It seems that the gist of the wind kicking match from Dusseldorf so far is that England are marginally less shit than before, but still incapable of scoring a goal so that makes no material difference to anything.
The loser of this match should be made to watch a full replay of today's action from the Dingwall Counting Centre. If that doesn't act as sufficient incentive to wake up, nothing will.
I'm absolutely opposed to extending the franchise to allowing 16 and 17 year olds to vote. They are children.
18 is the age of majority for a reason.
I don't agree with it, but let them if it makes them feel better.
We tried rebalancing constituencies and introducing voter ID.
It made absolutely no difference in the end.
I suspect this is based on outdated ideas about the young always being left wing.
Many years ago, my other half wrote a paper for a Tory think-tank on the problem with generalising from "many young people" to "all young people" and the foolishness of abandoning "the youth vote" on that basis.
In a lot of ways the left are now the establishment, at least in terms of culture - to a historically unprecedented degree, so the 'young vote' could react against that.
I think it is even more complicated than that. Who knows what range of views young people will have in 5 years time? What will be the "consensus" views and what the outliers, and whether any or all of those will overlap with existing political blocs?
Now is a great time for the Conservatives to do their periodic chameleon thing and emerge as a party with the practical politics that inspire and shape the next generation, while Labour have to deal with the messy business of being in government.
ETA: for the avoidance of doubt, I do not see who is going to kick that process off. But I live in hope.
My local school (friend is a teacher there) did an election which included pupils and staff. Reform got the most votes and Labour second. Some of the teachers there are mortified.
It gives me hope for the future, that no mater what indoctrination they've had in their schooling, when given the opportunity they've stuck two fingers up. Nothing more British than that.
The panic about Reform is just really entertaining. They just seem to drive people completely mad.
They'll be laying on political education classes which will be "balanced and fair".....
I'm strongly in favour of a more proportional system. But I'm also dead against AV, SV, STV, D'Hondt and anything that involves party lists.
This is what I'd do:
700-ish seat parliament, with about 450 constituency MPs elected in exactly the same way as now, PLUS
250 top-up MPs to make the overall numbers roughly proportional. These 250 are drawn from a 'dynamic' national lists of the highest-polling non-winning candidates (by absolute number of votes) for all of the parties that need topping up.
The backbenchers amongst the top-up MPs are assigned offices and casework in the geographic seats represented by government and shadow ministers who should be concentrating on stuff other than constituency matters anyway.
A possible variation of this system could exclude unseated incumbents from the pool of eligible top-up MPs, thus retaining the ability to vote out a specific member.
(I first proposed this system to former MPs James Gray and Dick Tracey about 25 years ago, around the time of the Jenkins report.)
I'm strongly in favour of a more proportional system. But I'm also dead against AV, SV, STV, D'Hondt and anything that involves party lists.
This is what I'd do:
700-ish seat parliament, with about 450 constituency MPs elected in exactly the same way as now, PLUS
250 top-up MPs to make the overall numbers roughly proportional. These 250 are drawn from a 'dynamic' national lists of the highest-polling non-winning candidates (by absolute number of votes) for all of the parties that need topping up.
The backbenchers amongst the top-up MPs are assigned offices and casework in the geographic seats represented by government and shadow ministers who should be concentrating on stuff other than constituency matters anyway.
A possible variation of this system could exclude unseated incumbents from the pool of eligible top-up MPs, thus retaining the ability to vote out a specific member.
(I first proposed this system to former MPs James Gray and Dick Tracey about 25 years ago, around the time of the Jenkins report.)
Now back to the England game...
I agree about the horrible-ness of party lists, where the top brass in a party can always get elected by putting themselves at the top. Although there is such a thing as "open lists" where voters can choose themselves who goes at the top of the list.
Appears RO wouldn't even let them havbe provisional figures, so hard to expect anyone to concede.
I thought the SNP candidate conceded yesterday and wasn't even there today because he had a prior unbreakable commitment.
I thoiught so too about the concession, but the reports are muddled which is why I edited my post.
In any case, it was presimably possible in theory that the missing votes were a batch of SNP ones so they had to get to the bottom of it. Also cos of the legal/criminal implications, e,g. having to sign the paperwork in good faith.
I'm absolutely opposed to extending the franchise to allowing 16 and 17 year olds to vote. They are children.
