It only took 12 years but SKS has decided to pick up the Blue Labour movement that Ed Milliband temporarily tried.
This has to be a pitch to the Sun right?
There's something about SKS that's very insincere: like he knows he has to say all the right things to win, but does he actually believe them?
With Blair, you never had a doubt. With Sir Keir "I am a socialist" Starmer you simply don't know.
I actually think Starmer is more sincere than Blair was. These things are highly relative.
I also think Sunak more sincere than Starmer. It doesn't do him any good. He's probably just as weirdly hard right ideological as he appears to be. He genuinely thinks government is there to make billionaires like him even richer and doesn't understand why people might see that as a problem.
My sincerity list of recent prime ministers, where sincerity sadly doesn't always correlate to whether they are any good.
1. Major 2. May 3. Brown 4. Sunak 5. Cameron 6. Thatcher 7. Blair 8. Truss 9. Johnson
Thatcher too low. You might not have liked what she said, but she was sincere.
Brown way too high. Hard to know whether insincere or deluded, but I'd mark him down anyway.
Agree on Thatcher. Disagree on Brown. The poor guy is one of the most earnest people I've seen. May is too high, Truss is too low.
1 Major/Thatcher/Brown 4 Truss/Blair/Sunak/May 8 Cameron 1,000,000 Johnson
On the original list, just move Thatcher above Sunak and Cammo, and it's there. How Sunak can be considered sincere when he's tried so many positionings since he got the job is a mystery. Like Hague, he's been pushed into insincerity because his party needs a lifeboat strategy for desperate times
Sunak seems quite naturally insincere to me.
Think about his lies about Strava and Parkrun, for instance - they're such trivial things to have lied about, and yet he did it anyway for what appears to have been purely narcissistic reasons. That's Johnson-level behaviour.
What are the Strava lies?
Mind you I’ve had him down as a total narcissist since that little social media campaign he started running about himself when he was Chancellor, which included the creation of a logo.
There’s still this vague sense that he’s technocratically gifted, but all the evidence we have is that he’s smarmy git who’d be better placed on the board of Thames Water.
I think it's a reference to Peleton where he says he starts his day with a 6am spin class with a soundtrack of Britney Spears. I can't for the life of me think why he thought that was a cool claim, but at any rate it turns out to be a lie because Peloton profiles are public, and he's been on it about 5 times in his life, and never at 6am.
The bar for accusing other people of lying is down to near zero, isn’t it? And the implication of the allegation similarly reduced.
Just back in. While on my way out I saw a Labour canvasser. This is, to my knowledge, the first sign of any any Labour electoral activity beyond paper candidates and the odd leaflet in the Romford Constituency since I moved here in 2002. (Even in the recent GLA election, we had a single leaflet from the GLA constituency candidate and nothing from Khan at all).
Also while I was out I noticed that Rozzer hasn't put his billboards out in the usual spots yet; normally he gets all his supporters to do that the first weekend after the election is called.
Labour need just short of a 20% swing to win in Romford.
Although people like @Casino_Royale’s household income is objectively high compared to the average, it is nothing in the grand scheme of things.
VAT on private schools is absolutely inconsequential compared to something game changing like a proper wealth tax. Probably based on real property.
Still voting Labour though because F the Tories.
Thats ok fuck over those that rent because you know that is going to be tacked onto our rent
Well it would replace council tax and in any event rents are set by the market not purely on costs. I would also favour a massive building campaign.
But there are more people looking to rent than places to rent. When interest rates go up my rent goes up. You charge a landlord 2400 a year wealth tax then that will be 200 on my rent. Landlords know damn well these days in most places they can quickly replace tenants because there are more people looking for a place than their are places....last time I changed house it was a bidding war between potential tenants as there were ten of us looking to rent the place
Interest rates only directly effect landlords with mortgages. Regardless like I said build more houses less pressure on rents.
Hang on the labour app knows who lives at the address....now I am fucking livid. (feel the same about any app giving info on lives in my house political party or commercial)
To be fair, you are never not livid.
I am often not livid....you don't consider any party political or commercial having info on who lives at an address disconcerting? Where did they get the info for a start?
What exactly do you think the electoral register is for? You can opt out (legally) of the one available to commercial organisations. If you opt out of both, don't be surprised if your credit rating drops.
I see we are in the phase of a General Election where "patriotic" Brits continually run down the country and talk of their immenent departure as the country goes to the dogs.
I remember it well from 1997.
Yes, sounds like if we elect Labour we'll be losing many wealthy aspirational patriots.
Hang on the labour app knows who lives at the address....now I am fucking livid. (feel the same about any app giving info on lives in my house political party or commercial)
It's electoral roll data, and all political parties use it. If you don't want that, you can take yourself off the electoral register.
I am not on it
You do appreciate that you can be subject to a civil fine for not being on the register if you have been required to be by a Registration Officer: Representation of the People Act 1983 s9E
(4)A registration officer who gives a person an invitation under subsection (1) may subsequently require the person to make an application for registration by a specified date. (5)A requirement under subsection (4) is of no effect if the person is not entitled to be registered. (6)Regulations— (a)may make provision about requirements under subsection (4) (including provision for them to be cancelled in specified circumstances); (b)may specify steps that a registration officer must take before imposing a requirement. (7)A registration officer may impose a civil penalty on a person who fails to comply with a requirement imposed by the officer under subsection (4).
Yes but I am also at risk of being fined for not filling in a census. Never have done and yet to be fined. The law is an ass and I see no reason to bother obeying any of it anymore as it is neither enforced nor followed by our lords and masters. I don't steal, murder or maim because that is my personal morality. The law of the land really couldn't give a shit about anymore
Hang on the labour app knows who lives at the address....now I am fucking livid. (feel the same about any app giving info on lives in my house political party or commercial)
It's electoral roll data, and all political parties use it. If you don't want that, you can take yourself off the electoral register.
I am not on it
You do appreciate that you can be subject to a civil fine for not being on the register if you have been required to be by a Registration Officer: Representation of the People Act 1983 s9E
(4)A registration officer who gives a person an invitation under subsection (1) may subsequently require the person to make an application for registration by a specified date. (5)A requirement under subsection (4) is of no effect if the person is not entitled to be registered. (6)Regulations— (a)may make provision about requirements under subsection (4) (including provision for them to be cancelled in specified circumstances); (b)may specify steps that a registration officer must take before imposing a requirement. (7)A registration officer may impose a civil penalty on a person who fails to comply with a requirement imposed by the officer under subsection (4).
Yes but I am also at risk of being fined for not filling in a census. Never have done and yet to be fined. The law is an ass and I see no reason to bother obeying any of it anymore as it is neither enforced nor followed by our lords and masters. I don't steal, murder or maim because that is my personal morality. The law of the land really couldn't give a shit about anymore
Careful. To live outside the law, you must be honest.
Hang on the labour app knows who lives at the address....now I am fucking livid. (feel the same about any app giving info on lives in my house political party or commercial)
To be fair, you are never not livid.
I am often not livid....you don't consider any party political or commercial having info on who lives at an address disconcerting? Where did they get the info for a start?
What exactly do you think the electoral register is for? You can opt out (legally) of the one available to commercial organisations. If you opt out of both, don't be surprised if your credit rating drops.
I don't need a credit rating as I don't borrow money
Fresh Direct, which is New York’s (inferior) answer to Ocado, texted me yesterday with “LGBTQ+ deals”.
I remarked to my wife that I couldn’t wait to get my hands on some gay bacon.
Fruitcake alert!
Their products rather than you GW
Who's complaining, if it's cheaper? Though I suppose some gammons might moan about cutprice gammon.
No, no, not cutprice gammon! I've met his brother!
PS: It's so dispiriting that someone chose to flag my post. I presume because they thought it was wrong in some way. Just post your criticism or PM me.
I dunno, maybe you using a homophobic slur in a conversation about pride month is what cause it?
Anything approaching a slur or insult was very far from my intent. I'm torn two ways here - I want to completely hear what you're saying, but I also want to be very clear that you and it seem at least one other are being wildly oversensitive and causing real harm to the people that you want to defend.
It's the point I was trying to make earlier.
Any critique of it rapidly descends into accusations of homophobia, so the discussion doesn't go anywhere.
Hang on the labour app knows who lives at the address....now I am fucking livid. (feel the same about any app giving info on lives in my house political party or commercial)
It's electoral roll data, and all political parties use it. If you don't want that, you can take yourself off the electoral register.
I am not on it
You should be as you are legally required to complete it annually. It is also used for jury service. And this will make you really livid - Not only do the political parties get the register they also get the marked register afterwards so can see if you voted.
I've never heard of any abuse of the register. In the old days anyone could get hold of it for a minimal fee.
Hang on the labour app knows who lives at the address....now I am fucking livid. (feel the same about any app giving info on lives in my house political party or commercial)
To be fair, you are never not livid.
I am often not livid....you don't consider any party political or commercial having info on who lives at an address disconcerting? Where did they get the info for a start?
What exactly do you think the electoral register is for? You can opt out (legally) of the one available to commercial organisations. If you opt out of both, don't be surprised if your credit rating drops.
It should be purely so the Returning Officer knows where to send polling cards, and for polling stations to have a record of who is expected to turn up.
Neither commercial organisations nor politicians should have access to it.
Although people like @Casino_Royale’s household income is objectively high compared to the average, it is nothing in the grand scheme of things.
VAT on private schools is absolutely inconsequential compared to something game changing like a proper wealth tax. Probably based on real property.
Still voting Labour though because F the Tories.
Thats ok fuck over those that rent because you know that is going to be tacked onto our rent
Well it would replace council tax and in any event rents are set by the market not purely on costs. I would also favour a massive building campaign.
But there are more people looking to rent than places to rent. When interest rates go up my rent goes up. You charge a landlord 2400 a year wealth tax then that will be 200 on my rent. Landlords know damn well these days in most places they can quickly replace tenants because there are more people looking for a place than their are places....last time I changed house it was a bidding war between potential tenants as there were ten of us looking to rent the place
Interest rates only directly effect landlords with mortgages. Regardless like I said build more houses less pressure on rents.
They affect all sorts of people.
Savers - a huge benefit to them is to have some sort of an interest rate. Businesses - money needs to come at a cost - recently its not had a base cost. Now it does, and having a small base cost is a real plus. The World - it's a tricky argument, but a pound might just be a share in UK plc and shareholders in such a grand and very old brand perhaps deserve a bit of tlc.
I can't keep up. Is the plus sizeism? What about the hidden carriage return - is that carriage-return-ism?
