17s might be just about value but I really don't see a Jan election, pissing off media, public and activists alike.
There comes a point when prolonging the agony just feeds into the narrative and makes things worse still. I don't see polling day going any later than Dec 12.
(And I still think Nov 14 is most likely, with a mid-Oct date next)
I agree with you but say come early October when Sunak has to call a November election and the Tories are circa 20-25 points behind in the polls you think he might delay in the hope something does come up?
It's the price of missing the reltively painless option of May.
As many on here suggested, it was only ever likely to get worse after that, and that is what we seeing now.
My previous view of Sunak was that he would probably have made a reasonable PM in 'good' times. Instead, he inherited a party that had been in power too long, had run out of ideas, and preferred attacking itself rather than the opposition.
I'm part way through changing that view. Everything after the 'instead...' about his party remains valid. But I'm rapidly coming to the conclusion that he would not have made a reasonable PM even if he had had a unified, fresh party. Worse, I don't even think he's trying. It's like he's phoning it in.
TLDR; Sunak's hopeless.
For a long while I was a bit of a Sunak fan, but like you JJ, I've had to revise my views on the downside.
He's not very good, although better than the two before him.
... And, quite possibly, better than his successor.
The central mystery remains. Is he doing this stuff out of fear of the right, or because he is one of them and believes this stuff?
Neither excuses the incompetence at people management.
Sunak is genuinely right wing. He basically believes the same stuff as Truss without the delusion. For some reason people got into their heads he was a centrist technocrat.
When you believe government is there to make the rich richer, squillionaires like yourself, and you don't even pretend any interest in how the other 99% live, you will struggle politically.
I'm not sure if Sunak lacks delusions, but he was more cautious, understandably so when she lacked any whatsoever.
I will not get over how he was called a remainer traitor in the leadership contest by some Tories. He's a hard right wing Brexiter, albeit with a smoother technocratic presentation.
Can you find any significant interventions that Rishi Sunak made on behalf of the Brexit campaign that he avowedly supported? I wasn't aware of any.
I don't spot him here from a quick scan, though perhaps he's concealed behind John Wittingdale's left buttock.
Perhaps you should have spent a bit longer than 10 seconds.
1. Is his (rather regretful and exculpatory) statement on how he's voting, and 4. is the same thing, published in the Yorkshire Post. 2. and 3. didn't even take place before the vote.
That's the absolute bare minimum to avoid not answering the question, which would have been bizarre.
17s might be just about value but I really don't see a Jan election, pissing off media, public and activists alike.
There comes a point when prolonging the agony just feeds into the narrative and makes things worse still. I don't see polling day going any later than Dec 12.
(And I still think Nov 14 is most likely, with a mid-Oct date next)
I agree with you but say come early October when Sunak has to call a November election and the Tories are circa 20-25 points behind in the polls you think he might delay in the hope something does come up?
It's the price of missing the reltively painless option of May.
As many on here suggested, it was only ever likely to get worse after that, and that is what we seeing now.
My previous view of Sunak was that he would probably have made a reasonable PM in 'good' times. Instead, he inherited a party that had been in power too long, had run out of ideas, and preferred attacking itself rather than the opposition.
I'm part way through changing that view. Everything after the 'instead...' about his party remains valid. But I'm rapidly coming to the conclusion that he would not have made a reasonable PM even if he had had a unified, fresh party. Worse, I don't even think he's trying. It's like he's phoning it in.
TLDR; Sunak's hopeless.
For a long while I was a bit of a Sunak fan, but like you JJ, I've had to revise my views on the downside.
He's not very good, although better than the two before him.
... And, quite possibly, better than his successor.
The central mystery remains. Is he doing this stuff out of fear of the right, or because he is one of them and believes this stuff?
Neither excuses the incompetence at people management.
Sunak is genuinely right wing. He basically believes the same stuff as Truss without the delusion. For some reason people got into their heads he was a centrist technocrat.
When you believe government is there to make the rich richer, squillionaires like yourself, and you don't even pretend any interest in how the other 99% live, you will struggle politically.
I'm not sure if Sunak lacks delusions, but he was more cautious, understandably so when she lacked any whatsoever.
I will not get over how he was called a remainer traitor in the leadership contest by some Tories. He's a hard right wing Brexiter, albeit with a smoother technocratic presentation.
Can you find any significant interventions that Rishi Sunak made on behalf of the Brexit campaign that he avowedly supported? I wasn't aware of any.
I don't spot him here from a quick scan, though perhaps he's concealed behind John Wittingdale's left buttock.
Perhaps you should have spent a bit longer than 10 seconds.
1. Is his (rather regretful and exculpatory) statement on how he's voting, and 4. is the same thing, published in the Yorkshire Post. 2. and 3. didn't even take place before the vote.
That's the absolute bare minimum to avoid not answering the question, which would have been bizarre.
Quite right on 2 and 3 - mental slip on my part, thanks.
But he's still responsible, especially given such a narrow margin where a few constituencies made a difference. And saying it twice over is twice as culpable.
COMMENT: It took John ‘Fresh Start’ Swinney just 50 secs to revert to type at First Minister’s Questions, blaming UK Gov for a wholly devolved issue .. then claiming he was being “clear” with parents about teacher numbers, while doing his utmost not to be
17s might be just about value but I really don't see a Jan election, pissing off media, public and activists alike.
There comes a point when prolonging the agony just feeds into the narrative and makes things worse still. I don't see polling day going any later than Dec 12.
(And I still think Nov 14 is most likely, with a mid-Oct date next)
I agree with you but say come early October when Sunak has to call a November election and the Tories are circa 20-25 points behind in the polls you think he might delay in the hope something does come up?
It's the price of missing the reltively painless option of May.
As many on here suggested, it was only ever likely to get worse after that, and that is what we seeing now.
My previous view of Sunak was that he would probably have made a reasonable PM in 'good' times. Instead, he inherited a party that had been in power too long, had run out of ideas, and preferred attacking itself rather than the opposition.
I'm part way through changing that view. Everything after the 'instead...' about his party remains valid. But I'm rapidly coming to the conclusion that he would not have made a reasonable PM even if he had had a unified, fresh party. Worse, I don't even think he's trying. It's like he's phoning it in.
TLDR; Sunak's hopeless.
For a long while I was a bit of a Sunak fan, but like you JJ, I've had to revise my views on the downside.
He's not very good, although better than the two before him.
... And, quite possibly, better than his successor.
The central mystery remains. Is he doing this stuff out of fear of the right, or because he is one of them and believes this stuff?
Neither excuses the incompetence at people management.
Sunak is genuinely right wing. He basically believes the same stuff as Truss without the delusion. For some reason people got into their heads he was a centrist technocrat.
When you believe government is there to make the rich richer, squillionaires like yourself, and you don't even pretend any interest in how the other 99% live, you will struggle politically.
I'm not sure if Sunak lacks delusions, but he was more cautious, understandably so when she lacked any whatsoever.
I will not get over how he was called a remainer traitor in the leadership contest by some Tories. He's a hard right wing Brexiter, albeit with a smoother technocratic presentation.
Can you find any significant interventions that Rishi Sunak made on behalf of the Brexit campaign that he avowedly supported? I wasn't aware of any.
I don't spot him here from a quick scan, though perhaps he's concealed behind John Wittingdale's left buttock.
I can't see Liz Truss in that picture? Though I'm basing that on everyone managing to hold their signs up the right way.
I would happily support a site wide ban on trans + AI.
But we could just not talk about these things, would that not achieve the same thing?
How about talking about trAIns?
Going on a bullet train today, v excited!
I've just realised that I haven't been on a train once so far this year so far. Must be the first time I've got to May without having been on one since 1990 or so.
This realisation saddens me.
Speaking as somebody who commutes over 200 miles each week, mostly by train, whilst sitting next to people who stink of drugs, drunks, inchoate people with random words, rowdy kids, families with eight-year old children travelling at around 11pm, people who want to be hard bastards, people who are hard bastards, potential rapists, football fans, Jordan Petersen fans, more drunks and all possible combinations of the mad, the bad and the sad, I would advise you to fall to your knees and pray to whichever God you align to that you never have to be on one again.
Plus: - sodcasters playing their music out loud (also folk with Apple headphones) - people eating smelly food - People with feet on seats
17s might be just about value but I really don't see a Jan election, pissing off media, public and activists alike.
There comes a point when prolonging the agony just feeds into the narrative and makes things worse still. I don't see polling day going any later than Dec 12.
(And I still think Nov 14 is most likely, with a mid-Oct date next)
I agree with you but say come early October when Sunak has to call a November election and the Tories are circa 20-25 points behind in the polls you think he might delay in the hope something does come up?
It's the price of missing the reltively painless option of May.
As many on here suggested, it was only ever likely to get worse after that, and that is what we seeing now.
My previous view of Sunak was that he would probably have made a reasonable PM in 'good' times. Instead, he inherited a party that had been in power too long, had run out of ideas, and preferred attacking itself rather than the opposition.
I'm part way through changing that view. Everything after the 'instead...' about his party remains valid. But I'm rapidly coming to the conclusion that he would not have made a reasonable PM even if he had had a unified, fresh party. Worse, I don't even think he's trying. It's like he's phoning it in.
TLDR; Sunak's hopeless.
For a long while I was a bit of a Sunak fan, but like you JJ, I've had to revise my views on the downside.
He's not very good, although better than the two before him.
... And, quite possibly, better than his successor.
The central mystery remains. Is he doing this stuff out of fear of the right, or because he is one of them and believes this stuff?
Neither excuses the incompetence at people management.
Sunak is genuinely right wing. He basically believes the same stuff as Truss without the delusion. For some reason people got into their heads he was a centrist technocrat.
When you believe government is there to make the rich richer, squillionaires like yourself, and you don't even pretend any interest in how the other 99% live, you will struggle politically.
I'm not sure if Sunak lacks delusions, but he was more cautious, understandably so when she lacked any whatsoever.
I will not get over how he was called a remainer traitor in the leadership contest by some Tories. He's a hard right wing Brexiter, albeit with a smoother technocratic presentation.
Can you find any significant interventions that Rishi Sunak made on behalf of the Brexit campaign that he avowedly supported? I wasn't aware of any.
I don't spot him here from a quick scan, though perhaps he's concealed behind John Wittingdale's left buttock.
Perhaps you should have spent a bit longer than 10 seconds.
1. Is his (rather regretful and exculpatory) statement on how he's voting, and 4. is the same thing, published in the Yorkshire Post. 2. and 3. didn't even take place before the vote.
That's the absolute bare minimum to avoid not answering the question, which would have been bizarre.
Quite right on 2 and 3 - mental slip on my part, thanks.
But he's still responsible, especially given such a narrow margin where a few constituencies made a difference. And saying it twice over is twice as culpable.
I don't accept your framing of his choice as culpability, as you know - even in its stunted form I think the benefits of being outside the EU have been shown to be significant.
In common with many, my take on Rishi's Brexitism is that he picked a side as many did (we cannot know his reasons), made a fairly equivocal statement about it, and promptly went to ground.
Since achieving his Prime Ministerial ambitions, he has given up Britain's ability to invoke the Northern Ireland protocol, paid over billions in EU fines without a murmer, shitcanned the EU reform and revocation bill, abandoned reform of the EUs nutrient regulations that would have enabled 100, 000 houses to be built, done nothing on fishing, and shoved millions at the French in the hope they'll stop some boats.etc. These are just what I can think of at 11pm on a school night.
17s might be just about value but I really don't see a Jan election, pissing off media, public and activists alike.
There comes a point when prolonging the agony just feeds into the narrative and makes things worse still. I don't see polling day going any later than Dec 12.
(And I still think Nov 14 is most likely, with a mid-Oct date next)
I agree with you but say come early October when Sunak has to call a November election and the Tories are circa 20-25 points behind in the polls you think he might delay in the hope something does come up?
It's the price of missing the reltively painless option of May.
As many on here suggested, it was only ever likely to get worse after that, and that is what we seeing now.
My previous view of Sunak was that he would probably have made a reasonable PM in 'good' times. Instead, he inherited a party that had been in power too long, had run out of ideas, and preferred attacking itself rather than the opposition.
I'm part way through changing that view. Everything after the 'instead...' about his party remains valid. But I'm rapidly coming to the conclusion that he would not have made a reasonable PM even if he had had a unified, fresh party. Worse, I don't even think he's trying. It's like he's phoning it in.
TLDR; Sunak's hopeless.
For a long while I was a bit of a Sunak fan, but like you JJ, I've had to revise my views on the downside.
He's not very good, although better than the two before him.
... And, quite possibly, better than his successor.
The central mystery remains. Is he doing this stuff out of fear of the right, or because he is one of them and believes this stuff?
Neither excuses the incompetence at people management.
Sunak is genuinely right wing. He basically believes the same stuff as Truss without the delusion. For some reason people got into their heads he was a centrist technocrat.
When you believe government is there to make the rich richer, squillionaires like yourself, and you don't even pretend any interest in how the other 99% live, you will struggle politically.
I'm not sure if Sunak lacks delusions, but he was more cautious, understandably so when she lacked any whatsoever.
I will not get over how he was called a remainer traitor in the leadership contest by some Tories. He's a hard right wing Brexiter, albeit with a smoother technocratic presentation.
Can you find any significant interventions that Rishi Sunak made on behalf of the Brexit campaign that he avowedly supported? I wasn't aware of any.
I don't spot him here from a quick scan, though perhaps he's concealed behind John Wittingdale's left buttock.
I can't see Liz Truss in that picture? Though I'm basing that on everyone managing to hold their signs up the right way.
Even Liz Truss wasn't mad enough to support Brexit!
17s might be just about value but I really don't see a Jan election, pissing off media, public and activists alike.
There comes a point when prolonging the agony just feeds into the narrative and makes things worse still. I don't see polling day going any later than Dec 12.
(And I still think Nov 14 is most likely, with a mid-Oct date next)
I agree with you but say come early October when Sunak has to call a November election and the Tories are circa 20-25 points behind in the polls you think he might delay in the hope something does come up?
It's the price of missing the reltively painless option of May.
As many on here suggested, it was only ever likely to get worse after that, and that is what we seeing now.
My previous view of Sunak was that he would probably have made a reasonable PM in 'good' times. Instead, he inherited a party that had been in power too long, had run out of ideas, and preferred attacking itself rather than the opposition.
I'm part way through changing that view. Everything after the 'instead...' about his party remains valid. But I'm rapidly coming to the conclusion that he would not have made a reasonable PM even if he had had a unified, fresh party. Worse, I don't even think he's trying. It's like he's phoning it in.
TLDR; Sunak's hopeless.
For a long while I was a bit of a Sunak fan, but like you JJ, I've had to revise my views on the downside.
He's not very good, although better than the two before him.
... And, quite possibly, better than his successor.
The central mystery remains. Is he doing this stuff out of fear of the right, or because he is one of them and believes this stuff?
Neither excuses the incompetence at people management.
Sunak is genuinely right wing. He basically believes the same stuff as Truss without the delusion. For some reason people got into their heads he was a centrist technocrat.
When you believe government is there to make the rich richer, squillionaires like yourself, and you don't even pretend any interest in how the other 99% live, you will struggle politically.
I'm not sure if Sunak lacks delusions, but he was more cautious, understandably so when she lacked any whatsoever.
I will not get over how he was called a remainer traitor in the leadership contest by some Tories. He's a hard right wing Brexiter, albeit with a smoother technocratic presentation.
Can you find any significant interventions that Rishi Sunak made on behalf of the Brexit campaign that he avowedly supported? I wasn't aware of any.
I don't spot him here from a quick scan, though perhaps he's concealed behind John Wittingdale's left buttock.
I can't see Liz Truss in that picture? Though I'm basing that on everyone managing to hold their signs up the right way.
Starmer officially announces he will scrap Rwanda and replace it with something else
A bit like Republicans that would scrap Obamacare with promises to replace it, but actually have zero plans. Starmer is revealing himself to have no attempt whatsoever at reducing illegal immigration. No doubt he will reverse on dependents visas too, reduce the income thresholds and bring back free entry for EU types. Labour are utterly lackeys of a certain demographic that hates the new Sunak limits.
