btw America is quite capable of doing this in reverse, indeed it probably has (likewise bigger European nations, like us)
Here is an article that has aged badly I suppose. Written by me, pre partygate, about what I consider to be the absurdity of net ratings.
I think the thinking behind it still stands though, even if events have led to Sir Keir now being almost certain to be the next PM while Boris is nowhere to be seen
What on earth is going on with this new arena in Manchester?
They couldn't organise a pregnancy on a Salford council estate.
Apparently things were even falling off from the ceiling yesterday?
Whoever is in charge of this project needs to be fired.
I assume the venue has a safety certificate, like footy stadiums etc. So quite how they were able to very nearly open yesterday and at the same time have air conditioning falling off the ceiling boggles the mind.
China. I'm sure of it. Or aliens. China or aliens. Or China and aliens.
Or, I am right, and you are just quite dim. There is also that
Voted Lib Dems in the locals. The only ones who leafleted were Lib Dem and Tory and both candidates seemed like decent people. Met and been canvassed by both in the past 12 months which has never happened before either, if it wasn't for party I'd happily vote for either on an individual basis.
Not heard diddly squat from Labour who simply haven't bothered.
On a party basis I won't vote for Sunak's Tories while he stands in the way of getting enough construction done to solve the crisis we have as a country of a housing shortage. Had the LDs been NIMBY then I wouldn't have voted for them either, but there's been no NIMBYism so they got my vote.
A local LD not being NIMBY? A local any party not being NIMBY? I wish to move to this utopia you apparently reside in!
my local LD councillors are pro-building, so not that unusual. They just want the developments to be well designed for transport and include low cost housing. The NIMBYS are pretty much apolitical, at least in a party sense.
Why would the LibDems want low cost housing on new developments? Their middle class voters buying the executive homes won't want a load of chaos living across the street. Vote loser.
To help keep a balanced community.
There is no point in having a community of waelthy bankers, lawyers and flint-knappers if there is nobody near to fix the gas leaks....
That’s one of the advantages of living in a small, long established town. The plumber lives round the corner and his children go to the same school as those of the chap who commutes to the City.
Voted Lib Dems in the locals. The only ones who leafleted were Lib Dem and Tory and both candidates seemed like decent people. Met and been canvassed by both in the past 12 months which has never happened before either, if it wasn't for party I'd happily vote for either on an individual basis.
Not heard diddly squat from Labour who simply haven't bothered.
On a party basis I won't vote for Sunak's Tories while he stands in the way of getting enough construction done to solve the crisis we have as a country of a housing shortage. Had the LDs been NIMBY then I wouldn't have voted for them either, but there's been no NIMBYism so they got my vote.
A local LD not being NIMBY? A local any party not being NIMBY? I wish to move to this utopia you apparently reside in!
my local LD councillors are pro-building, so not that unusual. They just want the developments to be well designed for transport and include low cost housing. The NIMBYS are pretty much apolitical, at least in a party sense.
Why would the LibDems want low cost housing on new developments? Their middle class voters buying the executive homes won't want a load of chaos living across the street. Vote loser.
They get regularly re elected, so are popular. Examine your prejudices. The LD vote is remarkably evenly spread by age and demographics. Indeed that is one of our problems.
Your main problem is surely the post office? Sir Ed has been keeping his Ed down ever since Mr Bates v the PO but he can't hide for a whole GE campaign.
An old mate of mine told me today the Leeds Tories are bricking it. There’s a good chance their group leader will be unseated by a Green challenger. The ward is Wetherby, a formerly rock solid Tory, affluent market town in leafy, rural-ish NE Leeds. He’s a former mayor of Wetherby and is well known and is hoping incumbency helps, but a Green was elected last time and apparently it’s all a bit squeaky bum time. They expect all the other Tories up for re-election to lose, some of those from formerly rock solid Tory wards too.
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?
Hey Divvie, have you picked a side you’re rooting for in the Sudan War?
Are RSF the bad guys because they have Putin on board?
One of the reasons to donate to joint Christian Islam charity to help civilians, is anger that these wars are not civil wars - though we are told they are - they are international. That’s who the enemy and bad guy is - game playing by the international community. And if it makes you cross, donating to Red Cross Red Crescent is fighting back against bad things the bad guys do.
Do people ever wonder what people from abroad make of those declarations when you have characters like Count Binface etc on the stage .
I hope they are charmed.
And it makes me sad for them if they don't have it. As I've noted before if you don't get announced as the winner whilst bleary eyed at 4am in a community sports hall next to someone dressed like an idiot, is it even really democracy?
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!
1970 had Northern Ireland heading towards civil war.
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!
1970 had Northern Ireland heading towards civil war.
The height of the cold war.
Inflation problems and about to get much worse.
Strike problems and about to get much worse.
Unemployment was circa 600,000 and the economy was growing at a reasonable rate. Inflation was circa 5%.
Yet despite all these miracles the 66-70 Labour government ranked as one of the most unpopular.
And that's without having to deal with all the 'events' that happened during the 1970s which steadily crippled Heath's government and then steadily crippled the subsequent Wilson/Callaghan government.
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!
1970 had Northern Ireland heading towards civil war.
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!
1970 had Northern Ireland heading towards civil war.
The height of the cold war.
Inflation problems and about to get much worse.
