This afternoon canvassing, I met a young man who was going to vote Reform. He wanted a strong man to break the system that was screwing the young. He was a Trump supporter too. I pointed out the dangers of Farage and Trump. He said the young has nothing to lose by it and possibly something to gain. It's a generational revolt. It got me thinking as a member of the old generation. It's imperative we look after the interests and prospects of the young. Housing obviously. But much wider than that. And I'm happy to lose the triple lock and NI advantage to help finance it.
A very good thread header from a first timer! My compliments.
Ultimately, the neoliberal consensus of the last 40 or so years is thoroughly broken now - the idea that most would do well out of it, and even the worst off would do better out of it than they would in any other system no longer seems to hold. Capitalism is becoming feudalism, with an entrenched 1% and a servant/serf class, unable to ever get out of the debt trap for long enough to accumulate assets of their own. So what comes next - history teaches us either the far left, or the far right, or both.
It's an interesting lens through which to view the next government. Starmer appears to be very conscious of his good fortune in life, and seems to be driven by the idea of service or duty - which actually feels quite close to the ideas expressed by Ramsay Macdonald.
Who is, incidentally, another candidate for the best-looking PM of the last century:
I attended hustings last week where one of the candidates was explicitly and almost exclusively anti WEF and corporatism.
It was odd. I thought we as an audience got the message, it was undermined slightly by anti vax statements inferring that big pharma was behind Covid. Nevertheless it wasn’t shouted down. Reform and Cons were both treated with more derision.
So why is Marine Le Pen doing a Nazi salute in the picture?
This time next week I shall be in France watching horrified frenchies bewailing the depths to which their country is plunging,
Ive brought a crate of Nyetimber out to enjoy it.
How many bottles in a “crate”? That sounds serious.
Best ESW though remains Dermot Sugrue’s “the trouble with dreams” range. Head and shoulders above almost all others. England’s finest winemaker is an Irishman.
Nyetimber are bloody good too, particularly their prestige cuvees. Then Oxney estate - probably my favourite of the mid sized producers.
My son is getting married to a francaise next week end. They have ordered loads of champagne so I thought I chuck in some homegrown not to let the side down. I got a crate of Nyetimer (12) and another of Bride Valley ( never had it any good ?). Ive found it difficult to source english wine in France, I get the impression the producers dont push it much.
Ive tried Sugrues Wiston but found it a bit sharp wines but the ones I like at the moment are Hattingley, Camel valley Rose and Gusbourne. English wine really has come on leaps and bounds in the last 10 years, There is also now a vineyard infrastructure worth the name the facilities at Hush Heath, Bolney or Chapel Down are worth the visit.
Hard yakka tho. For anyone that thinks this travel writing lark is a doddle
I’ve driven 200 miles today and walked 6 miles and been to two islands after waking at 6am on the boat. And all while taking notes and reading Breton history and listening to French history in the car - and even having the odd debate on here
And I’ve got to do six islands in 7 days. Not what you’d choose for a holiday
Labour is to appoint dozens of peers within weeks in an attempt to push through its policies and improve the representation of women in the House of Lords, the Guardian has learned.
Talking of scapegoating, what about the scapegoating of working class communities for whom none of this has worked and for whom labour just took for granted as they always voted for them and the Tories did sod all to level up. Communities that lose their brightest and best to London and the South where the jobs and opportunities are. Communities that, under both parties, saw the good paying jobs in industry exported and replace with call centres and distribution hubs. The posho contingency here has not got a clue how many people just exist in this country.
You see some of the wailing about Brexit, like Eric idle today whining because he cannot go to France for more than 90 days, something that really affects precious few people to see the level of detachment.
I did not vote Brexit and would not vote reform but I absolutely get why people did/do and the failure of mainstream politicians to engage with these communities but just tell them what they should think has been telling.
Any argument is a little undermined by this "Communities that lose their brightest and best to London and the South where the jobs and opportunities are."
It really isn't as this does happen. But thanks for reading and the usual condescening response we expect from the detached.
Come along. You're asking for an incentive package that makes people want to stay and perhaps move in to a community that has people leaving. It's a big ask. And the big question is quite why you'd do all this?
I haven't asked for anything, Just commented as to why I think the things in the original article happen. What would stop people leaving would be opportunities here. I think we have had some forward looking politicians like Nick Forbes at Newcastle but too many prepared to do little but posture and blame the south for all our woes. Grievance farming.
I know our communities won't get anything. We have to do it ourselves. Hard when you lose young people who are part of the future. My hope is that having a Northern Mayor in Kim McGuinness may be a spur to growth. It would be nice to get the same level of investment per head on transport that the wealthier regions need. We probably need it more. But it won't happen whoever wins.
Patrick O'Flynn @oflynnsocial · 2h A lot of gossip on the Westminster grapevine that the election betting scandal may be about to take a devastating new turn for the Tories. 👀
Rishi had a crafty flutter? :Or maybe Lord Cameron (he used to be a PB observer)
Talking of scapegoating, what about the scapegoating of working class communities for whom none of this has worked and for whom labour just took for granted as they always voted for them and the Tories did sod all to level up. Communities that lose their brightest and best to London and the South where the jobs and opportunities are. Communities that, under both parties, saw the good paying jobs in industry exported and replace with call centres and distribution hubs. The posho contingency here has not got a clue how many people just exist in this country.
You see some of the wailing about Brexit, like Eric idle today whining because he cannot go to France for more than 90 days, something that really affects precious few people to see the level of detachment.
I did not vote Brexit and would not vote reform but I absolutely get why people did/do and the failure of mainstream politicians to engage with these communities but just tell them what they should think has been telling.
Any argument is a little undermined by this "Communities that lose their brightest and best to London and the South where the jobs and opportunities are."
It really isn't as this does happen. But thanks for reading and the usual condescening response we expect from the detached.
Come along. You're asking for an incentive package that makes people want to stay and perhaps move in to a community that has people leaving. It's a big ask. And the big question is quite why you'd do all this?
Levelling up. So that wealth is distributed better geographically around the country.
It’s worth noting that every single mainstream party pays lip service to this.
So why is Marine Le Pen doing a Nazi salute in the picture?
This time next week I shall be in France watching horrified frenchies bewailing the depths to which their country is plunging,
Ive brought a crate of Nyetimber out to enjoy it.
Come and join me
Today I woke up in a boat in St Malo. Went to the local Carrefour and bought wine. Drove across Brittany to beautiful beautiful Vannes. Met the guide. Had a lovely walk. Had a dozen oysters (Thankyou French taxpayers) and some muscadet. Then drove to port badon and got a tiny boat to the sacred Neolithic island of Gavrinis and its neighbouring islands with its half drowned Stonehenge and spent the time chatting (flirting?) with a French New Zealand lady and then got the boat back and then I drove over an ISTHMUS to Quiberon where I’ve just had excellent local langoustines with the home made mayonnaise in the best restaurant in town and now I sit in my room staring at the sea (great view out to the islands) and I drink the wine I bought in Carrefour and even now, after 35 years of doing this, I cannot believe this is MY JOB and I am paid to do it
So why is Marine Le Pen doing a Nazi salute in the picture?