17s might be just about value but I really don't see a Jan election, pissing off media, public and activists alike.
There comes a point when prolonging the agony just feeds into the narrative and makes things worse still. I don't see polling day going any later than Dec 12.
(And I still think Nov 14 is most likely, with a mid-Oct date next)
I agree with you but say come early October when Sunak has to call a November election and the Tories are circa 20-25 points behind in the polls you think he might delay in the hope something does come up?
It's the price of missing the reltively painless option of May.
As many on here suggested, it was only ever likely to get worse after that, and that is what we seeing now.
My previous view of Sunak was that he would probably have made a reasonable PM in 'good' times. Instead, he inherited a party that had been in power too long, had run out of ideas, and preferred attacking itself rather than the opposition.
I'm part way through changing that view. Everything after the 'instead...' about his party remains valid. But I'm rapidly coming to the conclusion that he would not have made a reasonable PM even if he had had a unified, fresh party. Worse, I don't even think he's trying. It's like he's phoning it in.
TLDR; Sunak's hopeless.
For a long while I was a bit of a Sunak fan, but like you JJ, I've had to revise my views on the downside.
He's not very good, although better than the two before him.
... And, quite possibly, better than his successor.
The central mystery remains. Is he doing this stuff out of fear of the right, or because he is one of them and believes this stuff?
Neither excuses the incompetence at people management.
Sunak is genuinely right wing. He basically believes the same stuff as Truss without the delusion. For some reason people got into their heads he was a centrist technocrat.
When you believe government is there to make the rich richer, squillionaires like yourself, and you don't even pretend any interest in how the other 99% live, you will struggle politically.
I'm not sure if Sunak lacks delusions, but he was more cautious, understandably so when she lacked any whatsoever.
I will not get over how he was called a remainer traitor in the leadership contest by some Tories. He's a hard right wing Brexiter, albeit with a smoother technocratic presentation.
Can you find any significant interventions that Rishi Sunak made on behalf of the Brexit campaign that he avowedly supported? I wasn't aware of any.
I don't spot him here from a quick scan, though perhaps he's concealed behind John Wittingdale's left buttock.
I can't see Liz Truss in that picture? Though I'm basing that on everyone managing to hold their signs up the right way.
Truss was a Remainer.
Truss is just a moron. Backed Remain, u-turned on it when the wind blew against it, then crashed the pound once PM.
This video just shows that everyone in the audience was disagreeing with what was happening. Anti booing technology, removing the audience mics JUST for Israel's performance etc. The EBU supports this.
17s might be just about value but I really don't see a Jan election, pissing off media, public and activists alike.
There comes a point when prolonging the agony just feeds into the narrative and makes things worse still. I don't see polling day going any later than Dec 12.
(And I still think Nov 14 is most likely, with a mid-Oct date next)
I agree with you but say come early October when Sunak has to call a November election and the Tories are circa 20-25 points behind in the polls you think he might delay in the hope something does come up?
It's the price of missing the reltively painless option of May.
As many on here suggested, it was only ever likely to get worse after that, and that is what we seeing now.
My previous view of Sunak was that he would probably have made a reasonable PM in 'good' times. Instead, he inherited a party that had been in power too long, had run out of ideas, and preferred attacking itself rather than the opposition.
I'm part way through changing that view. Everything after the 'instead...' about his party remains valid. But I'm rapidly coming to the conclusion that he would not have made a reasonable PM even if he had had a unified, fresh party. Worse, I don't even think he's trying. It's like he's phoning it in.
TLDR; Sunak's hopeless.
For a long while I was a bit of a Sunak fan, but like you JJ, I've had to revise my views on the downside.
He's not very good, although better than the two before him.
... And, quite possibly, better than his successor.
The central mystery remains. Is he doing this stuff out of fear of the right, or because he is one of them and believes this stuff?
Neither excuses the incompetence at people management.
Sunak is genuinely right wing. He basically believes the same stuff as Truss without the delusion. For some reason people got into their heads he was a centrist technocrat.
When you believe government is there to make the rich richer, squillionaires like yourself, and you don't even pretend any interest in how the other 99% live, you will struggle politically.
I'm not sure if Sunak lacks delusions, but he was more cautious, understandably so when she lacked any whatsoever.
I will not get over how he was called a remainer traitor in the leadership contest by some Tories. He's a hard right wing Brexiter, albeit with a smoother technocratic presentation.
Can you find any significant interventions that Rishi Sunak made on behalf of the Brexit campaign that he avowedly supported? I wasn't aware of any.
I don't spot him here from a quick scan, though perhaps he's concealed behind John Wittingdale's left buttock.
I can't see Liz Truss in that picture? Though I'm basing that on everyone managing to hold their signs up the right way.
Truss was a Remainer.
Truss is just a moron. Backed Remain, u-turned on it when the wind blew against it, then crashed the pound once PM.
Currencies find their true value. Decades of currency debasement and trade deficits "trashed the pound". The events surrounding the mini budget and concurrent QT activities by the bank caused temporary speculation which some people made some money off.
This video just shows that everyone in the audience was disagreeing with what was happening. Anti booing technology, removing the audience mics JUST for Israel's performance etc. The EBU supports this.
Latvia Austria Netherlands Norway Israel Greece Estonia Switzerland Georgia Armenia
I don't know why Israel are included. They are a Middle Eastern country with a Middle Eastern culture that doesn't respect Western democratic values.
Australia also competes.
I think a country joins the Eurovision Song Contest by asking to be in the contest. If you bring viewers (and therefore advertising revenue), you're in.
I’m sure the Border Security Command will go down well . Starmer just needs to make sure they look like Star Wars Storm Troopers !
He seems to be doubling down on the Elphicke defection with her accompanying him in Dover . The party discontent is bubbling away but when you’re on the side of the party leading in the polls and likely to hold your seats , principles will often take a back seat !
Latvia Austria Netherlands Norway Israel Greece Estonia Switzerland Georgia Armenia
I don't know why Israel are included. They are a Middle Eastern country with a Middle Eastern culture that doesn't respect Western democratic values.
Australia also competes.
I think a country joins the Eurovision Song Contest by asking to be in the contest. If you bring viewers (and therefore advertising revenue), you're in.
Australia at least is an offshoot of European civilization, speaking a European language and with Western values.
17s might be just about value but I really don't see a Jan election, pissing off media, public and activists alike.
There comes a point when prolonging the agony just feeds into the narrative and makes things worse still. I don't see polling day going any later than Dec 12.
(And I still think Nov 14 is most likely, with a mid-Oct date next)
I agree with you but say come early October when Sunak has to call a November election and the Tories are circa 20-25 points behind in the polls you think he might delay in the hope something does come up?
It's the price of missing the reltively painless option of May.
As many on here suggested, it was only ever likely to get worse after that, and that is what we seeing now.
My previous view of Sunak was that he would probably have made a reasonable PM in 'good' times. Instead, he inherited a party that had been in power too long, had run out of ideas, and preferred attacking itself rather than the opposition.
I'm part way through changing that view. Everything after the 'instead...' about his party remains valid. But I'm rapidly coming to the conclusion that he would not have made a reasonable PM even if he had had a unified, fresh party. Worse, I don't even think he's trying. It's like he's phoning it in.
TLDR; Sunak's hopeless.
For a long while I was a bit of a Sunak fan, but like you JJ, I've had to revise my views on the downside.
He's not very good, although better than the two before him.
... And, quite possibly, better than his successor.
The central mystery remains. Is he doing this stuff out of fear of the right, or because he is one of them and believes this stuff?
Neither excuses the incompetence at people management.
Sunak is genuinely right wing. He basically believes the same stuff as Truss without the delusion. For some reason people got into their heads he was a centrist technocrat.
When you believe government is there to make the rich richer, squillionaires like yourself, and you don't even pretend any interest in how the other 99% live, you will struggle politically.
I'm not sure if Sunak lacks delusions, but he was more cautious, understandably so when she lacked any whatsoever.
I will not get over how he was called a remainer traitor in the leadership contest by some Tories. He's a hard right wing Brexiter, albeit with a smoother technocratic presentation.
Can you find any significant interventions that Rishi Sunak made on behalf of the Brexit campaign that he avowedly supported? I wasn't aware of any.
I don't spot him here from a quick scan, though perhaps he's concealed behind John Wittingdale's left buttock.
I can't see Liz Truss in that picture? Though I'm basing that on everyone managing to hold their signs up the right way.
Truss was a Remainer.
Truss is just a moron. Backed Remain, u-turned on it when the wind blew against it, then crashed the pound once PM.
Sadly I think she's someone who'll say whatever she thinks will gain her temporary advantage.
Latvia Austria Netherlands Norway Israel Greece Estonia Switzerland Georgia Armenia
I don't know why Israel are included. They are a Middle Eastern country with a Middle Eastern culture that doesn't respect Western democratic values.
Australia also competes.
I think a country joins the Eurovision Song Contest by asking to be in the contest. If you bring viewers (and therefore advertising revenue), you're in.
Australia at least is an offshoot of European civilization, speaking a European language and with Western values.
One might make the same argument about Israel, of course. Most Israelis are either first or second (or at most third) generation emigrees from Europe.
Latvia Austria Netherlands Norway Israel Greece Estonia Switzerland Georgia Armenia
I don't know why Israel are included. They are a Middle Eastern country with a Middle Eastern culture that doesn't respect Western democratic values.
Australia also competes.
I think a country joins the Eurovision Song Contest by asking to be in the contest. If you bring viewers (and therefore advertising revenue), you're in.
KAN, the Israeli broadcaster, (and the IBA before it) are members of the European Broadcasting Union who make the Eurovision Song Contest and have been for decades.
Australia is an associate member, who joined ESC as guests in 2015, but were popular and stayed in (big TV audience down under for the ESC, despite the time difference).
17s might be just about value but I really don't see a Jan election, pissing off media, public and activists alike.
There comes a point when prolonging the agony just feeds into the narrative and makes things worse still. I don't see polling day going any later than Dec 12.
(And I still think Nov 14 is most likely, with a mid-Oct date next)
I agree with you but say come early October when Sunak has to call a November election and the Tories are circa 20-25 points behind in the polls you think he might delay in the hope something does come up?
It's the price of missing the reltively painless option of May.
As many on here suggested, it was only ever likely to get worse after that, and that is what we seeing now.
My previous view of Sunak was that he would probably have made a reasonable PM in 'good' times. Instead, he inherited a party that had been in power too long, had run out of ideas, and preferred attacking itself rather than the opposition.
I'm part way through changing that view. Everything after the 'instead...' about his party remains valid. But I'm rapidly coming to the conclusion that he would not have made a reasonable PM even if he had had a unified, fresh party. Worse, I don't even think he's trying. It's like he's phoning it in.
TLDR; Sunak's hopeless.
For a long while I was a bit of a Sunak fan, but like you JJ, I've had to revise my views on the downside.
He's not very good, although better than the two before him.
... And, quite possibly, better than his successor.
The central mystery remains. Is he doing this stuff out of fear of the right, or because he is one of them and believes this stuff?
Neither excuses the incompetence at people management.
Sunak is genuinely right wing. He basically believes the same stuff as Truss without the delusion. For some reason people got into their heads he was a centrist technocrat.
When you believe government is there to make the rich richer, squillionaires like yourself, and you don't even pretend any interest in how the other 99% live, you will struggle politically.
I'm not sure if Sunak lacks delusions, but he was more cautious, understandably so when she lacked any whatsoever.
I will not get over how he was called a remainer traitor in the leadership contest by some Tories. He's a hard right wing Brexiter, albeit with a smoother technocratic presentation.
Can you find any significant interventions that Rishi Sunak made on behalf of the Brexit campaign that he avowedly supported? I wasn't aware of any.
I don't spot him here from a quick scan, though perhaps he's concealed behind John Wittingdale's left buttock.
I can't see Liz Truss in that picture? Though I'm basing that on everyone managing to hold their signs up the right way.
Truss was a Remainer.
Truss is just a moron. Backed Remain, u-turned on it when the wind blew against it, then crashed the pound once PM.
Currencies find their true value. Decades of currency debasement and trade deficits "trashed the pound". The events surrounding the mini budget and concurrent QT activities by the bank caused temporary speculation which some people made some money off.
If it was just temporary speculation, the government could have stood behind the currency and would have won. But they couldn't because the currency headed towards its true value under a Truss premiership. When more competent people took over, the currency recovered.
17s might be just about value but I really don't see a Jan election, pissing off media, public and activists alike.
There comes a point when prolonging the agony just feeds into the narrative and makes things worse still. I don't see polling day going any later than Dec 12.
(And I still think Nov 14 is most likely, with a mid-Oct date next)
I agree with you but say come early October when Sunak has to call a November election and the Tories are circa 20-25 points behind in the polls you think he might delay in the hope something does come up?
It's the price of missing the reltively painless option of May.
As many on here suggested, it was only ever likely to get worse after that, and that is what we seeing now.
My previous view of Sunak was that he would probably have made a reasonable PM in 'good' times. Instead, he inherited a party that had been in power too long, had run out of ideas, and preferred attacking itself rather than the opposition.
I'm part way through changing that view. Everything after the 'instead...' about his party remains valid. But I'm rapidly coming to the conclusion that he would not have made a reasonable PM even if he had had a unified, fresh party. Worse, I don't even think he's trying. It's like he's phoning it in.
TLDR; Sunak's hopeless.
For a long while I was a bit of a Sunak fan, but like you JJ, I've had to revise my views on the downside.
He's not very good, although better than the two before him.
... And, quite possibly, better than his successor.
The central mystery remains. Is he doing this stuff out of fear of the right, or because he is one of them and believes this stuff?
Neither excuses the incompetence at people management.
Sunak is genuinely right wing. He basically believes the same stuff as Truss without the delusion. For some reason people got into their heads he was a centrist technocrat.
When you believe government is there to make the rich richer, squillionaires like yourself, and you don't even pretend any interest in how the other 99% live, you will struggle politically.
I'm not sure if Sunak lacks delusions, but he was more cautious, understandably so when she lacked any whatsoever.
I will not get over how he was called a remainer traitor in the leadership contest by some Tories. He's a hard right wing Brexiter, albeit with a smoother technocratic presentation.
Can you find any significant interventions that Rishi Sunak made on behalf of the Brexit campaign that he avowedly supported? I wasn't aware of any.
I don't spot him here from a quick scan, though perhaps he's concealed behind John Wittingdale's left buttock.
I can't see Liz Truss in that picture? Though I'm basing that on everyone managing to hold their signs up the right way.
Truss was a Remainer.
Truss is just a moron. Backed Remain, u-turned on it when the wind blew against it, then crashed the pound once PM.
Currencies find their true value. Decades of currency debasement and trade deficits "trashed the pound". The events surrounding the mini budget and concurrent QT activities by the bank caused temporary speculation which some people made some money off.
If it was just temporary speculation, the government could have stood behind the currency and would have won. But they couldn't because the currency headed towards its true value under a Truss premiership. When more competent people took over, the currency recovered.
Interesting - I've often thought of you before as moderately intelligent.
Latvia Austria Netherlands Norway Israel Greece Estonia Switzerland Georgia Armenia
I don't know why Israel are included. They are a Middle Eastern country with a Middle Eastern culture that doesn't respect Western democratic values.
Australia also competes.
I think a country joins the Eurovision Song Contest by asking to be in the contest. If you bring viewers (and therefore advertising revenue), you're in.
Australia at least is an offshoot of European civilization, speaking a European language and with Western values.
One might make the same argument about Israel, of course. Most Israelis are either first or second (or at most third) generation emigrees from Europe.
And they would be wrong. Their culture is Middle Eastern, their language is Middle Eastern and most of their population is not from Europe.
17s might be just about value but I really don't see a Jan election, pissing off media, public and activists alike.
There comes a point when prolonging the agony just feeds into the narrative and makes things worse still. I don't see polling day going any later than Dec 12.