Strike problems and about to get much worse.
Unemployment was circa 600,000 and the economy was growing at a reasonable rate. Inflation was circa 5%.
Yet despite all these miracles the 66-70 Labour government ranked as one of the most unpopular.
And that's without having to deal with all the 'events' that happened during the 1970s which steadily crippled Heath's government and then steadily crippled the subsequent Wilson/Callaghan government.
It was very unpopular from Spring 1967 until mid- 1969 and suffered very heavy defeats at by elections and Local Elections. The May 68 results were disastrous for Labour- far worse than today's results are likely to prove for the Tories. The Tories captured virtually all the London Boroughs including Hackney, Islington and Lambeth. Despite that, Labour did recover strongly from Autumn 1969 and its defeat - in defiance of the polls - in June 1970 came as a great shock.
I have wondered about why that should have been a shock.
The London local elections only a few weeks earlier still showed an 11% Conservative lead over Labour.
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!
1970 had Northern Ireland heading towards civil war.
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!
1970 had Northern Ireland heading towards civil war.
The height of the cold war.
Inflation problems and about to get much worse.
Strike problems and about to get much worse.
Unemployment was circa 600,000 and the economy was growing at a reasonable rate. Inflation was circa 5%.
Yet despite all these miracles the 66-70 Labour government ranked as one of the most unpopular.
And that's without having to deal with all the 'events' that happened during the 1970s which steadily crippled Heath's government and then steadily crippled the subsequent Wilson/Callaghan government.
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!
1970 had Northern Ireland heading towards civil war.
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!
1970 had Northern Ireland heading towards civil war.
The height of the cold war.
Inflation problems and about to get much worse.
Strike problems and about to get much worse.
Unemployment was circa 600,000 and the economy was growing at a reasonable rate. Inflation was circa 5%.
Yet despite all these miracles the 66-70 Labour government ranked as one of the most unpopular.
And that's without having to deal with all the 'events' that happened during the 1970s which steadily crippled Heath's government and then steadily crippled the subsequent Wilson/Callaghan government.
It was very unpopular from Spring 1967 until mid- 1969 and suffered very heavy defeats at by elections and Local Elections. The May 68 results were disastrous for Labour- far worse than today's results are likely to prove for the Tories. The Tories captured virtually all the London Boroughs including Hackney, Islington and Lambeth. Despite that, Labour did recover strongly from Autumn 1969 and its defeat - in defiance of the polls - in June 1970 came as a great shock.
I have wondered about why that should have been a shock.
The London local elections only a few weeks earlier still showed an 11% Conservative lead over Labour.
Well the GLC and County Council elections held in April 1970 were not particularly encouraging for Labour - though the party did make gains at the GLC compared with their landslide defeat in 1967 and gained control of the Inner London Education Authority ILEA - which corresponded to the former LCC area. A few weeks later on May 7th Labour made unexpectedly big gains at the Urban and Borough electios - reversing their 1967 losses. A week later Gallup recorded a Labour lead of 7.5% - followed by other smaller Labour leads from various pollsters. Election speculation exploded and Wilson announced the GE on May 18th to be held on June 18th. It turned out to be Wilson's Waterloo!
Wiki is unusually light on details on the 1970 local elections with the exception of London.
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!
1970 had Northern Ireland heading towards civil war.
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!
1970 had Northern Ireland heading towards civil war.
The height of the cold war.
Inflation problems and about to get much worse.
Strike problems and about to get much worse.
Unemployment was circa 600,000 and the economy was growing at a reasonable rate. Inflation was circa 5%.
Yet despite all these miracles the 66-70 Labour government ranked as one of the most unpopular.
And that's without having to deal with all the 'events' that happened during the 1970s which steadily crippled Heath's government and then steadily crippled the subsequent Wilson/Callaghan government.
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!
1970 had Northern Ireland heading towards civil war.
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!
1970 had Northern Ireland heading towards civil war.
The height of the cold war.
Inflation problems and about to get much worse.
Strike problems and about to get much worse.
Unemployment was circa 600,000 and the economy was growing at a reasonable rate. Inflation was circa 5%.
Yet despite all these miracles the 66-70 Labour government ranked as one of the most unpopular.
And that's without having to deal with all the 'events' that happened during the 1970s which steadily crippled Heath's government and then steadily crippled the subsequent Wilson/Callaghan government.
It was very unpopular from Spring 1967 until mid- 1969 and suffered very heavy defeats at by elections and Local Elections. The May 68 results were disastrous for Labour- far worse than today's results are likely to prove for the Tories. The Tories captured virtually all the London Boroughs including Hackney, Islington and Lambeth. Despite that, Labour did recover strongly from Autumn 1969 and its defeat - in defiance of the polls - in June 1970 came as a great shock.
I have wondered about why that should have been a shock.
The London local elections only a few weeks earlier still showed an 11% Conservative lead over Labour.
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!
1970 had Northern Ireland heading towards civil war.
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!
1970 had Northern Ireland heading towards civil war.
The height of the cold war.
Inflation problems and about to get much worse.
Strike problems and about to get much worse.
Unemployment was circa 600,000 and the economy was growing at a reasonable rate. Inflation was circa 5%.
Yet despite all these miracles the 66-70 Labour government ranked as one of the most unpopular.
