Sad to hear Johnny Walker today on Radio 2 announce that he is retiring at the end of the month as he is terminally ill. He has been the background music to so much of my life and I have avidly listend to Sounds of the Seventies on a Sunday no matter where I was in the world.
I hope he does have at least some of a peaceful retirement before he finally walks the Black Sands.
We knew his gf before Tiggy. He was a regular house guest with us, 25 years ago. A very spiritual guy. He has an encyclopaedic knowledge of music. He also has a fabulous fund of stories you couldn't possibly commit to print.
Along with Fluff Freeman, he introduced me to many of my musical loves.
I will be very sad when he succumbs to his illness.
Could you ever be part of a medical euthanasia scheme? As I say I am deeply divided on the topic
I’d like people to be given the means of a painless way out but building an ethical legal structure is incredibly hard. And I don’t think Canada has done it
I think that, on balance, I'm opposed. Just as the principle with a criminal conviction is that we'd rather ten guilty men go free rather than one innocent man is wrongly convicted, so I'd have to argue that it was better for ten terminally ill patients to suffer a difficult death than one person to be killed by the state before their time.
As someone who has suffered quite badly from depression at various times the stories about mentally ill people being euthanased has seriously given me the jitters.
That’s roughly where I am. Tho I somewhat change my mind with each heart rending story
What gives me real pause is the evidence there IS a slippery slope. You start with offering it to the terminally ill in terrible pain - hard to argue against - and then it ends up with severely depressed people in financial trouble. wtf
As with all big political questions, it needs to be considered through the prism of how the British state, bureaucracy and society would actually implement such a policy over time. Not how you would like it to be. It’s the first step on the road to dystopia but no one would notice until society was so far down the path we couldn’t walk it back.
When my mother was dying in hospital, a nurse refused to follow the hand sanitising protocol before entering her room - as posted on the door.
“Because she is better off dead” is what she literally said to me. Followed by “she is wasting resources”.
My mother was in no particular pain, alert and spent her days organising things, calling people and generally… living. As she would do for several more months.
Fortunately my father (son of Holocaust survivors) didn’t hear.
I went to the head shed doctor. He called the nurse in. I explained my philosophical position. In direct terms. I was interested to note that people really do put their hands to their throats in certain circumstances.
You were unbelievably restrained….
Not really.
I even took the time to look up on my prototype smart phone the German phrase for Ballast Existence, that the Nazis used.
An awful story :-(
Why do you think so? It’s is quite common, probably. Just if you ask questions and push back, in the Nasty Entitled Middle Class way, you get treated differently.
Read the Stafford report and others, it was attitude as much as resources. “They are just bed blockers” was the refrain of a minority. But that was enough.
Part of it is that many elderly patients don’t have anyone to advocate on their behalf. Very noticeable, over a decade of visiting my Dad in various institutions, that a large number of patient very rarely received visitors.
Very much this. My father was recently in hospital. It took serious family intervention to end neglect. Literal neglect.
In the opposite beds, there were people with no visitors. Made you wonder....
Could you ever be part of a medical euthanasia scheme? As I say I am deeply divided on the topic
I’d like people to be given the means of a painless way out but building an ethical legal structure is incredibly hard. And I don’t think Canada has done it
I think that, on balance, I'm opposed. Just as the principle with a criminal conviction is that we'd rather ten guilty men go free rather than one innocent man is wrongly convicted, so I'd have to argue that it was better for ten terminally ill patients to suffer a difficult death than one person to be killed by the state before their time.
As someone who has suffered quite badly from depression at various times the stories about mentally ill people being euthanased has seriously given me the jitters.
That’s roughly where I am. Tho I somewhat change my mind with each heart rending story
What gives me real pause is the evidence there IS a slippery slope. You start with offering it to the terminally ill in terrible pain - hard to argue against - and then it ends up with severely depressed people in financial trouble. wtf
Cleverly is perfectly amiable but I fail to see the point of replacing Rishi with him. As far as I can see he is Rishi with less energy and fewer brains and not much charisma. Indeed I can’t see a single policy difference between Cleverly and Sunak as PM.
Farage would welcome a Cleverly leadership as he would gain no voters the Tories have lost to Reform while Jenrick might and the LDs fear Tugendhat more than Cleverly. All that can be said for Cleverly is he is better than Kemi for leader as he would at least hold the 2024 Tory vote and might win over a few Labour voters unhappy with Starmer.
The Conhome poll was a snap poll with a small sample though, all it may well do is see Jenrick lend some MPs to Tugendhat next week to try and knock Cleverly and Kemi out
As a non-Tory Cleverly would be the only one I'd genuinely fear might do well. As he's the only one who seems to get that the Tories have to be seen to have changed and had a big rethink to get a hearing among large parts of the country.
In particular the growing in influence group who moved into early adulthood during the last Tory government and who in the past would've been open to voting Tory in terms of age and socio-economic status but now actively despise them after the past 14 years of feeling ignored and attacked.
Plus could do that with a blokeiness that might contrast well with Starmer and maybe even appeal to some Farage fans on style if not substance.
Jenrick is more of the same rhetoric but in stereo and "we pinky promise to do similar things we didn't/couldn't do last time but tougher". Plus he's very ambitious Oxbridge dweeb - not exactly en vogue right now.
Badenoch is a great candidate if the electorate were The Spectator's online readership - less so if you're the majority who don't want to be in the same room as either them or the people they're wanging on about.
Tugendhat's just really wet and doesn't seem to understand that David Cameron's modernisation project was predicated on being demonstratively bold (even if lots of it was horseshit) in challenging his party and proving to people it wasn't the same old duffers they'd rejected three times. Rather than asking it to please stop being a bit less beastly, if it wouldn't terribly mind - but oh no, not that bit of beastliness you all like.
A difficulty in coming back is have to attract voters from all directions to have a hope - Cleverly is the only one I think who has a slim chance of that.
A decent analysis
However, Badenoch is a wild card. Hard to know what she’d do in the office. She may - ahem - surprise on the upside. Or she may be Liz truss 2.0
I suspect Labour are worried by her - just in case. Her gender and ethnicity alone would make her more problematic for the left
Cleverly is perfectly amiable but I fail to see the point of replacing Rishi with him. As far as I can see he is Rishi with less energy and fewer brains and not much charisma. Indeed I can’t see a single policy difference between Cleverly and Sunak as PM.
Farage would welcome a Cleverly leadership as he would gain no voters the Tories have lost to Reform while Jenrick might and the LDs fear Tugendhat more than Cleverly. All that can be said for Cleverly is he is better than Kemi for leader as he would at least hold the 2024 Tory vote and might win over a few Labour voters unhappy with Starmer.
The Conhome poll was a snap poll with a small sample though, all it may well do is see Jenrick lend some MPs to Tugendhat next week to try and knock Cleverly and Kemi out
As a non-Tory Cleverly would be the only one I'd genuinely fear might do well. As he's the only one who seems to get that the Tories have to be seen to have changed and had a big rethink to get a hearing among large parts of the country.
In particular the growing in influence group who moved into early adulthood during the last Tory government and who in the past would've been open to voting Tory in terms of age and socio-economic status but now actively despise them after the past 14 years of feeling ignored and attacked.
Plus could do that with a blokeiness that might contrast well with Starmer and maybe even appeal to some Farage fans on style if not substance.
Jenrick is more of the same rhetoric but in stereo and "we pinky promise to do similar things we didn't/couldn't do last time but tougher". Plus he's very ambitious Oxbridge dweeb - not exactly en vogue right now.
Badenoch is a great candidate if the electorate were The Spectator's online readership - less so if you're the majority who don't want to be in the same room as either them or the people they're wanging on about.
Tugendhat's just really wet and doesn't seem to understand that David Cameron's modernisation project was predicated on being demonstratively bold (even if lots of it was horseshit) in challenging his party and proving to people it wasn't the same old duffers they'd rejected three times. Rather than asking it to please stop being a bit less beastly, if it wouldn't terribly mind - but oh no, not that bit of beastliness you all like.
A difficulty in coming back is have to attract voters from all directions to have a hope - Cleverly is the only one I think who has a slim chance of that.