(And I still think Nov 14 is most likely, with a mid-Oct date next)
I agree with you but say come early October when Sunak has to call a November election and the Tories are circa 20-25 points behind in the polls you think he might delay in the hope something does come up?
It's the price of missing the reltively painless option of May.
As many on here suggested, it was only ever likely to get worse after that, and that is what we seeing now.
My previous view of Sunak was that he would probably have made a reasonable PM in 'good' times. Instead, he inherited a party that had been in power too long, had run out of ideas, and preferred attacking itself rather than the opposition.
I'm part way through changing that view. Everything after the 'instead...' about his party remains valid. But I'm rapidly coming to the conclusion that he would not have made a reasonable PM even if he had had a unified, fresh party. Worse, I don't even think he's trying. It's like he's phoning it in.
TLDR; Sunak's hopeless.
For a long while I was a bit of a Sunak fan, but like you JJ, I've had to revise my views on the downside.
He's not very good, although better than the two before him.
... And, quite possibly, better than his successor.
The central mystery remains. Is he doing this stuff out of fear of the right, or because he is one of them and believes this stuff?
Neither excuses the incompetence at people management.
Sunak is genuinely right wing. He basically believes the same stuff as Truss without the delusion. For some reason people got into their heads he was a centrist technocrat.
When you believe government is there to make the rich richer, squillionaires like yourself, and you don't even pretend any interest in how the other 99% live, you will struggle politically.
I'm not sure if Sunak lacks delusions, but he was more cautious, understandably so when she lacked any whatsoever.
I will not get over how he was called a remainer traitor in the leadership contest by some Tories. He's a hard right wing Brexiter, albeit with a smoother technocratic presentation.
Can you find any significant interventions that Rishi Sunak made on behalf of the Brexit campaign that he avowedly supported? I wasn't aware of any.
I don't spot him here from a quick scan, though perhaps he's concealed behind John Wittingdale's left buttock.
I can't see Liz Truss in that picture? Though I'm basing that on everyone managing to hold their signs up the right way.
Truss was a Remainer.
Truss is just a moron. Backed Remain, u-turned on it when the wind blew against it, then crashed the pound once PM.
Currencies find their true value. Decades of currency debasement and trade deficits "trashed the pound". The events surrounding the mini budget and concurrent QT activities by the bank caused temporary speculation which some people made some money off.
If it was just temporary speculation, the government could have stood behind the currency and would have won. But they couldn't because the currency headed towards its true value under a Truss premiership. When more competent people took over, the currency recovered.
Interesting - I've often thought of you before as moderately intelligent.
Intelligent people can recognize the Trussite "stab in the back" myth. Her budget was bonkers. Not just the inherent energy subsidies, but also because she doesn't understand the Thatcher maxim that you need to balance the budget before you can start cutting taxes.
17s might be just about value but I really don't see a Jan election, pissing off media, public and activists alike.
There comes a point when prolonging the agony just feeds into the narrative and makes things worse still. I don't see polling day going any later than Dec 12.
(And I still think Nov 14 is most likely, with a mid-Oct date next)
I agree with you but say come early October when Sunak has to call a November election and the Tories are circa 20-25 points behind in the polls you think he might delay in the hope something does come up?
It's the price of missing the reltively painless option of May.
As many on here suggested, it was only ever likely to get worse after that, and that is what we seeing now.
My previous view of Sunak was that he would probably have made a reasonable PM in 'good' times. Instead, he inherited a party that had been in power too long, had run out of ideas, and preferred attacking itself rather than the opposition.
I'm part way through changing that view. Everything after the 'instead...' about his party remains valid. But I'm rapidly coming to the conclusion that he would not have made a reasonable PM even if he had had a unified, fresh party. Worse, I don't even think he's trying. It's like he's phoning it in.
TLDR; Sunak's hopeless.
For a long while I was a bit of a Sunak fan, but like you JJ, I've had to revise my views on the downside.
He's not very good, although better than the two before him.
... And, quite possibly, better than his successor.
The central mystery remains. Is he doing this stuff out of fear of the right, or because he is one of them and believes this stuff?
Neither excuses the incompetence at people management.
Sunak is genuinely right wing. He basically believes the same stuff as Truss without the delusion. For some reason people got into their heads he was a centrist technocrat.
When you believe government is there to make the rich richer, squillionaires like yourself, and you don't even pretend any interest in how the other 99% live, you will struggle politically.
I'm not sure if Sunak lacks delusions, but he was more cautious, understandably so when she lacked any whatsoever.
I will not get over how he was called a remainer traitor in the leadership contest by some Tories. He's a hard right wing Brexiter, albeit with a smoother technocratic presentation.
Can you find any significant interventions that Rishi Sunak made on behalf of the Brexit campaign that he avowedly supported? I wasn't aware of any.
I don't spot him here from a quick scan, though perhaps he's concealed behind John Wittingdale's left buttock.
I can't see Liz Truss in that picture? Though I'm basing that on everyone managing to hold their signs up the right way.
Truss was a Remainer.
Truss is just a moron. Backed Remain, u-turned on it when the wind blew against it, then crashed the pound once PM.
Currencies find their true value. Decades of currency debasement and trade deficits "trashed the pound". The events surrounding the mini budget and concurrent QT activities by the bank caused temporary speculation which some people made some money off.
Oddly the weakest currency in Western Europe at the moment seems to be the SEK. It was positively affordable in Stockholm this week, I was shocked. Swedish colleagues telling me how expensive trips to London have become. No idea why. Contrast with the DKK which makes any trip to Denmark a serious remortgaging event.
17s might be just about value but I really don't see a Jan election, pissing off media, public and activists alike.
There comes a point when prolonging the agony just feeds into the narrative and makes things worse still. I don't see polling day going any later than Dec 12.
(And I still think Nov 14 is most likely, with a mid-Oct date next)
I agree with you but say come early October when Sunak has to call a November election and the Tories are circa 20-25 points behind in the polls you think he might delay in the hope something does come up?
It's the price of missing the reltively painless option of May.
As many on here suggested, it was only ever likely to get worse after that, and that is what we seeing now.
My previous view of Sunak was that he would probably have made a reasonable PM in 'good' times. Instead, he inherited a party that had been in power too long, had run out of ideas, and preferred attacking itself rather than the opposition.
I'm part way through changing that view. Everything after the 'instead...' about his party remains valid. But I'm rapidly coming to the conclusion that he would not have made a reasonable PM even if he had had a unified, fresh party. Worse, I don't even think he's trying. It's like he's phoning it in.
TLDR; Sunak's hopeless.
For a long while I was a bit of a Sunak fan, but like you JJ, I've had to revise my views on the downside.
He's not very good, although better than the two before him.
... And, quite possibly, better than his successor.
The central mystery remains. Is he doing this stuff out of fear of the right, or because he is one of them and believes this stuff?
Neither excuses the incompetence at people management.
Sunak is genuinely right wing. He basically believes the same stuff as Truss without the delusion. For some reason people got into their heads he was a centrist technocrat.
When you believe government is there to make the rich richer, squillionaires like yourself, and you don't even pretend any interest in how the other 99% live, you will struggle politically.
I'm not sure if Sunak lacks delusions, but he was more cautious, understandably so when she lacked any whatsoever.
I will not get over how he was called a remainer traitor in the leadership contest by some Tories. He's a hard right wing Brexiter, albeit with a smoother technocratic presentation.
Can you find any significant interventions that Rishi Sunak made on behalf of the Brexit campaign that he avowedly supported? I wasn't aware of any.
I don't spot him here from a quick scan, though perhaps he's concealed behind John Wittingdale's left buttock.
I can't see Liz Truss in that picture? Though I'm basing that on everyone managing to hold their signs up the right way.
Truss was a Remainer.
Truss is just a moron. Backed Remain, u-turned on it when the wind blew against it, then crashed the pound once PM.
Currencies find their true value. Decades of currency debasement and trade deficits "trashed the pound". The events surrounding the mini budget and concurrent QT activities by the bank caused temporary speculation which some people made some money off.
If you want to know what happened in the early 1970s, it was the end of the world fixing their currencies to gold through the Bretton Woods Agreement.
During that period, major crises were almost unknown because - under Bretton Woods - if you ran a trade deficit for long, you ran out of gold.
Under the current system, if you are big enough, you get to run unlimited deficits, and the world becomes ever more unbalanced. And the crises - when they hit - are absolutely massive.
17s might be just about value but I really don't see a Jan election, pissing off media, public and activists alike.
There comes a point when prolonging the agony just feeds into the narrative and makes things worse still. I don't see polling day going any later than Dec 12.
(And I still think Nov 14 is most likely, with a mid-Oct date next)
I agree with you but say come early October when Sunak has to call a November election and the Tories are circa 20-25 points behind in the polls you think he might delay in the hope something does come up?
It's the price of missing the reltively painless option of May.
As many on here suggested, it was only ever likely to get worse after that, and that is what we seeing now.
My previous view of Sunak was that he would probably have made a reasonable PM in 'good' times. Instead, he inherited a party that had been in power too long, had run out of ideas, and preferred attacking itself rather than the opposition.
I'm part way through changing that view. Everything after the 'instead...' about his party remains valid. But I'm rapidly coming to the conclusion that he would not have made a reasonable PM even if he had had a unified, fresh party. Worse, I don't even think he's trying. It's like he's phoning it in.
TLDR; Sunak's hopeless.
For a long while I was a bit of a Sunak fan, but like you JJ, I've had to revise my views on the downside.
He's not very good, although better than the two before him.
... And, quite possibly, better than his successor.
The central mystery remains. Is he doing this stuff out of fear of the right, or because he is one of them and believes this stuff?
Neither excuses the incompetence at people management.
Sunak is genuinely right wing. He basically believes the same stuff as Truss without the delusion. For some reason people got into their heads he was a centrist technocrat.
When you believe government is there to make the rich richer, squillionaires like yourself, and you don't even pretend any interest in how the other 99% live, you will struggle politically.
I'm not sure if Sunak lacks delusions, but he was more cautious, understandably so when she lacked any whatsoever.
I will not get over how he was called a remainer traitor in the leadership contest by some Tories. He's a hard right wing Brexiter, albeit with a smoother technocratic presentation.
Can you find any significant interventions that Rishi Sunak made on behalf of the Brexit campaign that he avowedly supported? I wasn't aware of any.
I don't spot him here from a quick scan, though perhaps he's concealed behind John Wittingdale's left buttock.
I can't see Liz Truss in that picture? Though I'm basing that on everyone managing to hold their signs up the right way.
Truss was a Remainer.
Truss is just a moron. Backed Remain, u-turned on it when the wind blew against it, then crashed the pound once PM.
Sadly I think she's someone who'll say whatever she thinks will gain her temporary advantage.
Even her fiercest critics here say that she's a loony ideologue, which isn't the profile of the two-faced careerist you describe.
Latvia Austria Netherlands Norway Israel Greece Estonia Switzerland Georgia Armenia
I don't know why Israel are included. They are a Middle Eastern country with a Middle Eastern culture that doesn't respect Western democratic values.
Australia also competes.
I think a country joins the Eurovision Song Contest by asking to be in the contest. If you bring viewers (and therefore advertising revenue), you're in.
Australia at least is an offshoot of European civilization, speaking a European language and with Western values.
One might make the same argument about Israel, of course. Most Israelis are either first or second (or at most third) generation emigrees from Europe.
And they would be wrong. Their culture is Middle Eastern, their language is Middle Eastern and most of their population is not from Europe.
You'd struggle to find a more schizophrenic place than Israel: on the one hand you have a deeply European/US urban elite who live in Tel Aviv only speak English and happily eat pork. A hundred miles away you have Settler communities where English isn't even spoken and education is almost entirely religious.
And that's before you even add in the Palestinians.
17s might be just about value but I really don't see a Jan election, pissing off media, public and activists alike.
There comes a point when prolonging the agony just feeds into the narrative and makes things worse still. I don't see polling day going any later than Dec 12.
(And I still think Nov 14 is most likely, with a mid-Oct date next)
I agree with you but say come early October when Sunak has to call a November election and the Tories are circa 20-25 points behind in the polls you think he might delay in the hope something does come up?
It's the price of missing the reltively painless option of May.
As many on here suggested, it was only ever likely to get worse after that, and that is what we seeing now.
My previous view of Sunak was that he would probably have made a reasonable PM in 'good' times. Instead, he inherited a party that had been in power too long, had run out of ideas, and preferred attacking itself rather than the opposition.
I'm part way through changing that view. Everything after the 'instead...' about his party remains valid. But I'm rapidly coming to the conclusion that he would not have made a reasonable PM even if he had had a unified, fresh party. Worse, I don't even think he's trying. It's like he's phoning it in.
TLDR; Sunak's hopeless.
For a long while I was a bit of a Sunak fan, but like you JJ, I've had to revise my views on the downside.
He's not very good, although better than the two before him.
... And, quite possibly, better than his successor.
The central mystery remains. Is he doing this stuff out of fear of the right, or because he is one of them and believes this stuff?
Neither excuses the incompetence at people management.
Sunak is genuinely right wing. He basically believes the same stuff as Truss without the delusion. For some reason people got into their heads he was a centrist technocrat.
When you believe government is there to make the rich richer, squillionaires like yourself, and you don't even pretend any interest in how the other 99% live, you will struggle politically.
I'm not sure if Sunak lacks delusions, but he was more cautious, understandably so when she lacked any whatsoever.
I will not get over how he was called a remainer traitor in the leadership contest by some Tories. He's a hard right wing Brexiter, albeit with a smoother technocratic presentation.
Can you find any significant interventions that Rishi Sunak made on behalf of the Brexit campaign that he avowedly supported? I wasn't aware of any.
I don't spot him here from a quick scan, though perhaps he's concealed behind John Wittingdale's left buttock.
I can't see Liz Truss in that picture? Though I'm basing that on everyone managing to hold their signs up the right way.
Truss was a Remainer.
Truss is just a moron. Backed Remain, u-turned on it when the wind blew against it, then crashed the pound once PM.
Sadly I think she's someone who'll say whatever she thinks will gain her temporary advantage.
Even her fiercest critics here say that she's a loony ideologue, which isn't the profile of the two-faced careerist you describe.
I am not other people. I am me. I have my own opinions.
17s might be just about value but I really don't see a Jan election, pissing off media, public and activists alike.
There comes a point when prolonging the agony just feeds into the narrative and makes things worse still. I don't see polling day going any later than Dec 12.
(And I still think Nov 14 is most likely, with a mid-Oct date next)
I agree with you but say come early October when Sunak has to call a November election and the Tories are circa 20-25 points behind in the polls you think he might delay in the hope something does come up?
It's the price of missing the reltively painless option of May.
As many on here suggested, it was only ever likely to get worse after that, and that is what we seeing now.
My previous view of Sunak was that he would probably have made a reasonable PM in 'good' times. Instead, he inherited a party that had been in power too long, had run out of ideas, and preferred attacking itself rather than the opposition.
I'm part way through changing that view. Everything after the 'instead...' about his party remains valid. But I'm rapidly coming to the conclusion that he would not have made a reasonable PM even if he had had a unified, fresh party. Worse, I don't even think he's trying. It's like he's phoning it in.
TLDR; Sunak's hopeless.
For a long while I was a bit of a Sunak fan, but like you JJ, I've had to revise my views on the downside.
He's not very good, although better than the two before him.
... And, quite possibly, better than his successor.
The central mystery remains. Is he doing this stuff out of fear of the right, or because he is one of them and believes this stuff?
Neither excuses the incompetence at people management.
Sunak is genuinely right wing. He basically believes the same stuff as Truss without the delusion. For some reason people got into their heads he was a centrist technocrat.
When you believe government is there to make the rich richer, squillionaires like yourself, and you don't even pretend any interest in how the other 99% live, you will struggle politically.
I'm not sure if Sunak lacks delusions, but he was more cautious, understandably so when she lacked any whatsoever.
I will not get over how he was called a remainer traitor in the leadership contest by some Tories. He's a hard right wing Brexiter, albeit with a smoother technocratic presentation.
Can you find any significant interventions that Rishi Sunak made on behalf of the Brexit campaign that he avowedly supported? I wasn't aware of any.