And that's without having to deal with all the 'events' that happened during the 1970s which steadily crippled Heath's government and then steadily crippled the subsequent Wilson/Callaghan government.
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!
1970 had Northern Ireland heading towards civil war.
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!
1970 had Northern Ireland heading towards civil war.
The height of the cold war.
Inflation problems and about to get much worse.
Strike problems and about to get much worse.
Unemployment was circa 600,000 and the economy was growing at a reasonable rate. Inflation was circa 5%.
Yet despite all these miracles the 66-70 Labour government ranked as one of the most unpopular.
And that's without having to deal with all the 'events' that happened during the 1970s which steadily crippled Heath's government and then steadily crippled the subsequent Wilson/Callaghan government.
It was very unpopular from Spring 1967 until mid- 1969 and suffered very heavy defeats at by elections and Local Elections. The May 68 results were disastrous for Labour- far worse than today's results are likely to prove for the Tories. The Tories captured virtually all the London Boroughs including Hackney, Islington and Lambeth. Despite that, Labour did recover strongly from Autumn 1969 and its defeat - in defiance of the polls - in June 1970 came as a great shock.
I have wondered about why that should have been a shock.
The London local elections only a few weeks earlier still showed an 11% Conservative lead over Labour.
Well the GLC and County Council elections held in April 1970 were not particularly encouraging for Labour - though the party did make gains at the GLC compared with their landslide defeat in 1967 and gained control of the Inner London Education Authority ILEA - which corresponded to the former LCC area. A few weeks later on May 7th Labour made unexpectedly big gains at the Urban and Borough electios - reversing their 1967 losses. A week later Gallup recorded a Labour lead of 7.5% - followed by other smaller Labour leads from various pollsters. Election speculation exploded and Wilson announced the GE on May 18th to be held on June 18th. It turned out to be Wilson's Waterloo!
Wiki is unusually light on details on the 1970 local elections with the exception of London.
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!
1970 had Northern Ireland heading towards civil war.
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!
1970 had Northern Ireland heading towards civil war.
The height of the cold war.
Inflation problems and about to get much worse.
Strike problems and about to get much worse.
Unemployment was circa 600,000 and the economy was growing at a reasonable rate. Inflation was circa 5%.
Yet despite all these miracles the 66-70 Labour government ranked as one of the most unpopular.
And that's without having to deal with all the 'events' that happened during the 1970s which steadily crippled Heath's government and then steadily crippled the subsequent Wilson/Callaghan government.
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!
1970 had Northern Ireland heading towards civil war.
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!
1970 had Northern Ireland heading towards civil war.
The height of the cold war.
Inflation problems and about to get much worse.
Strike problems and about to get much worse.
Unemployment was circa 600,000 and the economy was growing at a reasonable rate. Inflation was circa 5%.
Yet despite all these miracles the 66-70 Labour government ranked as one of the most unpopular.
And that's without having to deal with all the 'events' that happened during the 1970s which steadily crippled Heath's government and then steadily crippled the subsequent Wilson/Callaghan government.
It was very unpopular from Spring 1967 until mid- 1969 and suffered very heavy defeats at by elections and Local Elections. The May 68 results were disastrous for Labour- far worse than today's results are likely to prove for the Tories. The Tories captured virtually all the London Boroughs including Hackney, Islington and Lambeth. Despite that, Labour did recover strongly from Autumn 1969 and its defeat - in defiance of the polls - in June 1970 came as a great shock.
I have wondered about why that should have been a shock.
The London local elections only a few weeks earlier still showed an 11% Conservative lead over Labour.
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!
1970 had Northern Ireland heading towards civil war.
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!
1970 had Northern Ireland heading towards civil war.
The height of the cold war.
Inflation problems and about to get much worse.
Strike problems and about to get much worse.
Unemployment was circa 600,000 and the economy was growing at a reasonable rate. Inflation was circa 5%.
Yet despite all these miracles the 66-70 Labour government ranked as one of the most unpopular.
And that's without having to deal with all the 'events' that happened during the 1970s which steadily crippled Heath's government and then steadily crippled the subsequent Wilson/Callaghan government.
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!
1970 had Northern Ireland heading towards civil war.
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!
1970 had Northern Ireland heading towards civil war.
The height of the cold war.
Inflation problems and about to get much worse.
Strike problems and about to get much worse.
Unemployment was circa 600,000 and the economy was growing at a reasonable rate. Inflation was circa 5%.
Yet despite all these miracles the 66-70 Labour government ranked as one of the most unpopular.
And that's without having to deal with all the 'events' that happened during the 1970s which steadily crippled Heath's government and then steadily crippled the subsequent Wilson/Callaghan government.
It was very unpopular from Spring 1967 until mid- 1969 and suffered very heavy defeats at by elections and Local Elections. The May 68 results were disastrous for Labour- far worse than today's results are likely to prove for the Tories. The Tories captured virtually all the London Boroughs including Hackney, Islington and Lambeth. Despite that, Labour did recover strongly from Autumn 1969 and its defeat - in defiance of the polls - in June 1970 came as a great shock.
I have wondered about why that should have been a shock.
The London local elections only a few weeks earlier still showed an 11% Conservative lead over Labour.
