Ben Wallace (former Def Sec) seems to have immediately posted that this is all fabricated.
Even if it isn't it deifies the purity of international law whilst ignoring that old adage that possession is nine tenths of the law.
We shouldn't be naive about the power politics that's played out through UN agencies and the ICJ and Mauritius should be told the islands will stay British forever, there will never be a deal, and we should up our naval presence there on top.
I do wonder what military and communication resources China has in Tibet...
We are living in an age of blood and steel, I'm afraid - just look at what Trump has been able to achieve in less than a month from shaking his stick around - and I see little benefit to Britain walking into that naked with a broken cricket bat.
What exactly has Trump achieved in his first 3 weeks?
Well, he's burnt down about 75 years of built up political capital in a fortnight.
He's wrecked the reputation of the USA as a stable, reliable, trustworthy country.
And he's running an action learning experiment in what can happen when the Rule of Law is removed from an advanced country.
...and his ratings went up. ☹️
US President's ratings usually go up when they take office.
So who is going to be the party leader at the next election, who runs on doing a zero-based budget as they’re doing in the US?? I’m pretty sure the problem is not quite so bad in the UK, but there’s still going to be plenty of silly-looking line items in the international development and academic research budgets.
By "silly-looking line items in the international development", you mean USAID support for Ukraine, presumably?
I mean that I want the aid to Ukraine actually go to Ukraine, and not end up mostly funding the Washington swamp.
Ed Davey is not going to be PM and I doubt Farage will be either
I expect Kemi will fight the next election, not least as Jenrick is simply in the wrong party
I have no idea whether Starmer will fight the next election
Ultimately nobody has a clue, and now we have Trump in office and each morning the question is
'what on earth has he done now'
Apparently he is not going to the G20 meeting in South Africa
Uncertainty reigns and it may not end in 2028 if Vance wins
Vance is more intelligent and competent than Trump but less charismatic, the 2028 election will be decided on the economy and the impact of the tariffs
No one gets much more than a quarter of voters under "shares our values"
Poor scores all round; a comment on the state of our politics.
Davey will be pleased to come top on being honest and in touch with ordinary folk
Indeed. Davey scores well on most of the questions.
OGH would say this was significant and potentially more significant than current party ranking. I will repeat my view that Davey and the Lib Dems are likely to make progress, even substantial progress over the current Parliament.
I doubt if 20% of the British public can identify Ed Davey by name or face. Indeed, I suspect that, even if they were shown the face of Ed Davey, and they were told, "this is the face of Ed Davey, the leader of the Lib Dems", they would still say Who is that?
In fact if you put them in a room with Ed Davey for 24 hours, and he sat there shouting "I am Ed Davey, I am the leader of the Lib Dems!!!", I bet at the end of it, they'd say "Who was that weird boring shouty guy in the room with me?"
I am in the unusual position having met both @Leon and @EdDavey, and it is rather disturbing how similar they are.
Possibly the worst thing anyone has ever said to me. Not just on PB. Anywhere
Trust me, you've heard worse. It's just you don't speak Thai.
Musk is bring played by Trump - set up to fail with an impossible task, while acting as a lightning rod for public dissatisfaction, and all the while paying for the privilege. The falling out will be spectacular, and Musk will be the loser from it.
No one has any clue how this will play out, it's all entirely new
No one gets much more than a quarter of voters under "shares our values"
I don't like the misleading way this polling is reported without showing don't knows eg 'An honest person' is in fact:
Starmer Yes 31% No 46% Don't know 23% Net -15% Badenoch Yes 21% No 37% Don't know 43% Net -16% Farage Yes 24% No 50% Don't know 26% Net -26% Davey Yes 37% No 22% Don't know 41% Net +15%
Badenoch's net 'honest person' is actually better than Farage's, and Davey's 37% is even more impressive given the numbers saying 'Don't know'
Which overall seems to cast the opinion of Badenoch as "probably just another politician until proven otherwise". Whether the irreconcilables like Jenrick and TSE will give her the time and space to have a chance to prove otherwise is a different question.
There you go again, I voted for Badenoch and have said she should be given time, the issue is will the party give her time?
Yes as she won the Tory MPs vote unlike IDS and Truss as well as members vote
So who is going to be the party leader at the next election, who runs on doing a zero-based budget as they’re doing in the US?? I’m pretty sure the problem is not quite so bad in the UK, but there’s still going to be plenty of silly-looking line items in the international development and academic research budgets.
By "silly-looking line items in the international development", you mean USAID support for Ukraine, presumably?
I mean that I want the aid to Ukraine actually go to Ukraine, and not end up mostly funding the Washington swamp.
I think that fear's so much b/s. And instead, you're going to have much of the money that would have been spent on aid for Ukraine and other worthy causes going to millionaires and billionaires...
Musk is bring played by Trump - set up to fail with an impossible task, while acting as a lightning rod for public dissatisfaction, and all the while paying for the privilege. The falling out will be spectacular, and Musk will be the loser from it.
No one has any clue how this will play out, it's all entirely new
There are some eternal human truths though, Trump selling out anyone not related to him to deflect blame being one of them.
OTOH, California has some serious fat to cut. Newsom has zero change against someone like Shapiro for the nomination, if he doesn't sort this sort of shit out.
This is actually insane. The 119 Mile, on flat land, Merced to Bakersfield part of the California HSR, totally planned and in progress literally for decades, will not be finished for at least 11 years. Can we get the @_brianpotter deep dive on what the hell they are doing? https://x.com/Afinetheorem/status/1887298279001759956
The only rail project that makes HS2 look like a paragon of efficiency and budgeting.
Yes it’s a technically difficult project, there’s seismic activity and the run-in to the city at either end is complicated, but the middle bit highlighted here should be simple, except they suffer from many of the same issues that plague UK infrastructure projects, from land acquisition to environmentalism and NIMBYism.
Probably find it's subcontracting DEI hires or something like that.
No one gets much more than a quarter of voters under "shares our values"
Poor scores all round; a comment on the state of our politics.
Davey will be pleased to come top on being honest and in touch with ordinary folk
Indeed. Davey scores well on most of the questions.
OGH would say this was significant and potentially more significant than current party ranking. I will repeat my view that Davey and the Lib Dems are likely to make progress, even substantial progress over the current Parliament.
It baffles me that the Lib Dems (and the Greens) have held up so well in recent opinion polls. They used to have dropped like a stone six months after an election, when the political spotlight fell exclusively on the Government and the Opposition, and they were starved of the oxygen of publicity. Now that the spotlight is almost exclusively on Reform, the Lib Dems' ability to stay afloat is all the more remarkable.
In this case, the spotlight being on government and opposition is making people look around hopefully in case there are other options!
No one gets much more than a quarter of voters under "shares our values"
I don't like the misleading way this polling is reported without showing don't knows eg 'An honest person' is in fact:
Starmer Yes 31% No 46% Don't know 23% Net -15% Badenoch Yes 21% No 37% Don't know 43% Net -16% Farage Yes 24% No 50% Don't know 26% Net -26% Davey Yes 37% No 22% Don't know 41% Net +15%
Badenoch's net 'honest person' is actually better than Farage's, and Davey's 37% is even more impressive given the numbers saying 'Don't know'
Which overall seems to cast the opinion of Badenoch as "probably just another politician until proven otherwise". Whether the irreconcilables like Jenrick and TSE will give her the time and space to have a chance to prove otherwise is a different question.
There you go again, I voted for Badenoch and have said she should be given time, the issue is will the party give her time?
Yes as she won the Tory MPs vote unlike IDS and Truss as well as members vote
She only won the final vote of MPs because supporters of James Cleverly fell into an elephant sized trap set by Robert Jenrick.
No one gets much more than a quarter of voters under "shares our values"
Poor scores all round; a comment on the state of our politics.
Davey will be pleased to come top on being honest and in touch with ordinary folk
Indeed. Davey scores well on most of the questions.
OGH would say this was significant and potentially more significant than current party ranking. I will repeat my view that Davey and the Lib Dems are likely to make progress, even substantial progress over the current Parliament.
It baffles me that the Lib Dems (and the Greens) have held up so well in recent opinion polls. They used to have dropped like a stone six months after an election, when the political spotlight fell exclusively on the Government and the Opposition, and they were starved of the oxygen of publicity. Now that the spotlight is almost exclusively on Reform, the Lib Dems' ability to stay afloat is all the more remarkable.
It’s because the spotlight shining on Labour and the Tories shows both in a bad light, and there are a lot of people who will never vote for Reform.
No one gets much more than a quarter of voters under "shares our values"
Poor scores all round; a comment on the state of our politics.
Davey will be pleased to come top on being honest and in touch with ordinary folk
Indeed. Davey scores well on most of the questions.
OGH would say this was significant and potentially more significant than current party ranking. I will repeat my view that Davey and the Lib Dems are likely to make progress, even substantial progress over the current Parliament.
I doubt if 20% of the British public can identify Ed Davey by name or face. Indeed, I suspect that, even if they were shown the face of Ed Davey, and they were told, "this is the face of Ed Davey, the leader of the Lib Dems", they would still say Who is that?
In fact if you put them in a room with Ed Davey for 24 hours, and he sat there shouting "I am Ed Davey, I am the leader of the Lib Dems!!!", I bet at the end of it, they'd say "Who was that weird boring shouty guy in the room with me?"
I am in the unusual position having met both @Leon and @EdDavey, and it is rather disturbing how similar they are.
Possibly the worst thing anyone has ever said to me. Not just on PB. Anywhere
Trust me, you've heard worse. It's just you don't speak Thai.
I can confirm Leon's thoughts on Ed Davey, though. I was at a pub quiz last summer. There was a round of visual clues to places in Trafford. A sailing boat for 'Sale', a picture of a parting and a picture of a one ton weight for 'Partington', and so on. One of the questions showed a picture of Ed Davey and a picture of John Hulme. Only one table out of 20 (ours) got it right, and on our table there was only one person who recognised Ed Davey (me) - and on being told it was Ed Davey, some further explanation was needed for the table of who Ed Davey was. Given that if anyone did recognise Ed Davey, you wouldn't have to struggle for long with 'where in Trafford starts with Davey...' before you think 'Ah, Davyhulme', my contention is that Leon is actually overestimating Ed Davey recognition among the public at large. Based on that, I reckon about one in 100 could look at a picture of him and say 'that's Ed Davey, and Ed Davey is leader of the Lib Dems'.