I just flipped open YouTube Music, for which I pay £10.99 a month, and was faced with reams of "Pride Anthems" which I couldn't get rid of on my homepage but I have no way to divest. Despite me paying for the service! I assume I now have this for an entire month. Very tricky not to accidentally click on it as well, and thus reinforce it's 'popularity'.
Clearly they feel a need to promote it, and to be seen to promote it, but it's this sort of overreach that winds people up - particularly when the only riposte is "homophobe".
Is YT music any good? I don't see the point of it.
It's not very good, no. You're better off with Spotify. I can't comment on how rainbowy it is in there, not played anything for a few days.
Perhaps a trigger warning before people see any design with more than two colours will help protect delicate minds. It might scupper ones chances of listening to Dark Side of the Moon during June, but it's worth it to make a safe space for Casino.
Hang on the labour app knows who lives at the address....now I am fucking livid. (feel the same about any app giving info on lives in my house political party or commercial)
To be fair, you are never not livid.
I am often not livid....you don't consider any party political or commercial having info on who lives at an address disconcerting? Where did they get the info for a start?
What exactly do you think the electoral register is for? You can opt out (legally) of the one available to commercial organisations. If you opt out of both, don't be surprised if your credit rating drops.
It should be purely so the Returning Officer knows where to send polling cards, and for polling stations to have a record of who is expected to turn up.
Neither commercial organisations nor politicians should have access to it.
Openness - like sunlight - is the best disinfectant. The existence of an open electoral roll, which shows who has voted, means more trust in the system.
Hang on the labour app knows who lives at the address....now I am fucking livid. (feel the same about any app giving info on lives in my house political party or commercial)
It's electoral roll data, and all political parties use it. If you don't want that, you can take yourself off the electoral register.
I am not on it
You should be as you are legally required to complete it annually. It is also used for jury service. And this will make you really livid - Not only do the political parties get the register they also get the marked register afterwards so can see if you voted.
I've never heard of any abuse of the register. In the old days anyone could get hold of it for a minimal fee.
Legally as far as I am concerned can take a hike they can come find me but they wont and never have done. FFS we live in england where the police dont even bother investigating car theft, burglary or shop lifting. The law of the land is a joke.
Fresh Direct, which is New York’s (inferior) answer to Ocado, texted me yesterday with “LGBTQ+ deals”.
I remarked to my wife that I couldn’t wait to get my hands on some gay bacon.
Fruitcake alert!
Their products rather than you GW
Who's complaining, if it's cheaper? Though I suppose some gammons might moan about cutprice gammon.
No, no, not cutprice gammon! I've met his brother!
PS: It's so dispiriting that someone chose to flag my post. I presume because they thought it was wrong in some way. Just post your criticism or PM me.
I dunno, maybe you using a homophobic slur in a conversation about pride month is what cause it?
Anything approaching a slur or insult was very far from my intent. I'm torn two ways here - I want to completely hear what you're saying, but I also want to be very clear that you and it seem at least one other are being wildly oversensitive and causing real harm to the people that you want to defend.
Ok, but you're whinnying like a horse with a cracked hoof over someone clicking "flag" on your post. Don't worry about it. You said something wrong, you had a conversation about it, it's over. You'll be ok.
Well as it's clear that it was you that flagged my post and that you seem devoid of sense then I'll not worry. Please do feel free to comment again.
According to the flag it says "troll". Do we have a user by that name?
I must say that it is easy to click the wrong thing if you have sausage thumbs, it wasn't me though.
It only took 12 years but SKS has decided to pick up the Blue Labour movement that Ed Milliband temporarily tried.
This has to be a pitch to the Sun right?
There's something about SKS that's very insincere: like he knows he has to say all the right things to win, but does he actually believe them?
With Blair, you never had a doubt. With Sir Keir "I am a socialist" Starmer you simply don't know.
I actually think Starmer is more sincere than Blair was. These things are highly relative.
I also think Sunak more sincere than Starmer. It doesn't do him any good. He's probably just as weirdly hard right ideological as he appears to be. He genuinely thinks government is there to make billionaires like him even richer and doesn't understand why people might see that as a problem.
My sincerity list of recent prime ministers, where sincerity sadly doesn't always correlate to whether they are any good.
1. Major 2. May 3. Brown 4. Sunak 5. Cameron 6. Thatcher 7. Blair 8. Truss 9. Johnson
Thatcher too low. You might not have liked what she said, but she was sincere.
Brown way too high. Hard to know whether insincere or deluded, but I'd mark him down anyway.
Agree on Thatcher. Disagree on Brown. The poor guy is one of the most earnest people I've seen. May is too high, Truss is too low.
1 Major/Thatcher/Brown 4 Truss/Blair/Sunak/May 8 Cameron 1,000,000 Johnson
On the original list, just move Thatcher above Sunak and Cammo, and it's there. How Sunak can be considered sincere when he's tried so many positionings since he got the job is a mystery. Like Hague, he's been pushed into insincerity because his party needs a lifeboat strategy for desperate times
Sunak seems quite naturally insincere to me.
Think about his lies about Strava and Parkrun, for instance - they're such trivial things to have lied about, and yet he did it anyway for what appears to have been purely narcissistic reasons. That's Johnson-level behaviour.
What are the Strava lies?
Mind you I’ve had him down as a total narcissist since that little social media campaign he started running about himself when he was Chancellor, which included the creation of a logo.
There’s still this vague sense that he’s technocratically gifted, but all the evidence we have is that he’s smarmy git who’d be better placed on the board of Thames Water.
I think it's a reference to Peleton where he says he starts his day with a 6am spin class with a soundtrack of Britney Spears. I can't for the life of me think why he thought that was a cool claim, but at any rate it turns out to be a lie because Peloton profiles are public, and he's been on it about 5 times in his life, and never at 6am.
The bar for accusing other people of lying is down to near zero, isn’t it? And the implication of the allegation similarly reduced.
Call it whatever you feel more comfortable calling it.
Just on this subject. A year ago I moved my wife and son to Finland although I still live in the UK. The determining factor was problems we had with state schooling in the UK. It wasn't actually bad, just not what we want, and this was really a problem with the structural context of education in the UK rather than the school itself. I mentioned before that the tax levels are very similar, only slightly higher in Finland.
My son finished his first school year in Finland. Without exception he has said every day is 'great'. The class size is 24. There are some troubled children but they have one on one help. In the UK he got mediocre reports and was way under the radar of the teaching staff. In Finland we just got back his report and it was exceptional in every category, the only thing that came back as 'good' was Finnish language, which was perhaps unsurprising given that it is his second language.
On the question of 'quality of life' Finland is so much better than the UK it is almost laughable. We have a brand new gym 5 minutes walk away, 2x supermarkets (one of which is 24 hours), a beach at the end of the road, sea swimming spots within 10 -30 mins cycle ride away (all on purpose built cycle paths), various protected areas of forest with paths through it (in summer), nordic ski trails in winter. A city within 20 mins walk away with a beautiful library, a massive mall, a recently landscaped town square, multiple universities, concert halls, theatres. World class restaurants. There are 2 outdoor lidos in walking distance, one olympic size swimming pool. In the winter you have indoor swimming pools with saunas and steam rooms etc. The roads have no congestion. There is very little crime, children walk around freely by themselves. There are playgrounds every few hundred meters.
We live in a desirable neighbourhood it is true but you can go and buy a flat at the bottom of the road in a 1990's block for less than 200k Euros. There are also subsidised housing and several thousand public housing flats within 5 minutes walk. Where would it be possible to find anything like this in the UK?
My very first ever work business trip was to Helsinki at the age of 22 in December of 2016. I got up, it was dark. I got a taxi to a meeting, it was dark. We broke for lunch, and the sun peeked above the horizon. I went back to the airport (in the early afternoon), it was dark.
I appreciate that there are other times of year. But it is kinda dark in winter.
If I was going to be in that part of the world, I think I would follow @Cicero and head to Estonia.
Anywhere that far North is going to be pretty horrible in the winter. For me the UK was bad enough, going to work in the dark at 8am and coming home in the dark at 5pm, for what always felt like months on end.
(You’re a lot younger than I thought you were as well, or did you mean you were 22 in 1996 )
Hang on the labour app knows who lives at the address....now I am fucking livid. (feel the same about any app giving info on lives in my house political party or commercial)
To be fair, you are never not livid.
I am often not livid....you don't consider any party political or commercial having info on who lives at an address disconcerting? Where did they get the info for a start?
What exactly do you think the electoral register is for? You can opt out (legally) of the one available to commercial organisations. If you opt out of both, don't be surprised if your credit rating drops.
It should be purely so the Returning Officer knows where to send polling cards, and for polling stations to have a record of who is expected to turn up.
Neither commercial organisations nor politicians should have access to it.
Unworkable. MPs have to be able to confirm that the person seeking their assistance is actually a constituent. I get why people might object to political parties having access but it is rigorously controlled. Also canvassing and the like would be much more annoying if they didn’t have access.
Hang on the labour app knows who lives at the address....now I am fucking livid. (feel the same about any app giving info on lives in my house political party or commercial)
To be fair, you are never not livid.
I am often not livid....you don't consider any party political or commercial having info on who lives at an address disconcerting? Where did they get the info for a start?
What exactly do you think the electoral register is for? You can opt out (legally) of the one available to commercial organisations. If you opt out of both, don't be surprised if your credit rating drops.
It should be purely so the Returning Officer knows where to send polling cards, and for polling stations to have a record of who is expected to turn up.
Neither commercial organisations nor politicians should have access to it.
Openness - like sunlight - is the best disinfectant. The existence of an open electoral roll, which shows who has voted, means more trust in the system.
Hang on the labour app knows who lives at the address....now I am fucking livid. (feel the same about any app giving info on lives in my house political party or commercial)
To be fair, you are never not livid.
I am often not livid....you don't consider any party political or commercial having info on who lives at an address disconcerting? Where did they get the info for a start?
What exactly do you think the electoral register is for? You can opt out (legally) of the one available to commercial organisations. If you opt out of both, don't be surprised if your credit rating drops.
It should be purely so the Returning Officer knows where to send polling cards, and for polling stations to have a record of who is expected to turn up.
Neither commercial organisations nor politicians should have access to it.
Unworkable. MPs have to be able to confirm that the person seeking their assistance is actually a constituent. I get why people might object to political parties having access but it is rigorously controlled. Also canvassing and the like would be much more annoying if they didn’t have access.
Why should anyone care if it makes canvassing more annoying....most of us people find being canvassed annoying
Hang on the labour app knows who lives at the address....now I am fucking livid. (feel the same about any app giving info on lives in my house political party or commercial)
It's electoral roll data, and all political parties use it. If you don't want that, you can take yourself off the electoral register.