A decent analysis
However, Badenoch is a wild card. Hard to know what she’d do in the office. She may - ahem - surprise on the upside. Or she may be Liz truss 2.0
I suspect Labour are worried by her - just in case. Her gender and ethnicity alone would make her more problematic for the left
Hope all of you had a chance to read Speyer's piece in the weekend WSJ on Fawzia Sido. It helps explain why Hamas has not surrendered, as they should have, months ago -- if they cared about Gazans.
Could you ever be part of a medical euthanasia scheme? As I say I am deeply divided on the topic
I’d like people to be given the means of a painless way out but building an ethical legal structure is incredibly hard. And I don’t think Canada has done it
I think that, on balance, I'm opposed. Just as the principle with a criminal conviction is that we'd rather ten guilty men go free rather than one innocent man is wrongly convicted, so I'd have to argue that it was better for ten terminally ill patients to suffer a difficult death than one person to be killed by the state before their time.
As someone who has suffered quite badly from depression at various times the stories about mentally ill people being euthanased has seriously given me the jitters.
So long as the system is voluntary only then no, it is absolutely not better.
Let people choose.
There is no dignity in a painful and sad long drawn out death.
And what do you say to someone who insists they are suicidally miserable and hopeless due to loneliness and sexual dysfunction?
Sad to hear Johnny Walker today on Radio 2 announce that he is retiring at the end of the month as he is terminally ill. He has been the background music to so much of my life and I have avidly listend to Sounds of the Seventies on a Sunday no matter where I was in the world.
I hope he does have at least some of a peaceful retirement before he finally walks the Black Sands.
I know you meant it as a rather poetic euphemism for "dies", but the fact that Iceland has black sand did rather throw me for a moment.
Cleverly is perfectly amiable but I fail to see the point of replacing Rishi with him. As far as I can see he is Rishi with less energy and fewer brains and not much charisma. Indeed I can’t see a single policy difference between Cleverly and Sunak as PM.
Farage would welcome a Cleverly leadership as he would gain no voters the Tories have lost to Reform while Jenrick might and the LDs fear Tugendhat more than Cleverly. All that can be said for Cleverly is he is better than Kemi for leader as he would at least hold the 2024 Tory vote and might win over a few Labour voters unhappy with Starmer.
The Conhome poll was a snap poll with a small sample though, all it may well do is see Jenrick lend some MPs to Tugendhat next week to try and knock Cleverly and Kemi out
As a non-Tory Cleverly would be the only one I'd genuinely fear might do well. As he's the only one who seems to get that the Tories have to be seen to have changed and had a big rethink to get a hearing among large parts of the country.
In particular the growing in influence group who moved into early adulthood during the last Tory government and who in the past would've been open to voting Tory in terms of age and socio-economic status but now actively despise them after the past 14 years of feeling ignored and attacked.
Plus could do that with a blokeiness that might contrast well with Starmer and maybe even appeal to some Farage fans on style if not substance.
Jenrick is more of the same rhetoric but in stereo and "we pinky promise to do similar things we didn't/couldn't do last time but tougher". Plus he's very ambitious Oxbridge dweeb - not exactly en vogue right now.
Badenoch is a great candidate if the electorate were The Spectator's online readership - less so if you're the majority who don't want to be in the same room as either them or the people they're wanging on about.
Tugendhat's just really wet and doesn't seem to understand that David Cameron's modernisation project was predicated on being demonstratively bold (even if lots of it was horseshit) in challenging his party and proving to people it wasn't the same old duffers they'd rejected three times. Rather than asking it to please stop being a bit less beastly, if it wouldn't terribly mind - but oh no, not that bit of beastliness you all like.
A difficulty in coming back is have to attract voters from all directions to have a hope - Cleverly is the only one I think who has a slim chance of that.
'As a non-Tory Cleverly would be the only one I'd genuinely fear might do well. As he's the only one who seems to get that the Tories have to be seen to have changed and had a big rethink to get a hearing among large parts of the country.'
Are you having a laugh? Cleverly will be selling exactly the same message Rishi did in July just with less dynamism and charisma.
Cleverly is Sunak 2 and wouldn't change anything from the manifesto Rishi fought the general election on which led to thumping defeat. Starmer also does blokeiness.
Jenrick offers at least some vision of the lessons the Tories need to learn from the voters they lost to Reform, as does Badenoch.
Tugendhat at least has more intellect than Cleverly and a genuine ideological commitment to a form of One Nation Toryism at home and moral foreign policy abroad which might attract voters Cameron won who went Labour or LD this time.
At best Cleverly might hold the 2024 Tory vote and add a few from Labour, at worst he would lose more to Reform and the LDs and Farage would end up LOTO by default and win over voters disaffected with Labour to Reform not the Tories
Cleverly is avuncular. Kind of likeable, in a have a beer down the pub way. Nobody really knows what his politics are, so he’s about as blank a canvas as you’ll get in a former minister.
Something to be said for that. A sort of Tory Ed Davey.
Ed Davey isn't going to be PM or an effective LOTO either.
I am not looking for someone to have a beer with, I could get that in any pub, I am looking for a leader
The desperation of non-Tory supporters to persuade Tories of the electoral bonanza that awaits them should they elect Jimmy Dimly is quite something to behold. I can't remember the last time I heard similar advice. Oh yes I do, it was when they were cheerleading for Rishi Sunak.
Sunak a worse choice than Truss? Genuinely hilarious, if Truss hadn't been ousted the next GE would be in 2028 and Ed Davey would be LOTO.
Cleverly is perfectly amiable but I fail to see the point of replacing Rishi with him. As far as I can see he is Rishi with less energy and fewer brains and not much charisma. Indeed I can’t see a single policy difference between Cleverly and Sunak as PM.
Farage would welcome a Cleverly leadership as he would gain no voters the Tories have lost to Reform while Jenrick might and the LDs fear Tugendhat more than Cleverly. All that can be said for Cleverly is he is better than Kemi for leader as he would at least hold the 2024 Tory vote and might win over a few Labour voters unhappy with Starmer.
The Conhome poll was a snap poll with a small sample though, all it may well do is see Jenrick lend some MPs to Tugendhat next week to try and knock Cleverly and Kemi out
As a non-Tory Cleverly would be the only one I'd genuinely fear might do well. As he's the only one who seems to get that the Tories have to be seen to have changed and had a big rethink to get a hearing among large parts of the country.
In particular the growing in influence group who moved into early adulthood during the last Tory government and who in the past would've been open to voting Tory in terms of age and socio-economic status but now actively despise them after the past 14 years of feeling ignored and attacked.
Plus could do that with a blokeiness that might contrast well with Starmer and maybe even appeal to some Farage fans on style if not substance.
Jenrick is more of the same rhetoric but in stereo and "we pinky promise to do similar things we didn't/couldn't do last time but tougher". Plus he's very ambitious Oxbridge dweeb - not exactly en vogue right now.
Badenoch is a great candidate if the electorate were The Spectator's online readership - less so if you're the majority who don't want to be in the same room as either them or the people they're wanging on about.
Tugendhat's just really wet and doesn't seem to understand that David Cameron's modernisation project was predicated on being demonstratively bold (even if lots of it was horseshit) in challenging his party and proving to people it wasn't the same old duffers they'd rejected three times. Rather than asking it to please stop being a bit less beastly, if it wouldn't terribly mind - but oh no, not that bit of beastliness you all like.
A difficulty in coming back is have to attract voters from all directions to have a hope - Cleverly is the only one I think who has a slim chance of that.
A decent analysis
However, Badenoch is a wild card. Hard to know what she’d do in the office. She may - ahem - surprise on the upside. Or she may be Liz truss 2.0
I suspect Labour are worried by her - just in case. Her gender and ethnicity alone would make her more problematic for the left
This is why I think Badenoch is the best choice.
Because she is Truss 2.0?
Truss as Leader of the Opposition might have done OK, she had conviction and energy and ideas and would get stuck into Starmer and Labour. Truss was not ready to be PM in 2022 however
Sad to hear Johnny Walker today on Radio 2 announce that he is retiring at the end of the month as he is terminally ill. He has been the background music to so much of my life and I have avidly listend to Sounds of the Seventies on a Sunday no matter where I was in the world.