This time next week I shall be in France watching horrified frenchies bewailing the depths to which their country is plunging,
Ive brought a crate of Nyetimber out to enjoy it.
You'll be disappointed. I've seldom seen France as crowded and lively as it is now. Certainly I've never known the south as busy as it is this July. You'll melt (at least you would if you weren't engrossed in spreadsheets).
Roger my son lives off the Place de la Republique which is where lots of the leftie demos start ( you'd love it !) he says its getting progressively nuts as the days roll on. So crowded and lively yes, but thats how riots start. I'd expect an explosion of sorts Sunday night when the results start rolling in.
Anyway I'll be up North near Versailles, my main worry is rain on Satrurday not frying
Re Header. I think @maxh that there're quite a lot of gaps in what you say. Let's take each of the points in turn.
1. If you can generalise then it's 'not in my back yard' or 'too fast'. The British are generally very welcoming and embracing of foreign cultures.
2. A three-day working week won't work until a four-day working week does.
3. Manila isn't our problem.
4. Bad parenting has always been around
5. Drugs are always bad. As I post this I'm conscious that there's some alcohol in the mix, and if I reflect then I'd prefer that it wasn't there.
The far right is about freedom, and who's to argue with that. I think you've somewhat mistaken quite what that entails. But don't worry the far right have forgotten about the freedom bit and will have you arrested soon!
I appreciate the challenge, not sure I understood much of that though!
Talking of scapegoating, what about the scapegoating of working class communities for whom none of this has worked and for whom labour just took for granted as they always voted for them and the Tories did sod all to level up. Communities that lose their brightest and best to London and the South where the jobs and opportunities are. Communities that, under both parties, saw the good paying jobs in industry exported and replace with call centres and distribution hubs. The posho contingency here has not got a clue how many people just exist in this country.
You see some of the wailing about Brexit, like Eric idle today whining because he cannot go to France for more than 90 days, something that really affects precious few people to see the level of detachment.
I did not vote Brexit and would not vote reform but I absolutely get why people did/do and the failure of mainstream politicians to engage with these communities but just tell them what they should think has been telling.
Any argument is a little undermined by this "Communities that lose their brightest and best to London and the South where the jobs and opportunities are."
It really isn't as this does happen. But thanks for reading and the usual condescening response we expect from the detached.
Come along. You're asking for an incentive package that makes people want to stay and perhaps move in to a community that has people leaving. It's a big ask. And the big question is quite why you'd do all this?
Levelling up. So that wealth is distributed better geographically around the country.
It’s worth noting that every single mainstream party pays lip service to this.
Labour is to appoint dozens of peers within weeks in an attempt to push through its policies and improve the representation of women in the House of Lords, the Guardian has learned.
When parliament reconvenes he's going to get his supporters to protest outside parliament isn't he?
🚨 ELECTION INTERFERENCE ALERT 🚨
Today's Mail on Sunday claimed President Zelensky said that I was personally infected with Putinism. This is totally untrue and I have instructed Carter Ruck to deal with it.
Tomorrow’s Daily Mail are so desperate to smear Reform that they have now contacted the Russian Foreign Ministry and goaded them into a supposed quote from someone in Sergey Lavrov’s office calling me an ‘ally’.
That a UK newspaper group is actively collaborating with the Kremlin to protect their dying Conservative party is an absolute scandal. The British people will see through this act of utter desperation.
The quote in the Kremlin came from a guy in Lavrov's office called Zinoviev, great grandson of the late Grigory Zinoviev, who was a valued letter writer to the Daily Mail editor in 1924.
Patrick O'Flynn @oflynnsocial · 2h A lot of gossip on the Westminster grapevine that the election betting scandal may be about to take a devastating new turn for the Tories. 👀
BBC: Pat McFadden, the [Labour] party’s National Campaign Co-ordinator, has written to the chief executive of the Gambling Commission, Andrew Rhodes, to argue that “it is in the public interest that the Gambling Commission makes public the names of other figures you are investigating relating to this matter". "There will be particular interest in whether any government ministers bet on the date of the election before it was called," he wrote. In other words, Labour are stoking speculation - without any specific evidence - that a minister, or perhaps more than one, might have placed a bet. Election campaigns can be a rough old business, and so the absence of knowing the full list of those being looked into allows Labour to ask that question, until every single minister has denied putting on a bet.
When parliament reconvenes he's going to get his supporters to protest outside parliament isn't he?
🚨 ELECTION INTERFERENCE ALERT 🚨
Today's Mail on Sunday claimed President Zelensky said that I was personally infected with Putinism. This is totally untrue and I have instructed Carter Ruck to deal with it.
Tomorrow’s Daily Mail are so desperate to smear Reform that they have now contacted the Russian Foreign Ministry and goaded them into a supposed quote from someone in Sergey Lavrov’s office calling me an ‘ally’.
That a UK newspaper group is actively collaborating with the Kremlin to protect their dying Conservative party is an absolute scandal. The British people will see through this act of utter desperation.
An excellent header. I would take issue with the “neo-liberalism” label, though. Like “woke” it has just become a swear word for “what I don’t like”.
For example, many self proclaimed “anti-neo-liberals” advocate open borders. Others want population *reduction*.
That aside, I would say that the issue is trying to claim that “Some issues are beyond debate - you *must* shut up”.
The problem there is that the modern doctrine of democracy is that “The People Are Sovereign”. And, as we know “Must is not a word to be used to Princes Sovereigns”.
I can hear the pain from some here. “X is a moral and ethical issue. You cannot let the people decide.”
You have two choices - either you deny democracy. And that leads to the rise of the populists. Or you admit the issues and find different solutions.
Thanks. I do agree neo-liberalism is perhaps a term that has lost meaning through overuse.
And on the substance I agree - refusing to debate the issue rarely works.
Re Header. I think @maxh that there're quite a lot of gaps in what you say. Let's take each of the points in turn.
1. If you can generalise then it's 'not in my back yard' or 'too fast'. The British are generally very welcoming and embracing of foreign cultures.
2. A three-day working week won't work until a four-day working week does.
3. Manila isn't our problem.
4. Bad parenting has always been around
5. Drugs are always bad. As I post this I'm conscious that there's some alcohol in the mix, and if I reflect then I'd prefer that it wasn't there.
The far right is about freedom, and who's to argue with that. I think you've somewhat mistaken quite what that entails. But don't worry the far right have forgotten about the freedom bit and will have you arrested soon!
I appreciate the challenge, not sure I understood much of that though!
So why is Marine Le Pen doing a Nazi salute in the picture?
This time next week I shall be in France watching horrified frenchies bewailing the depths to which their country is plunging,
Ive brought a crate of Nyetimber out to enjoy it.
How many bottles in a “crate”? That sounds serious.
Best ESW though remains Dermot Sugrue’s “the trouble with dreams” range. Head and shoulders above almost all others. England’s finest winemaker is an Irishman.
