They're lying because the electorate doesn't want to hear the truth, and will punish anyone who tells it. It's possible to be deeply unimpressed and frustrated with all the rubbish politicians churn out, and to understand why they do it at the same time.
Labour is using fantasies about rampant economic growth to disguise its true intentions. They're either lying about an end to austerity, lying about freezes to income tax and NI rates, or there are big increases coming in taxes where they've not yet been explicitly ruled out. Look for the holes in the manifesto where Reeves is leaving wriggle room for the latter.
Exactly what Paul Johnson at the IFS was saying. Working people will pay more tax because of fiscal drag, and there will still need to be significant tax increases as the alternative required cuts to spending are not viable.
Every party is basically taking the electorate for fools.
I was reading an article and came across this quote which I think sums up things quite nicely.
Russia occupies and will continue to occupy a commanding position in every struggle against popular rights… And though other governments, its allies and subordinates, may seem to be most active, yet they are but puppets on the stage..: The motive power is the man behind the scenes, the leader of Russia. He is the formidable antagonist of the peoples. He is … impelled by a hostility to free institutions that admits if no compromise and yields to no relaxation”
When do people think this was written (no googling!)
No satire could ever be as funny as the deposed leader of a political party locking themselves in their HQ and conducting a press conference from a window so he doesn’t have to open the door which might let his former colleagues in. It’s mental.
He’s also published a video of the view from inside
So much waffle, you imagine it was written by Bird's Eye.
The section on immigration, for example, is completely meaningless, and could easily allow for immigration to increase, rather than decrease. Tax is similarly meaningless. "Keep taxes... as low as possible" doesn't say a lot. "we will not increase National Insurance, the basic, higher, or additional rates of Income Tax, or VAT" leaves a blind spot so huge you could drive a fleet of buses through it. Everything from 10p extra on a litre of fuel to causing immediate capital flight by putting CGT up to 40% (one of the highest rates in the world), or introducing a wealth tax, as others have suggested, again leading to capital flight.
We all know taxes are going to have to go up, what I don't like is the evasiveness over which ones, and effects on the economy they might have.
The only thing Labour really have going for themselves here is the Conservatives have proven themselves utterly incompetent in government, and it's essentially Buggins' turn.
Just out of interest, is anyone on here desperate for tax cuts?
Anecdotal I know, but on a regular catch-up call with my brother, he raised the election with the comment: "I don't want tax cuts, I want things fixed". He's a self-employed plumber, voted Tory in 2019, marginal south coast seat.
Just out of interest, is anyone on here desperate for tax cuts?
Anecdotal I know, but on a regular catch-up call with my brother, he raised the election with the comment: "I don't want tax cuts, I want things fixed". He's a self-employed plumber, voted Tory in 2019, marginal south coast seat.
This is Andrew Neil's argument that the UK appears to have become much more European in that respect. Higher tax, bigger state. Remember, Boris promised loads of spending to get elected. May's, I won't change anything approach went down like a bucket of cold sick.
I was reading an article and came across this quote which I think sums up things quite nicely.
Russia occupies and will continue to occupy a commanding position in every struggle against popular rights… And though other governments, its allies and subordinates, may seem to be most active, yet they are but puppets on the stage..: The motive power is the man behind the scenes, the leader of Russia. He is the formidable antagonist of the peoples. He is … impelled by a hostility to free institutions that admits if no compromise and yields to no relaxation”
When do people think this was written (no googling!)
Just out of interest, is anyone on here desperate for tax cuts?
Anecdotal I know, but on a regular catch-up call with my brother, he raised the election with the comment: "I don't want tax cuts, I want things fixed". He's a self-employed plumber, voted Tory in 2019, marginal south coast seat.
Everyone wants a free lunch in theory, but if we know the person offering to pay is skint we might have second thoughts.
Just out of interest, is anyone on here desperate for tax cuts?
Anecdotal I know, but on a regular catch-up call with my brother, he raised the election with the comment: "I don't want tax cuts, I want things fixed". He's a self-employed plumber, voted Tory in 2019, marginal south coast seat.
This is Andrew Neil's argument that the UK appears to have become much more European in that respect. Boris promised loads of spending to get elected.
We must all still vote Conservative at this election.
Why continue to vote Conservative? It’s very easy to answer. 14 years of Conservative government has protected you and our Nation from the horrors and household bill increases of Labours Nanny State. Thinking of voting Labour, you are voting to be Nannied, voting for New taxes on your weekly shop as well as mandatory health targets https://www.thegrocer.co.uk/health/national-food-strategy-is-an-off-the-shelf-solution-for-labour/691923.article Labour are instinctive nanny state-ers. VAT on junk food, fast food and your deliveries, the deliveroo tax in the Telegraph, Labours whopper tax The Sun will dub it. Labours policy on take aways is to always take away your individual freedom. If Labour leave families only aspiring to Just Eat, unable to afford it anymore, it’s yet another attack on aspiration.