I hope he does have at least some of a peaceful retirement before he finally walks the Black Sands.
We knew his gf before Tiggy. He was a regular house guest with us, 25 years ago. A very spiritual guy. He has an encyclopaedic knowledge of music. He also has a fabulous fund of stories you couldn't possibly commit to print.
Along with Fluff Freeman, he introduced me to many of my musical loves.
I will be very sad when he succumbs to his illness.
I was a bit too young to remember his Radio One days before he went to America. I heard him on Radio Wiltshire, which a client of mine used to have on in the background. I remember his suspension from the (currently) Sara Cox spot on R2 for I think, possession of blow. Seemed like an outrageous over reaction when you think of what they were comfortable for Savile to do to underage girls and boys on BBC premises. It's a funny old game.
He was (is?) a genuine Labour hating Tory, so I can't really think what the two of you had in common.
Sad to hear Johnny Walker today on Radio 2 announce that he is retiring at the end of the month as he is terminally ill. He has been the background music to so much of my life and I have avidly listend to Sounds of the Seventies on a Sunday no matter where I was in the world.
I hope he does have at least some of a peaceful retirement before he finally walks the Black Sands.
We knew his gf before Tiggy. He was a regular house guest with us, 25 years ago. A very spiritual guy. He has an encyclopaedic knowledge of music. He also has a fabulous fund of stories you couldn't possibly commit to print.
Along with Fluff Freeman, he introduced me to many of my musical loves.
I will be very sad when he succumbs to his illness.
I was a bit too young to remember his Radio One days before he went to America. I heard him on Radio Wiltshire, which a client of mine used to have on in the background. I remember his suspension from the (currently) Sara Cox spot on R2 for I think, possession of blow. Seemed like an outrageous over reaction when you think of what they were comfortable for Savile to do to underage girls and boys on BBC premises. It's a funny old game.
He was (is?) a genuine Labour hating Tory, so I can't really think what the two of you had in common.
Why on earth would we talk politics when we could talk music?
IIUC, carbon capture is gibberish and the fact that the labour govt wants to spend tens of billions on it just demonstrates their stupidity. To that end:
Cleverly is perfectly amiable but I fail to see the point of replacing Rishi with him. As far as I can see he is Rishi with less energy and fewer brains and not much charisma. Indeed I can’t see a single policy difference between Cleverly and Sunak as PM.
Farage would welcome a Cleverly leadership as he would gain no voters the Tories have lost to Reform while Jenrick might and the LDs fear Tugendhat more than Cleverly. All that can be said for Cleverly is he is better than Kemi for leader as he would at least hold the 2024 Tory vote and might win over a few Labour voters unhappy with Starmer.
The Conhome poll was a snap poll with a small sample though, all it may well do is see Jenrick lend some MPs to Tugendhat next week to try and knock Cleverly and Kemi out
As a non-Tory Cleverly would be the only one I'd genuinely fear might do well. As he's the only one who seems to get that the Tories have to be seen to have changed and had a big rethink to get a hearing among large parts of the country.
In particular the growing in influence group who moved into early adulthood during the last Tory government and who in the past would've been open to voting Tory in terms of age and socio-economic status but now actively despise them after the past 14 years of feeling ignored and attacked.
Plus could do that with a blokeiness that might contrast well with Starmer and maybe even appeal to some Farage fans on style if not substance.
Jenrick is more of the same rhetoric but in stereo and "we pinky promise to do similar things we didn't/couldn't do last time but tougher". Plus he's very ambitious Oxbridge dweeb - not exactly en vogue right now.
Badenoch is a great candidate if the electorate were The Spectator's online readership - less so if you're the majority who don't want to be in the same room as either them or the people they're wanging on about.
Tugendhat's just really wet and doesn't seem to understand that David Cameron's modernisation project was predicated on being demonstratively bold (even if lots of it was horseshit) in challenging his party and proving to people it wasn't the same old duffers they'd rejected three times. Rather than asking it to please stop being a bit less beastly, if it wouldn't terribly mind - but oh no, not that bit of beastliness you all like.
A difficulty in coming back is have to attract voters from all directions to have a hope - Cleverly is the only one I think who has a slim chance of that.
A decent analysis
However, Badenoch is a wild card. Hard to know what she’d do in the office. She may - ahem - surprise on the upside. Or she may be Liz truss 2.0
I suspect Labour are worried by her - just in case. Her gender and ethnicity alone would make her more problematic for the left
IIUC, carbon capture is gibberish and the fact that the labour govt wants to spend tens of billions on it just demonstrates their stupidity. To that end:
Carbon capture is stupid is 99.9% of scenarios. The only times it makes sense is if there is local demand for CO2 - so, for example if there is a concrete plant, then the CO2 can be injected into the concrete which is called "mineralisation", and which increases its strength.
But most of the time, it's incredibly expensive, and completely misses the point.
IIUC, carbon capture is gibberish and the fact that the labour govt wants to spend tens of billions on it just demonstrates their stupidity. To that end:
Carbon capture is stupid is 99.9% of scenarios. The only times it makes sense is if there is local demand for CO2 - so, for example if there is a concrete plant, then the CO2 can be injected into the concrete which is called "mineralisation", and which increases its strength.
But most of the time, it's incredibly expensive, and completely misses the point.
....and the Labour govt is going to spend £22bn on it. Whilst we are knee-deep in debt. They are going to really s**t the bed...
There was a post here the other day (@Nigelb?) saying how Trump had pledged to restore some confederacy names to key military sites and elsewhere.
Whilst I'm not a supporter of the Confederacy- nowhere close - I can see why stripping out every single statue of Robert Lee and Stonewall Jackson would have pissed off Southerners, as it's part of their history and identity. I was annoyed even here about the Rhodes Commission to make a detailed submission to them, and that one stayed up.
There are lots of little things like that about Trump that garner him votes.
It's 9 military bases that were renamed in 2023.
Jurisdiction over statues, school names, parks etc is not a federal responsibility.
So in Georgia there are 201 recognised Confederate memorials still extant for example, including a statue of General Gordon outside the state legislature, despite him being a KKK leader. The state flag is based on the Confederate flag too.
So it isn't accurate to suggest that history is being erased.
There are 45 schools in Georgia named for Confederates too, some with significant African American student enrollment.
Well done for spectacularly missing the point.
What was your point then?
You mentioned removing statues of Lee and Jackson. That isn't a Federal responsibility
I was highlighting why Trump has appeal, and why moves like this strike a chord and drive sentiment for him. Many people will view the pressures that led to changes like this as liberal sentiment emanating from Washington that cascades down to the States, and will want their man in there instead to quash it. Whether you think this is "fact" or not is entirely irrelevant; it's the vibe. They have precisely zero interest in any pedantry about what is officially a federal versus a state matter, and the parties and politics often span both in any event.
But, of course, you know this. You were just being your usual tedious self.
But… this sort of narrative, which I’m sure has some truth to it, assumes the only voters that matter or have influence over the election are those who’d be annoyed by liberal sentiment.
The corollary is that there are no voters who might be upset or annoyed by racist sentiment. Or that they don’t matter because they’re in safe Democrat seats. Somewhere like Georgia, I’m not sure that’s true.
Divisive ideologies tend to drive turnout among their own supporters, and among their opponents.
The secret - this is where the dog whistle analogy is so powerful - is to appeal to your own ideologies while making sure the other side don’t notice.
Indeed, such a move may not be popular in Union States such as Pennsylvania or Wisconsin, or with US Army soldiers.
Renaming a military base, as Trump promised last week, after a traitorous, slave owning incompetent is perhaps not his smartest pledge.
… Bragg is generally considered among the worst generals of the Civil War. Most of the battles he engaged in ended in defeat. Bragg was extremely unpopular with both the officers and ordinary men under his command, who criticized him for numerous perceived faults, including poor battlefield strategy, a quick temper, and overzealous discipline. ..
Could you ever be part of a medical euthanasia scheme? As I say I am deeply divided on the topic
I’d like people to be given the means of a painless way out but building an ethical legal structure is incredibly hard. And I don’t think Canada has done it
I think that, on balance, I'm opposed. Just as the principle with a criminal conviction is that we'd rather ten guilty men go free rather than one innocent man is wrongly convicted, so I'd have to argue that it was better for ten terminally ill patients to suffer a difficult death than one person to be killed by the state before their time.