Well the GLC and County Council elections held in April 1970 were not particularly encouraging for Labour - though the party did make gains at the GLC compared with their landslide defeat in 1967 and gained control of the Inner London Education Authority ILEA - which corresponded to the former LCC area. A few weeks later on May 7th Labour made unexpectedly big gains at the Urban and Borough electios - reversing their 1967 losses. A week later Gallup recorded a Labour lead of 7.5% - followed by other smaller Labour leads from various pollsters. Election speculation exploded and Wilson announced the GE on May 18th to be held on June 18th. It turned out to be Wilson's Waterloo!
Wiki is unusually light on details on the 1970 local elections with the exception of London.
Pre the reform of Local Government by Heath's government in the early 1970s the local elecion cycle was 3 years rather than the 4 years we have known for the last 50 years - ie councillors were elected for 3 rather than 4 years. That meant that in County Council election years there were two sets of Local Elections with the County Council elections taking place in April followed by the Urban/Borough elections a few weeks later in May. This was true in 1961 - 1964 - 1967 - 1970 - and for the last time in 1973.
Do people ever wonder what people from abroad make of those declarations when you have characters like Count Binface etc on the stage .
They struggle to comprehend it.
I'll tell you an anecdote on these lines.
Back in circa 2011 Barack Obama rang to speak to David Cameron, he was genuinely perplexed to learn that David Cameron was out delivering leaflets/canvassing in his constituency of Witney and that Dave would call him back in an hour or so as the mobile reception in West Oxfordshire was bad.
An old mate of mine told me today the Leeds Tories are bricking it. There’s a good chance their group leader will be unseated by a Green challenger. The ward is Wetherby, a formerly rock solid Tory, affluent market town in leafy, rural-ish NE Leeds. He’s a former mayor of Wetherby and is well known and is hoping incumbency helps, but a Green was elected last time and apparently it’s all a bit squeaky bum time. They expect all the other Tories up for re-election to lose, some of those from formerly rock solid Tory wards too.
That surprises me because my call is Conservatives doing okay in North Yorkshire when it comes to Mayor election, it will be a third Tory win with Street and Houchen. North Yorkshire overall will always be Tory. For ever and ever.
Voted Lib Dems in the locals. The only ones who leafleted were Lib Dem and Tory and both candidates seemed like decent people. Met and been canvassed by both in the past 12 months which has never happened before either, if it wasn't for party I'd happily vote for either on an individual basis.
Not heard diddly squat from Labour who simply haven't bothered.
On a party basis I won't vote for Sunak's Tories while he stands in the way of getting enough construction done to solve the crisis we have as a country of a housing shortage. Had the LDs been NIMBY then I wouldn't have voted for them either, but there's been no NIMBYism so they got my vote.
A local LD not being NIMBY? A local any party not being NIMBY? I wish to move to this utopia you apparently reside in!
my local LD councillors are pro-building, so not that unusual. They just want the developments to be well designed for transport and include low cost housing. The NIMBYS are pretty much apolitical, at least in a party sense.
Why would the LibDems want low cost housing on new developments? Their middle class voters buying the executive homes won't want a load of chaos living across the street. Vote loser.
To help keep a balanced community.
There is no point in having a community of waelthy bankers, lawyers and flint-knappers if there is nobody near to fix the gas leaks....
That’s one of the advantages of living in a small, long established town. The plumber lives round the corner and his children go to the same school as those of the chap who commutes to the City.
Until the children grow up and have to leave the small, well established town as there's nowhere for them to live themselves if there's been no construction to keep up with both population growth and longer life expectancy.
Do people ever wonder what people from abroad make of those declarations when you have characters like Count Binface etc on the stage .
They struggle to comprehend it.
I'll tell you an anecdote on these lines.
Back in circa 2011 Barack Obama rang to speak to David Cameron, he was genuinely perplexed to learn that David Cameron was out delivering leaflets/canvassing in his constituency of Witney and that Dave would call him back in an hour or so as the mobile reception in West Oxfordshire was bad.
The consistency link is one of the few things that's still good about our politics. Doesn't matter whether you're an MP in a party of one or the Prime Minister, once every four or five years you WILL go back to your constituency and face the music, lol!
Was the poll before or after Rishi said British workers were faking being sick and doctors can’t be trusted to write sick notes? Bet it seemed like a vote winner to him
I mentioned this morning my astonishment at my Surrey tory friend’s newfound love-in for Keir Starmer. She thinks he’s great and ‘the next Boris Johnson’ by which she apparently means ‘a man of the people.’
I’m really surprised but maybe Starmer is cutting through.
I find him a lot less phoney than Tony. And I’m sure he will make a very good, solid, PM who will probably lead Labour to two election victories before stepping down.
Hubris. Poll leads can turn very quickly when the new government has the harsh spotlight of responsibility on them. They will blame the Tories for everything for as long as they can (both parties do this of course). But we are not very far on from Labour being on the ropes and talk (crazy talk, but talk none the less) of Labour never gaining power again. Labour will smash the next election but the problems the UK faces won’t be gone and the public will want answers, just as with Brexit. We voted for Brexit to make things better, they are not better, it’s your fault…
The 'last government' excuse can usually be made to work for a good 2 terms I think. Brown trying it after 13 years was a step too far, and Tories will have no luck if they try it after 14.
Depends how bad things get and whether it can be directly pinned on the new government or not.