Nyetimber are bloody good too, particularly their prestige cuvees. Then Oxney estate - probably my favourite of the mid sized producers.
My son is getting married to a francaise next week end. They have ordered loads of champagne so I thought I chuck in some homegrown not to let the side down. I got a crate of Nyetimer (12) and another of Bride Valley ( never had it any good ?). Ive found it difficult to source english wine in France, I get the impression the producers dont push it much.
Ive tried Sugrues Wiston but found it a bit sharp wines but the ones I like at the moment are Hattingley, Camel valley Rose and Gusbourne. English wine really has come on leaps and bounds in the last 10 years, There is also now a vineyard infrastructure worth the name the facilities at Hush Heath, Bolney or Chapel Down are worth the visit.
Long may it continue !
Good luck. Nyetimber a good option for a French audience I think as very Champagne-like. I like Bride valley too, similar style in theory but more English (fruit-forward).
Sugrue’s own label creations aren’t sharp, though honestly I’ve always found Wiston the opposite anyway, quite heavy on the oxygen (in a nice way) and savoury, but I suppose it depends on when and where, and which wine.
Patrick O'Flynn @oflynnsocial · 2h A lot of gossip on the Westminster grapevine that the election betting scandal may be about to take a devastating new turn for the Tories. 👀
Rishi had a crafty flutter? :Or maybe Lord Cameron (he used to be a PB observer)
So why is Marine Le Pen doing a Nazi salute in the picture?
This time next week I shall be in France watching horrified frenchies bewailing the depths to which their country is plunging,
Ive brought a crate of Nyetimber out to enjoy it.
How many bottles in a “crate”? That sounds serious.
Best ESW though remains Dermot Sugrue’s “the trouble with dreams” range. Head and shoulders above almost all others. England’s finest winemaker is an Irishman.
Nyetimber are bloody good too, particularly their prestige cuvees. Then Oxney estate - probably my favourite of the mid sized producers.
My son is getting married to a francaise next week end. They have ordered loads of champagne so I thought I chuck in some homegrown not to let the side down. I got a crate of Nyetimer (12) and another of Bride Valley ( never had it any good ?). Ive found it difficult to source english wine in France, I get the impression the producers dont push it much.
Ive tried Sugrues Wiston but found it a bit sharp wines but the ones I like at the moment are Hattingley, Camel valley Rose and Gusbourne. English wine really has come on leaps and bounds in the last 10 years, There is also now a vineyard infrastructure worth the name the facilities at Hush Heath, Bolney or Chapel Down are worth the visit.
Long may it continue !
Chapel Down Rose, which is pretty terrific, now seen as one of the world’s best wines:
So why is Marine Le Pen doing a Nazi salute in the picture?
This time next week I shall be in France watching horrified frenchies bewailing the depths to which their country is plunging,
Ive brought a crate of Nyetimber out to enjoy it.
You'll be disappointed. I've seldom seen France as crowded and lively as it is now. Certainly I've never known the south as busy as it is this July. You'll melt (at least you would if you weren't engrossed in spreadsheets).
It’s not just France. It’s worldwide. Travel is booming and it’s becoming a massive issue everywhere
Labour is to appoint dozens of peers within weeks in an attempt to push through its policies and improve the representation of women in the House of Lords, the Guardian has learned.
So why is Marine Le Pen doing a Nazi salute in the picture?
This time next week I shall be in France watching horrified frenchies bewailing the depths to which their country is plunging,
Ive brought a crate of Nyetimber out to enjoy it.
How many bottles in a “crate”? That sounds serious.
Best ESW though remains Dermot Sugrue’s “the trouble with dreams” range. Head and shoulders above almost all others. England’s finest winemaker is an Irishman.
Nyetimber are bloody good too, particularly their prestige cuvees. Then Oxney estate - probably my favourite of the mid sized producers.
My son is getting married to a francaise next week end. They have ordered loads of champagne so I thought I chuck in some homegrown not to let the side down. I got a crate of Nyetimer (12) and another of Bride Valley ( never had it any good ?). Ive found it difficult to source english wine in France, I get the impression the producers dont push it much.
Ive tried Sugrues Wiston but found it a bit sharp wines but the ones I like at the moment are Hattingley, Camel valley Rose and Gusbourne. English wine really has come on leaps and bounds in the last 10 years, There is also now a vineyard infrastructure worth the name the facilities at Hush Heath, Bolney or Chapel Down are worth the visit.
Long may it continue !
Chapel Down Rose, which is pretty terrific, now seen as one of the world’s best wines:
Patrick O'Flynn @oflynnsocial · 2h A lot of gossip on the Westminster grapevine that the election betting scandal may be about to take a devastating new turn for the Tories. 👀
Rishi had a crafty flutter? :Or maybe Lord Cameron (he used to be a PB observer)
If it really is Rishi - and he's been so stupid as to bet on a matter that he is personally responsible for deciding - then just what sort of chaos will be unleashed?
Will he go into hiding? Stand down as PM before the election? Hang on and watch his party end up with 0 seats?
Patrick O'Flynn @oflynnsocial · 2h A lot of gossip on the Westminster grapevine that the election betting scandal may be about to take a devastating new turn for the Tories. 👀
Rishi had a crafty flutter? :Or maybe Lord Cameron (he used to be a PB observer)
If it really is Rishi - and he's been so stupid as to bet on a matter that he is personally responsible for deciding - then just what sort of chaos will be unleashed?
Will he go into hiding? Stand down as PM before the election? Hang on and watch his party end up with 0 seats?
It's certainly not very fair, but it's difficult to conjure up much sympathy, considering how much of this mess they've brought down on their own heads.
On thread: Interesting article: I have some sympathy with Reform's position as Maxh describes it: commodification isn't working for everyone, and my view is that the benefits mass immigration brings isn't, on balance worth the cost. It's a pity that the only party articulating that view is led by, and to a surprising degree staffed by, out and out cranks.
Labour is to appoint dozens of peers within weeks in an attempt to push through its policies and improve the representation of women in the House of Lords, the Guardian has learned.
Incidentally, was in a local car park after going to the cinema to see "Inside out 2" (*), and saw a car with a large "I'm voting Labour" poster in the rear driver's side window. The first such for any party I can remember seeing.
But it got me thinking: you are not allowed tinted windows (or windows tinted past a certain opacity) in cars. Would have posters in the windows also count? Or is it only permanent tinting?
A very good thread header from a first timer! My compliments.
Ultimately, the neoliberal consensus of the last 40 or so years is thoroughly broken now - the idea that most would do well out of it, and even the worst off would do better out of it than they would in any other system no longer seems to hold. Capitalism is becoming feudalism, with an entrenched 1% and a servant/serf class, unable to ever get out of the debt trap for long enough to accumulate assets of their own. So what comes next - history teaches us either the far left, or the far right, or both.
It's an interesting lens through which to view the next government. Starmer appears to be very conscious of his good fortune in life, and seems to be driven by the idea of service or duty - which actually feels quite close to the ideas expressed by Ramsay Macdonald.
