There’s a great restaurant there - a 4 table bothy above someone’s house
Vaguely related to which (only by links to subpolar North Atlantic archipelagos) the wife and I were watching Shetland the other day, and mulled the question: if you had to live on an island where a detective drama was set: Mainland (Shetland) or St. Marie (Death in Paradise)? I went for the former, she went for the latter. Hopefully it's not a choice we'll ever have to make.
The previous PM (Pravind Jugnauth), fresh from only winning 2 out 60 seats has now been banned from leaving the country. On alleged wire tapping. The CEO of Mauritius Telecom stated that he had given approval for listening devices to be installed. Discussions with British High Commissioner had already appeared online.
Who knows where this ends up, especially if Trump intercedes.
Alex Wickham @alexwickham · 22m Exclusive: The UK military and police use Chinese drones made by a firm that’s been sanctioned for arming Russia in its war in Ukraine
Just 3 weeks ago John Healey and Rachel Reeves were photographed flying now-banned Autel drones at a British Army base
Imagine if Spitfires had been manufactured in Japan.
Meat and alcohol served in Downing Street in the celebration of Diwali event
Downing Street has issued an apology
Why?
Because a vague but constant stream of apology is the background noise to living in the 21st century.
Given that not all the attendees would have been practising Hindus anyway, I wouldn't have an issue with meat being served, but Google tells me that only 44% Hindus are even vegetarian. I would apply the same logic to alcohol consumption, and indeed apparently teetotalism isn't a fundamental tenet of Hinduism either. People need to have a word with themselves. These people are meant to be a Government. They are meant to sit round tables and negotiate good deals for Britain, not shit themselves because someone, somewhere has decided they're offended.
Can a doctor declare the entire Government medically unfit please?
Alex Wickham @alexwickham · 22m Exclusive: The UK military and police use Chinese drones made by a firm that’s been sanctioned for arming Russia in its war in Ukraine
Just 3 weeks ago John Healey and Rachel Reeves were photographed flying now-banned Autel drones at a British Army base
Imagine if Spitfires had been manufactured in Japan.
Britain is so fucked.
Rather a lot of our military hardware has been procured from Axis nations since July 4th. It is a disgrace!
He won't go down without a fight. It's designed to flush out Trump's determined opponents in the Senate - who will then be duly targeted. Collins and Murkowski, as not infrequent rebels, will probably be OK. The next couple of potential swing votes will have a very tough time of it, if the rest of their GOP colleagues fold.
Let's see if the House ethics report gets released and what it says.
Fascinating article on state of Russia's War Economy. Putin faces huge problems if a Trump peace deal ends the fighting and he faces huge problems if it doesn't.
"At some point in the second half of 2025, Russia will face severe shortages in several categories of weapons."
"Russia is losing around 320 tank and artillery cannon barrels a month and producing only 20. "
"Producing tank and artillery barrels requires rotary forges—massive pieces of engineering weighing 20 to 30 tons each—that can each produce only about 10 barrels a month. Russia only possesses two such forges."
On US election night, I posited that the ruble to US dollar rate was one to watch. My expectation was that a Trump win would see the ruble strengthen. Instead, to my surprise, it has further weakened, after a temporary upwards blip.
It's believed that Russia has been spending a great deal of money propping up the exchange rate. I wonder if they have given up, or it is still within an acceptable range?
Article says head of Russian Central Bank Governor has managed the situation well to date, given the cards she has been dealt. So, I'm guessing the latter??
She has done a good job, annoyingly. Even the fiercest Kremlin critics abroad seem to have a grudging admiration for the way she has believed. And if I recall correctly, she was not particularly in favour of going to war and against further conscription, yet Putin has kept her in place.
It is bizarre that Trump's Cabinet choices are so bizarre. You'd think he would look for quietly-competent careerists to implement his programme, advance his reputation and not compete for headlines.
Why?
He himself is bulletproof (according to SCOTUS)
Why would he care if the administration is a 5 alarm dumpster fire?
He can just get on with the grifting
The 5D chess version of this would be that, by throwing out all these terrible appointments, everyone is distracted from the routine grift that is the real object of the exercise.
But the Occamite solution is that a) Trump is appointing these people because they are his kind of people and b) the famed checks and balances are largely made of wet spaghetti.
It's a kind of win-win-win. He gets his kind of people into position, he gets distractions, he humiliates the Senate/if they reject his nominees he can blame the deep state and RINOs for everything that goes wrong.
He might allow them one scalp, for form's sake. (If so, I predict Gaetz.) Depends whether or not they show a scintilla of spine.
I'd bet almost all get confirmed.
Senate Republicans just annoyed Trump by picking Thune as Senate leader, admittedly in a secret ballot.
I think there are 4 Republican senators still in office who voted to convict Trump in 2020, plus a handful of others who might be expected to defy him from time to time.
I wouldn't be surprised to see more than 1 nominee being rejected by the Senate.
Isn't he going to appointment them all during the recess?
He is going to try to appoint them all during the recess. It is unclear whether this will work or what will happen.
I think the Senate can prevent this. It would certainly diminish the Senate's power if they allowed it
The Senate will nod everything through, just like they did with his judicial appointments. The House Republicans these last two years have shown the way that moderates continually flake when faced with having to choose between unity and their principles. And that was without a ferocious Trump and his mob weighing in (or much less so).
Romney might hold out. He's old, rich, has an unusually large personal vote in Utah, an unusually high willingness to vote with his conscience* and could retire in 2026 (by when he'll be 79) without loss of face. But there are few others with the scope and inclination for that kind of independence. And it'd need four.
* Though he voted to confirm Gorsuch, so there are limits and they're only high in relative terms.
Collins and Murkowski I could see voting down some of these appointees.
Possible. But even if they and Romney do, that's still a confirmation off Vance's casting vote. However, I wouldn't stake too much on it.
Mitt Romney didn't stand for re-election. He won't be a Senator when the current Congress expires in January.
Prediction - we are going to see a lot of HNW Americans come to the UK over the next few years and be delighted to pay our taxes.
The moaning HNW who talk about leaving will be easily replaced in the current environment.
Why would they move here, rather than a lower tax domain?