I don't spot him here from a quick scan, though perhaps he's concealed behind John Wittingdale's left buttock.
I can't see Liz Truss in that picture? Though I'm basing that on everyone managing to hold their signs up the right way.
Truss was a Remainer.
Amber Rudd's ex-boyfriend is Kwasi Kwarteng, who went on to be Liz Truss's Chancellor.
17s might be just about value but I really don't see a Jan election, pissing off media, public and activists alike.
There comes a point when prolonging the agony just feeds into the narrative and makes things worse still. I don't see polling day going any later than Dec 12.
(And I still think Nov 14 is most likely, with a mid-Oct date next)
I agree with you but say come early October when Sunak has to call a November election and the Tories are circa 20-25 points behind in the polls you think he might delay in the hope something does come up?
It's the price of missing the reltively painless option of May.
As many on here suggested, it was only ever likely to get worse after that, and that is what we seeing now.
My previous view of Sunak was that he would probably have made a reasonable PM in 'good' times. Instead, he inherited a party that had been in power too long, had run out of ideas, and preferred attacking itself rather than the opposition.
I'm part way through changing that view. Everything after the 'instead...' about his party remains valid. But I'm rapidly coming to the conclusion that he would not have made a reasonable PM even if he had had a unified, fresh party. Worse, I don't even think he's trying. It's like he's phoning it in.
TLDR; Sunak's hopeless.
For a long while I was a bit of a Sunak fan, but like you JJ, I've had to revise my views on the downside.
He's not very good, although better than the two before him.
... And, quite possibly, better than his successor.
The central mystery remains. Is he doing this stuff out of fear of the right, or because he is one of them and believes this stuff?
Neither excuses the incompetence at people management.
Sunak is genuinely right wing. He basically believes the same stuff as Truss without the delusion. For some reason people got into their heads he was a centrist technocrat.
When you believe government is there to make the rich richer, squillionaires like yourself, and you don't even pretend any interest in how the other 99% live, you will struggle politically.
I'm not sure if Sunak lacks delusions, but he was more cautious, understandably so when she lacked any whatsoever.
I will not get over how he was called a remainer traitor in the leadership contest by some Tories. He's a hard right wing Brexiter, albeit with a smoother technocratic presentation.
Can you find any significant interventions that Rishi Sunak made on behalf of the Brexit campaign that he avowedly supported? I wasn't aware of any.
I don't spot him here from a quick scan, though perhaps he's concealed behind John Wittingdale's left buttock.
IIRC, he wrote quite an eloquent article about why he was voting Leave.
Now I realize that this wasn't high profile. But then again, he wasn't a high profile MP: he was first elected in 2015 just a year before the Brexit referendum, and didn't even get the most minor of government positions (Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Local Government) until almost three years after entering parliament.
17s might be just about value but I really don't see a Jan election, pissing off media, public and activists alike.
There comes a point when prolonging the agony just feeds into the narrative and makes things worse still. I don't see polling day going any later than Dec 12.
(And I still think Nov 14 is most likely, with a mid-Oct date next)
I agree with you but say come early October when Sunak has to call a November election and the Tories are circa 20-25 points behind in the polls you think he might delay in the hope something does come up?
It's the price of missing the reltively painless option of May.
As many on here suggested, it was only ever likely to get worse after that, and that is what we seeing now.
My previous view of Sunak was that he would probably have made a reasonable PM in 'good' times. Instead, he inherited a party that had been in power too long, had run out of ideas, and preferred attacking itself rather than the opposition.
I'm part way through changing that view. Everything after the 'instead...' about his party remains valid. But I'm rapidly coming to the conclusion that he would not have made a reasonable PM even if he had had a unified, fresh party. Worse, I don't even think he's trying. It's like he's phoning it in.
TLDR; Sunak's hopeless.
For a long while I was a bit of a Sunak fan, but like you JJ, I've had to revise my views on the downside.
He's not very good, although better than the two before him.
... And, quite possibly, better than his successor.
The central mystery remains. Is he doing this stuff out of fear of the right, or because he is one of them and believes this stuff?
Neither excuses the incompetence at people management.
Sunak is genuinely right wing. He basically believes the same stuff as Truss without the delusion. For some reason people got into their heads he was a centrist technocrat.
When you believe government is there to make the rich richer, squillionaires like yourself, and you don't even pretend any interest in how the other 99% live, you will struggle politically.
I'm not sure if Sunak lacks delusions, but he was more cautious, understandably so when she lacked any whatsoever.
I will not get over how he was called a remainer traitor in the leadership contest by some Tories. He's a hard right wing Brexiter, albeit with a smoother technocratic presentation.
Can you find any significant interventions that Rishi Sunak made on behalf of the Brexit campaign that he avowedly supported? I wasn't aware of any.
I don't spot him here from a quick scan, though perhaps he's concealed behind John Wittingdale's left buttock.
I can't see Liz Truss in that picture? Though I'm basing that on everyone managing to hold their signs up the right way.
Truss was a Remainer.
Truss is just a moron. Backed Remain, u-turned on it when the wind blew against it, then crashed the pound once PM.
Currencies find their true value. Decades of currency debasement and trade deficits "trashed the pound". The events surrounding the mini budget and concurrent QT activities by the bank caused temporary speculation which some people made some money off.
Oddly the weakest currency in Western Europe at the moment seems to be the SEK. It was positively affordable in Stockholm this week, I was shocked. Swedish colleagues telling me how expensive trips to London have become. No idea why. Contrast with the DKK which makes any trip to Denmark a serious remortgaging event.
I was in Norway last month and it seemed reasonable in most places. Met a number of Norwegian anglophiles who were bemoaning a weak currency/wage stagnation and that they found it hard to afford the UK holidays they had enjoyed (quite a few used to live here). One loved to visit the Isle of Skye but it was out of reach for them now.
Israel seems to have won a landslide in the Eurovision televote in Italy. It would be interesting to see if that’s replicated in other European countries. Perhaps the silent majority is with Israel.
17s might be just about value but I really don't see a Jan election, pissing off media, public and activists alike.
There comes a point when prolonging the agony just feeds into the narrative and makes things worse still. I don't see polling day going any later than Dec 12.
(And I still think Nov 14 is most likely, with a mid-Oct date next)
I agree with you but say come early October when Sunak has to call a November election and the Tories are circa 20-25 points behind in the polls you think he might delay in the hope something does come up?
It's the price of missing the reltively painless option of May.
As many on here suggested, it was only ever likely to get worse after that, and that is what we seeing now.
My previous view of Sunak was that he would probably have made a reasonable PM in 'good' times. Instead, he inherited a party that had been in power too long, had run out of ideas, and preferred attacking itself rather than the opposition.
I'm part way through changing that view. Everything after the 'instead...' about his party remains valid. But I'm rapidly coming to the conclusion that he would not have made a reasonable PM even if he had had a unified, fresh party. Worse, I don't even think he's trying. It's like he's phoning it in.
TLDR; Sunak's hopeless.
For a long while I was a bit of a Sunak fan, but like you JJ, I've had to revise my views on the downside.
He's not very good, although better than the two before him.
... And, quite possibly, better than his successor.
The central mystery remains. Is he doing this stuff out of fear of the right, or because he is one of them and believes this stuff?
Neither excuses the incompetence at people management.
Sunak is genuinely right wing. He basically believes the same stuff as Truss without the delusion. For some reason people got into their heads he was a centrist technocrat.
When you believe government is there to make the rich richer, squillionaires like yourself, and you don't even pretend any interest in how the other 99% live, you will struggle politically.
I'm not sure if Sunak lacks delusions, but he was more cautious, understandably so when she lacked any whatsoever.
I will not get over how he was called a remainer traitor in the leadership contest by some Tories. He's a hard right wing Brexiter, albeit with a smoother technocratic presentation.
Can you find any significant interventions that Rishi Sunak made on behalf of the Brexit campaign that he avowedly supported? I wasn't aware of any.
I don't spot him here from a quick scan, though perhaps he's concealed behind John Wittingdale's left buttock.
I can't see Liz Truss in that picture? Though I'm basing that on everyone managing to hold their signs up the right way.
Truss was a Remainer.
Truss is just a moron. Backed Remain, u-turned on it when the wind blew against it, then crashed the pound once PM.
Sadly I think she's someone who'll say whatever she thinks will gain her temporary advantage.
Even her fiercest critics here say that she's a loony ideologue, which isn't the profile of the two-faced careerist you describe.
I am not other people. I am me. I have my own opinions.
I see that. And before her time as PM, I would have agreed she was a boring careerist time-server. Given her actions whilst PM, I don't think that's a view that can continue to be supported.
Her long interviews recently have been good, and they offer a compelling picture of events that doesn't bear out your character description.
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I don't know why Israel are included. They are a Middle Eastern country with a Middle Eastern culture that doesn't respect Western democratic values.
Australia also competes.
I think a country joins the Eurovision Song Contest by asking to be in the contest. If you bring viewers (and therefore advertising revenue), you're in.
Australia at least is an offshoot of European civilization, speaking a European language and with Western values.
One might make the same argument about Israel, of course. Most Israelis are either first or second (or at most third) generation emigrees from Europe.
And they would be wrong. Their culture is Middle Eastern, their language is Middle Eastern and most of their population is not from Europe.
You'd struggle to find a more schizophrenic place than Israel: on the one hand you have a deeply European/US urban elite who live in Tel Aviv only speak English and happily eat pork. A hundred miles away you have Settler communities where English isn't even spoken and education is almost entirely religious.
And that's before you even add in the Palestinians.
Similar to how in parts of England you have nice countryside villages of decent people, not too far away from ex-industrial areas where Al Qaeda videos gotten sold publicly. Still the politics shows that the centre of gravity of Britain is democratic Western values. In Israel it is support for permanent occupation of another Middle Eastern tribe.
Latvia Austria Netherlands Norway Israel Greece Estonia Switzerland Georgia Armenia
I don't know why Israel are included. They are a Middle Eastern country with a Middle Eastern culture that doesn't respect Western democratic values.
Australia also competes.
I think a country joins the Eurovision Song Contest by asking to be in the contest. If you bring viewers (and therefore advertising revenue), you're in.
Australia at least is an offshoot of European civilization, speaking a European language and with Western values.
One might make the same argument about Israel, of course. Most Israelis are either first or second (or at most third) generation emigrees from Europe.
And they would be wrong. Their culture is Middle Eastern, their language is Middle Eastern and most of their population is not from Europe.
You'd struggle to find a more schizophrenic place than Israel: on the one hand you have a deeply European/US urban elite who live in Tel Aviv only speak English and happily eat pork. A hundred miles away you have Settler communities where English isn't even spoken and education is almost entirely religious.
And that's before you even add in the Palestinians.
"urban elite who live in Tel Aviv only speak English"
I've never met an English-speaking Israeli who didn't appear to also speak Hebrew. Are there really many of them?
17s might be just about value but I really don't see a Jan election, pissing off media, public and activists alike.
There comes a point when prolonging the agony just feeds into the narrative and makes things worse still. I don't see polling day going any later than Dec 12.
(And I still think Nov 14 is most likely, with a mid-Oct date next)
I agree with you but say come early October when Sunak has to call a November election and the Tories are circa 20-25 points behind in the polls you think he might delay in the hope something does come up?
It's the price of missing the reltively painless option of May.
As many on here suggested, it was only ever likely to get worse after that, and that is what we seeing now.
My previous view of Sunak was that he would probably have made a reasonable PM in 'good' times. Instead, he inherited a party that had been in power too long, had run out of ideas, and preferred attacking itself rather than the opposition.
I'm part way through changing that view. Everything after the 'instead...' about his party remains valid. But I'm rapidly coming to the conclusion that he would not have made a reasonable PM even if he had had a unified, fresh party. Worse, I don't even think he's trying. It's like he's phoning it in.
TLDR; Sunak's hopeless.
For a long while I was a bit of a Sunak fan, but like you JJ, I've had to revise my views on the downside.
He's not very good, although better than the two before him.
... And, quite possibly, better than his successor.
The central mystery remains. Is he doing this stuff out of fear of the right, or because he is one of them and believes this stuff?
Neither excuses the incompetence at people management.
Sunak is genuinely right wing. He basically believes the same stuff as Truss without the delusion. For some reason people got into their heads he was a centrist technocrat.
When you believe government is there to make the rich richer, squillionaires like yourself, and you don't even pretend any interest in how the other 99% live, you will struggle politically.
I'm not sure if Sunak lacks delusions, but he was more cautious, understandably so when she lacked any whatsoever.
I will not get over how he was called a remainer traitor in the leadership contest by some Tories. He's a hard right wing Brexiter, albeit with a smoother technocratic presentation.
Can you find any significant interventions that Rishi Sunak made on behalf of the Brexit campaign that he avowedly supported? I wasn't aware of any.
I don't spot him here from a quick scan, though perhaps he's concealed behind John Wittingdale's left buttock.
I can't see Liz Truss in that picture? Though I'm basing that on everyone managing to hold their signs up the right way.
Truss was a Remainer.
Truss is just a moron. Backed Remain, u-turned on it when the wind blew against it, then crashed the pound once PM.
Currencies find their true value. Decades of currency debasement and trade deficits "trashed the pound". The events surrounding the mini budget and concurrent QT activities by the bank caused temporary speculation which some people made some money off.
Oddly the weakest currency in Western Europe at the moment seems to be the SEK. It was positively affordable in Stockholm this week, I was shocked. Swedish colleagues telling me how expensive trips to London have become. No idea why. Contrast with the DKK which makes any trip to Denmark a serious remortgaging event.
I was in Norway last month and it seemed reasonable in most places. Met a number of Norwegian anglophiles who were bemoaning a weak currency/wage stagnation and that they found it hard to afford the UK holidays they had enjoyed (quite a few used to live here). One loved to visit the Isle of Skye but it was out of reach for them now.
Well, she qualified and I suspect did well in the televote, which the younger and Very Online fans are shocked by. Not really surprised, tbh.
The Italian broadcaster, RAI, apparently showed on screen Italy's televote results (in gross violation of the rules, which may get them a kicking from the EBU) and Israel got 39%, everyone else was in single digits. If that result is indicative they'll probably win the contest.
17s might be just about value but I really don't see a Jan election, pissing off media, public and activists alike.
There comes a point when prolonging the agony just feeds into the narrative and makes things worse still. I don't see polling day going any later than Dec 12.
(And I still think Nov 14 is most likely, with a mid-Oct date next)
I agree with you but say come early October when Sunak has to call a November election and the Tories are circa 20-25 points behind in the polls you think he might delay in the hope something does come up?
It's the price of missing the reltively painless option of May.
As many on here suggested, it was only ever likely to get worse after that, and that is what we seeing now.
My previous view of Sunak was that he would probably have made a reasonable PM in 'good' times. Instead, he inherited a party that had been in power too long, had run out of ideas, and preferred attacking itself rather than the opposition.
I'm part way through changing that view. Everything after the 'instead...' about his party remains valid. But I'm rapidly coming to the conclusion that he would not have made a reasonable PM even if he had had a unified, fresh party. Worse, I don't even think he's trying. It's like he's phoning it in.
TLDR; Sunak's hopeless.
For a long while I was a bit of a Sunak fan, but like you JJ, I've had to revise my views on the downside.
He's not very good, although better than the two before him.
... And, quite possibly, better than his successor.
The central mystery remains. Is he doing this stuff out of fear of the right, or because he is one of them and believes this stuff?
Neither excuses the incompetence at people management.
Sunak is genuinely right wing. He basically believes the same stuff as Truss without the delusion. For some reason people got into their heads he was a centrist technocrat.
When you believe government is there to make the rich richer, squillionaires like yourself, and you don't even pretend any interest in how the other 99% live, you will struggle politically.
I'm not sure if Sunak lacks delusions, but he was more cautious, understandably so when she lacked any whatsoever.
I will not get over how he was called a remainer traitor in the leadership contest by some Tories. He's a hard right wing Brexiter, albeit with a smoother technocratic presentation.
Can you find any significant interventions that Rishi Sunak made on behalf of the Brexit campaign that he avowedly supported? I wasn't aware of any.