Who is, incidentally, another candidate for the best-looking PM of the last century:
It's why I find @148grss one of the more interesting posters on the site. In a PB consensus of the older and well off for whom the system has worked, there's at least one marxist pointing out how badly the system works for most people.
Where I think Blair had it right, though, and Starmer possibly isn't right, in about talking about 'working people' who have no savings, is that most people want to get on and do better in life than where they started. New Labour won because it gave us all the belief that if you worked hard enough, if you started from nowhere, you'd be rewarded - it was the party of both working class and middle class aspiration.
What you have now is the Tories who are for the entrenched already-was-and-always-will-be-wealthy and Labour who think if you can save £3000 in the bank you're rich. The truth is probably somewhere in the middle.
Capitalism works when there's a high degree of mobility based on meritocracy. Could anybody argue that's the system we have now, though? Capitalism does well with a burgeoning middle class. Yet the shrinking middle class has been the story of my lifetime. Now, we have a very rich elite vs everyone else. Little wonder people are hopping mad, and turning to far left or far right ideologies.
Labour is to appoint dozens of peers within weeks in an attempt to push through its policies and improve the representation of women in the House of Lords, the Guardian has learned.
But it got me thinking: you are not allowed tinted windows (or windows tinted past a certain opacity) in cars. Would have posters in the windows also count? Or is it only permanent tinting?
So why is Marine Le Pen doing a Nazi salute in the picture?
This time next week I shall be in France watching horrified frenchies bewailing the depths to which their country is plunging,
Ive brought a crate of Nyetimber out to enjoy it.
How many bottles in a “crate”? That sounds serious.
Best ESW though remains Dermot Sugrue’s “the trouble with dreams” range. Head and shoulders above almost all others. England’s finest winemaker is an Irishman.
Nyetimber are bloody good too, particularly their prestige cuvees. Then Oxney estate - probably my favourite of the mid sized producers.
My son is getting married to a francaise next week end. They have ordered loads of champagne so I thought I chuck in some homegrown not to let the side down. I got a crate of Nyetimer (12) and another of Bride Valley ( never had it any good ?). Ive found it difficult to source english wine in France, I get the impression the producers dont push it much.
Ive tried Sugrues Wiston but found it a bit sharp wines but the ones I like at the moment are Hattingley, Camel valley Rose and Gusbourne. English wine really has come on leaps and bounds in the last 10 years, There is also now a vineyard infrastructure worth the name the facilities at Hush Heath, Bolney or Chapel Down are worth the visit.
Long may it continue !
Chapel Down Rose, which is pretty terrific, now seen as one of the world’s best wines:
Nyetimber rose is also fantastic. The best pink fizz in the world?
I’m hopeful that when my wines become available (several years to go as I plan to keep them on lees for a long time, including rose) the pink will be up there. We’re on very good Pinot meunier soils, pretty similar to the Marne Valley silex, and I’ve focused a lot on meunier. It’s my biggest planting. It’s undermarketed in champagne and most pinks are Pinot noir heavy. Pinot meunier is crunchier, smoky, a bit alien in the sense you could imagine it being made in the upside down on stranger things.
It’s going to be blanc de meunier, rosé sparkling meunier and Pinot noir, and either still or sparkling Melon (muscadet) depending on how it ripens.
I really enjoyed this @maxh. As noted by another poster it is thoughtful and salient. It strikes me how the feel of your argument aligns with the pollster thread down thread about how May's 'just about managing' had legs. I think the country are looking for a more fundamental alternative and we must avoid the extremes offering a simplistic option. The Conservative Party have an opportunity post-defeat to really reflect on conservatism for this era. Competence, decency and fiscal prudence are all things the party must win back trust for, but it cannot just offer a better Labour party for 10 years time. Personally, I think the party could do a lot worse than look at Nick Timothy for philosophical inspiration.
But it got me thinking: you are not allowed tinted windows (or windows tinted past a certain opacity) in cars. Would have posters in the windows also count? Or is it only permanent tinting?
Only the front windows. Vans are legal
I'm sure I've seen a TV cops program where they tested the rear driver's side windows? Could be wrong, though. And your point about vans makes sense.
So why is Marine Le Pen doing a Nazi salute in the picture?
This time next week I shall be in France watching horrified frenchies bewailing the depths to which their country is plunging,
Ive brought a crate of Nyetimber out to enjoy it.
How many bottles in a “crate”? That sounds serious.
Best ESW though remains Dermot Sugrue’s “the trouble with dreams” range. Head and shoulders above almost all others. England’s finest winemaker is an Irishman.
Nyetimber are bloody good too, particularly their prestige cuvees. Then Oxney estate - probably my favourite of the mid sized producers.
My son is getting married to a francaise next week end. They have ordered loads of champagne so I thought I chuck in some homegrown not to let the side down. I got a crate of Nyetimer (12) and another of Bride Valley ( never had it any good ?). Ive found it difficult to source english wine in France, I get the impression the producers dont push it much.
Ive tried Sugrues Wiston but found it a bit sharp wines but the ones I like at the moment are Hattingley, Camel valley Rose and Gusbourne. English wine really has come on leaps and bounds in the last 10 years, There is also now a vineyard infrastructure worth the name the facilities at Hush Heath, Bolney or Chapel Down are worth the visit.
Long may it continue !
Chapel Down Rose, which is pretty terrific, now seen as one of the world’s best wines:
On thread: Interesting article: I have some sympathy with Reform's position as Maxh describes it: commodification isn't working for everyone, and my view is that the benefits mass immigration brings isn't, on balance worth the cost. It's a pity that the only party articulating that view is led by, and to a surprising degree staffed by, out and out cranks.
It is always the case with "fringe" political groups.
Hence why his plan is to cripple the much larger and more established Tory party and take it over.
Momentum tried to do the same, but from within the Labour Party, so the election of a hostile leader enabled their suppression.
The most dangerous time for Farage and his fellow travellers will come -after- merger with the Tories for this reason.
On thread: Interesting article: I have some sympathy with Reform's position as Maxh describes it: commodification isn't working for everyone, and my view is that the benefits mass immigration brings isn't, on balance worth the cost. It's a pity that the only party articulating that view is led by, and to a surprising degree staffed by, out and out cranks.
I think you're right. Mass immigration is a mix of things though. What definitely doesn't work is the influx of the apparently stateless. We should exclude such people.
Do pb-ers genuinely think Starmer is good looking?!
I am surprised. Also encouraged as I’m almost his age. To me he looks like an average slightly tubby quite well preserved north london lawyer. His wife is still striking and must have been an absolute stunner
Macron is not handsome. He was a pretty boy with hints of the epicene but I don’t think it’s going to last
The one seriously good looking world leader is Justin Trudeau. Can’t stand his politics but very very handsome. Great hair
In terms of female leaders then FINLAND RUMOUR KLAXON
But it got me thinking: you are not allowed tinted windows (or windows tinted past a certain opacity) in cars. Would have posters in the windows also count? Or is it only permanent tinting?