18 is the age of majority for a reason.
I don't agree with it, but let them if it makes them feel better.
We tried rebalancing constituencies and introducing voter ID.
It made absolutely no difference in the end.
I suspect this is based on outdated ideas about the young always being left wing.
Many years ago, my other half wrote a paper for a Tory think-tank on the problem with generalising from "many young people" to "all young people" and the foolishness of abandoning "the youth vote" on that basis.
In a lot of ways the left are now the establishment, at least in terms of culture - to a historically unprecedented degree, so the 'young vote' could react against that.
I think it is even more complicated than that. Who knows what range of views young people will have in 5 years time? What will be the "consensus" views and what the outliers, and whether any or all of those will overlap with existing political blocs?
Now is a great time for the Conservatives to do their periodic chameleon thing and emerge as a party with the practical politics that inspire and shape the next generation, while Labour have to deal with the messy business of being in government.
ETA: for the avoidance of doubt, I do not see who is going to kick that process off. But I live in hope.
My local school (friend is a teacher there) did an election which included pupils and staff. Reform got the most votes and Labour second. Some of the teachers there are mortified.
It gives me hope for the future, that no mater what indoctrination they've had in their schooling, when given the opportunity they've stuck two fingers up. Nothing more British than that.
The panic about Reform is just really entertaining. They just seem to drive people completely mad.
I'm strongly in favour of a more proportional system. But I'm also dead against AV, SV, STV, D'Hondt and anything that involves party lists.
This is what I'd do:
700-ish seat parliament, with about 450 constituency MPs elected in exactly the same way as now, PLUS
250 top-up MPs to make the overall numbers roughly proportional. These 250 are drawn from a 'dynamic' national lists of the highest-polling non-winning candidates (by absolute number of votes) for all of the parties that need topping up.
The backbenchers amongst the top-up MPs are assigned offices and casework in the geographic seats represented by government and shadow ministers who should be concentrating on stuff other than constituency matters anyway.
A possible variation of this system could exclude unseated incumbents from the pool of eligible top-up MPs, thus retaining the ability to vote out a specific member.
(I first proposed this system to former MPs James Gray and Dick Tracey about 25 years ago, around the time of the Jenkins report.)
Now back to the England game...
I agree about the horrible-ness of party lists, where the top brass in a party can always get elected by putting themselves at the top. Although there is such a thing as "open lists" where voters can choose themselves who goes at the top of the list.
If everyone chooses themself, how is anyone ever elected?
Watching paint dry would be more entertaining than the football at this tournament.
It's a great advertisement for women's football, though. The ladies rarely leave the field without scoring 5 or maybe 10 goals. That's what the fans want. Not two unassailable defensive walls.
World no 1 Iga Świątek in trouble at Wimbledon v Yulia Putintseva. 6-3, 1-6, 2-5.
Well...
Straight over to BBC2.
Why didn't I know about this before. Damned football. I blame the excitement of the Dingwall Counting Centre, scrambling my nerves.
Putintseva wins!!!
Coco Gauff the new favourite.
The principal remaining seeds in the Ladies' draw are Rybakina (4) in the top half and Gauff (2) in the bottom half. It's also opened right up for Raducanu: a qualifier in R4 with the guarantee of an unseeded opponent as well if she makes the QF. More dodgy wrist issues or tripping over shoelaces permitting.
Since when, and in what sense, did STV become a party list system?
Since Labour ditched the proposed model of STV for Senedd elections in favour of closed party lists so all would worship at the shrine of the leadership.
Rwanda was not a workable policy, it was a political gimmick and quite an expensive one at that. The right wing press may be trying to put the boot in, but I suspect Starmer will not leave that flank open for long
"Amir, 23, a bean-seller from Kurdistan, said migrants had given Sir Keir a nickname that roughly translates as a man who works for refugees or workers.
He said: “We are calling him ‘Party Krekaran’ because we have heard that this guy is really helpful to the refugees.”
World no 1 Iga Świątek in trouble at Wimbledon v Yulia Putintseva. 6-3, 1-6, 2-5.
Well...
Straight over to BBC2.
Why didn't I know about this before. Damned football. I blame the excitement of the Dingwall Counting Centre, scrambling my nerves.
Putintseva wins!!!
Coco Gauff the new favourite.