Labour = enemy of freedom of choice, policy after policy. So protect the aspiration of families, protect everyone’s individual freedoms, give people back THEIR money, and don’t let everyone in this country get sucked into the massive Socialist State. THIS is what this election is really all about, if Team Sunak wasn’t so useless.
Vote Tory so you can eat yourself to chronic disease, cost the NHS millions and then die young, gasping for breath on a hospital floor!
I was reading an article and came across this quote which I think sums up things quite nicely.
Russia occupies and will continue to occupy a commanding position in every struggle against popular rights… And though other governments, its allies and subordinates, may seem to be most active, yet they are but puppets on the stage..: The motive power is the man behind the scenes, the leader of Russia. He is the formidable antagonist of the peoples. He is … impelled by a hostility to free institutions that admits if no compromise and yields to no relaxation”
When do people think this was written (no googling!)
I wonder if it was a Reagan quote, but it doesn't really seem his style. Maybe it's early 60s.
The key takehome from the D-Day debacle is that the vast majority of the electorate like to see britain along side neighbours and allies affirming its international commitment..... a britain at the heart of the western international community honouring that heritage.... basically the opposite of free wheeling go it alone brexiteerism. I saw Marr's piece in the New Statesman talking about rejoining the single market
"But the country has already changed its mind about his rotten Brexit deal, and there would be no opportunity like Labour’s first 18 months to improve relations with the giant market on our doorstep. As the EU grapples with the problem of enlargement to its east and populism at home, the notion of a more flexible, less monolithic EU of concentric or interlocking circles is growing in potency."
What I am looking for in Labour's manifesto is silence on the EU - that will (ironically) be a huge indicator to me where things are going. It will be a carte blance on EU trading relations and security agreements.
Sunak's actions on leaving the D-Day celebrations were very much a tacit expression of inward looking, isolationist ethos of the populist right, and its time has come.... I seriously think the country is turning a corner on brexit going into the next parliament.
Lol, this is an absolutely brilliant example of the genre: "What D-Day was really about is rejoining the single market".
You've got to admire the creativity, the imagination, the insightful juxtaposition of two apparently unrelated topics ;-)
We Remainers are never going to go away.
Not until you die off anyway.
There is nothing to "Remain" part of. You lost that war. We left the EU.
There is only Rejoin. And that is the dog that hasn't barked in this election. And if not this, then when?
You're right about it not becoming a major issue in this election, but I think it provides a general sense of unease to politics in the UK.
By a ratio of at least 3:1, people think the negatives of Brexit outweigh the benefits. For Leavers, immigration is at an all time high - so it was pointless for many. There must be some regret or misgiving there. For Remainers, there is no hint that any party will bring us back in or materially improve our relationship with Europe, so it sits as an open wound.
It's not being spoken about, but I think it contributes to the doom and gloom.
I think that is just a cipher for 'things were better before 2016' - which is understandable; the world was a surer place, no Ukraine, no pandemic, no culture wars (at least, not on the scale we see now), less immigration. Understandable people might wish things were otherwise. I'd happily swallow rejoin if it could mean we could wipe out all that other unpleasantness. But clearly, almost everything bad which has happened since 2016 is nothing to do with Brexit, and undoing Brexit wouldn't bring back those apples. That's just the way humans think. Change the thing we did and we can control and undo all those things we can't control.
If we were still in the EU, today’s news headline would be that electric cars are about to get more expensive, the EU voting for protectionism over Net Zero.
Great for the campaigners who think cars are evil and we should all get the bus, for for the average motorist who just to get from A to B as cheaply as possible, not so much.
Transportation was always a weakness in our climate change mitigation efforts - look at the massive fuss over the 2030 deadline for new ICE cars, even while other sectors of the economy made massive reductions in emissions. The Chinese have exploited the gap left by the lethargy and lobbying of European/American car makers.
It's darkly funny. When I was at Uni, there was all sorts of depressed talk about the industrialisation of China and India making climate change efforts basically pointless. Instead, the Chinese have flooded the market with cheap solar panels and cheap EVs to the extent that it's going to destroy fossil fuel industries in the West.
Annual CO2 emissions are still rising. It is delusional to think that by 2050 this will be much different. Even if output is halved from present levels (the evidence that this can be done is absent), levels will only be rising but a little more slowly.
The rhetoric is all reminiscent of UK General Election rhetoric. A realistic truthful conversation would make a nice change.
Climate change mitigation is not binary. It's not like there is a big climate change switch when we hit 2 degrees.
Most people working in this field know and accept that a huge amount of climate change damage is baked in. That's why we need to start discussing adaptation - flood defences, new pandemics, famine, mass migration.
But that doesn't mean the world should stop trying to prevent it being even worse - there is no sign of China abandoning solar or EVs, is there? The question for the UK is whether we want to embrace all this new technology or get left behind by the rest of the world.