I'm sure when Labour went to MFI for a bailout in '76 they probably tried to pin it on Heath's government, perhaps with some success?
But when the Winter Of Discontent came along there was no one else they could pin the blame on...
An old mate of mine told me today the Leeds Tories are bricking it. There’s a good chance their group leader will be unseated by a Green challenger. The ward is Wetherby, a formerly rock solid Tory, affluent market town in leafy, rural-ish NE Leeds. He’s a former mayor of Wetherby and is well known and is hoping incumbency helps, but a Green was elected last time and apparently it’s all a bit squeaky bum time. They expect all the other Tories up for re-election to lose, some of those from formerly rock solid Tory wards too.
Blimey. If Wetherby falls then the Tories are in even more shit than their dire polling suggests.
Do people ever wonder what people from abroad make of those declarations when you have characters like Count Binface etc on the stage .
They struggle to comprehend it.
I'll tell you an anecdote on these lines.
Back in circa 2011 Barack Obama rang to speak to David Cameron, he was genuinely perplexed to learn that David Cameron was out delivering leaflets/canvassing in his constituency of Witney and that Dave would call him back in an hour or so as the mobile reception in West Oxfordshire was bad.
Think how fab things would be if he had acknowledged his limitations and stuck to leafletting.
An old mate of mine told me today the Leeds Tories are bricking it. There’s a good chance their group leader will be unseated by a Green challenger. The ward is Wetherby, a formerly rock solid Tory, affluent market town in leafy, rural-ish NE Leeds. He’s a former mayor of Wetherby and is well known and is hoping incumbency helps, but a Green was elected last time and apparently it’s all a bit squeaky bum time. They expect all the other Tories up for re-election to lose, some of those from formerly rock solid Tory wards too.
That surprises me because my call is Conservatives doing okay in North Yorkshire when it comes to Mayor election, it will be a third Tory win with Street and Houchen. North Yorkshire overall will always be Tory. For ever and ever.
An old mate of mine told me today the Leeds Tories are bricking it. There’s a good chance their group leader will be unseated by a Green challenger. The ward is Wetherby, a formerly rock solid Tory, affluent market town in leafy, rural-ish NE Leeds. He’s a former mayor of Wetherby and is well known and is hoping incumbency helps, but a Green was elected last time and apparently it’s all a bit squeaky bum time. They expect all the other Tories up for re-election to lose, some of those from formerly rock solid Tory wards too.
That surprises me because my call is Conservatives doing okay in North Yorkshire when it comes to Mayor election, it will be a third Tory win with Street and Houchen. North Yorkshire overall will always be Tory. For ever and ever.
I’m surprised too, to be honest. Although it’s Leeds on paper, it is only just and it does feel very North Yorkshire out that way. I can understand them getting a kicking in Leeds proper, even in the leafy suburbs where they’ve been solid for years, but Wetherby just seems too dyed-in-the-wool Tory - if a Green hadn’t won there last time I’d say it was bollocks. But the Tories think he could well be a gonner.
Voted Lib Dems in the locals. The only ones who leafleted were Lib Dem and Tory and both candidates seemed like decent people. Met and been canvassed by both in the past 12 months which has never happened before either, if it wasn't for party I'd happily vote for either on an individual basis.
Not heard diddly squat from Labour who simply haven't bothered.
On a party basis I won't vote for Sunak's Tories while he stands in the way of getting enough construction done to solve the crisis we have as a country of a housing shortage. Had the LDs been NIMBY then I wouldn't have voted for them either, but there's been no NIMBYism so they got my vote.
A local LD not being NIMBY? A local any party not being NIMBY? I wish to move to this utopia you apparently reside in!
my local LD councillors are pro-building, so not that unusual. They just want the developments to be well designed for transport and include low cost housing. The NIMBYS are pretty much apolitical, at least in a party sense.
Why would the LibDems want low cost housing on new developments? Their middle class voters buying the executive homes won't want a load of chaos living across the street. Vote loser.
Come come. Lib Dem voters don’t buy “executive homes”. The horror!
I mentioned this morning my astonishment at my Surrey tory friend’s newfound love-in for Keir Starmer. She thinks he’s great and ‘the next Boris Johnson’ by which she apparently means ‘a man of the people.’
I’m really surprised but maybe Starmer is cutting through.
I find him a lot less phoney than Tony. And I’m sure he will make a very good, solid, PM who will probably lead Labour to two election victories before stepping down.
Hubris. Poll leads can turn very quickly when the new government has the harsh spotlight of responsibility on them. They will blame the Tories for everything for as long as they can (both parties do this of course). But we are not very far on from Labour being on the ropes and talk (crazy talk, but talk none the less) of Labour never gaining power again. Labour will smash the next election but the problems the UK faces won’t be gone and the public will want answers, just as with Brexit. We voted for Brexit to make things better, they are not better, it’s your fault…
The 'last government' excuse can usually be made to work for a good 2 terms I think. Brown trying it after 13 years was a step too far, and Tories will have no luck if they try it after 14.
Depends how bad things get and whether it can be directly pinned on the new government or not.
I'm sure when Labour went to MFI for a bailout in '76 they probably tried to pin it on Heath's government, perhaps with some success?
But when the Winter Of Discontent came along there was no one else they could pin the blame on...