I don't spot him here from a quick scan, though perhaps he's concealed behind John Wittingdale's left buttock.
I can't see Liz Truss in that picture? Though I'm basing that on everyone managing to hold their signs up the right way.
Truss was a Remainer.
Truss is just a moron. Backed Remain, u-turned on it when the wind blew against it, then crashed the pound once PM.
Currencies find their true value. Decades of currency debasement and trade deficits "trashed the pound". The events surrounding the mini budget and concurrent QT activities by the bank caused temporary speculation which some people made some money off.
If it was just temporary speculation, the government could have stood behind the currency and would have won. But they couldn't because the currency headed towards its true value under a Truss premiership. When more competent people took over, the currency recovered.
Interesting - I've often thought of you before as moderately intelligent.
Intelligent people can recognize the Trussite "stab in the back" myth. Her budget was bonkers. Not just the inherent energy subsidies, but also because she doesn't understand the Thatcher maxim that you need to balance the budget before you can start cutting taxes.
The 'moron premium' isn't something that intelligent people believe either. It's a lazy left-wing meme for people who want to sound pose as vaguely clever but know shit all about how economies work.
17s might be just about value but I really don't see a Jan election, pissing off media, public and activists alike.
There comes a point when prolonging the agony just feeds into the narrative and makes things worse still. I don't see polling day going any later than Dec 12.
(And I still think Nov 14 is most likely, with a mid-Oct date next)
I agree with you but say come early October when Sunak has to call a November election and the Tories are circa 20-25 points behind in the polls you think he might delay in the hope something does come up?
It's the price of missing the reltively painless option of May.
As many on here suggested, it was only ever likely to get worse after that, and that is what we seeing now.
My previous view of Sunak was that he would probably have made a reasonable PM in 'good' times. Instead, he inherited a party that had been in power too long, had run out of ideas, and preferred attacking itself rather than the opposition.
I'm part way through changing that view. Everything after the 'instead...' about his party remains valid. But I'm rapidly coming to the conclusion that he would not have made a reasonable PM even if he had had a unified, fresh party. Worse, I don't even think he's trying. It's like he's phoning it in.
TLDR; Sunak's hopeless.
For a long while I was a bit of a Sunak fan, but like you JJ, I've had to revise my views on the downside.
He's not very good, although better than the two before him.
... And, quite possibly, better than his successor.
The central mystery remains. Is he doing this stuff out of fear of the right, or because he is one of them and believes this stuff?
Neither excuses the incompetence at people management.
Sunak is genuinely right wing. He basically believes the same stuff as Truss without the delusion. For some reason people got into their heads he was a centrist technocrat.
When you believe government is there to make the rich richer, squillionaires like yourself, and you don't even pretend any interest in how the other 99% live, you will struggle politically.
I'm not sure if Sunak lacks delusions, but he was more cautious, understandably so when she lacked any whatsoever.
I will not get over how he was called a remainer traitor in the leadership contest by some Tories. He's a hard right wing Brexiter, albeit with a smoother technocratic presentation.
Can you find any significant interventions that Rishi Sunak made on behalf of the Brexit campaign that he avowedly supported? I wasn't aware of any.
I don't spot him here from a quick scan, though perhaps he's concealed behind John Wittingdale's left buttock.
I can't see Liz Truss in that picture? Though I'm basing that on everyone managing to hold their signs up the right way.
Truss was a Remainer.
Truss is just a moron. Backed Remain, u-turned on it when the wind blew against it, then crashed the pound once PM.
Sadly I think she's someone who'll say whatever she thinks will gain her temporary advantage.
Even her fiercest critics here say that she's a loony ideologue, which isn't the profile of the two-faced careerist you describe.
I am not other people. I am me. I have my own opinions.
I see that. And before her time as PM, I would have agreed she was a boring careerist time-server. Given her actions whilst PM, I don't think that's a view that can continue to be supported.
Her long interviews recently have been good, and they offer a compelling picture of events that doesn't bear out your character description.
The fact she endorsed Trump shows she is a moron without any need for further evidence.
17s might be just about value but I really don't see a Jan election, pissing off media, public and activists alike.
There comes a point when prolonging the agony just feeds into the narrative and makes things worse still. I don't see polling day going any later than Dec 12.
(And I still think Nov 14 is most likely, with a mid-Oct date next)
I agree with you but say come early October when Sunak has to call a November election and the Tories are circa 20-25 points behind in the polls you think he might delay in the hope something does come up?
It's the price of missing the reltively painless option of May.
As many on here suggested, it was only ever likely to get worse after that, and that is what we seeing now.
My previous view of Sunak was that he would probably have made a reasonable PM in 'good' times. Instead, he inherited a party that had been in power too long, had run out of ideas, and preferred attacking itself rather than the opposition.
I'm part way through changing that view. Everything after the 'instead...' about his party remains valid. But I'm rapidly coming to the conclusion that he would not have made a reasonable PM even if he had had a unified, fresh party. Worse, I don't even think he's trying. It's like he's phoning it in.
TLDR; Sunak's hopeless.
For a long while I was a bit of a Sunak fan, but like you JJ, I've had to revise my views on the downside.
He's not very good, although better than the two before him.
... And, quite possibly, better than his successor.
The central mystery remains. Is he doing this stuff out of fear of the right, or because he is one of them and believes this stuff?
Neither excuses the incompetence at people management.
Sunak is genuinely right wing. He basically believes the same stuff as Truss without the delusion. For some reason people got into their heads he was a centrist technocrat.
When you believe government is there to make the rich richer, squillionaires like yourself, and you don't even pretend any interest in how the other 99% live, you will struggle politically.
I'm not sure if Sunak lacks delusions, but he was more cautious, understandably so when she lacked any whatsoever.
I will not get over how he was called a remainer traitor in the leadership contest by some Tories. He's a hard right wing Brexiter, albeit with a smoother technocratic presentation.
Can you find any significant interventions that Rishi Sunak made on behalf of the Brexit campaign that he avowedly supported? I wasn't aware of any.
I don't spot him here from a quick scan, though perhaps he's concealed behind John Wittingdale's left buttock.
I can't see Liz Truss in that picture? Though I'm basing that on everyone managing to hold their signs up the right way.
Truss was a Remainer.
Truss is just a moron. Backed Remain, u-turned on it when the wind blew against it, then crashed the pound once PM.
Currencies find their true value. Decades of currency debasement and trade deficits "trashed the pound". The events surrounding the mini budget and concurrent QT activities by the bank caused temporary speculation which some people made some money off.
If it was just temporary speculation, the government could have stood behind the currency and would have won. But they couldn't because the currency headed towards its true value under a Truss premiership. When more competent people took over, the currency recovered.
Interesting - I've often thought of you before as moderately intelligent.
Intelligent people can recognize the Trussite "stab in the back" myth. Her budget was bonkers. Not just the inherent energy subsidies, but also because she doesn't understand the Thatcher maxim that you need to balance the budget before you can start cutting taxes.
The 'moron premium' isn't something that intelligent people believe either. It's a lazy left-wing meme for people who want to sound pose as vaguely clever but know shit all about how economies work.
I have a degree in economics and worked in economics for a decade. What background do you have?
Well, she qualified and I suspect did well in the televote, which the younger and Very Online fans are shocked by. Not really surprised, tbh.
The Italian broadcaster, RAI, apparently showed on screen Italy's televote results (in gross violation of the rules, which may get them a kicking from the EBU) and Israel got 39%, everyone else was in single digits. If that result is indicative they'll probably win the contest.
Yes, just seen that. They finished third last year and the song is OK, so I'm not really that shocked that it would do well. The war will simply not be a factor for some people - Russia continued to do well after the invasion of Crimea until they got expelled in 2022.
Younger ESC fans are very enmeshed in social media, so cannot understand that everyone isn't as splenetically anti Israel as they are.
17s might be just about value but I really don't see a Jan election, pissing off media, public and activists alike.
There comes a point when prolonging the agony just feeds into the narrative and makes things worse still. I don't see polling day going any later than Dec 12.
(And I still think Nov 14 is most likely, with a mid-Oct date next)
I agree with you but say come early October when Sunak has to call a November election and the Tories are circa 20-25 points behind in the polls you think he might delay in the hope something does come up?
It's the price of missing the reltively painless option of May.
As many on here suggested, it was only ever likely to get worse after that, and that is what we seeing now.
My previous view of Sunak was that he would probably have made a reasonable PM in 'good' times. Instead, he inherited a party that had been in power too long, had run out of ideas, and preferred attacking itself rather than the opposition.
I'm part way through changing that view. Everything after the 'instead...' about his party remains valid. But I'm rapidly coming to the conclusion that he would not have made a reasonable PM even if he had had a unified, fresh party. Worse, I don't even think he's trying. It's like he's phoning it in.
TLDR; Sunak's hopeless.
For a long while I was a bit of a Sunak fan, but like you JJ, I've had to revise my views on the downside.
He's not very good, although better than the two before him.
... And, quite possibly, better than his successor.
The central mystery remains. Is he doing this stuff out of fear of the right, or because he is one of them and believes this stuff?
Neither excuses the incompetence at people management.
Sunak is genuinely right wing. He basically believes the same stuff as Truss without the delusion. For some reason people got into their heads he was a centrist technocrat.
When you believe government is there to make the rich richer, squillionaires like yourself, and you don't even pretend any interest in how the other 99% live, you will struggle politically.
I'm not sure if Sunak lacks delusions, but he was more cautious, understandably so when she lacked any whatsoever.
I will not get over how he was called a remainer traitor in the leadership contest by some Tories. He's a hard right wing Brexiter, albeit with a smoother technocratic presentation.
Can you find any significant interventions that Rishi Sunak made on behalf of the Brexit campaign that he avowedly supported? I wasn't aware of any.
I don't spot him here from a quick scan, though perhaps he's concealed behind John Wittingdale's left buttock.
I can't see Liz Truss in that picture? Though I'm basing that on everyone managing to hold their signs up the right way.
Truss was a Remainer.
Truss is just a moron. Backed Remain, u-turned on it when the wind blew against it, then crashed the pound once PM.
Sadly I think she's someone who'll say whatever she thinks will gain her temporary advantage.
Even her fiercest critics here say that she's a loony ideologue, which isn't the profile of the two-faced careerist you describe.
I am not other people. I am me. I have my own opinions.
I see that. And before her time as PM, I would have agreed she was a boring careerist time-server. Given her actions whilst PM, I don't think that's a view that can continue to be supported.
Her long interviews recently have been good, and they offer a compelling picture of events that doesn't bear out your character description.
The fact she endorsed Trump shows she is a moron without any need for further evidence.
Another non-intelligent answer - her endorsement of Trump has got nothing whatsoever to do with your assertion that her very presence at number 10 vs. Rishi was depressing the pound.
Concerning that issue, nobody is endorsing Trump in isolation - they are endorsing Trump as opposed to Biden - a politician of the American left, who seems to have done little for world stability, and who seems to have a hearty dislike for Britain - to say nothing of showing a lot of worrying health signs. I don't consider judging Trump to be a better choice than Biden to be a moronic choice for a Tory.
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I don't know why Israel are included. They are a Middle Eastern country with a Middle Eastern culture that doesn't respect Western democratic values.
Australia also competes.
I think a country joins the Eurovision Song Contest by asking to be in the contest. If you bring viewers (and therefore advertising revenue), you're in.
Australia at least is an offshoot of European civilization, speaking a European language and with Western values.
One might make the same argument about Israel, of course. Most Israelis are either first or second (or at most third) generation emigrees from Europe.
And they would be wrong. Their culture is Middle Eastern, their language is Middle Eastern and most of their population is not from Europe.
You'd struggle to find a more schizophrenic place than Israel: on the one hand you have a deeply European/US urban elite who live in Tel Aviv only speak English and happily eat pork. A hundred miles away you have Settler communities where English isn't even spoken and education is almost entirely religious.
And that's before you even add in the Palestinians.
"urban elite who live in Tel Aviv only speak English"
I've never met an English-speaking Israeli who didn't appear to also speak Hebrew. Are there really many of them?
Very few, I think. There are more who speak Russian and some English, but no Hebrew. There are some non-Hebrew speaking English speakers, but you are more likely to find them among recent settlers than Tel Aviv’s urban elite.
Likewise, the pork-eaters are really only the Russians.
But, yes, there is a secular, liberal, urban elite in Tel Aviv with very different views to those in Jerusalem or to the settlers or to Orthodox groups.
Latvia Austria Netherlands Norway Israel Greece Estonia Switzerland Georgia Armenia
I don't know why Israel are included. They are a Middle Eastern country with a Middle Eastern culture that doesn't respect Western democratic values.
Australia also competes.
I think a country joins the Eurovision Song Contest by asking to be in the contest. If you bring viewers (and therefore advertising revenue), you're in.
Australia at least is an offshoot of European civilization, speaking a European language and with Western values.
One might make the same argument about Israel, of course. Most Israelis are either first or second (or at most third) generation emigrees from Europe.
And they would be wrong. Their culture is Middle Eastern, their language is Middle Eastern and most of their population is not from Europe.
You'd struggle to find a more schizophrenic place than Israel: on the one hand you have a deeply European/US urban elite who live in Tel Aviv only speak English and happily eat pork. A hundred miles away you have Settler communities where English isn't even spoken and education is almost entirely religious.
And that's before you even add in the Palestinians.
"urban elite who live in Tel Aviv only speak English"
I've never met an English-speaking Israeli who didn't appear to also speak Hebrew. Are there really many of them?
They're not so dissimilar to the Anglophone South Africans: yeah, sure they learnt Afrikaans at school. But they'd struggle to converse in it in any meaningful way.
Israel seems to have won a landslide in the Eurovision televote in Italy. It would be interesting to see if that’s replicated in other European countries. Perhaps the silent majority is with Israel.
Latvia Austria Netherlands Norway Israel Greece Estonia Switzerland Georgia Armenia
I don't know why Israel are included. They are a Middle Eastern country with a Middle Eastern culture that doesn't respect Western democratic values.
Australia also competes.
I think a country joins the Eurovision Song Contest by asking to be in the contest. If you bring viewers (and therefore advertising revenue), you're in.
Australia at least is an offshoot of European civilization, speaking a European language and with Western values.
One might make the same argument about Israel, of course. Most Israelis are either first or second (or at most third) generation emigrees from Europe.
And they would be wrong. Their culture is Middle Eastern, their language is Middle Eastern and most of their population is not from Europe.
You'd struggle to find a more schizophrenic place than Israel: on the one hand you have a deeply European/US urban elite who live in Tel Aviv only speak English and happily eat pork. A hundred miles away you have Settler communities where English isn't even spoken and education is almost entirely religious.
And that's before you even add in the Palestinians.
Similar to how in parts of England you have nice countryside villages of decent people, not too far away from ex-industrial areas where Al Qaeda videos gotten sold publicly. Still the politics shows that the centre of gravity of Britain is democratic Western values. In Israel it is support for permanent occupation of another Middle Eastern tribe.
While that's a fair point, you could have made the same comment about the Germans in the 1940s. And they returned to sanity. (Albeit it took a while. And a lot of bloodshed.)
17s might be just about value but I really don't see a Jan election, pissing off media, public and activists alike.
There comes a point when prolonging the agony just feeds into the narrative and makes things worse still. I don't see polling day going any later than Dec 12.
(And I still think Nov 14 is most likely, with a mid-Oct date next)
I agree with you but say come early October when Sunak has to call a November election and the Tories are circa 20-25 points behind in the polls you think he might delay in the hope something does come up?
It's the price of missing the reltively painless option of May.
As many on here suggested, it was only ever likely to get worse after that, and that is what we seeing now.
My previous view of Sunak was that he would probably have made a reasonable PM in 'good' times. Instead, he inherited a party that had been in power too long, had run out of ideas, and preferred attacking itself rather than the opposition.
I'm part way through changing that view. Everything after the 'instead...' about his party remains valid. But I'm rapidly coming to the conclusion that he would not have made a reasonable PM even if he had had a unified, fresh party. Worse, I don't even think he's trying. It's like he's phoning it in.
