“It was fed back to us... that if we hadn’t done it at that time then it’s likely there would have been a level of disorder,” says Mr Naseem. “Things were on a knife edge”.
That quote is in relation to a decision to open a homicide investigation - a decision which led in the end to Blake being charged with murder.
It is the stuff of a banana republic.
It is quit a starling admission, and one that will just cause many other problems further down the line.
Driving a 2 ton car towards you in an attempt to mow you down doesn't present a sufficient danger to justify being shot..
I'm sorry but could you read that sentence again and confirm that is what you think?
I suggest we charge Mr Naseem with murder. That will make the Met Firearms Squad feel better. And making groups feel better is the goal, right?
Only groups with 'community leaders' matter in these decisions.
First big split between the LDs and Labour since Corbyn. The LDs are now calling Reeves' placing a 20% inheritance tax on agricultural estates worth over £1 million a 'tractor tax.'
Could be important as some of the latest polls give a hung parliament with Labour needing LD support to stay in office.
Tim Farron, the Liberal Democrats’ rural affairs spokesman, said: “This claim just doesn’t stand up to scrutiny. Rachel Reeves must be living in cloud cuckoo land. It just shows this Labour Government doesn’t understand rural communities. What we cannot afford is to drive farmers out of business and undermine the country’s food security.”
“It was fed back to us... that if we hadn’t done it at that time then it’s likely there would have been a level of disorder,” says Mr Naseem. “Things were on a knife edge”.
That quote is in relation to a decision to open a homicide investigation - a decision which led in the end to Blake being charged with murder.
It is the stuff of a banana republic.
It is quit a starling admission, and one that will just cause many other problems further down the line.
Driving a 2 ton car towards you in an attempt to mow you down doesn't present a sufficient danger to justify being shot..
I'm sorry but could you read that sentence again and confirm that is what you think?
I'd be careful with that train of thought lest we have militant cyclists and drug dealers shooting their enemies and claiming fear of being run over as justification.
There are a number of cases of people being charged, prosecuted and convicted of murder, using a vehicle as the weapon.
“It was fed back to us... that if we hadn’t done it at that time then it’s likely there would have been a level of disorder,” says Mr Naseem. “Things were on a knife edge”.
That quote is in relation to a decision to open a homicide investigation - a decision which led in the end to Blake being charged with murder.
It is the stuff of a banana republic.
It is quit a starling admission, and one that will just cause many other problems further down the line.
Driving a 2 ton car towards you in an attempt to mow you down doesn't present a sufficient danger to justify being shot..
I'm sorry but could you read that sentence again and confirm that is what you think?
I suggest we charge Mr Naseem with murder. That will make the Met Firearms Squad feel better. And making groups feel better is the goal, right?
Only groups with 'community leaders' matter in these decisions.
The Met Firearms squads are a diverse group. Also they are heavily armed. And haven’t had their tea.
The bet's not at 35 for no reason. I find it statistically improbable (and a good deal more than 34/1) that the Republicans will win more votes but the Democrats win the Electoral College.
For that to happen, Trump would have to do a lot better in the Blue states than last time - Biden won overall by 7 million votes. His biggest majority was California (5 million votes), he won New York by nearly 2 million and had majorities of over a million in Illinois, Maryland and Massachusetts. Trump's biggest majority was 700,000 in Tennessee.
Assuming similar to last time (and we can obviously move the likes of Georgia and Arizona into the Red column) Trump has to find 3.5 million extra votes to close the gap. Now, he may trim the Biden majorities in some of the deep Blue states but if Harris wins the EC she has to be doing decently across the board so from where do those votes come? There just aren't the numbers in the deep Red states to close the gap.
DYOR by all means but if you want an overnight bet, why not try the Melbourne Cup at Flemington which starts at 4am (UK)?
My four in my boxed quinella (a popular bet in Australia and New Zealand) are VAUBAN, INTERPRETATION, OKITA SOUSHI and SEA KING. The forecast would be okay, the Trifecta very nice and the Quinella will be a champagne dinner for Mrs Stodge (she doesn't get many champagne dinners).
First big split between the LDs and Labour since Corbyn. The LDs are now calling Reeves' placing a 20% inheritance tax on agricultural estates worth over £1 million a 'tractor tax.'
Could be important as some of the latest polls give a hung parliament with Labour needing LD support to stay in office.
Tim Farron, the Liberal Democrats’ rural affairs spokesman, said: “This claim just doesn’t stand up to scrutiny. Rachel Reeves must be living in cloud cuckoo land. It just shows this Labour Government doesn’t understand rural communities. What we cannot afford is to drive farmers out of business and undermine the country’s food security.”
Given that nobody has a clue what the outcome of a major election happening over the water tomorrow will be, I'm not sure that predicting a hung parliament in 2029 based on current polling is particularly compelling.
First big split between the LDs and Labour since Corbyn. The LDs are now calling Reeves' placing a 20% inheritance tax on agricultural estates worth over £1 million a 'tractor tax.'
Could be important as some of the latest polls give a hung parliament with Labour needing LD support to stay in office.
Tim Farron, the Liberal Democrats’ rural affairs spokesman, said: “This claim just doesn’t stand up to scrutiny. Rachel Reeves must be living in cloud cuckoo land. It just shows this Labour Government doesn’t understand rural communities. What we cannot afford is to drive farmers out of business and undermine the country’s food security.”
I expect tractors will play a big part in the farmers demonstrations coming to Downing Street shortly
Could be the biggest demonstration from rural areas on the streets of London since the over 400,000 who marched to keep foxhunting in 2002 the last time Labour were in government.
This time though public opinion would be much more sympathetic
Nick Clegg's Lib Dems won more votes in 2010 than Rishi Sunak's Tories got in 2024.
The post Brexit Tories have become a strange clique. It's difficult to judge what they are anymore. Nowadays I picture them as the sort of people who would read and agree with the Daily Mail
Perhaps they should be renamed "the Daily Mail Party?"
In my view, no government in the UK has been genuinely popular. The best you can do is get around 40% of the vote on an 80% turnout, which means that about twice as many people that voted for you, either voted against you or couldn't be bothered.
All PMs should recognise this, but they never do. They thing that because they won a FPTP election they are popular. They are not. They should govern with humility.
(Obviously, this applies even more in the last election to Starmer, before anyone feels the need to leap in)
Labour in 2024 received fewer votes than in 2019, let alone 2017. Although they did receive more votes than Labour in 2005.
The Tories in 1992 are the only party to have ever received more than 14 million votes at a UK GE, but even that record-setting level of popularity didn't last very long. Support always has to be won afresh.
And even at Major's zenith more than twice those that voted for him either voted against him or stayed at home.
None of our leaders has been genuinely popular. It would do them all a world of good if they remembered that. Unfortunately they all drink the Kool aid that FPTP flatters them with.
First big split between the LDs and Labour since Corbyn. The LDs are now calling Reeves' placing a 20% inheritance tax on agricultural estates worth over £1 million a 'tractor tax.'
Could be important as some of the latest polls give a hung parliament with Labour needing LD support to stay in office.
Tim Farron, the Liberal Democrats’ rural affairs spokesman, said: “This claim just doesn’t stand up to scrutiny. Rachel Reeves must be living in cloud cuckoo land. It just shows this Labour Government doesn’t understand rural communities. What we cannot afford is to drive farmers out of business and undermine the country’s food security.”
Given that nobody has a clue what the outcome of a major election happening over the water tomorrow will be, I'm not sure that predicting a hung parliament in 2029 based on current polling is particularly compelling.
First big split between the LDs and Labour since Corbyn. The LDs are now calling Reeves' placing a 20% inheritance tax on agricultural estates worth over £1 million a 'tractor tax.'
Could be important as some of the latest polls give a hung parliament with Labour needing LD support to stay in office.
Tim Farron, the Liberal Democrats’ rural affairs spokesman, said: “This claim just doesn’t stand up to scrutiny. Rachel Reeves must be living in cloud cuckoo land. It just shows this Labour Government doesn’t understand rural communities. What we cannot afford is to drive farmers out of business and undermine the country’s food security.”
I expect tractors will play a big part in the farmers demonstrations coming to Downing Street shortly
May not be wise from a comms POV. What is the one constituency that no government ever dares upset? Motorists. What is the one thing that motorists hate more than everything else? Tractors.
First big split between the LDs and Labour since Corbyn. The LDs are now calling Reeves' placing a 20% inheritance tax on agricultural estates worth over £1 million a 'tractor tax.'
Could be important as some of the latest polls give a hung parliament with Labour needing LD support to stay in office.
Tim Farron, the Liberal Democrats’ rural affairs spokesman, said: “This claim just doesn’t stand up to scrutiny. Rachel Reeves must be living in cloud cuckoo land. It just shows this Labour Government doesn’t understand rural communities. What we cannot afford is to drive farmers out of business and undermine the country’s food security.”