Different strokes for different folks but plenty will be attracted by London, language, jobs, culture, and just being in a normal country rather than a tax haven island.
Meat and alcohol served in Downing Street in the celebration of Diwali event
Downing Street has issued an apology
So? As long as there was vegetarian and non-alcoholic drinks available who gives a stuff?
The perpetually offended by anything brigade on Social media ?
Thank you for correcting BigG. Taz.
I am sorry you and others want to pile in on me for posting a report from Sky about an apology by Downing Street
I post stories as they come along and if they make labour supporters uncomfortable then maybe they should reflect on how they would have reported the story if it had been Johnson
Sky broke the story and the apology but it seems it has upset some
Oh God, PB’s going to get spammed senseless again about Starmer having booze again isn’t it?
BigG. has finally found his "gotcha"!
Will you stop picking on Big G. He is entitled to post what he likes, just as you are 😠
I’ve got a genuine question for you Big G, as you seem to be slipping back into the Conservative fold. The next General Election is definitely being held on May 3rd 2029 - which seems a whole universe away. According to every forecast for world and UK growth, there will be no significant growth anywhere for at least 6 or 7 years. And according to head of Bank of England yesterday, UK will be additionally poorer thanks to Brexit. So nothing for Labour to work with to say voters are better off in five years, compared to July 2024, so a huge gift to the Tories, a great background for Badenoch and Stride to be campaigning in, in 2029 looks very likely - very similar to what helped Trump to power this year, the Conservatives will ask, are you better off than 5 years ago? And the voters answer will be: no!
However, the question is this, does your vote in such a situation depend on what the Conservative economic policies actually are? if the Conservative position is it’s nowt but Labour that has made voters poorer in the five years since 2024, because Labour has not embraced the wonderful freedoms of Brexit - the Conservative Manifesto in 2029 is to fully embrace those opportunities of Brexit, go full Singapore on Thames to make Britons rich again, would you vote Conservative? Would you vote for that economic policy agenda?
I think the pendulum on the left has already swung back to be honest.
Identity politics and being pro immigration are basically over as far as I can see.
Labour has not done a single identity politics or pro immigration thing since coming to office that I can see.
I'd like to think so - but it takes a long, long time to turn the tanker around, and the government have done nothing to turn the dial; they just haven't turned it any further. There are still any number of identity politics and pro-immigration things happening. The identarian left is still there throughout the public sector and public-sector-adjacent-sector - it may not be getting further encouragement but nor is it getting any discouragement.
It’s also palpably not true
Labour has already done tons of pro migrant woke shit. Abolished the preference for Brits in council housing etc. Abandoned Rwanda and not attempted to replace it. And much else
They are still merrily paddling the national kayak forward through the rapids marked “from here on a Reform government - or something far worse - is just beyond the next waterfall”
We could spend another £800m to find 4 volunteers to travel to Botswana, but I don't really see the point?
I don’t think even @SeanT costs £800 million to be sent to Botswana?
The new government estimated that the old government had spent £700 million in total on the Rwanda scheme.
How much of that was due to cockblocking by the 3rd sector and activist Liberal-Left, though?
Once resolved the cost per head would have dropped dramatically. It just never got there.
Because of the cockblocking.
That rather falls foul of the reality that the initial capacity was limited to 200, and that the claimed "rapid scale up" was a little problematic because Rwanda is a country modestly larger than Wales with a population of 13 million.
Sending them somewhere tiny, which is even fuller than we are, in penny packets, is strange logic.
You forget that had they all
And if my auntie had balls - we'd be back on transgender stuff, so let's not go there.
But that was the intent and it was cockblocked. To deliberately stop the policy. And therefore stop it being effective. It wasn't for want of the government trying.
This is all laid at the feet of the Tories whereas, in reality, there was a whole movement dedicated to sabotaging it. Because open borders.
It was blocked by the courts, not by a movement. The government then changed the law so that the courts would no longer block it.
Why, then, did Sunak call an election for July, instead of implementing his policy and stopping the boats? Do you not think that, if it was possible that the policy could succeed, that it would have been the sort of Hail Mary pass that might have changed the election result?
I think it's rather revealing that Sunak gave up on the Rwanda policy. Obviously he did not share your confidence in its potential success.
Former Rep. Barbara Comstock (R-Va.) said Gaetz’s nomination is “absurd” and combined with the selection Wednesday of former Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, who represented Hawaii as a Democrat and has since left the party, as director of national intelligence suggested the Cabinet will be filled with “Putinists and pedophiles.”
We are very grateful to the thousands of Americans who have expressed interest in helping us at DOGE. We don’t need more part-time idea generators. We need super high-IQ small-government revolutionaries willing to work 80+ hours per week on unglamorous cost-cutting. If that’s you, DM this account with your CV. Elon & Vivek will review the top 1% of applicants.
The Chancellor, Rachel Reeves, worked as a ‘complaints support manager’ and not as an economist in a bank according to a former colleague.
She resigned after being exposed ‘doing Labour council business’ under the guise of frequent doctor’s and dental appointments.
I've always thought that the location of that job doesn't tally with the job description she claims to have held.
Would Reeves have survived a US-style confirmation process?
In the foreseeable future a background of fending off complaints will be far more useful to Reeves than a passing acquaintance with the dismal science.
People aren’t still defending Rwanda are they, goodness me.
I’ve got no problem with processing people offshore, it was that as LEGITIMATE refugees they’d not be allowed to be in the UK. That’s the literal opposite of what we should be doing.
We want a policy that stops people coming who aren’t refugees. Not one that stops refugees being safe here, surely?
We are very grateful to the thousands of Americans who have expressed interest in helping us at DOGE. We don’t need more part-time idea generators. We need super high-IQ small-government revolutionaries willing to work 80+ hours per week on unglamorous cost-cutting. If that’s you, DM this account with your CV. Elon & Vivek will review the top 1% of applicants.
The Chancellor, Rachel Reeves, worked as a ‘complaints support manager’ and not as an economist in a bank according to a former colleague.
She resigned after being exposed ‘doing Labour council business’ under the guise of frequent doctor’s and dental appointments.
Guido had the first part of that a while ago, but not the Labour council business. Also from that tweet:
"Nearly got sacked due to an expenses scandal where the 3 senior managers were all signing off each others expenses. Narrow escape."