I am not on it
You should be as you are legally required to complete it annually. It is also used for jury service. And this will make you really livid - Not only do the political parties get the register they also get the marked register afterwards so can see if you voted.
I've never heard of any abuse of the register. In the old days anyone could get hold of it for a minimal fee.
Legally as far as I am concerned can take a hike they can come find me but they wont and never have done. FFS we live in england where the police dont even bother investigating car theft, burglary or shop lifting. The law of the land is a joke.
You are right of course. I have never heard of anyone being prosecuted for not doing so. They have enough problems chasing down those who have forgotten.
Hang on the labour app knows who lives at the address....now I am fucking livid. (feel the same about any app giving info on lives in my house political party or commercial)
To be fair, you are never not livid.
I am often not livid....you don't consider any party political or commercial having info on who lives at an address disconcerting? Where did they get the info for a start?
What exactly do you think the electoral register is for? You can opt out (legally) of the one available to commercial organisations. If you opt out of both, don't be surprised if your credit rating drops.
It should be purely so the Returning Officer knows where to send polling cards, and for polling stations to have a record of who is expected to turn up.
Neither commercial organisations nor politicians should have access to it.
So a corrupt returning officer could just read out any old figures they like at the count, and everyone just has to take their word for it?
Hang on the labour app knows who lives at the address....now I am fucking livid. (feel the same about any app giving info on lives in my house political party or commercial)
To be fair, you are never not livid.
I am often not livid....you don't consider any party political or commercial having info on who lives at an address disconcerting? Where did they get the info for a start?
What exactly do you think the electoral register is for? You can opt out (legally) of the one available to commercial organisations. If you opt out of both, don't be surprised if your credit rating drops.
It should be purely so the Returning Officer knows where to send polling cards, and for polling stations to have a record of who is expected to turn up.
Neither commercial organisations nor politicians should have access to it.
So a corrupt returning officer could just read out any old figures they like at the count, and everyone just has to take their word for it?
I suspect someone involved in the counting might just come forward and say "hang on that cant be right". I don't see how people having to register affects anything
Must be why he is so distracted he doesn't notice his executives telling news presenters to lie in order to not piss off their audience, and then having to pay out hundreds of millions to settle defamation claims as a result.
Hang on the labour app knows who lives at the address....now I am fucking livid. (feel the same about any app giving info on lives in my house political party or commercial)
To be fair, you are never not livid.
I am often not livid....you don't consider any party political or commercial having info on who lives at an address disconcerting? Where did they get the info for a start?
What exactly do you think the electoral register is for? You can opt out (legally) of the one available to commercial organisations. If you opt out of both, don't be surprised if your credit rating drops.
I don't need a credit rating as I don't borrow money
The credit rating is a good point. It is one of the big measures used and most people want a bank account, credit card and mortgage even if they don't borrow money otherwise.
Fpt for @Farooq and the other pb lefties because this is a really important debate
@Casino_Royale is a smart, hard working heterosexual white British male. British society is doing everything it can to tell him he is despised just for being a straight white male, and everyone else - every woman, every minority, everyone else has priority over him
At the same time the state is asking him to pay more and more tax for increasingly shabby public services because the state insists on importing 700,000 people a year (that no one asked for) putting ever more pressure on everything - and what money is left over must be spent - billions a year - on housing asylum seekers who are really just economic migrants but we are too spineless to say this and to pathetic to keep them out
And still you scoff at the idea @Casino_Royale might think “Fuck this” and bugger off somewhere else
Edit to add: At the same time as Britain is doing this, and as Britain seems to be gaining the climate of the Faroe Islands, lots of countries with better climates and nice cities and less Wokeness which aren’t intrinsically hostile to straight white men are adopting favourable tax regimes to attract people like @Casino_Royale
We really are in danger or driving away the smart hard working people that pay for the British state. What then?
For every 12 of me that go the State loses £1 million of tax revenue.
But (in the case of employees, obvs) your jobs will still remain. And someone else will fill them.
The concept of unfulfilled vacancies is clearly alien to you then?
Are you suggesting you're irreplaceable?
That's quite the claim.
Perhaps (and this is aimed at Leon's comment, not yours), the over-representation of white British heterosexual males in some industries is a failure of capitalism, and if a few of them left it wouldn't be the disaster they imagine.
Jesus Christ.
This is the country we're becoming, folks.
It’s such an offensively stupid remark I wonder if @nova is a Russian bot. And this is designed to stir up yet more anger
If it is real, god help us. As you say. Why should the likes of you or I pay to support a state that looks after @nova and all the others that hate us? Our taxes go to people that despise us
It's also nonsense. I've had job offers from partners in my firm to work in Hong Kong, Washington DC and the Middle East (UAE and Saudi) just over the last 9 months.
Now, as it happens, I said no because my kids were settled in school and we didn't want to uproot them. But, given Labour have uprooted one of them anyway, there comes a point where I might just take the plunge.
I've been listening to @Gardenwalker carefully on this and he doesn't make it sound so bad.
Labour aren't in Government, there is no VAT on private schools.
Your child's school failed for any number of reasons but it wasn't because Labour applied VAT.
Our son holds a senior management position in our local private school and the imposition of vat, certain now Starmer is going to be PM in a few weeks , is having an effect on their school numbers and across the industry
It is also seriously worrying teachers in these schools and to suggest because Starmer is not in power it is not the cause of disruption in the industry is simply not borne out by those actually working in private schools
Yes, please see the article I just posted.
This policy is starting to kill off multiple small prep and community schools in that help children with special needs, like Dowdham Prep and Alton School (Convent).
It's not the Etons and Winchesters that will be hurt by it. It's the little guys.
Charging £18,000 per year. That's 140% higher than state school funding. And higher than average for private schools.
Alton School said in a statement: This proposal is based on a continued decline in pupil numbers, to the extent that the school has now become unviable
oh
Indeed. a 20% price shock on top of a cost of living crisis (the GFC was responsible for 30,000 pupils leaving private education and 30 schools closing), is not good news.
As someone who doesn't have kids and already pays taxes to educate other people's kids, I quite like it when parents reduce the tax burden on me by paying for their own kids.
That was in July 2023 and before the policy became inevitable and immediate and the live consequences of this policy are now coming into sharp focus as reality kicks in and private schools see declining numbers for September term onwards
As I have said before the actual cost in children having to join the state sector and lost teaching jobs will be available in September and I genuinely expect labour to be shocked at the outcome
You think the IFS estimate is completely wrong?
But if children leaving the private sector are properly dispersed, then that means only two or three extra children for each state-sector school. Why is that an extra cost for the system?
And similarly teachers. There is currently a shortage of teachers in the state system, apparently. No problem then... any teacher now in the private sector can work in the state sector instead. No threat of unemployment there.
In the example cited, numbers have fallen from before covid until now. Remind me please.... Precisely when was this proposal of Labour's announced to the public? And if numbers were falling even before then, might not other factors have been at work?
You can't move seamlessly from private to state teacher. You need a couple of years teacher training.
I think. Doubtless ydoethur will correct or confirm
Private schools do not have to hire trained teachers, so some may not have the qualifications to work in the state sector.
In practice I've only ever met one person in the private sector who wasn't a trained teacher (he was actually an accountant).
Moreover, academy chains technically don't require teaching qualifications either (although in the real world, they do).
So there is no 'legal' barrier to moving from one to the other.
It is often difficult to do so because state schools tend to think private school teachers won't cope very well with the large class sizes and poor behaviour in state schools. But - for example - David Drew did it, and so did I.
@Big_G_NorthWales the pension used to be the same, but after contributions were jacked up to a level that would have bankrupted most private schools the majority of them have withdrawn from TPS in the last five years.
The exceptions - again - being the big public schools with their colossal endowments.
It only took 12 years but SKS has decided to pick up the Blue Labour movement that Ed Milliband temporarily tried.
This has to be a pitch to the Sun right?
There's something about SKS that's very insincere: like he knows he has to say all the right things to win, but does he actually believe them?
With Blair, you never had a doubt. With Sir Keir "I am a socialist" Starmer you simply don't know.
I actually think Starmer is more sincere than Blair was. These things are highly relative.
I also think Sunak more sincere than Starmer. It doesn't do him any good. He's probably just as weirdly hard right ideological as he appears to be. He genuinely thinks government is there to make billionaires like him even richer and doesn't understand why people might see that as a problem.
My sincerity list of recent prime ministers, where sincerity sadly doesn't always correlate to whether they are any good.
1. Major 2. May 3. Brown 4. Sunak 5. Cameron 6. Thatcher 7. Blair 8. Truss 9. Johnson
Thatcher too low. You might not have liked what she said, but she was sincere.
Brown way too high. Hard to know whether insincere or deluded, but I'd mark him down anyway.
Agree on Thatcher. Disagree on Brown. The poor guy is one of the most earnest people I've seen. May is too high, Truss is too low.
1 Major/Thatcher/Brown 4 Truss/Blair/Sunak/May 8 Cameron 1,000,000 Johnson
On the original list, just move Thatcher above Sunak and Cammo, and it's there. How Sunak can be considered sincere when he's tried so many positionings since he got the job is a mystery. Like Hague, he's been pushed into insincerity because his party needs a lifeboat strategy for desperate times
Sunak seems quite naturally insincere to me.
Think about his lies about Strava and Parkrun, for instance - they're such trivial things to have lied about, and yet he did it anyway for what appears to have been purely narcissistic reasons. That's Johnson-level behaviour.
What are the Strava lies?
Mind you I’ve had him down as a total narcissist since that little social media campaign he started running about himself when he was Chancellor, which included the creation of a logo.
There’s still this vague sense that he’s technocratically gifted, but all the evidence we have is that he’s smarmy git who’d be better placed on the board of Thames Water.
I think it's a reference to Peleton where he says he starts his day with a 6am spin class with a soundtrack of Britney Spears. I can't for the life of me think why he thought that was a cool claim, but at any rate it turns out to be a lie because Peloton profiles are public, and he's been on it about 5 times in his life, and never at 6am.
The bar for accusing other people of lying is down to near zero, isn’t it? And the implication of the allegation similarly reduced.
Call it whatever you feel more comfortable calling it.
So for you, Guido (that paragon of virtue) discovering that one account hasn’t been used much recently is enough to call him a liar about a pattern of behaviour going back years, which might have just tailed off recently? That’s enough to say our PM is a liar?
Hang on the labour app knows who lives at the address....now I am fucking livid. (feel the same about any app giving info on lives in my house political party or commercial)
To be fair, you are never not livid.
I am often not livid....you don't consider any party political or commercial having info on who lives at an address disconcerting? Where did they get the info for a start?