I expect tractors will play a big part in the farmers demonstrations coming to Downing Street shortly
Could be the biggest demonstration from rural areas on the streets of London since the over 400,000 who marched to keep foxhunting in 2002 the last time Labour were in government.
This time though public opinion would be much more sympathetic
Less hostile perhaps, but I doubt the slogan save millionaires from tax will be on every Cockney urchin's lips.
First big split between the LDs and Labour since Corbyn. The LDs are now calling Reeves' placing a 20% inheritance tax on agricultural estates worth over £1 million a 'tractor tax.'
Could be important as some of the latest polls give a hung parliament with Labour needing LD support to stay in office.
Tim Farron, the Liberal Democrats’ rural affairs spokesman, said: “This claim just doesn’t stand up to scrutiny. Rachel Reeves must be living in cloud cuckoo land. It just shows this Labour Government doesn’t understand rural communities. What we cannot afford is to drive farmers out of business and undermine the country’s food security.”
It can't be beyond the wit of man to design a IHT system which allows a genuine farmer who has worked the land all their life to hand onto children to farm in their turn.
Maybe a 20 year rule? You have to have lived on and farmed the land for twenty years before handing on. Stops the City slickers buying land to hold for a couple of years for tax reasons?
I was talking over the weekend to a rural solicitor who deals in all this all day every day. Conclusions: a) It kicks in in 2026 so there is time to plan b) The 7 year rule still applies. There will be more use of this, with 97 year olds clinging on to ownership to the exclusion of the next 2 generations becoming less common c) The extra million (additional to each individual's usual IHT reliefs) applies to ownership; each owner gets the extra million. Ownership can be split vertically and horizontally across generations. d) As usual ignore everything farmers (and the compliant media) say and watch carefully what they do.
He expects to be busy. Rural accountants and lawyers will be doing OK. He expects the HMRC to get remarkably little from this source.
Nick Clegg's Lib Dems won more votes in 2010 than Rishi Sunak's Tories got in 2024.
The post Brexit Tories have become a strange clique. It's difficult to judge what they are anymore. Nowadays I picture them as the sort of people who would read and agree with the Daily Mail
The Tories under Badenoch will largely be the party of soft Leave relatively well off middle class voters.
Working class hard Leavers will largely back Farage and Reform, most Remainers Labour or the LDs or SNP still
First big split between the LDs and Labour since Corbyn. The LDs are now calling Reeves' placing a 20% inheritance tax on agricultural estates worth over £1 million a 'tractor tax.'
Could be important as some of the latest polls give a hung parliament with Labour needing LD support to stay in office.
Tim Farron, the Liberal Democrats’ rural affairs spokesman, said: “This claim just doesn’t stand up to scrutiny. Rachel Reeves must be living in cloud cuckoo land. It just shows this Labour Government doesn’t understand rural communities. What we cannot afford is to drive farmers out of business and undermine the country’s food security.”
I expect tractors will play a big part in the farmers demonstrations coming to Downing Street shortly
Nice blog here explaining how these changes are actually good for farmers (but bad for very wealthy people like Dyson who buy up thousands of acres to avoid inheritance tax).
The three branches of "our" NHS: GPs, hospitals, and public health. The latter disgracefully palmed off onto local authorities by Lansley, before we sneer too much at our trans-Atlantic cousins.
The US has a massive obesity problem, and their public heath is almost non-existent except for those with the top insurance plans.
RFK has spoken eloquently about a healthcare industry that makes more money from people being sick, so that’s what they do, manage chronic sickness rather than try to make people well. He also wants to get the incessant pharma ads off TV, and look to European food standards rather than the garbage ultra-processed crap eaten by the majority of Americans.
So long as childhood vaccines continue to be regulated at the State rather than the Federal level, he’s actually got a lot of good ideas.
He wants fluoride removed from water - where all evidence says it's a good addition vastly reducing dental issues.
First big split between the LDs and Labour since Corbyn. The LDs are now calling Reeves' placing a 20% inheritance tax on agricultural estates worth over £1 million a 'tractor tax.'
Could be important as some of the latest polls give a hung parliament with Labour needing LD support to stay in office.
Tim Farron, the Liberal Democrats’ rural affairs spokesman, said: “This claim just doesn’t stand up to scrutiny. Rachel Reeves must be living in cloud cuckoo land. It just shows this Labour Government doesn’t understand rural communities. What we cannot afford is to drive farmers out of business and undermine the country’s food security.”
Given that nobody has a clue what the outcome of a major election happening over the water tomorrow will be, I'm not sure that predicting a hung parliament in 2029 based on current polling is particularly compelling.
The next GE is open to almost any result
I’m betting on a Reform/Liberal Democrat government. Led by Liz Truss.
The bet's not at 35 for no reason. I find it statistically improbable (and a good deal more than 34/1) that the Republicans will win more votes but the Democrats win the Electoral College.
For that to happen, Trump would have to do a lot better in the Blue states than last time - Biden won overall by 7 million votes. His biggest majority was California (5 million votes), he won New York by nearly 2 million and had majorities of over a million in Illinois, Maryland and Massachusetts. Trump's biggest majority was 700,000 in Tennessee.
Assuming similar to last time (and we can obviously move the likes of Georgia and Arizona into the Red column) Trump has to find 3.5 million extra votes to close the gap. Now, he may trim the Biden majorities in some of the deep Blue states but if Harris wins the EC she has to be doing decently across the board so from where do those votes come? There just aren't the numbers in the deep Red states to close the gap.
DYOR by all means but if you want an overnight bet, why not try the Melbourne Cup at Flemington which starts at 4am (UK)?
My four in my boxed quinella (a popular bet in Australia and New Zealand) are VAUBAN, INTERPRETATION, OKITA SOUSHI and SEA KING. The forecast would be okay, the Trifecta very nice and the Quinella will be a champagne dinner for Mrs Stodge (she doesn't get many champagne dinners).
Further proof that the Scots shouldn't be allowed to be independent.
Scots are Trump’s biggest supporters in western Europe
The Republican presidential candidate is surprisingly popular in a nation usually considered to be more left-wing
Scots like Donald Trump more than other western Europeans do, a survey has revealed.
A quarter of adults living north of the border hope the controversial Republican nominee wins Tuesday’s US presidential election.
That is much higher than the meagre support of just 16 per cent in the UK as a whole and compared with just 17 per cent in Spain, 15 per cent in France, 14 per cent in Germany, 13 per cent in Sweden and 7 per cent in Denmark.
Scottish supporters even outnumber Italians, where there is a hard-right coalition government and 24 per cent of the population back Trump for the presidency.
First big split between the LDs and Labour since Corbyn. The LDs are now calling Reeves' placing a 20% inheritance tax on agricultural estates worth over £1 million a 'tractor tax.'
Could be important as some of the latest polls give a hung parliament with Labour needing LD support to stay in office.
Tim Farron, the Liberal Democrats’ rural affairs spokesman, said: “This claim just doesn’t stand up to scrutiny. Rachel Reeves must be living in cloud cuckoo land. It just shows this Labour Government doesn’t understand rural communities. What we cannot afford is to drive farmers out of business and undermine the country’s food security.”
I expect tractors will play a big part in the farmers demonstrations coming to Downing Street shortly
May not be wise from a comms POV. What is the one constituency that no government ever dares upset? Motorists. What is the one thing that motorists hate more than everything else? Tractors.
Labour have upset pensioners, farmers and small businesses in just a few short months
I note the Unions are taking their government to court over WFP, and the SNP are considering paying it in Scotland after an extra 1.5 billion under the Barnett formula
Relying upon “snorkelling” Republicans for Harris is a very thin straw to be clutching.
Politics isn’t a raft you can ride for ever. Rafting is time limited. At some point the daft MAGA raft is going over the waterfall. It was always a raft only held together by fake economics, disruption not building, lying, bullying, a small and weak political coalition.
If Republicans who hate all this, hate Trump, hate MAGA, and have had enough of it, have been waiting for a moment to finish it all off, this is that perfect moment isn’t it you agree?
Like the end of Julius Caesar, only with invisible weapons, invisible assailants.
Nice clean quick job, raft over waterfall, end of story.
Infamy! Infamy! They've all got it in for me!
Caesar "Friends...Romans" Brutus "Countrymen" Caesar (peeved) "I know..."
First big split between the LDs and Labour since Corbyn. The LDs are now calling Reeves' placing a 20% inheritance tax on agricultural estates worth over £1 million a 'tractor tax.'
Could be important as some of the latest polls give a hung parliament with Labour needing LD support to stay in office.
Tim Farron, the Liberal Democrats’ rural affairs spokesman, said: “This claim just doesn’t stand up to scrutiny. Rachel Reeves must be living in cloud cuckoo land. It just shows this Labour Government doesn’t understand rural communities. What we cannot afford is to drive farmers out of business and undermine the country’s food security.”