As someone who has suffered quite badly from depression at various times the stories about mentally ill people being euthanased has seriously given me the jitters.
That’s roughly where I am. Tho I somewhat change my mind with each heart rending story
What gives me real pause is the evidence there IS a slippery slope. You start with offering it to the terminally ill in terrible pain - hard to argue against - and then it ends up with severely depressed people in financial trouble. wtf
As with all big political questions, it needs to be considered through the prism of how the British state, bureaucracy and society would actually implement such a policy over time. Not how you would like it to be. It’s the first step on the road to dystopia but no one would notice until society was so far down the path we couldn’t walk it back.
When my mother was dying in hospital, a nurse refused to follow the hand sanitising protocol before entering her room - as posted on the door.
“Because she is better off dead” is what she literally said to me. Followed by “she is wasting resources”.
My mother was in no particular pain, alert and spent her days organising things, calling people and generally… living. As she would do for several more months.
Fortunately my father (son of Holocaust survivors) didn’t hear.
I went to the head shed doctor. He called the nurse in. I explained my philosophical position. In direct terms. I was interested to note that people really do put their hands to their throats in certain circumstances.
You were unbelievably restrained….
Not really.
I even took the time to look up on my prototype smart phone the German phrase for Ballast Existence, that the Nazis used.
An awful story :-(
Why do you think so? It’s is quite common, probably. Just if you ask questions and push back, in the Nasty Entitled Middle Class way, you get treated differently.
Read the Stafford report and others, it was attitude as much as resources. “They are just bed blockers” was the refrain of a minority. But that was enough.
Part of it is that many elderly patients don’t have anyone to advocate on their behalf. Very noticeable, over a decade of visiting my Dad in various institutions, that a large number of patient very rarely received visitors.
Very much this. My father was recently in hospital. It took serious family intervention to end neglect. Literal neglect.
In the opposite beds, there were people with no visitors. Made you wonder....
My father was hospitalised a decade if so back for several weeks. He was on a geriatric ward, and similarly most there had no visitors. Ensuring adequate nutrition didn't seem to be a high priority.
One ur two died every week. It was strangely dramatic is you were there at the time, as the ward staff would close all the bed curtains with a flourish. When they reopened, a bed would be empty.
There was a post here the other day (@Nigelb?) saying how Trump had pledged to restore some confederacy names to key military sites and elsewhere.
Whilst I'm not a supporter of the Confederacy- nowhere close - I can see why stripping out every single statue of Robert Lee and Stonewall Jackson would have pissed off Southerners, as it's part of their history and identity. I was annoyed even here about the Rhodes Commission to make a detailed submission to them, and that one stayed up.
There are lots of little things like that about Trump that garner him votes.
It's 9 military bases that were renamed in 2023.
Jurisdiction over statues, school names, parks etc is not a federal responsibility.
So in Georgia there are 201 recognised Confederate memorials still extant for example, including a statue of General Gordon outside the state legislature, despite him being a KKK leader. The state flag is based on the Confederate flag too.
So it isn't accurate to suggest that history is being erased.
There are 45 schools in Georgia named for Confederates too, some with significant African American student enrollment.
Well done for spectacularly missing the point.
What was your point then?
You mentioned removing statues of Lee and Jackson. That isn't a Federal responsibility
I was highlighting why Trump has appeal, and why moves like this strike a chord and drive sentiment for him. Many people will view the pressures that led to changes like this as liberal sentiment emanating from Washington that cascades down to the States, and will want their man in there instead to quash it. Whether you think this is "fact" or not is entirely irrelevant; it's the vibe. They have precisely zero interest in any pedantry about what is officially a federal versus a state matter, and the parties and politics often span both in any event.
But, of course, you know this. You were just being your usual tedious self.
But… this sort of narrative, which I’m sure has some truth to it, assumes the only voters that matter or have influence over the election are those who’d be annoyed by liberal sentiment.
The corollary is that there are no voters who might be upset or annoyed by racist sentiment. Or that they don’t matter because they’re in safe Democrat seats. Somewhere like Georgia, I’m not sure that’s true.
Divisive ideologies tend to drive turnout among their own supporters, and among their opponents.
The secret - this is where the dog whistle analogy is so powerful - is to appeal to your own ideologies while making sure the other side don’t notice.
Indeed, such a move may not be popular in Union States such as Pennsylvania or Wisconsin, or with US Army soldiers.
Renaming a military base, as Trump promised last week, after a traitorous, slave owning incompetent is perhaps not his smartest pledge.
… Bragg is generally considered among the worst generals of the Civil War. Most of the battles he engaged in ended in defeat. Bragg was extremely unpopular with both the officers and ordinary men under his command, who criticized him for numerous perceived faults, including poor battlefield strategy, a quick temper, and overzealous discipline. ..
Though I grant it’s on brand.
In the trade it’s still called Fort Bragg
Social media enables people to say the quiet part out loud.
I’m struck by the number of people I’ve encountered online, who are prepared to defend Southern (and other forms of), slavery.
Amazing that even the new T-90 Russian tanks are basically upgraded versions of this sh!t-show, that can be totally destroyed by a single small drone with a grenade. They all have the same basic design flaw in how they store their ammunition, such that the whole lot can go off at the same time.
Looks as thought all that GOP concern about N Carolina is pretty phoney.
Speaker Mike Johnson will NOT be calling the House back early to vote on a disaster aid supplemental in the wake of the Hurricane.
He tells me the cost of damages has to be “tabulated” before a supplemental is considered and he argued they are a ways away from that. Congress will not convene for about five more weeks https://x.com/Olivia_Beavers/status/1842792590749335642
Senior manager at the Post Office apparently suspended for ordering the destruction of data and documents potentially relevant to the ongoing public inquiry.
Hope they like the taste of prison food, because there’s going to be a whole wave of prosecutions once this inquiry reports. The PO management have done everything possible to avoid engaging with it, and if they’re actively destroying information they should be held in contempt.
Cleverly is perfectly amiable but I fail to see the point of replacing Rishi with him. As far as I can see he is Rishi with less energy and fewer brains and not much charisma. Indeed I can’t see a single policy difference between Cleverly and Sunak as PM.
Farage would welcome a Cleverly leadership as he would gain no voters the Tories have lost to Reform while Jenrick might and the LDs fear Tugendhat more than Cleverly. All that can be said for Cleverly is he is better than Kemi for leader as he would at least hold the 2024 Tory vote and might win over a few Labour voters unhappy with Starmer.
The Conhome poll was a snap poll with a small sample though, all it may well do is see Jenrick lend some MPs to Tugendhat next week to try and knock Cleverly and Kemi out
As a non-Tory Cleverly would be the only one I'd genuinely fear might do well. As he's the only one who seems to get that the Tories have to be seen to have changed and had a big rethink to get a hearing among large parts of the country.
In particular the growing in influence group who moved into early adulthood during the last Tory government and who in the past would've been open to voting Tory in terms of age and socio-economic status but now actively despise them after the past 14 years of feeling ignored and attacked.
Plus could do that with a blokeiness that might contrast well with Starmer and maybe even appeal to some Farage fans on style if not substance.
Jenrick is more of the same rhetoric but in stereo and "we pinky promise to do similar things we didn't/couldn't do last time but tougher". Plus he's very ambitious Oxbridge dweeb - not exactly en vogue right now.
Badenoch is a great candidate if the electorate were The Spectator's online readership - less so if you're the majority who don't want to be in the same room as either them or the people they're wanging on about.
Tugendhat's just really wet and doesn't seem to understand that David Cameron's modernisation project was predicated on being demonstratively bold (even if lots of it was horseshit) in challenging his party and proving to people it wasn't the same old duffers they'd rejected three times. Rather than asking it to please stop being a bit less beastly, if it wouldn't terribly mind - but oh no, not that bit of beastliness you all like.
A difficulty in coming back is have to attract voters from all directions to have a hope - Cleverly is the only one I think who has a slim chance of that.