Agree. This discussion is obscured by Trumpian denialists and 'Just Stop Oil' fundamentalists. The 'amelioration' aspect is often ignored.
Even if you don't agree with their methods, there's nothing particularly fundamentalist about JSO's demands. There is general scientific agreement that we need to rapidly reduce consumption of fossil fuels, and ceasing to issue new licences for oil exploration and production is broadly compatible with that aim. Amelioration to cope with the damage already in the pipeline is of course also required, but that's in addition to, not instead of, a sharp reduction in oil consumption.
Perhaps you'd like to accompany me if I have to close a factory in Aberdeen in the second half of this year. Decent people will be put out of a job because of flawed government policies, and I don't see too many "green jobs" they can take round where they live.
If I hear another idiot saying that they want "Green growth"... It apparently means growth without making anything, building anything. And it is free.
Changing technologies is massively disruptive for an industry - see Germany and American car makers. Who are stumbling.
The idea that this is free or painless is yet another populist, stupid delusion.
It is hard and expensive. And worth doing. Just decoupling our economy from the times that El Supremo has the hiccups and starts another war, and energy prices zoom up, it worth it. X recessions avoided.
Saving the planet is a nice side effect.
Further, in the longer term, as energy prices fall below fossil fuel energy prices, we have interesting opportunities.
Indeed. Switching to a sustainable economy is both necessary and also a huge challenge. Those who paint it as something that can be done without too much bother or inconvenience risk scuppering the whole effort. It's like fighting a war. It's necessary, but it inevitably involves some sacrifice. Smart leadership would prepare people for the challenges ahead as well as ensuring that the burdens are shared fairly.
The other thing is that the status quo is not an option. The energy transition away from fossil fuels is going to happen, and you don't want to be a laggard.
Estimates suggest 20% of all the electricity generated in Ireland will go to keeping Data Centres functioning.
Why not close them ?
Because they are useful and you can generate the electricity for them cleanly.
Only way in the future, Ireland currently generates 52% of its energy from oil or coal. With a growing population and a noted lack of infrastructure investment, that will be the case for some time. Data centres will consume energy and there is no green backstop to feed them.
Those problems will continue to exist whether there are data centres or not. I'd suggest fixing the problem.
I think the Green Party in government spent too much time/money on admirable improvements to public transport, and not enough on offshore wind and other energy infrastructure.
And yet public transport in Ireland (outwith the cities) is abysmal.
Public transport outside of cities is never going to be great, because the population densities are too low. But they are putting effort into introducing new services, both in cities and in rural areas.
There's a new bus service from Skibbereen to Killarney that seems to be popular, but I haven't tried it yet.
Oh, Skibbereen! Oh, I used to go there as a little child. And I used to go on nature trails, and I used to spot flowers.
The people on here who don't get that reference are going to be "WTAF????"
I was reading an article and came across this quote which I think sums up things quite nicely.
Russia occupies and will continue to occupy a commanding position in every struggle against popular rights… And though other governments, its allies and subordinates, may seem to be most active, yet they are but puppets on the stage..: The motive power is the man behind the scenes, the leader of Russia. He is the formidable antagonist of the peoples. He is … impelled by a hostility to free institutions that admits if no compromise and yields to no relaxation”
When do people think this was written (no googling!)
Disappointing from Labour. Nothing on planning reform to ensure better broadband and 4G/5G. I’d have liked to see allowing the heights of masts being upped to match Europe.
We must all still vote Conservative at this election.
Why continue to vote Conservative? It’s very easy to answer. 14 years of Conservative government has protected you and our Nation from the horrors and household bill increases of Labours Nanny State. Thinking of voting Labour, you are voting to be Nannied, voting for New taxes on your weekly shop as well as mandatory health targets https://www.thegrocer.co.uk/health/national-food-strategy-is-an-off-the-shelf-solution-for-labour/691923.article Labour are instinctive nanny state-ers. VAT on junk food, fast food and your deliveries, the deliveroo tax in the Telegraph, Labours whopper tax The Sun will dub it. Labours policy on take aways is to always take away your individual freedom. If Labour leave families only aspiring to Just Eat, unable to afford it anymore, it’s yet another attack on aspiration.
Labour = enemy of freedom of choice, policy after policy. So protect the aspiration of families, protect everyone’s individual freedoms, give people back THEIR money, and don’t let everyone in this country get sucked into the massive Socialist State. THIS is what this election is really all about, if Team Sunak wasn’t so useless.
Vote Tory so you can eat yourself to chronic disease, cost the NHS millions and then die young, gasping for breath on a hospital floor!
I was reading an article and came across this quote which I think sums up things quite nicely.
Russia occupies and will continue to occupy a commanding position in every struggle against popular rights… And though other governments, its allies and subordinates, may seem to be most active, yet they are but puppets on the stage..: The motive power is the man behind the scenes, the leader of Russia. He is the formidable antagonist of the peoples. He is … impelled by a hostility to free institutions that admits if no compromise and yields to no relaxation”
When do people think this was written (no googling!)