I expect tractors will play a big part in the farmers demonstrations coming to Downing Street shortly
Could be the biggest demonstration from rural areas on the streets of London since the over 400,000 who marched to keep foxhunting in 2002 the last time Labour were in government.
This time though public opinion would be much more sympathetic
The public would be wrong. I am massively pro farmer. However, the new IHT provisions are both avoidable in most cases and, where they apply, at low levels compared with other mortals.
Do urbanites know that there are no business rates on agricultural land, just one of many agricultural subsidies?
Nick Clegg's Lib Dems won more votes in 2010 than Rishi Sunak's Tories got in 2024.
The post Brexit Tories have become a strange clique. It's difficult to judge what they are anymore. Nowadays I picture them as the sort of people who would read and agree with the Daily Mail
We've not (or at least I haven't) seen any figures outlining 2024 voting by newspaper (or online newspaper) readership. It's easy to imagine Mail readers are all Conservatives, Express readers are all Reform etc and we all know the gag about Sun readers. Whatever the case, exhortations to vote Conservative clearly fell on deaf ears overall.
I looked back at the last opinion polls from late June and early July - the scale of the "miss" on the Labour vote is extraordinary. The very last polls picked up the Conservative recovery but the scale of the Labour "abstention" meant the vote shares of the other parties were underestimated slightly.
The other big miss was the turnout - the last We Think poll had 67% "Very Likely to Vote" but we know the final turnout was nowhere near that. The obvious conclusion is a number of those who were going to vote Labour (and might have done so had the election looked close) opted not to bother (perhaps the widely publicised MRP forecasts showing a big Labour landslide convinced them they didn't need to).
Nick Clegg's Lib Dems won more votes in 2010 than Rishi Sunak's Tories got in 2024.
The post Brexit Tories have become a strange clique. It's difficult to judge what they are anymore. Nowadays I picture them as the sort of people who would read and agree with the Daily Mail
Good morning
I doubt the conservative party really considers your views as you are not their target vote
As I said yesterday Kemi will seek to recover some votes from Reform and to attract the conservatives who either abstained or voted Labour at the GE
As has been said on Sky this morning Kemi is a straight talker and will upset her opponents, but straight talking is needed rather than gaining office by swearing no tax increases then imposing 40 billion of such increases as Reeves has just done
If you are agreeing with her then she is not doing her job
Straight talker? Do you agree with her that partygate was overblown and Boris was great?
The three branches of "our" NHS: GPs, hospitals, and public health. The latter disgracefully palmed off onto local authorities by Lansley, before we sneer too much at our trans-Atlantic cousins.
The US has a massive obesity problem, and their public heath is almost non-existent except for those with the top insurance plans.
RFK has spoken eloquently about a healthcare industry that makes more money from people being sick, so that’s what they do, manage chronic sickness rather than try to make people well. He also wants to get the incessant pharma ads off TV, and look to European food standards rather than the garbage ultra-processed crap eaten by the majority of Americans.
So long as childhood vaccines continue to be regulated at the State rather than the Federal level, he’s actually got a lot of good ideas.
He wants fluoride removed from water - where all evidence says it's a good addition vastly reducing dental issues.
I used to house share with a guy who got very upset about proposed fluoride addition to the water. He was also a purchaser of 'crystals' that he put on top of the electricity meter to reduce our electricity bill
We didn't keep in touch.
My favourite is those who believe that magnets are good for health. My NMR's used to be unshielded (so the stray field line of several Gauss was well away from the magnet) so I should have been the most healthy person around...
Nick Clegg's Lib Dems won more votes in 2010 than Rishi Sunak's Tories got in 2024.
The post Brexit Tories have become a strange clique. It's difficult to judge what they are anymore. Nowadays I picture them as the sort of people who would read and agree with the Daily Mail
Good morning
I doubt the conservative party really considers your views as you are not their target vote
As I said yesterday Kemi will seek to recover some votes from Reform and to attract the conservatives who either abstained or voted Labour at the GE
As has been said on Sky this morning Kemi is a straight talker and will upset her opponents, but straight talking is needed rather than gaining office by swearing no tax increases then imposing 40 billion of such increases as Reeves has just done
If you are agreeing with her then she is not doing her job
Straight talker? Do you agree with her that partygate was overblown and Boris was great?
I listened to her interview and she said FPN were wrong and were largely handed to staff and even some people walking in parks.
I did not hear her say Johnson was great, indeed she said she resigned over his stance on Pincher
Putting comments into context provides a different view
First big split between the LDs and Labour since Corbyn. The LDs are now calling Reeves' placing a 20% inheritance tax on agricultural estates worth over £1 million a 'tractor tax.'
Could be important as some of the latest polls give a hung parliament with Labour needing LD support to stay in office.
Tim Farron, the Liberal Democrats’ rural affairs spokesman, said: “This claim just doesn’t stand up to scrutiny. Rachel Reeves must be living in cloud cuckoo land. It just shows this Labour Government doesn’t understand rural communities. What we cannot afford is to drive farmers out of business and undermine the country’s food security.”
Given that nobody has a clue what the outcome of a major election happening over the water tomorrow will be, I'm not sure that predicting a hung parliament in 2029 based on current polling is particularly compelling.
The next GE is open to almost any result
I’m betting on a Reform/Liberal Democrat government. Led by Liz Truss.
If we could persuade Jo Swinson to return as well...that's a pornhub vid ready made. ( I'll get my coat...)
The three branches of "our" NHS: GPs, hospitals, and public health. The latter disgracefully palmed off onto local authorities by Lansley, before we sneer too much at our trans-Atlantic cousins.
The US has a massive obesity problem, and their public heath is almost non-existent except for those with the top insurance plans.
RFK has spoken eloquently about a healthcare industry that makes more money from people being sick, so that’s what they do, manage chronic sickness rather than try to make people well. He also wants to get the incessant pharma ads off TV, and look to European food standards rather than the garbage ultra-processed crap eaten by the majority of Americans.
So long as childhood vaccines continue to be regulated at the State rather than the Federal level, he’s actually got a lot of good ideas.
He wants fluoride removed from water - where all evidence says it's a good addition vastly reducing dental issues.
The GOP has actually run the 'experiment' in several US towns in recent years; the effect on childhood dental problems has been pretty dramatic.
Aren't there some parts of this country that refuse to put fluoride in water?
First big split between the LDs and Labour since Corbyn. The LDs are now calling Reeves' placing a 20% inheritance tax on agricultural estates worth over £1 million a 'tractor tax.'
Could be important as some of the latest polls give a hung parliament with Labour needing LD support to stay in office.
Tim Farron, the Liberal Democrats’ rural affairs spokesman, said: “This claim just doesn’t stand up to scrutiny. Rachel Reeves must be living in cloud cuckoo land. It just shows this Labour Government doesn’t understand rural communities. What we cannot afford is to drive farmers out of business and undermine the country’s food security.”
On the topic of the thread, one thing I've noticed looking at the poll aggregator/modellers is that the swing states seem to swing less than the national vote. So this makes a scenario where there's a mismatch between the popular vote and the electoral college more likely.
You could point to what looks like a far superior get out the vote operation on the ground in the swing states by the Harris campaign as a reason for this mismatch occurring, but I think an element missing is evidence of a third-party challenge that might attract protest votes in safe Democratic states, such as California, New York, etc.
If you take all the States safer then Virginia, then Biden won those by about 14.5 million votes, so a strong third-party challenge could help the arithmetic a lot, but it would have to have very little impact on the swing states not to lose those for Harris.
First big split between the LDs and Labour since Corbyn. The LDs are now calling Reeves' placing a 20% inheritance tax on agricultural estates worth over £1 million a 'tractor tax.'
Could be important as some of the latest polls give a hung parliament with Labour needing LD support to stay in office.
Tim Farron, the Liberal Democrats’ rural affairs spokesman, said: “This claim just doesn’t stand up to scrutiny. Rachel Reeves must be living in cloud cuckoo land. It just shows this Labour Government doesn’t understand rural communities. What we cannot afford is to drive farmers out of business and undermine the country’s food security.”
If Harris does win then the decision by the Trump team to agree to that early debate with Biden in June will be seen as the event that changed the course of history .
I suspect they never imagined Biden would be replaced and never imagined that Biden would be so awful in that debate .
It certainly upended the whole narrative. I do think it’s interesting that the Trump campaign has really struggled to deal with a candidate more capable of landing punches on them. It’s understandable that initially they struggled to recalibrate but this deep into the new situation and the whole vibe from Trump and to a lesser extent the campaign is that they wish they were still up against Joe.
Plan was surely to weaken Biden, not knock him out of the race totally.
Two possible ways that went wrong. One was that Team Trump doesn't do subtle and were always at risk of overreaching. The other was that Pres. Biden was, and is, a gent, who eventually walked. Trump would never do that.