What exactly do you think the electoral register is for? You can opt out (legally) of the one available to commercial organisations. If you opt out of both, don't be surprised if your credit rating drops.
I don't need a credit rating as I don't borrow money
The credit rating is a good point. It is one of the big measures used and most people want a bank account, credit card and mortgage even if they don't borrow money otherwise.
I have several bank accounts opened in the 80's, I cant afford a mortgage. I don't borrow so dont need a credit card
As we saw in the London Mayoral election, there is a hyper sensitivity to "rumour" and "gossip" put out as tweets. We had some journo on the Thursday evening claiming "a source at CCHQ was very confident Hall had won". No evidence, just speculation and to be fair CCHQ quickly stamped that out.
A lot of it was in my view mischief-making by those opposed to Khan - whether there was an active attmept to manipulate the markets I don't know but of course we had no exit poll as we will have after the GE. 1992 tells us exit polls aren't foolproof but they are a good indication of the direction of travel and the scale of the victory/defeat.
It's also helpful for those playing the Next Conservative Leader market - you might be looking at a different set of runners and riders if 50 MPs survive rather than 100, 150 or 200.
Will the debates move the markets significantly? Recent experience suggests not.
The London market was quite illiquid. The GE will have loads more money piling into it. That should reduce volatility.
Yet again the Brexit referendum vote where the odds went to 14-1.
That is the perfect example of a liquid market with incorrect information driving it
I'm not sure a market with more liquidity reduces volatility - I think it depends on the herd mentality. IF we got an exit poll, as we did in 2017, which suggested something outside the range of many of the immediate pre-election polls, you would see everyone rushing to protect/enhance their positions and that would ramifications through the associated markets.
The first results might not help as they would be in strong Labour areas - remember how the swing in Sunderland South in 1997 was much smaller than the polls were suggesting but within an hour we were seeing an 18% swing in Crosby. Until we get a better idea of who will be declaring and when it'll be difficult to judge the point at which we'll be seeing the wood for the trees.
The new boundaries will create a degree of uncertainty too. I asked a while ago for suggestions of seats which might declare early, have minimal boundary changes and be good pointers to what will follow. I had some good responses too, which I should collate somewhere.
Here's the list of constituencies with unchanged boundaries.
Altrincham and Sale West, Bootle, Bradford West, Bromsgrove, Burton, Cannock Chase, Cheadle, Chesterfield, Coventry North West, Crawley, Derby North, Derby South, East Worthing and Shoreham, Epping Forest, Erewash, Forest of Dean, Gillingham and Rainham, Gosport, Gravesham, Great Yarmouth, Hartlepool, Havant, High Peak, Hove, Hyndburn, Ipswich, Islington North, Lincoln, Macclesfield, New Forest East, New Forest West, North Devon, North Warwickshire, Nuneaton, Oldham East and Saddleworth, Oldham West and Royton, Penistone and Stocksbridge, Portsmouth North, Portsmouth South, Scarborough and Whitby, South Holland and The Deepings, Southampton Itchen, Southampton Test, Spelthorne, St Helens North, Stalybridge and Hyde, Stretford and Urmston, Sunderland Central, Sutton Coldfield, Tooting, Tunbridge Wells, Walthamstow, West Lancashire, West Worcestershire, Wigan, Worcester, Wyre Forest, Wythenshawe and Sale East, Ayr, Carrick and Cumnock, Central Ayrshire, East Renfrewshire, Na h-Eileanan an Iar, Kilmarnock and Loudoun, Midlothian, North Ayrshire and Arran, Orkney and Shetland, West Aberdeenshire and Kincardine, Ynys Môn
Four of them are unchanged but with expanded names. Burton will be Burton & Uttoxeter Hove will be Hove & Portslade North Warwickshire will be North Warwickshire & Bedworth Oldham West & Royton will be Oldham West, Chadderton & Royton
Lots of seats have had very minor boundary changes, like Tamworth.
@DanNeidle The best argument against VAT on private schools is that there’s no VAT on elevated house prices near good state schools.
Oh - on the Telegraph story today. I know the school they cite and their story is full of the purest BS. They were badly hit by a poor Inspection and then lost over £500,000 trying to fight it through the courts. Student numbers were in decline for years and attempts to expand from just being a Prep School back-fired. The people running it were good people and were treated very badly by the Inspectors. However, they announced closure a month ago and did not mention any fears of Lab policies at the time.
The real reason for closure - West Norfolk has very old demographics and most of the rest are rather economically deprived. There just aren't enough potential students out there for the school to be viable whoever wins the GE. Another private school round here closed two years ago for the same reason and another was only rescued by being bought by new China-based owners.
Might be even worse than that
This school is in Norfolk - a local authority subject to the DfE's Safety Valve SEND financial intervention scheme
This agreement requires Norfolk to place 126 fewer children and young people with SEND in the independent sector this year, and ~800 fewer each year by 2029
In which case (and there's a hefty "if" here, but Gillian Keegan has told us that the school has lots of SEND pupils), it could be the current government that put this school out of its financial misery.
Hang on the labour app knows who lives at the address....now I am fucking livid. (feel the same about any app giving info on lives in my house political party or commercial)
To be fair, you are never not livid.
I am often not livid....you don't consider any party political or commercial having info on who lives at an address disconcerting? Where did they get the info for a start?
What exactly do you think the electoral register is for? You can opt out (legally) of the one available to commercial organisations. If you opt out of both, don't be surprised if your credit rating drops.
It should be purely so the Returning Officer knows where to send polling cards, and for polling stations to have a record of who is expected to turn up.
Neither commercial organisations nor politicians should have access to it.
Unworkable. MPs have to be able to confirm that the person seeking their assistance is actually a constituent. I get why people might object to political parties having access but it is rigorously controlled. Also canvassing and the like would be much more annoying if they didn’t have access.
Why should anyone care if it makes canvassing more annoying....most of us people find being canvassed annoying
Many things are annoying, but still useful or beneficial in the grand scheme of things. DBS checks are annoying but rather important for example.
Potentially getting a knock on the door every few years is not a massive inconvenience.
Good on her. Kind of ironic that he’s (Starmer) such a control freak and yet stands for nothing. At a time where this country needs leadership and vision, we have this fool! As a country, what did we do in another life to get this awful choice?
Hang on the labour app knows who lives at the address....now I am fucking livid. (feel the same about any app giving info on lives in my house political party or commercial)
To be fair, you are never not livid.
I am often not livid....you don't consider any party political or commercial having info on who lives at an address disconcerting? Where did they get the info for a start?
What exactly do you think the electoral register is for? You can opt out (legally) of the one available to commercial organisations. If you opt out of both, don't be surprised if your credit rating drops.
It should be purely so the Returning Officer knows where to send polling cards, and for polling stations to have a record of who is expected to turn up.
Neither commercial organisations nor politicians should have access to it.
Unworkable. MPs have to be able to confirm that the person seeking their assistance is actually a constituent. I get why people might object to political parties having access but it is rigorously controlled. Also canvassing and the like would be much more annoying if they didn’t have access.
Why should anyone care if it makes canvassing more annoying....most of us people find being canvassed annoying
Many things are annoying, but still useful or beneficial in the grand scheme of things. DBS checks are annoying but rather important for example.
Potentially getting a knock on the door every few years is not a massive inconvenience.
It is something of no value to me so yes it is an inconveniece to me. Whether or not it massive is a subjective issue frankly. I prefer people not to knock on my door unless I specifically invited them and I find it a massive incovenience to have to go tell them to fuck off.
I don't understand how this is the 'big idea' and yet he wanted to debate Starmer 6 times.
Clearly Labour do have plans, and plenty of them are pretty detailed. Is he really going to sit and listen to Starmer talking about what Labour plan to do for an hour, and then sum up with "see, no plans!"?
I don't understand how this is the 'big idea' and yet he wanted to debate Starmer 6 times.
Clearly Labour do have plans, and plenty of them are pretty detailed. Is he really going to sit and listen to Starmer talking about what Labour plan to do for an hour, and then sum up with "see, no plans!"?
He simultaneously says Labour would take us back to square one and destroy the economy but also that they have no plans.
Fresh Direct, which is New York’s (inferior) answer to Ocado, texted me yesterday with “LGBTQ+ deals”.
I remarked to my wife that I couldn’t wait to get my hands on some gay bacon.
Fruitcake alert!
Their products rather than you GW
Who's complaining, if it's cheaper? Though I suppose some gammons might moan about cutprice gammon.
No, no, not cutprice gammon! I've met his brother!
PS: It's so dispiriting that someone chose to flag my post. I presume because they thought it was wrong in some way. Just post your criticism or PM me.
I dunno, maybe you using a homophobic slur in a conversation about pride month is what cause it?
Anything approaching a slur or insult was very far from my intent. I'm torn two ways here - I want to completely hear what you're saying, but I also want to be very clear that you and it seem at least one other are being wildly oversensitive and causing real harm to the people that you want to defend.
Ok, but you're whinnying like a horse with a cracked hoof over someone clicking "flag" on your post. Don't worry about it. You said something wrong, you had a conversation about it, it's over. You'll be ok.
Horses don't whinny about cracked hooves because 1. Cracked hooves are not painful any more than broken fingernails are and 2. Whinnying is for telling other horses in ones own herd I am here. Not an expression of pain.
The "slur" was a joke, and funny, and not homophobic at all
I campaigned for gay rights in the 1970s and 80s when that took a tiny bit of courage. This lgbtqxyz shit is a sort of cargo cult tribute to those protests and just makes no sense, because of the immense threat to normal gay people from transthusiasts who want to perform surgery on boys who are straightforwardly gay and creepy men who want to identify as lesbian women, and a lot of other things
I don't know your age and therefore whether you are reliving your own or your parents' past glories.but like I said you are a cargo cultist. It's unfair that the boomers got the clear cut moral issues I agree but who said life was fair?
Hang on the labour app knows who lives at the address....now I am fucking livid. (feel the same about any app giving info on lives in my house political party or commercial)
To be fair, you are never not livid.
I am often not livid....you don't consider any party political or commercial having info on who lives at an address disconcerting? Where did they get the info for a start?
What exactly do you think the electoral register is for? You can opt out (legally) of the one available to commercial organisations. If you opt out of both, don't be surprised if your credit rating drops.
It should be purely so the Returning Officer knows where to send polling cards, and for polling stations to have a record of who is expected to turn up.
Neither commercial organisations nor politicians should have access to it.
Unworkable. MPs have to be able to confirm that the person seeking their assistance is actually a constituent. I get why people might object to political parties having access but it is rigorously controlled. Also canvassing and the like would be much more annoying if they didn’t have access.