'Change' is not 'nothing at all'. Except when it is. Visionless offer from Labour. No wonder everyone is bored
Higher Utility charges to pay for the Socialist Starmer’s Nationalisation Programme. State Ownership means being an employer, and with that comes costs, wages, training, a pension scheme etc etc etc And who’s paying for all this? You the taxpayer. Not only that, Labour’s anti aspirational VAT on private schooling, not touching the wealthy famous schools, but destroying all the fine local ones, working families have been using for their families for generations. And the dreaded garden tax is coming - they have it in Labour Wales, where tax man flies drones over your property to hit you with Labours brand new stealth tax.
You won’t get any of this with a Tory government. Fact. 💁♀️
"Higher Utility charges to pay for the Socialist Starmer’s Nationalisation Programme"
I don't think anyone is buying those 1970s apples. It's not like British Leyland v. a globally competitive automotive market.
It's the critical infrastructure that gets water to come out of taps and electricity from the wall sockets, along with the security framework that UKGov already provides for it.
Oh, plus the transport infrastructure that the Tories have already (largely) nationalized over the last 15 years.
We are already paying for all of those things through subsidy. You speak as if the employees of the operating companies running these things are in any way "more motivated" to be efficient than they would if their shareholders were representatives of government rather than pension funds.
That is truly weak sauce from Guido. There’s me hoping that “Toolmaker” *was the code name for Jimmy Savile but instead, man shags someone, starts seeing someone else, people get together with other people. No animals or hearts hurt. Rubbish.
I was reading an article and came across this quote which I think sums up things quite nicely.
Russia occupies and will continue to occupy a commanding position in every struggle against popular rights… And though other governments, its allies and subordinates, may seem to be most active, yet they are but puppets on the stage..: The motive power is the man behind the scenes, the leader of Russia. He is the formidable antagonist of the peoples. He is … impelled by a hostility to free institutions that admits if no compromise and yields to no relaxation”
When do people think this was written (no googling!)
Just out of interest, is anyone on here desperate for tax cuts?
Anecdotal I know, but on a regular catch-up call with my brother, he raised the election with the comment: "I don't want tax cuts, I want things fixed". He's a self-employed plumber, voted Tory in 2019, marginal south coast seat.
I thin the issue is that personal taxes are pretty much fine. We’d all love some cash back but few of us outside certain cliff edges think they are bonkers.
The high tax burden falls in less direct places and has less directly obvious impacts, but it still has them.
Indeed, person dated more than one woman before marriage is hardly the biggest revelation of the week, it has to compete with head of religious organisation with specific injunction against homosexual acts in its religious texts not hyper keen on gays.
Guido hasn't blown Starmer's world apart with this.
Is the revelation what SKS's Dad did for a living ?
It has been many years since he really got a big news dominating story. If I remember correctly Staines himself isn't even in London these days, its all the fresh faced paid interns and a lot of seems very akin to how the half the media is press releases from think tanks.
Disappointing from Labour. Nothing on planning reform to ensure better broadband and 4G/5G. I’d have liked to see allowing the heights of masts being upped to match Europe.
It's a rational idea but a guaranteed vote loser. The number of people who would vote Labour because of it would be massively outnumbered by the NIMBYs/BANANAs who wouldn't.
We must all still vote Conservative at this election.
Why continue to vote Conservative? It’s very easy to answer. 14 years of Conservative government has protected you and our Nation from the horrors and household bill increases of Labours Nanny State. Thinking of voting Labour, you are voting to be Nannied, voting for New taxes on your weekly shop as well as mandatory health targets https://www.thegrocer.co.uk/health/national-food-strategy-is-an-off-the-shelf-solution-for-labour/691923.article Labour are instinctive nanny state-ers. VAT on junk food, fast food and your deliveries, the deliveroo tax in the Telegraph, Labours whopper tax The Sun will dub it. Labours policy on take aways is to always take away your individual freedom. If Labour leave families only aspiring to Just Eat, unable to afford it anymore, it’s yet another attack on aspiration.
Labour = enemy of freedom of choice, policy after policy. So protect the aspiration of families, protect everyone’s individual freedoms, give people back THEIR money, and don’t let everyone in this country get sucked into the massive Socialist State. THIS is what this election is really all about, if Team Sunak wasn’t so useless.
Vote Tory so you can eat yourself to chronic disease, cost the NHS millions and then die young, gasping for breath on a hospital floor!
Yes. It’s about freedom and rights.
Actually wait. I’ll come back with a better answer.
Indeed, person dated more than one woman before marriage is hardly the biggest revelation of the week, it has to compete with head of religious organisation with specific injunction against homosexual acts in its religious texts not hyper keen on gays.