I’m sure that was the plan, and definitely Trump doesn’t do subtle. I think also something that caught everyone off guard was the way Dems rallied to Kamala. I think plenty of folks anticipated some sort of bun fight.
Yes, that made for some very profitable betting on Harris.
First big split between the LDs and Labour since Corbyn. The LDs are now calling Reeves' placing a 20% inheritance tax on agricultural estates worth over £1 million a 'tractor tax.'
Could be important as some of the latest polls give a hung parliament with Labour needing LD support to stay in office.
Tim Farron, the Liberal Democrats’ rural affairs spokesman, said: “This claim just doesn’t stand up to scrutiny. Rachel Reeves must be living in cloud cuckoo land. It just shows this Labour Government doesn’t understand rural communities. What we cannot afford is to drive farmers out of business and undermine the country’s food security.”
Well Trump getting the most votes while Harris wins the EC isn't that likely but a 2.5% chance seems reasonably likely.
My problem is that if Trump wins the popular vote he's going to be complaining forever that he only lost because of dodgy voting elsewhere where things are close.
So for may sanity I hope for a Harris win on both popular votes and in the Electoral College.
The detail on what happens in the House if not enough Electors are put forward by the States is .. interesting.
What happens if no candidate wins the majority of electoral votes?
If no candidate receives the majority of electoral votes, the vote goes to the House of Representatives.
So if Republicans in a state or two arrange to prevent their Electors being appointed on time (I don't know the detail to know how it would happen, as they are all laws to themselves) to keep the numbers under 270 for both parties, it gets decided by the House of Congress.
The three branches of "our" NHS: GPs, hospitals, and public health. The latter disgracefully palmed off onto local authorities by Lansley, before we sneer too much at our trans-Atlantic cousins.
The US has a massive obesity problem, and their public heath is almost non-existent except for those with the top insurance plans.
RFK has spoken eloquently about a healthcare industry that makes more money from people being sick, so that’s what they do, manage chronic sickness rather than try to make people well. He also wants to get the incessant pharma ads off TV, and look to European food standards rather than the garbage ultra-processed crap eaten by the majority of Americans.
So long as childhood vaccines continue to be regulated at the State rather than the Federal level, he’s actually got a lot of good ideas.
He wants fluoride removed from water - where all evidence says it's a good addition vastly reducing dental issues.
The GOP has actually run the 'experiment' in several US towns in recent years; the effect on childhood dental problems has been pretty dramatic.
Aren't there some parts of this country that refuse to put fluoride in water?
First big split between the LDs and Labour since Corbyn. The LDs are now calling Reeves' placing a 20% inheritance tax on agricultural estates worth over £1 million a 'tractor tax.'
Could be important as some of the latest polls give a hung parliament with Labour needing LD support to stay in office.
Tim Farron, the Liberal Democrats’ rural affairs spokesman, said: “This claim just doesn’t stand up to scrutiny. Rachel Reeves must be living in cloud cuckoo land. It just shows this Labour Government doesn’t understand rural communities. What we cannot afford is to drive farmers out of business and undermine the country’s food security.”
I expect tractors will play a big part in the farmers demonstrations coming to Downing Street shortly
May not be wise from a comms POV. What is the one constituency that no government ever dares upset? Motorists. What is the one thing that motorists hate more than everything else? Tractors.
Labour have upset pensioners, farmers and small businesses in just a few short months
I note the Unions are taking their government to court over WFP, and the SNP are considering paying it in Scotland after an extra 1.5 billion under the Barnett formula
The SNP want to take money that Scotland is receiving because it is being spent on the NHS in England, and instead of spending it on the NHS they want to hand it to wealthy pensioners? I have to hand it to the SNP. They do some astonishing things that would be incredibly unpopular if proposed by anyone else, and manage to make them popular. Chapeau.
First big split between the LDs and Labour since Corbyn. The LDs are now calling Reeves' placing a 20% inheritance tax on agricultural estates worth over £1 million a 'tractor tax.'
Could be important as some of the latest polls give a hung parliament with Labour needing LD support to stay in office.
Tim Farron, the Liberal Democrats’ rural affairs spokesman, said: “This claim just doesn’t stand up to scrutiny. Rachel Reeves must be living in cloud cuckoo land. It just shows this Labour Government doesn’t understand rural communities. What we cannot afford is to drive farmers out of business and undermine the country’s food security.”
IF you had actually been following what was going on rather than just picking up snippets from the Telegraph website, you'd have seen the LDs were opposed to the scrapping of the winter fuel allowance and said so in the Commons.
Criticising Labour (or indeed any Government) is easy and especially so four months into a four year Parliament but the point will ineviably come when pace Gary Hart, someone will ask "where's the beef?". The Conservatives and indeed the LDs (and Reform and Greens) need to be looking at what the alternative policies might look like.
I see no current prospect of a convergence of Conservative-LD thinking as there was between the Orange Bookers and the "liberal Conservative" Cameron supporters after 2007 but it didn't look likely in 1997 either. "Events, dear boy, events" as one of your former leaders once opined - as @Big_G_NorthWales wisely offers, anyone trying to predict the political landscape in 2028/29 is on a fool's errand in extemis.
Cheap points scoring now means little apart from keeping the Government on the back foot - we all knew the first Reeves Budget was going to be difficult - indeed, I expected much worse and I think she has missed several opportunities to raise taxes now to get the borrowing and deficit down quicker (gambling duty being one area).
The big problem through the next winter will be the funding of local Government and you'd better believe Conservative run Councils are finding it as tough as those of all other political stripes (and none). That's NOT because the Councils are badly run or have madce poor decisions (those are the ones who have already issued the Section 114 notices) but the simple problem of financial supply failing to meet demand.
Nick Clegg's Lib Dems won more votes in 2010 than Rishi Sunak's Tories got in 2024.
The post Brexit Tories have become a strange clique. It's difficult to judge what they are anymore. Nowadays I picture them as the sort of people who would read and agree with the Daily Mail
Good morning
I doubt the conservative party really considers your views as you are not their target vote
As I said yesterday Kemi will seek to recover some votes from Reform and to attract the conservatives who either abstained or voted Labour at the GE
As has been said on Sky this morning Kemi is a straight talker and will upset her opponents, but straight talking is needed rather than gaining office by swearing no tax increases then imposing 40 billion of such increases as Reeves has just done
If you are agreeing with her then she is not doing her job
Straight talker? Do you agree with her that partygate was overblown and Boris was great?
I listened to her interview and she said FPN were wrong and were largely handed to staff and even some people walking in parks.
I did not hear her say Johnson was great, indeed she said she resigned over his stance on Pincher
Putting comments into context provides a different view
Bloody Times and their lies.
'Kemi Badenoch: Partygate was overblown and Boris Johnson was great'
Nick Clegg's Lib Dems won more votes in 2010 than Rishi Sunak's Tories got in 2024.
The post Brexit Tories have become a strange clique. It's difficult to judge what they are anymore. Nowadays I picture them as the sort of people who would read and agree with the Daily Mail
Good morning
I doubt the conservative party really considers your views as you are not their target vote
As I said yesterday Kemi will seek to recover some votes from Reform and to attract the conservatives who either abstained or voted Labour at the GE
As has been said on Sky this morning Kemi is a straight talker and will upset her opponents, but straight talking is needed rather than gaining office by swearing no tax increases then imposing 40 billion of such increases as Reeves has just done
If you are agreeing with her then she is not doing her job
Straight talker? Do you agree with her that partygate was overblown and Boris was great?
I listened to her interview and she said FPN were wrong and were largely handed to staff and even some people walking in parks.
I did not hear her say Johnson was great, indeed she said she resigned over his stance on Pincher
Putting comments into context provides a different view
Bloody Times and their lies.
'Kemi Badenoch: Partygate was overblown and Boris Johnson was great'
“It was fed back to us... that if we hadn’t done it at that time then it’s likely there would have been a level of disorder,” says Mr Naseem. “Things were on a knife edge”.
That quote is in relation to a decision to open a homicide investigation - a decision which led in the end to Blake being charged with murder.
It is the stuff of a banana republic.
It is quit a starling admission, and one that will just cause many other problems further down the line.
Driving a 2 ton car towards you in an attempt to mow you down doesn't present a sufficient danger to justify being shot..
I'm sorry but could you read that sentence again and confirm that is what you think?
To be clear, the 'admission' I was referring to was Sal Naseem's, not algakirk's.
"“It was fed back to us... that if we hadn’t done it at that time then it’s likely there would have been a level of disorder,” says Mr Naseem. “Things were on a knife edge”."
First big split between the LDs and Labour since Corbyn. The LDs are now calling Reeves' placing a 20% inheritance tax on agricultural estates worth over £1 million a 'tractor tax.'
Could be important as some of the latest polls give a hung parliament with Labour needing LD support to stay in office.