An old mate of mine told me today the Leeds Tories are bricking it. There’s a good chance their group leader will be unseated by a Green challenger. The ward is Wetherby, a formerly rock solid Tory, affluent market town in leafy, rural-ish NE Leeds. He’s a former mayor of Wetherby and is well known and is hoping incumbency helps, but a Green was elected last time and apparently it’s all a bit squeaky bum time. They expect all the other Tories up for re-election to lose, some of those from formerly rock solid Tory wards too.
That surprises me because my call is Conservatives doing okay in North Yorkshire when it comes to Mayor election, it will be a third Tory win with Street and Houchen. North Yorkshire overall will always be Tory. For ever and ever.
Wasn't there a poll putting Labour ahead in NY?
"Mr Starmer, this is the NY State electoral office, we're calling to inform you that you've won the electoral college votes as a write in candidate"
An old mate of mine told me today the Leeds Tories are bricking it. There’s a good chance their group leader will be unseated by a Green challenger. The ward is Wetherby, a formerly rock solid Tory, affluent market town in leafy, rural-ish NE Leeds. He’s a former mayor of Wetherby and is well known and is hoping incumbency helps, but a Green was elected last time and apparently it’s all a bit squeaky bum time. They expect all the other Tories up for re-election to lose, some of those from formerly rock solid Tory wards too.
Blimey. If Wetherby falls then the Tories are in even more shit than their dire polling suggests.
Went Green in 2023, so unless Alan Lamb is considerably more popular than Linda Richards I expect the Greens will win this time too.
An old mate of mine told me today the Leeds Tories are bricking it. There’s a good chance their group leader will be unseated by a Green challenger. The ward is Wetherby, a formerly rock solid Tory, affluent market town in leafy, rural-ish NE Leeds. He’s a former mayor of Wetherby and is well known and is hoping incumbency helps, but a Green was elected last time and apparently it’s all a bit squeaky bum time. They expect all the other Tories up for re-election to lose, some of those from formerly rock solid Tory wards too.
Blimey. If Wetherby falls then the Tories are in even more shit than their dire polling suggests.
That’s exactly what I said. But a Green got in last year. So who knows?!
I mentioned this morning my astonishment at my Surrey tory friend’s newfound love-in for Keir Starmer. She thinks he’s great and ‘the next Boris Johnson’ by which she apparently means ‘a man of the people.’
I’m really surprised but maybe Starmer is cutting through.
I find him a lot less phoney than Tony. And I’m sure he will make a very good, solid, PM who will probably lead Labour to two election victories before stepping down.
Hubris. Poll leads can turn very quickly when the new government has the harsh spotlight of responsibility on them. They will blame the Tories for everything for as long as they can (both parties do this of course). But we are not very far on from Labour being on the ropes and talk (crazy talk, but talk none the less) of Labour never gaining power again. Labour will smash the next election but the problems the UK faces won’t be gone and the public will want answers, just as with Brexit. We voted for Brexit to make things better, they are not better, it’s your fault…
The 'last government' excuse can usually be made to work for a good 2 terms I think. Brown trying it after 13 years was a step too far, and Tories will have no luck if they try it after 14.
Depends how bad things get and whether it can be directly pinned on the new government or not.
I'm sure when Labour went to MFI for a bailout in '76 they probably tried to pin it on Heath's government, perhaps with some success?
But when the Winter Of Discontent came along there was no one else they could pin the blame on...
Do people ever wonder what people from abroad make of those declarations when you have characters like Count Binface etc on the stage .
They struggle to comprehend it.
I'll tell you an anecdote on these lines.
Back in circa 2011 Barack Obama rang to speak to David Cameron, he was genuinely perplexed to learn that David Cameron was out delivering leaflets/canvassing in his constituency of Witney and that Dave would call him back in an hour or so as the mobile reception in West Oxfordshire was bad.
Think how fab things would be if he had acknowledged his limitations and stuck to leafletting.
It's comments like this that lead to me using that Nigel Farage photo in thead headers. #CollectivePunishmentForInsultingDave
An old mate of mine told me today the Leeds Tories are bricking it. There’s a good chance their group leader will be unseated by a Green challenger. The ward is Wetherby, a formerly rock solid Tory, affluent market town in leafy, rural-ish NE Leeds. He’s a former mayor of Wetherby and is well known and is hoping incumbency helps, but a Green was elected last time and apparently it’s all a bit squeaky bum time. They expect all the other Tories up for re-election to lose, some of those from formerly rock solid Tory wards too.
Blimey. If Wetherby falls then the Tories are in even more shit than their dire polling suggests.
That’s exactly what I said. But a Green got in last year. So who knows?!
My in-laws live in Wetherby. I expect they’ll be voting Reform.
An old mate of mine told me today the Leeds Tories are bricking it. There’s a good chance their group leader will be unseated by a Green challenger. The ward is Wetherby, a formerly rock solid Tory, affluent market town in leafy, rural-ish NE Leeds. He’s a former mayor of Wetherby and is well known and is hoping incumbency helps, but a Green was elected last time and apparently it’s all a bit squeaky bum time. They expect all the other Tories up for re-election to lose, some of those from formerly rock solid Tory wards too.
Blimey. If Wetherby falls then the Tories are in even more shit than their dire polling suggests.