I keep on telling everybody that everyone loves a lawyer, Starmer is the prime example of that.
Guido hasn't blown Starmer's world apart with this.
Is the revelation what SKS's Dad did for a living ?
It has been many years since he really got a big news dominating story. If I remember correctly Staines himself isn't even in London these days, its all the fresh faced paid interns and a lot of seems very akin to how the half the media is press releases from think tanks.
What was his last big story ? I can't remember. Stopped regularly visiting his site many years ago. The BTL comments left you feeling, somewhat, unclean.
We must all still vote Conservative at this election.
Why continue to vote Conservative? It’s very easy to answer. 14 years of Conservative government has protected you and our Nation from the horrors and household bill increases of Labours Nanny State. Thinking of voting Labour, you are voting to be Nannied, voting for New taxes on your weekly shop as well as mandatory health targets https://www.thegrocer.co.uk/health/national-food-strategy-is-an-off-the-shelf-solution-for-labour/691923.article Labour are instinctive nanny state-ers. VAT on junk food, fast food and your deliveries, the deliveroo tax in the Telegraph, Labours whopper tax The Sun will dub it. Labours policy on take aways is to always take away your individual freedom. If Labour leave families only aspiring to Just Eat, unable to afford it anymore, it’s yet another attack on aspiration.
Labour = enemy of freedom of choice, policy after policy. So protect the aspiration of families, protect everyone’s individual freedoms, give people back THEIR money, and don’t let everyone in this country get sucked into the massive Socialist State. THIS is what this election is really all about, if Team Sunak wasn’t so useless.
Vote Tory so you can eat yourself to chronic disease, cost the NHS millions and then die young, gasping for breath on a hospital floor!
Yes. It’s about freedom and rights.
You only eat that shite "food" because the transnational corporations that industrially manufacture it have spent billions developing hyper palatable products that hit all the taste/texture bliss points, that they can make as cheap as possible and then sell it to you for as much as they can wring from you. That's not choice, that's addiction and one day, these corporations should be held in the same regard as tobacco companies.
We must all still vote Conservative at this election.
Why continue to vote Conservative? It’s very easy to answer. 14 years of Conservative government has protected you and our Nation from the horrors and household bill increases of Labours Nanny State. Thinking of voting Labour, you are voting to be Nannied, voting for New taxes on your weekly shop as well as mandatory health targets https://www.thegrocer.co.uk/health/national-food-strategy-is-an-off-the-shelf-solution-for-labour/691923.article Labour are instinctive nanny state-ers. VAT on junk food, fast food and your deliveries, the deliveroo tax in the Telegraph, Labours whopper tax The Sun will dub it. Labours policy on take aways is to always take away your individual freedom. If Labour leave families only aspiring to Just Eat, unable to afford it anymore, it’s yet another attack on aspiration.
Labour = enemy of freedom of choice, policy after policy. So protect the aspiration of families, protect everyone’s individual freedoms, give people back THEIR money, and don’t let everyone in this country get sucked into the massive Socialist State. THIS is what this election is really all about, if Team Sunak wasn’t so useless.
Vote Tory so you can eat yourself to chronic disease, cost the NHS millions and then die young, gasping for breath on a hospital floor!
Yes. It’s about freedom and rights.
Actually wait. I’ll come back with a better answer.
We must all still vote Conservative at this election.
Why continue to vote Conservative? It’s very easy to answer. 14 years of Conservative government has protected you and our Nation from the horrors and household bill increases of Labours Nanny State. Thinking of voting Labour, you are voting to be Nannied, voting for New taxes on your weekly shop as well as mandatory health targets https://www.thegrocer.co.uk/health/national-food-strategy-is-an-off-the-shelf-solution-for-labour/691923.article Labour are instinctive nanny state-ers. VAT on junk food, fast food and your deliveries, the deliveroo tax in the Telegraph, Labours whopper tax The Sun will dub it. Labours policy on take aways is to always take away your individual freedom. If Labour leave families only aspiring to Just Eat, unable to afford it anymore, it’s yet another attack on aspiration.
Labour = enemy of freedom of choice, policy after policy. So protect the aspiration of families, protect everyone’s individual freedoms, give people back THEIR money, and don’t let everyone in this country get sucked into the massive Socialist State. THIS is what this election is really all about, if Team Sunak wasn’t so useless.
Vote Tory so you can eat yourself to chronic disease, cost the NHS millions and then die young, gasping for breath on a hospital floor!
Why just stop at the sugar and fat? It's my god given right as an Englishman to eat food you wouldn't give to a dog! Get rid of the "nanny state" Health Inspectors! It should be toxic shock roulette every time a morsel of food passes your mouth - take personal responsibility you slacker!
We must all still vote Conservative at this election.