Tim Farron, the Liberal Democrats’ rural affairs spokesman, said: “This claim just doesn’t stand up to scrutiny. Rachel Reeves must be living in cloud cuckoo land. It just shows this Labour Government doesn’t understand rural communities. What we cannot afford is to drive farmers out of business and undermine the country’s food security.”
Don't worry. Given and sniff of power the highly principled Lib Dems would abandon the farmers at the drop of a hat.
Not sure they would
Tim Farron is furious and Lib Dems have many rural constituencies
This is actually my fear for my party: we have become so dependent on playing a strong FPTP game that local issues for constituents trump national priorities.
There has always been two facedness on planning, but then both main parties are equally guilty of that. But becoming the party of the pretty suburban and rural loci that form the Lib Dem parliamentary base is both highly tempting, and an electoral cul-de-sac as the Tories have found with their OAP strategy.
Honestly, I think some farmers will have some genuine issues with the APR changes but a lot of it is emotion first, reason second. The system has gone back to something that's still more generous than IHT before 1992, including under the entire Thatcher premiership.
The three branches of "our" NHS: GPs, hospitals, and public health. The latter disgracefully palmed off onto local authorities by Lansley, before we sneer too much at our trans-Atlantic cousins.
The US has a massive obesity problem, and their public heath is almost non-existent except for those with the top insurance plans.
RFK has spoken eloquently about a healthcare industry that makes more money from people being sick, so that’s what they do, manage chronic sickness rather than try to make people well. He also wants to get the incessant pharma ads off TV, and look to European food standards rather than the garbage ultra-processed crap eaten by the majority of Americans.
So long as childhood vaccines continue to be regulated at the State rather than the Federal level, he’s actually got a lot of good ideas.
He wants fluoride removed from water - where all evidence says it's a good addition vastly reducing dental issues.
The GOP has actually run the 'experiment' in several US towns in recent years; the effect on childhood dental problems has been pretty dramatic.
Aren't there some parts of this country that refuse to put fluoride in water?
The three branches of "our" NHS: GPs, hospitals, and public health. The latter disgracefully palmed off onto local authorities by Lansley, before we sneer too much at our trans-Atlantic cousins.
The US has a massive obesity problem, and their public heath is almost non-existent except for those with the top insurance plans.
RFK has spoken eloquently about a healthcare industry that makes more money from people being sick, so that’s what they do, manage chronic sickness rather than try to make people well. He also wants to get the incessant pharma ads off TV, and look to European food standards rather than the garbage ultra-processed crap eaten by the majority of Americans.
So long as childhood vaccines continue to be regulated at the State rather than the Federal level, he’s actually got a lot of good ideas.
He wants fluoride removed from water - where all evidence says it's a good addition vastly reducing dental issues.
The GOP has actually run the 'experiment' in several US towns in recent years; the effect on childhood dental problems has been pretty dramatic.
Aren't there some parts of this country that refuse to put fluoride in water?
Nick Clegg's Lib Dems won more votes in 2010 than Rishi Sunak's Tories got in 2024.
The post Brexit Tories have become a strange clique. It's difficult to judge what they are anymore. Nowadays I picture them as the sort of people who would read and agree with the Daily Mail
Good morning
I doubt the conservative party really considers your views as you are not their target vote
As I said yesterday Kemi will seek to recover some votes from Reform and to attract the conservatives who either abstained or voted Labour at the GE
As has been said on Sky this morning Kemi is a straight talker and will upset her opponents, but straight talking is needed rather than gaining office by swearing no tax increases then imposing 40 billion of such increases as Reeves has just done
If you are agreeing with her then she is not doing her job
Straight talker? Do you agree with her that partygate was overblown and Boris was great?
I listened to her interview and she said FPN were wrong and were largely handed to staff and even some people walking in parks.
I did not hear her say Johnson was great, indeed she said she resigned over his stance on Pincher
Putting comments into context provides a different view
Bloody Times and their lies.
'Kemi Badenoch: Partygate was overblown and Boris Johnson was great'
I like this one: "Drug gangs ‘threaten to turn France into Mexicanised narco-state’"
And he main Times one I have seen this weekend is how OUTRAGEOUS it is that the Duchy of Cornwall are charging a rent to the NHS when the NHS use facilities that would normally have a rent charged for them. Apparently it's some sort of unethical Royal personal profiteering.
I wonder if this use of wax crayons will continue after Mr Murdoch joins the choir invisible.
Nick Clegg's Lib Dems won more votes in 2010 than Rishi Sunak's Tories got in 2024.
The post Brexit Tories have become a strange clique. It's difficult to judge what they are anymore. Nowadays I picture them as the sort of people who would read and agree with the Daily Mail
Good morning
I doubt the conservative party really considers your views as you are not their target vote
As I said yesterday Kemi will seek to recover some votes from Reform and to attract the conservatives who either abstained or voted Labour at the GE
As has been said on Sky this morning Kemi is a straight talker and will upset her opponents, but straight talking is needed rather than gaining office by swearing no tax increases then imposing 40 billion of such increases as Reeves has just done
If you are agreeing with her then she is not doing her job
Straight talker? Do you agree with her that partygate was overblown and Boris was great?
I listened to her interview and she said FPN were wrong and were largely handed to staff and even some people walking in parks.
I did not hear her say Johnson was great, indeed she said she resigned over his stance on Pincher
Putting comments into context provides a different view
Bloody Times and their lies.
'Kemi Badenoch: Partygate was overblown and Boris Johnson was great'
I have neither heard the interview nor read the Times article. but you do realise the ironyb of your posting don't you? Posting a link to newspaper article making an allegation without context to refute a posting claiming that newspaper articles were making allegations without context.
Edit: And doing this in support of a comment from Roger who has never knowingly made a non partisan political commentin his whole PB career.
The three branches of "our" NHS: GPs, hospitals, and public health. The latter disgracefully palmed off onto local authorities by Lansley, before we sneer too much at our trans-Atlantic cousins.
The US has a massive obesity problem, and their public heath is almost non-existent except for those with the top insurance plans.
RFK has spoken eloquently about a healthcare industry that makes more money from people being sick, so that’s what they do, manage chronic sickness rather than try to make people well. He also wants to get the incessant pharma ads off TV, and look to European food standards rather than the garbage ultra-processed crap eaten by the majority of Americans.
So long as childhood vaccines continue to be regulated at the State rather than the Federal level, he’s actually got a lot of good ideas.
He wants fluoride removed from water - where all evidence says it's a good addition vastly reducing dental issues.
The GOP has actually run the 'experiment' in several US towns in recent years; the effect on childhood dental problems has been pretty dramatic.
Aren't there some parts of this country that refuse to put fluoride in water?
Meanwhile the state broadcaster is running PR for rentier William and his image-polishing Earthshot fluff (life missions of peace in the Middle East and ending homelessness not going so well).
Nick Clegg's Lib Dems won more votes in 2010 than Rishi Sunak's Tories got in 2024.
The post Brexit Tories have become a strange clique. It's difficult to judge what they are anymore. Nowadays I picture them as the sort of people who would read and agree with the Daily Mail
We've not (or at least I haven't) seen any figures outlining 2024 voting by newspaper (or online newspaper) readership. It's easy to imagine Mail readers are all Conservatives, Express readers are all Reform etc and we all know the gag about Sun readers. Whatever the case, exhortations to vote Conservative clearly fell on deaf ears overall.
I looked back at the last opinion polls from late June and early July - the scale of the "miss" on the Labour vote is extraordinary. The very last polls picked up the Conservative recovery but the scale of the Labour "abstention" meant the vote shares of the other parties were underestimated slightly.
The other big miss was the turnout - the last We Think poll had 67% "Very Likely to Vote" but we know the final turnout was nowhere near that. The obvious conclusion is a number of those who were going to vote Labour (and might have done so had the election looked close) opted not to bother (perhaps the widely publicised MRP forecasts showing a big Labour landslide convinced them they didn't need to).
I'm sure that's right. The Labour abstention was caused by the knowledge that they were certain to win so voters had the luxury of getting rid of the Tories-most peoples first preference-by a variety of means. Labour /Lib Dem /Green or abstention.
The anger we have seen on here from the 'Right' since the election has been spectacular. It's like watching air coming out of a baloon. The realisation that their prejudices weren't shared by the majority they found incomprehensible particularily as their newspapers were telling them the opposite
Nick Clegg's Lib Dems won more votes in 2010 than Rishi Sunak's Tories got in 2024.
The post Brexit Tories have become a strange clique. It's difficult to judge what they are anymore. Nowadays I picture them as the sort of people who would read and agree with the Daily Mail
Good morning
I doubt the conservative party really considers your views as you are not their target vote
As I said yesterday Kemi will seek to recover some votes from Reform and to attract the conservatives who either abstained or voted Labour at the GE
As has been said on Sky this morning Kemi is a straight talker and will upset her opponents, but straight talking is needed rather than gaining office by swearing no tax increases then imposing 40 billion of such increases as Reeves has just done
If you are agreeing with her then she is not doing her job
Straight talker? Do you agree with her that partygate was overblown and Boris was great?