Why should anyone care if it makes canvassing more annoying....most of us people find being canvassed annoying
Many things are annoying, but still useful or beneficial in the grand scheme of things. DBS checks are annoying but rather important for example.
Potentially getting a knock on the door every few years is not a massive inconvenience.
It is something of no value to me so yes it is an inconveniece to me. Whether or not it massive is a subjective issue frankly. I prefer people not to knock on my door unless I specifically invited them and I find it a massive incovenience to have to go tell them to fuck off.
Each to their own, but I feel being in a participatory democracy comes with some reasonable expectations on the public as well as political parties. The very rare possibility of being canvassed (most people are never canvassed) is one of them.
You've got your own way around that which is to not be on the register, in which case there's nothing to really be mad about.
I don't understand how this is the 'big idea' and yet he wanted to debate Starmer 6 times.
Clearly Labour do have plans, and plenty of them are pretty detailed. Is he really going to sit and listen to Starmer talking about what Labour plan to do for an hour, and then sum up with "see, no plans!"?
He simultaneously says Labour would take us back to square one and destroy the economy but also that they have no plans.
Labour do have no plans that will actually fix things, neither to be fair do the tories or lib dems. Doesn't matter which gets in the economy will still get worse
Just back in. While on my way out I saw a Labour canvasser. This is, to my knowledge, the first sign of any any Labour electoral activity beyond paper candidates and the odd leaflet in the Romford Constituency since I moved here in 2002. (Even in the recent GLA election, we had a single leaflet from the GLA constituency candidate and nothing from Khan at all).
Also while I was out I noticed that Rozzer hasn't put his billboards out in the usual spots yet; normally he gets all his supporters to do that the first weekend after the election is called.
Labour need just short of a 20% swing to win in Romford.
It certainly smells odd. Something is not happy on the good ship Romford Conservatives. Four of their councillors in Romford have defected, and two of the three in my patch appear to have been unpersoned, going by recent leaflets.
Set against that, it's a huge majority (though Reform standing will presumably take a bite out of that), and outermost London seems to be where the Conservative message still appeals.
I miss Buster the Staffie and his Union Jack waistcoat. He was the brains of the operation.
I don't understand how this is the 'big idea' and yet he wanted to debate Starmer 6 times.
Clearly Labour do have plans, and plenty of them are pretty detailed. Is he really going to sit and listen to Starmer talking about what Labour plan to do for an hour, and then sum up with "see, no plans!"?
It is pretty common for political parties to accuse an opponent of having no plan even when they do, whilst simultaneously claiming they plan they do have (which they said they did not) is bad.
So I can easily believe it is the intention, but it is another of those tactics which doesn't really work if people do not trust you.
Hang on the labour app knows who lives at the address....now I am fucking livid. (feel the same about any app giving info on lives in my house political party or commercial)
To be fair, you are never not livid.
I am often not livid....you don't consider any party political or commercial having info on who lives at an address disconcerting? Where did they get the info for a start?
What exactly do you think the electoral register is for? You can opt out (legally) of the one available to commercial organisations. If you opt out of both, don't be surprised if your credit rating drops.
I don't need a credit rating as I don't borrow money
The credit rating is a good point. It is one of the big measures used and most people want a bank account, credit card and mortgage even if they don't borrow money otherwise.
I have several bank accounts opened in the 80's, I cant afford a mortgage. I don't borrow so dont need a credit card
But you aren't the norm Pagan. I have opened and closed umpteen bank accounts since the 80s. I have gone through dozens of credit cards since then and I don't borrow either (except for mortgages and exploiting 0% credit cards) and a significant number of people do have mortgages. I have had several mortgages in that time.
This is normal stuff, but I respect you don't do it.
Just back in. While on my way out I saw a Labour canvasser. This is, to my knowledge, the first sign of any any Labour electoral activity beyond paper candidates and the odd leaflet in the Romford Constituency since I moved here in 2002. (Even in the recent GLA election, we had a single leaflet from the GLA constituency candidate and nothing from Khan at all).
Also while I was out I noticed that Rozzer hasn't put his billboards out in the usual spots yet; normally he gets all his supporters to do that the first weekend after the election is called.
Labour need just short of a 20% swing to win in Romford.
They famously won it in 1997 by around 600 votes. The demographics will be more favourable now.
Worse than cringey. Actually disappointing. When people - especially those glued to social media - see the word “explainer” they’ve been conditioned to expect a detailed explanation or takedown of a position or event.
I can imagine tiktokers seeing that and thinking “oh, is that all we’re getting?”.
You have to abide by conventions, and that - on TikTok - is not abiding by convention.
It only took 12 years but SKS has decided to pick up the Blue Labour movement that Ed Milliband temporarily tried.
This has to be a pitch to the Sun right?
There's something about SKS that's very insincere: like he knows he has to say all the right things to win, but does he actually believe them?
With Blair, you never had a doubt. With Sir Keir "I am a socialist" Starmer you simply don't know.
I actually think Starmer is more sincere than Blair was. These things are highly relative.
I also think Sunak more sincere than Starmer. It doesn't do him any good. He's probably just as weirdly hard right ideological as he appears to be. He genuinely thinks government is there to make billionaires like him even richer and doesn't understand why people might see that as a problem.
My sincerity list of recent prime ministers, where sincerity sadly doesn't always correlate to whether they are any good.
1. Major 2. May 3. Brown 4. Sunak 5. Cameron 6. Thatcher 7. Blair 8. Truss 9. Johnson
Thatcher too low. You might not have liked what she said, but she was sincere.
Brown way too high. Hard to know whether insincere or deluded, but I'd mark him down anyway.
Agree on Thatcher. Disagree on Brown. The poor guy is one of the most earnest people I've seen. May is too high, Truss is too low.
1 Major/Thatcher/Brown 4 Truss/Blair/Sunak/May 8 Cameron 1,000,000 Johnson
On the original list, just move Thatcher above Sunak and Cammo, and it's there. How Sunak can be considered sincere when he's tried so many positionings since he got the job is a mystery. Like Hague, he's been pushed into insincerity because his party needs a lifeboat strategy for desperate times
Sunak seems quite naturally insincere to me.
Think about his lies about Strava and Parkrun, for instance - they're such trivial things to have lied about, and yet he did it anyway for what appears to have been purely narcissistic reasons. That's Johnson-level behaviour.
What are the Strava lies?
Mind you I’ve had him down as a total narcissist since that little social media campaign he started running about himself when he was Chancellor, which included the creation of a logo.
There’s still this vague sense that he’s technocratically gifted, but all the evidence we have is that he’s smarmy git who’d be better placed on the board of Thames Water.
I think it's a reference to Peleton where he says he starts his day with a 6am spin class with a soundtrack of Britney Spears. I can't for the life of me think why he thought that was a cool claim, but at any rate it turns out to be a lie because Peloton profiles are public, and he's been on it about 5 times in his life, and never at 6am.
The bar for accusing other people of lying is down to near zero, isn’t it? And the implication of the allegation similarly reduced.
The triviality of his lies is the point. Why bother? What could he have hoped to gain by it?
Hang on the labour app knows who lives at the address....now I am fucking livid. (feel the same about any app giving info on lives in my house political party or commercial)
To be fair, you are never not livid.
I am often not livid....you don't consider any party political or commercial having info on who lives at an address disconcerting? Where did they get the info for a start?
What exactly do you think the electoral register is for? You can opt out (legally) of the one available to commercial organisations. If you opt out of both, don't be surprised if your credit rating drops.
It should be purely so the Returning Officer knows where to send polling cards, and for polling stations to have a record of who is expected to turn up.
Neither commercial organisations nor politicians should have access to it.
Unworkable. MPs have to be able to confirm that the person seeking their assistance is actually a constituent. I get why people might object to political parties having access but it is rigorously controlled. Also canvassing and the like would be much more annoying if they didn’t have access.
Why should anyone care if it makes canvassing more annoying....most of us people find being canvassed annoying
Many things are annoying, but still useful or beneficial in the grand scheme of things. DBS checks are annoying but rather important for example.
Potentially getting a knock on the door every few years is not a massive inconvenience.
It is something of no value to me so yes it is an inconveniece to me. Whether or not it massive is a subjective issue frankly. I prefer people not to knock on my door unless I specifically invited them and I find it a massive incovenience to have to go tell them to fuck off.
Each to their own, but I feel being in a participatory democracy comes with some reasonable expectations on the public as well as political parties. The very rare possibility of being canvassed (most people are never canvassed) is one of them.
You've got your own way around that which is to not be on the register, in which case there's nothing to really be mad about.
Because I am of the view representative democracy no long works. It worked in the 18th century where communication took days or weeks and when the world was a much less complicated place. When a person could have a reasonable grasp of both science and geopolitics.
Nowadays the world is much more complex and our representatives end up creating laws on subjects they are clueless about such as the internet which I have highlighted because it is an area I know and they are so obviously clueless about what they are doing. I suspect there are many other area's where frankly they should not be let near like bioscience.
Representative democracy is past its sell by date and we need to rethink how we are governed and I refuse any longer to give it any whiff of legitimacy by participating
Hang on the labour app knows who lives at the address....now I am fucking livid. (feel the same about any app giving info on lives in my house political party or commercial)
To be fair, you are never not livid.
I am often not livid....you don't consider any party political or commercial having info on who lives at an address disconcerting? Where did they get the info for a start?
What exactly do you think the electoral register is for? You can opt out (legally) of the one available to commercial organisations. If you opt out of both, don't be surprised if your credit rating drops.
It should be purely so the Returning Officer knows where to send polling cards, and for polling stations to have a record of who is expected to turn up.
Neither commercial organisations nor politicians should have access to it.
Unworkable. MPs have to be able to confirm that the person seeking their assistance is actually a constituent. I get why people might object to political parties having access but it is rigorously controlled. Also canvassing and the like would be much more annoying if they didn’t have access.
Why should anyone care if it makes canvassing more annoying....most of us people find being canvassed annoying
Many things are annoying, but still useful or beneficial in the grand scheme of things. DBS checks are annoying but rather important for example.
Potentially getting a knock on the door every few years is not a massive inconvenience.
It is something of no value to me so yes it is an inconveniece to me. Whether or not it massive is a subjective issue frankly. I prefer people not to knock on my door unless I specifically invited them and I find it a massive incovenience to have to go tell them to fuck off.
Each to their own, but I feel being in a participatory democracy comes with some reasonable expectations on the public as well as political parties. The very rare possibility of being canvassed (most people are never canvassed) is one of them.
You've got your own way around that which is to not be on the register, in which case there's nothing to really be mad about.
Because I am of the view representative democracy no long works. It worked in the 18th century where communication took days or weeks and when the world was a much less complicated place. When a person could have a reasonable grasp of both science and geopolitics.