Only the front windows. Vans are legal
I'm sure I've seen a TV cops program where they tested the rear driver's side windows? Could be wrong, though. And your point about vans makes sense.
Up to a point it does. With a van you know where you are, with an over tinted window there's the danger you think you can see when actually you can't.
An interesting piece @maxh though I think what you call neo-liberalism has been an integral part of capitalism since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution.
Cheap labour and cheap resources have driven economic growth for the last 300 years with technological innovation providing more of both when required. We are very often simply economic drones whose reason to exist is work, consumption, sleep and repeat. That is tied in to the fundamental that is the capitalist offering - if you work hard and earn money you can build a better life for yourself and your family. It's that which encourages millions of people to move whether within countries or across continents or even across the world itself.
Money talks, men (and women) walk as someone once put it and whether it's from the field to the factory or from the north of England to the south east people will always go where the money is. Would people for example work in Dubai or Bahrain if it wasn't full of oil money?
With cheap labour comes the need for cheap resources whether it be oil, silver or even water in the future. Economic and foreign policy will overlap when it comes to resources and the challenge of climate change is part of that.
It may be future technological innovation will change that dynamic but the current system works well for large corporations and businesses and it's always been my thought one day business will go into government and government will go out of business.
Thanks, and I agree with much of that. Perhaps my observation is simply that, whilst this has always been the nature of capitalism, its more absurd aspects are becoming more apparent to more of us, hence people voting for those who offer an alternative, however flawed that alternative is.
Talking of scapegoating, what about the scapegoating of working class communities for whom none of this has worked and for whom labour just took for granted as they always voted for them and the Tories did sod all to level up. Communities that lose their brightest and best to London and the South where the jobs and opportunities are. Communities that, under both parties, saw the good paying jobs in industry exported and replace with call centres and distribution hubs. The posho contingency here has not got a clue how many people just exist in this country.
You see some of the wailing about Brexit, like Eric idle today whining because he cannot go to France for more than 90 days, something that really affects precious few people to see the level of detachment.
I did not vote Brexit and would not vote reform but I absolutely get why people did/do and the failure of mainstream politicians to engage with these communities but just tell them what they should think has been telling.
But it got me thinking: you are not allowed tinted windows (or windows tinted past a certain opacity) in cars. Would have posters in the windows also count? Or is it only permanent tinting?
Only the front windows. Vans are legal
I'm sure I've seen a TV cops program where they tested the rear driver's side windows? Could be wrong, though. And your point about vans makes sense.
Up to a point it does. With a van you know where you are, with an over tinted window there's the danger you think you can see when actually you can't.
"privacy glass" (almost black) is legal in the UK on rear windows
I haven’t been sure when to write this, but having hosted a panel on neurodiversity at the amazing @Founders_Forum last week, now seems as good a time as any. About two years ago I was diagnosed as autistic. It is something I was open about within @FLFusion immediately... https://x.com/FLF_Nick/status/1804842540375413077
Now, I have friends in that party, and I'm fairly sure that their view on billionaires is... take them out to lunch and set them straight? Put them in front of a panel of old women and make them justify their wealth? Tax them fairly through international diplomatic agreement? Help me out here.
Do pb-ers genuinely think Starmer is good looking?!
I am surprised. Also encouraged as I’m almost his age. To me he looks like an average slightly tubby quite well preserved north london lawyer. His wife is still striking and must have been an absolute stunner
Macron is not handsome. He was a pretty boy with hints of the epicene but I don’t think it’s going to last
The one seriously good looking world leader is Justin Trudeau. Can’t stand his politics but very very handsome. Great hair
In terms of female leaders then FINLAND RUMOUR KLAXON
But it got me thinking: you are not allowed tinted windows (or windows tinted past a certain opacity) in cars. Would have posters in the windows also count? Or is it only permanent tinting?
Only the front windows. Vans are legal
I'm sure I've seen a TV cops program where they tested the rear driver's side windows? Could be wrong, though. And your point about vans makes sense.
Up to a point it does. With a van you know where you are, with an over tinted window there's the danger you think you can see when actually you can't.
"privacy glass" (almost black) is legal in the UK on rear windows
The UK doesn't do far right, even Farage is closer to the ERG wing of the Tories than Nick Griffin.
I also don't see what use the talking shops of citizens assemblies are? If voters want to change something they can elect a different party in the Commons, the upper house is supposed to be a revising chamber of experts in their fields not Joe and Maureen down the street picked at random from a lottery and obliged to serve for a year in a role that would bore them rigid.
Stakeholder capitalism maybe but we already have John Lewis for that.
Do pb-ers genuinely think Starmer is good looking?!
I am surprised. Also encouraged as I’m almost his age. To me he looks like an average slightly tubby quite well preserved north london lawyer. His wife is still striking and must have been an absolute stunner
Macron is not handsome. He was a pretty boy with hints of the epicene but I don’t think it’s going to last
The one seriously good looking world leader is Justin Trudeau. Can’t stand his politics but very very handsome. Great hair
In terms of female leaders then FINLAND RUMOUR KLAXON
Do pb-ers genuinely think Starmer is good looking?!
I am surprised. Also encouraged as I’m almost his age. To me he looks like an average slightly tubby quite well preserved north london lawyer. His wife is still striking and must have been an absolute stunner
Macron is not handsome. He was a pretty boy with hints of the epicene but I don’t think it’s going to last
The one seriously good looking world leader is Justin Trudeau. Can’t stand his politics but very very handsome. Great hair
In terms of female leaders then FINLAND RUMOUR KLAXON
Do pb-ers genuinely think Starmer is good looking?!
I am surprised. Also encouraged as I’m almost his age. To me he looks like an average slightly tubby quite well preserved north london lawyer. His wife is still striking and must have been an absolute stunner
Macron is not handsome. He was a pretty boy with hints of the epicene but I don’t think it’s going to last
The one seriously good looking world leader is Justin Trudeau. Can’t stand his politics but very very handsome. Great hair
In terms of female leaders then FINLAND RUMOUR KLAXON
Talking of scapegoating, what about the scapegoating of working class communities for whom none of this has worked and for whom labour just took for granted as they always voted for them and the Tories did sod all to level up. Communities that lose their brightest and best to London and the South where the jobs and opportunities are. Communities that, under both parties, saw the good paying jobs in industry exported and replace with call centres and distribution hubs. The posho contingency here has not got a clue how many people just exist in this country.
You see some of the wailing about Brexit, like Eric idle today whining because he cannot go to France for more than 90 days, something that really affects precious few people to see the level of detachment.
I did not vote Brexit and would not vote reform but I absolutely get why people did/do and the failure of mainstream politicians to engage with these communities but just tell them what they should think has been telling.
Any argument is a little undermined by this "Communities that lose their brightest and best to London and the South where the jobs and opportunities are."
This is where the paradox with Reform is at its most stark - Farage is an unreconstructed Thatcherite. He wants tax cuts, a la Truss, for the wealthy and is signed up to all this supply-side Lafferite nonsense. He also wants spending cuts though he rarely says it out loud wittering on about "woke" and "diversity".