The principal remaining seeds in the Ladies' draw are Rybakina (4) in the top half and Gauff (2) in the bottom half. It's also opened right up for Raducanu: a qualifier in R4 with the guarantee of an unseeded opponent as well if she makes the QF. More dodgy wrist issues or tripping over shoelaces permitting.
Rwanda was not a workable policy, it was a political gimmick and quite an expensive one at that. The right wing press may be trying to put the boot in, but I suspect Starmer will not leave that flank open for long
What would you see as a solution, that doesn't just involve given everyone a passport who gets here?
"Amir, 23, a bean-seller from Kurdistan, said migrants had given Sir Keir a nickname that roughly translates as a man who works for refugees or workers.
He said: “We are calling him ‘Party Krekaran’ because we have heard that this guy is really helpful to the refugees.”
"Amir, 23, a bean-seller from Kurdistan, said migrants had given Sir Keir a nickname that roughly translates as a man who works for refugees or workers.
He said: “We are calling him ‘Party Krekaran’ because we have heard that this guy is really helpful to the refugees.”
"Amir, 23, a bean-seller from Kurdistan, said migrants had given Sir Keir a nickname that roughly translates as a man who works for refugees or workers.
He said: “We are calling him ‘Party Krekaran’ because we have heard that this guy is really helpful to the refugees.”
As if keeping the previous Government would've made any difference to that. There is nothing that can be done to deter these people from boarding their dinghies that's violent or ruthless enough to be acceptable to the electorate of a Western democracy.
"Amir, 23, a bean-seller from Kurdistan, said migrants had given Sir Keir a nickname that roughly translates as a man who works for refugees or workers.
He said: “We are calling him ‘Party Krekaran’ because we have heard that this guy is really helpful to the refugees.”
"Amir, 23, a bean-seller from Kurdistan, said migrants had given Sir Keir a nickname that roughly translates as a man who works for refugees or workers.
He said: “We are calling him ‘Party Krekaran’ because we have heard that this guy is really helpful to the refugees.”
"Amir, 23, a bean-seller from Kurdistan, said migrants had given Sir Keir a nickname that roughly translates as a man who works for refugees or workers.
He said: “We are calling him ‘Party Krekaran’ because we have heard that this guy is really helpful to the refugees.”
As if keeping the previous Government would've made any difference to that. There is nothing that can be done to deter these people from boarding their dinghies that's violent or ruthless enough to be acceptable to the electorate of a Western democracy.
Rwanda was not a workable policy, it was a political gimmick and quite an expensive one at that. The right wing press may be trying to put the boot in, but I suspect Starmer will not leave that flank open for long
It's certainly going to create more 'work' if its immediate abolition now leads to a flood of people crossing the channel. The sensible thing to do would have been to keep it up and until he had an alternative, and equally firm, plan in place.
My guess is SKS will now do a lot of instinctively left-wing things now he's safely in office because the bloke ain't exactly a deep thinker.
Rwanda was not a workable policy, it was a political gimmick and quite an expensive one at that. The right wing press may be trying to put the boot in, but I suspect Starmer will not leave that flank open for long
It's certainly going to create more 'work' if its immediate abolition now leads to a flood of people crossing the channel. The sensible thing to do would have been to keep it up and until he had an alternative, and equally firm, plan in place.
My guess is SKS will now do a lot of instinctively left-wing things now he's safely in office because the bloke ain't exactly a deep thinker.
Why didn't he just downgrade it to processing in Rwanda?
"Amir, 23, a bean-seller from Kurdistan, said migrants had given Sir Keir a nickname that roughly translates as a man who works for refugees or workers.
He said: “We are calling him ‘Party Krekaran’ because we have heard that this guy is really helpful to the refugees.”
Rwanda was not a workable policy, it was a political gimmick and quite an expensive one at that. The right wing press may be trying to put the boot in, but I suspect Starmer will not leave that flank open for long
There's an opportunity cost to it too, if you're banking on an unworkable and unhelpful policy 'solving' an issue, you're not spending your time doing things that may actually do it - more comprehensive return/policing agreements, processing before make the crossing, safe routes and a beefed up enforcement on gangs.
"Amir, 23, a bean-seller from Kurdistan, said migrants had given Sir Keir a nickname that roughly translates as a man who works for refugees or workers.