If it's fabricated it's oddly specific.
Rookie mistake, I sign off my expenses.
(The reality is my boss trusts me and doesn't have the time to go through all my expenses, plus they know my three reasons for not doing anything dodgy)
1) I would not do well in prison
2) I like earning money and fiddling expenses would be a career ender
3) The scandal would kill my mother
I am always shocked by how often well remunerated people will do bad things with their expenses.
Oh God, PB’s going to get spammed senseless again about Starmer having booze again isn’t it?
BigG. has finally found his "gotcha"!
Will you stop picking on Big G. He is entitled to post what he likes, just as you are 😠
I’ve got a genuine question for you Big G, as you seem to be slipping back into the Conservative fold. The next General Election is definitely being held on May 3rd 2029 - which seems a whole universe away. According to every forecast for world and UK growth, there will be no significant growth anywhere for at least 6 or 7 years. And according to head of Bank of England yesterday, UK will be additionally poorer thanks to Brexit. So nothing for Labour to work with to say voters are better off in five years, compared to July 2024, so a huge gift to the Tories, a great background for Badenoch and Stride to be campaigning in, in 2029 looks very likely - very similar to what helped Trump to power this year, the Conservatives will ask, are you better off than 5 years ago? And the voters answer will be: no!
However, the question is this, does your vote in such a situation depend on what the Conservative economic policies actually are? if the Conservative position is it’s nowt but Labour that has made voters poorer in the five years since 2024, because Labour has not embraced the wonderful freedoms of Brexit - the Conservative Manifesto in 2029 is to fully embrace those opportunities of Brexit, go full Singapore on Thames to make Britons rich again, would you vote Conservative? Would you vote for that economic policy agenda?
Thank you for your support and would concur the pile on from the usual suspects is nothing more than an attempt to close down anything that may be critical of Starmer and is consistent with the left attitude
I think it is becoming apparent every day that Labour were elected on a false manifesto and promises, and they have reverted to type being pro public sector and unions at the expense of the private sector that actually provides the tax receipts for this largesse
I will vote conservative at the next GE to return to pro business, small state politics but 5 years us a long time away for me and as has been seen before I have voted for a Blair government but that is not what Starmer and Reeves represent
Meat and alcohol served in Downing Street in the celebration of Diwali event
Downing Street has issued an apology
So? As long as there was vegetarian and non-alcoholic drinks available who gives a stuff?
The perpetually offended by anything brigade on Social media ?
Thank you for correcting BigG. Taz.
I am sorry you and others want to pile in on me for posting a report from Sky about an apology by Downing Street
I post stories as they come along and if they make labour supporters uncomfortable then maybe they should reflect on how they would have reported the story if it had been Johnson
Sky broke the story and the apology but it seems it has upset some
For goodness sake BigG. give me a flag if you are upset.
You defended Johnson when his Partygate defence was indefensible and piled in on Currygate, Diwaligate and several other gates.
Meat and alcohol served in Downing Street in the celebration of Diwali event
Downing Street has issued an apology
So? As long as there was vegetarian and non-alcoholic drinks available who gives a stuff?
The perpetually offended by anything brigade on Social media ?
Thank you for correcting BigG. Taz.
I am sorry you and others want to pile in on me for posting a report from Sky about an apology by Downing Street
I post stories as they come along and if they make labour supporters uncomfortable then maybe they should reflect on how they would have reported the story if it had been Johnson
Sky broke the story and the apology but it seems it has upset some
Keep doing what you do and ignore the prick. Your time here won’t be any worse for it.
The previous PM (Pravind Jugnauth), fresh from only winning 2 out 60 seats has now been banned from leaving the country. On alleged wire tapping. The CEO of Mauritius Telecom stated that he had given approval for listening devices to be installed. Discussions with British High Commissioner had already appeared online.
Who knows where this ends up, especially if Trump intercedes.
It will end up with no-one giving a damn, which is pretty much the situation now.
No. Trump is definitely going to kill Labours Chagos Plan off.
All Trump will need is the will to do it, he will definitely have all the way and means to kill it.
Trump, Farage, Badenoch, and the UK media will declare a huge victory over Starmer’s Socialist and dangerously woke Labour government, declaring them dangerous for world security. That’s the will to do it, very clearly there.
What’s more, Starmer and Labour will fully go along with Trumps block on it. The no change in Chagos status going forward will be owned by Trump and the US, and Labour will no longer have to defend their massively unpopular and impossible to justify position.
Labour were likely a Greenhorn Government bounced into it by a civil service saying it’s a great idea - exactly the situation the Yes, Minister instruction manuals were written for - Labour likely have no great passion now to ensure the change, the first they likely even heard of this plan was from Civil Servant briefings shortly before or after July this year.
The Chagos Change is soon to be dead in the water.
Meat and alcohol served in Downing Street in the celebration of Diwali event
Downing Street has issued an apology
So? As long as there was vegetarian and non-alcoholic drinks available who gives a stuff?
The perpetually offended by anything brigade on Social media ?
Thank you for correcting BigG. Taz.
I am sorry you and others want to pile in on me for posting a report from Sky about an apology by Downing Street
I post stories as they come along and if they make labour supporters uncomfortable then maybe they should reflect on how they would have reported the story if it had been Johnson
Sky broke the story and the apology but it seems it has upset some
Keep doing what you do and ignore the prick. Your time here won’t be any worse for it.
The woman who was at the center of a years-long Justice Department investigation into sex trafficking allegations surrounding Rep. Matt Gaetz testified to the House Ethics Committee that the now-former Florida congressman had sex with her when she was 17 years old, sources familiar with the investigation told ABC News.
[...]
Over the summer, the House Ethics Committee subpoenaed the woman at the center of the probe -- who is now in her 20s -- and she sat for multiple days of testimony where she testified to the committee that Gaetz had sex with her when she was a minor in high school, sources close to the investigation said.
[...]
ABC News previously reported that the committee obtained written testimony from a separate woman who said that in July 2017, when she was 20 years old, she attended a party in Florida that Gaetz also attended, and which was attended by the woman who was a minor at the time and where drugs including cocaine were present.
[...]