That’s exactly what I said. But a Green got in last year. So who knows?!
If Leeds goes even more Labour my eldest granddaughter and her partner will be delighted.
Do people ever wonder what people from abroad make of those declarations when you have characters like Count Binface etc on the stage .
They struggle to comprehend it.
I'll tell you an anecdote on these lines.
Back in circa 2011 Barack Obama rang to speak to David Cameron, he was genuinely perplexed to learn that David Cameron was out delivering leaflets/canvassing in his constituency of Witney and that Dave would call him back in an hour or so as the mobile reception in West Oxfordshire was bad.
Think how fab things would be if he had acknowledged his limitations and stuck to leafletting.
It's comments like this that lead to me using that Nigel Farage photo in thead headers. #CollectivePunishmentForInsultingDave
No out of context photo will ever trump Corbyn dressing up for the Last Leg in a tuxedo, fur coat and a Bentley.
An old mate of mine told me today the Leeds Tories are bricking it. There’s a good chance their group leader will be unseated by a Green challenger. The ward is Wetherby, a formerly rock solid Tory, affluent market town in leafy, rural-ish NE Leeds. He’s a former mayor of Wetherby and is well known and is hoping incumbency helps, but a Green was elected last time and apparently it’s all a bit squeaky bum time. They expect all the other Tories up for re-election to lose, some of those from formerly rock solid Tory wards too.
Blimey. If Wetherby falls then the Tories are in even more shit than their dire polling suggests.
Went Green in 2023, so unless Alan Lamb is considerably more popular than Linda Richards I expect the Greens will win this time too.
I think he is, which is what they’re clinging on to. If he can’t hold on they really are in a very, very bad place. But I think he’ll survive.
Do people ever wonder what people from abroad make of those declarations when you have characters like Count Binface etc on the stage .
They struggle to comprehend it.
I'll tell you an anecdote on these lines.
Back in circa 2011 Barack Obama rang to speak to David Cameron, he was genuinely perplexed to learn that David Cameron was out delivering leaflets/canvassing in his constituency of Witney and that Dave would call him back in an hour or so as the mobile reception in West Oxfordshire was bad.
Think how fab things would be if he had acknowledged his limitations and stuck to leafletting.
It's comments like this that lead to me using that Nigel Farage photo in thead headers. #CollectivePunishmentForInsultingDave
Interesting chat to the polling office staff this morning; they felt it was a long day but decent money for sitting at a desk.
Checking up it is about £20 per hour.
Today being £230 + 20% extra for running two polls + £30 for a training session.
Given that ours are PCC and D2N2 Mayor with notalot of voters, I can see the attraction.
That's nearly 2 weeks of basic state pension.
You can volunteer to be on the list. You probably won't get it as priority will almost certainly go to current or former local authority staff, but people always drop out as the date approaches and some venues are tough to fill, so you never know.
An old mate of mine told me today the Leeds Tories are bricking it. There’s a good chance their group leader will be unseated by a Green challenger. The ward is Wetherby, a formerly rock solid Tory, affluent market town in leafy, rural-ish NE Leeds. He’s a former mayor of Wetherby and is well known and is hoping incumbency helps, but a Green was elected last time and apparently it’s all a bit squeaky bum time. They expect all the other Tories up for re-election to lose, some of those from formerly rock solid Tory wards too.
Blimey. If Wetherby falls then the Tories are in even more shit than their dire polling suggests.
'Wetherby Has Fallen' could be the new 'Were You Still Up For Portillo?'
Do people ever wonder what people from abroad make of those declarations when you have characters like Count Binface etc on the stage .
They struggle to comprehend it.
I'll tell you an anecdote on these lines.
Back in circa 2011 Barack Obama rang to speak to David Cameron, he was genuinely perplexed to learn that David Cameron was out delivering leaflets/canvassing in his constituency of Witney and that Dave would call him back in an hour or so as the mobile reception in West Oxfordshire was bad.
Think how fab things would be if he had acknowledged his limitations and stuck to leafletting.
It's comments like this that lead to me using that Nigel Farage photo in thead headers. #CollectivePunishmentForInsultingDave
No out of context photo will ever trump Corbyn dressing up for the Last Leg in a tuxedo, fur coat and a Bentley.
He scrubbed up quite well as I remember. Derek Guy would approve I am sure.
Starmer needs to read his twitter. He needs better fitting jackets or to shed a few stone.
Do people ever wonder what people from abroad make of those declarations when you have characters like Count Binface etc on the stage .
They struggle to comprehend it.
I'll tell you an anecdote on these lines.
Back in circa 2011 Barack Obama rang to speak to David Cameron, he was genuinely perplexed to learn that David Cameron was out delivering leaflets/canvassing in his constituency of Witney and that Dave would call him back in an hour or so as the mobile reception in West Oxfordshire was bad.
Think how fab things would be if he had acknowledged his limitations and stuck to leafletting.
It's comments like this that lead to me using that Nigel Farage photo in thead headers. #CollectivePunishmentForInsultingDave
No out of context photo will ever trump Corbyn dressing up for the Last Leg in a tuxedo, fur coat and a Bentley.
That's 00Corbyn to you. Seriously, the access he had to people the security services took a great interest in!