TLDR; Sunak's hopeless.
For a long while I was a bit of a Sunak fan, but like you JJ, I've had to revise my views on the downside.
He's not very good, although better than the two before him.
... And, quite possibly, better than his successor.
The central mystery remains. Is he doing this stuff out of fear of the right, or because he is one of them and believes this stuff?
Neither excuses the incompetence at people management.
Sunak is genuinely right wing. He basically believes the same stuff as Truss without the delusion. For some reason people got into their heads he was a centrist technocrat.
When you believe government is there to make the rich richer, squillionaires like yourself, and you don't even pretend any interest in how the other 99% live, you will struggle politically.
I'm not sure if Sunak lacks delusions, but he was more cautious, understandably so when she lacked any whatsoever.
I will not get over how he was called a remainer traitor in the leadership contest by some Tories. He's a hard right wing Brexiter, albeit with a smoother technocratic presentation.
Can you find any significant interventions that Rishi Sunak made on behalf of the Brexit campaign that he avowedly supported? I wasn't aware of any.
I don't spot him here from a quick scan, though perhaps he's concealed behind John Wittingdale's left buttock.
I can't see Liz Truss in that picture? Though I'm basing that on everyone managing to hold their signs up the right way.
Truss was a Remainer.
Truss is just a moron. Backed Remain, u-turned on it when the wind blew against it, then crashed the pound once PM.
Sadly I think she's someone who'll say whatever she thinks will gain her temporary advantage.
Even her fiercest critics here say that she's a loony ideologue, which isn't the profile of the two-faced careerist you describe.
I am not other people. I am me. I have my own opinions.
I see that. And before her time as PM, I would have agreed she was a boring careerist time-server. Given her actions whilst PM, I don't think that's a view that can continue to be supported.
Her long interviews recently have been good, and they offer a compelling picture of events that doesn't bear out your character description.
The fact she endorsed Trump shows she is a moron without any need for further evidence.
Another non-intelligent answer - her endorsement of Trump has got nothing whatsoever to do with your assertion that her very presence at number 10 vs. Rishi was depressing the pound.
Concerning that issue, nobody is endorsing Trump in isolation - they are endorsing Trump as opposed to Biden - a politician of the American left, who seems to have done little for world stability, and who seems to have a hearty dislike for Britain - to say nothing of showing a lot of worrying health signs. I don't consider judging Trump to be a better choice than Biden to be a moronic choice for a Tory.
The fact the pound rapidly recovered after she left office speaks for itself. Containing Putin rather than letting him take territory in Ukraine absolutely is better for world security. And Trump is a huge risk for America remaining a democratic state and its republican institutions. So anyone that believes in Tory values of institutional stability is thick as mince if they endorse him. But Truss probably doesn't even believe in it. She just realises her reputation is trash with everybody except the paranoid right wing fringe so is playing to the gallery.
My personal view, is that Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s unusual but very serious medical condition, as testified to by himself via legal deposition (years ago when divorcing his former wife) may be related to his apparent mental & personality change, which saw him morphing from a successful environmental lawyer and campaigner, into an anti-vaxxer & quasi-Trumper.
Before the change, RFKjr was a successful environmental lawyer and campaigner, for example helping clean up an extremely-polluted section of the Hudson River. And after . . . what we see today.
17s might be just about value but I really don't see a Jan election, pissing off media, public and activists alike.
There comes a point when prolonging the agony just feeds into the narrative and makes things worse still. I don't see polling day going any later than Dec 12.
(And I still think Nov 14 is most likely, with a mid-Oct date next)
I agree with you but say come early October when Sunak has to call a November election and the Tories are circa 20-25 points behind in the polls you think he might delay in the hope something does come up?
It's the price of missing the reltively painless option of May.
As many on here suggested, it was only ever likely to get worse after that, and that is what we seeing now.
My previous view of Sunak was that he would probably have made a reasonable PM in 'good' times. Instead, he inherited a party that had been in power too long, had run out of ideas, and preferred attacking itself rather than the opposition.
I'm part way through changing that view. Everything after the 'instead...' about his party remains valid. But I'm rapidly coming to the conclusion that he would not have made a reasonable PM even if he had had a unified, fresh party. Worse, I don't even think he's trying. It's like he's phoning it in.
TLDR; Sunak's hopeless.
For a long while I was a bit of a Sunak fan, but like you JJ, I've had to revise my views on the downside.
He's not very good, although better than the two before him.
... And, quite possibly, better than his successor.
The central mystery remains. Is he doing this stuff out of fear of the right, or because he is one of them and believes this stuff?
Neither excuses the incompetence at people management.
Sunak is genuinely right wing. He basically believes the same stuff as Truss without the delusion. For some reason people got into their heads he was a centrist technocrat.
When you believe government is there to make the rich richer, squillionaires like yourself, and you don't even pretend any interest in how the other 99% live, you will struggle politically.
I'm not sure if Sunak lacks delusions, but he was more cautious, understandably so when she lacked any whatsoever.
I will not get over how he was called a remainer traitor in the leadership contest by some Tories. He's a hard right wing Brexiter, albeit with a smoother technocratic presentation.
Can you find any significant interventions that Rishi Sunak made on behalf of the Brexit campaign that he avowedly supported? I wasn't aware of any.
I don't spot him here from a quick scan, though perhaps he's concealed behind John Wittingdale's left buttock.
I can't see Liz Truss in that picture? Though I'm basing that on everyone managing to hold their signs up the right way.
Truss was a Remainer.
Truss is just a moron. Backed Remain, u-turned on it when the wind blew against it, then crashed the pound once PM.
Currencies find their true value. Decades of currency debasement and trade deficits "trashed the pound". The events surrounding the mini budget and concurrent QT activities by the bank caused temporary speculation which some people made some money off.
If it was just temporary speculation, the government could have stood behind the currency and would have won. But they couldn't because the currency headed towards its true value under a Truss premiership. When more competent people took over, the currency recovered.
Interesting - I've often thought of you before as moderately intelligent.
Intelligent people can recognize the Trussite "stab in the back" myth. Her budget was bonkers. Not just the inherent energy subsidies, but also because she doesn't understand the Thatcher maxim that you need to balance the budget before you can start cutting taxes.
The 'moron premium' isn't something that intelligent people believe either. It's a lazy left-wing meme for people who want to sound pose as vaguely clever but know shit all about how economies work.
I have a degree in economics and worked in economics for a decade. What background do you have?
Pwned. As I believe the young people say.
Agreeing with Will here, but as a strong free marketeer, clearly the markets need to have confidence in HMG, If Count Binface were to be our next PM, I think the markets would react before he had even spoken.
Truss’s big mistake was to ‘diss’ senior HMT officials, OBR, and the BoE at the same time. The markets reacted accordingly.
Israel seems to have won a landslide in the Eurovision televote in Italy. It would be interesting to see if that’s replicated in other European countries. Perhaps the silent majority is with Israel.
Israel seems to have won a landslide in the Eurovision televote in Italy. It would be interesting to see if that’s replicated in other European countries. Perhaps the silent majority is with Israel.
Or it means Israel has a really good song and many people aren't particularly politically engaged.
Young Eurovision Twitter has convinced itself that Ireland are going to win, the same way they did with Iceland (Hatari) a few years ago, even though the songs were messy and not very listenable. A few of them have already started on the 'Jews have rigged the votes because they control the media' tinfoil hat bollocks, so that will be annoying if Israel win on Saturday night.
You know what will affect RFK's ability to serve as President? Not winning many votes.
My thought also. HOWEVER, what about scenario, where DJT picks RFKjr as his VP running mate, they end up winning . . . then Trump resigns or otherwise leaves office . . .
Admittedly, prospect of a 2nd Kennedy Administration would itself be a disincentive against yet another Trump impeachment. Just as thought of President Spiro Agnew was an aide to Richard Nixon . . . until Agnew himself was forced to resign, and was replaced by . . . Gerald Ford . . .
Israel seems to have won a landslide in the Eurovision televote in Italy. It would be interesting to see if that’s replicated in other European countries. Perhaps the silent majority is with Israel.
Or it means Israel has a really good song and many people aren't particularly politically engaged.
Young Eurovision Twitter has convinced itself that Ireland are going to win, the same way they did with Iceland (Hatari) a few years ago, even though the songs were messy and not very listenable. A few of them have already started on the 'Jews have rigged the votes because they control the media' tinfoil hat bollocks, so that will be annoying if Israel win on Saturday night.
Crazy thing is if this song hadn’t existed until now, and She hadn’t existed and we entered it to Eurovision it would win.
UNRWA (which as a reminder is the UN relief agency for Palestinian refugees) has shut its HQ in East Jerusalem after an arson attack by a group of Israelis, some of them armed, chanted "Burn down the United Nations" before setting the building on fire.
Meanwhile the Karem Abu Salem crossing in the south (also known as Kerem Shalom) has "officially" been reopened but apparently no actual supplies are coming in through it because of security fears. We can argue about the meaning of the word "open", but this doesn't help people who need those supplies.
Latvia Austria Netherlands Norway Israel Greece Estonia Switzerland Georgia Armenia
I don't know why Israel are included. They are a Middle Eastern country with a Middle Eastern culture that doesn't respect Western democratic values.
Australia also competes.
I think a country joins the Eurovision Song Contest by asking to be in the contest. If you bring viewers (and therefore advertising revenue), you're in.
Australia at least is an offshoot of European civilization, speaking a European language and with Western values.
One might make the same argument about Israel, of course. Most Israelis are either first or second (or at most third) generation emigrees from Europe.
And they would be wrong. Their culture is Middle Eastern, their language is Middle Eastern and most of their population is not from Europe.
You'd struggle to find a more schizophrenic place than Israel: on the one hand you have a deeply European/US urban elite who live in Tel Aviv only speak English and happily eat pork. A hundred miles away you have Settler communities where English isn't even spoken and education is almost entirely religious.
And that's before you even add in the Palestinians.
Similar to how in parts of England you have nice countryside villages of decent people, not too far away from ex-industrial areas where Al Qaeda videos gotten sold publicly. Still the politics shows that the centre of gravity of Britain is democratic Western values. In Israel it is support for permanent occupation of another Middle Eastern tribe.
While that's a fair point, you could have made the same comment about the Germans in the 1940s. And they returned to sanity. (Albeit it took a while. And a lot of bloodshed.)
Germany's insane votes covered a couple of elections and then they didn't have the ability to vote Adi out of office. The Israelis have voted for permanent subjugation of others again and again. Germany's return to sanity took the complete levelling of their country, and enforcement of a new system by occupying powers. That won't happen to Israel. And Germany's restoration was based on an alternative conservative ideology of Christian democracy that embraced the compassionate nature of their underlying religious culture. Israel's religious heritage is based on genocide and supremacism.
My personal view, is that Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s unusual but very serious medical condition, as testified to by himself via legal deposition (years ago when divorcing his former wife) may be related to his apparent mental & personality change, which saw him morphing from a successful environmental lawyer and campaigner, into an anti-vaxxer & quasi-Trumper.
Before the change, RFKjr was a successful environmental lawyer and campaigner, for example helping clean up an extremely-polluted section of the Hudson River. And after . . . what we see today.
There is such a long list of people through history with something similar. Reforming and dynamic, something goes wrong in late middle age.
Israel has a great song but my favourite is Switzerland and Nemo with a mix of opera , rap and pop. Absolutely stunning song . The last two minutes are totally addictive .Shocked that Albania didn’t make it .
UNRWA (which as a reminder is the UN relief agency for Palestinian refugees) has shut its HQ in East Jerusalem after an arson attack by a group of Israelis, some of them armed, chanted "Burn down the United Nations" before setting the building on fire.
Meanwhile the Karem Abu Salem crossing in the south (also known as Kerem Shalom) has "officially" been reopened but apparently no actual supplies are coming in through it because of security fears. We can argue about the meaning of the word "open", but this doesn't help people who need those supplies.
You are such a rebellious Old Wok. Time to grow up now though.
Israel seems to have won a landslide in the Eurovision televote in Italy. It would be interesting to see if that’s replicated in other European countries. Perhaps the silent majority is with Israel.
17s might be just about value but I really don't see a Jan election, pissing off media, public and activists alike.
There comes a point when prolonging the agony just feeds into the narrative and makes things worse still. I don't see polling day going any later than Dec 12.
(And I still think Nov 14 is most likely, with a mid-Oct date next)
I agree with you but say come early October when Sunak has to call a November election and the Tories are circa 20-25 points behind in the polls you think he might delay in the hope something does come up?
It's the price of missing the reltively painless option of May.
As many on here suggested, it was only ever likely to get worse after that, and that is what we seeing now.
My previous view of Sunak was that he would probably have made a reasonable PM in 'good' times. Instead, he inherited a party that had been in power too long, had run out of ideas, and preferred attacking itself rather than the opposition.
I'm part way through changing that view. Everything after the 'instead...' about his party remains valid. But I'm rapidly coming to the conclusion that he would not have made a reasonable PM even if he had had a unified, fresh party. Worse, I don't even think he's trying. It's like he's phoning it in.
TLDR; Sunak's hopeless.
For a long while I was a bit of a Sunak fan, but like you JJ, I've had to revise my views on the downside.
He's not very good, although better than the two before him.
... And, quite possibly, better than his successor.
The central mystery remains. Is he doing this stuff out of fear of the right, or because he is one of them and believes this stuff?
Neither excuses the incompetence at people management.
Sunak is genuinely right wing. He basically believes the same stuff as Truss without the delusion. For some reason people got into their heads he was a centrist technocrat.
When you believe government is there to make the rich richer, squillionaires like yourself, and you don't even pretend any interest in how the other 99% live, you will struggle politically.
I'm not sure if Sunak lacks delusions, but he was more cautious, understandably so when she lacked any whatsoever.
I will not get over how he was called a remainer traitor in the leadership contest by some Tories. He's a hard right wing Brexiter, albeit with a smoother technocratic presentation.
Can you find any significant interventions that Rishi Sunak made on behalf of the Brexit campaign that he avowedly supported? I wasn't aware of any.
I don't spot him here from a quick scan, though perhaps he's concealed behind John Wittingdale's left buttock.
I can't see Liz Truss in that picture? Though I'm basing that on everyone managing to hold their signs up the right way.
Truss was a Remainer.
Truss is just a moron. Backed Remain, u-turned on it when the wind blew against it, then crashed the pound once PM.
Currencies find their true value. Decades of currency debasement and trade deficits "trashed the pound". The events surrounding the mini budget and concurrent QT activities by the bank caused temporary speculation which some people made some money off.
Oddly the weakest currency in Western Europe at the moment seems to be the SEK. It was positively affordable in Stockholm this week, I was shocked. Swedish colleagues telling me how expensive trips to London have become. No idea why. Contrast with the DKK which makes any trip to Denmark a serious remortgaging event.
I was in Norway last month and it seemed reasonable in most places. Met a number of Norwegian anglophiles who were bemoaning a weak currency/wage stagnation and that they found it hard to afford the UK holidays they had enjoyed (quite a few used to live here). One loved to visit the Isle of Skye but it was out of reach for them now.
Japan is well cheap, once you're here.
A chain ramen store I was in last week was offering 1100 yen per hour on its recruitment posters - £5.66.
17s might be just about value but I really don't see a Jan election, pissing off media, public and activists alike.
There comes a point when prolonging the agony just feeds into the narrative and makes things worse still. I don't see polling day going any later than Dec 12.
(And I still think Nov 14 is most likely, with a mid-Oct date next)
I agree with you but say come early October when Sunak has to call a November election and the Tories are circa 20-25 points behind in the polls you think he might delay in the hope something does come up?
It's the price of missing the reltively painless option of May.
As many on here suggested, it was only ever likely to get worse after that, and that is what we seeing now.
My previous view of Sunak was that he would probably have made a reasonable PM in 'good' times. Instead, he inherited a party that had been in power too long, had run out of ideas, and preferred attacking itself rather than the opposition.