Nowadays the world is much more complex and our representatives end up creating laws on subjects they are clueless about such as the internet which I have highlighted because it is an area I know and they are so obviously clueless about what they are doing. I suspect there are many other area's where frankly they should not be let near like bioscience.
Representative democracy is past its sell by date and we need to rethink how we are governed and I refuse any longer to give it any whiff of legitimacy by participating
Slight problem with that is Representative democracy may not be the best possible system, it is however the best one we have....
One enormous problem facing the Tories is not just that only 8% of 18-24-year-old Brits plan to vote for them. It's that every single Gen-Z conservative I meet genuinely wants the Tory party to be destroyed."
I don't understand how this is the 'big idea' and yet he wanted to debate Starmer 6 times.
Clearly Labour do have plans, and plenty of them are pretty detailed. Is he really going to sit and listen to Starmer talking about what Labour plan to do for an hour, and then sum up with "see, no plans!"?
It is pretty common for political parties to accuse an opponent of having no plan even when they do, whilst simultaneously claiming they plan they do have (which they said they did not) is bad.
So I can easily believe it is the intention, but it is another of those tactics which doesn't really work if people do not trust you.
You should have kept them, back then no know your customer rules and mine got just grandfathered in I guess
Continuing from my musing earlier I think now - or at least in the next week or two - is the time for opposition parties to switch to a sunny optimistic vision for the future. My experience since returning to Britain earlier is that this is the vibe. Deptford earlier: everyone smiling, drinking, chatting. All social classes, all ethnic groups (well to be fair Deptford is slightly unusual - very lacking in South Asian or Middle Eastern communities, but loads of African, Caribbean, Vietnamese, Chinese, French and Germans).
Easy for Labour to do this. The Lib Dems already are. Harder I would guess for the SNP and Plaid but they should try.
I don't understand how this is the 'big idea' and yet he wanted to debate Starmer 6 times.
Clearly Labour do have plans, and plenty of them are pretty detailed. Is he really going to sit and listen to Starmer talking about what Labour plan to do for an hour, and then sum up with "see, no plans!"?
Interesting article on Sue Gray, who it seems will be running the country after July 4. Including this titbit suggesting Labour has plenty of plans, even if they're not revealing the details yet:
Work has started on about 20 bills, some in significantly more detail than others. Access talks with civil servants are in their second round.
Hang on the labour app knows who lives at the address....now I am fucking livid. (feel the same about any app giving info on lives in my house political party or commercial)
To be fair, you are never not livid.
I am often not livid....you don't consider any party political or commercial having info on who lives at an address disconcerting? Where did they get the info for a start?
What exactly do you think the electoral register is for? You can opt out (legally) of the one available to commercial organisations. If you opt out of both, don't be surprised if your credit rating drops.
It should be purely so the Returning Officer knows where to send polling cards, and for polling stations to have a record of who is expected to turn up.
Neither commercial organisations nor politicians should have access to it.
Unworkable. MPs have to be able to confirm that the person seeking their assistance is actually a constituent. I get why people might object to political parties having access but it is rigorously controlled. Also canvassing and the like would be much more annoying if they didn’t have access.
Why should anyone care if it makes canvassing more annoying....most of us people find being canvassed annoying
Many things are annoying, but still useful or beneficial in the grand scheme of things. DBS checks are annoying but rather important for example.
Potentially getting a knock on the door every few years is not a massive inconvenience.
It is something of no value to me so yes it is an inconveniece to me. Whether or not it massive is a subjective issue frankly. I prefer people not to knock on my door unless I specifically invited them and I find it a massive incovenience to have to go tell them to fuck off.
Each to their own, but I feel being in a participatory democracy comes with some reasonable expectations on the public as well as political parties. The very rare possibility of being canvassed (most people are never canvassed) is one of them.
You've got your own way around that which is to not be on the register, in which case there's nothing to really be mad about.
Because I am of the view representative democracy no long works. It worked in the 18th century where communication took days or weeks and when the world was a much less complicated place. When a person could have a reasonable grasp of both science and geopolitics.
Nowadays the world is much more complex and our representatives end up creating laws on subjects they are clueless about such as the internet which I have highlighted because it is an area I know and they are so obviously clueless about what they are doing. I suspect there are many other area's where frankly they should not be let near like bioscience.
Representative democracy is past its sell by date and we need to rethink how we are governed and I refuse any longer to give it any whiff of legitimacy by participating
Slight problem with that is Representative democracy may not be the best possible system, it is however the best one we have....
I am sure people made the same argument about absolute monarchy. Simple fact is less and less people as is shown in poll samplings have faith in politicians, or our legal system
One enormous problem facing the Tories is not just that only 8% of 18-24-year-old Brits plan to vote for them. It's that every single Gen-Z conservative I meet genuinely wants the Tory party to be destroyed."
I thought Goodwin was the kind of person whose definition of a conservative excluded Sunak, May, Cameron and possibly Johnson if it weren't for Brexitty vibes.
Hang on the labour app knows who lives at the address....now I am fucking livid. (feel the same about any app giving info on lives in my house political party or commercial)
All parties will have that ability, it’s basically the electoral roll information in usable format. The only way to avoid it is for your entire household to sacrifice their ability to vote.
Why would you see it as a sacrifice there is no one worth voting for
But next time there might be. Or a great independent at a local election or PCC race.
In which case I will register......I am not holding out much hope however....I might register to vote for the mlrp but not going to vote ld,con,lab,green,reform etc. When a serious party with a plan emerges I will reconsider
Legally, and in theory, it is a requirement that you register.
Hang on the labour app knows who lives at the address....now I am fucking livid. (feel the same about any app giving info on lives in my house political party or commercial)
All parties will have that ability, it’s basically the electoral roll information in usable format. The only way to avoid it is for your entire household to sacrifice their ability to vote.
Why would you see it as a sacrifice there is no one worth voting for
But next time there might be. Or a great independent at a local election or PCC race.
In which case I will register......I am not holding out much hope however....I might register to vote for the mlrp but not going to vote ld,con,lab,green,reform etc. When a serious party with a plan emerges I will reconsider
Legally, and in theory, it is a requirement that you register.
I don't understand how this is the 'big idea' and yet he wanted to debate Starmer 6 times.
Clearly Labour do have plans, and plenty of them are pretty detailed. Is he really going to sit and listen to Starmer talking about what Labour plan to do for an hour, and then sum up with "see, no plans!"?
It is pretty common for political parties to accuse an opponent of having no plan even when they do, whilst simultaneously claiming they plan they do have (which they said they did not) is bad.
So I can easily believe it is the intention, but it is another of those tactics which doesn't really work if people do not trust you.
It's the fact that they've gone so big on it during an election campaign.
Outside of an election, it's easy to say "you haven't got a plan", and accuse your opponent of sniping from the side lines, because of course they won't really get time to articulate what they'd do instead.
During a campaign, when interviewers will be desperate to interrogate Labour on their plans, and where Sunak will have to sit and watch while Starmer is given time to explain his plans, just seems a bit silly.
Continuing from my musing earlier I think now - or at least in the next week or two - is the time for opposition parties to switch to a sunny optimistic vision for the future. My experience since returning to Britain earlier is that this is the vibe. Deptford earlier: everyone smiling, drinking, chatting. All social classes, all ethnic groups (well to be fair Deptford is slightly unusual - very lacking in South Asian or Middle Eastern communities, but loads of African, Caribbean, Vietnamese, Chinese, French and Germans).
Easy for Labour to do this. The Lib Dems already are. Harder I would guess for the SNP and Plaid but they should try.
It is never difficult to distinguish between a ScotNat with a grievance and a ray of sunshine...
It only took 12 years but SKS has decided to pick up the Blue Labour movement that Ed Milliband temporarily tried.
This has to be a pitch to the Sun right?
There's something about SKS that's very insincere: like he knows he has to say all the right things to win, but does he actually believe them?
With Blair, you never had a doubt. With Sir Keir "I am a socialist" Starmer you simply don't know.
I actually think Starmer is more sincere than Blair was. These things are highly relative.
I also think Sunak more sincere than Starmer. It doesn't do him any good. He's probably just as weirdly hard right ideological as he appears to be. He genuinely thinks government is there to make billionaires like him even richer and doesn't understand why people might see that as a problem.
My sincerity list of recent prime ministers, where sincerity sadly doesn't always correlate to whether they are any good.
1. Major 2. May 3. Brown 4. Sunak 5. Cameron 6. Thatcher 7. Blair 8. Truss 9. Johnson
Thatcher too low. You might not have liked what she said, but she was sincere.
Brown way too high. Hard to know whether insincere or deluded, but I'd mark him down anyway.
Agree on Thatcher. Disagree on Brown. The poor guy is one of the most earnest people I've seen. May is too high, Truss is too low.
1 Major/Thatcher/Brown 4 Truss/Blair/Sunak/May 8 Cameron 1,000,000 Johnson
On the original list, just move Thatcher above Sunak and Cammo, and it's there. How Sunak can be considered sincere when he's tried so many positionings since he got the job is a mystery. Like Hague, he's been pushed into insincerity because his party needs a lifeboat strategy for desperate times
Sunak seems quite naturally insincere to me.
Think about his lies about Strava and Parkrun, for instance - they're such trivial things to have lied about, and yet he did it anyway for what appears to have been purely narcissistic reasons. That's Johnson-level behaviour.
What are the Strava lies?
Mind you I’ve had him down as a total narcissist since that little social media campaign he started running about himself when he was Chancellor, which included the creation of a logo.
There’s still this vague sense that he’s technocratically gifted, but all the evidence we have is that he’s smarmy git who’d be better placed on the board of Thames Water.
I think it's a reference to Peleton where he says he starts his day with a 6am spin class with a soundtrack of Britney Spears. I can't for the life of me think why he thought that was a cool claim, but at any rate it turns out to be a lie because Peloton profiles are public, and he's been on it about 5 times in his life, and never at 6am.
The bar for accusing other people of lying is down to near zero, isn’t it? And the implication of the allegation similarly reduced.
The triviality of his lies is the point. Why bother? What could he have hoped to gain by it?
It only took 12 years but SKS has decided to pick up the Blue Labour movement that Ed Milliband temporarily tried.
This has to be a pitch to the Sun right?
There's something about SKS that's very insincere: like he knows he has to say all the right things to win, but does he actually believe them?
With Blair, you never had a doubt. With Sir Keir "I am a socialist" Starmer you simply don't know.
I actually think Starmer is more sincere than Blair was. These things are highly relative.
