Telegraph Lord Mandelson is set to call on Nigel Farage to help him win over Donald Trump’s administration.
Britain’s new ambassador to the US is ready to engage with the Reform UK leader as part of efforts to persuade Mr Trump not to go to war with Britain on tariffs.
Where's the Foreign Secretary?
I think Mandelson is a pretty pragmatic chap.
He will do what’s right for Britain, not petty party political advantage. I thought it a decent appointment.
Unsurprisingly social media is somewhat hostile.
And why is this time going to be different from all other times?
"Reform UK polling/seats: if they can get to 27/8% + they can be largest party in a hung Parliament. If 32/3% + they can win a majority outright. (Source: Electoral Calculus)."
Farage has the approval of about 30% of the voters, I believe. That means, in theory, that 27/8% is easily do-able and maybe even 32% if Labour continues to implode
Should that happen and they won a majority on 32% the very same people happy with Sir Kier getting a thumping majority on 33% would be bemoaning the death of democracy and demanding a change to the electoral system.
I think a scenario where Reform get high 30s, and Labour low 40s, is much more likely, akin to coalescence we saw with the 2017 election.
I just can't imagine a scenario where the possibility of a Reform government isn't met by furious tactical voting and turnout by everyone on the left. We saw how the right responded to the threat of Corbyn; we'd get that again with Farage.
Labour got 33.7% of the vote last time. You think they're going to increase their share of the vote by about 10%?
No. I just think that's more likely than Reform winning a majority with a low 30s result. Labour's vote was suppressed for a number of reasons - Gaza, inevitable victory - things that would become less important in the face of Farage.
A Reform victory on 34% is a fun thought experiment though, so I'm going to dig around in my spreadsheet and try and construct the scenario.
That's a fair point but Labour have been so diabolical I can't see them inflating their vote back up to 40% after this term in office.
It's true they'll still get a decent share, though. They are delivering for millions of public sector workers and trade unionists.
It's December 2024. Up to 4 and a half years until the next election. Its practically impossible to declare that something political is impossible. We have had the absurd and the impossible cued up ready to pile on top of each other repeatedly.
Who knows what is going to happen. Think of something utterly absurd, say "that can't possibly happen" and then remember the succession of events since 2015.
Starmer could win a landslide. Starmer could get abducted by aliens. Who can tell.
That’s timing isn’t the realistic scenario
If things are going well then Starmer calls an election in 3.5 years (summer 2028) in which case your scenario doesn’t hold.
If we get to this point (6 months from the next election) then things are not going well and although “something might turn up”, something never does
Something *rarely* does.
But I suspect Major benefited from waiting until 1992.
I struggle with who would say the "death of the queen" is more significant than Covid or 9/11 or the Global Financial Crisis.
Confronts them with their own mortality, etc. etc. Drives it home that we're not in the 1950s any more. Maybe?
(Just been sorting through my late father's stuff including his photo in front of his gun turret at Spithead Coronation Review, and looking at the souvenir programme. That was a hell of a long time ago, complete with a real live battleship like something from |Jutland, only with better mechanical computers and more flak (though he wasn't then on her, he'd served on a KGV class battleship not so long before.)
If true, this would be an interesting test for the UK government:
"Asma al-Assad asks for divorce and wants to leave Russia 🇷🇺. According to the newspaper, Asma al-Assad, who holds British citizenship expressed her dissatisfaction with living conditions in the 🇷🇺 capital Moscow and she want to return to London."
So gassing babies, torture in prisons and mass executions by her husband's military and secret police was fine as long as she resided in the Presidential Palace in sunny Damascus with her husband's credit card.
Living in a Moscow flat in winter though is beyond the pale
She’s unethical (although I suspect she may plead marital coercion - I think that’s the correct term… although autocorrect kept changing it to “martial” which isn’t obviously wrong…) but that doesn’t change her rights as a citizen and she hasn’t done anything that would warrant her being stripped of that status.
I struggle with who would say the "death of the queen" is more significant than Covid or 9/11 or the Global Financial Crisis.
How would you test for what 'significant' means in the question? Signifying what to whom? Of weighty important to whom in what way?
Covid or 9/11 is a perfectly possible answer. So is 'the death of my mum'.
For most people the most important thing in their universe is their family. Its significance rests in both the weight attached to it, and also its signifying power to people that they belong to a network of unconditional love.
Can anyone tell me off teh top of their how the various main UK political parties are organised.
Unincorporated Associations, Co-operatives, Companies Limited by Guarantee etc?
I can go and find it, but does anyone know already?
(Clearly we know that RefUK are a Limited Compavy.)
The other political parties are unincorporated organisations which register with the electoral commission under section 22 of the PPERA.
I think @Cicero is mostly correct. Repeated questions to Copilot and my own Googling leads me to think that Reform is a limited company, the others (Lab, LD, SNP, Plaid etc) are unincorporated associations, except possibly for the Conservative Party - see below for a discussion of this.
Unincorporated Associations An unincorporated association operates based on its own rules and constitution rather than being governed by company law. It is a bunch of people and associations organised by agreed rules that it sets down in its constitution. It is not a legal entity separate from its members
The Structure Of Reform UK Reform UK Party Limited (formerly the Brexit Party Limited) is a limited company (not a PLC: its shares aren't traded). Unlike unincorporated associations it can legally take a profit and it does not have to elect its leader. It currently has three officers (Company Secretary is Mehrtash A'Zami, Company Directors are Farage and Tice).
Reform intends (hmmm) to change its stucture, I think to a company limited by guarantee.
The Structure Of The Conservative And Unionist Party The Inland Revenue tried to tax the Conservative Party as if it was an unincorporated association. The Party took it to court and after some appeals it was adjudged that it was NOT an unincorporated association. I don't know what its legal structure is: Wikipedia describes it as a sui-generis "mixed-money, common-object body with regular spending for political purposes". I think @HYUFD may be able to assist, especially if the Cameron reforms changed it.
(Note: not all PLCs companies are traded. It is perfectly possible to have a PLC with unlisted shares.)
Fair point, but they still have tradeable shares. A limited company with untradable shares is a private limited company: a different thing. Or have things changed since my Economics courses?
All shares are tradable - unless they are stapled or restricted in some way
Telegraph Lord Mandelson is set to call on Nigel Farage to help him win over Donald Trump’s administration.