He said: “We are calling him ‘Party Krekaran’ because we have heard that this guy is really helpful to the refugees.”
As if keeping the previous Government would've made any difference to that. There is nothing that can be done to deter these people from boarding their dinghies that's violent or ruthless enough to be acceptable to the electorate of a Western democracy.
Not stopping them, not under current rules, but I think crossing numbers were far lower than they would have otherwise been.
LD 37.8 (+22.7) SNP 33.3 (-15.4) Lab 13.0 (+3.6) Ref 6.1 (+4.1) Con 5.2 (-18.1) Grn 4.3 (+2.9) Soc 0.4
Not particularly close, why the recount?
could the Cons or greens have asked to ensure that they got their deposit back?
Yes, but the main issue seems to have been that the number of ballot papers in the boxes didn't match up with the number issued at polling stations
Report from local secondary school is that Boys mainly reform, girls mainly labour but good few reform. Teachers mainly have the vapours about it.
What exactly did they expect foisting rainbow wokery on them to achieve. Kids of that age rebel against authority.
Starmer should be careful what he wishes for giving 16 and 17 year olds the vote.
I was a counter, little support for the Conservatives, a fair chunk for greens and libs, but as mentioned wisely earlier on, mistaking not many being interested in the Tories, with none and not bothering to do anything that might interest them. My friend said she thinks its driven by opposition to the boats and incredible social media presence, especially on TikTok. We are about 300+ miles away from the south coast of England...
"Amir, 23, a bean-seller from Kurdistan, said migrants had given Sir Keir a nickname that roughly translates as a man who works for refugees or workers.
He said: “We are calling him ‘Party Krekaran’ because we have heard that this guy is really helpful to the refugees.”
"Escape from Keir's Britain with the experts' definitive emigration guide: The best places for sunshine, big houses, high wages, no crime and top-notch healthcare - plus the hotspot with NO income tax"
"Amir, 23, a bean-seller from Kurdistan, said migrants had given Sir Keir a nickname that roughly translates as a man who works for refugees or workers.
He said: “We are calling him ‘Party Krekaran’ because we have heard that this guy is really helpful to the refugees.”
"Amir, 23, a bean-seller from Kurdistan, said migrants had given Sir Keir a nickname that roughly translates as a man who works for refugees or workers.
He said: “We are calling him ‘Party Krekaran’ because we have heard that this guy is really helpful to the refugees.”
"Amir, 23, a bean-seller from Kurdistan, said migrants had given Sir Keir a nickname that roughly translates as a man who works for refugees or workers.
He said: “We are calling him ‘Party Krekaran’ because we have heard that this guy is really helpful to the refugees.”
"Amir, 23, a bean-seller from Kurdistan, said migrants had given Sir Keir a nickname that roughly translates as a man who works for refugees or workers.
He said: “We are calling him ‘Party Krekaran’ because we have heard that this guy is really helpful to the refugees.”
Rwanda was not a workable policy, it was a political gimmick and quite an expensive one at that. The right wing press may be trying to put the boot in, but I suspect Starmer will not leave that flank open for long
It's certainly going to create more 'work' if its immediate abolition now leads to a flood of people crossing the channel. The sensible thing to do would have been to keep it up and until he had an alternative, and equally firm, plan in place.
My guess is SKS will now do a lot of instinctively left-wing things now he's safely in office because the bloke ain't exactly a deep thinker.
Maggie had a plan... She defeated the most devious of devious the NMU with a plan...
I'd be interested to know how many of the 121 Tory MPs could be described as One Nation and therefore likely to support Tom Tugendhat in a leadership contest. (Chief One Nation-er Damian Green lost his seat in Ashford).
"Amir, 23, a bean-seller from Kurdistan, said migrants had given Sir Keir a nickname that roughly translates as a man who works for refugees or workers.
He said: “We are calling him ‘Party Krekaran’ because we have heard that this guy is really helpful to the refugees.”
As if keeping the previous Government would've made any difference to that. There is nothing that can be done to deter these people from boarding their dinghies that's violent or ruthless enough to be acceptable to the electorate of a Western democracy.
Not stopping them, not under current rules, but I think crossing numbers were far lower than they would have otherwise been.
We will shortly find out.