Some witnesses were shown Venmo payments they allegedly received from Gaetz, sources said.
As ABC News previously reported, one woman who said she attended a party with the Gaetz in 2017, who ABC News is not identifying, told the committee that a payment from Gaetz was for sex, multiple sources told ABC News. Others have said they were paid to attend parties they said Gaetz also attended, and that those parties included drugs and sex, the sources said.
Meat and alcohol served in Downing Street in the celebration of Diwali event
Downing Street has issued an apology
Are we now at the point where PB Tories complain that Starmers catering is not vegetarian or teetotal?
It's that horse shoe of politics again...
At the moment, the PB Tories seem unsure whether to be outraged that meat and booze were served, or that an apology was made for doing so.
Again - there's something of the pathetic fallacy (I think?) going on here - the assumption that all people in group x should behave in the same way. As there is only about one actual pb Tory, lets assume you mean 'vaguely right wing people on pb' - 'vaguely right wing people on pb' are not 'unsure' about this; they just don't all have the same opinions. Because it's not really a party political issue. Equally, we could say pb lefties are unsure whether the government are ok because they've apologised or are ok because it wasn't an issue in the first place. Because it's not a party political issue.
In any case, I think only Big G, from the right, sees it as 'government were wrong to do this and right to apologise - but that strikes me as broadly consistent with his worldview: he is very much more up the 'cultural sensitivity' end of the spectrum.
We are very grateful to the thousands of Americans who have expressed interest in helping us at DOGE. We don’t need more part-time idea generators. We need super high-IQ small-government revolutionaries willing to work 80+ hours per week on unglamorous cost-cutting. If that’s you, DM this account with your CV. Elon & Vivek will review the top 1% of applicants.
Yes, Dom C is a big fan of Elon. So if Musk is the US Cummings, is JD Vance the US Rishi and is Trump the US Boris just a tool for their ends they will dispose of as soon as he starts declining in the polls?
Meat and alcohol served in Downing Street in the celebration of Diwali event
Downing Street has issued an apology
So? As long as there was vegetarian and non-alcoholic drinks available who gives a stuff?
The perpetually offended by anything brigade on Social media ?
Thank you for correcting BigG. Taz.
I am sorry you and others want to pile in on me for posting a report from Sky about an apology by Downing Street
I post stories as they come along and if they make labour supporters uncomfortable then maybe they should reflect on how they would have reported the story if it had been Johnson
Sky broke the story and the apology but it seems it has upset some
For goodness sake BigG. give me a flag if you are upset.
You defended Johnson when his Partygate defence was indefensible and piled in on Currygate, Diwaligate and several other gates.
You'll fell him in the end!
I have never flagged anyone nor am I about to start
And I did not defend Johnson and wanted Sunak to succeed him
Look back to my critical posts on Johnson at the time if you do not believe me
We are very grateful to the thousands of Americans who have expressed interest in helping us at DOGE. We don’t need more part-time idea generators. We need super high-IQ small-government revolutionaries willing to work 80+ hours per week on unglamorous cost-cutting. If that’s you, DM this account with your CV. Elon & Vivek will review the top 1% of applicants.
This is going to be an absolute disaster.
Aaron Rupar @atrupar.bsky.social · 10m House Republicans are now saying that Trump will cut *more* than $2 trillion in federal spending (check out the look on Maria Bartiromo's face when Ralph Normal says this)
We are very grateful to the thousands of Americans who have expressed interest in helping us at DOGE. We don’t need more part-time idea generators. We need super high-IQ small-government revolutionaries willing to work 80+ hours per week on unglamorous cost-cutting. If that’s you, DM this account with your CV. Elon & Vivek will review the top 1% of applicants.
So more loud but useless flailing around to be expected ?
We are very grateful to the thousands of Americans who have expressed interest in helping us at DOGE. We don’t need more part-time idea generators. We need super high-IQ small-government revolutionaries willing to work 80+ hours per week on unglamorous cost-cutting. If that’s you, DM this account with your CV. Elon & Vivek will review the top 1% of applicants.
This is going to be an absolute disaster.
Aaron Rupar @atrupar.bsky.social · 10m House Republicans are now saying that Trump will cut *more* than $2 trillion in federal spending (check out the look on Maria Bartiromo's face when Ralph Normal says this)
We are very grateful to the thousands of Americans who have expressed interest in helping us at DOGE. We don’t need more part-time idea generators. We need super high-IQ small-government revolutionaries willing to work 80+ hours per week on unglamorous cost-cutting. If that’s you, DM this account with your CV. Elon & Vivek will review the top 1% of applicants.
So more loud but useless flailing around to be expected ?
Apparently you can only DM the account if you have paid for a blue checkmark on Twitter.
The woman who was at the center of a years-long Justice Department investigation into sex trafficking allegations surrounding Rep. Matt Gaetz testified to the House Ethics Committee that the now-former Florida congressman had sex with her when she was 17 years old, sources familiar with the investigation told ABC News.
[...]
Over the summer, the House Ethics Committee subpoenaed the woman at the center of the probe -- who is now in her 20s -- and she sat for multiple days of testimony where she testified to the committee that Gaetz had sex with her when she was a minor in high school, sources close to the investigation said.
[...]
ABC News previously reported that the committee obtained written testimony from a separate woman who said that in July 2017, when she was 20 years old, she attended a party in Florida that Gaetz also attended, and which was attended by the woman who was a minor at the time and where drugs including cocaine were present.
[...]
Some witnesses were shown Venmo payments they allegedly received from Gaetz, sources said.
As ABC News previously reported, one woman who said she attended a party with the Gaetz in 2017, who ABC News is not identifying, told the committee that a payment from Gaetz was for sex, multiple sources told ABC News. Others have said they were paid to attend parties they said Gaetz also attended, and that those parties included drugs and sex, the sources said.
Obviously ideal material for the country's chief law officer.
Meat and alcohol served in Downing Street in the celebration of Diwali event
Downing Street has issued an apology
So? As long as there was vegetarian and non-alcoholic drinks available who gives a stuff?
The perpetually offended by anything brigade on Social media ?
Thank you for correcting BigG. Taz.