Britain’s new ambassador to the US is ready to engage with the Reform UK leader as part of efforts to persuade Mr Trump not to go to war with Britain on tariffs.
Telegraph Lord Mandelson is set to call on Nigel Farage to help him win over Donald Trump’s administration.
Britain’s new ambassador to the US is ready to engage with the Reform UK leader as part of efforts to persuade Mr Trump not to go to war with Britain on tariffs.
Where's the Foreign Secretary?
I think Mandelson is a pretty pragmatic chap.
Intensely relaxed.
“We are intensely relaxed about people getting filthy rich,” the trade and industry secretary assured an approving group of senior executives at Hewlett-Packard during his fact-finding visit. “As long as they pay their taxes,” he added hurriedly.
Telegraph Lord Mandelson is set to call on Nigel Farage to help him win over Donald Trump’s administration.
Britain’s new ambassador to the US is ready to engage with the Reform UK leader as part of efforts to persuade Mr Trump not to go to war with Britain on tariffs.
Telegraph Lord Mandelson is set to call on Nigel Farage to help him win over Donald Trump’s administration.
Britain’s new ambassador to the US is ready to engage with the Reform UK leader as part of efforts to persuade Mr Trump not to go to war with Britain on tariffs.
Where's the Foreign Secretary?
I think Mandelson is a pretty pragmatic chap.
He will do what’s right for Britain, not petty party political advantage. I thought it a decent appointment.
Unsurprisingly social media is somewhat hostile.
That's pretty much exactly my view. Indeed, the willingness to coopt Farage is a clear example of that.
The question really is how Farage handles it. Does he help a Government he generally dislikes for the benefit of the UK? Or does he see partisan political advantage in making it harder for the US and UK to come to an arrangement.
He helps and finds a way to claim the credit, perhaps with Trump’s connivance
I struggle with who would say the "death of the queen" is more significant than Covid or 9/11 or the Global Financial Crisis.
I guess because it was a single event. Very easy to pin down. We know exactly when it happened, why, and what David Beckham's reaction to it was. It was a single News Event with no complexity whatsoever. We knew what we were doing when it happened. We knew what our reaction to it was, and what happened next. I'd agree it didn't really change the world in the same way as covid. But it was a lot easier to identify as an event. Alternatively, because it happened more recently than covid. For some people, thr most recent thing is the most relevant thing - and sometimes the only thing they can remember.
"Reform UK polling/seats: if they can get to 27/8% + they can be largest party in a hung Parliament. If 32/3% + they can win a majority outright. (Source: Electoral Calculus)."
Farage has the approval of about 30% of the voters, I believe. That means, in theory, that 27/8% is easily do-able and maybe even 32% if Labour continues to implode
Should that happen and they won a majority on 32% the very same people happy with Sir Kier getting a thumping majority on 33% would be bemoaning the death of democracy and demanding a change to the electoral system.
I think a scenario where Reform get high 30s, and Labour low 40s, is much more likely, akin to coalescence we saw with the 2017 election.
I just can't imagine a scenario where the possibility of a Reform government isn't met by furious tactical voting and turnout by everyone on the left. We saw how the right responded to the threat of Corbyn; we'd get that again with Farage.
Labour got 33.7% of the vote last time. You think they're going to increase their share of the vote by about 10%?
No. I just think that's more likely than Reform winning a majority with a low 30s result. Labour's vote was suppressed for a number of reasons - Gaza, inevitable victory - things that would become less important in the face of Farage.
A Reform victory on 34% is a fun thought experiment though, so I'm going to dig around in my spreadsheet and try and construct the scenario.
That's a fair point but Labour have been so diabolical I can't see them inflating their vote back up to 40% after this term in office.
It's true they'll still get a decent share, though. They are delivering for millions of public sector workers and trade unionists.
It's December 2024. Up to 4 and a half years until the next election. Its practically impossible to declare that something political is impossible. We have had the absurd and the impossible cued up ready to pile on top of each other repeatedly.
Who knows what is going to happen. Think of something utterly absurd, say "that can't possibly happen" and then remember the succession of events since 2015.
Starmer could win a landslide. Starmer could get abducted by aliens. Who can tell.
That’s timing isn’t the realistic scenario
If things are going well then Starmer calls an election in 3.5 years (summer 2028) in which case your scenario doesn’t hold.
If we get to this point (6 months from the next election) then things are not going well and although “something might turn up”, something never does
Something *rarely* does.
But I suspect Major benefited from waiting until 1992.
Because people got to see the public persona of him and Kinnock for longer and made their choice
I struggle with who would say the "death of the queen" is more significant than Covid or 9/11 or the Global Financial Crisis.
I guess because it was a single event. Very easy to pin down. We know exactly when it happened, why, and what David Beckham's reaction to it was. It was a single News Event with no complexity whatsoever. We knew what we were doing when it happened. We knew what our reaction to it was, and what happened next. I'd agree it didn't really change the world in the same way as covid. But it was a lot easier to identify as an event. Alternatively, because it happened more recently than covid. For some people, thr most recent thing is the most relevant thing - and sometimes the only thing they can remember.
I struggle with who would say the "death of the queen" is more significant than Covid or 9/11 or the Global Financial Crisis.
I guess because it was a single event. Very easy to pin down. We know exactly when it happened, why, and what David Beckham's reaction to it was. It was a single News Event with no complexity whatsoever. We knew what we were doing when it happened. We knew what our reaction to it was, and what happened next. I'd agree it didn't really change the world in the same way as covid. But it was a lot easier to identify as an event. Alternatively, because it happened more recently than covid. For some people, thr most recent thing is the most relevant thing - and sometimes the only thing they can remember.
Yeah, I was thinking that the emphasis in the question on "single" might have weighed against the GFC.
Telegraph Lord Mandelson is set to call on Nigel Farage to help him win over Donald Trump’s administration.
Britain’s new ambassador to the US is ready to engage with the Reform UK leader as part of efforts to persuade Mr Trump not to go to war with Britain on tariffs.
Where's the Foreign Secretary?
Mandelson will be the Foreign Secretary as far as US relations are concerned, and that is the biggy
My first thought on hearing of his appointment was that it answered the age-old question: "In a crisis, who does the US President call in Europe?"
Now it will be Mandelson. And he'll be in the same timezone and can see the US President in person.
"Guinness is raiding its reserves in Ireland to boost shipments to the UK, where a social media-fuelled surge in demand has left some pubs facing shortages."