Natalie Elphicke better be out on beach patrol Monday
"Escape from Keir's Britain with the experts' definitive emigration guide: The best places for sunshine, big houses, high wages, no crime and top-notch healthcare - plus the hotspot with NO income tax"
"Escape from Keir's Britain with the experts' definitive emigration guide: The best places for sunshine, big houses, high wages, no crime and top-notch healthcare - plus the hotspot with NO income tax"
"Amir, 23, a bean-seller from Kurdistan, said migrants had given Sir Keir a nickname that roughly translates as a man who works for refugees or workers.
He said: “We are calling him ‘Party Krekaran’ because we have heard that this guy is really helpful to the refugees.”
Well quite, and who seriously calls himself a bean-seller? "Look guys, there's a bloviating arsehat from the UK right wing press, let's take the piss".
Comments
The loser of this match should be made to watch a full replay of today's action from the Dingwall Counting Centre. If that doesn't act as sufficient incentive to wake up, nothing will.
... [ignore, timing is confusing on my source]
https://www.inverness-courier.co.uk/news/no-guarantee-the-mismanaged-inverness-skye-and-west-ross-355033/
Appears RO wouldn't even let them havbe provisional figures, so hard to expect anyone to concede.
"This has all got a bit stop-start. Mainly stop."
More news as we get it.
Not yet the case with Dusseldorf, sadly.
This is what I'd do:
700-ish seat parliament, with about 450 constituency MPs elected in exactly the same way as now, PLUS
250 top-up MPs to make the overall numbers roughly proportional. These 250 are drawn from a 'dynamic' national lists of the highest-polling non-winning candidates (by absolute number of votes) for all of the parties that need topping up.
The backbenchers amongst the top-up MPs are assigned offices and casework in the geographic seats represented by government and shadow ministers who should be concentrating on stuff other than constituency matters anyway.
A possible variation of this system could exclude unseated incumbents from the pool of eligible top-up MPs, thus retaining the ability to vote out a specific member.
(I first proposed this system to former MPs James Gray and Dick Tracey about 25 years ago, around the time of the Jenkins report.)
Now back to the England game...
In any case, it was presimably possible in theory that the missing votes were a batch of SNP ones so they had to get to the bottom of it. Also cos of the legal/criminal implications, e,g. having to sign the paperwork in good faith.
Straight over to BBC2.
Why didn't I know about this before. Damned football. I blame the excitement of the Dingwall Counting Centre, scrambling my nerves.
Putintseva wins!!!
Coco Gauff the new favourite.
Absolutely everything and everyone is up in the air.
He's telegraphed that it's open season, now, and that means that every extra boat crossing over the Summer can be pinned on him now.
Could it be that when he doesn't have anyone to tediously tactically triangulate against he just makes some very bad decisions?
https://www.thetimes.com/uk/politics/article/labour-keir-starmer-latest-news-cabinet-prime-minister-htcvhbs20
Edited to add: oops.
"Amir, 23, a bean-seller from Kurdistan, said migrants had given Sir Keir a nickname that roughly translates as a man who works for refugees or workers.
He said: “We are calling him ‘Party Krekaran’ because we have heard that this guy is really helpful to the refugees.”
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2024/07/05/migrants-set-to-make-crossing-soon-possible-labour/
They go a goal down and three all at once. Bellingham off! 'kin 'ell!
Edit 14 not 10.
What exactly did they expect foisting rainbow wokery on them to achieve. Kids of that age rebel against authority.
Starmer should be careful what he wishes for giving 16 and 17 year olds the vote.
People voted for it.
I won't be shy of pointing that out as it all unfurls.
an idiota genius!Great goal.
Pointless crosses to numpties who weren’t there. Waste of time. So he goes for goal. Boom.
Tories 121 seats
***Innocent face***
My guess is SKS will now do a lot of instinctively left-wing things now he's safely in office because the bloke ain't exactly a deep thinker.
The effect upon performance was electrifying.
Green 4 seats
We will shortly find out.
We are about 300+ miles away from the south coast of England...
"Escape from Keir's Britain with the experts' definitive emigration guide: The best places for sunshine, big houses, high wages, no crime and top-notch healthcare - plus the hotspot with NO income tax"
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/travel/article-13604631/Escape-Keirs-Britain-experts-emigration-guide-houses-wages-health-care-income-tax-haven.html
Pretty sure Blair claimed to be a socialist.
Cow bells drive cows nuts, it has recently been established