I am sorry you and others want to pile in on me for posting a report from Sky about an apology by Downing Street
I post stories as they come along and if they make labour supporters uncomfortable then maybe they should reflect on how they would have reported the story if it had been Johnson
Sky broke the story and the apology but it seems it has upset some
For goodness sake BigG. give me a flag if you are upset.
You defended Johnson when his Partygate defence was indefensible and piled in on Currygate, Diwaligate and several other gates.
You'll fell him in the end!
I think the flag is for 'this person shouldn't be allowed to say this' rather than 'I disagree with this' or 'I am offended by this'. And there's not a lot that falls into the former category, and if there were the mods would be run off their feet. So best to use it very sparingly.
We are very grateful to the thousands of Americans who have expressed interest in helping us at DOGE. We don’t need more part-time idea generators. We need super high-IQ small-government revolutionaries willing to work 80+ hours per week on unglamorous cost-cutting. If that’s you, DM this account with your CV. Elon & Vivek will review the top 1% of applicants.
This is going to be an absolute disaster.
Aaron Rupar @atrupar.bsky.social · 10m House Republicans are now saying that Trump will cut *more* than $2 trillion in federal spending (check out the look on Maria Bartiromo's face when Ralph Normal says this)
The Chancellor, Rachel Reeves, worked as a ‘complaints support manager’ and not as an economist in a bank according to a former colleague.
She resigned after being exposed ‘doing Labour council business’ under the guise of frequent doctor’s and dental appointments.
Guido had the first part of that a while ago, but not the Labour council business. Also from that tweet:
"Nearly got sacked due to an expenses scandal where the 3 senior managers were all signing off each others expenses. Narrow escape."
If it's fabricated it's oddly specific.
Rookie mistake, I sign off my expenses.
(The reality is my boss trusts me and doesn't have the time to go through all my expenses, plus they know my three reasons for not doing anything dodgy)
1) I would not do well in prison
2) I like earning money and fiddling expenses would be a career ender
3) The scandal would kill my mother
I am always shocked by how often well remunerated people will do bad things with their expenses.
When I was just starting out in work, I was at an oil company, notorious for its Civil Service style politics and vendettas.
I wrote a simulation model of some operations that embarrassed a senior manager. Who retaliated by getting my expenses audited.
My manager was an old hand, who thought that was interesting and arranged an expenses audit of my attacker.
Who turned out to have fiddled well into five figures. Stuff like piles of hand written taxi receipts. All in the same handwriting.
I was found to be owed a small amount for having under claimed on per diems.
Can we award the US electorate the group Darwin Award 2024?
In a year in which we elected Free Gear Keir, Rachel Thieves, Lammy, Rayner, etc., I think we're definitely in the glasshouse.
The alternatives were little better though.
I've little time for the current government, but the previous one did not deserve to be get re-elected.
That's the bottom line. If the Cons had won again after 14 years which culminated in the Johnson/Truss debacles, it would have been the public saying to the party, "Ok, doesn't matter what you do, you're the government, everyone else can go whistle." Very damaging to our democracy. This, more than anything to do with manifestos and policies and personalities, is why they had to lose, and why they did lose.
Oh God, PB’s going to get spammed senseless again about Starmer having booze again isn’t it?
BigG. has finally found his "gotcha"!
Will you stop picking on Big G. He is entitled to post what he likes, just as you are 😠
I’ve got a genuine question for you Big G, as you seem to be slipping back into the Conservative fold. The next General Election is definitely being held on May 3rd 2029 - which seems a whole universe away. According to every forecast for world and UK growth, there will be no significant growth anywhere for at least 6 or 7 years. And according to head of Bank of England yesterday, UK will be additionally poorer thanks to Brexit. So nothing for Labour to work with to say voters are better off in five years, compared to July 2024, so a huge gift to the Tories, a great background for Badenoch and Stride to be campaigning in, in 2029 looks very likely - very similar to what helped Trump to power this year, the Conservatives will ask, are you better off than 5 years ago? And the voters answer will be: no!
However, the question is this, does your vote in such a situation depend on what the Conservative economic policies actually are? if the Conservative position is it’s nowt but Labour that has made voters poorer in the five years since 2024, because Labour has not embraced the wonderful freedoms of Brexit - the Conservative Manifesto in 2029 is to fully embrace those opportunities of Brexit, go full Singapore on Thames to make Britons rich again, would you vote Conservative? Would you vote for that economic policy agenda?
Thank you for your support and would concur the pile on from the usual suspects is nothing more than an attempt to close down anything that may be critical of Starmer and is consistent with the left attitude
I think it is becoming apparent every day that Labour were elected on a false manifesto and promises, and they have reverted to type being pro public sector and unions at the expense of the private sector that actually provides the tax receipts for this largesse
I will vote conservative at the next GE to return to pro business, small state politics but 5 years us a long time away for me and as has been seen before I have voted for a Blair government but that is not what Starmer and Reeves represent
What if the Conservative economic position put Labours economic failure and lack of growth down to not taking Brexit freedoms and opportunities, the Conservative economic plan and manifesto is around making Brexit work, full fat Singapore on Thames - you can still see yourself giving your vote to that sort of economic policy plan?
Such a scenario as this is very very likely where we are going to be, Spring 2029 - Labour government failed economically, no one feels better off. But Conservatives will still have to explain why - what Labour done wrong, what they will now do differently.
And if that plan is to make us all richer by properly exploiting opportunities from Brexit at last, you could vote for that?
Can we award the US electorate the group Darwin Award 2024?
In a year in which we elected Free Gear Keir, Rachel Thieves, Lammy, Rayner, etc., I think we're definitely in the glasshouse.
The alternatives were little better though.
I've little time for the current government, but the previous one did not deserve to be get re-elected.
That's the bottom line. If the Cons had won again after 14 years which culminated in the Johnson/Truss debacles, it would have been the public saying to the party, "Ok, doesn't matter what you do, you're the government, everyone else can go whistle." It would have been damaging to our democracy. This, more than anything to do with manifestos and policies and personalities, is why they had to lose - and why they did lose.
That’s definitely my bottom line as well. Labour also gave the impression of being a government in waiting rather than just an opposition.
The Conservatives didn’t deserve to be re-elected and Labour deserved an opportunity after ditching the Corbyn tendency.