"Guinness is raiding its reserves in Ireland to boost shipments to the UK, where a social media-fuelled surge in demand has left some pubs facing shortages."
Reform are now closing in on having more members that the Conservative Party and are planning to hold a number of events at large venues early in the new year. Perhaps it’s the rebirth of the kind of mass membership politics that had been dying out in recent decades.
Err...is Reform even a membership organisation? What exactly does one get if one chooses to supply them with twenty-five of one's finest English sovereigns every December 22nd to become a 'paying registered supporter'. Asking for a friend...
Surely, if British political history 2000-2024 teaches us anything, it is: do not underestimate Nigel Farage
I wasn't intending to imply that the structure of Reform will hold them back; more that 'mass membership politics' is an odd turn of phrase.
I am more pessimistic than ever about the prospect of a protest party with no real solutions taking power at the next election (as opposed to the current situation which appears to be a well-established party with no solutions).
Yep: no question about the rabbit hole that he's gone down is there?
Have you ever heard of the iq communication gap. That is when the iq gap between 2 people exceeds 30 points communication starts to break down. Whats Musks iq perhaps 160. This means to anyone below 130 iq he sounds a blithering idiot whereas actually he is speaking from a higher level of consciousness.
What a funny coincidence, there's another member here who has an unnatural obsession with IQ.
Actual intelligence is a bit like being “hard” or being “cool”.
Very hard to define, but anyone who bangs on about how much they have, doesn’t have any.
Whenever someone bangs on about how smart they are and how stupid everyone else is, you can be pretty sure they are perched right at the summit of the first peak of the Dunning-Kruger confidence vs competence curve.
"Guinness is raiding its reserves in Ireland to boost shipments to the UK, where a social media-fuelled surge in demand has left some pubs facing shortages."
"Reform UK polling/seats: if they can get to 27/8% + they can be largest party in a hung Parliament. If 32/3% + they can win a majority outright. (Source: Electoral Calculus)."
Farage has the approval of about 30% of the voters, I believe. That means, in theory, that 27/8% is easily do-able and maybe even 32% if Labour continues to implode
Should that happen and they won a majority on 32% the very same people happy with Sir Kier getting a thumping majority on 33% would be bemoaning the death of democracy and demanding a change to the electoral system.
I think a scenario where Reform get high 30s, and Labour low 40s, is much more likely, akin to coalescence we saw with the 2017 election.
I just can't imagine a scenario where the possibility of a Reform government isn't met by furious tactical voting and turnout by everyone on the left. We saw how the right responded to the threat of Corbyn; we'd get that again with Farage.
I couldn't have Nigel Farage as my PM. I'd have to move overseas.
That would be awful. Do you need some advice where to go? Message me any time, 24/7
Thank you but I hope it's a bridge that remains uncrossed.
It'd be Borneo, I think. I have links there.
I'm curious if you are serious. You barely move beyond NW3, would a Farage government genuinely be so bad you'd move to another country?
What makes you think he would improve Britain as a country?
Can't be much worse than Starmer & Reeves!
Oh yes it can!
(Well it is panto season)
ETA I see @Malmesbury beat me to it, though without reference to panto. You should be ashamed of yourself man.
Can anyone tell me off teh top of their how the various main UK political parties are organised.
Unincorporated Associations, Co-operatives, Companies Limited by Guarantee etc?
I can go and find it, but does anyone know already?
(Clearly we know that RefUK are a Limited Compavy.)
The other political parties are unincorporated organisations which register with the electoral commission under section 22 of the PPERA.
I think @Cicero is mostly correct. Repeated questions to Copilot and my own Googling leads me to think that Reform is a limited company, the others (Lab, LD, SNP, Plaid etc) are unincorporated associations, except possibly for the Conservative Party - see below for a discussion of this.
Unincorporated Associations An unincorporated association operates based on its own rules and constitution rather than being governed by company law. It is a bunch of people and associations organised by agreed rules that it sets down in its constitution. It is not a legal entity separate from its members
The Structure Of Reform UK Reform UK Party Limited (formerly the Brexit Party Limited) is a limited company (not a PLC: its shares aren't traded). Unlike unincorporated associations it can legally take a profit and it does not have to elect its leader. It currently has three officers (Company Secretary is Mehrtash A'Zami, Company Directors are Farage and Tice).
Reform intends (hmmm) to change its stucture, I think to a company limited by guarantee.
The Structure Of The Conservative And Unionist Party The Inland Revenue tried to tax the Conservative Party as if it was an unincorporated association. The Party took it to court and after some appeals it was adjudged that it was NOT an unincorporated association. I don't know what its legal structure is: Wikipedia describes it as a sui-generis "mixed-money, common-object body with regular spending for political purposes". I think @HYUFD may be able to assist, especially if the Cameron reforms changed it.
On a technical point, the difference between a limited company and a PLC is nothing to do with whether shares are publicly traded or not. There are multiple examples of private PLCs.
I'm not sure that's true: see this[1] for an explanation. Can you give me an example of a private PLC?
It rings faintly hollow when I constantly hear REFORM HAVE NO SOLUTIONS. They had a whole manifesto full of solutions. You might passionately disagree with those solutions but to claim they don't exist looks like laziness.
Watching Vikings Valhalla. I want this back: the greatness of Europe. The embryo of everything.
The greatness of Europe started in its South, however.
Started, yes. However the North/Baltic Sea littoral during the period 500-1900 has perhaps moved the dial forward at least as much as the Mediterranean Sea littoral during the 1400 years before that.
It rings faintly hollow when I constantly hear REFORM HAVE NO SOLUTIONS. They had a whole manifesto full of solutions. You might passionately disagree with those solutions but to claim they don't exist looks like laziness.
Their solutions vastly increase spending while reducing tax revenue.
But hey it’s perfectly possible that people on PAYE are avoiding tax - I mean HMRC found £176m that way.
The problem is that that was an exception and not the rule no matter what some in reform claim
"Guinness is raiding its reserves in Ireland to boost shipments to the UK, where a social media-fuelled surge in demand has left some pubs facing shortages."
A line of hand pumps dispensing decent ale, and yet people choose to drink that rubbish.
Takes all sorts.