Oh look, another non-Tory who would 'genuinely fear' James Cleverly. You know, the first ten times I heard this I wasn't convinced, but I am becoming more and more persuaded by this sage and clearly well meaning advice. I think this time we should really listen to and heed our kind left-wing friends on this one, and elect their selfless suggestion of Cleverly so that we can turn Britain Tory blue once again!
Senior manager at the Post Office apparently suspended for ordering the destruction of data and documents potentially relevant to the ongoing public inquiry.
Hope they like the taste of prison food, because there’s going to be a whole wave of prosecutions once this inquiry reports. The PO management have done everything possible to avoid engaging with it, and if they’re actively destroying information they should be held in contempt.
Since they and their equally repellent solicitors have been doing that for literally decades, it seems unlikely that they realise there is anything wrong with it. I do hope they do sooner rather than later when the judge bangs them up for perverting the course of justice..
Cleverly is perfectly amiable but I fail to see the point of replacing Rishi with him. As far as I can see he is Rishi with less energy and fewer brains and not much charisma. Indeed I can’t see a single policy difference between Cleverly and Sunak as PM.
Farage would welcome a Cleverly leadership as he would gain no voters the Tories have lost to Reform while Jenrick might and the LDs fear Tugendhat more than Cleverly. All that can be said for Cleverly is he is better than Kemi for leader as he would at least hold the 2024 Tory vote and might win over a few Labour voters unhappy with Starmer.
The Conhome poll was a snap poll with a small sample though, all it may well do is see Jenrick lend some MPs to Tugendhat next week to try and knock Cleverly and Kemi out
As a non-Tory Cleverly would be the only one I'd genuinely fear might do well. As he's the only one who seems to get that the Tories have to be seen to have changed and had a big rethink to get a hearing among large parts of the country.
In particular the growing in influence group who moved into early adulthood during the last Tory government and who in the past would've been open to voting Tory in terms of age and socio-economic status but now actively despise them after the past 14 years of feeling ignored and attacked.
Plus could do that with a blokeiness that might contrast well with Starmer and maybe even appeal to some Farage fans on style if not substance.
Jenrick is more of the same rhetoric but in stereo and "we pinky promise to do similar things we didn't/couldn't do last time but tougher". Plus he's very ambitious Oxbridge dweeb - not exactly en vogue right now.
Badenoch is a great candidate if the electorate were The Spectator's online readership - less so if you're the majority who don't want to be in the same room as either them or the people they're wanging on about.
Tugendhat's just really wet and doesn't seem to understand that David Cameron's modernisation project was predicated on being demonstratively bold (even if lots of it was horseshit) in challenging his party and proving to people it wasn't the same old duffers they'd rejected three times. Rather than asking it to please stop being a bit less beastly, if it wouldn't terribly mind - but oh no, not that bit of beastliness you all like.
A difficulty in coming back is have to attract voters from all directions to have a hope - Cleverly is the only one I think who has a slim chance of that.
A decent analysis
However, Badenoch is a wild card. Hard to know what she’d do in the office. She may - ahem - surprise on the upside. Or she may be Liz truss 2.0
I suspect Labour are worried by her - just in case. Her gender and ethnicity alone would make her more problematic for the left
This is why I think Badenoch is the best choice.
Because she is Truss 2.0?
I'm not sure she will be Truss 2.0.
Sadly, Kemi isn't Truss 2. She's said precisely nothing about what party policy would look like under her. And given that when in power, she campaigned for legal migration to be eased, and got rid of about 3 and a half EU laws, that's a big risk. I think it would be a mistake electing her thinking she's going to be a full-throttle right winger, just because she's going around criticising maternity pay and saying civil servants belong in gaol - interesting though these arguments may be.
Senior manager at the Post Office apparently suspended for ordering the destruction of data and documents potentially relevant to the ongoing public inquiry.
Hope they like the taste of prison food, because there’s going to be a whole wave of prosecutions once this inquiry reports. The PO management have done everything possible to avoid engaging with it, and if they’re actively destroying information they should be held in contempt.
Since they and their equally repellent solicitors have been doing that for literally decades, it seems unlikely that they realise there is anything wrong with it. I do hope they do sooner rather than later when the judge bangs them up for perverting the course of justice..
Maybe the actual idiot who did the deed under orders will face consequences.
For the senior managers involved - “A great deal of time has past, and a prosecution was judged not to be in the public interest.”
Cleverly is perfectly amiable but I fail to see the point of replacing Rishi with him. As far as I can see he is Rishi with less energy and fewer brains and not much charisma. Indeed I can’t see a single policy difference between Cleverly and Sunak as PM.
Farage would welcome a Cleverly leadership as he would gain no voters the Tories have lost to Reform while Jenrick might and the LDs fear Tugendhat more than Cleverly. All that can be said for Cleverly is he is better than Kemi for leader as he would at least hold the 2024 Tory vote and might win over a few Labour voters unhappy with Starmer.
The Conhome poll was a snap poll with a small sample though, all it may well do is see Jenrick lend some MPs to Tugendhat next week to try and knock Cleverly and Kemi out
As a non-Tory Cleverly would be the only one I'd genuinely fear might do well. As he's the only one who seems to get that the Tories have to be seen to have changed and had a big rethink to get a hearing among large parts of the country.
In particular the growing in influence group who moved into early adulthood during the last Tory government and who in the past would've been open to voting Tory in terms of age and socio-economic status but now actively despise them after the past 14 years of feeling ignored and attacked.
Plus could do that with a blokeiness that might contrast well with Starmer and maybe even appeal to some Farage fans on style if not substance.
Jenrick is more of the same rhetoric but in stereo and "we pinky promise to do similar things we didn't/couldn't do last time but tougher". Plus he's very ambitious Oxbridge dweeb - not exactly en vogue right now.
Badenoch is a great candidate if the electorate were The Spectator's online readership - less so if you're the majority who don't want to be in the same room as either them or the people they're wanging on about.
Tugendhat's just really wet and doesn't seem to understand that David Cameron's modernisation project was predicated on being demonstratively bold (even if lots of it was horseshit) in challenging his party and proving to people it wasn't the same old duffers they'd rejected three times. Rather than asking it to please stop being a bit less beastly, if it wouldn't terribly mind - but oh no, not that bit of beastliness you all like.
A difficulty in coming back is have to attract voters from all directions to have a hope - Cleverly is the only one I think who has a slim chance of that.
'As a non-Tory Cleverly would be the only one I'd genuinely fear might do well. As he's the only one who seems to get that the Tories have to be seen to have changed and had a big rethink to get a hearing among large parts of the country.'
Are you having a laugh? Cleverly will be selling exactly the same message Rishi did in July just with less dynamism and charisma.
Cleverly is Sunak 2 and wouldn't change anything from the manifesto Rishi fought the general election on which led to thumping defeat. Starmer also does blokeiness.
Jenrick offers at least some vision of the lessons the Tories need to learn from the voters they lost to Reform, as does Badenoch.
Tugendhat at least has more intellect than Cleverly and a genuine ideological commitment to a form of One Nation Toryism at home and moral foreign policy abroad which might attract voters Cameron won who went Labour or LD this time.
At best Cleverly might hold the 2024 Tory vote and add a few from Labour, at worst he would lose more to Reform and the LDs and Farage would end up LOTO by default and win over voters disaffected with Labour to Reform not the Tories
Cleverly is avuncular. Kind of likeable, in a have a beer down the pub way. Nobody really knows what his politics are, so he’s about as blank a canvas as you’ll get in a former minister.
Something to be said for that. A sort of Tory Ed Davey.
Ed Davey isn't going to be PM or an effective LOTO either.
I am not looking for someone to have a beer with, I could get that in any pub, I am looking for a leader
The desperation of non-Tory supporters to persuade Tories of the electoral bonanza that awaits them should they elect Jimmy Dimly is quite something to behold. I can't remember the last time I heard similar advice. Oh yes I do, it was when they were cheerleading for Rishi Sunak.
I am not a Tory. I don’t think Cleverly would be a good choice.
Senior manager at the Post Office apparently suspended for ordering the destruction of data and documents potentially relevant to the ongoing public inquiry.