The previous PM (Pravind Jugnauth), fresh from only winning 2 out 60 seats has now been banned from leaving the country. On alleged wire tapping. The CEO of Mauritius Telecom stated that he had given approval for listening devices to be installed. Discussions with British High Commissioner had already appeared online.
Who knows where this ends up, especially if Trump intercedes.
It will end up with no-one giving a damn, which is pretty much the situation now.
No. Trump is definitely going to kill Labours Chagos Plan off.
All Trump will need is the will to do it, he will definitely have all the way and means to kill it.
Trump, Farage, Badenoch, and the UK media will declare a huge victory over Starmer’s Socialist and dangerously woke Labour government, declaring them dangerous for world security. That’s the will to do it, very clearly there.
What’s more, Starmer and Labour will fully go along with Trumps block on it. The no change in Chagos status going forward will be owned by Trump and the US, and Labour will no longer have to defend their massively unpopular and impossible to justify position.
Labour were likely a Greenhorn Government bounced into it by a civil service saying it’s a great idea - exactly the situation the Yes, Minister instruction manuals were written for - Labour likely have no great passion now to ensure the change, the first they likely even heard of this plan was from Civil Servant briefings shortly before or after July this year.
The Chagos Change is soon to be dead in the water.
Yes, and no-one will care. This is not a policy that exercises the Great British Public either way, even that small subsection that can find Chagos on the map. Even in your account, the Labour government will not care.
(Neither David Cameron nor Jeremy Clarkson actually live in the ward. Still funny though.)
Farmers clearly turning on Labour with a vengeance after the budget and swinging to the Tories and LDs
The chink of light for Starmer in that result is the further proof of the fungibility of Labour and Lib Dem votes. Con picked up 9% but the Lib Dems got the bulk of them. It bodes reasonably well for LD defences in 5 years if Labour is unpopular.
We are very grateful to the thousands of Americans who have expressed interest in helping us at DOGE. We don’t need more part-time idea generators. We need super high-IQ small-government revolutionaries willing to work 80+ hours per week on unglamorous cost-cutting. If that’s you, DM this account with your CV. Elon & Vivek will review the top 1% of applicants.
This is going to be an absolute disaster.
Aaron Rupar @atrupar.bsky.social · 10m House Republicans are now saying that Trump will cut *more* than $2 trillion in federal spending (check out the look on Maria Bartiromo's face when Ralph Normal says this)
Surely, 'will redirect more than $2 trillion from the people who voted for him to his own pocket?'
Is he though, Trump got just 6.5% in DC which is where most Federal government workers work and he only tied Harris with over 65s despite winning the popular vote nationally and while he won middle income earners, the lowest earners earning under $30 000 still voted for Harris over him overall.
His tariffs might hit his middle income voters with price rises but his spending cuts won't so much as most are middle income and middle aged private sector workers
We are very grateful to the thousands of Americans who have expressed interest in helping us at DOGE. We don’t need more part-time idea generators. We need super high-IQ small-government revolutionaries willing to work 80+ hours per week on unglamorous cost-cutting. If that’s you, DM this account with your CV. Elon & Vivek will review the top 1% of applicants.
So more loud but useless flailing around to be expected ?
Apparently you can only DM the account if you have paid for a blue checkmark on Twitter.
Which no-one with a high IQ would touch with a barge pole.
We are very grateful to the thousands of Americans who have expressed interest in helping us at DOGE. We don’t need more part-time idea generators. We need super high-IQ small-government revolutionaries willing to work 80+ hours per week on unglamorous cost-cutting. If that’s you, DM this account with your CV. Elon & Vivek will review the top 1% of applicants.
So more loud but useless flailing around to be expected ?
Apparently you can only DM the account if you have paid for a blue checkmark on Twitter.
(Neither David Cameron nor Jeremy Clarkson actually live in the ward. Still funny though.)
Farmers clearly turning on Labour with a vengeance after the budget and swinging to the Tories and LDs
The chink of light for Starmer in that result is the further proof of the fungibility of Labour and Lib Dem votes. Con picked up 9% but the Lib Dems got the bulk of them. It bodes reasonably well for LD defences in 5 years if Labour is unpopular.
Indeed but every 2024 Labour voter going LD in Tory target seats in rural areas won by Labour in July also helps the Tory candidate get the seat
New Zealand's parliament was brought to a temporary halt by opposition party MP Hana-Rawhiti Maipi-Clarke performing a haka, amid anger over a controversial bill seeking to reinterpret country's founding treaty with Māori People. https://x.com/Rainmaker1973/status/1857339076489134408
Meat and alcohol served in Downing Street in the celebration of Diwali event
Downing Street has issued an apology
So? As long as there was vegetarian and non-alcoholic drinks available who gives a stuff?
It's a religious event, bit like serving pork at Eid or Passover. Although I'm not sure booze is an issue, there's not really anything that says you can't drink in the religious texts, but you definitely shouldn't eat meat. I'm surprised an Indian staffer didn't tell them to make it a vegetarian event, at least if they were trying to respect the religious event.
New Zealand's parliament was brought to a temporary halt by opposition party MP Hana-Rawhiti Maipi-Clarke performing a haka, amid anger over a controversial bill seeking to reinterpret country's founding treaty with Māori People. https://x.com/Rainmaker1973/status/1857339076489134408
New Zealand's parliament was brought to a temporary halt by opposition party MP Hana-Rawhiti Maipi-Clarke performing a haka, amid anger over a controversial bill seeking to reinterpret country's founding treaty with Māori People. https://x.com/Rainmaker1973/status/1857339076489134408
(Neither David Cameron nor Jeremy Clarkson actually live in the ward. Still funny though.)
Farmers clearly turning on Labour with a vengeance after the budget and swinging to the Tories and LDs
The chink of light for Starmer in that result is the further proof of the fungibility of Labour and Lib Dem votes. Con picked up 9% but the Lib Dems got the bulk of them. It bodes reasonably well for LD defences in 5 years if Labour is unpopular.