I went to a pub in Soho in the summer which claimed to have perfected the Guinness. The landlord is a perfectionist. Went to great lengths to optimise distance from barrell to pump, cellar temperature, line clarity and so on. Now I like a pint of Guinness, and this was indeed a good pint of Guinness. But not much better than Guinness in 90% of pubs I have drunk Guinness in. I drank my Guinness, and moved on to try some of the bitters on tap. Which were also kept well. But as I left, I noticed every Herbert drinking outside in the street was drinking Guinness. Which they really wouldn't be were they not told the Guinness here was so good. The power of social media and the herdability of humans.
It rings faintly hollow when I constantly hear REFORM HAVE NO SOLUTIONS. They had a whole manifesto full of solutions. You might passionately disagree with those solutions but to claim they don't exist looks like laziness.
Their solutions vastly increase spending while reducing tax revenue.
But hey it’s perfectly possible that people on PAYE are avoiding tax - I mean HMRC found £176m that way.
The problem is that that was an exception and not the rule no matter what some in reform claim
The last Tory Government's Corporation Tax hike saw CT rise by 30% afaicr, and CT receipts rise by just 10%. So 20% less eligible profit was declared in the UK. If that trend continues, it won't be long (year two or three?) until that tax becomes revenue negative. The number crunchers pursing their lips at Reform's budget all have CT reduction as a big 'hole' in the budget - it's simply fiction. Tell that to Ireland.
We are now experiencing the real impact of a Government not realising that the economy is a living organism that runs on confidence and increases its activity if giving the proper breathing space (and vice versa).
It rings faintly hollow when I constantly hear REFORM HAVE NO SOLUTIONS. They had a whole manifesto full of solutions. You might passionately disagree with those solutions but to claim they don't exist looks like laziness.
I see your manifesto full of solutions and raise you with yogic flying.
Any fool can come up with 'solutions'. I'm more interested in solutions.
It rings faintly hollow when I constantly hear REFORM HAVE NO SOLUTIONS. They had a whole manifesto full of solutions. You might passionately disagree with those solutions but to claim they don't exist looks like laziness.
I see your manifesto full of solutions and raise you with yogic flying.
Any fool can come up with 'solutions'. I'm more interested in solutions.
You don't strike me as at all interested in solutions. You're interested in expressing your point of view, and you don't really want to explore anything that challenges it.
It rings faintly hollow when I constantly hear REFORM HAVE NO SOLUTIONS. They had a whole manifesto full of solutions. You might passionately disagree with those solutions but to claim they don't exist looks like laziness.
I see your manifesto full of solutions and raise you with yogic flying.
Any fool can come up with 'solutions'. I'm more interested in solutions.
You don't strike me as at all interested in solutions. You're interested in expressing your point of view, and you don't really want to explore anything that challenges it.
Pots, kettles and soot come to mind.
How would you distinguish between someone who is not looking for solutions and someone who disagrees with you, out of interest?
Have you ever considered the possibility that I have actually bothered to read Reform's manifesto?
It rings faintly hollow when I constantly hear REFORM HAVE NO SOLUTIONS. They had a whole manifesto full of solutions. You might passionately disagree with those solutions but to claim they don't exist looks like laziness.
None of them remotely plausible. Even those sympathetic to Reform's overall politics could see their figures were utterly ludicrous and made Corbyn look like Nigel Lawson.
Campaigners say they have been “disengaged” by the Labour government and that, by this month, just 17 people out of the thousands eligible had been invited to register for compensation...
I struggle with who would say the "death of the queen" is more significant than Covid or 9/11 or the Global Financial Crisis.
It was epoch defining, in a way that Covid was not.
We have had epidemics and health scares, and major social pressure and change before, and in acquaintance of those in living memory. Consider Spanish flue or polio, or rationing. And those are in the minds of many of us.
It rings faintly hollow when I constantly hear REFORM HAVE NO SOLUTIONS. They had a whole manifesto full of solutions. You might passionately disagree with those solutions but to claim they don't exist looks like laziness.
None of them remotely plausible. Even those sympathetic to Reform's overall politics could see their figures were utterly ludicrous and made Corbyn look like Nigel Lawson.
There are no solutions. We're not a puzzle. We're a relatively peaceful and prosperous country that could be better in certain respects. All this "solution" and "fixing" talk is overwrought and counterproductive.
There are no solutions. We're not a puzzle. We're a relatively peaceful and prosperous country that could be better in certain respects. All this "solution" and "fixing" talk is overwrought and counterproductive.
Campaigners say they have been “disengaged” by the Labour government and that, by this month, just 17 people out of the thousands eligible had been invited to register for compensation...
Are they overclaiming on promised timescales?
Andrew Evans, chair of the group Tainted Blood ... said: “When the infected blood inquiry published its final report, the entire community breathed a collective sigh of relief. …
... With the promise that all of the infected would be paid before the end of 2024, followed swiftly in 2025 by the estates of those who have died and affected relatives in their own right ...
Was that promised? Afaics it is "scheme to be set up by the end of 2024".
But I'm not rabbit holing at 10:45 on a Sunday night .
It rings faintly hollow when I constantly hear REFORM HAVE NO SOLUTIONS. They had a whole manifesto full of solutions. You might passionately disagree with those solutions but to claim they don't exist looks like laziness.
None of them remotely plausible. Even those sympathetic to Reform's overall politics could see their figures were utterly ludicrous and made Corbyn look like Nigel Lawson.
Tell that to the very plausible Reeves who's left the economy of life support.
It rings faintly hollow when I constantly hear REFORM HAVE NO SOLUTIONS. They had a whole manifesto full of solutions. You might passionately disagree with those solutions but to claim they don't exist looks like laziness.
None of them remotely plausible. Even those sympathetic to Reform's overall politics could see their figures were utterly ludicrous and made Corbyn look like Nigel Lawson.
Nigel Lawson was (or became) a nutter.
Right around the time he started saying things you disagree with would that be?
There are no solutions. We're not a puzzle. We're a relatively peaceful and prosperous country that could be better in certain respects. All this "solution" and "fixing" talk is overwrought and counterproductive.
Awfully conservative, this talk.
They're the worst culprits. Eg Boris was going to "fix" social care, wasn't he.
It rings faintly hollow when I constantly hear REFORM HAVE NO SOLUTIONS. They had a whole manifesto full of solutions. You might passionately disagree with those solutions but to claim they don't exist looks like laziness.
It rings faintly hollow when I constantly hear REFORM HAVE NO SOLUTIONS. They had a whole manifesto full of solutions. You might passionately disagree with those solutions but to claim they don't exist looks like laziness.