Hope they like the taste of prison food, because there’s going to be a whole wave of prosecutions once this inquiry reports. The PO management have done everything possible to avoid engaging with it, and if they’re actively destroying information they should be held in contempt.
Since they and their equally repellent solicitors have been doing that for literally decades, it seems unlikely that they realise there is anything wrong with it. I do hope they do sooner rather than later when the judge bangs them up for perverting the course of justice..
Maybe the actual idiot who did the deed under orders will face consequences.
For the senior managers involved - “A great deal of time has past, and a prosecution was judged not to be in the public interest.”
And getting rid of all of those unhappy with her would have been difficult too – firstly, there were quite a few of them, and secondly finding them would not have been easy, as they had been making their feelings known discreetly.
I am told - by sources that have been consistently reliable through all of this - that a decision was made on Friday and the prime minister was willing to sack Sue Gray. He had decided, whatever she said, that she could no longer be his chief of staff.
This is particularly disorganised, but increasingly overseas crickets tours seem to be struggling to sell the rights. The past few tours BT / Talk Sport / BBC have only been announced right before the matches as Sky have obviously not willing to pay.
Cleverly is perfectly amiable but I fail to see the point of replacing Rishi with him. As far as I can see he is Rishi with less energy and fewer brains and not much charisma. Indeed I can’t see a single policy difference between Cleverly and Sunak as PM.
Farage would welcome a Cleverly leadership as he would gain no voters the Tories have lost to Reform while Jenrick might and the LDs fear Tugendhat more than Cleverly. All that can be said for Cleverly is he is better than Kemi for leader as he would at least hold the 2024 Tory vote and might win over a few Labour voters unhappy with Starmer.
The Conhome poll was a snap poll with a small sample though, all it may well do is see Jenrick lend some MPs to Tugendhat next week to try and knock Cleverly and Kemi out
As a non-Tory Cleverly would be the only one I'd genuinely fear might do well. As he's the only one who seems to get that the Tories have to be seen to have changed and had a big rethink to get a hearing among large parts of the country.
In particular the growing in influence group who moved into early adulthood during the last Tory government and who in the past would've been open to voting Tory in terms of age and socio-economic status but now actively despise them after the past 14 years of feeling ignored and attacked.
Plus could do that with a blokeiness that might contrast well with Starmer and maybe even appeal to some Farage fans on style if not substance.
Jenrick is more of the same rhetoric but in stereo and "we pinky promise to do similar things we didn't/couldn't do last time but tougher". Plus he's very ambitious Oxbridge dweeb - not exactly en vogue right now.
Badenoch is a great candidate if the electorate were The Spectator's online readership - less so if you're the majority who don't want to be in the same room as either them or the people they're wanging on about.
Tugendhat's just really wet and doesn't seem to understand that David Cameron's modernisation project was predicated on being demonstratively bold (even if lots of it was horseshit) in challenging his party and proving to people it wasn't the same old duffers they'd rejected three times. Rather than asking it to please stop being a bit less beastly, if it wouldn't terribly mind - but oh no, not that bit of beastliness you all like.
A difficulty in coming back is have to attract voters from all directions to have a hope - Cleverly is the only one I think who has a slim chance of that.
'As a non-Tory Cleverly would be the only one I'd genuinely fear might do well. As he's the only one who seems to get that the Tories have to be seen to have changed and had a big rethink to get a hearing among large parts of the country.'
Are you having a laugh? Cleverly will be selling exactly the same message Rishi did in July just with less dynamism and charisma.
Cleverly is Sunak 2 and wouldn't change anything from the manifesto Rishi fought the general election on which led to thumping defeat. Starmer also does blokeiness.
Jenrick offers at least some vision of the lessons the Tories need to learn from the voters they lost to Reform, as does Badenoch.
Tugendhat at least has more intellect than Cleverly and a genuine ideological commitment to a form of One Nation Toryism at home and moral foreign policy abroad which might attract voters Cameron won who went Labour or LD this time.
At best Cleverly might hold the 2024 Tory vote and add a few from Labour, at worst he would lose more to Reform and the LDs and Farage would end up LOTO by default and win over voters disaffected with Labour to Reform not the Tories
Cleverly is avuncular. Kind of likeable, in a have a beer down the pub way. Nobody really knows what his politics are, so he’s about as blank a canvas as you’ll get in a former minister.
Something to be said for that. A sort of Tory Ed Davey.
Ed Davey isn't going to be PM or an effective LOTO either.
I am not looking for someone to have a beer with, I could get that in any pub, I am looking for a leader
The desperation of non-Tory supporters to persuade Tories of the electoral bonanza that awaits them should they elect Jimmy Dimly is quite something to behold. I can't remember the last time I heard similar advice. Oh yes I do, it was when they were cheerleading for Rishi Sunak.
I am not a Tory. I don’t think Cleverly would be a good choice.
This is particularly disorganised, but increasingly overseas crickets tours seem to be struggling to sell the rights. The past few tours BT / Talk Sport / BBC have only been announced right before the matches as Sky have obviously not willing to pay.
I think the organising countries overestimate the demand for Brits to get up at 6am to watch a pretty inconsequential match against what’s likely to be a poor opposition. They see the money involved in the Ashes or Pak v Ind, and don’t want to sell to Sky for less than the cost of staging the whole tour plus a nice bonus for themselves.
Sky wants to pay them only six figures, and will play hardball until the last minute, happy to walk away rather than overpay for the rights. It’s no surprise that, having confirmed only five days ago, they have no production or commentary of their own and are just rebroadcasting the local English feed.
Cleverly is perfectly amiable but I fail to see the point of replacing Rishi with him. As far as I can see he is Rishi with less energy and fewer brains and not much charisma. Indeed I can’t see a single policy difference between Cleverly and Sunak as PM.
Farage would welcome a Cleverly leadership as he would gain no voters the Tories have lost to Reform while Jenrick might and the LDs fear Tugendhat more than Cleverly. All that can be said for Cleverly is he is better than Kemi for leader as he would at least hold the 2024 Tory vote and might win over a few Labour voters unhappy with Starmer.
The Conhome poll was a snap poll with a small sample though, all it may well do is see Jenrick lend some MPs to Tugendhat next week to try and knock Cleverly and Kemi out
As a non-Tory Cleverly would be the only one I'd genuinely fear might do well. As he's the only one who seems to get that the Tories have to be seen to have changed and had a big rethink to get a hearing among large parts of the country.
In particular the growing in influence group who moved into early adulthood during the last Tory government and who in the past would've been open to voting Tory in terms of age and socio-economic status but now actively despise them after the past 14 years of feeling ignored and attacked.
Plus could do that with a blokeiness that might contrast well with Starmer and maybe even appeal to some Farage fans on style if not substance.
Jenrick is more of the same rhetoric but in stereo and "we pinky promise to do similar things we didn't/couldn't do last time but tougher". Plus he's very ambitious Oxbridge dweeb - not exactly en vogue right now.
Badenoch is a great candidate if the electorate were The Spectator's online readership - less so if you're the majority who don't want to be in the same room as either them or the people they're wanging on about.
Tugendhat's just really wet and doesn't seem to understand that David Cameron's modernisation project was predicated on being demonstratively bold (even if lots of it was horseshit) in challenging his party and proving to people it wasn't the same old duffers they'd rejected three times. Rather than asking it to please stop being a bit less beastly, if it wouldn't terribly mind - but oh no, not that bit of beastliness you all like.
A difficulty in coming back is have to attract voters from all directions to have a hope - Cleverly is the only one I think who has a slim chance of that.
'As a non-Tory Cleverly would be the only one I'd genuinely fear might do well. As he's the only one who seems to get that the Tories have to be seen to have changed and had a big rethink to get a hearing among large parts of the country.'
Are you having a laugh? Cleverly will be selling exactly the same message Rishi did in July just with less dynamism and charisma.
Cleverly is Sunak 2 and wouldn't change anything from the manifesto Rishi fought the general election on which led to thumping defeat. Starmer also does blokeiness.
Jenrick offers at least some vision of the lessons the Tories need to learn from the voters they lost to Reform, as does Badenoch.
Tugendhat at least has more intellect than Cleverly and a genuine ideological commitment to a form of One Nation Toryism at home and moral foreign policy abroad which might attract voters Cameron won who went Labour or LD this time.