Comments
https://www.seattletimes.com/business/whistleblower-josh-dean-of-boeing-supplier-spirit-aerosystems-has-died/
EDIT: I'm off on a work trip in just over three weeks on two 787s, a 737-NG and a MAX8 so yeah. I might come back.
This is now a 20 year old flash animation - 2004.
https://eclectech.co.uk/nonsense/pettingzoo
I'm sure when Labour went to MFI for a bailout in '76 they probably tried to pin it on Heath's government, perhaps with some success?
But when the Winter Of Discontent came along there was no one else they could pin the blame on...
To my mind Paris has a sinister edge almost entirely absent in London. It's not as simple as "Paris is more violent" - I'm not remotely sure it is. It's more to do with native Gallic rudeness mixing unhappily with high levels of migration, from certain quite attitudinal areas - the Maghreb in particular
You get this weird surliness which pervades, tho outbreaks of smiley friendliness can leaven it, but not often enough
That was my main impression when I returned home today. London is jollier, and cheerier, even tho Paris is much more beautiful
But before I start cheer eading for London I have to say, again, that I think levels of migration are now so high we are destined for some brutal hard right governments, right across Europe (Britain likely included) unless we see a remarkable turnaround
[insert AI clause here: as in: none of this applies if AI changes the world, as it well might]
They come across as disorganised and casual.
Voted Green for the London Assembly top up.
How much will the Tory filth poll here?
https://www.redcross.org.uk/about-us/what-we-do/international/sudan#:~:text=Our emergency response is being,the conflict from day one.
Obviously not in finding themselves a job in time.
Even though we've had full employment and are continually told that we need more immigrants to fill all the jobs.
Still there's nothing to stop them applying for jobs after they've left - if they can ever sort themselves out.
Lowest common denominator migration policies have failed.
There is no point in having a community of waelthy bankers, lawyers and flint-knappers if there is nobody near to fix the gas leaks....
If the leaders of the two main parties scores were
41-42
&
33-29
I would rather be the one on 41 with a net minus
That said, in this case 28 isn’t that great a GP; just shows how unpopular politicians are that 28 is the highest GP of the current bunch, and I’d take even money that Sir Keir’s will be lower than that come the GE
https://www.reuters.com/technology/cybersecurity/fbi-says-chinese-hackers-preparing-attack-us-infrastructure-2024-04-18/
Also, China is now desperate to break the Boeing/Airbus duopoly, they have the airplane ready to roll, right now, and they are already making inroads
"China’s New Plane Wins Two Big Orders: Should Airbus and Boeing Be Worried?"
https://skift.com/2024/04/29/chinas-new-plane-wins-two-big-orders-should-airbus-and-boeing-be-worried/
2 + 2 = 4. My guess is that China sees that Boeing is in trouble (of Boeing's own devising) and China has leapt on this opportunity, perhaps sabotaging the odd plane, and killing the odd whistleblower, so as to roil Boeing and send it spinning into oblivion
I do NOT believe that Boeing is murdering whistleblowers, so could it be Beijing? yes
And btw America is quite capable of doing this in reverse, indeed it probably has (likewise bigger European nations, like us)
I think the thinking behind it still stands though, even if events have led to Sir Keir now being almost certain to be the next PM while Boris is nowhere to be seen
http://aboutasfarasdelgados.blogspot.com/2021/03/the-optical-illusion-of-net-ratings.html
Tom: Are you saying that Brianna Ghey was a 16-year old boy?
Keith: Yes
Tom: That's an appalling thing to say!
Keith: I'm sorry, but I believe it's a statement of fact
Keith Jordan, Our Duty Group: 'If a child identifies as trans at school there's been a safeguarding failure'
https://x.com/gbnews/status/1786028871122358324?s=46&t=CW4pL-mMpTqsJXCdjW0Z6Q
Are RSF the bad guys because they have Putin on board?
One of the reasons to donate to joint Christian Islam charity to help civilians, is anger that these wars are not civil wars - though we are told they are - they are international. That’s who the enemy and bad guy is - game playing by the international community. And if it makes you cross, donating to Red Cross Red Crescent is fighting back against bad things the bad guys do.
https://www.chathamhouse.org/publications/the-world-today/2024-02/sudan-collapsing-heres-how-stop-it
And it makes me sad for them if they don't have it. As I've noted before if you don't get announced as the winner whilst bleary eyed at 4am in a community sports hall next to someone dressed like an idiot, is it even really democracy?
I'll tell you an anecdote on these lines.
Back in circa 2011 Barack Obama rang to speak to David Cameron, he was genuinely perplexed to learn that David Cameron was out delivering leaflets/canvassing in his constituency of Witney and that Dave would call him back in an hour or so as the mobile reception in West Oxfordshire was bad.
Besides, you might have missed the news.
I still maintain there is a difference between *went to vote* and *voted.*
That's Lord Shitfaced.
Didn't Farage once get beaten by someone dressed as a dolphin?
Page 18 has details of turnout for local elections since 1973.
Checking up it is about £20 per hour.
Today being £230 + 20% extra for running two polls + £30 for a training session.
Given that ours are PCC and D2N2 Mayor with notalot of voters, I can see the attraction.
That's nearly 2 weeks of basic state pension.
Starmer needs to read his twitter. He needs better fitting jackets or to shed a few stone.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=xu2ib2r5aDw