Reform members and voters, on the other hand, are in a very different place. They signed up to the Conservative Levelling Up aganda which promised more money and resources for the north and midlands. Sunak and the Conservatives betrayed this in a nanosecond with the scrapping of HS2 north of Birmingham - a huge middle finger to the north.
Reform members and voters want the money and resources spent on the WWC in the north, not "wasted" as they would see it on the metropolitan liberal south. What won the north and midlands (the "Red Wall") wasn't Brexit - it was the sale of council houses. The sons and daughters of the original council house buyers inheriting property, becoming home owners and becoming Conservatives.
Labour neglected the north and didn't see or understand the impact of this huge change from rental to ownership - the Conservatives betrayed the north via the failure of HS2 and Levelling Up and the home owners are now left with big mortgages.
Reform's paradox will render it completely unable to meet the promises of their members and voters. The best hope for Reform oddly enough is to ditch Farage completely.
This is nauseating ahistorical drivel and more Kremlin propaganda. Nobody provoked Putin. Nobody “poked the bear with a stick”. The people of Ukraine voted overwhelmingly in 1991 to be a sovereign and independent country. They were perfectly entitled to seek both NATO and EU membership. There is only one person responsible for Russian aggression against Ukraine - both in 2014 and 2022 - and that is Putin. To try to spread the blame is morally repugnant and parroting Putin’s lies.
It is bizarre that the author should also suggest we now reduce our support for Ukraine, when the solution to the conflict is in fact clear - the Ukrainians need to win, and to repel Putin’s invasion. They can and they will. The problem in the last 30 years has not been western provocation but western weakness in the face of Russian aggression - a weakness exemplified by this article.
A very good thread header from a first timer! My compliments.
Ultimately, the neoliberal consensus of the last 40 or so years is thoroughly broken now - the idea that most would do well out of it, and even the worst off would do better out of it than they would in any other system no longer seems to hold. Capitalism is becoming feudalism, with an entrenched 1% and a servant/serf class, unable to ever get out of the debt trap for long enough to accumulate assets of their own. So what comes next - history teaches us either the far left, or the far right, or both.
It's an interesting lens through which to view the next government. Starmer appears to be very conscious of his good fortune in life, and seems to be driven by the idea of service or duty - which actually feels quite close to the ideas expressed by Ramsay Macdonald.
Who is, incidentally, another candidate for the best-looking PM of the last century:
It's why I find @148grss one of the more interesting posters on the site. In a PB consensus of the older and well off for whom the system has worked, there's at least one marxist pointing out how badly the system works for most people.
Where I think Blair had it right, though, and Starmer possibly isn't right, in about talking about 'working people' who have no savings, is that most people want to get on and do better in life than where they started. New Labour won because it gave us all the belief that if you worked hard enough, if you started from nowhere, you'd be rewarded - it was the party of both working class and middle class aspiration.
What you have now is the Tories who are for the entrenched already-was-and-always-will-be-wealthy and Labour who think if you can save £3000 in the bank you're rich. The truth is probably somewhere in the middle.
Capitalism works when there's a high degree of mobility based on meritocracy. Could anybody argue that's the system we have now, though? Capitalism does well with a burgeoning middle class. Yet the shrinking middle class has been the story of my lifetime. Now, we have a very rich elite vs everyone else. Little wonder people are hopping mad, and turning to far left or far right ideologies.
People keep forgetting the free market bit. Which is about mobility. For centuries the policy of the State was to prevent mobility. To each according to his/her station. Preventing change is a big part of it.
What we often see today, is regulatory or structural “capture” - large organisations get to the top of the hill and the. Use the resources of the state to keep others off.
Part of the Old 10K system was exactly that - for Order, society will be run as We, the Great And Good direct.
The #NU10K have the same flavour. And they seem to think they are doing us a favour.
Do pb-ers genuinely think Starmer is good looking?!
I am surprised. Also encouraged as I’m almost his age. To me he looks like an average slightly tubby quite well preserved north london lawyer. His wife is still striking and must have been an absolute stunner
Macron is not handsome. He was a pretty boy with hints of the epicene but I don’t think it’s going to last
The one seriously good looking world leader is Justin Trudeau. Can’t stand his politics but very very handsome. Great hair
In terms of female leaders then FINLAND RUMOUR KLAXON
Labour is to appoint dozens of peers within weeks in an attempt to push through its policies and improve the representation of women in the House of Lords, the Guardian has learned.
Patrick O'Flynn @oflynnsocial · 2h A lot of gossip on the Westminster grapevine that the election betting scandal may be about to take a devastating new turn for the Tories. 👀
And 2 hours later... still gossip. To be honest unless Rishi personally told all of CCHQ the election date before he formally announced it and gave them £50 each to put on at the bookies I really don't see what this 'devastating new turn might be' which would have any impact of significance
Incidentally, was in a local car park after going to the cinema to see "Inside out 2" (*), and saw a car with a large "I'm voting Labour" poster in the rear driver's side window. The first such for any party I can remember seeing.
But it got me thinking: you are not allowed tinted windows (or windows tinted past a certain opacity) in cars. Would have posters in the windows also count? Or is it only permanent tinting?
(*) Well worth seeing if you have kids IMO.
This is the first election I can remember where I've had no leaflets, door-knocks, anything. And I've not seen a single 'Vote XYZ' poster up in a window either. Quite possibly just my area - but I'd have expected at least a generic 'Why the other people are bad' A5 leaflet by now.
I haven’t been sure when to write this, but having hosted a panel on neurodiversity at the amazing @Founders_Forum last week, now seems as good a time as any. About two years ago I was diagnosed as autistic. It is something I was open about within @FLFusion immediately... https://x.com/FLF_Nick/status/1804842540375413077
Oh good. More of my money not performing. FLF have been a disappointment. I doubt it would have happened if they'd been under a US umbrella.
The UK doesn't do far right, even Farage is closer to the ERG wing of the Tories than Nick Griffin.
I also don't see what use the talking shops of citizens assemblies are? If voters want to change something they can elect a different party in the Commons, the upper house is supposed to be a revising chamber of experts in their fields not Joe and Maureen down the street picked at random from a lottery and obliged to serve for a year in a role that would bore them rigid.
Stakeholder capitalism maybe but we already have John Lewis for that.
On the first point, I hope you're right. We have a good history here. I agree Farage is not far right.
I think the difference citizens assemblies make is that is is not career politicians making decisions on our behalf. Part of our current problem is that politicians don't ever really pass the 'they're like me' test of legitimacy. Added to that, in practice, I've seen them produce nuanced, innovative, effective policy and consensus in areas politicians struggle with.
Notwithstanding John Lewis's struggles I'd say more like that would be a good start.
Now, I have friends in that party, and I'm fairly sure that their view on billionaires is... take them out to lunch and set them straight? Put them in front of a panel of old women and make them justify their wealth? Tax them fairly through international diplomatic agreement? Help me out here.
The British Communist party has quite a lot of valuable property and is a significant landlord, IIRC.