I listened to her interview and she said FPN were wrong and were largely handed to staff and even some people walking in parks.
I did not hear her say Johnson was great, indeed she said she resigned over his stance on Pincher
Putting comments into context provides a different view
Bloody Times and their lies.
'Kemi Badenoch: Partygate was overblown and Boris Johnson was great'
I'm one of a vanishingly small number on PB (and probably in the wider public) who does think Partygate was overblown. I don't think that Johnson was partying in the drunken manner that some of the staff at No 10 did and I think that's why he 'lied' about it at the time. He thought that what they did was ok.
However his handling of the whole thing was rubbish and fitted his usual bluster. If he had accepted and set up an immediate enquiry he might have ridden it out, but he didn't.
I do not accept anyone else to agree with me on this.
Further proof that the Scots shouldn't be allowed to be independent.
Scots are Trump’s biggest supporters in western Europe
The Republican presidential candidate is surprisingly popular in a nation usually considered to be more left-wing
Scots like Donald Trump more than other western Europeans do, a survey has revealed.
A quarter of adults living north of the border hope the controversial Republican nominee wins Tuesday’s US presidential election.
That is much higher than the meagre support of just 16 per cent in the UK as a whole and compared with just 17 per cent in Spain, 15 per cent in France, 14 per cent in Germany, 13 per cent in Sweden and 7 per cent in Denmark.
Scottish supporters even outnumber Italians, where there is a hard-right coalition government and 24 per cent of the population back Trump for the presidency.
"...Located near the Jung-Ang station of the Busan Metro line 1, the "40 Steps" refers to the number of steps in a staircase that gained prominence during the Korean War when it served as the passage that connected Busanhang Port’s dock to the shantytown on the hillside, a square where separated families met, and a market for selling relief items. More importantly, it served as a landmark for refugees from all over the country gathering at the old Busan Station building, seeking lost family members or relatives who fled to Busan. There used to be a saying, “Let’s meet by the Forty Stairs in Busan,” and some waited by the stairs believing these words
It serves as a poignant reminder of the tragic times of the Korean War, and stories of both hope and sorrow for the refugees who yearned to reconnect with lost family member and to go back to their hometown..."
Nick Clegg's Lib Dems won more votes in 2010 than Rishi Sunak's Tories got in 2024.
The post Brexit Tories have become a strange clique. It's difficult to judge what they are anymore. Nowadays I picture them as the sort of people who would read and agree with the Daily Mail
Good morning
I doubt the conservative party really considers your views as you are not their target vote
As I said yesterday Kemi will seek to recover some votes from Reform and to attract the conservatives who either abstained or voted Labour at the GE
As has been said on Sky this morning Kemi is a straight talker and will upset her opponents, but straight talking is needed rather than gaining office by swearing no tax increases then imposing 40 billion of such increases as Reeves has just done
If you are agreeing with her then she is not doing her job
Straight talker? Do you agree with her that partygate was overblown and Boris was great?
I listened to her interview and she said FPN were wrong and were largely handed to staff and even some people walking in parks.
I did not hear her say Johnson was great, indeed she said she resigned over his stance on Pincher
Putting comments into context provides a different view
Bloody Times and their lies.
'Kemi Badenoch: Partygate was overblown and Boris Johnson was great'
I like this one: "Drug gangs ‘threaten to turn France into Mexicanised narco-state’"
And he main Times one I have seen this weekend is how OUTRAGEOUS it is that the Duchy of Cornwall are charging a rent to the NHS when the NHS use facilities that would normally have a rent charged for them. Apparently it's some sort of unethical Royal personal profiteering.
I wonder if this use of wax crayons will continue after Mr Murdoch joins the choir invisible.
Its clearly not an issue if the Royals earn money by renting out things. It IS an issue if the countries taxes are also being paid to people who don't actually need it. Let them live as normal folk do. Pay the King's expenses for his Royal engagements. Get a rich donor to pay for his suits (its all the rage now, I hear).
I did read a little of the royal 'story' on the BBC website the other day. The headline implied they were given cash by charities and such, the text revealed this was due to contracts.
In other news, I'm occasionally given money by Americans. After I do some work for them. It's a shocking scandal. And sometimes I'm given food by supermarkets. After I pay for it. Quick, call the tabloids!
“It was fed back to us... that if we hadn’t done it at that time then it’s likely there would have been a level of disorder,” says Mr Naseem. “Things were on a knife edge”.
That quote is in relation to a decision to open a homicide investigation - a decision which led in the end to Blake being charged with murder.
It is the stuff of a banana republic.
It is quit a starling admission, and one that will just cause many other problems further down the line.
And, I'm sure that's why the CPS brought a murder prosecution that had not a chance of succeeding.
Which may actually have been pragmatic, but is harsh on Sergeant Blake.
Similar stuff about the Southport stabber, information being kept back, charging decisions etc. I think there’s a cess pit of ministerial interference, a casualty of having someone who ran the CPS for so long going way outside his authority.
If Harris does win then the decision by the Trump team to agree to that early debate with Biden in June will be seen as the event that changed the course of history .
I suspect they never imagined Biden would be replaced and never imagined that Biden would be so awful in that debate .
It certainly upended the whole narrative. I do think it’s interesting that the Trump campaign has really struggled to deal with a candidate more capable of landing punches on them. It’s understandable that initially they struggled to recalibrate but this deep into the new situation and the whole vibe from Trump and to a lesser extent the campaign is that they wish they were still up against Joe.
Plan was surely to weaken Biden, not knock him out of the race totally.
Two possible ways that went wrong. One was that Team Trump doesn't do subtle and were always at risk of overreaching. The other was that Pres. Biden was, and is, a gent, who eventually walked. Trump would never do that.
I’m sure that was the plan, and definitely Trump doesn’t do subtle. I think also something that caught everyone off guard was the way Dems rallied to Kamala. I think plenty of folks anticipated some sort of bun fight.
Yes, that made for some very profitable betting on Harris.
The Partygate thing shows how Badenoch’s strengths can also show up a bit of naïveté and weakness.
What she is saying is that if the Tories had not introduced such draconian restrictions then Boris could not have broken the restrictions and would not have undermined his premiership. There is I suppose an argument to be had there (though it conveniently ignores the fact that the anger wasn’t just at the breaking the letter of the restrictions but the spirit), but whether it’s a sensible argument to be advancing politically, I’m not sure.
What she’s banking on is that people like her having opinions, whether they disagree with her or not. It might work, but it’s a brave gamble given that the electorate just gave a huge majority to a party who deliberately steered clear of having many opinions at all.
You should surely have a good chance at solving that quiz
You took the Train to Busan ?
Btw, did you go for the full makgeolli hangover ?
Didn’t like makgeolli so I swerved that…. But I liked soju all too much. They took me on a food tour of Busan last night, the fish market and everything. Some ace food and some not so ace, and LOTS of soju, that stuff slips down far too easily
Nick Clegg's Lib Dems won more votes in 2010 than Rishi Sunak's Tories got in 2024.
The post Brexit Tories have become a strange clique. It's difficult to judge what they are anymore. Nowadays I picture them as the sort of people who would read and agree with the Daily Mail
Good morning
I doubt the conservative party really considers your views as you are not their target vote
As I said yesterday Kemi will seek to recover some votes from Reform and to attract the conservatives who either abstained or voted Labour at the GE
As has been said on Sky this morning Kemi is a straight talker and will upset her opponents, but straight talking is needed rather than gaining office by swearing no tax increases then imposing 40 billion of such increases as Reeves has just done
If you are agreeing with her then she is not doing her job
Straight talker? Do you agree with her that partygate was overblown and Boris was great?
He never opened a bottle of Chablis. His tipple is Blue nun. From Aldi.
Further proof that the Scots shouldn't be allowed to be independent.
Scots are Trump’s biggest supporters in western Europe
The Republican presidential candidate is surprisingly popular in a nation usually considered to be more left-wing
Scots like Donald Trump more than other western Europeans do, a survey has revealed.
A quarter of adults living north of the border hope the controversial Republican nominee wins Tuesday’s US presidential election.
That is much higher than the meagre support of just 16 per cent in the UK as a whole and compared with just 17 per cent in Spain, 15 per cent in France, 14 per cent in Germany, 13 per cent in Sweden and 7 per cent in Denmark.
Scottish supporters even outnumber Italians, where there is a hard-right coalition government and 24 per cent of the population back Trump for the presidency.
Family farmers can gift their farms to their children , survive 7 years and pay no IHT. Insurance could be sought to cover the risk of dying within 7 years.
The disadvantage is that there would be no capital gains uplift on death.
This would apply to family businesses as well.
Individuals who have bought farms as a tax shelter with the intention of holding until death are less fortunate.