He wasn't doing anything odd or unusual. He was in a suit, waving, looking like a politician. People actually said 'is that a politician?' but couldn't make the leap from there to 'it's Ed Davey'.
I don't think Ed Davey is unique in this. I expect Jo Swinson and Tim Farron would have faced similar struggles.
Actually, it's quite interesting to speculate what the equivalent recognition would be for other party leaders. I suspect Kemi would be higher, but not much higher. It's hard to say whether Keir or Nige would be the most recognisable, but I reckon it would be Nige.
So who is going to be the party leader at the next election, who runs on doing a zero-based budget as they’re doing in the US?? I’m pretty sure the problem is not quite so bad in the UK, but there’s still going to be plenty of silly-looking line items in the international development and academic research budgets.
By "silly-looking line items in the international development", you mean USAID support for Ukraine, presumably?
I mean that I want the aid to Ukraine actually go to Ukraine, and not end up mostly funding the Washington swamp.
Well, (a) that's not what Trump/Musk are delivering, and (b) there's no evidence that USAID money is disappearing into the Washington swamp. You presented comments from Zelenskyy, but those were about military support, and you presented comments from a white supremacist nutcase.
No one gets much more than a quarter of voters under "shares our values"
Poor scores all round; a comment on the state of our politics.
Davey will be pleased to come top on being honest and in touch with ordinary folk
Indeed. Davey scores well on most of the questions.
OGH would say this was significant and potentially more significant than current party ranking. I will repeat my view that Davey and the Lib Dems are likely to make progress, even substantial progress over the current Parliament.
It baffles me that the Lib Dems (and the Greens) have held up so well in recent opinion polls. They used to have dropped like a stone six months after an election, when the political spotlight fell exclusively on the Government and the Opposition, and they were starved of the oxygen of publicity. Now that the spotlight is almost exclusively on Reform, the Lib Dems' ability to stay afloat is all the more remarkable.
Me to. It could partly be they are working the key seats, which are now in much higher numbers and therefore now having an effect on national polls. For instance Guildford is still being leafleted regularly and canvassing hasn't stopped since the election and in decent numbers every week.
So who is going to be the party leader at the next election, who runs on doing a zero-based budget as they’re doing in the US?? I’m pretty sure the problem is not quite so bad in the UK, but there’s still going to be plenty of silly-looking line items in the international development and academic research budgets.
No politician in the US is running on a balanced budget platform.
The US budget deficit today is around $1.6 trillion.
Elon Musk has expressed optimism about cutting the budget deficit by $1trillion.
Has he explained how ? Because it's not going to be by cutting "waste", without a wholesale redefinition of the term.
One man's "waste" is another man's "essential funding"
The polls say that he's already losing approval, fast.
It's not up to Musk to change (eg) social security, or healthcare entitlements. Or indeed the defence budget. That's policy change, and will have to go through Congress. Imposing such things extra-legally is going to make a very big mess indeed.
Absent any of that, he's not going to save even a quarter of a trillion.
Musk's biggest coup so far is stopping the US sending a billion condoms to Gaza.
'"Oh no, I only wanted to stop us sending a billion condoms to Gaza, and now there’s this chaotic inferno of hate." "Oh well, never mind, at least the billion condoms aren't going to Gaza any more, are they?"
No one gets much more than a quarter of voters under "shares our values"
Poor scores all round; a comment on the state of our politics.
Davey will be pleased to come top on being honest and in touch with ordinary folk
Indeed. Davey scores well on most of the questions.
OGH would say this was significant and potentially more significant than current party ranking. I will repeat my view that Davey and the Lib Dems are likely to make progress, even substantial progress over the current Parliament.
I doubt if 20% of the British public can identify Ed Davey by name or face. Indeed, I suspect that, even if they were shown the face of Ed Davey, and they were told, "this is the face of Ed Davey, the leader of the Lib Dems", they would still say Who is that?
In fact if you put them in a room with Ed Davey for 24 hours, and he sat there shouting "I am Ed Davey, I am the leader of the Lib Dems!!!", I bet at the end of it, they'd say "Who was that weird boring shouty guy in the room with me?"
I am in the unusual position having met both @Leon and @EdDavey, and it is rather disturbing how similar they are.
So who is going to be the party leader at the next election, who runs on doing a zero-based budget as they’re doing in the US?? I’m pretty sure the problem is not quite so bad in the UK, but there’s still going to be plenty of silly-looking line items in the international development and academic research budgets.
No politician in the US is running on a balanced budget platform.
The US budget deficit today is around $1.6 trillion.
Elon Musk has expressed optimism about cutting the budget deficit by $1trillion.
Has he explained how ? Because it's not going to be by cutting "waste", without a wholesale redefinition of the term.
One man's "waste" is another man's "essential funding"
The polls say that he's already losing approval, fast.
It's not up to Musk to change (eg) social security, or healthcare entitlements. Or indeed the defence budget. That's policy change, and will have to go through Congress. Imposing such things extra-legally is going to make a very big mess indeed.
Absent any of that, he's not going to save even a quarter of a trillion.
Musk's biggest coup so far is stopping the US sending a billion condoms to Gaza.
'"Oh no, I only wanted to stop us sending a billion condoms to Gaza, and now there’s this chaotic inferno of hate." "Oh well, never mind, at least the billion condoms aren't going to Gaza any more, are they?"
No one gets much more than a quarter of voters under "shares our values"
I don't like the misleading way this polling is reported without showing don't knows eg 'An honest person' is in fact:
Starmer Yes 31% No 46% Don't know 23% Net -15% Badenoch Yes 21% No 37% Don't know 43% Net -16% Farage Yes 24% No 50% Don't know 26% Net -26% Davey Yes 37% No 22% Don't know 41% Net +15%
Badenoch's net 'honest person' is actually better than Farage's, and Davey's 37% is even more impressive given the numbers saying 'Don't know'
Which overall seems to cast the opinion of Badenoch as "probably just another politician until proven otherwise". Whether the irreconcilables like Jenrick and TSE will give her the time and space to have a chance to prove otherwise is a different question.
There you go again, I voted for Badenoch and have said she should be given time, the issue is will the party give her time?
Yes as she won the Tory MPs vote unlike IDS and Truss as well as members vote
She only won the final vote of MPs because supporters of James Cleverly fell into an elephant sized trap set by Robert Jenrick.
Cleverly is going for London Mayor in 2028.
If Badenoch was replaced it would be by Philp or Stride but I doubt any of the three make much difference. Labour is set to lose its majority but I can't see any Tory except Rees Mogg or Boris eating into the Reform vote and neither are Tory MPs now
So who is going to be the party leader at the next election, who runs on doing a zero-based budget as they’re doing in the US?? I’m pretty sure the problem is not quite so bad in the UK, but there’s still going to be plenty of silly-looking line items in the international development and academic research budgets.
No politician in the US is running on a balanced budget platform.
The US budget deficit today is around $1.6 trillion.
Elon Musk has expressed optimism about cutting the budget deficit by $1trillion.
Has he explained how ? Because it's not going to be by cutting "waste", without a wholesale redefinition of the term.
One man's "waste" is another man's "essential funding"
The polls say that he's already losing approval, fast.
It's not up to Musk to change (eg) social security, or healthcare entitlements. Or indeed the defence budget. That's policy change, and will have to go through Congress. Imposing such things extra-legally is going to make a very big mess indeed.
Absent any of that, he's not going to save even a quarter of a trillion.
Musk's biggest coup so far is stopping the US sending a billion condoms to Gaza.
'"Oh no, I only wanted to stop us sending a billion condoms to Gaza, and now there’s this chaotic inferno of hate." "Oh well, never mind, at least the billion condoms aren't going to Gaza any more, are they?"
A billion?! There's only 2 million people in Gaza - that's 500 each. I don't know how long the expiry date is on condoms, but, what, 3 years? This implies the Gazans are having a lot more sex than the stereotype might have us imagine.
So who is going to be the party leader at the next election, who runs on doing a zero-based budget as they’re doing in the US?? I’m pretty sure the problem is not quite so bad in the UK, but there’s still going to be plenty of silly-looking line items in the international development and academic research budgets.
By "silly-looking line items in the international development", you mean USAID support for Ukraine, presumably?
I mean that I want the aid to Ukraine actually go to Ukraine, and not end up mostly funding the Washington swamp.
As you've already been told, the vast majority of USAID for Ukraine is in direct budget support. Paying the wages and pensions etc of public employees in Ukraine. Maybe some of that is paying non-existent people for doing non-existent jobs in Ukraine - Ukraine is still AFAIK a pretty corrupt country. What the USAID Ukraine budget definitely isn't doing is "mostly funding the Washington swamp".
Maybe you originally made an honest mistake, but now you are just deliberately bullshitting. Why?
So who is going to be the party leader at the next election, who runs on doing a zero-based budget as they’re doing in the US?? I’m pretty sure the problem is not quite so bad in the UK, but there’s still going to be plenty of silly-looking line items in the international development and academic research budgets.
No politician in the US is running on a balanced budget platform.
The US budget deficit today is around $1.6 trillion.
Elon Musk has expressed optimism about cutting the budget deficit by $1trillion.
Has he explained how ? Because it's not going to be by cutting "waste", without a wholesale redefinition of the term.
One man's "waste" is another man's "essential funding"
The polls say that he's already losing approval, fast.
It's not up to Musk to change (eg) social security, or healthcare entitlements. Or indeed the defence budget. That's policy change, and will have to go through Congress. Imposing such things extra-legally is going to make a very big mess indeed.
Absent any of that, he's not going to save even a quarter of a trillion.
Musk's biggest coup so far is stopping the US sending a billion condoms to Gaza.
'"Oh no, I only wanted to stop us sending a billion condoms to Gaza, and now there’s this chaotic inferno of hate." "Oh well, never mind, at least the billion condoms aren't going to Gaza any more, are they?"
A billion?! There's only 2 million people in Gaza - that's 500 each. I don't know how long the expiry date is on condoms, but, what, 3 years? This implies the Gazans are having a lot more sex than the stereotype might have us imagine.
Yes. The point is there never were any condoms being supplied by the US to Gaza, and Musk is just incapable of reading a simple spreadsheet, let alone finding a trillion in savings.