Their solutions vastly increase spending while reducing tax revenue.
But hey it’s perfectly possible that people on PAYE are avoiding tax - I mean HMRC found £176m that way.
The problem is that that was an exception and not the rule no matter what some in reform claim
The last Tory Government's Corporation Tax hike saw CT rise by 30% afaicr, and CT receipts rise by just 10%. So 20% less eligible profit was declared in the UK.
It's not nearly that neat unfortunately because the small companies rate remained at 19%, there was a new 130% super-deduction for investment and the loss carry-back was extended from one to three years.
So no doubt the higher rate reduced pre-tax profits to some extent, but you tell by how much without much more information.
"Guinness is raiding its reserves in Ireland to boost shipments to the UK, where a social media-fuelled surge in demand has left some pubs facing shortages."
A line of hand pumps dispensing decent ale, and yet people choose to drink that rubbish.
Takes all sorts.
I went to a pub in Soho in the summer which claimed to have perfected the Guinness. The landlord is a perfectionist. Went to great lengths to optimise distance from barrell to pump, cellar temperature, line clarity and so on. Now I like a pint of Guinness, and this was indeed a good pint of Guinness. But not much better than Guinness in 90% of pubs I have drunk Guinness in. I drank my Guinness, and moved on to try some of the bitters on tap. Which were also kept well. But as I left, I noticed every Herbert drinking outside in the street was drinking Guinness. Which they really wouldn't be were they not told the Guinness here was so good. The power of social media and the herdability of humans.
This is why cats will win in the end. Very tricky to herd.
Yep: no question about the rabbit hole that he's gone down is there?
Have you ever heard of the iq communication gap. That is when the iq gap between 2 people exceeds 30 points communication starts to break down. Whats Musks iq perhaps 160. This means to anyone below 130 iq he sounds a blithering idiot whereas actually he is speaking from a higher level of consciousness.
What a funny coincidence, there's another member here who has an unnatural obsession with IQ.
Actual intelligence is a bit like being “hard” or being “cool”.
Very hard to define, but anyone who bangs on about how much they have, doesn’t have any.
Whenever someone bangs on about how smart they are and how stupid everyone else is, you can be pretty sure they are perched right at the summit of the first peak of the Dunning-Kruger confidence vs competence curve.
I wrote The Dilbert Principle around the concept that in many cases the least competent, least smart people are promoted, simply because they’re the ones you don't want doing actual work. You want them ordering the doughnuts and yelling at people for not doing their assignments—you know, the easy work. Your heart surgeons and your computer programmers—your smart people—aren't in management. That principle was literally happening everywhere.
I 100% do not recognise that from ... every job in large organisations I've ever had. Or.... every other walk of life.
I'm convinced there's a plot to get rid of Starmer, and "doesn't he look tired" articles do not help. But having said that, the job is what he makes it. Somebody who runs around all over the place is not in control of the job, the job is in control of him. If he is tired, he should delegate enough people to do bits of the job until his workload falls to a level he can cope with. From memory, both Reagan and Trump went to bed early.
"Guinness is raiding its reserves in Ireland to boost shipments to the UK, where a social media-fuelled surge in demand has left some pubs facing shortages."
A line of hand pumps dispensing decent ale, and yet people choose to drink that rubbish.
Takes all sorts.
I went to a pub in Soho in the summer which claimed to have perfected the Guinness. The landlord is a perfectionist. Went to great lengths to optimise distance from barrell to pump, cellar temperature, line clarity and so on. Now I like a pint of Guinness, and this was indeed a good pint of Guinness. But not much better than Guinness in 90% of pubs I have drunk Guinness in. I drank my Guinness, and moved on to try some of the bitters on tap. Which were also kept well. But as I left, I noticed every Herbert drinking outside in the street was drinking Guinness. Which they really wouldn't be were they not told the Guinness here was so good. The power of social media and the herdability of humans.
This is why cats will win in the end. Very tricky to herd.
Unthinking consumption of social media will create Herdable Herberts. That's quite a good label .
I'm convinced there's a plot to get rid of Starmer, and "doesn't he look tired" articles do not help. But having said that, the job is what he makes it. Somebody who runs around all over the place is not in control of the job, the job is in control of him. If he is tired, he should delegate enough people to do bits of the job until his workload falls to a level he can cope with. From memory, both Reagan and Trump went to bed early.
I'm convinced there's a plot to get rid of Starmer, and "doesn't he look tired" articles do not help. But having said that, the job is what he makes it. Somebody who runs around all over the place is not in control of the job, the job is in control of him. If he is tired, he should delegate enough people to do bits of the job until his workload falls to a level he can cope with. From memory, both Reagan and Trump went to bed early.
Mrs Thatcher rather notoriously got by on about 3hrs sleep as I remember. And that all worked out fine too.
I'm convinced there's a plot to get rid of Starmer, and "doesn't he look tired" articles do not help. But having said that, the job is what he makes it. Somebody who runs around all over the place is not in control of the job, the job is in control of him. If he is tired, he should delegate enough people to do bits of the job until his workload falls to a level he can cope with. From memory, both Reagan and Trump went to bed early.
Mrs Thatcher rather notoriously got by on about 3hrs sleep as I remember. And that all worked out fine too.
At least, that's the story she wanted people to believe.
"Guinness is raiding its reserves in Ireland to boost shipments to the UK, where a social media-fuelled surge in demand has left some pubs facing shortages."
A line of hand pumps dispensing decent ale, and yet people choose to drink that rubbish.
Takes all sorts.
I went to a pub in Soho in the summer which claimed to have perfected the Guinness. The landlord is a perfectionist. Went to great lengths to optimise distance from barrell to pump, cellar temperature, line clarity and so on. Now I like a pint of Guinness, and this was indeed a good pint of Guinness. But not much better than Guinness in 90% of pubs I have drunk Guinness in. I drank my Guinness, and moved on to try some of the bitters on tap. Which were also kept well. But as I left, I noticed every Herbert drinking outside in the street was drinking Guinness. Which they really wouldn't be were they not told the Guinness here was so good. The power of social media and the herdability of humans.
This is why cats will win in the end. Very tricky to herd.
There's some instagram thing going on with the kids to do with selfie drinking Guinness - hence the shortage.
The Dublin owners must be laughing all the way to the bank.