The three branches of "our" NHS: GPs, hospitals, and public health. The latter disgracefully palmed off onto local authorities by Lansley, before we sneer too much at our trans-Atlantic cousins.
The US has a massive obesity problem, and their public heath is almost non-existent except for those with the top insurance plans.
RFK has spoken eloquently about a healthcare industry that makes more money from people being sick, so that’s what they do, manage chronic sickness rather than try to make people well. He also wants to get the incessant pharma ads off TV, and look to European food standards rather than the garbage ultra-processed crap eaten by the majority of Americans.
So long as childhood vaccines continue to be regulated at the State rather than the Federal level, he’s actually got a lot of good ideas.
He wants fluoride removed from water - where all evidence says it's a good addition vastly reducing dental issues.
There’s a Trumper I sort of accidentally follow on Twitter (I think originally I thought he was a superb parody). He believes that since most of us are not scientists and healthcare experts, we only ‘know’ that fluoride, vaxxes etc are good because we have been socialised into believing they are. In that context RFKism and ingesting bleach are just as valid as any other health approaches.
Fluoride is a known poison, so not the greatest example to choose if you're concerned about toxic substances being allowed into the body.
Speaking of which, as you may have forgotten, Trump discussed 'injecting' antiviral agents, 'ingesting' them was a creation of Sturgeon being a sanctimonious publicity-seeking twat whilst simultaneously giving people the dangerous impression that the US Presisent had recommended the ingestion of bleach. Nice work bellend.
"...Located near the Jung-Ang station of the Busan Metro line 1, the "40 Steps" refers to the number of steps in a staircase that gained prominence during the Korean War when it served as the passage that connected Busanhang Port’s dock to the shantytown on the hillside, a square where separated families met, and a market for selling relief items. More importantly, it served as a landmark for refugees from all over the country gathering at the old Busan Station building, seeking lost family members or relatives who fled to Busan. There used to be a saying, “Let’s meet by the Forty Stairs in Busan,” and some waited by the stairs believing these words
It serves as a poignant reminder of the tragic times of the Korean War, and stories of both hope and sorrow for the refugees who yearned to reconnect with lost family member and to go back to their hometown..."
"...Located near the Jung-Ang station of the Busan Metro line 1, the "40 Steps" refers to the number of steps in a staircase that gained prominence during the Korean War when it served as the passage that connected Busanhang Port’s dock to the shantytown on the hillside, a square where separated families met, and a market for selling relief items. More importantly, it served as a landmark for refugees from all over the country gathering at the old Busan Station building, seeking lost family members or relatives who fled to Busan. There used to be a saying, “Let’s meet by the Forty Stairs in Busan,” and some waited by the stairs believing these words
It serves as a poignant reminder of the tragic times of the Korean War, and stories of both hope and sorrow for the refugees who yearned to reconnect with lost family member and to go back to their hometown..."
The Partygate thing shows how Badenoch’s strengths can also show up a bit of naïveté and weakness.
What she is saying is that if the Tories had not introduced such draconian restrictions then Boris could not have broken the restrictions and would not have undermined his premiership. There is I suppose an argument to be had there (though it conveniently ignores the fact that the anger wasn’t just at the breaking the letter of the restrictions but the spirit), but whether it’s a sensible argument to be advancing politically, I’m not sure.
What she’s banking on is that people like her having opinions, whether they disagree with her or not. It might work, but it’s a brave gamble given that the electorate just gave a huge majority to a party who deliberately steered clear of having many opinions at all.
You may have opinions but unless 100% of your opinions reflect those of your potential voters you will turn some of those voters away.
And the weird things about opinions is that you won't know which of your opinions was the one that turned your potential voter into a voter for the opposition.
I don't know the significance of an accordianist's statue in Tokyo.
I'm inclined to wonder whether a Cuban musician every toured Japan 70 years ago to kick it all off.
The statute is stylish, like Eric Morecambe in Blackpool, or various "sit next to this" type statues in London. The first one of these I knew was in Beeston, in Nottingham, back in the 1980s. It is still there.
So when are we expecting to get Kemi’s Shad Cab appointments?
By tomorrow.
Is Kemi delaying in the hope her Shadow Cabinet will be buried by American news? It is not as if she has had much else to think about these past few months.
You should surely have a good chance at solving that quiz
You took the Train to Busan ?
Btw, did you go for the full makgeolli hangover ?
Didn’t like makgeolli so I swerved that…. But I liked soju all too much. They took me on a food tour of Busan last night, the fish market and everything. Some ace food and some not so ace, and LOTS of soju, that stuff slips down far too easily
Fuck me the hangover
A soju hangover is gentle in comparison. Magkeolli has a lot less alcohol, but drink enough, and it is virtually poisonous.
Meanwhile the state broadcaster is running PR for rentier William and his image-polishing Earthshot fluff (life missions of peace in the Middle East and ending homelessness not going so well).
"Grant" is an appropriate legal term for a lease. And everyone involved in comm prop deals always issues vomit inducing self congratulatory announcements afterwards. Is that really the best the Times can do ?
So when are we expecting to get Kemi’s Shad Cab appointments?
By tomorrow.
Is Kemi delaying in the hope her Shadow Cabinet will be buried by American news? It is not as if she has had much else to think about these past few months.
She needs to convince people to spend time working in her shadow cabinet instead of earning some money from a sideline job elsewhere..
Her difficulty may be finding people willing to take on the job when they can sit in the background..
Individuals who have bought farms as a tax shelter with the intention of holding until death are less fortunate.
Labour will be delighted that the main coverage of the budget is 2 very rich men who explicitly bought farmland as a tax dodge whining about their tax dodge being curtailed
He was released on the condition he completes a series of deadly games, where losing is punished by death but ultimate victory brings unimaginable wealth.
Comments
There is nothing even vaguely new about the idea.
That’s sounds like a community group, to me.
The bet's not at 35 for no reason. I find it statistically improbable (and a good deal more than 34/1) that the Republicans will win more votes but the Democrats win the Electoral College.
For that to happen, Trump would have to do a lot better in the Blue states than last time - Biden won overall by 7 million votes. His biggest majority was California (5 million votes), he won New York by nearly 2 million and had majorities of over a million in Illinois, Maryland and Massachusetts. Trump's biggest majority was 700,000 in Tennessee.
Assuming similar to last time (and we can obviously move the likes of Georgia and Arizona into the Red column) Trump has to find 3.5 million extra votes to close the gap. Now, he may trim the Biden majorities in some of the deep Blue states but if Harris wins the EC she has to be doing decently across the board so from where do those votes come? There just aren't the numbers in the deep Red states to close the gap.
DYOR by all means but if you want an overnight bet, why not try the Melbourne Cup at Flemington which starts at 4am (UK)?
My four in my boxed quinella (a popular bet in Australia and New Zealand) are VAUBAN, INTERPRETATION, OKITA SOUSHI and SEA KING. The forecast would be okay, the Trifecta very nice and the Quinella will be a champagne dinner for Mrs Stodge (she doesn't get many champagne dinners).
This time though public opinion would be much more sympathetic
None of our leaders has been genuinely popular. It would do them all a world of good if they remembered that. Unfortunately they all drink the Kool aid that FPTP flatters them with.
a) It kicks in in 2026 so there is time to plan
b) The 7 year rule still applies. There will be more use of this, with 97 year olds clinging on to ownership to the exclusion of the next 2 generations becoming less common
c) The extra million (additional to each individual's usual IHT reliefs) applies to ownership; each owner gets the extra million. Ownership can be split vertically and horizontally across generations.
d) As usual ignore everything farmers (and the compliant media) say and watch carefully what they do.
He expects to be busy. Rural accountants and lawyers will be doing OK. He expects the HMRC to get remarkably little from this source.
Working class hard Leavers will largely back Farage and Reform, most Remainers Labour or the LDs or SNP still
https://open.substack.com/pub/timleunig/p/how-to-preserve-the-family-farm?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android&r=1eo14b
I note the Unions are taking their government to court over WFP, and the SNP are considering paying it in Scotland after an extra 1.5 billion under the Barnett formula
Police Scotland confirms ‘non-recent’ allegation made by a woman after Salmond’s death last month
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2024/nov/03/police-investigating-new-allegation-of-sexual-assault-against-alex-salmond
Brutus "Countrymen"
Caesar (peeved) "I know..."
Do urbanites know that there are no business rates on agricultural land, just one of many agricultural subsidies?
I looked back at the last opinion polls from late June and early July - the scale of the "miss" on the Labour vote is extraordinary. The very last polls picked up the Conservative recovery but the scale of the Labour "abstention" meant the vote shares of the other parties were underestimated slightly.
The other big miss was the turnout - the last We Think poll had 67% "Very Likely to Vote" but we know the final turnout was nowhere near that. The obvious conclusion is a number of those who were going to vote Labour (and might have done so had the election looked close) opted not to bother (perhaps the widely publicised MRP forecasts showing a big Labour landslide convinced them they didn't need to).