No one gets much more than a quarter of voters under "shares our values"
I don't like the misleading way this polling is reported without showing don't knows eg 'An honest person' is in fact:
Starmer Yes 31% No 46% Don't know 23% Net -15% Badenoch Yes 21% No 37% Don't know 43% Net -16% Farage Yes 24% No 50% Don't know 26% Net -26% Davey Yes 37% No 22% Don't know 41% Net +15%
Badenoch's net 'honest person' is actually better than Farage's, and Davey's 37% is even more impressive given the numbers saying 'Don't know'
Which overall seems to cast the opinion of Badenoch as "probably just another politician until proven otherwise". Whether the irreconcilables like Jenrick and TSE will give her the time and space to have a chance to prove otherwise is a different question.
There you go again, I voted for Badenoch and have said she should be given time, the issue is will the party give her time?
Yes as she won the Tory MPs vote unlike IDS and Truss as well as members vote
She only won the final vote of MPs because supporters of James Cleverly fell into an elephant sized trap set by Robert Jenrick.
Cleverly is going for London Mayor in 2028.
If Badenoch was replaced it would be by Philp or Stride but I doubt any of the three make much difference. Labour is set to lose its majority but I can't see any Tory except Rees Mogg or Boris eating into the Reform vote and neither are Tory MPs now
Back when @JackW was a lad the Tories faced this issue with the Ultras ( and the Liberals did with the Adulamites). Neither party compromised their principles.
Reform is wrong. They may have identified an issue correctly, but their proposed solution is mean-spirited and likely to be ineffective but damaging at the same time.
The Tories should hold fast to their beliefs. And if that means a lost election while the fever burns itself out then so be it
So who is going to be the party leader at the next election, who runs on doing a zero-based budget as they’re doing in the US?? I’m pretty sure the problem is not quite so bad in the UK, but there’s still going to be plenty of silly-looking line items in the international development and academic research budgets.
No politician in the US is running on a balanced budget platform.
The US budget deficit today is around $1.6 trillion.
Elon Musk has expressed optimism about cutting the budget deficit by $1trillion.
Has he explained how ? Because it's not going to be by cutting "waste", without a wholesale redefinition of the term.
One man's "waste" is another man's "essential funding"
The polls say that he's already losing approval, fast.
It's not up to Musk to change (eg) social security, or healthcare entitlements. Or indeed the defence budget. That's policy change, and will have to go through Congress. Imposing such things extra-legally is going to make a very big mess indeed.
Absent any of that, he's not going to save even a quarter of a trillion.
Musk's biggest coup so far is stopping the US sending a billion condoms to Gaza.
'"Oh no, I only wanted to stop us sending a billion condoms to Gaza, and now there’s this chaotic inferno of hate." "Oh well, never mind, at least the billion condoms aren't going to Gaza any more, are they?"
A billion?! There's only 2 million people in Gaza - that's 500 each. I don't know how long the expiry date is on condoms, but, what, 3 years? This implies the Gazans are having a lot more sex than the stereotype might have us imagine.
Cross-sectional data and long-period time series data have generally shown an inverse relationship between income and fertility. But short-period time series data over the business cycle have shown a direct relationship.
Julian L. Simon A Journal of Demography Volume 23, 1969 - Issue 3
So who is going to be the party leader at the next election, who runs on doing a zero-based budget as they’re doing in the US?? I’m pretty sure the problem is not quite so bad in the UK, but there’s still going to be plenty of silly-looking line items in the international development and academic research budgets.
No politician in the US is running on a balanced budget platform.
The US budget deficit today is around $1.6 trillion.
Elon Musk has expressed optimism about cutting the budget deficit by $1trillion.
Has he explained how ? Because it's not going to be by cutting "waste", without a wholesale redefinition of the term.
One man's "waste" is another man's "essential funding"
The polls say that he's already losing approval, fast.
It's not up to Musk to change (eg) social security, or healthcare entitlements. Or indeed the defence budget. That's policy change, and will have to go through Congress. Imposing such things extra-legally is going to make a very big mess indeed.
Absent any of that, he's not going to save even a quarter of a trillion.
Musk's biggest coup so far is stopping the US sending a billion condoms to Gaza.
'"Oh no, I only wanted to stop us sending a billion condoms to Gaza, and now there’s this chaotic inferno of hate." "Oh well, never mind, at least the billion condoms aren't going to Gaza any more, are they?"
A billion?! There's only 2 million people in Gaza - that's 500 each. I don't know how long the expiry date is on condoms, but, what, 3 years? This implies the Gazans are having a lot more sex than the stereotype might have us imagine.
Yes. The point is there never were any condoms being supplied by the US to Gaza, and Musk is just incapable of reading a simple spreadsheet, let alone finding a trillion in savings.
So what happened? (I feel like I'm coming into this conversation halfway through). Were any condoms being supplied to Gaza and he misread the number? Were a billion something else being supplied to Gaza?
So who is going to be the party leader at the next election, who runs on doing a zero-based budget as they’re doing in the US?? I’m pretty sure the problem is not quite so bad in the UK, but there’s still going to be plenty of silly-looking line items in the international development and academic research budgets.
No politician in the US is running on a balanced budget platform.
The US budget deficit today is around $1.6 trillion.
Elon Musk has expressed optimism about cutting the budget deficit by $1trillion.
Has he explained how ? Because it's not going to be by cutting "waste", without a wholesale redefinition of the term.
One man's "waste" is another man's "essential funding"
The polls say that he's already losing approval, fast.
It's not up to Musk to change (eg) social security, or healthcare entitlements. Or indeed the defence budget. That's policy change, and will have to go through Congress. Imposing such things extra-legally is going to make a very big mess indeed.
Absent any of that, he's not going to save even a quarter of a trillion.
Musk's biggest coup so far is stopping the US sending a billion condoms to Gaza.
'"Oh no, I only wanted to stop us sending a billion condoms to Gaza, and now there’s this chaotic inferno of hate." "Oh well, never mind, at least the billion condoms aren't going to Gaza any more, are they?"
I thought that went without saying. To save time in future anything Trump or Musk says that I think *is* true I'll post with the comment "THIS MIGHT BE TRUE", otherwise safe to assume that I am aware that it's bollocks.
So the Russian army now appears to have run out of quad bikes and Ladas, and has resorted to a much older method of military transportation. Yes, they’re bringing donkeys to the war.
So who is going to be the party leader at the next election, who runs on doing a zero-based budget as they’re doing in the US?? I’m pretty sure the problem is not quite so bad in the UK, but there’s still going to be plenty of silly-looking line items in the international development and academic research budgets.
No politician in the US is running on a balanced budget platform.
The US budget deficit today is around $1.6 trillion.
Elon Musk has expressed optimism about cutting the budget deficit by $1trillion.
Has he explained how ? Because it's not going to be by cutting "waste", without a wholesale redefinition of the term.
One man's "waste" is another man's "essential funding"
The polls say that he's already losing approval, fast.
It's not up to Musk to change (eg) social security, or healthcare entitlements. Or indeed the defence budget. That's policy change, and will have to go through Congress. Imposing such things extra-legally is going to make a very big mess indeed.
Absent any of that, he's not going to save even a quarter of a trillion.
Musk's biggest coup so far is stopping the US sending a billion condoms to Gaza.
'"Oh no, I only wanted to stop us sending a billion condoms to Gaza, and now there’s this chaotic inferno of hate." "Oh well, never mind, at least the billion condoms aren't going to Gaza any more, are they?"
A billion?! There's only 2 million people in Gaza - that's 500 each. I don't know how long the expiry date is on condoms, but, what, 3 years? This implies the Gazans are having a lot more sex than the stereotype might have us imagine.
Yes. The point is there never were any condoms being supplied by the US to Gaza, and Musk is just incapable of reading a simple spreadsheet, let alone finding a trillion in savings.
So what happened? (I feel like I'm coming into this conversation halfway through). Were any condoms being supplied to Gaza and he misread the number? Were a billion something else being supplied to Gaza?
Apparently they were actually going to the Gaza province of Mozambique (unless that's an urban legend in itself).
Their demand was unrealistic. At a time of housing shortages you can’t leave prime land like that unutilised
From what I've read, the government are in an impossible situation, as the various relatives want different things for the site. Someone is going to be disappointed.
So who is going to be the party leader at the next election, who runs on doing a zero-based budget as they’re doing in the US?? I’m pretty sure the problem is not quite so bad in the UK, but there’s still going to be plenty of silly-looking line items in the international development and academic research budgets.
No politician in the US is running on a balanced budget platform.
The US budget deficit today is around $1.6 trillion.
Elon Musk has expressed optimism about cutting the budget deficit by $1trillion.
Has he explained how ? Because it's not going to be by cutting "waste", without a wholesale redefinition of the term.
One man's "waste" is another man's "essential funding"
The polls say that he's already losing approval, fast.
It's not up to Musk to change (eg) social security, or healthcare entitlements. Or indeed the defence budget. That's policy change, and will have to go through Congress. Imposing such things extra-legally is going to make a very big mess indeed.
Absent any of that, he's not going to save even a quarter of a trillion.
Musk's biggest coup so far is stopping the US sending a billion condoms to Gaza.
'"Oh no, I only wanted to stop us sending a billion condoms to Gaza, and now there’s this chaotic inferno of hate." "Oh well, never mind, at least the billion condoms aren't going to Gaza any more, are they?"
A billion?! There's only 2 million people in Gaza - that's 500 each. I don't know how long the expiry date is on condoms, but, what, 3 years? This implies the Gazans are having a lot more sex than the stereotype might have us imagine.
Yes. The point is there never were any condoms being supplied by the US to Gaza, and Musk is just incapable of reading a simple spreadsheet, let alone finding a trillion in savings.
So what happened? (I feel like I'm coming into this conversation halfway through). Were any condoms being supplied to Gaza and he misread the number? Were a billion something else being supplied to Gaza?
United States President Donald Trump has boasted that his administration had stopped $50m in “bomb-making condoms” from being sent to Gaza.
Trump provided no evidence for his claims – that condoms were being sent to Gaza or that Hamas is using contraceptives to make bombs – and left many wondering what the US president was talking about.
Could it be that Trump was referring to a different Gaza? After all, there are more than a dozen places in the world named Gaza, including two communities in the United States.
For the moment, why Trump made the claim and what evidence he has is unknown.
According to the HHS grants database, the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation in Mozambique received more than $83m in funding since 2021 for reproductive health projects in two provinces: Inhambane and Gaza.
So who is going to be the party leader at the next election, who runs on doing a zero-based budget as they’re doing in the US?? I’m pretty sure the problem is not quite so bad in the UK, but there’s still going to be plenty of silly-looking line items in the international development and academic research budgets.