Why continue to vote Conservative? It’s very easy to answer. 14 years of Conservative government has protected you and our Nation from the horrors and household bill increases of Labours Nanny State. Thinking of voting Labour, you are voting to be Nannied, voting for New taxes on your weekly shop as well as mandatory health targets https://www.thegrocer.co.uk/health/national-food-strategy-is-an-off-the-shelf-solution-for-labour/691923.article Labour are instinctive nanny state-ers. VAT on junk food, fast food and your deliveries, the deliveroo tax in the Telegraph, Labours whopper tax The Sun will dub it. Labours policy on take aways is to always take away your individual freedom. If Labour leave families only aspiring to Just Eat, unable to afford it anymore, it’s yet another attack on aspiration.
Labour = enemy of freedom of choice, policy after policy. So protect the aspiration of families, protect everyone’s individual freedoms, give people back THEIR money, and don’t let everyone in this country get sucked into the massive Socialist State. THIS is what this election is really all about, if Team Sunak wasn’t so useless.
Vote Tory so you can eat yourself to chronic disease, cost the NHS millions and then die young, gasping for breath on a hospital floor!
Yes. It’s about freedom and rights.
Actually wait. I’ll come back with a better answer.
Given your connections, I am surprised you hadn't heard this one before.
So that's Leon's credibility as a gossip finnished then?
I can give you something amazing on Sunak. After the election
How many times have you teased "I have some really hot exposé I can't share with you right now but when it comes out it will blow your minds" or similar?
And how many times has there been any substance? (A: zero)
I was reading an article and came across this quote which I think sums up things quite nicely.
Russia occupies and will continue to occupy a commanding position in every struggle against popular rights… And though other governments, its allies and subordinates, may seem to be most active, yet they are but puppets on the stage..: The motive power is the man behind the scenes, the leader of Russia. He is the formidable antagonist of the peoples. He is … impelled by a hostility to free institutions that admits if no compromise and yields to no relaxation”
When do people think this was written (no googling!)
Given your connections, I am surprised you hadn't heard this one before.
So that's Leon's credibility as a gossip finnished then?
I can give you something amazing on Sunak. After the election
How many times have you teased "I have some really hot exposé I can't share with you right now but when it comes out it will blow your minds" or similar?
And how many times has there been any substance? (A: zero)
I have actually shared the Finland rumour with a couple of PBers (as it was first shared with me). Its a real thing
Indeed, person dated more than one woman before marriage is hardly the biggest revelation of the week, it has to compete with head of religious organisation with specific injunction against homosexual acts in its religious texts not hyper keen on gays.
It must be a lead in. That can't be all there is, surely?
It barely reaches the very low bar of being more interesting than Labour's manifesto.
Unless there are progeny that he's disowned and refuses to pay for there's clearly not going to be a scandal.
We must all still vote Conservative at this election.
Why continue to vote Conservative? It’s very easy to answer. 14 years of Conservative government has protected you and our Nation from the horrors and household bill increases of Labours Nanny State. Thinking of voting Labour, you are voting to be Nannied, voting for New taxes on your weekly shop as well as mandatory health targets https://www.thegrocer.co.uk/health/national-food-strategy-is-an-off-the-shelf-solution-for-labour/691923.article Labour are instinctive nanny state-ers. VAT on junk food, fast food and your deliveries, the deliveroo tax in the Telegraph, Labours whopper tax The Sun will dub it. Labours policy on take aways is to always take away your individual freedom. If Labour leave families only aspiring to Just Eat, unable to afford it anymore, it’s yet another attack on aspiration.
Labour = enemy of freedom of choice, policy after policy. So protect the aspiration of families, protect everyone’s individual freedoms, give people back THEIR money, and don’t let everyone in this country get sucked into the massive Socialist State. THIS is what this election is really all about, if Team Sunak wasn’t so useless.
It's not about Freedom TO, it's about Freedom FROM.
Freedom from Poverty, Hunger, Ignorance or to put it into more meaningful terms freedom from having to wait months or years for a hospital appointment, freedom from pain, freedom from fear of crime and freedom from becoming a victim not just of petty crime but freedom from corporate crime, freedom from being gouged by foreign-owned corporations and freedom from the pathetic services they provide.
The Conservatives have had 14 years in Government to make it a better place for the citizens - they have failed dismally and completely. That's not to say there isn't a place for conservative thinking but that's not to be found in the current iteration of the Party.
That Party needs to, pace Dracula, be held down and have a stake driven through its still beating heart.
From there, perhaps, it can return as a genuinely conservative party interested in the welfare of all citizens.
Indeed, person dated more than one woman before marriage is hardly the biggest revelation of the week, it has to compete with head of religious organisation with specific injunction against homosexual acts in its religious texts not hyper keen on gays.
It must be a lead in. That can't be all there is, surely?
It barely reaches the very low bar of being more interesting than Labour's manifesto.
Unless there are progeny that he's disowned and refuses to pay for there's clearly not going to be a scandal.