Do you agree with her that partygate was overblown and Boris was great?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yCy7a5bp4xQ
I did not hear her say Johnson was great, indeed she said she resigned over his stance on Pincher
Putting comments into context provides a different view
"Oh yes it is."
"Oh no it isn't."
"Oh yes it is."
"It's behind you."
"Oh no it isn't."
Must be the time of year.
You could point to what looks like a far superior get out the vote operation on the ground in the swing states by the Harris campaign as a reason for this mismatch occurring, but I think an element missing is evidence of a third-party challenge that might attract protest votes in safe Democratic states, such as California, New York, etc.
If you take all the States safer then Virginia, then Biden won those by about 14.5 million votes, so a strong third-party challenge could help the arithmetic a lot, but it would have to have very little impact on the swing states not to lose those for Harris.
"Mr Kaba was shot in the head after he tried to ram his way out of a police vehicle stop in south London"
Don't use your 2 ton car as a weapon if you don't want to get shot in the head. Simple really.
Tim Farron is furious and Lib Dems have many rural constituencies
The reality is that it looks bad, isn't actually that bad and can probably be mitigated for about £500 a year maximum via some extra life assurance..
What happens if no candidate wins the majority of electoral votes?
If no candidate receives the majority of electoral votes, the vote goes to the House of Representatives.
This has happened twice. The first time was following the 1800 presidential election when the House chose Thomas Jefferson. And following the 1824 presidential election, the House selected John Quincy Adams as president.
https://history.house.gov/Institution/Origins-Development/Electoral-College/
So if Republicans in a state or two arrange to prevent their Electors being appointed on time (I don't know the detail to know how it would happen, as they are all laws to themselves) to keep the numbers under 270 for both parties, it gets decided by the House of Congress.
Why is the whole damned setup so bloody fragile?
They need a Constitutional Monarch
Taz is in an area where Fluoride is added and we are in an area where they are looking for it to be introduced..
Criticising Labour (or indeed any Government) is easy and especially so four months into a four year Parliament but the point will ineviably come when pace Gary Hart, someone will ask "where's the beef?". The Conservatives and indeed the LDs (and Reform and Greens) need to be looking at what the alternative policies might look like.
I see no current prospect of a convergence of Conservative-LD thinking as there was between the Orange Bookers and the "liberal Conservative" Cameron supporters after 2007 but it didn't look likely in 1997 either. "Events, dear boy, events" as one of your former leaders once opined - as @Big_G_NorthWales wisely offers, anyone trying to predict the political landscape in 2028/29 is on a fool's errand in extemis.
Cheap points scoring now means little apart from keeping the Government on the back foot - we all knew the first Reeves Budget was going to be difficult - indeed, I expected much worse and I think she has missed several opportunities to raise taxes now to get the borrowing and deficit down quicker (gambling duty being one area).
The big problem through the next winter will be the funding of local Government and you'd better believe Conservative run Councils are finding it as tough as those of all other political stripes (and none). That's NOT because the Councils are badly run or have madce poor decisions (those are the ones who have already issued the Section 114 notices) but the simple problem of financial supply failing to meet demand.
'Kemi Badenoch: Partygate was overblown and Boris Johnson was great'
https://www.thetimes.com/uk/politics/article/calls-for-labour-mp-to-lose-whip-over-kemi-badenoch-racism-post-lm7n8bqgb
What is the significance of this?
!Google 사용하지 마세요!
Literally the only thing we can do is process people quickly and send the ones that fail back home asap...
"“It was fed back to us... that if we hadn’t done it at that time then it’s likely there would have been a level of disorder,” says Mr Naseem. “Things were on a knife edge”."
There has always been two facedness on planning, but then both main parties are equally guilty of that. But becoming the party of the pretty suburban and rural loci that form the Lib Dem parliamentary base is both highly tempting, and an electoral cul-de-sac as the Tories have found with their OAP strategy.
Honestly, I think some farmers will have some genuine issues with the APR changes but a lot of it is emotion first, reason second. The system has gone back to something that's still more generous than IHT before 1992, including under the entire Thatcher premiership.
I understand the rewards are huge and when one gang member is taken out many more will step in their place
I like this one: "Drug gangs ‘threaten to turn France into Mexicanised narco-state’"
And he main Times one I have seen this weekend is how OUTRAGEOUS it is that the Duchy of Cornwall are charging a rent to the NHS when the NHS use facilities that would normally have a rent charged for them. Apparently it's some sort of unethical Royal personal profiteering.
I wonder if this use of wax crayons will continue after Mr Murdoch joins the choir invisible.
Change my name?? Who do you think I am? Some pathetic chancer like @eadric?
You should surely have a good chance at solving that quiz
Edit: And doing this in support of a comment from Roger who has never knowingly made a non partisan political commentin his whole PB career.
I seem to recall, dimly, from VIth form days 60 years ago, the Biology master explaining to us what a good idea fluoridation was.
Meanwhile the state broadcaster is running PR for rentier William and his image-polishing Earthshot fluff (life missions of peace in the Middle East and ending homelessness not going so well).
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c89vydqzk93o
The anger we have seen on here from the 'Right' since the election has been spectacular. It's like watching air coming out of a baloon. The realisation that their prejudices weren't shared by the majority they found incomprehensible particularily as their newspapers were telling them the opposite
However his handling of the whole thing was rubbish and fitted his usual bluster. If he had accepted and set up an immediate enquiry he might have ridden it out, but he didn't.
I do not accept anyone else to agree with me on this.
Btw, did you go for the full makgeolli hangover ?
She was the best of six bad options. And, if nothing else, she will be a lively and diverting contrast to the dullness of Starmer-Reeves
More importantly, it served as a landmark for refugees from all over the country gathering at the old Busan Station building, seeking lost family members or relatives who fled to Busan. There used to be a saying, “Let’s meet by the Forty Stairs in Busan,” and some waited by the stairs believing these words
It serves as a poignant reminder of the tragic times of the Korean War, and stories of both hope and sorrow for the refugees who yearned to reconnect with lost family member and to go back to their hometown..."
Source: visitbusan.net and https://www.instagram.com/travelogy101/p/C68HpLLxU_P/?img_index=1
In other news, I'm occasionally given money by Americans. After I do some work for them. It's a shocking scandal. And sometimes I'm given food by supermarkets. After I pay for it. Quick, call the tabloids!
What she is saying is that if the Tories had not introduced such draconian restrictions then Boris could not have broken the restrictions and would not have undermined his premiership. There is I suppose an argument to be had there (though it conveniently ignores the fact that the anger wasn’t just at the breaking the letter of the restrictions but the spirit), but whether it’s a sensible argument to be advancing politically, I’m not sure.
What she’s banking on is that people like her having opinions, whether they disagree with her or not. It might work, but it’s a brave gamble given that the electorate just gave a huge majority to a party who deliberately steered clear of having many opinions at all.
Fuck me the hangover
The disadvantage is that there would be no capital gains uplift on death.
This would apply to family businesses as well.
Individuals who have bought farms as a tax shelter with the intention of holding until death are less fortunate.
Speaking of which, as you may have forgotten, Trump discussed 'injecting' antiviral agents, 'ingesting' them was a creation of Sturgeon being a sanctimonious publicity-seeking twat whilst simultaneously giving people the dangerous impression that the US Presisent had recommended the ingestion of bleach. Nice work bellend.
But hey. First day back. I’ll let it go. Yes all that is right
Busan is one of the few stops on this Korean tour (nearly over already) which had real Noom
And the weird things about opinions is that you won't know which of your opinions was the one that turned your potential voter into a voter for the opposition.
#Updated Nate Silver model - Electoral collage
Harris takes the lead
🔵 Harris 270 🏆
🔴 Trump 267
https://x.com/PpollingNumbers/status/1853217620503167252
I'm inclined to wonder whether a Cuban musician every toured Japan 70 years ago to kick it all off.
The statute is stylish, like Eric Morecambe in Blackpool, or various "sit next to this" type statues in London. The first one of these I knew was in Beeston, in Nottingham, back in the 1980s. It is still there.
https://www.google.com/maps/@52.9276869,-1.2141611,3a,53.7y,266.5h,78.77t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1sTPLk3arTMvEgR9-qX05xMQ!2e0!6shttps://streetviewpixels-pa.googleapis.com/v1/thumbnail?cb_client=maps_sv.tactile&w=900&h=600&pitch=11.227699042692876&panoid=TPLk3arTMvEgR9-qX05xMQ&yaw=266.49946356889876!7i13312!8i6656?coh=205410&entry=ttu&g_ep=EgoyMDI0MTAyOS4wIKXMDSoASAFQAw==
Magkeolli has a lot less alcohol, but drink enough, and it is virtually poisonous.
Her difficulty may be finding people willing to take on the job when they can sit in the background..