"On paper at least, Dover is the sickest town in Britain. Here: 18.7 per cent of the town’s working-age population is economically inactive due to long-term illness. The figure was just 2.6 per cent in 2019."
There are no solutions. We're not a puzzle. We're a relatively peaceful and prosperous country that could be better in certain respects. All this "solution" and "fixing" talk is overwrought and counterproductive.
Oh come. Consider the following propositions.
1. Home ownership, particularly among the under-40s, has declined over the last two decades. 2. This has occurred despite it being contrary to the declared policy of every government in that time. 3. This has occurred also while a very large number of people in their twenties and thirties have wanted it to be otherwise. 4. It seems perverse that in a democracy that when everyone agrees they want to see something - home ownership to increase amount the under-40s - the reverse should happen. 5. This seems like an obvious example of a failure. You might call it a problem. 6. A problem is naturally in want of a solution.
Now, sure, as problems go a decline in home ownership among the young doesn't compare to stolen elections (Georgia), foreign invasion (Ukraine), or various other ills afflicting other countries. But it's not unreasonable for the electorate to consider it a problem and to look for solutions.
"On paper at least, Dover is the sickest town in Britain. Here: 18.7 per cent of the town’s working-age population is economically inactive due to long-term illness. The figure was just 2.6 per cent in 2019."
I'm convinced there's a plot to get rid of Starmer, and "doesn't he look tired" articles do not help. But having said that, the job is what he makes it. Somebody who runs around all over the place is not in control of the job, the job is in control of him. If he is tired, he should delegate enough people to do bits of the job until his workload falls to a level he can cope with. From memory, both Reagan and Trump went to bed early.
Delegation is for people who feel secure...
It's also for people who can provide a clear lead and direction, so that the subordinates who have things delegated to them feel able to make decisions in response to changed circumstances that their leader will back them on.
I'm convinced there's a plot to get rid of Starmer, and "doesn't he look tired" articles do not help. But having said that, the job is what he makes it. Somebody who runs around all over the place is not in control of the job, the job is in control of him. If he is tired, he should delegate enough people to do bits of the job until his workload falls to a level he can cope with. From memory, both Reagan and Trump went to bed early.
Delegation is for people who feel secure...
It's also for people who can provide a clear lead and direction, so that the subordinates who have things delegated to them feel able to make decisions in response to changed circumstances that their leader will back them on.
Is there any evidence he isn't delegating?
I would say the opposite. He has left cabinet to get on with it without any overarching vision other than management-speak mission list.
Having won, by proxy, the Presidency of the United States of America, and made himself several hundred billion dollars, and become incomparably more powerful thereby, one wonders how he’ll cope with a few thousand British kiddy fiddlers moving to “Bluesky”
I'm convinced there's a plot to get rid of Starmer, and "doesn't he look tired" articles do not help. But having said that, the job is what he makes it. Somebody who runs around all over the place is not in control of the job, the job is in control of him. If he is tired, he should delegate enough people to do bits of the job until his workload falls to a level he can cope with. From memory, both Reagan and Trump went to bed early.
Delegation is for people who feel secure...
It's also for people who can provide a clear lead and direction, so that the subordinates who have things delegated to them feel able to make decisions in response to changed circumstances that their leader will back them on.
Is there any evidence he isn't delegating?
I would say the opposite. He has left cabinet to get on with it without any overarching vision other than management-speak mission list.
If he is badly in need of a holiday, due to the relentless strain of the job, as reported, then that can only be because he's not delegating enough, or effectively.
I'm convinced there's a plot to get rid of Starmer, and "doesn't he look tired" articles do not help. But having said that, the job is what he makes it. Somebody who runs around all over the place is not in control of the job, the job is in control of him. If he is tired, he should delegate enough people to do bits of the job until his workload falls to a level he can cope with. From memory, both Reagan and Trump went to bed early.
Delegation is for people who feel secure...
It's also for people who can provide a clear lead and direction, so that the subordinates who have things delegated to them feel able to make decisions in response to changed circumstances that their leader will back them on.
Is there any evidence he isn't delegating?
I would say the opposite. He has left cabinet to get on with it without any overarching vision other than management-speak mission list.
If he is badly in need of a holiday, due to the relentless strain of the job, as reported, then that can only be because he's not delegating enough, or effectively.
I'm convinced there's a plot to get rid of Starmer, and "doesn't he look tired" articles do not help. But having said that, the job is what he makes it. Somebody who runs around all over the place is not in control of the job, the job is in control of him. If he is tired, he should delegate enough people to do bits of the job until his workload falls to a level he can cope with. From memory, both Reagan and Trump went to bed early.
Delegation is for people who feel secure...
It's also for people who can provide a clear lead and direction, so that the subordinates who have things delegated to them feel able to make decisions in response to changed circumstances that their leader will back them on.
Is there any evidence he isn't delegating?
I would say the opposite. He has left cabinet to get on with it without any overarching vision other than management-speak mission list.
If he is badly in need of a holiday, due to the relentless strain of the job, as reported, then that can only be because he's not delegating enough, or effectively.
I notice there's a new poll showing Labour with a 6 point lead. Despite the hysterics and wishful thinking on here I don't find it surprising. I'm sensing that Starmer after a shakey few months has started looking like the type of leader the British voter likes. Ruthless and decisive .
The Waspi women the farmers and the WFA all described as unpopular told a story. He and Reeves are going to do things their way. Anyone who is old enough to remember Thatcher will remember that this country does not like wimpish leaders whether or not they agree with their policies.
Having won, by proxy, the Presidency of the United States of America, and made himself several hundred billion dollars, and become incomparably more powerful thereby, one wonders how he’ll cope with a few thousand British kiddy fiddlers moving to “Bluesky”
The issue is with Musk realising he's not above the law. He'll do what he has done before.
He'll run away, then he'll whine his head off into his Diet Coke and his Twitter account, then he'll obey the rules.
I notice there's a new poll showing Labour with a 6 point lead. Despite the hysterics and wishful thinking on here I don't find it surprising. I'm sensing that Starmer after a shakey start has started looking like the type of leader the British voter likes. Ruthless and decisive . The Waspi women the farmers and the WFA all described as unpopular told a story. He and Reeves are going to do things their way. Anyone who is old enough to remember Thatcher will remember that this country does not like wimpy leaders whether or not they agree with their policies.
He is historically unpopular in the polls, Labour’s position is irrelevant.