Yes this must be a teaser. It’s embarrassingly bad if this is it. My guess is - like any sensible journalist - he’s stringing it out for maximum effect
If it literally is just this then standards are falling even amongst guttersnipes and snitches
I was reading an article and came across this quote which I think sums up things quite nicely.
Russia occupies and will continue to occupy a commanding position in every struggle against popular rights… And though other governments, its allies and subordinates, may seem to be most active, yet they are but puppets on the stage..: The motive power is the man behind the scenes, the leader of Russia. He is the formidable antagonist of the peoples. He is … impelled by a hostility to free institutions that admits if no compromise and yields to no relaxation”
When do people think this was written (no googling!)
1875?
I am reminded of Nicholas 1 - The Gendarme of Europe'. So 1849?
Indeed, person dated more than one woman before marriage is hardly the biggest revelation of the week, it has to compete with head of religious organisation with specific injunction against homosexual acts in its religious texts not hyper keen on gays.
It must be a lead in. That can't be all there is, surely?
It barely reaches the very low bar of being more interesting than Labour's manifesto.
Unless there are progeny that he's disowned and refuses to pay for there's clearly not going to be a scandal.
Yes this must be a teaser. It’s embarrassingly bad if this is it. My guess is - like any sensible journalist - he’s stringing it out for maximum effect
If it literally is just this then standards are falling even amongst guttersnipes and snitches
But even as a teaser, it's rubbish.
Guido has always been more sizzle than sausage, but where's the sizzle here?
I was reading an article and came across this quote which I think sums up things quite nicely.
Russia occupies and will continue to occupy a commanding position in every struggle against popular rights… And though other governments, its allies and subordinates, may seem to be most active, yet they are but puppets on the stage..: The motive power is the man behind the scenes, the leader of Russia. He is the formidable antagonist of the peoples. He is … impelled by a hostility to free institutions that admits if no compromise and yields to no relaxation”
When do people think this was written (no googling!)
1875?
Russia was a standard Trope for Despotism in the 19th Cent.
Hence Lincoln in 1855 - "I am not a Know-Nothing. That is certain. How could I be? How can any one who abhors the oppression of negroes, be in favor of degrading classes of white people? Our progress in degeneracy appears to me to be pretty rapid. As a nation, we begin by declaring that "all men are created equal." We now practically read it "all men are created equal, except negroes." When the Know-Nothings get control, it will read "all men are created equal, except negroes, and foreigners, and catholics." When it comes to this I should prefer emigrating to some country where they make no pretence of loving liberty-to Russia, for instance, where despotism can be taken pure, and without the base alloy of hypocracy."
Indeed, person dated more than one woman before marriage is hardly the biggest revelation of the week, it has to compete with head of religious organisation with specific injunction against homosexual acts in its religious texts not hyper keen on gays.
It must be a lead in. That can't be all there is, surely?
It barely reaches the very low bar of being more interesting than Labour's manifesto.
Unless there are progeny that he's disowned and refuses to pay for there's clearly not going to be a scandal.
No, it is definitely less interesting than the Labour manifesto. Which was designed by SMERSH to kill with boredom, I think.
Right. I was going to vote Labour but now I know that Starmer returned calls to his ex girlfriends in the 1990s I just can't do it. Some things are forgiveable, but not this. Come on Rishi, you can do it son.
I read the comment from @MoonRabbit and sniggered a little. Have to vote Tory or else you get a government who does nanny state stuff like banning adverts of junk food (as defined by pencil-pushing bureaucrats) to children, or the laborious High Fat Salt Sugar regulations.
No, strike that, reverse it. The TORIES are the nanny state doing the exact same thing she is attacking Labour for doing.
This is why the Tories are absolutely doomed. Can't accept reality, keep saying black is white. etc.
Just out of interest, is anyone on here desperate for tax cuts?
Anecdotal I know, but on a regular catch-up call with my brother, he raised the election with the comment: "I don't want tax cuts, I want things fixed". He's a self-employed plumber, voted Tory in 2019, marginal south coast seat.
That's funny. I keep hearing people complaining at how the tax burden is at a record high.
Can't help feeling is that it from Labour? This country has a slew of problems that this government has ignored and that is it. In 2022 there were 329m appointments in primary care. So that is equivalent to an average of 6.32m appointments a week. To which Labour promise to add 40k. Or just over 0.6%.
They would produce more if they used the money to settle the junior doctors strike. Which they probably will.
Is this really the height of their ambition? It's pathetic.
I read the comment from @MoonRabbit and sniggered a little. Have to vote Tory or else you get a government who does nanny state stuff like banning adverts of junk food (as defined by pencil-pushing bureaucrats) to children, or the laborious High Fat Salt Sugar regulations.
No, strike that, reverse it. The TORIES are the nanny state doing the exact same thing she is attacking Labour for doing.
This is why the Tories are absolutely doomed. Can't accept reality, keep saying black is white. etc.
I assumed it was satire. Don’t tell me it was serious.