I imagine the difficulty of investigation into who placed bets / when is that the Fink went on a podcast and said he had heard it was July but didn't believe it, is when a load of the money went on.
People may well have bet on basis of similar rumours and had no inside knowledge at all. Trying to work out the difference between the two could very rather complex. I imagine there are 100s of political connected types who have had a flutter on things like GE date and winning party, size of majority etc.
Obviously if you work in #10 or related to the campaign director that is going to set off alarm bells.
Do pb-ers genuinely think Starmer is good looking?!
I am surprised. Also encouraged as I’m almost his age. To me he looks like an average slightly tubby quite well preserved north london lawyer. His wife is still striking and must have been an absolute stunner
Macron is not handsome. He was a pretty boy with hints of the epicene but I don’t think it’s going to last
The one seriously good looking world leader is Justin Trudeau. Can’t stand his politics but very very handsome. Great hair
In terms of female leaders then FINLAND RUMOUR KLAXON
Labour is to appoint dozens of peers within weeks in an attempt to push through its policies and improve the representation of women in the House of Lords, the Guardian has learned.
I really e joyed this. As noted by another poster it is thoughtful and salient. It strikes me how the feel of your argument aligns with the pollster thread down thread about how May's 'just about managing' had legs. I think the country are looking for a more fundamental alternative and we must avoid the extremes offering a simplistic option. The Conservative Party have an opportunity post-defeat to really reflect on conservatism for this era. Competence, decency and fiscal prudence are all things the party must win back trust for, but it cannot just offer a better Labour party for 10 years time. Personally, I think the party could do a lot worse than look at Nick Timothy for philosophical inspiration.
I realise I and a few others haven’t yet engaged with the excellent header.
Neoliberalism is a funny label. It’s almost always used as a criticism, but without the neo bit, “liberalism” is an important philosophy to cling on to: the scientific method, personal freedom, pluralism, the importance of education and so on.
The issue is the acceleration of the globalised consumer world, but what’s the solution? Surely not a return to a nostalgic past we can’t recreate. Nor a socialist utopia where competition disappears.
This has happened a few times in the past and it’s either led to revolution or reform. Britain has generally got ahead of revolution by reforming and regulating.
Regulation is the unsung hero of the last century and a half. Without it we’d still be sending kids up chimneys, tolerating slums and dumping toxic waste in the city fringes. We’d have no advertising standards, children could easily access violent porn online (I know, I know) and we’d all own semi automatic weapons.
The question being what now needs reforming and regulating most.
Do pb-ers genuinely think Starmer is good looking?!
I am surprised. Also encouraged as I’m almost his age. To me he looks like an average slightly tubby quite well preserved north london lawyer. His wife is still striking and must have been an absolute stunner
Macron is not handsome. He was a pretty boy with hints of the epicene but I don’t think it’s going to last
The one seriously good looking world leader is Justin Trudeau. Can’t stand his politics but very very handsome. Great hair
In terms of female leaders then FINLAND RUMOUR KLAXON
More that he's landed on the right interesction of age/looks/role?
A key problem facing the advanced western countries is the difficulty in getting anything done due to the legal/bureaucratic state. The solution to every problem is more regulations and process, all of which is inherently imperfect and contradictory. There was a realisation of the problems this was creating in the 1980's but no lasting or meaningful answer was ever settled on. So now most work in the economy is connected to the implementation of process or regulation rather than being productive or creative in its own right.
The conservatives had 14 years and made the situation I have described above worse. Labour will continue this trend. But the whole system needs rapid disruption - perhaps this is inevitable as the rest of the world adapts faster to technological innovation. It feels to me like the centrist parties (IE all the main parties) are just part of the old world and they will be transformed or swept away by something new, it may be called 'far right' but it is not necessarily correct to view it this way.
Now, I have friends in that party, and I'm fairly sure that their view on billionaires is... take them out to lunch and set them straight? Put them in front of a panel of old women and make them justify their wealth? Tax them fairly through international diplomatic agreement? Help me out here.
The British Communist party has quite a lot of valuable property and is a significant landlord, IIRC.
So probably lunch is paid for by the rents?
All property is theft...oh....
Of course Mr Maomentum was also incredibly wealthy from property.
Comments
https://x.com/nigel_farage/status/1804948477471813804
It's imperative we look after the interests and prospects of the young. Housing obviously. But much wider than that. And I'm happy to lose the triple lock and NI advantage to help finance it.
Who is, incidentally, another candidate for the best-looking PM of the last century:
I attended hustings last week where one of the candidates was explicitly and almost exclusively anti WEF and corporatism.
It was odd. I thought we as an audience got the message, it was undermined slightly by anti vax statements inferring that big pharma was behind Covid. Nevertheless it wasn’t shouted down. Reform and Cons were both treated with more derision.
I wished them luck. Inwardly.
Ive tried Sugrues Wiston but found it a bit sharp wines but the ones I like at the moment are Hattingley, Camel valley Rose and Gusbourne. English wine really has come on leaps and bounds in the last 10 years, There is also now a vineyard infrastructure worth the name the facilities at Hush Heath, Bolney or Chapel Down are worth the visit.
Long may it continue !
I’ve driven 200 miles today and walked 6 miles and been to two islands after waking at 6am on the boat. And all while taking notes and reading Breton history and listening to French history in the car - and even having the odd debate on here
And I’ve got to do six islands in 7 days. Not what you’d choose for a holiday
I know our communities won't get anything. We have to do it ourselves. Hard when you lose young people who are part of the future. My hope is that having a Northern Mayor in Kim McGuinness may be a spur to growth. It would be nice to get the same level of investment per head on transport that the wealthier regions need. We probably need it more. But it won't happen whoever wins.
It’s worth noting that every single mainstream party pays lip service to this.
Went on it last weekend for Fathers Day. Fish and chips at Tanfield East. It was a joy the whole day.
Anyway I'll be up North near Versailles, my main worry is rain on Satrurday not frying
Pat McFadden, the [Labour] party’s National Campaign Co-ordinator, has written to the chief executive of the Gambling Commission, Andrew Rhodes, to argue that “it is in the public interest that the Gambling Commission makes public the names of other figures you are investigating relating to this matter".
"There will be particular interest in whether any government ministers bet on the date of the election before it was called," he wrote.
In other words, Labour are stoking speculation - without any specific evidence - that a minister, or perhaps more than one, might have placed a bet.
Election campaigns can be a rough old business, and so the absence of knowing the full list of those being looked into allows Labour to ask that question, until every single minister has denied putting on a bet.
And on the substance I agree - refusing to debate the issue rarely works.
Sugrue’s own label creations aren’t sharp, though honestly I’ve always found Wiston the opposite anyway, quite heavy on the oxygen (in a nice way) and savoury, but I suppose it depends on when and where, and which wine.
https://www.thetimes.com/uk/society/article/english-sparkling-rose-makes-worlds-top-50-wines-list-79jmjc2wx
We are already past the pre covid 2019 peak
https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/tourists-are-the-new-pariahs/
Glad your day out wasn't wasted. IIRC you posted a few pics from up here.