I also think Sunak more sincere than Starmer. It doesn't do him any good. He's probably just as weirdly hard right ideological as he appears to be. He genuinely thinks government is there to make billionaires like him even richer and doesn't understand why people might see that as a problem.
My sincerity list of recent prime ministers, where sincerity sadly doesn't always correlate to whether they are any good.
1. Major 2. May 3. Brown 4. Sunak 5. Cameron 6. Thatcher 7. Blair 8. Truss 9. Johnson
Thatcher too low. You might not have liked what she said, but she was sincere.
Brown way too high. Hard to know whether insincere or deluded, but I'd mark him down anyway.
Agree on Thatcher. Disagree on Brown. The poor guy is one of the most earnest people I've seen. May is too high, Truss is too low.
1 Major/Thatcher/Brown 4 Truss/Blair/Sunak/May 8 Cameron 1,000,000 Johnson
I think May generally tried to do the right thing. The big blot on her copybook was the hostile immigration policy mainly before she became prime minister. She did try to row back a bit on it later.
The question with Truss is whether she is sincerely bonkers, or whether it is to some extent an act, playing to the gallery to her perceived advantage. Johnson is in a category of insincerity of his own, so I just had to decide whether Truss or Blair was more insincere. I am OK with putting Truss below Blair.
I think Truss is sincere; bonkers. totally bonkers, but sincere.
Believe I have encountered her type before in real life: sincere about believing in anything (most of which they do NOT truly understand) PROVIDED they also believe that it will advance their very personal ambitions and prospects.
I don't understand how this is the 'big idea' and yet he wanted to debate Starmer 6 times.
Clearly Labour do have plans, and plenty of them are pretty detailed. Is he really going to sit and listen to Starmer talking about what Labour plan to do for an hour, and then sum up with "see, no plans!"?
He simultaneously says Labour would take us back to square one and destroy the economy but also that they have no plans.
Labour do have no plans that will actually fix things, neither to be fair do the tories or lib dems. Doesn't matter which gets in the economy will still get worse
Pretty much what I am hearing on the doorstep. There is a real anti-politics mood out there.
(Apart from those voters who love our candidate, natch....)
It's from the Spectator, so a small health warning applies, but the private school policy is definitely cutting through in some of the more affluent constituencies, and not in a good way for Labour:
The Tontine is one of my local pubs, on the east bank of the Severn, by the Iron Bridge. Ten mins walk from where I am sitting. I assume the Tontine was something to do with the bridge.
I don't understand how this is the 'big idea' and yet he wanted to debate Starmer 6 times.
Clearly Labour do have plans, and plenty of them are pretty detailed. Is he really going to sit and listen to Starmer talking about what Labour plan to do for an hour, and then sum up with "see, no plans!"?
He simultaneously says Labour would take us back to square one and destroy the economy but also that they have no plans.
Labour do have no plans that will actually fix things, neither to be fair do the tories or lib dems. Doesn't matter which gets in the economy will still get worse
Pretty much what I am hearing on the doorstep. There is a real anti-politics mood out there.
(Apart from those voters who love our candidate, natch....)
Which I made the point about earlier....politicians are held in slim regard as is our legal system these days whether enforcement (the police) or dealing with it (the judiciary etc)
Hang on the labour app knows who lives at the address....now I am fucking livid. (feel the same about any app giving info on lives in my house political party or commercial)
You should move to Indiana (if you can cope with the wind and rain cutting through you).
Why indiana?
Why indeed? As a former resident of Indiana, can testify that the great Hoosier State is no more windy and far less rainy that England.
The Tontine is one of my local pubs, on the east bank of the Severn, by the Iron Bridge. Ten mins walk from where I am sitting. I assume the Tontine was something to do with the bridge.
Wasn't a tontine an agreement where the last man standing got the payout, common among soldiers in the 19th century where they all chipped in?
Hang on the labour app knows who lives at the address....now I am fucking livid. (feel the same about any app giving info on lives in my house political party or commercial)
You should move to Indiana (if you can cope with the wind and rain cutting through you).
Why indiana?
Why indeed? As a former resident of Indiana, can testify that the great Hoosier State is no more windy and far less rainy that England.
If I were to move to the states it wouldnt be indiana but thats mainly as I have good friends in idaho, minnesota, florida and louisiana
It's from the Spectator, so a small health warning applies, but the private school policy is definitely cutting through in some of the more affluent constituencies, and not in a good way for Labour:
Doesn't sound like a classic winnable swing voter...
The Tontine is one of my local pubs, on the east bank of the Severn, by the Iron Bridge. Ten mins walk from where I am sitting. I assume the Tontine was something to do with the bridge.
Wasn't a tontine an agreement where the last man standing got the payout, common among soldiers in the 19th century where they all chipped in?
Fresh Direct, which is New York’s (inferior) answer to Ocado, texted me yesterday with “LGBTQ+ deals”.
I remarked to my wife that I couldn’t wait to get my hands on some gay bacon.
Sausage on the other hand.....
Oi, behave! 😀
I've seen there's been a pride spat on here, so a couple of general observations from a gay:
1. We know that a lot of businesses use it as one more excuse for marketing nowadays, but it's not as if it is hurting anyone - nobody is pinning reluctant members of the public to the ground and hitting them until they agree to hang multi-coloured flags from their windows - and it's a quantum leap forward from the queers being slung in prison or stoned to death. So perhaps if you don't like it, whether it's because of the ubiquity, or suggestions of pride washing, or because you don't like us, perhaps you could just try ignoring it? There are worse problems in life than occasional exposure to nuisance rainbows.
2. Someone asked what the plus at the end of the various alphabet soup acronyms was meant to denote. The answer is, essentially, all the various little groups that don't get a letter and might otherwise feel left out. Again, there are worse things in life than trying to be inclusive, though FWIW a non-negligible percentage of the gays (and I'm one of them) think that LGBTQIA2S+ is rather like BAME - a term so broad as to be almost meaningless - and wonder why the latter term has been cancelled whilst the former is still in use. But if you start to pick apart the alphabet soup then, sooner rather than later, a fresh slanging match over trans starts, and we could do without another one of those.
In short, there are certain things about pride that irritate a lot of us, but there's no need to have a scrap over them. Not all, but many, of these kinds of culture wars arguments can be neutralised by an agreement just to let it drop. Live and let live.
The Tontine is one of my local pubs, on the east bank of the Severn, by the Iron Bridge. Ten mins walk from where I am sitting. I assume the Tontine was something to do with the bridge.
Wasn't a tontine an agreement where the last man standing got the payout, common among soldiers in the 19th century where they all chipped in?
One enormous problem facing the Tories is not just that only 8% of 18-24-year-old Brits plan to vote for them. It's that every single Gen-Z conservative I meet genuinely wants the Tory party to be destroyed."
One enormous problem facing the Tories is not just that only 8% of 18-24-year-old Brits plan to vote for them. It's that every single Gen-Z conservative I meet genuinely wants the Tory party to be destroyed."
I thought Goodwin was the kind of person whose definition of a conservative excluded Sunak, May, Cameron and possibly Johnson if it weren't for Brexitty vibes.
“Every spotty incel I know with slightly unsavoury views on race is cosplaying fash at the moment”.
Or in other words “the real problem isn’t that the Tories are too right wing, it’s that they’re not right wing enough”.
@DanNeidle The best argument against VAT on private schools is that there’s no VAT on elevated house prices near good state schools.
Oh - on the Telegraph story today. I know the school they cite and their story is full of the purest BS. They were badly hit by a poor Inspection and then lost over £500,000 trying to fight it through the courts. Student numbers were in decline for years and attempts to expand from just being a Prep School back-fired. The people running it were good people and were treated very badly by the Inspectors. However, they announced closure a month ago and did not mention any fears of Lab policies at the time.
The real reason for closure - West Norfolk has very old demographics and most of the rest are rather economically deprived. There just aren't enough potential students out there for the school to be viable whoever wins the GE. Another private school round here closed two years ago for the same reason and another was only rescued by being bought by new China-based owners.
Might be even worse than that
This school is in Norfolk - a local authority subject to the DfE's Safety Valve SEND financial intervention scheme
This agreement requires Norfolk to place 126 fewer children and young people with SEND in the independent sector this year, and ~800 fewer each year by 2029
In which case (and there's a hefty "if" here, but Gillian Keegan has told us that the school has lots of SEND pupils), it could be the current government that put this school out of its financial misery.
Basically a 2-3 year SEND funding breathing space for financially strapped local authorities, which had the side effect of a temporary increase in independent school numbers.
Of course the financial squeeze on LAs is budgeted to tighten in the next few years, at the same time as the scheme winds down.
I don't doubt the truth of Casino's line that Labour's VAT on school fees policy has had an effect on independent schools - but it certainly hadn't the only worsening pressure on them.
And of course state education is facing similar problems..
I don't understand how this is the 'big idea' and yet he wanted to debate Starmer 6 times.
Clearly Labour do have plans, and plenty of them are pretty detailed. Is he really going to sit and listen to Starmer talking about what Labour plan to do for an hour, and then sum up with "see, no plans!"?
He simultaneously says Labour would take us back to square one and destroy the economy but also that they have no plans.
Labour do have no plans that will actually fix things, neither to be fair do the tories or lib dems. Doesn't matter which gets in the economy will still get worse
Pretty much what I am hearing on the doorstep. There is a real anti-politics mood out there.
(Apart from those voters who love our candidate, natch....)
Which I made the point about earlier....politicians are held in slim regard as is our legal system these days whether enforcement (the police) or dealing with it (the judiciary etc)
There is real skepticism about Labour. Nobody I have spoken to thinks Labour can hold the line on not increasing taxes/NI whilst improving services.
Nobody.
I had a guy today saying he was moving away from Labour for this very reason. He thought Labour were taking the piss.
(I also had a life-long LibDem today say she couldn't support them now. People feel they are not getting truthful responses from politicians across the board, not just from the Tories. Hard to see turnout breaking any records.)
As I listen to a bit of Fleetwood Mac during my customary Sunday dinner cooking session (one of few me times in the week unless someone comes down and turns on antiques roadshow), I reflect that there really aren’t many good campaign songs on British elections.
The Americans do them for every presidential election, particularly the Dems. We have, accidentally, a bit of D:Ream. Who apparently have vetoed use of their song by Labour this year. What others are there, if any?
There must be an Olivia Rodrigo track someone could adopt.
@DanNeidle The best argument against VAT on private schools is that there’s no VAT on elevated house prices near good state schools.
University attendance is weighted toward the higher incomes so we should have vat on uni fees if the reason is that we should stop people buying connections. The further down the deciles you go the less likely kids are to goto uni.....seems the same to me
No, no you've got this all wrong. Limit university education to the top 5% and make it free of charge, that is the current iteration of the Conservative Party's wet dream.