Comments
Every party is basically taking the electorate for fools.
https://x.com/eciotti/status/1801195609434587444
So much waffle, you imagine it was written by Bird's Eye.
The section on immigration, for example, is completely meaningless, and could easily allow for immigration to increase, rather than decrease. Tax is similarly meaningless. "Keep taxes... as low as possible" doesn't say a lot. "we will not increase National Insurance, the basic, higher, or additional rates of Income Tax, or VAT" leaves a blind spot so huge you could drive a fleet of buses through it. Everything from 10p extra on a litre of fuel to causing immediate capital flight by putting CGT up to 40% (one of the highest rates in the world), or introducing a wealth tax, as others have suggested, again leading to capital flight.
We all know taxes are going to have to go up, what I don't like is the evasiveness over which ones, and effects on the economy they might have.
The only thing Labour really have going for themselves here is the Conservatives have proven themselves utterly incompetent in government, and it's essentially Buggins' turn.
I am taxed too much.
Left completely baffled. It's about as interesting as reading a random page from Wisden 1974.
What a load of overhyped bollocks.
The young Starmer was quite good looking (as far as I can judge with men!), so I'm not surprised he was popular with the ladies.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9583155/Starmers-aide-Baroness-Chapman-considering-legal-action-claim-banned-home.html
2) Erm, that’s it…
I don't think anyone is buying those 1970s apples. It's not like British Leyland v. a globally competitive automotive market.
It's the critical infrastructure that gets water to come out of taps and electricity from the wall sockets, along with the security framework that UKGov already provides for it.
Oh, plus the transport infrastructure that the Tories have already (largely) nationalized over the last 15 years.
We are already paying for all of those things through subsidy. You speak as if the employees of the operating companies running these things are in any way "more motivated" to be efficient than they would if their shareholders were representatives of government rather than pension funds.
*Tools, like Savile, fix things for you.
If he did NOT that would actually be more unusual and interesting. Pathetic! We want zebras and midgets
The high tax burden falls in less direct places and has less directly obvious impacts, but it still has them.
*taps nose slyly and whispers: “Narvik”*
Does anyone actually give a flying one?
Consider the divorce rate. Starmer must be among the more reliable partners anyone can expect.
And how many times has there been any substance? (A: zero)
It barely reaches the very low bar of being more interesting than Labour's manifesto.
Unless there are progeny that he's disowned and refuses to pay for there's clearly not going to be a scandal.
And if you slip the first stitch knitwise you get a nice selvedge edge.
Freedom from Poverty, Hunger, Ignorance or to put it into more meaningful terms freedom from having to wait months or years for a hospital appointment, freedom from pain, freedom from fear of crime and freedom from becoming a victim not just of petty crime but freedom from corporate crime, freedom from being gouged by foreign-owned corporations and freedom from the pathetic services they provide.
The Conservatives have had 14 years in Government to make it a better place for the citizens - they have failed dismally and completely. That's not to say there isn't a place for conservative thinking but that's not to be found in the current iteration of the Party.
That Party needs to, pace Dracula, be held down and have a stake driven through its still beating heart.
From there, perhaps, it can return as a genuinely conservative party interested in the welfare of all citizens.
https://aip.palantir.com/workflow/d8d7117b-57de-41be-aba3-2955aa525c24
If it literally is just this then standards are falling even amongst guttersnipes and snitches
Rassemblement national/Le Pen: 31%
Left alliance/Melenchon: 28%
Renaissance/Macron: 18%
and the Deluxe
and the Pounder
and the Burger
So what?
Guido has always been more sizzle than sausage, but where's the sizzle here?
Even the plaintive mention of Boris is a bit sad.
Hence Lincoln in 1855 - "I am not a Know-Nothing. That is certain. How could I be? How can any one who abhors the oppression of negroes, be in favor of degrading classes of white people? Our progress in degeneracy appears to me to be pretty rapid. As a nation, we begin by declaring that "all men are created equal." We now practically read it "all men are created equal, except negroes." When the Know-Nothings get control, it will read "all men are created equal, except negroes, and foreigners, and catholics." When it comes to this I should prefer emigrating to some country where they make no pretence of loving liberty-to Russia, for instance, where despotism can be taken pure, and without the base alloy of hypocracy."
He was a good looking man with an impressive career and single and in his 30s. And he tupped several women
File under: dog doesn’t even bite man, just barks a bit
And not a good one for macron. Just chaos he caused with a desperate move
No, strike that, reverse it. The TORIES are the nanny state doing the exact same thing she is attacking Labour for doing.
This is why the Tories are absolutely doomed. Can't accept reality, keep saying black is white. etc.
Giorgia
G-I-O-R-G-I-A
Why do I suspect I'm shouting at a brick wall?
They would produce more if they used the money to settle the junior doctors strike. Which they probably will.
Is this really the height of their ambition? It's pathetic.