By "silly-looking line items in the international development", you mean USAID support for Ukraine, presumably?
I mean that I want the aid to Ukraine actually go to Ukraine, and not end up mostly funding the Washington swamp.
As you've already been told, the vast majority of USAID for Ukraine is in direct budget support. Paying the wages and pensions etc of public employees in Ukraine. Maybe some of that is paying non-existent people for doing non-existent jobs in Ukraine - Ukraine is still AFAIK a pretty corrupt country. What the USAID Ukraine budget definitely isn't doing is "mostly funding the Washington swamp".
Maybe you originally made an honest mistake, but now you are just deliberately bullshitting. Why?
It’s depressing how regularly Russian disinformation finds its way into American and then British online opinion, especially when filtered through Musk who is openly and gleefully all in on the Russian world view.
So who is going to be the party leader at the next election, who runs on doing a zero-based budget as they’re doing in the US?? I’m pretty sure the problem is not quite so bad in the UK, but there’s still going to be plenty of silly-looking line items in the international development and academic research budgets.
No politician in the US is running on a balanced budget platform.
The US budget deficit today is around $1.6 trillion.
Elon Musk has expressed optimism about cutting the budget deficit by $1trillion.
Has he explained how ? Because it's not going to be by cutting "waste", without a wholesale redefinition of the term.
One man's "waste" is another man's "essential funding"
The polls say that he's already losing approval, fast.
It's not up to Musk to change (eg) social security, or healthcare entitlements. Or indeed the defence budget. That's policy change, and will have to go through Congress. Imposing such things extra-legally is going to make a very big mess indeed.
Absent any of that, he's not going to save even a quarter of a trillion.
Musk's biggest coup so far is stopping the US sending a billion condoms to Gaza.
'"Oh no, I only wanted to stop us sending a billion condoms to Gaza, and now there’s this chaotic inferno of hate." "Oh well, never mind, at least the billion condoms aren't going to Gaza any more, are they?"
A billion?! There's only 2 million people in Gaza - that's 500 each. I don't know how long the expiry date is on condoms, but, what, 3 years? This implies the Gazans are having a lot more sex than the stereotype might have us imagine.
Well, their TFR used to be as high as 6.2 (Scotland's is 1.3). Carpet bombing Gaza with contraception is a genius strategic move, particularly given tens of thousands of kids end up as orphans and are therefore highly likely to end up in Hamas.
So who is going to be the party leader at the next election, who runs on doing a zero-based budget as they’re doing in the US?? I’m pretty sure the problem is not quite so bad in the UK, but there’s still going to be plenty of silly-looking line items in the international development and academic research budgets.
No politician in the US is running on a balanced budget platform.
The US budget deficit today is around $1.6 trillion.
Elon Musk has expressed optimism about cutting the budget deficit by $1trillion.
Has he explained how ? Because it's not going to be by cutting "waste", without a wholesale redefinition of the term.
One man's "waste" is another man's "essential funding"
The polls say that he's already losing approval, fast.
It's not up to Musk to change (eg) social security, or healthcare entitlements. Or indeed the defence budget. That's policy change, and will have to go through Congress. Imposing such things extra-legally is going to make a very big mess indeed.
Absent any of that, he's not going to save even a quarter of a trillion.
Musk's biggest coup so far is stopping the US sending a billion condoms to Gaza.
'"Oh no, I only wanted to stop us sending a billion condoms to Gaza, and now there’s this chaotic inferno of hate." "Oh well, never mind, at least the billion condoms aren't going to Gaza any more, are they?"
A billion?! There's only 2 million people in Gaza - that's 500 each. I don't know how long the expiry date is on condoms, but, what, 3 years? This implies the Gazans are having a lot more sex than the stereotype might have us imagine.
The condoms are imaginary so the users of the condoms may as well be an imaginery 500 million martians living in Gaza.
There is/was a $50m over 5 years USAID to Gaza for health, but not condom related at all. The US govt is in the make as many lies as possible business so no-one notices how much they steal for themselves.
Their demand was unrealistic. At a time of housing shortages you can’t leave prime land like that unutilised
From what I've read, the government are in an impossible situation, as the various relatives want different things for the site. Someone is going to be disappointed.
I liked the original Grosvenor proposal of a memorial garden to create some open space for North Kensington
So who is going to be the party leader at the next election, who runs on doing a zero-based budget as they’re doing in the US?? I’m pretty sure the problem is not quite so bad in the UK, but there’s still going to be plenty of silly-looking line items in the international development and academic research budgets.
No politician in the US is running on a balanced budget platform.
The US budget deficit today is around $1.6 trillion.
Elon Musk has expressed optimism about cutting the budget deficit by $1trillion.
Has he explained how ? Because it's not going to be by cutting "waste", without a wholesale redefinition of the term.
One man's "waste" is another man's "essential funding"
The polls say that he's already losing approval, fast.
It's not up to Musk to change (eg) social security, or healthcare entitlements. Or indeed the defence budget. That's policy change, and will have to go through Congress. Imposing such things extra-legally is going to make a very big mess indeed.
Absent any of that, he's not going to save even a quarter of a trillion.
Musk's biggest coup so far is stopping the US sending a billion condoms to Gaza.
'"Oh no, I only wanted to stop us sending a billion condoms to Gaza, and now there’s this chaotic inferno of hate." "Oh well, never mind, at least the billion condoms aren't going to Gaza any more, are they?"
A billion?! There's only 2 million people in Gaza - that's 500 each. I don't know how long the expiry date is on condoms, but, what, 3 years? This implies the Gazans are having a lot more sex than the stereotype might have us imagine.
Yes. The point is there never were any condoms being supplied by the US to Gaza, and Musk is just incapable of reading a simple spreadsheet, let alone finding a trillion in savings.
So what happened? (I feel like I'm coming into this conversation halfway through). Were any condoms being supplied to Gaza and he misread the number? Were a billion something else being supplied to Gaza?
Apparently they were actually going to the Gaza province of Mozambique (unless that's not an urban legend in itself).
At least it wasn't to a retired professional 'soccer' player. As far as I know.
Increasingly thinking that Musk is following the Dominic Cummings timeline. Yes he’s somewhat more wealthy, but there’s something Shakespearean about the inevitability of his downfall. And the inevitability that Trump will outlast him.
I enjoy going to a stately home and looking at paintings. That’s a display of wealth.
I dislike someone drinking Cristal from a diamond encrusted shoe while letching over some coked up floozy. That’s also a display of wealth
And yet the wealth in the former case was almost certainly amassed in a much more unsavoury way than in the latter!
Also. which bit of it does @StillWaters object to?
The Cristal? The diamonds? The shoe? The leching? The coke? Or the floozy?
Personally I'm OK with the whole shebang, tho I'd swap out the Cristal (overrated) and have vintage Ruinart, and maybe skip the shoe (weird) and use a human skull like Byron - the Bettiscombe skull, perhaps
Increasingly thinking that Musk is following the Dominic Cummings timeline. Yes he’s somewhat more wealthy, but there’s something Shakespearean about the inevitability of his downfall. And the inevitability that Trump will outlast him.
There are about 400 billion differences between Musk and Cummings. There is a high probability of Musk falling out with Trump within a year or two but an even higher probability that Musk is still one of the most powerful ten men in the world in 2040.
So who is going to be the party leader at the next election, who runs on doing a zero-based budget as they’re doing in the US?? I’m pretty sure the problem is not quite so bad in the UK, but there’s still going to be plenty of silly-looking line items in the international development and academic research budgets.
No politician in the US is running on a balanced budget platform.
The US budget deficit today is around $1.6 trillion.
Elon Musk has expressed optimism about cutting the budget deficit by $1trillion.
Has he explained how ? Because it's not going to be by cutting "waste", without a wholesale redefinition of the term.
One man's "waste" is another man's "essential funding"
The polls say that he's already losing approval, fast.
It's not up to Musk to change (eg) social security, or healthcare entitlements. Or indeed the defence budget. That's policy change, and will have to go through Congress. Imposing such things extra-legally is going to make a very big mess indeed.
Absent any of that, he's not going to save even a quarter of a trillion.
Musk's biggest coup so far is stopping the US sending a billion condoms to Gaza.
'"Oh no, I only wanted to stop us sending a billion condoms to Gaza, and now there’s this chaotic inferno of hate." "Oh well, never mind, at least the billion condoms aren't going to Gaza any more, are they?"
A billion?! There's only 2 million people in Gaza - that's 500 each. I don't know how long the expiry date is on condoms, but, what, 3 years? This implies the Gazans are having a lot more sex than the stereotype might have us imagine.
Yes. The point is there never were any condoms being supplied by the US to Gaza, and Musk is just incapable of reading a simple spreadsheet, let alone finding a trillion in savings.
So what happened? (I feel like I'm coming into this conversation halfway through). Were any condoms being supplied to Gaza and he misread the number? Were a billion something else being supplied to Gaza?
IIRC there were $8m of condoms sent to Gaza, but to a place called Gaza in Africa (Mozambique?) rather than the one next to Israel.
Increasingly thinking that Musk is following the Dominic Cummings timeline. Yes he’s somewhat more wealthy, but there’s something Shakespearean about the inevitability of his downfall. And the inevitability that Trump will outlast him.
There are about 400 billion differences between Musk and Cummings. There is a high probability of Musk falling out with Trump within a year or two but an even higher probability that Musk is still one of the most powerful ten men in the world in 2040.
My guess - and it is barely a guess, this is so sui generis - is that Musk and Trump will part ways, it might just be sheer boredom that does it. Revolutionary zeal tends to dwindle
However at the same time Musk will - if he remains alive and healthy - still be a massively important figure at the end of Trump 2, and globally powerful, perhaps even more powerful than he is now
The floating-rate debts carry an interest rate of approximately 11%, with borrowing costs above even the riskiest loans on Wall Street, the Journal said.
(I'm not sure on the "bet on Musk" line. I'm more inclined to "banks dump Tesla debt", but this is not my topic.)
Billionaires avoid income tax by not taking a salary, and avoid capital gains tax by not selling their shares. Instead, they get money by taking out loans backed by the shares they are not selling. Tax is for the little people.
I'll be honest, the BYD dolphin was the first electric car I've looked at and thought "perhaps this is affordable" probably since forever. Still want to get another 100k out my Peugeot and the Ms' Passat though.
Increasingly thinking that Musk is following the Dominic Cummings timeline. Yes he’s somewhat more wealthy, but there’s something Shakespearean about the inevitability of his downfall. And the inevitability that Trump will outlast him.