I'm part way through changing that view. Everything after the 'instead...' about his party remains valid. But I'm rapidly coming to the conclusion that he would not have made a reasonable PM even if he had had a unified, fresh party. Worse, I don't even think he's trying. It's like he's phoning it in.
TLDR; Sunak's hopeless.
For a long while I was a bit of a Sunak fan, but like you JJ, I've had to revise my views on the downside.
He's not very good, although better than the two before him.
... And, quite possibly, better than his successor.
The central mystery remains. Is he doing this stuff out of fear of the right, or because he is one of them and believes this stuff?
Neither excuses the incompetence at people management.
Sunak is genuinely right wing. He basically believes the same stuff as Truss without the delusion. For some reason people got into their heads he was a centrist technocrat.
When you believe government is there to make the rich richer, squillionaires like yourself, and you don't even pretend any interest in how the other 99% live, you will struggle politically.
I'm not sure if Sunak lacks delusions, but he was more cautious, understandably so when she lacked any whatsoever.
I will not get over how he was called a remainer traitor in the leadership contest by some Tories. He's a hard right wing Brexiter, albeit with a smoother technocratic presentation.
Can you find any significant interventions that Rishi Sunak made on behalf of the Brexit campaign that he avowedly supported? I wasn't aware of any.
I don't spot him here from a quick scan, though perhaps he's concealed behind John Wittingdale's left buttock.
I can't see Liz Truss in that picture? Though I'm basing that on everyone managing to hold their signs up the right way.
Truss was a Remainer.
Truss is just a moron. Backed Remain, u-turned on it when the wind blew against it, then crashed the pound once PM.
Currencies find their true value. Decades of currency debasement and trade deficits "trashed the pound". The events surrounding the mini budget and concurrent QT activities by the bank caused temporary speculation which some people made some money off.
If you want to know what happened in the early 1970s, it was the end of the world fixing their currencies to gold through the Bretton Woods Agreement.
During that period, major crises were almost unknown because - under Bretton Woods - if you ran a trade deficit for long, you ran out of gold.
Under the current system, if you are big enough, you get to run unlimited deficits, and the world becomes ever more unbalanced. And the crises - when they hit - are absolutely massive.
You seem to misunderstand how the Bretton Woods system worked and what it did. Countries did not "run out of gold" if they ran trade deficits. Only the US pegged its currency to gold. Other countries pegged their currencies to the US dollar (+/-1%). It was dollars they'd run out of when their pegs were unsustainable.
(In fact even the gold convertibility of the dollar was already breaking down by 1963, with the creation of the Gold Pool, or by 1968 at the latest).
Latvia Austria Netherlands Norway Israel Greece Estonia Switzerland Georgia Armenia
I don't know why Israel are included. They are a Middle Eastern country with a Middle Eastern culture that doesn't respect Western democratic values.
Australia also competes.
I think a country joins the Eurovision Song Contest by asking to be in the contest. If you bring viewers (and therefore advertising revenue), you're in.
Australia at least is an offshoot of European civilization, speaking a European language and with Western values.
One might make the same argument about Israel, of course. Most Israelis are either first or second (or at most third) generation emigrees from Europe.
And they would be wrong. Their culture is Middle Eastern, their language is Middle Eastern and most of their population is not from Europe.
You'd struggle to find a more schizophrenic place than Israel: on the one hand you have a deeply European/US urban elite who live in Tel Aviv only speak English and happily eat pork. A hundred miles away you have Settler communities where English isn't even spoken and education is almost entirely religious.
And that's before you even add in the Palestinians.
"urban elite who live in Tel Aviv only speak English"
I've never met an English-speaking Israeli who didn't appear to also speak Hebrew. Are there really many of them?
They're not so dissimilar to the Anglophone South Africans: yeah, sure they learnt Afrikaans at school. But they'd struggle to converse in it in any meaningful way.
Seems to be some disagreement between you and Bondegezou on this.
FWIW Wikipedia has this:
"The Israeli population is linguistically and culturally diverse. Hebrew is the country's official language, and almost the entire population speaks it either as a first language or proficiently as a second language. Its standard form, known as Modern Hebrew, is the main medium of life in Israel."
I've never been to Tel Aviv, or South Africa, but the impression I have from non-Arab English-speaking Israelis re Hebrew is *very* different to English-speaking South Africans attitude to Afrikaans
17s might be just about value but I really don't see a Jan election, pissing off media, public and activists alike.
There comes a point when prolonging the agony just feeds into the narrative and makes things worse still. I don't see polling day going any later than Dec 12.
(And I still think Nov 14 is most likely, with a mid-Oct date next)
I agree with you but say come early October when Sunak has to call a November election and the Tories are circa 20-25 points behind in the polls you think he might delay in the hope something does come up?
It's the price of missing the reltively painless option of May.
As many on here suggested, it was only ever likely to get worse after that, and that is what we seeing now.
My previous view of Sunak was that he would probably have made a reasonable PM in 'good' times. Instead, he inherited a party that had been in power too long, had run out of ideas, and preferred attacking itself rather than the opposition.
I'm part way through changing that view. Everything after the 'instead...' about his party remains valid. But I'm rapidly coming to the conclusion that he would not have made a reasonable PM even if he had had a unified, fresh party. Worse, I don't even think he's trying. It's like he's phoning it in.
TLDR; Sunak's hopeless.
For a long while I was a bit of a Sunak fan, but like you JJ, I've had to revise my views on the downside.
He's not very good, although better than the two before him.
... And, quite possibly, better than his successor.
The central mystery remains. Is he doing this stuff out of fear of the right, or because he is one of them and believes this stuff?
Neither excuses the incompetence at people management.
Sunak is genuinely right wing. He basically believes the same stuff as Truss without the delusion. For some reason people got into their heads he was a centrist technocrat.
When you believe government is there to make the rich richer, squillionaires like yourself, and you don't even pretend any interest in how the other 99% live, you will struggle politically.
I'm not sure if Sunak lacks delusions, but he was more cautious, understandably so when she lacked any whatsoever.
I will not get over how he was called a remainer traitor in the leadership contest by some Tories. He's a hard right wing Brexiter, albeit with a smoother technocratic presentation.
Can you find any significant interventions that Rishi Sunak made on behalf of the Brexit campaign that he avowedly supported? I wasn't aware of any.
I don't spot him here from a quick scan, though perhaps he's concealed behind John Wittingdale's left buttock.
I can't see Liz Truss in that picture? Though I'm basing that on everyone managing to hold their signs up the right way.
Truss was a Remainer.
Truss is just a moron. Backed Remain, u-turned on it when the wind blew against it, then crashed the pound once PM.
Currencies find their true value. Decades of currency debasement and trade deficits "trashed the pound". The events surrounding the mini budget and concurrent QT activities by the bank caused temporary speculation which some people made some money off.
If you want to know what happened in the early 1970s, it was the end of the world fixing their currencies to gold through the Bretton Woods Agreement.
During that period, major crises were almost unknown because - under Bretton Woods - if you ran a trade deficit for long, you ran out of gold.
Under the current system, if you are big enough, you get to run unlimited deficits, and the world becomes ever more unbalanced. And the crises - when they hit - are absolutely massive.
You seem to misunderstand how the Bretton Woods system worked and what it did. Countries did not "run out of gold" if they ran trade deficits. Only the US pegged its currency to gold. Other countries pegged their currencies to the US dollar (+/-1%). It was dollars they'd run out of when their pegs were unsustainable.
(In fact even the gold convertibility of the dollar was already breaking down by 1963, with the creation of the Gold Pool, or by 1968 at the latest).
I know fully well how Bretton Woods worked.
Have you read Business Adventures by John Brooks? If not, it is well worth reading. It's about forty years old, but one of the stories follows the Governor of the Bank of England around during a Sterling crisis, as the Government and Bank of England seek to stabilise the pound.
The point about Bretton Woods was that - from the start - it was designed to ensure countries' current accounts balanced through the cycle. (In that way, it was almost the opposite of the Eurozone.) It was recognized that if you did that, then crises would be small and frequent and you could avoid massive imbalances coming into being.
It was the Vietnam War and the US's desire to run big deficits that killed it. And I do wonder if the world would not have been better with it. The US (and UK) would not have been able to end up with such unbalances, consumption led, economies in a Bretton Woods world.
Latvia Austria Netherlands Norway Israel Greece Estonia Switzerland Georgia Armenia
I don't know why Israel are included. They are a Middle Eastern country with a Middle Eastern culture that doesn't respect Western democratic values.
Australia also competes.
I think a country joins the Eurovision Song Contest by asking to be in the contest. If you bring viewers (and therefore advertising revenue), you're in.
Australia at least is an offshoot of European civilization, speaking a European language and with Western values.
One might make the same argument about Israel, of course. Most Israelis are either first or second (or at most third) generation emigrees from Europe.
And they would be wrong. Their culture is Middle Eastern, their language is Middle Eastern and most of their population is not from Europe.
You'd struggle to find a more schizophrenic place than Israel: on the one hand you have a deeply European/US urban elite who live in Tel Aviv only speak English and happily eat pork. A hundred miles away you have Settler communities where English isn't even spoken and education is almost entirely religious.
And that's before you even add in the Palestinians.
"urban elite who live in Tel Aviv only speak English"
I've never met an English-speaking Israeli who didn't appear to also speak Hebrew. Are there really many of them?
They're not so dissimilar to the Anglophone South Africans: yeah, sure they learnt Afrikaans at school. But they'd struggle to converse in it in any meaningful way.
Seems to be some disagreement between you and Bondegezou on this.
FWIW Wikipedia has this:
"The Israeli population is linguistically and culturally diverse. Hebrew is the country's official language, and almost the entire population speaks it either as a first language or proficiently as a second language. Its standard form, known as Modern Hebrew, is the main medium of life in Israel."
I've never been to Tel Aviv, or South Africa, but the impression I have from non-Arab English-speaking Israelis re Hebrew is *very* different to English-speaking South Africans attitude to Afrikaans
I specifically chose Tel Aviv for my example, because it is by far the most Anglophone of the Israeli cities. Jerusalem, for example, is very different.
17s might be just about value but I really don't see a Jan election, pissing off media, public and activists alike.
There comes a point when prolonging the agony just feeds into the narrative and makes things worse still. I don't see polling day going any later than Dec 12.
(And I still think Nov 14 is most likely, with a mid-Oct date next)
I agree with you but say come early October when Sunak has to call a November election and the Tories are circa 20-25 points behind in the polls you think he might delay in the hope something does come up?
It's the price of missing the reltively painless option of May.
As many on here suggested, it was only ever likely to get worse after that, and that is what we seeing now.
My previous view of Sunak was that he would probably have made a reasonable PM in 'good' times. Instead, he inherited a party that had been in power too long, had run out of ideas, and preferred attacking itself rather than the opposition.
I'm part way through changing that view. Everything after the 'instead...' about his party remains valid. But I'm rapidly coming to the conclusion that he would not have made a reasonable PM even if he had had a unified, fresh party. Worse, I don't even think he's trying. It's like he's phoning it in.
TLDR; Sunak's hopeless.
For a long while I was a bit of a Sunak fan, but like you JJ, I've had to revise my views on the downside.
He's not very good, although better than the two before him.
... And, quite possibly, better than his successor.
The central mystery remains. Is he doing this stuff out of fear of the right, or because he is one of them and believes this stuff?
Neither excuses the incompetence at people management.
Sunak is genuinely right wing. He basically believes the same stuff as Truss without the delusion. For some reason people got into their heads he was a centrist technocrat.
When you believe government is there to make the rich richer, squillionaires like yourself, and you don't even pretend any interest in how the other 99% live, you will struggle politically.
I'm not sure if Sunak lacks delusions, but he was more cautious, understandably so when she lacked any whatsoever.
I will not get over how he was called a remainer traitor in the leadership contest by some Tories. He's a hard right wing Brexiter, albeit with a smoother technocratic presentation.
Can you find any significant interventions that Rishi Sunak made on behalf of the Brexit campaign that he avowedly supported? I wasn't aware of any.
I don't spot him here from a quick scan, though perhaps he's concealed behind John Wittingdale's left buttock.
I can't see Liz Truss in that picture? Though I'm basing that on everyone managing to hold their signs up the right way.
Truss was a Remainer.
Truss is just a moron. Backed Remain, u-turned on it when the wind blew against it, then crashed the pound once PM.
Sadly I think she's someone who'll say whatever she thinks will gain her temporary advantage.
Even her fiercest critics here say that she's a loony ideologue, which isn't the profile of the two-faced careerist you describe.
I am not other people. I am me. I have my own opinions.
I see that. And before her time as PM, I would have agreed she was a boring careerist time-server. Given her actions whilst PM, I don't think that's a view that can continue to be supported.
Her long interviews recently have been good, and they offer a compelling picture of events that doesn't bear out your character description.
The fact she endorsed Trump shows she is a moron without any need for further evidence.
Another non-intelligent answer - her endorsement of Trump has got nothing whatsoever to do with your assertion that her very presence at number 10 vs. Rishi was depressing the pound.
Concerning that issue, nobody is endorsing Trump in isolation - they are endorsing Trump as opposed to Biden - a politician of the American left, who seems to have done little for world stability, and who seems to have a hearty dislike for Britain - to say nothing of showing a lot of worrying health signs. I don't consider judging Trump to be a better choice than Biden to be a moronic choice for a Tory.
The fact the pound rapidly recovered after she left office speaks for itself. Containing Putin rather than letting him take territory in Ukraine absolutely is better for world security. And Trump is a huge risk for America remaining a democratic state and its republican institutions. So anyone that believes in Tory values of institutional stability is thick as mince if they endorse him. But Truss probably doesn't even believe in it. She just realises her reputation is trash with everybody except the paranoid right wing fringe so is playing to the gallery.
No it does not, and your answer is glib crap designed to mask your complete lack of understanding. I hope to be more impressed in future discussions.
17s might be just about value but I really don't see a Jan election, pissing off media, public and activists alike.
There comes a point when prolonging the agony just feeds into the narrative and makes things worse still. I don't see polling day going any later than Dec 12.
(And I still think Nov 14 is most likely, with a mid-Oct date next)
I agree with you but say come early October when Sunak has to call a November election and the Tories are circa 20-25 points behind in the polls you think he might delay in the hope something does come up?
It's the price of missing the reltively painless option of May.
As many on here suggested, it was only ever likely to get worse after that, and that is what we seeing now.
My previous view of Sunak was that he would probably have made a reasonable PM in 'good' times. Instead, he inherited a party that had been in power too long, had run out of ideas, and preferred attacking itself rather than the opposition.
I'm part way through changing that view. Everything after the 'instead...' about his party remains valid. But I'm rapidly coming to the conclusion that he would not have made a reasonable PM even if he had had a unified, fresh party. Worse, I don't even think he's trying. It's like he's phoning it in.
TLDR; Sunak's hopeless.
For a long while I was a bit of a Sunak fan, but like you JJ, I've had to revise my views on the downside.
He's not very good, although better than the two before him.
... And, quite possibly, better than his successor.
The central mystery remains. Is he doing this stuff out of fear of the right, or because he is one of them and believes this stuff?
Neither excuses the incompetence at people management.
Sunak is genuinely right wing. He basically believes the same stuff as Truss without the delusion. For some reason people got into their heads he was a centrist technocrat.
When you believe government is there to make the rich richer, squillionaires like yourself, and you don't even pretend any interest in how the other 99% live, you will struggle politically.
I'm not sure if Sunak lacks delusions, but he was more cautious, understandably so when she lacked any whatsoever.
I will not get over how he was called a remainer traitor in the leadership contest by some Tories. He's a hard right wing Brexiter, albeit with a smoother technocratic presentation.
Can you find any significant interventions that Rishi Sunak made on behalf of the Brexit campaign that he avowedly supported? I wasn't aware of any.
I don't spot him here from a quick scan, though perhaps he's concealed behind John Wittingdale's left buttock.
I can't see Liz Truss in that picture? Though I'm basing that on everyone managing to hold their signs up the right way.
Truss was a Remainer.
Truss is just a moron. Backed Remain, u-turned on it when the wind blew against it, then crashed the pound once PM.