Having won, by proxy, the Presidency of the United States of America, and made himself several hundred billion dollars, and become incomparably more powerful thereby, one wonders how he’ll cope with a few thousand British kiddy fiddlers moving to “Bluesky”
The Democrats lost the Presidency by virtue of being incumbents when inflation surged.
The fact that Musk owned Twitter is neither here nor there for that. And Musk could have financed Trump just the same even if he didn't have Twitter.
Having won, by proxy, the Presidency of the United States of America, and made himself several hundred billion dollars, and become incomparably more powerful thereby, one wonders how he’ll cope with a few thousand British kiddy fiddlers moving to “Bluesky”
The Democrats lost the Presidency by virtue of being incumbents when inflation surged.
The fact that Musk owned Twitter is neither here nor there for that. And Musk could have financed Trump just the same even if he didn't have Twitter.
But what he couldn’t have done is ensured he had a platform to get his message out that wouldn’t ban him, as they did with Trump.
It rings faintly hollow when I constantly hear REFORM HAVE NO SOLUTIONS. They had a whole manifesto full of solutions. You might passionately disagree with those solutions but to claim they don't exist looks like laziness.
None of them remotely plausible. Even those sympathetic to Reform's overall politics could see their figures were utterly ludicrous and made Corbyn look like Nigel Lawson.
Tell that to the very plausible Reeves who's left the economy of life support.
Reform promised tax cuts and spending increases worth £140 billion. You don't have to think Reeves is doing a good job handling what was a bad inheritance to realise that whatever one thinks of Labour, that wasn't a serious programme for government - it dwarves Liz Truss's disastrous plans.
But that's understandable and fine to some extent. Reform as much as admitted they wanted to be a protest vote last time and knew that they weren't going to have to implement them. Their aim was to create noise, generate coverage and maximise minor party vote share. Next time if they have bigger ambitions they'll have to produce a more serious document like the more established parties.
Just let's not that's not what they were doing and that 'plans' clearly meant to signal vibes to potential supporters rather than to be taken seriously as a rigorously worked out government programme that presents solutions.
(The US has nicer neighbors than those three nations.)
From my own experience with Koreans and Japanese in London - many leave because of what they find is a stifling environment, especially for women.
The women say that the option of having a “traditional” marriage is the shitty end of the stick. So they don’t.
Perhaps there is a lesson in this? If you want people to do something, make it not-the-shittiest-option?
Traditional marriage is the backbone of society, if more got married and had children in their 20s again that would largely solve the below replacement level fertility rate by itself
Politics UK @PolitlcsUK · 7h 🚨 NEW: Reform UK has launched a live membership ticker on their website as they count down to having more members than the Tories
Having won, by proxy, the Presidency of the United States of America, and made himself several hundred billion dollars, and become incomparably more powerful thereby, one wonders how he’ll cope with a few thousand British kiddy fiddlers moving to “Bluesky”
The issue is with Musk realising he's not above the law. He'll do what he has done before.
He'll run away, then he'll whine his head off into his Diet Coke and his Twitter account, then he'll obey the rules.
I notice there's a new poll showing Labour with a 6 point lead. Despite the hysterics and wishful thinking on here I don't find it surprising. I'm sensing that Starmer after a shakey few months has started looking like the type of leader the British voter likes. Ruthless and decisive .
The Waspi women the farmers and the WFA all described as unpopular told a story. He and Reeves are going to do things their way. Anyone who is old enough to remember Thatcher will remember that this country does not like wimpish leaders whether or not they agree with their policies.
That would be the Opinium with Labour on 29% ie Brown 2010 levels just the Tories on 23% and Reform 22% splitting the rightwing opposition vote almost equally between them?
Techne however has Labour just 1% ahead and More in Common has the Tories and Labour tied on its latest poll
This slavering over Musk is frankly embarrassing. Whether someone has one billion or a hundred makes no difference There are loads of them. Some attach themselves to powerful people some don't. Who cares if Elon Musk wants to fawn over Trump. Get a life!
This slavering over Musk is frankly embarrassing. Whether someone has one billion or a hundred makes no difference There are loads of them. Some attach themselves to powerful people some don't. Who cares if Elon Musk wants to fawn over Trump. Get a life!
I don't particularly like Musk on a personal level but he's probably the future of politics whether we like it or not.
This slavering over Musk is frankly embarrassing. Whether someone has one billion or a hundred makes no difference There are loads of them. Some attach themselves to powerful people some don't. Who cares if Elon Musk wants to fawn over Trump. Get a life!
I don't particularly like Musk on a personal level but he's probably the future of politics whether we like it or not.
If we keep declaring that Nothing Can Be Done, then we give the future to those who will Do Something.
Note that Something doesn’t have to be a good idea, or even vaguely constructive.
Comments
But I suspect Major benefited from waiting until 1992.
“I was making more when I worked at the B&M up the road,” he says. But after paying council tax and bills, he was taking home less.
If you work you're expected to pay taxes and bills and have benefits withdrawn on top.
If you don't work, you get full benefits and your bills paid.
People who don't work are acting rationally.
People who only work 16 hours are acting rationally too.
Don't blame people who are being rational. Blame the system.
(Just been sorting through my late father's stuff including his photo in front of his gun turret at Spithead Coronation Review, and looking at the souvenir programme. That was a hell of a long time ago, complete with a real live battleship like something from |Jutland, only with better mechanical computers and more flak (though he wasn't then on her, he'd served on a KGV class battleship not so long before.)
Covid or 9/11 is a perfectly possible answer. So is 'the death of my mum'.
For most people the most important thing in their universe is their family. Its significance rests in both the weight attached to it, and also its signifying power to people that they belong to a network of unconditional love.
The women say that the option of having a “traditional” marriage is the shitty end of the stick. So they don’t.
Perhaps there is a lesson in this? If you want people to do something, make it not-the-shittiest-option?
> Mablethorpe
could be the start of something big
I'd agree it didn't really change the world in the same way as covid. But it was a lot easier to identify as an event.
Alternatively, because it happened more recently than covid. For some people, thr most recent thing is the most relevant thing - and sometimes the only thing they can remember.
That’s not “something turning up”
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2024/dec/22/100m-spent-in-england-on-failed-efforts-to-block-childrens-send-support
Now it will be Mandelson. And he'll be in the same timezone and can see the US President in person.