There are about 400 billion differences between Musk and Cummings. There is a high probability of Musk falling out with Trump within a year or two but an even higher probability that Musk is still one of the most powerful ten men in the world in 2040.
My guess - and it is barely a guess, this is so sui generis - is that Musk and Trump will part ways, it might just be sheer boredom that does it. Revolutionary zeal tends to dwindle
However at the same time Musk will - if he remains alive and healthy - still be a massively important figure at the end of Trump 2, and globally powerful, perhaps even more powerful than he is now
The test will come if and when Musk has the falling out, and we discover how much of the huge valuation premium on his businesses is based on an assumption of government patronage and how much on fundamentals.
There are some pretty intrinsically valuable components to his empire, notably SpaceX, but monopolies and super profits rarely last forever unless they are government underwritten. And Tesla as a car marque is now surely vastly overvalued.
Their demand was unrealistic. At a time of housing shortages you can’t leave prime land like that unutilised
Indeed - and on the news this morning they were saying that “some survivors and relatives groups say that the government hasn’t listened to their points” when what they should really say is that the gov did listen, and listen to other views and the decision just wasn’t what some groups want.
It’s fairly standard now that people will only accept their end result and if it’s not what they want then it’s because they were ignored or prejudiced against etc.
The idea it should remain as a monument is frankly ridiculous.
Musk is bring played by Trump - set up to fail with an impossible task, while acting as a lightning rod for public dissatisfaction, and all the while paying for the privilege. The falling out will be spectacular, and Musk will be the loser from it.
No one has any clue how this will play out, it's all entirely new
There are some eternal human truths though, Trump selling out anyone not related to him to deflect blame being one of them.
Maybe eventually, but for the time being I guess Trump thinks it's a winning team. And Musk wants to dismantle democracy, give even more wealth and power to billionaires, and seems quite sympathetic to white supremacists. So they have a lot in common.
Besides, one of the biggest potential blocks on Trump would be finding 4 out of the 53 Republican senators to vote against him. Surely there are more than 4 who would vote against him on a whole bunch of stuff if they dared. Trump needs Musk - who's going to fund the primary campaigns and lead the social media propaganda campaigns against rebel senators who step out of line?
Their demand was unrealistic. At a time of housing shortages you can’t leave prime land like that unutilised
Indeed - and on the news this morning they were saying that “some survivors and relatives groups say that the government hasn’t listened to their points” when what they should really say is that the gov did listen, and listen to other views and the decision just wasn’t what some groups want.
It’s fairly standard now that people will only accept their end result and if it’s not what they want then it’s because they were ignored or prejudiced against etc.
The idea it should remain as a monument is frankly ridiculous.
"Wouldn't listen" meaning "wouldn't agree" is one of my rhetorical bugbears.
Increasingly thinking that Musk is following the Dominic Cummings timeline. Yes he’s somewhat more wealthy, but there’s something Shakespearean about the inevitability of his downfall. And the inevitability that Trump will outlast him.
There are about 400 billion differences between Musk and Cummings. There is a high probability of Musk falling out with Trump within a year or two but an even higher probability that Musk is still one of the most powerful ten men in the world in 2040.
My guess - and it is barely a guess, this is so sui generis - is that Musk and Trump will part ways, it might just be sheer boredom that does it. Revolutionary zeal tends to dwindle
However at the same time Musk will - if he remains alive and healthy - still be a massively important figure at the end of Trump 2, and globally powerful, perhaps even more powerful than he is now
The original plan was that Musk’s team are working like systems auditors, they’ll only be there for a year in order to report back to Trump regarding legislation required.
Musk is bring played by Trump - set up to fail with an impossible task, while acting as a lightning rod for public dissatisfaction, and all the while paying for the privilege. The falling out will be spectacular, and Musk will be the loser from it.
No one has any clue how this will play out, it's all entirely new
There are some eternal human truths though, Trump selling out anyone not related to him to deflect blame being one of them.
Maybe eventually, but for the time being I guess Trump thinks it's a winning team. And Musk wants to dismantle democracy, give even more wealth and power to billionaires, and seems quite sympathetic to white supremacists. So they have a lot in common.
Besides, one of the biggest potential blocks on Trump would be finding 4 out of the 53 Republican senators to vote against him. Surely there are more than 4 who would vote against him on a whole bunch of stuff if they dared. Trump needs Musk - who's going to fund the primary campaigns and lead the social media propaganda campaigns against rebel senators who step out of line?
We just need Musk to last long enough to usher Farage into power, as he has done with Trump. Job done
I enjoy going to a stately home and looking at paintings. That’s a display of wealth.
I dislike someone drinking Cristal from a diamond encrusted shoe while letching over some coked up floozy. That’s also a display of wealth
And yet the wealth in the former case was almost certainly amassed in a much more unsavoury way than in the latter!
Also. which bit of it does @StillWaters object to?
The Cristal? The diamonds? The shoe? The leching? The coke? Or the floozy?
Personally I'm OK with the whole shebang, tho I'd swap out the Cristal (overrated) and have vintage Ruinart, and maybe skip the shoe (weird) and use a human skull like Byron - the Bettiscombe skull, perhaps
No one gets much more than a quarter of voters under "shares our values"
Poor scores all round; a comment on the state of our politics.
Davey will be pleased to come top on being honest and in touch with ordinary folk
Indeed. Davey scores well on most of the questions.
OGH would say this was significant and potentially more significant than current party ranking. I will repeat my view that Davey and the Lib Dems are likely to make progress, even substantial progress over the current Parliament.
I doubt if 20% of the British public can identify Ed Davey by name or face. Indeed, I suspect that, even if they were shown the face of Ed Davey, and they were told, "this is the face of Ed Davey, the leader of the Lib Dems", they would still say Who is that?
In fact if you put them in a room with Ed Davey for 24 hours, and he sat there shouting "I am Ed Davey, I am the leader of the Lib Dems!!!", I bet at the end of it, they'd say "Who was that weird boring shouty guy in the room with me?"
I am in the unusual position having met both @Leon and @EdDavey, and it is rather disturbing how similar they are.
Both have about the same chance of becoming Prime Minister?
I had a skim through the underlying tables, and while it's true that Farage's positive scores are generally better than the others, overall he is a strong net negative, whereas Davey is slightly positive/neutral overall.
Where Farage is different to the others is that the 'don't knows' score much lower, which makes sense as he's been around for a long time and really only people who pay no attention at all to politics will have no view on him. The problem for Reform is that he is divisive; the people who like him love him and everybody else dislikes him with a passion. The Reform rampers need to consider this.
The other problem with Reform is that it's a one man show. If Farage steps aside, then who? At least the established parties have a selection of other generic politicians who will take over in due course. Who do Reform have, who is currently aged around 45 ready to step up in a few years' time?
He's brilliant, right? I think we can all agree on that. He's blown Woke into little pieces, he's cancelled the Left and now he is going after all the waste and wankery. He is also inspiring the New Right in Europe. And he is the only leader prepared to listen to Palestinians and offer them a different future
What's not to love?
The one huge issue was always tariffs. That was his one mad plan which made no sense and was likely to crash the world economy. Turns out he didn't mean it, that was all bluster, and thank God
There will be 3 or 4 lies a day, every day for the next few years. Why the gullible continue to believe heaven knows. Although perhaps they know them not to be true, as they often post "If true" ahead of their regurtitation, before forming their world view around the "If true" lies.
I enjoy going to a stately home and looking at paintings. That’s a display of wealth.
I dislike someone drinking Cristal from a diamond encrusted shoe while letching over some coked up floozy. That’s also a display of wealth
And yet the wealth in the former case was almost certainly amassed in a much more unsavoury way than in the latter!
Also. which bit of it does @StillWaters object to?
The Cristal? The diamonds? The shoe? The leching? The coke? Or the floozy?
Personally I'm OK with the whole shebang, tho I'd swap out the Cristal (overrated) and have vintage Ruinart, and maybe skip the shoe (weird) and use a human skull like Byron - the Bettiscombe skull, perhaps
I enjoy going to a stately home and looking at paintings. That’s a display of wealth.
I dislike someone drinking Cristal from a diamond encrusted shoe while letching over some coked up floozy. That’s also a display of wealth
And yet the wealth in the former case was almost certainly amassed in a much more unsavoury way than in the latter!
Also. which bit of it does @StillWaters object to?
The Cristal? The diamonds? The shoe? The leching? The coke? Or the floozy?
Personally I'm OK with the whole shebang, tho I'd swap out the Cristal (overrated) and have vintage Ruinart, and maybe skip the shoe (weird) and use a human skull like Byron - the Bettiscombe skull, perhaps
No one gets much more than a quarter of voters under "shares our values"
Poor scores all round; a comment on the state of our politics.
Davey will be pleased to come top on being honest and in touch with ordinary folk
Indeed. Davey scores well on most of the questions.
OGH would say this was significant and potentially more significant than current party ranking. I will repeat my view that Davey and the Lib Dems are likely to make progress, even substantial progress over the current Parliament.
I doubt if 20% of the British public can identify Ed Davey by name or face. Indeed, I suspect that, even if they were shown the face of Ed Davey, and they were told, "this is the face of Ed Davey, the leader of the Lib Dems", they would still say Who is that?
In fact if you put them in a room with Ed Davey for 24 hours, and he sat there shouting "I am Ed Davey, I am the leader of the Lib Dems!!!", I bet at the end of it, they'd say "Who was that weird boring shouty guy in the room with me?"
I am in the unusual position having met both @Leon and @EdDavey, and it is rather disturbing how similar they are.
Possibly the worst thing anyone has ever said to me. Not just on PB. Anywhere
Trust me, you've heard worse. It's just you don't speak Thai.
I can confirm Leon's thoughts on Ed Davey, though. I was at a pub quiz last summer. There was a round of visual clues to places in Trafford. A sailing boat for 'Sale', a picture of a parting and a picture of a one ton weight for 'Partington', and so on. One of the questions showed a picture of Ed Davey and a picture of John Hulme. Only one table out of 20 (ours) got it right, and on our table there was only one person who recognised Ed Davey (me) - and on being told it was Ed Davey, some further explanation was needed for the table of who Ed Davey was. Given that if anyone did recognise Ed Davey, you wouldn't have to struggle for long with 'where in Trafford starts with Davey...' before you think 'Ah, Davyhulme', my contention is that Leon is actually overestimating Ed Davey recognition among the public at large. Based on that, I reckon about one in 100 could look at a picture of him and say 'that's Ed Davey, and Ed Davey is leader of the Lib Dems'.