At best Cleverly might hold the 2024 Tory vote and add a few from Labour, at worst he would lose more to Reform and the LDs and Farage would end up LOTO by default and win over voters disaffected with Labour to Reform not the Tories
Cleverly is avuncular. Kind of likeable, in a have a beer down the pub way. Nobody really knows what his politics are, so he’s about as blank a canvas as you’ll get in a former minister.
Something to be said for that. A sort of Tory Ed Davey.
Ed Davey isn't going to be PM or an effective LOTO either.
I am not looking for someone to have a beer with, I could get that in any pub, I am looking for a leader
The desperation of non-Tory supporters to persuade Tories of the electoral bonanza that awaits them should they elect Jimmy Dimly is quite something to behold. I can't remember the last time I heard similar advice. Oh yes I do, it was when they were cheerleading for Rishi Sunak.
I am not a Tory. I don’t think Cleverly would be a good choice.
Appreciated and agreed.
I think that Cleverly is the worst choice. Apart from all the others.
This is particularly disorganised, but increasingly overseas crickets tours seem to be struggling to sell the rights. The past few tours BT / Talk Sport / BBC have only been announced right before the matches as Sky have obviously not willing to pay.
I think the organising countries overestimate the demand for Brits to get up at 6am to watch a pretty inconsequential match against what’s likely to be a poor opposition. They see the money involved in the Ashes or Pak v Ind, and don’t want to sell to Sky for less than the cost of staging the whole tour plus a nice bonus for themselves.
Sky wants to pay them only six figures, and will play hardball until the last minute, happy to walk away rather than overpay for the rights. It’s no surprise that, having confirmed only five days ago, they have no production or commentary of their own and are just rebroadcasting the local English feed.
When Sky do this the quality is poor / and production cheap. I remember them doing a weird half way house for Sri Lanka tour where some of the Sky commentators did it from their home offices and lunch / tea break was just them on Zoom talking to one another.
Cleverly is perfectly amiable but I fail to see the point of replacing Rishi with him. As far as I can see he is Rishi with less energy and fewer brains and not much charisma. Indeed I can’t see a single policy difference between Cleverly and Sunak as PM.
Farage would welcome a Cleverly leadership as he would gain no voters the Tories have lost to Reform while Jenrick might and the LDs fear Tugendhat more than Cleverly. All that can be said for Cleverly is he is better than Kemi for leader as he would at least hold the 2024 Tory vote and might win over a few Labour voters unhappy with Starmer.
The Conhome poll was a snap poll with a small sample though, all it may well do is see Jenrick lend some MPs to Tugendhat next week to try and knock Cleverly and Kemi out
As a non-Tory Cleverly would be the only one I'd genuinely fear might do well. As he's the only one who seems to get that the Tories have to be seen to have changed and had a big rethink to get a hearing among large parts of the country.
In particular the growing in influence group who moved into early adulthood during the last Tory government and who in the past would've been open to voting Tory in terms of age and socio-economic status but now actively despise them after the past 14 years of feeling ignored and attacked.
Plus could do that with a blokeiness that might contrast well with Starmer and maybe even appeal to some Farage fans on style if not substance.
Jenrick is more of the same rhetoric but in stereo and "we pinky promise to do similar things we didn't/couldn't do last time but tougher". Plus he's very ambitious Oxbridge dweeb - not exactly en vogue right now.
Badenoch is a great candidate if the electorate were The Spectator's online readership - less so if you're the majority who don't want to be in the same room as either them or the people they're wanging on about.
Tugendhat's just really wet and doesn't seem to understand that David Cameron's modernisation project was predicated on being demonstratively bold (even if lots of it was horseshit) in challenging his party and proving to people it wasn't the same old duffers they'd rejected three times. Rather than asking it to please stop being a bit less beastly, if it wouldn't terribly mind - but oh no, not that bit of beastliness you all like.
A difficulty in coming back is have to attract voters from all directions to have a hope - Cleverly is the only one I think who has a slim chance of that.
'As a non-Tory Cleverly would be the only one I'd genuinely fear might do well. As he's the only one who seems to get that the Tories have to be seen to have changed and had a big rethink to get a hearing among large parts of the country.'
Are you having a laugh? Cleverly will be selling exactly the same message Rishi did in July just with less dynamism and charisma.
Cleverly is Sunak 2 and wouldn't change anything from the manifesto Rishi fought the general election on which led to thumping defeat. Starmer also does blokeiness.
Jenrick offers at least some vision of the lessons the Tories need to learn from the voters they lost to Reform, as does Badenoch.
Tugendhat at least has more intellect than Cleverly and a genuine ideological commitment to a form of One Nation Toryism at home and moral foreign policy abroad which might attract voters Cameron won who went Labour or LD this time.
At best Cleverly might hold the 2024 Tory vote and add a few from Labour, at worst he would lose more to Reform and the LDs and Farage would end up LOTO by default and win over voters disaffected with Labour to Reform not the Tories
Cleverly is avuncular. Kind of likeable, in a have a beer down the pub way. Nobody really knows what his politics are, so he’s about as blank a canvas as you’ll get in a former minister.
Something to be said for that. A sort of Tory Ed Davey.
Ed Davey isn't going to be PM or an effective LOTO either.
I am not looking for someone to have a beer with, I could get that in any pub, I am looking for a leader
The desperation of non-Tory supporters to persuade Tories of the electoral bonanza that awaits them should they elect Jimmy Dimly is quite something to behold. I can't remember the last time I heard similar advice. Oh yes I do, it was when they were cheerleading for Rishi Sunak.
I am not a Tory. I don’t think Cleverly would be a good choice.
Appreciated and agreed.
I think that Cleverly is the worst choice. Apart from all the others.
Its going to be a long road back.
You would think the Tories would learn from Labour, don't pick a divisive character. Just pick some boring sod and then if needs be switch 3-4 years down the line. At this stage you don't want to be the one making the headlines after coming out with some bonkers stuff.
This is particularly disorganised, but increasingly overseas crickets tours seem to be struggling to sell the rights. The past few tours BT / Talk Sport / BBC have only been announced right before the matches as Sky have obviously not willing to pay.
I think the organising countries overestimate the demand for Brits to get up at 6am to watch a pretty inconsequential match against what’s likely to be a poor opposition. They see the money involved in the Ashes or Pak v Ind, and don’t want to sell to Sky for less than the cost of staging the whole tour plus a nice bonus for themselves.
Sky wants to pay them only six figures, and will play hardball until the last minute, happy to walk away rather than overpay for the rights. It’s no surprise that, having confirmed only five days ago, they have no production or commentary of their own and are just rebroadcasting the local English feed.
This "poor" opposition are currently spanking England's bowling attack all around the park.
(And if that doesn't get England a wicket I'll despair)
Cleverly is perfectly amiable but I fail to see the point of replacing Rishi with him. As far as I can see he is Rishi with less energy and fewer brains and not much charisma. Indeed I can’t see a single policy difference between Cleverly and Sunak as PM.
Farage would welcome a Cleverly leadership as he would gain no voters the Tories have lost to Reform while Jenrick might and the LDs fear Tugendhat more than Cleverly. All that can be said for Cleverly is he is better than Kemi for leader as he would at least hold the 2024 Tory vote and might win over a few Labour voters unhappy with Starmer.
The Conhome poll was a snap poll with a small sample though, all it may well do is see Jenrick lend some MPs to Tugendhat next week to try and knock Cleverly and Kemi out
As a non-Tory Cleverly would be the only one I'd genuinely fear might do well. As he's the only one who seems to get that the Tories have to be seen to have changed and had a big rethink to get a hearing among large parts of the country.
In particular the growing in influence group who moved into early adulthood during the last Tory government and who in the past would've been open to voting Tory in terms of age and socio-economic status but now actively despise them after the past 14 years of feeling ignored and attacked.
Plus could do that with a blokeiness that might contrast well with Starmer and maybe even appeal to some Farage fans on style if not substance.
Jenrick is more of the same rhetoric but in stereo and "we pinky promise to do similar things we didn't/couldn't do last time but tougher". Plus he's very ambitious Oxbridge dweeb - not exactly en vogue right now.