Currencies find their true value. Decades of currency debasement and trade deficits "trashed the pound". The events surrounding the mini budget and concurrent QT activities by the bank caused temporary speculation which some people made some money off.
If it was just temporary speculation, the government could have stood behind the currency and would have won. But they couldn't because the currency headed towards its true value under a Truss premiership. When more competent people took over, the currency recovered.
Interesting - I've often thought of you before as moderately intelligent.
Intelligent people can recognize the Trussite "stab in the back" myth. Her budget was bonkers. Not just the inherent energy subsidies, but also because she doesn't understand the Thatcher maxim that you need to balance the budget before you can start cutting taxes.
The 'moron premium' isn't something that intelligent people believe either. It's a lazy left-wing meme for people who want to sound pose as vaguely clever but know shit all about how economies work.
I have a degree in economics and worked in economics for a decade. What background do you have?
Pwned. As I believe the young people say.
Really? I tend to think appeals to authority are the weakest form of arguments - if they can even be classed as such.
Germany's restoration was based on an alternative conservative ideology of Christian democracy that embraced the compassionate nature of their underlying religious culture. Israel's religious heritage is based on genocide and supremacism.
Erm, wot? Not only is it bizarre to say Judaism is based on supremacism, but also to say that Christianity's culture excludes these, since Christianity not only affirms the Old Testament but expanded on its logic by parallel, most famously in the late Hellenistic world and the Columbian Americas, but also (relevant to this case) old Germanic Saxony.
Germany's restoration was based on an alternative conservative ideology of Christian democracy that embraced the compassionate nature of their underlying religious culture. Israel's religious heritage is based on genocide and supremacism.
Erm, wot? Not only is it bizarre to say Judaism is based on supremacism, but also to say that Christianity's culture excludes these, since Christianity not only affirms the Old Testament but expanded on its logic by parallel, most famously in the late Hellenistic world and the Columbian Americas, but also (relevant to this case) old Germanic Saxony.
Yep - Christians too reckon that God egged Joshua on to commit holy genocide in Jericho. There's no point beating about the hallucinated bush. That's a seriously unpleasant belief.
"UN emergency relief coordinator Martin Griffiths has said that the Israeli military has not allowed anything or anyone to go in or get out of Gaza since its takeover of the Rafah crossing on Tuesday.
“The closure of the crossings means no fuel. It means no trucks, no generators, no water, no electricity and no movement of people or goods. It means no aid,” he said."
Israel has a great song but my favourite is Switzerland and Nemo with a mix of opera , rap and pop. Absolutely stunning song . The last two minutes are totally addictive .Shocked that Albania didn’t make it .
Israel is second favourite in the betting, after being available at 66/1 before last night's semi-final. I've never watched Eurovision so offer no advice on its merits. https://www.oddschecker.com/tv/eurovision/winner
O/T Silence Of The Lambs is on ITV1 atm. Such a great movie, maybe the best film of the 1990s.
"Manhunter" is the best adaptation of one of the Lecter books. As for the best film of the 1990s, you've got Saving Private Ryan, Unforgiven, Reservoir Dogs, Pulp Fiction, The Matrix, Schindler's List, Truman Show...
O/T Silence Of The Lambs is on ITV1 atm. Such a great movie, maybe the best film of the 1990s.
"Manhunter" is the best adaptation of one of the Lecter books. As for the best film of the 1990s, you've got Saving Private Ryan, Unforgiven, Reservoir Dogs, Pulp Fiction, The Matrix, Schindler's List, Truman Show...
Clueless; LA Confidertial; Trainspotting; The Big Lebowski; Toy Story; Groundhog Day; Fargo ...
Latvia Austria Netherlands Norway Israel Greece Estonia Switzerland Georgia Armenia
I don't know why Israel are included. They are a Middle Eastern country with a Middle Eastern culture that doesn't respect Western democratic values.
Australia also competes.
I think a country joins the Eurovision Song Contest by asking to be in the contest. If you bring viewers (and therefore advertising revenue), you're in.
Australia at least is an offshoot of European civilization, speaking a European language and with Western values.
So, just to make sure I understand, a democracy which was populated in the last 60-70 years largely by people whose ancestors had spent hundreds of years living in Europe isnt “an offshoot of European civilisation”
17s might be just about value but I really don't see a Jan election, pissing off media, public and activists alike.
There comes a point when prolonging the agony just feeds into the narrative and makes things worse still. I don't see polling day going any later than Dec 12.
(And I still think Nov 14 is most likely, with a mid-Oct date next)
I agree with you but say come early October when Sunak has to call a November election and the Tories are circa 20-25 points behind in the polls you think he might delay in the hope something does come up?
It's the price of missing the reltively painless option of May.
As many on here suggested, it was only ever likely to get worse after that, and that is what we seeing now.
My previous view of Sunak was that he would probably have made a reasonable PM in 'good' times. Instead, he inherited a party that had been in power too long, had run out of ideas, and preferred attacking itself rather than the opposition.
I'm part way through changing that view. Everything after the 'instead...' about his party remains valid. But I'm rapidly coming to the conclusion that he would not have made a reasonable PM even if he had had a unified, fresh party. Worse, I don't even think he's trying. It's like he's phoning it in.
TLDR; Sunak's hopeless.
For a long while I was a bit of a Sunak fan, but like you JJ, I've had to revise my views on the downside.
He's not very good, although better than the two before him.
... And, quite possibly, better than his successor.
The central mystery remains. Is he doing this stuff out of fear of the right, or because he is one of them and believes this stuff?
Neither excuses the incompetence at people management.
Sunak is genuinely right wing. He basically believes the same stuff as Truss without the delusion. For some reason people got into their heads he was a centrist technocrat.
When you believe government is there to make the rich richer, squillionaires like yourself, and you don't even pretend any interest in how the other 99% live, you will struggle politically.
I'm not sure if Sunak lacks delusions, but he was more cautious, understandably so when she lacked any whatsoever.
I will not get over how he was called a remainer traitor in the leadership contest by some Tories. He's a hard right wing Brexiter, albeit with a smoother technocratic presentation.
Can you find any significant interventions that Rishi Sunak made on behalf of the Brexit campaign that he avowedly supported? I wasn't aware of any.
I don't spot him here from a quick scan, though perhaps he's concealed behind John Wittingdale's left buttock.
IIRC, he wrote quite an eloquent article about why he was voting Leave.
Now I realize that this wasn't high profile. But then again, he wasn't a high profile MP: he was first elected in 2015 just a year before the Brexit referendum, and didn't even get the most minor of government positions (Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Local Government) until almost three years after entering parliament.
Like Truss, he got preferment under Johnson because Johnson didn’t see him as a threat. Johnson surrounded himself with numpties, and when he came crashing down the numpties were all in pole position to take over.
Latvia Austria Netherlands Norway Israel Greece Estonia Switzerland Georgia Armenia
I don't know why Israel are included. They are a Middle Eastern country with a Middle Eastern culture that doesn't respect Western democratic values.
Australia also competes.
I think a country joins the Eurovision Song Contest by asking to be in the contest. If you bring viewers (and therefore advertising revenue), you're in.
Australia at least is an offshoot of European civilization, speaking a European language and with Western values.
So, just to make sure I understand, a democracy which was populated in the last 60-70 years largely by people whose ancestors had spent hundreds of years living in Europe isnt “an offshoot of European civilisation”
Can you be clearer about what you mean?
I think he means that Jews can't be proper Europeans.
O/T Silence Of The Lambs is on ITV1 atm. Such a great movie, maybe the best film of the 1990s.
"Manhunter" is the best adaptation of one of the Lecter books. As for the best film of the 1990s, you've got Saving Private Ryan, Unforgiven, Reservoir Dogs, Pulp Fiction, The Matrix, Schindler's List, Truman Show...
Saving Private Ryan wasn't even the best movie released in July 1998, let alone of the best movies of the 1990s.
Latvia Austria Netherlands Norway Israel Greece Estonia Switzerland Georgia Armenia
I don't know why Israel are included. They are a Middle Eastern country with a Middle Eastern culture that doesn't respect Western democratic values.
Australia also competes.
I think a country joins the Eurovision Song Contest by asking to be in the contest. If you bring viewers (and therefore advertising revenue), you're in.
Australia at least is an offshoot of European civilization, speaking a European language and with Western values.
So, just to make sure I understand, a democracy which was populated in the last 60-70 years largely by people whose ancestors had spent hundreds of years living in Europe isnt “an offshoot of European civilisation”
Can you be clearer about what you mean?
I think he means that Jews can't be proper Europeans.
That's nonsense. Of course Jews can be proper Europeans. There are vast numbers of them who have integrated into democratic Western society, and are valuable members of society. In post-war Germany, Jews were instrumental in restoring a rechtstaat.
But that isn't Israel. Most Israelis do not come from Europe. Their religious culture is Middle Eastern, their language is Middle Eastern, their way of thinking about their neighbors is Middle Eastern. Isn't that what Zionism is about?
Comments
Rampy McBollox
1. Is his (rather regretful and exculpatory) statement on how he's voting, and 4. is the same thing, published in the Yorkshire Post. 2. and 3. didn't even take place before the vote.
That's the absolute bare minimum to avoid not answering the question, which would have been bizarre.
But he's still responsible, especially given such a narrow margin where a few constituencies made a difference. And saying it twice over is twice as culpable.
Not sure how that will do any better than the current lot. They won’t tow back, sink boats etc.
https://x.com/chrismusson/status/1788684294426083426
I want an Elite Border Force Action Man. Starmtroopers on every beach
- sodcasters playing their music out loud (also folk with Apple headphones)
- people eating smelly food
- People with feet on seats
Hell truly is other people on trains
Labour already issued a video on how this will work in practice:
https://youtu.be/BNc5zTYkTaQ?si=IEomqLdiILCuBR_h
He might as well set up the Office Of Supreme Excellence
In common with many, my take on Rishi's Brexitism is that he picked a side as many did (we cannot know his reasons), made a fairly equivocal statement about it, and promptly went to ground.
Since achieving his Prime Ministerial ambitions, he has given up Britain's ability to invoke the Northern Ireland protocol, paid over billions in EU fines without a murmer, shitcanned the EU reform and revocation bill, abandoned reform of the EUs nutrient regulations that would have enabled 100, 000 houses to be built, done nothing on fishing, and shoved millions at the French in the hope they'll stop some boats.etc. These are just what I can think of at 11pm on a school night.
Some of these kids would have lost their damned minds during the Eurovisions of the 1970s/80s. They seem to think wars are a new thing?
I think a country joins the Eurovision Song Contest by asking to be in the contest. If you bring viewers (and therefore advertising revenue), you're in.
He seems to be doubling down on the Elphicke defection with her accompanying him in Dover . The party discontent is bubbling away but when you’re on the side of the party leading in the polls and likely to hold your seats , principles will often take a back seat !
Australia is an associate member, who joined ESC as guests in 2015, but were popular and stayed in (big TV audience down under for the ESC, despite the time difference).
If you want to know what happened in the early 1970s, it was the end of the world fixing their currencies to gold through the Bretton Woods Agreement.
During that period, major crises were almost unknown because - under Bretton Woods - if you ran a trade deficit for long, you ran out of gold.
Under the current system, if you are big enough, you get to run unlimited deficits, and the world becomes ever more unbalanced. And the crises - when they hit - are absolutely massive.
And that's before you even add in the Palestinians.
Now I realize that this wasn't high profile. But then again, he wasn't a high profile MP: he was first elected in 2015 just a year before the Brexit referendum, and didn't even get the most minor of government positions (Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Local Government) until almost three years after entering parliament.
https://x.com/escdiscord/status/1788681278142718097
Her long interviews recently have been good, and they offer a compelling picture of events that doesn't bear out your character description.
I've never met an English-speaking Israeli who didn't appear to also speak Hebrew. Are there really many of them?
https://twitter.com/VanityFair/status/1788339715017519482
Presumably because it was in any event minimal.
Younger ESC fans are very enmeshed in social media, so cannot understand that everyone isn't as splenetically anti Israel as they are.
Concerning that issue, nobody is endorsing Trump in isolation - they are endorsing Trump as opposed to Biden - a politician of the American left, who seems to have done little for world stability, and who seems to have a hearty dislike for Britain - to say nothing of showing a lot of worrying health signs. I don't consider judging Trump to be a better choice than Biden to be a moronic choice for a Tory.
Likewise, the pork-eaters are really only the Russians.
But, yes, there is a secular, liberal, urban elite in Tel Aviv with very different views to those in Jerusalem or to the settlers or to Orthodox groups.
Before the change, RFKjr was a successful environmental lawyer and campaigner, for example helping clean up an extremely-polluted section of the Hudson River. And after . . . what we see today.
Agreeing with Will here, but as a strong free marketeer, clearly the markets need to have confidence in HMG, If Count Binface were to be our next PM, I think the markets would react before he had even spoken.
Truss’s big mistake was to ‘diss’ senior HMT officials, OBR, and the BoE at the same time. The markets reacted accordingly.
All very predictable. .
Admittedly, prospect of a 2nd Kennedy Administration would itself be a disincentive against yet another Trump impeachment. Just as thought of President Spiro Agnew was an aide to Richard Nixon . . . until Agnew himself was forced to resign, and was replaced by . . . Gerald Ford . . .
https://youtu.be/-1pMMIe4hb4?si=i6wiJWJgI3GKDduk
Meanwhile the Karem Abu Salem crossing in the south (also known as Kerem Shalom) has "officially" been reopened but apparently no actual supplies are coming in through it because of security fears. We can argue about the meaning of the word "open", but this doesn't help people who need those supplies.
Admiral Tyron, Captain Cook and many others.
A common suggestion is a mild stroke.
(In fact even the gold convertibility of the dollar was already breaking down by 1963, with the creation of the Gold Pool, or by 1968 at the latest).
FWIW Wikipedia has this:
"The Israeli population is linguistically and culturally diverse. Hebrew is the country's official language, and almost the entire population speaks it either as a first language or proficiently as a second language. Its standard form, known as Modern Hebrew, is the main medium of life in Israel."
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Languages_of_Israel
I've never been to Tel Aviv, or South Africa, but the impression I have from non-Arab English-speaking Israelis re Hebrew is *very* different to English-speaking South Africans attitude to Afrikaans
Have you read Business Adventures by John Brooks? If not, it is well worth reading. It's about forty years old, but one of the stories follows the Governor of the Bank of England around during a Sterling crisis, as the Government and Bank of England seek to stabilise the pound.
The point about Bretton Woods was that - from the start - it was designed to ensure countries' current accounts balanced through the cycle. (In that way, it was almost the opposite of the Eurozone.) It was recognized that if you did that, then crises would be small and frequent and you could avoid massive imbalances coming into being.
It was the Vietnam War and the US's desire to run big deficits that killed it. And I do wonder if the world would not have been better with it. The US (and UK) would not have been able to end up with such unbalances, consumption led, economies in a Bretton Woods world.
https://insideevs.com/features/719015/china-is-ahead-of-west/
(And if you follow the logic to its conclusion, it means no more petrol powered cars. Simply because electric will be both cheaper and better.)
"Holding on in this mysterious ride...
Take me home
And leave the world behind...
I'm still wet from this October rain"
https://escbeat.com/2024/03/10/israel-from-october-rain-to-hurricane-the-main-lyrics-changes-have-been-revealed/
That's one heck of a song.
I haven't yet formed a view on whether's she's referencing Lilith:
There's no point beating about the hallucinated bush. That's a seriously unpleasant belief.
“The closure of the crossings means no fuel. It means no trucks, no generators, no water, no electricity and no movement of people or goods. It means no aid,” he said."
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/liveblog/2024/5/10/israels-war-on-gaza-live-aid-operation-completely-crippled-amid-attacks
Keir Starmer must be jumping for joy.
https://www.oddschecker.com/tv/eurovision/winner
But do it BETTER
Can you be clearer about what you mean?
But that isn't Israel. Most Israelis do not come from Europe. Their religious culture is Middle Eastern, their language is Middle Eastern, their way of thinking about their neighbors is Middle Eastern. Isn't that what Zionism is about?