He wasn't doing anything odd or unusual. He was in a suit, waving, looking like a politician. People actually said 'is that a politician?' but couldn't make the leap from there to 'it's Ed Davey'.
I don't think Ed Davey is unique in this. I expect Jo Swinson and Tim Farron would have faced similar struggles.
Actually, it's quite interesting to speculate what the equivalent recognition would be for other party leaders. I suspect Kemi would be higher, but not much higher. It's hard to say whether Keir or Nige would be the most recognisable, but I reckon it would be Nige.
Interestingly, Davey's antics cut through with Gen Z in the GE. None of my daughters' friends had any clue who he was before then (or indeed, who the LDs were) but his stunts made it to their TikTok feeds.
Agree though it's hard for any 3rd party leader to cut through much - after all it took Farage 20 years of banging on relentlessly about Europe to achieve it.
The British Museum doesn’t have a full catalogue of what’s in the basement. There is no plan to do so. No money for the many millions it would cost.
At the time the scandal hit, I pointed out that I’d personally taken part in a matter effort to catalogue the basement collections at smaller museum.
My suggestion was a rolling effort, over the years, using people who are already studying the various areas. If you are doing a PhD on Sumerian pottery, surely letting you lose the Sumerian pottery in the BM basement would be of interest?
This was ridiculed by some here as “inappropriate” for a National Collection. We must either have a Proper Project or… nothing.
A relative was working his way through some documents in various national collections. He is now thinking of writing a book - more data than a paper. He’s come up with a combination of photographing (iPhone) the (previously untouched) documents, then using various tools to turn the copperplate handwriting into text and build a database.
He’s just told me that he’s hiring a couple of people to roll this out across other collections - he’s busy and his time is money. So he figures it’s cheaper to do this.
He's brilliant, right? I think we can all agree on that. He's blown Woke into little pieces, he's cancelled the Left and now he is going after all the waste and wankery. He is also inspiring the New Right in Europe. And he is the only leader prepared to listen to Palestinians and offer them a different future
What's not to love?
The one huge issue was always tariffs. That was his one mad plan which made no sense and was likely to crash the world economy. Turns out he didn't mean it, that was all bluster, and thank God
Otherwise 9/10. Best president ever
Politically he's brilliant. Respect the craft, he makes politics look effortless.
Policy is where he falls down. Which is the problem.
No one gets much more than a quarter of voters under "shares our values"
Poor scores all round; a comment on the state of our politics.
Davey will be pleased to come top on being honest and in touch with ordinary folk
Indeed. Davey scores well on most of the questions.
OGH would say this was significant and potentially more significant than current party ranking. I will repeat my view that Davey and the Lib Dems are likely to make progress, even substantial progress over the current Parliament.
I doubt if 20% of the British public can identify Ed Davey by name or face. Indeed, I suspect that, even if they were shown the face of Ed Davey, and they were told, "this is the face of Ed Davey, the leader of the Lib Dems", they would still say Who is that?
In fact if you put them in a room with Ed Davey for 24 hours, and he sat there shouting "I am Ed Davey, I am the leader of the Lib Dems!!!", I bet at the end of it, they'd say "Who was that weird boring shouty guy in the room with me?"
I am in the unusual position having met both @Leon and @EdDavey, and it is rather disturbing how similar they are.
Possibly the worst thing anyone has ever said to me. Not just on PB. Anywhere
Trust me, you've heard worse. It's just you don't speak Thai.
I can confirm Leon's thoughts on Ed Davey, though. I was at a pub quiz last summer. There was a round of visual clues to places in Trafford. A sailing boat for 'Sale', a picture of a parting and a picture of a one ton weight for 'Partington', and so on. One of the questions showed a picture of Ed Davey and a picture of John Hulme. Only one table out of 20 (ours) got it right, and on our table there was only one person who recognised Ed Davey (me) - and on being told it was Ed Davey, some further explanation was needed for the table of who Ed Davey was. Given that if anyone did recognise Ed Davey, you wouldn't have to struggle for long with 'where in Trafford starts with Davey...' before you think 'Ah, Davyhulme', my contention is that Leon is actually overestimating Ed Davey recognition among the public at large. Based on that, I reckon about one in 100 could look at a picture of him and say 'that's Ed Davey, and Ed Davey is leader of the Lib Dems'.
He wasn't doing anything odd or unusual. He was in a suit, waving, looking like a politician. People actually said 'is that a politician?' but couldn't make the leap from there to 'it's Ed Davey'.
I don't think Ed Davey is unique in this. I expect Jo Swinson and Tim Farron would have faced similar struggles.
Actually, it's quite interesting to speculate what the equivalent recognition would be for other party leaders. I suspect Kemi would be higher, but not much higher. It's hard to say whether Keir or Nige would be the most recognisable, but I reckon it would be Nige.
Probably enough people have had a door knock from Nige when he was losing a byelection to swing the numbers .
He's brilliant, right? I think we can all agree on that. He's blown Woke into little pieces, he's cancelled the Left and now he is going after all the waste and wankery. He is also inspiring the New Right in Europe. And he is the only leader prepared to listen to Palestinians and offer them a different future
What's not to love?
The one huge issue was always tariffs. That was his one mad plan which made no sense and was likely to crash the world economy. Turns out he didn't mean it, that was all bluster, and thank God
Otherwise 9/10. Best president ever
Shame he hasn't got time to play on the PGA Tour, surely he would win most (ALL????) events there too?
I enjoy going to a stately home and looking at paintings. That’s a display of wealth.
I dislike someone drinking Cristal from a diamond encrusted shoe while letching over some coked up floozy. That’s also a display of wealth
And yet the wealth in the former case was almost certainly amassed in a much more unsavoury way than in the latter!
Also. which bit of it does @StillWaters object to?
The Cristal? The diamonds? The shoe? The leching? The coke? Or the floozy?
Personally I'm OK with the whole shebang, tho I'd swap out the Cristal (overrated) and have vintage Ruinart, and maybe skip the shoe (weird) and use a human skull like Byron - the Bettiscombe skull, perhaps
He's brilliant, right? I think we can all agree on that. He's blown Woke into little pieces, he's cancelled the Left and now he is going after all the waste and wankery. He is also inspiring the New Right in Europe. And he is the only leader prepared to listen to Palestinians and offer them a different future
What's not to love?
The one huge issue was always tariffs. That was his one mad plan which made no sense and was likely to crash the world economy. Turns out he didn't mean it, that was all bluster, and thank God
Otherwise 9/10. Best president ever
Disappointed with Trump 2. We were promised it would all be super-organized this time with a dark and ruthless agenda. Instead Trump just seems to be busking it with hapless minions in a constant 'rowing back' mode. All a bit of a circus.
No one gets much more than a quarter of voters under "shares our values"
Poor scores all round; a comment on the state of our politics.
Davey will be pleased to come top on being honest and in touch with ordinary folk
Indeed. Davey scores well on most of the questions.
OGH would say this was significant and potentially more significant than current party ranking. I will repeat my view that Davey and the Lib Dems are likely to make progress, even substantial progress over the current Parliament.
I doubt if 20% of the British public can identify Ed Davey by name or face. Indeed, I suspect that, even if they were shown the face of Ed Davey, and they were told, "this is the face of Ed Davey, the leader of the Lib Dems", they would still say Who is that?
In fact if you put them in a room with Ed Davey for 24 hours, and he sat there shouting "I am Ed Davey, I am the leader of the Lib Dems!!!", I bet at the end of it, they'd say "Who was that weird boring shouty guy in the room with me?"
I am in the unusual position having met both @Leon and @EdDavey, and it is rather disturbing how similar they are.
Possibly the worst thing anyone has ever said to me. Not just on PB. Anywhere
Trust me, you've heard worse. It's just you don't speak Thai.
I can confirm Leon's thoughts on Ed Davey, though. I was at a pub quiz last summer. There was a round of visual clues to places in Trafford. A sailing boat for 'Sale', a picture of a parting and a picture of a one ton weight for 'Partington', and so on. One of the questions showed a picture of Ed Davey and a picture of John Hulme. Only one table out of 20 (ours) got it right, and on our table there was only one person who recognised Ed Davey (me) - and on being told it was Ed Davey, some further explanation was needed for the table of who Ed Davey was. Given that if anyone did recognise Ed Davey, you wouldn't have to struggle for long with 'where in Trafford starts with Davey...' before you think 'Ah, Davyhulme', my contention is that Leon is actually overestimating Ed Davey recognition among the public at large. Based on that, I reckon about one in 100 could look at a picture of him and say 'that's Ed Davey, and Ed Davey is leader of the Lib Dems'.
He wasn't doing anything odd or unusual. He was in a suit, waving, looking like a politician. People actually said 'is that a politician?' but couldn't make the leap from there to 'it's Ed Davey'.
I don't think Ed Davey is unique in this. I expect Jo Swinson and Tim Farron would have faced similar struggles.
Actually, it's quite interesting to speculate what the equivalent recognition would be for other party leaders. I suspect Kemi would be higher, but not much higher. It's hard to say whether Keir or Nige would be the most recognisable, but I reckon it would be Nige.
Interestingly, Davey's antics cut through with Gen Z in the GE. None of my daughters' friends had any clue who he was before then (or indeed, who the LDs were) but his stunts made it to their TikTok feeds.
Agree though it's hard for any 3rd party leader to cut through much - after all it took Farage 20 years of banging on relentlessly about Europe to achieve it.
I should admit that this quiz was about 12 months ago - agree his GE buffoonery was something of a masterstroke in growing his recognition.
No one gets much more than a quarter of voters under "shares our values"
I don't like the misleading way this polling is reported without showing don't knows eg 'An honest person' is in fact:
Starmer Yes 31% No 46% Don't know 23% Net -15% Badenoch Yes 21% No 37% Don't know 43% Net -16% Farage Yes 24% No 50% Don't know 26% Net -26% Davey Yes 37% No 22% Don't know 41% Net +15%
Badenoch's net 'honest person' is actually better than Farage's, and Davey's 37% is even more impressive given the numbers saying 'Don't know'
Which overall seems to cast the opinion of Badenoch as "probably just another politician until proven otherwise". Whether the irreconcilables like Jenrick and TSE will give her the time and space to have a chance to prove otherwise is a different question.