I don't understand how this is the 'big idea' and yet he wanted to debate Starmer 6 times.
Clearly Labour do have plans, and plenty of them are pretty detailed. Is he really going to sit and listen to Starmer talking about what Labour plan to do for an hour, and then sum up with "see, no plans!"?
He simultaneously says Labour would take us back to square one and destroy the economy but also that they have no plans.
Labour do have no plans that will actually fix things, neither to be fair do the tories or lib dems. Doesn't matter which gets in the economy will still get worse
Pretty much what I am hearing on the doorstep. There is a real anti-politics mood out there.
(Apart from those voters who love our candidate, natch....)
Which I made the point about earlier....politicians are held in slim regard as is our legal system these days whether enforcement (the police) or dealing with it (the judiciary etc)
There is real skepticism about Labour. Nobody I have spoken to thinks Labour can hold the line on not increasing taxes/NI whilst improving services.
Nobody.
I had a guy today saying he was moving away from Labour for this very reason. He thought Labour were taking the piss.
(I also had a life-long LibDem today say she couldn't support them now. People feel they are not getting truthful responses from politicians across the board, not just from the Tories. Hard to see turnout breaking any records.)
...keep plugging away if it makes you feel better..
That's nonsense. I wasn't born in the early 18th or 19th centuries, to start with.
Well you aren't americans and lets face it they like country and western music so their musical taste is already in doubt
Some country & eastern U.S. actually pretty good. I don't blanket judge music genres - even rap can be good.
Yes, some country is brilliant. It’s a folk genre. Folk music has the downside of often being formulaic but that’s why it’s so exciting when someone mixes it up.
As I listen to a bit of Fleetwood Mac during my customary Sunday dinner cooking session (one of few me times in the week unless someone comes down and turns on antiques roadshow), I reflect that there really aren’t many good campaign songs on British elections.
The Americans do them for every presidential election, particularly the Dems. We have, accidentally, a bit of D:Ream. Who apparently have vetoed use of their song by Labour this year. What others are there, if any?
There must be an Olivia Rodrigo track someone could adopt.
It's from the Spectator, so a small health warning applies, but the private school policy is definitely cutting through in some of the more affluent constituencies, and not in a good way for Labour:
I'm sure Labour will lose votes because of VAT on private school fees. But it won't be nearly as vote losing as, say, Brexit was for the Tories. But it neither stopped the Tories from that policy nor has it prevented them from being re-elected. Until now.
Comments
Also while I was out I noticed that Rozzer hasn't put his billboards out in the usual spots yet; normally he gets all his supporters to do that the first weekend after the election is called.
Labour need just short of a 20% swing to win in Romford.
If you opt out of both, don't be surprised if your credit rating drops.
Any critique of it rapidly descends into accusations of homophobia, so the discussion doesn't go anywhere.
I've never heard of any abuse of the register. In the old days anyone could get hold of it for a minimal fee.
Neither commercial organisations nor politicians should have access to it.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tontine
Savers - a huge benefit to them is to have some sort of an interest rate.
Businesses - money needs to come at a cost - recently its not had a base cost. Now it does, and having a small base cost is a real plus.
The World - it's a tricky argument, but a pound might just be a share in UK plc and shareholders in such a grand and very old brand perhaps deserve a bit of tlc.
I must say that it is easy to click the wrong thing if you have sausage thumbs, it wasn't me though.
https://x.com/steven_swinford/status/1797311264210726913?s=46
She says she has never been opted a peerage and would not have accepted one even if she had
Comes after allies suggested she may not run
https://x.com/Steven_Swinford/status/1797311264210726913
Poor decision.
Must be why he is so distracted he doesn't notice his executives telling news presenters to lie in order to not piss off their audience, and then having to pay out hundreds of millions to settle defamation claims as a result.
In practice I've only ever met one person in the private sector who wasn't a trained teacher (he was actually an accountant).
Moreover, academy chains technically don't require teaching qualifications either (although in the real world, they do).
So there is no 'legal' barrier to moving from one to the other.
It is often difficult to do so because state schools tend to think private school teachers won't cope very well with the large class sizes and poor behaviour in state schools. But - for example - David Drew did it, and so did I.
@Big_G_NorthWales the pension used to be the same, but after contributions were jacked up to a level that would have bankrupted most private schools the majority of them have withdrawn from TPS in the last five years.
The exceptions - again - being the big public schools with their colossal endowments.
Weird.
https://x.com/rishisunak/status/1797300380058992648
This school is in Norfolk - a local authority subject to the DfE's Safety Valve SEND financial intervention scheme
This agreement requires Norfolk to place 126 fewer children and young people with SEND in the independent sector this year, and ~800 fewer each year by 2029
https://twitter.com/CaptainK77/status/1797294413909033457
In which case (and there's a hefty "if" here, but Gillian Keegan has told us that the school has lots of SEND pupils), it could be the current government that put this school out of its financial misery.
Potentially getting a knock on the door every few years is not a massive inconvenience.
Good on her. Kind of ironic that he’s (Starmer) such a control freak and yet stands for nothing. At a time where this country needs leadership and vision, we have this fool! As a country, what did we do in another life to get this awful choice?
Clearly Labour do have plans, and plenty of them are pretty detailed. Is he really going to sit and listen to Starmer talking about what Labour plan to do for an hour, and then sum up with "see, no plans!"?
The "slur" was a joke, and funny, and not homophobic at all
I campaigned for gay rights in the 1970s and 80s when that took a tiny bit of courage. This lgbtqxyz shit is a sort of cargo cult tribute to those protests and just makes no sense, because of the immense threat to normal gay people from transthusiasts who want to perform surgery on boys who are straightforwardly gay and creepy men who want to identify as lesbian women, and a lot of other things
I don't know your age and therefore whether you are reliving your own or your parents' past glories.but like I said you are a cargo cultist. It's unfair that the boomers got the clear cut moral issues I agree but who said life was fair?
You've got your own way around that which is to not be on the register, in which case there's nothing to really be mad about.
Set against that, it's a huge majority (though Reform standing will presumably take a bite out of that), and outermost London seems to be where the Conservative message still appeals.
I miss Buster the Staffie and his Union Jack waistcoat. He was the brains of the operation.
So I can easily believe it is the intention, but it is another of those tactics which doesn't really work if people do not trust you.
This is normal stuff, but I respect you don't do it.
I can imagine tiktokers seeing that and thinking “oh, is that all we’re getting?”.
You have to abide by conventions, and that - on TikTok - is not abiding by convention.
She had choice of standing again, going to the Lords , or retirement
I could not believe she would accept a peerage and she obviously has a lot of support so standing seems logical
And yet he still does it.
Nowadays the world is much more complex and our representatives end up creating laws on subjects they are clueless about such as the internet which I have highlighted because it is an area I know and they are so obviously clueless about what they are doing. I suspect there are many other area's where frankly they should not be let near like bioscience.
Representative democracy is past its sell by date and we need to rethink how we are governed and I refuse any longer to give it any whiff of legitimacy by participating
@GoodwinMJ
One enormous problem facing the Tories is not just that only 8% of 18-24-year-old Brits plan to vote for them. It's that every single Gen-Z conservative I meet genuinely wants the Tory party to be destroyed."
https://x.com/GoodwinMJ/status/1797226399675134370
Easy for Labour to do this. The Lib Dems already are. Harder I would guess for the SNP and Plaid but they should try.
Work has started on about 20 bills, some in significantly more detail than others. Access talks with civil servants are in their second round.
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/ng-interactive/2024/jun/02/labour-party-chief-of-staff-sue-gray
Outside of an election, it's easy to say "you haven't got a plan", and accuse your opponent of sniping from the side lines, because of course they won't really get time to articulate what they'd do instead.
During a campaign, when interviewers will be desperate to interrogate Labour on their plans, and where Sunak will have to sit and watch while Starmer is given time to explain his plans, just seems a bit silly.
I wasn't born in the early 18th or 19th centuries, to start with.
Less about sincerity and far more about egoism.
(Apart from those voters who love our candidate, natch....)
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tontine
I've seen there's been a pride spat on here, so a couple of general observations from a gay:
1. We know that a lot of businesses use it as one more excuse for marketing nowadays, but it's not as if it is hurting anyone - nobody is pinning reluctant members of the public to the ground and hitting them until they agree to hang multi-coloured flags from their windows - and it's a quantum leap forward from the queers being slung in prison or stoned to death. So perhaps if you don't like it, whether it's because of the ubiquity, or suggestions of pride washing, or because you don't like us, perhaps you could just try ignoring it? There are worse problems in life than occasional exposure to nuisance rainbows.
2. Someone asked what the plus at the end of the various alphabet soup acronyms was meant to denote. The answer is, essentially, all the various little groups that don't get a letter and might otherwise feel left out. Again, there are worse things in life than trying to be inclusive, though FWIW a non-negligible percentage of the gays (and I'm one of them) think that LGBTQIA2S+ is rather like BAME - a term so broad as to be almost meaningless - and wonder why the latter term has been cancelled whilst the former is still in use. But if you start to pick apart the alphabet soup then, sooner rather than later, a fresh slanging match over trans starts, and we could do without another one of those.
In short, there are certain things about pride that irritate a lot of us, but there's no need to have a scrap over them. Not all, but many, of these kinds of culture wars arguments can be neutralised by an agreement just to let it drop. Live and let live.
Or in other words “the real problem isn’t that the Tories are too right wing, it’s that they’re not right wing enough”.
https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/1110657/Sustainable_high_needs_systems_guide_-_SV_and_DBV_updates_-_Oct22.pdf
Basically a 2-3 year SEND funding breathing space for financially strapped local authorities, which had the side effect of a temporary increase in independent school numbers.
Of course the financial squeeze on LAs is budgeted to tighten in the next few years, at the same time as the scheme winds down.
I don't doubt the truth of Casino's line that Labour's VAT on school fees policy has had an effect on independent schools - but it certainly hadn't the only worsening pressure on them.
And of course state education is facing similar problems..
Rob Burrow dies at 41
Nobody.
I had a guy today saying he was moving away from Labour for this very reason. He thought Labour were taking the piss.
(I also had a life-long LibDem today say she couldn't support them now. People feel they are not getting truthful responses from politicians across the board, not just from the Tories. Hard to see turnout breaking any records.)
I don't blanket judge music genres - even rap can be good.
The Americans do them for every presidential election, particularly the Dems. We have, accidentally, a bit of D:Ream. Who apparently have vetoed use of their song by Labour this year. What others are there, if any?
There must be an Olivia Rodrigo track someone could adopt.