Badenoch is a great candidate if the electorate were The Spectator's online readership - less so if you're the majority who don't want to be in the same room as either them or the people they're wanging on about.
Tugendhat's just really wet and doesn't seem to understand that David Cameron's modernisation project was predicated on being demonstratively bold (even if lots of it was horseshit) in challenging his party and proving to people it wasn't the same old duffers they'd rejected three times. Rather than asking it to please stop being a bit less beastly, if it wouldn't terribly mind - but oh no, not that bit of beastliness you all like.
A difficulty in coming back is have to attract voters from all directions to have a hope - Cleverly is the only one I think who has a slim chance of that.
'As a non-Tory Cleverly would be the only one I'd genuinely fear might do well. As he's the only one who seems to get that the Tories have to be seen to have changed and had a big rethink to get a hearing among large parts of the country.'
Are you having a laugh? Cleverly will be selling exactly the same message Rishi did in July just with less dynamism and charisma.
Cleverly is Sunak 2 and wouldn't change anything from the manifesto Rishi fought the general election on which led to thumping defeat. Starmer also does blokeiness.
Jenrick offers at least some vision of the lessons the Tories need to learn from the voters they lost to Reform, as does Badenoch.
Tugendhat at least has more intellect than Cleverly and a genuine ideological commitment to a form of One Nation Toryism at home and moral foreign policy abroad which might attract voters Cameron won who went Labour or LD this time.
At best Cleverly might hold the 2024 Tory vote and add a few from Labour, at worst he would lose more to Reform and the LDs and Farage would end up LOTO by default and win over voters disaffected with Labour to Reform not the Tories
Cleverly is avuncular. Kind of likeable, in a have a beer down the pub way. Nobody really knows what his politics are, so he’s about as blank a canvas as you’ll get in a former minister.
Something to be said for that. A sort of Tory Ed Davey.
Ed Davey isn't going to be PM or an effective LOTO either.
I am not looking for someone to have a beer with, I could get that in any pub, I am looking for a leader
The desperation of non-Tory supporters to persuade Tories of the electoral bonanza that awaits them should they elect Jimmy Dimly is quite something to behold. I can't remember the last time I heard similar advice. Oh yes I do, it was when they were cheerleading for Rishi Sunak.
I am not a Tory. I don’t think Cleverly would be a good choice.
Appreciated and agreed.
I think that Cleverly is the worst choice. Apart from all the others.
Its going to be a long road back.
I have to admit I really don't see any reason for such pessimism. There are several things in this leadership race to be cheerful about. 1. All the candidates are better communicators than Sunak and Truss, so this is already an upgrade in that regard. 2. Largely, the candidates have refrained from ripping chunks out of one another, which shows decent judgement. 3. All, even Cleverly, have acknowledged that some of the more illiberal, spendthrift, and migration-fuelling policies of the last Government were wrong. 4. Most have explicitly or obliquely indicated that CCHQ needs the Augean stables treatment.
5. And most importantly, they're facing Starmer. If they can't oppose *that* successfully, the Tory Party deserves to become a Farage subsidiary.
Comments
@Acyn
Trump: I don’t like flies. Get out of here fly. This is a very aggressive sucker. Like I’m going to be aggressive for our county
https://x.com/Acyn/status/1843017183410204687
Along with Fluff Freeman, he introduced me to many of my musical loves.
I will be very sad when he succumbs to his illness.
In the opposite beds, there were people with no visitors. Made you wonder....
"I am breaking no rules. Hic." - Starmer adjusts his tie with elaborate care. And trips over a lettuce.
I think she became Sue Many Colours.
Even Trump thinks Leon is a weirdo.
https://x.com/RonFilipkowski/status/1842708314670445009
(Here's a "balanced" account from CNN, for those who don't want to fight the WSJ paywall. https://www.cnn.com/2024/10/04/middleeast/yazdi-isis-hamas-woman-rescued-intl/index.html )
Genuinely hilarious, if Truss hadn't been ousted the next GE would be in 2028 and Ed Davey would be LOTO.
He was (is?) a genuine Labour hating Tory, so I can't really think what the two of you had in common.
Trump proving not all his calls are faulty.
https://x.com/ReactiveAshley/status/1842903428055368148#m
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2024/oct/04/labour-to-commit-almost-22bn-to-fund-carbon-capture-and-storage-projects
But most of the time, it's incredibly expensive, and completely misses the point.
https://www.thetimes.com/uk/politics/article/proud-socialist-rayner-bought-boyfriend-a-suit-from-royal-tailor-sdqrxjq9x (£££)
The Times brings you the stories that matter.
Ensuring adequate nutrition didn't seem to be a high priority.
One ur two died every week. It was strangely dramatic is you were there at the time, as the ward staff would close all the bed curtains with a flourish. When they reopened, a bed would be empty.
I’m struck by the number of people I’ve encountered online, who are prepared to defend Southern (and other forms of), slavery.
Trump says it’s “very dangerous” for Kamala Harris voters to identify themselves because they’ll “get hurt”
https://x.com/KamalaHQ/status/1843020699092295724
Amazing that even the new T-90 Russian tanks are basically upgraded versions of this sh!t-show, that can be totally destroyed by a single small drone with a grenade. They all have the same basic design flaw in how they store their ammunition, such that the whole lot can go off at the same time.
Speaker Mike Johnson will NOT be calling the House back early to vote on a disaster aid supplemental in the wake of the Hurricane.
He tells me the cost of damages has to be “tabulated” before a supplemental is considered and he argued they are a ways away from that. Congress will not convene for about five more weeks
https://x.com/Olivia_Beavers/status/1842792590749335642
https://news.slashdot.org/story/24/10/06/1757221/uk-post-office-executive-suspended-over-allegations-of-destroying-software-scandal-evidence
Hope they like the taste of prison food, because there’s going to be a whole wave of prosecutions once this inquiry reports. The PO management have done everything possible to avoid engaging with it, and if they’re actively destroying information they should be held in contempt.
Still on a mobile, as if it were not obvious.
Perhaps he licks Liz Truss ? Actually, no, it's too early in the morning for images like this, and my breakfast may rise again.
For the senior managers involved - “A great deal of time has past, and a prosecution was judged not to be in the public interest.”
He got caught out.
https://www.lawgazette.co.uk/news/solicitor-for-post-office-wrote-trainees-email-on-avoiding-disclosure/5120020.article
And getting rid of all of those unhappy with her would have been difficult too – firstly, there were quite a few of them, and secondly finding them would not have been easy, as they had been making their feelings known discreetly.
I am told - by sources that have been consistently reliable through all of this - that a decision was made on Friday and the prime minister was willing to sack Sue Gray. He had decided, whatever she said, that she could no longer be his chief of staff.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c0jwv9v95yzo
Sounds like when you hear at a football club it been said that the manager has lost the dressing room.
https://www.skysports.com/cricket/news/12123/13171506/england-to-tour-pakistan-in-october-dates-and-venues-set-for-three-test-series-in-october
I’m actually quite surprised it’s being covered by any major broadcaster, and not just being streamed on some random Pakistani website. Sky only confirmed the rights on 2nd October!
https://www.skysports.com/cricket/news/12123/13225452/pakistan-vs-england-2024-test-series-to-be-shown-live-on-sky-sports-throughout-october
Sky wants to pay them only six figures, and will play hardball until the last minute, happy to walk away rather than overpay for the rights. It’s no surprise that, having confirmed only five days ago, they have no production or commentary of their own and are just rebroadcasting the local English feed.
Its going to be a long road back.
(And if that doesn't get England a wicket I'll despair)
1. All the candidates are better communicators than Sunak and Truss, so this is already an upgrade in that regard.
2. Largely, the candidates have refrained from ripping chunks out of one another, which shows decent judgement.
3. All, even Cleverly, have acknowledged that some of the more illiberal, spendthrift, and migration-fuelling policies of the last Government were wrong.
4. Most have explicitly or obliquely indicated that CCHQ needs the Augean stables treatment.
5. And most importantly, they're facing Starmer. If they can't oppose *that* successfully, the Tory Party deserves to become a Farage subsidiary.
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