There you go again, I voted for Badenoch and have said she should be given time, the issue is will the party give her time?
Even TSE would make a better Tory leader than the Kembot!
I wouldn’t go that far.
She got into trouble for her interview where she denounced sandwich eaters, I would have got into even more trouble when I denounced people who put pineapple on pizza.
What about people who put pineapple on pizza and then use that as a sandwich filling?
Isn't a pizza just an open sandwich?
No, I think the idea is you have pineapple pizza sandwich - the healthy form of deep-fried battered pizza that you get in the chippies round here.
He's brilliant, right? I think we can all agree on that. He's blown Woke into little pieces, he's cancelled the Left and now he is going after all the waste and wankery. He is also inspiring the New Right in Europe. And he is the only leader prepared to listen to Palestinians and offer them a different future
What's not to love?
The one huge issue was always tariffs. That was his one mad plan which made no sense and was likely to crash the world economy. Turns out he didn't mean it, that was all bluster, and thank God
Otherwise 9/10. Best president ever
My biggest worry about Trump was that he seemed much keener on Russia than Ukraine. But Sandpit (I think) reported the other day that Trump has actually been quietly pro-Ukraine, though I can't remember the details - and indeed, has been more useful than Biden.
He's brilliant, right? I think we can all agree on that. He's blown Woke into little pieces, he's cancelled the Left and now he is going after all the waste and wankery. He is also inspiring the New Right in Europe. And he is the only leader prepared to listen to Palestinians and offer them a different future
What's not to love?
The one huge issue was always tariffs. That was his one mad plan which made no sense and was likely to crash the world economy. Turns out he didn't mean it, that was all bluster, and thank God
Otherwise 9/10. Best president ever
Crazy, unhinged, dangerous. If I was a US citizen with a second passport I'd be off.
So who is going to be the party leader at the next election, who runs on doing a zero-based budget as they’re doing in the US?? I’m pretty sure the problem is not quite so bad in the UK, but there’s still going to be plenty of silly-looking line items in the international development and academic research budgets.
No politician in the US is running on a balanced budget platform.
The US budget deficit today is around $1.6 trillion.
Elon Musk has expressed optimism about cutting the budget deficit by $1trillion.
Has he explained how ? Because it's not going to be by cutting "waste", without a wholesale redefinition of the term.
One man's "waste" is another man's "essential funding"
The polls say that he's already losing approval, fast.
It's not up to Musk to change (eg) social security, or healthcare entitlements. Or indeed the defence budget. That's policy change, and will have to go through Congress. Imposing such things extra-legally is going to make a very big mess indeed.
Absent any of that, he's not going to save even a quarter of a trillion.
Musk's biggest coup so far is stopping the US sending a billion condoms to Gaza.
'"Oh no, I only wanted to stop us sending a billion condoms to Gaza, and now there’s this chaotic inferno of hate." "Oh well, never mind, at least the billion condoms aren't going to Gaza any more, are they?"
A billion?! There's only 2 million people in Gaza - that's 500 each. I don't know how long the expiry date is on condoms, but, what, 3 years? This implies the Gazans are having a lot more sex than the stereotype might have us imagine.
I'm hearing 2 versions of how this is imaginary now.
One is that the funding was for hospital services provided by the USMC in hospitals, not condoms.
These are the ones he stopped were going to a place called Gaza in Africa.
I enjoy going to a stately home and looking at paintings. That’s a display of wealth.
I dislike someone drinking Cristal from a diamond encrusted shoe while letching over some coked up floozy. That’s also a display of wealth
And yet the wealth in the former case was almost certainly amassed in a much more unsavoury way than in the latter!
Also. which bit of it does @StillWaters object to?
The Cristal? The diamonds? The shoe? The leching? The coke? Or the floozy?
Personally I'm OK with the whole shebang, tho I'd swap out the Cristal (overrated) and have vintage Ruinart, and maybe skip the shoe (weird) and use a human skull like Byron - the Bettiscombe skull, perhaps
I enjoy going to a stately home and looking at paintings. That’s a display of wealth.
I dislike someone drinking Cristal from a diamond encrusted shoe while letching over some coked up floozy. That’s also a display of wealth
And yet the wealth in the former case was almost certainly amassed in a much more unsavoury way than in the latter!
Also. which bit of it does @StillWaters object to?
The Cristal? The diamonds? The shoe? The leching? The coke? Or the floozy?
Personally I'm OK with the whole shebang, tho I'd swap out the Cristal (overrated) and have vintage Ruinart, and maybe skip the shoe (weird) and use a human skull like Byron - the Bettiscombe skull, perhaps
He's brilliant, right? I think we can all agree on that. He's blown Woke into little pieces, he's cancelled the Left and now he is going after all the waste and wankery. He is also inspiring the New Right in Europe. And he is the only leader prepared to listen to Palestinians and offer them a different future
What's not to love?
The one huge issue was always tariffs. That was his one mad plan which made no sense and was likely to crash the world economy. Turns out he didn't mean it, that was all bluster, and thank God
Otherwise 9/10. Best president ever
He did mean it, he is already in a trade war with China, the second biggest economy, after imposing tariffs on their imports and Beijing's retaliation. The EU, the third biggest global economy, will soon be in a trade war with him as well.
Mexico and Canada only got a 1 month reprieve on condition they do everything he asks.
I don't think threatening to kick all Palestinians out of Gaza is listening to them, though a resort complex may be rather better for Gaza than it is now
So who is going to be the party leader at the next election, who runs on doing a zero-based budget as they’re doing in the US?? I’m pretty sure the problem is not quite so bad in the UK, but there’s still going to be plenty of silly-looking line items in the international development and academic research budgets.
No politician in the US is running on a balanced budget platform.
The US budget deficit today is around $1.6 trillion.
Elon Musk has expressed optimism about cutting the budget deficit by $1trillion.
Has he explained how ? Because it's not going to be by cutting "waste", without a wholesale redefinition of the term.
One man's "waste" is another man's "essential funding"
The polls say that he's already losing approval, fast.
It's not up to Musk to change (eg) social security, or healthcare entitlements. Or indeed the defence budget. That's policy change, and will have to go through Congress. Imposing such things extra-legally is going to make a very big mess indeed.
Absent any of that, he's not going to save even a quarter of a trillion.
Musk's biggest coup so far is stopping the US sending a billion condoms to Gaza.
'"Oh no, I only wanted to stop us sending a billion condoms to Gaza, and now there’s this chaotic inferno of hate." "Oh well, never mind, at least the billion condoms aren't going to Gaza any more, are they?"
A billion?! There's only 2 million people in Gaza - that's 500 each. I don't know how long the expiry date is on condoms, but, what, 3 years? This implies the Gazans are having a lot more sex than the stereotype might have us imagine.
I'm hearing 2 versions of how this is imaginary now.
One is that the funding was for hospital services provided by the USMC in hospitals, not condoms.
These are the ones he stopped were going to a place called Gaza in Africa.
Which one is correct?
Nobody knows what the asshats were referring to, if anything. Hence people trying to find something similar. They could have just made the whole thing up - likely given the percentage of things they say that are completely made up, or they could be so incompetent that they completely misread something completely different that really was in the budget - also likely given how fucking useless they are.
Their demand was unrealistic. At a time of housing shortages you can’t leave prime land like that unutilised
That's politics in a nutshell. There are several feasible things you can do and an impossible one which emotionally attractive to some and repellent to others and whatever you do it is your fault.
He's brilliant, right? I think we can all agree on that. He's blown Woke into little pieces, he's cancelled the Left and now he is going after all the waste and wankery. He is also inspiring the New Right in Europe. And he is the only leader prepared to listen to Palestinians and offer them a different future
What's not to love?
The one huge issue was always tariffs. That was his one mad plan which made no sense and was likely to crash the world economy. Turns out he didn't mean it, that was all bluster, and thank God
Otherwise 9/10. Best president ever
My biggest worry about Trump was that he seemed much keener on Russia than Ukraine. But Sandpit (I think) reported the other day that Trump has actually been quietly pro-Ukraine, though I can't remember the details - and indeed, has been more useful than Biden.
Strangely the folk thinking there has been good Trumpery tend to be a bit hazy about the details.
Pop out non-verifiable soundbite, let it float about the ether for a bit, job done.
The British Museum doesn’t have a full catalogue of what’s in the basement. There is no plan to do so. No money for the many millions it would cost.
At the time the scandal hit, I pointed out that I’d personally taken part in a matter effort to catalogue the basement collections at smaller museum.
My suggestion was a rolling effort, over the years, using people who are already studying the various areas. If you are doing a PhD on Sumerian pottery, surely letting you lose the Sumerian pottery in the BM basement would be of interest?
This was ridiculed by some here as “inappropriate” for a National Collection. We must either have a Proper Project or… nothing.
A relative was working his way through some documents in various national collections. He is now thinking of writing a book - more data than a paper. He’s come up with a combination of photographing (iPhone) the (previously untouched) documents, then using various tools to turn the copperplate handwriting into text and build a database.
He’s just told me that he’s hiring a couple of people to roll this out across other collections - he’s busy and his time is money. So he figures it’s cheaper to do this.
It makes you wonder….
Sort of. A lot of the museum's (any museum's) problem is that to get beyond the level of "box of Etruscan trinkets on shelf A of storeroom 23" takes a lot of work for no great payoff.
On the subject of automated reading of old documents, this is currently in the news thanks to friend of PB, Elon Musk, one of whose DOGE protégés is a university drop-out who made his name (and a bunch of cash) using AI to decode ancient Greek scrolls.
He's brilliant, right? I think we can all agree on that. He's blown Woke into little pieces, he's cancelled the Left and now he is going after all the waste and wankery. He is also inspiring the New Right in Europe. And he is the only leader prepared to listen to Palestinians and offer them a different future
What's not to love?
The one huge issue was always tariffs. That was his one mad plan which made no sense and was likely to crash the world economy. Turns out he didn't mean it, that was all bluster, and thank God
Musk is bring played by Trump - set up to fail with an impossible task, while acting as a lightning rod for public dissatisfaction, and all the while paying for the privilege. The falling out will be spectacular, and Musk will be the loser from it.
No one has any clue how this will play out, it's all entirely new
There are some eternal human truths though, Trump selling out anyone not related to him to deflect blame being one of them.
Maybe eventually, but for the time being I guess Trump thinks it's a winning team. And Musk wants to dismantle democracy, give even more wealth and power to billionaires, and seems quite sympathetic to white supremacists. So they have a lot in common.