Will he go into hiding? Stand down as PM before the election? Hang on and watch his party end up with 0 seats?
It's a pity that the only party articulating that view is led by, and to a surprising degree staffed by, out and out cranks.
There are 724 members of the Lords. So it is about 11% larger than the Commons.
But it got me thinking: you are not allowed tinted windows (or windows tinted past a certain opacity) in cars. Would have posters in the windows also count? Or is it only permanent tinting?
(*) Well worth seeing if you have kids IMO.
Where I think Blair had it right, though, and Starmer possibly isn't right, in about talking about 'working people' who have no savings, is that most people want to get on and do better in life than where they started. New Labour won because it gave us all the belief that if you worked hard enough, if you started from nowhere, you'd be rewarded - it was the party of both working class and middle class aspiration.
What you have now is the Tories who are for the entrenched already-was-and-always-will-be-wealthy and Labour who think if you can save £3000 in the bank you're rich. The truth is probably somewhere in the middle.
Capitalism works when there's a high degree of mobility based on meritocracy. Could anybody argue that's the system we have now, though? Capitalism does well with a burgeoning middle class. Yet the shrinking middle class has been the story of my lifetime. Now, we have a very rich elite vs everyone else. Little wonder people are hopping mad, and turning to far left or far right ideologies.
https://x.com/jk_rowling/status/1804592902167019897
It’s going to be blanc de meunier, rosé sparkling meunier and Pinot noir, and either still or sparkling Melon (muscadet) depending on how it ripens.
Plenty of people like that, just not many with a million+ followers on social media.
I pay her the same attention I pay any drooling lunatic at closing time in any local pub.
Hence why his plan is to cripple the much larger and more established Tory party and take it over.
Momentum tried to do the same, but from within the Labour Party, so the election of a hostile leader enabled their suppression.
The most dangerous time for Farage and his fellow travellers will come -after- merger with the Tories for this reason.
I am surprised. Also encouraged as I’m almost his age. To me he looks like an average slightly tubby quite well preserved north london lawyer. His wife is still striking and must have been an absolute stunner
Macron is not handsome. He was a pretty boy with hints of the epicene but I don’t think it’s going to last
The one seriously good looking world leader is Justin Trudeau. Can’t stand his politics but very very handsome. Great hair
In terms of female leaders then FINLAND RUMOUR KLAXON
I haven’t been sure when to write this, but having hosted a panel on neurodiversity at the amazing @Founders_Forum last week, now seems as good a time as any. About two years ago I was diagnosed as autistic. It is something I was open about within @FLFusion immediately...
https://x.com/FLF_Nick/status/1804842540375413077
https://youtu.be/2Jv-9Fz3cVs?feature=shared
Hopefully Akehurst will have all their names by midnight and get SKS to ban them from Labour by tomorrow
https://x.com/ShaykhSulaiman/status/1804604324271525994
I also don't see what use the talking shops of citizens assemblies are? If voters want to change something they can elect a different party in the Commons, the upper house is supposed to be a revising chamber of experts in their fields not Joe and Maureen down the street picked at random from a lottery and obliged to serve for a year in a role that would bore them rigid.
Stakeholder capitalism maybe but we already have John Lewis for that.
But hey-ho.
I've never watched or read any of her fiction, the only reason I know of her existence is because she's a massive [expletive deleted].
Reform members and voters, on the other hand, are in a very different place. They signed up to the Conservative Levelling Up aganda which promised more money and resources for the north and midlands. Sunak and the Conservatives betrayed this in a nanosecond with the scrapping of HS2 north of Birmingham - a huge middle finger to the north.
Reform members and voters want the money and resources spent on the WWC in the north, not "wasted" as they would see it on the metropolitan liberal south. What won the north and midlands (the "Red Wall") wasn't Brexit - it was the sale of council houses. The sons and daughters of the original council house buyers inheriting property, becoming home owners and becoming Conservatives.
Labour neglected the north and didn't see or understand the impact of this huge change from rental to ownership - the Conservatives betrayed the north via the failure of HS2 and Levelling Up and the home owners are now left with big mortgages.
Reform's paradox will render it completely unable to meet the promises of their members and voters. The best hope for Reform oddly enough is to ditch Farage completely.
What we often see today, is regulatory or structural “capture” - large organisations get to the top of the hill and the. Use the resources of the state to keep others off.
Part of the Old 10K system was exactly that - for Order, society will be run as We, the Great And Good direct.
The #NU10K have the same flavour. And they seem to think they are doing us a favour.
His Twitter feed is full of the latest meal he's had.
Twitter can drive you off the rocks.
I think the difference citizens assemblies make is that is is not career politicians making decisions on our behalf. Part of our current problem is that politicians don't ever really pass the 'they're like me' test of legitimacy. Added to that, in practice, I've seen them produce nuanced, innovative, effective policy and consensus in areas politicians struggle with.
Notwithstanding John Lewis's struggles I'd say more like that would be a good start.
So probably lunch is paid for by the rents?
People may well have bet on basis of similar rumours and had no inside knowledge at all. Trying to work out the difference between the two could very rather complex. I imagine there are 100s of political connected types who have had a flutter on things like GE date and winning party, size of majority etc.
Obviously if you work in #10 or related to the campaign director that is going to set off alarm bells.
Never again.
Yes, I feel very privileged whenever I go over one of the bridges on and I see the view either side. It is glorious.
LOL Barnier being helpful to Starmer as only a frenchman could
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2024/06/23/no-brexit-renegotiation-without-free-movement-warns-barnier/
Please explain!
Neoliberalism is a funny label. It’s almost always used as a criticism, but without the neo bit, “liberalism” is an important philosophy to cling on to: the scientific method, personal freedom, pluralism, the importance of education and so on.
The issue is the acceleration of the globalised consumer world, but what’s the solution? Surely not a return to a nostalgic past we can’t recreate. Nor a socialist utopia where competition disappears.
This has happened a few times in the past and it’s either led to revolution or reform. Britain has generally got ahead of revolution by reforming and regulating.
Regulation is the unsung hero of the last century and a half. Without it we’d still be sending kids up chimneys, tolerating slums
and dumping toxic waste in the city fringes. We’d have no advertising standards, children could easily access violent porn online (I know, I know) and we’d all own semi automatic weapons.
The question being what now needs reforming and regulating most.
I did report some time ago that she doesn't seem with it.
This was him fifteen years ago;
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/archive/01404/Keir-Starmer_1404315c.jpg?imwidth=960
Sometimes, years become a gentleman. Major was probably handsomer with grey hair than black.
Blair didn't get that. Went from 'too young' to 'too old' just like that.
The conservatives had 14 years and made the situation I have described above worse. Labour will continue this trend. But the whole system needs rapid disruption - perhaps this is inevitable as the rest of the world adapts faster to technological innovation. It feels to me like the centrist parties (IE all the main parties) are just part of the old world and they will be transformed or swept away by something new, it may be called 'far right' but it is not necessarily correct to view it this way.
Of course Mr Maomentum was also incredibly wealthy from property.