If you have the Chipping Norton Set in your mind then you're going to get completely the wrong impression of the town's local politics. This is actually a seriously left-wing town, and Labour have won Chipping Norton ward (which has the same boundaries as the town council) at every West Oxfordshire council election since 2011 with the exception of 2015. Your columnist passed through Chipping Norton in April during the most recent local election campaign, and the number of Labour stakeboards in the town was something to behold. Stakeboards and posters, of course, don't vote, but the Labour result here in May was exceptionally good: 61% for Labour against 21% for the Conservatives. In 2021 Labour gained the Chipping Norton division of Oxfordshire county council, which also covers some of the nearby villages, from the Conservatives. Labour participate in a traffic-light coalition which runs West Oxfordshire council; a similar arrangement at the county level has fallen apart and the county council is run by a minority coalition of the Lib Dems and Greens.
I'm going to put my religious hat on for a moment and say, yes - the government was right to apologise for serving meat at a Hindu religious event. Not because they served it, but because they would never make the same mistake at a Jewish or Muslim religious event. Hindus are very much seen as second class citizens by Labour and this is actually just further proof that they just don't care enough to do the research properly.
We don't fit into their precious marginalised voter groups and we don't bitch and moan like victims so I guess we're easy to ignore.
I'm going to put my religious hat on for a moment and say, yes - the government was right to apologise for serving meat at a Hindu religious event. Not because they served it, but because they would never make the same mistake at a Jewish or Muslim religious event. Hindus are very much seen as second class citizens by Labour and this is actually just further proof that they just don't care enough to do the research properly.
We don't fit into their precious marginalised voter groups and we don't bitch and moan like victims so I guess we're easy to ignore.
Hindus are certainly less likely to vote Labour now than Muslims and atheists and indeed even C of E clergy and Bishops are more likely to vote Labour now than Hindus are (one of the few gains the Tories made under Rishi in July was with his fellow Hindus)
Comments
Hopefully it's not a choice we'll ever have to make.
It's that horse shoe of politics again...
I think he is surprised.
Britain is so fucked.
Can a doctor declare the entire Government medically unfit please?
The Chancellor, Rachel Reeves, worked as a ‘complaints support manager’ and not as an economist in a bank according to a former colleague.
She resigned after being exposed ‘doing Labour council business’ under the guise of frequent doctor’s and dental appointments.
saves time...
The moaning HNW who talk about leaving will be easily replaced in the current environment.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elvira_Nabiullina
"Nearly got sacked due to an expenses scandal where the 3 senior managers were all signing off each others expenses. Narrow escape."
If it's fabricated it's oddly specific.
https://order-order.com/2024/11/15/chancellor-caught-changing-linkedin-cv-after-economist-myth-exposed/
“We are an Easter people and Alleluia is our song!”
https://aleteia.org/2022/04/20/who-really-said-we-are-an-easter-people-alleluia-is-our-song
If you want to push it, that's a nugget picked from St Augustine, writing in about 530. (I had to look that up.) The homily is here:
https://www.vatican.va/content/john-paul-ii/en/angelus/1986/documents/hf_jp-ii_ang_19861130.html
I suspect that even hands-down evangelicals wouldn't object, but the ghost of Ian Paisley might if you told him who said it.
I post stories as they come along and if they make labour supporters uncomfortable then maybe they should reflect on how they would have reported the story if it had been Johnson
Sky broke the story and the apology but it seems it has upset some
I’ve got a genuine question for you Big G, as you seem to be slipping back into the Conservative fold.
The next General Election is definitely being held on May 3rd 2029 - which seems a whole universe away.
According to every forecast for world and UK growth, there will be no significant growth anywhere for at least 6 or 7 years. And according to head of Bank of England yesterday, UK will be additionally poorer thanks to Brexit.
So nothing for Labour to work with to say voters are better off in five years, compared to July 2024, so a huge gift to the Tories, a great background for Badenoch and Stride to be campaigning in, in 2029 looks very likely - very similar to what helped Trump to power this year, the Conservatives will ask, are you better off than 5 years ago? And the voters answer will be: no!
However, the question is this, does your vote in such a situation depend on what the Conservative economic policies actually are? if the Conservative position is it’s nowt but Labour that has made voters poorer in the five years since 2024, because Labour has not embraced the wonderful freedoms of Brexit - the Conservative Manifesto in 2029 is to fully embrace those opportunities of Brexit, go full Singapore on Thames to make Britons rich again, would you vote Conservative? Would you vote for that economic policy agenda?
Why, then, did Sunak call an election for July, instead of implementing his policy and stopping the boats? Do you not think that, if it was possible that the policy could succeed, that it would have been the sort of Hail Mary pass that might have changed the election result?
I think it's rather revealing that Sunak gave up on the Rwanda policy. Obviously he did not share your confidence in its potential success.
Former Rep. Barbara Comstock (R-Va.) said Gaetz’s nomination is “absurd” and combined with the selection Wednesday of former Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, who represented Hawaii as a Democrat and has since left the party, as director of national intelligence suggested the Cabinet will be filled with “Putinists and pedophiles.”
https://news.bloomberglaw.com/us-law-week/gaetz-pick-slammed-at-conservative-trump-critic-lawyer-gathering
Of course, we can all think of at least two who fit in both categories...
https://x.com/doge/status/1857076831104434289
We are very grateful to the thousands of Americans who have expressed interest in helping us at DOGE. We don’t need more part-time idea generators. We need super high-IQ small-government revolutionaries willing to work 80+ hours per week on unglamorous cost-cutting. If that’s you, DM this account with your CV. Elon & Vivek will review the top 1% of applicants.
I’ve got no problem with processing people offshore, it was that as LEGITIMATE refugees they’d not be allowed to be in the UK. That’s the literal opposite of what we should be doing.
We want a policy that stops people coming who aren’t refugees. Not one that stops refugees being safe here, surely?
NEW: The Chancellor, Rachel Reeves, worked as a ‘complaints support manager’ and not as an economist in a bank according to a former colleague.
She resigned after being exposed ‘doing Labour council business’ under the guise of frequent doctor’s and dental appointments.
(The reality is my boss trusts me and doesn't have the time to go through all my expenses, plus they know my three reasons for not doing anything dodgy)
1) I would not do well in prison
2) I like earning money and fiddling expenses would be a career ender
3) The scandal would kill my mother
I am always shocked by how often well remunerated people will do bad things with their expenses.