Besides, one of the biggest potential blocks on Trump would be finding 4 out of the 53 Republican senators to vote against him. Surely there are more than 4 who would vote against him on a whole bunch of stuff if they dared. Trump needs Musk - who's going to fund the primary campaigns and lead the social media propaganda campaigns against rebel senators who step out of line?
We just need Musk to last long enough to usher Farage into power, as he has done with Trump. Job done
Musk is backing the AfD and already set to fail on that front in the German election later this month with a CDU-SPD grand coalition forecast, albeit the AfD might get second.
He's brilliant, right? I think we can all agree on that. He's blown Woke into little pieces, he's cancelled the Left and now he is going after all the waste and wankery. He is also inspiring the New Right in Europe. And he is the only leader prepared to listen to Palestinians and offer them a different future
What's not to love?
The one huge issue was always tariffs. That was his one mad plan which made no sense and was likely to crash the world economy. Turns out he didn't mean it, that was all bluster, and thank God
I enjoy going to a stately home and looking at paintings. That’s a display of wealth.
I dislike someone drinking Cristal from a diamond encrusted shoe while letching over some coked up floozy. That’s also a display of wealth
And yet the wealth in the former case was almost certainly amassed in a much more unsavoury way than in the latter!
Also. which bit of it does @StillWaters object to?
The Cristal? The diamonds? The shoe? The leching? The coke? Or the floozy?
Personally I'm OK with the whole shebang, tho I'd swap out the Cristal (overrated) and have vintage Ruinart, and maybe skip the shoe (weird) and use a human skull like Byron - the Bettiscombe skull, perhaps
There will be 3 or 4 lies a day, every day for the next few years. Why the gullible continue to believe heaven knows. Although perhaps they know them not to be true, as they often post "If true" ahead of their regurtitation, before forming their world view around the "If true" lies.
Is that conspiracy theory circles? I think it's more likely to be someone in the administration putting out smokescreens to keep the law at bay whilst they destroy things.
They are already deliberately pretending not to understand Court Orders as a means of not complying with their clear meaning.
It's very much the type of endless-obfuscation playbook Trump was using to spin out his trials and keep himself out of the slammer.
Comments
https://x.com/thecalvincooli1/status/1887250833269792816
He wasn't doing anything odd or unusual. He was in a suit, waving, looking like a politician. People actually said 'is that a politician?' but couldn't make the leap from there to 'it's Ed Davey'.
I don't think Ed Davey is unique in this. I expect Jo Swinson and Tim Farron would have faced similar struggles.
Actually, it's quite interesting to speculate what the equivalent recognition would be for other party leaders. I suspect Kemi would be higher, but not much higher. It's hard to say whether Keir or Nige would be the most recognisable, but I reckon it would be Nige.
'"Oh no, I only wanted to stop us sending a billion condoms to Gaza, and now there’s this chaotic inferno of hate." "Oh well, never mind, at least the billion condoms aren't going to Gaza any more, are they?"
Biden would have been groping them and trying to sniff their hair
If Badenoch was replaced it would be by Philp or Stride but I doubt any of the three make much difference. Labour is set to lose its majority but I can't see any Tory except Rees Mogg or Boris eating into the Reform vote and neither are Tory MPs now
Maybe you originally made an honest mistake, but now you are just deliberately bullshitting. Why?
I enjoy going to a stately home and looking at paintings. That’s a display of wealth.
I dislike someone drinking Cristal from a diamond encrusted shoe while letching over some coked up floozy. That’s also a display of wealth
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cq5g99xy979o
Reform is wrong. They may have identified an issue correctly, but their proposed solution is mean-spirited and likely to be ineffective but damaging at the same time.
The Tories should hold fast to their beliefs. And if that means a lost election while the fever burns itself out then so be it
Julian L. Simon
A Journal of Demography
Volume 23, 1969 - Issue 3
https://x.com/wartranslated/status/1887282001344143535
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/1/30/is-the-us-sending-50m-in-condoms-to-gaza-as-trump-claims
United States President Donald Trump has boasted that his administration had stopped $50m in “bomb-making condoms” from being sent to Gaza.
Trump provided no evidence for his claims – that condoms were being sent to Gaza or that Hamas is using contraceptives to make bombs – and left many wondering what the US president was talking about.
Could it be that Trump was referring to a different Gaza? After all, there are more than a dozen places in the world named Gaza, including two communities in the United States.
For the moment, why Trump made the claim and what evidence he has is unknown.
According to the HHS grants database, the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation in Mozambique received more than $83m in funding since 2021 for reproductive health projects in two provinces: Inhambane and Gaza.
Obviously not all for condoms!!
I’m quietly content with my life thank you
There is/was a $50m over 5 years USAID to Gaza for health, but not condom related at all. The US govt is in the make as many lies as possible business so no-one notices how much they steal for themselves.
https://www.anera.org/press/usaid-partners-with-anera-to-launch-gaza-health-recovery-activity-to-improve-health-services-in-gaza/
As far as I know.
The Cristal? The diamonds? The shoe? The leching? The coke? Or the floozy?
Personally I'm OK with the whole shebang, tho I'd swap out the Cristal (overrated) and have vintage Ruinart, and maybe skip the shoe (weird) and use a human skull like Byron - the Bettiscombe skull, perhaps
https://faroutmagazine.co.uk/did-the-romantic-poet-lord-byron-really-drink-skull/
Otherwise, as you were
Jerome Starkey@jeromestarkey
🚨 Defence chiefs ordered to stop talking in electric cars over fears their Chinese makers can eavesdrop.
New fleet of MGs & BYDs pose ‘security risk’.
MoD leased hundreds of Chinese EVs & plans to get thousands more in next 2yrs to hit Net Zero targets.
https://x.com/jeromestarkey/status/1887405758897180877
However at the same time Musk will - if he remains alive and healthy - still be a massively important figure at the end of Trump 2, and globally powerful, perhaps even more powerful than he is now
Billionaires avoid income tax by not taking a salary, and avoid capital gains tax by not selling their shares. Instead, they get money by taking out loans backed by the shares they are not selling. Tax is for the little people.
https://x.com/ThatTimWalker/status/1887440561608483251
'I'm a petulant grump, not a quitter.'
Why the Hell is the MoD buying Chinese anything?
There are some pretty intrinsically valuable components to his empire, notably SpaceX, but monopolies and super profits rarely last forever unless they are government underwritten. And Tesla as a car marque is now surely vastly overvalued.
It’s fairly standard now that people will only accept their end result and if it’s not what they want then it’s because they were ignored or prejudiced against etc.
The idea it should remain as a monument is frankly ridiculous.
Besides, one of the biggest potential blocks on Trump would be finding 4 out of the 53 Republican senators to vote against him. Surely there are more than 4 who would vote against him on a whole bunch of stuff if they dared. Trump needs Musk - who's going to fund the primary campaigns and lead the social media propaganda campaigns against rebel senators who step out of line?
And whatever one thinks of the sanctity of the site, there must be solid engineering reasons why that's the right thing to do.
Where Farage is different to the others is that the 'don't knows' score much lower, which makes sense as he's been around for a long time and really only people who pay no attention at all to politics will have no view on him. The problem for Reform is that he is divisive; the people who like him love him and everybody else dislikes him with a passion. The Reform rampers need to consider this.
The other problem with Reform is that it's a one man show. If Farage steps aside, then who? At least the established parties have a selection of other generic politicians who will take over in due course. Who do Reform have, who is currently aged around 45 ready to step up in a few years' time?
He's brilliant, right? I think we can all agree on that. He's blown Woke into little pieces, he's cancelled the Left and now he is going after all the waste and wankery. He is also inspiring the New Right in Europe. And he is the only leader prepared to listen to Palestinians and offer them a different future
What's not to love?
The one huge issue was always tariffs. That was his one mad plan which made no sense and was likely to crash the world economy. Turns out he didn't mean it, that was all bluster, and thank God
Otherwise 9/10. Best president ever
The “MAGA Conspiracy Theory” was that it was only USAID spending the money, rather than the whole Federal government.
Agree though it's hard for any 3rd party leader to cut through much - after all it took Farage 20 years of banging on relentlessly about Europe to achieve it.
The British Museum doesn’t have a full catalogue of what’s in the basement. There is no plan to do so. No money for the many millions it would cost.
At the time the scandal hit, I pointed out that I’d personally taken part in a matter effort to catalogue the basement collections at smaller museum.
My suggestion was a rolling effort, over the years, using people who are already studying the various areas. If you are doing a PhD on Sumerian pottery, surely letting you lose the Sumerian pottery in the BM basement would be of interest?
This was ridiculed by some here as “inappropriate” for a National Collection. We must either have a Proper Project or… nothing.
A relative was working his way through some documents in various national collections. He is now thinking of writing a book - more data than a paper. He’s come up with a combination of photographing (iPhone) the (previously untouched) documents, then using various tools to turn the copperplate handwriting into text and build a database.
He’s just told me that he’s hiring a couple of people to roll this out across other collections - he’s busy and his time is money. So he figures it’s cheaper to do this.
It makes you wonder….
Policy is where he falls down. Which is the problem.
https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/60eef0268fa8f50c7ca55afe/Leaflet_the_future_of_Grenfell_Tower_May2021.pdf
One is that the funding was for hospital services provided by the USMC in hospitals, not condoms.
These are the ones he stopped were going to a place called Gaza in Africa.
Which one is correct?
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC4498171/
Mexico and Canada only got a 1 month reprieve on condition they do everything he asks.
I don't think threatening to kick all Palestinians out of Gaza is listening to them, though a resort complex may be rather better for Gaza than it is now
Pop out non-verifiable soundbite, let it float about the ether for a bit, job done.
On the subject of automated reading of old documents, this is currently in the news thanks to friend of PB, Elon Musk, one of whose DOGE protégés is a university drop-out who made his name (and a bunch of cash) using AI to decode ancient Greek scrolls.
Husker Undergrad Decodes Ancient Scroll, Wins Global Competition
https://www.unl.edu/no-place-like/vesuvius-scrolls/
Like 4chan for people with a degree.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opinion_polling_for_the_2025_German_federal_election
He also likes and has tweeted Kemi not just Farage, indeed he a few weeks ago said Farage should go
They are already deliberately pretending not to understand Court Orders as a means of not complying with their clear meaning.
It's very much the type of endless-obfuscation playbook Trump was using to spin out his trials and keep himself out of the slammer.