"Guinness is raiding its reserves in Ireland to boost shipments to the UK, where a social media-fuelled surge in demand has left some pubs facing shortages."
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2024/dec/22/guinness-shortages-uk-irish-reserves
Takes all sorts.
I am more pessimistic than ever about the prospect of a protest party with no real solutions taking power at the next election (as opposed to the current situation which appears to be a well-established party with no solutions).
Another 2 G&Ts and he’ll become the one of “Vikings” that Miracle of Sound get thrown out of their gigs.
Hint : don’t tattoo your self awarded rank tabs on your shoulders
(Well it is panto season)
ETA I see @Malmesbury beat me to it, though without reference to panto. You should be ashamed of yourself man.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Private_company_limited_by_shares#:~:text=A limited company may be,and a public limited company.
Wheels coming off the 2014 SEN reforms, perhaps? Or an artefact of Covid? Orboth?
That's approximately (poor scales on the graph) 5k cost to process each on average.
But hey it’s perfectly possible that people on PAYE are avoiding tax - I mean HMRC found £176m that way.
The problem is that that was an exception and not the rule no matter what some in reform claim
https://x.com/elbridgecolby/status/1870953555064230162
But as I left, I noticed every Herbert drinking outside in the street was drinking Guinness. Which they really wouldn't be
were they not told the Guinness here was
so good. The power of social media and the herdability of humans.
We are now experiencing the real impact of a Government not realising that the economy is a living organism that runs on confidence and increases its activity if giving the proper breathing space (and vice versa).
Any fool can come up with 'solutions'. I'm more interested in solutions.
How would you distinguish between someone who is not looking for solutions and someone who disagrees with you, out of interest?
Have you ever considered the possibility that I have actually bothered to read Reform's manifesto?
House Republican dubs Elon Musk ‘our prime minister’
https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/5052923-house-republican-elon-musk-prime-minister/
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2024/dec/22/just-10-of-4000-tainted-blood-victims-have-had-compensation-campaigners-say
Furious victims of the infected blood scandal have said that just 10 out of 4,000 people have received compensation under a new scheme, despite pledges from the Conservatives and Labour to sort out payments this year.
Campaigners say they have been “disengaged” by the Labour government and that, by this month, just 17 people out of the thousands eligible had been invited to register for compensation...
We have had epidemics and health scares, and major social pressure and change before, and in acquaintance of those in living memory. Consider Spanish flue or polio, or rationing. And those are in the minds of many of us.
When do the Danes pay us reparations?
Andrew Evans, chair of the group Tainted Blood ... said: “When the infected blood inquiry published its final report, the entire community breathed a collective sigh of relief. …
... With the promise that all of the infected would be paid before the end of 2024, followed swiftly in 2025 by the estates of those who have died and affected relatives in their own right ...
Was that promised? Afaics it is "scheme to be set up by the end of 2024".
But I'm not rabbit holing at 10:45 on a Sunday night
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cy7kpvndyyxo
And a radio programme "Why Is Elon Musk Trolling Britain?":
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m0026jt9
So no doubt the higher rate reduced pre-tax profits to some extent, but you tell by how much without much more information.
Classic politician's smoke and mirrors.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-14217547/Strained-Keir-Starmer-badly-needs-holiday.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dilbert_principle I 100% do not recognise that from ... every job in large organisations I've ever had. Or.... every other walk of life.
https://x.com/atrupar/status/1870958732479492347
The Dublin owners must be laughing all the way to the bank.
"On paper at least, Dover is the sickest town in Britain. Here: 18.7 per cent of the town’s working-age population is economically inactive due to long-term illness. The figure was just 2.6 per cent in 2019."
https://www.newstatesman.com/politics/society/2024/12/dover-sick-town-of-england
https://archive.is/rsgfc#selection-1187.391-1191.68
2.6% to 18.7% in 5 years.
1. Home ownership, particularly among the under-40s, has declined over the last two decades.
2. This has occurred despite it being contrary to the declared policy of every government in that time.
3. This has occurred also while a very large number of people in their twenties and thirties have wanted it to be otherwise.
4. It seems perverse that in a democracy that when everyone agrees they want to see something - home ownership to increase amount the under-40s - the reverse should happen.
5. This seems like an obvious example of a failure. You might call it a problem.
6. A problem is naturally in want of a solution.
Now, sure, as problems go a decline in home ownership among the young doesn't compare to stolen elections (Georgia), foreign invasion (Ukraine), or various other ills afflicting other countries. But it's not unreasonable for the electorate to consider it a problem and to look for solutions.
(Ohhhhhh ..... Canada .....
Musky Baby has been downhill skiing. The peak was 37.5% - now 10.5%.
Source: https://www.statista.com/statistics/280304/twitters-market-share-in-the-united-kingdom-uk/
https://uk.themedialeader.com/uk-social-media-users-spend-the-most-time-on-tiktok/
I would say the opposite. He has left cabinet to get on with it without any overarching vision other than management-speak mission list.
The Waspi women the farmers and the WFA all described as unpopular told a story. He and Reeves are going to do things their way. Anyone who is old enough to remember Thatcher will remember that this country does not like wimpish leaders whether or not they agree with their policies.
He'll run away, then he'll whine his head off into his Diet Coke and his Twitter account, then he'll obey the rules.
See Brazil.
The fact that Musk owned Twitter is neither here nor there for that. And Musk could have financed Trump just the same even if he didn't have Twitter.
But that's understandable and fine to some extent. Reform as much as admitted they wanted to be a protest vote last time and knew that they weren't going to have to implement them. Their aim was to create noise, generate coverage and maximise minor party vote share. Next time if they have bigger ambitions they'll have to produce a more serious document like the more established parties.
Just let's not that's not what they were doing and that 'plans' clearly meant to signal vibes to potential supporters rather than to be taken seriously as a rigorously worked out government programme that presents solutions.
Politics UK
@PolitlcsUK
·
7h
🚨 NEW: Reform UK has launched a live membership ticker on their website as they count down to having more members than the Tories
https://x.com/PolitlcsUK/status/1870876990083068143
COME A LONG WAY
Michele Shocked.
FUCK
Techne however has Labour just 1% ahead and More in Common has the Tories and Labour tied on its latest poll
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opinion_polling_for_the_next_United_Kingdom_general_election
Note that Something doesn’t have to be a good idea, or even vaguely constructive.
So, how about we do some constructive stuff?