I think it is becoming apparent every day that Labour were elected on a false manifesto and promises, and they have reverted to type being pro public sector and unions at the expense of the private sector that actually provides the tax receipts for this largesse
I will vote conservative at the next GE to return to pro business, small state politics but 5 years us a long time away for me and as has been seen before I have voted for a Blair government but that is not what Starmer and Reeves represent
https://youtu.be/26mYtMsNX6Q?t=1014
You defended Johnson when his Partygate defence was indefensible and piled in on Currygate, Diwaligate and several other gates.
You'll fell him in the end!
All Trump will need is the will to do it, he will definitely have all the way and means to kill it.
Trump, Farage, Badenoch, and the UK media will declare a huge victory over Starmer’s Socialist and dangerously woke Labour government, declaring them dangerous for world security. That’s the will to do it, very clearly there.
What’s more, Starmer and Labour will fully go along with Trumps block on it. The no change in Chagos status going forward will be owned by Trump and the US, and Labour will no longer have to defend their massively unpopular and impossible to justify position.
Labour were likely a Greenhorn Government bounced into it by a civil service saying it’s a great idea - exactly the situation the Yes, Minister instruction manuals were written for - Labour likely have no great passion now to ensure the change, the first they likely even heard of this plan was from Civil Servant briefings shortly before or after July this year.
The Chagos Change is soon to be dead in the water.
That Trump has fools as well as nutters in his team ought not to be a surprise, either.
The woman who was at the center of a years-long Justice Department investigation into sex trafficking allegations surrounding Rep. Matt Gaetz testified to the House Ethics Committee that the now-former Florida congressman had sex with her when she was 17 years old, sources familiar with the investigation told ABC News.
[...]
Over the summer, the House Ethics Committee subpoenaed the woman at the center of the probe -- who is now in her 20s -- and she sat for multiple days of testimony where she testified to the committee that Gaetz had sex with her when she was a minor in high school, sources close to the investigation said.
[...]
ABC News previously reported that the committee obtained written testimony from a separate woman who said that in July 2017, when she was 20 years old, she attended a party in Florida that Gaetz also attended, and which was attended by the woman who was a minor at the time and where drugs including cocaine were present.
[...]
Some witnesses were shown Venmo payments they allegedly received from Gaetz, sources said.
As ABC News previously reported, one woman who said she attended a party with the Gaetz in 2017, who ABC News is not identifying, told the committee that a payment from Gaetz was for sex, multiple sources told ABC News. Others have said they were paid to attend parties they said Gaetz also attended, and that those parties included drugs and sex, the sources said.
As there is only about one actual pb Tory, lets assume you mean 'vaguely right wing people on pb' - 'vaguely right wing people on pb' are not 'unsure' about this; they just don't all have the same opinions. Because it's not really a party political issue.
Equally, we could say pb lefties are unsure whether the government are ok because they've apologised or are ok because it wasn't an issue in the first place. Because it's not a party political issue.
In any case, I think only Big G, from the right, sees it as 'government were wrong to do this and right to apologise - but that strikes me as broadly consistent with his worldview: he is very much more up the 'cultural sensitivity' end of the spectrum.
And I did not defend Johnson and wanted Sunak to succeed him
Look back to my critical posts on Johnson at the time if you do not believe me
Aaron Rupar @atrupar.bsky.social
·
10m
House Republicans are now saying that Trump will cut *more* than $2 trillion in federal spending (check out the look on Maria Bartiromo's face when Ralph Normal says this)
https://bsky.app/profile/atrupar.bsky.social/post/3layjpmmnic2q
Say what you like about Trump, he fooled an actual majority of those who voted.
And there's not a lot that falls into the former category, and if there were the mods would be run off their feet.
So best to use it very sparingly.
I think this is the fourth closest popular vote result in Presidential election history.
I wrote a simulation model of some operations that embarrassed a senior manager. Who retaliated by getting my expenses audited.
My manager was an old hand, who thought that was interesting and arranged an expenses audit of my attacker.
Who turned out to have fiddled well into five figures. Stuff like piles of hand written taxi receipts. All in the same handwriting.
I was found to be owed a small amount for having under claimed on per diems.
Such a scenario as this is very very likely where we are going to be, Spring 2029 - Labour government failed economically, no one feels better off. But Conservatives will still have to explain why - what Labour done wrong, what they will now do differently.
And if that plan is to make us all richer by properly exploiting opportunities from Brexit at last, you could vote for that?
The Conservatives didn’t deserve to be re-elected and Labour deserved an opportunity after ditching the Corbyn tendency.
His tariffs might hit his middle income voters with price rises but his spending cuts won't so much as most are middle income and middle aged private sector workers
https://x.com/elonmusk/status/1857420350516056102
https://x.com/Rainmaker1973/status/1857339076489134408
I'm trying to imagine Hoyle's reaction to something like this.
Here's the NZ Speaker:
https://x.com/StrayDogNZ/status/1856899136978923657
Not seen that before.
If you have the Chipping Norton Set in your mind then you're going to get completely the wrong impression of the town's local politics. This is actually a seriously left-wing town, and Labour have won Chipping Norton ward (which has the same boundaries as the town council) at every West Oxfordshire council election since 2011 with the exception of 2015. Your columnist passed through Chipping Norton in April during the most recent local election campaign, and the number of Labour stakeboards in the town was something to behold. Stakeboards and posters, of course, don't vote, but the Labour result here in May was exceptionally good: 61% for Labour against 21% for the Conservatives. In 2021 Labour gained the Chipping Norton division of Oxfordshire county council, which also covers some of the nearby villages, from the Conservatives. Labour participate in a traffic-light coalition which runs West Oxfordshire council; a similar arrangement at the county level has fallen apart and the county council is run by a minority coalition of the Lib Dems and Greens.
We don't fit into their precious marginalised voter groups and we don't bitch and moan like victims so I guess we're easy to ignore.
Identifying $2 trillion of government waste
10 million deportations
Ending the Ukraine War in 24 hours
These are big promises.
‘My £4k Smeg hob doesn’t work with my Le Creuset pans – I’m furious’
https://x.com/hissgoescobra/status/1856801708627710186
Some top analysis from the prospective National Security Advisor.